Chapter Text
The mundane life of a teenager seemed too glorious and privileged compared to how you were living yours right now. Thanks to Sam helping to regulate a schedule to keep your body healthy and your energy up when your friends were fighting ghosts, you would have been in a much worse condition than you were now. Tucker tried to help, but you trusted Sam a bit more with nutritional value and the importance of healthy habits. Still, the physical activity wasn't so hard once you got used to it, but it was mentally and emotionally exhausting. You didn't know if you needed a recharge or something, but some days, the motivation wasn't there. You weren't moody on an emotional scale, but there would be a tinge of jealousy towards those who would stay out late at night with their friends to have fun. In a screwed up way, you tried to look at the ghost hunting sprees to be a way of hanging out with your friends.
You told yourself that you just need a sick day in to rest and sleep for the rest of day, but it sounded rather depressing than rejuvenating. What you needed was something to lift your spirits, something fun and productive.
Your prayers were answered when you picked up your cell phone while you were in the middle of studying. The caller id showed Danny's number and you were ready to leave your room to help with another ghost fight. "Hey, send me the location and I'll be on my way," you started. You were already standing up while picking up your house keys.
"Oh no, that's not what I was calling for," you heard Danny rushed on the other end. He must have heard you rustling since his pitch was a bit higher to grab your attention.
Even if Danny couldn't see you, you rose a brow in confusion. "You don't need any ghost help?" you queried.
"Nope," Danny chirped, "My parents have the ghost portal out of commission for a bit while they're updating its programming. Something about stabilizing the frequencies while ripping a wormhole between two dimensions. There should be no ghosts slipping through it until the portal is up and running again."
"Oh," you collapsed back into your desk chair. The adrenaline still remained in your body, but you shook off the nerves since Danny seemed completely fine from the sound of his voice. "Do you need help with homework then?" You didn't know whether if you were lucky or not when it came to your studies. On top of the extra circular activities after school (and sometimes during), you barely managed to finish your homework on time every time and still at least get solid B's on your tests. You had previously offered to help Danny and most of the time, he would take the offer. He would occasionally come to you for help as well. You didn't mind. In fact, you loved to help him considering the reason why he's behind so often.
You heard him laugh, "Actually, I might need you to proof read the writing assignment Lancer gave us, but that's not what I'm calling for either."
Danny needs help proof reading? As in, he already finished the assignment and has the chance to perfect his score as close as he can? "Oh, sure," you agreed, "But if it's not ghosts or homework, then what is it?"
"Well, since I seem to have a break from ghost hunting and I'm catching up on my homework," he said, "How would you like if we hung out a bit?"
Your eyes darted over to your clock on the night stand. It was only late morning, meaning after grabbing a bite to eat, you had the rest of the day to spend time with your friends. "Sure," you said, "where would you like to meet up?"
"Come over so you can help me," he said, "then, we'll go from there."
You had agreed, telling him you would be over soon and hung up. You managed to wrap up your homework and got ready to leave. You greeted your family out the door and locked it behind you. The sun seemed to shine extra bright today. You took this as a sign that today, Lady Luck is on your side. You bounded over to Danny's place. You knocked on the door for him to answer it. He greeted you and you returned it along with asking where his parents were.
"They're busy down in the lab," he answered, "They've been at it all night and probably won't be done until later."
You nodded, "Let's see that writing assignment you were talking about. The sooner we finish and leave, the sooner we can grab something to eat."
The assignment took a little longer than expected to finish, but Danny wanted to make sure that there were minimum mistakes were made. As he cleaned up any mess he made on his kitchen table, you glanced at your bag you brought with you. It had the normal necessities like your wallet, keys, phone, etcetera, but what caught your attention was the spare Fenton Thermos that was snug in the bag. Not that you trusted Danny about what he said, it's just better to be prepared in case anything were to happen. He didn't need to know that you had yours on hand, at least not until there was a ghost attack. You hoped your other friends were prepared too. You didn't want them to be empty-handed and defenseless.
"Where are we meeting up with Sam and Tucker?" you had questioned when the thought of your friends came up.
"Sam is at a family reunion her parents forced her to go. She's going to be gone all day pretty much," he added, "Tucker is also with his parents fixing his computer Technus broke a few days ago."
"Is it really salvageable?" you doubted.
He shrugged, "He said they just needed a new hard drive since the old one was fried, but from the looks of it, I highly doubt it."
"So it's going to be just us?" you concluded with a hum.
"Yeah," he hesitated, "is that alright?"
"Oh, yeah," you recovered seeing the worried look he was displaying, "it just sucks because I was hoping all of us could hang out, but sometimes schedules don't align and that's okay."
He looked guilty from your reply but you reassured him that you would equally have fun no matter who came. That perked him up slightly as he finished getting ready and you followed him out the door. It wasn't until a bit later you arrived at a bowling ally. He thought it would be nice to grab a bite to eat from the snack bar and not be too far from an activity. You thought it was a good idea. You grabbed a slice of pizza and a drink while he had some nachos and a drink. The two of you talked about pretty much anything that came to mind. He had talked about his family as you discovered a little more about them. You talked about your family as well, mostly about Emily and her rants about middle school. After a while, you suggested to play a game as you waited for the food to digest in your stomach. He agreed willingly as you considered solving riddles.
You hummed, "What walks on four legs to two legs, then eventually three?"
"Uh," Danny spaced. His blue eyes wondered off as he thought about the answer, "The only thing that comes to mind is a human."
You chirped, "Yep, but do you know why?" He shook his head and you continued, "As a baby, we walk on all fours. We walk on only two legs until we grow old when we would need a cane."
"Oh okay," he leaned with interest, "I got one. What comes up, but never goes down?"
You knew this. It was the easiest riddle out there. "Age," you answered with confidence.
"I had a feeling you knew that one."
It went back and forth like that as time went on. Danny had ran out of riddles from the top of his head so he whipped out his phone and looked up any you might not know. It was like this for a while and the two of you lost track of time up until a specific one he came across. You were a bit parched when it was his turn again so you took a sip out of your drink. He was mindlessly reading and didn't understand its contexts.
"What's white, sticky, and better to spit out than to swallow?"
If you had separated from your drink, you would have spit take onto Danny. He watched with a startled eyes as you choked on your drink and trying to compose yourself. The question seemed to finally click inside his head as he rushed the answer out, flustered. You couldn't hear what he had said as you had a coughing fit.
"What website are you getting these from?" you choked out of. He showed you his phone. Sure enough, the exact question he repeated was still displayed with the answer 'toothpaste' under it. You scrolled up a bit and as you had expected, there was a title underneath the previous question he had asked that was labeled 'Mature.' You gave him back his phone. "I think we should stop there."
With flushed cheeks, he agreed.
Brushing off that little accident, you got up and threw away your trash. You entered the bowling lanes with him and sitting down to put on the proper shoes. Once the two of you were done, you picked your respective weight ball and started a game. It started to get a little more intense but fun as you had gotten a strike in the middle of the game. Danny, who had been getting only spares, saw this and started getting competitive himself. You cheered happily and giggled as you saw the smirk grow on Danny's lips.
"Top that, ghost boy," you mocked playfully as you sat next to him on the waiting chair and arms crossed with confidence.
Danny got up as his stare became more of false glare towards you. Your smirk only grew when you heard him mumbling, "Oh, I definitely will."
"No cheating," you sang.
Knowing what you were implying, he retorted with a laugh, "I don't need to."
Sure enough, he also got a strike. In a faux appalment, you gasped at him and he laughed even harder once he saw your reaction. "Are you holding back on me?!" you gasped jokingly.
"And if I am?"
"Oh," you exclaimed, "It's game on, now."
In the end, you won by only a few points. It was a close call but you managed to win because Danny struck a split towards the end that was impossible to get. You giggled to yourself since he had gotten really cocky and tried to show off by giving a bowling move a name like 'The Fenton Spin' or whatever. Thanks to that, you won the round. Before you knew it, an hour had already passed and the two of you were ready to move on.
You had suggested to go to an arcade, and he led you to the nearest one, or in his opinion, his favorite one. It had two levels with mostly carnival themed games on the top floor and the others with crane games on the bottom floor. The two of you hit the carnival games first for a bit before heading down to the basement. There were a basketball shooting game that Danny won off of, a DDR machine that you absolutely destroyed him in, a fishing game that he got the most points on, and a baseball pitch throw simulator he won on as well. When the two of you got to the basement, you eyes lit up to a specific game. There was a little bounce to your step as you giggled at the air hockey machine in front of you.
"Now, this is what I'm talking about," you boasted, "This is my forte right here."
"Oh, yeah?" Danny challenged and his eyes shined with competitiveness as he watch you start up the machine, "I hope you know, I'm a renown champion at air hockey."
"Well, look out, Fenton," you retorted, "There's a new girl in town and she's about to humble the ghost boy of Amity Park."
Long story short, you had beaten him with flying colors. He had started out with the puck coming out on his side. You countered his quick serve with an even faster hit. He jerked his hand with the tool but it was already too late to block his goal as you had scored. His jaw dropped at the speed you had and gave him a knowing smirk.
"What was that?" he exclaimed before he reached for the puck to set it on the table once more. You knew he was trying to distract you with his question as he seemed more ready to block your straight attack, so this time you hit the puck at an angle against the wall and it bounced into Danny's goal again as he tried to block it once more.
"Did I mention we used to have an air hockey table at my old house?" you smirked as you saw Danny's shocked face became more irritated, "My father and I would always hold tournaments in the family before we had to get rid of it when we moved."
Danny studied the table before he set the puck down and hit it at an angle like you did before. It was quick just like yours, but you knew every angle of the table and how it was going to bounce off. You countered it with a fast side hit so the puck would go side to side. You saw Danny's head move with the motion and you knocked it straight on into his goal once again. Danny growled out in frustration, seeing that your superior moves weren't just all talk. He had seen you let your guard down when you were in a fit of giggles from the last move you made. He took the opportunity to serve the puck right into your goal. It was your turn to gap your mouth open in shock from the sneaky move he made. He crossed his arms in triumph and a smirk played on his lips once more as he bathed in temporary victory.
"I wouldn't get too cocky if I were you," he sang.
You rolled your eyes before placing the puck down on the table. "Says you," you remarked, "I guarantee that won't happen again."
"We'll see about that," Danny challenged, "Bring it."
You stood correct when he was able to score again towards the end when you already reached six points. He had copied one of your previous moves when you would purposely miss the puck so he would move in the same direction as your swing only knocked the other direction and score. He put his own little twist to it when he knocked it to the side and back to him again to bounce it into your goal.
"Hah!" he cheered after finally scoring another point. He thrusted his fists in the air in mild victory. Deciding to shove karma his way a little faster, you placed the puck down quickly and served it straight into the wide open goal, ending the game. "Hey," Danny dismayed, "you cheated."
You shrugged it off with a grin, "You cheated first."
He scowled but the corner of his lips danced upwards. The childish banter came to an end when you stretched from the intensity of the game. Maybe you should have taken it easy on Danny, but when you played air hockey, you go all out or nothing. He didn't look too disappointed, so you didn't dwell on it. After agreeing to try out one of the crane games and winning a panda bear from them, you and Danny decided to head out.
Seeing as the sun was setting, he recommended to end the day with a movie. You agreed as you were wanting to wine down a bit from the competitive excitement you had all day. You told him to pick the movie since you haven't really found any interest in some of the trailers that were displayed to the public. He seemed confident in knowing what you both were going to like so you didn't worry, but you did wonder. You offered to pay for snacks and drinks since he handled the tickets. He was okay with it after some convincing that you wanted some popcorn anyways. You ended up only getting a popcorn large enough for you to share and two drinks since he refused for you to spend more money on him than necessary. Turns out the movie was the perfect combination of genres you and Danny liked. During the beginning of the movie while the setting took place, you grabbed a handful of popcorn from in between you two and ate it little at a time. When you reached for seconds, you came in contact with Danny's rough hands briefly before you pulled away. Your eyes blinked in shock as they darted over to Danny's, mirroring your actions. You felt you cheeks warm up, praying Danny couldn't see your blush in the dark theater. He looked equally flustered, so you apologized quickly.
"Sorry," you whispered.
"It's okay," he whispered back.
As far as anymore awkward interactions, nothing else happened for the rest of the movie. You had made sure to look before you reached for a bite to prevent that moment again and it worked. After the movie finished and the lights grew brighter in the theater, you saw Danny didn't look affected by the small touch, but your mind and heart felt like they were racing. You and Danny stretched from the long period of time sitting down and exited with your trash. You walked with only your bag as you had thrown the trash away already. The night had completely consumed the sky as little stars filled it, indicating for most human beings to rest. Danny offered to walk you home and you agreed, giving you a chance to spend a bit more time together before the day officially ended. As you walked, you eyes were glued to the sky as you and the blue-eyed wonder pointed out some recognizable constellations. You had arrived to your home too soon and got ready to say goodbye to your companion for the day while you stepped into your front lawn.
"Thank you for inviting me out," you started, "I had a lot of fun today."
"Yeah," he agreed, "We should do this more often when, you know, we're not fighting ghosts. It rarely happens though, and it's hard getting time off."
You nodded, "But that's why these times make it all the more memorable and precious. Another time for us will come; we just don't know when." He smiled at your response as you walked up to your front door and turned before you opened it. You waved in farewell as you said, "I'll look forward to it next time, but for now, I'll see you at school, Danny."
He waved goodbye with a grin before you entered your home and closing the door behind you. The house was silent, indicating everyone retired for the night. You felt yourself glide through the house and into your room with this overwhelming giddiness feeling. You wanted to spend time with Danny more, but the mere thought of a day like today would happen again in the future made you even more excited. You yawned as you got ready for bed and snuggled up in your comforter.
You indeed looked forward to another time with Danny.