AN: This was supposed to be a silly farm shenanigans kind of thing. And then I TUE'sd it up. Oh god.
Glum reluctance dragging his feet was gone.
Annoyance greatly increasing over the evening.
Anger laying underneath the entire thing.
Growing red hot, pulsating, throbbing through him.
As soon as the photographer said he got it, Danny's forced bearing of teeth into the resemblance of a smile dropped and he stalked off for the old gym doors. Past all the couples and happy groups of friends milling about as they waited to take their photos. Yanking the tie up and off his neck, Danny chucked it back into the pile. Exiting.
"Ah. Picked out the space one from Mr. Franzen's collection? Nice." Jesse visibly hesitated, falling behind from catching up to Danny. "Hey-"
"I'd prefer having space." Danny snapped, striding on, fists shaking at his sides.
He went in the opposite direction from where the kids were gathering. Loud music muted by walls pounded behind him from the cafetorium. Legs carried him past the new gym and he slammed open the doors, pace not slowing as he entered the parking lot. There were plenty of cars, some still scrawled and drawn on from the Homecoming game, but no students outside.
Homecoming week.
Homecoming day.
Homecoming game.
Homecoming Dance.
Danny kept going. Not wanting to see it. Legs quickening. Past the cars and the bright yellow color proclaiming the cheerful word.
Through the unused patch of ground. Legs pumping by the path barely visible in the open darkness. Into the cornfield, unmindful of the ripped up stalks from harvest, shoes pounding dirt and twisting over the stubs.
The group meal at Jesse's place.
The ease and joking all through the meal.
Jumping off of one another, blending Danny in with his lunch story, pestering him again for the real way he got up there.
How all of those kids inside the school were.
Good spirits and laughing and joking and goofing around with friends and having a great time, happy.
Danny remained quiet, keeping his mouth full and chewing something for most the meal, growing more angry at all of it as it went on.
How they eagarly shared stories to Marilyn and Jesse's family.
Family.
Jesse's dad sharing his own stories from high school, reliving the antics of then and now. His mom warm. Glad to see them being rambunctious, pleased to see enjoyment of her cooking. As was Jesse's older sister, but with her baking and for the company.
Meeting Mallory pretty much answered Danny's question and explained where Jesse's dislike of people tearing others down came from.
Making him who he was.
The way they'd taken pictures of and with Jesse before he left.
Group photo with the team, boys and one with the girls, their own joy as palpable and obvious as the Miss Frizzle-esque ties they draped about their necks.
Family. Friends. People who helped make you who you were.
Homecoming.
Danny lurched, the word nearly bowling him over. His chest lifted high with every rapid breath echoing through his ears. Barely feeling the touch of his hand pressed to that chest. Limbs numb and everything tingling. Electric and cold.
Homecoming.
A homecoming was returning home, being welcomed and returning to see family and friends.
He had none of that. Gone.
Hurtpainhurtpainhurt!
"Homecoming? I want to be hooooooooome!"
No change.
Barren and flat fields, void of anything.
A change.
Lifted up to see.
Fists shaking, vibrating.
White gloves. Blackness.
No longer khakis and red polo.
Borrowed. Given. Gifted.
Fists clenched tighter.
This was him.
Phantom.
Blankly, Danny turned his hands over, pulling fingers open. He hadn't meant to change. He hadn't gone ghost since...since then.
Hurtpainanger.
Pulsed.
Faded.
Hovered.
He shook his head.
It didn't clear.
Thrummed tantalizing underneath.
Hands rotated.
Huh.
Interesting.
Opened and closed them, testing.
Tingling numbed the feeling. Emotions causing it. He thinks.
Frowns.
Electric and cold.
Burning?
The slightest.
Like it was fueling something.
Sitting there.
Ready to explode if he reached for it.
Vibrating and pulsing, as if he had one.
As if a ghostly wail didn't drain him.
Not completely, he supposed absently.
He drifted.
Floating.
Swiveling, opening and closing his hands.
Watching and barely feeling and feeling.
Swirling, coalescing, thrumming.
He stared.
Mind drifting.
Why?
Constant throbbing in chest as human.
Thrumming all throughout now, both increasing at thought of friends and fam-
Hurtpainangerfuryrage.
Blinking rapidly, he shook out his tight fist, shaking off the green and black, staring at the hand, past the hand, blinked again.
Well that didn't do anything.
Barren and empty fields, void of anything meaningful.
Anything meaningful was-
He turned, looking over past the stretch of field.
Electric energy and a cold burning filling up, growing, narrowing in, calling and seeking and demanding, impossible to ignore.
Homecoming. Home. Family. Friends.
Hurtpainanger.
Shake head.
Angerfuryrage.
Frown.
Angerpainfuryhurtrage!
Scowl.
Incessant demand lessened, acknowledged. Sinking, sinking, into enticing embrace. And immersed and saturated through.
Loose dirt flew up, marking a path from crater to destination.