Flying's Nice
Summary: Danny helps Sam get over her fear of flying.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does.
Dedication: To fluff addicts, cause they rock my world!
Sam pulled the collar of her black winter coat tighter around her neck and picked up yet another rock out of the flowerpot Maddie had on the front porch and darted back to the edge of the street. She hopped down from the curb, the sound of her boots hitting the compressed snow sounding muffled. She drew back, rocking onto her heals slightly, and tossed it at the window on the far right. She waited a moment and nothing happened. "Come on, Danny," she muttered, her breath appearing in the December air.
Her gaze dropped to the snow-covered sidewalk, scattered with footprints. The sophomore sighed. He was probably already asleep. It was almost eleven and he was leaving to go visit his grandparent's early tomorrow morning. Sam sighed. She guessed she would just have to wait till after Christmas. Something inside her sank at the idea of keeping it a secret anymore. She stared at her black boots, a stark contrast to the white snow. She sighed and turned to go. She trudged over through the ruts made by tires in the snow.
"Sam!" She spun at the voice, her hair swinging forward to brush her check. She grinned the feeling of excitement instantly returning. She bounded across the snow and stood in the little square of light that shone down from his window.
"Hey," she said, sounding slightly out of breath.
He leaned on the windowsill and stared down at her strangely. "Do you know what time it is?" He sounded more whiny than angry.
"Sorry," she grinned, sounding anything but. "I have something for you."
He blinked down at her a few times. "What's that?"
"It's your Christmas present."
There was silence for a moment. "Sam, you already gave me my present. You got me a CD, remember?"
Sam rolled her eyes. He really could be thick sometimes. "That was just because Tucker would laugh at me, so I got that for when we exchanged gifts together." Sam shivered, the winter chill getting to her. "Can I come in? I'm going to freeze."
Danny shook his head, the light source behind him making his expression hard to read. "Mom and Dad already turned on the Fenton Ghost Detector by the front door. We shouldn't risk it."
Sam nodded, pulling her hat more down over her ears. "So any bright idea on how I can give you your present?"
"Give me a sec," he called down softly, as if he had just remembered that the rest of his family was asleep. With that he disappeared from her view.
She sighed, reaching down and running a hand over the tote bag that rested at her hip. The nagging doubt that had been in the back of her mind for the past month crept up on her. Maybe she should have stuck with the CD, something nice and impersonal that she already knew he would like.
A sudden flash of light caught her eye and she looked up just in time to see Danny Fenton drop the last six inches to the ground. "God, it's cold," he murmered, shoving his hands in the pocket of his Casper High Hoodie. Sam bit her lip nervously, no backing out now. He flashed her the little boy grin that hadn't changed in all the time she'd known him other than in first grade when he'd lost his baby teeth. She felt the knot in the pit of her stomach lessen slightly. "Come here," he muttered holding out his arms.
Violet eyes went wide. "What," she choked out. Why did she suddenly sound scared? She tried to shake off the feeling.
Even in the darkness she could see the color creep up on his cheeks and she had a feeling it was something beside the chilling wind. "I'll fly you up to my room. Come on."
She felt self-conscious as she stepped forward and he wrapped his arms around her waist. She ignored the thrilled tingling that spread through her. She had to get over this. If she didn't, she was going to do something stupid that could shatter that little bubble of comfort they always felt around each other. She felt rather than saw Danny change back into ghost mode. "Hold on," he whispered in her ear, his breath warm against her frozen check. She barely registered what he said before there suddenly wasn't ground beneath her feet.
With a small gasp, she grasped onto Danny's forearm. His arms tightened at her unease. Somehow this felt different than all the other times he'd flown her somewhere. Then it had usually been with Tucker. The few times it wasn't, she usually just slung an arm over his shoulder and he loosely put a hand on her hip. This somehow felt so much more intimate and at the moment Sam wasn't sure if that was a good thing, as much as part of her was enjoying it.
The moment was over all too soon. Her feet touched down against his bedroom floor followed a moment later by his. He slowly pulled his arms from around her as she stepped away. The empty feeling that was becoming more persistent lately suddenly filled her. She shivered at the emotion.
"I'm sorry," he said softly from behind her, bringing her back to the reality of them hiding in his room without his parents knowledge. "I should have brought you in sooner." With the words came the realization that if his parents walked in at the moment they were both doomed. They didn't have an alibi this time. The doors were locked and it was past curfew. Danny was risking his secret by doing this.
"I shouldn't be here. I should go," she said, keeping her voice low.
Danny shook his head. "You snuck out to give me my present. I'd be a horrible person if I made you walk home again."
Present, Sam blinked. Of course that's why she was here. Why was she loosing her train of thought so often around him these days? She'd thought freshman year was bad; sophomore year was ten times worse. "Yeah, the present."
She pulled off her gloves, tucking them into a pocket. Frozen fingers fumbled with the zipper on her bag for a moment. After getting it open she pulled out the red folder, praying for the countless time that he would like it. She held out the folder noticing the edges seemed to quiver slightly from her shaking hands.
Danny took it a confused look on his face. Sam bit her lip as he read the writing on the cover.
Dear Danny,
I hope you like this. It took me forever to think of something that seemed perfect for you. Merry Christmas!
Your Best Friend Forever,
Sam
Danny stared at it for a moment before opening the folder. Sam almost cringed. The idea that had seemed so perfect when she had thought of it in late October now seemed totally idiotic. Why had she even done this? She looked up when she heard Danny gasp. His face was unreadable, causing Sam to worry and start babbling.
"I'm sorry. I know it was stupid. You were just so disappointed when you realized with your science grades that you'd never make it into NASA and I wanted to do something—"
He shook his head and Sam stopped. "You actually did this?" His voice was thick with disbelief. Sam hated herself. It was such a stupid idea. Why had she ever done it? But she instantly knew the answer.
She done it cause she would never forget the devastated look on his face when they had handed out finally grades for Bio I and Danny had only gotten a high D. He'd never get to live his dreams; she could see it in his eyes. In that moment, Danny had given up on the dream that he'd clung to since he was three. He'd realized that he would never measure up to what he'd always aspired to be. And while it had destroyed him, it broke Sam's heart. She would do anything to take away that grade, to make Danny believe himself again. But she couldn't, and she'd been stupid enough to think she could.
So that's where they were now. Standing in Danny's bedroom her stupid mistake looming over their heads. "I just wanted to make you feel better. I know it can never make up for being an astronaut but—"
He dropped to the edge of his bed. But what hit Sam was the slow smile spreading across his features. "It's amazing, Sam."
She blinked a few times, her numb cheeks starting to get feeling in them again. "You—you actually like it?"
He laughed, the little boy grin she loved blossoming on his face. "You actually adopted a star for me?"
"I know it's stupid, but your parents got you that telescope last year and the National Star Registry gives you a star chart so you can find it."
He hopped up, dropping the folder to the bed. He wrapped his arms around her waist and spun her around half a turn before hugging her. Her arms went around his neck without any conscious thought. When he pulled back his face remained within inches of hers. "I love it," he said softly again, reminding himself of his parents.
"Really?" she whispered. A bright smile on her face at his reaction. "Your not just saying this because you think you'll hurt my feelings if—" Danny stepped away from her and pulled the certificate out of the folder. He walked over to his desk and rummaged until he pulled out a roll of masking tape. He marched over to the wall and taped it up right next to his NASA poster that his parents had got him when he was eight.
Sam smiled. "You really like it," she stated, conscious of how loud she was.
"It's great," he said stepping closer so they could whisper. "You really put a lot of thought into this, didn't you?"
She shrugged as a wave of self-consciousness washed over her. She looked down. Where his eyes always that deep? "I just hated seeing you pretend it wasn't bothering you all summer."
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Am I really that transparent?"
Sam laughed quietly. She locked eyes with him. "I don't think Tucker noticed. I know you better than that."
"I guess you do," he breathed. Sam could have been wrong but she would have sworn his eyes darkened slightly. He leaned in closer to her, his breath feeling warm against her tingling cheek.
Part of Sam whispered that she needed to go and that this could easily get out of hands. The sick part was that part of her wanted it too. Part of her wanted him to close the gap between them and cross that line and never look back. But she'd never tell him that. "I...I should probably get home." Danny blinked and looked down quickly but not near soon enough for Sam not to see the rejection that flitted across his face.
Sam swallowed as the guilt closed her throat. She'd hurt him. She'd come back to take away that haunting disappointment and had just added to it. She hated herself. Could she do anything without hurting someone? She was tired of hurting everyone. Sick of being the one that always got hurt along with them. For once in her life she wanted to be the one that came out unscathed.
She watched as Danny closed his eyes and the light that she was so accustomed to wrapped itself around him. He turned green eyes toward her but wouldn't meet her gaze. "We'd better go." Sam walked over in front of him and his arms went around her from behind. She was glad he couldn't see the tears forming in the bottom edge of her eyes.
She felt her feet leave the ground but this time she didn't grab onto Danny. Her hands automatically went around his arms. She closed her eyes. She gave into the feeling of his arms around her. The lack of heartbeat or breath in ghost mode had always bothered her. It was just unnatural and so hard to get her mind around. But yet she accepted it without question because it was who her best friend had become.
Why was this so hard? He liked her. Of course she wasn't dense enough to not notice that he was having the same feelings. And she knew that she was falling for him. It wasn't a question of that. The question was why was it so hard to watch him fall in love with her? She should be happy, overjoyed. But she was terrified. This was eleven years of friendship they were risking. But yet the little part of her whispered maybe it was eleven years in the making and that was the only reason they had this chance.
But if falling for him was so hard, why was it so easy? She couldn't even tell him when it had gone from annoying her that his bangs fell in his face to making her want to brush them to the side. Suddenly the blue eyes that had always seemed bright seemed so much infinitely deeper. She never noticed how their color seemed to vary with his mood, how they could change hue with his emotions.
She shuddered against him. It seemed so much colder now that they were flying and the wind became a factor. She glanced down, paying attention to the surrounds for the first time the whole flight. A small gasp escaped her chapped lips. All the little houses had on their Christmas lights and off into the distance even the business districts blaring lights seemed nothing more than a soft glow. "It's gorgeous, isn't it?" he murmured against her check.
A shiver crawled up her spine at the feeling of him talking directly into her ear without his warm breath. "It must be magic, even Amity Park looks beautiful." she chided lightly.
He ignored her sarcasm. "Last year, every night around Christmas, I would just fly over the city. For some reason, it made everything I was dealing with seem so much less overwhelming. I mean, all my ghost problems and Paulina and my feelings about you."
She turned to look at him, his faces only inches from her own. "Me?"
He wasn't looking at her he was staring off at some tiny lights off in the distance. "Yeah. I mean after Ember and the kiss and everything. It just made me wonder what I had been overlooking all these years." Sam swallowed, the conversation drifting into dangerous territory. She bit her lip, hardly daring to breathe. "All I kept remembering was that feeling I had when I thought there was something between us. It topped any feeling I'd ever had. It was like flying except so much better."
"That's the problem with flying," she breathed to herself. "The whole time your just getting ready for the crash."
Her eyes widen as he responded, having actually caught the inaudible statement. "You can't do that, Sam. You can't keep worrying about the crash cause then when it comes that's all you remember from the flight."
She shoved her shaking hands into her pocket, wishing her gloves were thicker. "Falling stinks. You could just stay on the ground and go without the flight or the fall."
"That's why you have to make the flight worth the fall." With that he dove towards her house.
He gently settled her on the floor but this time he didn't take his arms away from her waist. She felt him go back to being the Danny she knew and loved. Instantly he seemed to radiate the warmth she always associated with him and his breath caused a little piece of her hair to tickle her check. Sam turned slowly in his arms, his last statement echoing hauntingly through her mind. "You really believe, that don't you?"
"Believe what?" he said, looking lost in her eyes. The gaze sent a shiver up her spine.
She swallowed. Her throat suddenly felt dry. "What you said about making the flight worth the fall."
"Mmm-hmm." Danny leaned in for the second time that night.
Sam somehow didn't have the strength to pull away this time. "Danny," she whispered questioningly. There was no backing out of this one, no alibi. This kiss would be for no other reason than the two of them needed this.
"Shh..." He breathed, his breath feeling hot against her frozen lips. "Just let it happen." And with that his lips met hers. Sam felt her lips soften under his as his hand drifted up to rest on her neck, rubbing a thumb across her frozen check. The world seemed to drop away as she lost herself in the feeling. Her arms went around his neck has his slipped free arm wrapped around her small waist, pulling her closer.
Danny finally pulled away for breath, his face still only inches from her own. She searched his gaze, uncertainty obvious in her own stare. He smiled, his eyes shining with this happy completed look. He was always second-guessing everything. How could he look so confident about this?
"Still scared of falling?" He asked, wrapping his other arm around her waist and holding her close.
She found herself unable to look away from his crystal-blue stare. "Maybe a little," she whispered, tucking her head on his shoulder. A smile curved her lips. "But it's okay. Flying's nice."
