Just realized I'm starting to make a Mary Sue character, damnit! Dx I'll try to work a few things around to remedy the Mary Sue complex, lol. So, Danny and Henry are officially dating, so what does that mean? Find out! These next chapters are probably going to be long to mash everything in and move the story along. Read and review! Tell your friends!
Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright to Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon do, this is a fan-made fiction for fun, please don't sue me.
…
Chapter 10: Activities and Hobbies
…
Danny woke the next morning with butterflies in his stomach. Why? He was meeting up with his good friend today, but this time, he was meeting up with her as his girlfriend. Sam and Tucker would likely find out today while they were hanging out, but it didn't really matter. Almost coincidently, his cell phone started ringing at the second he was thinking about his friends, he held it up and caller ID said it was Tucker calling, likely to discuss what they'd be doing that day.
"Hey dude, you awake?"
"Yeah, I'm up," the halfa stretched and glanced at the clock, it read 11:32, he'd slept in quite a bit, then again he did stay out late, "So, have we figured out what we want to do?"
"Well," Tucker spoke, "I kinda wanna go back to the arcade, they just got a new game console that I'd like to take a look at."
Danny frowned to himself, "You know Henry doesn't like the arcade."
"No seriously dude," he actually sounded excited, "I just talked to her on the phone a couple minutes ago, she said she'd be happy to come along."
"Uh, really?" That doesn't sound like Henry.
"Yeah, I don't really know why, but frankly I don't really care. I talked to Sam about it, she said it was fine with her too, so as far as I can tell, we're going to the arcade today!"
Danny thought for a bit, "Ok, what time are we meeting up?"
"Well, we were gonna meet up around noon, but you sound like you just woke up."
"No I didn't!" he lied.
"Ok, then noon it is!"
"All right, I'll see you guys soon then," the raven-haired teen rolled out of bed.
"Ok dude, see you then!" there was a click on the other end as the techno-geek hung up.
Danny sat for a moment, then reached into his desk for a scrap of notebook paper with a phone number on it; he hadn't quite memorized it yet. He dialed the number and waited.
"Hello?"
"Hey Henry, it's Danny."
"Oh hi!" came an excited squeal, "How are you?"
He laughed, "I'm doing good, but I was curious about what's going on today."
"What do you mean? Aren't we going to the arcade?"
"I think so, Tucker said you wanted to come and I just thought it was odd," he started undressing to take a shower.
"I know," she suddenly sounded shy, "I just figured that if we are going to be dating then we should participate in each other's activities and hobbies," there was a pause on the other line, "is that what boyfriends and girlfriends do?" she whispered.
Danny laughed again, "Well yeah, but you said you didn't like video games because they 'skewed the perception of reality', or something to that extent."
There was a slight scoff, "Worse comes to worse, I'll bring a book, no worries."
"Ok, as long as you're ok with it."
"Yeah, I'm fine with it. So are we gonna meet up at my house then walk to the arcade?"
"I guess so, I was gonna jump in the shower really quick, then I'll head over to get you."
"All right, I'll be waiting on my porch when you're ready."
"Ok, see you then," he said with a smile.
"Ok, bye babe!" the phone clicked.
Danny's eyes widened and he blushed; Did she just call me babe?
…
The teen ghost walked down the street same as he did everyday, but this time with a slight spring in his step. When he reached Henry's house, she was sitting on the edge on the porch reading a thick book with headphones in her ears, so she didn't see or hear him coming. He looked around on the ground and found a small pebble at his feet; he picked it up and carefully flicked in her direction. It hit the porch mere inches from her thigh, but made just enough of a sound to get her attention. She looked up and saw him standing on the sidewalk; she waved happily to him, jumped up and started running down the stairs.
She tripped and rolled all the way to the bottom of the steep stairs and hit the gate with a loud thud, "Ow, that tickled a little," as she reached up to unlock the gate and flop on the sidewalk and looked up and Danny, "Hi there!"
He laughed and helped her up, "Are you ok?"
She raised an eyebrow, "I fall down those stairs almost everyday, I'm used to it by now," she said with a hug.
Danny blushed and returned the hug, "So, what do you have there?"
The scruffy teen looked down at her book, " 'Atlas Shrugged' and," she pulled out an old cassette player, "a Walkman, in case I get bored or it's too loud in there."
He raised an eyebrow, "We don't really have to go if you don't want to."
"Oh, I want to go," she stuffed the articles in her hoodie pocket, "this is just in case."
"All right," he laughed and held out a hand, "let's go."
Henry looked down at his hand in confusion, "What are you doing?"
Danny was confused as to what she was referring to, "Boyfriends and girlfriends usually hold hands."
"Why?"
He blinked a couple times; "Because, it's nice to hold hands, you don't want to hold hands?" he looked hurt.
"No, I do," she quickly grabbed his hand, "it's just this whole thing is new to me. Remember, up until a few months ago, I'd never even had friends, let alone a boyfriend."
Danny laughed lightly, "Well, what do you think boyfriends and girlfriends do then?" he started leading her down the sidewalk in the direction of the arcade.
The redhead furrowed her eyebrows in thought, "Well, I know sex is involved, but it's too early for that."
Danny coughed awkwardly and almost tripped, blushed brightly at the mention of … that, "Uh, yeah, sometimes, but not always."
"Ok, that's fine, what else do they do?"
"Well," it was his turn to think on the subject, "they hang out and spend a lot of time together, do special things for each other, usually romantic, they cuddle a lot, share a lot of affection, and generally take care of each other. Or at least that's what I think it means."
She grinned widely, "Yeah, I can do that babe."
The teen ghost looked back at her, "Why do you call me babe?"
Henry was a bit confused, "Grandma and Grandpa used to call me 'babe' and 'baby' and 'honey', or sometimes even 'pumpkin-head', so I always thought it was a term of endearment. But I'll stop calling you that if you don't like it."
Danny smiled and squeezed her hand, "Nope, its fine baby."
She blushed and smiled, then leaned her head against his shoulder.
…
Sam and Tucker had been waiting outside the arcade for quite some time now when they finally saw the pair walking down the sidewalk.
"Where have you two been?" Tucker flailed, "We could've been playing games almost half an hour ago."
Danny scratched the back of his head, "Hehe, sorry, I felt like taking a shower before I came out."
Sam looked down and noticed they were still holding hands, she smirked and folded her arms, "So, you guys finally decided to hook, eh?"
"Yup," Henry beamed, "as of about 11:20 last night."
Tucker raised an eyebrow, "Ok," there was an awkward pause, "anyway, let's go inside."
The quartet entered the wide doors, it was jam packed inside. It was always packed on Saturdays, but today it was because of the debut of the new console. Henry's eyes widened and she released Danny's hand to cover her ears. He suddenly felt bad again for making her come out here.
He leaned in toward her, "Are you sure you'll ok?"
She looked at him with a forced smile, "I hope so."
There was a long line that stretched through most of the arcade, probably for the precious new console Tucker was talking about. Henry furrowed her eyebrows again and walked around the line to see what was so exciting. There were two bouncers on either side of a large raised platform, a cushy looking chair in the center. Some kid was sitting in the chair playing some shooter game, the seat rotated and vibrated along with the game. When the gamer finally lost, the two bouncers grabbed his arms and escorted him away.
"Wait! I need to get the high score! I didn't even get through level three!" he begged to no avail as the next person in line jumped into the seat.
She shoved her hands in her pockets to fish out her headphones, "See? It rots the brain."
Danny sighed, "Well, what about one of the easier ones? Wanna try one of those?"
"Like which ones?" she had her headphones and was about to push play.
He thought for a bit, "Well, there's ski ball, pinball, foosball, air hockey, Pac-man, Donkey Kong, DDR, a few others like that."
"Ok, what do I do and where do I go?" she slowly took off her headphones and let them hang around her neck.
The raven-haired teen reached into his pocket, pulled out a few quarters and placed them in her small hand, "You take these and look for a game you wanna play, then put the quarters in and go."
"I'll take her around and show her if you and Tucker wanna wait in line," Sam suggested.
"Ok," Henry looked down at the coins, "I'll give it a try, but I still wonder what the big deal is about video games."
"Come on, I'll show you," Sam took her hand and led her away, leaving Danny and Tucker to wait in the long line.
Henry looked around with mild disinterest, mainly due to the noise and flashing lights. They walked passed the Pac-man table and she couldn't help but stop and stare at the picture on the side, "Why is that cheese wheel chasing that ghost?"
The Goth laughed, "That's Pac-man, you run around a little maze eating the little dots and trying not to get caught by those ghosts," she began explaining the rules, "but there are bigger dots you eat so the ghosts turn blue and you can eat them for extra points, and there's fruit you can eat for extra points too."
The part with the ghost was what caught Henry's attention, "Can we try this one?"
"Sure, it's only one quarter to play, and it's fairly easy to play so it's a good one to start on."
"Ok, so where do you put the quarters?" she looked around the giant brick-like table, "oh nevermind," as she found the slot and inserted her first quarter.
…
"Go, go, go!" Sam cheered.
"No, no, no!" Henry shouted as she desperately struggled not to lose any more lives.
She had already lost two lives, she had one life left and didn't want to die again, "No, no, stop! Do not want! DO NOT WANT!"
Several kids had stopped to watch her spaz out over the console; it was pretty difficult to ignore her shouting and screaming random phrases. Even Danny and Tucker could hear her on the other side of the room while waiting in the slow-moving line.
"Dude, your girlfriend has some serious gamer rage," Tucker leaned in to whisper to Danny as another string of angry words reached their ears.
Danny shrugged, "Maybe she's a closet gamer."
"Un hand me you fiend! Be gone Satan! Wait, no! Not there!"
A happy tune played from the machine, "You won Henry!" Sam shouted.
"I did?" she looked down at the screen, "That's an intense game."
Sam scoffed, "If you think that's intense, you should see the games we usually play."
Henry jumped when a string of paper started printing out from the machine, "What are those?"
"Those are tickets, on certain games if you win a level then the machines will give you tickets to spend at the prize counter."
"Prize counter?" as she tore off her string of tickets.
"Over here," Sam led her to a counter with toys and trinkets behind it, manned by a very bored looking teen.
Curiously, Henry walked to the counter to look at the prizes with awe, first up at the wall at all the bigger prizes, then down to the glass cabinet at the smaller prizes. She scratched her chin as she tried to decide on what she wanted.
Her eyes went wide, and she pointed at an item in the case, "Can I have that one?"
The employee looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Do you have enough tickets for it?"
"Um, I dunno," she handed them to him.
He quickly counted them, and tore off the proper amount and handed her back five tickets. Then he opened the case, took out Henry's desired prize and handed it to her. It was a simple sky blue headband; Henry picked it up in excitement and put it on her head, quite satisfied with herself.
"I like it," she smiled, "it makes me look more like a girl."
"Not bad for twenty-five cents," Sam said.
Henry handed her the rest of her tickets, "I don't need the rest of these, I got what I wanted. I'm gonna go show Danny!" and she skipped away.
She was halfway across the room when a pair of large hands pushed her roughly against the wall. Henry was startled and confused at first, but looked up and saw Dash and Kwan smirking down at her.
"Hey freak," Dash sneered down at her, "I still owe you for getting me kicked off the football team, and no Mr. Lancer here to save you."
Henry was terrified; she looked down and away from him, not looking him in the face.
"What's the matter?" the jock smacked her upside her head, "Not so tough with no one to come to your rescue, huh?"
The scruffy teen fidgeted with her hands, almost as if to distract herself from what he was saying. He was right; not only was there no teacher to break up the fight, but now there were two of them, both three times her size. Even in a public place, would he even hold back just a little bit?
He noticed the corner of a book poking out from her hoodie and snatched it up quickly, "Well well, what do we have here?"
Henry gasped and jumped to grab the book back, but Dash held it up high, "Give that back! It's not mine, it's Mr. Lancer's!"
The bully smirked again, "Is that so? Well, I guess I owe him too."
"Stop it!" she jumped up over and over again to try to grab it, but he held it up over his head, laughing at her feeble attempts. She finally just got so angry and frustrated, "Give it back now!" she shouted as she kicked him in the shin.
Dash yelped slightly, then grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up against the wall, "You're gonna regret that, loser!"
Her shouting was enough to get most peoples' attention, including Danny's, "HENRY!" he left the long line to come to her rescue.
Tucker shouted to him, "Dude! It's almost our turn and I can't hold your spot in l—" then he noticed Henry was in trouble and was momentarily torn between helping his friend and having waited in line so long to be able to play the game, but in the end decided to leave the line to help the little redhead.
Danny ran to his girlfriend's aid, "LET HER GO—" and with that, of course at the greatest time to happen, his ghost sense went off, blue mist wafting from his mouth.
The wall to the side of Henry crashed open, tearing like paper, as her least favorite ghost found her and glared down in satisfaction. Dash looked up in shock at the huge creature, dropped his victim and her book and ran away screaming in fear, so much for his tough, macho exterior. The ghost turned its' attention to Henry, smirking and growling in contentment, and reached a still rotting hand toward her.
She squeaked and started running away as everyone else panicked and scattered. The angry zombie ghost shrieked angrily and tried to chase after her, knocking over several video game tables and booths in its' way. Henry felt Danny's hand grasp hers and attempt to keep her from getting lost or left behind in the stampede of people as if an unstoppable river.
Henry gasped, "My book!"
"Wait! Henry, don't let go!" Danny's feeble attempt to hold her hand and keep her from letting go failed as the crowd began pushing them apart, "HENRY!"
Bravely as well as foolishly, she charged back through the crowd, and effectively toward the ghost. It saw her and reached its' hand toward her again. She managed to dodge it this time, skidding across the floor and between its' feet. It snarled in irritation as it attempted to grab her again. She ran to the area where Dash had dropped her book and started searching frantically for it. Suddenly, she found it wedged underneath a collapsed table; she crawled across the floor to try to reach it, but it was just too far away.
The zombie ghost snatched her ankle and dragged her out from underneath the table, hoisting her high in the air. It spun her right side up and held her by her neck, growling and trilling. It sniffed her and purred, causing the teen girl to shudder; what was it doing?
"Your pain and suffering is delicious," it spoke; the first words she'd ever heard it speak.
An ectoplasmic blast hit it square in the jaw, causing it to shriek in pain and drop Henry.
She screamed but was quickly caught by her phantom hero and set gently on the ground, "Henry, I really need you to get out of here now so I can fight this thing," he spoke in a serious tone.
She nodded and ran for the door, the crowd had almost completely gone and was running for safety in the street. The ghost tried to go after her, but Danny tackled him to the wall, making a large dent. Henry thought of something and turned down the sidewalk to head toward Danny's house.
The ghost easily kicked Danny off, it grabbed the nearest large object—in this particular case, the rotating chair from the new game—and ripped it out of the ground to throw at him.
"Hey!" the teen ghost shouted, "I never got a chance to play that!"
It hurled the piece of equipment at him, which he easily dodged. It growled in frustration and picked up object after object and threw them at Danny, who dodged them with relative ease. The zombie ghost had suddenly seemed weaker than it had been, which meant hopefully it would be easy to defeat. The ghost boy decided to use the 'headshot' technique, he released a blast right at its' head but this time, it didn't even flinch. So nevermind, its' attack may have dropped a bit, but its' defense went up, oh joy.
The monster shrieked loudly, the noise loud enough and high pitched enough to burst eardrums. Danny had to cover his ears again, but kept his eyes on the ghost. As soon as the shriek stopped, Danny started firing blast after blast like a machine gun, the bandages around the ghost's arms unwound and acting like whips split each blast. The bandages whipped around Danny and wrapped around him, effectively tying him down to keep him from fighting or escaping.
There was a flash of blue light, the ghost shrieked, and released Danny from its' bindings. He fell to the floor with a thud, and looked up. Henry had apparently run all the way to his house, climbed through his window, grabbed the thermos and ran back.
As soon as the ghost was securely inside the thermos, she rested both palms on her knees, panting heavily from running so fast, "Are you ok?" she asked between gasps.
He stood shaky on his feet, "Yeah, I'm all right, are you ok?"
"If I keep running like that I won't be fine," she joked and handed him the thermos, "I found something weird when I went to your house to get the thermos."
"Something weird?" he asked as he took the thermos.
"When I got to your house, I found the thermos had rolled on the floor and popped open, does it do that a lot?"
Danny blinked, "Uh, not really."
"Anyway, you need to find somewhere to change back," she motioned toward the crowd reforming outside out of curiosity, "Oh wait! My book!"
"I'll get it, just wait outside," he flew threw the wall into the alley behind the building to change back.
Henry came back outside, still panting and being careful not to trip on any rubble. She attempted to walk away casually to try not to draw attention. Sam and Tucker saw her and rushed forward to meet her.
"Dude, where's Danny?" Tucker looked around.
"Changing back, and getting my book," the redhead decided to see if the Walkman in her pocket was ok.
Sam sighed, "Gotta remember not to leave home without the thermos."
"Yeah," Henry pulled out her music player and rolled it around in her hands examining it, "but everything turned out ok in the end, so hopefully—"
"Hey freak!" came an all too familiar voice, "we need to finish our business," as he pound his fist against his other hand.
Oh great, Henry thought to herself as she saw Dash coming toward her again, red in the face and angry.
"Give it a rest Dash!" Sam shouted at him, standing between the jock and Henry.
There was a loud screech as tires skid down the street. A rusty old truck came barreling down the road, Henry stiffened and her heart seemed to skip a beat. When the driver saw her standing on the sidewalk, the truck made a fast U-turn, causing it to rock dangerously to the side. It drove up dangerously onto the sidewalk and stopped a few feet in front of the teens.
A dirty redneck threw open the driver's side door, climbed out and slammed it behind him, "Henrietta Cooper! What are you doing out here?"
A pair of wide terrified blue eyes stared up at him as he strode toward him, "W-what do you mean?" she asked with arms stiff down to her sides.
He pointed an angry finger toward her; "You were supposed to be home watching the boys tonight! I told you I was going out late tonight and you needed to babysit!"
Her brow furrowed in confusion, "No you didn't," she said, "I don't remember—"
…
Danny, now in his human form, searched around for Henry's book, not exactly sure where to look. He looked under a few tables and found it; he reached for it but couldn't quite reach it. Briefly looking around to make sure no one was watching, Danny used his ghost ability to extend his arm forward and carefully grab and pull the book out. He stood up and dusted it off; the cover was a little bent but otherwise intact.
He suddenly heard a commotion outside; he carefully stepped through the debris from the fallen walls and made his way outside. Danny got outside just in time to see Uncle Rege backhand Henry; she yelped and stumbled back a few steps, and in front of everyone in the street.
"Henry!" he rushed forward to her aid, but tripped in the rubble and fell flat on his face.
"Don't backtalk to me you little brat!" he continued to shout at her, "You know darn well that I told you this morning to watch them!" he grabbed her roughly by her hood and dragged her toward the truck, "Now get yourself on home now!"
The scruffy teen coughed, "Ow, wait, stop!" she gasped, "Stop it that hurts!"
Danny got back to his feet and ran over them as the redneck opened the passenger door and threw the struggling girl inside, "Leave her alone! What are you doing?" he shouted and grabbed Uncle Rege's shoulder when he reached him.
The older man shrugged him off, "This doesn't concern you kid, get out of the way," he slammed the door; unfortunately Henry's ankle was in the way and got slammed, causing her to shout in pain. He opened the door, grabbed her pant leg and tossed her foot inside and shut the door.
"Stop hurting her!" Danny screamed in anger as he grabbed Uncle Rege's shoulder again, this time a bit more firm.
"I said this doesn't concern you!" he shouted back at the teen and threw him to the ground, walked around to the driver's side, "Now get out of the way!" as he got in the truck, hit the gas and drove sloppily off the sidewalk and sped away.
Henry turned and looked out the back window and waved back at her friends, a forced smile on her face. Danny was borderline irate as he got up and watched them drive away, gripping the book in his hands tightly.
…
Henry winced slightly as she tied the zip-lock bag of ice to her slightly swollen ankle with a shoelace. She wished no one had to see what happened, but she couldn't really help that now. Uncle Rege was drunk again, and was probably going out drinking with his new drinking buddies, leaving her to handle the boys with a mashed ankle. It wasn't broken or anything, just sore; it would bruise but would quickly heal.
With a heavy sigh, the scruffy teen leaned over the side of her bed and found her Trigonometry book, grabbed a few sheets of notebook paper and an old calculator. There wasn't really much else to do; the boys were fed and were watching TV, and since she didn't have her book she figured she'd work on math instead. Henry pulled out her headphones and turned on some Disney music. She had just opened to the section about sine and cosine relations and had just started working on the first question when she heard a tap on her window.
She jumped and turned to the window, it was Danny of course. The redhead smiled and waved happily, turned down her Walkman, leaned over carefully and opened the window, "Hi babe, what're you doing here?"
Danny's expression was serious and somewhat hard, he handed her book to her, "I came to bring your book back."
"Yay! Thank you!" she took it graciously, "I didn't really feel like doing math homework, now I can read again."
She then realized how upset Danny was, his arms folded and his eyes focused intently on her, knowing she'd be able to read him. Henry dropped her cheery mood, "And no, I'm not ready to call the police."
"Are you serious?" he climbed in through the window and sat cross-legged on the end of her small bed, "Half the school was there, they saw what he did to you, do you really think you need to continue to suffer like this?"
Henry looked down at her book, gripping it tightly in both hands, "Yes, I do not want to leave this town, my school, my friends," she looked up at him with tears forming, "And I do not want to leave you."
"I don't want you to leave either," he sighed, "but I also don't like seeing you hurting like this."
"I'm fine," she faked, "guess I just didn't pay close enough attention to what he was talking about this morning."
Danny growled and ran his fingers through his hair, he knew she was just going to be stubborn about the whole thing and make up excuses, "All right, if you really insist, I won't say anything. But the next time I see him hurt you, I will call the police, whether you me to or not. Three strikes and he's out."
"Ok," she said, leaning forward carefully and giving him a gentle kiss, "Thank you Danny."
He sighed again and rubbed his forehead against hers. Although he was torn between making her happy and doing what was best for her, he decided the compromise would suffice, for now. It was then Danny noticed the blue headband, "When did you get that?"
"Oh," Henry leaned back and traced it with her fingers, "I got it after I won that Pac-man game. I was trying to show you earlier but Dash decided to be a twat. I think it makes me look more like a girl, what do you think?"
He laughed, "I think it's cute, but I always thought you looked like a girl," he lied about when he first saw her, and that she did indeed look like a boy.
She scowled at him for a moment, "A few girls in my Computer Technology class hit on me until I told them I wasn't a boy. You don't have that class with me so you never saw it."
"No, guess not," he laughed again, "well, what are up to right now?"
"Nothing really, why?"
"A certain person told me if we are going to be dating then we should participate in each other's activities and hobbies, so what do you like to do?"
Henry blushed and scratched the back of her head, "Yeah, but I guarantee you won't like what I like to do."
"Well, you did give my video games a try," he leaned back slightly, "so I'm pretty sure I can give yours a try. So what do you like to do?"
She paused to think, "Let me see … I like to cook and clean, read interesting books, learn new things, listen to music, sing, talk about whatever, watch movies," she paused again and blushed, "and cuddle."
Danny blushed as well and smiled, "Well I can do a couple of those things."
"Henry!" came a shout from downstairs as a food-covered spoon flew over the banister and landed on the floor of Henry's room, "The movie is over! Put another one in!"
She sighed and went to get off the bed, "I'll be right back," and she limped across the room, picked up the spoon and started to slowly climb down the staircase.
Danny didn't want to see her struggle after their beckon-call, he got up off the bed and followed her downstairs, and making sure she didn't slip and fall. Most of the holes in the roof and walls had been nailed closed, patches of mismatched wallpaper had covered the parts of the walls that the previous wallpaper had peeled. The house looked like a safer place to live, but only just.
Ben and Tommy were sitting on the floor in front of the old TV, the credits for a movie playing. They each had a plate of food in their laps as they were watching the movie.
Henry strode slowly to the VCR and opened it to remove the old VHS, "So what do you guys wanna watch now?"
"Doomsday!" Ben cheered.
"No, I wanna watch Cloverfield!" Tommy interjected.
The scruffy teen put the movie back into its' case and placed it in its' place on the shelf, "You both know you're too young to watch those, and I don't want you guys having nightmares and waking up Uncle Rege."
They both jumped up to look through the rack of videos, chattering and arguing about which one to watch. Most were old Disney movies, since they were still too young to watch much else.
Henry leaned in toward Danny and whispered, "Can you tell Disney is a big thing in this household?" as he laughed, the redhead thought of something, "Have you eaten dinner?"
Danny thought for a moment, "No, I haven't."
"Well, I have dinner on the stove if you'd like," she pointed toward the kitchen, "I made beef and rice enchiladas, and there's plenty of leftovers."
"That sounds good to me," Danny said with a smile.
The two boys finally seemed to notice Danny, "What's he doing here?" Ben glared.
"Be nice," Henry growled, "he just came over to hang out."
"Is he your boyfriend?" Tommy asked, still looking accusingly at the teen boy.
"Yes he is," as both teens blushed.
Ben turned back to the movie shelf, "If you guys decide to have sex, keep it down. I don't wanna hear you going at it."
Both teens blushed brightly and glanced at each other, "I said be nice," she growled through grit teeth, pinching Ben's side, "now hurry up and pick another movie."
As the two young boys continued to shuffle through the shelf, Henry quickly ushered Danny to the kitchen, "Sorry about that," she whispered.
"It's ok," Danny said quickly with a blush.
The delicious aroma of Mexican spices filled his nostrils; he looked in the direction the smell was coming from and found the pan. It was a big casserole dish with rolled tortilla shells stuffed with cheese, beans, beef, and rice, and then topped with red sauce and more cheese. It looked good, really good.
"I'll get us a couple plates," Henry said and reached up to open the cupboard.
She was a bit short, and all the clean dishes were on a shelf ever so slightly out of her reach. The scruffy teen growled and walked to the corner to grab a stepping stool so she could reach. The dishes were old and a bit worn out, but still useable. Henry handed down a plate to Danny and grabbed her own. When she stepped down, she had forgotten about her sore ankle and stumbled in pain a bit, but recovered.
As Danny spooned himself some dinner, Tommy came running in and handed Henry a video, "We decided we wanna watch this one."
She held it up and read the cover, 'Alice in Wonderland', she glanced over at Danny, "I know we saw this just a couple weeks ago, are you ok watching it again?"
"Yeah, fine with me," he tasted some sauce on his thumb.
…
Even though they'd seen the movie not too long ago, this time around it was a bit more enjoyable. The only furniture to sit on was Uncle Rege's chair, and if it was big enough for his fat ass then it was big enough for the pair to snuggle up on. Henry still enjoyed the scene with the Cheshire Cat, and Danny was even starting to figure out the lyrics and tried to sing along, he failed but got points for trying. Ben and Tommy were laughing and making fun of Alice and how idiotic she was.
The teen girl stood up and gathered up dishes, "Now stay here, I gotta get something."
Ben watched for her to leave the room then turned to Danny, "So why would you like her?"
Danny was taken aback by the sudden subject change, "What do you mean?"
"If you're dating her then that means you like her, so why would you like her?"
The raven-haired teen thought, "Why wouldn't I like her?"
Tommy leaned back toward Danny and whispered, "Because she's cursed."
"What do you mean 'cursed'?" he asked in mild irritation.
"Well, everyone she's ever lived with has died," Tommy continued, "so that means that you'll probably die too."
He glared down at the boys, "That's not really a nice thing to say about your own cousin."
"What?" Ben looked hurt, "It's true, we're just waiting around until the curse comes for us. But Uncle Rege beats her up every now and then that seems to stop the curse, so it hasn't come for us yet."
Danny growled and leaned down, "Do you really think hurting her is going to keep you from dying?"
"It's worked for the last three years," Tommy laughed.
Danny was about to give them an earful when Henry reentered the room holding a plate of cookies, "I decided it might be a nice treat to make cookies."
The boys cheered and jumped up, grabbing at the plate greedily. Danny was still irritated, but the cookies did smell good.
"Hey!" she shouted and fought off the two boys with her injured foot, "save some for us and Uncle Rege."
They groaned and sat down in front of the TV with their handfuls of cookies. Henry sat back down next to Danny and held the plate toward him, offering him a treat as well. He smiled, took one and bit into it; it was delicious.
The redhead could see the irritation in his eyes, "Is something wrong babe?"
Danny swallowed, "I'm all right, just got cold without you snuggling with me," he said with a smile.
Henry giggled and kissed his cheek, taking a cookie herself and snuggling closer to keep him warm. Even though Danny was a bit cold when she walked away, he didn't really want her to know what her cousins had said to him about her. He wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and hugged her tight, nuzzling the back of her head as she giggled again. Cursed? Danny thought to himself, There's no way someone as cute and sweet as she is could be cursed.
Not long after, all four had fallen asleep in the front room as the movie ended, and all that was left playing was the salt and pepper static, as a white noise lullaby.
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End Chapter 10
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