Bonjour, mon chers! Sorry for such a late update but I've been rather busy with my new job - the training has me on 8 hour days right now! Not to worry though because I bring two new chapters and a chance for the boys to get some nice, quiet rest!

For those of you who don't know, by the way, I have a Patr(e)on! If you think I'd be worth spending a few dollars on every month then consider checking it out! There are polls asking YOUR opinion on what I should post next, what stories I should start, and what ones I should work on again! Check it out at the Patr(e)on website with the name mjanderson

Remember to check my tumblr for updates and new things as well at ibelieveinahappilyeverafter

Chapter Twenty Nine

::

"Your hair is starting to get long." Andrew's voice was soft and quiet, Danny letting his eyes slip shut at the sound as he felt a brush ever so softly comb through his hair. "Are you going to cut it?"

"Mm… Not just yet." Christmas. Randy and Andrew hadn't managed to get him back until a few hours ago, after Christmas had already started. He was honestly surprised his parents hadn't come into the Ghost Zone, yet. "I don't…"

"I know." He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to see his family yet. He didn't want to talk about it. "I know, Danny, I know." The gentle hand carding through his hair had him calming himself moment by moment, the teen sighing quietly once he was relaxed again.

"The bad luck with Christmas prevails then, huh?" Honestly, this was a habit he could really stand to break. "Well, no… The one when I was fifteen wasn't all that bad." Tilting his head back, Danny smiled softly at seeing Andrew's worried and concerned expression. "Met you, after all."

"Terrible, you are." Andrew hugged him closer anyways, kissing at his cheek and gently holding his hurt wrist. "How is it?"

"Better, especially now that the speed healing's kicked in," Danny mumbled, trying not to blush as Andrew kissed his wrist so softly. It was such a stupid thing to blush over, but he was always so flustered when Andrew was like this. "The concussion went away too, I think. Those go away pretty quick once I change."

"Small mercies." God, Andrew still sounded so wrecked. Randy had quietly mentioned a confrontation with Walker when patching him up, only saying that the ghost was still alive- He would have to talk to Randy, later. No doubt he was still unsettled at letting Danny be kidnapped when he was there. Randy had only left to let everyone know that Danny was okay. "We should have gotten to you sooner."

Oh. Oh, no. No, no, no. Danny was not letting Andrew do the whole self-sacrifice thing. Twisting around, Danny moved to push Andrew down, sitting on top of him and putting on his best glare, "No- No. Don't you dare feel guilty for not finding me sooner. Don't you dare-"

"You were surrounded by blood blossoms when we found you, Danny- You were hurt and had broken bones-"

"Because of Walker! This was all Walker's fault- Everything that happened the last few days, all of it was Walker being a dick. None of it- None of it was your fault, got it? You and Randy did everything you could to track me down and save me. You were trying so hard, Andy."

"I almost-" Andrew bit his lip, looking nowhere near the calm adult he tried to act like. No… He looked like the scared young adult he typically was. "I almost killed someone, Danny. I felt it. I felt it. I almost became him again- I did become him again!" Him. The Priest… "I don't-"

"I know." I don't want to be him anymore. I don't want to go back to that. I don't want to be him. Danny understood. He understood his mate so much. "I know, Andy, I know. I know." Dan. He had seen what he could become, in his future. It was Andrew's past that haunted him, but for Danny, it would always be the possibility of his future. "We're not them."

"We were… We could be." Taking a breath, Danny linked his hands with Andrew's, gently pressing them against the bed as he leaned down to kiss Andrew's forehead. "Danny…"

"Your name is Andrew Claude Riter. You're a ghost who died when you were twenty-two. Right now, you're a substitute teacher at Casper High. You have Randy who always worries after you and you have a scandalous affair with a student who happens to be your dorky loving boyfriend. You love libraries, you write books as a living, and you wanted to be a librarian before you realized how much you loved teaching others. You're not… You're not an assassin. You're a good person.

"You dismiss your students early when you think they need a break, you try to make the homework fun and exciting, you keep lessons interesting and answer questions others would think are stupid, you get so excited when someone finally figures something out, or starts showing genuine interest in something. You're a dork of a teacher who loves his job and his family and is just as average as every other person on the planet, minus the awesome powers."

Pulling back a little, he saw Andrew was crying. He almost panicked before he heard a watery laugh, Andrew phasing his hands out in order to instead wrap his arms around Danny and pull him down for a tight hug. "How did I ever get so lucky as to have you in my life."

"Well, I mean-" He didn't even get to finish before Andrew was laughing, rolling them onto their sides and kissing his face in as many places as he could. Smiling, Danny captured Andrew in a proper kiss, tension draining out of him at the familiar warmth and feelings that filled him. "I love you, Andy."

"Je t'aime pour toujours et toujours, mon cher fantôme." Forever and always, huh… Danny could easily get used to that. "Now, did you really just tackle me with a broken wrist-"

"It's healing!" Danny didn't fight against it as Andrew sat them back up and tittered over him, inspecting his various scrapes and injuries and doing his best to be gentle. Really… Was he not supposed to fall a little more in love? "My parents are so worried, aren't they?"

"Which ones," Andrew scoffed, kissing and nuzzling at Danny's cheek as he held his wrist still. "Jack and Maddie tried to burst in here with ghost hunting weapons, Randy had to stop Vladimir form leveling near the entire city to try and find you, and Jasmine and Clockwork were looking ready to put together an army to find you."

Quietly counting, Danny gave a quiet hum, "So, one protective mate, one overprotective Randy, and five crazy parents who would destroy the world to keep me safe. And two best friends who took a blood oath to also keep me safe. Seems pretty nice."

At Andrew's look, Danny tilted his head. He didn't see why Andrew was looking so horrified now of all times. "Pardon," Aah, Andrew had certainly been through a lot if his French accent slipped in even more than usual. "Did you just say a blood oath."

"We made sure ectoplasm wouldn't harm them, first," Danny shrugged, squirming to wrap his arms around Andrew and press their chests together with a quiet, tired purr. "No more panicking. Sleep time. Then we're gonna go back and I'm gonna punch Walker in the dick."

"You are not- You're so violent at this age." Hmph. Said the former assassin who constantly threatened death to half the teachers he worked with. "For now, let's just focus on getting you to sleep."

"Alright." Snuggling closer, Danny let a soft sigh slip as he felt more than saw the lights turn off, warm blankets being wrapped around him as Andrew did his best to keep his hurt wrist propped and steady. "I really do love you, Andy. Bunches and bunches."

"As I love you, mon cher. As I love you." And this… His life was dangerous, and everything always felt far too much, but on nights like these, with Andrew, alone and safe and warm, it…

He could keep going, like this.

::

"It looks like everything has healed alright - or at least is almost healed." Absently nibbling on a cookie, Danny let Randy conduct his examination in peace, watching a bit curiously. "I imagine staying in your ghost form all night probably helped." Well, he wasn't wrong. The superficial cuts had healed over by the first hour once his powers were back and everything else seemed to almost be completely healed. "You said you could still feel your powers with the cuffs on?"

"Yeah, it was like…" Pausing, Danny let his legs form back into a tail, swishing it from side to side as he thought. "There's this spark… This center of cold inside of me. I guess it's my core, now that I know about my powers and everything, but when I want to change I picture myself reaching for it and grabbing it. When I had the cuffs on, I could still feel it was there, but I couldn't grab it. It was like trying to grab something that was intangible."

"Hm…" Randy gently bandaged Danny's wrist - he didn't need a splint where it was healing so fast, but Randy wanted to keep it braced and straight as possible so it didn't heal back the wrong way. "I think that's the reason you haven't tired yourself out yet, or changed back. You had all that power you kept trying to use and since you couldn't get to it, it built up."

"Like when I first got my ice core." That would be a time he would never forget, especially with how it had almost ended. "So me staying in ghost form all night…"

"Let the energy out naturally and gave you an outlet that wouldn't harm you," Randy nodded, cupping Danny's cheeks and tilting his head certain ways, watching his eyes. "Any dizziness, still?"

"Nope," Danny popped the 'p' with a little grin, laughing at Randy's look. "I'm fine, I woke up feeling like I normally do- Well, a little tired, but well enough."

"I figured you were okay going to sleep, since your concussion symptoms died down by the time we got back." Letting him go, Randy held up Danny's arm, staring at it. Danny was pretty sure he had lost it, more so when energy started gathering in his hands.

"If you're about to mark me for some weird blood ectoplasm ritual thing, just know that Sam and Tucker beat you."

"I know, Andy was complaining about it this morning. And no, I'm testing your aura." What? Staying quiet, Danny watched as Randy ran the energy along his aura just an inch or so away, enough for them to brush and touch. It had Danny sharply shivering at the feeling that washed over him. It was definitely Randy's energy, but he had never felt it so strongly. "Sorry, it's the quickest way to see if you have any blocked or built up energy. Think of it like the chakra thing from Naruto."

"You… You did not just compare ghost powers to Naruto- Oh my god, you did. I don't even know who you are anymore. Randall, how could you." As expected, Randy ended the exam by flicking Danny's forehead. "Rude."

"I am rather great, aren't I? And you're fine, all things considered. The blood blossoms didn't do any lasting damage, all your injuries are healing, and your core and energy are steady and stable."

"So… Are you like, a ghost doctor? Or a nerd? I mean, you do math for fun, and are always reading those math books." Another flick to his forehead had him huffing and falling silent. The kiss to the same spot that followed had him trying to stay silent and not blush.

"I picked up some things where I'm always off doing work. Frostbite and the Far Frozen actually taught me a hell of a lot when I stumbled on them during the beginning." How the hell did Randy keep getting cooler? It really wasn't fair. "How's Andy?"

"He's…" Danny glanced towards the kitchen, knowing Andrew could hear them from where they were out in the main room and curled up on a couch. He didn't seem to be paying much attention - or he was just trying to show he wasn't. "He's Andy."

"Yeah, he is, isn't he." Randy's quiet tone had Danny leaning against him, giving a weak smile. Randy returned it, ruffling his hair. "Your hair's pretty long now, you know. Need it cut?"

"Nah, it's fine like this for now." Really, Andrew and Randy were too similar. "Any chance on making glasses magically appear for me, though? I tried Andy's spare pair and they're a bit too strong."

"Mm…" Randy thought about it before flicking his hand in order to summon something, Danny blinking at the pair of glasses offered to him. Slipping them on, he gave a delighted grin. "Good?"

"Near perfect. Are these old ones of Andy's?"

"Nope. They're mine."

"Oh, that makes sense." Wait- No, what the hell no it did not make sense. Staring up at Randy, Danny scrunched his nose up and just kept staring. There was no way…

"Hey, not everyone can have perfect vision. Those who don't just have to make do." Narrowing his eyes, Danny leaned closer and stared. "Yes, Danny, I'm wearing contacts."

"What the shit. Since when do you wear glasses?" This- This was not right. Randy, the epitome of 'too cool' and 'punk', should be wearing glasses. That just… That felt wrong. The very thought of Randy in glasses- Well, that made him feel wrong, but for entirely different reasons.

"Since he was ten." Blinking, Danny grinned as he was pulled into Andrew's arms as the man sat down. He grinned even wider at the cookies and cup of coffee he was given. "He didn't even wear them when we were doing missions."

"Hey, I had an image to keep up," Randy huffed, snatching a cookie and eating it himself. "It's not my fault if you were jealous I could use my weapons without corrective lenses."

"I wasn't jealous. I was cautious and kept thinking you were going to slip up and end up shooting me instead of the target." Feeling the nuzzles to the back of his neck, Danny couldn't stop himself from purring. Or from becoming a limp pile of content mush, tip of his tail flicking and squirming in delight. "Adorable."

"Oh, now you're just torturing the poor thing," Randy 'scolded', grinning far too much at Danny's torture. Honestly, couldn't even save him properly- Oh, he was rubbing at Danny's tail and god that felt good. "He's alright, you know."

"I know." Purring as loud as he was, Danny had a bit of a time focusing on what the two were saying. He found he didn't mind that much as long as Andrew just kept- Oh, head scratches. Hello heaven. "But I still…"

"Can't stop imagining what almost went wrong. I get it." Danny should probably say something, but it was very hard when he was so safe and so warm and curled up in Andrew's arms, listening to the gentle beating of his core. "If I hadn't left him alone-"

"Don't," Andrew scolded, and, yes, good mate. Scold the self-sacrificing idiot. "Just… It was something that couldn't be prevented, but we can- We can try to make sure it doesn't happen again. We're both… It might be in a different way, but we're both still learning and growing, aren't we? With Danny, and his friends, and everyone around him, we're… We're all learning to be a family. So it'll be okay. We'll get better, and we'll keep him safe, right?"

There was a long silence, Randy finally muttering under his breath, "Using your writer powers to make me emotional is cheating."

"Are- Are you cr-"

"It's dusty in here!"

"Randy, there's no dust."

"Dusty."

And yeah, they were all a wreck. All of them had so much to fear, and so much they were running from, but… They were definitely learning from it. They were definitely growing from it. So yeah, life was hard, and Danny got really sick of everything some times, but… But this was good.

His life might still be dangerous, and he might be pushed to his limits day after day, but this? With his family, with Andrew? He wouldn't trade these moments for anything- Ooh, right behind the ears, and, okay. Danny could stand to laze around a little longer, he supposed.