A/N: Yeah, yeah, I don't own Danny Phantom... but I do own my imagination! And now that that is said, onto the lame (but totally awesome) story!

The Massage

There was a knock on her balcony door. Only one person ever came by way of her balcony.

Danny.

Sam pulled off her covers and set her book facedown on her sheets, marking her page. She looked at the clock: 11:47. Late but not too late. Had he come from a ghost fight? Was he hurt?

She padded over to the windowed doors and pulled the heavy purple drapes aside. Glowing green eyes stared at her from the outside, and she smiled and waved at him. He phased in, his body becoming wisps as he advanced into her room and settled his feet on her carpet.

"Hey, Sam!" He smiled at her. Her eyes trailed his body and took in the way he held himself confidently. No scrapes, no bruises, no broken ribs; not any new injuries, at least. Good, he isn't hurt.

"Hey, Danny. What brings you to my dark abode?" she asked, her tone light with humor.

"Nothing really. I was just out doing patrol. I'm trying to stay out longer so Jazz will be asleep when I get home."

Sam laughed. "What was she trying to 'talk' to you about this time?"

"Um…" Danny couldn't tell Sam that Jazz had been asking about her. And his feelings for her.

"She was just asking about why I've been stressed so much lately. I mean, there's school, and you know we have three tests on Friday that I haven't even started studying for yet. And that's because there's been nonstop ghost attacks every day for the past week." Danny's hands flew up in the air for emphasis. "And to top it all off, Mom, Dad, and Valerie are still trying to kill and/or capture me. Even the Guys in White have shown up. I've run into them twice in the last three days!" And of course, even with all of that going on, there's Sam… he added as an afterthought.

Sam looked at him expectantly, and smirked. "Needed to get something off your chest, Danny?" she teased.

Danny smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry Sam. I guess that's why it's good that I have you, Tucker, and Jazz. I can spread out all my problems between you guys." He chuckled, but his smile dipped slightly into a frown. He ran a hand through his snow-white hair.

Sam sat on the edge of her bed and patted the spot next to her. As he sat down, she said, "Danny, I know things have been really stressful lately, but you know we'll always be here for you. To help you with your homework and all the studying. To cover for you when you need to go ghost. And we'll always be there to fight with you, against the ghosts or anything else." She wrapped her arms around him in a side hug, which Danny immediately reciprocated.

"Thanks Sam," Danny replied. He looked at her, and she saw that his expression was a little relieved. But his eyes still betrayed the stress and the exhaustion that he had been feeling lately, and she couldn't help but want to do more to alleviate his worries for him.

"I should probably go," he said, standing up from her bed. "If no ghosts are going to attack tonight, I might as well get some sleep or try to study for those tests." He ran his hand through his hair again.

It was then that Sam had a brilliant idea. "No!" she yelled, grabbing his hand to stop him from going. He looked at her with a confused expression, and she beamed at him. "I've got a better idea!"

"What?" he asked, shifting on his feet.

Sam pulled him back towards her bed, and as he sat back down she proceeded to pull up the covers on her bed. She put her book on her nightstand and then turned her attention back to Danny.

"Lay down," she commanded him, crossing her arms and looking at him determinedly.

"Okay," he cautioned, bewildered and confused. He laid back on her bed as his legs continued to dangle off the edge. Unable to keep from thinking of all the things she could possibly be planning to do with him in this position, Danny's nervousness spiked up. He swallowed. What is she doing?

Sam laughed at him. "No, clueless, you need to flip over!"

Danny turned over onto him stomach and hauled himself forward a bit so that he was more on the bed. He kept his arms under him, holding himself up with his elbows. He looked behind him to see Sam crawling up next to him on the bed.

"Get your arms out from under you and just relax," she commanded again. "And stop looking at me like that!" She laughed again, and he blushed a little before he faced forward and did what she said.

"What are you going to do?" he asked, his voice slightly muffled by the bed underneath him.

"I'm going to give you a massage. Now, try to relax."

She put her hands on his shoulders and started to lightly rub and push at his muscles. She made her way down Danny's back, trying to get a feel for the places he was most tense. Danny, on the other hand, had tensed up even more at the thought of her touching him for a long period of time, even when he reminded himself that his jumpsuit was between his skin (well, ghost-skin) and hers.

"Danny, I said relax."

He let out the breath he was holding, shuddering underneath the warmth of her hands. He was very glad now that she couldn't see his face; he was blushing at where his thoughts had been leading him. Sam started again at his shoulders, this time focusing on the various knots he had in his muscles. She pushed harder, digging her thumbs into his skin and going in tiny circles to loosen his muscles. She tried talking to him to get him to relax even more.

"Like I said Danny, just relax. Think about, oh I don't know, how good you feel after a rare solid night's sleep." Good one Manson, remind him how little sleep he gets.

"Mmmmm," Danny responded. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Think about relaxing mega-movie marathons." Yeah, there we go. "Think about… never having to catch the Box Ghost ever again."

That earned her a good chuckle from Danny. He shifted slightly, turning his head to the side and putting his hands underneath his head while his elbows stuck out on either side. She looked at his side-profile for a second as she worked on a particularly hard knot. He had a small smile on his face, his eyes closed. She took the opportune moment to study his face and the way it had changed recently. It had gotten slightly leaner from the excessive ghost fighting, making him look more like a man than a boy. His cheekbones were more pronounced, and Sam noticed a small cut along his jaw, a red angry line marking his handsome face. She quickly looked away, focusing on the knot in his back. Since when have I thought of him as handsome?

In order to distract herself from that thought, she began focusing on small miniscule details, like the size and hardness of Danny's knots, the massaging techniques she used, and the progression of each of his knots from a hard lump to a pliable, but strong, muscle. She went back and forth between a few, so she wouldn't make Danny sore in any particular spot by massaging him in one place for a long time.

Danny was hyperaware of every place Sam touched and the way the tension was slowly leaving his body. He was also aware that he was losing the hold on his ghost half, as he felt his cold core beginning to heat up a few degrees. Most of the time, he changed to his ghost half whenever he had to deal with his enemies. More often than anything, his enemies were other ghosts, but that hadn't stopped him from noticing that being in his ghost form sometimes helped him with his other 'enemies' too, like his homework. Being a halfa was sometimes a blessing; as a ghost he could blow off steam about his family life or his failing grades by taking a long flight or fighting a ghost to direct his aggression. As a human, he could deal with problems like Dash or his parents' inventions with a little help from his intangibility and other ghost powers. Of course, there were drawbacks- leading a double life was sometimes near impossible- but he wasn't sure if he still regretted the accident that had made him the way he was.

His mind flashed back to the present, Sam's hands trailing fire in their wake over his skin. As he relaxed further, he momentarily forgot his problems as they moved to the back of his mind one by one. Sam moved away from a spot near one of his shoulder blades and pushed on a thick tendon-like muscle next to his spine. He gasped and tensed up as she increased her pressure, and his cold core flared up, his body now centered in his ghost half.

Sam looked up at Danny's face again and saw his eyebrows scrunching together in pain. She immediately let up and lightly ran her hands up and down his back. "Sorry," she semi-whispered.

Danny opened his eyes and she was instantly drawn to their bright green glow in her dimly lit room. Their eyes locked for a few seconds as he studied her face.

"No, it's fine," he said, breaking his gaze from hers. As he stared off at the wall the pain was no longer evident in his face. "That spot is just kind of…" Painful. "Unpleasant."

"Should I save that for last?" she asked.

Danny seemed to think about that for a moment before he shook his head. "No, you better do it now." The painful part now, relaxing later, he reasoned in his mind. He closed his eyes again and tried to relax again, waiting for her to apply pressure once more.

Sam stopped moving her hands altogether, reluctant to start massaging him again. She hated seeing him in pain, and being the independent Goth that she was, she wanted to argue with him about his decision. He's not going to relax if he's in pain, she thought bitterly. Especially if I'm the one who is causing it.

"Sam, I'm fine," Danny retorted, knowing what she was about to say. When she didn't do anything after a few seconds, he pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked at her. "It wasn't a ghost," Danny asserted softly. "I'm just… really tense in that spot, enough that when you put pressure on it, it… it hurts a little." He looked away from her face at that last part. She knew that he rarely admitted his pain to anyone.

"Okay," she answered quietly. He glanced at her one last time before moving back into a more relaxed position. When she put her hands back on him, she could tell he had tensed up again from their short conversation, so she spent a few minutes going back over what she had already done. He relaxed again, but she could tell he was anticipating the moment she put pressure on that particular knot again.

"Sam," he muttered, an annoyed twinge to his voice.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Danny. I'm getting there," she countered. "Now shut up."

She slowly edged up to his sore knot (which she had dubbed the 'evil knot') rubbing the areas around it and getting a feel for the amount of work she would need to put into it. When she finally put pressure on it, Danny was ready. He showed no pain in his face. In fact, his eyebrows barely twitched, and Sam could have very well been imagining that. However, Sam could tell that he wasn't exactly 'relaxing' anymore either; the slight smile on his face had turned into a look of passive concentration.

After about spending five minutes on the evil knot, Sam realized she really wasn't at the best angle to properly fix it. A few nervous thoughts ran through her head, but she finally decided she cared more about Danny's well-being than her own embarrassment. She moved from her position beside him on the bed to straddle his lower back. At her actions, Danny stiffened.

"Sorry," Sam apologized. "Just needed a better angle."

Understanding her intentions, Danny relaxed again, but his mind became even more distracted by how much Sam was touching him (at least, though his jumpsuit). He momentarily forgot about the soreness in his tense muscles, and thought about what would happen if she had sat on him like that while he was facing upwards instead. He then mentally berated himself for that thought. It's never going to happen.

His mind was jerked back to the situation at hand when Sam pressed her elbow into the evil knot, working vigorously. He felt himself tense up even more in response to the pain, but he knew that his involuntary reaction wouldn't help him or Sam any. Relax, Fenton! He took in a large breath and released it in a whoosh. Suddenly, the hard knot gave out, and Sam gave a little squeak of surprise.

"Hmm," she surmised, going back to using her fingers on the evil knot (which, incidentally wasn't so evil anymore). She smoothed out a few more places in the area, and then finally moved on to work on the rest of Danny's back. Over the next twenty minutes, Sam diligently worked through all the small knots in Danny's middle and lower back. She then just took her time rubbing and massaging all of Danny's muscles one last time to get an evenness to her work.

By this point, Danny was so relaxed that he finally allowed the rings of light to wash over him, reverting him to his human half. Sam jerked in surprise as the jumpsuit underneath her hands turned into a normal cotton t-shirt, but continued on as if nothing had happened. If anything, Danny Fenton relaxed even more under her touch than Phantom did.

As she came back up to his shoulders, she noticed a few muscles were still tense there where his neck joined his shoulders. I suppose I could do his neck too, she thought. As she started to work on the base of his neck, Danny made a small sound of appreciation, and turned his head so he was facing down again. He was practically inviting her to continue on.

As she worked at each knot in his neck, Sam could see how much more Danny relaxed when she worked in this particular area. This is where all the tension is held, Sam realized. This is where all the stress and worry ends up. This is the place where his burdens affect him the most. Disregarding the 'evil knot,' (which had probably been a result of a kinked nerve from a ghost fight) Danny's neck muscles had the most amount of tension in them.

Sam decidedly spent the better part of an hour massaging his neck and shoulder regions. Every few minutes or so, Danny would make an approving noise as he exhaled. Almost unknowingly, he drifted towards sleep, Sam's hot hands the only thing really keeping him awake.

Sam moved her hands to the top of Danny's neck, at the underside of his skull, massaging him through his unkempt hair. When she was satisfied with the relaxed state of those muscles, she rubbed down and up his neck again, double-checking for anything she missed. As she neared his hairline again, she couldn't help but run her hands through his hair.

Danny made another grateful noise. "Sam," Danny mused, half-awake in a dream-like bliss, "I love you."

Danny was aware that at that moment, Sam's hands stilled in his hair. Oh crap, did I just say that out loud? Danny opened his eyes and stared at the bed beneath him, panicking in the almost-complete blackness.

"Danny, I-" Sam sounded unsure of herself. Good job, Fenton! Way to completely ruin your friendship! Of course she doesn't feel the same way. Stupid move, dude. Stupid!

"I love you too." Sam's voice rang loud and clear in her room. She sounded confident and happy, her uneasiness from before completely gone.

Danny flipped over rapidly underneath her, needing to see her violet eyes. Having steadied herself on her bed from his movements, she was now leaning very close to his face. They locked eyes for a few seconds, and those few seconds felt like an eternity as they read the emotions in the other's eyes. They both saw happiness, love, and a bit of uncertainty within those gates to the soul.

"You really… feel that way, Sam?" Danny finally asked her.

"Yes," her voice cracked, dissolving into a soft laugh. "Really."

Danny couldn't take it anymore. He reached up to caress her cheeks with his hands and pushed her falling hair behind her ears. He pulled her closer, and her eyes fluttered shut.

Their first kiss was soft and explorative, innocent of rush and intensity. As they pulled away from each other, Danny laughed, a little giddy.

"Wow," he whispered, awe creeping into his voice. "That was nothing like our fake-out make-out."

"Remind me to give you massages more often," Sam murmured, her eyes half-lidded. For once she wasn't being even the slightest bit sarcastic.

"Will you?" Danny pleaded, hope brightening his voice. "Please?"

"Oh, I'll give you more massages," Sam promised. She leaned down to capture his lips again.

After a long-overdue make-out session, Danny and Sam were content to just simply cuddle. Sam had moved to be beside Danny, laying on her back with Danny's arm under her neck. Danny was lying on his side, facing Sam, with his other arm wrapped protectively around her waist. He leaned his head down to kiss the top of her head, and smelled her hair.

"You smell good," he commented, and Sam merely laughed.

"I love you, Danny."

"Mmmmm, love you, Sam."

They sat like that for a few minutes, content with just being in each other's arms. Until Danny's ghost sense went off, and both of them shivered.

"Really?" he asked, exasperated. He sat up, and Sam quickly followed.

"It's fine," she assured, pecking him lightly on the cheek. "I should probably go to bed anyway." She looked at the clock for the first time in forever: 2:38.

"See you tomorrow?" he asked. She nodded. "I'll come pick you up and fly you to school."

"I'd love that," she affirmed, and he kissed her on the lips one last time.

Danny sighed and got off the bed before changing into his ghost form.

"Go get 'em, tiger," Sam joked, watching him from her bed.

Danny's now green eyes gleamed at her, and he smile almost menacingly at her. "I will," he threatened. But before he turned away to phase through her wall and fight the ghost, his eyes softened a bit and he whispered, "Love ya." They couldn't seem to say it enough tonight.

Danny phased back out the way he had come in so many hours ago. It was silent in her room for a moment before Sam heard his voice from outside.

"Skulker, of course. Haven't had enough of me this past week?"

"Hello, Whelp. When you weren't at your own lair I assumed you were somewhere else. Seems I guessed correctly. Now, prepare to have your pelt adorn my wall!"

Skulker the cried out in pain, and Sam assumed Danny had shot him with an ectoblast. The sounds of the fight drew away from her room, and Sam got off her bed, meaning to get ready for bed. She crossed her room to her private bathroom, and couldn't help but wonder what the next day would bring.

"Maybe more massages," she joked to herself, grinning like a maniac.

A/N: AHHH I JUST FEEL SO GIDDY!

I seriously had an awesome time writing this. I had the idea of the massage, but when I looked around to see if there was already a story similar to this one, I couldn't find anything. So I decided to write it myself! I'm actually really happy the way it turned out; I spent a lot of time on it... Yes I'm a perfectionist XD but it's for you guys!

I'm really glad that I got to explore a few of the different sides to Danny's and Sam's friendship/relationship in this story. Obviously, there's the romantic tension, but I also got to write about how Sam will always be there for Danny, how they can joke lightly between each other, and how Danny tries to protect Sam from everything, including his pain.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and review if you want! This is the part where I tell you that this is my first fanfic... I've written a few short stories before, but this is my first from the DP universe, and the first story that I'm putting online!

I already have an idea for a sequel, so if you enjoyed this, seriously (seriously) nag me.

K, thx, bye!