Prompt 05: "He's like the drunken master of hacky-sack" (WC: 1787)

A/N: Drown in the feels my pretties! Drown! Muhahahaha!

Chilly Ice: I'm glad you liked the last chapter! There were several rewrites of that chapter before I finally decided on the final one.

Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high.

~ William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Not every interaction between Lee and Danny was ghost related. The tension between them after the blackmail incident was still present (and probably wouldn't ever leave until Lee took it back - and maybe not even then) but the tension was less obvious after the lake incident. They trusted each other a little more, even if they refused to talked about. Lee didn't ask about how he was so calm during the whole affair. Danny didn't ask about her level of unnatural competence. It's an uneasy and unspoken truce, but it's a truce all the same.

But not every interaction between Lee and Danny was ghost related. Today, Lee was hiding out in one of the popular teen hang out spots, the back of the Nasty Burger, which is in fact nastier then the inside. Even though the hours were steadily slipping by, Lee couldn't bring herself to go home. She doesn't want to face a house were everything was creepy and abnormal (so is the entire town, but Lee can't escape a whole entire town, not when she's only 15). More than the abnormality had steadily taken over Lee's life, Lee didn't want to face her father. Her father who probably didn't even realize Lee was considerably past late.

She wasn't alone. There are two kids with her who were getting drunk and not bothering to hide it. Why they had decided to get drunk behind a Nasty Burger was anyone's guess. Lee didn't ask. It was also a mystery why they hadn't been reported by the staff or a concerned customer. They offered her a drink but Lee declined.

Lee knew she'd get in trouble if they're caught (even if she isn't drinking) but Lee just didn't care. She didn't want to go inside the Nasty Burger and she didn't want to go home. She didn't want to do anything. Apathy was becoming a strange new fixture her life.

Out of nowhere, Danny showed up. He must have been on ghost patrol and spotted her - Lee stood corrected, all of their interactions have to do with ghosts because they can't have one normal thing in their lives.

"Aren't you out late, Lee?"

The two increasingly drunk teens who are her companions looked at him and wrinkled their noses at him. "Are you her boyfriend or her dad?" They mocked.

Danny blushed. Lee rolled her eyes. "Neither." she answered for him.

They're satisfied with that and go back to what they were trying to do. Or rather, the taller one, Toni, was trying to one person hacky-sack, which was a comical endevor since he was a little passed tipsy, Dora was just cheering him on beyond long sips a can that's been marked up with a sharpie in a bad attempt to hide what it really is.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked, moving over to where Lee was sitting on a dumpster lid. (Lee thought that it might be a misdemeanor but she's committed so many that it barely registered)

"Watching Toni. He's like the drunken master of hack-sack," she told him in a light tone, trying to play off how depressing she looked. She tried to paint a funny and quirky picture (apparently she has started lying to herself).

"Except actually drunk and not really a master." Danny retorted as Toni somehow managed to trip.

He spent the next several seconds trying not to fall. Even after he caught himself he continued to act like he was falling. Lee wasn't sure if it was to amuse Dora (who was laughing loudly at his antics) or because he hadn't realized he had caught himself.

"Yes, exactly," Lee replied in a sage like tone.

"Do you want me to walk you home?"

Lee frowned. For a second Lee pictured her father angry, and yelling at her for showing up late and with a boy no less, but those moments belonged in sitcoms she indulged in. Lee knew that her father wouldn't notice and if by a miracle he did, he wouldn't care.

"Wasn't really planning on going home." She told him, once she had shaken her daydreams away. She was telling the truth, or at least partly. Lee hadn't made any plans, but she knew herself well enough that sometime - probably when Toni and Dora stumbled off for home - she would end up at the Box Ghost's abandoned warehouse. This was hardly the first time Lee had been reluctant to go home.

Danny didn't like her answer, and there's a concern in his eyes that makes Lee uncomfortable.

"Planning on coming home with us?" Dora slurred, breaking the heavy tension. She tried to bat her eyelashes seductively at Lee, but it just came across as heavy blinking.

"Oh definitely," Lee replied sarcastically, causing the drunk girl to laugh loudly. But before Dora can even start a reply, Toni began to flail again and Dora was sucked back to watching her boyfriend behave like a baboon.

Lee turned to look at Danny who was reflecting a mixture of disgust, concern, and embarrassment.

Lee arched her eyebrows, "I wasn't really consenting to a threesome." She informed him blandly, causing the boy to go red.

"You really should go home, or somewhere." He spluttered after a few awkward seconds.

A biting remark about how they aren't friends danced on the tip of Lee's tongue but Toni fell over cursing and kicking the ground. When he hurt himself kicking the concrete, he began to swear even louder. Lee lost her train of thought.

"Yeah probably," she agreed, sliding off the dumpster.

She can see the turn the two drunks are taking and though it would probably all turn out fine since they seemed like nice people, Lee just didn't want to deal with it.

"You want me to call someone for you?" She asked Dora, getting ready to go off with Danny.

Dora eyed the closing space between Danny and Lee and when the implication (that Lee is leaving) clicked, she began to pout. Danny set his hand on Lee's shoulder like Dora (who is granted much taller than Lee) was going grab her and run off with her.

"Nah, I live within walking distance and Toni can crash at place. The 'rents are gone." Dora grinned. "You're welcome to join us." Dora offered flirtatiously but also with a degree of sincerity - and not about the threesome (or at least Lee doesn't think so) but about crashing at her place, "Beanpole too," Dora extended grudgingly.

"Nah, I'm walking her home." Danny rejected the offer quickly, not giving Lee a chance to reply. Then he was tugging her away by her shoulder.

Lee let him, half amused by his protectiveness. Toni and Dora went to their school, they weren't going to do anything to her, and even if they tried, in their inhibited state Lee could take them. Lee could probably take them even if they were in their right facilities. She doesn't have a physical advantage, but she's clever and knew things she shouldn't.

The two of them left the Nasty Burger and Toni and Dora behind, walking down the dark and mostly empty streets. Amity Park didn't have much of a nightlife.

"What's the matter, Lee?" He asked after Dora and Toni were no longer in sight.

"Why did you stop by?" Lee countered.

Danny floundered for a second."I just saw you sitting there and I thought..."

Lee's eyes narrowed, "Is this an excuse to stalk me?" She asked. She was immediately suspicious of Danny's intentions, because people just don't get concerned about her, not her dad, not her classmates or her teachers, not the ghosts she spent so much time with - other than maybe the Box Ghost and that was just physical safety.

"I can't be worried about you without an ulterior motive?" Danny demanded, getting angry. He always was easy to get angry and never thought before he spoke or acted and Lee was always vaguely frustrated and suspicious and never above manipulating people.

"Why would you be?" She demanded right back, "We're not friends. You're just suspicious of me."

"You're suspicious!"

"So you admit it!"

"NO!" Danny yelled, "I thought you were in trouble. I was trying to help! I'm the good guy. Why can't you see that?!"

Lee scoffed, "And what does that make me? A villain? Listen, I don't need Mr. Trouble Bringer worried about me." She dismissed. "I'm fine. And I can handle myself!"

"Well, sorry!"

"Good!"

"Great!"

Lee stormed off and Danny didn't follow. He just watched her leave before ducking around a corner, 'going ghost' and flying home.

It only took about an hour for Danny to regret letting Lee storm off. He has no idea where she'll go or what she'll do. It's too late to go looking for her, and if his parents caught him out this late Danny had no idea what he'd say. Even if he went, Danny doubted he'd find her. He rarely found Lee when he was looking. It was always on accident or coincidence that he stumbled up on her.

So Danny spent the night, tossing and turning worried about Lee and blaming himself. Eventually he fell into an uneasy sleep. The unease didn't disappear in his sleep. In the morning he's on pins and needles just as much as he had been during the night. The stress that was winding into a tight knot in his stomach didn't evaporate or stop growing until he spotted Lee in one of their shared classes.

This gut wasn't left empty though. It was immediately replaced by guilt. Because Lee looks like a mess. Her hair doesn't look like it's been brushed, and there are dark circles under her eyes that speak to a night more restless than his own. The fact that she's wearing the same clothing as she was yesterday told Danny very plainly that Lee hadn't gone home.

Self-loathing joined the guilt. Anything could have happened to her during the night - supernatural or otherwise - and it would have been his fault. His fault because he had her walking home. Whatever was wrong that had Lee reluctant to go home had her lashing out - something Danny was no stranger too. But instead of toughing through the words that Danny now realized were aimed to spin him up and get him to leave, he had let her manipulate him. He had given into his anger and left him. Maybe he hadn't been truthful when he told Lee he was a hero. He sure didn't feel like one now.

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