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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The next few days after Danny had returned from the Ghost Zone, he had been oddly quiet. Sam and Tucker had tried to ask numerous times about who he had been to see, but Danny gave no straight answer and did not seem like he wanted to discuss it. A little more than slightly worried, Tucker and Sam had come to a spoken agreement to not approach the matter with Danny anymore but observe what they could from a distance. However, they weren't getting much further ahead this way either, for aside from his tendency to drift off into his quiet musings, Danny didn't seem to show any outward differences in his behavior.
"Well, none that we can pick out, anyway," Sam said.
"I think that pretty much qualifies for 'no difference', don't you?" Tucker raised his eyebrow.
"Not necessarily," Sam shook her head. "What if the reason we can't pick up any major differences in the way he's been acting is because it was gradual?"
"What do you mean 'gradual'? I think we would have noticed if one of our best friends changed."
"We keep trying to find some point in the past few days or weeks—"
"Or months," Tucker reminded.
"—or months," Sam added, "when Danny suddenly started acting so mysterious, but it might not have worked out that way. What if this has been going on longer, bit by bit? You never notice a gentle slope the way you would a steep drop."
"Might I remind you, Sam, that we don't even know what we're looking for?" Tucker pulled open the refrigerator door and pulled out one of the sodas that the Mansons' kept their house so well-stocked with. "I mean, so he doesn't want to talk about something with us. Who cares? I don't tell you guys everything."
"When has Danny ever not told us anything about the Ghost Zone?" Sam argued. "And I don't think he's even bothered to think about checking up on Walker to see if he's gotten anything out of Bullet yet."
"Sam, there guys are immortal," Tucker said in a reasonable voice. "You can't exactly rush these things with a death threat."
"Maybe not," Sam said determinedly, "but Walker has only ever dealt with ghosts, and he's broken all of them until now. I don't care what you say, this just isn't right."
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Before turning the corner and heading for his car, Danny took care to poke his head out slightly and peek around to see if Dash was there. It had become practice for him now, even though it had only been a few days since their last encounter, for Danny to take every corner slowly, making sure that the coast was clear.
He hated this. He hated how he had been reduced to a pile of quivering nerves, forcing himself to always look around for signs of the other boy. Danny was quite sure that if he didn't have the power to turn invisible and intangible at will, he would have had to train himself to look for possible hiding places wherever he went. As it were walking in crowded spaces already filled him with dread – it was always hard to suddenly disappear in the middle of a crowded hallway; one never knew who was watching.
Just as he had made it to the car, his cellphone rang. Danny pulled it out of his pocket and frowned at the number. It wasn't one that had been programmed into the address book, and he didn't recall ever seeing it before. Apprehension filling him, he accepted the call. "Hello?"
"Danny?" He winced.
Squinting his eyes, he asked, "Kwan? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me," Kwan replied.
"Why are you shouting?" Danny asked, holding the phone a little further away from his ear.
"Sorry, it was a little noisy," Kwan said. "I'm in the locker room, and you know how these guys get."
A small frown came over Danny's face. He hadn't heard any noises in the background.
"Anyway, I have to go to practice now," Kwan said. "I'm coming over later, right?"
"Um …" Danny glanced around. "Yeah, I guess. You aren't going to bring Dash with you, are you?"
"No," Kwan said, then quickly added, "not unless you want me to."
"No!" Danny's voice came out a little louder than he had intended.
"Okay," Kwan said. "I'll see you later then."
Hanging up, Danny got into the car, pulling out and driving home. His mind filled with little flashes of the issues that currently plagued him all the way there, switching from his yet-to-be-fulfilled decision to try out for the school paper, the obsession the ghosts seemed to have with the Plasmius soul, as Sam had dubbed it, and – though he had tried his hardest not to – Dash.
His mind constructed a sort of timeline about their relationship. He briefly thought of how they had met in first grade, when everyone had been pretty much been lumped into considering each other as friends, third when they for a few months been on the same side in soccer in the third grade, Dash's eventual disinterest in having anything to do with him and his friends and vice-versa, their sudden obsession with cliques and popularity – or rather, Danny corrected himself, Dash's obsession with cliques and popularity; he and Tucker weren't as indifferent to it as Sam was, but he was sure Dash and his group concerned themselves with the shallowness of it all far more than they did – how as they grew older, they had eventually become punching bags for Dash and his fellow physically-mature friends; and now after all of that, they had been forced to be around each other constantly again, and it had resulted—
Danny blushed when he thought of all the things he and Dash had done since Paulina's party. Memories of sleeping in Dash's arms, sometimes wrapping the bigger boy in his own as well, staying up all night, almost never leaving his room for days on end floated around in his head along with even more embarrassing memories of the two of them touching, his unexplainable desire to touch that body, the more shocking event of how Dash done more than hint at wanting to go even further than they had already … he had to stop this.
About as soon as he had caught himself, he started to get lost in thoughts about Dash again. The image of the jock pulling Danny's hand to touch the front of his, Dash's, boxers filled his mind again, repeatedly. And finally his thoughts landed to what Frostbite had told him the other day, about how matters of the heart were more complicated to deal with – did he really think that, that Danny's problem was a matter of the heart? Sure, it looked bad, Danny reasoned, but to go that far was unreasonable.
It wasn't until he opened the front door to the house that he realized that he had spent the entire car trip thinking about Dash.
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When the doorbell rang, Danny had numbed his mind with a good hour and a half's worth of mindless television, so when he opened it, it took a few moments to register that he was staring up into the faces of both Dash and Kwan.
Danny gave Kwan a very dirty look, who had the decency to give a sheepish look in response. Danny half-considered slamming the door shut in their faces, but instead reluctantly stepped aside to let them in.
When Kwan brushed past, Danny grabbed on to his wrist, pulling him down to his level, the same stony look on his face. "Why did you bring him here?" he asked in a harsh whisper.
"He wanted to talk to you!" Kwan said defensively. "What could I do?"
"You told me you wouldn't bring him!"
"He was sitting next to me," Kwan said. "Who do you think told me to call?"
Danny rolled his eyes in disgust. The boy was absolutely useless.
Dash placed his hand on Danny's shoulder. "Can I talk to you?" he asked imperiously.
Danny almost said no, but knew it wouldn't fly. Grudgingly, he allowed Dash to lead them into the kitchen, so that Kwan wouldn't be around to witness their conversation.
"You have got to stop this," Dash said at once.
"What?" Danny said shrilly, though he knew perfectly well what Dash was talking about.
"This whole avoiding me thing," Dash replied. "It's not going to work."
"Worked fine until now," Danny shot back.
The look that crossed Dash's face just then suggested that he was dealing with a difficult child.
"You know, you were the one who started touching me," he said in a harsh whisper. Danny stared. He knew this of course, but he hadn't expected Dash to say it. "You're the one who started all of this," he continued. "I just wanted to finish it and get out, but if we want to be able to get on with our lives and leave each other alone, then we're going to have to get through this together – and we can't do that if you keep avoiding me."
Danny chewed on the inside of his cheek, arms crossed, an unyielding look on his face.
Dash sighed. "Please?"
"Fine," Danny bit out. He kept his glowering eyes on Dash's as he walked out of the kitchen, his mind saying to the other boy, 'But you keep your hands off me.'
When they walked back into the living room, Kwan quickly turned his head around to face the television, pretending like he hadn't been watching for them. Despite himself, Danny gave a wry smile. Dash gave his friend a displeased look. They sat down on either side of Kwan, watching as he channel-surfed through the hundreds of channels they received.
"So … what did you guys talk about?" Kwan asked without taking his eyes off the flickering screen.
"Nothing," they replied in unison. Kwan's eyes darted between them.
"Did you work everything out?"
"There was nothing to work out," Dash said in an irritated voice.
Kwan allowed a small smile at the way his friend spoke.
"So, Danny, are you coming to Paulina's party tomorrow?" he asked, and raised his eyebrows when Danny said "No," on his right as Dash said "Yes," on his left. They glared at each other again.
"No, I'm not," Danny enunciated.
"Yes, you are," Dash said just as firmly.
They immediately started bickering. Kwan leaned back into the couch, watching in something akin to fascination as they leaned forward to growl at each other in front of his frame.
"You said that you were going to make this work," Dash said accusatorily.
"No, I didn't, I said I would stop avoiding you," Danny scoffed. "That doesn't mean I have to go to that party."
"Oh, what are you whining about, Fenton, going to it will still be the best thing you did all through high school," Dash sneered.
Whatever they had planned to say to each other next was cut short as Kwan pressed his open palms against their faces, exasperated. "You two need to stop," he said, seeing the shock written on their faces. "Since I got here, all I've seen is you two at each others throats."
Dash pushed Kwan's arm away. "Whatever," he muttered. Danny pulled away as well, and the two of them continued to watch the show silently, leaning to the edges of the couch so that they were as far from each other as possible.
"You're going to that party," Dash said.
Danny opened his mouth to object but Kwan quickly placed his hand over it again.
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"And tell me exactly why you don't want to go to Paulina's party again?" Tucker couldn't believe his ears.
"Obviously, he's seen the light and come to his senses," Sam sounded proud. "Good for you, Danny,"
Danny scowled. "No," he said over the phone. After Kwan and Dash had left for the day, he had called Tucker and Sam to come over. Unfortunately, as Tucker was meant to follow his family to dinner that night and Sam was waiting for an important phone call – "is it from Winston?" Tucker had asked, rather insensitively, to which Sam had insisted "No!" loudly – they couldn't make it. "It's just that the less I see of Dash, the better."
"Remind me again what it was that Dash did to you that was so bad?" Tucker asked. "You went from loving him to hating his guts again pretty quickly." To his annoyance, Danny found his face heating up at Tucker's words.
"Nothing," he brushed it off quickly. "Just, you know, didn't want to get too close, he's not the best guy to have around, and I'm kind of sick of seeing him around, you know." He said it so quickly and his voice lowered with embarrassment as he said it so that that the words came out quite slurred.
There was a moment of silence.
"Uh, okay," Sam said awkwardly.
More to get them off the topic than anything else, Danny said, "Hey, Sam, if you're expecting a call, aren't we holding you up?"
"No," Sam replied. "They won't call for about another half-hour."
"'They'? Who are 'they'?" Danny tossed himself on his bed carelessly, cordless phone pressed against his ear.
"Oh," Sam sounded a bit nervous, "um, a rep from Princeton is going to have a phone interview with me at nine. It's part of the requirement for my acceptance."
Danny didn't say anything. Somehow, even though the fact that he had missed his chance with Sam, and that she was going away to college had been omnipresent in his mind, he had managed to push the fact that it was going to happen soon away.
He chewed his lip. "Well, good luck," he said, hoping to sound indifferent.
"Thanks," Sam said.
There was another pause.
"So, Tuck, why are you going out with your parents?" Danny asked.
Tucker hesitated. "I got an acceptance letter today," he said apologetically. "My parents want to celebrate."
Danny blinked. "Oh!" he said lightly, trying his best to sound happy. "That's great! That's really great!" He faltered.
"Thanks," Tucker said uncomfortably. "It's just this lame thing, they want to make a big deal, something about cherishing family dinners and stuff like that—"
"No, no, that's great," Danny assured. "Um, where to?"
"Just that fancy restaurant downtown with all the menus in French and English subtitles," Tucker replied.
"No, I mean which school was it?"
"Oh," Tucker said. "University of Chicago."
"That's really great news, Tuck," Sam said. "Congratulations."
"Yeah, great news," Danny echoed.
"Yeah," Tucker said. "Listen, my dad's calling, and I don't want to keep them waiting, so..."
"Yeah, okay," Danny said quietly.
"I'd better go too, Danny," Sam told him. "My parents want to rehearse some possible questions the rep's going to use with them before he or she calls—"
"Oh, yeah, great," Danny said quickly. Why couldn't he stop repeating that word? "Good luck."
"Thanks," they said before hanging up.
It took a few seconds for the smile Danny had forced on his face to slide off. "Great," he repeated, feeling suddenly robbed. "Really great."
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Despite his claims that he did not want to attend the party, when he opened his closet the next day to pick out something appropriate, Danny couldn't help feeling a small tingle of excitement. This was dampened soon enough by the fact that he couldn't find anything he wanted to wear.
His eyes fell on the outfit he had worn last time – a week ago; it felt like a lifetime since then – and he gave a little shudder. He didn't want to make that mistake again.
This meant having to go to the mall. Immediately, he thought of calling Tucker and Sam; he had left the cordless phone in his room, having stared up at the ceiling for hours after his last phone call, and had drifted off to sleep before returning it to the kitchen, but the thought of hanging out with them so soon afterwards made him feel as though his stomach were made of ice.
'Still,' he thought, 'they'd probably kill me if I didn't call to ask how their night went.' His hand had halfway reached the phone when he decided better of it and pulled it back. He wasn't that interested in finding out how excited they were about leaving Amity Park, or how well Sam's phone interview with Princeton had been. They were crazy if they thought he was going to call.
He went downstairs, and to the kitchen where his parents were enjoying a late breakfast. "Don't you guys have to go to work?" he asked.
"Hey, inventors need days off too," his father said cheerily.
"Right," Danny replied. He placed the phone back on the receiver. "I'm going to the mall," he told them in an offhanded kind of way.
"Alright," his mother said. "Are you going to have lunch there?"
Danny checked his watch. "Probably," he replied. "And I'm going to a party later. A friend's picking me up."
"What time?" his dad asked.
Danny hadn't bothered to ask Dash what time the party was, or if he was in fact going to pick him up at all. He had just assumed that it would be like it was last week.
"About nine, I guess," he said. "See you."
Walking to his car, he sent a message to Dash's cellphone, telling him that he had to be picked up if he was to go to the party, and asked what time did Dash plan to come. He had only just started the engine when his phone beeped, and he opened the message. It just read "9". Danny smirked and pulled out.
Driving there, Danny wasn't able to keep his worries down; Dash was his ride to the party and back. All though it wasn't likely for the events that took place last week to happen again, it still didn't mean that Dash would not be expecting to stay over. What if they got home really late and the blonde decided it would be easier to just stay over at the Fenton residence than to drive back home?
'It's a small town,' Danny told himself. If Dash wanted to stay over at his place, he could simply remind him that his own house wasn't too far away. It was a little cold, but then again, he and Dash had always been cold to each other before this.
When he entered the parking lot, he drove around trying to find an available spot. Finally, he spotted a car pulling out, and tapped his fingers impatiently.
'I feel like a girl,' he thought to himself while pulling shirts off the rack. He couldn't believe that he was buying yet another outfit for a party. He couldn't help it though; nothing he owned looked suitable for a rich kid's party. And were they ever rich. He remembered the fine clothes some of them had worn and remembered thinking how it must have cost a fortune.
A few attempts later, Danny found a shirt that was within his budget and passable. As he went to the counter to pay for it, he found that he wasn't quite sure what made the shirt better than the rest; it looked like a typical dress-up shirt, but seemed to be of better quality than anything he currently owned, which he supposed, made all the difference.
Feeling slightly emasculated, he walked out of the shop, still cringing at the slight smirk the female cashier had given him as she bagged his purchase, and wandered to his right, in the direction of the food court. He doubled back, however, when he spotted a familiar figure in the crowd. Kwan was standing there with his hands inside his pockets casually, back turned to Danny, though the ghost-boy could still see his profile.
"Kwan!" he greeted, walking over to him. Kwan turned his head in the direction of his call. Danny frowned when he saw the bigger boy mask the intense look on his face. "Hey, what's up?"
"Nothing," Kwan said in a casual voice. "Just hanging out. What are you doing here?"
Danny held up the plastic bag in his hand in response. "For tonight's party."
"Oh," Kwan nodded.
"I was just about to get something to eat, do you want to come?" Danny offered.
"Sure, I suppose," Kwan shrugged.
They weren't in any hurry, so the two of them walked slowly in silence. Danny's eyes darted around, taking in the sight and also keeping an eye on Kwan. When they reached the food court, Danny went to order a chili dog, while Kwan stood beside him dourly. Danny turned to him.
"Aren't you going to order anything?" he asked.
"No," Kwan replied.
'Another mystery.' Danny recalled when Kwan had refused to drink anything at Paulina's party last week. Was he going off food? If so, why? "Have a drink at least," he insisted.
"I'm really not—" Kwan stopped his protests when he saw the look on his friend's face. "Fine," he sighed, "I'll just have a soda." He pointed to one of the selections. The guy behind the stand, who looked to be in his early twenties, gave a curt nod and went to fill their orders. He came back with a tray bearing a slightly steaming chili dog for Danny, and a cup of soda for each of them. Danny paid the man, and carried the tray over to the first available table he found.
Through the meal, Danny kept his eyes on Kwan, who sipped at the drink sparingly.
"What?" Kwan frowned at him.
Danny shook his head and looked down at the hot dog in his hands hurriedly. "Nothing," he said. Kwan didn't reply.
"So, do you need a ride back?" he asked. "Because I brought my car."
"No, thanks," Kwan replied. "I'll find my way back."
Danny nodded again. The silence was highly disconcerting.
"Well," he squirmed a little in his chair, "I guess I'll go then. Got some stuff to do before the party."
"Yes," Kwan replied vaguely. "See you."
Walking away, Danny whipped out his cellphone and wrote quick messages to Sam and Tucker.
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Sam had been highly displeased to find out that this was what Danny had dragged her out of bed on Saturday for.
"It was almost two in the afternoon when I messaged you!" Danny cried defensively.
"Yeah, but you know how much I cherish my Saturday sleep," Sam said crossly. "And I had a late night last night."
Danny deflated a bit. He took that to mean that Sam's interview had gone well. Of course, a little voice told him, it could also have meant that it went horribly and she had stayed up all night until she passed out from exhaustion after crying her eyes out.
"So how did your interview go?" he asked, a hint of hopefulness in his voice.
"Great," Sam folded her arms. "My grandmother and I celebrated after it was done."
Danny's bad mood returned.
"And what about you?" he almost barked at Tucker, who was lying on his bed with one leg tossed carelessly over the other. "Did you have a late night celebrating too?"
"No, not too much," Tucker replied, unfazed. "I did spend some time going through the university website after dinner though."
"Getting back to the question at hand," Sam said pointedly, drawing Danny's attention back to her, "what's the big deal about Kwan this time?"
Danny stared up at her. "I – he – I don't know, he was creepy!" he said.
Sam rolled her eyes disgustedly. "Not this again," she said.
"I am serious here," Danny asserted.
"Okay," Sam leaned against the dressing table, arms crossed over her chest, staring down at Danny, who was leaning forward in his chair, "tell me, what is it that Kwan did that was so wrong?"
He was really starting to hate these types of questions. What had he done, really, to warrant such mistrust in his judgment from his friends?
"You weren't there," he said. "It wasn't just what he said—"
"You mean it was the way he said it?" Tucker supplied.
"It was the whole atmosphere of it," Danny clarified. "You should have seen the way he talked, and acted."
"Okay, and how did he talk and act?" Sam was still unconvinced.
"You had to be there," Danny said stubbornly.
Sam closed her eyes. "Danny, we've been through a lot of stuff together, so believe me when I tell you this—" she leaned forward gripped either sides of his chair, drawing close, "—you are being really stupid right now. Instead of focusing on what Kwan may be up to, why don't you go into the Ghost Zone and see what Walker is up to? I can't believe you've gone this long without checking up on the situation with Bullet."
"Walker said not to disturb him until he cracked Bullet and that he would come see me when he did," Danny reminded her.
"Oh, and that's all it takes to get you to trust him?" Sam asked.
Danny didn't reply. The truth was, he was sick of ghosts. He knew it was irresponsible for him to leave the situation in Walker's hands, completely unsupervised, but since Vlad had entrusted his ghost half with him, he had been bombarded with their attacks, and was tired of having to deal with it. The confusion and the drama he currently had going on with Dash, as sick as it was to say it, a kind of relief, being able to get in touch with his human life, and awful though the situation was, he felt reluctant to shelve it away to go back into the Ghost Zone again and find out what was going on.
"Fine," he replied. "I'll go check."
Sam gave a firm nod.
"After the party," he added.
She blew a lock of hair out of her face, irritated. "Fine," she said. "I don't get why you don't care about this, but fine." Danny pressed his feet against the floor and pushed the chair a few inches away from her hold.
Sam straightened up. "Well, if you're getting ready for the party, maybe we should just go," she said.
"The party's not for another six hours," Danny said.
"Maybe, but we know you need to start working on that beauty regimen," Sam smirked. Danny gave her a look that clearly said he didn't find it funny.
"Stay with me for a while," he requested. He looked at Tucker. "Please?" Right now, the only thing he wanted was to spend as much time with them as possible. All year they'd been drifting further away, getting caught up with their own lives; now with their futures that much more secure, it was more clear to Danny now than ever that he had to hold on to his friends as long as he had them and make the most of it.
Sam and Tucker shared a look, and Danny could tell that his appeal had softened them somewhat.
"Oh, alright then," Sam said fondly. "What are you going to wear to the party?"
Danny gave a slow smile. "You know what? I don't really want to talk about the party right now."
"Really?" Tucker raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah," Danny said nonchalantly. "Seems like all I do anymore is talk about the popular kids." He grinned. "Why don't we start planning our hike up to Castle's Point instead?"
Tucker let out a loud groan at the mention of the word 'hike'. Danny and Sam snickered, and dug for some paper and a pen to make their inventory.
They worked all the way through the afternoon, making jokes, teasing each other, tossing ideas on what would make the trip absolutely perfect. It was the best time Danny had had with his friends in a long time.
"Can't you just fly us up there?" Tucker asked.
"No!" Danny and Sam exclaimed together, sharing a grin. "The aching legs is all part of the experience."
Tucker rolled his eyes. "Experience, he says," he muttered. He reached down into his pocket when his cellphone rang. "Hello?"
The other two watched as his brow furrowed in confusion when he tried to make sense of what the person on the other end of the line was saying. "What?"
There was another pause, and Tucker said uncertainly, "Oh … alright. Yeah. Yeah, I'll be right there." He hung up the phone. "That was my mother," he said. "They're waiting for me to get home. There's some sort of celebration going on."
"I thought you guys celebrated last night," Danny pointed out.
"Yeah, but they invited the rest of the family over," Tucker said. "They wanted to throw me a surprise party, and my mom wants me to get home because they're all waiting."
He scrambled to his feet, Danny and Sam doing the same to follow him to the door. "Sorry, guys, we'll have to finish this another time."
"Don't worry about it," Sam assured. They went downstairs together. "Can you get home okay?"
"Yeah, sure," Tucker said absent-mindedly. "See you tomorrow, or something."
He departed, and Danny and Sam were left standing by the open door in silence. Danny cleared his throat.
"So, uh," Sam started.
"Yeah," Danny resisted the urge to shuffle his feet.
"I guess I'd better be going home too," Sam excused herself. "And you'd better be getting ready for the party. Dash will be here in less than hour."
"Right," Danny nodded, pulling the door open wider for her. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Or something," Sam quipped. Danny smiled.
Danny bit the inside of cheek for almost a full minute after she turned the corner before closing the door. He checked the clock and cringed.
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When Dash arrived, Danny's hair had hardly even dried yet. The jock signaled his arrival by honking the car's powerful horn twice.
"Danny, I'm not quite sure I approve of this," his mother frowned, peeking out the curtains. "He's not even getting out of the car."
"Aw, come on, Maddie," Jack chided her. "He's just giving Danny a ride to the party. It's not like they're going on a date or anything."
The comb leapt out of Danny's hand and clattered to the floor. He quickly bent down and picked it up again, visibly flustered. His parents didn't notice.
"Know what time you're getting back, son?" Jack asked, joining his wife by the window and peeking out at the jock waiting coolly in his car.
"No," Danny said truthfully.
"Atta boy," Jack winked, giving Danny a nudge in the shoulder. Maddie giggled.
"Have fun, Danny," she chirped.
"I will mom," he replied tonelessly.
Dash kept his eyes on Danny when he slid into the passenger seat, and they flickered to the window, where Jack and Maddie Fenton were still watching them dotingly.
"Um..."
"Please, don't ask," Danny muttered. Dash turned his head back to face the road and turned on the engine. Danny waved goodbye to his parents as they sped off.
There was a tense silence between them. Dash, Danny saw, kept trying to catch his eye, obviously not comfortable with it, but Danny relished it. He had no desire to speak to Dash, and even if he did, Tucker and Sam's abrupt departure earlier left him with little desire to talk.
"Nice shirt," Dash commented. Danny grunted in response.
Clearly put out by this, he drove without making any further attempts to communicate.
There seemed to be even more people at the party than there were last week, if the number of cars parked around the vicinity was any indication. Danny checked his watch; it wasn't even nine-thirty. Weren't these people supposed to be fashionably late?
Thankfully, after circling the block once they found one of the cars directly across the Sanchez residence pulling out, and immediately claimed the spot. Dash parked and they got out and walked to the house side-by-side without looking at or speaking to each other.
The first thing Danny noticed when they got to the porch was the huge hairline crack running up the wall on the left. Both he and Dash spared glances at it, then the taller boy knocked on the door. It opened after a moment's delay to reveal Paulina looking exquisite in a light pink slinky dress.
"Hello," she greeted them enthusiastically, a seductive smile on her lips.
"Hey, Paulina," Dash greeted with a small smile on his face. Danny raised his hand to give a small wave. The tingle of excitement he had felt about the party when he had been looking for something to wear that afternoon had all but dissolved entirely.
Paulina allowed them in. Danny looked around and noticed people, most of whom he had seen at last week's party, milling about talking and laughing. No one had started to dance yet though; he supposed it must have been too early.
'Doesn't this girl have parents?' he felt a twinge of annoyance. He had no idea why he felt this bad, but the party and the popular kids were seriously starting to get on his nerves. "Where are your folks, anyway?" he asked.
Paulina raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. "They're out," she said. "Why do you care?"
Danny shrugged. "Just asking."
"Don't be a loser, Fenton," he heard Dash mutter beside him.
Danny ignored him.
"Drinks are over there," Paulina nodded to a large table. Again, the punch bowl was out, but unlike last time, no one was milling about it. Instead, Danny saw his classmates reaching for cups and filling them with—
"Vodka?" Dash offered as they reached the table.
Danny gazed at the bottle half-full of clear liquid before him. He had tried drinking before of course, but those feeble experiments had consisted of him, Sam and Tucker hanging out in the park with the six-pack of beer Sam had sneaked out of her house. Her parents, upper-crust WASPs that they were, kept the house well-stocked with various kinds of alcohol which they kept vigilant eyes on, combined with the fact that all three of them were underage and therefore could not buy their own liquor, and as self-appointed protectors of the ghost-ridden town who couldn't afford to be caught without their wits, meant that beer was about as far as the three of them had ever gone before.
Guiltily Danny reflected back on his promise to his friends to keep an eye out for trouble tonight so that nothing would go wrong. Hating himself, he shook his head at Dash's offer.
Dash shrugged, and poured himself a shot, and downed it in one go. People close by cheered loudly for their quarterback. Unnoticed, Danny quietly slipped past the crowd that was beginning to gather.
As the party went on, Danny continued to refrain himself from the proceedings by walking around the house, eyeing the little possessions that decorated the place, shaking his head politely when some random jock or cheerleader called for him to join them.
Eventually, however, he grew bored of distracting himself with such things – Paulina's mother, he discovered, had a surprisingly tacky taste – and decided to step outside for some fresh air. His ears pricked up at once to better catch the sound of thunderous steps belonging to gigantic ghosts, but all was still.
He shivered slightly and released cold breath. It was past eleven now, he had wasted the whole party away. Glumly, he folded his arms, burying his hands in the crook of each arm, and crossed the street to lean against the car.
It was only a couple of minutes later that an orange glow bathed him when Paulina's front door opened and Dash stepped outside. Spotting Danny, he walked over to him. "Hey," he said. Danny raised his head in greeting. Dash surveyed how he stood against the car. "You know we're not leaving yet, right?" he asked.
"I know," Danny replied, but did not move away. Dash nodded. Danny was very impressed by how steady the blonde was on his feet after all that drinking. He had not even seen Dash wobble as he crossed the street to meet him. "You must have incredibly high tolerance," he complimented.
Dash gave him a wry grin. "I didn't drink as much as you thought I did."
"Really?" Danny was genuinely surprised to hear that. In order to avoid temptation, he had done his best not to watch the other kids around the drinks, but had assumed that they had all been downing shots as Dash had done with that first drink of vodka.
"Really," Dash confirmed. "It's freezing out here."
"I know."
Dash pulled out from within his coat a box of cigarettes and a lighter. He opened the box and offered it to Danny. Danny stared.
"I didn't know you smoke."
"Not often," Dash's hand retracted a quarter of an inch. "I can't get into the habit if I want to be on the team." He pulled out a stick, and lit it up, taking a drag, holding it a moment, his eyes half-lidded and fixated on Danny, who was watching him back with a look he couldn't quite place, a mixture of demureness and something else, the smile of his face somewhat bashful but something darker he couldn't yet place. He breathed out, smoke blowing in Danny's direction, who turned slightly away so that it did not blow directly into his face, though his eyes drifted to the edges so that they were still on him.
Danny reached out and plucked the cigarette out of his limp fingers. He brought the stick to his lips and took a puff, and blew it out.
"Not bad," Dash remarked. He had thought the boy would choke. Danny gave him a half-grin.
"You're not the only one who's tried stuff out," he said.
"Manson's influence, right?" Dash took the cigarette back. Danny shook his head slowly.
"Valerie's," he corrected. "Sam's Goth. She's not stupid."
Dash grinned.
The coyness had slipped out of Danny's face entirely now and he watched Dash with an appraising look o his face. They stood there so close to each other, sharing the cigarette between them in the cold air. The wall that had been between them earlier was gone, and for the first time in days, he allowed himself to appreciate Dash's magnificent form. Frostbite's words returned to him, 'The matters of the heart aren't so easy to deal with,' but for the first time, the insinuation didn't feel like a crushing blow to him.
Dash for his part found the look he had earlier been unable to identify on Danny's face earlier become clearer with each passing second. He recognized it now for some vague form of passion, not lust, or he would have known it from the beginning. It was a kind of wanton gaze.
Danny leaned against the car again more than before, as though pasting himself against it, the look on his eyes still so incredibly intense. Dash moved forward to give him the cigarette but halfway there it was half-forgotten. Danny didn't move away – not that there was much space to maneuver in anyway, and growing smaller all the time.
Brazenly, Danny placed his hand on Dash's hip. Dash placed his hand over it, and with only a momentary second thought, flicked the cigarette to the ground. Danny made an annoyed little sound; he had still wanted to take another drag. In a moment though, it was forgotten, when Dash cupper his other hand in his and brought them up to Danny's forehead where they brushed away the hair that had fallen to his eye. The two of them were pressed up against the car now, their legs spread so that they rested comfortably. Dash inhaled deeply, feeling one of Danny's leg against his stirring crotch.
Danny's lips were slightly parted, and his breaths were louder too. Directing the brunette's hand, still cupped within his own, away from the spot it had been to rest against the hood of the car. Their faces drew closer together than ever before, and after a moment, Dash leaned forward, and Danny tilted his head slightly, and their lips met.
Though he had never thought about what it would have been like, the kiss seemed to somehow be completely different from anything Danny had expected. There was no surge of electricity, and there were no explosions or fireworks. The only thing that was there was absolute silence, the feeling of Dash's lips against his own somehow more muted than he thought a kiss would have been, with occasional throbbing running through his body.
He felt Dash's lips open, and opened his own slightly more as well. Dash's thin lips rose to Danny's top lip and closed over it. It was only when Dash's lips parted open again that Danny's breath escaped him.
He arched into Dash's body when he felt his calloused hands wrapped around him, clasping together around his back. He let out a small moan.
Dash's lips drifted from his own and to his right cheeks, pressing a soft one right next to his lip, then trailing downwards with butterfly kisses until he reached Danny's neck. Danny's hands reached up, running his fingers through Dash's gelled-back hair as the blonde busied himself against Danny's throat, between pulses and veins, slanting his head to an almost horizontal angle and then back again. Their erections pressed against the other's leg. Finally, Dash couldn't take it any longer, and changed his angle to that their bodies were more aligned, their hard lengths touching through the material of their pants.
And just like that, the kiss grew all the more urgent. Their heads practically touched, but for the opportunity it presented him, Dash didn't lean for a kiss, mostly because his body was – almost involuntarily at this point – grinding against Danny, his knees bending and then straightening again as he went up and down, the both of them feeling pleasure emanating from every part of them, especially between their legs where it all seemed to stem from.
Danny's breathing was cracked, and his brain was broken, it seemed, for it was barely comprehensible to him that just a few hours ago, just a few minutes ago he had been cold towards this man, and now here was being moved into positions by him as though he were boneless. With what little presence of mind he had left, he murmured into Dash's ear, "Not here." His hand dropped from the roof limply to his side and then fumbled for a few seconds before phasing through the metal and unlocking the door manually from the inside, then pulling it open.
Dash and he stumbled back, still attached to each other, and then Dash was pushing him backwards until they fell into the backseat.
Danny pulled himself further inside by the elbows, his already overly-sensitized body tingling even more as it dragged against the feel of Dash's body on top of him and the upholstery below. Dash crawled in after him, closing the door loudly. At the sound, a muscle in Danny's cheek twitched, as though common sense had been trying to jolt its way back into his brain, but the next moment, Dash had put his arm around Danny's shoulder and stared into his eyes, as though he must have known what the brunette was thinking and was waiting for him to make the next move, and Danny felt the unbelievable chemistry between them surge through his veins and into his head again.
Dash did nothing, so this time Danny was the one who leaned forward, closing his eyes, and captured the athlete's lips with his own. At the feel of Danny's lips pressed against his own again, Dash visibly relaxed and sank into the kiss. It started out slow again, as though they were starting all over, but the need they had just felt a moment ago had not dissipated in the least. Within moments, the kisses became as frantic as they had been before they had entered the car. As they clashed against each other, Danny could feel Dash's fingers ghosting about his skin at the hem of his shirt and a thigh.
There was so little air in the world he thought he would die.
Like he were a rag doll, Dash gripped his hips tightly – so much so he thought that finger-shaped bruises may have been left there – and hoisted him to sit on his strong parted legs. Danny's lips were swollen and bruised, and he was panting. He was sure he must have looked a sight.
Dash pulled him in for another round of kisses, one firm hand holding him in place by the back of his head, and the other fumbling around for the zipper to his pants and sliding it down before digging inside past his boxers. Danny let out a cry, breaking apart from Dash's crushing kisses when he felt the strong hand wrap around his rigid piece.
He didn't open his eyes, afraid now more than ever that anything he did would break this, whatever this was, and for as long as he had been fighting against it, he never wanted it to end. His sweaty forehead rested against Dash's damp one, the both of them breathing and so close to each other; Danny felt the other man's hot breath touch him.
His body shuddered as he felt Dash's hand, so different from his own, caressing him, stroking in an upwards motion and flicking his thumb around the head of Danny's cock that caused him to let out an involuntary shout of pleasure the first time he felt it and several times thereafter.
Though he had promised himself not to, Danny couldn't resist opening his eyes. Dash's face was still so close by, still connected to him as their foreheads touched. His light blue eyes seemed slightly unfocused with pleasure, darkened, and his eyes were sort of half-lidded. He seemed to be trying to stare at Danny's face while staring at the stroking motions his hand was doing at the same time.
Danny's hips bucked involuntarily, and forced him to shift a little bit closer in Dash's lap, where he felt the hardness still trapped in those confining jeans completely ignored while Dash paid his attentions on him. Danny drew in a harsh breath to steel himself against what he was about to do; his tongue darted out to wet his lips and extended far enough to briefly touch Dash's own top lip as well. Determinedly, he reached one hand, which he found had been wrapped around Dash's neck all this while, down to the fly of his jeans, and undid it.
Danny's then fished around inside until he found what he was looking for. He let out a shaky breath when he felt it, running his fingertip hesitantly down the length of it, the others cupping and feeling his balls. Dash's breath hitched, and for a moment stopped moving, and then Danny pulled it out, three fingers delicately making a pumping action then went about a quarter of an inch. Resolving his mind, he wrapped his fingers around it firmly and began to stroke it in a way that he had grown well-practiced in over the years. He wanted to make Dash feel as good as he was feeling right now.
Dash let out a guttural moan, and Danny felt the edges of a smirk on his face. Dash leaned his head forwards and kissed him again. Using this momentary distraction, he pulled Danny even closer to him so that their cocks brushed up against one another. This sensation brought Danny's attention back to the matter at hand, and he glanced down.
Dash had grown inspired from their actions earlier before entering the car. Keeping his eyes focused on Danny's, he reached between them and gripped first himself and then the other boy. Danny's face flushed with lustful pleasure as he let out a moan of appreciation and approval when he felt the combined pleasure of this new act.
Dash breathed harshly, arching his back against the car seat. Danny, without thinking, joined Dash in his stroking, wrapping his hand around the both of them, and around Dash's fist slightly too, fully encompassing them as Dash had been unable to do by himself.
Sweat trickled down their bodies, the car with its windows drawn up threatening to suffocate them. The two of them no longer pressed their foreheads together, and as a result, one of the sweat beads from Danny's forehead dropped down to land upon the heads of their sexes, resting there as they slowly pumped, serving to underscore the filthiness of the situation. Danny found it sexier than he ever thought he would as the sweat drop that had come from him previously was shaken and forced off the tips of their organs to roll down the shafts and onto their fingers as their thrusts increased as they got closer and closer to their breaking points.
They didn't speak, but each felt close to the point. Danny and Dash looked back at each other as their hands kept moving together like a well-timed machine. Danny reached his breaking point first, tossing his head back and letting out a soft groan as he climaxed. This stimulated Dash to pump even faster, which not only caused Danny's orgasm to feel all the more intense, but also to have his body rack with pleasure when he felt Dash's continued stimulations on his sensitive organ. Soon after, Dash groaned with release too, his seed spilling over their hands as Danny's had done, some shots going off a little bit.
The two boys remained in their positions, huffing and trying to recover after the intensity of what had happened. Danny's throat felt dry, and Dash looked worn out. Not completely sure if it was acceptable to do so, Danny slumped forward, taking care to avoid their sticky hands, still wrapped together, their flaccid penises still exposed, neither taking the initiative to fix themselves up. As soon as his head touched Dash's shoulder, Dash's unstained hand came to wrap around his shoulder, and Dash pressed a faint kiss to his temple.
Unknown to them, as they had fallen into the car and locked themselves in, they had been watched from afar.
"Isn't that sweet?" Paulina cooed from her balcony a small smile playing on her lips. "It's like a fairytale."
Kwan stood next to her, gazing at the slightly rocking car a bit more apprehensively. "Does this sort of thing happen very often in fairytales?" he asked skeptically.
Paulina paused a moment to consider, a finger on her lips. "I think they do in the Anne Rice versions," she offered.
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Author's Note: I'm sorry I took so long with this update. I figured I had been posting chapters so often that I deserved to have a little break in between, so I took a nice long one and enjoyed the beginning of 2007. To all of you, I know I'm over two months late, but Happy New Year!
I hope you're happy with this update, it's my longest chapter yet. I would gladly appreciate reviews, and thanks everyone who reviewed all the previous chapters.
I think I made this chapter quite discreet considering the raise in rating. I'm a bit nervous considering previous ban on NC-17 stories, I'm not entirely sure how the M rating differs from that. I have seen stories on here before where sex scenes have been described, so I assume it's allowed. If anyone has any points they would like to clarify for me regarding this topic, I would greatly appreciate it, because I don't want to risk this story getting banned and deleted. Thanks for your help.