Chapter 56
Hanging out with Manson and Foley wouldn't be his first choice of things to do, but Dash supposed he could understand Fen- er, Danny wanting them to spend some time together to get to know each a little more. He really needed to work on calling him by his first name. Why was it so difficult for him? Habit kicked in before he thought about it and "Fenton" slipped out of his mouth before he could correct his thinking and say Danny's name. The first time Dash actually managed to say his first name naturally, Danny gawked at him like he grew a second head. Dash was tempted to make sure he hadn't.
Skating was probably a good choice for hanging out. It was nice and casual. They could talk while skating then break away to chat with someone else without it being too awkward. By the time they sat down to eat, they could hold a conversation without anyone yelling or starting a fight, though Manson still gave him death glares every once and a while.
"It feels good to be home!" Kwan sighed as they walked through the door into their apartment. "It feels like we haven't been back in a month."
"You always say that." Dash grinned as he gave his friend a small nudge.
"Yeah, but this time's different." Kwan walked farther into the apartment, dropping his luggage by the couch. "We left three single roommates, and we return as a couple. It blows my mind. I woke up in the middle night thinking I had dreamed the whole thing."
"I guess it will take some time to get used to it," F- Danny said, kicking the door closed behind him. "We've only been together officially for a little while. And this isn't the usual type of relationship." He frowned as he dumped his luggage near Kwan's. "I mean, how is the whole," he gestured awkwardly, "sex thing going to work? I've been with some crazy creatures - We're not talking about sex with merpeople again." He shot a look at Dash.
"I wasn't going to say anything." Dash held up his hands, though he was still curious. "But I guess with something like that, we can figure it out when we get to it."
"Then I guess we can put a pin in that particular topic for the moment?" Kwan suggested, and the others nodded agreement. They had a long flight back, and though holding a conversation throughout most of it helped Kwan relax, it clearly took a toll on him.
"Maybe we can go out and grab some food." Dash didn't feel much like cooking, and seeing the exhaustion on the other two men's faces, he doubted they wanted to cook either. A smile sneaked onto his face. "It could be like a first date for the three of us."
"Sounds good," Kwan agreed. "Just let's put away our bags first." He picked up his luggage and carried them off to his room. Once they all put their luggage away, they left the apartment and walked down the street from their building to figure out where they wanted to eat dinner.
"There's burgers," Danny suggested, pointing to the burger place they were passing.
"I'm not really feeling like burgers right now." Dash frowned at the bright neon sign.
"What do you feel like then?" Kwan asked, hugging his arms around himself. No snow had stuck here, but there was still a nasty, chilly bite in the air.
Dash shrugged. "I mean, if you both want burgers, it's cool. It's just," he raked a hand through his hair, "we had Nasty Burger before we left Amity Park. Kind of feel like having something different."
Danny shook his head. "That's fine. I was just throwing out a suggestion."
"I don't think we've done pizza in a while," Kwan said. "And Mama Agresta is always good."
Dash's eyes widened. "Oh! Have we taken you there yet?" He turned to Danny, who thought for a moment then shook his head. "We have to go there then. They have some pizzas that sound a bit out there, but they're really good. They're always trying out new ideas too."
"Sure," Danny agreed with a smile. "Sounds like a great place."
They continued walking down the street until they reached the little pizzeria. It wasn't too busy, for a Friday evening, and they were able to get a table right away. It was a cozy little place, having that feeling like the owner was welcoming every customer into their family. The pictures on the wall weren't of anyone famous, but they were past owners within the family.
"Two pizzas should be good, right?" Kwan said, passing one of the menus to Danny.
"Yeah, I'm hungry." Danny laid the menu out before him on the table, scanning over the options. "And looking at this is just making me hungrier. All of these sound pretty good. I don't know if I can choose among them."
"We can always pick some our favorites, if you don't mind," Dash suggested.
"Yeah, sure."
"Oh, we have to get the agog primo then!" Kwan leaned over closer to Danny as he grinned. "That one's my favorite."
"All right. Then we'll also get," Dash glanced over the menu, "the green monster. Lots of green veggies sprinkled with sausage." They waved down one of the employees and put in their orders for the pizzas and their drinks. Dash's gaze followed the waitress as she walked away then snapped to Danny. "You know, now I'm wondering if-"
"No." Danny shook his head. "She's a normal human."
"Are you sure?" Dash frowned skeptically.
"Dash, not everyone you meet is going to secretly be some supernatural being." Kwan rolled his eyes.
"Although, there is a man, that works at that grocery store we go to, who is a tanuki. I caught sight of his tail one time before he realized the slip." Danny grinned, and Dash wasn't sure if he was being played with or if Danny thought it would be funny to leave him wondering just which of the grocery store employee it was.
The waitress popped by to drop off their drinks. "It'll be just a few more minutes."
Danny took a sip of his water. "So what exactly are Dash and Kwan like on a date?" He leaned on his folded arms. "Any little moves or anything you do?"
Dash frowned. "I," he scratched at his head, "don't think so. Back in high school, maybe. Mostly, it was that lean in close and pretend to be interested in everything they said. But at that time, being taller than most of the girls, it was kind of a great way to see a bit down their shirts, depending on the neckline."
"Dash!" Kwan scolded, kicking him under the table.
"What?" Dash rubbed at his shin. "We all know I wasn't exactly Mr. Upstanding in high school." He recalled some of the things he did in high school, what he said, how he acted, and it filled him with immense embarrassment. "I mostly played football, bullied the "losers," and tried to pick up women. And like I said before, I wasn't looking for a real relationship at that time. It was just hook up with as many girls as possible because that's what football players do. Or at least, that's what I thought was expected of me. Now, I'd smack my younger self for being an idiot if I could. I don't do anything like that anymore. I try to be more respectful of women now."
"Valerie and Paulina may have had a few words with him some time after high school," Kwan said.
"We were all kind of jerky idiots at some point." Danny shrugged. "I wasn't always that great with that sort of thing. I never tried to look down women's shirts when I was talking to them."
"Because you were so short back then," Dash teased.
Danny rolled his eyes. "Yes, I was short. I had a decent growth spurt later though. Anyway, when I had that crush on Paulina, it wasn't like I liked her for who she really was. I was just crushing on her because she was hot. Valerie was probably the first time I liked a girl and wasn't basing it completely on her attractiveness."
"I guess that makes me feel a little better." But Dash was pretty sure he was worse about how he used to view women. Not that it was a contest, though. They had all grown, and their views of things matured for the better. "Okay. So we all know when I started to like men. And Kwan already said he realized it in high school. So when did you figure it out?"
"Well-"
"Sorry that took so long." The waitress placed their pizzas on the table.
"Oh, that's okay." Kwan smiled. "We didn't mind the wait."
She blushed a little. "Is there anything else I can get you?"
"No, I think we're okay."
She nodded then left them alone to enjoy their meal.
"You were saying?" Dash prodded, but he smirked at Kwan, who rolled his eyes.
"Right." Danny grabbed a slice from each pizza and put them on his plate. "Well, it was the summer before college. Tuck, Sam, and I decided to go on a little road trip for about two month. We spent a week in this one little town. And," he flushed, "I met this guy. At first, it was just, 'oh, he's kind of cute,' but I didn't think we'd really see each other again. Then we bumped into each other, and he started flirting with me. I'd like to say I acted all cool about it, but I was a colossal dork. I guess he still thought I was pretty cute." He shrugged. "We didn't really do anything beyond a little hand holding and kissing. I was only there a week, and he got that I was just passing through and was still a little uncertain about doing anything more than kissing. So that was my brief summer fling that made me realize I liked boys too."
"That sounds pretty tame." Dash frowned. For some reason, he expected something a bit more juicy.
"Well, I guess it's not a blockbuster coming of age movie plot, but," Danny shrugged, "it just wasn't about sex with him. Which is fine. I may have regretted it later if we treated it like a weeklong make out session."
"Yeah, I guess I get that." Dash nodded. It wasn't like he hopped into bed or started having hot make out sessions just because he realized he was attracted to men now too. Honestly, when Danny brought up sex earlier, Dash felt a little twinge in his gut. He wasn't disgusted by the idea, but he was a little nervous about actually doing anything. What if he messed things up? What if they laughed at him? He had zero experience with this. Meanwhile, Dash now knew of two men Danny had relationships with, though only one turned sexual. How did he even compete with a merman?
The appearance of a young boy at Danny's side surprised them all. Dash almost jumped, expecting a ghost, maybe. But then a teenager jogged up to their table and gave them an apologetic look. When he recognized the teenager, Dash realized the boy couldn't be a ghost.
"Sorry," Jeremy said, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Cameron spotted you and wanted to come say hi." Now it made sense in Dash's head. He never actually got to meet Cameron while all the craziness happened. When Danny vanished and Kwan went rushing off, Dash was left behind to deal with their classes. Cameron looked happy and healthy, which was a relief after he nearly lost his soul.
"Um," Cameron looked down, playing with the zipper on his coat, "I just wanted to say sorry for everything that happened."
"Everyone makes mistakes," Danny told him gently. "I'm just glad we were able to do something to fix it."
"What do we say?" Jeremy said, nudging his brother forward a step.
"Thank you." Cameron lifted his gaze bashfully. "You saved my life."
"You're very welcome." Danny smiled. "But it wasn't just me." He pointed to Dash and Kwan. "They helped out."
"Like your sidekicks?" Cameron tilted his head with a curious look.
"No, no." Danny shook his head. "I would say they're more like my partners."
Dash may have puffed his chest out slightly with a proud smirk. His hero just said they were partners. He nearly blushed when he remembered they were partners in another sense of the word.
"Isn't it a bit late for you to be out grabbing some pizza?" Kwan frowned, going into teacher mode like he caught a student doing something suspicious.
"Oh, well, since it's New Years Eve, we're going to watch the ball drop while eating some pizza. It's the one night my little bro and sis get to stay up so late." Jeremy grinned as he ruffled his brother's hair. "Yeah, I could be out partying with friends, but I'll be graduating not too long from now. Got to share some of these moments with the family while I can."
"Ugh, don't be mushy!" Cameron complained, which earned him an eye roll from his brother.
"Oh, how is your sister?"
"Better. She got released from the hospital before Christmas, so we got to do that at home." Jeremy smiled, happy and relieved.
"That's great news!" Kwan grinned.
Jeremy's gaze dart among the three men. "Um, is there something going on here?" His hands shot into the air when Dash frowned slightly. "I swear I'm not intentionally trying to read auras."
"Oh! You've been working on the aura stuff?" Danny asked, interest sparking in his eyes, though Dash guessed he couldn't blame him. The whole necromancy thing was in the ballpark of crazy things in Danny's life. And being something new for him, it was only natural he wanted to learn a bit more about it, especially when it related to ghosts.
"Well, my mom still won't us look at the book, so I've just kind of been doing it on my own." Jeremy scratched at the back of his head, looking mildly embarrassed. "I'm sort of just going on instinct with it and how the auras feel to me. But I don't know how accurate I am with it. Except usually when things look cloudy or dark, the person either is in a bad mood or has some kind of internal conflict going on." He shrugged. "Um, so I wasn't trying to read any of you, like I said. It's just the three of you seem to have really bright auras at the moment. I think it's a good thing, but I don't know exactly what it means."
Dash glanced toward Kwan and Danny, both of whom looked mildly panicked. "Uh, well, we just had a good Christmas. I guess. Maybe it's just residual joy from that."
"Yeah." Jeremy nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. Uh, okay. Well, we should probably get our pizzas. If we don't get back soon, our mom will probably get mad."
"Bye!" Cameron waved and smiled.
"Bye, Cameron. See you at school, Jeremy," said the three teachers.
"I totally forgot it was New Years Eve," Danny whispered when the two brothers walked away to pick up their pizzas. "I mean, I haven't really bothered to go out and celebrate it since college."
Kwan shrugged. "Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm okay with just grabbing some beers on the way home and curling up on the couch to watch the countdown."
"One, you are not old." Dash pointed at Kwan with a firm glare. "And two, I think that's a perfectly reasonable way to spend the night."
"Agreed." Danny nodded. "On both points." With a plan of action decided, they continued to enjoy their dinner.
YumiStar: Yes! 8D It's a wintertime miracle! XD
xXRainbowCleoXx: Yay! XD Though you can bet Sam's parents aren't too happy. Ms. Manson probably hoped to see some little grandbabies by now. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. =)
Tetractys: Dash will probably have an easier time telling his family. XD He doesn't have his father to worry about, and his sister will probably be ecstatic about their relationship. Kwan's family will probably be a mixed bag of responses.
Kimera20: Thanks! 8D Supportive Sam and Tucker are the best!
RedHawkdude: Oh wow! First Danny Phantom story ever for you? O: I'm honored to have one of my stories be your first! I hope you enjoy the rest of the chapters! =)
vampygurl402: Hope you liked the update!
Rosie dragoneel: Thanks! =D
Ethan Demas: Oh gosh! I hope I do it justice! I've never even dated one person. XD
Casper97: Yes! XD All is well, and no one died!
Will: I'm trying! But it just goes so slowly for some reason. Yes! I can't wait for Breath of the Wild to come out! That's what I was saying last night when the topic came up! But of course, why do they care if the mother's life is in danger? They still shit their pants about the fetus not being born. Sometimes, pregnancies just have complications that can't be avoided. And now he's signed that bullshit back into existence that will take away funding if abortion is even mentioned. =| Tax money they get to fund their clinics DOES NOT pay for abortions. Yeah, the adoption system is pretty crazy. It was a pretty interesting movie. It sucks that people keep spewing out that nonsense about vaccines causing autism. How'd you know Jeremy would make note of that? XD Their auras are just too bright to ignore at the moment. (Jeremy, you should probably be a little skeptical of their response.) Having some general knowledge and actually doing it are two different things. XD Dash will have that hurdle to overcome, but I'm sure he'll get there in time. But Danny and Kwan are patient. If Kwan told anyone before they left, it was probably just his cousins Ryoo and Kim. I don't think he'd want to tell his parents with the whole family around. He might be able to avoid a giant nuclear reaction that way.
