A/N: It's almost over right this second! Last chapter!Go ahead! Celebrate! Whee…

P.S. The dorms are modeled after real ones, though only in appearance.

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Impossible To Love And Be Wise

Chapter: Dreaming of You

Late at night when all the world is sleeping,

I stay up and think of you --

And I still can't believe

That you came up to me and said

'I love you...'

I love you too.

-Selena

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Eleven o'clock on a Friday night. Okay, this would be a good time. Sam wouldn't expect him, but was that not the point?

"Well, point of no return," said Danny to his roommate. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need any," said Tucker from the other side of the room, in front of a laptop screen. "I've told you that since the ninth grade - for a grand total of seven years."

Danny grinned mischievously. "If you're wrong, you owe me."

Tucker laughed. "How about when I'm right, you owe me?"

Danny shook his head, still smiling nervously, and went intangible-ghost. Out the door and into the narrow, tiny hallway of Amity Hall University. Up one level, through the ceiling and into the hall of the dorms above. He leaned against the wall for a moment, to think.

It had really been that last battle with Phantom two years ago that had solidified his feelings for her. She had made herself just as open to battle as Danny did on a regular basis with one major difference - she didn't have any ghost powers. Sam was usually not the warm and fuzzy type, at least not to your face, but she went the extra mile when it mattered. He'd ended up saving everyone in Amity Park - as he had, again, on a regular basis - and she hadn't even pointedly reminded him how deeply she'd endangered herself for his sake.

She'd tried to use the Fenton Thermos on Phantom without notifying anyone and without any help, guidance or advantage. How much more daring can a person get?

All in all, he suspected Sam had been crushing on him since ninth grade. Danny had been pretty slow on the uptake, as far as that went, and his feelings had come slowly, too. Only in retrospect did he understand that she - and Tucker as well, really, though obviously in a different way - meant more to him than any of the popular cheerleaders and various other failures had at Casper High. Even Paulina.

Just to get it straight, Danny didn't dislike Paulina. He'd simply learned the hard way - time and time again - year after year - that looks aren't everything. Slowly he'd even realized that in a contest between "beauty" and "character," character would win.

Enough. He'd spent five minutes procrastinating.

An intangible Danny Phantom became Danny Fenton and knocked on a dorm door. Valerie opened it.

"Hey, Danny!" she said, surprised. "Um, you're not really supposed to be here, are you?"

"Hi, Val. I'm not...uh...can I just speak to Sam, please?"

Sam appeared behind Valerie. "Hi, Danny! What's up?"

"Hey. Uh. The next floor?"

Crickets chirped in the half-ghost's head as awkward glances were exchanged.

"All these years and you still need new jokes," said Sam, half reproachful and half amused.

"I actually wanted to talk to you," Danny said in a hurry, trying to sound very casual. "Er, shall we walk?"

"Oh! Okay," said Sam brightly, probably innocent of what Danny had to say. As she walked past Valerie, Danny thought he saw Valerie give Sam a meaningful glance, to which Sam responded with a playful elbowing. She clearly didn't actually expect anything...

The two started walking, with an awkward silence.

"So...you wanted to say something?" Sam asked after a moment.

"Yeah. Um, yes. Let's just get to the front steps, okay? I don't want anyone in those rooms to eavesdrop." Sam shrugged as Danny said this.

When finally the two arrived on the front stoop of the building and sat down, though, Danny procrastinated even more. "How about you come with me," he said, grabbing Sam's hand and going ghost.

"What?" Sam asked, alarmed. She hadn't expected a field trip at all.

"Sam, what I'm going to tell you is very important," said Danny. "I don't think this is...uh..." he faltered, not knowing exactly how to describe it. "The right place. I don't think it's the right place."

What could she do? They took off. This reminded her of something that had happened once before...the flying, that day years ago. She would never forget that day.Butthat was beautiful in a "seeing-the-entire-town" way, in a sunny way, in an escapist way, and it was...really awkward. This time it was moonlit and starlit and she wondered what was even the purpose.

"So," said Danny nervously. "I'm glad Mom and Dad were okay with me coming here. I still feel a little bad, though."

Sam couldn't help laughing out loud. "Woooow...Danny, that was completely random." He was talking about the fact that the Fentons had discovered that Danny was protecting them for a long time and encouraged him whole-heartedly to go to college, even though he was very guilty about possibly leaving the family alone around ghosts. Fortunately, Amity Hall University was not far at all from the house, so a quick communication and a quick flight would have the ghost boy back at his hometown's side in no time at all.

"Well," he said, a trace of his impish nature coming out, "I think it's not the only random thing that will be happening this evening."

Sam looked directly up into her friend's face. "What?"

He didn't respond, but kept glancing around, finally spotting a hilly meadow. As the pair landed and Danny went human, Sam finally got her hopes up. A moonlit meadow with fireflies and starlight? Come on! This only happens in those famous romances you read about in class, and everyone knows what happens when they land in such a setting...

"It's time!" cried a happy little voice inside. It came from the mental image of a tiny book of love quotations. It had become her muse, really, that book.

"Someone's burning something," said Danny pleasantly, making small talk, and it was true - as they looked back toward campus, over a range of hills, they smelled someone's campfire or stove.

"Danny!" said Sam suddenly, whipping around to face him. If she didn't take advantage of this moment - and she KNEW it was right - she might never say it. Even though she was sure of Danny's intentions that night, well. If you want something done right, you do it yourself.

"Do you remember that note?" asked Sam, swallowing.

"You're gonna have to be more specific," teased Danny, partly shy, partly cocky.

"The one you got in ninth grade from some random crazy girl who we didn't know who she was that I didn't write and neither did Paulina or Valerie?"

"...Yeah! I couldn't forget that in a million years. I still don't know who it was!"

"Danny, I do," said Sam, swallowing and nudging him on the shoulder to get his attention away from the skyline. He looked at her, wide-eyed, and, unbeknownst to her, hardly daring to believe what he'd come to hope.

"I've known for a very long time," she said.

"I lied to you for years," she said.

"The truth is..." she said,

"I wrote that note and it all still applies," she finished, letting the sentence hang in midair, hoping it wouldn't wreak all havoc.

Her friend grinned very widely, white-toothed. "You did - really?" he paused and settled down. "...Really?"

She smiled, no longer afraid to look into his summer-blue eyes. "Really."

"That's a great thing," said Danny, "because remember The Mailbox Note?"

"You didn't!" Sam gasped, unable to control her smile.

"Yep."

The two embraced.

"I can't believe we were so oblivious for...for seven years!" Danny laughed when they finally separated a bit to look at each other's faces. "We were...I mean, I was so naive!"

Sam reached up and kissed him, the first genuine kiss they'd ever shared. It beat every single one of those fakeout makeouts from when they were kids. It beat every time someone had dared them to kiss in "Truth or Dare." It beat every spin-the-bottle kiss and lived up to every fantasy kiss. There was something more than simple suggestion in it, something long-intended and long-desired and long-expected.

"Well," she said, grabbing his hand and sitting down with him on the miraculously-dry grass, "you know what they say about this stuff."

"What do they say?" asked Danny.

Sam purposely looked up at the stars and the moonlight, realizing they were the same ones she'd looked on the night after she read that stupid Love Book.

"It is impossible to love and be wise."

"Love?" asked Danny, startled but grinning. "Well, I'm glad you said it, because otherwise, I would have had to make it official, and who knows how many years that one could take."