Disclaimer: Danny Phantom, the world set within it, and the characters in it are not owned by me - that privilege belongs not only to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon, but also just as importantly to the vast team of co-writers, co-directors, animators and all other staff who laboured over its creation and development. Without their efforts this fanfiction would not exist, and neither would a good portion of what struck me in the first place in one of the most childhood-defining cartoons in my life.

Sorry for the late chapter! Again.

"So did he do it?"

I shook my head, which was still nestled in her lap, wrinkling my nose. "Not really. But at least he hasn't really outed me. Yet."

"What'd he even say?"

"He'd work on it," I relayed as nonchalantly as he had. "I would say that he was… repressing something, but I dunno. It's impossible to tell with him."

"Well… I guess it's a start," Paulina said, shrugging in relentment. "Give him an ultimatum by tomorrow, to make some meaningful policy. We don't have the luxury to just stand around; you need to give him a run for it. If needed we'll just release the video anyways, make him really pay for it."

She ran a hand through my hair, tousling it occasionally, and with every time she did, I let out a sigh in contentment. It was difficult - I mean, I had always been difficult, often just plain impossible - to imagine a future in which this would even look up. But if this was the state that we could be in, and if it meant blackmailing my mortal enemy just to have at least some sway of my situation - then so be it.

"This man… has been your archenemy since you became a ghost?"

I scoffed. "You could say that."

She squinted. "But he's never tried to kill you?"

"That's not really his goal. Those were… kind of the good old days, I guess. When even the person who hated me most didn't even seek my ultimate demise like that."

She shook her head. "Doesn't really sound like he was supposed to be the person you hated most."

I wanted to open my mouth, and tell her that there was obviously something that had held me back from joining him. From making my own parents my mortal enemies - the implications, the blood kindred that inherently made me not want to seek for my parents' heads on a stake the same way they sought my own head. But of course that would be stupid.

Besides, she had a point. What had been the point, of aligning my own alliances with my parents over him - the whole reason why he had me as an enemy? Would all of this be necessary?

The more I thought about it, the more claustrophobic I got. There really was nothing that I wanted more than to just, escape from it all, and just live in this oasis that Paulina and I had created for ourselves. Our own private space. Just merely being here with my head in her lap just gave me the rare, overwhelming sense of comfort that filled me with the urge to just, continue being in this way to be closer to her...

"Hey, Pau?"

"Hmm?"

"I… thank you. I honestly… I. Have no idea what I'd do without you."

She bent down and placed a peck on my cheek. "De nada, mi héroe," she said.

"I… I wanted to do something for you. But I mean… I could give you every gift under the sun, lift the world for you, but…I really don't know. You know what I mean? Like you deserve so much more than even the notion of me not knowing what to do."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're asking what you want to do for me? Is that so?"

The right corner of my mouth climbed to my eyebrow. "Well, I mean, sure, if you put it that way."

"You don't have to do much, you know." She brushed her fingers against my cheek. "All you really have to do is just… be a hero, for not just me, for the people too."

I looked up at her, trying to discern her expression. Even behind her smile, I could not help but speculate what it would really be like, if I wasn't a hero. What would it be like, for her? Would she still love me? Would she still be with me even when I laid down my yoke?

It was a question begging to be answered, but it was one that I needed to ignore. There was no reality that had me out for the count. There just wasn't.

From this angle I could see the anchor pendant hanging from her neck, and just the sight of it filled me with a pleasant bliss. It was only right, wasn't it? What was the point of throwing my entire life away, without even so much as returning the favour to Paulina for all that she'd done? That wasn't love.

"I want to."

"Hmm?"

"I want to make you happy," I continued, sitting up and staring into her eyes with as much conviction as I could show her. "As happy as possible. And I know the way to do that is to do the right thing."

She narrowed her eyes, taking my hands carefully in mine, her fingers tracing my palms. "So you want to…"

"When we're ready, I'll lay down my secrets." I intertwined my fingers with hers, squeezing. "I… hope that you can too, but I don't want to be dishonest with you."

She frowned despondently, her eyes directed at the same beneath us. She rubbed her lips together, as if pondering the notion and running it over. My heart began to sink - didn't we already have this conversation before?

"Are… are you still against the idea?"

"I-..." She stared a little into the distance, where the faint moonlight illuminated the space around us. Times like this made me feel like we were transported to a different dimension, somewhere more ethereal and fantasy-like than right now… it almost made me never want to leave. Her statement trailed off to nowhere, and with every ticking moment that passed, I only grew more crestfallen. Perhaps this was where we were destined to plateau?

"I mean," she continued. "I'm… I'm okay with it. But I just… I didn't really know if you'd do it. I guess I-... I should be honest too. I fear… I still have a small fear that we'd drift apart, if I knew who you were. I don't want to - and I want to say, with full affirmation, that I'd love you no matter who you actually were, but… it's a feeling that won't ever escape me."

I knew that this time I didn't really have to answer - I simply leaned in, holding her shoulders gently and pressed my lips onto hers. Of course I knew what she was talking about, but at the same time, and without much of an explanation, I had just about a similarly subtle, unknown premonition of whether it would even actualize when the time would come.

And yet, from the way that she kissed me back, the way her hands slithered their way up behind my back before resting on my shoulder blades, the way she leaned into me and her smell all intensified… just to be smothered in these sensations made it impossible for me to even entertain the thought of such a thing going wrong.

Every touch from her, from her fingers gripping my back to our noses brushing against each other to our lips and tongues engaged in a fierily tender waltz, sent goosebumps rippling across my body. I didn't think I would ever grow tired of her touch, or her scent, or even the taste of her lips.

"Pau," I breathed as I pulled away. "It's … it's like you said, right? You need to have faith in yourself."

She touched her forehead against mine. "You're not… wrong, I suppose."

Initially I hadn't even planned to go this far - to be in this state, of just my arms around her, feeling the wind breeze through my hair and the warmth of her skin through my jumpsuit. Into stealing a few kisses on her cheek, tongue grazing against the corner of her lips. Into needy hands, pinching the seam of her blouse, lightly brushing my fingers against her midsection, creeping my way to her bosom. Into -

"Danny…"

"Do you hate this?" I asked, tentatively lifting her blouse a third's way up.

"No…" she whispered in response, not resisting at all as I lifted it the whole way up before greedily unhooking her bra. Even I struggled to know where this was coming from, but everything was just happening one thing after another. She whimpered as I cupped her breast, squeezing it slightly.

"Tell me what you want me to do," I growled into her ear, my muscles stiffening as I used my free hand to tease her at the edge of her jeans.

"Take-, ah, dios mio, please take off my pants," she ordered. Instantly, I obliged, discarding them to the side hastily.

"It makes me so happy to see you this excited," I whispered huskily into her ear, my hand going underneath her panties and my fingers rubbing circles around her clit. "You know that?"

"Ahh…" she could only muster.

"Do you want to help me strip?"

She nodded silently, her face etched with desperation, her lips quivering. Clumsily, she managed my zip down, helping me with shedding the jumpsuit as I nudged it off my shoulders and pushed it past my waist.

"You okay, Pau?"

She nodded almost impatiently. "Get the condom," she instructed, and I quickly did as so, flying over to the same spot where the box was buried.

I lifted the box from the sand.

And, immediately, balked.

"Fuck."

"Danny?"

I pursed my lips together, my breathing now erratic. "There… did we run out the last time we were here?"

She glared at me as I flew back to her, folding her arms. "You forgot to get a new condom box." She didn't phrase it as a question.

I bowed my head in shame. "I'm sorry, I… God I'm stupid."

She groaned in frustration, scratching the back of her head. "You're okay with the mouth, right?"

I nodded, as I began to strip off my boxers, discarding it where the rest of our clothes were and forming a fabric surface of sorts on the sand. I laid myself down, with my shaft standing at full mast now looking on as Paulina began to slowly rub it with her fingers.

"Ah, P-Pau," I stammered. "You-... could you, uh, turn around?"

At first she couldn't quite make out what I meant, but when the realization struck her, she grinned at me slyly. "Oooh… I actually can't believe we've never done this," she commented, as she pivoted her body until she hovered atop of me, her hands still focused on working on me but with her ass, still covered with her thong underwear over my face.

"Just hang in there, yeah babe?"

"What- oh…. Oh!" She yelped as I pushed aside her underwear and let my tongue work its magic. In and out, in and out of her pussy, lightly flicking across her clit, grazing gently against her walls - the movements that I knew got her gears spinning.

Clearly she hadn't wanted to be out-done - even between the light spasms of her body and the sensual moans escaping her lips, she took me herself in her mouth, holding longer with every stroke while still leaving the same pressure around me. When her tongue coiled around or danced across my dick, was when I could feel my breath hitch and my back arch with every pulse of pleasure travelling up and down my body.

"Mmm Pau… babe you- ah! Ah…" My fingers tightened around her thighs, my breathing getting hotter and heavier as I felt her sucking harder, her fingers lightly tickling my testicles, accentuating the titillating buzzing around me. Man, I didn't want this to even be a competition of any sorts - but the harder and faster her mouth moved around my shaft, twisting and coiling with every cycle up and down, her breath spilling like steam kissing me where I was most sensitive… I was already starting to approach the edge, and there was no way I was going to finish without her.

I let the volume of her moan guide me along as I slithered my tongue across her slit, travelling until I heard her moan reach its zenith, high-pitched and pleading for me to never stop, until I knew I had the golden spot. Even without her saying a word, from the way her rhythm was interrupted and the muscles of her body tensed above me, I knew that she was begging me not to stop - and what else could I do, but oblige?

At this point it was a race to reach the apex of bliss. No matter how much I tried to keep my mind focused on pleasuring the love of my life as far as possible, with every contortion and new, unexpected flick of her tongue or hiss of breath on my member, it was like being beckoned by a supernatural power closer and closer and closer to the edge.

"Pau, I- I'm gonna- ah, mm-" I whimpered, my hands rubbing against her thighs roughly before slapping her lightly on her buttcheeks, making her moan harder.

"I'm close too," she said, her rhythm remaining uninterrupted. "I'm-... please, Danny, cum with me, I-... ah, ah, ah-"

I hadn't had a moment until then that I struggled so hard to keep my focus - and I hadn't even penetrated her vagina, not to mention - but with how adept she was at hitting all the right spots, making me shiver with pleasure through and through, it wasn't long before I screamed her name at the same time that I came, my muscles contracting over and over and my fingernails digging straight into her skin. Not shortly after I heard her squeal in ecstasy as well, warm liquid gushing onto my face in splashes.

It must have been a good couple of minutes to recuperate as I lay there with her on top of me, catching my breath and savouring the warmth of her hind near my face.

"Ah, Pau…" I sighed. "That… that was ama-"

Before I could finish, I could feel the blood rush back south, and my eyes widened. I wondered if it was the short duration in which I had lasted or the lingering warmth of her body on mine, or a mixture of both. But either way, I knew from the taut feeling at my nether regions that I was still not completely satisfied.

"Uh-"

"You're… you're still hard?" The disbelief in her tone resonated crystal clear.

"S-s-sorry…" I stammered in apology as she rolled off of me, her eyes continuing to be fixated on my dick now back at full attention. "I… It looks like it…"

"Well…" She contorted her lips in what I could only describe as visible anguish, the question of what to do basically on her lips but not rolling off her tongue. It was getting difficult to not continually look at her, with every curve and inch of her sculpted, tanned body, and simultaneously lower myself.

"You… have you had enough, yourself?" I poked tentatively.

"I'm… I'm okay, but you-..."

Gingerly, and with hesitation, I guided her to her feet, leaning my body on hers behind her. Even in the pale moonlight she had all the beauty of a fallen angel. My lips began to quiver and my heart rate began to pick back up as I grazed my muzzle against hers, and even beneath me I could feel goosebumps form on her skin.

"Paulina… babe… can… can I?"

Her body hardened against me. "You… Danny, mi amor, no-... no puedes ponerlo, no tenemos-... we don't have any cond-"

"Pau, please I-... I'll pull out-"

"I-... N-...No." Her voice was more firm now. "No."

"Hmm, okay," I conceded, kissing the back of her neck. "You're right. I-... Can I still use your thighs, if that's okay?"

She nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, go ahead," she said, separating her legs slightly.

It only took a few seconds, sandwiching myself between her thighs and past a few oscillations of my hips, that I knew it wasn't the same. As slippery it felt with her sweat, and as tightly she closed her legs,the feeling was just not there. I hadn't any idea what to attribute it to - maybe it was that I just orgasmed not long ago, or just the simple fact that there was no comparable feeling to the real thing. But in any case,the familiar synapses that pulsed through my brain whenever I made love to her were just absent, going slow and tender or picking up the tempo and going into overdrive or otherwise.

I wasn't sure how long we stood there, with me rubbing my dick back and forth between her legs, planting light kisses down her neck and back, my hands fondling her breasts and torso. To be this hard down there and not get the same pleasure at all and to call it frustrating would be immensely underselling it. And to know that it was nobody's fault other than my body's and my own fault nearly made steam pour out of my ears halfway through trying to service myself fruitlessly.

I wondered how painfully obvious it was to her that this was going nowhere fast - the dead giveaway being the real lack of sound from my mouth. But it felt like aeons there rocking back and forth awkwardly, feeling merely the faint buzz of sex tickle my mind but not quite reach it meaningfully, something that I was sure the licking of her ears and rubbing of her areolas could not mask.

It happened just about before I was ready to apologize, move on, try to forget this happened, enjoy the rest of the time with her. I had fully removed myself from her, pulling away from her body slightly and giving one last good grip on her ass.

"I-"

"D-... Do it," she muttered reluctantly, turning around and looping her arms around my neck. "Just… just remember to pull out."

My eyes widened, and my heart skipped several beats. "Y-...you're sure?"

She nodded tentatively, her eyes evading me. "Y-yeah."

"If… if you're uncomfortable, I could just- we could just call it a day an-"

She shook her head. "You're clearly not satisfied, so please-... just, … do what you must, I guess. And pull out."

My hands started to shake now in excitement. But strangely enough for how my mind was now in a whirlwind of pure anticipation, my thoughts were still with Paulina, trying to make her as comfortable and loved as possible. I pressed my lips against her forehead, caressing her cheek with one hand and embracing her with the other.

Just positioning myself at her entrance already had me giddy beyond belief. "I'm gonna put it in," I whispered shakily, our nose bridges connecting as I tried to study her expression, which I could only describe as a paradoxical mix of fear and nonchalance. "Okay?"

"Mm."

My movements were sluggish in trying to gauge her reaction - touching my bare tip against the lips of her pussy, and then, breaking headway, stopping to kiss her fleetingly, adjusting myself back and forth, back and forth, pushing myself deeper, and deeper, –

And finally, inserting myself in full.

Her moan was as imbued with lustful satisfaction as it was of what I could only describe to be shock, but within my head, it was… almost indescribable in how transcendental the feeling was. Truth to be told, no matter how thin the rubber was, just comparing the sensations that I had experienced back then, was just completely different from the ones that I was experiencing now. It was like I was in the heaven of heaven itself, my body just completely overwhelmed by the raw feeling of her vaginal walls twisting around me and feeling the full extent of her warmth and wetness. If it ever drove me crazy before, it now made me lose every iota of reason and rationale, leaving me no choice but to succumb to the rushing primal urges washing over me.

"Ohh…. Oh fuck, Paulina, I-..., it feels like my dick is melting… ohh, oh… I-... I'm gonna move..."

I don't think I had any control of the words that came out of my mouth either. The moment that I pulled back, my hips involuntarily thrusted forward almost violently, the slap of my groin area connecting with hers resounding over and over again. Just the first thrust alone made me see stars and galaxies and universes rotate around me, leaving me revelling in splendour and sheer ecstasy…

"Danny… Ah, Danny!"

I didn't think I needed to ask to know that I wasn't the only one losing control - her pussy was throbbing like mad now, and with every cyclical movement of my penis in and out of her, I could feel any physical restraint that I had within me slowly wither away.

"Babe," I groaned. "At this rate you're going to milk me dry…"

"Danny!"

Harder now. Faster now. My breaths were now as shallow as they were rapid, the tempo of my movements accelerating. The ennui that had plagued me from before felt like it hadn't even transpired. God, I could feel myself just getting closer, and closer and faster to the edge now, and I had basically no sense of rationality left within me, just the pure thought of sex enveloping my head.

"Pau…" I groaned, as my hands continued to roam her upper body roughly, and I unconsciously nibbled at her ear. "This feels so good, you know that?"

"Danny, you- ah! You gotta…"

I don't know if I had the capacity to even stop. All that my brain could think about was to achieve maximum pleasure, just to stride all the way to the finish line and bask in all of the glory and be washed with serotonin and dopamine like being underneath a never-ending waterfall. I squeezed my eyes shut in focus, just trying to just hold on, just a little more, a little more in this other-world of eroticism, digging deeper and deeper, thrusting as far and as hard as possible- just even the little bit more of-

"DANNY!"

The shove on my chest was forceful enough to bring me back to reality and send me reeling to the sandy ground. My eyes flew right open and immediately my line of sight gravitated towards her face clearly marked with what I could only describe to be infuriation. That was the exact moment that I could pinpoint feeling like my heart had been shattered, like I finally knew that I had gone too far.

"P-P-... Pau?" I stammered. "W-... what's wro-"

"Enough," she said defiantly. "I-... I want to go home. You… fly me home now."

"Did I do something… wrong? I-... I must've fucked up, right? I'm sorry, I-"

"Don't." Her voice was as hard as onyx now, her line of vision indicated away from me as she gathered up her clothes and dressed back up. "Don't… don't talk to me. For the moment, okay? I need… I need some time to myself."

"Pau, I'm sor-"

"Don't." She raised her voice, glaring at me now, clearly more vexed. "Just-... don't."

Just like that it felt like I had crashed back to Earth unceremoniously and violently, enough to blow my body into smithereens. I looked at her solemnly, trying to wordlessly apologize to her, knowing that I probably shouldn't have even pressed the issue, but she dressed herself up, sweeping away the gravel that stuck to the fabric before sitting down and hugging her knees to her chest.

I pondered if it was worth trying to talk to her, even try to communicate with her - a light hug, and squeeze of the hand, even just a text… but given that she was going to push me away anyway, the answer was obvious. It was almost helpless, being stuck watching the world crumble around you like horizons of sand, without being able to do literally anything about it. All I knew that I could do was to simply remain quiet, and do as she said, and pray that anything that had been ruined between us could fix itself - but at the same time, it felt like such an impossibility.

I gathered up my clothes and donned them again. What kind of hero was I that wasn't even able to save my own romance? This was, after all, my rock, my one tether of hope and foundation for optimism and love. To lose it forever was basically akin to - no, it was basically losing everything.

Even looking back at her face, she was still clearly enraged, but other than that, completely emotionless. I stooped to her level, trying to gaze into her eyes, trying to express the love that I had and plead for forgiveness, but from how unfazed she was, I knew it was fruitless.

God, no. Not this too. Not another thing to slip away like water in my hands.

God, no, no, no…

I sighed, picking her up in my arms and zooming straight back home.