I love Danny's ice powers, they're like a Swiss army knife: so many uses.
It had been a really long weekend. After they escaped the mantis ghosts and landed in Egypt the trio of ghosts had to get all the way back to the United States. Danny suggested that they use the Space Shredder again but Vlad thought they shouldn't risk it. Something about the tears between the two worlds that could end up sending them all over the place and making their situation worse. So as the sun rose on the desert landscape, Vlad, Dora, and Danny started to fly away from it, making their way due west for several hours until they reached the coast of Africa.
After a quick rest and a few hours getting some supplies (that they unfortunately had to steal because they had no local money) they took off again. Working their way across the ocean when they were already tired from battle was not an easy task for either of the half ghosts, despite their super human stamina. Thankfully, Danny was able to create small chunks of ice that they could rest on for a little bit before they started flying at full speed again.
It took most of Sunday to get across the Atlantic ocean and across the states to Amity Park but they eventually managed to make it back, Vlad carrying Danny in after he had finally worn himself out completely. Once inside they put the boy to bed and Vlad made his way up to a spare bedroom as well. Dora herself was not in as bad a shape as the others but was still very fatigued and only remained at Fenton Works so she could rest a bit.
After a few hours of sleep, both Danny and Vlad woke up to find the two humans chatting with the princess ghost and learning about all that had happened. Maddie had out a laptop and was typing up notes and Jack was working on a design for a new weapon all while trying to figure out what all had gone on since Saturday night.
During the battle their com links had been damaged and when they had taken the portal that lead them to Egypt their signals had been lost. For the next 16 hours they had been franticly trying to find out what had happened until Danny called them from a small gas station in Florida.
Once they had gotten some rest though, they got some Chinese takeout and sat about in the lab to discuss the battle. They had managed to tag several of the ghosts and when they activated the tracking devices they found that they were still in working order. No one was ready to go on the offensive just yet though and all were in agreement that they should take the next few days to prepare for some recon.
After that everyone decided to take the rest of the night off and Danny found himself dead asleep in bed before ten. The next day he had slept in, being too exhausted to get out of bed before nine, but his desire to do well on the swim team forced him up and at the pool before 11 to swim and let the cool waters relax his sore muscles.
This lead him to seeing Dash again and while he was happy about having someone to talk to after he had finished swimming, hearing that there were girls now checking him out was weird. One of the whole reasons he went to swim in the morning was to avoid the kids his age. What was even worse was that he had been ignored by girls his whole life and now that he was swimming and had grown a few inches they were all looking at him.
'I can't believe how shallow some girls actually are,' Danny thought after Dash had pointed out the girls that were checking him out. It didn't matter to him anymore though; he didn't want a girlfriend anymore. Not that he was looking for a boyfriend either; he just wasn't looking for a relationship. He had to deal with ghost problems too much and focus on actually making something of his life to worry about such things at this point.
'Maybe when I go to college I can find time to find someone to have a real relationship with. Would be nice I guess,' Danny sighed inwardly thinking that his ghost issues would still forever pose a problem for him in the dating world. He couldn't just tell anyone about his being half ghost, but on the other hand he couldn't just lie to people he wanted to date either. It wasn't fair and it would just make things more complicated.
It was a shame but Danny didn't let it get him down for long. When he heard that Dash worked on his own comic, Danny it instantly brightened his mood and he just had to see it for himself. He liked Dash's art and not just the bike designs he had done before. From what he saw of the one sketch book he'd shown him, Danny could tell that the blond jock had some serious skill. Even Vlad thought so and he was not one to hand out compliments easily.
Once he was in the blond's room he sat down on the bed and sighed. It was soft and felt comfortable and despite trying not to show it he still felt like he could sleep for a week.
After Dash came in and handed him his drink he almost couldn't believe his ears when he heard that Dash had made comics about him. He knew Dash was a big fan of Phantom but he never realized that he would go out of his way to draw a comic about his ghostly persona. The comics themselves were pretty awesome and Danny wished his adventures had been as interesting as most of them.
Fighting off ghost snakes, possessed swords, and fighting off monsters of all shapes and sizes sounded a lot better than fighting off a guy that wanted to hang your pelt on the wall or a nigh unstoppable ghost storm. The stories were fairly simple, Phantom would be flying along and get attacked by some big bad guy or there'd be a random person that was attacked by an underling. Then he'd go about trying to figure out the bad guy's scheme and then beat the guy.
Dash wouldn't likely win any awards for story telling any time soon but still the overall work was good. He had good details, good action sequences, and he really paid attention to the lighting and shading that came from the ghost attacks that Danny was all too familiar with. Along the third comic Danny laid down to get more comfortable but eventually the fatigue of flying over the Atlantic caught up with him and he fell asleep.
He didn't know how long he was out for, but when he woke up he smiled at a pleasant smell. He took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes to see that he had a light sheet draped over him that hadn't been there before he fell asleep. It surprised him for a second that Dash must have covered him up, but he was more surprised that it smelled so clean. He expected that, like most guys, it would be dirty and sweaty but it actually only had a slight spicy smell to it.
'Which reminds me I need to do my own laundry soon,' Danny sighed and started to sit up with a yawn stretching out his back and body with various pops and cracks.
"About time you woke up," Dash spoke up from his desk where Danny could see he had been working on more comic pages that looked like a dark scene.
"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to doze off. Guess I was just tired from my swimming,"
"And from whatever you did this weekend…" Dash smirked at him and pulled out his cell phone, "Speaking of, give me your number so I can call you next time to see if you want to hang out. I felt kind of stupid going over there and you not being there. It felt like I was saying 'Hey, Mrs. Fenton, can Danny come out to play?' when she opened the door and told me you weren't there. Kind of embarrassing."
"Yeah I guess I ca-" Danny blinked and stared at Dash with wide eyes for a moment and Dash had to lean back in surprise. The two sat there for a minute staring at each other and finally a slight blush came to Dash's cheeks.
"W-What's wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?"
"It's just… wow… I mean… You've NEVER said my first name before like that and it just sort of threw me for a loop I guess." Danny rubbed at the back of his neck feeling awkward now and could tell that what he had just said likely just embarrassed Dash as well.
"Well… I guess I should start calling you by your first name and all if we're going to be friends. I mean you call me Dash and everything, right?" Danny nodded at that with a smile, "Good, then how about your number now?"
Danny gave his number to Dash and Dash passed along his digits as well in kind. He still felt weird that he was getting along so well with his former bully but it wasn't bad. After getting up and folding the blanket he had been laying under the raven haired teen smiled.
"So am I just going to watch you draw all afternoon or you want to go do something?"
Dash shuffled some of his papers around and put them in a folder before he stood up, "Yeah, we can do something. You got an idea?"
"Well do you have any good games to play?"
"Hmm… well I don't know…," a slightly cocky smirk came to Dash's face, "You ever heard of Game Bashers?"
"Don't play with me, Dash. Did you really get Game Bashers for the Galaxy Station?" Dash merely nodded with a slight smirk and Danny almost groaned.
"Man, I've been wanting to play that for weeks but it's always checked out and I can't afford any new games until I finish my bike."
"Well then let's go play, I will even allow you the honor of being player one," he bowed like a gentleman in a teasing manner, "Should I also give you a 15 second handicap so I don't beat you too bad?"
"In your dreams, Blondie, I'll take you down no sweat."
The next hour found the boys talking trash to one another as they beat up their characters on the TV in the basement. Danny blasted Dash with his small avatars while Dash kept to the bigger and heavier guys that were harder to throw off screen. It was fun for the both of them and it reminded Danny of times when he and Tucker would just sit around and play games for hours on end. He really did miss his best friend but having Dash around was helping to alleviate some of that pain and Danny was thankful for Dash wanting to be his friend.
After awhile they switched to other games that they played while eating some chips and drinking sodas. It was like Danny was normal again. He didn't have to worry about ghosts trying to accumulate power to take over the Ghost Zone, he didn't have a ghost plant in his back yard tending to the plants and helping flowers grow, and the thought that he had a ghost princess staying at his house for the time being was not possible. Sadly though, all these things were true and, despite his best efforts, Danny knew he'd have to face those things again soon.
"DASH? You home, sport?" Danny raised his head at the masculine voice that was coming from up the stairs.
"Yeah, Dad! Be up in a sec!" Dash called out and paused the game they were on, "Guess my dad's home. C'mon up and meet him."
Danny nodded and followed him up the stairs. When they got to the living room Danny saw Mr. Baxter putting down a briefcase and starting to take off his tie and kick off his shoes. One look at the man told Danny exactly where Dash got his build and hair from. Mr. Baxter was just a bit taller than Dash but had the same bright blond hair on his head although he kept his in a much closer cut. He was also apparently in fairly good shape with wide shoulders that still went down to a trim waist. It was obvious that he still kept fit somehow if for no other reason than to maintain his health.
"Hey, dad, this is Danny Fenton, the friend I told you about who's building his own motorcycle and using a drawing of mine to build it from."
Danny raised his brow at hearing that, the way Dash had talked made it seem like his parents didn't know about their son's artistic talents. Mr. Baxter though, just smiled and shook his hand in a very firm grip.
"So you're the gear head that my son is helping, huh? Well nice to meet you and hope that bike of yours is up and running soon."
"Uh, thank you, sir." Danny blinked a bit surprised for a moment before the man stretched out and walked towards the stairs.
"Well I'm going to grab a shower and when your mom gets home what do you think about going to grab some Italian tonight? Been awhile since we all got to eat out together."
"Sure, can Danny come along?" Danny jerked back in surprise at the invitation; he really didn't expect to be invited along. He would have been just as happy going back home and maybe fixing himself some chicken for dinner, he certainly didn't expect Dash to invite him along to a family outing.
"It's fine by me, but be sure to ask your mother when she gets home, until then keep it down. I'm going to get that shower and then take a short nap before we do anything."
"Right," Dash smirked and walked back downstairs with Danny right behind him.
Everyone thought the last chapter was cute, so thank you everyone for such kind words. We're getting close to the end here so look forward to what is left to come.