Oops, my baby, you woke up in my bed

Oops, we broke up, we're better off as friends

Sam was decisive. She made up her mind, often quickly, and she never backed down. So, that was why, in the summer between their senior year of high school and their freshman year of college, when she had first thought that she should break up with Danny, it had taken her less than two weeks to actually go through with it. It wasn't that she didn't love Danny anymore and it wasn't that she thought that he didn't love her anymore. They were going to be several hours apart for school – only a couple, not enough to really call it a 'long distance' relationship – but Sam had felt that they had been together for four years. Four very important high school years. She didn't want to look back on her life and think that she had only ever dated Danny and that was the reason that they had ended up together.

If she ended up with Danny, she wanted it to be because they had chosen it, because they knew what life was like apart and knew they wanted it together. She hadn't known life without Danny as her boyfriend since she was fourteen years old and they'd been friends for even longer.

And, so, she'd just done it, on a hot Sunday night when they were sitting atop one of the highest buildings in Amity, overlooking the stars and street lights. He had taken it about as well as Sam had expected; she knew he wouldn't have seen it coming. He begged a little, he cried a bit, but, in the end, he'd kissed her one more time and told her that they had to still be friends. It hadn't been the last goodbye of a desperate lover; Sam had understood exactly what he had meant. He meant so much to her; it would kill her to have him removed completely.

"It's not that I don't love you and it's not that I don't want you in my life. I just think … I want to know what else there is to life, you know, and I think college is the time to do that."

"We're still going to be friends," Danny repeated, because he could be just as stubborn as she was, "but I'm going to miss you being my girlfriend."

They'd sat there together until the sun had come up and then he'd flown her home. And that had been the end of anything romantic between them. They had flirted a little, over the past two years, there had been some jealousy, as Danny had predicted, when they both started dating other people. But, it had worked, the whole friends thing. They were close friends, but they'd never kissed or touched or done anything.

Until last night.

And, now, it was morning, and Danny Fenton was naked in her bed.

Now I accidentally need you, I don't know what to do

Oops, baby, I love you

The first time thinking I love you and the first time saying it to someone and meaning it feel completely different. Sam had been thinking about love and Danny for so long that it had already felt like a part of a her by the time that they'd their first real kiss. It wasn't a fake-out make-out; it was their first real kiss that started humming in her lips and working its way throughout her entire body. And she thought it again. She thought that she loved him even though she didn't quite say it because she was fourteen and still so shy when it came to boys, even if that boy was her very best friend in the world and she could tell by the way that he was looking at her now that things were going to be different between them.

The first time that they actually said those words, quietly and when they weren't quite able to look at each other, Sam had been sure that she was going to love him forever. It had caused the cynical part of her brain to scoff because how many times had she heard that about a new relationship within the halls of Amity. But, another part of her thought that she knew better. She wasn't a girl who had been in a hundred other relationships before and this was her best friend. It had to be different to be dating her best friend.

She had felt that, when she had gone on her first college date. His name had been Aaron and he had been in her GRSJ course. They'd been discussing the assigned readings before class and he'd asked her for drinks that night, to continue talking about the readings, he'd said, but they'd both known better. Aaron had been blond and sweet. He hadn't let her pay for her own drinks – which had annoyed Sam, because she could more than pay for her own food, especially on a first date – but Aaron had said that the drinks were his idea and that she could pay when it was her idea. She'd gone out with him once a week for six weeks and she'd told Tucker so that she could make sure that Danny would know. It was her first time dating someone else and it had happened less than a month after they broke up. She hadn't known the protocol for that and, so, she'd chickened out and just told Tucker.

Danny had never mentioned it in their text conversations, which routinely happened on Sundays. If he hadn't asked her how her week had been by four in the afternoon, she'd ask him. She wanted to make sure that they really kept up with being friends, now that they weren't actually living in the same town.

She had dated Aaron until she realized that, not only was she comparing him with Danny, but that he was coming up short. It wasn't fair to have that kind of expectation of him – she and Danny had years of history and Aaron had barely a few weeks – but it was there and she knew it was wrong. She'd broken up with him and her heart hadn't even hurt.

And, then, she'd texted Danny on a Wednesday.

It started with "What's up with you?"

I messed around and got caught up with you

Sam didn't really like big parties. She enjoyed her drinks and she enjoyed going out but the big parties where everyone invited everyone they knew and she had to camp out over the booze she brought for fear someone else would take it, yeah, that had never been her scene. But, after this year's particularly long midterm season, she had decided that she would go to one that her housemate had invited her to. Once in a while, it was refreshing to go, just for something different.

She'd taken gin that she'd premixed with soda water into her largest water bottle. It would be more than enough to get her drunk and she had no intention on finishing it but just in case. She wasn't sure exactly how drunk she wanted to be tonight. She might want to be that drunk. Matter of fact, several hours into it, she was that drunk. She was standing in a kitchen that she didn't know and likely would never be back in again, getting hit on by someone that she knew she would never sleep with.

"I like the gothic look, you know," he was saying, getting right to the point. So much so that he never even offered his name. "I hear goth girls are freaks and you're kinda hot."

Sam gestured at him so that he bent down to her level. She put her mouth to his ear, teasing him a little because she wasn't above that. "I am a freak and I am really hot. So, think about that and the fact that I am ending this conversation here."

Sam was drunk enough that she was probably slurring but she enjoyed the look on his face before she stumbled off, searching for the bathroom. She locked herself inside of it, sliding her skirt down over her fishnet stockings and then taking a seat. She pulled her phone out of her jacket's pocket and saw that Danny had texted her.

Danny: What's up?

Sam stared at the screen for a moment and then she decided to call him. It was almost eleven – not late but late enough that if he was out doing anything, he'd already be there. But he picked up and by the time he'd done so, she was already washing her hands.

"Sam? What's up?"

"You busy?" she asked.

"No. Why?"

She frowned, momentarily distracted. "You're in on a Saturday night?"

"I didn't get in until, like, nine this morning. Last night was late enough."

"Oh. Seeing someone?" she guessed. Danny had dated other people but he hadn't for at least three or so months. Since November, if she remember correctly, but she wasn't sure she trusted herself right now.

"No, I told you that on Tuesday."

"Things could have changed."

"I'll always be awkward, Sam. It's going to take me a lot longer than that to close a deal."

Sam snorted.

"So, why'd you call?" he asked.

"I'm at a party and I am drunk and there was some guy hitting on me and he sucked. He said all goths were freaks and that I was 'kinda' hot."

"You're a freak," Danny agreed, "but I'd say you're more than 'kinda' hot."

"Well, that's what I told him," Sam said and then she blurted, "I wish you were here, Danny. Hanging out with you is better than this party."

"I can be there in two hours," Danny said. "If you really wanted me to come."

"Yeah," Sam said, thinking that she hadn't seen him since Christmas and it was now late February. "I think I do."

Yeah, yeah, I don't know what to do

I caught these feelings like there's nothing new

Now I can't get enough of you

Sam pulled the sheets up over her chest, even though Danny was asleep and it was nothing that he hadn't seen before. She stared down at his dark hair, then to his face, sweeping over the way that his eyelashes touched his cheeks, and then to his cheekbones. His nude chest was exposed, the blankets laying low on his chest. She remembered that he slept like that, alternating between cold and hot, cocooning himself in blankets before throwing them all off himself. It had been a long time since she had woken up next to him, a night after behind them. It was, however, the first time that she had woken up with him and not been his girlfriend and she didn't know if the rules were different now.

They had to be different. It wasn't what friends did; at least, not the type of friends that they had become. She wasn't going to kick him out but she also wasn't going to playfully wake him up via a blowjob either.

"Danny –" she began, but then he snorted awake, his hand finding her thigh and squeezing it as he took in his surroundings. His hand was freezing and his grip was frantic, like it was his ghost sense and a cry for help that had woken him.

It surprised Sam that she was still used to this part of him too. That it didn't feel any different than when he had woken up next to her, a blue wisp escaping from his mouth – a call to his ghost half that he had to go.

"Sam," he murmured, his voice still half asleep. He still had sex hair and he blinked at her. Even half-awake and half-aware, he still had the ability to make her feel thoroughly exposed.

"Um, morning," she managed, thinking that she shouldn't be so awkward with her oldest friend. She was thinking that for someone like her, decisive and strong-minded, it was too much to be questioning.

"Hey," he responded. His blue eyes met hers and Sam felt goosebumps erupt on her body. It had nothing to do with his inherent chill and everything to do with the fact that his hand was still high up on her leg. "Morning. How's your head feel? You were pretty drunk last night."

Sam shrugged. She could feel a small headache but it was nothing that wouldn't go away with some Advil and water.

"How are you feeling? Since, apparently, you could get dragged all the way here for some drunk girl."

Danny half-shrugged, using the hand that wasn't on her body to run his fingers through his hair. Sam resisted the urge to do it too. She didn't know what she wanted out of this situation. She had broken up with him and there was a reason that they'd needed Tucker to sit between them for nearly a year afterward. All she could think about was kissing his lips but there had always been something between her and Danny – she had felt it before they had started dating and she had felt it after they had stopped. She didn't want to turn herself inside out with confusion and she didn't want to do the same thing to Danny. Drunk sex was one thing; sober sex was quite another.

"It was you, Sam," Danny said. "You're not just some drunk girl."

Sam didn't know if that made her feel better or worse.

And when I think about the way you touch my body

I don't know how long I can wait

And when I think about the way you touch my body

By the time Sam managed to get out of her party and start stumbling her way toward home, Danny had texted her and said he was only fifteen minutes away. Time had seemed to disappear between calling Danny and now and she blamed the gin. It was very easy to blame the gin. Even if she felt really good because of the gin. The gin and the late winter air; the shock of cold lulling her into a false sense of sobriety for half a block before she stumbled slightly on the sidewalk, reminding her that the numbness she felt in her toes was the inebriation, not the cold. Because it wasn't even that cold.

She slumped on the bench outside of her building, knowing that Danny wouldn't be much longer. She was right, though she heard his junker of a car long before it actually appeared. She'd been needling at him to get a more environmentally friendly car since about a month after he bought his car, and Danny only ever said he'd get a new car when this one fully died. Sam had practically prayed for the car to die, but it had been going strong for years. Tucker said that it was held together by ectoplasm and willpower and, for once, Sam didn't think that Tucker was wrong.

The white car rolled to a stop right in front of her and Danny got out, crossing his arms over his chest and appraising her for a second before shaking his head and laughing.

"What?" Sam demanded.

"Nothing," Danny said and Sam glared at him until he held up his hands and confessed, "I'm just glad you called because you were drunk and wanted to hang out. Last time Tucker called me when he was drunk, it was to pick him up from jail in the morning."

Sam snickered. "What did he do?"

"Got drunk and pissed on a cop car." Danny lowered himself onto the bench next to her, stretching his legs out. "The one night I didn't go out with him."

"What were you doing?"

"Quizzing Jazz. She had to help me with a ghost thing and she said I could pay her back by reading cue cards." Danny rolled his eyes. "I'm more excited for her to graduate than for me to graduate, I think."

"Jazz is gonna get, like, a doctorate. We'll be dead before she's done with school."

Danny laughed. "Yeah, true, true. So, what do you want to do? Gonna let me sleep on your floor? Because, if yes, then we should find a bar so I can be as drunk as you."

"I could also make you sleep in your car."

"You could," Danny agreed. "Shots?"

"If I throw up on you, it's on you."

"Literally," Danny quipped, his nose close to hers. "Ready to go?"

Sam thought about kissing him and then she held herself back. Self-restraint. Even drunk, she knew better than that.

"Ready!" Sam said, letting Danny help her up. "Also, bar's that way."

"Lead on," Danny said.

And, so, Sam had.

This could be my greatest mistake

You've got me singing

Sam had lost track of how many shots Danny had by the time they fell out of the bar onto the sidewalk. She gripped the front of his shirt.

"Danny, Danny, will you do something for me?"

"What?"

"Fly me home," Sam asked.

The last time that he'd flown her was, once again, to fly her home. Except, that it had been the night that she had broken up with him and he'd had no choice but to do it. She wondered if he was thinking of the same thing that she was and he wondered if he'd tell her no because of it. But, Danny wasn't like that and he scooped her up before she was ready and Sam let out a small scream.

"Stop it or someone will think I'm abducting you," Danny said.

"Then, do your think, Inviso-Bill."

"I hate you."

"No, you don't."

Danny rolled his eyes at her and the next thing Sam knew, they were invisible and they were flying through the air. Being invisible while being drunk was so disconcerting that if she hadn't had the flight to distract her, she might have been sick right then and there. But the wind tangled in her crop of short hair and Sam let out another whoop, this one of joy. Danny laughed with her, letting her spread her arms and point out where they were going. They went straight through her bedroom window, hitting the ground awkwardly enough that they tumbled to the ground, skidding their knees on the black rug in the middle of her carpet.

Danny let go of her and rolled onto his back, laughing as they returned to visibility. Sam turned onto her stomach, her hip pressing against his side.

"I missed that!" Sam exclaimed, laughing before she looked down and saw the way that Danny was looking at her.

Before he could say anything that would get them in trouble, Sam leant down and kissed him first. His hands touched her back, gently, at first, as if to make sure that she wasn't going throw him off, and then, he tightly grabbed onto her. Sam let herself fall into him – the familiar chill of ghost powers, the way that she knew his hand would slide up her spine, the way his leg would settle between hers.

"Danny," Sam whispered urgently. "Danny, bed."

"Sam?"

His eyes looked so clear but Sam knew they were both dead drunk. But that didn't matter. And Sam never stopped to think about whether that would matter come morning. She kissed his lips again and repeated, "Danny, bed."

It seemed like nothing had moved but they were there between the sheets she hadn't made up this morning. He kissed her again, pinning her thin frame beneath his, and Sam slid her hands under his shirt, working it up over his head. He pulled the blankets up over them and Sam lost herself in the familiarity that was Danny.

Oops, my baby, you woke up in my bed

Oops, we broke up, we're better off as friends

Sam wasn't sure if she believed in soul mates. She had never known that and, at eighteen, she didn't know if she had to have the big stuff like that figured out. Her world had always been so small – even with the addition of the paranormal. There was only so much that she knew. One thing that she knew was that she was never going to love anyone the way that she loved Danny. She didn't think that it meant that she was never going to love anyone else; she didn't think it meant that she was incapable of loving anyone else. But, the simple truth of it was, Danny was her first real boyfriend and her first real love, and that was something that could never be replicated.

She had been happy with Danny since she'd first met him. She'd been happy being his friend; she'd been over the moon to find out that he was in love with her too. There was no part of her life that wasn't made better by the fact that he was in it.

Which was why she knew that she wasn't making sense when she was thinking that she should break up with him. People didn't break up with people that they loved, especially not when they were loved back. Danny loved her; she loved him back. It hadn't changed since they started dating when they were fourteen and, even though they were going to different colleges, Sam didn't see that love changing. Perhaps that was the problem – things had to get better, had to change, and she was just seeing the way that they had been for the past couple of years.

College was a time to change. College was a time to become someone new and see what s different kind of love would be like. To see life with new eyes. A lot of people expected her to grow up and marry Danny and Sam just didn't know enough about her future to know if that was true. If it happened, she wanted it to be because he was the life she chose and not because he was the only life she had ever known.

Sam sat in her bed, gazing at all of the memories of her and Danny and Tucker that adorned her wall, her high school diploma hanging in the middle of it. It was all over. Everything was changing now, as everything must change, and her heart started breaking, but Sam knew what she had to do.

She had to break up with her boyfriend.

Now I accidentally need you, I don't know what to do

Oops, baby, I love you

Sam sat up in bed, trying to avoid Danny's stunning eyes.

"We should get dressed."

And pretend it didn't happen, probably. Except, how could she look the other way and act like she didn't remember every detail of last night perfectly. She had been drunk and blurry but nowhere near blacking out. She knew what was going on. She'd kissed him first and asked him to bed. It wouldn't be wrong for him to ask her what she'd been thinking or if meant anything to her. Oh, God, Sam thought, watching Danny lean down to grab his boxers and jeans from the floor, what if last night meant something to him?

Not that it didn't mean anything to her. Not that it did. Damn her, she wasn't supposed to be the type of girl who booty called their ex-boyfriends when they got drunk. Except, here she was. She didn't really do one-night stands. She'd had two in the past two years and both times had woken up feeling so unsatisfied that she'd vowed to never do it again. Except, taking her t-shirt from Danny's hand, their fingers gently touching, Sam didn't feel unsatisfied. From the fulfilling ache between her legs from the way that Sam would rather drag out getting dressed than kicking Danny out to scrub down her sheets, she felt good. It had always been good sex with Danny. Well, not always, but after they had figured out how sex actually worked, it had always been fun with him.

"So …" Danny said, standing on her rug, his bare feet digging into the carpet, "should I go?"

"Or … do you want to do breakfast? There's a really good vegan café, pretty close. I can't let you drive home hungry."

"Ooh, kale and mushrooms and … bread …" Danny mused.

"Okay, okay, you know that there's more to vegan food than that."

Danny pretended to muse over it. "You know what my memory's like. You're gonna have to remind me."

Sam tossed her legs over the side of the bed. "Deal."

"And, I drove here for you, so breakfast is on you."

Sam snorted, shoving his shoulder on her way to her closet. "I didn't make you do that."

"But I did it anyway."

Sam grabbed a fresh pair of jeans from the top shelf and pulled them off. It was so easy to be with Danny. It was fun and refreshing and she couldn't remember the last time that she had been out with a guy that wasn't Tucker where she wasn't worried about impressions. She could be loud without being a bitch; she could be sarcastic without being rude; and whatever she gave to Danny, he could give back to her twofold, and she thrived off of that.

They walked so close that their arms rubbed and they were bumping into each other all over the sidewalk. Sam wondered if they looked like a couple to outside observers and then she wondered why it mattered. She and Danny weren't a couple. They hadn't been in years and she hadn't been concerned about it before. It had to be the sex. She was confused about the sex. It was a wrench in the friendship they'd rebuilt since their break-up and that was all.

They sat down at a table and Danny started going on vegan pancakes, green with kale, and Sam just rolled her eyes, amused. Anyone else, she probably would have taken offense, but she knew that Danny didn't actually mean it. He'd eaten tons of vegan pancakes – and other things – throughout their friendship and relationship and she knew he'd happily eat anything.

She put her head in her hand, just watching him, feeling contented. For the time being, she didn't let that confuse her. She just let herself be happy in Danny's presence.

We had a good run

We messed around and had some good fun

Once, Danny had seen Sam chase a down a ghost that had kidnapped Tucker for four blocks while wearing high heels and an evening gown. She had shot the ghost, skinned both knees, and refused to apologize to Tucker for the drop that he'd taken. Then, adjusting the soft black shrug on her porcelain shoulders, she'd turned to Danny and said, "Come on. If we don't leave for our reservation right now, they'll give it away. Le Petit Légume won't care if I name-drop Danny Phantom." It was their last Valentine's Day as a couple and Le Petit Légume was the fanciest place he'd ever taken her. That night, when they'd gone back to her room, he'd had to wipe the blood from her legs and kiss her battle wounds.

On that night, Danny never would have imagined that she would be breaking up with him that summer. On a night like that, it seems like it could never possibly end. He remembered clearly undoing the delicate clasps on her high heels, running his hands along the upper parts of her thighs as her slim fingers opened the buttoned on his shirt. He had never loved anyone the way that he'd loved Sam and if he died hers, he would have been completely happy. Even though she infuriated him on all counts and knew exactly how to get under his skin, he was still happiest when he was hers.

Then, she'd broken up with him and he felt like the floor had been ripped out from under him. He'd done his best to put on a good face and she'd been as good as an ex-girlfriend could be. He hadn't thought they could go back to being friends. He hadn't thought he could ever be okay with watching her date someone else while he dated someone else. If she needed to break up with him to be happy, he wasn't going to shove her in a box, but he just hadn't thought that he could bear facing it.

It turned out he was wrong. He had dated Madison at the time that she had dated Geoffrey and it wasn't strange. Well, it was, but they weren't in the same town and he had to hear about it second hand while seeing it on social media but he didn't feel like his chest was about to cave in when he saw those posts, unlike the guy that had come before Geoffrey, and Danny decided that it was what moving on felt like. Madison had broken up with him after three months because she didn't 'feel like having a boyfriend right now'. She hadn't broken his heart by saying it and Danny felt like that was good enough.

And, then, Sam had called him drunk at a party and after two years of forgetting what it was like to love her up close, Danny had woken up with that feeling his heart again and he didn't think there was moving on a second time.

Guess it turns out I lost a good one

Danny spread his arms wide, letting the wind whistle though his outstretched fingers, flying high above the city and trying to think. Or not think. He wasn't sure anymore. He'd slept with Sam a week ago and, after a breakfast that had turned into an afternoon movie, which had turned into dinner, which had turned into them accepting that Danny had several hours of driving in front of him, and that he had to go. He had wanted to kiss her goodbye but he hadn't, afraid that she'd turn him away. Usually he texted her once a week, at least – more often the further away that they got from the break-up – but now he didn't know if he should.

Maybe he should wait for Sam to call him. Or maybe he should stop overthinking it, like it was high school all over again. They weren't fourteen anymore and sex wasn't the be-all-end-all that he had once imagined it to be. It didn't mean a commitment, it didn't mean love, and just because they'd gotten drunk and had sex didn't mean that he had to panic and overthink it. He should just be an adult and text her. They were grown-ups now.

Well, sort of grown-up. Danny didn't think that he'd ever feel like a grown-up. Not the kind that he always saw his parents as being. Or his friends' parents. Danny flew through his window and transformed into his human half, dropping to his floor. Sam had broken up with him and if Sam wanted anything else to do with him, she'd let him know. There was a reason she'd asked him to sleep with her and a reason that she hadn't brought it up again.

Danny: hey

Sam: hey!

Exclamation points. There was nothing erotic about an exclamation point … except for the fact that Sam didn't really use them.

Sam: I liked seeing you last weekend.

Danny: Me too

Sam called him then, her voice half-breathless as it came through over the phone.

"Sorry, I'm just walking to class. Easier to talk than text."

"Fair enough. I'm off until four and then I have my poli sci course."

"Uh, listen, I was thinking, I liked seeing you. We don't end up hanging out a lot, we're far apart and –"

"We don't do one on one time," Danny finished for her. For obvious reasons.

"I have to see Tucker too," Sam protested weakly. "But, you're right and, last weekend, I realized that I missed you. I missed the one on one time. Do you think I could drive down and see you next weekend?"

"Yeah, I'd really like that," Danny said, because it was true, even if he was a little frightened of what it might all might mean.

"And, if I'm driving down to see you, that means breakfast is on you this time."

Danny laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sure, Sam, whatever you say."

"Okay. I'll see you on Saturday."

"Okay."

He resisted the urge to quip 'it's a date' because they were both going to take it the wrong way and hung up quickly. Sam was coming next weekend! And, he shouldn't be so nervous about seeing one of his oldest friend but he felt like he couldn't breathe at the thought of it. He stared down at his phone and then put in a new number.

"Hey, Tuck, you busy? Wanna grab food? I want to talk to you about something … No, I'm not getting mushy … Yes, I will buy you the burger … Come on, man … Yeah, see you soon."

Maybe talking about it and getting it out of his system would help.

'Cause now I'm wishing every morning would come

With you next to me, baby

When Sam kissed him this time, they were sober. Unless falafel made people high – which, in Danny's experience, it didn't – they were stone cold sober. They'd stopped to eat their desserts to go on a bench, overlooking the bright green grass with the birds fluttering around in front of them. They'd been nibbling at their ice-cream, her feet swinging underneath the bench, knocking against his foot as she went. He'd put his hand against her leg to stop it and then she was so close that he hadn't time to think about it before she was snuggled into his chest and her lips brushed his.

His mind was a tangled mess when he thought of how they'd gotten back to his room but actually being there wasn't something that he was going to forget in a hurry. The feel of her legs as they tangled together, her breath against his body as she kissed her way down the length of it, and the sound of his name leaving her lips.

Now that morning had come, Danny was laying awake, Sam curled into a ball next to him, just replaying the night, which came to him in a montage. Danny turned so that he was spooning her and closed his eyes again. He didn't want to wake her before she was ready to be woken up. It led to a cranky Sam and it would shatter their morning together. Danny didn't want to shatter the illusion now but he wondered if he would regret it later.

Oh, well. He was much more of the instant gratification type.

And when I think about the way you touch my body

This could be my greatest mistake

Sam was wearing Danny's t-shirt, sitting with her legs curled under her in his bed, sipping on the coffee that he'd gone out to get them while she took a shower. It was a distinctly girlfriend position, with no make-up on, scrolling through her phone and feeding him tidbits of the morning news as she went. Danny just watched her – the press of the coffee cup against her natural lips, the one patch of wet hair that was still dripping onto her shoulder, the way she'd shake her head at a piece of distressing news before she shared it.

"Why do you read it if it makes you so upset?" Danny asked after she shared a particularly troubling bit about a school shooting.

"You have to be informed," Sam replied, which he knew she would. He wasn't sure why he'd asked. "You have to know what's going on around you."

Danny shrugged. "I mean, you can know without knowing that much. You don't have to know every detail."

Sam thought about it and then shook her head. "No, that still feels like being ignorant."

"Just the idea that you know what's going on isn't enough?" Danny asked, meeting her eyes. He could see it on her face that she knew that they were talking about more than the news.

Sam exhaled heavily. "Um, yeah. I think knowing everything is always the way to go. Just thinking you know what's going on isn't enough. What if you only think you know and then you realize you're wrong?"

"You hate being wrong."

"Good thing I never am."

Sam grinned at him and Danny smiled back. There was something expectant in her eyes but Danny didn't let himself go there. For once in his life, he held his tongue because he was too scared to let go. Fear was a regular part of his life. He'd been scared of anything and everything after becoming half-ghost; fear had been a part of his life. The tough skin had grown over time and now he walked into fights with a smart-ass comment and a confidence that was almost as lethal as his fighting skills. But, that wasn't the same as asking Sam about whether or not this was just sex or if she had any idea that the sex felt like more than just sex to him and that their break-up had haunted him since it happened or if she really just didn't seem them as anything more than friends.

He wasn't ready to know yet.

"Hey, Sam, is there any good news?"

She smiled at him again. "Yeah, of course. There's always good news."

Maybe, Danny mused, there was. Or, maybe, there was the possibility that Sam was wrong, just this once.

You've got me singing

Oops, my baby, you woke up in my bed

Oops we broke up, we're better off as friends

"It's not that I don't love you."

Danny stared down at his hands, trying not to feel dizzy, trying not to feel like his world was falling apart.

"I think it's because I love you."

"That doesn't make sense," Danny said, feeling small as he did so.

"I know," Sam said, because she understood him.

What was he going to do without that? Without her?

"I want us to be friends," Sam added. "I don't want to lose you. I don't want to be without you. I just think that, for a little while, at least, while we're away at college and in two different places with all these new people, we should really just … focus on that. You know, see who we are without each other. Because, sometimes, I feel like I don't remember me before you and sometimes … Sometimes, that's great but, other times, I want to know who that is."

Danny felt tears come into his eyes and he wiped them away with the back of one hand. He wasn't ashamed to cry in front of her. Even though he was still just eighteen, his teenage obnoxiousness had faded from him. When it came to Sam, she'd seen all sides of him, and there was no use in trying to hide it.

"I don't get it, Sam. I don't. But, I know I can't change your mind so …"

"I'm sorry, Danny," Sam said, and he knew that she meant it, but he still shook his head.

"No, don't be sorry. Just …" Danny made himself look at her. She gazed back at him and he felt like he was being socked in the stomach. "Promise me that this is what you really want and you don't need to be sorry."

"It is. I think it's what we need to do."

"Okay."

"Okay."

She took her hand in his and he clenched onto her tightly. In this moment, for right now, they were going to be them. He didn't want to take her home because he knew that it was going to end, but he knew that he had to let it. She said it was what she wanted and he loved her enough – loved her so much – that he was going to have to let her go.

There were a hundred proverbs about setting someone free, about loving someone enough, about things being meant to be, and they all flashed through his mind, taking on his mother's tone, but none of it ended up mattering.

In the end, it just hurt.

Now I accidentally need you, I don't know what to do

Oops, baby, I love you

"Is there any point to you being upside down?"

"No," Danny said and he flipped right side up, floating down from Tucker's ceiling to sit in his desk chair. "I just thought something might change if all the blood was in my head rather than in my dick."

"It's already in your head," Tucker said, "because if you were just thinking with your dick than we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Danny shrugged, only because he didn't want to admit that Tucker was right.

"Sleeping with me once? Yeah, okay, that's something that exes can do but sleeping with me more than once? Coming to see me? Not running away the next day and hanging out?"

"Friends with benefits are a thing, man."

"I know," Danny said, scornfully. "But, you know how direct Sam is –"

"I have bruises from high school that haven't faded because of how direct Sam is."

Danny ignored him. "If she just wanted sex, I think she'd say so."

"If she wanted to date you again, she'd probably just say so," Tucker countered.

"I'm still in love with her, Tuck."

Tucker just nodded.

Danny just stared at him, incredulous at Tucker's response. Tucker noticed his look and laughed.

"What? Did you think I didn't know? I've known you forever – before you even gave a shit about girls! You've made a good effort but I knew you never got over Sam. I was just waiting for you to admit it too."

"Okay, I'm admitting it! I love her and this new stuff with her is driving me crazy because I don't know what to do!" Even though Tucker would never be known for giving good advice and had a reputation for striking out with women because he tended to move too fast, he was Danny's best friend and the one he could turn to. "What do I do, Tuck?"

"Well, she broke up with you for a reason."

"True."

"But she's made the move on you both times recently."

"Also true."

"This is the same circle we went in when we were fourteen," Tucker said. "Either, you do it and it works out or she gets pissy and you lose a friend."

"I don't think she'd friend break up with me over this," Danny said, "but, if it didn't work out this time, I don't think that I could be her friend and how is that fair to her? She didn't do anything."

"If she's screwing you and doesn't want to talk about it, that is kind of leading you on," Tucker said.

"You know what I mean."

Tucker shrugged. "Yeah but, just like last time, it's your mistake to make. Oh, and, also, tell Sam I love her but you get me in the divorce."

Danny face-planted onto Tucker's desk.

Oh I love, I love, I love you

Sam stared at the textbooks spread open in front of her, desperately trying to keep her mind on her upcoming exam. But nothing about ecological systems was sticking in her head. You have three days to memorize all of this, Sam. She kept telling herself that sternly but none of it was making a difference because her mind kept returning to Danny. She glanced at her phone; it was Sunday, the day that they normally had a conversation, even if they'd talked throughout the week. And, this week, they hadn't spoken. There had been nothing since she had left his place last weekend and she was worried. Worried if it meant that she'd pushed things too far and he was giving up on her. He wasn't texting her. She could just text him. There was no reason that she couldn't.

Except that she was afraid. He could always not answer; she could always admit her feelings. The fact that she had feelings was enough to make her anxious. She didn't know how to bring them up to him; she didn't know what he would say. He had looked at her last weekend, pressing her about whether or not she'd wanted to know the whole truth or just suspect it. Sam had wondered if that was going to be the prelude to a confession of sorts, but Danny had just gone quiet, and she'd let the subject drop. Something that she didn't usually do. She'd been called tenacious before and with good reason. The problem was that they had just enough history with just enough hurt in it that Sam couldn't tell whether or not he was going to say something that she wanted to hear or he was going to say something that that she didn't.

And all she knew was that she didn't want to lose him. She didn't want to push him and end up without him. That had been her fear when she'd broken up with him – that she just wouldn't have him at all anymore.

Sam put her pen down on her desk, knowing that she had to do something to get these thoughts out of her head. If she wasn't ready to talk to Danny directly, there was someone else that she could call.

Now I accidentally know that you're in love with me too

Oops, baby, I love you

"Are you busy?"

"Are you calling about Danny?"

Sam grit her back teeth together, not expecting the question, but leave it to Tucker to already know too much. Not that she should get mad about Danny sharing everything with Tucker when that was exactly what she had been calling to do.

"I might be."

Tucker snorted. "Nope, nope, exam season has hit and I am so not in the mood. Cough up the details, Sam."

Sam groaned. "The past couple of weekends, we've been seeing each other."

"Hooking up or dates?"

"I thought you knew everything."

"I know everything from Danny's side. They don't tend to be the same."

"Does Danny think we've been dating or hooking up?"

"Snitches get stitches."

"You're not in prison, Tucker!"

"What do you think you've been doing?"

"I think we've been hooking up," Sam confessed, "but I've been pretending that we're going on dates and that fact has been driving me crazy."

Tucker laughed at her.

"It's not funny!" Sam protested.

"It is funny," Tucker said. "Sam, we've had this conversation."

"No, we haven't –"

"When we were little kids and he was your first crush and you were doodling Mrs. Fenton –"

"I never –" Sam scoffed, blustering. She wasn't able to completely get the words out because she and Tucker both knew that it wasn't a lie. Sam had indulged herself fantasies like anyone with a crush was wont to do. Tucker had also teased her mercilessly about it, just like any friend was wont to do. To his credit, though, he'd never completely ratted her out to Danny. Sam didn't know if they would have ever gotten together if Tucker had actually done that.

"Nah, don't lie to the Tuck-man."

"The 'Tuck-man' is a terrible nickname and no one is ever going to call you that except to mock you."

"And don't hurt the Tuck-man's feelings!"

"Tucker," Sam said, realizing that her tone had turned pleading without her permission. "Seriously, what do I do?"

"All right," Tucker said, and Sam could practically hear him becoming more serious. "So, do you want to date Danny again?"

"Yeah."

"Who started the sexy times? You or him?"

"Me. Which is part of my problem. I'm hot, Tuck, and we've got history. There's a lot of good reasons right there for it to just sex and I don't want that. But I don't want to tell him that and have it go wrong. I hurt him when I broke up with him and if we end up going through the same thing again then I don't think that either of us can take it. It hurt me when I broke up with him too, even though it was my idea. It was what was best for us – I was convinced of it then and I still believe it now – but it still hurt."

"Do you remember why you broke up with him?"

"Of course."

"Do those reasons still exist?"

Sam blinked, startled by the truth in his words. "I didn't expect that from you."

"Expect what from me?" Tucker asked, and there was humour back in his voice.

"Actual help."

"Answer the question."

"I mean, some of them. We're still in different places and it's going to stay that way for another couple of years but the other reason was that I wanted to see the world. I wanted to know myself without him and, now, I do, and I like myself better with him. I miss him and I still love him and I don't know how to tell him that. I wish it was as easy as telling you." Sam groaned. "Unless you tell him for me."

"I wouldn't do that," Tucker said. "I can keep a secret. Except for the greater good, and I want you to know that, because I'm about to tell you a secret."

"Okay, I know that."

"I've been talking to Danny for days about whether or not he should tell you that he still loves you and he's not going to because he can't take your rejection."

Sam felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. "That's real? He said that?"

"Yeah. He did. So, what are you going to do about it?"

"We already know."

"I deserve a great present when you two get married. A car, maybe, fancy chocolates are a good option too."

"Shut up, Tucker."

Sam hung up the phone and abandoned her textbook. Right now, there was somewhere more important for her to be.

If it was up to me

I would take a time machine to the day I said goodbye, I lied

Oh, I lied

Sam lifted her hand and then dropped it back down to her side. Why was she nervous now? Tucker had told her everything that she needed to know. Danny still loved her back. If they both felt it and they both knew it was real, there was no reason for her to be scared. Sam bit her lip, realized that she was pulling purple lipstick off and onto her teeth and hastily scrubbed her teeth with her fingers, just to make sure she got it off.

And then she knocked on Danny's door.

It felt like it took him an eternity to answer. Perhaps not that long but long enough that Sam had to wonder if he was home. She hadn't considered the possibility that he might not be home. She couldn't turn around and come back. She was ready for this to happen now. But then he was there, standing in front of her with messy black hair and a plain white t-shirt over faded blue jeans. He looked just like Danny always had and she didn't know why she would have expected anything different. Danny had always been a constant, particularly when it came to his fashion sense.

"Sam? Hey! I didn't expect you."

"Can I come in? Is that okay?"

"Yeah, of course."

She ducked under his arm, walking straight into his living room. She heard the door shut behind her and, even though she couldn't hear Danny's footsteps, she knew that he'd followed her. She almost sat down on the couch but then she just turned around. They'd been sitting when they'd broken up and that moment was so stark in her mind that she wanted to make this one as different as possible.

"So, what's up?"

"Um …" When she'd first broken up with him, she'd said the words quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid. There was no need to talk in circles when she could get straight to the point and then hash out the details later. That time, she'd just wanted to say it and be clear so that his confusion didn't hurt him. It should be the same now. She was here to say it and she just had to let it all fall out of her mouth. "I love you. Not in the friend way. Like, before, when it was an 'us'. And, kissing you again, seeing you these past couple of weekends, it made me realize that I miss you. I miss being your girlfriend and I miss having you be my boyfriend. I broke up with you for a reason and I think I've done the soul-searching that I needed to. I think we've been apart for long enough and I don't want to be apart anymore. I hope you want that too."

She tacked on the last bit. She didn't think that Tucker was wrong – he was Danny's ultimate confidant – but there was a slight chance.

"You think you've done the soul-searching?" Danny asked, sitting on the arm of the couch, resting his elbows heavily against his knees. "Or you have? Those are different, Sam. And, which ever answer you give, I want you to be sure. I'm not going to wait around for you or anything like that – you wanted us to try seeing other people and I really have tried – but if you want more time for us to revisit this and if we're both single again at the same time later and that's a better time, then, we can do that. I'm not shutting the door completely but I don't want to open it too early, either."

There was a vulnerability in Danny's piercing eyes that he was desperately trying to hide and Sam couldn't resist closing the gap between them so that she was standing in front of him. She reached out and ran her fingers through his thick hair and he leant into her touch.

"I'm ready for this. I don't want anything else."

"You didn't want anything else when we were together until you didn't," Danny said, suddenly pulling away from her. "What if that happens again?"

"We'd been together four years for high school! It was a different situation!"

"When we're out of college? When we're finding jobs? When there's a lot of new people around? You said you wanted to see the world and I know that you haven't even done half of the travelling that you wanted to. What happens if I'm not enough anymore? Again?"

Sam took a step back. This wasn't how she thought this conversation was going to go, for a number of reasons. But the one that was hitting her hardest was that she had never realized what Danny had been carrying around from their break-up. She had thought she'd been understood and that they had sorted everything out and that all of their pieces had been said. She had never paid attention to him in the aftermath. They'd been keeping their distance from one another and then they'd slowly become actual friends again.

"I wanted to know what growing was like without you."

"We're still growing, Sam. We're still kids."

"I want to grow with you! Choosing you doesn't mean that my life is over or anything like that! I wanted to be sure that this was right and now I am. I want you and us and I love you and I'm sure."

Danny ran one hand through his hair and then he reached out for her. His hands rested on her lips and he put his head against her chest. Sam wanted it to be sweet but there was something in the gesture that, to Sam, just felt like goodbye.

"I love you, Sam. I think you've always known that I always have. I thought this was what I wanted to hear but, now, I need more time to think about it."

"Really?"

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry, you just have to be sure this is what you want."

Danny smiled sadly at her and then he stood up and kissed her forehead. Sam squeezed his hands.

"I guess … I guess I should go."

"You were just driving for hours. Do you want anything to eat or drink or –"

"No, thanks," Sam said. Her heart was beating too fast and her legs were shaking. "Will we still be friends?"

"Yeah."

Sam nodded. "Then, that's enough. Bye, Danny."

"You really don't have to go."

But, she was already halfway out the door, hellbent on getting to her car before she burst into tears.

So, can we try again?

Beneficial, more than friends

Danny channeled more energy than he needed to into socking the Box Ghost in the stomach. The ghost hadn't even been an adversary when Danny was young and inexperienced. Now, he was a glorified punching bag for Danny's frustrations – whether Danny wanted to admit that was the case or not. He looked down into the ghost's face and then just sighed, whipping out the Fenton Thermos and making the problem go away.

If only it were that easy with all of his problems.

Danny flopped down on the top level of the warehouse he'd been chasing the Box Ghost through, not minding any of the dust that flew up around him as he hung his head. Sam still loved him. He still loved Sam. This should be easy. When he'd been in her bed, looking down at her sleeping face, he'd felt like all of the pieces were going to come together again and then she'd shown up to do exactly that and what had he done? Aired the past. The past that he'd been carting around with him since it had been the present and, maybe, yes, it should have been said and heard but that didn't make Danny feel any better now, when he was without her when all he wanted was to be with her.

Danny rubbed his hands into his eyes. Okay, Fenton, be an adult about this. Which would have been great advice, if he actually knew how to be an adult about things. He felt like a kid, now, torn between what he wanted and the fear of what would happen if he got it. When Sam had broken up with him last time, she had proven to him that loving someone just wasn't enough, sometimes, and he was starting to realize that he'd never gotten over the unexpectedness of that hurt.

Danny whacked a chunk of wood off the level he was sitting on, watching it bounce through a hole in the floor and crack onto one of the levels below. Just because he could. Because if he pushed that wood, he knew exactly what would happen to it. If he pushed himself, he didn't know what the outcome would be. He'd pushed himself to become Danny Phantom and that had worked out; he'd gotten over his fear and kissed Sam last time and now he felt like this. He just wished he knew.

He wondered if Clockwork would tell him. Probably not. Besides, Danny didn't want to be so desperate that he went there. Matter of fact, he didn't want to tell anyone what he was feeling like right now. He just wanted to sit on his own and stew and make himself sort it out. He was also worried that no one else would understand his dilemma and wouldn't see why he hadn't just kissed her when she was standing in his living room, telling him all that he'd wanted to hear. Danny was just waiting for the other shoe to drop and the hurt to come. They weren't as naïve as they were when they were fourteen and they knew being in love didn't mean it would last forever. Danny wanted it to. Which was why he was willing to wait, for them to grow up, for Sam to do everything she'd wanted to do without him. He'd meant it when he said he wouldn't wait for her but he really didn't believe that their time wouldn't come again.

Unless this was it and he was running the risk of ruining it for no good reason. Maybe it was a good reason. He didn't know. He wanted a future that he could trust in, even though no one else had it. He wanted it.

Danny flicked another piece of wood through the whole in the floor, leaning to see if it would hit the other one. Instead, it strayed off its path, getting caught on the level below him and not falling all the way through. Danny phased through the floor and kicked it this time, watching the two pieces of lumber collide.

And, then, he left to find Sam.

No, don't you tell me goodbye

You've got me singing

"Oh my God!"

"Are you seeing this?"

Sam ignored the shrieks of the girls behind her, rubbing her temples and tucking her legs closer to her body. This was what she got for deciding that it was a nice day and she didn't need to study right now so she should take her novel outside. There were people outside and Sam was really not in the mood for people. Particularly people who were happy. Particularly couples who were walking by, swinging hands, the universe having decided that they were allowed to work out.

"He's so hot!"

"Yeah, but what's he doing outside of Amity Park? Have you ever seen him leave?"

Well, now the girls had Sam's attention. She glanced over them and then followed their gazes upwards, to where there was a figure high in the sky. Sam recognized him immediately, just by the way that he spread his arms out when he was flying. She didn't need to see the white hair or the black suit.

She slid her bookmark between two pages and put her book in her bag and waited. She was sure that Danny knew exactly where she was though she was never sure how. She waited, watching the faces of the small fan club behind her. It was something that Danny had never gotten used to, especially once both sides of his identity eventually got out and he had no good place to hide out. Sam had always found it a little bit funny.

He touched down in front of her and Sam wrapped her arms protectively around her torso.

"Hey," she murmured.

"Hey," he said and he shifted awkwardly. "Want to go somewhere? Just you and me?"

"Okay," Sam agreed. "Did you fly here?"

"Yeah."

"Aren't you exhausted?"

"Yeah." Danny nodded and then yawned.

"Why didn't you drive?"

"I didn't think of it," Danny confessed. "Which was dumb of me but I've got a habit of not thinking things through."

"Come on, let's get you back to my place but not while you stand out, okay?"

"Sure, yeah, fair." Two rings travelled around Danny's body and he was left just as Danny Fenton. Much to the disappointment of his fan club.

Sam slung her bag over her shoulder and then she fell into step beside Danny. They hadn't made it far when he curiousity got the better of her; Danny looked like he was off in another world and she was sure that he wasn't about to volunteer why he was here.

"Any reason you didn't drive?" Sam asked.

"Well, no … I got distracted."

"By?"

"I was thinking about you and things and I guess I just wanted to talk to you right away and I wasn't thinking about my car."

"Talk to me?" Sam said. "About?"

"Us. The thing."

Us. The thing. It didn't sound very promising and Sam tried not to get her hopes up because not only was that the absolute opposite of promising but he wasn't looking at her. Sam gripped the sides of her skirt as they walked, trying not to let her mind get away from her, not until she heard what he had to say.

"I had this realization that the last time I trusted you not to hurt me and I had lost that. And, it's not fair to you if I don't trust you completely. Don't get me wrong. I want you and us, just like you do."

"This all sounds familiar," Sam said, belatedly realizing how snotty she sounded. More softly, she added, "Why did you come all the way here to tell me this?"

Danny stopped, forcing Sam to turn and look at him. Somewhere along the way, Danny had gotten tall and she had to tilt her head back to see his face properly.

"Because me not trusting you is a mistake. I mean, I should. I think I was looking at it the wrong way because all I was seeing was the hurt but what I should have seen was that you were just being honest with me and that's what I can trust. You always have been and I have no reason to think that you're lying to me now."

"No, of course not! Do you think I'd screw around with you like this? Are you kidding?!"

"I want to take you on a date. Right now. Because I love you. Because I want to try again. So, will you go on a date with me?"

Sam was quickly distracted from her indignation. "What? Really?"

"Yeah. I don't want to rush it or anything and I'm scared if this doesn't go right but why should that stop us? Let's start at the beginning."

"And go on a date," Sam finished.

Danny nodded. "Yeah and go on a date."

Danny jammed his hands in his pockets and stared at her expectedly and Sam nodded. He grinned at her and Sam let go of her skirt, reaching out to grip the sides of his t-shirt.

"Danny?"

"What?"

"Now's the part where you kiss me."

"Oh, right!"

His lips pressed against hers, pulling her up into him. The strength in his arms was more than enough to lift her off the ground. Sam smiled into the kiss.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"And," Sam added, "we might want to buy Tucker chocolates now."

"What?"

"Nothing," Sam said. "We'll get into later. Come on. You're coming upstairs with me."

"Whatever you say, Sam. You're always right."

"I know."

And then she took his hand and led the way.

Oops, my baby, you woke up in my bed

Oops, we broke up, we're better off as friends

Danny leant against the hood of his car, watching the entrance of Sam's building. He checked the time on his phone; she wasn't late, yet. In a rare turn of events, he'd been early. They had been together for three months, for the second time. They hadn't cared during their first time being together, even though it was common for their classmates to go all out for three months – perhaps because three months in one relationship was a big deal when they were fourteen. Danny knew Sam still didn't think that it was an important thing to celebrate, since it wasn't a real anniversary, but Danny wanted to. He felt like going out on a fancier date. His anxieties during the first few weeks of dating had faded and now they were non-existent. He was confident in their relationship again and, to Danny, that was something to celebrate.

His head picked up as Sam appeared, in a long, tight black dress. She had a slit going up one leg. Her short hair was curled and around her face. She saw him and smiled, waving at him before she pushed open the door. Danny pulled the passenger door open so that she could take a seat.

"You're beautiful."

Sam kissed him quickly on the cheek. "Thank you."

She got in the car and he shut the door behind her, circling to take the driver's side. Once he was in, he couldn't stop looking at her.

"What?"

"I'm happy. That's all."

"Me too." Sam leant closer to him. "But, I'm also hungry and you promised me something good."

"All right, all right. I can keep that promise."

He drove with one hand on the wheel and the other holding hers.

Now I accidentally need you, I don't know what to do

Oops, baby, I love you

Sam woke up slowly, stretching and embracing the moment. Danny's bedroom was flooded with early morning light and Sam moved carefully to avoid waking him. Neither of them were morning people, usually, but Danny had been out late last night, ghost hunting with Tucker while Sam was driving down to visit. He'd come home with a couple of bruises and one scratch, which was an improvement on how he used to show up to her house. She shifted so that she was facing him, though he was flopped on his stomach, arms hidden beneath his pillow, his face pointed away from her. Sam just studied his bare back as it was exposed to her, thinking about how glad she was to be back here.

She didn't regret the decision that she had made when she was eighteen but she was glad that she'd kissed him again just over six months ago to get them started once more. She was happiest here and she was glad to know that for sure.

Unable to help herself, Sam reached out and combed her fingers through his black hair. She hadn't meant to wake him, not consciously, but he'd snorted anyway, quickly flipping over. When his sleepy eyes focused on her and recognized who she was, he closed them again, pulling her close so that his head was resting on her chest.

"Morning," he murmured.

"Good morning." Sam kissed the top of his head.

Another good morning. One of many more to come. That, she could be sure of.

I love, I love, I love you

Oh, I still love you, yeah

Now I accidentally know that you're in love with me too

Oops, baby, I love you

The song is Oops by Little Mix ft Charlie Puth.

Find me on tumblr at we-are-all-of-legend-now!

~TLL~