Chapter 11

Danny opened his eyes the next morning, and realized two things. One, it was still dark out, and two, he couldn't check his watch because he was still wedged under the merman's girth, wrapped in his pectoral fins and all. He yawned, and became aware of that Phantom's familiar wheezing noise was slower and steadier than usual. He felt warm and mostly comfortable actually, and, well wow. Talk about a safe place.

The human smiled and lifted his head free, so he could peer up at the mernan's sleeping face. Aside from looking a little pasty, from the lack of water, he seemed to sleeping fine. Phantom's chin was resting on Danny's shoulder, and his frills twitched lightly in his sleep. Danny chuckled, and gently tugged on one of those fins.

"…c'mon on Phantom…rise and shine." Danny spoke quietly, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.

Phantom's nose twitched and he gave a grunt.

"I'll bring back pizza tomorrow." Danny tried again.

A green eye cracked open.

"Morning." Danny said cheerfully. Phantom snapped that glowing eye closed and huffed like a child.

The merman heaved a sigh and slowly rolled off him, dragging himself into the water and stretching out. Danny noticed the way Phantom started breathing easier after a quick dip under the water. Danny himself sat up; glancing at the shallow little dent they'd left in the sand. The lack of Phantom made him notice when the cool air brushed his skin. He checked his watch in the dim light as he crawled into the shallow water.

"It's six something…murgh. We better head back I suppose." Danny commented faintly.

Phantom stretched and gave a shake, turning to watch Danny expectantly. He purred when Danny got closer and grinned, nudging his knee.

"Hi." He chuckled, feeling brave after last night and reaching out to run his fingers through his hair. Phantom arched to the touch with a happy croon, tilting his head to guide Danny's fingers to his cheek scales, and when Danny took a guess and lightly ran his fingernails under and around the black spots he had a melting, purring merman stretched into his lap.

"…have to remember, scratching good. And not checking the weather when it looks gray: bad." Danny smiled to himself, gently stopping the scratching and moving out into the water, hissing a bit at the chilly water.

"Woo, okay…"

Phantom whined and crawled out after him, glancing at him dubiously.

"What, you don't want to go? Dude…Phantom I…I have to go home, eventually." Danny reminded with a sad smile.

The merman watched him stand there with the cold water up to his knees, and gave him a look. He smirked and pulled himself onto the sand, making a show of stretching out and snuggling down. Danny blinked and watched him. Phantom closed his eyes and crooned happily, fins relaxing.

"…oh that is not fair."

Phantom crooned and rolled over lazily, heaving a sigh.

"….alright fine." The human muttered, stepping out of the water and plopping down, this time on top of the merman, just to be an annoyance.

It didn't work.

The merman sniggered. And then shifted and rolled, sending the human sliding clumsily off him in a jumble of limbs. Danny gave a squawk and huffed, opening his mouth to voice his objections, only to be silenced by the merman matching their lips and shifting up on top of him.

"Mnph!" The human managed, before hands cupped his face and a thumb brushed his cheek, like Danny had done to Phantom earlier. Phantom was nothing if not a quick learner.

The merman took a long moment with the kiss, before he finally pulled back; tilting his head as he watched Danny stared dazedly up at him.

"…now I see why you didn't want to move."

Phantom chuckled and flopped his tail, watching Danny fondly.

They spent longer than Danny realized like that, curled up and kissing back and forth. Danny settled back easily into the warmth of Phantom's body, blinking when those pectoral fins spread out to try and wrap around him, along with the mernan's arms. Without thinking Danny did the same with his own arms, suddenly wishing he had his own…fin things, to hug Phantom back. To tangle their tails or something. As it was, the merman's long fish tail wrapped both Danny's legs, the scales familiar and smooth.

Phantom was quiet and half asleep again when he suddenly froze. His content purring halted in his throat as the he sat up to twist around. Danny only noticed because he was playing with one of Phantom's frills, and the merman actually jerked it out of his hold to lift his head and look around.

Danny blinked up at him. He reached again for that frill and Phantom stopped him with a gentle but firm murmur, gently pushing his hand down. Danny watched curiously, not feeling hurt because well, Phantom must have a good reason for this, right? Phantom moved his hand onto Danny's chest, applying just an ounce of pressure.

"Ah…Phantom careful…" Danny muttered, only to be broken off with a soft shush.

The merman tensed over him, spreading his fins and slinking over and toward the water's edge, looking almost hesitant. Danny strained to hear something, holding his breath, but he didn't hear anything. He held back any questions, instead focusing on the merman currently on alert. He may or may not have admired Phantom's profile for a moment too, those tense muscles and that strong jaw and…

Suddenly said strong jaw with inches from his face, murmuring his name urgently and taking his waist.

"Phantom what—ack!" he was pulled into the water and given only a moment to catch his breath and pull his goggles on before he felt himself held into the position they used to travel during the storm. Danny felt some bubbles slips past his lips as Phantom swam down and toward a dark hole.

Oh…kay. Guess we're going back…what WAS that?

With no storm or terrifying waves to disorient him, Danny spared a look around when they exited the small underwater tunnel. Phantom swam strong and sure in a certain direction, but Danny looked around, and wondered vaguely what that large darker blue thing was in the distance, up by the surface.

a…boat?

Phantom only paused to give him air when the human grabbed his bicep, and by the time Danny recognized the rock formations that signaled they were back in the reef zone, he had entirely forgotten the boat, if it was a boat at all.

He was more interested in the fact Phantom had just give him this kind of…sexy…little smirk and was heading for the beach. He spared a glance at his watch, noting it was already close to twelve. The next thing he knew he was being pushed up on a rock and his neck was nuzzled. Well, Danny certainly wasn't going to argue there—except when he went to hug back the merman pulled away and Danny dropped back into the water with a startled plop.

"…Phantom!"

"…pyza." Was all the merman said smugly, using his arms to wiggle on top of a rock and curl his tail around himself, settling down. He grinned over his folded arms at the look on Danny's face.

"…pfft. Jerk." But it was half hearted and more than a little fond, and Danny splashed the merman as he went by.

"I'll be right back Phantom!"

The merman rumbled, but his eyes were closed and he looked, for all intense purposes, like he expected to stay right there, napping in the sun. Danny chuckled and headed back to town, making sure to get the merman an extra slice after all that swimming. Nothing unusual happened on the way back, except for the moment he bumped into someone.

"Oh…my bad, sorry," He said easily, adjusting the pizza box he had to keep flat before going on his way. He was waved off, the international sign for ok and so Danny simply continued on his way, deciding to pull out the slice of cheese and pepperoni before the fish smell got on his slice. He didn't notice the figure look over his shoulder to watch him, and then double back, following the boy until Danny passed a large ship in the docks, which he took no notice off either because hey, huge ships came into Amity all the time.

The man turned and headed up the plank of the S.S. Madeleine.

When Danny returned to the private beach, Phantom hadn't even moved from his spot, and was asleep. He was snoring to prove it, so Danny quietly snuck up behind him, made sure to hold the pizza box safely out of danger annnnd—

SPLASH!

The merman yelped and shot up when the cold water hit his warmed scales, moving his tail to whack away whatever it was that…oh. He stared at the impish grin on Danny's face and then snorted, giving him an unimpressed look.

"…aw come on. You missed me." Danny grinned, handing over the pizza box before Phantom changed his mind and did decide to whack him with tail. It'd probably break him in half if he wasn't careful. Ah well. Phantom would never hurt him.

In any case, the merman had lightened up considerably once he saw and smelled the pizza, and tore through cardboard and was mrring happily when he saw more slices than usual.

"Danny?" Danny looked over to see a slice of pizza offered to him.

"No thanks, I'm good." Danny laughed, moving back into the water to rest against the rock Phantom was perched on. This was a little backwards, merman on the rock and human in the water but it was kind of fun, really. Especially when Phantom gave him that smile and in-between bites leaned down to kiss random parts of his face.

Danny laughed and let him, scrunching his nose when Phantom finished with his final kiss there.

"Sap." He said playfully, knowing the tone wouldn't be lost on the merman, who rumbled and swallowed the last of his pizza. When Danny was sure he was done and the box was out of the way Danny smirked and made the come here motion with his finger.

The merman blinked but leaned down obediently, only to have his shoulders grabbed and his body pulled into the shallow water on top of the human, who sank under the water from the weight.

As for Phantom, he gave a delighted chirp and helped Danny, since the boy couldn't hope to drag all of him in. So he swam after him, tackling him happily into the sandy surf and going so far as to nip a shoulder. They continued on like this, Phantom chasing after Danny and Danny trying to catch Phantom, (grabbing the tail worked wonders, but nine out of ten the merman slipped free and doubled back to run into him on purpose.) Danny was just being pushed under the water by the merman slamming into his back when Phantom paused and yanked him back up, holding him in the water.

"…Phantom? What's a matter?"

Phantom swam after him easily, snorting when he spotted the three figures on the beach.

"Danny?"

The human glanced at Phantom, and then followed where the hand was pointing. Danny peered over and swam out of the merman's hold.

"…Sam? Tucker? Jazz?" Danny mumbled, giving a stronger kick to head to shore.

"Danny? Danny!" His sister saw him first, and even ran to the edge of the water, staring. "Danny where were you!? There was a storm and when I called Sam's house to check up on you her mother said you weren't there and—"

"You called to check up on me?" Danny blinked, walking out of the water and glancing sheepishly at the empty pizza box sitting next to Jazz.

"Yes! And Sam wouldn't give me a straight answer so I tried Tucker and—"

"Annnnd they lead you here." He gave them a look. To his slight annoyance they shrugged.

"Dude, it was pretty terrible last night, I mean the power went out and stuff."

"Least we didn't tell your parents. Besides, Jazz threatened us. We held her off as long as we could."

"And I'm not sorry about it. do you know what mom and dad would have done if they'd come home and you were missing on my watch? You scared me half to Danny!"

"She threatened you—"

They might have gone farther into the discussion if Jazz hadn't seen Phantom slink up behind Danny in the surf and give a little startled yelp. Seeing him off shore was one thing, but when he was this close and you looked behind him and the tail and the fins was floating there, well it earned Phantom more than a double take. Danny couldn't blame her for looking like that. At least she didn't scream and try to yank him to safety. Phantom gave a startled snort himself upon seeing Jazz, and actually swam up to her, lifting himself onto his tail to get a better look.

"…uh…guys? What…" The mernan got all their attention by rumbling curiously, and Jazz's few words were promptly ignored as Phantom cocked his head at her.

"Phantom? What is it?"

"…Danny?" Phantom asked instead, pointing at Jazz. Danny blinked and walked over.

"We're siblings, yeah. This is Jazz. Jaah. Zz." Danny spoke automatically, smiling at the merman. "She's a friend too Phantom." Though this didn't need to be said apparently, as there was nothing tense or scared about Phantom's body language at all. Danny'd seen him give the same interested and attentive look to a bottle they'd found diving one day.

"Jaa…" is all Phantom managed, before falling silent and peering at her curiously.

His older sister just smiled awkwardly and stood stock still. After a moment she seemed to buck up her courage and she waved. This caused Phantom light up like the fourth of July and wave cheerfully back. THAT he knew how to do! Danny chuckled and walked out of the water and onto the beach, standing next to his sister.

"He's not gonna bite, Jazz. I think it's because we look a lot alike, actually…uhm, body language and looks are a lot to, to them." Danny mumbled quietly, fiddling with his hands.

"R-really? Wait, how did you know that?" Jazz spared a glance at him this time and Danny grinned weakly.

"Remember when I asked mom about fish mating?" He said.

"…yes I do. It was disgusting." She was back to watching Phantom again, who was lowering down and itching one of his cheeks absentmindedly.

"Okay, that was about nine days before that that I uh, met Phantom." Danny watched his big sister do the math in her head, and when her eyebrows rose and she finally moved to look at him, he knew she figured it out.

"…wow." Was all she managed.

It was Danny's turn to smile worriedly, and he distracted the merman by going to sit on the beach. He was looking at his friends and sister as they joined him, but wasn't surprised when Phantom's purred at him and his body pulled up behind him. Phantom curled round him, long fins settling over his legs.

"…so he's…uh, he's Phantom." Jazz spoke the name slowly, as if trying to test it out. Phantom glanced at her, but when he saw she didn't need anything he lowered his chin back on his crossed arms and yawned.

"Yeah." Said Danny easily, smiling when his leg was nudged.

"Can he talk?"

"A little bit. Mostly yes and no, and names and stuff. It's hard teaching him when he's got his own language…I don't think I'll ever figure it out. I think he's got two sets of…organs or something, maybe."

The shock seemed to be wearing off and Danny saw Jazz focusing again. "This whole time you've been…every time you left you were out here? With—with your friend?"

"Well, yes—annnd it was going fine until last night. I didn't get hurt, okay! Sam and Tucker weren't supposed to tell anyone!" He muttered, giving his friends an accusing, slightly hurt glare.

"Uh-uh, you can't blame them Danny, Sam and Tucker did the right thing. They just told me where to find you."

"She wouldn't have believed us if we told her the reason." Sam pointed out with a look.

"Sam's right, I wouldn't have." Danny could see Jazz was too busy staring at Phantom to notice much of anything else anymore. The merman had closed his eyes and was pressed against his upper thigh, that soft whisp-ing gasping noise sounding through him as his body rose and fell with each breath.

"Jazz? It's okay. You can come closer." Danny offered with a faint smile when she saw him focusing curiously on those bumpy tan shoulders. Trust that analytic mind of his sister's to kick in full throttle when she was sure there wasn't any danger. The only danger there seemed to be right now was of Phantom falling asleep, Danny noted as the merman started stilling against him.

"Oh, no I…" But she had seen Sam and Tucker sit on the other side of Danny by Phantom's tail, leaving the spot next to the merman's head open. She settled in the sand carefully with slow movements, watching Phantom closely for any signs of aggression or acknowledgement at all, even.

"…Okay I know I've called mom and dad crazy and life ruiners on more than one occasion but this is…pretty cool. God and do you know what this means Danny!? They were right! Well, on some things…I mean his teeth aren't all pointy. He does have claws though…"

Danny grinned, shoulders lowering. Maybe his parent's excitement was contagious, or, or genetic or something, but he could see the gears turning in his sister's head, and saw her fingers twitching slightly in the sand where they rested. Without thinking he reached and scratched the shoulder farthest from him and closest to Jazz, earning a sleepy purr from the merman at the gesture.

"He's pretty…friendly isn't he?" Jazz commented, watching the merman press against her little brother, and watching her little brother let it happen like it was no big deal.

"Yeah to Danny." Came Sam's grumble as she watched that tail shift warily.

"To be fair we didn't make the best impression, Sam. He thought we were gonna hurt Danny or something and so he kind of flipped his shit." Tuck explained when he saw Jazz raise an eyebrow.

"Tucker." Danny hissed, still trying to make a good impression.

"Well he did!"

Danny sighed and rolled his eyes, but let the subject drop. He went back to Jazz, trying to give her his best convincing look.

"He's not bad, okay? And he's not a monster. They're people just like us, Jazz, you wouldn't believe it down there, it's amazing!"

"Mhm." Said his big sister distractedly, causing Danny to finally really notice that look in Jazz's eye.

Without thinking Danny reached over and took her hand, lifting it up and over to him and likewise, by Phantom's. He glanced to make sure Phantom hadn't moved or changed his posture, and he certainly hadn't. So Danny closed the distance, letting Jazz's fingertips rest against Phantom's shoulder blade. She stayed still for a moment, staring at her fingers and feeling the little black scales that interrupted the skin. One of Phantom's frills on his head flicked lazily but that was it.

"…woah."

Danny's face split into a grin; as he looked down to watch his friend with a warm, fond gaze. "Tell me about it."

Phantom just hmmed faintly and continued dozing.