A/N: Fluffy little nothing. Next one is not so nice.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
18. Rainbow
She was sitting on a bench in the park, hunched forward with her elbows on her knees, watching the little children play in the playground. The sunlight glittered on the ring on her finger, a simple thin band, twisting three colors of gold, red, white and yellow. She avoided looking at it.
Sitting here, out in the sun, the argument she'd had with Danny seemed futile. He was supposed to pick her up, they'd have gone out for lunch, but he'd been late. Again.
"I'm always late, Sam," he'd said, "You know that."
She knew. That hadn't been what had made her so angry. But it was safer, easier to be angry at him for being late, than to express her fear and anxiety every time he didn't show up at the time he'd said he'd be there, always with the reservation that, if a ghost showed up, he'd be late.
And he was always late. And she was certain that one day, unexpectedly, he wouldn't just be late. One day, he wouldn't show up at all, or ever again. One day, he would be dead. And today, she had yelled out her frustration and fear at him, disguised as anger.
A sudden cold breeze alerted her to his presence, and she shivered, but didn't look up. A slight movement next to her, then a cold hand on her arm, invisible, tracing his fingers to her hand and grabbing it.
"Sam, please," he said, "Talk to me."
A slight, prickling feeling went through her, the familiar transformation energy, and the cold hand turned warm. This time, she did look up, right into his worried blue eyes, and she quickly looked away, lest she lose herself into his gaze and forgave him again. She didn't want to forgive him. She wanted... she didn't know what she wanted.
"I'm scared," she said, finally, "I'm scared that one day, you won't turn up at all, and I'll know you're dead."
He was silent at that, shifting his gaze to watch the children playing, his fingers subconsciously twirling the engagement ring on her finger.
"We've come this far," he said, "I'm still alive. I've extended my life expectancy by ten years now. At the time, we didn't think I'd make fifteen, remember?"
She remembered. But back then, they had been young, and everything had seemed fixable somehow. They knew it was dangerous what they were doing. They really hadn't thought Danny would survive all those ghost attacks, the numerous injuries he'd received, the countless times he'd faced death, and yet, he had always come out on top, he had always lucked out. They'd celebrated his fifteenth birthday as if it was their last day on earth.
And the years flew by, and they graduated, went to college, and still he lived. But ever since he'd asked her to marry him, she'd had the feeling that they were tempting fate somehow, it was too good to be true, their luck couldn't last.
"Look," he said, and to her surprise his voice sounded hoarse, "I know it seems like we're tempting fate. But we can't stop living because of this. I can't turn away from you because of what might happen. I can't turn away from life, I need something to hold on to, some form of normalcy, or I might as well go ahead and kill myself completely, get it over with."
They sat close together, the sun warming their skin, the sounds of laughter ringing through the park, mothers calling their children, children screaming at other children, people calling their dogs. Nobody paid any attention to the couple on the bench, a man and a woman, both seemingly lost in thought.
Then, an odd thing happened. Over the small lake next to the playground, something appeared, something white, something that looked like snow, coming out of nowhere. Snow in July, however, didn't stay frozen for long, and the snowflakes soon turned into tiny droplets, raining down in the lake.
"Look," Danny said.
The sunbeams were shining through the droplets, which fragmented them into their various colors, showing as a small rainbow.
"Maybe I'm dead tomorrow," Danny said, "But I'm alive today. Let's go celebrate."
The rainbow dissipated as the droplets all fell down, and Danny wrapped his arm around Sam's shoulders as they got up from the bench to walk away.
"It's a bit late for lunch," Danny said, "How about dinner?"
Sam punched him.
"Don't be late," she said, smiling.
