"Y'know..." Silence.
"What?" Dannyx asked the girl sitting next to him on the soft bed.
"I have heart disease," she stated blankly. More silence.
Dannyx shattered the silence with an, "...Oh."
"My mom says I shouldn't run around everywhere, 'cause I'll get weak and sick, but I'm fine. It's better than lying in bed all day and watching TV," she smiled. "When people figure out I have heart disease, they treat me differently, like I'm a fragile toy. Like my heart can literally break, or it'll get caught in my throat and I'll choke. Maybe they're afraid I'll get under their skin, and once they grow a bond with me, I'll snap it in half. Everybody thinks I'm on the verge of death. Sometimes it's depressing, you know?"
"...Mm."
"Maybe I shouldn't have told you. I don't know if that kind of stuff bothers you, people telling you things like that or not. Some people get annoyed when they have to worry about their friends' problems, especially when they have their own to deal with."
"I don't have any problems. And I can't really feel anything towards it, but you can tell me whatever you want. If it'll make you feel better," Dannyx said blandly. Sam grinned.
"You can feel. Why do you say things like that you have no heart?" she asked.
His eyes opened just a little wider.He got up from the bed and calmly paced the room, as though taking in all the details. He wasn't surprised, of course. Isn't surprise some kind of, emotion? Emotions were those fleeting feelings that surfaced just at the right times, and when that time is over, they're gone. That's what Dannyx thought, anyways. He got to thinking more, though. Love isn't like that, right? Love doesn't leave after a certain time. It doesn't fade into sadness – it might cause it, but it can't be replaced by it. If love isn't just a fleeting emotion – if it's not an emotion at all – then would that mean he didn't need a heart to love? That made no sense. Love comes from the heart, too, doesn't it? Dannyx shook his head, sliding a graceful hand through his thick silver-toned hair.
"Nevermind it," he smiled. Smiled.Sam looked quite taken-aback for a while. She stared at his face, puzzled. She let her gaze slip up to his eyes and she watched them watch her, wearily. They seemed to be able to catch the perfect amount of light to make the boy look innocent, charming and beautiful, all at once. She snapped back to her senses once she realized the boy's smile had fallen into an expressionless stare again.
Sam gave him a goofy grin, "I knew you could smile somewhere deep down in there!" She saw the corner of his mouth twitch slightly, but this time, no smile. Guess it's a rarity, huh?
"Oh! I almost forgot to tell you, my mom said you could stay here, in the guest bedroom if you have nowhere else to go. Do you have anywhere else to go?" she asked slowly, tentatively. She looked almost like she was pleading him to stay. And maybe she damn well was.
"Not specifically, no," he replied. He felt a little warmer inside seeing her happy face, knowing he'd satisfied the girl by admitting he could stay with her longer. Was he happier? No. Happiness is an emotion,he told himself. No matter what, though, he did know that he wanted to stay at least a little bit longer with her.
"This'll be so great, it'll be like having a best friend living with me, or having a younger brother, or an older brother, or a twin! We could go to school together and...," she trailed off. "D'you go to school?" she asked him.
"No?"
"Well, if I have to go, you're going down with me," she smiled. "I don't know what grade you're in, but you must havebeen educated, right?"
"Yeah, somehow," he replied. He didn't really think he could tell her that he still had all the memories of Danny Fenton sleeping at his desk, in all seven periods, for all of ninth grade. Yet he still managed to pass his classes. In his old life.
"Well then, you're going to enroll in my school! It'll be fun," she bounced up and down on the bed, finally lying down on her back and patting the empty spot beside her. Dannyx obliged, bending backwards onto the bed until he was parallel with his new, very silly friend. All he could do in that moment was just forget about the past. Forget about the black creatures, the Nobodies, the hearts and lack-thereof. If he could just lie there forever next to that amazing girl and sink into a bed seemingly made of clouds, maybe he would be able to drift off into nothingness. Maybe he didn't need a heart.
Maybe, he thought, he just needed somebody to share one with him.