Bonjour, mes chers! Three chapters are soon coming at you and, with luck, I'll be wrapping up this story within the next week. (That's the plan, but it might be a little bit into April. We'll see how it goes!) I hope you enjoy and remember that my Patrons are getting an advanced chapter tonight, as well!
As always, remember I have a Patr(e)on at mjanderson, a tumblr with updates at ibelieveinahappilyeverafter, and that I love you all!
Warnings for: Sexual situations (nothing explicit, but it is there)
Chapter Fifty Seven
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"And then- No, no, okay, but this is the best part! The Eiffel tower was right outside the window. Can you believe that? I thought at first that might be because of Randy, cause, I mean, you know how Randy is, but then I thought about it and I have no doubt that it was Andy. He would so totally be sappy enough to plan for something like that! Plus, I mean, c'mon, when does Randy ever plan for anything?"
"Actually, it was a joint effort." Startled, Danny looked over to where Randy was leaning up against the doorway, coat and shoes kicked off somewhere and hair starting to shift back into curls now that his gel was wearing thin. It took more effort than it should have for Danny to not teleport the man over and smother him with affection.
"Eavesdropping is rude, you know." Sticking his tongue out, Danny grinned at Randy's eye roll. "I was just talking to Liz." The gentle notes played across his thoughts, Danny beaming as Randy's eyes slightly widened once the meaning hit. "I know, right?"
It had taken twenty minutes just for Danny to calm down enough to talk, but once he had settled down into the middle of Randy's bed and liberally covered himself with blankets, he hadn't stopped talking to Liz once. Stories had flown back and forth and while this had to be the fifth time he had told someone about the Spectra mess, it was… It was good. It felt like the more he said it, the less it was hurting him.
"At least this explains where you've been." The bed dipped as Randy sat himself down in the middle, Danny grinning at him. "Your ghostly features are slipping through again, now."
"Yeah." This time he didn't feel as panicked about it, either. "I think it might be because I'm in the Ghost Zone. More natural ectoplasm and all that." He could feel those features slipping through even now. It was in the way his eyes saw colors he probably wasn't supposed to see and in the way he could feel his canine teeth far sharper than they should be. Oh, the jokes he could make.
"Makes sense." Waiting for Randy to say something else - anything else - Danny raised an eyebrow as the other remained silent with nothing but a soft, fond, lovestricken look on his face.
"You're staring, you know." Instead of waving it off, Randy only gave him another smile. "You're being weird." Ignoring Liz's gleeful notes that yes, he was indeed blushing, Danny bundled himself more in his blankets. "Stop staring."
"I'm just looking at one of the ones I treasure. What's so wrong with that?" Alright, he asked for it, then. Making it seem as if he was hiding even deeper into his blankets, Danny gave a truly impressive whine, in his opinion, before darting forward and tackling Randy down onto the bed. For once it seemed the other hadn't expected it, a startled yelp leaving him as Danny settled down on top of him.
"Hi." Danny chirped, pleased as could be when Randy looked back up at him before finally laughing.
"Hi." Much better. He loved the two looking at him with those sweet, sappy looks, yeah, but seeing them happy and laughing was much better on them. "Have you been talking to Liz this whole time, then?"
"She has a lot of great stories. Especially the ones about your early mercenary days." Danny laughed as Randy shot a betrayed look to the ceiling. Squirming around, Danny felt a surge of energy as Randy tried to keep him still. "Hey- Hey, when's the last time we had a training session?"
"It's been awhile," Randy grunted, finally twisting them around to pin Danny to the bed. Instead of staying still, Danny only laughed and squirmed even more, grinning at the kiss to his neck. "At least since we had a really good one."
"We should have another one." Gathering up his strength and going absolutely still, Danny waited until Randy loosened his hold in confusion. That was the exact second he striked and sent the two tumbling off the bed, landing with jarring thumps that had Danny erupting into more laughter.
"Alright, you brat." Oh, that was a very Andy tone. It was also a very Andy glare he was being given, Randy looking tense and ready to fight back in a second. "Name the theme."
"Let me think." What theme would be good for today… As much as he loved the themes and the games, Danny felt like he would have a hard time disappearing into a character today. He was just- He was too happy being himself! He wanted to play and train, but he also kind of wanted to have a good fight, but he wanted to be himself, but- Ah.
"That's a very dangerous sense of excitement I feel from you." Oh? Oh! Right. Randy could feel emotions. "What's got you so excited?"
"I know who I wanna fight." Danny didn't need Randy's empath powers to know the other was starting to feel excited himself. Good. That was good.
"Oh? And just who do you want to fight, sweet one?" Phasing free of Randy's tight hold on his wrists, Danny shoved a hand down and wrapped his fingers around the choker Randy wore on his neck, giving it a sharp pull forward. The way his eyes flashed pure white and dilated at once was kind of amazing, really.
"I want to fight White Fang." He made sure to give the choker another sharp tug, completely unsurprised when he found himself on his stomach with his face pressed against the carpet, a hand on the back of his head keeping him pressed down and a cold, quiet laugh brushing against his hearing.
"Are you really sure that's what you want, sweet one?" Oh. Hm. Danny so often had seen Andrew lose himself to the Priest, but he had rarely - if ever - seen Randy give in to White Fang. He was always too careful and too controlled, and when he finally broke it was Randy Beaumont who broke. This, though… This wasn't quite Randy. "A part of you is still human, after all. And humans can be so… Fragile." Danny felt sharp pricks of pain against his neck, Randy's claws digging into him and drawing blood and oh, fuck. Okay, maybe Danny was a little more adventurous than even he first thought.
"I'm not just human, though." Snapping into his ghost half, Danny used the burst of energy from the transformation to throw out a blast from all around him, pleased when he felt Randy's weight disappear. "You can't defeat me." Really, Randy and Andrew were too much alike some days. They both feared losing control.
"Ooh, that's right, you managed to defeat the Priest, didn't you?" With his coat and shoes missing and his hair a mess of spikes and curls, Randy looked far more feral than even White Fang at his worst. Danny loved it. "How difficult was that?"
"I managed." Hard. It had been very hard because Andrew was so fucking Andrew. It was impossible to get through his stubborn attitude some days. Randy, though… Oh, Randy took every comment to heart and bore all his scars for the world to see. He wore them well.
"You thought the Priest was a difficult enemy?" The stories said that the Priest controlled White Fang couldn't be more wrong. Danny felt it as he scrambled to his feet and flew through the lair as fast as possible, heart speeding and excited gasps and laughter tumbling out of him. White Fang was the one in control. Always.
A jarring crash to the floor had Danny throwing up a shield, eyes wide when three bullets ricocheted off it, one of them bouncing against the wall and almost hitting him in the back before he brought up another shield. "Jeez. Almost forgot about those." Randy and his ricochet shots were lethal.
"You wanted White Fang." It was said like an accusation, but Danny heard the question within it. Facing Randy - White Fang - Danny beamed and dropped into the fighting stance that he had been working on for the last year. That was all it took to have the other launching forward again, Danny rushing forward to meet him.
It was exhilarating. Every ghost fight had Danny too distracted and worried to ever do anything like enjoy it, with Andrew and Vlad he was hyperfocused on figuring out just what the two were planning to do next, but with Randy it was different. With Randy, Danny could just let himself go and fight.
There was nothing that was 'carefully measured' or 'thought out.' It was just them, fighting and scrapping and pushing each other more and more to their breaking points. Andrew, even when pushing him into the Priest, had always just been a bit too careful when it was Danny. Randy, though. Randy never held back. That's why he fired his gun. Randy knew what Danny could handle, even if all the others didn't.
Hitting the floor roughly and having the wind knocked out of him, Danny bit back a swear as he was harshly pinned to the floor with no way for him to twist out of the grip. He saw a sharp grin and his mind raced to find a way to escape- Oh. Right. Leaning up, Danny slammed his lips harshly against Randy's, startling him out of whatever daze he was in and knocking him down into another. He also might have actually knocked him down.
"I don't know about you, but I think this fight just got a whole lot more interesting." Danny licked his lips as he straddled Randy's hips, delighted at how instead of blushing, Randy only looked hungry.
"I think you're rather right, sweet one." Perking up at hearing the cocking of a gun, Danny scrambled out of the way, just barely dodging a bullet that skidded past his cheek. Glancing back, he frowned at seeing a clear, white gun made of pure ectoplasmic energy.
"Forgot you could do that," Danny grumbled, wiping at the thin line of blood on his cheek as his grin slowly came back. "If that's how it's going to be, though…" Danny breathed in and when he breathed out his breath showed in a swirl of ice crystals.
"Didn't you ever read the original book?" Randy smirked, more guns flickering into existence. "Ice isn't enough to stop a wolf's fangs."
"Who said I wanted to stop your fangs." Danny knew his voice was a purr. He knew it was. So instead of blushing, he tilted his head to the side just so and- Ah, Randy looked even more excited. Good. "Come on, White Fang."
As they launched into another round, Danny couldn't stop his wild laughter as they fought. Maybe that was why he understood these two so well. Just as they had White Fang and the Priest, Danny had 'Phantom.' The cocky, self-absorbed hero who couldn't lose in a fight and knew that he was the best out of all of them.
That was the point of all this, though. Just as the two had helped Danny show him his sides were one in the same person, Danny was going to show them that they were also the same. It wasn't- It was just Danny, Andy, and Randy. Just them. No one else. The Sect stopped having a say a long time ago.
Just thinking about that building and the fear in Randy's eyes and the wild joy in Andrew's once it started to burn… Danny dodged every bullet before slamming into Randy roughly, the two crashing against a wall and falling to the ground to try and gain the upper hand. Danny managed to get a hold on Randy's choker - no, his collar - smirking as the man immediately went limp on instinct. He fought back, but that single second was enough to pin him.
"Mine." Jeez, he could already hear Sam calling him a barbarian and Jazz insisting on more of those family therapy sessions, but still. Still. "The Sect doesn't get you anymore." Randy squirmed and Danny tightened his grip, pleased when Randy flicked his gaze up to him, almost questioningly. "I burned the Sanctum to the ground and stole their two best assassins."
Under him, Randy froze and went completely still before something seemed to click into place, a weak, but beautiful smile appearing. Danny gave a bright one of his own, rubbing at the back of Randy's neck as he bent down for a kiss. "Even if some of them are still out there, they're nothing without their Priest and the bite of their vicious wolf. Without you two, they were nowhere near as deadly. So, we win."
"We won." Two decades and a hell of a lot of confusion, but it seemed it finally sunk in. Danny wasn't surprised that Randy had taken so long to accept that. He wasn't used to winning.
"You won." Moving to instead cup his cheek, Danny rubbed his thumb under Randy's eye, sighing when the man relaxed and closed his eyes at once. "You had some loses." Randy's parents, Sylvia, Andrew never knowing what a true home was until death, and even their lives. "But you won."
"Jesus." Laughing as the man sounded ready to cry, Danny leaned down for another quick, gentle kiss, getting distracted for a minute. Maybe five. Maybe. It was hard to keep track when Randy was so receptive to the kisses and Danny was panting for breath as Randy just kept pressing closer and closer. "Fuck, Danny."
"Figured words wouldn't get through to you the same way they do to Andy," Danny muttered, moaning as teeth bit sharply at the side of his neck. "You're- A-Ah. You're more… Fuuuck, Randy." Danny's train of thought was completely broken up as hands phased past his suit and fingers dug into his skin, pulling them closer together. A burst of wild energy and Danny was pressed into something soft like a bed or couch, touches not stopping for even a second. "Whi- Ah! White Fang was only deadly whe-n the Priest- Randy."
At this point, Danny's suit had been pushed out of the way as much as possible and there were bite marks all along his skin that wouldn't be healing for days. Danny fucking loved it. "Had to protect him somehow."
"So you tried to kill them before-" The stuttering words and scrambled thoughts were completely stopped, Danny whining low and quiet as his clothes (when had he changed back to his human form?) were completely phased out of the way and Randy's tongue- "I swear to god if you stop-"
"I wasn't planning on it," Randy chuckled, the sound vibrating against Danny's skin and fuuuck. "Just stay still, mon douce, and let me thank you, hm? Let me show you just how much I enjoy being collared by you two."
Woo- Ooh, boy, okay, alright, then! That- Mm. Danny was not prepared for that when he started up a training session, but like hell he was going to argue against it now. "Wa- Wait." First, though. "You're- You're okay, right? We don't- God, fuck, we don't need to have some long, emotional talk about all of this to like, make sure we're okay?"
Randy didn't answer with words, and, really. That was all the answer Danny needed. Overall, he had a feeling things were going to be just fine when it came to him and his mates.