"What are we going to write about? Have you chosen anything yet?"
Danny quickly found Elsa the next morning, heading straight for her locker like he had been visiting her like that for years instead of just starting. Elsa looked at him, "Your parents are pioneer in the discovery of ghosts. Well, as much as one can pioneer proving the existence of something. Have you ever thought of expanding on that?"
Danny leaned against the door, the bruises under his eyes prominent. He tried icing them and he tried all the stupid beautician techniques to make them disappear but nothing works. He hummed, "What more can be added? I don't want to give them...more to work on. Just playing peacekeeper is hard enough with the wrong things they theorized,"
Elsa shook her head, "I mean mythologies, from around the world,"
Danny frowned, "We are going into myths now?"
Elsa nodded, taking out her phone to show him, "Where I am from, there is this old legend about a river of memories. If ghosts are products of memories, then..."
Danny stared at it, "...the river would be where they were born..." He shook his head, "Well...we could just write it up as theories. Make it as vague as possible because I think that the government might try doing something stupid like nuke the place or some such nonsense,"
Elsa took her phone away, face pale and fingers trembling, "Alright! Not the river of memories, then. That would be disastrous. We do not need war over everything else," She deleted the page on vague legends.
Danny looked at her, "Well...what else? A different kind of legend?"
Elsa sighed, "I had thought that writing about an old legend from my home would make for an interesting topic. I did not thought of the danger such a topic could bring should it come to the attention of other people with less good intention...or too much good intention,"
Danny hummed before grinning, "What about writing up an essay on the possibility of sparkly vampires?"
Elsa looked at him, "...are you serious?"
He shrugged, "I mean, it doesn't have to be anything serious. I know Paulina was already putting Mikey to work on fashion week of all things. Dash was strong arming his partner to work on...well..." He grimaced.
Elsa covered her mouth with her hand but he can still see the amusement causing her blue eyes to glimmer, "He wanted to write a research on Phantom?"
Danny gave a pained groan of despair before nodding.
She patted his shoulder, "Oh, the misery of a secret celebrity,"
Danny pouted before sighing, "Anyway, sparkly vampires?"
She nodded, "It is a silly enough topic it should be safe. Agreed,"
He gawked at her, "You would do that? Seriously?"
She quirked a brow at him, "Do you have another topic that is both silly and fictitious enough that foolish trigger happy government would not pick up on?"
Danny laughed, "Yeah, alright! Let's do that! Our topic will be Twilight and the possibility of sparkly vampires!"
They walked into the classroom and Danny waved at her before walking to back to sit at his own table. Tucker asked him, "So...what did you talk to her about?"
Danny smiled, "Sparkly vampires,"
Tucker blinked, "What?"
Sam rolled her eyes, "So she's into Twilight too? Go figure,"
Danny frowned, "No...I was the one who suggested the sparkly vampires," At their confused looks, he explained, "It's stupid and totally fictitious nobody will take it seriously,"
Sam asked, "And why do you need to make it stupid and fictitious?"
Danny shrugged, "Trigger happy government? Trigger happy mad scientist parents? What did you guys planned to write?" He changed the topic.
Sam hummed, "Something much more worthy of my time, nature preservation and the importance of rain forest to our planet's ecology,"
Tucker grinned, "Evolution of technologies for the next decade or so and where we will be,"
Mr Lancer made his presence know, "Alright, people. You have until end of semester, and thus your final, to complete your project," He glared at Danny, "Make sure you hand it in or I will hold you back from graduating until I'm too old to teach,"
Danny slumped with his hand over his head, mumbling, "Sheesh, he's already ancient. How old is too old, anyway? Seriously,"
Once classes end, Danny was quick to join Elsa after a quick "bye" to his friends. Elsa took him to her usual picnic table and opened Twilight. He sat beside her and leaned over, "So...what have we learned about the Cullens and their family of vampires?"
Elsa took out her lunch bag, "I asked my chef to make an extra today. Here,"
Danny blinked at the offered lunchbox, "Oh...uh, thanks..." He then grinned at her, "You are always feeding somehow,"
Elsa looked at him, "Was that...disconcerting for you?"
Danny shook his head, "No! I'm good! Better than anything the school provide!" He then added, "Tucker sometimes shared his meat but most of the time I will be lucky with my fingers intact if I tried to steal some. Sam...well, there is no other way describe it beside Minecraft grass and dirt?"
Elsa said nothing about it, true to her words about humans eating stranger things than him chowing down on sentient ecto blobs. Instead, she opened her lunchbox and talked, "The story started with this very clumsy girl named Bella Swan who seemed to not be safe even why lying down on her bed..." She started explaining the context of Twilight, making sure that Danny was listening and understood what the story was about as she slowly goes through what she had read so far.
He blinked, "Wait. A guy that can read minds even when he doesn't want to can't read hers? There has got to be something going on there,"
Elsa nodded, "I suspect as well. But I must read the other books to learn of this,"
Danny chewed on his mashed potato, "Can't you just...skip ahead?"
Elsa sniffed, "That would ruin the reading experience,"
Danny looked at the thick book, "Do I have to read too?"
Elsa looked at him, "It would be nice, since I would not need to explain the context to you and you can make your own notes regarding the plot. However, you don't have to if you don't want. You can simply do summarizing from my notes,"
Danny shook his head, "No way! I'm doing my part! Guess I'll have to go buy those books too," He coughed out ice and sighed, "Sorry, Elsa. Duty calls," He stood up and popped the last meatball into his mouth, "Thanks for lunch, by the way. Saved me a lot of time. Bye and stay safe!"
He quickly ran off.
Phantom flew up towards the direction his senses told him about and found Ember and Kitty harassing the nearby fashion boutique. He rolled his eyes and shoots ecto-shots, "Alright, ladies! Break it up! What's going on here?!"
Ember glared at him, "Not everyone got a free fashion advice like you, Dipstick!"
Kitty added, "Yeah! What's with that?!"
Danny gawked, "Are you seriously doing this because of what I am wearing?! Come on!" He avoided a kiss from Kitty, "Kitty! What did I say about kissing other guys that are not your boyfriend? Also, I am not interested, alright?!"
Ember smirked, "Oh? Are you coming out of the closet?"
Danny pulled a face, "What?" He dodged a musical note attack before asking, "Alright, who started that rumor?"
Ember sent another musical attack before adding, "What can I say? You have got steel buns and those tailcoats are just yummy. If you are not letting the ladies have it, are you baiting the boys?"
Danny smacked both hands on his butt, horrified, "Nope! Not going there!"
Kitty laughed, attempting to scratch him but was dodged instead, "Take it off, Phantom! I miss my buns!"
Danny squawked, "Why are you girls after my ass for?! You girls got your own guys! Also, it's my ass, not yours, so lay off!!"
Ember and Kitty stopped to share a look before grumbling. Ember rolled her eyes and sighed, "Have you seen Skulker? That's not the steel buns I'm looking for,"
Kitty nodded with a pout, "Yeah...and as much as I love my Johnny, he has a flat ass,"
They then looked at him hungrily, "Take it off! Take it off!"
Danny flew out of the boutique in disgust and almost slammed into Johnny who glared at him along with his Shadow, "Danny...you jerk! Stop seducing my girl!"
Danny flew out of his bike's lane and put up a shield before Shadow could land an attack. He shouted, "Look! I don't know what's going on with Kitty and Ember, alright?! Why don't you calm her down or something?!" He dodged missiles and looked to see Skulker cocking his guns, "Oh great..."
Skulker sneered, "I have decided...I'll give Ember your ass to use as her chair cover,"
Danny shuddered, "Okay...this is seriously going into uncanny valley and my life is already uncanny, so that is saying something," He looked to see Ember and Kitty on the other side, Johnny revving his bike on one side, and Skulker aiming his weapon at him in the last corner. He sighed before growling, "Alright. First you accused me of being gay when I am not. I like girls. I love girls. I want one of my own one day, yeah?" He clenched his fists, lighting them up blue and ice started to frost over his gauntlets, "You want a fist sandwich from space? I've got you covered..."
He split himself into 4 and roared a battle cry, "I AM NOT GAY AND KEEP OFF MY ASS!!"
When Danny finally returned to class, he's a little worse for wear with bruises on his jaw. Mr Lancer shook his head in disappointment, "Detention. You missed two classes, Mr Fenton,"
He slumped over his desk and grumbled something in Ghost Speak before focusing on the class. He looked at his phone when he felt it vibrate and read the message;
[TooSexy4MyShirt: What was that about Phantom roaring he's not gay and to stay off his ass?]
Danny looked at Tucker who had gone blue in the face from holding back his laughter with dead eyes. Well, deader. He rolled his eyes when he saw another message joining their group chat;
[MotherNatureRulez: Are you really not gay? I'll be very understanding if you had discovered something about yourself that you feel are too awkward to share]
Danny gave a miserable groan and thumped his head on the desk before replying;
[DeadOnCommand: I'm not gay. Someone started a stupid rumor that had been going around and I'm afraid that Dash is the one with the awakening]
He shuddered at the possibility.
He did not like the idea of his life long bully coming out just to confess to his dead side. He had seen the very disturbing shrine he had made for Phantom. He had also been more open about his feelings and admiration of Phantom. Taking a peek, Dash looked stumped and in shock. He looked completely heart broken. If it had been any other guys, Danny might have felt a smidge of sorry for them. But this was Dash Baxter, the guy that had given him suicidal thoughts before he was half dead.
Danny gagged.
His phone vibrated again and he looked down to see a new name on a new chat;
[Unknown: Would you like tea this evening?]
Danny knew only one person that would offer tea to him. He hid his smile and replied;
[DeadOnCommand: Sure]
He opened his contact and changed her name from [Unknown] to [SnowCheek]. After a moment, another message entered his phone;
[SnowCheek: Why is my name SnowCheek?]
[DeadOnCommand: Because it always look like you just came in from the snow]
Elsa always looked like she just came in from a blizzard. The only thing missing was frosted over hair, brows, and lashes. In the privacy of his mind, he found her perpetual frost kissed nose and cheeks to be cute. His phone vibrated near the end of the class;
[SnowCheek: Fair enough]
He grinned but that grin disappeared when he recalled his detention. He groaned and dragged his feet to the detention room.
That evening, after chowing down on some blob ghosts and coaxing ghost animals into the dispenser so he could release them into the Ghost Zone so that hunters and the GIW will not be able to make an experiment out of them, he flew back out after finishing his work. He had a tea appointment to attend.
He reached Elsa's home and looked around the perimeter. He was spotted by a few guards but all of them just whispered into their earpiece and did nothing. After a moment, he found Elsa waving him down at the gazebo. He paused before he reached her, blinking at the sight of her hair out of her prim bun and free down her back. For some reason, seeing them like that make him gulp.
Elsa called out, "Danny?"
Danny chuckled nervously, "Hey...uh...you have really pretty hair,"
Shut up, Danny. What are you talking about, you idiot?
Elsa seemed surprised by the sudden compliment, her cheeks redder than usual, but instead of saying anything about his awkward compliment, she nodded, "Thank you. I decided to have it washed and trimmed today," She gestured at the table, "Please, have a seat,"
Danny sat down and sniffed in the scent of Earl Grey. He noticed the cakes and the cream on top. There was also an ice box with a tub of ice cream. He looked at her, "Okay...this is a lot. What's the occasion?"
Elsa pushed the still warm chocolate cake at him, "This is a lava cake. Would you like ice cream on it?"
Danny gulped back the flood in his mouth, "Yes, please,"
She took out the tub of vanilla ice cream and scooped out a generous amount to plop it on his lava cake. Danny had heard about it. He heard that they were simply divine but he never had the time to find and eat some. Tucker didn't care for anything not meat and Sam think that sweets were happy people food. So as the eternally depressed to be alive Goth, she abstained from anything sweet.
Elsa gestured, "Dig in,"
Danny took the first bite and almost melted, "Oh...wow...the hot chocolate sauce meet cold ice cream...that is just...wow..." He was quick to decimate his cake after that initial praise. After that, he sipped some warm tea and the way it heat up the inside of his cold mouth was simply perfect. Something mild and bitter after such heavenly sweetness was just divine.
He was content.
Elsa finally asked him, "About the thing you screamed out this noon...were the ghosts harassing you?"
At first he thought that she would ask if he will confirm his sexual orientation to her, like so many others that heard about the shout. He blinked, "Oh...uh..." He blushed, shifting on the chair, "Something like that. They were being a nuisance as usual, you know? I mean, back when I was scrawny, I looked kinda girly and the jocks kept questioning my gender and stuff. It was..."
Horrible. It confused him. It made him question things about himself that only made him depressed. It made him unsure about the way he was born as. It made him feel wrong and suicidal.
Elsa hummed, "Do you have anyone you can speak to about this harassment?"
Danny snorted, "With who? No one in the Ghost Zone really care. Some ghosts can change gender with the moon. And now that I am obviously a guy, they started harassing about...which sides I'm on,"
Elsa nodded, "I see. Were you unsure about what you like?"
Danny shook his head, "No. I'm a guy. Was born a guy. I like being a guy. And I know I like girls," He blushed as he looked away from Elsa lest he looked at her, "I had dated a few. They just don't last because...well, I have two sides to me, right? One girl hated my ghost side so much that she's hunting me even to this day. One girl...just liked my dead side more than my living side. The girl I once had a crush on would commit necrophilia and if she ever found about my living side, Ancients know what she's going to do to tie me to her. I once overheard her talking about some sort voodoo ritual that will make me her ghost husband or something," He shuddered.
Elsa hummed, sipped her tea, and nodded, "Very good. It is good that you know yourself. I noticed that some people tended to bullies other into a corner until they become the very image that their bullies painted them as,"
Danny looked at her, "You are worried that...I'll be bullied into thinking that I am something other than me?"
Elsa looked at him, "One way of owning someone was to gaslight them into thinking that they are not worth anything outside what people painted them as. If you do not have a firm understanding of yourself, such a trap is easy to fall in. Once you are outside their sphere of influence, you will find things about yourself that they said were untrue to be your real self. That is why, I truly believe, that to be satisfied of who you are, you must first accept yourself. All of it. Both what makes you stand out and what makes you flawed,"
He looked at her, "Was there...someone who tried to manipulate you into...something you're not?"
Elsa looked at her hands, taking off the gloves and revealing smooth white hands like ivories, "Myself," She explained, "I once feared what I can do so much that I tried to be anything other than myself. That sense of disappointment, self hate, and inadequacy was so much that I tricked my own mind into thinking that I am not Elsa. That I am someone else. To hide from the truth,"
She sighed, "It did not last. It was simply impossible to hold true because it is a lie that I told myself to cope," She closed her eyes and looked at him, "That is why I know...that for the sake of keeping yourself safe, you would sometimes make decisions that will hurt you in the longer run. It is not a healthy way to cope with anything, let alone depression and the likes,"
Danny studied her for a moment before nodding, "Alright. I...I get you. There are things about being Phantom that...I tried not to think about too much. I guess, that past you must have taken things too far,"
She nodded.
He smiled, "Thanks for worrying about me, Elsa. I'll be fine. I know who and what I am. No one can bully me into becoming something I'm not anymore, alright?"
Elsa looked at him before nodding, "So...when are you buying your Twilight book?"