Danny was used to handling his things on his own. Ever since team Phantom was disbanded because his best friends had to move out to whole different states and his sister moved out to live at college, Danny has been on his own. So you can say Danny knew how to keep things to himself. Hell, he even kept things from his two best friends all the time. He didn't like having people worry about him, always feeling like he was a burden. So the whole situation with the Winchesters just made his carefully constructed system of coping a little worse.
He couldn't imagine breaking the Winchester's trust. Every time his injuries, from either his parents or hunting, were too harsh, he'd go to them as promised. The first time, it took a lot of arguing with himself to finally go to the Winchesters for help. It had been a particularly harsh 'lab session' with his parents that left him with a little more than the usual; the wounds weren't the worst he had, but the placement of the injuries made it a little too hard to reach on his own.
He was prepping a story, anything to sound less harsh than the reality that had actually occurred. But the moment he knocked uninvited, Dean regarded him with one look before ushering him in. No explanation was asked for, nor was Danny made uncomfortable- the only questions that came were to try and figure out just how bad the gashes were. Sam had quietly helping his brother along, with not much word of his own.
"Danny, come on!" Tucker laughed, waving through the camera. "I wanna know the details." Tucker finished the comment with a wiggle of his brows. Danny blushed, trying to laugh it off as his goth best friend laughed along in the taunts.
"Guys come on, it's not like that." Danny shook his head, his hair following in an attempt to hide the blush. It really wasn't what they think, right? Like just because he made a new friend doesn't mean it has to be anything like the two were implying...
"Come on Danny." Sam shook her head with a laugh, turning to look at the smallest teen. "We know you better than you know yourself." Danny paused, slightly glad that that wasn't completely true- he really liked keeping his friends from worrying too much. They would get grey hair by the time they were twenty, Danny swore, and by the time they were thirty they would probably have hair whiter than Phantom's.
"Yeah dude, we know." Tucker smirked, wiggling his brows. Danny groaned, dropping his head onto the desk with a thump. "It's okay, we won't tell."
"Not like you can do any harm." Danny glared, watching his friends share a look even through the digital stream. The ravenette sighed, glancing around his desk, surprised for once that he was actually on top of his school work for the first time in so very long. Sometimes a break was nice, no need to complicate it. "'Sides, it's not like that. We're just friends."
"For now!" Tucker responded in a sing-song voice. "Regardless dude, you know we just like seeing you happy." Tucker sobered, giving his friend a small smile.
"Yeah, just being close to someone else, means a lot. It's good that you actually have a person that you can physically interact with instead of just staunchly refusing any other chances to make friends after we moved." Sam chimed, flashing her own approving smile. Danny smiled back, knowing his friends jokes were all in good faith- his friends really cared for him and loved him in the way only such close knit friends can.
"I know guys." Danny smiled, waving off the topic. "I'll just need to-"
"DANNY!" A loud voice muffled through the door. Danny sighed, glancing towards the door. Turning back to his friends with an apologetic smile, another call sounding through the wood.
"Looks like I'm needed." He smiled, ignoring the pang of sadness of having to leave the call. The others laughed, shaking their heads, none the wiser to how his parents have changed.
"It's a wonder how they even survive without you." Sam laughed, glancing at her clock. "I have a date soon, so I should get ready."
"I got a robotics meeting soon." Tucker chimed, smiling back. "Stay clear of the radars." Tucker teased. They shared their goodbyes, clicking out about the same time. Danny sighed, closing his laptop. Another call of his name rang out, this time deeper than the last. His dad.
Danny pulled himself to his door, hesitating ever so slightly. Hopefully it wouldn't go anywhere, and if it did, he wouldn't go to see the brothers. He already wasted his daily medically meet-up this morning and Danny didn't want to bother them again so soon. He pulled open his door, just when another call sounded.
"I'm coming!" Danny called back, hopping down the stairs quickly. It was better to not keep them waiting. To his shock, Danny was met with both parents settled in the kitchen. An oddly placed looking Sam standing awkwardly across from them. "Hey Sam." Danny greeted, confused on why the taller teen was there.
"Danny, you never mentioned your new friend." Maddie mused, smiling welcoming to the teen. Sam smiled awkwardly, looking like he'd rather be anywhere but here.
"Uh yea, it never came up." Danny shot Sam an apologetic smile. He shifted the focus from his parents to Sam. "Why're you here?" He asked, inwardly wincing at how harsh the tone sounded. He felt a little worse when Sam looked like a kicked puppy for a split-second.
"I thought maybe we could hang out?" Sam sounded sheepish as he spoke, almost like he's realizing what a mistake he made; going over to Danny's home probably wasn't the best idea.
"You boys could go up to Danny's room." Maddie offered, waving towards the stairs. "You're welcome to stay for dinner." Maddie smiled.
"I'm sure Sam's brother would want him back." Danny cut in, trying to give Sam a way out. Sam luckily was smart enough to take his hint.
"Maybe another time, Danny's right. My brother would get worried and he's cooking tonight anyways" Sam smiled politely. Maddie nodded understandingly, and patted her husband on the shoulder to get him to move.
"You two boys head up, we'll be in the lab if you need us."
Danny grabbed Sam's hand and quickly dragged him up the stairs before his mom could say anything else. It was once they got up the stairs that Danny realized he was still holding the taller teen's hand. With a small blush, he let go, guiding them towards his room.
"Sorry for the mess." Danny excused, quickly grabbing a few strewn clothing items. "I wasn't really expecting anyone..." Danny trailed looking around the small room. He kept it minimalist, the only figurines or trinkets were gifts from his friends or collectibles from their favorite shows and such. The walls were still the same exact purple color he had since childhood. Space and band posters alike were littered across his walls.
"It's okay, it's not that bad." Sam smiled, looking around. "It's better than what Dean sometimes is like."
"I'm not surprised." Danny laughed, taking a seat on the bed and motioned for Sam to join him. "I don't have much we can do, I have a few card games and a few video games."
"What card games?" Sam mused, turning his interest to the teen. "I'm more of a cards game person." Sam seemed slightly embarrassed at that. Danny chuckled, looking over at his shelf. His eyes scanned over the various boxes before settling on one of his favorites. This used to be team Phantoms go to game when they settled in at his place for the sleep overs.
"Your Worst Nightmare? It's an actual card game my other friend Sam found one day." Danny questioned, walking over to the shelf. "The whole game is just ordering fear, and trying to guess the other persons' right." He explained, turning the pitch black box towards the taller teen. He regarded how Sam looked a little surprised by the game. "Uh, Tucker and other Sam used to play it a ton with me." Danny explained, rubbing the back of his neck out of nervous habit.
"It sounds fun." Sam smiled warmly, motioning towards the floor in question.
"Best spot to playing card games." Danny laughed, plopping down on the rugged floor. Sam followed suit, listening intently as Danny pulled out the components of the game and explained how its played.
Maybe this game wasn't the smartest choice, it just had been one of the few games the original trio hadn't minded playing constantly and Danny was feeling slightly nostalgic after talking to his two oldest friends. Every game was always slightly different which lead to some interesting debates on the fear level for a few things. The problem with playing it with the Winchester was that he didn't know what Danny did daily, or what he had experienced. It was after the first round that Danny realized that he wasn't the only one who had weird fear levels.
This round, the fears in question were ghosts, Vampires, electricity, and germs. It was easy for Danny to fill his out, he barely had to think it through. Electricity, germs, vampires, and then dead last were ghosts. It was hard to be scared of something you deal with on a daily basis. After defeating the worst ghost in the zone, it was even harder to be too scared.
For Sam, he went with a realistic order. He just tried to see it through the eyes of an average school student, and that was when he realized something was off. It was the largest gap form all the other rounds, and it was much too similar to his. Sam's order was germs, electricity, ghost, and then vampires. Sam placed ghosts above vampires but both at the bottom scariest, and maybe Sam was just not superstitious, it was just his reasoning that set the suspicion in place.
"Well, you can't see germs. Electricity can cause heart attacks." Sam explained easily. "Vampires are pretty easy to deal with, but ghosts are complicated." Sam shuddered as if remembering something, which was where Danny realized Sam was talking like he knew from experience.
"From what I saw vampires are easier with just a stake to the heart. For ghosts you need a whole priest." The shorter teen laughed and he watched Sam freeze, almost like he said something he shouldn't before laughing causally.
"In lore Vampires are handled by chopping off their heads, and ghosts are dealt with by burning the remains or something that ties them to earth." Sam explained, before pausing for barely a second. "Besides you can't really see ghosts right?" Sam laughed, but Danny could pick up the hints of awkwardness.
He can't really dig or be hurt that Sam seemed like he was lying. It's not like Danny doesn't hide a whole side of his life from pretty much everyone in his life. Danny joined the laughter, burying that train of thought to think about later when he wasn't enjoying his time with Sam.
"I think we've played long enough." Danny chimes, looking down at the amount of tallies on the scare card. It had been close every round, both teens either being completely wrong, and pretty close in their guesses. "I think a lunch break is in order."
That train of thought hit him like a ton of bricks that night. He and Sam had a surprisingly good day, the light awkwardness that seemed to hover over them since the first time Sam came over seemed to vanish into thin air. The two had gone out to eat at the Nasty Burger before spending some time at the local park. Danny luckily had not been called away at all in the time they spent together, as all the ghosts were out of the picture for the day. When he got home, his parents were too distracted in the lab to really notice his arrival, only doing so when he brought down food, but luckily they hadn't needed his help.
That's how Danny found himself sprawled out across his bed, enjoy the nice break the day brought on after that morning. However his calm feeling didn't last long when the original doubt and suspicion hit him that night. Leave it to his anxieties to turn the day bad. With a sigh the teen rolled over, grabbing his phone.
"U guys up?" Danny texted into the group chat, and not long after the sign for both friends becoming active popped up.
"Ya dude whats up" Tucker's messaged pinged through before Sam's did.
"Whats anxiey got on the manu?" Danny chuckled, all of them usually got lazy when it came to text. They've all gotten surprisingly good at figuring out what the other was saying when it's completely butchered.
"It's Sam..." Danny hit send, before typing out another message as quickly as possible and hitting send. "i thomk his dixferny"
"Different how" Both friends sent the same message. Danny sighed, rolling his thoughts through his head. It wasn't like his anxiety driven thoughts were easy to put into words.
"Like parent" He shot back, blinking up at the ceiling. It wasn't that hard to imagine, the other teen had a good range of knowledge on urban legends and folktales. He and his family are constantly traveling for their dad's 'mechanic' job. Clockwork has told Danny about these types, he just never expected to ever run into one.
"Ghost hunters?" Tucker shot back, a shocked emoji tagged at the end of the message.
"Hunter." Danny shot back, remembering when he had explained it to Sam and Tucker the day he learned about it. "Like Stopwatch said"
"Danny this isn't good" Sam messaged, a worry emoji sitting at both the beginning and end of the message.
"Ik" Danny sighed, flipping onto his back. His life just always had to be complicated. "U guys r rite tho" He sent, knowing the other two would know exactly what he was talking about.
"I KNEW IT" Tucker sent with cheer emojis after. Danny couldn't help but laugh at the message.
"TUCKER" Sam scolded easily read through text, before another message from her came through. "When he leave"
"bout a week tops" Danny felt sadness fill him at the reminder of what the brothers mentioned not long ago. "day after their dad pops in"
"dw about hunter thang" Sam sent in, the same time a sorry message from Tucker popped in.
"Jus injoy time with mate sam" Tucker texted, a sad emoji popped onto the end. "No worries"
"ur rite" Danny shot back, eyes glued on the text bubbled. He wasn't an idiot, Sam didn't give him a number or email because it just wasn't something hunters do. They don't really make connections that last. He also wasn't delusional enough to believe he'd ever see the other boy again. It's better not to spoil this time, the Winchesters were still treasured friends.
"Try sleep?" Tucker message, waiting for the usual confirmation good night to come through. Sam always responded with a shooting star, Danny responding with a crescent moon, the waning one, and when one of the others asked if they were going to sleep, Tucker had to be the weirdo and use that creepy moon face emoji. The active dot by both names vanished, before Danny settled his phone down for the night. Yea, he'll just try to enjoy his time with the brothers. Memories are forever, even if people aren't.
AN: Ayyyy another Update not to long wait right?
Massive thanks and shoutout to my beta RangerHorseTug
Now onto reviews:
Kimcat: Cat's still in the bag
Dobby and Padfoot: Love your user! I'm glad you like it! I hope this chapter help clear up a few questions you might have had, even though everythings more in context than out directly.
Eric Cartman Forever: Also love your user! I love hearing others theories on my stories, sometimes it helps me come up with new things to add so always feel free to ramble :) I will not comfirm or deny anything, but it will be revealed of course on how their story ends (or does it?). I've gotten that before about John, I will say he does get a tiny bit involved soon.
Okay, that's all I have to comment on I think. Sorry if I miss any reviews, my emails have been acting up and I only check when I log in to type which isn't as often as I'd like. Well, I plan to update again soon. The next chapter is actually pretty much done but I refuse to update twice on the same day, so you guys have to wait a bit, hope you don't mind!
Also! Happy roaring twenties y'all, I hope this year isn't as bad as it seems to be starting off.
Anyways, let me know what you guys thought in the reviews, any theories, or any ideas that pop into mind. I love reading about them! Hasta Luego!