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 news spread far and wide the next day that Kwan had finally woken up. It had flashed faster through the grapevine than any other piece of gossip in recent memory, and on his way to second period, Danny found the school abuzz with the news of what had happened at the hospital. Of course, this piece of news brought back to life many other bits of news surrounding the event that had died out. Students were once again questioning what exactly had happened, why Danny Phantom had attacked a harmless student from the school he seemed to enjoy appearing in so much, what connection did Danny Fenton have to this whole mystery – why had he, Danny, been the one to admit Kwan into the hospital in the first place, and what a strange coincidence it was that he just happened to be there when Kwan had woken up. This also brought up another issue Danny had up to this point failed to hear the students whispering about: why exactly were Dash Baxter and Danny Fenton spending so much time together?

Danny spent the whole day ignoring the innumerable amount of eyes that seemed to swivel to him the entire day as best he could. For the most part, he did this quite well, having his own issues to contemplate. Now that Kwan was awake, Danny found his mind going back to that day when Walker had banded together all the ghosts that claimed to hate the warden for an organized strike against him; he found himself startled, to be perfectly honest, that he hadn't devoted more time to pondering the issue in the past week. This train of thought then led to the image of Skulker spying on him the day that he had sucked cock for the first time, and Danny wondered exactly what the supernatural hunter was up to, and whether he was still working together with Walker. There had been a suspiciously abrupt end to the ghost attacks ever since he had barely escaped with his life from the mysterious rock with the inscription he had not bothered to think about once. Aside from all this, Danny still had yet to infiltrate the white van parked outside his house. And on top of all that, he was also trying to push all these thoughts out of his head so that he could study for the upcoming exams.

He banged his fist against the table. "This is hopeless!" he gritted out, only to be promptly shushed by the irritated librarian.

"You're just freaking out, Danny, you have to work through it," Sam said from her spot across the table, eyes still focused on her Chemistry textbook. "Everyone's going through it. Josie Brauhner had a complete meltdown in the middle of American Literature today."

Danny snorted. "What's so hard about that? Your 'textbook' is a collection of short stories we've probably heard since we were five."

"I'll have you know Literature is one of the hardest courses in the high school curriculum," Sam said casually, still not pulling away from the words printed on the page in front of her.

Danny didn't push the point, though the frustration building up in him called for some sort of release. How was he expected to get through all these chapters in little more than three weeks? "I wish I had been in a coma," he grumbled. "Did you know the school's offering Kwan straight A's for the semester? I heard two of the teachers talking about it in the hall."

"It's not like they can expect him to get through finals after all this," Sam replied. "Especially considering that he's going to remain in the hospital under observation for a few more days."

After the group of them had snapped out of their stunned daze upon finding Kwan awake, Dash had gone to find a doctor, who had quickly shoved all of them out of the room to conduct tests. Within fifteen minutes she had come to them again and pronounced Kwan's recovery a miracle, citing no apparent trauma – except for one little detail: Kwan didn't seem to remember anything that had happened for the past two months. "Amnesia is not an uncommon side-effect of comatose patients just regaining consciousness," the doctor had told them cheerfully, "but aside from that, he seems to be just fine. We'll have to run more tests in the coming days to see how he's doing and how his condition is developing, of course, but he doesn't even seem to be slurring or even very confused, which is a very good sign."

Kwan's parents had been alerted at once and had dropped everything to join them. It had been a happy occasion with much crying and blubbering from Dash and Kwan's mother, and Danny had noticed the boy's father tearing up too as he clapped his son's shoulder before the teenagers were still forcibly ejected out of the room by a stern nurse when visiting hours came to an end.

Danny tried to absorb the words mutely for a few seconds before he started speaking again. "So since this whole thing with Kwan's been put to rest, I'm thinking we should break into the van today," he said quietly.

"I'm ready when you are," Sam told him. "But don't you think you should still check up on Kwan even now that he's awake? I mean, he's a part of this now."

"Why?" Danny questioned. "I already found Tyrant wasn't there when I went in; Kwan doesn't remember anything past January—"

"Kwan could be lying," Sam said. "Don't you think you ought to make sure? And don't you think it's a little strange that the ghost that's been possessing him for the past two months is just gone?"

"People who are possessed by ghosts never remember the experience," Danny defended. "And Tyrant could have just left, Kwan's been in a coma for like a week, maybe he found it boring—"

"People who have been possessed generally remember some vestiges of it," Sam reminded him. "It's all a blur but there are some details that stick to the mind, it's your responsibility to find out what he remembers, and not just because you're Danny Phantom—"

"Will you shut up?" Danny hissed, eyes darting side-to-side to catch anyone listening in on their increasingly loud conversation. No one was jumping to their feet proclaiming Danny to be the alter-ego of a murderous ghost, so the raven-haired boy relaxed and slumped forward on his seat, propping himself up with his elbows on the table.

"Sorry," Sam apologized meekly. "Come on, let's find Tucker and get out of here."

So they packed up their bags and went to the computer terminals lining one end of the library where Tucker was bopping his head to music blasting out of the earphones connected to his PDA and surfing the Internet. Sam pulled out one of the plugs and said, "What are you doing?" Tucker jumped then glared, pulling out the other earphone. "I thought you were searching for supplementary reading for the classes you didn't bother buying a textbook for?"

"Don't have to," Tucker smirked, tapping his temple. "Cramtastic-fied brain, remember?"

"Tucker, that was four years ago," Sam rolled her eyes. "Don't you think you would require a bit of a refresher by now?"

"Nope," Tucker stretched his arms and cracked his fingers with a satisfied grin. "Chill out, Sam."

"Whatever," Sam rolled her eyes. "Come on, we're leaving."

The three of them walked together, then Sam and Tucker were about to turn left to go to the Math class the three of them shared together when Danny grabbed their elbows and led them through the front doors and into the parking lot. "What are you doing?" Tucker yelped.

"I am so not in the mood to be stared at and talked about again right now," Danny muttered. "I think my parents should be gone by now. Let's go home."

"But that's ditching!" Tucker protested.

Sam seemed more at ease with the idea, jumping into the passenger seat of Danny's car. "Seniors ditch," she said easily. "Chill out, Tuck," she mocked.

"Come on, Tucker, there's like three weeks left in the school year," Danny rolled his eyes. "No one cares. All the classes are half-empty these days. We already got our attendance taken in homeroom, what's the big deal?"

Tucker pushed himself into the backseat a little reluctantly. "Okay," he said, "but if my parents find out, I'm blaming you."

Reaching the corner of his block, Danny parked the car at the same discreet location he had picked out the previous day, cut the engine, then turned to his friends, interlocking his arms with theirs. "Okay, ready? One … two—"

"Um, can we go into your house to put away this stuff first?" Sam gestured to her schoolbag and the somewhat stylish handbag she had picked out from a clothing store she'd once deemed passable to her tastes.

Danny huffed at the mood-breaker, but agreed, so they skulked still intangible to the Fenton home and slid through the door. Jazz was on her knees in the living room with Jasper and a large white sheet spread on the floor that she was pointing animatedly to while talking so fast Danny could hardly grasp what she was saying. He turned tangible again and Jazz and Jasper both jumped.

"Oh, hey, Danny," Jazz said. "I didn't hear you come in."

Jasper seemed a bit taken aback by the appearance of the three teens, but didn't question it. "What are you guys doing?" Danny asked, releasing his grip on Sam and Tucker.

"Going over the new plans," Jazz informed, turning her attention back to the large sheet on the floor.

"New plans?"

Jasper sighed. "Your sister spent the whole of last night drawing up some new ideas, suggestions and tactics on how tackle this little problem your family's experiencing."

"When you told me Kwan had woken up, that threw a wrench into the original vision of how this was going to go," Jazz explained, "so I had to work fast to plan out our strategy and our contingencies."

"That means backup plans," Tucker informed upon seeing Danny's face twist in confusion.

"So you guys have just spent last night and today planning?" Danny questioned.

"We've been handing out posters detailing our protest this weekend since seven," Jasper told him.

"I wanted to catch the students on their way to school," Jazz stuck out her tongue in concentration as she hastily scribbled something on the sheet in black marker. "You never know who's interested in a civil protest, Danny. Your friends might actually be very sympathetic to your situation. I know Mister Lancer is – he promised to persuade as many of the teachers to join him as he can."

"Lancer's involved? When did you get him?"

"Today," Jazz shrugged. "I went to Casper High to ask if they'd mind up sticking up flyers. I don't want to hang any up in the street in case the police tear them down."

"And did Lancer tell you anything…" Danny rubbed at the back of his neck not wanting to say the words 'about me'.

"You mean the fact that he thinks you're slacking during the most important period of your life and have to put in some serious work if you hope to go anywhere?" Jazz answered in an offhanded manner. "Yeah, he told me."

Danny felt his heart sink. Jazz turned to Jasper and said sweetly, "Jasper, why don't you show Sam and Tucker the list of duties we drew up for them? I'm sure they'd love to give you some feedback on it."

Jasper took the hint and motioned for Sam and Tucker to follow him upstairs. Jazz turned her attention back to Danny, who slumped down on the couch closest to him. "So are you mad?"

"Of course not," Jazz said gently. "Mister Lancer tells me you've been trying to better yourself this semester. He told me you came in to join the newspaper a while ago and that you'd only just missed the cut-off date. And I think it's great that you sought out the peer support club if you felt that you were having trouble; it was a very mature decision to make, Danny. I was on that committee in school, and there are a lot of students who need help who refuse to acknowledge it."

"Thanks," Danny said sullenly. Jazz's words did nothing to soothe the fact that his life was circling the drain and his older sister had just found out from the vice-principal.

"Lancer told me that he believes if you put in the work, you'll get through finals just fine," Jazz said. "Danny, I know studying gets hard with the kind of schedule you keep, but the situation isn't as hopeless as I know you imagine it to be." She raised her eyebrows when Danny opened his mouth to argue, and Danny fell silent.

"There are a lot of students who spend their time in high school figuring out who they are and wondering who they're going to be. That's become even more stressful for you given the circumstances, I'd imagine. This is the time when all those people find their own two feet and mature. Look, I'm not going to help you." Jazz set down the marker pen she had been holding in her fingers and fixed him with a serious look. "You know that whenever you need my help, I'll always be here with advice and comforting words, but I can't choose which path your life is going to go for you. After you get in to college, we'll see less of each other than we do now, and I want to know that you'll be okay."

She pulled back and gave Danny a kind smile. "I trust that you're going to be okay."

And then she stood up and went to go get herself a glass of water. Danny stared after her.

He was in deep shit.

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After that, Danny just wasn't in the mood to go after the Guys In White anymore. He told Sam and Tuvker in a dejected tone that he wanted to put it off for a bit. They didn't seem to be doing much, after all; they could probably wait another day.

Since he couldn't exactly sit and pout by himself in the living room without someone walking in and asking what was wrong, he considered going up to his old bedroom and hoping against hope that Jasper wasn't already hanging out in there.

The room was mercifully empty. Danny tiptoed in, shut the door quietly and launched himself upon his bed, hands behind his head, and keep his eyes trained on the ceiling, wondering what the hell he was going to do. There was time for him to study – he could cut back on seeing Dash, someone he was probably focusing too much on in the first place; and he could cut out the ghost thing completely, something he was probably not focusing enough on as it was – but at the same time, selfish as it sounded, he just didn't want to. He had to protect the city, and he wanted to have Dash. Having to give up either one would probably drive him mad at this point.

The door to the bathroom opened and out stepped Jasper clad in a towel. Danny shot up, and Jasper froze with a look of surprise on his face.

"Oh, hey kid," Jasper smiled.

Kid? Danny glared. How old was this guy – twenty? "Hey, Jasper," he spat.

Jasper began to pull out his clothes from his suitcase. "Got a problem?" he asked, turning his back to Danny as he began to dress.

"Huh?" Danny raised his eyebrows.

Jasper turned his head over his shoulder to grin. "Got a problem you were thinkin' about?"

"Oh, yeah," Danny turned his head the other way. "Sorry, came here to think."

"No worries. I used to do a lot of that." Jasper pulled his boxers up past his towel and then dropped the cloth. "So what was it?"

"Huh?"

"What was the problem you were thinking about?"

"Oh – um – it's not … it's nothing."

"Okay." Then … "Girlfriend problems?"

"What?"

"Boyfriend problems?"

Danny stared.

Jasper stared.

Danny began to sputter. "Wha – wha – what – what – do – you … know?"

Jasper shrugged. "I guessed."

"You – you don't even … know me."

"I know of you."

"Wha – wha – what?"

Jasper flashed him another grin.

"Your type."

"My … type."

Jasper nodded.

"I don't – I – wha – what do you mean, exactly?"

Jasper took a step forward. "Jazz told me about you."

"Jazz? She told you?"

Jasper gave a little nod, now approaching the bed.

"What … exactly did she say?"

Jasper shrugged, taking a seat next to Danny on the bed. "Just a bit about who you are, little tidbits about how you're doing from what your parents tell her during their conversations. She said you were a great guy – that she sometimes worries if you're okay. And then she told me about how the guidance counselor had placed you in a support group and that the guy who called her was your sponsor and that he was supposed to be all over you 24/7, I was like 'Hmm.'"

Danny made a vow to kick both Jazz and Dash's asses the next time he saw them.

"And then she told me about how you two were slowly moving closer and closer together, and we began to wonder."

"She wonders?" Danny thought his heart might just give out.

"Well, she laughed at the idea at first; said you were too focused on women to do much else with a man – but as she kept talking to Dash, she began to consider it a possibility. You know her – her mind won't allow her to be closed to any circumstance."

"So all this time—?"

"If she hasn't said anything to you, it's probably because she's not sure yet or because she's waiting for you to come to her," Jasper declared. He placed a hand on Danny's shoulder. "So … is there something for you to come to her with?"

Danny shrugged off the other man's shoulder and stood up. "No," he bit out. "And I'd appreciate you keeping what you think you know to yourself – you don't have the slightest clue about me, so don't—"

"Actually, I think you'd find I know exactly what you're going through," Jasper said softly.

Danny faltered. "What?"

"Jazz is a very understanding person," Jasper told him. "You're lucky to have someone like her with you. I don't know everything about her, of course, but I know that she's the kind to stand behind people a hundred percent. Not everybody has someone like that to turn to."

Danny squinted. "You mean – are you…?"

"Gay?" Jasper smiled. "I suppose I am."

Danny rubbed at his right elbow self-consciously. "Oh. Okay."

Jasper got up from the bed as well, getting closer to Danny, whose eyes were focused on the to-be lawyer's unclothed torso. Various jokes and discussions he had heard from his peers over the years had painted gay men as sexual deviants who would go to any lengths to get laid by man they could get their clutches on. As he stared at the bare flesh before him, Danny found an emotion twisting and coiling in the pit of his stomach and wondered if it was this sort of lust he was feeling. However, when Jasper clapped his hand on his shoulder again, Danny recognized the flare for being not one of attraction but of disgust. 'Faggot' his mind sneered, and Danny pulled back in shock.

"What's wrong?" Jasper asked, confused.

Danny gazed at him in horror, the dirty word still echoing in his mind. "Nothing," he blurted out. "I have to go," he added quickly before slipping out of the room as fast as his legs would carry him.

He stopped only by throwing himself onto the makeshift bed in the living room the pullout couch offered and contemplated what had just happened, unable to believe that he would throw around such a word, especially now when it only served to make him into a hypocrite.

Burying his head into the pillow, he tried his best to ignore Jazz's happy conversation with their parents in the kitchen and the bright lights that prevented him from drifting off into an easy sleep.

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The next morning, Danny woke with a heavy conscience. There was nothing he could say to Jasper to make up for the stray thought that had flitted through his head without causing the other man to think he was crazy, as he hadn't been stupid enough to actually say the word, but he could make up for it through Dash. Clearly, it was simply a sign that he hadn't embraced his relationship with the jock as much as he should have. As he washed his hair, Danny made the resolution to do as much as he could with his boyfriend. He said the last word firmly to himself; Dash had all but declared his love for him when they were making up for their fallout – what else were they if not boyfriends?

The focus of attention that day was on the prom to be held next week. Homeroom brought the announcement the three nominees for Prom Queen: Paulina was the obvious choice, followed by Star, and Eleanor Davis, a girl who did well to maintain her popularity even with the added pressure of Paulina's outward disdain, rounded off the competition. Eleanor had been campaigning heavily, and Star had been tiptoeing around Paulina in order to gain support without arousing the wrath of her friend, but the Latina – who still got the heaviest round of clapping and cheering when her name was announced – hadn't done anything, to Danny's knowledge, to drum up votes.

There were no nominees for the position of Prom King announced, as it was not based on a voting system unlike the title of Queen; typically the crown went to the person who best exemplified school spirit, which really only meant the most popular senior in school rather than the smartest or the most enthusiastic, which meant that Dash Baxter would be a shoo-in, but through the day Danny overheard people discussing the possibility of Kwan receiving the honor in light of his recent tragedy and recovery.

Looming closer than the prom, however, was the Senior Breakfast, an event that had become a surprisingly prominent part of Casper High's history; it had originally started as a picnic held during Senior Cut Day, but had over the years broken off into its own event due to students not wanting to spend their unofficial day off organizing everyone in the twelfth grade to meet up in a field and eat their own prepared food; nowadays, the tradition went more along the lines of students carpooling with each other to some local eatery before school, the idea being that they would enjoy each other's company more protected from blistering heat or unpredicted rainfall, eating food they didn't exert themselves to cook during an hour where they were just too bleary to be catty.

"Oh, great," Sam rolled her eyes when she found out that she was to be in Paulina's car. Only select members of the senior class were allowed to decide where the event would be held that year and as such each one of them would have to guide the rest of the students to the location. It played up the spirit of mingling with people one would never associate with on a regular basis.

Danny's eyes roamed the list and he mentally cheered to find that he was to ride with Dash, then groaning upon reading three other names that were due to join them.

"When is it going to be?" Tucker asked, coming up beside them to check the list.

"Friday," Sam informed. Past years had shown the teachers that their students tended to be more lighthearted and alert right after the Senior Breakfast than anything else, and as such had allocated the date of the event to always fall on a school day to take advantage of their students more enjoyable states.

"But it's already Wednesday! Why are they only putting up the list now?"

"Encourages spontaneity?" Danny shrugged. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Dash speaking enthusiastically to several of his teammates. "At least we'll be together," Danny mused.

"Yeah," Tucker wrapped an arm around Danny's shoulder in a gesture of solidarity.

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Out of desire to spend some quality time with his boyfriend than anything else, Danny took up Sam's offer to go with Dash to the hospital to visit Kwan again after school that day. But, he had told Sam and Tucker during lunch, this would mean that they wouldn't be able to sneak into the white van until the next day.

Sam wasn't too pleased by this ultimatum. "Why can't we do both?" she had demanded. "You're procrastinating, Danny – you know what happened the last time you kept putting off asking for answers."

But Danny was firm; the exams were approaching and he had barely even begun to study. As a result, he had decided to only dedicate one and a half hours – the same amount of time, he thought ruefully, he would be spending on any of the after-school clubs he might have gotten into if he'd had the initiative – after school to detective work before parking himself in front of his books for the rest of the day and through the night.

Grudgingly, though, he agreed with Sam; in the past few months, Danny had developed a tendency to delay his responsibilities. This was nothing new – his parents and his teachers complained all the time about Danny's habit to wait until the last minute to do something, if in fact he even remembered to do it at all, but never had it seeped into his duties as Amity Park's half-ghost protector the way it had lately. So when Dash got into his car that afternoon, Danny decided that this would have all his questions about Kwan answered today, and the next day would devote himself to getting the Guys in White off his lawn.

"Didn't you have practice today?" Danny asked.

Dash shrugged. "No real point, is there? We're graduating in a couple of weeks."

"We're graduating in a month," Danny was quick to correct him, not wanting to distort the time frame had in order to achieve grades good enough to allow him to walk down that aisle and get his diploma. There were still three weeks before the exams, and he was holding on to that fact for dear life.

"The point is," Dash continued exasperatedly, "there's no point in us going out there anymore. Coach hasn't even come by to watch our past few drills."

"Well good," Danny said as the car rolled in to the visitor's bay. He cut the engine and turned to Dash as they both sat in darkness. "That means I have more time to do this," and he grasped the bigger boy by the front of his shirt and pulled him in to a searing kiss.

Dash made a little sound of surprise which quickly melted to a sound of yearning. When they broke off, he paused, his eyes cloudy with lust, then shook his head clear. "Listen, that reminds me – we kind of have to tone it down around Kwan."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Dash said with an air of discomfort, "he's just gotten out of that coma, you know? And the doc says he doesn't remember anything from the past two months, which means he doesn't remember about us."

"Us?"

"Us getting together."

"Oh," Danny had to remind himself that it wasn't really Kwan that had pushed him to give it a try with Dash, it had been the ghost inhabiting him at the time, probably trying to find a way to amuse himself at Danny's expense.

"Yeah," Dash pressed on. "So, I don't want to freak him out when he's just getting it together again, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah – I get it," Danny nodded, but inside he was roaring in frustration at the prospect of yet another boundary placed on his relationship with Dash. It seemed that every time they moved forward there was something out there ready to push them two steps back.

Dash seemed to sense Danny's apprehension because he leaned down to kiss him softly on the lips, either as a means to comfort him or simply to enjoy what they had while he could. Whatever the case, it was enough for Danny to force a smile on his face for the other boy's sake and nod in agreement.

In the hospital, Dash waved to Danny to let Kwan know of their arrival while he signed their names into the visitor logbook, so Danny was allowed time to glumly mull over the conversation the two of them had had in the car. His thoughts broke off when a familiar voice caught his attention. "Who are you?" he heard someone gasp in a fearful tone.

Eyes widening, Danny ran as fast as he could those last few feet to burst into Kwan's room, his body ready to attack. Kwan gave a jolt at the sudden sound of the door slamming against the wall. He blinked upon landing his sights on the smaller, messy-haired teenager. "Oh, hey, Fenton." The incapacitated boy was sitting up in bed and seemed to be twiddling his thumbs. Aside from the patient the hospital had lodged him with, the room appeared to be otherwise empty.

"Who were you talking to?" Danny's eyes darted about suspiciously.

Kwan furrowed his eyebrows. "Uh, no one?"

"I thought I heard something," Danny pressed.

Kwan raised his hands helplessly, looking about the room as though to prove to Danny that there was no one around. "Maybe you imagined it."

"Maybe," Danny relaxed his stance. Dash came sauntering in then, and Kwan's eyes fell from his best friend's face to Danny's own, and he raised his eyebrows.

"Hey, man," Dash slapped hands with Kwan amiably. "They letting you out of here soon?"

"Oh, any day now," Kwan smiled. "I'm not even sure why they've still got me here."

"Yeah, you'd think they could use the bed for someone who really needs it," Danny said, taking a seat on one of the uncomfortable chairs the room came equipped with. Dash scowled at him and then turned his attention back to Kwan.

"You think you're going to make it for the Senior Breakfast?" Dash asked.

"I hope so," Kwan replied. "It's all up to the doc really, but I'll ask next time I see her. How are things over at school?"

"Great," Dash nodded. "Exam's in a couple of weeks – not that you'll have to worry about those," he ribbed good-naturedly. "Everyone's really amped for graduation."

"That's something I know I'll make it to," Kwan laughed, slapping skin with Dash once again.

"And prom," Dash reminded with a grin. "You know, Star's been hinting around whether you'll be out in time for that. She's been nominated for Prom Queen. If she gets it, and if you get King, that'd be super-sweet."

From his position, Danny marveled the cavalier attitude Dash adopted regarding the school's social events. It was such a change from Paulina's authoritarian manner; he could hardly believe this was the same superficial boy he'd known as a child who'd prized popularity and expensive gifts his parents bestowed above anything else.

"Who are you taking?" Kwan asked.

"Paulina," Dash said without a moment's hesitation. Danny sank back into the seat he was perched on, feeling a strange kind of emotion inside, though he didn't know why. He didn't expect Dash to take him – that would have been far too weird; he'd only just grown comfortable – with considerable force in effort to remain open-minded – with the idea of him and Dash being an item, there was no way he would have allowed the blonde to take him as his date to the high school dance even if he'd wanted to.

Kwan turned to Danny. "What about you, man?" he asked. "You asked anyone yet?"

Danny shrugged nonchalantly. "I'll probably go with Sam and Tucker." Kwan and Dash shared a look. "What?"

"No offense, Fenton," Kwan said, "but the only way you could go with Foley and Manson and not be lame is if you were fucking the both of them."

Danny gaped indignantly. "I have gone to plenty of dances with them."

"Yeah," Kwan said, "but this is the prom. Anyone who goes stag to this thing is beyond hope. Come on, it has to be a date. How are you going to get lucky with those two riding behind all the time?"

Danny locked eyes with Dash. "What about you?" he spat. "You gonna 'get lucky' on prom night?"

Kwan shrugged, obviously thinking that Danny was still talking to him, "Yeah, if everything goes right," he snickered. Dash, however, kept his attention on anything except the boy who was addressing him. Danny had his answer though.

"I have to go," he said coldly.

"Go? You just got here," Kwan said with some surprise.

"Yes, well, I need to study," Danny marched towards the door. "You see, I haven't been guaranteed straight A's for the semester, so I need to work to achieve my diploma."

"Hey, Danny, come on," Dash started for him, but Danny threw his hands off and silently stalked out the door. Dash turned to Kwan who was still watching the proceedings with surprise etched on his face.

"He's really been stressing about finals," Dash offered lamely. "Lancer's got everyone freaked, you should see it." There was an awkward pause. "Look, I better go, Danny's my ride, and – I got some stuff to do for Friday too."

"Yeah, sure," Kwan acquiesced with an easy smile.

Dash pointed a finger at him even as his feet led him away, "You be sure to ask the doc if you can make it, alright?"

"I will," Kwan flashed his friend a thumbs-up. "Good luck, man."

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Dash tried to explain in the car, but Danny wasn't in the mood to listen. "Look, Kwan doesn't know – Paulina and I already made plans – you don't want me to actually take you, do you? What would people say? – it's not like you said you wanted to go with me—"

"I don't want to go with you," Danny snarled.

Dash fell silent, but his posture remained rigid waiting for Danny to continue with his tongue-lashing. Danny, however, considered the subject closed.

His car squealed to a stop at Dash's house, and after a moment, Dash decided that Danny truly wasn't going to say anything else and opened the door to step out. He'd gotten one foot on the ground when Danny suddenly piped up, "Are you going to fuck her?"

Dash turned back, looking nonplussed. "Who?"

"Paulina. Are you going to fuck her?" Danny kept his eyes focused on the road in front of him even though the car was perfectly still.

Dash's face softened. "Why would I?" he questioned. "Why would she even let me knowing I'm with you?"

Danny whipped his head around to glower at Dash. "Like she actually cares about that," he scoffed derisively.

Dash shook his head, then pulled himself out of the car, closing the door behind him without another glance back. Danny turned his head to glare out at the road before him again and peeled away from the Baxter residence.

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From the moment he got home, Danny tried to drown himself in his books, but by midnight with the whole family and Jasper sound asleep and nothing but the moonlight flowing in through the kitchen window to keep him company, he finally admitted defeat and tossed his pen down in exasperation.

He hadn't been able to stop thinking about the day's events and wondering exactly what it was that made him so angry. In his heart, he knew that Paulina had been surprisingly supportive of the relationship, and Dash's words did make sense – why would the teen queen want to sleep with someone who seemed more interested in being with a man? It sounded quite degrading to Danny, so he was sure Paulina wouldn't try to put the moves on Dash, and Dash had already said he wouldn't try anything; and he had no interest in going to prom on the football player's arm – the very thought of it made him shudder in revulsion – so there didn't seem to be much of anything fueling his anger. Yet there it was, bubbling inside him and distracting him from his work.

Tiredly, Danny decided that a bit of exercise would do him some good and closed his eyes to focus on changing into Danny Phantom. He lifted himself above the chair and drifted through the window to take off into the night sky.

Idly he wondered if there was a chance of scaring up the Box Ghost for a few rounds of physical exertion, but at the same time did not want to risk stumbling on to anyone else that would require more effort; the Box Ghost he could handle, anytime, anyplace, but the rest had a vendetta against him and seemed intent on bringing their A-game to the table, something Danny was in no mood to deal with right then.

So he settled for mindlessly floating through the night sky, enjoying a rare opportunity to just be free, to indulge in the perks his alter-ego afforded him without having to shift into battle-mode.

Just as the thought ran through his mind though, Danny let out a yelp as he was knocked out of the sky. A burning sensation in his side stole his attention away from the fact that he was falling out of the sky, and his back slammed against the grassy knoll he landed on, causing him to bounce and flip over to land on his stomach with a grunt. His body had survived worse, and Danny didn't think he had even broken anything, but he had lost his breath and was practically seeing stars.

He heard a soft whoosh to his right and turned his head to find—

His eyes widened, taking in a sleek modern invention attached to the shiny synthetic leather boots of an individual dressed in a sleek suit topped off with a helmet that hid his or her face. Danny hadn't seen anyone in an outfit like that since—

"Valerie?" he ventured.

It didn't look like Valerie. This person's figure hulked larger than hers, big-boned though the girl had been. Danny, chest still heavily, got up on trembling legs, still unable to tear his eyes away from the half-shadowed apparition in front of him. It was a man, Danny was sure; the suit hugged his body revealing muscles too big to belong to any female, a height more commonly achieved by men, and, Danny thought, a bit of a bulge in the crotch.

Whomever it was didn't seem to be advancing forward or backing down; the two of them stood there in the moonlight staring dumbly at each other. The suited individual had a gun that looked like nothing else Danny had ever seen aimed directly at him, and Danny was hunched slightly, hand over a newly-formed wound.

And then, it began to speak. "I'm going to kill you," it breathed with a heavily distorted voice.

Then without another word, it kicked off the grass and blasted off into the night, stealing Danny's breath again and causing his legs to give out so that he toppled on the ground again, still clutching the bleeding wound.