Danny makes a decision that might kill him.

(Also, Fenton and Phantom are back. Yay!)

Chapter 13
Indecision

Sometimes I feel like this is only chemistry
stuck in a maze, searching for a way to
shut down, turn around, feel the ground beneath me
you're so close where do you and where do I begin?

…

You're the center of adrenaline
and I'm beginning to understand

- "The Best Thing" by Savage Garden

Exhausted, sore, stressed beyond belief, and just glad it was finally over, Danny fell against the wall beside the stairs as his parents left the lab. His dad threw him two thumbs up and a beaming grin before the climb carried him out of sight, and Danny rolled his eyes. Oblivious as ever, Jack hadn't noticed the tension between Danny and Valerie and probably thought they were about to have some quality bonding time or something.

If only.

Danny didn't know if it had been their argument right before training or his refusal to go through the Ghost Catcher, but he had felt her staring at him all throughout training, and he didn't think it was the kind of staring you wanted from your girlfriend. It was the kind where, had he been in ghost mode, he would have expected her to pull a gun on him.

Her constant attention had made him twice as nervous, twice as determined to keep his powers from activating, and the result was a splitting headache. Fortunately, after his parents finally announced the end of training, Valerie had turned all that focus on the Ghost Portal.

Danny turned his head to look at her and sighed quietly. Her back was to him, but the curve of her spine was rigid, her shoulders thrown back as she studied the portal from a safe distance. She hadn't said anything, but...she was probably thinking about how much his turning the darn thing on had cost her and her dad. Or wondering how he had met Phantom because apparently that was a concern of hers. She definitely didn't seem happy training was over, and that didn't bode well.

Danny rubbed at his temples, wincing as his headache spiked. He needed to talk to her. He knew he needed to. But there was an anger inside him he couldn't quite soothe no matter how much he tried to reason with himself.

Which was still stupid. He didn't need to protect Phantom from his parents and Valerie, he was Phantom. The anger still persisted, and he didn't know what to do about it other than maybe talk to Valerie. She wasn't the ruthless hunter his parents were, maybe he could convince her Phantom wasn't a bad ghost?

No, she was already suspicious of his and Phantom's connection. The less he brought up Phantom, the better. And he couldn't talk to her now because she was clearly upset about something too. They would fight, he knew they would because part of him wanted that fight.

He groaned and pushed his fingers harder against his temples as his headache throbbed. What's the matter with me?

"Is there a way to turn it off?"

Danny blinked his eyes open and refocused on Valerie. "What?" he croaked. She was still facing the Ghost Portal. He cleared his throat. "Oh, uh, probably not? I mean, it tore a hole into another dimension. It…sounds permanent. I think the Fenton Portal just lets us lock most of the weaker ghosts out."

Valerie moved closer to the portal until she could lay her hand flat against the locked doors. She was quiet for a moment before she said, "Probably better that way."

"How so?"

"Because then I would be out of a job."

The way she said it, the cold tone of her voice, made a chill creep down Danny's spine. "Would that be such a bad thing?" he asked, his own voice soft. To no longer have to fight to protect the town, to finally be free of a responsibility he had taken on when he was just a fourteen-year-old kid…it sounded like a dream.

Valerie turned to face him. She stared at him in silence, a silence made worse by his inability to see her expression through her helmet. He shifted against the wall, standing a little straighter against it, though his bruised knees twinged in protest.

Finally, she said, "I won't thank you for letting the ghosts into our world, Fenton." She began to walk towards him, her pace faster than he expected. He stood up from the wall. "But your dad was right about one thing." She walked past him and started ascending the stairs, leaving Danny to blink in surprise at the empty lab. "Life without ghosts would have been…boring."

Danny turned to watch her go, his mouth open to call her back, but…what could he say? No, get back here, you're supposed to be mad at me? That couldn't be it. After everything, after all the staring and silences, she just left? What had he missed?

Something is wrong.

Danny shook his head and pushed the chilling thought aside. There probably was something wrong, but if Valerie didn't want to talk about whatever was bothering her, then he wasn't going to let the extra time go to waste. The lab was finally empty. Danny turned his head to glare at the Ghost Catcher. Time for some ghost mischief.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and called on his transformation.

Several seconds later, he let the breath out as a curse and pushed both of his hands through his still black hair. Why couldn't he just be normally abnormal for five minutes?

Okay, so, maybe he had been letting himself focus a little too much on the physical aspect of training, and maybe he hadn't fought against his irritation with Valerie hard enough, and maybe he was pushing his other half away more than was necessary, but if he had let that part of himself in a little more, he might have iced the whole floor over just because Valerie was watching him. Phantom—Danny's ghost powers were practically on a hair-trigger as it was. The important thing was they had gotten through training with little to no hiccups, with their secret intact, and only a little fight with Valerie as a consequence.

Fenton did good. Danny did good. Whatever.

Except…their secret was intact, yes, but their relationship with Valerie was once again on shaky ground, and he had only a vague notion as to why. Since everything had started as a result of him trying to strengthen the relationship, he had saved the day, yes, but he had still lost in the end.

"Damn it," Danny muttered. He scrubbed his fingers through his hair, letting himself groan in frustration. Either at messing up with Valerie again or at how fragmented his mind was.

"Just focus on one problem at a time," he told himself. "It's fine. We got this."

First things first: how much time did he have?

He half climbed up the stairway and strained his ears. His dad was, as always, easily heard, but he had to listen a little harder for his mom's and Valerie's quieter voices. They were probably in the living room. It sounded like they were talking about plans for tomorrow, but Valerie was scheduled to work at the Nasty Burger that day, so it was more likely plans for Wednesday.

Danny didn't really care about the details so long as all three of them were too busy talking to return to the lab. That would change as soon as Damien arrived to discuss how it had gone, but until Danny heard his parents charging for the lab in an excited frenzy, he had time.

He reentered the lab and began to pace between the stairway and Ghost Catcher. He had had a close call. A really close call. If his parents had agreed with Valerie, if they had decided to force him through the Ghost Catcher 'for his own good,' things would have gone from difficult to very, very bad in a matter of seconds.

Worse, Danny doubted Valerie was just going to let the matter drop.

He had to hide the Ghost Catcher. Out of sight, out of mind. If he could keep his parents from seeing it, maybe they would forget about Valerie's suggestion altogether. Maybe they would forget about modifying it at all and he could still—

Danny forcefully shook his head. "No, it doesn't matter. I'm never splitting myself again, so it doesn't matter."

He just needed to hide it so his parents wouldn't try to unknowingly split him in a misguided attempt to fix him.

To do that, he needed his ghost powers because there wasn't anywhere to hide the darn thing in the lab, only he couldn't access his stupid powers without thinking like Phantom, so he needed to…to…what? Become blindly devoted to Valerie? Forget his responsibilities as a hero the next time a ghost showed up? Check himself out in the mirror? Why not go the full mile and just—

"Not helping," he grumbled.

Phantom was all about Valerie, so if he focused on his feelings for her, maybe he could go ghost. Tense as things were between them at the moment, Valerie was still beautiful. She inspired him with the way she gave no ground, kept up her grades, and fought ghosts with as much skill as his mom. Maybe more. She was just…amazing. And she liked him. Him.

But she was also caught up in her own prejudice, so focused and convinced she was always the one in the right. She had certainly had no problem handcuffing Danny to a table and torturing him for information because Phantom was just a ghost—

Danny found himself grinding his teeth, and he quickly shook his head. "We're supposed to be thinking about things we like about her." Which wasn't all that easy after listening to Valerie and his parents discuss ways to hunt, hurt, and destroy ghosts for however many hours, especially when those conversations inevitably circled around to one ghost in particular. He groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face. "Fine. Fine. New topic."

Except, aside from Valerie, the only other person Phantom ever seemed to think about was…

"No," Danny hissed. "No. It's bad enough that I…that we…oh hell…" He turned sharply away from the Ghost Catcher and marched towards the stairs, but the problem with leaving the Ghost Catcher where his parents could reach it remained, and Danny found himself returning to the device, his arms crossed over his chest and his shoulders hunched forward. "Damn it," he mumbled. "Damn it, damn it…"

Phantom might not have been necessarily interested in pursuing his feelings for Fenton, but he had accepted that they existed. If thinking about Valerie didn't work…thinking about Fenton would. After all, Fenton couldn't think about Fenton that way.

Then again, not that long ago, Danny might have thought the same applied to himself.

Danny glanced at the Ghost Catcher before quickly jerking his head away.

It wasn't even…difficult to think about Fenton. Like that. Unfortunately. The memories and emotions were near the forefront of his mind and had been since the merge, always waiting for his attention to wander. They weren't even unpleasant. They were just…confusing. He wasn't supposed to feel that way about…himself. Fenton. But Phantom hadn't just managed to develop feelings for what was supposed to be his other half, he had accepted them. Acted on them.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the skin heat beneath his palm as he blushed. He had been trying to hold onto his human form so tightly in part because he didn't want to let himself feel the attraction Phantom had felt. It felt somehow dangerous. And anyway, it was embarrassing. And weird.

Not that Fenton was much safer, but at least pushing the emotions away as Fenton wouldn't result in him falling from the sky.

He wasn't flying now, though. No one was around to see if his powers activated. He could do it. Give into the feelings or whatever. They were, in a sense, his own, and he couldn't keep running away from his own feelings forever.

Danny breathed out a resigned sigh. "This is a terrible idea," he said, though he was already lowering himself to the ground. He leaned his back against the Ghost Catcher's pole and shivered as the metal's cold touch seeped through his shirt. He pulled his legs up and rested his arms on his knees.

He should probably try remembering something from Phantom's perspective, something only Phantom remembered. He would prefer to think about watching the stars after Fenton fell asleep, but one memory his mind kept wandering to was the one where Phantom had flown into their bedroom just as the sun had begun to rise above the horizon. When Fenton had been asleep and Phantom had flown into their room to wake him up, but instead he had…kissed him.

Danny coughed. "Uh, m-maybe not that one. Maybe something earlier. Something that doesn't involve…" He trailed off, floundering for a word that encompassed Phantom's feelings and actions in that moment. There had been...a lot of emotion there. Danny bit his lip, his hands fisting his jeans. Danny didn't dare pick it all apart, but perhaps pieces of it? Just enough to find Phantom's mindset.

And anyway…he was curious.

Why had Phantom kissed him?

Phantom had known just as well as Fenton that they shouldn't—couldn't—go down that path, so…where had it gone wrong? Why had he kissed him? The night before he had even fled into the storm instead of staying with Fenton. And he had done that because...he had been frightened?

The way Phantom had been drawn closer to Fenton on the bed, his body's reaction to Fenton pressing against his back…those responses didn't just simply happen without cause. Like Danny was doing now, Phantom had spent the night thinking back on previous events, on his actions and the reasons behind them, and once he stopped and actually thought them through, once he stopped thinking of Fenton as only the other half of himself, a perception Fenton himself had so neatly destroyed when he had refused to be used anymore, everything he had done took on a new light. The kissing, the teasing, the hickey...

Early yesterday morning, Phantom, huddled beneath the leaves of a tree, drenched from his hair down to his feet, spent an hour or so berating himself, not just letting things get out of hand, but for encouraging them in some ways. For getting on that bed, for taking Fenton to see the meteor shower, for not letting Fenton handle Valerie on his own, for not ending the practice sooner when he knew…

Eventually, he had cycled around to denying there was anything wrong to begin with.

Mostly, he had convinced himself he was letting his own romantic nature get the better of him. Things hadn't gotten that far yet. With Valerie out of reach, he had simply found a different outlet. They weren't true feelings like the ones he had for Valerie, how could they be? And even if they were, there was no harm in them because Fenton would insist they merge in the morning anyway.

All those denials, all that lovely reasoning crumbled to ash the moment Phantom flew through the window and saw Fenton again.

Danny ran a self-conscious hand through his hair and tugged lightly on the strands, his cheeks starting to burn. He wasn't even sure which half of himself was more embarrassed. Phantom for having his feelings so thoroughly exposed, or Fenton for being the target of those feelings. It was all bad, and he had to take another deep breath to calm himself because he had to do this.

Danny let the breath out slowly. "Okay." He tilted his head back until his crown also rested against the Ghost Catcher's pole. He closed his eyes, his face scrunched in concentration, his fists clenched at his side. "Do your worst." Involuntarily, he twisted his lips in a smile. "Charming…"

Maybe it was the thought of losing him as soon as Fenton woke up and they merged, maybe it was a result of his having thought of Fenton and his feelings for him all night. Maybe it was just the atmosphere. Whatever it had been, it had caught Phantom in that moment, made his chest tight and the breath he hadn't needed catch in his throat. What had been boring the morning before had become captivating in the new light.

A light touch on his elbow failed to wake Fenton. Whispering his name failed to do the same. The soft twittering outside, a soft chorus that couldn't quite smother the sound of Fenton's light snores, tickled Phantom's ears and made him reluctant to speak louder, afraid to lose the peaceful dawn. Afraid to lose this once Fenton woke.

Danny bit down on his bottom lip.

Any other day, any other time, it might have been fine, but it had stormed the previous night, and the smell of a fresh dawn lingered in Phantom's nose. The birds were especially loud and cheerful, the rising sun had been casting a soft glow on the few remaining clouds, highlighting the room in subdued hues. Highlighting Fenton.

Fenton's limbs had been thrown every which way, one arm hooked over the back of his head, a leg even dangling off the side of the bed. His dark hair had been mussed all over his face and pillow, and his chest rose and fell in slow, even patterns that Phantom somehow, strangely found riveting. There had been nothing special about him or his position, but still Phantom couldn't look away.

Then Fenton had turned onto his back, his arm flopping above his head. It broke the spell, but worse, Fenton's lips had parted on an exhale, Phantom's attention had been recaptured and…

He gently brushed Fenton's black hair from his forehead, his eyes. He trailed his fingers down his cheek, his skin warming Phantom's through the latex, until he could cup Fenton's face. One hand braced him over Fenton, the elbow bending as he lowered himself, drawn by the same magnetic pull that had so caught him last night.

Danny squirmed. He pressed his hands over his burning face, but he had already learned he couldn't hide from himself.

There was no grand scheme. Like Phantom had told Fenton, he had kissed him because he wanted to. It had just felt natural to lean forward and kiss him. They had kissed a lot the day before, what was one more? Phantom had thought it would feel like those. But Fenton had been asleep—vulnerable, unguarded—the atmosphere had been different, Phantom's feelings had been different. There had been nothing similar about the kiss, nothing like the ones during practice.

Fenton's lips, thin and slightly parted at the start, softened beneath Phantom's, compressed into a kiss, and began to push back. Fenton beginning to wake beneath him, to lazily respond, made a fluttering sensation race from Phantom's stomach up to his chest where it made his core vibrate, energy shooting through him. The birds still twittered outside, but now he felt Fenton's warm breaths against his cheek, the rhythm no longer even, no longer calm.

Phantom pulled back and opened his eyes to see Fenton's fluttering blearily open as well, flashing glimpses of pale blue irises and widened pupils. Phantom fell back into the kiss without consciously thinking about it, a move further encouraged by Fenton clumsily raising his arms to wrap around his shoulders.

The morning might have progressed a lot more gently if Jack hadn't charged up the stairs, making enough racket to startle Phantom out of his trance. He had turned invisible, intangible, and flew from the room as quickly as he could, but he didn't go far. He had hid behind the neighbor's house and pressed a hand over his burning lips, wide-eyed and blushing.

That was when he panicked.

So it wasn't like Fenton's dream at all, but in some ways it was just as intimate. Maybe more so. Just remembering the way Fenton had begun to stir beneath him made that fluttering sensation return, albeit with a more human response.

Danny laughed weakly to himself, his cheeks still burning. He really did have a crush on himself. He—Phantom, in the midst of trying to make the date perfect for Valerie, had gone and fallen for his other half. Or started to. Danny laughed again, afraid he would die of embarrassment if he didn't. He pressed his hands harder against his face and leaned forward, taking shaky breathes between random bursts of laughter.

Of course, he had known that he…that Phantom had developed a crush, but knowing something wasn't the same as feeling it so completely. It was embarrassing, what with Fenton being a part of him as well, but it was also exciting.

We still have to hide the Ghost Catcher, he reminded himself.

Right.

Danny sucked in a calming breath. The thing was…as much as Phantom had feared losing himself and Fenton to the merge, if Jack and Maddie made their adjustments to the Ghost Catcher, that really would be the end. So long as the Ghost Catcher remained the same, there was always a possibility. Perhaps they wouldn't be the same two if they ever separated again, but there was a chance.

Danny felt his determination growing, and he sat up a little straighter, lowering his hands from his face. Yes. That was the angle he needed to reach his ghost powers. Protecting their secret didn't mean much to Phantom, they had hidden themselves from Valerie long enough, but protecting something else? Something he couldn't quite define?

Danny took a deep breath and tried activating his transformation again. The rings appeared as if they had been waiting for just that moment. They raced over him, turning him ghost in the space of a heart beat. Danny hesitated a moment, startled, but…okay. Mission accomplished.

He floated off the floor, cautious and bracing for his powers to abandon him again, but Phantom's feelings were at the forefront of his mind, he was no longer fighting them, and for once, both halves of himself agreed they had to hide the Ghost Catcher, even if it was for different reasons. It was enough for now.

He quickly flew over and grabbed the Ghost Catcher by the pole. In human form, it was heavy and awkward to carry, but as Phantom, Danny half-levitated, half carried the invention into the air easily, bracing the upper half of the pole against his shoulder. Activating his intangibility and invisibility, he flew through the basement's ceiling, through part of his parents' room, into his own, and set it down on his bedroom floor. Safe.

Danny floated backwards and started looking around his room. He couldn't just leave it in plain sight, and he didn't think his dad would be fooled by a blanket shroud a second time. Perhaps in his closet. The space, or rather, the door was too small for the Ghost Catcher to fit, but that was where ghost powers came in handy.

With a small grin on his face, Danny turned back to the Ghost Catcher and...

…hesitated.

A stabbing pain shot through his head. He gasped and pressed his hands against his temples. "No, no, no," he said. "You have to be kidding me." He looked at the Ghost Catcher, at the way the sunlight glinted against the metal ring, so like it had that first time, and quickly closed his eyes again.

Splitting himself had occurred to him many times since last night, but it was a harder idea to dismiss with Phantom's memories so close to the surface, when the Ghost Catcher was right there, once again in their room where they were safest.

Worse, splitting himself would remove his ecto-signature from Fenton. Over time, his parents might forget about the so-called radiation thing, especially with Valerie to distract them. He wouldn't have to worry about losing control of his powers in front of them during training. He wouldn't have to risk losing his powers during a ghost fight when Phantom's interest was weakest and Fenton's the strongest. No ghost had attacked yet, but they would. They always did at the worst moment possible because that was just his luck.

He could split himself. Right now. It would even be safer.

But he shouldn't. He knew he shouldn't. Sure, there had been a few hiccups, but he was finally getting back to normal. Slowly. He had had similar problems after Fenton and Phantom had first kissed. Granted, they weren't as…dangerous. Or extreme. But he had pulled himself together in the end, and he could do so again. He just had to hold out a few more days. Just a few more. Fenton and Phantom would have fully fused, and Danny would be himself again, the past events nothing more than a bad memory.

Danny sucked in a breath. His flight ability canceled out, and he dropped to the floor, his legs stumbling from the impact. "Wait," he said. "Wait, wait, wait." He reached out a hand to brace against the Ghost Catcher's pole, but the hand turned intangible, and he fell forward, stumbling a few steps.

"Okay!" He righted himself and held his hands out to either side. "Hold on. Just, just think it through. What…" He brought a hand to his head. "Ow…What was that thought? What did you—I mean by that?"

Because if staying as Danny meant Fenton and Phantom fading gradually…

Danny's core started pulsing with energy, his breathing coming faster out of reflex. It was already happening, he knew it was. He wasn't fighting with himself over the crush as much as he had been the day before. The memories weren't as jarring either. He had clung too tightly to one half of himself during the training session, making it harder to turn ghost after, but before that he had found the middle ground and felt more like himself—the real Danny—than he had since Friday, even if it was only for a few precious seconds.

Fenton and Phantom were getting closer to one person. The merge had worked the way it was supposed to, it was just taking longer. A lot longer, but they would really be one person if they just gave it time.

He was literally watching, feeling, sensing the loss of his and Fenton's individuality with each second they passed as Danny.

He had known it was happening, but he hadn't known.

"I can't do it," he gasped. "I can't."

Danny jumped into the air and spun to face the Ghost Catcher, but his power canceled out again, and he dropped back to the floor, falling forward onto his hands and knees. He sat up and pushed his hands against his temples, moaning in pain as the pressure built, the pain throbbing in his head. He was breathing too fast, but he couldn't seem to stop. His quick exhales frosted the air, the temperature in the room dropping.

He bent forward until he could press his forehead against the floor. "Shit," he breathed. There were three ghost hunters below him, he couldn't lose control of his powers like this. He tried reverting to human again, but like the time in the lab, nothing happened.

He groaned and rubbed his forehead against the carpet fibers, the scratchy sensation a minuscule distraction against the pain in his head. It had no effect against the building panic.

He chocked on a breath that could have been a sob. "We're not dying," he said, his voice unusually thick. "We're just going back to the way things were."

But even as he spoke, Danny felt contempt well within him at the very notion. Nothing about him had ever been normal, but even if the merge had succeeded and he had returned to his abnormal sense of normalcy, Danny had kissed himself. Had enjoyed kissing himself. Had developed feelings for his other half and couldn't stop thinking about him without losing some part of himself.

He had crossed a line, and no matter what happened after, that wouldn't change. How could he ever be normal again?

"We just have to find a new normal," he said, only for his head to throb painfully again. He groaned and pressed his hands harder against his temples. His stomach roiled, and Danny swallowed thickly. He opened his eyes to look for the trash can, but his vision swam, and he closed them again quickly, afraid he would throw up before he reached it. He had never done that before in ghost form, but there was a first time for everything.

He felt just as dizzy and nauseous as he had yesterday, what wrong with him?

"I can't," he gasped, and then again, "I can't."

Couldn't split himself. Couldn't lose Fenton and Phantom. Couldn't stand the way his head was starting to feel like it was ripping itself apart.

Danny made a weak noise in the back of his throat. With no other recourse, he stopped trying to reason with himself and just focused on his breathing. It kept hitching so he concentrated on taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly like Jazz had shown him. It wasn't working. He ground his teeth together, frustrated, hurting, but he kept trying.

The room was probably getting colder. The door was wide open. He was probably releasing enough energy to throw his parents' inventions into a frenzy.

The door bell rang, and Danny groaned. Damien had arrived. He would talk with Danny's parents for a while, and then Valerie would leave with him. Danny wasn't even going to get the chance to say goodbye. He needed to see her, but he was in no condition to do so.

"Damn it," he said through gritted teeth. The sooner he calmed down, the sooner he could see her. "Just focus."

The stabbing sensation ebbed slightly, and he took another shaky breath. The breathing thing probably would have worked better if he was human. Phantom didn't actually need to breathe after all, but he didn't exactly have a choice. He let the breath out slowly and breathed in again, concentrating on the slight expansion of his chest.

It was slow going, and he wasn't sure how much time passed as he sat there, just breathing, but he was eventually able to open his eyes without feeling like he was about to throw up. He couldn't see much with his head tucked between his arms, so he cautiously raised it from the floor and looked around his room.

The sun had set a little further, casting a deeper orange light through the window, but he doubted it had taken that long. His vision no longer swam, but there was still a queasiness in his gut he didn't trust. He took a last deep breath.

"That's it," he said, his echoing voice oddly strained. "We—I'm talking to Jazz."

It was a battle just to stand up. His legs and shoulders ached from his cramped positioning, his muscles felt almost as shaky as when Fenton and Phantom first merged yesterday. Worse, despite being in his ghost form, he felt hot all over. He braced a hand against the wall as he shuffled to his door. He couldn't resist glancing over his shoulder at the Ghost Catcher, watching the sunlight glint off the metal, the sight still a reminder of when he first split himself all those days ago.

Danny shivered and quickly turned away.

Luckily, Jazz's room was close to his own, right on the other side of the bathroom. Danny poked his head around the door frame and looked up and down the hall. He could hear his parents and Damien talking downstairs, but didn't relax until he heard Valerie as well. She said something that made the adults laugh. It didn't sound as if they had noticed his…whatever, but it was always better to play it safe where ghost hunters were concerned, especially when his powers were acting up.

"Jazz," he called in a near whisper. When she didn't respond, he floated towards her room, looking over his shoulder at the staircase. "Jazz." He peered around her door.

The light by her bed was on, he could see that from the hallway, but she wasn't there. Danny hesitated in her doorway, his mouth partially open. She wasn't there. She must have left while he was in the lab. He had told her about Valerie training as the Red Huntress, he might have even suggested she visit the library again so there wouldn't be any accidental meetings, at the time only thinking about his ongoing effort to convince Jazz she didn't need to take a gap year for his sake, and apparently she had followed through.

Danny bit down on his lower lip and flew back to his room, shutting the door behind him. He landed on the floor and began to pace around in a tight circle. He could always call her. She would come running if he told her he had had some sort of pseudo panic attack and needed her help, but that could send her running straight into Valerie's path.

Besides…if she had gone to the library again to work on her college applications, he didn't want to interrupt. It was bad enough she had taken a semester off to stay with him in Amity Park, he didn't want to set her back even farther.

He would just have to figure it out on his own, at least until she got back. He ran a hand through his white hair. And then again because he liked—

Danny jerked his hand out of his hair. "Damn it," he cursed. Even Fenton—

His foot turned intangible, and Danny crashed to the floor with a yelp. His head unleashed another painful throb, and Danny groaned, once against rubbing his face against the carpet fibers.

"Just let me die here…" he groaned.

He was sick of it. Absolutely sick of it.

Danny breathed in deeply then let the breath out in a rush. "Fine." He rolled onto his back and sat up, startled to find himself facing the Ghost Catcher. He quickly turned his head away. "Fine. Let's just work through the problem."

He had been fine all day until the possibility of splitting himself became not just a real possibility, but a matter of survival. At least for one half of himself. And because he kept dismissing the possibility out of hand, he was creating real tension inside himself that felt…dangerous. He probably shouldn't do that anymore.

So. Using the Ghost Catcher. Should he?

"Pros," Danny said, closing his eyes. "No more headache. No more power glitches. No ecto-signature to make Mom, Dad, and Valerie suspicious during training. No chance of turning human during a ghost fight. No more confusion about what I'm feeling or who I'm supposed to be. I wouldn't be an even bigger freak anymore, at least for a little while. I wouldn't be…" He hesitated on voicing the word, but that was part of it, wasn't it?

Sam and Tucker tried. They focused on the good, the fun, even when things got bad. His friends were the best, but sometimes it wasn't enough. It was fun having superpowers, fighting bad guys, but at three in the morning on a school night, confronted by yet another ghost calling him halfa, it was just…it was also…

Lonely.

Danny licked his lips and absently rubbed his hand over his forearm. "Cons," he whispered. "I'm finally starting to be me again. If I split, I'll just have to go through this all over again. And while we're separate, I'll have to trust…them. Phantom would have to be the hero. Fenton would have to fix things with Valerie. They could help each other, but then things might…happen."

Danny swallowed and ran his hand through his hair. His white hair. He jerked his hand back down. "Definitely," he said, his voice a little shaky. "Definitely don't want that. But…it's just a small crush. Those only grow if you let them, and if we keep our distance until the weekend, merge back on Friday night, pretend to be sick, I'll have three days to pull myself back together without having to worry about school or Valerie's secret or my parents' lessons. Sam and Tucker could handle any ghosts for that long."

He frowned down at his hands. It sounded like an ideal way to escape the mess Valerie's exposed secret had created on top of his own problems, just wait for a more opportune time for his mind to right itself. But while the lesson hadn't gone great, it hadn't been a disaster either. His own secret was still intact. Both secrets.

"Yes," Danny said quietly, "but we didn't train today. Mom only tested us physically, and Dad only showed off his inventions. Once we start using those inventions, Phantom's ecto-signature might attract or activate them, and then Valerie might be even more insistent we use the Ghost Catcher to fix the problem."

Which was why they had chosen to hide the Ghost Catcher. Jack and Maddie couldn't modify what they couldn't find, and more than anything, Danny didn't want them to change anything. Before, he might have been excited by the possibility that he could split his human and ghost self without splitting his personality as well, but that was before those split personalities started gaining an awareness to rival Danny's own.

It wasn't as bad as the time immediately following the merge, but Danny still sometimes found himself wondering if he was just the combined mind of two people. Of course that wasn't the case—he had been here first—but it was a little harder to remember he was the true Danny and they the splintered remains when moments like those in the lab kept happening. When he was more Phantom than Fenton or more Fenton than Phantom, was he still just Danny? Because in those moments…he didn't feel like he was.

To make things worse, Phantom's and Fenton's existence was only holding on by a thread. If all hope of ever separating was lost, either because of the merge or his parents' modifications…Danny didn't think the part of him that was Phantom would simply let it go, not now that he was so keenly aware of the process.

Whatever had taken place a few minutes ago, that had not been a fun experience. Danny would rather avoid a repeat performance, thanks.

And that was the whole reason he was even considering splitting himself again. Phantom. Phantom was too aware of himself as a person not to realize he was experiencing a form of death and too attached to Fenton for Danny's natural protective instincts not to react. He didn't want to lose himself. He didn't want to lose Fenton. Because Phantom was Danny, Danny didn't want those things either.

Danny allowed his eyes to trace back to the Fenton Ghost Catcher and breathed out a slow sigh. "You'll have to let go some time, Phantom," he said. "It's either you or me, and we already learned this lesson with Technus. Splitting now is just a stay of execution."

His face scrunched up in displeasure, but it was the truth, and he didn't feel any disagreement within himself. Only dissatisfaction. He might have to let go, but that didn't mean he had to let go now. Before, merging had made sense, but being together was creating even more problems than being apart had.

There was no guarantee splitting himself wouldn't in the end make things worse either, though. Phantom didn't like fighting, he wasn't especially good at it, how could he be a successful hero? And while Fenton had somewhat enjoyed the physical exertion during training, he had already made their relationship with Valerie take another downswing. He wasn't any better at romance than Phantom was at fighting. There was no guarantee they could even make it to Friday night without creating a bigger mess. The merge might even hurt worse after four days of separation instead of only three.

And yet…

Danny stared at the Ghost Catcher, chewing on his bottom lip. He wanted to. The more he thought about it, the more appealing it sounded, the more he really wanted to. Maybe it was just procrastination, and maybe he would regret it come Friday, but…it would be nice to see each other again. And figure out the whole crush thing in the privacy of their own head-space.

Just one more time, just one more chance. That's all they needed.

Danny stood, his eyes locked on the metal ring and the way the orange sunlight contrasted with the bright green of the glowing net. "If we do this," he said, his throat oddly tight around the words, "we have to keep our distance. And merge back on Friday after school. No putting it off."

He nodded to himself, as in in agreement, which…it wasn't, wasn't it?

He floated off the ground and approached the Ghost Catcher, stopping a foot before the net. He hovered in front of the invention, teeth catching his bottom lip as he stared through the net and saw everything on the other side tinted green. It was a mistake, he knew it was, but it was one he had to make if his mind was ever going to let him move on.

He hesitated, wondering if he should try to encourage his preferred personalities. If Fenton gained even a little of Phantom's confidence or Phantom some of Fenton's skill, they would have less trouble playing their parts.

But even as the idea crossed his mind, Danny found himself shaking his head. It was probably asking for even more trouble, wanting the two halves of himself that were developing feelings for each other to be apart again, but he—they—wanted to come out the Ghost Catcher the same as when they had gone in.

Besides, their personalities felt natural. His mind was already split in their direction. They just needed to be pulled apart.

Danny felt a chill run down his spine that had nothing to do with his ice core. "That…wasn't a comforting thought." He was their middle ground, after all. He was all that stood in their way. "Talk about being a third wheel," he muttered and then paused. He replayed that sentence in his head and laughed uneasily. "Right! Because we like each other! Ha ha! Funny…Not."

He groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. "It's fine. It's fine. So long as I—they—" He made a frustrated noise. "—no one lets anything happen, it'll be fine." He felt his trepidation raising, his headache returning, but he had already made his decision. He couldn't just back out now.

"One more time," he said. "One more time."

Danny gathered himself. He took one last deep breath and flew toward the net. Fear shot through him, but then the ecto-based strings sliced into him, cut at the connection between his human and ghost half, ripping him apart down to his molecules. It hurt, but it was the way he felt his mind pulled apart like Velcro that was the worst. The best. He cried out, his voice joined by another's, and then they were free. Of the net, the pain, each other, gravity—well, Phantom was, at least.

Fenton fell to the floor but caught himself with his hands and managed to turn the fall into a roll. To Phantom hovering above him, it looked impressive. As soon as he was sure Fenton had landed safely, however, Phantom pressed his hands to his chest, feeling the familiar thrum of his core. He touched his face, his hair, and then back down to his chest.

"Am I me?" he whispered, too quietly for Fenton to hear. Finally, truly speaking only to himself.

Fenton pushed himself to his feet, wincing in pain. Phantom remembered how much his knees had hurt, especially after the Suicide Sprints, and winced himself. He floated a little closer to the ground, a little closer to Fenton, but Fenton shied away, shuffling back several steps. His eyes, wide and very blue, lifted to meet Phantom's before dropping back down to the floor, hidden behind black hair as Fenton ducked his head.

"Um," he mumbled, "distance. Right?"

"Right," Phantom agreed, mostly because he hoped saying the word would convince Fenton to relax. Fenton's shoulders were starting to hunch forward, one of Fenton's hands moving to grab his forearm. Phantom knew a self-conscious posture when he saw one, and he moved backwards. Fenton's shoulders relaxed, but he didn't release his arm. And he didn't look up.

Phantom would have loved to savor the sight of Fenton a while longer after almost having lost him, would have loved to give Fenton the time he needed to feel comfortable around him again, but there was something he needed to know before his own gut would stop twisting itself into knots. "Are you…" How to phrase it? "You?" he finished weakly.

That startled a glance out of Fenton, even if his eyes remained mostly hidden behind his hair. "What kind of question is that?"

The tone was certainly right, but Fenton had never behaved like this before the merge. He had been shy when they practiced, but not to the point where he couldn't look Phantom in the eye when they weren't even doing anything.

"An important one," Phantom said. "Are you the same Fenton that went through the merge yesterday? Or do you feel…different?"

Fenton shifted on his feet. "I feel like I've just been run through a cheese grater—again—if that's what you mean."

"It's not." Phantom floated closer and then backed away again before Fenton could tense up. Perhaps he could be blunt. "Have you picked up another new trait, or are you the same Fenton I have a crush on?"

A blush spread across Fenton's cheeks, quickly hidden behind his hands. "You can't just say it," he groaned.

Phantom fused his legs into a tail and allowed it to undulate freely in sharp, agitated movements. "That I was developing a crush? We were one just a minutes ago, you know I how I feel. Felt." After all, nothing had been private. Just remembering how Fenton must have seen and felt...everything made Phantom's own cheeks chill. Fenton groaned again, louder that time, and Phantom sighed. "Are you?"

Fenton lowered his hands from his face and crossed his arms over his chest, his head turned away from Phantom. "There isn't exactly a guidebook on who I am at any given moment. It doesn't really matter, does it?"

Phantom lowered his own gaze to the floor, frowning. Perhaps in the sense there was no way to undo whatever damage the merge had caused, it didn't matter, but it felt important. Not just because he had liked that Fenton, but also in defining who Phantom was supposed to be as well.

"I suppose," he said, thinking aloud, "we'll figure out who we are the longer we stay separate. We have until Friday." Fenton shrugged. He still refused to look at Phantom, and it was starting to disturb him. "What is wrong?"

"Other than us separating again?" Fenton gave a short, harsh laugh. "Maybe I'm just dizzy."

Unlikely, given that Phantom's own head felt clearer than it had since they merged. There was a still a little disorientation, particularly from lingering memories that were not his own, but it was already clearing faster than it had when they were one.

More likely, Fenton was hiding something. Phantom flew towards him and landed a couple feet away. Fenton's eyes jumped to meet his. He sucked in a startled breath, scurried back a few steps, but in his haste, he tripped over his own feet and landed on his rear.

Phantom raised an eyebrow, watching Fenton scramble back to his feet, a deep red blush darkening his cheeks.

"Ass," Fenton grumbled, once again looking at the ground instead of Phantom.

Well. He still had a fixation with foul language. That was one thing at least.

Making an educated guess, Phantom said, "I'm not going to try anything, Fenton. I might have a small crush—a small one—but we have a girlfriend."

Fenton frowned and rubbed absently at a forearm. "We had a girlfriend yesterday morning too. That didn't exactly stop you from, uh, well…" Fenton's face flushed.

The little chill blush Phantom had felt earlier surged to his hairline. It was one thing for Fenton to know he had kissed him that morning, it was another for him to know how he had felt throughout. Intimately. Phantom coughed. "Point…taken…" Perhaps it wasn't so odd for Fenton to avoid looking at him. Phantom found his own gaze sliding to look out the window instead, embarrassed himself. "It won't happen again."

"Because we're going to stay away from each other?"

Phantom thrashed his tail, frustrated, but that had been the only compromise they could find as one person, and it made sense. They couldn't develop true feelings for each other, and Phantom had already found himself succumbing to a few. He was their weakest link, so if he wanted to stay close to Fenton, to hold him tightly because he had almost lost him—had felt him slipping away—then he ought to do the opposite, and that meant distance.

Besides. Practicing a kiss with his other half meant little. Kissing a person who felt less like his other half and more like a person all his own because he wanted to would mean cheating on Valerie. He had done it once due to extenuating circumstances, and it had led to Valerie getting hurt. He wouldn't do it again.

"Yes," he said, "I will keep my distance."

He looked back at Fenton in time to catch blue eyes staring back at him. Fenton quickly ducked his head again, rubbing the back of his neck as if to play it off. Phantom tilted his head to the side and watched the blush return to Fenton's face.

Huh.

"If you're going to hunt ghosts," Fenton said, voice too loud as he awkwardly changed the subject, "you should probably take the cell phone in case something comes up."

"Or," Phantom added, "in case you need to get in contact with me. You will be on a fairly predictable schedule, but patrolling could take me anywhere."

"Uh, yeah, that too." Fenton dropped his hand to his side and looked around the room. "Where did we—"

"In the backpack."

"Right."

Fenton…charged the backpack sitting innocently beside the bed where they had dropped it. His movements were odd, jerky, as he dug through the pockets. Phantom, a small, bemused smile on his face, floated into the air just above and behind him. Fenton's erratic movements worsened. He fumbled with a zipper for several long seconds, and it wasn't even the right one.

"Third pocket," Phantom said, "on the left."

Fenton reached into the appropriate pocket and pulled out their phone. He stood and spun to face Phantom in one motion, but while he must have known Phantom was behind him, he must not have realized his exact location because the motion brought his face within inches of Phantom's own. Phantom sucked in a breath. Fenton squeaked and stumbled back a step, catching his calf against the bed frame and falling onto the mattress, directly into the sunlight.

Phantom huffed a breath of laughter and held up his hands as he backed away. "Easy, Fenton. One would think you have never seen a ghost before."

"I can handle ghosts just fine," Fenton shot back, his eyes locked determinedly on the phone. "Phantoms are the problem."

Phantom hummed appreciatively, more pleased to hear evidence of Fenton's previous fiery wit than the weak pun on his name. He couldn't see what Fenton was doing on the phone, didn't dare hover over him again, but he didn't think Fenton was actually doing anything but giving himself a distraction.

Phantom took the opportunity to study his so-called other half instead. If all went according to plan, it might be his last and only chance. There was just something about Fenton that kept drawing his attention, and if he could figure out what that was, he might be able to conquer it. Subdue it. He had until Friday to overcome the crush for both their sakes. He knew he found Fenton strangely attractive, but that could just be from hormones. They had spent most of Saturday kissing, after all. Before they had received their ghost powers, there hadn't been anything special about them. Certainly nobody had given them the time of day, not even Sam, though Phantom liked to think her later interest had more to do with their willingness to take action and be a hero than their ghost powers. So they couldn't have been that attractive to start with. It had to be something else about Fenton that kept drawing Phantom to him.

Fenton looked up, blue irises catching the sunlight so they shone like glass, and as they finally met Phantom's, Phantom's thoughts derailed. Crashed. Threw themselves into the garbage can.

Two years must have done our appearance a world of good, he thought, a little helpless.

"Can I ask you a question?" Fenton said, oblivious to Phantom's need for a reboot.

Phantom made a noise that sounded vaguely like assent. Funny how his 'little crush' resisted Fenton just fine until the moment Fenton managed to look him in the eyes.

"How can you—it's not like I—" Fenton cut himself off, frustrated. He dropped his eyes and ran a self-conscious hand through his hair. "I look exactly like I—we—always have. So how are you able to…" He waved a hand vaguely. "You know."

"Find you attractive?"

"Well…yeah."

Phantom shrugged, but it worried him how closely their thoughts had followed each other. Perhaps the separation takes time as well, he thought.

"I mean," Fenton continued, "if I found you attractive, that's, uh, not really, um, well, you know, not that big of a surprise. If I did. Because you, uh, you're kind of…new to the whole Danny thing, but I've been here all my life—our life. So…"

Phantom raised an eyebrow, amused. "I'm not sure I understand."

Fenton must have caught his amusement because he sent an irritated look in Phantom's general direction. "I look like the original us, Danny, whatever, so how can you—" Again, the vague hand gesture that could mean anything.

"Oh. That." Phantom still sounded amused, and he could see it irritated Fenton since it was obviously a Big Deal, but Phantom had...mostly dealt with that crisis on his way to fight Spectra, and then again after Fenton had fallen asleep. Attraction didn't amount to much, it was just the starting point. It was the other things, the emotions that had twisted around the attraction that had Phantom more concerned.

"'Oh, that,' he says," Fenton grumbled. "It's only being attracted to yourself. What's so weird and unbelievable about that?"

Phantom smirked. He drifted closer, opened his mouth, a cheesy sentence already shaping itself on his tongue, but at the last moment he stopped. Distance, he reminded himself. Don't turn this around so you can tease him again. He swallowed the words he was about to say and instead thought seriously about what Fenton was asking and how he could explain.

Fenton had seemed to be on the brink of understanding it on his own just before the merge, back when he admitted it was different hearing an answer from Phantom rather than learning the answer as Danny, but Phantom wasn't surprised how long it was taking him. Fenton seemed to prefer acting on his feelings rather than puzzling out their source. If he felt conversing with Phantom was different, he wouldn't stop to wonder why.

"Do you remember the first time we kissed?" Phantom asked, making his echoed voice as gentle as he could to keep from spooking him. "Or learned how to kiss, I suppose."

Fenton met his eyes briefly, wary and worried about what direction he was headed, before he bit his lip and looked down again. He nodded his head.

"I suggested that we weren't really the same person anymore because we could think and act independently of each other. I admit I was, for the most part, teasing you and trying to goad us both into action. I didn't truly take it seriously myself, but lately I…have begun to wonder."

Fenton pulled his legs onto the bed and tried to criss-cross them beneath him, but he winced and pulled them apart again a second latter, setting his feet on the floor once more. Phantom frowned at Fenton's knees.

"Does it have anything to do with you not wanting us to 'die'—" Fenton made air quotations around the word "—when we merge?"

"We were dying." Phantom turned his frown on Fenton, his tail flicking anxiously. "Did you…not feel it as well?"

Fenton shrugged, and when he avoided Phantom's eyes again, it was more purposeful. "It was supposed to happen. We can't limp along as Danny like we did today for the rest of our lives."

Phantom couldn't argue with that, but he didn't have to simply accept death without trying to bargain his way out of it either. He sighed. "Regardless, when I think of you, I don't think of you as another part of myself but as a person unto yourself. So as I'm looking at you now, I no longer just see the other half of myself, I see another person, albeit one I have a history with. He looks different, he moves different, he acts different, he sees the world differently than I do. From there, it's not so difficult to find you attractive."

"That doesn't make any sense." Fenton plucked at the blanket beside his knees. "I still look like us. The face and everything we grew up with."

"We haven't exactly been looking in a mirror for sixteen years, Fenton."

"You know what I mean."

Phantom shook his head. "If you had seen the way your face lit up when we rose above the clouds, you would not find it so hard to understand… We only ever saw ourselves in the mirror or in photographs. It's a new experience entirely to see you from the outside." Fenton still looked confused, his eyebrows pinched as he stared at the floor. Phantom rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't know how to explain it any better than that. He was still trying to understand it himself. "If it makes you feel any better, it is a relatively recent development for me. I'm still adjusting myself."

Fenton didn't raise his head, but he glanced up at him, a question in his eyes he wasn't brave enough to ask.

One Phantom wasn't brave enough to answer. He ignored it and pointed at the phone in Fenton's hands. "Do you have a plan for how I will carry it? This suit doesn't come equipped with pockets."

Fenton looked down at the phone again, his mouth twisting into an odd frown. "I forgot about that..."

Phantom shrugged. Fenton hadn't needed to think about it this past weekend, but it had been a common complaint of theirs throughout most of their career as a hero, and one that had irritated Phantom a great deal these past few days. "I can't use our backpack, you will need it yourself."

"Yeah." Fenton chewed on his bottom lip as he thought. "Mom and Dad use utility belts. You might be able to borrow one of Mom's."

Phantom nodded. That would work. Only... "They are black."

"So?"

Phantom tried not to pout. "It will blend in with my suit..."

Fenton raised his head to look at him, eyebrows lifted in surprise. And then he laughed. Phantom had never really heard him do so before, and while he enjoyed the sound for its rarity and for watching Fenton pinch his eyes shut in a display of unabashed levity, he would have enjoyed it more were it not at his expense.

Fenton squinted his eyes open and asked, his voice choppy with unfinished chuckles, "Really, Phantom? Really?"

"Image is important in my line of work," Phantom said stiffly.

"Is it?" Fenton's blue eyes were bright with suppressed mirth, his grin large on his face. "In your hero duties?"

"Well…" Phantom allowed his rigid stance to deflate. "Not so much the fighting part." Fenton laughed again, and Phantom's own smile returned, bigger than before. "I suppose I can endure four days."

"I doubt anyone will notice," Fenton said, smiling freely up at him as if he hadn't been shying away from him since they separated.

"Perhaps not," Phantom conceded, his thoughts already turning away from his public image. He was the one who broke eye-contact with Fenton then. "Is there anything else before I leave?"

The suddenness of the question must have surprised Fenton because several seconds passed in silence before he said, voice oddly strained, "No, I think that's it. I can, uh, I can call or text you if we forgot anything."

Phantom nodded. He looked back at Fenton, dodged the quizzical blue eyes that were likely staring back at him, and focused instead on Fenton's knees.

It probably wasn't a great idea. It would require him to touch Fenton, violating their 'distance' restriction, but Phantom was the one responsible for the injury, and he couldn't simply ignore the pain he knew Fenton was experiencing without at least trying.

He floated towards Fenton, and noticed as he did so that Fenton tensed at his approach. He offered the phone to Phantom, but Phantom shook his head.

"I want to try something." He dismissed his tail and dropped onto the floor in front of Fenton, his legs tucked beneath him. He looked up at Fenton, noticing how wide his eyes had become before Fenton turned his head away.

"Now?" he asked, his voice shaky.

"I need to fix things before I leave," Phantom explained, but going by the frown on Fenton's face, he didn't understand. Phantom placed his hands on Fenton's knees, and the confused expression cleared.

"Oh," he said. "It's fine, I can just get ice from the freezer."

"I think I can do better than a few ice cubes."

Phantom winked at him, but Fenton had returned to avoiding his gaze and didn't see it. Phantom turned his attention to Fenton's knees. He had thought he could heal Valerie before, but he knew Fenton's pain more intimately. He had never done something like this before, not even purposefully healing himself. That ability just…happened. Still, Phantom thought he could do it. Whatever this latest merge-and-separation had done to them, he knew he was still more of a lover than a fighter. He could heal someone he cared about. It had to be something he could do. There had to be a reason he had their powers, a way to make them his own.

He started with summoning his ice powers to his hands, figuring he could numb the area if nothing else. He thought he heard Fenton breathe out in relief, but he wasn't sure and didn't want to interrupt his focus to find out. He pulled pure energy from his core then, but aside from directing it to his hands, he didn't know what to do with it. He breathed in deeply and then let the air flow back out. He would just have to chance it and trust his instincts. He remembered the pain he had shared with Fenton when they were one, the deep stabbing pain whenever they put pressure on their knees, and hardened his resolve. He could do this. He held tight to his desire to help him and pushed the energy out.

Soft green light emanated from his hands, and Phantom sat up a little straighter. Fenton made a startled noise, and Phantom looked up. Fenton stared down at where Phantom's hands rested on his knees, his eyes wide. Green light tinted his face and made his eyes shine a different color than the sun had. Phantom smiled, unable to help the tender expression. His feelings, after all, were partly what fueled the new power he was using.

Fenton's wide blue eyes shifted to Phantom's face. "You can heal," he breathed.

Phantom's smile grew a little wider. "I can."

For some reason Fenton seemed unable to breathe.

The green light between them winked out, and Phantom pulled his hands away. Distance, he reminded himself. For Valerie's sake and ours. He needed to leave. Now, before he could find anymore reasons to delay.

He grabbed the phone from Fenton's lax grip. Fenton's expression hadn't changed much, though there seemed to be the traces of a blush beginning to spread across his cheeks. Phantom smiled at him one last time. "Don't forget to take that shower," he suggested.

The beginnings of a blush darkened into a true blush. Phantom's smile grew, and then he sunk through the floor, turning himself invisible as he went. He needed to find a spare utility belt, and then he had a night to explore, an identity to puzzle out.

As soon as Phantom was gone, Fenton dropped his burning face into his hands. "Fuck," he said.

He pulled his legs onto the bed with him, bending his knees easily and without any trace of the previous stabbing pain that had tormented him since yesterday evening. His stomach gave another fluttering sensation that danced its way up his chest and made his heart pound frantically against his ribs. It was difficult to breathe. He felt horrible. He felt like laughing, more lightheaded now than he had been after the separation. Why would anyone—why would Phantom want to feel this way? And about him?

"Fuck," Fenton said again, louder and with more force. "Fuck."

I have been waiting to heal Fenton's knees for over four years

And now Fenton has to fit "Phantom can do something Danny Phantom can't" into his world view. Hah! Poor kid.

Finally! We're back on the romance track, and do you know what that means?! SEXUAL TENSION! YESSSSS! It's a favorite of mine, at least when it's not miscommunication/lack of communication. For this story we have the usual "we're the same person" problem and now the "keep our distance" promise to keep them from acting on any feelings, but they also have their own personal obstacles to overcome. This is gonna be fun~

As for Fenton's 'sudden' crush...ah, he's been attracted to Phantom since he 'seduced' him back in the first chapter. That's what made Fenton so uneasy around him. It's not something he's willing to acknowledge (or accept) so it's something I've had to show through body language (subconsciously mimicking Phantom's expression, hyperaware of Phantom's movements, alternatively avoiding his eyes and staring into them, ect.). It just kinda amuses me how his crush's development has managed to slip beneath the radar because Phantom's character is so much 'louder' in this area. Fenton hasn't been a static fulcrum against Phantom's fall, he's been falling alongside him, just in different ways because the falling is so much more terrifying and unpleasant when it makes you feel vulnerable and awkward instead of confident. If you reread the story, pay more attention to Fenton's actions than his thoughts/narrative because he likes to delude himself for his own peace of mind. It's one reason Danny kept shying away from Fenton's feelings for Phantom and yet couldn't stop thinking about Phantom's feelings for Fenton. Assuming I did it right, it should come across in the earlier chapters. I'll try to address it in-story.

That said, Fenton and Phantom didn't fully merge, Danny was never fully Danny, so Fenton's and Phantom's characters have been aware and developing just behind Danny's narrative, which has been what made these chapters so fjjjiojewajf. Anyway, point is, I dare your crush not to explode when you're exposed to that person's thoughts/feelings/memories so intimately. Worse, all Fenton's delusions have just been striped away. He's no longer simply attracted to Phantom.

Poor fella.

Sorry about the wait btw! I said it'd take a week or so, but this chapter received a lot of revision. So much. I'm still not entirely satisfied with Danny's struggle but...so long as you guys understand he was in a lot of pain and so torn with indecision he couldn't move, it's fine. Additionally...themergewasfailing

ANYWAY plan on the chapters becoming longer. A lot of stuff has yet to happen, and I want to get it all out before the chapters hit the thirty mark. Yes. That much has yet to happen. Adorable as their crushes are, realistically speaking, neither Fenton nor Phantom are ready for a climax. Their characters and their relationship still need to develop. Also, Valerie's arc. Please bear with me, guys, this story is far from over...okay, we're like 65% complete. A little over half.

Meh, my author's notes are always so long, sorry about that. I don't often get to ramble about my story ^^'

Thanks for reading!