Chapter 26
"So Skulker's taking care of Hunter tonight?" Desiree asked as they walked down the street.
Ember stretched her arms over her head. "About time I get a night out. We alternate days for training now, but when it comes to regular baby duties, Skulker's like any man and tries to pass it all off on me. Tonight, he gets to be the one to change the stinky diapers."
"I think I'm glad I don't have to deal with any of that." Desiree smiled, but it didn't quite reach the brown eyes of her human disguise. Ember could get away with her ghostly appearance because everyone took it as her just being a rock star. The only real change she made was that her hair no longer appeared fiery but looked like natural hair now.
Pushing back a lock of ebony hair behind an ear, Desiree admitted she was kind of jealous of her fellow ghost. Despite all their fighting, Ember and Skulker did love each other, though Ember liked to complain a lot about him. Ember's lair merged with the floating jungle that was Skulker's domain, and they had an adorable child together. Desiree wanted a life like that, but she wasn't in love with Dan when they dated and she hadn't found anyone new to try dating. Maybe, but - She shook her head, already giving up on that idea.
"I so can't imagine Dan being a father." Ember laughed, probably trying imagine it right at that moment. "Danny, yes, always meant to be a father. But Dan? Wow. I mean, he makes a great uncle type for Lex, but I really don't see him with a child of his own." She grinned with wicked mischief in her green eyes. "Though that would make a tempting wish."
"Don't you dare," Desiree warned, narrowing her eyes. Sometimes she really hated her power. In the beginning, she enjoyed granting wishes and seeing people's happy faces when their wishes came true. But it slowly chipped away at her when she realized her own wishes for a happy ending would never be granted. Then she became bitter about her ability, and only the increased power of granting wishes gave her any joy. But after becoming friends with Danny and being involved with Dan, who showed her not all men interested her were jerks, she felt content with herself. Even if she wasn't with someone, she felt happier with her afterlife, no longer needing the power or having the desire to grant every wish she heard.
But even if she didn't want to, the moment she heard someone say the words "I wish," her powers kicked in and she granted whatever it was they wished. Desiree frowned as she recalled the latest wish she granted. Since the night they met, she enjoyed hanging out with Paulina. The human woman was fun to talk to and came up with great designs for clothes, some of which Desiree was thinking of adopting into her appearance once Paulina came out with her clothing line. But now that Paulina was interested in this Steven guy, Desiree expected to hear far too much about the man coming up whenever they talked.
"Oh, come on! It would be great." Ember grinned as she nudged the other ghost with her elbow. When Desiree glared at her, Ember sighed and held up her hands in surrender. "Okay. Okay. I won't say the dreaded W word."
"Anyway, with Danny's half in him, Dan has to have some of that father instinct in him," Desiree pointed out. "But why are we sitting here rambling on about guys? This is supposed to be girls night out."
"That's more like it! Time to get this party started!" Ember tossed an arm around Desiree's shoulders and hugged the other ghost closer. "Too bad we couldn't get some of the other girls to join us. Spectra's off doing some sort of counseling thing."
"Should we tell Danny?" Desiree asked warily. It was considered rude to rat out other ghosts for sneaking into the real world to have a bit of fun, but with Spectra's ability to feed of the misery of humans, things could go bad fast if she was left alone.
"I think it'll be fine." Ember shrugged. "She's learned to control her hunger so that she doesn't drive any already depressed students to do anything drastic. Anyway, she's in Wisconsin, so if she starts acting up, Vlad can always step in to take care of her." Her mouth pursed as she tilted her head. "Valerie's busy with work. Elle decided to hang out with Dan." She rolled her eyes. "Party poopers. Kitty is in one of her love phases with Johnny and can't be bothered to leave his side."
"Now those two." Desiree shook her head. "I can't believe they haven't had a child yet, but that's probably a good thing with all the fighting they do."
Ember winced. "Yeah, I don't see Johnny and Kitty doing very well as parents. Then again," she shrugged, "I'm sure plenty of other ghosts think it's crazy that I had a child."
"I'm sure many are wondering how you were able to have a child. I mean, Skulker's, like, as big as my hand." Desiree laughed when the other ghost gave her a shove.
"Well, they can wonder all they like," Ember grumbled, folding her arms, "because I'm certainly not going to tell them anything."
"That's probably for the best." Desiree shook her head, certain that she didn't want to know about the intimate details involving Skulker, who outside of his metal suit look like a tiny green frog.
"I'm so sorry about that," a man said, his voice drawing Desiree's ear. When she turned her head, she blinked in surprise to find Paulina stepping out of a restaurant, that look much too fancy, with the man that showed up at her apartment after the wish was granted. The woman had a dark stain down the right side of her pink dress.
"It's fine," Paulina assured him with a polite smile as she pulled on her coat, which helped to hide the stain. "Accidents happen. It's nothing the dry cleaners won't be able to get out."
"At least let me pay for it," Steven offered, and Desiree frowned, finding herself half wishing that the whole nice guy act was simply that: an act. But she wasn't even sure where that selfish thinking came from when she should be happy that Paulina found a man that would at least treat her well, if he really was anything like Danny.
"Hello?" Ember snapped her fingers in front the ghost beside her. "Earth to Desiree. Come back from the light."
"What?" Desiree blinked a few times as she glanced back at the singer.
"You kind of zoned out there for a moment." Ember frowned with some concern before she turned her green eyes onto the pair that had stepped out of the restaurant. "Friend of yours?" she questioned, resting an arm on Desiree's shoulder and leaning on her as she crossed one leg in front of the other. "Shall we go say hello?"
"While she's on a date?" Desiree frowned skeptically at Ember. "I think we should just ignore her and keep walking. We're supposed to have our own fun tonight. Remember?" She grabbed hold of Ember's hand, ready to pull the singer back down the street. "Where should we go? There are probably some good clubs we could hit."
"We have time for a quick hello." Ember yanked on Desiree's arm, pulling her along toward where the couple still stood. When they reached the pair, Steven looked startled by their approach while Paulina blinked at them before smiling.
"Desiree," Paulina greeted, her emerald eyes straying to blue haired woman.
"This is my good friend, Ember," Desiree introduced, holding back some annoyance in her voice because this whole meeting felt incredibly awkward to her.
"I know who she is." Paulina smiled as she hugged her arms around her, keeping her coat securely closed around her to avoid having the singer catch sight of the embarrassing stain on her dress. "You played at my high school in freshmen year. I loved your music."
"A fan." Ember grinned at Desiree. "I always love to meet a fan."
"You're a singer?" Steven questioned as his blue eyes glanced her over, his nose wrinkling slightly.
"Yeah," Ember answered with a hint of aggression in her voice as she folded her arms. "Got a problem with that?"
"No," Steven responded promptly, but Desiree suspected he did have some problem with it based off that expression on his face that suggested distaste for the singer. "What style of music?"
Ember shrugged, annoyance flashing in her eyes. "We're kind of a throwback to eighties rockers. But that's probably not your style of music."
"Hardly," Steven agreed with a sneer. "I much prefer something more along the lines of classical music."
"You would." Ember snorted as she glanced away.
Paulina laughed nervously, and that tense awkwardness that fell over the group was probably the last thing that the woman wanted after going on a date with Steven. "You both look dressed up. Were you heading out somewhere?"
Desiree briefly glanced at herself and Ember. She decided to dress in a loose pale blue top with some glitter on it as one sleeve hung off her shoulder and tight leather pants. Ember dressed mostly the same as she usually did in her ghost form, though she added a mesh top over her usual single strapped halter top.
"We were just having a girls night out," Desiree explained, wishing she could grant her own wishes so that she could make it so that this awkward moment never happened. "Probably just hit a club and dance around for a while. You know, relieve some stress after a long week." She shrugged her shoulder, hoping she came off sounding casual.
"That sounds fun. Oh!" Paulina's eyes suddenly lit up as she grabbed hold of Desiree's hands. "I just finished designing a dress, and I thought, maybe," she winced, biting her lower lip, "you could model it when I finish sewing it all together."
"Me?" Desiree asked, stunned by the request. "Are you sure?"
"Well, I mean, I'll have to adjust the measurements later." A slight flush colored Paulina's cheeks. "You're much larger in certain areas, but I wanted to take some pictures of the dress on a real person for a better show of how it will look. Just seeing it on a hanger really doesn't do it justice, and if Jazz has anything they wants changed, I'll be able to do that while making the alterations to it."
"Jazz," Desiree repeated, trying to place the name before it hit her. She felt like smacking herself for the momentary blank on Danny's sister's name. "Wait. Are you talking about her wedding dress?"
Paulina flushed darker as she nodded. "We've been talking a bit, and she gave me the go ahead for designing a dress. That doesn't mean she'll necessary choose to wear the dress I designed. She probably has a few dress choices in mind already."
"Is this the dress you were working on the other night?" Steven questioned, losing some of that glower in his expression as he turned back to his date.
"Yeah," Paulina answered, "though it's probably not good enough for an actual wedding."
"Nonsense!" Desiree argued at the same time as Steven.
"I'm sure it turned out wonderfully," Steven continued, taking hold of Paulina's hand. He laced their fingers together as he brought her hand to mouth and kissed the back of it. "I'm sure Jazz will love it."
Desiree's mouth pursed as she watched the display. As nice as he apparently was, Steven seemed to be laying it on pretty thickly with Paulina. "Well, we shouldn't keep you," she said as she hooked an arm around Ember's arm. "You're on a date and all. We shouldn't have interrupted."
"Ah, right." Paulina frowned. "I'll talk with you later then." She waved goodbye to them as Steven led her away, probably to his car to drive her back to their apartment building.
"Ugh, that guy!" Ember complained when they were out of hearing range of the couple.
"You can't say you hate him just because he doesn't like your style of music," Desiree argued, releasing her hold on the singer's arm so that she could hug her arms around her body. She couldn't say she exactly liked the man either though.
"It's not that." Ember frowned, glaring sideways at the other ghost. "Not completely, okay. He seems like totally uptight. Oh, I only like classical music." She mockingly spoke in a mannish voice before she rolled her eyes. "Please! But that's not the reason. He just-" She pursed her mouth to one side. "Did you see the way he kept staring at us?"
"Ember, I know you're hot," Desiree said with a tired sigh. "Figuratively and literally." She reached out to twirl a lock of bright blue hair around her finger, knowing that once the singer shifted back into her usual ghost appearance, the hair would turn to fire. "But I really doubt he was checking you out right in front of Paulina."
"I didn't mean like that. And ew!" Ember made a face. "Like I would even want him to check me out."
"Says the woman dating a frog," Desiree pointed out dryly.
"Irrelevant," Ember argued, frowning grumpily. "But what I meant was that I think he was suspicious of us." Her frown turned ponderous as her brow knitted. "You don't think he suspected anything, right? I mean, our disguises are pretty perfect. No one would suspect we're really ghosts, right?"
Desiree eyed the singer. "Now I think you're just being paranoid. This isn't Amity Park." She patted the woman on the shoulder. "People here don't have any reason to think that ghosts might be walking among them. Now," she pulled her hand away from the shoulder to clap her hands together, "are we going to go party it up or not?" After the run in with Paulina and her date, Desiree lost interest in the whole girls night out plan, but Ember immediately perked back up at the mention of partying. Rolling brown eyes, she followed after the singer to the nearest club.
PhantomBowtie: Thanks! =) I've been trying to get a chapter finished every day. Though... I've been neglecting some of my other stories. orz
Snowleopard0: Haha. Danny's like "I just made that ice cream. How is it gone already!?" XD
Clockwork's Apprentice: Glad you liked the chapter. =)
Hoytti: Haha, yeah. XD;; Most of the guys she's dated have turned out to be real jerks, so she's kind of nervous that she'll end up making herself look stupid somehow in front of Steven. orz Dan and Kwan are slowly make progress. XD I don't know that they'll end up married by the end of this. XD;; But yeah, romance will be in there at some point.
The-Amazing-Gracie: Maybe~ 8)
YoDog41: I'm glad you liked it. =) Haha, yeah. Dan and Kwan sort of sneaked up on me when I was writing another story, and now it's like, I really like them together. XD;;
Spongebob Swagpants: Dan's full of surprises, huh? 8D
Osparrow: Bonding~ 8D Always fun times. I totally want some ice cream now. D: Well, we do know that Vlad can make a mean ice cream sundae at least. XD;;
maltese: Well, it definitely wasn't just some random shooting. XD;; Kwan's smart but sometimes a little dense. XD;;
NikaStarlight: Mmm, lasagna~ I kind of want some now too.
kairi8912: Here ya go~ =)
jeanette9a: He's having fun looking on all the photos of little Danny. XD;; Little Danny being adorable.
Just Will: Yeah, that and the legend of the monkey's paw. Yeah, Dan acts impulsively on his feelings because he knows how much it hurts to lose people he cares about. Oh! That hydra! XD For some reason I was thinking, like, Hydra in Iron Man. D8 I'm surprised there aren't a lot more errors that I missed. XD;; I try to catch them, but I know I overlook a lot of them by accident. Oh, I've seen some of Krossan's art, but I hadn't seen anything with dragons in it. Especially after Dan admitted that he hurt people in the past, that definitely left the question circling in Kwan's mind. Dan's a little less so though, because he has some of Vlad's features as well, but yeah, he's mostly Danny. XD
YAJJ: Danny being friends with all the ghosts and stuff is always fun to see. 8D I think it's sort of a mixed bag. Some of them started befriending Danny before Lex was born, but then you have Dan who didn't really start to change until after meeting with Lex. I think in a way some of ghosts have sort of adopted Lex and consider him family. XD; I'm glad you like Lex and Xander so much! 8) Well, there was a slip up with the ghost speak. XD;; But yeah, I should probably work on more ghost power slip ups. XD
midnight: He might be~ =)