[Third Person Pov]
"Ughhh…"
Danny woke with a low, pained groan. The second he tried to sit up, a vicious headache pulsed behind his eyes, sharp enough to make his vision blur. He pressed the heels of both palms against them, rubbing hard, as if he could physically push the throbbing away.
"Danny!"
Several voices cried out the moment they realized he was awake. The sudden volume made him jolt, shoulders tensing.
When his vision cleared enough to focus, he found Sam, Tucker, Dick, and Ember clustered around the bed. Sam and Ember had taken opposite sides. Tucker stood near the foot, fidgeting. Dick leaned quietly against the window frame, arms crossed, watching everything with quiet intensity.
Danny's gaze drifted to Ember first. "What are you doing here?"
She floated a few inches off the floor, legs crossed, trying to look casual and failing. "I came to visit. Then I found out what happened… and I stayed to make sure you were alright."
"Right… thanks, I guess." Danny muttered the words while dragging a palm down his face, trying to organize the scattered pieces of the previous night and soothe the pain that still clung to every muscle.
Sam reached out, resting a careful hand over his. "Are you okay—"
Danny pulled away on pure instinct, the movement sharp and automatic.
A flash of hurt crossed Sam's face before she withdrew. "I see. You're still upset, huh."
He hadn't meant to flinch. The reaction had simply happened.
"No, I'm not," he said, still refusing to look at her.
A beat of silence stretched. Then, quieter, almost questioning: "Maybe… yes? I don't know!"
The pounding in his skull only made the words sharper and caused him to snap too quickly. "Of course I'm still upset! How else am I supposed to be feeling right now?!"
His face twisted. Suddenly he forced an exaggerated, ridiculously bright smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Oh, wow! My friends have been lying to me for months! They've been conspiring behind my back, keeping secrets, watching me tear myself apart without saying a single word! But hey—now I know! Problem solved! Everything's perfectly fine! Nothing to be upset about! We can all hug it out and pretend none of this ever happened! Yay! Friendship wins! Team Phantom is back together again!!"
The smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared. What remained was an eerily blank expression—forced control stretched thin.
The only thing he couldn't hide was the sickly green glow bleeding into his irises, the telltale sign that his agitation was slipping past human limits.
Everyone in the room felt it. A cold, sinking weight settled in their stomachs.
Tucker cleared his throat, trying to break the heavy silence. "Danny, I understand you're upset—"
"LIAR!"
The word ripped out of Danny as a partial Ghostly Wail. The entire room shuddered. Furniture rattled. Everyone was shoved back a step by the raw force of it.
"Don't you dare lie to me again!" Danny's fists twisted into the sheets, knuckles white. "If you truly understood, you would have told me sooner!" His voice cracked into a near-shout. "I swear to Death—if any of you tell me to calm down, or claim you understand what I'm feeling right now, I'm going to lose it!"
Ember spoke carefully, voice low and cautious. "Danny… maybe you should listen to them first."
His head snapped toward her so fast his eyes left faint neon trails in the air. "You're a part of this too?" The question carried both surprise and a fresh, sharp hurt.
Ember looked away, unable to meet his gaze.
"How long?" Danny's voice dropped into something quieter, more dangerous. "How long have you known that they knew?"
Silence.
"Answer me!"
"…From the very beginning," Ember mumbled, shrinking in on herself.
Danny let out a short, half-hearted laugh that held no humor. "Haha. You're kidding, right?"
"That was only because I told her to keep it a secret," Sam cut in quickly, trying to take the heat off Ember. Guilt sat heavy in her voice.
The admission only fed the storm building inside him.
Objects around the room began to lift. The comforter and blanket rose first, then weights, a backpack, notebooks, pencils, markers—everything floating and beginning to spin in a slow, hazardous circle above the bed. Paranormal energy crackled faintly in the air.
Danny's voice dropped into a low, somber register that somehow felt more frightening than the earlier shouting.
"You knew how much that night affected me. You were there. You saw what it did to me. You even tried to comfort me…" His glowing eyes fixed on Ember. "Was that all a lie too?"
"No—of course not! You have to believe me!" Ember's voice cracked with desperation as she floated closer, hands half-raised. "It's… it's just…"
Danny's eyes narrowed to glowing slits. "Just what?"
Ember's shoulders slumped. Color rushed into her cheeks even as her voice dropped into a soft, embarrassed whisper. "It's just that I didn't want you to get back together with Sam. That's why I didn't tell you. I know it was selfish… but I just wanted you for myself."
Danny's jaw clenched so hard the muscles jumped. "Are you serious?" The words came out through gritted teeth. "So what—were you planning on taking advantage of me while I was at my most vulnerable? Sneaking your way into my heart while I was still bleeding?"
"What?! Of course not!" Ember recoiled, genuinely startled.
Danny swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat there, the weight of everything settling heavily across his features. "That's the problem with lying and keeping secrets," he said quietly. "The trust just isn't the same afterward."
He brushed the hair out of his face with a short, bitter scoff. "Honestly… what was I even expecting? Manipulating people is kind of your thing, isn't it? I guess you can't change a ghost's nature no matter how hard you try."
Ember's expression crumpled. The color drained from her face as her throat tightened. "N-No… y-you're wrong." Her breathing turned shallow and rapid; her chest constricted. She glanced around at the others—Sam's guilty eyes, Tucker's discomfort, Dick's carefully neutral stare—and tears began to gather.
Without another word she spun, went intangible, and fled straight through the wall. Only faint, glittering trails of tears lingered in the air for a second before vanishing.
Danny knew, somewhere under the anger, that he had gone too far. He simply didn't care. The sting of betrayal still sat heavy and sharp in his chest.
"You're taking it too far—" Dick finally spoke, frowning as the levitating objects continued their slow, dangerous spiral overhead.
Danny's head snapped toward him. He stood in one fluid motion and closed the distance. "Don't you dare start, Richard." The use of the actual name was deliberate and cold. "What about you? How long have you known? From the beginning as well?"
Dick shifted uncomfortably. "No. Only recently."
"How recently, exactly?" Danny stopped directly in front of him, fists clenched at his sides.
Dick exhaled through his nose. "After you got sick from having your heart frozen. They came to Bruce wanting to get in contact with Batman."
Danny's voice dropped, guarded and almost fragile. "Were you ever planning on telling me?"
Dick didn't answer with words. He simply looked away. That was answer enough.
In a flash Danny grabbed him by the collar and slammed him back against the wall. Tears were already gathering in Danny's glowing eyes, making his voice tremble. "I don't care about Bruce or Batman knowing and keeping quiet. It's in their nature—they can't help it. But you?"
"I'm sorry," Dick said quietly, the sincerity clear on his face.
Danny wasn't looking at him. His head was bowed, expression hidden. "You know… for some reason your betrayal hurts the worst of all. I thought of you as a brother. I thought if there was anyone in this world who would understand me best—who would have my back no matter what—it would be you."
His grip tightened. "That night in the kitchen, when I opened up to you… did that mean nothing? You knew damn well it wasn't only my parents and sister I was mourning. I was mourning my relationship with Sam too. You knew that… and you still chose to stay quiet!"
Danny slowly released him. His entire body was trembling with the force of the emotion still ripping through him.
"Danny…" Sam's voice was thick as she stepped forward and laid a hand on his shoulder. A faint, suppressed sob escaped her once she saw the tears streaming down his cheek and dripping down his chin.
"Don't touch me!" He jerked away as if burned.
Anger flooded back into his face. He turned and started walking, putting distance between himself and all of them. "So much for being partners…" he growled under his breath. He yanked the door open hard enough that the hinges protested. "You can't trust anyone in this goddamn forsaken house!"
The door slammed with the full force of his strength. Wood splintered and the entire frame crumbled into pieces, revealing the wrecked room behind him as every floating object finally crashed to the floor in a chaotic cascade.
Danny paused only long enough to click his tongue at the damage, then wiped roughly at his eyes and kept walking without looking back.
Dick calmly straightened his collar, stepped carefully over the debris, and spoke in a voice that carried no room for argument.
"Fix it."
It wasn't a suggestion.
It wasn't even a command.
It was a quiet, unmistakable threat.
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