Danny's POV

"Jazz!" I yell running up the stairs. Our parents aren't here tonight because of some scientist convention in Illinois. "Jazz, Jazz, Jazz, Jazz!" I say repeatedly until I find her in the living room. She seems to have jumped up at my yelling and I nearly run into her on her way to find me.

"What? What's wrong is there some evil mermaid on the loose?" she asks looking around for a weapon. She grabs a Fenton umbrella, which actually is a weapon as well as an umbrella. I grab the hand that has the umbrella and take it from her.

"Calm down. There is no evil mermaid." I tell her but I can hardly contain my excitement.

"Then why are you screaming for me?" she asks confused. At this point I'm about to burst, but I contain myself for a little while longer to torture her with suspense.

"Well, I said there wasn't an evil mermaid, I didn't say there wasn't any mermaid." I say vaguely.

"Wha-you have a crush on someone?! A mermaid?! Where did you meet her? Is she nice what does she look like? What's her name? What kind of core does she have? Do you think she likes you back? Who am I kidding? Of course she likes you back! She'd be a fool not to!" Jazz says seeming almost as excited as me.

"But Jazz! It's not just a crush! It's a date!" She starts squealing like a total girl while I jump up and down with her.

There is a buzzing in my pocket, and I take out my phone to find three missed calls from mom.

"Shit." I curse under my breath before smiling and hitting accept. "Mom! I am so sorry! I was hanging out with Sam and Tuck, and I lost my phone. Turns out, it was in my bookbag the whole time." I finish smiling like a lunatic.

"Then why weren't you home in time to talk to us with Jazzy's phone Danny-boy?!" Dad asks.

"Uh... because I was looking for my phone?" I say, but it's more like a question. It's more of a 'would you rather me go home without my phone?' type question, but he doesn't seem to catch on. Mom rolls her eyes, obviously understanding what I was getting at.

"It's alright sweetie, thank you for calling us once you found it and got home." Mom tells me.

"No problem. How is the convention?" I ask.

"Oh it's wonderful. Everyone here believes in mers and I don't have to listen to people mocking our theories!" she tells me.

"That's great mom. I'm happy for you guys." I tell them.

"How are you Danny-boy?" Dad asks loudly.

"I'm fine, nothing too exciti-"

"Danny's got a girlfriend!" Jazz interrupts.

"Jazz!" I complain. "It's one date, that's not a girlfriend." I shoot her a green eyed glare, daring her to say otherwise. She puts her hands up in defense and goes back to the couch to continue reading.

"That's great Danny! Who is it? Is it that Sam girl you've been hanging out with lately?" Mom asks.

"N-no. She isn't from Shanoe." (Haha! Should I make the school's mascot a chicken, a mermaid, or a merman? Comment to let me know your thoughts. If you haven't done so yet, please look shanoe up. It will make so much more sense.)

"That's great son! What's the lucky ladies name?" He asks. Amber. I hear ocean faintly through the window.

"Amber." I tell him with a big smile. "Speaking of which, I want to get to bed soon so I can be ready for our date tomorrow. I love you guys."

"Love you to honey. Sleep well. Good luck on your date."

"Thanks mom. Night guys."

"Good night." they tell me in unison before hanging up. I sigh in relief and fall back onto the couch next to Jazz.

"How could you do that to me Jazz?" I question.

"What? Now a big sister can't be proud of her little brother for getting a date?" she retorts.

"You can be excited all you want. I'm more worried about how excited mom and dad will be when they're, you know, vivisecting us!" I yell at her and she cringes realizing her mistake.

"Oh, Danny, I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking. I was just so excited and proud. I shouldn't have done that." I sigh and pull her into a hug.

"It's okay. I know you didn't mean anything by it. I shouldn't have snapped, it's just been really stressful lately with all these mer attacks, and I didn't want anything to happen to one of the few friendly mers I've met, let alone the only girl I've had this strong of feelings for. Speaking of which, I need to figure out a way to take her out without anyone knowing she's a mermaid. I don't care that she's a mermaid, but I don't think most people would take to kindly to seeing a species that normally attacks and if mom and dad find out, which they will, they will try and hurt her." I tell her in one breath. She leads me out to the deck while we think.

"Hmm... what about a wheelchair? You could cover her tail up with a bunch of blankets and nobody would know the difference."

"Jazz! That's a great idea! Wait... where do we get a wheelchair?" I ask.

"Oh, good point."

What about this? Ocean asks while letting a giant pearl wash up on shore. This pearl will give her the ability turn human, while hiding her mer energy signal at the same time. You could turn it into a necklace.

"Thanks! That's perfect!" I tell Her excitedly.

"What's perfect?" Jazz asks. "What is that?"

"I'll explain later. I need to go see Sam." I yell behind me as I grab the pearl and run out the door.

After fifteen minutes of nonstop running, I'm standing in front of Sam's mansion that only Tuck and I know about. I walk up to the door and ring the bell. It opens up to reveal Pamela Manson, Sam's mom who has blond hair cut into a sort of bob like style. She is wearing a string of pearls on her neck that I gave her to keep her from putting a restraining order on me and Tuck. She never liked us before, but now it's like we are best friends. She is wearing a pink dress that makes her blue eyes 'pop', or at least that's what she told me the dress did.

"Danny, what are you doing here? Isn't it past your curfew?" she asks in a motherly tone.

"Yes, but this is important. Can I talk to Sam please?" I ask, eyes pleading.

"Why?" she asks, suspicious of what could be so important to break curfew.

"I need her help to make this into a necklace for a girl." I say blushing while holding out the pearl.

"That's a very large pearl Danny. Where did you get the money to buy this?"

"I didn't. I found it while I was swimming earlier. I nearly missed it and I had go back down fifteen times because I kept running out of breath before I was able to reach it."

"This girl must be really special if you went through all that trouble just to get this pearl." she says eyeing the pearl longingly. I give her a tomato faced nod. "Come with me. Sam does have some experience from me teaching her, but I used to do this professionally before I met Jeremy. I even have the perfect necklace for this. The only thing the necklace is missing is a pearl. I bought it in hopes of purchasing a large pearl such as this, but I never found one to my liking. I have no use for it, but you may. Hand me the pearl." I give it to her and she gets to work.

~~~Line Break~~~

Pamela's POV

Two hours later and I am getting close to finishing fitting the pearl, and keeping it held in place is my last task. I use a small amount of glue that I normally use for jewelry so it doesn't fall apart. Danny is passed out on the couch after having a warm cup of tea. I put a blanket on him when I realized he had dozed off.

Despite what many people think, I didn't actually hate Danny. What I didn't like was that my daughter won't spend her time with girls. After Danny gave me the necklace, however, telling me that he asked Samantha to help him make it, I realized they can be good influences as well. Not only was he getting her to use some of the things I taught her, but he was also using it to do something nice for someone else. That's when I started seeing the two troublemaking rascals who ran around with my rebel daughter, as two troublemaking sons, who loved their sister.

Quickly after, I started treating them as though they were my own children. They even have their own rooms here for if they ever need to get away. It's hard to believe that was only two weeks ago.

I sigh as I finish securing it and I put it up to dry overnight. I walk over to Danny and kiss the top of his head to wake him up.

"M-mom?" He questions sleepily.

"No sweetie, it's Pamela."

"You're more of a mom than Maddie." He mumbles but is probably too tired to realize he admitted to that.

As happy as I am that he sees me as a motherly figure to him, I can't help but be concerned with the fact that he called his mother by name.

"Come on sweetheart, you're not going back home if you're this tired. I'll call your parents and let them know that you are staying here tonight."

"They're in America." He mumbles in response. "Jazz is the only one who would notice I'm gone anyway."

"Alright, that's enough. We'll talk about this in the morning. You need some sleep." I wrap one of his arms around my neck and help him to his room. The poor boy is back asleep by the time his head hits the pillow. I rub my hand through his hair and kiss his head one more time, careful this time not to wake him, before going to my own room.

As I get ready and go to bed, I can't help but wonder why he acted like his parents didn't love him. My last thoughts before drifting off to sleep, where 'I me hope he's safe at home.'

~~~Line Break~~~

Danny's POV

I wake up to the feeling of someone gently shaking me.

"Jazz? It's too early to get up yet. You know I need to sleep as much as I can in case a mer attacks at night." I complain to whom I am assuming is my sister.

"Do they normally attack you in your sleep?" I hear Pamela Manson ask after a dramatic gasp.

My eyes widen in shock as I remember my coming here for help on making the pearl into a necklace for Ember. I turn around slowly trying to come up with an excuse for why mers would attack me.

"U-um. You weren't supposed to hear that." I tell her nervously.

"Danny, do your parents know about this." I can't help the snort that escapes. She gives me the parental look that says 'talk or else'. I sigh in resignation before telling a half truth.

"Look, mom and dad have a bad habit of leaving the portal open. They're afraid that if they close it, it won't open again. Jazz and I close it all the time, but they just open it again, going on about how mers are trying to sabotage their life's work or something. I've been hunting the mers and putting them back in A-the mer zone, but they keep getting out again. Not all of them are bad, but there are ones that like to attack innocent humans. I promise that I haven't let anyone else help me. I know it's dangerous, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if someone else got hurt. Please don't tell anyone. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz are the only ones that know." I beg.

"A-and what about last night?"

"You mean the girl? She's a mermaid. The pearl will give her the ability to change between being human, and being a mermaid. She's really nice, and pretty, and she has the most beautiful eyes." I sigh getting lost in the memory before a chuckle breaks me out of my musings.

"That's good to hear, but I meant about what you told me when I brought you up to bed."

"You're the one who brought me up? Thanks. I don't really remember though." I say rubbing the back of my neck.

"Danny," she hesitates, contemplating whether or not she should say anything. "You said that I'm more of a mom to you than yours. You also said that even if your parents were home, they wouldn't have noticed that you were gone." she informs me as I cringe. I must have been half asleep to tell her so much of the truth. I haven't even told Sam and Tucker about that. "So it's true then." She wasn't asking. My reaction to the information was answer enough.

"Look, my parents love me. I know that. The thing is, they are always so concentrated on their work that they don't even realize when the food runs out. They use mer energy to cook and I'm allergic to the form of it they use. It even brings the food to life sometimes. Jazz gets me food to hide in my room so I have something to eat and she sneaks my food onto her plate when we eat since it's safe for most people to eat. They often leave on these trips and don't tell us anything, sometimes not even leaving so much as a note. But when they are here and having family time, they are really awesome and fun to hang out with. I don't want to get them in trouble, and Jazz and I are both fine, but there are times when I can't bring myself to call them mom and dad. Instead, I just avoid calling them anything in front of them. Sometimes it's just so hard Mrs. Manson. I just don't know what to do."

I didn't mean to tell her that much, nor did I intend to have tears rolling down my eyes, but the motherly hug that Pamela gives me feels so good, and I end up crying in her arms for a long time. She rubs my back and lets me release all the feelings I've been hiding from everyone for over five years now. When I finally calm down, she takes my hands, looks me in the eyes, and mutters a few simple words that change my tears of sorrow, into tears of joy.

"Call me mom." she says. I give her one more giant hug before finally letting her go. "What do you say we go make some breakfast?" she asks me with smile on her face along with a few stray tears of her own.

"C-can we have the biscuits and gravy you made last time?" I ask pathetically.

She laughs and nods her head. I give her a wide smile and we go to the kitchen to make breakfast. She shows me how to make it and gives me pointers. We finish making breakfast together and we sit down to eat.

"T-thanks m-mom." I tell her, hesitant to actually use the name she said I could use. When she smiles brightly, seeming happy that I accepted her offer of calling her mom, I continue. "I really appreciate everything you're doing for me."

"Of course sweetheart. Anything for my son." We smile and continue eating in a comfortable silence until a certain gothic vampire comes in, hissing at the sun all the way.

"Danny? What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asks in confusion.

"Well I'm-actually that reminds me. Did you finish the necklace, mom?" Sam raises an eyebrow at this but doesn't say anything yet, deciding to watch the interaction before deciding on a course of action.

"Yes sweetheart. I left it in the other room to dry. I'll show it to you when we finish eating." mom says, rubbing my hand encouragingly.

"When did you two get all mother-son-mushy-gushy-like?" Sam questions, unable to find the right words for it.

"We had a bit of heart to heart this morning before you woke up." mom tells her.

"Which brings me back to the question of what are you doing here? How come you didn't tell me when you got here too? I was a little worried last night when you didn't call me or Tucker. Jazz ended up texting us while you were on the phone with your mom to let us know you made it back safely." She says trying to be vague.

"Oh, is that when you met this mermaid girlfriend of yours?"

"Mom!" I complain while blushing. "Today is our first date."

"Wait, she knows?!"

"What, that I hunt mers that are attacking innocent people, yeah. That was a part of our heart to heart this morning." I tell her. She nods, understanding that I left out the part about me being Phantom.

"Does that mean you're my brother now?" she asks me, seeming unimpressed.

"Awe, come on sis, you know you love me." I say giving her a big goofy grin. She chuckles and ruffles my hair.

"Unfortunately so." she responds with a sigh.

"Anyway! Yes, the reason I missed curfew last night was because I met a mermaid, and she agreed to go out with me today. I also sort of promised to take her to earth. I met her in Atlantis." I say. "I found this pearl in the ocean that can give her the ability to take on a human form." I give her a suggestive look while saying I found it in the ocean. Once again, she catches onto what I'm saying. "I came to have you make it into a necklace, but mom offered to saying she had something to use to put the pearl in."

"He fell asleep so I moved him to his room and told his sister he was going to spend the night."

"I can't believe your parents went to another convention. This has to be the fourth one since you moved here a month ago. At least it's only three days." Sam complains.

"A week, actually." I tell her.

"How did they tell you this time?" she asks

"They texted Jazz yesterday before I went on patrol." I answer casually. It really is a common occurrence.

"When did they leave?" mom asks.

"Around noon-ish the day before."

"Well you tell Jazz you are both welcome to stay here until then."

"Thanks mom. I'll let her know." I finish eating and rinse off my plate.

"By the way Danny, what were you planning on wearing on your date today?" mom questions knowingly.

"Shit." I say only to earn a slap on the back of the head from both of the girls.

"You watch your language young man. Especially around that girl."

"Yes mom."

"Shopping trip?" mom questions Sam.

"Shopping trip." Sam agrees. We both look at her like she's grown an extra head.

"What? I may not like shopping with you," she points at mom, "but I need to be there to make sure you don't buy him anything that will scare the poor girl away. What time is the date anyway?" Sam responds.

"Four." I tell her, still recovering from the shock of having Sam agree to going shopping with her mother.

"It's nine right now, so that should give us plenty of time for shopping and lunch. Just let me finish my breakfast." Sam tells us.

~~~Line Break~~~

"Ugh. How many outfits do I need?" I complain as we go into another store.

"Well if you like this girl you're going to want something to wear on other dates." Mom informs with a nod of agreement from Sam.

"Why are girls so complicated." I groan.

"You're one to talk." Sam says giving me a pointed look which gains confusion from mom.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks.

"Here, try this on." Sam says, pretending like she didn't hear.

Mom looks at me and I just shrug my shoulders in feigned ignorance. She was talking about me being half merman, while having mer hunters as parents. I sigh as I'm dragged through several more stores and end up with multiple bags from all of them.

When we get back to the house, it's already two o'clock. The girls insist on doing my hair and picking out my outfit. They actually choose an outfit that I really liked and my hair was spiked so it wouldn't fall in my eyes. All in all, I look awesome. I walk back to Fenton Works and arrive with fifteen minutes left, plenty of time to get to the meeting place.

~~~Line Break~~~

Ember's POV

"Oh Kitty! Why did I agree to go out with him? I barely know him! What if I say something that makes him mad? What if I bore him to death talking about music and video games? You know what? No. I am soooo not talking about video games. Music, food, dancing. Yeah. That's what I'll talk about." I rant before Kitty grabs my shoulders and looks me in the eyes.

"Calm down girl, you obviously like this guy since you agreed to go out with him. Just be yourself. If he doesn't like that, then he doesn't deserve you. That and I'll kick his half mer ass." Kitty grumbles the last part and I feel laughter in the waters, it's faint, and I still don't understand what it is.

It started when I first met Phantom. It was even less clear at the time, but now, I can recognise the difference between laughter and talking, even if the words are mumbled and I can't understand what it's saying. I also remember Voice (that's what I'm calling it until I know what the hell it is) groaning at something I said. At first I was scared of it, but then, I realised that Voice isn't that bad, if not slightly annoying.

"Okay, I seriously can't be the only one that hears that." I say to Kitty.

"Em, I've told you a hundred times now, there is no mumbled voice talking to us. Are you sure it's a good idea to go out tonight? Danny's pretty cool, he'd understand if you took a raincheck because you weren't feeling good."

"No. I'm fine. If I don't go tonight, I'll be a guppy and woos out. I just need to be prepared."

"Well I hope you're finished preparing because you need to meet him in two minutes."

"WHAT!" I swim as fast as I can to the meeting place and arrive three minutes late.