Sorry that I've been taking so long to update anything! I've been busy with preparing for the baby! *flails around* Plus, I am HORRIBLE about procrastination, so thankfully I found a nifty site called HabitRPG that is just cute enough for me to actually use it to get things done. XD ~ Zone

IX

The movie was almost sold out when they arrived, with only two tickets. That suited Valerie and Phantom just fine, since Danny couldn't be seen or heard by anyone but them and so it didn't matter if he had a ticket or not. In fact, it was silly to get him a ticket, under the circumstances. They had thought that he was only supposed to hide from everyone, but when they encountered Dash at the movies he had looked right through Danny like he wasn't even there. Clockwork had made it so no one could see him, even if he wanted to be seen.

"I thought your friend only came by around Christmas?" Dash asked, surprised to see "Dan" with Valerie. "He decided to come sooner this year?"

"He was in the area. It's only for the week, though." Valerie sighed. "Which is more time than usual, actually." She looked at Phantom.

"Makes up for the usual three days." Phantom smirked, then glanced to the side as Danny moved forward, tentatively touching Dash's shoulder. The man shivered and brushed at his shoulder, but otherwise didn't react.

"We should head inside. We'll be late for our movie." Phantom added, gesturing inside. Valerie and Danny nodded and followed him.

"See you later, Dash." Valerie waved.

"Yeah." Dash nodded, waving as he went to his own movie.

They went into the theater and got food and drinks before heading for their movie. The room was packed, with not even one extra seat empty. Phantom took a seat next to Valerie and put his drink in the holder, tugging Danny down into his lap.

"Hey…" Danny protested as he was pulled down.

"What, can't see?" Phantom asked quietly, his lips practically against the younger male's ear.

"No, I just…it was sudden." Danny mumbled.

"Shh. Movie's starting." Valerie said, holding up a finger for them to be quiet.

Phantom smirked and wrapped an arm around Danny's waist. In the darkness, no one noticed the popcorn disappearing into thin air or the floating cup. Still, after a bit Phantom decided to take it upon himself to hold the drink up to him and offer the popcorn to Danny's lips. At one point Valerie was too distracted by the show to notice what they were doing and Phantom slipped in a piece of popcorn with a kiss.

The movie wasn't too interesting, but Danny liked it enough. Valerie and Phantom grew bored of it by the middle, but stayed for the rest because Danny was still into it. When it was over, Phantom nudged Danny off him so he could get up and grab the trash with the rest of the moving throng.

"Well, that was an hour I'll never get back." Valerie remarked quietly as they left the cinema. "What do you want to do next?"

"Uhm…I don't really know, it'd be too noticeable for me to go the arcade…" Danny admitted.

"Well, are you content with just watch one of us play?" Valerie asked. "How did you usually spend your free time? Before the powers, I mean."

"Uhm…" Danny glanced away. "Mostly hanging out in my room after school, putting together models and getting what homework I could figure out done. Then I would go down to a meal with my family, hear them arguing about ghosts being real or not real, dodge a chicken brought to life by ectoplasm and hide in my room again while dad called take-out."

"How did you ever stand your life before I came along?" Phantom asked, chuckling.

Danny just pursed his lips and looked at Valerie. "So…what do you like doing lately?"

"I don't have much time for hobbies, thanks to him." She jabbed a thumb at Phantom.

"Not my fault you decided to single-handedly be the fighting force against me." Phantom hummed. "Even before we split, you were devoting your life to fighting me."

"You ruined my life." Valerie growled at him.

"Aaaaand we're back on that." Phantom rolled his eyes. "I told you it was an accident years ago!"

Danny looked a bit nervous. "Guys, let's stop fighting…we have six more days together, remember? Let's not fill it with fighting."

Phantom rolled his eyes. "Fine."

"What do YOU do when you're not terrorizing the city?" Valerie asked him.

"Licking my wounds from battles with you and lazing about under the stars just beyond your radar's reach." Phantom shrugged. "You know, boring stuff. The highlight of my day is seeing the barrel of your gun and hearing you proclaim you're going to kill me, my dear."

"Wow…we all need to get a life." Danny remarked. "You guys need to find something to do in your day that doesn't involve fighting each other."

"Well, Dash and Star often drag me off to do something if he's not keeping me busy, and I check on Kwan a lot." Valerie shrugged.

"What happened to Kwan?" Danny frowned.

"This guy overshadowed him and made him hurt a lot of people. He's going through therapy for it, but he had been overshadowing him for weeks before we finally figured out what was up. It turns out that he doesn't show up on my scanner when overshadowing someone." She shot Phantom a glare. "Anyways, Kwan isn't in too good a shape. He's recovering, though."

"…I want to see him." Danny said softly.

Valerie looked at him. "…You sure?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah."

Valerie sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "Well, if everyone agrees…?"

"I'll wait outside." Phantom pursed his lips. "I'm not going in that place, no way."

Valerie sighed. "We'll see you after we get out, then."

Phantom nodded. Danny tilted his head curiously at them, wondering what they were talking about.

.

"This is the place." Valerie said as she pulled up in front of a building. The sign said "Strigoi's Rehabilitation Centre", and the place looked overgrown with some kind of plant that Danny couldn't name at the moment. It was times like these that he missed Sam…

"Kwan is in here?" Danny asked, looking past the ghost shield that was protecting the building. He looked over his shoulder and saw Phantom leaning against a telephone pole, motioning for them to go in.

"Yeah." Valerie nodded, leading him inside. They passed through the barrier harmlessly and entered the building. A woman that looked far too cheery was seated behind a desk, typing away at a computer.

"Oh, Miss Gray!" She greeted with a Barbie-like smile. "You're here to see Mr. Yoshida again, I presume?"

Valerie nodded. "I know the way; you don't have to tell me."

"Of course. He'll be happy to see you, I'm sure." The woman said, nodding. Valerie turned and walked down the hallway, Danny flying alongside her as they passed room after room of moaning people.

"It sounds like the Ghost Zone in here…" Danny mumbled.

"Everyone in here is in rehab for a ghost encounter that left them…" Valerie pursed her lips. "Impaired."

"That explains the moaning." Danny nodded.

"This is the room." Valerie stopped in front of a room and opened it, looking in. "Kwan? You awake?"

Kwan was sitting in front of his window, facing away from them in a chair. When Valerie spoke up, he looked over his shoulder at her. "Valerie." He greeted. He sounded exhausted, his voice strained. "You're not alone this time."

"Huh?" Valerie blinked, looking to her left – where Danny was. "What do you mean, Kwan?"

Kwan turned his chair to them, smiling a bit. "Wow, it's been…eight years, hasn't it?"

"You can see me?" Danny breathed. Okay, so apparently Clockwork hadn't hidden him from everyone…

Kwan nodded. "I have…ghost-sight." He looked away. "A side-effect of being possessed by Phantom for months. I feel like I can function normally…but the doctors say otherwise. Part of me is wondering if they're just studying me."

Valerie closed the door and walked over to the bed to sit down. After a moment of hesitance, Danny followed and sat next to her.

"So…what actually happened, Fenton?" Kwan asked. "Masters…didn't tell us the details."

Danny sighed. "Long story. Really long, really complicated. Phantom killed me, after I had him…removed."

Kwan raised an eyebrow at him.

"Phantom and Danny were once the same person." Valerie explained. "I know, it weirded me out to find it out, too."

Kwan nodded, looking at Danny. "Don't suppose you'll explain how that happened?"

"A ghost portal opened up in my parents' lab, and I was in it when it opened." Danny shrugged. "But, that's old news. What happened to you, Kwan? What did Phantom do to you?"

"Well, after finding out that overshadowing someone can shield him from the scanners, he picked one of the scientists at Axiom Labs to overshadow and that guy just so happened to be me." Kwan sighed, rubbing his head. "You had that guy in your head for way longer than I did, how did you not go insane?"

"Well, he wasn't such a nutcase before I died…" Danny admitted.

Kwan nodded, thinking of how Danny Phantom used to be. "Well, he used my body to sabotage and steal things and even attacked people that tried to stop him."

"How did you get him out?" Danny asked.

"Valerie realized that the way I was acting wasn't like myself, and went in on her own, challenging him to a battle." Kwan sighed. "Since he never passes up a chance to battle Valerie, he left me and I was lying there dazed and out of it. I finally came to my senses a week later, and Valerie told me what happened and what he'd made me do, since I didn't remember it."

"Ah, yeah…side-effect of overshadowing…" Danny said, glancing away as he recalled overshadowing people to get out of trouble.

Kwan nodded. "Well, another side-effect is that he left me with the ability to see ghosts, even when they're invisible. And so people think I'm crazy, and haven't let me out of here yet."

Danny frowned. "That's not fair to you!"

"Yeah, well, talking to you right now likely isn't helping my case any." Kwan pointed out. "Maybe I'll be let out next year. Or someone could pull strings and get me out." He looked at Valerie.

Valerie sighed. "I'll contact Mr. Masters about it again."

Danny stood up. "I really hope you get out of here, Kwan. You look like you're miserable here."

"Hey, at least I'm alive." Kwan offered. "And death hasn't done any bad for you, it looks like."

"I'm stuck at 14. That's pretty bad." Danny said flatly, then laughed. "Nah, it's not so bad. Not unless I'm being teased, that is."

Kwan chuckled. "Well, I'm sure you have other things to do than talk to me. Was nice to see you after eight years, Danny."

"You too." Danny nodded. "Work has…kept me really busy."

"Work?" Kwan raised an eyebrow. "You work?"

"Yeah, I'm a Grim Reaper. Don't tell anyone, though." He was honestly wondering why Clockwork wasn't intervening in this conversation.

"And get another five years in this place? Your secret's safe, Danny." He assured him, smiling.

"Thanks." Danny got up. "We should get going. Maybe…someday, we'll meet again."

Valerie got up as well. "I'll get you out of here, Kwan. I promise." He said, nodding and going to the door.

Kwan waved as they headed out, the door shutting after them.

Danny watched him until the door shut, then looked at Valerie when she sighed. "Valerie?"

"I hope I can keep that promise." She mumbled, walking down the hall and out of the building.

Kwan sees dead people. *spooky music plays* Man, Vlad, why don't you let him out of there? Seriously.
And Phantom, really? They're at a movie. You think you're so sneaky. XD ~ Zone