Warnings for this chapter: Intentional miss use of words to try to mimic a young child's speech pattern. Even though it killed me to intentionally mess up my grammar, I thought it would be cute and make sense.The Italian starts picking up from here, translations are at the bottom of the chapter.
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Chapter Three: Questions with no sure answers.
Danny turns around to find his family looking at him in worry. "Are you alright? You took off pretty quick," Jazz says, her brow furrowed. Danny shakes his head, trying to clear his thoughts and smiles.
"Yeah, I'm okay," He rubs the back of his neck feigning embarrassment, "It's just...it was a lot of people, you know?"
Jazz nods in understanding before she smiles brightly, "You know, I haven't seen you play piano in a long time, I had actually thought that you'd forgotten it."
Danny frowns, "Wait, so I actually played piano before?" 'So the Shadow wasn't lying?!' He thinks wildly.
Maddie looks at Danny, hands on her hips as curiosity comes off her in waves. "Well yes, when you were five I had paid someone to teach you. We couldn't afford to buy a piano at the time you were learning it, but Mrs. Summers, before she passed on, allowed you to come over to her house all the time to play hers."
His mother smiles, "She said that you picked it up like you had played for years, you even made up a song. You never played it in front of people though, not even us," Her grin falls, "When you lost your memory, you didn't seem interested in it anymore so we didn't think there was any point in telling you about it. And Mrs. Summers had already long since passed on."
Danny rubs his temples, cringing at the throbbing pain that seemed to get worse with each passing year, "Okay, so apparently I'm a piano prodigy and nobody figured it would have been a good idea to, oh I don't know, tell me before I had to stand in front of all those strangers and figure it out for myself?"
Jazz crosses her arms and glares at him, "Nobody made you play the piano Danny, we just followed you to see if you were okay, you don't have to bite our heads off for it."
Danny opens his mouth to retort before closing it again, thinking about what she said.
Jazz was right; nobody made him play that piano. He could have just walked by it without a second glance, normally he would have. What was different this time?
Danny sighs, feeling drained all of a sudden, "Your right Jazz, I'm sorry. It's just a lot to take in is all." He puts a hand on his head again, feeling like Dash Baxter had pretty much just wailed on him from the neck up. Maddie notices this and walks over, putting a hand on his shoulder, eyes filled with concern.
"Sweetie, is it another migraine? Do you need to go lay down?"
Danny nods and without saying another word, proceeds to walk back to the cabin they all share. Once he goes in he flops down on the bed and sighs into the pillow, enjoying the coolness on his face. He lays there for a few minutes, the headache seeming to get worse, before finally passing out from the pain and exhaustion.
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"Mama, what's that?"
Maddie glanced over at the shop window that Danny was pointing at, "What's what dear?" She said.
Danny tugged on her hand, wanting to get a closer look. Maddie relented and they walked into the store. Danny ran right up to the object in question, pushing the lid open on it and staring at the keys in fascination. He felt his mother walk up behind him but didn't take his eyes off the piece of furniture.
Maddie chuckled, smiling at how mesmerized her son was with the instrument. "It's called a piano sweetie, it makes music when you press these keys, see?" She pressed one to demonstrate, a sweet sound coming from the piano in response. Danny's eyes widened and he grinned at the piano.
He then heard an amused chuckle and looked over at his friend with a frown on his face. "What?"
Danny could feel rather than see the grin on his friend's face; the image was blurrier than usual so he couldn't make out what his friend looked like, "You like pianos Danny?" He said in fake innocence.
Danny stuck his tongue out at the other boy, "Yeah, so?" He shot back.
His friend held up his hands, "I don't mean nothing by it! I like piano music, so if you wanna play it, I don't mind."
That surprised Danny a little. His friend liked piano music? Danny didn't know that, then again, it was never brought up before that he knew of, "What's your favorite song then?" Danny questioned.
The blurry image of his friend clutched his sides and laughed. Danny's face burned red as he rubbed the back of his neck, a tic he'd always had when he was nervous or embarrassed. "What?! What's so funny?"
"It-its nothing," His friend moved as if to wipe a tear from his eye, "It's just that you asked me that question before."
Danny huffed and crossed his arms, "It's not like I can re...remem...think about the time 'before'! What did you say then?" Danny said glaring slightly at his blurry friend.
"I said it didn't matter." Was the answer.
Danny's face turned red again for some reason as something akin to butterflies flapped in his tummy. He shrugged it off though and ran back to his mother who was talking to the shop owner. He tugged at the leg of her jumpsuit insistently.
"Mama! Mama!"
Maddie looked down at her wide eyed son, "What is it sweetie?" He pointed back at the piano.
"I want the piano mama," He said with an excited grin. Maddie chuckled at her child's eagerness but gave him a sad smile.
"Danny, that piano costs too much money, I can't afford to get it for you."
Danny's smile fell but he continued to tug at her leg, "But Mama, I wanna play for my friend! He likes pianos too so I wanna play for him! Please Mama?" He gave her his best puppy dog eyes, "I'll keep my room clean, and wash the ditches for you and stuff! Please?" He pleaded again, ignoring the snickers from the boy behind him.
Another warm laugh before Maddie put a soothing hand on Danny's head, "I'll see what I can do sweetie." She said. She waved to the shop owner and left with the boy.
Danny was then sitting in front of another piano with an older woman watching him and helping him with any mistakes that he made. He felt his friend sitting on the small frilly couch behind him watch as he practiced.
When he finished the song, the woman smiled proudly as his friend clapped in the background.
"That was excellent Daniel! Only two mistakes on your fourth try! If I didn't know any better I'd say you've played for decades."
Danny couldn't remember what that last word meant but he took the compliment for what it was and blushed.
"Thank you Mrs. Summers," He said politely. He heard his friend snickering in the background and cast a glare over his shoulder, to which the other boy simply laughed harder. It wasn't like Mrs. Summers could hear him anyway.
The old frilly lady, that was the only thing Danny could really think about her besides 'nice' because everything on her and in her house had frillies everywhere, stood up from the bench and headed towards the kitchen. "How about some lemonade and cookies to celebrate?"
"Chocolate chip?" Danny asked blue eyes wide and hopeful.
Mrs. Summers laughed, "Of course dear! Now just wait right there," She told him as she walked into the kitchen.
Danny kicked his feet back and forth, careful not to hit the piano in front of him. Well, he wasn't able to get his own like he wanted, but this was the next best thing. Mrs. Summers said that he could come over anytime he wanted to so he could play her piano. And his mother said that she was giving the lady money for the lessons. As long as he could play, it didn't really matter to him.
He felt his friend sit next to him and smiled. Though he couldn't remember his friend's name right now, which he felt bad about, and he couldn't see him, he knew his friend had been with him for a really long time. The adults didn't think that he could hear them when they talked about his 'Imaginary friend' behind his back. His friend wasn't made up, even though Danny couldn't prove it to anybody, he knew Phantom was real.
Danny's eyes widened and he gasped. His friend's name was Phantom! His best (and only, let's be honest,) friend in the world! Danny facepalmed and groaned under his breath. He really wished he could remember stuff like that more easily, he had promised after all! Wait, what exactly was the promise again? Darn it!As Danny was lost in thought, he started to play a song that he didn't recognize but made him sad none the less. He heard his friend humming to it and distantly thought about asking the other boy if he knew the song. He opened his mouth to ask, but Mrs. Summers' voice floated in from the kitchen and he stopped playing.
He didn't want anyone but his friend hearing this song.
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Danny slowly wakes up to find it dark in the cabin. His family is in the room with him asleep so he looks at the clock they had brought with them and sighs when it reads 1:37am. He ended up sleeping the day away, Danny thinks ruefully. Danny gets out of bed, careful not to disturb his sister, and quietly creeps out of the room.
He goes out on deck and sits in one of the many lounge chairs there, thinking about the dream he just had. Then he shakes it off, figuring that he had the dream because of what his mother and that shadow told him. 'His mind making things up to compensate for lack of memory,' or something like that. Danny closes his eyes and tries to clear his head so he can go back to sleep, slowly breathing in and out.
That wasn't going to happen though apparently, because once again he feels arms wrap around him, this time coupled with the feeling of a strong chest against his back. His breath hitches and his eyes fly open to see a pair of thighs on the outside of his own; black jeans and white boots he notices idly.
"What has you awake so early in the morning?"
Danny recognizes the voice and immediately relaxes back into the surprisingly warm chest without thinking. "Nothing really, where did you come from Phantom?"
He hears Phantom chuckle, strong tan arms tightening their hold on the raven and Danny once again gets a strange sense of deja vu.
"I'm always around, if I don't wish to be seen then people can look right at me and never know it." Phantom replies with a mischievous lilt in his voice.
"Oh yeah, that's not creepy as all hell," The raven snarkes before he frowns, now he really feels like they'd done this before.
"You asked me that question before," Phantom says as if reading his mind, "And I told you the same. I have no need to lie to you Nightingale."
Danny turns his head, just catching a glimpse of snow white hair, "Why do you call me that?"
A wicked grin comes in to view, "Because you have always made such beautiful music, amore(1)." He purrs in Danny's ear.
Danny blushes as heat pools in his lower abdomen, sensing the double meaning behind those words. His embarrassment is warring with something else though, something he has never thought he would ever feel before. To be honest, it scared him.
He pulls out of Phantom's arms, trying his damnedest to ignore the loss of warmth, and turns around to look into the glowing green eyes. "Who are you to me? You keep holding me and saying things like that even though I've never met you in my life!"
A look of hurt passes Phantom's eyes which Danny tries to ignore. Something in Danny told him not to hurt him, but Danny is confused and feeling like he's being left out of an important loop which never fails to piss him off.
Phantom continues to stare at Danny, debating with himself on what he should say. Finally, Phantom says cryptically, "I've been many things to you throughout your life Danny, whether it be this one or before."
Danny's brow wrinkles in confusion but he still feels himself relax a little, "What do you mean 'before'?"
Phantom smiles sadly, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you right now, just know that I have always been with you and always will be, no matter what." Phantom vanishes, making Danny jump at the suddenness of it.
Danny stands there contemplating about what the man in black and white said. He knew Phantom? What does he mean about 'before', and why wasn't he saying anything? Is he worried that Danny might not like what he says? Danny rubs his temples again, the headache returning full force from all the unanswered questions. Phantom was confusing, Danny refuses to think of him as mysterious though a little voice in the back of his mind was laughing at him for it.
'He basically said the same thing that that shadow told me, but I feel like I can believe it this time. Phantom makes me feel safe, something that Shadow doesn't do.'
Danny sighs and trudges back to bed, making sure to keep quiet as he enters the room. He climbs into bed next to Jazz, laying there with his eyes closed trying to get his brain to shut down. He feels fingers run through his hair, bigger than his mom or sister's and smaller than his dad's. The feeling of safety returns and Danny instinctively relaxes, slipping into slumber with a smile.
Phantom smiles tiredly as Danny falls asleep. "Buonanotte...Amore mio(2)." He whispers.
Translations for this chapter
(1) Amore, Italian for "love".
(2) "Buonanotte...amore mio." Good night my love