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Danny groaned as he landed in the alleyway, rubbing at the back of his neck. Of all the days for Sam and Tucker to both be out of town! First he’d had to deal with Technus throwing a hissy fit, then a pack of ghost wolves had shown up and started racing around town, trying to recruit peoples’ dogs to their cause, and then finally he’d had to deal with the damn Box Ghost. Danny had been running around like a chicken with his head cut off since this afternoon, and he was absolutely exhausted. After so many years of ghost fighting, he would have thought things would have been easier by now, but some days it felt like he was still fourteen, just starting to figure out his powers and learning the ropes as he went.
With a sigh, he made sure that the lid was firmly on the Fenton Thermos, the ghosts trapped safely inside, and then finally released his transformation. He took a deep breath as he felt his heart kick back to life in his chest and his core return to dormancy. He clipped the thermos to his belt and strode out of the alley and back out onto the city sidewalk, the twinkling stars above painting the long-closed shops and empty roads in quicksilver highlights while the faint shadow of the new moon watched over the night.
He glanced up at the stars, picking out the faint constellations he could make out through the light pollution, and smiled to himself. Despite his fatigue, he had to admit that it was a beautiful night. There were a few wispy clouds overhead, but they were small and thin, not enough to block out the sight of the night sky spread out above. There was a chill in the night air that chased off the rare person who might actually be out and about at this late hour, but Danny didn’t really notice it thanks to his powers. For him, the nippy air only added to the pleasant atmosphere. His eyes absently traced the Big Dipper above, following it up to the Little Dipper and then the North Star out of habit.
Just then, the faint sound of his phone going off drew Danny’s attention away from the heavens, and with a soft curse, he dug his old hand-me-down phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. He didn’t even bother looking at the cracked screen to see the number, figuring the only people who would be calling him this late would be Sam or Tucker. Instead, he just accepted the call and brought the phone up to his ear as he made his way down the street.
"Hello?" Danny said.
There was silence. Danny knew that the call had connected, because he could hear someone breathing on the other end of the line, but the person didn’t say anything. The pause lasted long enough that Danny actually pulled his phone away from his ear to make sure he hadn't muted it somehow, but then he heard the caller clear their throat and he quickly brought it back up.
"...hey."
Danny froze mid-step, stumbling a little bit at how quickly he stopped moving. He recognized the sound of that voice even through the shitty reception of his phone. "...Dash?!"
"Uh...yeah. Hey." Dash repeated, sounding quiet and withdrawn.
"Um. Hey! Hi, uh, Dash. W-what are you doing up so late?" Danny asked nervously, eyes staring down unseeingly at the sidewalk under his feet. His heart skipped a beat in his chest as apprehension gripped him. He couldn’t say he was completely surprised that Dash was calling him, but he had to admit it was sooner than he had expected. He had kind of been hoping to put this conversation off for…well, forever if he was being honest.
Danny could hear Dash shift a little on the other end of the line. "Couldn't sleep," Dash said casually. "I, uh. Saw your fight with the tech ghost on the news. Looked pretty rough. You okay?"
Danny couldn't help it. Despite his nerves, he found himself scoffing. "What, Technus? Please, he didn't even make me break a sweat. I had him souped in like fifteen minutes, tops."
"He hit you pretty hard with that billboard, though," Dash pointed out with a subdued chuckle.
Danny winced. "Ah. The cameras caught that?"
"Yeah. Don't worry, they also caught you coming back to punch his lights out a few seconds later, you're all good," Dash assured him.
"Well that's good," Danny said with a strangled laugh.
"Yeah..."
An awkward silence commenced. Danny scuffed his shoe against a bit of moss growing between the sidewalk slabs, kicking at it until it came free in a clump with a scattering of dirt. On the other end of the line, he could hear the creak of a desk chair as Dash shifted. Neither of them seemed to know what to say, and the silence between them stretched on and on.
Finally, feeling like he was going to snap, Danny decided to just rip off the bandaid and finally address the metaphorical elephant in the room, just to get it over with.
“Look, Dash —”
“About this afternoon —”
They both started talking at once, and then stopped at the same time. There was another pause, shorter this time, and then Danny let out a weak giggle.
“Why don’t you go first?” he suggested.
”...okay,” Dash agreed slowly. Danny could hear the desk chair groan again as Dash presumably tried to get more comfortable. ”Look. I just wanted to say…sorry. About this afternoon.”
Even though Danny had been kind of expecting it, he was still surprised by the way Dash’s words sent a little bolt of pain through him, like he’d been punched. He had known that Dash was going to bring up what happened eventually, but he didn’t think it was going to be in the form of an apology. It almost sounded like Dash regretted what happened, which made Danny’s grip on his phone tighten a little in dismay. “...oh. You’re, um. Sorry?”
”Yeah. I, uh. Guess I surprised you a little bit, huh?”
“I mean,” Danny quickly recovered, trying to shake off his hurt feelings. “A little? But, heh, let’s face it. Nothing you do will surprise me as much as your ‘Grand Apology’ in sophomore year. I still say the balloon arch was a bit overkill.”
”I mean, could you blame me?” Dash demanded with a laugh, sounding more lively than he had the entire conversation up until now. ”I had just found out the guy I had been wailing on since we were pre-teens was actually the same person as the superhero that I’d looked up to for a year! And he had ghost superpowers! I mean, come on! I was freaking out! I was half convinced you were going to steal my spine in my sleep!”
“I mean, I could,” Danny said with a smirk Dash couldn’t see. He leaned back against the brick wall of one of the shops lining the sidewalk, shifting so that he was holding his phone with his shoulder, realizing this conversation might take a bit and he might as well get comfortable. “I wouldn’t, of course. But that is technically something I could do.”
”I know! Exactly!” Dash cried. ”I was terrified you’d finally get your revenge or something. I’m still amazed you didn’t try to kick my ass for everything I did.”
Danny’s shoulders slumped and he leaned further back against the wall behind him. “You were just a dumb kid, Dash, and I knew it. There were way bigger problems in my life than just some guy trying to look tough by taking his problems out on me.”
As soon as he said it, Danny wanted to kick himself. He settled for smacking his forehead with his free hand. He could hear how quiet Dash had gotten, their earlier tentative conversation drying up in an instant.
“...I’m sor —”
“No, Dash,” Danny quickly cut him off before Dash could finish his apology. “You…you don’t need to apologize again, you…you already have, okay? With balloons, and a marching band, even. The whole school was talking about it for weeks, remember? And hey, now we’re friends, right? I’m sorry I brought it up.”
”Still. I…I get if that’s why you…ran off, earlier.”
“Oh. Um. T-that’s…” Danny could feel his face heating up a little as he remembered what had happened back in the locker room after school. But then he realized what Dash was implying, and he quickly backpedaled. “Wait, no! That’s not why I left in a hurry! I mean, yeah, you caught me off guard, like I said. But I didn’t run off because I…because you, uh, scared me off or something. You, um. Just. Surprised me. Like I said.”
”...oh,” Dash said quietly. Then, even more hesitantly, he asked, ”Did you, um. Not like it?”
Danny’s eyes slipped closed as he thought back to that moment in the locker room. School had ended, and he’d followed Dash through the gym to go pick up a textbook Dash had offered to lend him to help him with Lancer’s upcoming test. The room had been empty, the rest of the students rushing home as soon as the bell rang, so it was just the two of them standing there between the rows of benches and metal lockers. Danny had been slouched against one of the lockers while Dash had been digging around in his locker for his gym bag and the textbook. Danny hadn’t really been paying much attention, most of his focus on watching a few dust motes dance through the beams of afternoon sunlight coming through the windows overhead, when he heard Dash make a small punched-out sound. He’d looked over to see what had caused Dash to make that noise, and had been shocked to find Dash suddenly standing right in front of him, his wide blue eyes locked on Danny’s lips. Danny had only had a moment to register how close Dash had gotten without him noticing, and then Dash had leaned in, and —
Danny’s eyelids flew open, and he stared up at the stars. His face felt like it was on fire.
“N-no. I, uh…..” He cleared his throat. “I. Um. Definitely can’t say I didn’t like it.”
”Oh.”
“Yeah.”
”That’s, um. That’s good.”
“Yeah,” Danny repeated lamely.
There was another, hesitant pause, and then Dash said, ever so carefully, ”Maybe we could. Um. Do it again sometime?”
Danny’s breath caught in his throat, his eyes widening. “I…”
”I mean. Only if you want to.”
“I…I would…I mean — oh shit.”
”What?” Dash demanded in alarm, but Danny wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. At that moment, he’d heard the familiar sound of screeching tires coming from down the street, followed by the rev of a definitely not street legal engine. A whole swarm of blob ghosts came tearing around the corner of the nearby intersection, followed a split second later by the GAV, its headlights blazing and all of its weapons primed.
“Shit. It’s my parents,” Danny cursed, pushing off from the wall so that he could duck into the shadows of the nearest alley. The last thing he needed was for his parents to spot him out this late, especially when they thought he was already asleep in bed. “They’re hunting blob ghosts.”
”Blob ghosts?” Dash echoed incredulously. “Why? Blob ghosts are harmless!”
“As far as my parents are concerned, any ghost is a dangerous ghost,” Danny sighed in annoyance, shaking his head. “I better get those poor things out of there before my parents turn them into ectoplasmic jam.”
”You gonna be okay?” Dash asked. If Danny didn’t know any better, he’d say that Dash had almost sounded worried.
“Oh yeah, I’ll be fine,” Danny said dismissively, already letting his transformation rings wash back over him. A moment later he took to the sky, phone still clenched between his shoulder and his ear so that he could keep talking to Dash even as he flew. “This’ll take me, like, five minutes. Honestly, the hardest part is going to be rounding up all of the blob ghosts. They tend to scatter once the ectoweapons come out, but it’s a pain in the ass to carry them out of there one by one, so I’d rather just catch them all and fly away with them all at once.”
”...if you’re sure,” Dash said, sounding very unconvinced.
“Trust me. Look, I won’t even bother hanging up, this’ll be over in a jiffy.”
Dash laughed. ”Who even says ‘jiffy’ anymore?”
“Remind me I need to introduce you to someone named Sydney one of these days,” Danny told him with a distracted smile, his eyes taking in the scene below. So far his parents’ shots were flying wild, landing nowhere near the fleeing blob ghosts, but there were a lot of blob ghosts, and his parents’ weapons could discharge a lot of shots at once. Sooner or later one of the poor things was going to get hit. “Hang on, I’m going in.”
With that, Danny dove down, his legs fusing together to form his spectral tail to give him a little bit of extra speed. He shot across the rooftops, chasing after the GAV’s trail, watching as it bounced along the street and knocked over everything in its path with abandon. His dad must have been at the wheel then, damn. That meant his mom was manning the weapons, and between the two of them she was a much better shot. He’d have to make this quick.
“Hey guys!” he greeted his parents as he swooped past the GAV’s open driver-side window. He cackled as he watched both of his parents do a double take. “Hope you don’t mind if I take these little guys off of your hands! It’s way past their bedtimes, and I should get them back to the Ghost Zone!”
“Ghost Boy!” his dad shouted in alarm, jerking the steering wheel to the side to try to ram the GAV into Danny. Danny simply darted out of the way, though, the GAV too cumbersome to catch him off guard like that. His dad growled, and then yelled, “Get ‘im, Maddie!”
“You got it, Jack! Eat hot ectoplasm, spook!” his mom roared, turning the GAV’s weapons on him.
“Whoa!” Danny yelped, ducking under his mom’s shot. “Hey now, watch the hair! I just got it styled!”
“Hold still, ghost scum!”
“Uh, hey, rude much? Can’t you see I’m on the phone?” Danny joked, gesturing towards the phone still pressed to his ear. He heard Dash snort through the tinny speaker.
“What? Wait, why does a ghost have a phone? Did you steal that?” his mom cried in outrage, before charging her weapon again. “So you’re a thief as well as a menace!”
“Hey now, I swear this is mine, I added my own little phone charm and everything!” Danny insisted, before he was forced to dodge another shot with a yelp. “Alright, I can see you guys aren’t in the mood for witty banter tonight and, frankly, neither am I. It’s been a long, crazy night, so I’m gonna just grab these guys and go, kay?”
He didn’t wait for their response, instead darting ahead and into the thick of the blob swarm. The tiny ghosts all squeaked in alarm at his sudden arrival, but they were smart enough to recognize an ally when they saw him. Several of them swarmed him at once, clinging to his hair and his back and shivering in fear.
“Hey now!” Danny cried out as one suddenly latched onto his face. “I can’t see!”
The blob ghost let out a little squeal as Danny tugged it free, straining to try to get back to his face. But the moment he put it on top of his head instead, it grabbed his hair and hung on so tightly he thought it would pull some out, satisfied with this arrangement. Several other blob ghosts followed after and attached themselves to his limbs, until he was practically coated in the little things.
While this was certainly better than having to chase them all across the sky, Danny couldn’t help but growl at them in annoyance. “Guys, it’s going to be a little bit tricky for me to get you out of here if you’re clinging to me like that. Gimme some space, okay?”
The blob ghosts churred with anxiety, especially when one of his mom’s shots flew past them to hit a nearby streetlight, but one by one they detached so that they were flying alongside Danny rather than clinging to him. Danny swooped across the street, guiding them in his wake, and then started to turn upwards into the sky where he knew his parents would have some difficulty following them.
“Alright, guys, listen up,” he instructed the blob ghosts sternly. “My folks are going to be more interested in catching me than you, so I’ll go draw their attention, and you use the chance to escape, got it?”
”Wait, you’re going to use yourself as bait?” Dash piped up in disbelief, making Danny twitch for a second in surprise. He’d been so distracted with his parents and the blob ghosts that for a moment he’d forgotten he was still on the phone. ”Is that a good idea?!”
Danny just shrugged with the shoulder not holding his phone against his ear, forgetting that Dash couldn’t see it. “I mean, yeah? Why not?”
”Uh, because what if they hit you? What if they catch you?” Dash said incredulously. ”They’ve been saying for years that if they ever get ahold of you they’re going to try to rip you apart molecule by molecule, everyone knows that!”
“Yeah, they’ve been saying it for years,” Danny agreed. “Because they’ve never caught me.”
”...I don’t know, Danny…”
“Dash, relax. I know what I’m doing,” Danny assured him, glancing back down towards the roads below. This far up, the GAV looked almost like a toy car, chasing along in his wake. It was the farthest thing from threatening he’d ever seen, and he couldn’t help but scoff down at it. “There’s nothing to worry about, trust me.”
Dash didn’t say anything else, but the sounds of his nervous shifting were audible even over Danny’s terrible reception. Still, Danny didn’t have time to offer any more platitudes; he could see his mom popping out of the hatch on the roof of the GAV with a massive gun on her shoulder.
“Oh great, mom’s got a new weapon. Wonder what this one does,” he sighed in dismay, used to being the test subject for the oddball inventions his parents seemed to come up with every other week. “Maybe this one even works. Ooh, I wonder if it flings waffles at ghosts or something. I swear I’ve been smelling syrup in the lab for days.”
The gun wasn’t even that large, compared to some of the other weapons he’d seen his parents create. It was certainly sleeker than his parents’ typical weapon style, with a meter-long barrel that must have weighed a ton, but his mom was handling it like an expert, shifting it to point into the sky. Still, even from way above, Danny could tell her aim was off; it was like she was only trying to point it in his general direction rather than right at him.
It hit Danny suddenly that his mom wasn’t usually that sloppy. Sure, she had her trigger happy moments, but usually when she was taking the time to line up a shot like this, she would actually make sure she was aiming properly. Seeing how lax her form was set off a few warning bells in the back of Danny’s head.
But then she fired, and by then it was too late.
Danny didn’t even have time to gasp before the missile whizzed by his head so closely that it ruffled his hair. It didn’t touch him, but the force of its wake was enough to knock him sideways, tumbling head over tail through the sky. His grip on his phone loosened from the shock, and he had to scramble to catch it before it fell out of his hands to smash on the concrete far below.
”What was that? Danny? Are you okay?” Even before Danny was able to bring the phone back up to his ear, he could hear how worried Dash sounded.
“Shit. My mom has apparently cooked up something new,” Danny said through gritted teeth, giving his mom a hard stare. “I’m okay though. It missed.”
Suddenly, the blob ghosts surrounding him let out little screams of alarm. Danny whipped around, and his eyes went wide as he saw the missile that his mom had just shot had somehow curved midair and was now shooting back towards him.
Danny screeched and ducked at the last second, allowing the missile to soar right over his head. He turned quickly to watch its flight path, hoping that the first time had been a fluke, but to his growing horror, the missile immediately began to turn, changing its trajectory until it was once again headed straight for him.
“Oh shit!” he yelped, and frantically started flying away. The blob ghosts trailed after him with a chorus of terrified squeals, attempting to keep up with him. He tried to shoo them away to get them clear of the danger, but they were too scared to leave his side.
“Go! Get away from me!” Danny shouted at them. He chanced a look back over his shoulder to see where the missile was, and paled when he saw how close it had gotten already. “Can’t you see it’s just after me?!”
The missile was practically bumping his tail when he abruptly dove straight down, rocketing towards the ground like a meteor falling from space while the little blob ghosts scattered. At the last second, just before he would have splattered against the ground, he corrected his trajectory so that he was flying parallel to the street instead. Figuring the missile wouldn’t be able to pull such sharp turns, Danny flipped over to fly on his back, expecting to look back and watch just as the missile smashed into the ground behind him.
“There,” he told Dash, adjusting his grip on his phone. “That should have — what?!”
The missile was headed straight for him again. Somehow it had corrected its flight and predicted where he was going to end up, avoiding his sharp turns completely.
He gasped, his eyes widening with fear as it raced towards him. At the last second he flipped through the air so that it missed him, but it brushed so close to him that its wake once again knocked him over, sending him crashing to the street below. His momentum made him bounce and roll for a full block before he managed to stop himself, finally skidding to a stop.
Climbing back up to his knees, he let out a groan of pain, feeling completely battered and bruised from his tumble. His phone had landed a few feet away, and he achingly dragged himself over towards it to pick it up, checking on the cracked screen. Thankfully it still seemed to be working, his call with Dash still connected.
“Hey,” he groaned into the phone. “You still there?”
”Danny, what the hell is going on?!” Dash demanded, sounding frantic.
“W-working on it,” Danny grunted. “I’m — huff — fine.”
”You don’t sound fine! Danny!”
“Ah shit, hold that thought,” Danny groaned as he spotted the missile coming back around. How had it not crashed into something or run out of fuel by now?! “I’m gonna try to lose this thing.”
With a grunt of effort, he threw himself back into the air just as the missile flew by. He poured on as much speed as he could, zooming across the sky in a dazzling array of spins, corkscrews and loop-de-loops, changing direction often and buzzing through the clouds in an effort to shake off the missile’s tracker. But no matter how many twists, turns, and loops Danny made through the sky, the missile continued following on his trail without pause.
Getting frustrated, he changed course for the city below, hoping to lose it between the narrow streets. He darted through a bus shelter, and then swerved between street lights, hoping the missile would get too close to one of the obstacles and crash into them. But it was no use, the missile was smaller than him, and continued to predict his moves, avoiding the hurdles Danny was trying to trick it into hitting. It curved gracefully through the streets, easily avoiding any collisions, no matter how many things Danny threw in its way.
Danny was starting to run out of ideas. Feeling cornered, he decided to try phasing through a billboard to see if that would finally force the missile to crash. And for a second, it almost looked like his plan might work; the billboard was too wide and the missile had been following too closely behind Danny to avoid crashing into it after Danny went through it. But when Danny looked back in excitement, expecting to see a big explosion as the missile finally went up in smoke, he instead watched with horror as the missile just went through the billboard rather than around it or stopping. It punctured the thick metal and vinyl like they were made of tissue paper, leaving a gaping hole through the ad for the new chicken place that had just opened up in Elmerton, the missile not losing an ounce of speed or momentum in the process.
Okay. So this thing could basically penetrate solid steel and didn’t really care about property damage. Good to know.
Unfortunately though, that meant that he was starting to run out of ideas for how to escape, and he could feel his energy levels starting to flag.
And the missile was still gaining on him.
He was forced to duck as it shot by him again, but he was so tired, his body still aching from his earlier tumble, that he barely dodged in time, the missile actually clipping his shoulder a little bit as it passed. He hissed in pain, his grip on his phone tightening reflexively. “Dash?” he said carefully, trying to ignore how much his voice was shaking. “I might be in more trouble than I realized.”
”Danny, seriously, you’re freaking me out, what the hell is happening right now?!”
“I — oh no.”
The missile was coming back around again. And Danny didn’t think he’d be able to dodge it for a fourth time.
Desperate now, Danny shot upwards into the sky in one final attempt to escape, hoping that the missile wouldn’t be able to follow him if he flew far enough into the upper atmosphere. His wide, fearful eyes were fixed on the stars above as he flew towards the shadow of the moon as fast as he could, his core straining with effort as he attempted to escape with nothing but his speed. He was out of tricks, there was nothing left he could do, nothing else he could think of to shake the missile off of his trail, and in his panic, all he could think of was to run away.
Behind him, he could hear the threatening whistle of the missile grow louder as it approached, until it was as deafening as an oncoming train in his ears, but he forced himself to keep his eyes on the sky above. If he looked back, he was done for. He was too tired, the missile too close, to afford even a split second’s pause to look back to see where it was now.
“Oh god,” he let out a little exhausted sob, terror making his eyes water as the sound of the missile surrounded him. Above him, the light of the stars grew blurry through his tears as the panic well and truly set in.
He could barely hear Dash screaming his name through the phone anymore, the missile drowning out his voice. ”Danny!”
And then, Danny felt himself slow down just the tiniest bit. His core was starting to give out after a long day of fighting, falling, and now fleeing, and it just couldn’t keep up anymore. The loss of speed was barely noticeable; it wouldn’t even register on any instruments, wouldn’t have made a difference in any other situation. Unfortunately, though, this time it did make all the difference.
The sound of the missile reached a crescendo. Danny only had a moment to gasp in despair, and then it hit him right between the shoulder blades. Danny’s eyes went wide as the impact registered, the missile digging into his back.
And then, just like with the billboard, it kept going.
Danny let out a scream that cut off with a wet gurgle as the missile went through him, bursting out through his chest in a spray of glowing green ectoplasm and ghostly viscera. The pain didn’t even register at first, shock making him numb to it. He could only stare sightlessly at the thin clouds and twinkling stars hanging high above him, his mind going blank and the rest of the world falling away as his mind tried and failed to understand what had just happened to his body.
With his concentration gone, his phone slipped from his now nerveless fingers and fell, disappearing into the shadowy city streets below.
His eyes were locked on the stars above, but his vision slowly grew blurry and dim as his eyes lost focus. They wavered and swayed, and then, to his confusion, the stars and clouds started to fall away from him. How was that possible? Stars didn’t fall upwards, did they?
Wait. No. No. The stars weren’t falling. Danny was.
The world turned on its head as Danny started to plummet, the city stretched out far below but rapidly approaching. Danny could do nothing to stop his descent, though. His body was frozen, the shock and the pain from his injury making it impossible for him to move. All he could do was watch the ground rush up to meet him, helpless to stop his freefall, and brace himself for the impact.
Oh god. He hoped it was over quickly.
But then, just before he hit the road, his vision suddenly flooded with something green and glowing. He gasped as he was engulfed in it, his whole body surrounded and immersed in whatever it was, until he could barely see anything else around him through the semi-transparent substance. It took him a moment to register what he was seeing, and then he let out another gasp as he realized that it was the blob ghosts that had grabbed him, coating him with their numerous tiny bodies. On their own, a single blob ghost would have never been able to catch him in time or carry him to safety, but together the whole swarm had apparently managed to do just that, forming one massive blob and grabbing him before he could hit the ground and become ectoplasmic street pizza. Danny sagged against them in tired relief, helpless to do anything but let them carry him away.
He was too dazed with pain to see where the blob ghosts were taking him, but eventually he felt his body settle gently against a wall, the blob ghosts shifting away to give him some space. Danny groaned as their support vanished, leaving him sweating in agony as he tried to find a comfortable position propped up against the wall of the alley the blob ghosts had brought him to.
“S-shit,” he stuttered out. It took a herculean amount of effort, but he managed to sit up enough that he could look down at his chest. As soon as he spotted his wound, though, he wished he hadn’t. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force the image of the cavernous hole and torn-apart organs out of his mind. He’d been hurt badly before, sure, but this was definitely one of the worst injuries he’d sustained. “Shit.”
He lay there, groaning and wheezing, his entire body in so much pain he could barely think straight. He could feel his core struggling to repair the damage to his broken and battered body, but it was no use. A wound this bad would have been too much to heal even when he was in top shape, but now, after he had already exhausted his energy trying to escape the missile? There was no way his core would be able to manage it. At this point it was only a matter of time before his core gave out and he was forcefully transformed back. And once he was human again, there was no way he'd be able to survive.
It looked like the blob ghosts had saved him from a quick death from falling, only to leave him stuck with the slow and painful death from bleeding out. Great. Just great.
He bit back a growl of frustration, angry tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. Of all the stupid things to do him in! After so many years of easily avoiding his parents’ traps and weapons, he had grown cocky, had stopped thinking of them as a real threat. But his parents weren't the leading experts in their field for nothing. God, he hadn't even realized his mom was working on anything like what seemed to be a ghost-seeking missile. Stupid. He should have known better than to ignore whatever his parents got up to in the lab, especially since he usually had to deal with their inventions eventually.
Stupid. He was so stupid. And now he was going to die for real because of it. The rough bricks of the alley wall caught and pulled at his hair as he smacked the back of his head against them a few times.
Oddly enough, as he lay there in that dark, dingy alley, contemplating his oncoming demise, he found his thoughts flashing back to earlier that afternoon, to that sun-soaked moment in the boy's locker room. The memory of the cold metal of the lockers chilling his back and Dash a warm weight against him filled his mind's eye. He kind of wished he hadn't run away after. He wished he had stayed, had listened, hadn't panicked and run like the coward he was.
He wished he'd actually thought to kiss Dash back.
To be fair, he wished a lot of things, not just about Dash and their first kiss. Like, he wished that he had actually taken his parents seriously just this once, or that they weren't so obsessed with trying to hunt him down to experiment on him. He wished that he'd decided to just ignore the Box Ghost this one time and head home early. He wished he wasn't sitting here in this alley, waiting for death to come claim him for good. But unless Desiree showed up in the next few seconds, wishing wasn't going to accomplish much of anything for him. He whimpered, and knocked his head back against the wall one more time in despair.
Just then, he heard a curious little sound next to his ear. “Mrrp?”
His eyes fluttered open — when had he closed them? — and he looked up. Floating in front of him was one of the little blob ghosts, staring at him with its wide, blank eyes. If he didn't know any better, he'd almost think it looked…concerned? Behind it, the rest of the blob ghosts were hovering nearby in a clump, watching him carefully.
“H-hey, little guy,” Danny wheezed, reaching out with a trembling arm to give the blob ghost a gentle pat on its head. At least something good had come out of this mess, he supposed. At least the blob ghosts were safe. “A-are…you guys…okay?”
His response was a symphony of happy chirps and purrs, the blob ghosts drifting closer in unison. The blob ghost under his hand arched up against his palm with obvious delight, enjoying his attention.
“T-that's good…glad you guys…at least…are fine.”
He coughed, and he could feel something wet and warm spill from his lips. He groaned weakly, sinking down against the wall as his strength began to fail him.
“S…sorry guys,” he murmured. “I think I jus’...need to lie down for a mo’.”
His eyelids felt like they were made out of lead, and they drooped just as quickly as he slumped. The alley was already dark and full of shadows but things became even harder to see as his vision began to tunnel, growing dim around the edges.
And then he heard another chirp, and felt something brush against his chin. He forced his eyes back open, catching sight of something green and glowing floating right in front of his nose. He went a little cross-eyed trying to focus on it, but eventually he realized it was the little blob ghost, returning his earlier pets by gently stroking his cheek with its stubby little arm.
“Hmm?” he hummed, too weak to form words.
The blob ghost made a tiny, concerned noise, and then looked back towards its friends, letting out a series of squeaks and peeps that sounded almost like it was talking. A second later, Danny hissed in pain as what felt like a dozen small bodies suddenly landed on top of him, coating him completely from his shoulders down to his legs. He groaned and looked downward, trying to see what was happening.
He was mildly surprised to discover that the first blob ghost had apparently called over the rest of its swarm to surround and cover Danny's body like he was the world's greatest blob ghost cat bed or something. There were so many of them on top of him that they were forced to squeeze together to make sure they all fit. With all of them pressed so closely side by side, it was hard to tell one from the next; they almost looked like one giant blob ghost covering him up like a big, green blanket made out of jello. The only blob ghost that hadn't settled down somewhere on his body was the first one; it was still patting Danny's face, even as it kept a close watch on its companions as they made themselves comfortable.
"W...wha're you guys doin'?" Danny murmured with a mixture of confusion and amusement. Blob ghosts were always a bit funny to watch, and prone to silly antics when they traveled in groups. He wondered if this was some kind of new game they were trying to play with him. Hopefully they didn’t actually need him to participate in any way, because at this point he had no strength left to even twitch his fingers.
They didn't reply to his question obviously, considering blob ghosts couldn't speak. But a moment later he was left even more baffled when, once they all seemed satisfied with their positions, they all simultaneously started to purr. The vibrations were gentle, barely strong enough for him to feel through the pain in his chest and the numbness creeping through the rest of his body, but he was surprised to find that they seemed to be helping him feel a little bit better. He felt himself start to relax as they cuddled against him with their little bodies, purring away like little cement mixers. A warmth bloomed in his chest as the blob ghosts comforted him, his core trying its best to purr along with them despite his injury, and it helped chase away a little bit of the chill of his oncoming demise.
"Aww. Tha's really...sweet, guys," Danny said softly, giving the blob ghosts a tired smile. "Thank you."
The blob ghost next to his face churred soothingly, and then floated up so that it was resting on top of his head. It settled in, making itself comfortable, and then it started to purr along with the others.
"R-really, guys. I...thank you. This is…nice." Danny could feel his eyelids starting to close again, but this time he didn't fight it. He was tired. He was so, so tired, but somehow at least he wasn't in as much pain anymore. Maybe his body had finally gone numb to it all, maybe the blob ghosts' purring was helping to distract him from his wound. Whatever the reason, he felt himself start to drift off, feeling comforted and safe.
“Please…stay,” Danny whispered to the blob ghosts as he lost the last of his strength. His eyes slid shut.
He was prepared for that to be the end of him. He was sure that this was it, that once he fell asleep he would never wake up again. But to his surprise, he found himself stirring awake an indeterminate amount of time later. He let out a confused groan and tried to shift, but as soon as he even twitched, he ended up collapsing back down against the ground, a chorus of indignant chirps and squeaks ringing in his ears.
"What the...?" He stared down at the blob ghosts coating him, the whole group looking back at him with identical reproachful stares. "Uh. Sorry?"
One of the blob ghosts squeaked indignantly at him, as if to say, you should be!
Danny could only shake his head in disbelief at the little things for a moment, before something else caught his attention. He heard the sound of someone shouting just outside the alleyway, and it hit him that they must have been what had woken him from his doze. He frowned, straining his ears to listen to the voice. It sounded kind of familiar...and was it getting closer?
His answer came a second later when a blob ghost suddenly shot into the alley, calling back towards whoever was following it with a string of insistent chirps. It zipped over to Danny's side and immediately latched onto his head, resuming its purring now that it was settled again. Danny tried to glance up at it, but then the newcomer stepped far enough into the alley that Danny could make out his features in the glow of the blob ghosts, and Danny felt his eyes grow wide.
Dash looked like a wreck. His hair was tangled and messy, his face was flushed with exertion, and his clothes were rumpled and in complete disarray. He was breathing heavily as if he'd been running for miles, and given how much running Danny knew he did for football, the analogy might have been closer to the truth than Danny realized. The moment Dash spotted him, he stumbled over, falling heavily to his knees at Danny's side.
"Danny," he choked out, eyes wide with panic. "What the fuck happened?"
Danny stared up at Dash in complete bewilderment. "How did you find me?" he breathed, completely ignoring Dash’s question.
Dash growled a bit under his throat, shaking his head. "Do you have any idea how much you just scared the shit out of me?! Do you know how fucking awful it was to be sitting at home, listening on the phone while you screamed like that?! Fuck, Danny, you scared me half to death!"
Oof. Yeah, okay, that sounded like it would have been pretty awful. Danny winced and hung his head. "...'m sorry," he muttered. "Didn' mean to."
The glare Dash shot him could have peeled paint. "Yeah, well. I just heard you scream like you were getting tortured or something, and then there was a bunch of whooshing noise, and then the call just drops? Of course I'm going to freak the fuck out!"
The call? Oh. Oh! Oh yeah, he dropped his phone after he got hit. Shoot, it was going to be a pain in the ass coming up with an excuse for why he needed yet another one. Maybe he could get Tucker to fix it? Assuming he could even find the thing again, that was.
"S-sorry," Danny repeated weakly. "Sounds like that sucked."
"Yeah. It did," Dash agreed sharply, still staring Danny down. "So of course I rushed out to find you, but I had no friggin clue where the hell to even start looking for you. I've just been wandering around downtown, following the burnt rubber tracks all over the road that your parents' tank left, trying to figure out where the hell you went. Thankfully that little guy must have heard me calling for you, because he came to get me and lead me here. And now...here I am."
"Now here you are," Danny echoed, a smile slowly stretching across his lips. "You came for me."
"I mean. Yeah. Of course," Dash agreed, becoming flustered. "Of course I came. You…you sounded like you needed help."
Danny's smile only grew wider. "Good. I'm...I'm glad. I’m really glad that you’re here."
Dash's eyes widened, his cheeks no longer looking flushed from exertion alone. But then he abruptly cleared his throat, shaking his head to chase away whatever thoughts had struck him, and pulled out a tiny little first aid kit from his jacket pocket. "Well, I'm here now. Let's...let's see the damage. You're hurt, right? That's why you're just laying here, letting these guys use you as a pillow? Where is it, what happened? I didn’t have time to grab the big first aid kit, so hopefully it’s nothing a few bandaids and an alcohol swab can’t fix."
"It's...it's bad," Danny admitted reluctantly, glancing down towards his chest. With so many blob ghosts coating him, he couldn't actually see the wound anymore, their little bodies hiding it from view.
"How bad is bad?"
"I'm not sure if you're going to want to see it. I'm not sure I want you to see it."
Dash sucked air in sharply through his teeth, before letting out a frustrated huff. "Is it something I can help with?" He started to unzip the first aid kit, digging through it for supplies.
Danny hesitated long enough that Dash stopped, his head jerking up to stare Danny down. "Danny. Seriously. How bad is it?"
Danny bit his lip, and looked away. He didn't want to answer. He didn't want to think about how bad it was. How it was likely that Dash had come in time just to watch him die.
But…then again, when he concentrated on his wound, it was kind of odd. For some reason, it actually felt...better?
"Let me see," Dash said one more time, his voice gentle but firm.
"...fine," Danny relented with a sigh, before looking down at the blob ghosts. "You heard him guys. Give me some space."
The blob ghosts huffed, squeaked, and grumbled at him, but eventually they all peeled away, lifting off of his body to float into the air above the alley. Danny felt a pang of regret as they left, taking that soothing comfort and warmth with them. He traced their path as they darted upwards, swimming through the air like little goldfish in a tank.
He heard Dash let out a low whistle, and he turned his head back down to face him. "What?" Danny asked, before his brain caught up and he remembered exactly 'what' Dash was looking at. He glanced down at his chest, bracing himself to see the open wound staring back at him once more.
"Wait, what?!" Danny gasped, eyes wide in disbelief. "What the hell?"
"That looks pretty tender," Dash said, completely oblivious to Danny's gobsmacked expression. He reached out with one hand and brushed it gently over the mark on Danny's chest, fingers tracing over the ripped edges of the hole in his hazmat suit. "It doesn’t look like it’ll need a bandage at least, but maybe I can put some antibiotic cream on it once you change back. Weird, it almost looks like a burn, so I expected it to feel warm, but it's actually kind of cold?"
"I have an ice core," Danny explained on autopilot, still staring down at the intact skin of his chest. With shaking fingers, he reached up to touch the spot where the giant hole through him had been only a short while ago, but he only felt the tiniest twinge of pain when he pushed against it. Between his ribs, he could feel his core pulsing away, weaker than usual, but nowhere near on the brink of collapse like it had been earlier. Feeling like he was somehow dreaming, Danny reached back to try touching the spot between his shoulder blades where the missile had first hit him, amazed to find it mended as well.
"Oof, geez, your back, too?" Dash said, helping Danny sit up so that Dash could check on where the entry wound had been. "Ouch, this looks almost as bad as the one on the front. Actually..." Dash's brow started to furrow, and he began shifting back and forth so that he could see both sides of Danny's body in quick succession. "They kind of line up a little...fucking hell. Did something go through you?!"
"A little bit?" Danny admitted, feeling kind of hysterical. "I mean. Yeah. Yes. That's...that's absolutely what happened. There was...there was a hole through me. I could see it. I could see through it. I...Dash, I’m pretty sure I was dying. My core couldn't heal me fast enough. I was a gonner. I should have been a gonner."
Dash looked him over, before settling back on his haunches. "Well, I can’t say you look great right now, but you definitely don't look like you're about to keel over either. What happened?"
Danny started to shrug, just as lost as Dash, but then he heard the blob ghosts squeaking overhead. He glanced up, and his eyes widened in understanding. "Oh. Oh, it was them," he breathed, watching the blob ghosts dancing overhead with a sense of stunned amazement. He remembered how they had cushioned his body with their own, how their purrs had made him feel warm and safe, and had taken away a bit of the pain. "I think...I think they saved me."
He and Dash stared up at the blob ghosts drifting by overhead for a while, watching them dance.
“Huh,” Dash eventually said. “Y’know, I always kinda liked these little guys. They’re cute.”
“Yeah, me too,” Danny agreed absently.
One of the blob ghosts broke away from the swarm briefly to dart back towards them. It chirped happily at Danny, and pressed itself against the wound on his chest for a moment, giving him a tiny blob ghost hug. It purred gently, and Danny sighed in relief at the comforting feeling it gave him. And then the blob ghost pulled back, checking on its handiwork.
Danny and Dash looked down as well, and Dash let out another surprised whistle. “That seems to have done it,” he said.
“Yeah,” Danny murmured, poking at his chest. The last of the injury had faded, leaving him looking healthy and whole. Well, at least as healthy as a ghost could look. Even as he watched, the fabric of his hazmat suit started to weave itself back together until there was no sign of the damage at all. Danny stared at his fully healed chest for a moment, and then looked up at the blob ghost in wonder. “T-thank you, little guy.”
The blob ghost chirped at him and waved one of its stubby arms dismissively.
“No, seriously. Thank you,” Danny repeated more firmly. “You guys saved me. If you ever need any help, I swear I’ll return the favour, okay? You just come find me and I’ll help you, I promise.”
The blob ghost squeaked at him, and then darted forward to nuzzle at his cheek, making Danny laugh. It pulled away to give his face one last pat, and then it zipped back up into the sky. The rest of the blob ghosts flew after it with a chorus of squeals and happy cheeps, and Danny and Dash rose to their feet to watch them go as they disappeared into the night.
Once they were out of sight, Danny sighed, and let his head hang down between his shoulders. “God, I’m tired,” he admitted.
Dash reached out and patted his back comfortingly. “Come on, then. I’ll walk you home.”
He crouched down to pack up his first aid kit, but when he noticed that Danny was hesitating, still staring down at the ground, he looked over and gave him a worried frown. “You okay? Good to go?”
“...I need to change back first.”
“Okay, that’s fine,” Dash said patiently, finishing up with the kit and rising back up to his feet. “So change back?”
Danny’s lips thinned. He didn’t move.
“Danny,” Dash said, giving Danny a serious look. “What’s wrong?”
Danny waivered, his expression only growing more tight. And then he let out a soft sigh, his arms coming up to clutch himself around his middle. “...’m scared.”
Dash blinked at him. “Scared? Of what?”
“...what if…what if they only healed my ghost half?” Danny all but whispered, as if he was afraid to admit his fears too loudly in case that would somehow make them come true. “What if I change back, and the wound is still there, and I just…die for real?”
That seemed to give Dash some pause, but then he rallied himself. “Well, has that ever happened before?”
“What, dying for real?”
“No,” Dash huffed with a roll of his eyes. “I mean you being fine in ghost form but being hurt when you’re human.”
Danny frowned, thinking about it. “Well…no,” he admitted reluctantly. “But I’ve also never been healed by blob ghosts before. I dunno. Maybe it’s different?”
“Well, I hate to break it to you,” Dash said with a shrug. “But if you stay in ghost form forever, then that’s pretty much the same thing as being dead for real, isn’t it?”
“Oh.” Danny frowned, his brow furrowing as he considered Dash’s point. “Oh yeah, I guess that’s true.”
“...Soooo…?”
“So?”
“So are you going to change back now?” Dash prompted with raised eyebrows.
“Oh. Oh right. I, um. Just…just gimme a sec.”
Danny squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on his heart in his chest. Changing back to his human self had always been the easier of his two transformations, but this time he was nervous enough that it made it hard to focus. He grit his teeth, trying to force himself to make the switch, but his mind kept insisting that it wasn’t going to work, or that he’d change back and immediately start bleeding out again. He let out a little growl of frustration. “Come on!”
“Dude, relax,” Dash murmured, his hands suddenly resting on Danny’s shoulders. Danny stiffened a little bit in surprise, before he slowly slumped. “You look like you’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Sorry. Just. Struggling to focus,” Danny said, his eyes still closed as his thoughts churned.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Danny opened his eyes and looked up at Dash’s concerned expression. He considered the offer, thinking it over, and then slowly nodded.
“Actually, yeah,” he said, leaning forward. “Can I just…I’m trying to restart my heart, and my brain is too freaked out to focus on it. Can I…listen to yours for a second? That might help, having a reference or something.”
“Uh, yeah. Sure, of course,” Dash agreed. “Anything you need.”
He went still as Danny leaned forward and pressed his ear to Dash’s chest, his eyes drifting closed again so he could pay attention to the sound of Dash’s heart. It wasn’t hard to detect Dash’s heartbeat; it was pounding in his chest, its beat rapid, racing, and strong. Danny tuned out the rest of the world around him, all of his attention on that comforting thump-thump-thump in his ear as everything else fell away. He let it become his whole world, nothing existing beyond the beat in his ear, until he felt an echoing jolt twitch, tremble, and then finally burst to life within his own chest.
He stepped away from Dash just as his transformation rings appeared, their familiar light washing over him. In seconds, Danny Phantom was gone, and only Danny Fenton remained standing in the alley, swaying a little on his feet.
“Ugh. Okay, can confirm I’m not 100% back to normal,” Danny groaned as a dull pain shot through his body where the wound used to be. He poked at the spot, and then sighed in relief when firm skin met his fingertips and no bright red spot immediately bloomed on his shirt. “But hey, at least I’m not bleeding out. I’ll call that a win.”
“That’s…good,” Dash said, sounding slightly dazed. When Danny looked over at him, he could just make out a bright blush on his face in the dim street light that managed to penetrate the alley. Danny raised an eyebrow at him, which seemed to knock Dash out of his stupor, because he cleared his throat and gave his head a little shake. “You, um. Okay to walk? Or do I need to help you?”
Danny frowned, but took a couple of tentative steps forward. “I think I can manage, as long as we walk slow.”
“Cool.” Dash waited until Danny was next to him, and then he started heading out of the alley and back towards the streetlights beyond.
But then Danny thought of something, and abruptly stopped. “Actually, wait!”
Dash paused and turned back. “Yeah?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I, um.” Danny hesitated, his hands coming up to tug at the hemline of his shirt. “Uh, before we go home, I was wondering…I mean, while I was…when I thought I was gonna die, I was kinda thinking…um.”
Dash continued to watch Danny struggle to find words, crossing his arms across his chest while he waited. Slowly his confusion morphed to amusement as Danny failed to complete a single sentence, growing more and more frustrated with himself.
Finally, fed up with his own stuttering, Danny let out a huge huff, and just blurted out, “I kinda want to try kissing you again! I want to do it right this time!”
“Huh? O-oh!” It was Dash’s turn to look flustered and unsure, caught off guard by Danny’s outburst. “I, um. Really? Are you serious?”
“Yeah…Like I was trying to say earlier, before all this…stuff went down. I…liked it. And I’m sorry I ran off on you. Can…can we try again?”
“Y-yeah, of course! I mean, I, um. Are you sure though? ‘C-cause I thought you didn’t like it and that’s why you…I thought maybe I, uh. Was reading things wrong?” Dash choked out. “And you didn’t want me to?”
“Like I said, you surprised me,” Danny said slowly, his voice shaky and his face on fire. But he wanted to do this, needed to do this. “I hadn’t even realized you might…be interested in me…like that.”
Dash gave him an incredulous look. “Are you serious? Why wouldn’t I be? You’re smart, and brave, and kind, and strong, and really, really cute. And you’re a superhero. Let’s face it, you’re kind of out of my league. I kinda figured you’d never settle for a guy like me, even if you were interested in dudes.”
It was Danny’s turn to stare at Dash. “Dash, you’re all of those things too. I know it wasn’t always that way, but ever since you found out about me being Phantom you’ve been there for me and helped me and done everything you could to prove that you’ve become a better person. Don’t you remember that time with Skulker and the tennis court? Or with Spectra and that weird remote my parents invented? You’ve literally saved my ass multiple times! And you’re the star quarterback of Casper High, and the hottest guy in school! I’m pretty sure you’re the one who’s out of my league!”
“That’s not as cool as being a superhero,” Dash argued bashfully, ducking his head.
“Trust me, Dash, there’s nothing cool about being a superhero,” Danny admitted with a sigh, before giving Dash a little smile. “Though I will admit, things have definitely been easier since you joined Team Phantom. I was scared at first when you found out, but now I’m really glad you did.”
“So…you don’t secretly hate me?” Dash asked.
“No!” Danny immediately cried.
“And…you didn’t hate it when I kissed you?”
“No,” Danny repeated, much more quietly and subdued. “No, like I said, I…I liked it.”
“...and…you want me to do it again?”
“Y-yeah.”
Dash hummed, licking his lips nervously. “Okay. Okay, uh. Now?”
Too nervous to speak, Danny just nodded his head.
His heart pounded in his chest as Dash slowly approached him, his breath hitching a little with each hesitant step Dash took. They had already been standing so near to each other that Dash closed the distance between them in seconds, reaching up with trembling hands to gently cup Danny’s face. Danny’s own hands came up to rest against Dash’s arms, gripping lightly at the fabric of Dash’s jacket, holding himself in place so that he didn’t give into the urge to bolt. He gulped thickly as Dash studied his face, his eyes darting over his features.
“Are you sure?” Dash whispered, his breath puffing against Danny’s lips, giving Danny one last chance to back out.
Rather than try to choke out an answer, Danny just let his eyes slip closed and leaned the tiniest bit forward. Dash took the hint, and met him halfway.
The first brush of lips was so quick and tentative that Danny almost didn’t feel it before Dash was pulling away. But before he could do anything more than whimper in objection to the weak kiss, Dash was leaning in again, kissing him properly this time. Danny stiffened a little in surprise as Dash’s lips pressed firmly against his own, his grip on Dash’s sleeves tightening, but then he relaxed, leaning into it. He felt Dash relax as well, and their kiss deepened.
Danny lost track of time as they traded soft kisses, breaking apart just long enough to breathe before coming back together again. At some point Dash’s hand had slipped from Danny’s jawline to clutch at the back of his head, while Danny’s fingers were now hooked in Dash’s belt loops. His heart was pounding and his breath was growing more and more ragged as they kissed, but Danny couldn’t find it in himself to care. He was enjoying this far too much to want it to stop. Kissing Dash was amazing. Kissing Dash was almost as good as flying, and he absently wondered what it would be like to kiss Dash while he was flying.
Then his brain decided to helpfully conjure up some ideas about what else he could do with Dash while flying, just as Dash’s grip on his hair tightened the tiniest bit, giving Danny’s hair a tug, and he let out a low groan, heat starting to pool in his belly. He heard Dash’s groan echo his own, and then Dash’s free hand started to drift lower on Danny’s back, brushing against the waistline of his jeans, a finger slipping below to stroke at the bare skin of Danny’s hip.
Suddenly, a loud honk ripped through the night, and Danny and Dash leapt away from each other with twin yelps. Danny’s head whipped towards the mouth of the alley just in time to see a late night delivery truck rumble past on the road, the driver’s swearing about dumb cats audible even from a distance. The truck passed by quickly, but even when the sound of its engine was long gone, Danny and Dash were still standing frozen in the alleyway, their hearts pounding in their chests.
Eventually they chanced looking at each other, and the moment they caught each others’ eyes, they burst out laughing.
“Okay. That’s probably a sign I need to get you home,” Dash chucked, his voice a little bit shaky. His face was flushed, his lips red and shiny from all of their kissing, and Danny couldn’t help but think to himself that Dash looked absolutely beautiful in the starlight like this.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Danny agreed, rather than voice his thoughts out loud.
He started to walk towards the mouth of the alley, but then paused when he saw Dash reach out a hand towards him. Danny stared down at the offered hand for a moment, and then back up at Dash’s face. Slowly, a grin spread across his lips, and he reached out eagerly to take Dash’s hand with his own. The two of them stumbled out of the alley, hand in hand and grinning at each other, and turned to start walking home together.
“So. I was thinking,” Dash said with forced casualness as they made it to the end of the block. “Practice on Friday is canceled because coach has a thing, so I’m free after school for once. Would you maybe…wanna go check out a movie with me?”
“Like…a date?” Danny asked, tentative and hopeful.
Dash nodded. “Yeah. Like…a date.”
The feeling that flooded Danny’s chest was even more wonderful and warm than when the blob ghosts had healed him. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d…I’d like that.”
“Cool. Sounds like a plan,” Dash said.
He and Danny exchanged bashful grins. Dash gave his hand a little squeeze, and Danny gently squeezed back, feeling like he was floating, as he and Dash walked down the road together, headed for home.
Above them, the stars twinkled as a swarm of blob ghosts danced between the clouds, happy and free.