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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Dash spent the rest of the week at the Fenton residence much to Jack and Maddie's displeasure, but they had allowed it when Danny had explained to them that it was part of a school assignment. Unfortunately due to some persistent questions about what sort of school assignment could possibly be important enough for Danny to risk his friend's safety by allowing him to stay while the government cased the Fenton residence on his parents' part and abnormally slow thinking on Danny's part, the truth had eventually come out about the school counselor and Mr. Lancer having imposed Dash's presence on Danny for the past couple of months. Mr. and Mrs. Fenton weren't too pleased, but had determined that it certainly did count as an important assignment; they knew, after all, that whatever issues others had with their children's mental health most probably stemmed from their lifestyle. Dash had insisted that he didn't mind coming by every day and that indeed Danny had tried to convince him otherwise but it had been Dash's own decision to continue their sessions together. Danny's parents had allowed it in the end with only one remaining issue that they wouldn't want their guests leaving the house too late at night, but Danny had negotiated that Dash would spend the night whenever he came over.

"But isn't he coming over every day for the rest of the semester?" Jack frowned.

"Only on weekdays," Danny assured, though this wasn't necessarily true as Dash sometimes dropped by during the weekends though he had only been ordered by the school to go to the Fenton residence five days a week.

"Well," Maddie sighed, "I don't think we have a choice. If the school thinks it's best..."

"They do," Danny said quickly, already pushing Dash up the stairs ahead of him. "We're going to work on some homework. See you at dinner!"

He closed the door to his bedroom loudly and neither wasted a moment before they were wrapped in each other's arms, kissing passionately.

Danny grunted, the kiss deepening as Dash pushed the both of them backwards to lands ungracefully on the bed. Dash's tongue slipped into Danny's mouth and the two tangled and danced around each other. Danny sank deeper into the bed as Dash placed his arms on either side of Danny's frame, trying to balance himself. Slowly their hips moved together, their jean-clad erections providing a friction both boys delighted in. Danny's fingers ran through Dash's hair, breaking the pattern the blonde had gelled it in and mussing it up.

They broke apart when they heard yelling permeate through the door. Danny pushed Dash off of him, sitting up with a perplexed expression on his face. "What the hell…?"

They made their way downstairs to find Jack and Maddie shoving two men in white jackets and dark sunglasses towards the door angrily.

"Get the fuck out of my house!" Jack Fenton bellowed, giving the burlier agent a mighty heave.

"And stay out!" Maddie gritted her teeth pushing the front door shut and bearing her weight against it to prevent them from entering the house again.

"Mom? Dad? What's going on?" Danny asked. The swell of his erection – and Dash's – had disappeared during their descent down the stairs and upon the sight of his parents arguing with the two men.

Jack was now leaning against the door to add his weight along with his wife's, but after a moment, they both straightened, apparently satisfied that they wouldn't be barged in on again. Maddie's eyes were still furious when she turned them on Danny, and there was a bead of sweat running from her forehead down her cheek. "Danny, I'm sorry," she said breathlessly, her teeth still clenched together; "you're going to have to say goodbye to Dash. We can't have him any longer beyond tonight."

"What's going on?" Danny asked again slowly, though he had a pretty good idea of what had just transpired in the living room. He had never seen his typically easygoing parents so angry before.

"They're trying to put cameras in our house, that's what's going on!" Jack said loudly, lowering his voice when his wife gave him a reprimanding look. "In fact, maybe it would be better if you went and stayed over at a friend's place for a while."

"What?" Danny burst out. "No way!" They couldn't possibly expect him to just abandon them and keep away from the house, could they?

Maddie held up a gloved hand wearily. "We'll discuss this tomorrow," she said. "But we can't have Dash over any longer. Dash, I'm sorry, you can spend the night in Danny's room, but tonight is the last night." Dash nodded dumbly, and she crossed the room to enter into the kitchen. Jack followed her with one last wary look at the door, as though threatening to harm it if it dared to let any more agents into the threshold.

Dinner was a simple affair. The leftover chicken from last night was used, and Jack and Maddie had tossed together a salad and rounded off the meal with a side dish of rice. The four of them sat around the table eating quietly and glaring down at their plates. The only noise to fill the room was the sound of chewing and sipping water. Jack broke the silence once, muttering to Danny, "Don't sleep downstairs tonight," to which Danny sullenly nodded, too angry to even be glad of the fact that he would get to share his bed with Dash. He highly doubted they would be getting down to any funny business with the foul mood he was in right now anyway. Dash seemed to sense that, for when they undressed and lay silently in the bed, Danny's back turned to him, he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and just held him. Danny wasn't about to voice his appreciation anytime soon, but he allowed it all the same.

On Monday, Danny and Dash woke up to find an empty house. Danny's parents had left early for work, but the heavy tension that had settled in the Fenton residence was still all too apparent with the two boys knowing this would be the last they could see of each other within Danny's home.

"It's not so bad," Dash tried to reassure him. "You can always come live with me. Your folks said you can stay with a friend right? I can be that guy."

"I'm not leaving them," Danny said, keeping his eyes on the bowl of cereal he was stirring half-heartedly. "And the last thing you need is to have these guys staking out your house too – if they haven't already; do you even know what's going on at your place?"

"I'm sure I would have noticed a white truck parked outside. I don't think these guys are anywhere but your place. I haven't seen them around school."

"Trust me, they're watching," Danny said darkly. "It's just that they're allowed to make their presence known here. They're going to be a lot less obvious everywhere else."

Admittedly, Danny hadn't been able to find any signs of the Guys in White around Casper High either, but he hadn't dared go ghost to truly search them out. Prior experience had taught him that for all their indiscretions, the government could be incredibly stealthy when they wanted to.

"We could always hang out after school," Dash said. "Why do we always have to come back here anyway? No wonder you have no social life."

Danny shot him a glare, but couldn't keep a smirk from creeping on his face. The jock's classic tactlessness always seemed to have that effect on him these days.

"We could go to the Nasty Burger," Dash offered.

"Awww," Danny cooed sarcastically, "you'd actually want to be seen in public with me?" He could still remember a time when Dash was only too willing to lock himself inside so no one would guess that he would be spending his afternoons with his one-time favorite punching bag.

Dash rolled his eyes. "I've sat at the same table with you at the Nasty Burger before," he said. Danny snickered. Checking the clock that hung against the wall next to the refrigerator, he clapped his hands together loudly and stood up.

"Come on, we've got to get to school."

Dash quickly washed his coffee mug, but Danny didn't bother cleaning up his uneaten cereal. He'd do it after school. It would keep him busy, which meant one minute less obsessing over his predicament with Kwan and the Guys in White.

The somber atmosphere that had invaded FentonWorks had also settled on Casper High. Kwan's accident, Lancer's outburst and subsequent probationary status, rumors of the school being kept under government surveillance had set a hush over the students like a blanket. Danny was more of an outcast than ever, despite his connection to Dash and Paulina, the school's reigning king and queen, and Kwan himself, who had been one of the most popular students being on the football team. So affected was Danny's reputation that Dash and Paulina suddenly found their own statuses plummeting. Star, usually found attached to Paulina's side like a leech and hanging on to her every word, had begun to keep her distance. Paulina's legions of fans were also dissipating; less and less people were beginning to crowd around her, though she still had the entire student body wrapped around her little finger as was evidenced by Sam, who had been roped into going shopping with her the previous Wednesday and testified that Paulina still retained her power to deem clothes that were red-hot as uncool if she wasn't able to find one in her size. Dash, though still a commanding force in Casper High, had failed to find a right-hand man with the position empty since Kwan's admission into Amity General, and though he still sat proud at the middle of the jock's table during lunch, Danny noticed that hardly any of his comrades included him in their conversations. Indeed Dash was more likely found hunching over his tray and chewing like his life depended on it rather than the boisterous and arrogant figure he once was.

To Danny's surprise, Dash and Paulina didn't seem too torn up about the situation. "Why should we be?" Dash replied when Danny brought the topic up. "We rule this school, Fenton. So what if people are freaked that we're hanging with you guys these days? After all this time, I think we deserve being able to do that without questions asked."

"Denial," Sam sang under her breath. Dash frowned but didn't say anything.

"You better watch your mouth, girly," Paulina leaned towards her. "We might not have nobodies circling around us right now, but I can still ruin a reputation like that," she snapped her fingers.

Sam rolled her eyes. Having struggled to maintain her individuality and never having cared for such trivial things as gossip and social standings, she was little impressed by the cheerleader's threats.

Dash and Paulina said goodbye to Sam, Tucker and Danny then, heading off to Math class while the other three had History. On the way to their class, Danny filled his friends in on what was going on at home. "…and now they want me to stay with a friend."

"You can stay with us," Tucker offered. "Uh, but it might be a little cramped – maybe Sam's would be a better idea. She has all those extra rooms."

"I'm sure your parents would love that," Danny said to the goth girl. "I'm not going anywhere. My parents are being ridiculous."

"They're just trying to help," Sam rationalized. "Maybe this will be good for you. If the Guys in White are casing your place because of your parents, staying somewhere else for a while will give you a chance to … you know," her voice dropped to a whisper.

Danny scoffed. "They're not casing my place because of my parents, I'm the one who dragged us all into this mess. Wherever I go, the Guys in White are sure to follow. At least this way, I'll be able to keep them in sight."

Their conversation ended then as they entered Lancer's class. Since the school board had decided to place Mr. Lancer on probation, Principal Ishiyama had been forced to assign a teacher to the back of every one of his class to mark down anything of note on a clipboard to be submitted at the end of each day. The extra pair of eyes had stopped all flows of conversation, note-passing and text messaging the students usually indulged in. It was one of the upsides as far as Lancer was concerned, but it wasn't enough to cause him to mask his irritation with the entire process. The bad mood resulting from the balding man's frustration along with the dullness of the subjects he taught, all in all, made his classes a living hell.

"Fenton!" he barked as soon as he had set his briefcase on the table, "Review the points we went over last week on the Great Depression."

"Uh…" Danny struggled to remember what they had talked about. He snuck a peek at the messy notes he had taken that were laid out in front of him. "It … took place … in the … 30s?"

Lancer looked unmoved, his arms across his chest. "And?"

"And … we don't … have it anymore?" Danny cringed.

"Oh, very good Mister Fenton," Lancer said sarcastically. "I'm sure you'll get through your finals next month with flying colors. I look forward to seeing you proudly wave that diploma of yours. Foley—" Tucker shot upright, "—describe the actions taken by President Roosevelt to stimulate the economy out of its slump."

Tucker's eyes darted wildly. "Uh … he imposed taxes."

Lancer raised an eyebrow.

And so the lesson continued in this fashion, with Lancer quizzing everyone in the class in random fashion with such severity in his tone that even the enthusiasts of the class were hardly able to give a proper answer. At the end of the hour, Lancer was standing hunched over his desk with his arms pressed hard against the surface, head bowed and eyes all but gone due to his furrowed brow. "This won't do, this won't do," he was muttering.

"Do you people realize that your finals commence in less than a month?" he questioned, fixing the entire class with a glare. "Do you realize, regardless of the scores you've achieved in your SATs and the positions you may have secured in the colleges you applied to, that you will not be allowed to graduate if you fail even one class? Do you realize that summer school may not be an option open to you to save your skins?"

Every student seemed to be frozen in their seats. Mr. Lancer was quite obviously having some sort of breakdown, and seemed intent on taking everyone down with him. He was now pacing the classroom, walking in between desks and glaring heavily down on each student who caught his eye, his nostrils flaring like a bull's.

"I suggest that from this point on all of you spend any free periods you have in the library burying your heads in your textbooks!" he slammed an open palm down on the thick hardcover book that lay closed on the desk of a squeaky blond girl who gave a gasp of fright. "And double that effort when you get home every afternoon. If you wish to move forward with your lives – if you wish to make something out of yourselves – if you wish to get out of Casper High…" he left the threat hanging in the air and piled his papers into his briefcase, locked it, and marched out of the classroom. Only when he was gone did the students – and the second teacher situated at the back of the classroom – get to their feet and shakily stumble out of the room looking even worse than they usually did after encountering a ghost.

By lunch, Danny had to carefully tread over the scattered limbs of students laying about various points of the school, intently reading different schoolbooks and jotting down hasty notes. Mr. Lancer was in rare form; Danny didn't usually see this kind of behavior until finals week itself. Sam and Tucker joined him by his locker, also holding heavy textbooks in their arms.

"I've never seen the library this crowded before!" Tucker yelped as soon as they reached Danny's locker.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Yes, there must have been about eight students, including the two of us in there."

"Still," Danny gestured to their classmates littering the floor, "Lancer seems to have made his point."

"I hear he's going around to every class and giving 'The Speech'," Sam informed.

"What speech?" they heard a nasal voice ask. Danny turned around to see Dash sauntering up to them.

Sam and Tucker gave Danny the usual bewildered stare they did whenever Dash showed signs of friendliness, but it lacked the typical shock they usually held. "The speech about how we won't graduate and ruin our lives if we get a single 'F'. I think our class put him in a bad mood for the entire day." Sam told him.

"It was scary," Tucker commented.

"It was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen," Sam agreed, "and I hang out with Danny." Her eyes widened when she realized the slip. Danny looked furiously at her. Dash looked nonplussed, but decided it was just a joke between friends.

"Isn't that kind of obvious?" Dash asked, standing right next to Danny, their arms almost brushing. "We've only known how the school system works since the first grade."

"Don't tell me you've been studying," Tucker blurted, then quickly slapped a hand over his mouth.

"As a matter of fact, I have," Dash said smoothly.

"You have?" Danny and Sam couldn't stop themselves from saying with some surprise.

"Of course," Dash replied. "You don't think eleven years of near failures would teach me to get a head start at the final stretch? I've been studying for, like, a month already."

The three friends blinked. Who'd have thought Dash Baxter would have better studying habits than practically anyone else in school? Dash merely shrugged, then made his way to the cafeteria.

The lectures Lancer had graced each and every class he attended that day left the students he taught weak and vulnerable, and the rest of the teachers, to their delight, used this window of opportunity to drive their own lessons home. Never had they had such malleable minds of seniors actually willing to learn, if only out of fear of what might happen to their futures if they didn't rather than an actual want to do so. For the first time since he was in grade school, Danny found every student in class taking down notes vigorously. Of course, the attention spans of teenagers were notoriously short; Danny gave this new outlook on life a shelf life of one week.

After school, Danny went down to the football field to meet up with Dash and discuss what they were going to do about their current situation, given that their tradition of meeting up at his house was no longer a viable option. He found, to some surprise, several of the jocks sitting around in a circle on the grass looking bored. Dash was spread against the bleachers lazily tossing a football from one hand to the other.

"This is practice?" he voiced when he got close. Dash opened his eyes and squinted to block out the glare of the sun.

"Hey," he greeted, pulling himself to sit upright. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk," Danny said. "I didn't think you'd be so available though."

Dash shrugged. "The team's depressed. I would send them home but Coach wants us to put in the time. No point now without Kwan around though."

"As team captain, isn't it your job to boost morale?" Danny questioned, taking a seat next to Dash.

"Hey, he was my best friend," Dash said casually. "I'm even more depressed than they are!"

The two of them chuckled. Danny noticed a couple of the guys glancing at them, but they were used to the sight of Dash and Danny hanging out together by this point that they didn't raise questions. "You wanna go visit afterwards?" Dash offered. Danny nodded. He hadn't really been to see Kwan since he had brought him to the hospital. He kept meaning to, but had never found the will to do it; it was just too hard. But with Dash along, it didn't seem like such an intimidating prospect. "Do you go often?"

"Probably not as often as I should."

"How often should you?"

"Every day, I suppose," Dash shrugged, now twirling the pigskin between his palms in front of him. "His parents are there every day, after work."

Danny nodded. He still didn't know Kwan's family name, but he didn't dare ask.

"So what are you going to do now?" Dash nodded at him. "Just hang around?"

"Well," Danny shifted, "I was thinking that maybe I would do something. I have to get out of the house before the Guys in White make me explode. Maybe joining a club would help. I was thinking of taking up Connor's suggestion for writing for the school paper."

"That's good," Dash said quietly, not taking his eyes off Danny. "That way you can spend some time there, I can work on practice, then we can figure out where to hang afterwards." Danny nodded. "So are you going there now?"

"Yeah – I was just coming to tell you, and see if we had any plans since we can't meet at my house anymore," Danny lowered his voice, self-consciously checking to see if any of Dash's teammates heard him. They might have been hanging out more now, but he was pretty sure none of them had any clue as to how much time Dash and Danny had really spent together in the past couple of months.

"I'll see you at four thirty then," Dash followed Danny's line of sight to land on the circle of jocks who were looking at them a bit too curiously. He realized that they were probably sitting a bit closer than necessary. Danny got to his feet and nodded and awkwardly waved goodbye as he made his way back to the school.

"Alright, team," Dash barked getting to his feet as well, "let's practice some drills!"

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The school newspaper met in the school's computer lab after school, Danny had been informed when he went to the administration office to enquire about it, so he made his way to the room and knocked on the door before opening it to find a group of people typing furiously at their stations and hovering over them…

"Mister Lancer?" Danny froze. Mr. Lancer turned around to gaze at him coldly.

"Yes, Daniel, may I help you with something?"

"Uh," Danny felt extremely self-conscious now, the burden of the bald man's earlier admonition weighing itself upon his shoulders. "I – I came to join the school paper."

"I beg your pardon?" Mr. Lancer said smoothly.

Danny blushed, noticing that all eyes were upon him now and that the clacking sound of fingers hitting the keyboard had stopped. "I said … I said I came to join the paper," he muttered, feeling a bit stupid.

Mr. Lancer heaved a sigh. "Tell me, Daniel, is there anything that goes through that thick skull of yours?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Did you not pay attention to a single word of my lecture this morning?" Lancer rephrased. "I was under the impression that, despite my failed attempts to capture my students interest with my teachings, I had at least managed to get through to you that your very futures were in jeopardy if you didn't put in some serious work for your upcoming exams."

"You did," Danny said earnestly. "I've seen a whole bunch of students around the school studying their as— brains out."

"Mm-hmm – and tell me, were you a part of this group of students studying their brains out?"

"I – well…"

"Have you spent any time today studying for your finals, Mister Fenton?"

"Yes," Danny said defiantly, standing up straight. "I did it during free period like you said."

"And did you also hear me say that you should go home and double your efforts?" Lancer placed his hands behind his back.

"I—" Danny deflated. "Yes."

"In that case, tell me, Mister Fenton, why are you not at home studying?"

"I just … I wanted to join the school paper, sir," Danny said meekly. "Mister Connor told me to," he added.

"I believe Mister Connor suggested that you do it in February, as a means to improve your college applications," Mr. Lancer stated. "It is now April, Mister Fenton. There is little point in joining any club this school offers. You have missed any opportunity in joining the yearbook committee, all articles to be featured in editions of the paper in the coming weeks have already been determined and assigned to established and reputable members of the paper, and furthermore," his eyes flashed, "the deadline for rolling admissions is in a few weeks. I would be extremely worried if I had not yet submitted my applications to enter freshman year."

Danny gaped. He had not bothered to keep any track of when schools would require him to send in his application by. He hadn't even filled out a single one!

Mr. Lancer turned his back and faced the students who hastily returned their attention back to their monitors and began clacking away at their keyboards again. "Go home, Mister Fenton. Study. There will be little extracurricular activities can do to bolster your applications without anything to bolster."

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"I've ruined my life," Danny moaned, setting his head against the wheel of his car.

"You have not," Dash said in an annoyed tone. "Alright, so the school paper thing isn't going to work out. Big deal. There are tons of people who get into college without doing a single thing in high school. If they accept burnouts, why not you?"

Contrary to the flippant remark he had received this morning that made him smile, this one only wanted to make Danny bury his head in the ground. "It's nice to know I'm one step above potheads on the social scale," he grumbled, pulling his head back up and starting the ignition. Dash placed a comforting arm on his shoulder which Danny shrugged off.

They arrived at the hospital, driving down the underground visitors' bay and easily finding a place to park. Together they walked to the lift and rode up to the ground floor where they signed their names in the log book. Visitors were only allowed until 6 PM for non-family members, so they only had a little over an hour to go, though Danny doubted that he would be staying that long. If he wanted to save his future, he needed to get back home as soon as possible.

Danny allowed Dash to lead the way to Kwan's room; he hadn't bothered to ask, figuring that since Dash had been coming over more often than him, he would know where the hospital had placed him anyway. The last time Danny had seen the Asian boy, a horde of nurses and doctors had rushed him off on a gurney through double doors he was not allowed to enter.

Kwan was lying peacefully on a bed, dressed in a gown and hooked up to various different machines and an IV drip. A curtain separated him from another patient who was also asleep. The harsh lights of the room made him appear even more pale than he already was.

"The doctors don't know what's wrong with him," Dash said in a hushed tone. "They ran some brain scans, but there doesn't seem to be any trauma they can find. It's like he's just … sleeping."

"Where are his parents?" Danny whispered.

"They can only visit him after they're done with work," Dash informed. "They usually arrive around six or after." The jock drew a seat and clutched his friend's hand gently. It was a strange sight for Danny to see, Dash displaying affection for someone other than him, someone male. He knew the boys had been great friends, and by Dash's own admission, had been more for a period of time, but it was still quite disconcerting. Danny dragged another chair, wincing at the sound it made as its legs scraped against the floor before he decided to lift it and set it down next to his boyfriend, and sat down.

"I hope he comes out of it," Dash sighed. "I don't know what's going to happen if he doesn't. I can't imagine graduating without him in the seats too." The two of them sat there solemnly, staring at the unmoving body that lay in front of them. Danny's hand moved surreptitiously to grasp Dash's, causing the blond boy to look over at him. Danny offered him a small smile, which Dash returned, squeezing Danny's hand, before turning his head back to watch his friend sadly.

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Author's Note: I have to say, I'm extremely pleased with the way this chapter turned out. I didn't think I would end it at this point, but I think it shows a rare somber emotion that I did not expect to come out, and I thought it would be a great point to leave off. I'm also particularly happy with the way Lancer turned out in this chapter. Please review, I would love to hear what you all think. I look forward to each and every one of your comments. Thank you.