Danny managed to spend his walk home shaking his head and mumbling to himself. A crush? On Dash? He somehow couldn't wrap his mind around it, the guy who made several years of his life a living hell, who he spent so long hating, was now the object of his affection. He couldn't believe it, and yet, he was more than alright with it. It gave him something he hadn't had in ages, a reason to live every day. On the other hand, he groaned to himself, he had no idea what Dash felt, if he felt anything that was. He climbed up the front steps of his house, pushed the door in and ascended the stairs. He bumped the door to his room open with his hips, threw his backpack on the floor and flopped onto his bed. His mind was racing again, his head pulsing. He rubbed his temples. There was no need to process these thoughts, they were clear enough. Right now he just needed to figure out what to do, he needed a plan. Danny's train of thought was interrupted when a knock of the door filled the silence. He got off of his bed and opened it, Sam and Tucker greeting him.

"What are you guys doing here?" Danny inquired.

"We couldn't let you spend your first day of summer cooped up in your room." Tucker said, slightly pulling on Danny's shoulder, coaxing him out of his room.

"Yeah, we're gonna go hit up Nasty Burger, and you're coming with us." Sam enthused.

Danny's mind flashed back to the last time he entered the establishment, the ridicule of the football team, the overly affectionate couples, the feelings that he had discarded reared their faces again, but he shook them off, physically shaking his head for emphasis.

"I…uh, sure, yeah, let's go."

The trio descended the stairs and made their way outside; the warm summer breeze greeted them eagerly. Sam and Tucker subtly put their arms around each other's waists, and Sam slung her other arm around Danny's shoulder. The three took up the whole sidewalk, not caring if they inconvenienced the other people they came across.

"So what was up with you and Dash, man?" Tucker turned his head to look at his friend. Danny felt his face flush, and the words ceased to form, leaving him with an open mouth that made no noise. Finally, after several seconds of embarrassing stammering, he managed to think of an explanation.

"Well he came to me and said he needed help with the class material, and since I wasn't sure on it either, we killed to birds with one stone, metaphorically of course, and figured it out together."

"And that took you three weeks?" Sam added.

"I wanted to be thorough?"

Danny's friends looked at him, eyebrows arched, turned to look at each other, and then to face their friend again. Danny offered a sheepish grin, and Sam and Tucker rolled their eyes, smiles curling the corners of their lips. They figured it was best to just take his word for it. Despite the fact that it was Dash, although he did seem remarkably different, they hadn't seen Danny this happy in months, and frankly they were just glad to see him smile again.

The crowd at the Nasty Burger was something that should've been expected, given the circumstances of it being the first day their summer began, but surprisingly the combined brainpower of Danny and his friends had failed to overlook this. Nonetheless, the three of them made their way through the crowd of adolescents, but were discouraged when there was not a single available booth or table.

Dash had hurried out of the school, eager to start his summer, but his mood died down when he realized he didn't really have anyone to spend it with. He pushed the front door open with a sigh, lazily climbing up the stairs. He threw his things on the floor and sat on his bed, phone in hand. Running a hand through his blond hair, he dialed the phone with the other. The phone rang a few times before a voice answered on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Kwan, what are you up to?"

"Oh, hey Dash. Uhm, not a lot actually. Why?"

"Just askin'. Did you maybe wanna hang out?"

"Sure, man, what did you have planned?"

"I dunno, Nasty Burger?"

"Why is that the go-to teen hang out, anyway?"

"I don't know, dude, do you want to meet me there or not?"

"Sure, I'll meet you in like 20 minutes."

"Cool."

Dash hung up and placed the phone back in his pocket. He stood up and stretched his shoulders, sighing contently. At least he had something to do today. But his mind kept wandering back to Danny. Why did he seem so freaked out at the slightest human contact? Dash mulled over the thought for a while, but found his mind drifting to other Danny-related thoughts. He found himself blushing and shook the thoughts from his mind. He disregarded them and headed downstairs, stopping to say goodbye to his mother, before running outside and beginning his trek to the hottest teen hangout spot.

Fortunately, almost surprisingly even, he had had enough hindsight to go early, beating a good percent of the patrons he knew would show up. Kwan was waiting for him, he always was the one gifted with time management abilities. They headed inside and ordered something, grabbed a table and sat down.

"So you sure did spend quite a bit of time with Fenton these past few weeks, huh."

There was that name again, he couldn't escape it. Dash paused, why had he spent so much time with Danny. Sure they did some studying, but towards the end of the three weeks they just sat around and talked, usually without a main topic. Dash enjoyed it, maybe a bit too much. It had been an unexpected revelation, the kid he spent so much of his time torturing, the one that acted as fuel for his bullying, was the thing Dash needed to make his life a little less miserable.

"Oh god." Dash thought out loud.

"What?" Kwan responded.

Oh shit, he said that out loud, didn't he? He ran through his vocabulary in his head, thinking of the words to form an excuse.

"Dash, dude, I asked you what you and Fenton did together for three weeks."

"Oh, uh, well I wanted his help studying for finals, and he himself needed the extra review, so we pretty much just studied."

"For three weeks?"

"Yeah. Just because I don't look it, I'm very smart."

"Uh huh."

"Shut up, man."

Kwan let out a chuckle and Dash threw a glare in his direction. They sat there for a while, watching the masses slowly pile in, filling up seats, contributing to the deafening noise. Dash couldn't be bothered to make out individuals in the crowd, that was until three particular faces walked in. Sam and Tucker, and Danny, surprisingly, had just waltzed in, but stood, overwhelmed, looking for a placing to sit.

"Dude, your study buddy just walked in."

"And?"

"Do you want to ask them to sit with us?"

"What?"

"Danny, Sam, Tucker, over here!" Kwan shouted out, waving his arm to get their attention.

"Kwan, dude, no!" Dash covered his face, embarrassment creeping up on him.

"Aw, come on, what are you, embarrassed?"

Dash couldn't tell him the truth, that he had had a crush on Danny Fenton for the past few years. He knew he was gay, but even that took a while before he felt comfortable sharing. He had placed his head on the table, arms placed over it. He looked up to see Danny and his friends making their way over, hesitantly, and could make out their voices.

"You sure about this?" He heard Sam ask.

"Yeah, Dash is cool now." Danny reassured. Dash could feel his cheeks heat up. Danny thought he was cool?

"And Kwan?" Tucker added.

"He invited us over, right? He's always been the lesser of two evils, but he seems alright too." Danny replied. Dash covered his face again, but he could make out the sound of Kwan sliding over. Dash peaked, saw Sam and Tucker sit next to his traitorous best friend, and immediately realized who had sat down next to him.

"Dash, you okay?" Danny asked, poking the larger teen's shoulder lightly. Dash practically shivered when Danny's finger made contact with his arm. He exhaled and sat up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just, uh, resting my neck."

Danny gave the blond a confused look, but dismissed his suspicious actions.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Kwan decided to break the silence. Dash reassured himself mentally that it wasn't the only thing that would be broken after they left.

"The same thing as you two, just looking for a place to hang out." Sam answered.

Other than the occasional comment, the meeting between the five teens was awkward. Danny and Dash glanced at each other nervously, earning questioning glances from their friends. Tucker and Sam could see their friend's eyes dart around the restaurant. Eventually they had fallen on Dash, who had also looked over. Both teens drew their attention in the opposite direction, cheeks lighting up like Christmas, but the clueless trio chocked it up to them being from such different social classes, sitting together in public. As Danny, Sam and Tucker finally got up to leave, figuring that it was fruitless to sit there anything, Danny's hand had accidentally brushed up against Dash's on the seat. He felt the other male pull away, but not before feeling the larger, calloused hand linger for a couple seconds.

"Hey, this was great guys, we'll let you know next time we plan on coming here, you can meet up with us." Kwan called to them as they headed for the door. When he was sure they were out of earshot, he looked over at Dash, face contorting into a sly grin.

"What?"

"I saw the look on your face, man."

"W…what are you talking about?" The flaxen haired male stuttered.

"The look on your face as soon as Danny showed up. You have a crush on Fenton, dude."

This is the moment he had feared the most, when one of the a-listers found out the truth about the star student's crush on the nerdy kid. Granted, it was Kwan, and not to mention most of the other popular kids couldn't give two shits about him, but he still couldn't stop thinking over all the ways this could end disastrously. Then Kwan spoke again.

"Dude, it's cool. I can tell that you've been thinking about this for a while. As soon as I brought him up you got this doofy, love-struck look on your face and started staring into the void. Look, when you came out I told you that I'd stand by your choices, we're like brothers, man, and your orientation won't change that. Besides, Fenton and his friends aren't that bad, they're actually pretty cool."

"Do…do you think I have a shot?"

"Well with Sam and Tucker together, you have less competition."

"Ha-ha, very funny."

"Well if I had to guess, looking at the way he behaved around you, you definitely have a shot."

"You better not be saying shit, man."

"Come on, Dash, this is serious. If you don't have the balls to get your man yourself, I'm gonna have to help you." Kwan chuckled, the idea of him playing matchmaker struck him as funny. But the look on Dash's face showed how dire the situation really was. He did have to admit, since Dash started spending time around Danny, he seemed so much happier, so much more content with his decision to stop bullying, and his attempt to distance himself from his usual crowd.

Dash sighed, looking his friend square in the eyes. In a way, he was glad he didn't have to hide it from him, but at the same time he still had no idea how to see if he had a shot with Danny.

"Whole school and I have to pick Danny Fenton. Kwan, what have I got myself into?"

"Teenage drama, man, we all go through it."

"It isn't that simple."

"Oh?"

"Now's not the time, dude, I'll tell you later."

Kwan could see how serious his friend was about this. He sighed, temporarily defeated. He climbed out of the booth and waited for his friend to do the same. When they were outside the restaurant, Dash turned to Kwan, looking him in the eyes again.

"If you tell anyone," Dash began, "I will end you."

Kwan patted his friend on the shoulder with a laugh before walking off in the direction of his house. Dash sighed, looking up at the sun, is descent already started. The sky was a beautiful mixture of blue, purple, pink with a bit of orange thrown in. Dash had never been one to appreciate the sunset, too sentimental and romantic for him, but at this moment, he felt his eyes drawn to it.

Dash knew this was going to be a long summer.