Chapter Text
Danny felt bittersweet about taking his son to the park. On the one hand, it was a fantastic way to burn through the little gremlin’s excess energy, but on the other hand watching Cal run around made him wish he was able to join in more. He’d be tempted to risk a flare up, but he needed to save spoons for the walk to the library soon anyway.
Luckily, Cal wasn’t the only kid who apparently needed to burn off energy in the park today. Danny’s son seemed to be joined by another little boy around the same age as Cal and the pair looked like they were getting along famously as they played their silly little pretend battle game. You wouldn’t be able to guess the two had only met today, in fact looking at them Danny wouldn’t be surprised if anyone assumed the boys were brothers. They looked remarkably similar, sharing the same unkempt black hair and facial features. They’d almost look like twins if the other boy didn’t have green eyes and a deeper skin shade. Danny’s inner nerd amused itself by imagining a time travel shenanigan in a Batman comic that made both Bruce and Damien Wayne five-year-olds. The game seemed to reach its conclusion when the other boy crash tackled Cal to the ground, who dramatically pretended to die.
“Lucas! What are you doing?” Danny jolted in surprise at the sudden, loud voice, pulling his attention away from the boys and towards the sound of the voice. Heading towards Cal and his new friend was the most concerned looking hot guy that Danny had ever seen. The man had striking platinum white hair that was artfully dishevelled, beautiful tan skin that helped accentuate the already impressive tone and muscle of his biceps, and the most gorgeous green eyes he’d ever seen in his life. Guessing from the eye colour, Danny assumed this must be the other boy’s father. He must have only seen the tackle at the end and not had any context for what was happening. As quickly as he could without risking setting his nerves off or misplacing his cane, he shuffled his way closer to the boys and the other dad.
“It’s okay sir, Lucas didn’t hurt me! It’s just part of the game!” Cal defended cheerfully, hopping to his feet quickly as proof. The other boy, Lucas, stood up slower and more cautiously, clearly unsure if his dad was going to buy Cal’s explanation. Perhaps it was time to chime in.
“Yeah, sorry for the heart attack dude! Little Cal here loves playing out dramatic fights to the death. What was it this time? Planet of the apes? Ninjas in space?” Danny added on, crouching down to the boys’ level with a grin. At the question, Cal’s eyes lit up and sparkled with excitement that squeezed at Danny’s heart.
“Mecha Godzilla versus King Kong! Lucas was so good at the game even though it was his first time! Show dad your gorilla noises!” Cal answered enthusiastically, grabbing Lucas by the arm and jostling him as he jumped up and down. Lucas’ cautious expression slowly melted into a shy smile, before he quickly caved in and began sounding out impressively accurate gorilla grunts and calls. The surprise and the whimsy of it all made Danny laugh brightly.
“That’s awesome, little dude! You’ve got a talented kid here!” Danny complimented, pulling himself back up with his cane to return his attention to the other dad. He was expecting to find a relieved expression on the man’s face after finding out his kid didn’t just attack another child for no reason, so Danny was definitely caught off guard to see the guy staring at him with a dazed expression. With him apparently zoned out, it would have been the perfect opportunity to gape at just how handsome this man was. But, with five-year-old witnesses he couldn’t afford to get hypnotised by regal cheekbones and pillowy, very kissable lips.
“Uh, dude? Are you alright?” Danny checked, taking a half step towards him and raising his free hand in a half wave. Either the question or the movement had snapped him out of it, as he suddenly shook the fog away and refocused on Danny. His cheeks blushed heavily, and his eyes quickly bounced away.
“Sorry, you… have a really nice laugh. I guess it caught me off guard. Ah crap, this is embarrassing.” The man mumbled awkwardly, holding both hands over his face to hide it, unwittingly pushing his pecs together. Danny didn’t know how someone could be so hot and awkward at the same time, but he was low-key obsessed. Danny let out a low chuckle and moved in closer to place a comforting hand on the guy’s shoulder. If his whole body shivered at the physical contact with such an attractive person, nobody had to know.
“Don’t be embarrassed dude! It was a nice thing to hear from someone and I’m very flattered!” He reassured, pulling his hand away before he accidentally left it there too long. The hands dropped away from the man’s face as he seemed to calm down.
“My name is Danny, this little guy here is my son Cal.” Danny introduced, hoping to release some of the awkward tension. Cal stepped forward confidently and raised his hand ready for a shake.
“Nice to meet you! Lucas and I are friends now, so you should be friends with my dad! That way we can hang out all the time!” Cal greeted cheerfully. Danny snorted at his forwardness, which was very typical. Cal had always been very direct with what he wanted as soon as he knew what it was. He was very much like his mother in that way.
The other dad seemed thrown by the statement, seemingly stunned for a moment before smiling and returning the handshake.
“I think I’d like that. My name is Tom, and you’ve already met my son Lucas –”
“His friends at work call him Phantom! It’s because he’s really good at saving people super fast!” Lucas interrupted enthusiastically, seemingly super excited for the chance to gush about his dad. Danny giggled at the following groan of embarrassment. He was definitely going to exclusively refer to this guy as Phantom now. Before he could tease him or get any context, Danny’s phone alarm buzzed.
“Ah shoot, we gotta hit the road. We don’t want to be late to the library, kiddo.” Danny told Cal, whose face dropped at the idea of leaving his new friend.
“Can Lucas come with us?” He asked, tugging cutely on Danny’s shirt. He would have said yes in a heartbeat, but it wasn’t really up to him.
“Sorry buddy, I don’t know what Lucas and his dad have on for today, so it’s not really my decision. We’ll have to see what Phantom thinks.” He replied with a wink aimed at the now blushing man.
“What’s going on at the library? Are you just picking up books? We probably have time for that.” Phantom spoke, glancing at his watch cautiously.
“We’re going to Drag Story Hour! It’s where a funny boy dresses up as a girl in a big way and they read you a story! It’s super fun!” Cal explains excitedly to Lucas, who quickly seems very interested in the idea.
“Really?” Lucas asks, looking up at Danny for confirmation.
“Well, it’s not always a boy and they’re not always dressing up as a girl, but essentially yes.” Danny answered, eyeing Phantom to gauge his reaction. He looked deep in thought, which was better than looking disgusted at least.
“Dad, can we go? It sounds like fun!” Lucas asked with an excited wiggle. The cuteness of it made Danny’s heart clench in a way that Cal often caused. Surely Phantom couldn’t say no to that.
“I don’t know, buddy. It sounds like it might take a while, so it might throw off our schedule for the day too much.” Phantom explained reluctantly, the corner of his mouth tugged slightly down into a nervous frown. If Danny’s vibe checking skills were as sharp as he believed, it looked like Phantom wanted to go with them, he just was getting caught up in being rigid and responsible.
“Ah, come on Phantom. You can forget your schedule for one day, right? For us?” Danny asked with a lilted tone, adding a cheeky wink at the end. Phantom’s face immediately went into full blush mode as he began stuttering out an awkward attempt at an answer. Danny was almost mad at how cute this insanely hot dude was. He can fight fire with fire, though.
“Okay, time to bring out the big guns…” With that Danny turned to the boys and crouched down to whisper their mission to them. Understanding the brief, their eyes lit up with mischief.
Cal and Lucas both turned and looked up at Phantom with the two cutest sets of puppy-dog eyes that Danny had ever witnessed in his life, both clasping their hands in front of their chests.
“Pleeeaase?” The pair pleaded in perfect sync. Finally, Phantom relented with a sigh.
“Fine, you win. It’s not fair for the three of you to gang up on me with those eyes.” Phantom groaned, almost drowned out by the cheers of the boys. It was clear he didn’t really mind by the soft smile he tried to hide as he watched Cal begin to drag Lucas towards the library.
Danny and Phantom naturally fall in step next to each other as they trail behind their excited children. As expected, silence was awkward between them now that they didn’t have their sons in the conversation to keep it constantly moving. As the more relaxed person, Danny almost felt like it was up to him to initiate. But it had been a while since Danny had felt this strong an attraction to someone. It made him nervous that he might be out of practice and come across as too desperate.
“So… how did you find out about the drag story hour thing? Do you do drag?” Phantom asked, breaking the awkward silence apprehensively.
“Nah, I follow the local community bulletin board to find new things for Cal to learn about and enjoy. Plus, my wife was always supporting local artists. Thought I should continue for her.” Danny replied with a fond smile. There was a time where talking about Sam would have hurt, but it finally felt like he could be happy thinking about the good memories. Phantom’s eyes seemed to flash with understanding at the end of Danny’s answer.
“That’s good of you.” Phantom complimented sincerely, offering a gentle smile.
“Is there a Mrs. Phantom?” Danny asked with a jokingly flirtatious tone, hoping to lift the sombre vibe.
“There was. We ended up getting divorced not long after Lucas was born. She didn’t want anything to do with us, pretty much cut off all communication.” Danny couldn’t help the snort that came out of him as Phantom explained, which earned him a concerned look.
“Ah, sorry! That definitely sucks and I’m sorry you had to go through with that. I just realised how ironic it is to ghost someone called Phantom.” Danny clarified, severely hoping he hadn’t instantly blown his shot with this man.
As realisation dawned on Phantom’s face, his eyes twinkling was the only warning before Phantom burst out into a magnificent, hearty laughter. Being the cause of that laugh made Danny feel like a god.
“I can’t believe I never thought of it that way before. I don’t think I’ve laughed like that since – ah, well a while ago.” Phantom finally said after his laughter died down. The sudden shift in his sentence was sus, but Danny wasn’t about to push it.
“In all seriousness, I genuinely can’t fathom why anyone would choose to leave you. I mean…just look at you!” Danny flirted, trying to get back on track. Phantom’s face fell for a moment, before shifting to a neutral expression. Danny had fucked up somehow.
“I guess once the ‘lust’ or whatever died down after a while, she realised she wasn’t attracted to who I am on the inside like she was my appearance. She called me boring and self-righteous, and complained I didn’t let enough shit slide.” Phantom recalled wistfully.
“Yikes, she kinda sounds like bad news if she was hung up on you being a good person. Where did you even meet her?” Danny questioned.
“At work. I’m a firefighter, she was trapped inside a burning building and I rescued her.”
“Ah, now what Lucas said makes sense.” Danny interrupted, trying not to say out loud how hot it was that he was a firefighter. Phantom chuckled before continuing.
“She had asked me out, but I wasn’t sure if I liked her that way so I turned her down. It wasn’t until I’d had to rescue her from a few more fires that it felt like fate was pointing me towards her, so I thought saying yes was the right thing to do.” As Phantom explained, Danny realised something.
“Dude, was there a chance that she was setting those fires just to get your paths to cross again?”
Phantom stopped walking at the question, a look of horror washing over his face.
“Ah, shit. I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m making you talk about this; we only just met! Stupid ADHD brain.” Danny apologised, wallowing in his own social faux pas. Phantom shook his head before placing a reassuring hand on Danny’s shoulder. Instant all over body shivers yet again at the contact.
“No, it’s fine. I prefer it when people skip the weird small talk that doesn’t really mean anything and get straight to the real stuff. Besides, this revelation has helped things make way more sense, so thanks Danny.” As Phantom reassured, it looked like tears were starting to well up in his eyes, potentially from relief.
“Dad! Cal says we’re here! Hurry up!” Danny was startled out of staring into Phantom’s shining eyes to turn and see that Cal and Lucas had gotten quite far ahead of them since they stopped, and were waiting for them out the front of the library bouncing on the balls of their feet impatiently.
“Sorry little dude, my leg needed a break! Why don’t you boys go head inside, so you don’t miss the start and we’ll catch up!” Danny called out an excuse, giving Phantom time to reset before joining back up with the boys. This would be a tricky emotion to explain to a five-year-old, so it’d be easier to just dodge that scenario. With that, the boys vanished through the library doors, Lucas being enthusiastically pulled along by Cal.
“Thanks. I should be fine in a second, really.” Danny nodded in acknowledgement, keeping his focus where the boys were standing as to try not to lock eyes with Phantom, lest he get mesmerised again.
“It’s really cute how quickly those two latched onto each other. If anything was fate, it was our boys being friends.” Danny stated, finally looking back at Phantom to be rewarded with a warm, heartfelt smile.
“She was wrong about another thing. If you were really boring, you would never have said yes to coming to drag story hour, especially on a last-minute whim. Maybe you should just keep proving her wrong by pushing more of your comfort zones and showing off how much fun you can be without being a damn arsonist.” Danny rationalised, surprised at how bitter he felt about how a woman he’d never met had treated a man he’d only just met. Phantom let out a short, startled laugh, before seemingly being struck by some sort of thought. He looked at Danny like he’d offered to take him to a donut shop and shout him a dozen of whatever he wanted.
“You think I should push my comfort zone? Be more spontaneous?” Phantom asked, suddenly looking a little nervous as he drifted closer to him.
“Only if you want to –” Danny couldn’t finish his sentence before soft, smooth lips were pressing into his own. Before he had time to process and reciprocate, Phantom quickly pulled back.
“Was that okay?” Phantom whispered, breath becoming heavier as his adrenaline spiked. For a moment Danny was still stunned and could only nod. With the small movement, Phantom’s shoulders sagged with relief and his face lit up with joy.
“I don’t know what came over me! I realised that I wanted to kiss you, and then I just did it!” He babbled excitedly, obviously feeling quite the rush from being spontaneous. The warmth Danny felt from making Phantom happy seemed to thaw out his stunned body, finally letting him fully function again.
“Go out with me.”