Notes: It had to happen. Sam and Dan are too close for their own good, even if you don't see much of it in the fic. The next oneshot will be posted a few days from now, and then comes the next chapter. Next oneshot should be fun, considering it's about Danny's failed (i.e. sabotaged) attempts at dating. In the meantime, enjoy!

Oh, and I might or might not (a.k.a. I do) mention the outcome of Sam's love life in this. I can explain that... later, hehe. Either way, it's not really significant.

Edit: After watching "Splitting Images" and Echo-heart pointing it out, it looks like Danny's known Sam since at least the second grade. Don't know how I missed that, but it's been corrected. ^.^

Goth

"SAM, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AND ANY GHOST YOU MIGHT TURN INTO!"

That was the first thing Danny had said when Sam had walked into the house, an ecstatic and grinning Dan in tow. He could only thank whatever deity was out there that had taken mercy upon his friend for the fact that Vlad wasn't there at the moment. The woman would likely not be among the living anymore were the billionaire present. Then again, Danny's mind was currently concocting some not-so-pleasant plans for her as well.

Oh, how Danny wished he had never laid eyes on his son. It was almost as if Sam had been planning this for a while now. After all, where would she even have gotten all of that in Dan's size at such short notice? He didn't even know they made those pants in children's sizes!

Oh. Rich parents. Right.

Still, that did nothing to excuse his son's current appearance! The boy was dressed in black from head to toe. Baggy black pants with chains dangling from them, one of Sam's baggy black band t-shirts (Danny could only be thankful that it wasn't a woman's shirt), and a pair of black Chucks that Sam had given the boy for his birthday a couple of weeks ago. But the worst part was probably the black nail polish that would surely leave Dan's fingernails stained for a week, and of course the black eye make-up that made the child's face nearly unrecognizable. The fact that Dan still vehemently refused any attempts, forced or otherwise, at cutting his long and wavy black hair did nothing to help his current image.

Yes, Danny had always accepted his friend's alternative tastes, but not on his son! Buying him mostly harmless-looking band shirts and accessories was one thing, but he was ten years old, for crying out loud! And she had finally all but transformed him into a male child version of her! You don't dress up a ten year old like... like...

"But, Mom, I like it! I look like the Crow!"

Danny seemed to pale at the comment. "That's not someone you should be looking up to, Dan!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "You're both exaggerating. Dan, you look nothing like the Crow. And Danny, there's nothing wrong with getting a little gothed up once in a while. Tucker's done it. Heck, even you've done it!"

"I was under mind control, Sam! And we were fourteen! It's not the same thing!"

"What I'm saying is that the kid likes it," she said, ignoring his last comment. "Isn't that what matters?"

"No!" Danny snapped, but all that did was cause his son's eyes to flash red.

"Hey! Aunt Sam's right! It only matters if I like it or not! You just can't accept me for who I am, Mom!"

Danny's left eye seemed to have developed a permanent twitch at this point. He angrily turned to his friend, who couldn't help but cringe when she noticed the man's eyes weren't glowing green, but rather scarlet. "You've got him talking like a troubled teenager. I know you and Kwan aren't thinking about kids just yet, Sam, but can't you be a little more considerate? No parent's ready for that phase!" he whispered, before turning back to Dan.

"Mom, your eye's twitching," the ten year old pointed out, annoyed but not surprised by his mother's reaction.

"Don't worry about it," Danny replied. "Now... do want to tell Mommy why you like dressing like this so much? After all, don't you think it's nicer to dress like Jenna?"

"Jenna's a girl," Dan hesitantly replied, looking at him as if he'd grown another head.

Danny grit his teeth when he heard Sam snicker next to him, which naturally caused a smirk to grow on the child's face. "Like your classmates, then," he said.

Immediately after he'd said it, the man knew it had been the wrong thing by the dark look that crossed the boy's face. "I'm not going to be like them! I don't want to be stupid or... or..."

"Shallow?" Sam offered.

Dan vigorously nodded his head. "Yeah! So I'm just being a non-conformist and expressing the darkness within me!"

Sam winced. That one might have been her fault. But how was she supposed to know that the kid would be in a quoting mood that day?

He had never intervened before, being pretty lenient with how he let his son dress, but enough was enough. At this point, all of Danny's patience and gentle persona had left him, and it showed when he addressed the boy next. "Go take off those clothes, Dan! I'll be up to help you with the make-up and nail polish."

"What? Why!" Dan snapped, never one to let himself be ordered around without argument.

"Because I said so! And I don't want to see you dressed like that again! All the black is going out of that wardrobe, young man!" he replied.

The ten year old grit his teeth and turned ghost, flying up the staircase at neck-breaking speeds.

Once Dan was out of sight, the livid mother turned to the woman next to him. "This is the last time I let you watch him!" he hissed at her, trying his best to keep his temper under control.

Sam gulped, but convinced she had done nothing wrong, she tried to maintain her bravado. "T-That's what you said last time, Danny," she mirthfully replied.

The man's glare, however, intimidated her enough to get her to make a hasty escape. "Will you look at the time! Kwan's going to wonder why I've been gone so long! See you later, Danny!" she said quickly, fidgeting with her purse as she speed-walked to the door and not daring to look her friend in the eye.

Danny, in the meantime, was glaring heatedly at the door the whole time. After a while, he decided to head upstairs to see if Dan had listened to him at all.

Of course he hadn't. When he arrived at the boy's bedroom, he found the young half-ghost sitting on his bed, surprisingly enough in human form, but still in the same state he had been in downstairs. His son was sitting with his elbows on his knees, his face propped up by his hands and looking more dour than Danny had ever seen him.

The man observed him for a while, biting his lip in indecision as he heard the boy sigh dejectedly. The glare on Dan's face was half-hearted at best, and he seemed genuinely saddened by the situation. Danny wondered how it was possible that nothing was broken yet, but a look to the door frame on his right showed the door dangling off one hinge.

Danny sighed wearily, taking the door away from its frame and propping it against the wall to be fixed later, and sincerely wishing this wasn't normal behavior for ghost children so he could better reprimand the boy. Dan never moved.

The older half-ghost sat on the bed next to Dan. He supposed at this age – at any age before parenthood and without a religious perspective, really – telling anyone not to dress in such a way would seem pretty senseless. And knowing his son, Dan was probably both upset and confused at this point. It had been building gradually; the boy seemed to have a genuine taste for the gothic subculture, and it seemed to make him happy. Danny only wished he could be as happy with the change that had finally reached its peak. But wouldn't he be a hypocrite if he denied the boy this? He'd been the only one to not make fun of Sam back when she'd started getting into the gothic subculture in seventh grade, after all. He'd even had to convince Tucker to stay friends with the girl. And her uniqueness was one of the reasons why he had fallen in love with her, too...

Danny shook his head. He tried to put an arm around his son, but without success as his son simply became intangible and his hand went right through him. Another weary sigh escaped the man as he fidgeted with his hands in his lap.

"...Fine. You can keep the clothes," he finally said in a defeated tone. "But no make-up! And I'm not going to be the one explaining this to your father!"

To his pleasant surprise, the boy lunged himself into his arms in a hug just as Danny had thought he wouldn't respond.

"Thanks, Mom!"

Danny couldn't keep back a soft smile, and in the embrace he never saw Dan's triumphant yet unsurprised grin.