Chapter 21
Danny shifted awkwardly as he sat on the couch in the front room of the house. Beside him, Phantom sat with his back perfectly straight and one ankle resting on the other knee and his fingers laced over the ankle. His parents occupied the chairs on either side of the couch, his father in the one next to Phantom and his mother in the one next to him. Awkward silence hung over the four of them after they entered the house several minutes ago. To Danny, it actually felt like an hour, or maybe eight, had passed. His father had his arms crossed and his jaw set firmly as he gave the ghost his usual fatherly intimidating glare that he would use on any man hanging around Jazz. Danny resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands as the silence continued.
"Can we just get the Talk over with?" Danny begged, a blush creeping onto his cheeks when he heard the whine in his voice. This whole thing was already embarrassing enough without having it dragged out in silence.
His father squinted his eyes just a touch more at the ghost before he finally broke down to start the Talk. "What exactly are your intentions with our son?"
Danny gulped, his throat feeling like someone crammed an entire bag of cotton balls down it. His blue eyes darted toward Phantom as he absently wiped sweaty palms on his pant legs. Phantom hardly batted an eye at the question as if this whole conversation was something mundane, like chatting about the weather.
"At some point down the line," Phantom replied easily, "I would like to engage in sexual activity with your son."
Danny's face turned beet red in less than a second, the burning extending even to the tips of his ears after hearing how bluntly the ghost stated his desire. His father cracked, his mask of intimidation dropping as he sputtered out, unable to form words. His mother was equally shocked by the confession, but she recovered much quicker than her husband, smoothing out her jumpsuit despite the lack of wrinkles.
"Well, that's," she said, seeming at a loss for words, "nice."
"Your concern is natural, of course," Phantom continued, passing by that awkward moment with no indication that he even realized the reaction his statement caused. "A human and a ghost have never been in a relationship before. While it might be physically possible to engage in such activities, we still don't know what sort of," his green eyes glanced Danny's way, who shifted under the ghost's attention, "effects that may have on a human. I do admit caution is necessary in that case. But I also would never do anything of that nature to Danny without his consent. Intercourse is not in the near future for us, as we are still getting to know one another and develop our relationship as something more than a simple physical attraction."
His face still felt unnaturally hot, but Danny managed to force himself to speak. "So you see," he said with a pathetic laugh, "nothing to worry about."
His father shook his head, leaning back in his seat as he drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. He was thinking, turning over what question to ask first. "Why our son?"
Phantom blinked at the question. Then a slow smile slipped onto his face as he turned his gaze back onto Danny, whose heart practically skipped a beat at the fondness in the ghost's expression. "He wasn't like other humans. I saw him whenever I was trying to help out. He'd be there taking pictures. I heard a bit more about him from some other ghosts I know. When they showed up, he wasn't scared of them like other humans. He showed curiosity. He even helped them when he offered a location for a spot to haunt while in the real world. He defended ghosts who weren't doing any harm to humans. That caught my interest, and I wanted to learn more about him." He glanced to each parent. "You've raised a very kind and understanding son who has the bravery to protect people, even ghosts. Those are very admiral traits. You should be quite proud of your son."
"We are," his mother said with a sniff in her voice as if it was insulting that anyone might think that they weren't. Danny could kind of see why some people might think that when his parents were so obsessed with their secret work, which he only recently learned involved inventing weapons for the Guys in White. He did at times feel inferior to his sister when it came to intelligence because Jazz was always getting good grades with seemingly little effort, but he never really needed to hear his parents say they were proud of him. He wasn't desperately seeking their approval like that. Still, it made him feel a swell of pride to hear his mother respond that she was proud of him.
"Can we call this thing done?" Danny gave his parents a hopeful look. "I mean, what else do you really need to know? Phantom's a good guy. Er, ghost really. And while we do share a mutual physical attraction," and that was embarrassing to say out loud to his parents, "we're not going to be all teenage hormonal and start making out in corners at every chance we get. I think I've matured enough not to act like that and look for something more to a relationship than just physical pleasure."
His mother sighed then stood from her chair. "We know. We're just concerned. We know now that ghosts aren't all bad." Proof of that belief lay beside the chair where his father sat. Cujo had his head on his paws as his tail wagged every now and then behind him. He gave Phantom a big welcome, bouncing around and barking happily. But once they sat down in the front room to start the Talk, Cujo lay beside his father, somehow understanding that this wasn't the time for him to be seeking their attention. His mother sat down beside him on the couch and placed a hand upon his shoulder. "We just want you to be safe."
"And we're going to be," Danny assured his parents. "You really don't need to worry so much. Phantom isn't going to do anything to hurt me."
"While that may be," his father said, some of his intimidation relaxing from his features, "we still don't know very much about this Phantom character." He eyed the ghost with a certain amount of hesitation, not quite ready to give their relationship his blessing. "Where did you come from? What's your real name, the one you had when you were alive? How did you die? Why the whole hero persona?"
"Dad!" Danny shouted, his mouth thinning. "You can't just ask a ghost how he died. Did you ever stop to think that it might be a painful subject for the ghost and he doesn't want to talk about it?"
His father winced, shame flashing in his eyes as he lowered his gaze. "Sorry."
Phantom shook his head. "I wish I could answer all of your questions about me." His gaze fell as he frowned. "I don't really know who I was when I was alive or how I died. My memory only extends back about a year. As for the hero thing," he shrugged, "one theory is that it's my ghostly obsession." He tossed a small smirk toward Danny. "Maybe it had something to do with whom I was when I was alive or how I died or something. But I just started protecting people simply because it felt like the right thing to do. Other ghosts find humans entertaining. The Ghost Zone, don't get me wrong, is fine. Many ghosts are content living out their afterlives there. But for some, it can be a bit boring, which is why they seek ways into the real world and spook the living. Some are doing it just to be funny and don't mean any real harm. But there are those that are more malicious about it. We're the same as the living in that way. We have good and bad, but you can't generalize all ghosts just because there are a few bad ones."
"You don't have to convince us of that," his mother said. "Those Guys in White on the other hand." She frowned, and Danny could see the anger building in her violet eyes. She took a deep breath, and when she exhaled, the anger faded from her eyes and the tension left her body. Danny reached over and took hold of his mother's hand. She smiled at him, brushing her fingers through his raven locks.
"And that was pretty much it," Danny finished recounting what happened Sunday night to his friends, though he was careful to leave out anything about his parents working for the Guys in White as he went over the conversation. Remembering the awkwardness at some points during that conversation left his stomach churning unpleasantly, even if things went all right between his parents and Phantom.
"I'm so glad I don't have to sit through the whole Talk with my parents," Tucker said, struggling to hold back a snicker. From the way he bit at his lip, it was clear that he wanted to laugh at his friend's plight.
"Well, first you would need to actually be dating someone," Sam pointed out, which quickly snapped Tucker out of his amusement.
"Hey!" Tucker complained with a wounded look.
"She does have a point there." Danny chuckled as Tucker's expression turned to one hurt by betrayal. He shrugged as he leaned on the cafeteria table. "Maybe you should ask Star out." He nodded toward the table where the A list women sat. Star flanked Paulina's right side as they and Valerie chatted during the lunch hour. "Didn't you have a crush on her at one point."
Tucker flushed, fumbling with his drink that he almost knocked over. "That was, like, freshmen year!"
But Tucker didn't deny it, and the corner of Danny's mouth pulled upward as he watched his friend's flustered attempts to drink his soda without spilling it. Tucker did have that flaw of flirting with most of the women at their school, but Danny had no doubts that if Tucker ever got into a real relationship that he would be as loyal to his girlfriend as he showed he was to his friends.
"Speaking of crushes though," Tucker turned his gaze to Sam sitting across from them at the lunch table, "how did things go with lover boy?" He grinned widely until a foot struck his shin and he winced.
"It went fine," Sam said, keeping a cool composer despite a slight narrowing of her eyes as she picked at the remains of her salad. "His friends were there, and that made things a bit awkward. I really don't know how to deal with the A list without provoking them into some kind of fight."
Danny cringed. "You didn't get into a fight with any of them, did you?" He cast a glance toward the A list, but he didn't see any signs on Paulina, Star, and Valerie that they got into anything physical with Sam.
Sam shook her head, and a small blush crept onto her cheeks. "They tagged along with us for a little while. Then they made really lame excuses for why they weren't going to join us." She rolled her eyes. "Like Paulina and Star decided they wanted to see that new Sayonara Pussycat movie. And Dash and some of the other football guys wanted to see that movie that's basically all explosions and car chases and sex." She leaned closer to them and added in a quiet whisper, "Though Dash didn't look all that interested in that kind of movie." She sat back again with a shrug. "Kwan clearly had no idea that they all planned to eventually ditch us so that we could have some 'alone time.' Then things got a bit awkward when we were sitting alone in the theater."
"So it was a date!" Tucker teased and managed to dodge another kick.
"Fine," Sam said with an overly exaggerated exhale. "It was a date. Happy?" She scowled at Tucker's grin.
"He did the arm reach thing, didn't he?"
"Actually, he didn't." Sam smirked as Tucker gawked at him. "Maybe it was just that he was really nervous because he didn't plan on this being an actual date, but," she shrugged, "he kept his hands to himself the whole time."
"Was it awkward the whole time?" Danny asked curiously as he dipped his fries into some ketchup.
"Well, during the movie, we both kind of forgot about being nervous because we were focused on what was going on in the movie. After the movie, things went better. We talked about the movie and stuff. Then he took me to this little vegan restaurant down the street. It was really nice."
"I'm glad the not a date date went well." Danny smiled warmly at his friend. "Are you going to see him again?"
"We may have talked about going out again next weekend," Sam answered, shrugging as she glanced away with her blush returning.
"I'm really happy for you." Tucker blinked when Sam gave him a doubtful glance. "What? I mean it! I might tease you a lot and make jokes, but I really am truly happy that you're in a good relationship with someone."
"Thanks." Sam dropped her plastic fork into the salad, giving up on what little remained. "Sorry for kicking you."
"My shins appreciate the apology." A beat of silence passed then the three friends all laughed.
When the bell rang, they groaned shouldering their bags as they stood. They gathered up their trash from lunch and shuffled off to the exit of the cafeteria to throw the trash into one of the garbage cans by the door. Afterward, they stepped out into the main hall of the high school, following the flow of the other students heading off to their afternoon classes.
"Are we still hanging out at the Nasty Burger tonight?" Danny asked as they strolled down the hall before they had to part ways for class.
"Of course," Tucker answered enthusiastically. "Unless the two of you are about to say that you have plans with your boyfriends." He frowned. Even if he was happy for his friends, it had to be lonely being the only one of the three of them that wasn't dating someone.
Sam rolled her eyes. "We're not going to abandon you and get all swept up in our relationships." She nudged Tucker in the ribs with a teasing smile. "See you guys later." Sam waved as she broke away from them and headed to class.
Danny reached over and patted Tucker on the back. "I think you should try asking Star out again. This time though," he added quickly before Tucker could say anything, "don't feed her some line. You don't need to use something stupid like, 'did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Because you must be an angel' or some other really awful line."
"Yeah, yeah. Mr. Smooth gets a boyfriend, and suddenly he's a dating guru." Tucker chuckled as Danny gave a shove.
"I was only trying to help. But if you don't want it," Danny said with a shrug as he turned into his classroom with Tucker following after him.
lollileahpop: Yay~ 8D I'm glad you thought it was cute! X3
Kurami Smile Slayer: Awkward talks with the parental units~ D: I suppose that could have gone a lot worse though. XD;;;
HawkeyeLover: *sighs* If only~ Dang it! I want a super sweet boyfriend. orz
i kissed danny and he liked it: I was almost going to skip over it. XD;; Because I was like "D8 what do parents even ask during the Talk?" orz
Some Weird Chick: Haha! Even in a hole in the ground, Vlad would have the fanciest hole in the ground. XD;; He's got such high standards! Danny. You should definitely feel more sorry for Danny. XD;; Phantom just takes it all in stride. XD;;
midnight: I think Danny wished he had some ghost powers during that talk so that he could turn invisible from embarrassment overload. XD;;
DB-KT: I hope it was interesting! D:
Guest: Thanks! =D Haha, they really are~
darkloveforfanfiction: Haha, that could always be a possibility! XD They could be, like, ambassadors between the Ghost Zone and the real world. XD;;
vampireharry the 2: It had to happen eventually. XD And now that it's over, Danny can relax about it. 8D;;
Ani-DP-TT-PJ-H-Ben10 Fan: I'm surprised Danny hasn't passed out from blushing so much during this story. XD;; Thanks! 8) I'm glad you like it so much!
BearyPhantom: Sorry for the delay~ D8 Christmas stuff, family being around, finishing up some stuff for friends. But yay, a new chapter at last! 8D;;;;;;