This chapter was originally 18k words, but I decided to split it in two. So good news! There will be another update soon lol

Thanks a bunch to ChimeraBun who helped me edit the whole mess before it was split into more manageable sizes.

Chapter 15
The Seams of Our Secrets

"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." -Lao Tzu

By the time Tucker led them down the hallway toward the nurse's office, Fenton was following him more out of habit than as a conscious decision. Sam needed to keep her arm around Tucker's shoulders, using his steady support like a cane in order to keep her weight off her foot, and Fenton, dizzy and unsteady himself, shuffled along behind them. They were a sorry sight, but no one had paid them any attention when they left the cafeteria, and everyone who had been in the hall had rushed off to see Phantom before he disappeared, leaving the hallway empty apart from the three friends.

Fenton had thought Sam and Tucker would begin drilling him for details as soon as they were alone, but one look at his pained expression must have convinced them otherwise because they only whispered to each other. Fenton didn't mind. He didn't even care if it was him they were talking about. The pain behind his eyes and the nausea in his stomach made it hard to think or care about anything else.

So when Tucker stopped in the middle of the hallway, Fenton didn't notice and crashed against his back.

His two friends hissed as they struggled to regain their balance, and Fenton groaned, his head shrieking. "What's—" He looked up and met neon green eyes.

No more than ten feet away, Phantom floated in the hall, and at the sight of him, Fenton's heart began to pound. It wasn't adrenaline, he didn't feel like running, but he knew danger when he saw it, and as Phantom's lips curled into a devious smile, warning bells went off in Fenton's head. Not because he didn't trust that smile (which he didn't) but because his body's reaction to that smile was not good.

Phantom held up a hand and gestured for them to follow before he flew through a classroom door to his right, his tail disappearing through the wood like a fish through water. He must have scoped it out himself before appearing before them. The door's rectangular window showed only a dark, presumably empty room.

Sam and Tucker didn't hesitate. The two friends began to walk slowly towards the classroom, the pace set by Sam's sprained ankle.

Fenton, however, remained frozen in the hallway. "I don't think I—what if someone—shouldn't we go to the nurse's office?"

Sam and Tucker stopped and looked back at him. Tucker only looked confused, but Sam's deadpan 'are you serious?' expression radiated more exasperation and skepticism than Fenton could cope with in his condition. That he could only see the part of her face looking over her shoulder at him only heightened the effect.

"It's only going to take a few minutes to see what he wants," Tucker said. "It might be important."

Fenton shifted his weight from one foot to the other. It didn't matter what Phantom wanted, they were supposed to be avoiding each other. That they had interacted after the ghost attack at all was bad enough, even if it was just a shared smile that probably meant more than Fenton was willing to admit. Purposefully meeting in an empty classroom was just blatantly ignoring their distance rule.

Which was probably why Phantom had smiled like he was sticking his hand into a forbidden cookie jar…

Nothing was going to happen between them, not with Sam and Tucker there and not with their agreement still in place, but that wasn't the problem. It had never been the problem.

"Sam's ankle—" he tried again, but Sam cut him off.

"Is killing me right now," she said. "I could use a break. Come on, Danny, what are you so worried about?"

That wasn't a question Fenton wanted them to even think about, let alone ask. Afraid they might pursue an answer if he continued to hesitate, Fenton reluctantly let the matter drop. He maneuvered in front of his friends so he could push the door open for them, but as soon as he entered the room, he winced at the white light. Not from the windows, the blinds were closed, but from the ghost sitting at the front of the darkened classroom.

Warily, Fenton raised his eyes. Aside from the door Fenton held propped open, Phantom was the only light source, his soft glow only enhancing how dark the rest of the room felt by comparison. He sat on a desk near the front of the classroom, his legs crisscrossed beneath him, and the resulting image was so surreal, so supernatural despite Phantom's casual pose that Fenton felt his skin prickle.

Sam and Tucker didn't seem bothered. They walked past Fenton into the dark room, losing their colors and becoming near shadows themselves as they left the lighted hallway. They must have been used to it. Fenton didn't know how else they could just look at this scene and not take a moment to shake off the awe and excitement clinging to their entirely mortal and not at all glowing senses.

It helped that, as Fenton forced himself to fully look at Phantom, he saw Phantom running his fingers through his disarrayed hair in an attempt to tame it. Fenton knew it would be unsuccessful, but it was such a Phantom thing to do, something they had long ago given up even attempting after a ghost fight, that Fenton felt his lips twitch, his tight grip on the door handle loosening.

Phantom's eyes lifted, caught Fenton watching him, and he pulled his hand out of his hair, placing it on his lap with the other. Fenton quickly lowered his gaze to the floor again. He trudged after Sam and Tucker, allowing the door to shut behind him and cut off the majority of the hallway's light.

He could only see his friends as dark shapes at the moment, and the thin space between the desks had apparently forced them to split apart, but their shapes were becoming more defined as they neared Phantom. Fenton stopped at the first row of desks and braced his hand on the chair's backrest, not daring to go farther. Partly because he shouldn't go near Phantom and partly because his headache warned him against it. He made as quiet a pained sound as he could and covered one of his eyes with his free hand. The dark room helped his headache better than the fluorescent lights in the hallway had, but Phantom's white light stung straight through his eyes and aggravated his nausea in a way they hadn't.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked as she limped toward a desk in front of Phantom. "I thought you would try to bask in the adoration of your crazed fans until your parents showed up and chased you away."

"Or Valerie did," Tucker added, sitting on top of the desk beside Sam's. "How'd you get her to not attack you?"

Phantom shrugged his shoulders. "She seemed far more interested in defeating the behemoth, and afterward she said she was giving me a free pass until she figured some stuff out."

Fenton pinched both eyes closed and breathed deeply, his stomach roiling.

"That might mean trouble," Sam warned. "Don't let your guard down."

Wry smile in his voice, Phantom asked, "Optimistic as ever, Sammy?"

"I prefer to think of it as realistic."

A brief silence fell over the classroom, unnatural to Fenton's ears. His friends and Phantom could have kept the conversation going a lot longer. He looked up and saw Phantom staring back at him. Tucker and Sam seemed to twist around and do the same. Fenton pressed his hand harder against his face and ducked his head. Fortunately, while the room was light enough to see each other's shapes, he didn't think he was close enough to the hall light for them to see his expression or the blush spreading over his cheeks. Phantom was the only one clearly visible in the room.

"I came to heal Fenton," Phantom said, his voice softer than before.

"Uh, can you do that?" Tucker asked, hesitant. "I know you always healed fast, but it's probably different when you're split like this."

Fenton didn't see it, but he heard the smile in Phantom's voice as he replied, "Actually, I healed him after we separated last night."

"Whoa." Tucker didn't sound entirely convinced, but he seemed to understand the significance. "That's cool. Does it work on just your human half or other people too?"

"I'm not sure. I have only tried it the once."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Show us!" Fenton didn't move. He assumed Phantom didn't either, because several seconds later, Tucker asked, more hesitant, "Does it hurt or something?"

Phantom didn't answer. It wasn't like he knew the answer himself.

Fenton licked his lips, his grip on the chair tightening. "No," he said. "It doesn't hurt." If anything, the sensation of Phantom's powers tickling his nerves as they seeped through his skin, combined with the cessation of all pain, had felt good. Really good.

He still didn't move toward Phantom.

"So..." Sam drawled lightly. "Human Danny has a concussion that ghost Danny can heal, but both of you are hesitating for some reason?"

"My glow is probably hurting him," Phantom said slowly. "It might get worse if I come closer."

"So what? A concussion hurts too, and that's still going to hurt long after you're gone."

Fenton released a heavy sigh and lowered his hand. Now that Sam and Tucker knew it was possible, they weren't going to let Fenton escape being healed no matter how many excuses Phantom provided for him. There was no reason for them to, not from their perspective. Phantom had to have known that, but he had mentioned it anyway. "It's fine. I'll, uh, I'll just put my head down."

He looked up. Phantom's green eyes refocused on him, and Fenton's breath whooshed from his chest. It was too much like that night in their bedroom, seeing him in another dark room like this. He pinched his eyes shut again and blindly pulled the chair out from beneath the desk. He dropped into it, banging part of his knee against the desk's table leg so that it produced an unnaturally loud screech as the metal pegs scraped across the floor.

Fenton winced.

With his eyes shut, Fenton didn't see Phantom approaching, he only felt the air around him getting colder. He shivered. Any second Phantom would be close enough for his glow to illuminate Fenton's red cheeks, so Fenton hurriedly rested his forehead on the desk and wrapped his arms around his face.

Phantom released a small laugh. In a whisper hopefully too soft for their friends to hear, he asked, "Does the light hurt you so much, or are you that afraid to look at me?"

"We're supposed to be keeping our distance," Fenton hissed back.

"I know." Cold fingers brushed through Fenton's wet hair to his scalp. Fenton shivered again as something not unlike electricity arced through his spine and made the nerves at the tips of his fingers tingle. "I couldn't just leave you to suffer."

As Phantom's hand moved from Fenton's fringe to the back of his head, the water left behind retained the temperature of Phantom's cold touch. Fenton's breath shuttered on his next inhale, but he managed to keep the majority of the tremble from his voice as he said, "It's just a concussion. You didn't need to do this."

"Are you in pain?" Phantom countered.

Fenton wanted to argue with that, but the words caught in his throat. He squeezed his elbows a little tighter. He heard footsteps as Tucker helped Sam limp toward them, and he pressed his lips together.

"So how does this work?" Tucker asked. "Just by touch? Because you could have just healed him after you crashed into him. You were definitely feeling around his head long enough back then."

"It takes more concentration than you might think," Phantom replied as his fingers probed the same area he had earlier.

Checking for any caving, Fenton thought. It hurt, the area around the crash site extremely tender at the moment, but Phantom's touch was gentle, his fingers much colder than they had been near Fenton's forehead. Icy even. He must have been using his ice powers.

"Is that another way of saying, 'Shut up, Tucker, I need to focus?'" Tucker asked.

"If that is at all possible for you."

"Oh," Sam said with a laugh. "He told you, Tuck."

"Very politely, though."

The tingling sensation Fenton remembered from when Phantom's hands had begun to glow green last night spread over his scalp, made it itch. Sam and Tucker grew quiet. Fenton kept his hands firmly clasped around his arms and took a deep breath to brace himself. His knees had hurt, but they hadn't affected him as much as the concussion. He didn't know if Phantom healing his brain would—

Cold rolled like an intangible stream through Fenton's skull, and he couldn't stop his sharp exhale or the way his throat closed around it, producing an odd noise. Seconds stretched, prolonging the sensation of being submerged before it and the disorientation and pain were swept away, leaving behind clarity and relief that made a small laugh bubble from Fenton's chest. He sucked in a greedy breath of air after, shaking all over as his heart pounded rapidly in his chest. His fingers tightened on his elbows.

"Was that it?" Tucker asked.

"I think so," Phantom said. "A concussion is just a bruise on the brain, right?"

He continued to brush his fingers along Fenton's scalp, his touch no longer as cold as it had been. Fenton twitched, aware he should push Phantom's hand away, but he couldn't stop trembling. He felt like he could backflip off the desk, laugh until he couldn't breathe, challenge Dash to that fight he had so narrowly avoided. Phantom brushing his fingers through Fenton's hair soothed that restless energy and gave his senses something to focus on.

And…well, it felt nice.

"Close enough," Sam replied. "I don't think details matter much when it comes to magic and ghost powers."

Phantom snorted, and as the cool gust of air brushed over his wet hair, Fenton realized just how close Phantom was leaning over him. That he hadn't felt any exhales at all until that moment meant Phantom hadn't been breathing, which was odd to think about. It wasn't a big deal, it was just…strange.

Phantom paused, the hand in Fenton's hair stilling. Another gust brushed over him as Phantom breathed out, this time a little closer to the nape of Fenton's neck than he would have liked. Fenton wouldn't have thought anything of it, but then it happened again after a longer pause. After the fourth exhale, it hit him.

Fenton flushed, heat spreading up his neck, over his cheeks, to the tips of his ears.

He had just showered.

Phantom was smelling him.

Fenton pressed his burning face harder against the desk. Phantom breathed out a fifth time, and Fenton felt his chair shift slightly as Phantom drifted a little closer. Already on edge from the healing, the butterflies in Fenton's stomach went crazy, and Fenton bit down harshly on his lip. The body wash they had chosen when they were one smelled good to them both, that's why they had picked it in the first place, but there was more to it than that. A lot more.

This was why he needed distance, damn it.

Fuck, he thought desperately, shifting his legs beneath the desk. Phantom's hand was still in his hair. Every nerve in Fenton's skin felt like it was just waiting for something to happen. He already felt like he could run around the entire school building, he didn't need this too. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"So," Sam said, her light tone at odds with Fenton's racing heartbeat, "did it hurt?"

Fenton swallowed, his throat unnaturally tight. "N-no," he said, his voice thick, his tongue clumsy. Hopefully they would assume it was because his arms muffled the sound. "It…felt okay."

Phantom slowly, almost reluctantly removed his hand from Fenton's hair. His touch left his wet hair feeling cold, and Fenton had to swallow again as his mouth filled with saliva.

"Can I open the blinds now?" Tucker asked. He touched Fenton's shoulder, his warmth so at odds with Phantom's colder touch Fenton almost jumped. "You feel better now, right?"

Fenton cautiously raised his head from his arms and blinked down at the illuminated wood grain on his desk. The brightest source of light was behind him and to his left, going by his shadow, but Fenton already knew that. Phantom still floated close enough for his cold aura to encompass him. Its cold touch was only marginal comfort against his warm face. And neck. And ears…

The light didn't hurt his eyes anymore, though, and his headache was completely absent, so he nodded.

"Awesome!" Tucker ran over to the huge windows, tripping occasionally over a few desks and chairs since he couldn't see them. "I always wanted to do this!" he said right before he began twisting the blinds open.

As the bright yellow sunlight streamed into the darkened room, Phantom's glow lost its strength, and Fenton felt himself breathe more easily. His ghost was still behind him, he could still feel his cold aura, but it no longer felt as...intimate somehow.

With a gleeful cackle, Tucker ran over to the next window.

"I don't suppose you can heal my ankle?" Sam asked.

Fenton twisted his head and saw her sitting at the desk on his left, her foot resting on a chair blocking the aisle between their desks. One arm was hooked over the back of her chair as she stared behind Fenton, further proving Phantom's location. She looked hopeful, and now that Fenton's thoughts were no longer so hazy, he worried about how much her sprained ankle was hurting her. And how much it must chafe. Sam hated sitting around when she could be doing things.

"I planned to try," Phantom admitted. He floated between Sam and Fenton, his arm almost brushing against Fenton's shoulder. "I have only had the opportunity to heal Fenton, I would like to see if it will work on others."

"Call me your first volunteer then," Sam said lightly.

Phantom knelt beside the chair and placed his hand on her boot. "I will have to remove this. I'm guessing you can't?"

"Yeah, sprains and boots don't get along will."

Phantom nodded. He turned the boot intangible and pulled it through Sam's foot, his other hand fitting beneath Sam's heel before it could bang against the chair. He set the boot on the floor as Tucker finished opening the fifth and last window.

"Hey!" Tucker called out. "Wait for me!" He trotted back to them, carelessly dodging around chairs and desks.

Phantom placed his hand over Sam's ankle, and Sam sighed. Phantom turned his head to look at her, and while Fenton couldn't see his expression from this angle, he figured it must have been a confused one because Sam explained, "Your hands are cold. It numbs the pain."

"Ah. Right." Phantom looked back down at Sam's ankle. "Hopefully I can do more than just numb it, though."

Tucker stopped at the front of Sam's desk in time to see Phantom's hands begin to emit green light. Fenton leaned forward over his own desk, trying to get a better look himself. He had only seen it once, and, not believing it would work, he hadn't paid much attention. Phantom had been kneeling in the sunlight in front of him, and Fenton had been too busy struggling against the urge to stare at him to notice anything different until he felt the tingling sensation in his knees.

He had been caught in Phantom's gaze soon after, too captivated by how bright Phantom's green eyes shone and how the setting sun highlighted his white hair, so like the first time they separated, to watch what happened next.

He was pretty sure the healing light hadn't flickered like a dying flashlight, though. The light faded from Phantom's hands, and Fenton frowned. Apparently Phantom felt the same because he reignited the green glow. It fizzled from Phantom's hands a second time, not at all like the gentle fading Fenton had expected. A glance at Sam's disappointed expression confirmed it.

Still, Phantom tried again, and only when that attempt failed as well did Phantom sit back on his heels, his hand sliding from Sam's ankle. "I…suppose I can't."

He sounded crestfallen, and Fenton shifted in his chair, torn between relief and disappointment himself. He had started to think…well, Phantom had just finished explaining how he no longer saw Fenton as his human half the night he healed Fenton's knees, and to experience the first intentional healing in the wake of that conversation…it had all just seemed so reasonable, so plausible. If Phantom could do something they couldn't when they were one, didn't that mean he was a ghost all his own, separate from Danny Phantom? And if he was, did that mean Fenton was his own person too?

Looking into his eyes that night, Fenton had almost started to believe it.

But they had always been able to heal themselves. That Phantom could heal Fenton just proved they were still the same person, even if they were in separate bodies. It was still an ability, not a new power.

"That sucks," Tucker said. "Do you know how amazing it would have been if you could heal? I mean, more than your human half."

Phantom sighed, his head tilted down. "Yes. I know…"

Fenton crossed his arms over his desk and bit down hard on his bottom lip. The broad line of Phantom's shoulders had started to sag, and Fenton could hear in his voice something more than just disappointment. Doubt. The same thought must have occurred to Phantom as it had to Fenton.

They were the same person, though, it was for the best.

Phantom's shoulders sank a little farther, and the sight pulled a sound of protest from Fenton's throat before he even released his lip. Phantom half-turned his head, the corner of one eye meeting Fenton's.

Fenton sucked in a breath. Shit. He licked his lips. "You can't—I mean, maybe you can only heal me because—it's just—" He clenched his jaw, released the air in his lungs, and breathed in again, frustrated. He knew he should just let Phantom's theory fall apart, but he couldn't just stand by and watch it happen, could he?

Damn it.

Phantom started to turn more toward Fenton, his eyebrows lifted in concern.

In a quieter but no less strained voice, Fenton said, "We struggled to master our ice powers too, remember? And our flight, ecto-blasts…" Phantom's eyebrows lowered again as he frowned. It was better than the concern that made Fenton feel lower than an ant for even considering letting Phantom's confidence falter, but Phantom wasn't getting it. Fenton took another deep breath and tried again. "Healing me came as naturally as breathing because we've been doing it for years, but this is the first time you're trying to heal someone you were never, uh, with, so maybe—"

"You think I need to practice," Phantom finished for him. Slowly, he began to sit up straight again as the idea grew within his thoughts.

Fenton ducked his head. "Yeah. Probably." If it was really a new power. Fenton wasn't sure if it was or not, but at least Phantom was no longer doubting himself. Literally.

"Makes sense to me," Tucker said.

"It doesn't help Sam now, though." Phantom turned away from Fenton again, and with his other's intense gaze no longer focused on him, Fenton allowed his head to fall onto his crossed arms.

You idiot, he scolded himself as he clenched his jaw. What are you doing?

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you," Phantom said.

"You might not be able to heal the sprain," Sam said, "but you can still help."

"…How?"

Fenton turned his head to face Sam so his cheek rested on his forearm. Sam's purple lips had stretched into a mischievous smile. "A cold compress would do wonders right now. If you could sit in that chair, wrap your hands around my ankle, summon a little ice power, that would be great."

Phantom huffed a small laugh. "Should have known. I may as well go into service as a literal ice pack at this rate."

He stood and gently lifted Sam's foot so he could turn around and sit on the chair beneath it. It meant he was now facing Fenton with only a desk between them. Fenton lifted his head off his arms, his eyes wide. Phantom's lips twisted in a small, apologetic smile before he looked down at Sam's foot, maneuvering it into a comfortable position on his lap. He wrapped his hands around her ankle, and dim blue light radiated around his hands, tinting her purple tights. Sam sighed again, longer and with more evident relief.

"Better?" Phantom asked, amused.

"Much."

Fenton pulled his arms off the desk and scooted backward until his back connected with the backrest. He stared determinedly at the tabletop, but he could already feel the desire to look at Phantom growing. This wasn't the distance he was promised.

"Now that all those pesky injuries are taken care of," Tucker said as he sat on Sam's desk, "time to get down to business."

"Can you maybe find your own desk?" Sam demanded, prodding a finger into Tucker's side so that he jolted and squeaked.

"What business?" Phantom asked.

Tucker rubbed his side, glaring at Sam. "About why the two of you split. Again."

"Oh. That." Phantom laughed, though Fenton didn't see what was so funny about Sam and Tucker finding out already. Phantom's gaze drifted toward him, met Fenton's eyes for a brief moment, before Phantom returned it to Sam and Tucker. "You saw how poorly the merge went on Sunday?"

"That's putting it mildly," Sam muttered. "You could barely walk."

Fenton cautiously raised his chin, daring to watch Phantom. He was pointedly not looking at Fenton now, his gaze firmly set on Sam and Tucker. and although Phantom's tone was light, an easy smile on his face, his shoulders and back were rigidly straight.

Fenton narrowed his eyes. He had seen it to some extent on TV, but he hadn't understood. Phantom's casual stance when he lied or omitted the truth was an act.

"It was a little more complicated than that," Phantom said. "It was hard to move as one those first few minutes, yes, especially since our one body didn't move the way we were accustomed to, but there were more problems than the two of you could have seen. Our bodies merged, but our minds didn't, and the resulting disunity caused…far more confusion than you could ever imagine."

"I figured it was something like that," Sam said, her own eyes narrowed. Despite her words, she didn't look entirely satisfied. "No offense, but you were a mess, even on Monday."

"Did you get your powers under control at least?" Tucker asked.

Phantom shook his head. "They remained out of control until the moment we separated. Worse, we struggled to transform between our forms and accidentally reverted to human on one occasion. We were flying high above the city at the time."

Sam drew in a sharp breath through her teeth.

Tucker whispered, "Oh shit."

Fenton shivered, remembering the terror of the moment all too well.

"Obviously, we managed to transform in time, but it was a near thing." Phantom sighed. "Training with our parents and Valerie wasn't much better. Nothing happened that we could not also hide, but the fear of losing control caused a great deal of stress. Suffice it to say, the whole merge was an awful, disorienting mess. We were constantly fighting over what to do or say, and every time we fought, our headache grew. After two days of constant pain, confusion, and lack of control over my powers with no real sign it was getting any better, we decided to split apart again."

"I guess I can't blame you," Tucker said, though he sounded reluctant.

Fenton frowned. Everything Phantom had said had been true until that last sentence. They had proof it was getting better, that was the whole reason Phantom had balked and thrown them into some sort of panic attack in the first place. They had split apart because it was working, not because they had given up trying.

But that one lie fit into Phantom's narrative so well it almost felt like it was true.

Fenton shook his head slowly. How does he do that? Fenton would have told Sam and Tucker earlier if he had known how to bury that one truth like that. Phantom had only had seconds to come up with a lie and craft a way to spin it. Fenton had been struggling with it all day and still didn't know what he could have said.

Stupid, charming, too-smooth-for-his-own-good ghost, Fenton thought, frustrated to feel a smile creeping onto his lips.

Sam frowned and leaned forward. "But why was the merge bad in the first place? It's not like this is the first time you used the Ghost Catcher."

Phantom opened his mouth, but for once, he didn't have an easy response. Tucker and Sam waited, but when Phantom continued to hesitate, they looked at Fenton.

Fortunately, this was one question Fenton was somewhat ready for. Mostly because he had been thinking about it himself. "No idea," he said. "Mom and Dad made me return the Ghost Catcher to the lab, but I don't think they had time to work on it. They spent most of the day fixing the hole in my wall."

"Uh," Tucker said, hesitant, "why did you have a hole in your wall?"

Oh. Fenton snapped his mouth shut, his cheeks once again warming.

"We were supposed to merge Sunday morning," Phantom explained, his voice still casual. "Our dad followed the Fenton Finder to our room when I arrived to wake up Fenton. I went invisible before he could see me, but he still fired into the room, blasting a hole above our bed."

Fenton garbled a noise in the back of his throat. He didn't know how Phantom managed to stay so calm and just…omit certain details like that. Just remembering what he had learned from Phantom's memories of that time made Fenton want to scream into a pillow and laugh like a giddy idiot and possibly die.

Just dying sounded wonderful at the moment. Sam and Tucker had no idea about what was going on between the two halves of their best friend, and Phantom, the only other person in the room who knew, was very carefully not looking at Fenton. It was enough to make Fenton want to pull his hair out.

"So if it wasn't the Ghost Catcher," Sam said, "then what was it?"

She and Tucker looked at Fenton again, and he groaned, his face already burning. "I don't know! Why do you keep asking me, ask Phantom, he's the one who—" Fenton snapped his mouth shut. Shit, he wasn't supposed to bring up their feelings, indirectly or not. "U-um, I mean, h-he, uh—"

"I didn't want to merge," Phantom finished for him. His gaze slid to Fenton, his eyes slightly narrow. "Although, I doubt I was the only one, much as…my human self would like to believe otherwise.

Fenton flushed and looked back down at his desk.

"Danny," Sam pleaded, emphasizing their shared name, "there's nothing wrong with being unique. I thought you were starting to understand that."

"That's really not what this is about, Sam," Fenton said, his skin prickling as Phantom's gaze lingered on him.

"But it is part of it, isn't it?" Sam pressed. "You've always hated being half ghost and being different, but you don't have to tear yourself apart to fit in. I know you're worried about Valerie's reaction, but—"

"No, Sam," Phantom interrupted, "he's right." He looked at Sam again and gently squeezed her ankle, emphasizing the power he was using. "We disliked being half of one thing or the other, but more than that we hated being a ghost. I like who I am, though. Ghost powers and all."

"But not the fighting," Tucker chimed in. "You hated all those hero responsibilities, and I doubt lover-boy Danny likes them any better, not when it was the human half I had to hold back from the fight."'

"No," Phantom agreed, "I don't, and I dislike being nothing more than a superhero twenty-four seven, but—" he removed one hand from Sam's ankle, grabbed the Fenton Thermos strap cutting across his chest, and lifted it over his head. He set the canister down on Fenton's desk where the reflective metal sparkled in the sunlight. "—obviously I am still willing and able to play my part if that is what it takes to remain separate."

"But you're not remaining separate, right?" Sam demanded. "You can't seriously want to remain this way forever."

"No, we agreed to try merging again on Friday," Phantom said, his voice lowering. "If it doesn't work again, we will claim sickness and stay in our room over the weekend and see if it gets better…"

"Oh!" Tucker's eyes widened behind his glasses. "Friday!" He pointed at Fenton. "That's why you didn't want to go to that party!"

Fenton hissed, "Shut up!" but it was too late.

Phantom sat up straighter in his chair, his own eyes wide and interested. "Party?"

"No." Fenton braced his elbows and forearms on the desk and leaned over the tabletop, glaring at Phantom. "Don't even think about it." The ghost met his glare with an amused, almost fond smile. Fenton's thoughts faltered for a moment, his mouth moving over unspoken words before he caught himself. "We said Friday, Phantom."

"It would be Friday," Phantom replied. "Just after the party on Friday. What kind of party, by the way?"

"Nooo," Fenton groaned, leaning lower over his desk. "No party. You're not putting this off!"

Phantom tilted his head to the side and quirked one corner of his smile into a more playful smirk. "One hour?"

"No!"

"Two hours?"

"Don't raise it!"

"I'm with the fighter," Sam said, lifting her hand in the air and giving it a little wave. "Paulina only invited Danny because she's hoping her precious Ghost Boy will show up and prove a connection between your two halves, something we definitely don't want to happen."

"Really?" Phantom turned his attention on Sam, and Fenton dropped his chin onto the desk, grumbling about how he knew this would happen. "Why is that? Anyone thinking we might be one person would start to doubt their theory if they saw Fenton and I together at the party. It would strengthen our secret, not weaken it."

"One of our secrets," Fenton whispered.

Phantom's gaze darted to his face and then away again.

"I say we go," Tucker said. Sam glared at him, and he threw his arms out to either side for emphasis. "It's a pool party, Sam!"

Phantom blinked. "Oh," he said, very softly.

"Oh," Fenton mocked, just as softly.

Phantom sent a more irritated glance his way but didn't otherwise respond.

"It's dangerous," Sam said, turning her glare on Phantom. "People are already paying too much attention to your human half. If you show up because he's there the way Paulina says you will, that's going to draw even more attention, and then what are you going to do when you're whole again and need to go ghost?"

Phantom's brow furrowed, his lips turning down in a frown. "What do you mean? Because of the newspaper photograph?"

Fenton groaned and sat up from the desk, pressing his hands against his face.

"What?" Phantom asked, concerned.

"Someone caught a pic of the two of you talking after your date with Valerie," Tucker said. "They apparently posted it online, and since the newspaper already caught you flying into Danny Fenton's room, our clueless peers are getting suspicious."

"Has Valerie seen it?" Phantom asked. "What all did it show?"

Fenton lowered his hands and looked at his ghost half. For once, Phantom looked as disturbed by the news as Fenton felt, though he thought his distress had more to do with Valerie learning they were poised on the very border of cheating on her.

…Assuming they hadn't already. Fenton wasn't sure where that particular line was and where they stood on it. For all his confidence, he wasn't sure Phantom did either.

"Don't know," Sam said, shrugging. "We should probably go online and see for ourselves."

"Valerie saw it," Fenton said, instantly gaining Phantom's attention. "She's the one who told us about it."

"Is she upset?" Phantom asked, his quiet voice almost a whisper.

"I…she didn't seem angry at first, but she asked what happened between us, how you even knew about the date, and…I blanked." Fenton shifted in his seat, wincing. "That was when you crashed through the window."

Tucker laughed. "Yeah, rough landing, but talk about good timing. Your human half looked like he was really struggling. Did something embarrassing happen after your date or what?"

Fenton ducked his head and hunched his shoulders, letting his hair fall over his eyes and hopefully hide his reddening cheeks.

"You could say that…" Phantom said, but he didn't elaborate further. He sighed. "I suppose you're right, however. The party would probably be too dangerous."

"What? Noooo," Tucker wailed. He leaned forward and grabbed Phantom's shoulder and arm. Phantom's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "You can't give up on me now! It's a pool party, Danny! A pool! With beautiful girls in bikinis, swimming and sunbathing...and Valerie—Valerie! She was invited too! You want to see her in a bikini too, don't you? You're the lover-boy!"

Phantom smiled a little dreamily. "That would be nice..."

Sam made a frustrated noise and rolled her eyes. "Boys..."

"I don't think she wants to go any more than I do," Fenton said quickly. "She looked pretty happy when I said I wasn't going."

Phantom raised an eyebrow at him. "You told Paulina no?"

The way he said it, Phantom probably thought it had been hard, but Fenton shrugged. Paulina was gorgeous, but just remembering how she smiled at him after giving him the invitation sharpened Fenton's anxiety. If he made a fool of himself in front of her—and he would—the humiliation would crush him. He had already lived through that once with Valerie, he didn't want to experience it again with someone he wasn't even dating, no matter how beautiful and popular she was.

Phantom didn't need to know all that, though. "I told her I was grounded."

"Ah." Phantom closed his eyes. "I forgot. And since we agreed to merge that day, it offered a good excuse."

"Yeah."

"Still." Phantom opened his eyes again and stared thoughtfully at the floor. "It would have been nice." His lips twitched, but he didn't voice the thought that crossed his mind. He looked at Tucker. "Could you find out the details for me? I doubt Fenton will change his mind, but I would like to know what I am missing, at least."

"Sure! But they actually gave us fliers." Tucker stood up from the desk. "They're probably still at our table. I can just go grab them real quick."

"I'll go too!" Fenton tried to jump up from his own seat only to bang his knees against the underside of the desk and fall back onto his chair. He tried again, shoving his chair away from the desk with too much force, the chair legs scraping across the floor. "I'm going—" His foot caught on one of the legs, and Fenton half tripped, half stumbled off the chair. "—shit—I'll go too."

He glanced at Phantom and saw his other half watching him, another fond, slightly bemused smile on his face as if he didn't understand why Fenton was so flustered and tripping over stationary objects, but somehow, strangely, he liked him anyway.

Cute. He had said he thought Fenton's clumsiness was cute.

Fenton flushed a deeper red and took several steps back. "I-I'm, uh, hungry? I didn't get the chance to eat anything, s-so…"

"Uh, okay?" Tucker said. He was also watching Fenton, but he just looked confused. "I'm kinda hungry too. Maybe the lunch ladies will give us new trays because of the ghost attack. You want anything, Sam?"

Sam pursed her lips. "I won't eat their spaghetti, but could you see if they have any fruits?"

"Sure thing."

Tucker walked around Sam's desk, and Fenton, eager to leave, started speed walking toward the door ahead of his friend. It might have been his imagination, but he thought he could feel Phantom's gaze on his back, and it made his spine straighten, nerves twisting his stomach. He opened the classroom door and all but threw himself through the threshold. He forced himself to wait for Tucker, but in the meantime, he took several deep breaths and tried to will the heat from his face, briefly covering his eyes with his hands.

Tucker was only a few seconds behind him, opening the door after it had just shut. "So," he started, one eyebrow raised as he followed Fenton into the hallway, "that was smooth. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nope," Fenton said, beginning to walk down the hallway.

Tucker trotted after him. "Because if you want to talk—"

"I absolutely do not."

"—I'm here to listen."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"You're just hungry."

"Yeah."

"Okay," Tucker said, drawing out the word, "remember what happened with your 'I split myself in half but don't want to tell my best friends' secret that completely blew up in your face, like, ten minutes ago?"

Fenton winced, his steps faltering for half a second. "It's not like that. I'm not hiding anything."

"Danny. Buddy." Tucker placed a hand on Fenton's shoulder. "You? You're an awful liar. But if you insist on going back to the cafeteria, we're gonna have a bigger problem. I think you should stay."

Part of Fenton wanted to, that's why he needed to leave. "No, I—" He walked faster, Tucker's hand falling off his shoulder. "I'll race you there."

"Danny," Tucker protested, but Fenton burst into a run. Tucker chased after him, calling Fenton's name and complaining about them not being in gym class anymore, but Fenton didn't listen.

Phantom watched the door swing slowly shut behind Tucker and breathed out gently through his nose, disappointed. He didn't feel as tense around Fenton as Fenton clearly felt around him and would have enjoyed a longer visit, especially since Sam and Tucker were around to keep anything inappropriate from happening between them, but, apparently, Fenton had a lot going on beneath the surface he wasn't ready to accept yet.

Phantom couldn't really blame him. Such feelings for the one who was supposed to be your other half were…unsettling.

He turned back to Sam and found her watching him with narrowed eyes. Phantom's lips quirked into another disarming smile. "Yes?"

"He's not very dignified for a fighter," she said. "Are you sure you got your personalities right?"

"Probably not." Phantom relaxed in his seat, spreading one leg out and balancing Sam's foot on the other thigh. Her eyes wavered from his face. "I like to think we are more complex than a simple 'lover' and 'fighter' mentality, but the simplistic labels serve our purpose well enough, don't you think?"

"You know what? I think you're a little too smooth for my tastes." Sam crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes rising to glare suspiciously at Phantom. "And I don't believe your story about splitting yourself. I'm sure it was rough, and there was definitely something wrong with the merge, but you basically said it would be easier. Complexities aside, there's nothing easy about a self-proclaimed lover fighting villains while the supposed fighter is forced to sit on the sidelines and make nice with his girlfriend. All you've done is delayed things."

Phantom tilted his head to the side, considering his friend. He was going to have to step carefully with her. "No," he agreed, "it's not easier."

"So why did you do it? Was it Valerie?" Sam's jaw tightened for a moment. "Did something happen during training?"

"Nothing worse than what we were expecting." Phantom drummed his index finger against Sam's ankle bone, thinking fast. "She did suggest we go through the Ghost Catcher to remove the ghost energy that was causing our parents' inventions to activate around us—" Sam sucked in a breath "—but Mom and Dad were unwilling to force the issue after we refused."

"So you decided to split yourself in case it came up again?" Sam shook her head. "How does that fix anything? It's only a temporary measure. You'll still be in danger after you merge again."

"It was only a part of our reasoning, not the whole." Phantom frowned a moment. How much could he safely give away? Finally, he shrugged. "I can list the excuses we gave ourselves, but what it boils down to is the same reason the merge probably didn't work the way it was supposed to. We wanted to split apart." He quirked a self-deprecating smile, titling his head sheepishly. "Or I did, according to Fenton. He might be right. It was difficult to tell who wanted what."

Sam leaned her elbow on the desk. "And why do you want to split apart? Don't you miss being human? Don't you miss Valerie?"

Phantom lost his smile and pressed his lips into a thin line. "Of course I do, but it's not that simple—"

"Really?" Sam asked skeptically. "It's not that simple? Seriously? You split yourself in half, Danny! You're missing half of yourself!" Phantom flinched, his jaw clenching, but Sam pressed on. "If it was just your human and ghost sides, that would be one thing, but it's your mind too. You've been split into two extreme versions of yourself, and that's dangerous."

Phantom shook his head. "Sam—"

"Your fighter half tried to pick a fight with Dash and the ghost despite being injured, and you—" Sam laughed, the sound more frustrated than amused. "—I swear every move you make it's like you're flirting with me. You don't even seem aware of it, or at least you're not saying anything."

Startled, Phantom sucked in breath. Had he? Perhaps not with his words, but his actions? "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to—"

"I don't care!" Sam interrupted. Phantom ground his teeth, frustrated, but Sam looked just as upset. "You're missing the parts of your personality that would keep you from doing these things. You're only half of yourself like this. You can't keep going like this, the two of you need to—"

Phantom's eyes flashed. Worried he might accidentally hurt her with his core surging, Phantom released Sam's ankle, turned intangible, and launched himself backward and into the air above the desks. He crossed his arms and took several calming breaths, twisting around to face the windows.

"…Did I hit a sore spot?" Sam asked. Her tone wasn't as harsh as before, but if it had softened, it wasn't by much.

Phantom turned his head to look at her again. She watched him in turn. She had crossed her arms, but her eyebrows had also lifted in the middle, showing her concern. Of course, she wouldn't understand she was calling his whole existence into question, how could she? Technically speaking…she wasn't wrong.

Phantom released his latest breath. "You are awfully sure of yourself for someone lacking context."

Sam's eyebrows lowered until she was frowning again. "It's the truth. You can't run from it."

"Sure I can. In fact, I don't have to run, I can fly." He laughed, the sound rough in his throat. "I can fly over 112 miles away from here in less than an hour. I can turn invisible. Intangible. I could leave this town, and you might never find me. The only thing keeping me here are two important details." He tilted his head to the side, eying Sam speculatively. "One is Valerie."

She snorted. "Of course. You're the lover. But, Danny—"

"The other has to do with Fenton."

Sam's mouth snapped shut. She blinked a few times. "Your…human half? What does he have to do with anything?"

Phantom's lips curled into a slow, secretive smile. "What indeed?"

Sam continued to frown at him, but when Phantom refused to elaborate further, she huffed. "More secrets…"

Phantom shrugged. "For now, let us say I promised him we would merge on Friday, and I don't want to lose the trust he has placed in me."

"Okay," Sam said slowly, "but that's not the real reason?"

"No. Not entirely."

Sam groaned and rubbed her temples as if he was giving her a headache. "Whatever. Fine. I don't care." She obviously did. "So long as the two of you get your act together by Friday, it won't matter. I'm more worried about what comes after. Are you sure you're going to be able to pull yourself back together? Because from the sounds of it, I don't think you even want to anymore."

Phantom sighed, and when he breathed in again, it was to brace himself. "I don't."

Sam's head jerked up. "What?"

Phantom twisted around to fully face her and uncrossed his arms. He braced his hands on the chair's backrest, leaning forward. "If you could merge with Ember or another ghost," he said, speaking slowly, "and in the process create a theoretically stronger person at the cost of losing your individuality, would you do it?"

His serious tone made Sam pause. He had used a concept he knew was important to her, but he could already see by the slight narrowing of her eyes and the way her frown tightened at the corners that she was already rejecting the question. Possibly because she didn't like what it implied for Phantom if she agreed. "If that other ghost was my own ghost, yes."

Phantom sighed and released the chair. "Just think about it, Sam. It's not as simple as you might imagine." He straightened his back and glanced at the door. Fenton and Tucker would hopefully return soon, but it depended on how crowded the cafeteria became after the ghost attack. If Tucker was right about their classmates' interest in Fenton, it might be even longer. "In any case, the merge should work better on Friday. I'm already working on it, assuming I was the reason it failed last time."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

He shrugged. "I simply have to want the merge, right? I thought I had it Sunday, but…in truth, I was just forcing myself. This time I have four days to come to terms with the inevitable." Four days...Phantom breathed in another shaky breath. "If all goes well, you'll have your fully whole, half-ghost Danny by Monday."

Sam sat back in her chair. She didn't seem to like his phrasing, her hard expression turning sad. "I just don't want you to get hurt, Danny."

He laughed dryly. "It's far too late for that, Sam. I'm going to be hurt no matter what happens." He pointed at her ankle. "But you needn't be. Shall I return to being your cold compress?"

Her expression didn't lighten, but she nodded gratefully and lifted her foot off the chair seat. He carefully sat beneath it and wrapped his hands around her ankle, lowering it onto his lap again. They sat in silence for a while, Sam apparently thinking about what Phantom had said. For his part, Phantom leaned his head back and stared up at the ceiling.

His plan for the merge on Friday wasn't so much a plan as a bucket list of sorts. There was a great deal he wanted to do before he…disappeared, and while he could do a great many things, the distance he was forced to keep from Valerie and Fenton ensured he couldn't do those things that were most important to him. Like going on a date with Valerie that ended with the kiss he had missed out on, or sharing an actual kiss with Fenton that wasn't stolen or forced. He couldn't allow himself the latter for obvious reasons, and the only way he could have the former would be to give up himself and Fenton entirely.

It was…frustrating.

And the nearer Friday came, the worse it would get.

Phantom breathed out heavily through his nose. He would have to content himself with trying to change Valerie's opinion of him—their ghost half—whenever the chance presented itself. The rest of the time he would spend earning Fenton's approval. From a distance, of course. That proud look in Fenton's eyes, the way he had smiled at Phantom after he defeated the giant ghost, was more than enough incentive to try to be a better hero, one worthy of the burden Fenton had entrusted to him.

Sam shifted her foot, and Phantom lowered his chin, looking down at her ankle. He may as well try to heal her again. Fenton's encouragement had been unexpected, but he was probably right. They rarely mastered their powers the moment they manifested. Funny how Phantom had all the powers, but it was Fenton who remembered how much effort had gone into mastering them.

Phantom's lips twitched into a small smile.

With Fenton, it had been easy, and not strictly for the reason he mentioned. Phantom knew how his pain felt, how a concussion affected him, sure, but more importantly, it seemed to Phantom his desire to heal him had been what pushed him over the edge. He couldn't explain that in front of Sam and Tucker, and anyway, he doubted Fenton would have appreciated learning how deeply that desire went…or where it came from.

Perhaps he already knew? Fenton had hidden his face, but the back of his neck and tips of his ears had been very red.

Regardless, if Phantom wanted to heal others, namely Valerie and his friends, he needed to find a way to make a similar connection. Emotions seemed to be the key, though he doubted he could replicate what he felt for Fenton, even for Valerie. Those feelings were unique. Tumultuous and strange, he was still trying to work his way through them. The other factor, that of his once sharing Fenton's pain and knowing how it affected him on an intimate level, might be even harder.

But he would try.

The green glow surrounding his hands caught Sam's attention. Or maybe it was something else. Her foot twitched in his hands. "I figured I would keep trying while we wait," Phantom explained. Then in a softer, more concerned voice, he asked, "Does it hurt?" Fenton had said it didn't, but Fenton had once housed Phantom and all his powers.

"No," she replied. "It just itches."

Phantom nodded, but he didn't take his eyes off her ankle. The light vanished from his hands before Phantom could feel the sudden energy loss he felt whenever he healed Fenton. Another failure.

He sighed. This was going to take a while.

If this chapter has taught me anything, it's that writing romance at a decent pace that doesn't stall and yet doesn't exceed the story's progress is really hecking hard

Enjoy it while it lasts, though. Their distance rule is still in effect.

Also, also, concussions. I had one before, and they suck. I tried to draw as much from my experience as I could for Fenton's benefit, but his is a little more extreme. He hit the back of his head (the softest part of the skull) at a velocity that probably fractured bone. If Phantom hadn't healed it, internal bleeding might have set in. It's one reason I made Fenton so sensitive to light, but other symptoms (extreme disorientation) I only touched on for the sake of the story. (I received my concussion at work, and my response to being asked if I thought I should go home was "Why would I go home?" in a slurred voice.)

Anyway, I didn't mention it last chapter, so I can't forget to mention it here. Every character has their own story we don't see because Fenton and Phantom are unreliable narrators. Sam, Tucker, Dash, Paulina...they probably have their own agendas. That goes double for Valerie. I know some of you have mentioned concern for her character before, especially last chapter, and I can't tell you a whole lot, but she has her own story too. It only touches on Danny, and almost not at all on Fenton and Phantom. The hint is in chapter 11. All I can promise is that I love her character too much to simply use her as the character the MC cheats on for the sake of angst. (And yes, I hope I can pull it off too *fingers crossed*)

Thanks so much for sticking with this story! And for letting me know what you think about it because, seriously, you would not believe how happy your reviews make me. It helps me craft this story too. I knew I wanted Phantom's healing to play a major part, but it wasn't until MsFizzle mentioned the limitations and possibilities of such a power that it really took shape in my mind. (Thank you!)

(And to all those who expressed their hope that everything would turn out all right, your support meant a lot to me...Doctors discovered that my mom had breast cancer, but they caught it early and the prognosis is good. Everything is going as well as these things can, so we're hopeful. Thank you so, so much too.)

I'll post the second part of this chapter within the next few weeks. See you then!