I had trouble with this chapter, especially since the kiss scene was like...THE scene I started this fic aiming for. XD Sure, there's more to the story, but it's hard to follow that! Plus, I had to write more book entries, which take a lot more thought and time than the action/emotion scenes do, kekeke.

...and, I am DYING to see the latest episode; it aired in the U.S. yesterday (Friday), and probably won't air in Canada for months. I haven't been able to lay hands on a recording yet; hoping to do so by tomorrow, but the suspense is literally killing me because my online friends were so bowled over by it. Can it top 80s Danny in Masters of All Time? (which was fantastic beyond words, I've re-watched it like four times now. XD) Well, don't spoil me, but expect a happy or sad rant in my author's notes next time, hehe!

Shout outs...!

not important - Coffee entirely fuelled this one.

mrit - I hope you still enjoy it even if you know the ending now. XDD

Epyon Zero - Fortunately for Casper, Kat didn't run away after they kissed. I feel pretty bad for Sam here. XP

L'ange-Sans-Ailes - Well, I guess you called it, didn't you!

Soni - Thanks so much, it's sweet of you to say that! Fortunately, I had my last day of classes yesterday, so in amid exams and term papers I should have lots of time to devote to writing.

dArkliTe-sPirit - Hehe, Spectra's actually my second-favourite villain, evil though she may be! I just love to hate her. o/

katiesparks - I'm sorry? n.n;

enigmatic penguin - My, what a wonderful idea! Personally, I'm a big fan of being warm (heat in my room's turned on 25 degrees Celsius right now!), but having a ghost around sure would help save on the air conditioning later. And you're right about going through walls; once I eventually get Sam turned intangible (it'll happen eventually!) I want to describe what I think the sensation will feel like. Also...my ego just inflated so much that it carried me away. ;) Thanks for your wonderful comments!

Thanks so much to Lost Demon Soul, conan98002, Ice-Song, Galateagirl, Kagome M.K, Fanficaholic and Ohka Breynekai for reviewing as well. (Still trying to cut down the size of my author-blabber up here, but you know I appreciate you all!) Please enjoy Chapter 8 and stay tuned for more! n.n

Estrelas

Chapter 8

by Shimegami-chan

He shot up through the thin attic flooring, fists clenched, sure that if he could breathe he would be gasping for air. His chest heaved in response, constricting painfully, so that when Danny finally halted his flight about a metre above the boards, he became solid and allowed gravity to take him, dropping him onto all fours on the unsanded cedar. What was I thinking? I shouldn't have done that...

He huddled on his knees, running a shaking hand through snow-white hair. Do I really want to act on these feelings? She's alive and beautiful. Even if I could somehow make her like me as...more than a friend...I'm still a ghost. I'd watch her grow into an adult while I stayed the same forever, and then--

He was near-overwhelmed with dread, and thought to himself, there must be something I've forgotten, something from my human life...I'm sure I've had this dilemma before. If I could just remember...I could prevent that...whatever it was...from happening again...

But he couldn't take back the kiss, or the feelings that accompanied it. He wondered how Sam had reacted after she had a moment to take in what just happened. Maybe she was even angry at him for doing it (but she didn't pull away! another part of him cried triumphantly) and wouldn't want to speak to him anymore. Maybe we'd be better off that way.

Danny glanced up as the attic hatch creaked open slowly. Sam. Without thinking, he retreated to the northeast corner of the room, as far from the stairs as he could, and concealed himself behind a pile of boxes. If he stayed solid, Danny thought to himself, maybe she wouldn't be able to use the temperature of the air to find him.

"I know you're up here," she said simply, flipping on the light switch. "Please come out."

He didn't answer, still trying to sort out the thoughts screaming through his head. He knew how it would be. He'd watch her grow up, grow old, and eventually die. He supposed that if she eventually became a ghost too, it wouldn't be so much of an issue, but then again such things were completely hit-and-miss. She could cross over immediately, or even become a malevolent ghost. He'd hate to see that happen to her. I can't let this go any further, no matter how much I want to. Is it even safe to just try to be her friend? The more I get to know her, the more sure I am that she's the best thing to happen to me. Sam...

Sam. He mouthed the word, not daring to give away his position by saying it aloud.

Over by the furniture corner, he could hear her moving quietly about, trying to find him. "I don't know why you're hiding. What's so wrong with me that you had to run away?"

He froze. Was she trying to coax him out with that, or did she really feel it? Sam wasn't the kind of girl to beat up on herself; she obviously paid little attention to those trying to bring down her self-esteem, and purposefully dressed in a way she knew made her stand out. But then, Danny thought, he didn't think he was fit to judge how she might react to something like this, having only known her for such a short time.

"Danny, please."

He sighed and stood up, drawing her attention with the movement. "I'm here."

Expression stormy, Sam turned and made her way across the attic, crossing her arms over her chest when she arrived. "I'm that bad of a kisser?"

"No, it's not that," he said desperately, trying to think of a way to explain what he was thinking without actually saying it.

"What, then?"

He frowned and crossed his arms as well, defensively. "It isn't right for you to do something like that with a ghost."

"You just spent a week convincing me how much humanity you had left, and now you want me to turn around and decide that you're dangerous after all?"

Danny flinched visibly. "This isn't about how human I may seem. In the end, whether I like it or not, I'm a ghost and I can't change that. What am I supposed to do if I keep--" he paused and breathed deeply in response, without actually taking in air, "--falling for you?"

"What do you mean? What's wrong with it?" He could tell from the expression on her face that she already knew.

"For one thing? I'm a freak. Society hates me, and you have enough difficulty dealing with your parents to throw a ghost boyfriend into the mix. Two, I..." He hesitated. "I don't know what's happening to me with this memory thing. Who knows how or if it'll end? And third...I just...I don't think you deserve something like this. I can't go out in public, I can't do things like have a job, go to school, or age for that matter--" He broke off, holding back explaining his fears about having to watch her grow up while he stayed the same forever.

"I don't care about those things," Sam said softly, her frown deepening. "You think I discriminate based on looks?"

"No, but even you care sometimes about what people think of you."

"Danny, it wouldn't matter!" she protested, suddenly so intent on convincing him that she forgot all her doubts. "If I-felt that way about you, about anyone--and who knows what could happen with time?--I'd do anything to make it work! Who cares what other people think? I'd live in a shack in the wilderness if I thought I could be with someone who'd make me happy."

"You'd throw your life away for me?"

"I didn't say that." She looked off to the side, breaking her gaze away from his intent stare. "I'm just saying that I don't ditch people based on what they look like or what other people think. I don't even know if I want or can handle a relationship with you that's more than friends, to be honest, but I don't think that we should go our separate ways over this kind of thing."

"You really are optimistic under that frown," Danny told her, fears only slightly assuaged. He still didn't really think that getting more involved with Sam was a good idea, but it wasn't nearly as frightening as it had seemed five minutes ago. When it came down to it, there was no denying that he had very real feelings for her.

Sam lifted her head. "That's insulting," she said, but smiled to let him know it was meant as a joke. He smiled back sincerely.

"I'm sorry I ran off," he confessed, tentatively stepping closer to bridge some of the nervous distance between them. "I scared myself there, acting like that. I thought maybe you'd be angry."

The Goth girl's shoulders relaxed slightly. "At least I can say that my first kiss was 'unique'. I'm not angry."

Danny felt as though he was blushing, though he didn't really know for sure whether his face reflected such things anymore. It was kind of surprising to him that a pretty girl like Sam had never kissed a boy before...but then again, she'd said that she lived a pretty sheltered life. He didn't know whether to be proud or embarrassed that he was her first.

"Listen." She too stepped closer and caught his wrist with her violet-polished fingers. "I'm not going to pretend that I don't feel something for you, because I definitely do. But I don't really know what I'm feeling yet. Maybe a little more time will help us both figure things out, so let's just talk about this later, okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Danny said, relieved.

Sam grinned and hugged him tightly, lingering with her arms around him for a few moments. It was a strange experience for Danny, because she felt so solid and real when he hugged back, her body heat like a radiator against him. Her ponytail tickled his nose, and the scent of her hair was pleasant; her shampoo was obviously something fruity. Like grapes, maybe, he thought, like...purple. It was just the kind of thing he'd expect from her. He whispered her name softly, very conscious of the conversation they'd just had, but near-giddy from the feeling of Sam's warmth soaking into him. He hadn't felt so alive in a long time.

By six a.m., both Danny and Sam had settled comfortably on the tan-patterned attic sofa, she on the left, he on the right, with Legends of Amity Park shared between them. Danny had closed the hatch and they were reading by the light of two candles until the sun began to creep in through the tiny window. The book, Danny had discovered, held a lot of information that was very familiar to him...the problem was that he couldn't quite figure out how familiar, because most of the memories of events it described had simply vanished with time. However, there were some articles that seemed to tug at his thoughts, as though he might be able to piece them back together.

One such example was the story of a singing ghost named Ember, who according to legend had died of heartbreak and returned to haunt her former lover. She had apparently been the cause of several incidents in town, the most famous one being an enormous Woodstock-style concert held on the high school football field, where all of the teenagers and many of the adults of Amity had been brainwashed into attending in order to become an energy source for the spook. The party had been eventually broken up by Inviso-Bill (who seemed to be featured quite a lot in the book) and Ember supposedly still roamed around, occasionally luring people with her siren-like music and taking what she could from them. Danny thought she might have been someone he knew from before (if not from his early life as a ghost, then maybe from his time as a human) because of the very familiar description of the concert attack. He toyed briefly with the idea that he had been the one to break Ember's heart, but that just didn't seem likely.

Another ghost, Skulker, he was sure beyond a doubt that he knew somehow. The spirit was sighted often even in recent years, but not much had been accredited to him, other than a few incidents involving other ghosts, including the Box Ghost (of all people). Danny was pointing out this fact when Sam mentioned that the Box Ghost himself had an entry in the book.

"Really? Him?" Danny replied, astounded. Sure, the Box Ghost was annoying, but for all Danny knew the little guy had been haunting the Manson attic for all of his ghostly life. "Can I read it?"

"Sure." Sam turned back the pages until she located the entry, and handed the book to him so that he see the text more clearly. Danny didn't bother to mention that he could have read from his previous position even without the candles burning on the table; instead he accepted the volume and balanced it on his lap.

"What do you think?" Sam asked eagerly as he scanned the page with luminous eyes.

"This part, right here..." Danny had to reread the passage several times, and each word struck a nerve somewhere in his head. "'Unfortunately, the experiments on the Box Ghost were cut short due to a tragedy in the Fenton family and it eventually escaped from containment.' Fenton...that name's so familiar."

He flipped to page 315 and Sam leaned over for a closer look.

The Fenton Family

Jack and Madeline (Maddie) Fenton are often hailed as Amity Park's most famous ghost researchers. At the time when the town first began to show signs of serious paranormal activity, the husband-wife scientist team turned their attention to developing weapons to combat ghost attacks, and for a time were able to effectively contain the problem. Maddie's work with the patented Spirit Containment System is well-known worldwide and has been essential in the field of paranormal research, without which this compilation would not be possible. For more on the Fentons' direct involvements with ghosts, please refer to the majority of entries from 1963-1968.

The Fentons had two children, Jasmine (Jazz, born 1947) and Daniel (Danny, born 1949) that feature prominently in Amity Park history. Jasmine was the winner of a Nobel Prize at the young age of twenty-four for her work in the newly-viable paranormal psychology field, and still resides in town as of this edition (2015). However, nearly as notable is the accidental death of Daniel Fenton on August 12th, 1967, the story of which is whispered throughout the town even today. Danny's life was claimed during a ghost-hunting expedition with his parents deep in Lake Jejune, where the remains of a sunken ship were being exorcised via submarine. A ghost attack breached the hull of the submersible, and while Jack and Maddie were found unconscious on the shore hours later, the boy was presumed drowned. Later in the year, there were repeated sightings of Danny's ghost, causing an outbreak of controversy among the ghost hunters of the town. The Fenton couple retired from active ghost hunting in 1968 and relocated to the west coast, allegedly to avoid direct conflict with their deceased son. The ghost boy has not been seen since.

"Wow, that's certainly a story," Sam said, her voice strained, obviously trying not to say what she was thinking unless her companion did so first. He was wide-eyed and obviously agitated, and the Goth girl took in a deep breath, praying that he'd dismiss the tale and turn the page.

"Oh my God," The phantom said hoarsely, so distraught that he flickered out of tangibility and allowed the book to fall heavily to the floor. "I was Danny Fenton."

-to be continued...

A/N: No, REALLY?

Sunday afternoon, April 3: Hraaaagh I typoed Danny's birth year in the first version; it was supposed to be 1949, not 1945! I'm so sorry!