The first week of December and the town had been snowed in for weeks already. School had been closed three out of five days for two weeks running, and the current day was no different as it found four wrapped and bundled teenagers trudging through knee deep snow as they made their way to the Nasty Burger instead of Casper High. It was the same walk they’d made every day that the school had been granted a snow day and, like the snow day being the same, the screaming that followed handfuls of snow down warm and cozy jackets was all too familiar.
“Tucker, I swear to whatever god you believe in that I’m going to kill you when I get my hands on you!”
Danny and Sam watched from beneath layers of scarves and knit caps as Sara took off after Tucker, her hat falling into the snow, forgotten in the heat of the chase. Scoops of snow were tossed back and forth as well as threats, promises, and things that Danny and Sam both decided were best forgotten. After all, Tucker was the only one who needed to know where Sara was ticklish.
“Do you think that she’ll actually kill him one day?” Danny asked Sam as Sara tackled Tucker into a snow bank, sending piles of the fluffy whiteness down on top of them to shrieks.
Sam shrugged, though it was barely seen underneath the heavy parka she was wearing. “If she kills him, I think it’ll be in bed.”
Danny groaned. “Sam. Please.”
She shot a sneaky grin up at him and he stuck his tongue out at her. “Hey, it’s nothing you didn’t already know. And believe me, I know you know about the birds and the bees.”
Danny flushed crimson this time, carefully keeping himself from looking at Sam, and not even bothering to reply. The summer had led to a couple of incidents, as he termed them when he was actively trying to relegate Sam to her ‘best friend’ status and forget everything about how good she kissed or how soft her skin was. Or the fact that she apparently wore things he’d never dreamt she would.
They’d reached an uneasy and unspoken agreement that it had been the heat, or hormones, or the water, and they’d never actually talked about it. Sam hadn’t encouraged him, Danny hadn’t encouraged her. It was just something better left forgotten. At least that’s what Danny told himself when he was trying to sleep at night and thoughts of how she’d felt underneath him kept popping into his head.
“Earth to Danny.”
He pulled up short and slipped on a patch of ice beneath the snow, nearly going down and at the last moment using his powers to catch himself and lever upright. He flashed Tucker a distracted grin. “Sorry, what’d you need?”
“Um, Danny, you’ve been spacing long enough for us to actually get to the Nasty Burger,” Tucker said as he pointed across the street to the packed hang out. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Sure, fine,” Danny muttered.
Sara quirked an eyebrow as she wrung melted snow from her cap before grabbing hold of Tucker’s arm and pulling him across the street. “I know what’s wrong with you, Danny,” she called back as Danny followed Sam.
“Do share,” he replied with a frown.
“You,” she said with a laugh as they all stopped in front of the doors, knocking snow and ice from their shoes and, in Sam’s case, boots. “Have a serious case of hormones.”
“I do not!”
“Who is she?” Tucker asked as he tugged the door open, letting Sara and Sam walk in ahead of him. He missed the flushed look Sam shot Danny, and Danny shook his head, pulling his cap from his head and smacking Tucker in the shoulder with it.
“Leave it be, Tuck,” Danny said, sounding far more like Danny Phantom than Danny Fenton.
Tucker just followed Danny with a shrug to the booth the girls had grabbed in the back of the Nasty Burger. It was far enough away from the tables that the A-List were currently occupying for all four to be comfortable, but close enough to an overhead vent that they were getting plenty of warm air dropped down directly on top of them.
Sara and Sam were already stripping off their jackets, scarves and mittens when Danny and Tucker got there. Soon enough there was a pile of winter wear on a chair they’d dragged over to hold everything so that no one was sitting with layers of it on their laps. When all was said and done Sara started laughing, pointing at everyone in turn.
“Alright, truth. Who here bought new clothes because they were sick of wearing the same sweaters over and over?” she asked as she tugged at a turquoise sleeve, pulling it down to her wrist and waggling it at the table. “I did.”
Tucker raised his hand. “I admit it.” He pinched the dark red wool at his shoulder self-consciously. “It’s new. I bought it yesterday.”
Sam chuckled. “New. Sort of. Been in the closet since last year.”
Danny narrowed his eyes at the gray sweater she was wearing. “Isn’t that the sweater Jazz gave you? I thought it had flowers or butterflies or something on it.”
Sam smiled smugly. “You’d be surprised what you can do with some boiling water and a packet of dye.” She turned her eyes to his sweater and ran a finger down his arm, yanking it back as she realized she was crossing the unspoken line. “But yours looks new.”
Danny shrugged. “Mom took me out over the weekend. She said I needed more stuff that suited the weather.”
Tucker snorted as he looked at a menu. “That’s probably because you have a dozen of the same shirt. It probably drives her mad.”
“She’s the one with a dozen teal jumpsuits,” Danny said dryly.
Sara shrugged. “Your mom dresses really nice when she’s not doing her ghost stuff. Haven’t you ever paid attention?”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “These aren’t the things a seventeen-year-old male notices.”
“I concede to your point,” Sara said as she yanked the menu out of Tucker’s hands. “Don’t even think about it. We’re here for hot chocolate. You’re having dinner with my family tonight.”
“But Sara,” he started and she clamped a hand over his mouth with a glare.
“Whipped,” Danny sang out.
“And for that, you’re buying,” Sara said as she threw the menu at Danny’s head. She only sighed when he caught it before it had even come close. “You know, it was more fun when you still had to pretend I didn’t know. At least then I got to peg you regularly when you deserved it.”
Sam laughed and whacked Danny upside the head with the menu she had snatched from him. “There,” she said to Sara. “Feel better?”
Sara grinned happily as Danny rubbed his head. “Evil. Women are evil.”
“You better believe it,” Sara and Sam chorused.
“Alright, alright. I’m buying,” Danny said as he scooted out of the booth, leaving Sam to stretch out on the bench they had been sharing.
“So what’s up with you and Danny?” Sara asked innocently. “You guys are acting weird again.”
“Absolutely nothing,” Sam replied easily, despite the fact that she wanted to tear her hair out at the thought of nothing happening. He’d barely touched her since the day before school started, and she had to admit that she’d gone along with acting like nothing had happened.
It was easier that way, she supposed. Easier to just forget it had ever happened and go back to being clueless and in denial. But it wasn’t what she wanted. The only problem was that she couldn’t make Danny act. He practically jumped out of his skin whenever she touched him longer than a few seconds, like the thought of it being more than casual was more than he could stand.
Which was an interesting thought, she admitted. But it wasn’t summer, and it was way too cold for bikinis and ice cubes. She still wasn’t sure what had happened the day they’d set off the extra fireworks, maybe it was just the fact that she’d touched his hand. She scowled. She wasn’t going to make the move this time. It was his turn, damn it.
But oh, she wanted him to hurry up.
“For absolutely nothing, you sure zoned out,” Tucker said when she finally noticed that Tucker was poking her hand. “Come on, Sam. It’s Tucker. You can tell me.”
Sam shook her head. “There really isn’t anything going on.”
“But you wish there was, right?”
With a glare that would do Plasmius proud Sam succinctly flipped Tucker and Sara off. “Mind your own business.”
“Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed,” Danny said as he came up behind Sam with a tray balanced carelessly in his hand. “What’d they do to you?”
He passed the Styrofoam cups down carefully, handing Tucker and Sara cups with ‘extra chocolate’ scrawled on the sides, and one with ‘extra whipped’ on it to Sam. Indeed, Sam’s had a tower of whipped cream jutting up above the rim, and she licked a furrow through it as Danny sat down, watching her and nearly spilling his own simply made hot chocolate all over himself. He yelped as a few drops sloshed over and dotted his hands, but neatly phased his hand intangible so that the hot liquid went through to splash on the table.
“You really are accident prone, aren’t you?” Sam asked fondly as she passed him a few napkins. She blew across her whipped cream and then took a sip, wincing as it burnt her tongue. “Hot,” she said as she waved her hand in front of her open mouth.
Danny smirked. “You have whipped cream on your nose,” he said and rubbed it off with his thumb. It was meant to be a short and simple thing, but he found himself staring at her for far too long after the cream was actually gone.
“Right. Absolutely nothing,” Sara said from across the table, and Danny jerked his hand back, taking a hasty sip of his still very hot hot chocolate and wincing as it seared its way down his throat.
Sam was taking another sip, more carefully this time, when Danny sighed as his scorched throat abruptly cooled. It ended on a distinctly blue mist bursting past his lips, and he groaned. “Ghost,” he muttered and glanced around, wondering if he was going to be wrecking the Nasty Burger (again) or if he was going to freeze his more delicate bits off while refraining from massive property damage.
“Where?” Tucker asked as he tugged his book bag from under the table, rifling through it until he withdrew a Fenton Thermos.
“Outside,” Danny muttered as he slid out of the booth, sitting his hot chocolate down with a pained sigh. “And I was really hoping I could just enjoy it today.”
Tucker passed the thermos to Sara who was sitting on the outside edge of their side of the booth. She looked at him bewildered and he stroked her arm. “It’s alright. Just follow Danny out, toss him the thermos, and you’re done.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, and was rewarded by nods from both Sam and Tucker.
“You’re one of us now, Sara. Welcome to Team Phantom,” Sam said. “But you’d better hurry, unless you want to be throwing that thing a few hundred feet up in the air.”
“Oh,” she said faintly, but grabbed the thermos all the same and took off after Danny, praying that no one noticed what she was carrying or who she was following. She’d never even seen Danny transform, only seen Danny Phantom at a distance, and here she was getting ready to help him capture a ghost. And with his infamous sidekicks’ blessings.
She took one more glance around before she ducked out through the rear exit into the alley behind the Nasty Burger, nearly running into Danny as he absently raked a hand through his hair as he peered up into the sky. She heard him curse quietly and then, without warning, a sudden flash of silver came from his waist and a pair of glowingly white rings moved vertically, leaving Danny Phantom standing in its place.
“Oh my,” she said, and Danny jerked around, automatically jumping up into the air and cocking a fist back, ectoenergy carefully contained around it so that it glowed menacingly. She squeaked and Danny looked at her surprised, dropping his fist and releasing the power as he dropped back down to the ground in front if her.
“Sorry,” he said sheepishly as he shot a glance back up.
“It’s alright,” Sara said hurriedly. She thrust the thermos at him saying, “Here. Tucker sent me with it.” Then she smiled. “That was just brilliant.”
He flashed a grin at her. “Tell them it’s Skulker, and he looks like he has a new set of upgrades, will you?” Before she could even nod he’d shot up into the air and was nothing more than a black on blinding white speck.
Sara watched for a minute, seeing a faint exchange of green and blue lights before heading back in and discreetly slipping back into her seat next to Tucker. He and Sam were watching her both expectantly and she giggled. “That was so cool. Do you get tingles still when you watch him change?”
Tucker nodded, then laughed at Sam’s flushed face. “Oh, and Sam watches Danny change,” he teased. She kicked at him under the table.
“Oh,” Sara said, sitting up very straight suddenly. “Danny said to tell you that it was Skulker, and he had new upgrades. Or that it looked like he did.”
Tucker and Sam exchanged glances and two hands shot out over the table. There were three shakes of their fists and Sam was groaning. “Alright. Paper beats rock, I’ll go patch him up.” She grabbed Tucker’s bag and headed in the direction Sara had just came from as Sara turned to Tucker.
“Patch him up?” She had a flash of memory and frowned. “The scar on his arm, on the Fourth at the park. That was from this Skulker, wasn’t it?”
Tucker nodded. “Sam’ll take care of him. Don’t worry, he’s a survivor.”
If Danny could have heard Tucker call him a survivor, he probably would have indulged in Sara’s earlier threat to kill him. Skulker did indeed have new upgrades, several of which allowed him to evade Danny’s practiced aim by erecting shields designed specifically for use against Danny. Or maybe just halfas, he thought with a frown as he dodged the latest blast from one of Skulker's many weapons.
It wouldn’t surprise him if Plasmius was still supplying Skulker with new gear. It would be just like him to design things that would compromise Danny’s edge on the ghost, and he narrowed his eyes as he leveled both hands in a massive ectoblast at Skulker’s left foot.
It hit, blew it off, and Danny was quickly shooting a second blast at Skulker's now unprotected body as he absently sent a tiny charge at the falling metal, disintegrating it before it could come too close to hitting anything or anyone. Skulker got his shield up barely in time and Danny was suddenly dodging another energy blast.
“Come on!” he shouted. “I’ve got better things to do than this.”
Skulker laughed as he held his arm out and a new toy popped up above his wrist. “But I have plenty of time for you, whelp.”
And Danny was falling back with a yell as he caught a solid hit to his chest. He brought himself level again and shot up at Skulker from underneath, firing mini charges rapidly. Skulker erected his shield and Danny went intangible, plowing through it and into Skulker with an oof, a grunt, and a resounding thud as he hit Skulker’s wrist controls with a glowing green fist.
“Well I don’t have time for you,” Danny muttered as he shouldered his way past Skulker into a higher position and then pulled a quick one-eighty, barreling back and driving the mechanical suit down with a double fisted punch that dazed the tiny ghost inside it. Quickly he reached over his shoulder for the thermos that he’d slung across his back, twisted it around and uncapped it.
The ghost, mechanical suit and all, was sucked into a swirling blue vortex as Danny watched with a sigh and a wince for the singed skin on his chest. He screwed the cap back on and dropped the thermos, letting it dangle at his back again as he dropped back down to the earth, landing with light grace in the alley behind the Nasty Burger.
“You’re hurt,” came a familiar voice behind him and he turned with a smile as he brushed the charred spot on his hazmat.
“Not really,” he said. “Nothing that requires the kit.”
“Danny,” Sam said warningly as he held the bag out to him. “I can see scorched skin. And it’s not pretty.”
Alarmed he looked down, then shot her a glare as he realized she was making fun of him. “Just a little crisp,” he said. He smiled as he looked at her again, and she quirked an eyebrow. At the corner of her mouth she had a bit of chocolate stained whipped cream.
He laughed a little, and she frowned. “You have a little…” he started as he reached out a gloved hand to wipe it off, but the second he touched her cheek her eyes dilated and she flushed. Green eyes darkened as he watched her, white gloved thumb caressing her cheek as she watched him with smoky amethyst eyes, and he muttered, “The hell with it.”
It was the only warning Sam had before she was dragged against his body, his mouth covering hers as he kissed her like it was the last time he would ever do so.
It was different, so very different, kissing him as Danny Phantom and not as Danny Fenton. For all that Sam knew he was Danny, still her Danny, there were things that weren’t the same. The cold that radiated off of him, the confidence that he seemed to glow with as Phantom. The confidence that she wished Fenton could have, knew he did, and wondered how long it would take him to realize it.
His hair felt the same, for all that it was as white as the snow that littered the alleyway, and his eyes… The color, yes, it was different. But when they kissed it didn’t matter. Eye color, hair color, not any of it mattered as kissed. An unconscious decision, and Sam was struck suddenly by how much trust he put in her.
The powers that be only knew what would happen if someone found Sam Manson playing tonsil hockey with Danny Phantom behind the Nasty Burger.
And then all rational thought was forgotten completely as she felt cold gloved fingers sliding up her sides underneath the sweater, and the rough brick of the wall against her back as he pressed her into it trying to get as close to her as was physically possible without being inside her. The thought that would normally have made her blush, sent her shooting glares at anyone who had dared even suggest the subject with her and Danny, only made her moan as his tongue slipped past her lips, caressed hers with an icy breath.
“Danny,” she whispered as the sweater pushed up a little higher, skin pebbling with goose bumps as cold air hit it. And she groaned as he stopped completely, pulling his mouth away from hers and staring into her eyes with blazing green.
Even as she realized that they were pressed up against a cold wall surrounded by snow, her sweater pushed up dangerously high, and looking as if they both had just tumbled fresh from bed, Sam regretted him stopping. “What are we doing?” she asked him quietly, wondering what he would say.
Wondering what she wanted him to say.
He lowered his mouth to hers again in a lingering kiss before pressing his forehead to hers, closing his eyes and breathing raggedly against her chilled skin. “I don’t know,” he whispered. His eyes opened and green met lilac, and he said, “But I don’t want to stop.”
She let out a breath that she didn’t know she’d been holding and slid a hand behind his neck, pulling him closer. “I don’t want to stop either.”
Without warning she felt his hands slide down her sides, the sweater dropping back down and Sam closed her eyes, ready to let him walk away. It was at the precise moment she made the decision not to push him that she felt his hands at her waist, then sliding around and under to lift her up higher against the wall as his mouth crushed in to hers fiercely.
If she’d been able to feel more than his hands on her, his mouth against hers, she might have complained about the brick raking across her back roughly. But Sam was a very practical girl and willingly took the pain with the pleasure as she wrapped slim legs around Danny’s waist, eyes flying open as she felt a very firm length against her as she did.
“Do you want to stop?” he whispered hesitantly as he saw the surprise in her eyes, but Sam shook her head and he flashed her a rakish smile as he kissed her again, lazily sliding his tongue against hers. “You taste like chocolate,” he murmured kissing her again. “And whipped cream.”
“You taste like snow,” she said quietly as she savored the clean cold taste of his ghost form. “It’s because you’re Phantom right now.”
“Do you mind?” he asked as he slid cold lips to her throat, nuzzling under her jaw with searching lips as he pressed lips to skin, nibbling carefully with teeth.
“Like it,” she sighed as she relaxed back against him, hands sliding up to sturdy shoulders. “Kiss me again.”
He did, a delicate duel of lips, tongue and teeth that quickly became more needy, more desperate than any they’d shared before. Danny’s fingers squeezed into the skin at her waist as he held her, pushing her into the wall again with a faint groan as she wiggled against him, jeans brushing against him firmly as she settled him more snugly between her legs. He bit her lower lip gently, hotly, soothing it with his tongue before pushing it back against hers, thrusting against her as her slim fingers clenched in his hair and pulled at it.
He ripped his mouth away from hers, licking a hot line down her throat, kissing and sucking at it as she moaned his name, and her hands tensed against his head as her entire body jerked. For a moment Danny thought he might have done something very good, then that he must have done something very bad. Then lust hazed eyes took in the shocked expression she was shooting, not at him, but to a spot several feet behind him, and he turned slowly to see…
Sara.
She was flushed pink, her hands to her chest like she’d had her heart startled out of her, and her mouth was hanging open in a stunned fashion. “Oh, bloody hell,” she said and spun around, heading back for the door to the Nasty Burger and letting it slam behind her as she disappeared.
Green eyes slid to lilac, and matching groans of annoyance and frustration ensued. “Her timing,” Sam muttered as Danny carefully let her slide back down to her own feet, “is impeccable.” He raised an eyebrow as he backed away slowly, and she tugged him back by the front of his hazmat. “I meant that in a bad way,” she muttered.
He flashed her a faint smile, lowered his face to hers. “Well, that’s something, at least,” he murmured as he kissed her again.
“Um, Tucker?” Sara said quietly as she slid into the seat next to him. “Can you tell me again what Mr. Lancer’s terms were?”
He wrinkled his forehead as he thought. “He was betting on them being caught out before Christmas. Why?”
“What are the terms of ‘being caught out’ exactly? A bunch of people? One? Do they have to start dating?”
“Why all the questions?” he asked as he slid an arm around her and pulled her closer.
She stared up at him, gray-green eyes entreating. “Just tell me?”
“Any and all? He just bet that someone world see them doing something.” He thought about it for a moment, ironing out the terms in his own mind. “So I guess it can be one person, and dating doesn’t have to follow.”
“I think,” Sara started slowly as she rested her elbows on the table, cradling her chin in her hands. “That maybe you need to close the pool, Tucker. And give Mr. Lancer his winnings.”
There was a long silence and after a moment Sara glanced to her left to see if Tucker was still breathing. His mouth was open and he looked like his PDA had been dropped into a massive body of water. She put a hand under his chin, pushed up and closed his mouth with a hard click of tooth against tooth. Moved her hand and laughed as Tucker’s mouth fell back open.
“It was Danny Phantom, behind the Nasty Burger with—” and she broke off red-faced as she saw Sam coming in through the rear entry.
“Sara, no more Clue references, alright? What happened?” Tucker pressed, and she shook her head as Sam slid into the seat opposite them. Tucker glanced back at the door, which remained closed, and then back at Sam, who was a little more pale than usual, and definitely didn’t look like all she had done was patch up their favorite superhero. “Where’s Danny?”
She bit her lip and Tucker fought to stay sane as he saw a hint of imprints almost where she was biting, only in the opposite direction. And the faintest red marks along her necks, like… He stopped that train of thought abruptly.
“He went ahead home. He needed a shower,” she said and Tucker’s eyes went wider.
“Did you take care of him?” he asked and yelped away from Sara as her elbow drove into his side with considerable force. “He said something about upgrades,” he continued on, rubbing his side as he glared at Sara.
She smiled sweetly at him.
“Yeah, he’s great,” Sam said, her eyes drifting, and Tucker looked back to Sara again.
With a groan Tucker buried his head against his girlfriend’s shoulder. “Alright. Alright, I got it.” He straightened up, gave Sam an apologetic smile as he pushed Sara out of the booth before him. “We’ll catch you later. I need to go see MR. Lancer about something.”
“Hmm?” Sam asked as she looked up at him. “Oh, alright.”
“You should take Danny his things,” Sara said as she gestured to the hat, gloves and jacket left on the chair with Sam’s after she and Tucker put theirs back on. Sam nodded and Sara waved a cheerful goodbye as she linked arms with Tucker and headed back out into the snow.
“So how much did he win?” she asked as Tucker turned the opposite way from his house.
He groaned. “It was almost five grand.” He sighed. “I don’t know whether to be happy for them, or to kill them.”
“It’s only money, Tucker.”
“Yeah, but it should be my money.”