[Third Person POV]
As Danny stepped out of the dressing room in his new outfit, brushing a hand through his hair, something on the far rack caught his eye. A faint glint of blue and white fabric peeked out between a row of darker jackets. Curiosity tugged at him and he drifted toward it.
He reached out and pulled a white-and-blue varsity jacket from the rack, feeling the soft but sturdy fabric between his fingers. For a moment he simply held it, studying it.
"What are you—" Ember started to ask, but her words froze in her throat when Danny turned around and, without a word, stepped closer and draped the jacket over her shoulders with surprising gentleness.
"Here," he said, suddenly awkward, scratching the back of his neck. "I know I'm not exactly an expert at picking clothes for myself, but I can at least tell what looks good on you. And besides…" He shrugged weakly, "it wouldn't be fair if I was the only one who got a makeover."
Ember blinked at him, stunned for half a heartbeat—then suddenly punched him in the arm. Not hard enough to send him flying, but definitely hard enough to make him wince. She tugged the jacket properly around her shoulders, hands sliding into the pockets as she looked anywhere but at him.
"Ouch! What was that for?!" Danny yelped, rubbing his arm.
Ember's face took on a faintly different color, a warm glimmer beneath the blue, while her hair flickered erratically. "For saying something so cheesy, you brat. Now let's go before you decide to say anything else and embarrass both of us."
"It wasn't that cheesy… was it?" Danny muttered, trailing after her with a pout.
They stepped out of the shop, only for the worker behind the counter to call after them, "Thanks for your service! Come again!"
"Hmmm…" Ember murmured. She had stopped in front of a parked car, examining her reflection in the window with squinted eyes.
"What?" Danny asked, brows raising as he tried to guess what new criticism she was about to unleash.
"The jacket is definitely nice," Ember admitted slowly, "but it needs a bit more personality."
Before Danny could ask what she meant, her eyes glowed brighter, and the jacket suddenly ignited—blue flames racing across the fabric in intricate patterns. When the fire faded, a large blazing emblem in the shape of a blue flame had manifested on the back, with her name stitched boldly beneath it. Smaller matching logos shimmered into existence over both shoulders and just above the chest. Ember gave a satisfied nod and spun around once.
"So? What do you think?" she asked, smugness dripping from every word.
"That you're narcissistic," Danny replied flatly.
"Says you! You did the exact same thing to your hoodie!" Ember shot back as the two of them began walking away from the storefront.
---
A short while later, the pair were wandering through the nighttime streets of Metropolis, sharing a warm bag of roasted peanuts they'd bought from a late-night vendor. Danny tossed a peanut into the air and caught it in his mouth, while Ember just flicked hers up with a spark of blue fire for flair.
"I still don't know how I'm supposed to feel about the fact that you've actually made more songs," Danny said, sounding dramatically depressed.
Ember scoffed, crossing her arms over her newly decorated jacket. "How about happy for me? Isn't that what you wanted in the first place?" Her lip twitched, almost defensive.
"But now I can't call you a one-hit wonder anymore," Danny sighed theatrically. "That was like… eighty percent of my entertainment."
Ember, without breaking eye contact, raised her middle finger at him in the most unimpressed, deadpan way possible. Danny burst into a fit of laughter that nearly caused him to choke on a peanut.
Rolling her eyes, Ember scanned their surroundings and suddenly spotted a park across the street. Without warning she grabbed Danny by the wrist. "Come on!" she said, and without waiting she flew both of them into the air, bypassing the late-night traffic entirely.
They landed in the empty park, silent except for the faint hum of streetlights and distant cars. Danny looked around slowly.
"A park… I honestly can't remember the last time I went to one," he muttered. It felt almost surreal—the swings, the quiet space, the stillness of nighttime.
"Me either," Ember admitted as she headed straight for the swing set and plopped onto one of the seats. She looked over her shoulder at him, eyes glimmering with mischief. "Push me."
Danny shook his head in disbelief but walked behind her anyway. He incinerated the empty peanut bag with a flick of his ghostly energy, letting the ashes scatter on the wind.
"So," he said as he placed his hands on her back and started pushing, "about your songs—have you already composed them?"
Ember let her feet sway lazily, shaking her head. "Not really. I was gonna wait so we could work on them together. I tried doing it on my own with the Phoenix song but…" She grimaced. "It was boring without someone to argue with."
"Well, lucky for you," Danny grumbled, "I'm about to have a lot of free time. Considering I've been suspended…" He sighed deeply, shoulders slumping. "That is not going to look good on my record."
Ember glanced over her shoulder, her swing slowing just enough for her to catch Danny's expression. "Speaking of working on music," she said, brushing a stray blue flame-hair strand behind her ear, "how's your attempt at teleporting coming along? I know I said I'd help you, but… y'know, with everything that happened, we kinda got sidetracked."
"Oh, that?" Danny waved her concern off with a flick of his wrist. "You don't need to worry about it anymore. I already figured out how to teleport."
"WHAT?!" Ember screeched. She dug her heels into the ground, grinding to an abrupt stop. "Bullshit! You had zero talent for it!"
Danny just smirked, raising a brow. Then, without warning, he vanished. The space he occupied rippled faintly, and a fraction of a second later he reappeared standing on the swing right beside her, arms crossed smugly.
"Impressed?" he asked, leaning slightly to keep his balance.
"All you did was disappear and reappear," Ember deadpanned.
"Isn't that literally how teleporting works?" Danny fired back in the same flat tone before casually plopping down and pushing off the ground to start swinging. "And like you said before, there's different ways to teleport. I just had to find my own version."
"I still call bullshit," Ember grumbled. "All you were doing before was screaming at the top of your lungs trying to force a new power out. And now suddenly you're Mister Smooth Teleportation?"
Danny shrugged with exaggerated innocence. "Because my way is simple. I used our ghost powers of phasing, going intangible." He lifted a hand. "I phase from point A—"
He disappeared mid-sentence.
"—to point B," he finished from the swing opposite her.
He started swinging again, hands threading through the chains. "Right now I can only do it to places I can physically see. But if I train it, the range'll increase."
Ember puffed her cheeks slightly, pouting in dramatic defeat. "Great. Now that you learned to teleport on your own, how am I supposed to repay you for helping me with my music?"
Danny lifted his shoulders in a lazy shrug, gaze tilting upward toward the cloudy night sky. "I don't really mind helping you. I never did it to get paid, y'know."
Ember went still for a moment, the chains of her swing creaking softly as she slowed down. Her voice dropped, uncharacteristically quiet. "Then… why are you helping me in the first place?"
Danny hummed thoughtfully, actually giving the question a moment of genuine consideration. "Hmm. Good question." He let the silence stretch for a beat, then said, simply, "Probably because I believed there was more to you than just being a vengeful spirit."
Ember's eyes widened, flickering faintly.
Danny continued, kicking slightly to keep his swing moving. "I thought… if I helped you with your dream, maybe you wouldn't have to do bad stuff to be heard. And honestly? I'm glad I did."
Ember snorted, though it lacked its usual bite. "You just love saying the cheesiest things sometimes. You seriously can't help yourself."
Danny smirked sideways. "You know… if you really wanna repay me for all that help, you could teach me how to play the guitar. I always wanted to learn an instrument."
"Deal!" Ember said immediately, her mood kicking back into high gear as her eyes lit up with an excited glow. "Follow me!"
"Now?!" Danny yelped as she launched herself out of the swing. He jumped off after her, almost stumbling as she zoomed toward the jungle gym.
Ember climbed up the metal bars with ghostly grace and perched at the very top. She patted the spot beside her. "Better late than ever."
Danny climbed up—far less elegantly—and sat beside her. Ember summoned her guitar in a flash of blue flame and rested it across Danny's lap.
Danny held the instrument like it was a fragile puzzle, fingers fumbling hopelessly as Ember fought the urge to laugh. She scooted closer, guiding his hands into the proper positions.
She raised a brow and teased, "Come on, it shouldn't be that hard to hold a guitar. Especially for someone as great as DJ DP."
Danny let out a tortured groan loud enough to echo through the park. "Ughhhh! You're not gonna let that go, are you?"
"I'm going to haunt you with that for as long as I'm dead," Ember declared proudly, flicking her hair with smug satisfaction.
The two remained side by side, alone in the park, as Ember guided his hand and slowly taught him how to play. The two of them softly chuckling at his mistakes.
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