Old and New Love
By: Wilona Riva
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman, Nickelodeon, etc.
For CashAsh13. Thanks for suggesting the uses of sage and lavendar.
Secret Written in the Stars
"It is a secret written in the stars," Clockwork answered Maddie when she asked what was so special about her son. His pupiless crimson eyes bore into her own pale periwinkle ones. "His soul was divided when he was born. One half to the mortal world, you know as Daniel Fenton, your son, and the other half to the ghost world, our prince, Phantom. When I saved him from Queen Nicole's banishing spell, I united those two halves. Two lifelines flow through his veins. Will you accept him for himself or should I seek another guardian for him?"
Maddie shook her head. Ever since she'd seen that image of Danny naked with a full-grown, full-endowed ghost woman, she'd lost it and attacked the Master of Time. Clockwork reacted and sent her sprawling to the earth and frozen time. When time restarted, she found she had no voice, until one minute ago.
Tucker was amused by all this and stayed out of the Time Master's battle with the ghost huntress. The portal's screen was now blank.
"So do you think Danny's parents will let us see him?" he asked, breaking the stillness of the forest room.
"Perhaps when the rite is complete," Clockwork replied, fixing unblinking eyes on the portal. "That is something they must decide for themselves."
"You're annoying, you know that?"
"So I have been told."
Desiree softly kneaded the back of her prince's neck, the strands of wet ivory stroking her carmine fingertips. "Feels good, doesn't it?" she asked, whispering in his ear.
"Hmmm," he murmured, eyes half-closed. The incense had long since burned out; its smoke having worked its magic in calming his anxiety. The warmth of the water added its own charm to the rite's purification.
Desiree reached for a bottle containing a creamy golden-green cream. These were some of the few pleasures she allowed herself from the human world. Herbs were as much a part of magic as were spells and charms.
She reached over into the water.
Danny's eyes snapped open when her hands brushed his inner thighs. "Dangerously close, Des," he said, jumping a bit at the touch of her cold fingers.
She grinned; midnight hair falling over one crimson eye as she bent over him. "Not a bit, when the sponge has fallen into the wrong place, my prince."
"What is that?" he asked, noticing the bottle in her hands.
"A sage body wash, Danny," she explained, using his mortal name. "It has a little bit of lemon zest in it to help awaken your body's senses. It also will calm your core; you have been much stressed of late."
"No kidding," Danny muttered, leaning back in the large tub, allowing Desiree access to his chest.
"Majesty, a missive from the Time Lord," Fright Knight said, knocking on the door of the king's chambers.
"Well, read it, man!" Plasmius, all but jumped out of the bed.
Opening the scroll, Fright Knight cleared his voice and read:
A mortal woman and a human child will seek to visit the prince. They will come soon. All will be explained then.
"It's short and too wide of the point," Vlad said, rubbing his chin. He glanced down at his sleeping wife and caressed her hand. "Ready the guest chambers. I weary of these games and just wish my son were not the nexus of all our hopes."
"As you will, my liege."
Prince Phantom rose from the waters with water and oil dripping from his glistening skin. He was a golden apricot in a bowl of overripe fruit, Desiree decided. Delicious.
"I have crushed lavendar in the bedsheets, my prince," she told him. "It too will provide the calmness you need."
"The rite sounds painful," he told her.
"A young ghost's first time usually is," she reminded him. She handed him some white silk trousers with midnight blue embroidery around the edges of the waistband. "Your chest must be bare for therein resides your core."
He blushed. "Desiree!"
Her gay laughter rang in his ears as he felt himself led to the large bed in the center of the room. She pressed another chalice to his lips, this time, filled with ordinary water.
"Drink deep, Prince Phantom. This shall be a long evening for you."