Author: loosedefense
Title: Weak
Pairing: Danny/Dash
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is the property of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. This story implies nothing about the characters nor does the plot of the story have any effect on the show itself. This story is pure fiction and fantasy
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With a grunt, Danny's fist flew, ectoplasmic energy surrounding the knuckles, and it was good. The ghost was struck back, head lurching further back to crack on cement.
Only a few seconds later, the threat was gone, sealed within the Fenton Thermos. Sam and Tucker ventured out from their hiding places behind the racks of clothing.
"You know, we can defend ourselves from ghosts," Sam brushed off her clothes, mentally shuddering at the fact that she had been forced to duck between the frilly pink clothes during the attack. "We don't have to hide."
"Yeah, we may not be as 'agile' as Kwan, but I think we do alright, don't you?" Surprisingly, Tucker sounded more indignant than Sam.
"I'm not going to take any risk with you guys if I can help it," Danny told them, morphing back into his regular teenage self again. "You don't have any weapons on you, and without them, you're screwed. Punches aren't always going to work with these guys."
"Well, it's not like we could have them around us," Sam said. "Anything other than the thermos, and we'd probably be arrested."
"Which is why I'm not taking any sort of risk with you guys," Danny smiled. "My weapons are built in."
At his friends sulky expressions, he wrapped his arms around their shoulders and said congenially, "Come on, guys. You know how important you are to me. I'll always be around to protect you." Until you leave town that is, he added silently. He quickly drew back. "But what's even more important right now is finding me something to wear."
The mood returned to normal between the three of them, and Sam scornfully said, "I can't believe you're making such a big deal over a pity invite."
"A pity invite is still an invite," Danny shook his head, turning his attention back to the shirt he was holding.
Tucker looked around the deserted store. "Well, at least there's no crowd to work around," he noted.
"And even better than that," Danny said, bending down to grab a shirt from the floor, then raising it high to inspect it, "I think I've found what I want to wear."
"Oh, good," Sam said, giving the rack of pink clothes one last dose of the evil eye. "Can we go then?"
"But there's no one here for us to pay," Danny said.
Sam gave him a cynical look. Marching up to the cashier's counter, she snatched the shirt away from Danny and cut off the tags with the pair of scissors used by the store's employees.
"Sam!" Danny protested, shocked.
"Oh, calm down, Danny," Sam said. "I'm not going to steal it." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a wallet, tossing thirty dollars down.
"Well, still …"
"No one's going to come back for hours," Sam told them. "Those security cameras are destroyed, and we paid for the outfit. They can't expect us to stay until they decide its safe to work again, can they?"
"She's got a point there," Tucker agreed. "The party's tonight. You'd have just wasted your time if you don't get the shirt now."
"I guess so," Danny conceded. He followed Sam through the door, Tucker behind them.
There were a few people milling around outside, but it seemed that many shoppers had seen or heard of the commotion going on inside the clothes store, because the mall seemed to be significantly emptier now than when they had entered a half hour ago.
"So I say we go get some ice cream," Tucker turned to the two of them, "because I'm dying for a banana split right now."
Danny licked his lips. "That sounds great." He turned to the girl next to him. "Sam?"
She shrugged. "Sure. I haven't had one in years."
Tucker paused. "Um, come to think of it, neither have I. Anyone remember how to get to the ice cream shop?"
Danny chewed on his lip. He didn't realize how long it had been since they had been to the ice cream parlor; usually the three of them – along with every other teenager from the high school – spent their time at the Nasty Burger. It was the social place for them, while kids and their parents were the typical patrons for the ice cream shop in the mall.
Before they had come to any conclusions, however, Danny heard someone call, "Danny!" and turned around to see Kwan walking over to them.
Sam let out an irritated sort of sound, a deep frown etched on her face as if advertising to the jock what an imposition his presence was.
"Hey, Kwan," Danny greeted warmly, giving Sam a quick nudge with his foot.
"So," Kwan surveyed the shirt that Danny was holding crumpled in his hand, "you're getting ready for the big party huh?"
"Yeah," Danny grinned, before composing himself again. "I mean, yeah," he shrugged. "'Sno big deal."
A smile split up Sam's previously impassive face and Danny blushed at the thought that she was laughing at him.
Tucker, more used to Kwan's added presence around his friend, simply asked, "Do you remember where that ice cream shop is? The one with all those weird names for the flavors?"
Kwan stared at him, but didn't seem to know what Tucker was talking about.
Danny opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a woman's scream.
"Hey kid!" he heard a man some distance away yell, "look out behind you!"
All four teenagers turned around in alarm. Danny's jaw dropped when he saw yet another ghost zooming around the mall. The area around them instantly cleared, terrified shoppers looking for cover.
"I'm going—" Danny stopped short when he caught sight of Kwan again. Sam and Tucker were eyeing the jock warily too. Kwan blinked.
"You know I know about you," he said.
Sam narrowed her eyes, placing her hands on her hips. If they didn't have more important things to focus on, Danny was sure that she would have made some sort of scathing remark.
"Look, there's no time," he said. Kwan already knew that he was Danny Phantom; changing in front of him – while feeling like a horrible violation – wasn't going to change that. He raised his arms up above his head, and transformed into the white haired ghost fighter.
This looked like a low-level threat, so Danny wasn't too intimidated; and a good thing it was too, for the battle he had had not ten minutes ago wore him out. Usually, he had more stamina, but it was mostly from the adrenaline of a fight that allowed him to take on multiple enemies at once. Not having expected to go into battle mode so soon, however, had caused him to lower his guard. And then there was the fact that Kwan was watching him in action, which in itself was enough to offset him.
The ghost, catching sight of the infamous Danny Phantom, went for him. Watching with half-lidded eyes, Danny merely shifted his position to the left at the last second. The ghost, not having enough time to change direction, splattered itself on a support column. When it peeled itself off, it left a green stain on the pillar.
"Gross," Tucker cringed.
"Oh, good," Danny catcalled. "The Box Ghost doesn't even try anymore; I could use a new bulls-eye. How about we try a little target practice?" He pulled his hand back, a wave of ectoplasmic energy forming around his hand, and swinging it forward, shot out at the ghost.
It let out a yelp, getting knocked back, but this time managed to avoid the column.
"Tucker—" Danny started, but his friend was ahead of him, pulling out the Fenton Thermos and tossing it up into the air where he caught it with his gloved hand.
Unbeknownst to the four teenagers, a figure stood off in the distance watching the proceedings. Skulker had seen the ghost boy work before, but now stood with a new sense of purpose.
"I'm sending you the file now," he said in his low voice, not taking his eyes off the fight. "The ghost child has just captured the bait."
"Excellent," Walker replied through the communicator. "I'll have Nicolai extract it from these infernal contraptions he built. Get back here as soon as you can."
Pressing the button Technus had showed him to end the exchange, Walker tossed aside the communicator and waited. Technology. Ha. Give him a torture chamber any day.
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That evening, Danny changed into the new shirt he had bought at the mall and modeled it for Tucker and Sam who were waiting in his bedroom. They looked unimpressed.
"What do you think?" he asked, flashing them a charming smile. The dark blue shirt he was wearing was unbuttoned so that it exposed more of his chest than he was used to, and there were fewer buttons on it than was regular, the last one ending a little higher than normal, the result showing a bit of his stomach. There was also a rip in the back. With it, he wore a snug pair of dark jeans, the cut of which suited him well, and looked like the stylish kind he had seen some students wearing before.
"It tries too hard," Sam said immediately.
"I'm sure it does, Sam," Danny tilted his head to Tucker.
The other boy shrugged. "It's nice."
Sam snorted.
"You could still hang out with us tonight," Sam offered.
It was tempting; the three of them hadn't hung out very much the past year, and since that night, they hadn't really hung out together at all, not including lunchtime when Danny would clue them in on what was going on with Kwan, or any other aspect of his ghosthunting life.
"Thanks, but … the party's going to start soon," Danny declined. 'Hey,' he comforted himself, 'if Sam gets to ditch the group every once in a while, I should too.'
"Speaking of which, how are you going to get there?" Tucker asked. "Paulina'd probably laugh you out of her house if you came in your car."
Danny shrugged. "I didn't really think about it. Dash said I was his guest, I—"
"You know how those people like to string others along, Danny," Sam reminded. "Has Dash spoken to you at all since he invited you?"
"Of course he has," Danny said. "Just … not about transport. I mean, Kwan did a number on his car, it's not like he could offer to take me. Besides, he's made it clear that even though he's inviting me, he still doesn't really want anything to do with me."
Just as the words left his mouth, his cellphone started buzzing on the table. Danny snatched it up and answered the call. "Hello?"
"Fenton, I'll be at your place in like ten minutes," he heard Dash say on the other end of the line. "Be ready."
"You mean your car's okay?" Danny asked in surprise.
"Can you believe it? Hardly a scratch on it," Dash said. "Now, get ready before I get there. I hate to be kept waiting."
Without saying goodbye, the blond hung up.
Danny flipped the phone shut and placed it deep into his pocket. "Dash is on his way here," he informed them. "Guys, could you—"
"We know," Tucker smiled reassuringly. "We'll be on ghost patrol while you're gone."
"Thanks," Danny said in relief. "Now, look, if you need me, call. I'll just ditch."
"It's okay, Danny," Sam said, and Danny could hear the warmth in her voice. "Enjoy yourself. We can handle anything the Ghost Zone can throw at us."
Danny returned her half-smile and nodded in appreciation. He wanted to say something else, but there was no time, as they heard Dash's car honk outside.
"Come on," he said. "Walk me out."
Dash's eyebrows raised when he caught sight of them walking over to his car. Danny thought it might have been because of his outfit, which, with every passing second, he was starting to regret. It showed more skin that he felt comfortable with. What kind of a person wore this to a high school party anyway? But it could also be that Dash didn't expect to see him flanked by his friends.
"Nice shirt, Fenton," Dash smirked, and Danny blushed, not sure if that was a backhanded comment or not. "I was worried you'd show up in that outfit you always wear."
"At least Danny's got more originality than following whatever some magazine dictates is cool to wear for each day," Sam said hotly.
Dash's eyes flickered briefly to her. "I didn't know it was original to wear a white shirt all the time."
Sam didn't reply, but Danny thought it would be best to separate the two as soon as possible. Leaving Tucker to handle her, he slipped into the car's passenger seat. Dash gave Sam one last look of superiority before peeling away.
Watching them drive off, Tucker placed his hand on Sam's shoulder. "Aw, come on. He deserves a night off."
Sam gave a small nod. "I know."
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Danny sat back in the seat, wondering if he ought to say anything.
"So, you and Manson are friends again, huh?" Dash questioned.
"Uh, yeah, I guess," Danny said. "Why?"
"No reason," Dash replied. "I guess a big part of the reason I invited you was because I knew the two of you were having problems. You know, I was concerned about what you might do. I know she's one of your only friends."
If Danny wasn't so used to Dash, he would have taken more offense to that. "Well, you're free to not invite me to anymore parties in the future," he said.
"I won't then," Dash snapped.
They sat in silence for few moments.
"Thank you. For inviting me," Danny said quietly.
"You're welcome," Dash replied stiffly.
"I don't really like this shirt," Danny fidgeted in his seat. "I don't know why I picked it out. I just thought it looked kind of cool in the store."
Dash glanced at him and grinned. "I kind of thought the goth geek picked it out."
Danny chuckled. "Sam probably would have, if she didn't hate it because I picked it out for a party from the popular crowd."
"It's okay, I guess," Dash shrugged. He let out a laugh. "You'll be competing with the girls for revealing the most skin though."
"If you didn't need that arm to drive, I'd hit you," Danny joked.
Dash snickered. "Fenton, please. You couldn't hit Elmer Fudd."
Paulina's house was in view. Dash guided the car to park across the street from her home, along with the rest of the flashy vehicles lining the street. The place screamed 'rich high school party'.
Cutting the ignition, Dash turned to Danny. "If you humiliate me, I'll kill you," he promised.
"Whatever you say," Danny said in an innocent voice. When Dash was out of earshot, he added under his breath, "Mein Fuhrer."
Catching up to Dash as they walked up to Paulina's mansion, Danny wrapped his arms around his body in a vain attempt to cover up. "Can I have your jacket?" he asked the jock.
Dash frowned. "Jeez, Fenton., you really are shy, aren't you? It's not that much skin."
"Dash," Danny hissed, "if I shrug, you'd be able to see my bellybutton. Give me your jacket."
Dash rolled his eyes and paused to slide the letterman jacket he was wearing over his black button-down shirt off his shoulders, and handed it to Danny, who hid himself in it gratefully.
The first thing Danny saw when he entered the house was a large bookcase made of polished wood. Glass protected the thick volumes inside. "Wow," Danny whistled. "I didn't expect to see that in Paulina's house."
"My papa's medical collection," they heard a Hispanic voice with very apparent American influences as Paulina came up to greet them. She wrinkled her nose at Danny. "Why'd you bring him?"
Dash raised an eyebrow. "You mean Kwan didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what? Are you guys, like, dating or something?"
"No!" both boys shared looks of alarm. Danny was suddenly even more self-conscious of the newly-acquired jacket than of the shirt he was wearing underneath it.
"Hmm," Paulina didn't really seem to care. "Well, maybe Danny Phantom will show up now." Her eyes held a sparkle that Dash knew could never lead to a good outcome.
'Here's hoping he won't have to,' Danny said to himself. Although, admittedly, he would gladly wear the black and white jumpsuit instead of this shirt. His hand lowered down to the little bit of stomach exposed and covered it absent-mindedly.
Paulina had glided away to greet other guests, and Dash pulled him aside to avoid them blocking the door.
"I don't really know anyone here," Danny pulled the jacket tighter over his frame.
"You could hang around by the snack table all night," Dash suggested. Danny shot him a withering look.
"Fine. You can hang out with Kwan and me. But only because I'm just that good a support mentor," Dash gave in. "And because Kwan probably won't let me hear the end of it, and Paulina would kill me for letting you run around unchecked."
"You know, you can gripe all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that you just offered to hang out all night with a loser," Danny smirked.
Dash scowled. "Shut it, Fenton."
They were there early; Danny theorized that Dash had been hoping to avoid too many people staring at the odd pair by coming before those who typically abided by the rule of arriving fashionably late. Kwan was one of the early ones, arriving behind a couple who had come in just after Danny and Dash, so the brunette was glad to have someone else to talk to.
"Why are you wearing Dash's jacket?" he asked in confusion when he sat down next to the two on the three-person couch.
Danny glumly pulled away one side to reveal the shirt he was wearing.
"He doesn't want to believe me when I told him it wasn't so bad," Dash sounded cross. "Can you believe how virginal he is?"
"It's not so bad, Danny," Kwan comforted. "Some of the football uniforms show a lot of skin."
"What?" Danny pulled himself up to stare at Kwan. "Since when?"
"Some of them are ripped. More breathing room with the heat," Dash said wearily. "Now stop acting like that jacket's a turtle shell."
"I can't help it if you're so huge," Danny said. "God, you could hide doves in here."
Kwan snorted.
"That wasn't even funny," Dash said.
"It wasn't meant to be," Danny sulked.
"Oh, come on," Dash had had enough of this. "You're finally at a popular kid's party, and you're moping because you don't like a shirt you picked out." He grabbed Danny's hands and pulled him off the couch, pushing the smaller boy up to a few of the kids lounging by the staircase. He ripped the sweater off Danny's form, and held him still while he protested and tried to cover up.
"Tell him he looks hot," he ordered the group.
One of them, Nathan, a poser still stuck in the too-cool-for-school phase Dash thought everyone ought to have grown out of by the time they finished sophomore year at most, raised the sunglasses he was wearing indoors – 'At night,' Dash mentally sneered – to survey Danny and then let out a wolf-whistle. The group dissolved into laughter. Danny's face heated up in pure mortification
Dash lowered his head an inch, fixing the group with a glare urging them to follow his instruction.
"Don't worry kid," one of the girls said. "It looks hot. You should keep that look."
"Yeah, it's way better than that white and red shirt," another guy chipped in.
Danny looked surprised and slightly flattered by this. "You know what I wear?"
"With Dash stuffing you in a locker every other day?" one of them laughed. "Hell yeah!"
Danny turned behind to look at Dash witheringly. Dash shook his head, as though trying to convince Danny that their claims of stuffing him into a locker so many times were filthy lies.
Slowly the guests trickled in, and the party started to pick up. Dash's plan to avoid stares didn't seem to have worked, for Danny noticed people shooting curious looks at him when they passed, no doubt wondering what he was doing at one of their shindigs. The amount of glances multiplied, of course, when they caught sight of Dash and Kwan, the most popular guys in Casper High, hanging around him all night.
Being seen at the party, and being seen around the other two boys especially, did wonders for Danny's reputation. Already it had soared high enough for one of the cheerleaders, Jennifer, whom he had always seen around but never really had an interest in came over to ask him to dance.
"Um, sure," Danny had blinked owlishly, clutching his cup filled with soda tightly. He turned to glance back at Dash and Kwan, both of whom were sitting down watching the party in a bored way that suggested they had been to these things too many times to care.
Jennifer led him out to the dance floor. "I didn't know you were so close to Dash and Kwan," she commented.
"I'm not really," Danny clarified. "I mean, I didn't really get to know them until a while back. Since then we've been getting closer … I guess."
"Well, you must be," Jennifer said, moving to the rhythm of the song playing. Danny tried to keep up with her. "I don't think Dash has ever invited anybody outside our circle to one of these before."
"Yeah," Danny huffed. "I guess not."
'I have really got to stop flying everywhere and use my legs every once in a while.'
After the song was over, they wandered over to the snack table, where Danny got some punch for the both of them.
"So, you wanna hang out at our table next week?" Jennifer asked over the rim of her cup.
"Really?" Danny's eyes widened.
Jennifer's heart-shaped lips formed a half-smile to the right. "Dash isn't the only one who can invite people in, you know."
Danny grinned, a little taken aback by the interest she was showing in him. "Sure," he finally accepted. Jennifer nodded, so he slunk back over to the couch where Dash and Kwan were sprawled. Kwan was twisting his foot around in circles and tapping it up and down in the air ever so often, seemingly in a warped sense of time to the beat of the music.
"She just invited me to lunch," Danny couldn't help the huge grin on his face.
"Who?" Kwan didn't take his eyes off his rotating foot.
"That girl, Jennifer," Danny said.
Dash scoffed. "Of course she did. They're leeches. All of them. Except for us," he slapped Kwan on the shoulder with the back of his hand in his gesture. "We're above latching on the suddenly-popular."
"I'm sure you are, Dash," Danny replied derisively. "You've always been known to be deep beyond your years."
"God, Fenton, who even talks that way?" Dash gave him a strange look. "You'll need to be around Jen for longer than a lunch date at the popular table just to speak like a normal person after everything Manson's put you through."
Kwan gave a carefree sigh. "Why do you guys always have to argue? You should save your strength."
"Save our strength for what?" Dash bit.
'Exercising?' Danny thought to himself viciously.
"I'm going to get another drink," Danny picked up his cup again. It was mostly an excuse to get away from Dash and the bad mood he was putting Danny into. Didn't he think that Danny knew that the invitation was only superficial? "Kwan, do you want anything?"
"No," Kwan said.
"Yes," Dash spoke up for him. "He hasn't been drinking anything. Look at how dry his lips are."
Danny took a close look and was surprised to find that Dash was right: Kwan's lips were chapped and peeling as though he hadn't had a drink in days.
Kwan closed his eyes, as though calming himself down before getting off the couch. "I'll get my own drink," he announced, walking off to the snack table. Danny followed him, hearing Paulina call Dash over to where she was on the other side of the room, where he was headed. Dash dragged himself to an upright position on the couch and marched past Danny.
"So, Dash certainly has a charming attitude," Danny muttered when he reached Kwan.
"He's annoyed tonight," Kwan didn't seem too bothered, dipping the ladle into the punch bowl and pouring it into his cup. Danny did the same, and followed the Asian boy until they were close to the large bookcase Danny had seen at the beginning of the party.
"Why?" Danny asked, trying to discreetly look at the blonde who was speaking to Paulina and some of her friends just a few feet away from where they stood.
"I don't know," Kwan admitted. "Maybe he's annoyed about bringing you here tonight. Or maybe he's annoyed that you're getting along well with the people here."
"You think I'm getting along with these guys?"
Kwan shrugged. "I suppose so. An invitation from a leech is still an invitation, isn't it?"
Danny gave a slight nod in agreement, and raised the cup to drink from it, but the liquid did not meet his lips, for with a rumble to the ground, it fell out of the rip and to the floor.
Danny stared, mystified as to why his punch had done such a thing. All chatter around him seemed to stop, and someone paused the CD player so that all was silent. He wasn't the only one who had felt that.
There it was again; several people screamed in surprise when the ground beneath them shook once more. Danny stumbled back a step, before the floor gave a truly violent lurch.
Various objects fell to the floor now; Danny could hear them breaking upon impact, but he didn't seem able to focus on it. Suddenly, it felt as if the world went mad. Terrified screams erupted all around him, and chaos came into play when the people in the room started running around for shelter, or some desperate way to protect themselves.
"Earthquake!" someone shrieked.
Hands jostled him about, knocking him back a step and then pushing him so that he stumbled forward two. Paulina was clutching the banister, looking more scared than Danny had ever seen her, and his heart went out to her. He wanted to help her, get her to safety.
'I've got to get everyone to safety,' he dimly thought. It felt as though the statement were bouncing around lightly in his head, but having no real impact on him. He felt impaired.
He caught sight of Kwan being forced back by the people struggling to push past his large frame in order to get to the door. But his attention was torn away when he heard something clattering. Something big.
Turning his eyes to the big bookshelf, he saw that it was teetering forwards and back against the wall due to the force of the shaking. Danny stood there, stupefied. There was a sudden slam, and it seemed that the shelf froze for less than one second in a slanted angle, before falling forward, directly in his path.
As he stood there, unable to move, he knew that this was it. He was going to be crushed here, under the heavy weight of wood paneling, glass, and dozens and dozens of thick, leatherbound books. In the back of his mind, common sense told him to move out of the way, turn intangible, do something to protect himself, but it wasn't very loud, nor very convincing. And so he stood there.
As the bookshelf fell forward, Danny imagined that he could hear that funny whooshing sound heavy objects made when they fell on characters in cartoons. He wasn't sure if that was possible in real life, but at least it was something to pretend.
He barely registered the feeling of fingers wrapping around his waist, or leaning back against a strong arm. What did catch his attention was that, with air caught in his throat, he was whisked away from harm's way, out of the direct path of the bookshelf and brought to the side, and forced to turn in to something warm and comfortable, his perspective changing so that he couldn't even see the bookcase anymore.
He felt the heavy piece of furniture crash into the ground, causing one last rumble, and all was still again. His head was still buried in that something warm and comfortable that he was still unable to identify because his brain seemed to have been left at the spot he was in before being so abruptly brought away.
"Jesus, Fenton," he heard someone familiar say in a breathy voice. "Jesus."
A hand buried itself in his hair at the back of his head, and another hand was at his back, on the skin exposed where his shirt ended and before his pants began. Both of them were rubbing small soothing circles into him.
He was being enveloped by Dash Baxter. Dash Baxter who had him burying his face into one broad shoulder and wrapping arms around his lithe frame. Danny was barely breathing. Since he had seen the bookcase tipping over towards him, he didn't really feel like he needed to take in more than shallow breaths every few seconds.
He raised his arms to wrap them around Dash's neck, causing his shirt to ride up and expose his navel, which was pressed up against Dash's, or somewhere in the surrounding region, exposing more skin for Dash to rub circles into.
"I'm going to take him home," Danny heard Dash say softly.
"Okay," Paulina sounded as though she were trying to whisper. No one was screaming now.
Danny felt himself being pried away from the jock's muscled body, and allowed himself to be turned around so that he was facing forward again. The first thing he saw was the bookcase. The glass was shattered, most of it underneath the wooden structure, and he saw hairline cracks running through the chocolate body.
He felt Dash's arm wrapped tightly and securely around his own scrawny one, and allowed himself to be led wherever he was being taken. Truth be told, he didn't think he had the presence of mind to stop it, although it was interesting to know that he had the presence of mind to acknowledge that he didn't have the presence of mind to stop Dash from leading him outside.
And lead him outside he did. Danny felt the cool night air breeze slap his face as the door to the mansion was pushed open. He half-stumbled, half-hobbled out the threshold and down the steps. Many of the kids who had been screaming in terror inside were now out, gazing up in awe at the sky or the area around them. Danny briefly wondered if they did it because they were so glad to be alive.
Dash wrapped his arm around Danny's body. "You're shaking," he said gently.
Danny hadn't noticed. Actually, he still didn't notice. He didn't feel like he was shaking. He didn't feel anything at all. All he could do was see what was in front of him.
He barely acknowledged Dash taking off the letterman jacket, which he had put back on sometime after Danny's dance with Jennifer it seemed, for the second time that night, and, with a bit of a struggle, wrapped it around Danny.
They finally reached Dash's car. The blonde athlete quickly opened the door for Danny and helped him through it so that he was seated safely inside before hastily closing the door. It was a good thing too, for as soon as Danny had lost the support of Dash's hand pushing him into the seat, he tipped over to the side, and was held up only by the closed car door. Dash got in at the driver's seat, and, giving his charge one last concerned look, started up the ignition.
They didn't talk the whole way home. Dash was torn between rushing back to the Fenton residence so that he could take a better look at what was wrong with Danny, and have the security of the adults around, versus driving at a slow and steady pace. He didn't think Danny could handle speeding very well right now. Dash could see that he was still shaking and pale, and he was leaning against the door of the car as though he were boneless.
He sent a silent thanks when they reached the Fenton residence within good time. He shut the car off and opened the locks, but Danny, it seemed, was not as helpless as he looked. As soon as the locks popped up, he pushed the door open and although almost collapsing on the road, managed to catch himself with his hand and dragged himself out and up into a standing position on trembling legs.
"Danny—" Dash made towards him, but Danny didn't wait to listen. Dragging his feet and looking for all the world as though he were learning to walk again, the smaller boy staggered into his house, gripping the doorway for support and not bothering to close the front door behind him.
Letting out a little tsk, Dash followed Danny in, deciding to keep a distance between them so that Danny could feel safe, although really he could have easily overtaken him if he wanted, the way he was lurching about like that.
Danny was making his way up the stairs, probably to his room. His breath was ragged, probably due to overexerting himself after the shock. Dash watched him go, his throat drying, wondering what he should do. He felt a pang in his heart, pitying the poor boy, but also scared beyond belief.
Before he knew it, Danny was already near the top. He tripped and Dash shot forward in alarm, but Danny didn't stop – nor did he right himself up again. He merely continued up the stairs in a crawl.
"Danny!" Dash found his voice again, after having opened and closed his mouth soundlessly for a few moments. He took two stairs at a time, and was facing the half-opened door to Danny's bedroom in no time. The brunette seemed to have made an effort to close this one, although a very feeble one; Dash decided it was probably out of habit, teenagers usually making it a point to close their bedroom doors more than any other.
The room was dark pitch dark, what with none of the lights turned on and it being later into the night. Dash couldn't see Danny anywhere, but then he heard the sound of a light switch being turned on. The room wasn't lit up, however. But the sound of a doorknob turning caught Dash's attention and he turned to see Danny in one corner of the room, turning the doorknob to a second room. The light switch seemed to have been for that room, because it bathed the bedroom in light as the door was flung open. Dash could see that it was a bathroom, which included a bathtub at the end. Danny went through the door, but before Dash could reach him, the door was pulled shut, and Dash heard the sound of a lock being pushed into place on the other side.
Danny's heart was thumping faster than he could even remember as he leaned against the door, trying to catch his breath. Blood rushed in his ears, and he heard a vague, dim voice in his head telling him that he couldn't remember much past this night anyway.
Still, his work was not done. He felt vulnerable and exposed. His hands reached up to shield his chest, crisscrossing each other as they reached for his shoulders, wrapping himself in his own embrace. It didn't help, and his arms felt heavy, so he let them drop to his sides and turned his head to focus his tired eyes on the bathtub in the corner.
He was already slumped down against the door, so he decided to crawl over to the bathtub. It hurt more, and took a longer time, but at least he didn't have to stand up. He heard Dash yell out his name outside, banging on the bathroom door.
"Danny!" he yelled again.
'He called me Danny,' the voice in his head, sounding a little bit more like him than it had a second before, slurred, as though drunk.
Danny clambered into the bathtub, feeling irrationally marginally safer, as though the porcelain was an extra layer sheltering him from harm. And so he lay there, pressing his back as far as he could to one corner of the tub, wrapping himself in his own hug again, and trying to calm himself down long enough to make sense of what had happened tonight.
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As Danny settled down in his own makeshift haven, Dash eventually gave up trying to appeal to the boy, or calling his name out desperately trying to get some sort of response. He had pleaded for Danny to open the door, but he wasn't all too sure that his calls were heard.
And so, not daring to leave the room, he turned around and pressed his back against the door to the bathroom, much like Danny was doing against the cold bathtub, pulling his knees up against his body, resolutely waiting for him until he decided it was safe to come out again.
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Author's Note: Wow, my longest chapter yet. Don't worry, slash is coming soon.
Keep those reviews coming:D