Sorry for the delay. My head was weird.
vlad- you're always weird.
Me- SHUT UPPPPPPPP VLADDDYWADDY
I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR ANY MARVEL CHARACTERS *wink wink*
Chapter Seven: Stalking
Dash sighed heavily as he followed Paulina into yet another clothes shop. The amount of squealing she was doing was actually giving him a headache. Shoes, squeal. Dress, squeal. Sweater, squeal. Danny Phantom necklace, SQUEAL! It was quite frankly nauseating and after an hour already, Dash's Saturday had turned into a bore-fest. He had no plans with any of his other friends and now all he wanted to do was do some sort of activity with his newly acquired super-friend.
As they browsed through the endless racks of over priced clothing, Dash found himself zoning out and ignoring the endless, mindless blabber spurting from the Latino girls' lip-glossed lips. "Ooh! This is soooooo cute! It'd look perfect on me! Ah! And with this skirt too!" She picked up a hot pink mini skirt and threw it into Dash's face, "I need some wedges with these!" She ran off, grabbing the big blonde's hand and tugging his arm. He nearly fell over with the brute strength this girl had. She was definitely stronger than she looked.
After yet another hour of shopping and half the clothes in the mall bought, they; or rather Paulina; decided to sit in the café in the centre of all the shops. She purchased an iced fruit drink and slumped down onto a seat with Dash following her, arms full of bags.
"So Dash!" She leant forward and sucked on the straw. "What's with you at the moment?" Paulina raised a carefully plucked eyebrow and the side of her mouth pulled up at the corner slightly.
"What do you mean?" Dash droned absent-mindedly and bit into his chocolate cookie, staring off to the side.
Paulina frowned, "You aren't paying any attention to me." She pinched him and he complained, rubbing his arm with an annoyed look. "Or anyone else for that matter. You need to make an effort you know! Everyone has noticed! They'll think you're getting weak." She folded her arms tightly.
"I'm just going through some new things is all." He kept looking to the side and avoided eye contact with Paulina even when she huffed in annoyance. If she found out he had a friendship with Danny Phantom she'd go mega fan girl and scare him off. Or steal him. Either way, Dash wanted to keep Phantom in his company.
"Hey, what's Fenton doing here alone? Shouldn't he be with his freaky friends at some geek event or something." Paulina nodded in a certain direction away from them and drank from her cup again.
Dash lifted his head at just the moment when Fenton had looked back and now stood mouth slightly open and eyes staring wide. Dash looked at him questioningly before the small shaggy haired teen ran off in a random direction and disappeared around the corner sporting a huge red blush. Dash shrugged and bit a piece of his cookie.
Paulina just looked at him incredulously, "Did you not just see that?!" She pointed the way Danny vanished off to.
"Fenton being a freak? Yeah I noticed. He's gone now." Dash mumbled, looking down and frowning in thought. It was like Fenton'd forgot what'd happened all those years ago.
"He keeps looking at you funny. It's freaky." Paulina drank from her cup again.
"Since when do you care about what he does so much?" Dash grumbled in annoyance.
"Okay, sorry." Paulina scoffed and looked in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile, from the direction of which Danny'd run off to, Fenton was busy contemplating what he'd just done. 'Great time to have a freak out Fenton you idiot!' He thought to himself. That dream last night had been really effecting him all morning and now he had just seen Dash. At that moment, a huge wave of guilt washed over him and he had stood there shocked; his heart racing.
He peered around the corner to see Dash and Paulina still there. He slammed his back to the wall again. 'Why did you come here in the first place Fenton? You could've gone somewhere else if you were bored!' He said mentally yet again. His mind raced as he tried to decide what to do, but a large part of him wanted to follow the pair. He knew how creepy that'd be but his ghost half told him that he had no choice. This part of him literally screamed for him to shut the hell up, go ghost and do it. With a growl at himself he ran into the men's room opposite and changed into Phantom with a quick check to see if anyone was around.
Danny turned invisible and flew through the wall, just to see Dash and Paulina leaving the restaurant and heading into another shop. With determination on his face, he flew after them and went into the clothes isle opposite them. He silently laughed at Dash's bored look but felt pity for him also. Paulina on the other hand looked like she was having the time of her life.
"Dash, I'm trying these on. I need your opinion." She ran into a cubicle and pointed to a chair outside them, "sit there will you?" She shut the door and Dash complied. Against his better judgement, Danny sat down next to him, staying invisible. Dash hadn't noticed the drop in temperature as Danny sat down, which meant Danny could simply enjoy Dash's presence while he waited for Paulina.
He looked at the blonde to the side of him. He wasn't wearing his usual letterman jacket, but a leather one instead. He was sat back with one leg hooked over the other in a relaxed position. Danny shifted his weight so he sat closer to Dash's side and smiled. That's when Dash leaned in Danny's direction subconsciously. Danny's eyes widened at the sudden movement and moved closer again, about to rest his head on Dash's shoulder when Paulina opened the changing room and made Danny jump back.
"Nope! Disgusting. Come on Dashy." She drifted her hand up his arm and along his back. Danny frowned at this. Dash didn't seem to acknowledge this though and stood up with all the bags in his hands. "Walk me home." Paulina demanded and Dash rolled his eyes.
For the first time in his entire life, Danny was extremely irritated with Paulina. She treated Dash like crap, yet she was closer to him than Danny could ever be in the future. Although that could've been his fault, he still didn't like her flirting with him when he didn't even like her.
They left the building and were followed by a less than happy ghost boy. Danny noticed that as Paulina blabbed on and on, Dash appeared distracted by his thoughts until Paulina asked him a question and got angry when he didn't answer, "Dash?!" She shouted and he jumped, nearly dropping the heavy carriers in the process. "What is making you so distracted?" She stopped and stepped closer to him.
"It's nothing Pauly." Dash said simply, "I promise." He smiled forcefully.
"Don't lie to me." She said softly but with fierceness in her eyes as she took his hand, "please tell me." She said in a low, seductive tone before wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Paulina..." Dash said warningly with grit teeth.
"Tell me." She pleaded and pressed her body against his.
"No.." He said quietly.
"Tell me!" She demanded and grabbed his shoulders, digging her sharp nails into his flesh. "Dammit Dash tell me!" She growled at him and Danny couldn't take seeing this.
"He said no Paulina!" He turned visible and pulled Dash away, his shoulders squaring up and stood between the girl and the boy. "If he doesn't want to tell you something, he's not going to tell you!" He said harshly.
All Paulina could do for a while was stare and gape until she did the most expected thing of her to do, "OH MY GOD INVISO-BILL!" She fan-girled and squealed the way she usually did.
"And for the last time it Phantom! Danny. Phantom." He sighed in annoyance.
"OMG OMG OMG GO OUT WITH ME PLEASE!" She shrieked and her hands turned into fists as she shook them close to her and scrunched her eyes up.
"No." Danny said bluntly which caused Paulina to stop and blink dumbly.
"What?" She asked in disbelief, letting her body go slack and her face upset.
"I said I will not go out with you, especially as you tried to force yourself on a boy against his own will. I'm not being pompous or anything. I just don't like you. To be honest, you're a bit shallow." Sam was good at reading people most of the time and with Paulina she was extremely correct.
Gob-smacked, Paulina stood there silently before looking towards Dash with a frown and snatching her bags away. "Bye Dash." And without another word, Paulina had left with her nose stuck up in the air.
With a quick wave, Dash turned his attention to the ghost boy who stood glaring after the girl. "Bye Dash..." He imitated her with a slightly squeaky accent and looked surprised when Dash gave him a questioning look. "Uh, hi Dash." He chuckled nervously.
"Um, what just happened?" Dash pointed his finger in the direction of Paulina and the ghost boy's. "Between you two just now?" His navy eyes widened in amusement.
"Nothing." He laughed nervously in reply and bit down on his lip, avoiding all possible attempts of eye contact.
"Come on... Tell me!" Dash smiled and shook Danny's cold shoulders roughly.
"Okay okay ouch!" He rubbed his arms and sighed, "Paulina kinda... Pisses me off."
"Wow, I'd never think our hero would hate some one." Dash gave a contemplative expression that had a smirk behind it. "This is definitely out of the ordinary!"
"Stop that. You're reminding me of the Fentons." He teased lightly. Dash, unfortunately, seemed to notice a certain uncomfortable feeling surrounding the boy.
"What's with you and the Fentons?" Dash frowned deeply and crossed his arms.
"Well, uh... They don't like ghosts and they seem to hate me the most. Though the sister doesn't seem to have anything against me. Neither does that Danny kid. But you can't blame them really. Most of the ghosts that decide to attack this place are nasty. The good ones normally stay in the ghost zone, where the Fentons haven't been. I just stay here because the ghost zone isn't my home." Danny shrugged as he explained.
"And obviously you stay here to stalk people like me too." Dash pointed at him accusingly and raised one eyebrow with a challenging smile.
"Uh... I wasn't following you..." Danny tried to hide the embarrassed blush creeping onto his face.
"I'm that interesting am I?" He chuckled in response.
"Well... You are actually." Dash looked at him with widened eyes, "I-I mean the things you do a-are interesting! Like why the hell you hang out with Paulina when she treats you like a piece of meat."
"Hey! She does care about people. She asked me if I was okay today! Well... Pestered really. But still!" Dash grew defensive and folded his arms across his chest.
"Uh huh." Danny said, sounding a little unconvinced. "Well, I might just have to stalk you at school to see whether this point is true."
"I wouldn't mind that. But no one else would be able to see me with you. That's a no no." Dash said assertively.
"Why ever not?" Danny pouted.
"Because they'll want your attention constantly and you wouldn't like that!" He complained.
"In other words, you want me all to yourself." Danny smirked. At that, Dash gaped and his words stumbled before he hid a blush. "Thought as much." Danny enjoyed teasing Dash. It was a change. Instead of acidic arguments, it was simple, harmless teasing; something of which Danny loved to do to Dash a little too much.
"T-That's not my point! Can you imagine all the attention you'd get? I doubt the girls would leave you alone. I'd doubt Fenton'd leave you alone." Dash smirked as he thought about it.
"What do you mean?" Danny narrowed his eyes.
"I mean that Danny's been playing for the other team for a while now. And who wouldn't want a super hero?" Dash snorted and Danny paled.
"Are you saying he's..." An ember left behind from the anger and confusion that Paulina had caused sparked aflame again.
"Homosexual. Yep. It's so obvious. The whole him and Manson thing is a clever little cover up. They've fooled everyone else but not me!" Dash said triumphantly.
"Just because he's a little strange doesn't mean he's gay man! He-he might be... Waiting... Or just fed up with girls... Or just thinking no one would like him for him! It's hard! Being a loser is a damn hard thing to deal with and it's even worse when no one likes you for the person you actually are! You ask them to dance and they scoff and walk away. They laugh at you!" Danny argued, slightly fuming.
"Why wouldn't anyone want to dance with him?" Dash asked quietly.
"'Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on.'" Danny mumbled.
The blonde looked at him with a slightly amused look, "Did you just quote Captain America?" He smiled.
Danny shrugged in response, "he's a great role-model."
"I suppose you have his trading cards too?"
"Hey! I'm not like Phil Coulson!" Danny protested.
"Uh, his first name is 'Agent'" Dash said and Phantom laughed lightly.
"Ha! I'm not the only one that quotes!" Danny waggled his finger in Dash's face while putting his hand on his hip.
"You're not. But you're the only one doing the superhero thing. If that isn't trying to live up to your role-models I don't know what is. Personally, I've always seen you as a Thor-type guy. From another world, yet willing to save the mere mortals on Earth!" He put on a heroic accent but failed miserably.
"I've always seen myself more as a Spider-Man or Captain America." Danny spoke thoughtfully.
"Why's that?"
"Because I haven't always been a superhero. I'm not always strong. But I've always wanted to help." Dash admired the ghost kid for his willingness to help people. But he could never imagine him being any other way apart from being a ghost. He couldn't imagine him human. Or maybe he could and he didn't want to think about it. Before he drifted off into a day dream, Dash came up with a quick sentence to end the awkward silence growing between them.
"And you're a bit of a nerd."
r&r please. i love everyone who's nice most of the time ;)
