Here's the last part of the story, ladies and gentlemen!
Together they made their way to the mall, hands clasped and chatting happily about other news. A few times Danny had to turn them invisible to beat the paparazzi, but it didn't deter them from enjoying each other's company. Danny actually forgot about why they were heading towards the mall when talking to Sam. Once they reached the automatic doors inside, however, his heart suddenly dropped and his cheeks flushed in slight embarrassment and annoyance.
Sam saw his irritation from the corner of her eye and squeezed his hand with a smile. Her eyes immediately darted to exactly the place where she knew darkness lurked. There it was.
ICY SHOULDER.
Bold and rebellious; it fit her perfectly. It was one of the only few places that offered clothing in her style. Though she considered herself to be a bit more bohemian with her unique carefree attire. She began to tug on her nervous boyfriend's hand and he begrudgingly followed her towards the dark and foreboding gothic store.
As expected, loud rock music vibrated off the walls of the small interior of the store. Danny had to blink a few times to get used to the black light atmosphere. Everywhere he turned there were Goths of all different sizes idly looking through racks of clothing or chatting in groups at other corners of the room in low muttered breaths.
Further he was pulled inside the ominous cavern walls of Icy Shoulder, avoiding eye contact from the scrutinizing looks from the people skulking about inside. Deeper and deeper until they were near the very back, Danny realizing with relief that it was less populated than up towards the entrance. His direction was pulled towards his girlfriend already leafing through clothing.
He analyzed the way her expression was set in determination, eyes sparkling in anticipation and tongue sticking out slightly in focus. It made the corner of his mouth twitch up in a half smirk. Sure, he was going to look ridiculously morbid and out of character as soon as she was done dressing him up, but being able to witness her happiness through it all made the experience worthwhile in the end.
It made him think back to last year when they were just friends. He always mentally slapped himself at his carelessness to notice her sooner. He definitely fit the term 'clueless' in her and Tucker's eyes. How could he have not caught it before? His best friends have always meant a lot to him, but something about Sam drew his attention towards her more even if he only thought of her as just a friend. But now things were different, and he wasn't so clueless anymore.
So lost he was in his thoughts that he barely caught the triumphant noise that escaped Sam's lips. He watched her take out a piece of clothing from the rack and add it to an already forming bundle in her arms. It was surprising to see that she was nearly finished with picking out his outfit, almost as if she knew what she was looking for. His heart beat a little faster when she faced him with a cocky smile and lidded eyes.
"Alright, Danny, time to test these dark waters," Sam said with a grin.
"As long as those waters don't contain any Danny Phantom merchandise," he said as his eyes flickered over to a section where a handful of the ghost superhero's stock of goods was held.
Barely a complete thought passed through his mind before he was yanked into the fitting room, clothes deposited into his arms. He looked up just in time to see the gothic beauty closing the door while giving him a thumbs up. A sigh left him and he looked down at the dark fabric he was holding. Well, might as well get this over with.
Sam was busy looking at other clothing for Danny just in case she didn't like the outfit she picked out for him, but she was pretty confident on her first choice. Humming quietly to herself, she had just picked up a pant and shirt combination when the sound of a door opening from behind alerted her. She spun around quickly, nearly tripping on her own feet.
Her breath hitched at the sight of him before her.
"Oh… wow," Sam chocked out in awe.
Danny shifted uncomfortably in the combat boots he was wearing and folded his arms across his chest insecurely. "Is that a 'wow' as in you are impressed or a 'wow' as in you regret this decision already?"
His question caught her off guard for a moment as she forced her mouth close and shook off her stupor. She looked into his eyes and smiled.
"Definitely the 'I'm impressed' kind," she said as she dropped everything she was holding, "Yep. This is the one." She nodded with a satisfied smile, roaming her eyes up and down his figure once more.
Danny flushed at this and said, "Um, a-are you sure, Sam? I've only put on this one…"
Sam chuckled. "I'm sure, Danny. I mean, have you seen yourself in this? You look awesome!"
In truth, he had not seen himself in these clothes. Oddly enough, there wasn't a mirror in the changing room—which must be a Goth thing he supposed—and he was hoping that Sam was a good enough judge on how they looked. But now he was curious. Did he really look that good? It was as if she knew what he was thinking at that moment. He felt soft hands grab his shoulders and guide him to a vertical mirror in the back. His brows rose at what he saw.
The combat boots were clunky, but rather sleek and stylish with the multiple buckles strapped around them, making them look more steampunk than anything. His dark cargo pants were a little baggy and hung off his hips a bit, a black belt looped into the pants. The many pockets on either side of the pant legs would make Tucker drool with the thought of carrying his tech in them. He wore a black and blue striped long sleeved shirt underneath a black t-shirt with a blue swirling vortex displayed on the front of it.
He blinked at himself. He could not believe he was thinking this but he had to agree with Sam. He did look pretty good in this outfit; not that he was going to completely abandon his regular school clothes for this… or go Goth for that matter. He was rather impressed that Sam was able to know what he looked good in.
"Well?" He heard next to him.
Turning towards her with a small smile he said, "Yeah. It actually looks good on me, Sam."
"Black is very slimming on you, Danny," Sam complimented. Danny blushed at that and rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he thanked her.
"Come on," she said, taking his hand and pulling him back towards the fitting room, "there's still one more thing to do in order to complete the transformation."
"For the record, Sam, I'm really not enjoying this."
Danny frowned into the mirror, running his hand through his newly furbished black locks, which weren't all so black anymore. An appealing blue color ran through the tips of his hair, putting on an even edgier look to his features, but he would have rather it be hair dye than a tattoo. Still, it wasn't exactly what he had in mind. Sam popped up next to him in the mirror with a smile.
"Oh, come on, Danny. It's not like it's permanent. Plus, it completes the look."
Danny gave her a sideways unamused stare.
Sam ignored the look and began to drag him back towards the exit, his bags of clothes clutched in her hand. "Alright, c'mon! We gotta put the whole thing together now!"
Danny flew back on his heels and Sam was tugged back with him. "Sam! Aren't we forgetting something?"
Sam paused before smirking. "So you changed your mind about the tattoo, huh?"
The hafling gave her a hard stare, arms folded and brow raised. The smirk fell from her lips and she sighed with the roll of her eyes. She fisted her hand on her hip and limply held out her right hand.
"Fine, fine. Pretty me up, Ghost Boy."
Danny fully obliged and grasped her hand in his to drag her off to the nearest brightly colored store. He chuckled at the sound of his groaning girlfriend.
"Danny, I swear, if we don't leave soon I may actually vomit," Sam moaned out as she stood in the center of Always 16. She swore this store would be the death of her one day, but she was hoping it wasn't going to be so soon.
Fluorescent lights shone from above making her sweat, annoying pop music rang loudly in her ears, and the colors. My god, the colors. Too much pink for her to handle. It was almost worse than going to Gothapalooza and finding it turned into a teddy bear jamboree. She shuddered. She could still hear their shrill voices screaming out, "We love you!"
Danny merely smiled at Sam's discomfort as he fingered through the clothing racks. He knew she was just being overdramatic and it was about time she had a taste of her own medicine. While this wasn't a store he usually shopped in (unlike his sister), he figured that it would be his equivalent of Icy Shoulder for Sam. Besides, despite the horrible music playing, the clothes here weren't all that bad.
Still, he had no idea what would look good on Sam. He was so used to her usual type of fashion that he couldn't imagine anything else on her. Alright, so his hormonal mind was sending messages of tube tops and miniskirts, but he discarded it for various reasons. The main one being that he ended up with a black eye and several broken bones.
He could hear Sam grumbling to herself as she neared him, shrinking back at anyone who came near her. The ghost boy tugged her arm to walk with him. "Don't you think you're overreacting? C'mon, if I can handle Icy Shoulder then I'm pretty sure you can handle this."
"At least that place didn't give you a pounding headache," Sam muttered under her breath.
Ignoring her comment, Danny continued to shuffle around for any type of clothing that would look good on her. Picking up a pink tank top, he sighed and put it back. This wasn't getting anywhere. He needed help. Glancing up, he got his wish.
"Excuse me," he called out to a fairly young worker who was recovering a rack of jeans. She looked up, her light brown hair held together in a low ponytail. She wore a simple pair of black jeans and a plain blue shirt. Her bright eyes caught his figure as he walked towards her. She looked to be a few years older than them.
A smile immediately brightened her features as she at last recognized him. He could feel Sam close behind him. The employee excitedly sprang around the rack to finally reach them.
"Oh, no way! You're Danny Fenton, right?" Her voice was higher pitched than he expected, but thankfully she wasn't crowing out the fact that he was in the store. Miraculously he had managed to keep a low profile in this place.
Before he could answer her, she must have noticed Sam because she let out a tiny squeal of excitement. Boy, she sure had the energy to work here alright. "And you're his girlfriend, Sam! Aw, you guys are so cute together!" She gazed between the two adoringly.
Danny flushed and Sam clenched a fist. "Danny…" she growled out warningly. He reached behind him to grab her shaking fist in order to calm her.
"Actually, I was wondering if you could help me pick out an outfit for my girlfriend here," Danny said, squeezing her hand tightly at the word "girlfriend".
The girl's hazel eyes sparkled. "I'd love to!"
Wasting no time, she began pushing them in the direction of the fitting rooms. "You guys wait here, I already have a few outfits in mind!" With that said, she bounded off to leave the two awkwardly standing in front of the fitting rooms. Sam turned to glare at Danny.
"Care to explain why we're asking her to help out?"
Danny shrugged. "What? I needed some girl advice on what would look good on you. I mean, most girls know what other girls look good in, right? So a second opinion might help."
"And what makes you think that she'll automatically know what kind of clothes I'll look okay in? In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a Paulina look alike." She bit her lip after those words spilled out. Crud, he wasn't supposed to hear that last part.
Danny's eyes softened as she averted his eyes. "Sam—" He began but was cut off by a voice.
"Okay, so I narrowed it down to two outfits, but I figured that the first one will be the best one for you, Sam, so go ahead and… uh…" She paused upon seeing the two. She gasped. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Nope!" Sam quickly said as she tore the first outfit out her hands and made her way into the fitting room abruptly. Danny sighed before turning to the employee.
"Thanks, uh…"
She beamed. "Kacey."
"Thanks, Kacey."
"You're welcome! I think she'll look great in this one. It's not too preppy, but rather bold and cute at the same time." Passion lit up her eyes and Danny guessed she must do this for a living.
"Alright, I'm wearing the stupid outfit. By the way, a mirror would probably be pretty helpful in this fitting room," Sam's annoyed voice called out from the other side.
"Let's see it, Sam," Danny replied, heart pounding slightly.
The door opened and out stepped the breathtaking sight of Samantha Manson. A silky lavender long sleeved top flowed around her torso in subtle waves, slightly flaying out at the bottom. One side of the shirt hung low on her shoulder. She wore dark blue skinny jeans that hugged her curves in all the right places. A plain white belt hung about her waist casually, further accentuating her figure. He couldn't take his eyes off of her.
"Sam," he breathed out, completely enraptured.
Sam shifted uncomfortably under his stare, not used to this kind of attention on her. "What, is it that bad?"
The girl, Kacey, was now jumping up and down in absolute joy, diamonds flashing in her irises. "You look absolutely gorgeous, girl! Right, Danny?"
She nudged the ghost boy, which broke his spellbound trance. "Huh? Oh. Y-yeah, Sam, you look beautiful," he said with a lovesick smile.
The latter blushed heavily before turning to Kacey. "Mirror."
The upbeat retailer happily grabbed a mirror and placed it in front of her. Sam's eyes widened in surprise. There was no denying that she did look attractive in the outfit. It wasn't flashy like she thought it would be. It was actually simple, which she found suited her quite well. No bright colors, not too revealing, and what really topped the cake was that it felt comfortable on her. For once, Sam didn't have any words to say about the clothing of choice.
She simply turned towards Kacey with a slight curve in her lips and said, "We'll take it."
As soon as they were done paying for their things—Kacey convincing Sam to buy a pair of short top black heel boots with it—they were on their way out of Always 16. Sam was quite satisfied with her purchase, even going as far as considering to visit Kacey again for more outfit suggestions since the girl had a knack for knowing what looked good on her.
Together the couple left the mall hand in hand to go back home while avoiding the paparazzi.
"So now that we've bought everything, what are we gunna do with them?" Danny couldn't help but ask as he sat on her bed. Sam hesitated at the question, unsure how to answer when an idea hit her. She turned towards him with a grin, hands on her hips.
"Dare you to wear it on Monday."
Danny stared at her slack jawed for a moment before he grinned back at her.
"Dare you to wear it with me on Monday."
Instead of immediately shooting down the dare like he thought she would, she merely smiled challengingly, walked right up to him to where their noses touched and said, "Bring it on, Ghost Boy."
Before the Disasteroid incident, Danny was one hundred percent positive that he would have been laughed and jeered at. Dash no doubt would have made a comment to him about his girlfriend converting him into a freak just like her. While he still felt a bit uncomfortable wearing the dark clothing at school at least nobody made fun of him for it. (He even wore a choker and eyeliner for crying out loud). In fact, much to his chagrin, a lot of people seemed to think that dressing up as a Goth was the heroic thing to do nowadays.
Danny sighed at this and wasn't surprised when the same girls that always ogled him at school thought the outfit made him look even hotter than before. Sam made it a point to grab his hand in hers and glare at the other girls. Danny would not stop staring at his girlfriend because if the outfit wasn't enough she had curled her short hair a bit, which made her look more beautiful. Other boys would stare at her, too, but didn't dare go against Danny much to his relief. He was sure that his eyes changed green with jealousy that day than it ever had in his life.
When they finally met up with Tucker that day, he was too baffled to even speak.
"Huh. I knew these outfits would come in handy," Sam joked.
"Uh… I'm sorry, allow me to introduce myself. Hi, I'm Tucker Foley. And you two are…?" Tucker pointed to the both of them with a raised brow.
Danny glanced at Sam with a smile before squeezing her hand. "Just a couple who decided to try something new for fun."
They began walking pass their still dumbfounded friend. Danny closed his eyes and said, "By the way, Tuck, you might want to try going Goth. I hear it's all the rage now."
Tucker snapped his jaw shut with a glare. "Oh, very funny, guys! Now seriously tell me what I missed! Guys? Guys!"
As the annoyed techno geek ran after his best friends, Danny and Sam shared a laugh because they both knew that it all started with said techno geek.
THE END
I really wish I added more Tucker into this. I love that guy. He's the real humor of this story. Anyways, thanks for reading!
Tucker: Cool! I always wanted to be called a meddling kid!
Sam: Super. Now you can die happy.