So let's talk:
Y'all are a fucking amazing! I really did not think this story would get as much love as it did so early on, technically there's only 2 chapters out and it already has so many likes and bookmarks and this is still before most of the development has been done yet since there is still a lot of things that need to be revealed. I am trying to push chapters out ASAP but university is starting very soon (could've already started by the time this is posted) so they already bad posting schedule might slack a bit more. Hoping it will not, but if I am honest it most likely will.
Should I write in first person or third person? Not sure which one would be best. Maybe I could do both and just announce it every time?
Do you think that this story needs a name and summary change? Don't get me wrong, I love the name. I mean "The Nonchalant Protector" sounds amazing but I might have given him to much feelings for a nonchalant person. I could just be overthinking it but that was a thought of mine. I do however think the actual story description should change to be more relevant towards the story.
Should I also include a small summary of the previous chapter in new ones? Just as a quick refresh or should I just leave it? Up to you.
Finally, about the second Danny x Paulina story… It's really calling my name and before you say something like "first finish this one" let me explain why I was thinking about. So this story obviously will have fighting in it. The other story would most likely not have any fighting in it (non-ghost Danny, maybe no ghost zone in general). So over there I would be able to only focus on character development while on this I need to focus on both character connection and fighting. I don't want to have one out balance the other by too much. Do not get me wrong I will still focus on this story, but on the nights I don't feel as if I can type a fighting scene but I am in the middle of it, then I feel like the night would be wasted. The story's outline has already been thought about (kind of) so it's not too much time that would be lost if that is anybody's concern. I just want to be able to supply the community with content since Danny Phantom has over 20 000 stories' and when filtered by JUST putting Paulina's name there it becomes just above 230, that doesn't mean that it is even a part of the Danny x Paulina community. In other words, this pairing has less than 1% of the community if you calculate the Danny x Paulina pairing fanfiction stories'. Just something I wanted people to think about. And no this is not to help me achieve my status of "Best Danny x Paulina" story ever written… yeah… I have everybody else's best interests in mind… I'm joking don't worry, I honestly don't care if I achieve it or not, I just like writing fanfiction and wish I could actually write for every community that I want to (there's a lot, trust me. I might be here for at least 10 years.)
Well here we go, welcome to the next chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter 2: True Intentions
"What do you want Skulker? I'm a busy man. I have things to do, places to be." Danny did not seem to be prepared for any type of fight but Skulker knew better than that. As relaxed as the halfa looked he was definitely aware of any hostile movement that would come his way.
"Straight to business then? There is a tournament being held in the Ghost Zone and-" Skulker was trying to explain but Danny was already tired of hearing him as he rudely interrupted him, "Don't care. Leave me out of it."
"If you would just listen to me you hal-," He once again tried to speak but much to his annoyance Danny was not listening to him causing him to tightly grip the weapons that he held in his hands, which had not gone unnoticed by the other occupant in the room. "No Skulker you listen here. I will say this once and I will only say it once! I don't give two shits about any tournament you ghosts put on to find out who the strongest is. Whoever comes out the champion will get beat the fuck up as soon as they show their face around these parts, new powers or not, I will still send them crying back to their mommy with the use of my ecto powers alone." Without noticing it Danny had turned into his ghost form and gotten in the face of Skulker, he really was letting everything get to him today. 'Well there goes all that nonchalant protector thing that both Sam and Tucker spoke about. Can today just end, then it's Friday and boom weekend means no stress.'
Skulker was not intimidated in the slightest way possible. He had starred down the young teen on many occasions and even though he had lost most of their encounters that was not a reason to show him any sign of weakness. "If you will just shut up for one second, I'll explain everything to you." Danny had taken a breath and stepped back from Skulker to calm himself down, instead of verbally telling the hunter he could continue he just nodded and kept quiet.
"In about a years' time the tournament shall start. Nobody knows why it has been schedule for that long into the future but Ghost King has scheduled it that far and nobody questioned him. The winner of the tournament gets to make one request. Something is happening behind the scenes though, I can feel it. I just don't care enough to find out what it is." Danny was still eyeing the hunter up and down, trying to analyse him for any type of malicious intent.
"Why are you telling me about this? Your chances are higher without me in the tournament. What is it that you gain from this Skulker?" As he waited for a response, the ghost in question had just started to laugh at Danny.
"Hahaha, it's for personal gain obviously. Everybody entering that tournament would know that you have the best chances to win and even though my chances are better without you in the tournament. I started to think about what you would request if you won the tournament. Then I thought about your request more and more and however it plays out I would benefit from it and that is why I came here to tell you" Skulker said as he started to levitate and turn intangible. "Think about it. I will be in contact with you. Goodbye halfa." With that final statement he left leaving Danny to his own thoughts.
'A ghost tournament. I don't have all the information I need just yet but I guess it could work out in my favour. Might as well get some rest in, no need to stress just yet.'
The following morning had been as normal as it could have been. Jazz was picked up by Dash while Danny decided to once again walk to school. He however had not made it to school on time as he stopped to help a kid get their cat out of the tree which had proven to be harder than he thought since it showed him nothing but hostility.
"Here you go. Wait why aren't you in school and where are your parents?" but before he could receive an answer the kid had run off with his cat, not even thanking Danny for helping him. "Kids really don't have any manners these days." Danny whispered underneath his breath as he looked at the time he noticed that he was already 15 minutes late for school.
The day had gone by as usual, he entered class late. The teacher would just acknowledge that he arrived and then continue the lesson, this time however he had caught a Latina starring straight at him before she quickly turned her head probably hoping that he had not noticed.
"Okay lesson's done, you all can go to break." The teacher said as everybody got up and exited the class, Danny however took his time as he had nobody he would sit with since his friends were both still sick and lying in bed as far as he knew. 'Luckily today is Friday, weekend starts in a few hours and then those two should be back on Monday.'
Making his way out of class he was surprised to have seen Paulina waiting outside of the classroom but didn't think too much of it as he just walked on, not really paying attention to her. "Danny, wait!"
The halfa had turned back around to look at her as she slowly made her way towards him in the empty passage. 'Does the passage really clear out that quickly or was I that long?' He silently questioned himself as he stood there, waiting for Paulina's reason for stopping him.
"Look about yesterday… Can we leave it in the past? I am not really good with these things, I'm sorry about it." Paulina had a look that she really meant what she said which Danny didn't really care about since it had not affect him like everybody who knew thought it did.
"Forgotten already." He said with a slight nod of his head as he once again turned on his heel and walked away but he was once again stopped by her. "Don't you want to discuss the topic for English? I mean it is relatively soon that it will happen."
"Oh yeah the topic, well…" Danny however had not finished his sentence as smoke came out of his mouth, signalling that a ghost was nearby. "Shit! Listen we can speak later; I have to run." Just like that he was gone. She couldn't even make a sound to protest what he said before he was out of her sight, "That kid is a weird one."
When Danny arrived at the location of the ghost he was anything but happy. It was box ghost stealing from a warehouse while making a ruckus.
"Boxy!" He yelled out which caught the ghost's attention and temporarily stopped him from doing anything.
He however did not wait for any acknowledgment as he went to immediately fight box ghost. It had become much harder to fight him in recent years as he developed a new power which allowed him to travel between boxes. His power level had not spiked but he was much harder to hit if Danny was not fully invested in the fight.
The fight had gone on for another hour as box ghost kept hopping around endlessly in the unlimited amount of boxes that were available to him until he had ran out of stamina and received a beating by a very irritated Danny Phantom.
"I swear next time; I'm going to kill that mother fucker! Fuck it I'm going to go straight home and sleep, I can't deal with school right now." Danny said as he flew to his house, unknown to him there were eyes watching his whole fight from the shadows.
School had been over for over 2 hours and for the most part Paulina had been on a call with Dash, Star and Kwan until both Star and Kwan had to leave. Kwan had a dentist appointment while Star had to go help her parents with some packing.
"Jazz was supposed to come over to my house but we can stop over by hers, the two of you can discuss your project and then when we leave we'll just drop you off at home. Get ready I will be by you in 20." Paulina had not argued with Dash since the hard headed boy really would do whatever he wanted to with or without her approval.
"Fine but before you go, tell my mom why I have to leave." Paulina said as she handed her mother the phone, their conversation had gone on for a couple of minutes as they had the normal small talk before Dash explained that the reason she would need to leave was school related and gave his word, one thing about her mother was if you gave your word and she found out that you lied, she could never see you in that same light ever again. All her friends knew that and took it very serious once she asked for their word they would never lie even if they had to expose themselves in the process.
Her mother had agreed to it and just like that Paulina had started getting ready to leave. Her usual attire, a jean, a jacket and some random t-shirt. Before leaving she had taken some mirror pictures while she waited for Dash to come pick her up, 'I can post these later.'
By the time both Dash and Paulina had arrived at Fenton Works they saw Danny come out of the house in a grey over-sized puffer jacket with a turtle neck underneath it and some cargo pants on. They couldn't see his shoes brand name however but it did look as if they were a nice pair of shoes.
"Uhm, that's Danny right?" Dash asked breaking their silence as they were both shocked at how good he currently looked. Neither of the two had seen him dress like that and would never have expected it.
"It looks like him, but where's he going?" Paulina said as she saw him hop in the back of the car. Most likely an Uber. "Did you tell Jazz I was coming with to work on the project with Danny or what?"
Dash kept quiet as he thought for a bit, "I mean I meant to and you know it's the thought that counts right?" Paulina just kept quiet before hitting the jock and calling him a puta, with many other bad words in Spanish.
"Take me home! Wasting my damn time, idiot."
"Wait let me go inside quickly and find out where he went for all we know he will be back in 20 minutes." Dash said as he got out of his car and walked up to the door. It had not taken long before Jazz had opened the door and as she hugged her boyfriend her eye had caught the occupant who still resided in his car.
"Why is Paulina with you?" She asked.
"Okay, so you know how Danny is her English project partner right? I thought it would be a good idea to bring her with so that they can work on the project. That's why I asked to chill here first but then we saw Danny leave…" Jazz had just given him a straight face, his intentions were pure but he had forgotten to include her in the plans and now Danny had left to go run some errands. He had not even specified where he was going to her either.
"Well Danny said his going out and then left, he never actually said where he was going or how long he would be gone so I don't know what she wants to do." Jazz and Dash both stood there for a bit before she chased him back to the car to go tell Paulina what was happening.
She reluctantly agreed to stay and wait with the couple instead of going home but ended up liking the idea as both her and Paulina seemed to be talking about whatever came to mind. What looked as if it would be Paulina third wheeling soon turned out to be Dash third wheeling when the two decided to make a snack for them.
"What do you mean. Have you seen yourself girl, you're a fucking model on a bad day. Bread?" Paulina asked as she pointed in random positions of the kitchen, they really were both very organised as Dash watched them not only uphold a conversation but not mess anything up either.
"Next to the knives, also butter is on the top shelf in the fridge. You think I am pretty? Have seen yourself. Girl your skin is clear, you dress amazing and you're thick. You have people simping over you 24/7 girl you are the shit." Dash had been listening to their conversation and wasn't sure if he should laugh at how good they were at hyping each other up or if he should rather just sit and listen. "Talking about looks though. What was with the new look that Danny has going on over there? He looked good. Like it's stuck in my head. I know how this sounds but damn I'm just shocked." Paulina had to stop herself from talking as she looked around the room and saw the couple eyeing her weirdly, 'I over spoke.' "Listen not like that. I'm just interested is all. I like to know things that have nothing to do with me."
Neither one of the two had answered her, instead just smiled and gave a laugh which told her that they didn't believe her. So she just asked Dash to fetch the speaker out of his car to play music off of.
It had been a couple of hours and Danny had still not returned but that had gone unnoticed as they were all enjoying their time watching a movie. Paulina had fallen asleep halfway through it though after she took some tablets for a headache and passed out on the couch. Shortly after that Jazz told her to lay her in Danny's bed instead since her neck would most likely be sore if she had continued to sleep on the couch. He complied with her demands before they returned to watch the movie.
"I wonder where he went. Aren't you worried about him?" Dash asked as he made the TV softer, neither one of them wanted to admit that the TV was there as background noise more than anything else.
"I'm always worried about him but he is big enough to know what his doing so that isn't reason enough to call him every 5 minutes." She responded, keeping the statement short to not go into too much detail on why she would not really be worried about her little brother running around town at night.
Danny had just come out of a photoshoot as it had run way overtime which he however had not minded since it paid out more.
"I mean you could just deposit it into my bank account. That way you don't have to go draw anything right now and you can rather head home. it is already late so it would be way to dangerous." Danny said as he said goodbye to the crew who had started packing away. He had worked with them whenever they asked for his help, it was an easy way to make money while not holding a job with strict hours.
"Matter of fact. Don't send the check, send the new stock and take it out of my pay and don't forget to say hi to Mia for me." Danny said as he finally stepped out of the studio to be hit by a harsh wind immediately.
'There's some type of… force in this wind, it is defiantly not natural but what is it? Is that even a thing. Weird wind is all I will call it for now.' Danny thought to himself as he scanned the area looking for somebody's presence. He however had found nothing and decided to go into his Phantom mode before elevating to the skies to shorten the long trip he would have to take if he walked.
Danny stood in front of the door while looking for the key in his pocket, somehow he had gone full on ghost mode for 3 years and he had never lost his key mid battle, how it stayed secure he never knew but he would not complain either. As he finally found the key to open the door he went to the group chat which included Sam, Tucker and himself. "We have a LOT to talk about when you're both fully rested. Things are getting a bit crazy over here."
As Danny entered the house he had little time to process anything before he was met by Jazz "Food is in the fridge if you're hungry. Dash and I are going to his house before the storm hits in the next few minutes since his house is empty. Please don't break the house by being stupid!" Just like that both his sister and Dash were out the door. 'I swear they never include me in anything, fuck it. I have the house to myself, well that is perfect with me.' Danny thought as he started climbing the steps to head to his room. He was ready to blast music through his earphones while having a mini concert.
Paulina had been laying on Danny's bed still unaware of her location change. She was in a half awake, half asleep state and wanted to fall back asleep.
But before she could return into her calm state she was rudely interrupted by the presence of another leaning onto the bed. "Argh, Dash go back to Jazz and let me sleep." Paulina said while her eyes remained closed, she didn't think that Jazz would do such a thing since in her eyes the orange haired girl was one of the sweetest people she had met.
However, the pressure had not lessened, and instead of hearing any replies she had started to hear the sounds of growling, which had started out soft and had gotten louder and louder. Curious to what was going on she opened her eyes and made eye contact with a dog, it's razor sharp teeth was the first thing that she noticed, then looking up her eyes were caught by the silky grey fur that was present on the canine's body and then she finally made eye contact with the beast and was entranced by its eyes. One shined purple while the other was a bright white, looking at it for too long started to cause her to get dizzier and dizzier until she realised her current situation and snapped back to reality.
"Ahhhhhhhh! Somebody help!" Paulina had struggled as much as she possibly could but it had little to no effort since the beast could easily overpower her.
"Amoux stand down!" The canine had immediately calmed down and jumped off the bed, walking towards its owners side the wolf leaped onto Danny. Paulina however was still in a complete haze as she tried to mentally process what had just occurred. 'Am I dead? What just happened.'
"…Paulina, Paulina. Hello, world to Paulina…" Danny had been trying to get the said girl's attention and she finally seemed to snap out of her trance.
"Huh, what just happened. Danny why is your dog so big!? What breed is that thing…" Danny had just watched her as she rambled on about how she almost died, he knew he had to let her get everything out. She had a lot on her mind and interrupting her would just delay the questions she had either way.
"Amoux is a wolf. His usually friendly, well if he knows who you are before you sleep in the owners bed." Danny had let Amoux down as the said wolf eyed Paulina for a few seconds before snorting and heading back towards its bed in the corner of Danny's room.
"Why the hell do you have a wolf? Aren't they like dangerous, I mean that thing almost killed me!" Paulina was obviously still shaken up from the encounter that had just occurred.
"Paulina calm down please, you're out of danger. Also why are you even in my bed to begin with?" In Paulina's eyes Danny had been completely ignored the situation, which was pissing her off the most.
"Calm down? Calm down! Don't you tell me what to do! You wake up to a damn wolf looking at you like a piece of meat and then you will realise how I feel, maldita perra! (translation: you damn bitch)" She had heard what she said and did not regret anything about what she had said, her anger was justified in her eyes, he was being stupid and very unsympathetic towards her feelings.
"Paulina! I'm going to say this once and only once… I understand why you're going on but what you not going to do is act innocent and shout my head off. You are in my bed without any justified reason, so in Amoux's eyes you are a potential threat. Now I am not mad that you are upset but can you not shout my ears off while you complain, unlike you I care about my neighbours!" Paulina had gotten quiet at this; she was taken back at the fact that Danny would raise his voice at her. She knew he had grown a backbone but throughout all his clapback's he somehow always kept a level head while he gave his point. What intrigued her most was the fact that she was not upset at the fact that Danny had put her in her place, instead she found it hot. She really was discovering more and more about the skinny kid, and with every new discovery her curiosity spiked with one question in mind, 'Who is the real Danny Fentom?'
"You're shouting now…" Paulina said back while she pouted. Which had not gone unnoticed by Danny. He couldn't help but softly laugh, the situation was moving from one argument to another and neither one would get their desired answers at that point. So instead he pulled out his gaming from his desk and sat down. "Listen, I am sorry about telling you that you couldn't shout out to the whole world that your life was in danger and I know that Amoux over there is also sorry for misreading the situation." Amoux had just opened an eye to look at hearing his voice and just growned before closing his eye and then going back to sleep allowing the humans to return to their conversations. "That is his way of saying sorry. His just tired since it's passed his bed time. Old ass." Amoux once again growned but this time it sounded more threatening which Danny just laughed off before returning his attention towards his project partner.
"Why are you in my bed anyways? I mean it is very late as well aren't you supposed to be at home?" Hearing the last part of the sentence a chill had ran through Paulina's spine, she had slept way too long. She really could not catch a break over the past few days and reached over to her phone but hovered over it as if she was afraid that the world would end if she picked it up and checked it. Getting over her second panic attack of the night she finally mustered up the courage to switch her screen on and switch it off of do not disturb. Her phone had blown up immediately with messages but the only notifications she cared about was from two individuals which read "Mom, 32 messages and 14 missed calls" and "Dad, 2 messages and 1 missed call".
Checking her father's messages first it added to her worry. "Hope your safe baby girl." Then "Missed Call" and finally, "Your mother is going to kill you." Her father was anything but easy going but she knew that he had not blown her phone up because he was most likely still up with her mother and had left his phone somewhere while he tried to keep her from lashing out and destroying everything in her path. So he was aware of the fact that she was receiving messages and did not need to add anything that her mother would have already sent.
"Ahhh shit! I'm defiantly dead. I blame Dash and Jazz for this." Paulina said as she heavily breathed in and out before clicking on her mother's name to return her call.
Ring. Tu tump. Ring. Tu tump. Ring. Tu tump. Click.
"Mama, hi…" Paulina had tried to make her voice sound really innocent, as if that would stop the scolding she was about to receive.
Both Jazz and Dash had just arrived safely at the young teenager's house before realisation had struck the older teen.
"Dash…" She said as she froze entering the house.
"Yeah, what's up? Why you acting weird?" Dash asked as he gave her a confused look.
"Don't you think we forgot something? Like maybe somebody by the name of Paulina."
At that statement Dash momentarily froze. He really had forgotten about her. Jazz had that effect on him but just like that he came back to reality as he just shrugged it off "Nothing we can do about it now I guess. We can deal with it in the morning."
Jazz wanted to argue with him but instead reached for her phone to call her brother and tell him instead. She would've called him if she had her phone as she watched it get snatched out of her hand by Dash, "What are you doing?" She received no answer however as Dash walked around her and locked the door. He really was going to act as if he had not just done what he did. So she did what she first thought of and jumped on him.
"Give me my phone!"
"No, you leprechaun. Just let it be. They'll run into each other at some point. You will ruin the fun if you call him."
She however continued to try to fight him but had no success as he carried her over to the couch and threw her off of him. Then proceeded to pin her arms above her head, "Baby you won't win this." He said with a cocky smile as she just gave into it with a defeated sigh which turned into slight moans as he started to kiss her necks.
Long forgetting her previous attempts to warn her little brother she had gotten free from his hold and dragged him up to his room, the ground outside wasn't going to be the only wet thing tonight for sure.
"Are you fine? Why have you not answered your phone whole day? You're still grounded and you take the only time we will let you out the house to go do what you want to do." Mrs Sanchez said as she
"Yes I am perfectly fine, there's nothing wrong with me. I can explain everything, ma."
"Why are you not home yet? It is past your curfew. Where are you and I swear if you lie to me Paulina I will personally kill you, bring you back to life just to kill you again."
"Long story short, I was getting a lot of messages which was distracting me from getting my work done, so Danny turned my phone onto do not disturb. Then I got extremely tired and I just crashed and when I woke up I saw everything, called you and now we are here. If you don't believe me, you can say hello to him." This had caught Danny by surprise, he was not ready to be sent to the wolves to help her. He had little choice though as she pushed the phone into Danny's hands which almost caused him to fall over.
"Good evening Mrs Sanchez." Danny spoke in a very sweet voice as he gave Paulina a look which told her that he would get her back for using him to lessen her blow.
"Good evening young man. Is everything my daughter just said true?" Danny had hesitated for a couple seconds as he starred into Paulina's eyes seeing nothing but pure fear as her fate lied in his hands.
"Yes ma'am." Short and sweet.
"Has she apologised for her behaviour in any type of way? She said that you haven't been at school for the past two days but she should have had enough time to apologise by now." Mrs Sanchez asked as Danny looked at Paulina and remembered the way she actually tried to apologise. It wasn't a good one but she was sincere about it, "Yes ma'am she did."
"And how has she been as a guest? She forcing you to do everything in the project or what?"
"She's a very good guest. She did say something though which I am not sure the meaning of." Danny smiled as he saw Paulina's face turn into pure shock, she had only said one Spanish phrase so she knew exactly what was about to happen. "Mal, something perra. Sorry my Spanish is not the greatest but she has been saying it whole day and I have no idea what it means." Danny was struggling to hold back his smile as he finished speaking to Mrs Sanchez.
"Danny could you pass the phone back to Paulina please?" Danny had just said his goodbyes as he passed the phone back to her. He had flipped the tables within a matter of seconds and for some strange reason she was enjoying it, even if it came at the expense of being told that she was supposed to have manners.
"Paulina I won't let this just slide but I am glad that you are safe. How far are you with your project? I mean it's practically midnight right now and a bad storm is coming in. So we can't really be on the road… Is it fine for you to stay there? Now I trust that the two of you can control yourselves or do I need to give you a speech about the birds and the bees?" The storm had started as she was speaking, "This might be baby making weather but please don't. You're still a teenager."
"NO! You defiantly do not need to. Also his sister and Dash are here so we are not alone." The conversation had gone on for another ten minutes as Paulina evaded the question about their project before she had to pass the phone back to Danny as he swore he would not lay a hand on her and the only reason he was willing to drop it was because of the fact that the storm was minutes away, they weren't alone and that he had met Danny before and the kid seemed like a good enough person.
"Yeah, goodnight to you to. I'll call you in the morning." Paulina said as she finished the call and put her phone on the side of her.
Before Danny had known what was going on he was smacked in the face with a pillow.
"Hey what the... Paulina hold up what's happening?" Danny tried to ask as he put his hands up to defend his face from being hit
"Oh she's been calling me a perra whole day" Paulina said as she tried to mimic his voice, momentarily stopping her assault but continued as she caught the smirk on his face. 'Yup he definitely knew what he was doing.'
"Look if you're going to drag me down with you into your little lie then I might as well have some fun the ship sinks." Danny said as he tried grabbing a hold of the pillow.
His first few attempts had been nothing but a fail but after a while he got a hold of it and Paulina's expression had immediately changed as he overpowered her and took the pillow from her. She had provoked the lion and now she was in trouble.
"How the tables have turned... Welcome to hell." As much as she feared what was about to happen she couldn't help but smile at their goofiness. It was weirdly fun; her goofy side was something she never really showed people in person after a toxic ex had made her feel insecure about it calling it things like childish or unattractive but she was so comfortable in Danny's presence that she didn't mind showing it. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that he did not seem to really judge her for anything or if he was just a very comfortable person to be around when his walls were down but one thing she did know, she liked the vibe that he gave off.
Danny had snapped her out of any further thoughts as he towered over her body, making his recent growth spurt known to her. "There is a way for you to get out of this Scot-free…" Danny said as another cheeky grin came to his face. "All you have to do is say that I am the best person in the world and that you actually find me as your role model… Nothing to major in my eyes."
"HA! Imagine! Danny, Danny, Danny… I could never lie like that. What do you think of me?" Paulina responded with a fake hurt expression on her face. Danny however looked at her with a straight face, "I think you're the girl who just lied to her parents with a straight face. Then dragged an innocent, young, humble, amazing boy into your lie to not be caught. Like Jazz and Dash aren't here right now, they went to Dash's house to sleep there cause his parents are out of town for the weekend. Oh yeah and why are you sleeping in my bed again?" Danny had put the pillow down to show that he was not going to attack her in any type of way, instead he was interested in the million-dollar question that she had not answered whole day.
"Oh yeah, I don't know how I got here specifically but I do know I was chilling on the couch watching a movie with your sister and Dash and I just dozed off. I mean it is hard to stay awake when you barely got any type of sleep and expect to finish a project discussion within an hour, hour and a half and then he disappears for hours and nobody allows you to leave the house either. Also my head was paining a little, so I took some tablets Jazz gave me which made me drowsier." Danny just nodded his head in acceptance. He was could not do anything about it and since Paulina's presence was not draining him he came to the conclusion that he would just move on with his night.
"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Paulina had just nodded as she looked at Danny once again taking his appearance in which had done nothing but amazed her. "What's with the A-listers? I mean I don't think any of you are bad people at heart like Dash when his not bullying anybody is a great guy… I mean his dating my sister, I'm supposed to be hard on him but I have to give credit where credit is due. You seem cool when you're not trying to kill somebody. Like why the whole thing of pushing people who aren't rich down?" Paulina had sighed at the question; things went from fun to deep in a matter of seconds which she did not mind but would have preferred to stay on a good buzz.
"It's not an easy thing to explain. Like I don't push people around the way I used to, I'm not saying that I don't still do it, I mean I did it to you recently. We bullied you in middle school and trust me back then I thought I was way better than anybody. Like it wasn't even self-love at that point, I was just a bitch to everybody. Friend, acquaintance or enemy either one if you disagreed with me I thought you were the worst person in existence." She tried to keep eye contact with Danny but she couldn't, instead she looked around the room finding interest in any possible thing that her eyes landed on which wasn't human, even starring at the sleeping canine instead. 'Why am I even speaking about this? Damn I'm over explaining.' She thought to herself before continuing. "I grew up around boys throwing themselves at me while females would wish to be me. That gives you a big head and once you make something a norm, it becomes very hard to not think that way. So I was down this road of I'm better than everybody who has less money than my father and bullied them while I was myself around my friend. So I bullied people to a lesser point but didn't stop because it was the only thing I knew. To answer your question, I know what reaction I would get if I push the non-A-listers away. I don't know what will happen if I don't, and that is why we are in this endless cycle of nonsense." Paulina had picked up the glass of water and drank of it.
She really had gone into way more detail than he had asked for but once again she had not felt ashamed by it, 'Danny has a weird effect on people. He gets you extremely comfortable by just being in the room. How do you even do this, you dumbass.'
"Woah, I did not know it was that deep for you. I guess we all have a side to us that we hide in the shadows." Danny said as he sat next to her on the bed and took in everything she had said.
"What about you? What caused your confidence? I mean you weren't always afraid to verbally stand up to Dash but like to Star and I. That was never a thing. When did that change?"
"I was in a toxic relationship for a couple months. Back when I was living with my aunt with Jazz. I took a lot of shit during that relationship, like damn I caught her cheating so many times and she would just use my past against me and make me feel small about myself. Once that ended though I started feeling better and my mind-set was that I would never let anybody walk over me or my feelings towards anything ever again. The only way I will ever keep quiet on a situation is if I want to or need to. So for you and the school it might've seemed like something new but for me it took a while and I went through hell to get here."
Paulina had kept quiet for, contemplating if she should speak on anything that had happened in her previous relationships.
"What happened in your relationship? You dated that matric last year didn't you?" Danny asked as he saw her visibly cringe. "You don't need to speak about it if you don't want to, I don't want to make you feel like I'm forcing you to speak about anything."
She just smiled at that, he was still as kind as ever, even after showing a side of himself that most people wouldn't get to see. "Nah it's cool. He was toxic but I didn't see it. He wouldn't really care about me, I was like this trophy to him. He would flex with me every now and again but in between those moments he would be busy with his new silver. It wasn't all that bad though, I learnt a lot from how he mishandled me and learnt a few… other things as well. The final straw for me though was when a group of girls that were a part of his crew told me that he would speak about everything we did. I wouldn't have a problem if he briefly mentioned it to his crew since I went straight to my people to spill the tea, but it was how he was talking about me. The fact that he added lies to make himself look better and that I was just his little play thing which really broke me. Like I was in love with him or at least believed that I loved him and he was seeing me as nothing more than an object. That's where I called it. Same as you, it took a while but I'm glad I got there." It was now Danny's turn to sit in silence as he tried to conjure a sentence up.
"I have a question right. Please don't take this the wrong because I know how it could come off, I only want to know your mind-set on it. I'm not defending him in anyway so ple…" Danny tried to continue his small ramble but Paulina stopped him mid-sentence while his overthinking made her slightly laugh. "Danny calm down, just ask."
"Did you ever think that they could've been lying about everything? They could have liked him and wanted to separate the two of you." Danny was still stressing as he hoped that the sentence had not came across in a way where it seemed as if he was defending her ex, he really hoped he would not strike a nerve.
"Yeah that crossed my mind, actually I told them that they were lying but then they played a recording of him saying everything. Don't understand why they did it either, never asked either. As far as I know it made their lives harder because I could have said that I heard what he said about me. I am grateful for them though, for all I know I might have still been in that relationship." Paulina concluded as she starred up at the ceiling, thinking about the way they had similar experiences but one was praised by the outside world while the other was out casted.
"Why don't you dress like this at school though? Like honestly you look good. I'm telling you this look would defiantly attract girls and if you got like piercings. Damn you might even pull A-listers honestly." Paulina said as she started cringing towards herself, 'Why do I sound like I'm low key shooting my shot.'
Danny however had not taken it that way as he just laughed it off. "Nah I don't really care how I look at school. My ex and Jazz got me into buying different clothes than what I would usually get but then when I realised how much attention it gets you and how people think you should keep it up every day or they would attack you just made me not want to do it in general. Too much stress for people I don't really care about."
"So you're not dressing the way you want to because of people you do not care about will give their opinion about it… You see what I am hinting at right?" Paulina asked as she gave him a confused looked. She understood his logic but it was also weird to listen to as he spoke about it.
"Listen here, shut up." He laughed, "You know what I mean. It makes sense and that's all you need to know okay."
"So rude. Well moving on though, what debate do you want to have for English, I mean that was the original reason I came here and we still haven't spoken about it."
"We can discuss it in the morning, you look tired. If you want something to sleep in you can go into my cupboard sweats are in the second draw while my hoodies hanging up in the closet." Danny said as he pointed towards the two. He could see that she was about to make an argument about how awake she was before she started yawning, 'She probably didn't realise that she was still tired.'
"Don't argue, I'll be in Jazz's room, which is just down the hall to the right and the bathroom is opposite it." Danny said firmly as he once again left no room for any type of arguments while he had gotten the clothes for her instead of forcing her to go through his room which she might have not wanted to do "Here you go."
She had just accepted everything with a hum, she there was barely any time or place to argue with him. He had called her out on being tired and before she could even say anything the wave had hit her instantly. That wasn't going to stop her from trying to though, "How do I know that this isn't your way to see me in my underwear though? As soon as I change then you jump back into the room to perv on me?" Danny had just turned on his heels as he opened the door. "That locks the door from the inside," He said as he pointed towards the latch that she could turn. "So in other words the only way I could get in would be if I could walk through walls."
He had once again shut down any possible come back from her. So she just accepted his answer and watched him wake Amoux up to take the canine with him. 'Probably to make me feel safer about sleeping in the room.'
"Goodnight, call me if you need anything." Danny said as Amoux made his way passed him taking in the last glance at the drained Queen B. "I will, thanks. Goodnight, I appreciate it." Just like that the door closed and she conjured up enough strength to get up and change into the clothes that was provided for her after locking the door. She did notice that the handle never rattled and the door never moved in any type of way, he really did respect her privacy.
The sweats seemed more comfortable than hers as it was bagger around her legs but tighter around her hips and ass. The thing that caught her attention the most though was the scent of his hoodie, it was weirdly appealing and she couldn't move her nose away from it.
As she laid back down she had received a call from Star and even though she didn't want to she answered it.
"Yes baby?" Paulina asked as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the brightness of her screen.
"Hey, wait were you sleeping. It's still early. It's only like 12:30 you're usually up for another two hours or something." She said. Paulina could see that her best friend had way to much energy to sleep and probably just wanted to be on a call talking about stupid things.
"Star can we speak in the morning? I am crazy tired right now." Paulina said but noticed that the person who she was addressing was not listening to her.
"Where are you? That's not your room." So that's what she was doing. "Long story short I am in Fenton's bed for the night, I will explain everything in the morning. Matter of fact message Dash if you want an update right now, he might still be up but I am barely able to keep my eyes open."
"At least tell me that you are fine? Has he tried anything to you? I swear I will beat the shit out of that weird, scrawny…"
"Star I am perfectly fine, he went to go sleep in his sisters room and he hasn't tried doing anything to me either. His been nice, well mostly. He told my mom I called him a perra, but I will explain everything later." Paulina finished as Star studied the girls half opened eyes for any lies but couldn't find it.
"Okay I will wait but you have to promise to message me first thing tomorrow, even if you have to phone me awake I want the tea as soon as you wake up. You got that?" Paulina had heard her and just nodded her reply she knew that if the roles were reversed she would have done the exact same thing. They really were two peas in a pod.
"Goodnight bitch. Love you." Star said as
"Goodnight hoe. Love you too."
Putting the phone down the she closed her eyes and listened to the reason she was stuck in the situation that she currently had. The wind whistle while the rain poured. Thunder roared while lightning flashed. It was chaos outside but it sounded amazing as she attempted to fall asleep not only to that but also the smell of the hoodie that covered her body.
When Danny had exited the room he immediately walked to Jazz's room and received a call from Tucker.
"Yo, Tucker. Why you still up?" Danny said as he exited the room while shutting it behind himself.
"Wait just hold on a second." Danny said as he made his way back to his room to knock on the door after muting the call. "Hey Paulina, you still awake?" He heard a small grown from the opposite side of the door and could barely contain a laugh at how cute she sounded 'Stop simping!'
"If you're dressed can you unlock the door quickly please? Just need to grab something." He heard rustling as she forced herself up and opened the door with her eyes barely open, complaining louder when the bright light hit her eyes. "Sorry just need to grab something to sleep in." He said as he quickly made his way towards his cupboard and got his clothes. Also taking a blanket and extra pillows out for Paulina in case she wanted it, "Not sure if you want these but here. Goodnight. Oh yeah last thing there's an extra toothbrush in the bathroom, the navy blue one."
"Mhm, thanks. Goodnight." She said returning to the bed leaving the blanket on the spot Danny had left it but two pillows as she hugged one and put the other between her legs. Danny had just starred at her for a second, she really was a goddess when she slept.
He left the room and remembered that he was still on a call with his guy best friend. As he closed the door he unmuted Tucker. "You still there?" He whispered while walking to Jazz's room, Danny had just heard buttons clicking and immediately knew that Tucker was playing games. He would have joined in but his console had broken. How? He still had no idea and neither had Tucker. So with that and the lack of money to currently buy one meant that he would have to settle for a game-less life 'I really should start saving.'
"Yeah, yeah. I am here. Why did you mute me though?" Tucker asked, he had developed the skill to both speak and play at the same time, it usually meant that he would play a bit worse but that wouldn't mean much since he was a sweat at any game he played.
"Wait why are you even still awake? Shouldn't you be asleep, I mean you're sick."
"Oh I slept earlier and then I woke up like an hour ago. Checked my phone and thought I would just get back to you in the morning but then I couldn't fall asleep and thought I would just wake you up. Turns out you were awake." Tucker laughed as he heard Danny sigh. He had actually seen that Danny was online but it would irritate him more if he pulled his leg a bit.
"Yeah I know I said that we have a lot to speak about it but it's not an immediate threat. We can discuss it in the morning." He said as he told Amoux to go to Jazz's room. The canine had just been standing in the passage way unaware of where he would be sleeping during that night.
"No I want to hear about your problems now, I care about you and your mental health so, so, so much." Danny could hear the smile on Tuckers face and knew exactly what he was doing.
"Yeah, yeah. There's no I care about you; you just want to brag to Sam that I told you first. You selfish bastard." Danny had just softly laughed as he heard Tucker fake being hurt by his comment. "What part do you want first? That Paulina is sleeping in my bed or Skulker visiting me to give information?" Danny had to pull his phone away from his ear in order to not go deaf from Tuckers screams. From the questions about if Paulina was naked to what Skulker tried to do he was really making his ears ring.
"Hold up a second Tucker! One question at a time. Damn I swear if you didn't sound proof your room you would have gotten a beating from waking your parents up." Danny said closing the door to Jazz's room. He wouldn't have been surprised if Paulina had just heard Tucker's scream.
"So firstly, no Paulina is not naked, she's fully clothed. We didn't do anything, just spoke about the project and then by the time we looked at what the time was it was already extremely late, phoned her parents who let her stay. From there we just chilled and spoke for a bit, she's actually nice when the popularity difference was forgotten about."
"Hmmm and did you try to make a move? You know just shoot your shot in a way." Tucker wanted to milk him for every possible answer that he could receive but his friend was smarter than that and changed the subject to the more pressing matter at hand.
"Skulker said that there will be a tournament taking place in one years' time. He also said that he suspects something is going on behind the scenes but he won't be trying to find out what it is."
"And you going to participate or what?"
"Yeah I am going to participate. Not because I care about whatever is going on in the background but because of the reward that the winner shall receive."
"Which is what exactly?" Tucker asked as he heard rustling in the background. "Bro what are you doing?"
"Just changing quickly. The winner gets to make any request. Which made me realised that Skulker was not doing being kind to help me. He gains a lot if I win the tournament so I don't think that he has some hidden agenda for telling me about the tournament. He knows what I want to request for, the same way I know what he gains from my glory."
"Danny please tell me you're not about to step into the lion's den and make the request I think you are about to make…"
"My request is simple. A death match between Ghost King and I. We end it there and then."
That is, it for today folks, I was thinking about doing a paragraph where I reveal what the next chapter would be about but I will rather hold that idea for now because this chapter was 99% different than it was supposed to be. It was supposed to reveal more about the past than talk about current and future events so if I had done that I would have shot myself in the foot.
Spoiler, I left an Easter egg in here which will go unnoticed since it will only be used in the future like WAY in the future. I just hope I remember it because I want to quote this and be like "I am super smart for doing this * insert the emoji with glasses and smirk*"
To answer a few possible questions:
Number one: Why is Paulina sleeping over? Her parents would never…
So I feel like the it was explained in an okay-ish way to justify it. I mean I am not saying it was brilliant way of doing it but at the end of the day these situations do occur in some type of way, where people get stuck in a place because of everything that could go wrong going wrong. So even though it is rare, it could still happen. If it is still too little to go off of I will explain the damage of the storm next chapter, so that's a reason why they couldn't be on the road.
Number two: Why is the couple moving so fast?
They need to warm up to each other at some point I guess and being caught up in the moment is a thing. Also they haven't done anything other than speak at this point. Neither of the two know big secrets about the other either so on that factor it's like they understand one another but they haven't really gotten to know one another yet.
Number three: Where's the fighting? I thought it was supposed to be balanced
It will be, these first few chapters are here to kind of lay a foundation about relationships more than anything else. Trust me I really want to show his true power and villain powers but that takes time and I need to be patient before I do too much and mess everything up. I already have some bad ass things written for the villain that even I reread and went "Damn, that's so smart to say."
Enjoy the rest of your day, till next time.