Reminder to check out the poll if you want a say in my next project!

Ahh… this was completely rushed, but I wanted to get it out before bed... FFnet is doing weird stuff, including not giving me review notifications, so I'll go reply to the ones I missed. Cya next time, folks. It might be a bit of a wait!

x.x

The morning after he lied to M'gann, with his tummy rumbling and his mouth yawning, Danny padded into the kitchen.

M'gann and Superboy were sitting on the lounge amoung a pile of exercise books. Two bags sat by them. They conversed quietly.

Puzzled, Danny paused in reaching for the bread. "What's going on?"

Superboy glanced up. Danny was relieved to see there was no animosity in his gaze: his gamble had paid off. "School," he grunted.

M'gann held up a school diary. "There must be a bag around here you can use."

Mildly incredulous, Danny peered closer at their bags. Exercise books, what looked like a couple of math textbooks, and those school diaries. These heroes went to school? That wasn't fair at all!

He brought the bread out of the cupboard. And they were expecting him to go to school with them. Wonderful.

"I don't suppose it's optional," he muttered.

"Well…"

M'gann captured Danny's attention. She sucked on her lips, reluctant to finish her sentence. "Actually, no-one told you to come, but… nevermind," her voice trailed off with a sigh.

Skipping school was option? That was a no-brainer! Danny continued getting his toast and waved farewell to M'gann and Superboy (who was known to the school as Conner).

He collapsed on the couch and switched on the TV. It opened onto static, so Danny switched through the channels. All he got was static. Frustrated, Danny checked the back of the TV. There was no antennae cable.

How did they expect to get reception this deep underground without a cable? He pawed the cavity under the TV, searching for a movie. His fingers found nothing. Finally, he peered into the gap.

Every movie that had been there when Kid Flash was over was gone. There were no games, either, not that he could find a console.

Or, come to that, a computer!

Despite himself, Danny began to wish he'd gone to school.

"Recognised: Aqualad: B02;" wheezed the speakers.

Boredom turned to relief, and Danny sped to the cave's entrance as Kaldur entered. He carried large suitcase with him .

"Hey, Kaldur! You moving in?" Danny asked.

Kaldur shook his head, and motioned to his suitcase. "I need to put these things down." Danny followed Kaldur to what had once been a meeting room. It was taken up almost entirely by a huge desk. Kaldur's suitcase hit the top with a thunk and he slid the locks open with a click.

Papers on papers. For the second time today, Danny was assaulted by the site of schoolwork.

Danny was appalled. "Oh come on, you're not studying?"

"I'm sorry," Kaldur responded. "I need to attend to my studies."

Well, he was the team leader. Overly-responsible went with the territory. That didn't mean Danny wasn't going to try.

"Please? I mean, I need some more training…"

Kaldur shook his head, but pulled out a bunch of papers and handed them to Danny. Lines of small text ran from the top to the bottom. Danny looked back at Kaldur, unimpressed.

"They're notes on potential investigations," Kaldur answered. "We need something light to work on as a team. Perhaps you could find one?"

Find a mission? Danny only wished it didn't sound so much like studying. Nonetheless, he sat up at the table and began to go through Kaldur's notes. They were boring.

Immensely so.

Danny peeped over at Kaldur for the fifth time in two minutes. It would be admirable, how well Kaldur ignored his fidgeting (and Danny really did want to prove himself capable, but the notes were so boring), if Danny didn't wish he would glance his way.

Honestly!

A flash of light, and he was in ghost mode. He poked Kaldur's chair with a toe and annexed it – then phased out.

Kaldur continued working. He didn't fall to the floor. Danny frowned at the chair. It… hadn't worked.

Danny poked his head under the table. Kaldur had only his toes on the ground. He couldn't be holding up his weight with them.

Dread settled on Danny. He poked the chair again, feeling himself annex it. He could feel the floor, feel Kaldur, then intangible!

Nothing, again, and he realised he couldn't feel the telltale numbing of sensation that intangibility brought.

Finally, Kaldur glanced at him. Danny retracted his foot, folding it around his other leg. He busied himself in the notes. The lines he highlighted wavered with his trembling hand.

He tried his best to suppress his freak-out. He hid his hand under the table.

"Perhaps it's time for a break," Kaldur said. "Would you like to spar?"

"Actually, I think I'll go to the loo," Danny squeaked, and dashed out of the room. The slam of the door muffled Kaldur's acknowledgement. Danny kept running until he was in his room.

Slowly, he approached his bed, remembering how he'd turning it intangible to remove the water Kid Flash had soaked it with. He touched it again.

Please work.

Annexation. The bed glowed faintly white.

Intangibility!

Numbness, beautiful, beautiful intangibility-numbness dulled Danny's senses, and he laughed with relief.

x.x

Hopefully, Kaldur wouldn't notice how weird he had acted.

Crap.

Hopefully, Robin hadn't bugged his room.

Double crap