Bonjour, lovelies. Enjoy chapter 2. There will probably be around 5 chapters, just a heads up for those who are wondering.
Chapter Two: Fire and Ice
x - x - x
An hour later he was phasing through his own bedroom wall at FentonWorks, holding his head in his hands.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. You are so stupid, Fenton. A real sleaze. Lowest of the low. Some boyfriend you are. When did your own raging hormones become more important that Sam's well-being? So, so stupid! It was a circular endless litany that had been playing in his mind ever since he left Sam tucked into her warm bed. The warm bath water had taken half an hour to calm her violent shivering.
Danny triggered his transformation back to human distractedly, fumbling through his dresser for sweatpants. He hadn't even bothered trying to find his clothes under the layers and layers of snow and ice on the roof at Sam's apartment. The drawer slammed closed much harder than he'd meant it to.
He was sitting on the edge of his bed with his forehead on his hand when his bedroom door creaked. Just what I need. Probably his mom or dad coming in to lecture him, yet again, about abusing his powers by sneaking off to Sam's in the middle of the night. He was a legal adult and they still found it necessary somehow, although they'd definitely let up since he graduated, assumedly for the reason that he could move out any time he wished. Without bothering to look up Danny growled, "What?"
He saw her silhouette against the wall he was staring at as his visitor stepped in, letting hallway light spill into the room. Long hair falling all over the place. He immediately felt less annoyed, realizing it was just Jazz.
"Hi Danny," she said softly. Her voice was gentle even though he'd snapped at her. "Can I come in for a sec?"
He lifted his hand from his hands long enough to glance at her. She stood in his doorway uncertainly, which struck him as strange, considering she normally had no qualms about invading his privacy, barging in whenever she pleased. He let out a sigh. "Yeah, I guess."
She sat next to him tentatively. He could feel her analyzing gaze pouring into the side of his head. He shifted uncomfortably. She had the uncanny power to make him feel like an open book, even when he was trying to stay tightly shut. Like she was reading his mind. Then again, she really did that to everyone. After a minute of silence he couldn't take it. "Look, if you're here to lecture me, you can just save your breath."
"I'm not here to lecture you, Danny."
He made a scoffing noise.
"Are you okay?" she intoned, resting her hand on his shoulder.
"Fine," he said. He shrugged her hand off. "Just great."
"I know where you sneak off to in the middle of the night. I can tell because you've been sneaking out for five years and there's a difference between coming back from a ghost fight and coming back from a girl's house." Danny had to fight not to roll his eyes. "It's perfectly normal, you know, and while mom and dad give you grief for it they know it's normal too. That's why I'm not in here to lecture you. That's why I made them stop riding your case about it."
Danny raised his eyebrow at that. He'd never have guessed that the decrease in the "girlfriend" lectures was thanks to Jazz's interference.
"So if you're not in here to lecture me, why're you here?"
"Um.." Jazz seemed at a loss for words for a moment, which was truly rare. Rare enough that Danny actually looked up at her from his resting place on his hand, and caught an expression that looked almost embarrassed. "Wow, this is so awkward," she laughed quietly, more to herself than to Danny.
Just then Danny noticed for the first time a small box she was holding in her lap, white and unadorned. "What's that?" he asked.
Jazz snapped out of her small reverie. "Oh this?" she replied, pointing down at the box like she had just barely noticed it too. "It's uh…"
Danny peered at her, trying to figure out why she was acting so weird.
"Here," she said suddenly, placing the box in his lap. It was very light, like there was barely anything inside. "I made mom invent them, just for you. If you think this is an awkward conversation, you should have been there for that one. I tried to explain it with subtlety, but she didn't understand and pretty much made me spell it out for her. I mean, there's no commercial market for them at all. No one would ever need to use one of these. Well except for you. I was surprised neither mom or dad had ever thought about it, and surprised you never thought about it."
Danny opened the box with a curious foreboding, not sure he even wanted to know what Jazz was talking about. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw that the box was full of thin, small, square, wrapped packages. Each about 2"x2".
Jazz stammered over her continued explanation. "It's just.. there's so much we don't know about your anatomy, Danny, we just don't know. Who knows if normal protection would work with your ghost DNA? I mean, you can phase through walls, so why not through... You're my brother, I just want you to be safe. And I don't want you to have to deal with something as scary as parenthood until you're good and ready. You deserve that."
Danny literally had no idea what to say to her. He was torn between embarrassment, gratitude, and shock, but the predominant feeling that began to drown the rest of them was that same feeling of self-deprecation that had been churning in his mind since he left Sam's house. He realized belatedly that this meant his parents and Jazz and probably everyone else all thought he and Sam were having sex, and he was furious to realize that he wished they were right.
And with that, he couldn't look at the little box anymore. He tossed it behind him on the bed, and let his face fall back into his hands. No matter what that seemed to be his default position tonight. "Thanks for the sentiment, Jazz," he said dryly. "But you've been worrying yourself for nothing." He pried his right hand from his face and idly focused on his fingertips, shaping and reshaping a small ice crystal there between his thumb and forefinger, which was a nervous habit of his.
That seemed to catch her off guard. "What do you mean?"
He didn't answer her, instead allowing the palm of his hand to slowly fill with the tiny crystals. They grew and fell over each other, piling higher until they began to spill through his fingertips onto his knees.
"Danny, are you sure you're okay?" she repeated her earlier question. He could feel her analyzing eyes on him again, watching as little crystals spilled onto the floor around his ankles.
"Wish I had a brother," he muttered, realizing only belatedly that he'd spoken the thought aloud. "Not that sisters aren't awesome," he added hastily, hoping he hadn't just injured her feelings. "There are just some things a brother can't talk to his sister about."
"Isn't that what Tucker's for?" she said with a hint of a smile.
"Not for stuff like this." He hadn't noticed that he'd created a pile of crystals a couple inches high around his feet by now.
Jazz seemed to realize how distracted he was because she said, "Danny, I can tell when something's on your mind. You're doing that thing with the ice again."
"Huh?" Danny looked up from the pile of crystals in his hand. He looked down at the floor and realized how much ice was there. He aimed a tiny blast of ectoplasm at it, melting them instantaneously into a smoldering puddle of water.
Jazz sighed. "I may not be a brother, but I have known you for nineteen years, Danny. You know you can talk to me about anything, and I mean anything. You've seemed so distracted lately, and I know it has something to do with Sam. Maybe I can help you, if only so that you have someone to talk to."
Danny looked at her for a moment, deciding that yes, she could in fact read his mind. He didn't think anyone had picked up on his relationship snag with Sam, since they were so outwardly happy as a couple. He should have known that Jazz would see his distress. She had always been the one who saw through his masks. He decided then to confide in Jazz, but chose his words very carefully.
"Sam and I are happy," he began, "and I love her more than words can say. But when I try to show it.. my powers get in the way. I feel like I'm freaking fourteen all over again, stumbling through walls because I've got no idea how to control the stupid powers. It's like back when my ice powers first manifested and I kept freezing everything I touched because it was just overflowing, it's exactly like that. I just can't control it! She's so patient but it's maddening, you know? And tonight…" The image of Sam in the bathtub surfaced in his mind, shivering in the water with a pale face and blue lips. "I thought I could control it but I went too far. The reason we've been taking it so slow is because I'm so scared I'm going to lose control and hurt her, and what happened tonight confirmed that."
"Wha- is she okay?" Jazz asked in alarm.
"She's fine," Danny said robotically. Physically fine, he added mentally. Who knews what she thought of him after tonight. "It's just that I almost froze her solid." He shook off the image of Sam sitting in the field of ice and snow upright and naked but for a layer of snowflakes crusted to her skin.
He was surprised when Jazz suddenly hugged him. "Danny, I am so sorry." He didn't hug her back but she didn't seem to mind. When she pulled away she kept her hands on his shoulders so he couldn't let his face fall into his hands again. "It's no wonder you haven't wanted to talk about it," she added. "I can see how distraught you are, but don't be Danny. You learned how to control your powers before and I'm sure you'll learn how to control this too. Besides, Sam loves you."
Danny just shook his head sadly. "It's only getting worse. It's like the closer Sam and I get, the less control I have."
"Well what did you do when your ice powers first showed up? Did you just learn how to control them by teaching yourself?"
Danny chewed on that for a moment. No, he hadn't. He reminded her about Frostbite, and the Far Frozen. It had been a long time since he'd talked about that.
"Do you think Frostbite could help you again?"
Danny shrugged noncommittally. Somehow, he didn't think so.
"Maybe it's worth a shot," Jazz said hopefully. "I don't know if you want advice from me, but if I were to give it I'd say that a visit to the Far Frozen might help you work through this problem. I'm glad you told me though, even though you didn't want to. It's never good to bottle up feelings like that."
Did she have to psychoanalyze everything he did?
She stood up from the bed, stepping over the puddle of water at their feet. "Remember that I'm always here if you need to talk, Danny." She kissed him on the top of his head before she left, a fond gesture of hers that she'd never seemed to grow out of. Back in middle and high school he used to brush away her kisses like they were poisoned, exclaiming things like Gross, but she'd still never stopped.
He didn't know why he'd thought a brother would've been better to talk to than Jazz. No one understood him like Jazz did.
His heart felt strangely lighter as he fell asleep that night.
x - x - x
The dome ceiling of the Frozen Archives sloped two hundred feet overhead, but even from the ground level Danny could make out the intricate ice carvings that sprawled across the surface from wall to wall. Every inch of every wall and shelf was lined with books in various states of wear and decay, each one appearing to be centuries old. Frostbite had shown him around the monumental library, taken him to the section dealing with anatomy. Danny could see the curiosity on his furry face but Frostbite didn't pry. To be honest, Danny had been intending on asking Frostbite himself for advice but once he got here he found he just couldn't do it. So here he was, doing the research himself.
There were several thickly bound books spread out on the wooden table before him. He'd gone through each one already, and his heart felt like stone in his chest. The one he was looking through now was no more helpful than the last few. Each one told him pretty much the same thing.
The paragraph he was on now blurred together. His concentration was dissolving.
…natural reaction anatomically. The increase in energy level is triggered by sexual excitement and the release of certain hormones. (See page 391.) The temperature around the mating pair will lower drastically in correspondence with the male's energy level. If the female is responsive, her temperature will naturally drop as well until it matches that of the male's. (See graph on page 395.)When the female's energy level aligns with the male's…
Danny sighed in exasperation and slammed the book closed. He was tired of reading the same explanation over and over again. He felt like it was Sex Ed back in freshman year all over again, except this time he was going through it voluntarily, which was markedly worse. He tossed the heavy book aside to join the pile of the ones he had already read.
He was at the point of wishing he had never come to the Far Frozen looking for answers. He had answers now, but they weren't the ones he wanted.
Every book said the same thing. What he was experiencing was natural, it was to be celebrated, it was a healthy and normal thing for people of their kind, species whose power cores were like Danny's. It was not something they learned to control, it was something they embraced. Every book was telling Danny to embrace it, to let that icy power flow exactly when it wanted to, because "if the female is responsive, her temperature will naturally drop as well until it matches that of the male's." He wasn't supposed to suppress it for Sam, the books said, she was supposed to meet him there. The unfairness of it nearly choked him.
"How goes your research, Great One?"
Danny snapped to attention. He hadn't seen Frostbite appear before him on the other side of the table. He tried not to feel embarrassed as Frostbite observed the books he had laid out on the table. He was sure Frostbite knew exactly what was detailed in those pages.
Danny shrugged. "I guess I found what I was looking for," he said unhappily.
Frostbite crossed his arms behind his back, one massive furry one and one made of solid ice. "And what you found was not to your liking?" he inquired respectfully.
"No, it wasn't," he answered truthfully. "I thought I'd find information that could solve my problem but all I found out was that I have a different problem than I thought I did."
"Is there any way I could assist you in this problem?" His face wore an expression of genuine concern. Danny had never understood what Frostbite saw in him, or why he ever went out of his way to help him.
"Somehow I don't think so," he replied dejectedly. "I don't think anyone in the world could solve my problem."
"What is the nature of your problem, Great One?"
Danny sighed. "You know I hate being called that."
Frostbite only smiled, as he usually did when Danny bristled at the name. "Very well, Danny Phantom." The informal name sounded strange on Frostbite's tongue.
"My problem," Danny began, "is that none of these books help me at all. They all say what I'm going through is natural and that I should embrace it. I thought I would find some instructions somewhere on how to control my energy, not instructions telling me to let it out. I almost killed my girlfriend yesterday trying to keep the ice in. I don't want to think about what would happen to her if I did what these books were telling me and just let the energy flow where and when it wants to. All these books are talking about two people who have that frozen core. My girlfriend.. doesn't have that. So you can understand why you can't help me with my problem, unless you can get rid of my ice powers or you can give some to Sam." He sagged in his chair, unwilling to look Frostbite in the eye.
"Hmm." Frostbite seemed to mull over everything Danny had said. "I'll be back in a moment, Great One." Danny didn't bother mentioning the excessive title.
It was only a minute before the huge creature had returned, holding a red leather bound book in his paw. The title was written in loopy golden words in a language unfamiliar to Danny. "Your problem is not so unique as you might think," he intoned, taking a seat by the half ghost on the wooden bench and opening the worn book. The chapter he opened to was prefaced by a detailed drawing of a woman, whose body seemed to be encased in flames.
"Is this a fairytale?" Danny asked humorously, "Because I so do not need a fable to put my problems into perspective."
"It is in fact a legend among my people," Frostbite answered honestly, "But just because it is a legend does not make it untrue. Five hundred years ago a member of our council, known to history as Icehand, fell in love with a being outside our species. Her name was Narira, and she lived alone in her own realm of the Ghost Zone, on an island surrounded by a lake of fire. They said she was formed out of that very lake. No one could stand near her for fear of burning alive, and people of my own species could not even enter her realm. It was on neutral ground that they met, in a far corner of the Ghost Zone, and no one could say there had ever been two people more suited to each other."
How could they be suited to each other if they couldn't even get near each other? Danny didn't voice the thought, though.
"And so, in order to be with her, Icehand called upon our ancient forgers to create a token for Narira to wear that would allow him to be with her without harming either of them. They created a necklace with its own heart of ice, and he gave it to Narira on their wedding day. When the necklace fell over her own heart it acted as both a shield and an open door between their two cores, allowing Icehand to touch her for the first time."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Danny said curiously, examining the faded illustration of the necklace on the yellowing page. It looked like a normal silver necklace, but for the wide clear crystal that seemed to hold a glowing shard of ice in it's core, the power of it seemed to shine even through the faded discolored drawing.
"I thought it might help to know you aren't the only being who's ever gone through this problem. And I thought you might want to know where to find Narira, if you should so wish to speak with her." He said it nonchalantly, turning the page to reveal what looked like a map of a small portion of the Ghost Zone, with a large drawing of a flame in the center of the page.
Okay so I know I said the adventure comes in in this chapter, but I guess it doesn't really get going till next chapter. Whatevs I ain't even sorry.
See you next chapter folks!
