New Beginnings

Death Days Aftermath

The next morning, it took Danny over an hour to find Fire and when he did, he felt his heart clench.

The wolf girl was curled up into a ball. Some of her fur looked like it'd been ripped out and dried blood on the few patches only solidified that thought. It looked like she'd intentionally messed it all up too because none of it was smooth. Her ears were scratched up and he could see new scars beginning to form on them. Golden claws were stained with red and tear tracks made visible trails down her face. Even now, in her sleep, Fire looked angry and mildly upset with her muscles tensed and jaw locked, lip curling up into a slight snarl.

Giving the wolf girl a sad look, he touched her arm and teleported them home, appearing in his room and laying her down on the bed. He got a few things from the bathroom and cleaned her up the best he could, wincing when Fire whimpered and growled in her sleep.

When he finally got her as cleaned up as possible, he went to the bathroom and washed the medical supplies he used before going back into his room. He paused when he saw Phantom standing there, his net shirt and vest discarded and revealing the scars on his back. Not as bad as Fire, thank whatever god existed out there, but it still always made Danny's heart hurt to see the multitude of cuts and electrical burns, along with white dots in random places that looked like cigarette burns. Phantom looked over his shoulder only to see Danny standing there with tears gathering in his eyes and gave him a small smile.

"Don't give me that look, it could have always been worse."

"I could have gotten there sooner, you didn't have to stay there for a month to go through with this," Danny said, walking closer. Phantom lowered his head,

"This is nothing compared to what Fire went through..."

"Yeah, what did you say to her to make her like that?" Danny asked. Phantom sighed, eyes swimming with guilt.

Fire groaned in her sleep, turning her back to them and snuggling into the pillows. Her tail flicked and laid across her thigh as she sighed lightly, muscles finally relaxing.

"I...I told her that I couldn't allow her to hurt anyone. With her snapping like that so easily, the first thought in my mind was..."

Danny sighed, "You didn't think that maybe that's why she was trying to avoid the town?"

Phantom bit his lip, "I'm sorry."

Danny shook his head, "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," he tilted his head, "you knew it was her death day, didn't you?"

"I had suspected, I wasn't sure until she snapped at me when I brought it up," Phantom admitted.

He continued to get undressed, wearing nothing but his boxers as he riffled through the drawer that was reserved for him. The bottom of one leg raised up as he bent over and Danny squeezed his eyes shut, turning his head away.

"I also told her what they had done to me," Phantom said very low. He didn't have to say what he meant by that. 

The wolf girl shifted again, slowly starting to wake up, just listening to the boys in the room talk.

Danny clenched his fists, still refusing to look at the other male, "I should have come sooner..." he started shutting down again, Phantom's guilt feeding his own and causing the pain to be too much. They were guilty about two completely different reasons, but the effect on Danny was the same. Fire shuttered lightly, quickly feeding off the guilt in the air to help relieve the stress. She curled in on herself more, left over emotions from the day before still crippling her a little.

Danny felt warm arms wrap around him and opened his now dull eyes, Phantom giving him a comforting smile. He pulled the raven closer to him and rested his chin on Danny's head.