Love Lost in Time

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:28:01 +0000

Why did Clockwork feel so differently about him all of the sudden?

Every time he brought up the sheer topic with himself, Clockwork was forced to look upon all the bad the twenty four year old ghost villain had brought upon the world. Where could he begin? Where could anyone who had been cursed to live in a time Dan Phantom did begin?
It had all began at the age of fourteen, possibly more or less. Sure, Clockwork knew the exact time, but he liked to act as if he didn’t so it seemed as if he didn’t know the event as well as he actually did. At this age, little Daniel Fenton lost his friends and family in a deadly explosion at a local fast food joint. Even as it was, it still tore apart Clockwork’s eternal soul to see that very event. But, alas, the event was now permanently burned into his time line. There was nothing him or anyone else could do the erase it; it would haunt him always and forever.
Devastated by his losses, Danny looked for someone, anyone he could turn to, someone who would understand exactly how he felt. There were seldom many people the young ghost knew who had suffered so many losses, but still held strong. So eventually, the young half ghost was forced to turn to his mortal enemy Vlad Masters, also known as Plasmius when in ghost form, to support him through his suffering. A surprise to anyone’s first assumption, Vlad accepted, allowing Danny to join him in his mansion.
One day, Danny came to the conclusion that his ghost powers were to blame for the deaths of his loved ones. He thought that without them, no one would have ever gotten harmed. With this conclusion suction-cupped into his mind, Danny looked upon Vlad for assistance. He asked Vlad to help him remove his ghost half, a decision which would be the beginning of the end for all others.
Just like before, Vlad accepted willingly and so, Vlad proceeded to rip apart Daniel’s ghost and human sides from each other which an ancient artifact known as the Ghost Gauntlets. However, once Danny’s ghost half was free from his human side, it only felt the negative emotions weighing him down; anger, sadness, fear, guilt… As so, he revolted against these feelings, taking them out on the nearest living soul, Vladimir Masters.
Daniel’s ghost side violently assaulted Vlad, who was unprepared for such an event and therefore was unable to retort. With sharp shadowed claws, Daniel did what first came to mind, and so he savagely ripped Vlad’s ghost side from his human body.
Now that both ghost sides were free, they were able to do as they pleased. With this, Danny’s ghost side forcefully merged with the other. Danny and Plasmius become one being. He retained Danny’s negative emotions and the will to hide or sate them and Plasmius’ heart of pitch black. The combination created a dangerous predator of pure evil known as Dan Phantom, Dark Danny, Dan Plasmius, you pick your favorite.
His body, now fueled by a powerful sense of hate and pure evil, immediately proceeded to fill the void where friendship once lay dominant. So he turned upon his human side, Danny, and slayed him with a mighty and vile slash to the stomach. He savored the feeling of watching a life fade to black. Dan Phantom turned to smite the other half of his former self, but Vlad was long since gone. No matter, there were still many other living should he could torment to occupy the void in his soul and the lust for bloodshed.
So he began his reign of terror. He scarred many ghosts and humans for life, both physically and mentally. He stole away many innocent lives. He annihilated his home town, creating a wild blaze which would raze the city forever. All cowered in fear at even the sheer mentioning of his name. For ten years did all live in fear and terror, worried when Dan would arrive to tear their hears from their chests and fill his never-ending hunger for the bloodshed of the innocents.
There wasn’t a single soul, man nor ghost, that Dan Phantom ever spared. Clockwork had just barely managed to guide young Daniel in defeating the shadow of his future. He now held this horrifying villain in his own dark confines, a location of the ghost zone none could ever wish to locate.
Clockwork was no exception to Dan’s wrath. Quite the contrary, Dan Phantom was always very harsh on Clockwork, claiming he should stop meddling with time and let these events pass unaltered. But meddling was what Clockwork did best.
If all of this was true, that Dan Phantom was so vile, heartless, and cruel, then why did Clockwork feel this way?
When Clockwork had first brought the thermos Dan was trapped in back to his lair, it had been nothing but endless grouching. Now, Clockwork knew that being stuffed in an airtight thermos was no ghost’s picture of fun, but Dan Phantom took complaining to an all new level. He would constantly complain about being trapped in that thermos. It was twenty four hour, day in day out whining. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. Clockwork soon found that he couldn’t even watch the events of his time line he had seen hundred of time in peace.
Dan’s complaining was very irksome to listen to. Now, that’s not to say that complaining is ever enjoyable to listen to, Clockwork was definitely NOT supporting that theory. But rather, if Clockwork was given a choice of who he could listen to complain, it would be anyone besides Dan.
Now, when Dan complained, he was not subtle about it. He didn’t beat around the bush or try to work up to the point. He simply chose who or what he had an issue with and got straight to the point. Another issue with Dan’s method of complaining was his overall aggression and anger. You see, Dan liked to make sure you had it nailed in your heart just to what degree he hated you, which was in almost any given case quite a lot. And Dan let his foul language do the talking. Clockwork quickly learned that Dan Phantom had a very wide vocabulary of swear words. He had a vulgar term for every given occasion, no matter how invalid, and Dan wasn’t shy about using them. When it came to complaining, you could find out just how royally you ticked Dan off by taking the average number of swears per sentence and multiplying it times ten, making the number you get at the end your percent. Well, Clockwork had once reached the number one hundred and thirty (aka 130%) before.
It was a very good thing that Clockwork didn’t need to sleep, because it wouldn’t have been physically possible. He was about to give up doing anything, even his quiet time looking upon event on his time line.
Luckily, Dan Phantom eventually decided to give up in his senseless complaining when he wasn’t getting any sort of response from Clockwork. It happened pretty suddenly too. Literally, one day Clockwork wandered into the room where the thermos was being hold to find it was completely silent in there, just like that. There was no irksome yelling, and the thermos wasn’t shaking as it usually did. Complete silent haunted over the room like a looming shadow.
For a moment, fear raced over Clockwork; he was scared that Dan had, by some power in the universe, figured out a way to escape from the thermos. Panic rushed over Clockwork at such a thought. Had Dan finally figured out a way to escape?
With haste, Clockwork proceed to check out the thermos for any inhabitants. He blew across the room, not caring what he brushed against or knocked over as long as he made it to the thermos as quickly as possible. When Clockwork finally reached the thermos and gazed curiously into it, his beating heart was put at rest. It was not before he timidly yelped out, “Dan!?”
Dan Phantom was still curled up inside the tiny space inside the thermos. It couldn’t have been as comfortable as he was making it appear, as there was seldom any space for the ghost villain to sit in. He was leaning quietly against the back of the thermos, his feet curled up in front of him since there wasn’t enough room inside to stretch out. He had his hands resting placidly on his knees. Dan was simply just sitting there like that, staring blankly into space. He would blink occasionally, but nothing further. Either Dan was deep in thought, or completely zoned out. Silently, Dan looked up upon Clockwork and spitefully muttered, “What?” He then slightly readjusted his query to, “What did I do now?”
Despite the hostility that had been directed at him, Clockwork still sighed in relief. Luckily, Dan Phantom was still trapped within the confines of the thermos. Sheepishly, Clockwork began to say, “My apologies… It was rather quiet in this room, so I was worried–”
“You were worried I had managed to escape, right?” Dan cut off Clockwork, finishing his sentence with a huff of arrogance. “I have given up on my escape for now, Clockwork. I have moved on to simply thinking. Would you like me to go back to screaming various swears at you, because I can do that?”
“No.” Clockwork shook his head, recognizing sarcasm when he heard it. “Your silence is quite fine; I actually prefer it. Do whatever you would like.” Pretending to be exhibiting a sense of authority to set in his place as the alpha male, Clockwork added with another huff, “At least now I can watch my time line in peace and quiet. It will be a nice change.”
Clockwork then wandered away from the thermos, leaving Dan Phantom stuck by his lonesome inside. Honestly, this was just his way of ending an awkward conversation. Dan simply silently watched as Clockwork wandered off, his eyes trailing Clockwork’s movements across the room. The time line was in Dan’s line of sight, so he could watch Clockwork as he examined the time line quietly.
That marked the end of Dan’s endless complaining. Endless became ended and the end was well coveted. Now, Dan would spend every passing day sitting very quietly in the thermos. He would stare passively upon Clockwork’s robed figure as he stood in front of the time line, watching events pass by. When Clockwork wasn’t in his line of sight, Dan would stare at the motionless time line as if something were going to happen any time soon. The time line wasn’t activated when Clockwork wasn’t around, but Dan Phantom found he still enjoyed watching the time line anyways. Eventually, Clockwork would return to his time line again. He spent long period of time observing the time line. He would again memorize events he already knew by heart.
However, Clockwork was mostly just mystified by Dan Phantom’s long lasting streak of silence. Dan had just struck Clockwork as the type of person who always liked to flaunt himself. It just didn’t seem normal for Dan to sit there so quietly. Clockwork noted the patterns Dan followed. When Clockwork wandered in, Dan would follow his every move. When Dan Phantom was under the impression that Clockwork wasn’t in the room, he stared at the unchanging time line.
What appeared to be a few weeks passed before Dan’s pattern of complete silence was broken. Appeared was an understand, as being the ghost of time meant Clockwork knew every single time by heart, right down to the nanosecond. This was no exception; the amount of time Dan had gone without talking was exactly three weeks, five days, nineteen hours, thirty seven minutes, and forty one seconds. Like he said, Clockwork was never off, not event by a nanosecond. It was point eighty five nanoseconds in this case, just in case you were interested.
At that very moment in time, Dan Phantom leaned forward in his cramped space and said for the first time in quite a while, “Hey Clockwork!”
When Dan called out, Clockwork had just entered the room. It was clear Dan had been waiting for him to enter. Clockwork had just come to collect his time staff which he had so foolishly left in the room when Dan interrupted his train of thought as he walked into the room.
At the sound of Dan Phantom’s deep voice, Clockwork threw a glance over at the thermos. He saw Dan’s hands plastered against the side of the thermos, hopeful eyes upon him. Picking up his time staff, Clockwork then inquired upon Dan, “How can I be of assistance, Dan?” Whatever he wanted, it must have been pretty important if Dan was willing to cut his silent streak short to ask it.
“Can I come out of here?” Dan Phantom inquired innocently. Like usual, Dan was very straightforward in his question.
Instead of actually answering his question in any verbal method, Clockwork simply threw Dan a glaring expression, which pretty much gave his opinion. He continued not to speak, simply switched his time staff to the other hand and left the room.
This then marked the start of a new phase of Dan’s that Clockwork liked to call incessant begging. Just when Clockwork thought there could be nothing more irritating then listening to Dan complain, he found the one thing that was worse, it was listening to Dan beg. If you thought it sounded annoying the way Dan’s complaining was described, then we fear to inform you that you haven’t heard anything yet.
Dan Phantom’s begging… how does one go about describing it? It might be best to begin at the same place that the previous topic was started at. When Dan begged for something, he straight up told you what he wanted. He didn’t try to convince you in favor of his side or makes promises with you. In fact, other then asking the first time, Dan made a habit of making certain he never asked again. From there on out, he simply told Clockwork what he wanted. Now, Clockwork knew it would probably be a smart idea to just simply leave the room and let Dan wear himself out. However, for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to leave Dan all alone. So Clockwork would allow himself to listen to Dan’s begging every day of his life.
Dan would stake out the room, waiting for the second even a fraction of the time staff or Clockwork’s cloak would enter the room. When it did, Dan immediately launched into a planned begging spiel about being let out of the thermos. Unlike with his complaining, Dan never gave up with his begging. He was set in stone to get his way. He was such a persistent little bugger about the topic.
Clockwork gave Dan exactly two months, three weeks, four days, five hours, six minutes, seven seconds, and point eight nanoseconds. He counted all of that time and Dan wasn’t letting up with his begging by even a smidgen.
Another day spurned and Dan Phantom was still going as strong as ever. Clockwork entered the room to check his time line for improper fluctuations or out of the ordinary branches. Even one little tremble could be a major event. Three quivers instead of four could be the destruction of an entire country! So you can see how important it is for Clockwork to monitor these events so closely. This was impossible to do with Dan.
As Clockwork entered the room, Dan perked up at the sight of him. It was amazing the overall speed and swiftness that Dan used when honing in on Clockwork’s presence in the room. Hardly a second passed before Dan pressed himself against the side of the thermos and called, “Hey Clockwork! Let me out of this thermos! The heat in here is disgusting!” He knocked against the side of the thermos repeatedly, saying again and again, “Let me out! Let me out! I hate it in here! Let me out, Clockwork! Please, please, please, please, c’mon Clockwork, please!”
Even though Clockwork would have loved to let Dan out of the thermos so he would be quiet, he knew that would probably have catastrophic results. So he pulled up the bottom of his cloak, tore off a couple of small pieces, and threw his torn robe back down. He then pushed his hood side just enough to force the torn material in his ears.
For a while, the torn robe materials shoved deep in Clockwork’s ears did exactly what he wanted it do. Dan Phantom’s begging fell in defeat to the amazing sound blocking properties of the material. For the first time in a while, Clockwork was at peace with himself, able to watch his time line without Dan’s voice playing the role of background noise. Unfortunately, his theory only worked for a while. Dan eventually caught on to what Clockwork was up to. Once he noticed this, Dan started screaming his requests boisterously.
Once Dan started screeching his requests, there was nothing in this world that Clockwork could do to blur it out. There wasn’t enough material in the world. He even tried replugging his ears with many different materials, but Dan’s voice was astronomically loud. The ghostly wail ability tuned up his volume tenfold. Nothing could block out Dan’s screaming at his maximum volume.
Clockwork was attempting to watch the bypassing events of the time line, but it was pretty much impossible to concentrate on anything with all the noise in the background. “Dan Phantom!” Clockwork bellowed loudly. “Does your release from the thermos absolutely mean that much to you?”
For the first time in quite a while, Dan spoke in a calm, quiet tone of voice. He responded with a nod, “It means more to me then you could think.” Creepily, Dan smirked a trifle.
Clockwork’s eyes narrowed to fine slits upon Dan Phantom’s smirk. “I’d love to let you out. I can only imagine how much it must suck to be stuck inside such a small thermos. But I don’t feel I can fully trust you.” He lowered his time staff by just a little bit, before adding to his lecture, “I would like you to give me a valid reason for your release. How do I know you won’t try to escape?”
“Dear Clockwork, where could I hope to go? We are in an unknown zone of the ghost realm.” Dan replied cunningly, speaking in a suave, gentle, and soothing tone of voice as he did so. “I wouldn’t know where to go if I tried to escape. I would get horribly lost. I just wish to stretch my limbs.”
Silence haunted the room as Clockwork thought about whether or not to let him out. All he had done this entire time was suffer through annoying antic after another with Dan. Dan had done or said nothing nice for Clockwork. Yet, he felt some mercy for the ghost villain. This was the moment in time when Clockwork began to change his mind about Dan Phantom. His voice was so tender and soothing. Clockwork knew he never watched his time line this many times in one period of time this length before in his life. What could be the worst Dan possible could do? Without control over time, he couldn’t abuse the powers. If he tried to flee, Clockwork would only have to freeze time. Only Clockwork knew how to get out of this area of the ghost realm. Nobody could even hope to idle a guess.
Did Clockwork really believe all of this? Or… was it possible that Clockwork was just making up convincing sounding excuses? Was it just something to tell the Observants if he was caught?
It took him a while, a lot of thinking, but Clockwork eventually responded to the eagerly awaiting ghost, “Oh, alright. I guess it couldn’t hurt for a while. But you better not ruin anything in my lair or try anything funny or I’ll shove you back into the thermos till death do you part.”
Rather innocently, Dan replied, “Oh no, I wouldn’t dare.” He threw Clockwork a devious smile, strangely tracing his finger across the side of the thermos very slowly and carefully as he did.
Clockwork wandered towards the thermos slowly, but pureposefully. Dan Phantom’s figure excitedly awaited his freedom. Once he reached the thermos, he picked it up very cautiously. Clockwork had never been in a thermos before, but he didn’t want to shake Dan up, just in case he could feel every little motion of the thermos as it was caused. Shock rushed throughout Dan as he felt the shaking and motion of the thermos. Was Clockwork finally gonna do it? Had all of this incessant begging finally paid off? Dan Phantom peered out of his plastic prison as Clockwork carried it across his lair. He couldn’t believe that the little time obsessed weasel had fallen for his cheeky act. He was inches from being released. Any minute now freedom would be his, and there would be nothing that little Clockwork could ever wish to do about it. It would always be his fault, his burden to bear, forever.

Eventually, Clockwork had reached his chosen destination, a rather wide open area of his lair. Something inside of him told him that it would be in his best interest if he released Dan somewhere out in the open in case he had some sort of awkward build up of energy and it was released suddenly upon his escape, sending him into an excited frenzy that, in a more crowded room, could cause a mess Clockwork did not want to be bothered with cleaning up.

He rested his hand gently on the cap of the thermos, stopping to gather his thoughts. After all, even he released what he was doing and how idiotic is may sound. A general feeling of sheepishness and nervousness washed slowly over him as he thought about the releasing of Dan. He couldn’t help but to worry his mind one more time; was this really such an intelligent idea? Quickly, Clockwork shook his head. He just had to do it already, like ripping off a bandage. Given the chance to think about it, Clockwork knew this was what he wanted to do. He took hold of the side of the thermos, knowing that with a single twist of the wrist the thermos would be set to release. The very threshold keeping Dan trapped inside would be broken and there would be no turning back from there on out.

Heaving another heavy sigh, for this was difficult for poor Clockwork, he proceeded to turn the cap. With a swift flick of the wrist, he turned the dial, and the thermos released an evident clicking sound. The word ‘release’ was now displayed in an obvious shining green.

Oddly enough, upon that event, nothing happened, nothing at all. Clockwork continued to hold the thermos questionably in his hands, waiting for Dan to come flying out. He hadn’t and Clockwork had to wonder why. The thermos was obviously unlocked; he could see the words release on the dial. If that was so, why hadn’t Dan come flying out? It was what he so badly wished for after all. The thermos sat silently in his hands, unmoving.

Unsure what to think of Dan’s failure to come out, Clockwork decided to investigate. He gaped curiously into the small opening of the thermos. What, had Dan just mysterious died in there? It was pitch black, unfortunately, black like the darkest of nights. He couldn’t see a single thing in there, not a single breathing soul.

Tilting his head to the side just a trifle, Clockwork attempted to further examine the reason behind the failure for anything to happen. Therefore, he inquired questionably upon the possible inhabitant of the thermos, “Err… Dan Phantom? Are you still in there? I unlocked the thermos, you know that, don’t you? You didn’t spontaneously die, did you?”

Initially, there was absolutely no change between the previous lack of activity inside the thermos and the current. At this point, Clockwork was not entirely sure what to do about this. Then, to his pleasure, there was a light tremble erupting from the thermos. It wasn’t much, but it now signified some sort of activity were happening. He gazed upon the thermos, an unsure expression swimming through his eyes. Suddenly, the trembles began to grow more violent and were growing at a prominent rate. Fright stole over Clockwork at this sudden increase in activity. It grew so violent with its trembling that Clockwork found he couldn’t even hold the thing anymore. Terror taking command of Clockwork’s muscles, he abruptly threw away the thermos across the room as quickly as possible.

That was when some sort of mysterious, violent force inside the thermos immediately forced it from the air, straight into the ground. The thermos flew downwards as something— or rather someone— came shooting out of the opening.

Finally penetrating from the darkest depths of the thermos was none other then Dan Phantom. His visage was terrifying, quite a sight to behold. Upon this, Clockwork was badly startled and thereupon timidly stepped away from Dan.

Now, at this point, you’re probably wondering how anything could startle the very controller of time. It was a true and intelligent question, Clockwork knew and saw all, after all. However, Dan escaping from the thermos was an event that was never to be written into the time line. By letting Dan out, Clockwork knew the degree to which he just royally messed up the entire time line. He could imagine that at this very moment in time, the time line was vibrating violently, trying to adapt to this awkward event. It could take the poor thing anywhere from a few days to several weeks to get itself back on track with the course of history. Until that happened, Clockwork was forced to admit that he had no clue as to how any of this would play out. This event was a large question mark and in some ways, it made him feel uneasy.

Dan levitated boldly in the air in front of Clockwork, probably a good fifteen feet or so off the ground. As of this moment in time, Dan was not facing Clockwork and therefore his back was to the astonished ghost of time. However, Clockwork didn’t bother to move in front of him to see him face to face, because he figured the ghost villain would position himself that way in due time.

However, as Dan Phantom threw his arms suddenly into the air, starting to launch into an obviously planned speech, worry began to take claim of Clockwork. So loudly, Dan declared, “Ahahaha!! I’m finally free from that infernal thermos! Now, I have the freedom too…” Failing to finish his sentence, Dan’s voice trailed off.

It was then Dan glanced over his shoulder at the figure of Clockwork behind him in complete silence. His eyes scanned over Clockwork’s figure whereas Clockwork’s piercing red eyes were narrowed in towards Dan’s. An awkward feeling of being unsure began to wash over Dan. Silently, he once more scanned Clockwork’s every feature. He gazed upon the deep purple robe, the beautiful time staff, his long and curly aqua-green tail. Suddenly, an odd feeling of remorse washed over Dan Phantom. At that moment, he no longer felt lie taking advantage of Clockwork. Thus, he didn’t.

Clockwork watched as Dan chose to land on the ground silently, decided against finishing his previous statement. Upon landing, Clockwork realized that Dan was a trifle taller then Clockwork’s current form, which was his adult form. Only in his elder form would he be taller then Dan, and not by much either. Not seeing the ghost in his true form for quite some time meant Clockwork had begun to forget just how tall he really was. It truly was amazing how quickly height is forgotten. His eyes scanned upon Dan’s obvious, dashing figure. He quickly hid a blush, for he realized he actually thought Dan to be an attractive ghost. He noted how handsome the black and white clothing was on him. It really made him stand out and that went double for the spiked letter D on the chest. He couldn’t help but love the way the also black and white cape curled with a degree of poise around Dan’s figure and form. Nevertheless, what Clockwork found to be the most appealing about Dan wasn’t the clothing or the accessories, but rather the wild, flaming white hair. Clockwork had to admit, he really was jealous of Dan’s amazing flaming hair. Clockwork had never had much luck with the whole hair deal.

Despite all these thoughts forming a twister deep within his head, Clockwork held strong to an amazingly emotionless gaze upon Dan Phantom as his feet made contact with the ground below, done so with such poise. At this moment, he didn’t want Dan to suspect even a miniscule thing about Clockwork’s true feelings for him. He wanted to keep his emotions under a metaphorical mask, forever hidden from Dan.

Feeling a little uneasy around Clockwork’s prominently disapproving glare, Dan decided to distract his mind, thus he silently ran his finger tips across one another. “Uhh…” muttered Dan nervously, busting a hole in the silence. He proceeded to finish his earlier statement in a different fashion. “I am now free to bend my legs as I please. It’s uh… very cramped in that thermos, you know?”

“I don’t know, actually. But so I see.” Clockwork muttered quietly in response, trying to show minimal interest in what Dan was saying.

Dan was unsure of how exactly he was supposed to respond to Clockwork’s simple comment. Honestly, he had expected more of an answer then that. He certainly wasn’t expecting this. “Oh…” Failing to think of anything creative to say after this single word, Dan simply turned away from Clockwork and quietly wandered across the room as if he were no longer interested anyways.

Things were never the same from that moment. Dan soon got over the awkwardness and went back to his previous boisterous ways. He abused the freedom to the greatest degree; though not in a world domination sort of way, more so an act like a maniac way. He was like a young child from there on out. Every waking moment of his life— which was every moment since he didn’t need sleep— he flew excitedly across the room. He blew from corner to corner, wall to wall, investigating every little thing, important or not, as if it were of the utmost urgency. Even in his child form, Clockwork still felt as if he were a thousand times more mature then Dan was acting. From what Clockwork noticed, Dan appeared bound and determined to explore and therefore ruin every square inch of Clockwork’s lair and upon finishing, do it all over again, just in case he missed anything. To be honest, it made Clockwork feel a different degree of uneasy around Dan.

Even though it hadn’t happened yet, much to Clockwork’s surprise, he knew for a fact that sooner or later, Dan was going to end up breaking something in his lair and when that happened, Clockwork was going to strangle his neck. He feared what would be broken first, always worrying it would be something incredibly important just because Murphy’s Law worked that way. Dan was acting like a preschooler and Clockwork’s lair was definitely NOT a playground.

Today was no different from any other. Clockwork’s eyes flickered back and forth across the room as Dan remained so ever persistently on the move. Though Clockwork always figured that upon being released from the thermos, Dan would have, to a degree, some sort of pent up energy, never in his life had he ever figured it would last this long. In fact, if Clockwork had known it was going to last this longer, pester him for such an incessantly long period of time, he would have released Dan in a dark empty room and left him in there until he calmed down rather then right on the middle of his lair. Dan sped with this boundless energy for an unbearable two weeks, six says, eighteen hours, fifty one minutes, and fourteen seconds. Even after all that time, Dan was still going strong with these boosts of energy. It was almost as if Dan got hyped up on caffeine while inside that thermos. Sometimes, Clockwork had to wonder…

Possibly, Dan might stop if Clockwork yelled at him or asked him to stop. Dan seemed to be half decent at doing what Clockwork asked, even if not quite in the manner he asked. However, the only words that ever came out of Clockwork’s mouth that were directly focused on Dan would be something a bit more easygoing like, ‘Please be very careful with that.’ or maybe, ‘Please calm yourself around such an item.’ He never made a true request for placidity or a more forceful demand on the topic.

So then the question arouse as to why Clockwork hadn’t yelled at Dan yet, considering the degree to which this was pestering him in every format. It wasn’t because he was a naturally timid or gentle person. No, Clockwork was quite fine with yelling at people. He used to yell at young Danny Fenton all the time before he stopped coming to Clockwork for all his problems. If he had a nickle for every time he yelled… No… it wasn’t that at all. Actually, it was just because he couldn’t bring himself to yell at Dan. He didn’t have the heart to do it.

Due to this, he would simply allow Dan to gallivant around his lair acting like a little child for much longer then he probably should have gotten away with. Every time Clockwork would convince himself to yell at Dan, every time he approached Dan to yell at him to calm down, his heart would burn and he would stop himself.

This didn’t last forever, but it did take Clockwork a quite monumental period of time to build up the guts to finally yell at Dan for his aggravating antics. He was always scared that if he yelled at Dan Phantom that it would cause something to tick inside Dan’s heart and that the ghost villain would never again want even the smallest of thing to do with Clockwork. Though he was still unsure if Dan had any real feelings for Clockwork as he held for Dan, he still wasn’t willing to test that theory and possibly lose the chance to have Dan forever.

This awkwardness and inability to stand up all changed one day when Dan Phantom started moving dangerously close to Clockwork’s time line, something he hadn’t yet explored. Clockwork was very protective over his precious time line, as it was very dear to him, one of his most prized possessions. He grew very tense about what Dan would do to it. Every time Dan would get too close to it, Clockwork shuddered tensely. When would Dan’s curiosity entice him to check out the time line?

That very question was answered for him this faithful day— faithful being a somewhat poor choice of words— when Dan came to a sudden stop in the middle of the room and his eyes almost immediately darted in the general direction of the time line, focusing in on the curious object. Interested by it, Dan abruptly changed course so that he could investigate. He began to speed rapidly towards the time line, top speeds blazing. This was the moment in time when fear stole over Clockwork, his heart rapidly skipping a beat or two.

Was Dan actually gonna touch it? Clockwork had always known Dan’s fantastical interest in the temporal relic; but would he go so far as to touch it? He was now levitating only a few inches off the ground directly in front of the time line. Clockwork grew tense. He then chose to reach out a single gloved hand in the direction of the time line.

He was mere inches away from placing his grubby, mangy hands upon the time line. He was about to lay a finger on it. This was that fateful moment when Clockwork finally built up the willpower to yell at Dan for his antics. He was now directly delivered the very excuse that he required to bypass his previous excuse and get Dan in trouble. Thereupon, he yelled loudly, “Touch that time line and I will slice your head clean off your neck with my scythe!” Clockwork knew for a fact he had a scythe somewhere around his lair and he would go find it if he had to.

Upon hearing the sound of Clockwork’s voice, especially how forceful and demanding it was, which was not something Dan was used to hearing out of Clockwork, he was immediately frozen in his tracks. Dan gazed over his shoulder, ceasing his course to touch the time line. His eyes caught Clockwork, who seemed vastly unamused, for an obvious reason.

Clockwork was shocked as Dan turned around entirely to face Dan and proudly admitted, “I was wondering how many things I would have to break, ruin, or otherwise at least touch before you would yell at me.” Dan smirked deviously, throwing this flash of a smile upon Clockwork. “I must admit, you lasted longer then I thought you would.”

With a loud, proclaiming huff and further narrowing of the eyes, Clockwork then proceeded to ask, “Why do you test me so, Dan Phantom?”

Upon hearing this query, Dan once again smirked, this time to himself, rather then directed at Clockwork. Dan took a step closer to Clockwork, who didn’t move in any way when he did so. He remained as motionless as ever, his blood red eyes tearing into Dan’s chest and straight to any sort of soul that lurked deep inside. Finally, Dan had found the one thing that aroused Clockwork, the one thing that made him react, what made him tick; that thing, was his precious time line. This entire time, Dan had only been acting this way to see how long Clockwork would tolerate his childish actions. He wanted to see how long Clockwork would put up with it. He had lasted quite a long time. Could it be possible…? Had this test, this awkward test, turned up the results Dan so badly hoping it would present him with…?

Dan thought, this could be his chance to react, his chance to nose his way deeply into Clockwork’s personal life, his thoughts, his feelings… everything. However, Dan knew that he had to be very careful with little old Clockwork. For if Clockwork suspected anything out of the ordinary, he may shut Dan out his life permanently, forever, an unmovable lock that Dan would never locate the key to. At this moment in time, Dan held something on Clockwork in his favor the nobody had ever held against him before, and that thing was the element of surprise. Truth, his time line still hadn’t recovered from his previous editing of it. He was still in the dark. Unable to know how this event would turn out was something Clockwork had never had to deal with. He would be easier to work with this way.

From the other side of this unusual argument stood Clockwork, who was still, to say, utterly bewitched by Dan’s handsomeness. He was smitten by these feelings; they often haunted his daily thoughts, arguing that he couldn’t hide this forever. He so badly wanted to break apart, admit to Dan that he harbored feelings for him. But he had spent long periods of time examining Dan’s time line in the past. Never had he seen an event that might suggest some sort of degree of being gay, or at the very least, bisexual, ever in his life. That was what kept him shying away every time.

Clockwork didn’t want to accidentally insult the handsome ghost villain, for he wanted to maintain some degree of a relationship with him, even if it were only just friends, but he simply didn’t know how long he could keep his feelings in check before he said or did something that blew the case wide open. Clockwork knew there could be no probable way for him to spend the rest of his eternal life shadowed by Dan Phantom and not at one point, say something. He would crack eventually, in some way, he would end up admitting it.

He knew he would have to break down. However, at this moment in time, Clockwork just didn’t feel ready to divulge himself to Dan, not now anyways. When the time was right, he would say something, not earlier. Due to this, he simply kept up his act of not caring as Dan Phantom approached the ghost of time, moving with that fine degree of poise and sophistication he usually walked with.

Dan, metaphorically speaking, rewound time back to Clockwork’s threat. He replied calmly to that, saying with another one his devious smirks, “Oh, well besiege my soul, Clockwork. You wouldn’t honestly slice off my head, would you?”

Silence haunted the room as Clockwork failed to give an immediate answer to Dan. He didn’t fail to answer because he was unsure of whether or not he would do it, but rather because he was unsure why Dan cared. Waiting for him to supply an answer, the ghost villain slowly stepped closer to Clockwork. He was now within touching distance of Clockwork. If one were to reach out a hand, they would possibly lay it upon the other being.

What, Clockwork had to wonder, could he possibly say in response to such a question? If he said yes, it may make him sound as if he hates Dan, as if he doesn’t care what happens to Dan as long as things work out for him. On the other side, if Clockwork said no, he would have to immediately produce a very valid reason as to why or risk creating a lead towards his true feelings for Dan. If he said maybe or possible, it made him look as if he were hiding something, which he kind of was. Finally, to round off the list of answers, if Clockwork said I don’t know, it made him look as if he were avoiding the topic, that or he’s just a complete moron, unable to provide a decent answer to such a simple question.

After much awkward silence, a silence which Dan lasted through very patiently, Clockwork finally decided what he wished to answer Dan’s question with. Trying to be brave, he decided to go for the all or nothing route. “I couldn’t bring myself to do such a thing to you.” answered Clockwork, solemnly lowering his head and therefore cloaking his face from view.

Upon hearing this answer, an unsure feeling stole over Dan. That wasn’t just a yes or no, that was a deep answer. He had put some thought into it. He wasn’t quite sure where Clockwork was going with this, but he began to hope deep within his heart. Taking advantage of such a situation, Dan used this as an excuse to launch into his scheme.

So with a curious tilt of the head, Dan then inquired upon Clockwork, “Oh, is that so?” He wanted to badly to look Clockwork in the eyes when he spoke, this perfect red eyes. Unfortunately, Clockwork refused to look up. So he was forced to look upon Clockwork’s skulking figure when he asked innocently, “Well, why not?” Still, Clockwork wouldn’t look up.

When this question escaped Dan’s mouth, Clockwork began to second guess his choice. Worry coursed through his veins, his heart beat with a rapid speed, his mind twisted with many mingling, horrifying thoughts. He had acted in haste! Bravery was not so easy. He realized he was being subjected to surprise, and Clockwork didn’t know how to respond to a situation where surprise is a factor. “Just… because. Alright? It’s… just because.” Clockwork poorly covered himself up.

Despite this cover up, Dan was not fooled. He could sense that Clockwork was obviously hiding something, not giving a true answer. Something was definitely strange about the way Clockwork answered the question. He was always such a straightforward guy, always explaining himself. He was acting sheepish and it was clear to Dan that this was some kind of failed method of trying to avoid the topic.

Now Dan realized he had to mix up some sort of plan to make Clockwork truly talk. With Dan’s scheming mind, it was only a matter of seconds until Dan cooked up a perfect plan to get Clockwork to talk. He had begun to observe the poor way Clockwork acted under pressure; he broke like a cheap toy when presented with it. This was the very flaw that Dan would exploit in order to get Clockwork to start giving truthful responses.

“Oh, Clockwork. Just because, is that so?” Dan smiled coyly at Clockwork, speaking in a gentle, soothing voice to ease his mind. “That was the best response you could come up with? It seems to me as if you attempting to avoid the previous topic. Not a very good method. Is there something you don’t want to tell me, Clockwork? Is that it?”

Clockwork already felt a trifle on the nervous side around Dan Phantom. He was being subjected to the nature of the timid and it was something he was very uncomfortable with. Being accused in such a manner now made Clockwork entirely unsure as to what he should or shouldn’t say. All of his worst fears were being realized at the same moment in time and it was making things difficult for him. The one thing he hadn’t wanted to happen was; Dan was beginning to catch on to his act, already going as far as to accuse him of topic avoiding, which he was. It was his fault for quickly changing his decision. He should have slowly strayed away rather then just abruptly growing quiet. No, he should have went with his original plan. Gah! Clockwork was so horrible with this surprise nonsense. He couldn’t imagine how people deal with it on a daily basis. It was just so frustrating.

Then did Clockwork decide that he should just go on with his original plan, since he had already created a tear in his personal life, a tear which Dan was digging deeper into with every moment of time. However, he was now to nervous to proceed properly and instead kept his head held low and timidly muttered, “I-I…”

However, Dan pushed with full force into his plan. So without much, or rather any, warning, Dan cut right into the beginning of Clockwork’s probably never to be ended sentence and said, “You what, dear Clockwork? So you still not trust me, is that what I am to presume?” Dan interrupted boldly, making sure Clockwork felt some degree of pressure. He inched a trifle closer.

Fear raced like a rampant train right through Clockwork’s wildly beating heart. He could tell that Dan was beginning to think poorly of this time ghost. He was being stupid… he was breaking and cracking like an egg. What if this ruined his chance for love forever? He wouldn’t be able to look at himself anymore. He attempted to sway his plan again. This time, he defended his honor by attempting to declare, “No… I mean… well… I guess I—” He felt his grip on his time staff grow tense. He knew how royally he screwed that one up.

Without warning, Clockwork felt an extremely bitter chill race quickly through his body. The cause of this was evident, for Dan had abruptly decided to place his hands forcefully on Clockwork’s shoulders. In any usual circumstances Clockwork would’ve almost immediately thrown Dan’s— or whoever touched him— hands off his shoulders and yelled prominently at said individual for daring to lay hands on him. But Clockwork liked the feeling of Dan’s hands on his shoulders. It made him feel at slight ease. So he allowed him to stay.

Nonetheless, he further lowered his head to make certain that he completely avoided gazing into Dan’s deep red eyes as he spoke, for he knew it would cause him to break and fall into another one of those embarrassing mutters where none of the words connected into a true sentence. He simply couldn’t bring himself to mix red. “Clockwork!” Dan yelled suddenly at Clockwork, startling him. “Why won’t you look up at me? Is there something wrong with me? Don’t you want to look into the eyes of that with whom you are speaking to? I know I generally do.”

“Well I….” Clockwork began to mutter, wishing he could stop this incessant muttering. Shockingly, this time Dan didn’t interrupt his muttering. He remained ever silent, even as Clockwork showed an increasing sense of uncertainty in what he was saying. Regardless of this, Clockwork was already so deeply convinced that he had entirely messed up his chances of ever appealing to Dan; thus this unsure feeling simply continued to haunt him, even in the deepest reaches of his soul, leaving him trapped in a seemingly endless speechless state of mine. Not knowing how to cover up his ever increasing list of mistakes, Clockwork simply fell into further silence and tried to mask his sadness.

Dan could feel this sadness. He had spent enough time around the time ghost to share some degree of sense to when he was feeling a certain emotion. Confusion then proceeded to seep deep into Dan’s heart as Clockwork exhibited such emotions. Was he scaring the poor fellow? It had never been his intention to strike fear into Clockwork’s soul. How he began to fear that he may have overdone things. What would he do to fix it? For one, he definitely couldn’t apologize, it just wasn’t in his nature. He then realized what he had to do. He had to deliver a subtle boost of confidence directly to Clockwork. It had to be something helpful, but something he wouldn’t realize was making him feel better because of Dan.

In order to boost Clockwork’s confidence in a format which he would not notice, Dan decided it would be best to try and drop his forceful side for the time being. At this point, he would even try to be polite for Clockwork’s sake. “What did you want to say, Clockwork? I’m listening.” He wanted to throw a hopeful look in Clockwork’s direction, but he still refused to look upwards for even a fraction of a second.

Dan was now determined as ever to get Dan to look up at and speak with him. Deciding to try the easier of the two, Dan first tried to get Clockwork to look at him by subtly catching his attention. To do this, he gently pushed against his shoulders, hoping he may look upwards. That motion didn’t make him budge in the least, sadly, so Dan was forced to try a different approach.

This time around, Dan decided to try the slightly more forceful approach. Not horribly forceful, just more then what he attempted before. This time, Dan reached his hand ever so gently through the narrow opening or Clockwork’s cloak to where his face was. With the utmost carefulness, he took hold of Clockwork’s chin. Dan flinched, but it ended up being an empty motion, as Clockwork made no attempt to draw away upon having his chin touched. Though Dan did notice the sudden way Clockwork allowed his head to fall limp in Dan’s hand. Dan now had to push Clockwork’s head upwards entirely on his own, though he was certain he probably would’ve had to do that anyways. Luckily, it wasn’t a very difficult task for such a strong ghost and Clockwork didn’t attempt to fight back against such a motion.

Eventually, Dan held Clockwork’s head up just high enough to where he could gaze into his shining red eyes. He quickly masked a smile, for there was something special about this very moment. Now that Clockwork was looking at Dan— and he was too, not even trying to look a different direction either— this was his chance to pry into Clockwork’s personal thoughts.

Dan further pushed Clockwork’s head upwards, not a lot, just a little. He wanted to make sure that the two shades of red were able to mix through one another, churning like a blender and reflecting like the spotless surface of a lake. His eyes mixed wonderfully with the almost identical shade of red of Clockwork’s. His blood rushed when Clockwork actually looked into Dan’s eyes on his own and not because his head was facing that way. “Don’t be shy, Clockwork. Just say whatever is on your mind. I want to hear what you have to say, I honestly do.” Clockwork’s eyes once again moved a bit, looking upon Dan. Dan had to wonder, was he finally making a breakthrough with Clockwork?

Upon scanning Dan’s entire figure once more, Clockwork threw his eyes up towards Dan Phantom. It had taken Clockwork this long to realize that all of the sudden, Dan was acting wildly out of character. He was being so friendly, so polite, so encouraging. He was no longer demanding things in a harsh tone of voice. At this point, Clockwork was actually beginning to think that it was possible Dan did in fact feel something in return towards him and this was, perchance, why he was being so encouraging and patient even through Clockwork’s most awkward and unsure moments.

With these thoughts rolling through his head, Clockwork felt his confidence recovering and that previous awkward feeling departing on the final flight. This was the first time that Clockwork looked directly into Dan’s eyes when he spoke. “Dan… I…” He swallowed the lump in his throat. This was it… not more muttering, no more avoiding subjects. He was going to throw this all on the table, all or nothing. It was now or never. “Dan, I have something to tell you. I-I don’t know how you’re going to take it, or what you’ll think of he after I say it. But I just can’t hold this in any longer and I feel that if we’re going to be living in my lair together, where ever you are, that… I’d feel much better if you just knew.”

Excitement washed throughout Dan’s body from head to toe at this statement. Dan knew what was coming. This was the moment he had been waiting for; the moment he had been feeding towards. He didn’t want anything to mess this moment up. He didn’t want Clockwork to fall short or his statement or suddenly begin to doubt himself again. It had to happen now. It had to!!

Unfortunately for Dan, he was too nervous at the moment what with worrying that Clockwork might lose his confidence boost again. He simply wasn’t thinking straight about anything he was doing other then listening to Clockwork. Due to this, right as Clockwork was about to proceed with his confession, Dan moved his hand ever so slightly, but it was just enough to suddenly knock Clockwork’s hood backwards, right off his head.

Shock washed over Clockwork was his hood was knocked off, falling backwards. It had been… oh goodness… Clockwork wanted to guess at least a couple thousand years since he had last ever removed that hood. He really strongly disliked seeing himself with his hood off, he just did. With it on, Clockwork figured that in ghost standards, he at least looked presentable. However, would it be off, Clockwork suffered from a sudden loss of self esteem.

As aforementioned, Clockwork never really had much luck with the whole hair ordeal and this went double for his own, the hair nobody knew he even had. Hair styling was not something Clockwork had ever been good at. He tried it for more years then he could count, even since the beginning of time. He even watched the time lines of professional hairstylists hoping it would help assist him in figure hair out. Suffice to say, he never got any better at it. All he ever learned was how much he hated hair and sucked horribly at styling it.

After trying to mock several hundred hair styles— even more of a punk style, since it was more widely accepted as messy— and being unable to get a one of them to look right, Clockwork eventually gave up on the whole hair nonsense. It was then Clockwork restyled his cloak, which luckily he was better at then hair. That day, when he decided hairstyling was overrated, he gave his cloak a hood, in which he could forever hide his messy, deep black hair behind. For as long as he had been leading anyone on, he didn’t have any hair under that hood. Far as anyone, even the Observants, knew, there had never been a single lock of hair on Clockwork’s head.

All these years of masking this secret from everyone and now here was someone who so blatantly figured it out. Someone had finally washed away Clockwork’s lie. Clockwork always figured the time line would one day be edited to include his event, but he always figured it would be the Observants getting a trifle too nosy. Never did he think Dan Phantom would be, in any way, the soul written into that event.

Feeling embarrassed by his horrible hair, Clockwork solemnly closed his piercing red eyes. It wasn’t as if he really needed to close his eyes though. Due to the overall messiness of the way Clockwork’s hair had grown, without his hood keeping it hidden, it played a keen roll in blocking his eyes out. In retrospect, if he ever wanted something in which to effectively hide his eyes behind, all he had to do was shake out his head a bit and his hair would fall from where he glued it back with hair spray—that was how he made certain it never accidentally fell out— and the wild stands of pitch black would do the rest for him.

In all of his lifetime, Dan Phantom would’ve never guessed that Clockwork was hiding a luscious head of hair, especially hair that covered his eyes, beneath that hood. Now, Dan Phantom was definitely no hair stylist, for his hair came to him as is, but Dan realized that all Clockwork needed to do was take a comb to it and snip some of it away so it would’ve cover his eyes and he was look perfectly handsome. Dan had to admit, though, he would take Clockwork regardless of the length of his hair. Long hair, short hair, clean hair, wild hair, even no hair at all was perfectly fine with Dan. He liked Clockwork with his hood on a trifle more anyways.

Besides that point, since it didn’t matter too much, Dan began to feel worried about Clockwork’s reaction to the event. Dan didn’t think that would be such a huge ordeal, but Clockwork didn’t seem to appear too happy all of the sudden. Dan had to wonder why. “Clockwork, what is wrong?” Dan inquired gently, appealing to Clockwork’s peaceful side.

Clockwork returned to lowering his head, trying to mask his true emotions once more. He released a saddened sigh and answered, “My hair… it’s absolutely horrible looking. It could never compare to the beauty of yours.”

Dan couldn’t help but smile. Nobody had ever really complimented him, not in this life, anyways. He couldn’t remember the last time he honestly felt like blushing, blushing and not hiding it. He had lived through his late teenager and early adult years, his heart governed by a vast degree of hate, rage, and pure evil. He spent all those years convinced every living soul was out to give him, that nothing and no one had meaning in his life; he thought all anyone wanted to do was simply add to his suffering heart. Now he was being presented with someone who wasn’t showing a lick of spite towards him and though Dan was unsure how to react, he liked it nevertheless.

“Oh but Clockwork…” Dan began flirting innocently with the now shamed ghost of time. “I happen to think your hair looks very beautiful the way it looks now.”

Unfortunately for Dan Phantom, Clockwork must not have been entirely convinced, because he wouldn’t give Dan the glance he so badly wanted. He was going through another one of his timid, sheepish, in denial phases. He had already convinced himself on several occasions that he had long since ruined his chances with Dan, now Clockwork’s mind was convinced that Dan was only saying he liked his hair as some sort of cruel way of toying with his fragile heart.

With that previous statement driven into your head, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Clockwork dejectedly shook his head at Dan and muttered in a rather melancholy tone of voice, “No… you don’t believe that.”

Dan knew that if he wanted to get Clockwork to admit anything, it was not or never. If he wanted to be with Clockwork, he had to take a few steps of his own. He was ready to put on the charm for Clockwork, to raise the charm level to eleven even though his scale only went from one to ten. This was the vast degree to which Dan would charm Clockwork. Basically, Dan had to be the most stunning, amazing, smooth talking Dan that he had ever been in his entire life. He knew that he had to draw in his prey as quickly as possible.

A plan of action quickly taking form in his mind, Dan wasted no time in proceeding. He began by saying, “I don’t believe many thing, my dear Clockwork. I don’t believe the world will end any time soon. I don’t believe aliens live on Mars, or any planet for that matter. I don’t believe in animal whispers. But Clockwork darling, there is one thing I know for certain.” He pushed aside Clockwork’s midnight black hair so that he may gaze directly into the ghost of time’s eyes as he got to the point. “And it’s that I DO believe that your hair is beautiful. It contains a very stunning atmosphere. You may not like it, but it’s a thing I covet.”

Clockwork finally gazed up into Dan’s eyes entirely on his own— second time today— as he thought silently to himself. Maybe Dan wasn’t such a fickle person anymore. From the way Dan was speaking, he was making it sound as if he liked Clockwork to some degree, even if it were just a minor one. Could his feelings be true? “Do you honestly believe that?” asked Clockwork.

“Would I be looking you straight in the eyes when I spoke to you if I didn’t?” Dan asked rhetorically, hoping something more evolved then a basic yes might attract Clockwork’s attention more. He threw Clockwork an encouraging smile, hoping it would seal the final piece. He tilted his head once more slightly to the side as he allowed Clockwork to think. May he have all the time in the world to think; he is the ghost of time, after all.

Clockwork began to ask himself, how could he ever wish to hold a relationship with Dan— or anyone for that matter— if he never had trust. Trust was a key component in any relationship, be it a couple or simply two friends. Trust was always important. He knew he would’ve had to tell someone about him having hair anyways. It’s just, this was such a surprise. It was definitely not the way he would have chosen to reveal such a thing. He was worried about this little dark detail when a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Clockwork’s darkest detail in his life was that he had messy hair he was unable to tame. Big deal to him, but not too vastly important. Then he looked at Dan… Dan, who had so many nasty, disgusting, dark details haunting his past. These details being things he could never get past. He had done horrible things in his life, many things horrible things. Just one of the many details of Dan’s like would easily blow the lid off of all the dark things Clockwork’s ever been through in his entire life. Why should he be worried about keeping secrets like so from someone like Dan Phantom?

With a rather silent sigh, Clockwork finally answered Dan’s question, despite it being rhetorical, by whispering, “No, I guess not. I should have thought about that.”

Dan Phantom could feel it basking within his heart. He was definitely breaking through, getting inside to Clockwork’s heart. In a metaphorical sense, the mouse was now investigating the cheese. All Dan had to do was suddenly snap the trap closed. “Everything’s alright, Clockwork. Give yourself all the time you need to figure things out.”

It was now the Clockwork felt entirely at peace with Dan. Be was beginning to feel a sense of comfort he never thought he would feel. Maybe it was time now. No… not maybe, definitely. Clockwork had to wonder, what way would he divulge himself to Dan. Would this very instant be the best time? Clockwork shook his head. He would ever know how Dan would react if he keep beating around the bush. When Dan wanted to ask Clockwork something, he got right to it. Clockwork had to be brave, like Dan, for Dan. If he didn’t ask, how would he know if it were meant to be?

“Dan?” Clockwork inquired innocent, continuing to look directly into Dan’s blood red eyes as he directed his attention entirely upon the ghost villain.

Extremely hopeful about what Clockwork was going to ask him, for he was almost certain this had to be that long coveted question, Dan threw a half smile and half smirk towards Clockwork and asked in an ever so soothing tone of voice, “What is it? What would you like to ask of me? Do proceed.” Dan had to be gentle. He was so close to snapping to trap it wasn’t even funny. He couldn’t change the mouse’s mind now.

Clockwork had to admit, even as he gathered his breath and prepared to spill his feelings, he was still a trifle scared to admit himself. Never before had he admitted to liking anyone before, for he had never felt love towards another ghost before. He was entirely on his own for this one, no help, no past reference, and most important, no time line to tell him exactly how he should do this.

He had to stop sitting here and thinking about performing the task and actually perform it. So Clockwork gathered up any courage he could muster, and began by saying, “Dan Phantom.” Dan purposely looked directly at Clockwork. That’s good, be formal and polite. “I’m not sure if you’ll find this odd or if you’ll feel the same way. But the longer I’m around you, Dan, the more I enjoy your company, the more I enjoy you. And well…” Don’t beat around the bush. Be like Dan! Just get right to it. Do it! “Dan, I like you. I mean I truly like you. I want to spend every moment in your presence. I want to bring joy to your life. I wish to share my love with you. But… I’ll understand if you don’t feel the same.”

Finally! The final piece of the trap had snapped shut right down on Clockwork. Dan had to admit, he was quite glad Clockwork had mustered the courage on his own. He didn’t want to be forced to fight his way through the awkward process of explaining one’s feelings to another. There were many things that Dan didn’t do and awkward was indefinitely one of those. “Clockwork.” Dan began moving closer to the time ghost. “Why so down? You seem to be acting so shy and timid; it’s a side of you I’ve never seen before. There’s no need to fret, darling. I could use a little love and attention in my life.”

Upon hearing such a comment, Clockwork eagerly looked upwards upon Dan. Some people had this unique internal ability, an ability that made them able to sense when someone was lying or if they were being sincere. He could tell by the way they spoke, the actions they partake in, just about anything at all could stir a person to a different side. This meant that, naturally, Clockwork knew all of Dan’s telltale signs of lying and he seemed as if he were being sincere.

Dan smiled at Clockwork, reaching up and gently pushing aside his hair so he could look deep into his glistening, beautiful red eyes. Now, Dan had his arms resting on Clockwork’s shoulders, not just his hands. Instead, his hands were forming a lock behind Clockwork’s back so they couldn’t lose each other. Unlike earlier, Dan now felt much more comfortable around Clockwork, comfortable enough to rest his forehead ever so softly against Clockwork’s.

Clockwork blushed slightly when his forehead met with Dan’s, happy to have someone like Dan Phantom so close to him. He could help himself but to smile pleasantly back at Dan. Clockwork could feel the soothing heat of Dan’s hot, flaming hair. It was like a soothing heat lamp. Both of their awkwardly chilling breaths mixed together like a little swirling cloud, creating a misty broth of cold between them.

“I hope you are aware that I’ve liked you the entire time.” Dan admitted upon Clockwork, leaning back a bit so he could gaze into Clockwork’s eyes once more as he spoke to him. “I was just waiting for you to say something so that I wouldn’t have to try and admit such a thing myself.” With a loving smile and a tilt of the head, Dan straightforwardly said to Clockwork, “Well, I love you very much. You know that, right?”

Of course he did. Clockwork nodded in Dan’s direction and replied with, “As long as you know that I love you too.” He knew that such a comment was incredibly corny, but never in his life had Clockwork gotten to go through the whole lovey-dovey couple stuff before. He wanted to milk such a thing for all that it was worth.

Abruptly, both Clockwork and Dan harmoniously moved their head upwards. Such movements caused them to meet heads suddenly, loudly bonking their foreheads together. However, neither seemed to particularly mind that they had just painfully bashed into one another. Quite the contrary, they simply ignored any bit of pain such a colliding of heads might have caused and instead used this as another excuse to once more gaze lovingly into each others’ soothing red eyes. While the two ghosts were silently exchanging loving glances with one another, Clockwork decided to attempt a bold and slightly daring maneuver. He wanted to make some sort of a move on Dan, something that would hopefully give him the result he so badly coveted from his ghostly lover.

Making certain that Dan didn’t take notice of the swinging motion of Clockwork’s time staff, he drew it behind Dan’s back, so there would be no way he could spot it. Clockwork subtly moved it down a bit. Even though the tip of the staff was now in Dan’s point of view, he figured that Dan would still be too busy looking into Clockwork’s eyes to notice the slight movement and dim glowing of the time staff as it activated. Quite the contrary, it wasn’t even until Dan just happened to glance away for a fraction of a second that he spotted what his special little ghost of time was up to behind him. Dan quickly recognized the small plant growing above him. It had beautiful curled and pointed leaves that surrounded tiny red berries. Of course, Dan knew by heart that this was the ever famous Christmas time mistletoe plant. Why, it simply had to be!

Smiling, Dan clearly looked up upon the small, leafy, but very beautiful plant looming above the two as if he only just now noticed it’s existence there. Dan quietly said, speaking just loudly enough to that Clockwork could hear. “Ah mistletoe… It’s a very lovely plant.” Raising his voice just a little, he added, “But I don’t believe it’s Christmas time.”

Clockwork was quickly catching on to these telltale signs. This was obviously a sign of flirting. Clockwork could tell that Dan was attempting to flirt with him. Lucky for the ghost villain, Clockwork knew exactly how to respond to such a comment. There was no more timid muttering. He came straight out when he replied to Dan. “You know,” he began, slightly lowering his gaze, “I can make it Christmas. All it would take is one shake of the time staff and it would be the holidays.”

Dan also lowered his gaze alongside Clockworks. He wanted to make certain he could look into Clockwork’s eyes, for their beauty never faltered by ever a little bit. He then said, “No, that’s quite alright. Don’t tire yourself, Clockwork darling.” He then looked up a bit, a motion which Clockwork followed swiftly. “If you wanted to kiss, you know you could have just asked. It doesn’t need to be Christmas time for us to kiss, nor does there need to be any mistletoe around; though I do admit, it certainly makes things a little more romantic. But, no, simply ask my dear Clockwork and I shall deliver.”

This time, there was absolutely no need for Clockwork to sit there and attempt to debate the sincerity of Dan’s comment. In fact, never again would Clockwork ever had to debate if Dan were telling the truth or not. A new bond was forming between the two, a bond that made him certain Dan was true to his word. He just knew, deep within his heart, that Dan honestly meant what he said.

With this thought drilled into his skull, Clockwork knew there was no longer anything to fear of Dan any longer. He was now certain that Dan would bring him no harm, neither physical nor emotional. Clockwork decided to go back to his previous ways, where timidity was not a quality his possessed. Under any normal circumstances, most would guess that Dan would be the one to make the first move in such a situation. So it was sufficed to say that Clockwork was daring to go directly against the odds and do what hardly anyone would have ever guessed someone like Clockwork would do.

Clockwork began by slowly leaning in towards Dan. As he proceeded with this, the ghost villain did not draw away or flinch at all, showing no signs that this wasn’t what he wanted. Being shown this, it was for Clockwork to proceed as he was. So he leaned in towards Dan and boldly pressed his lips against Dan’s. As he moved in, Clockwork could feel the subtle motion of Dan’s body. He knew the ghost villain was kissing him him back. Thereupon Clockwork slightly pushed himself a trifle closer to Dan. Dan quickly took claim of Clockwork as he felt the partially forceful movement of Clockwork’s body towards his own. Dan now completely wrapped his arms around his lovely little ghost of time, pulling him in closer as the two shared their seemingly endless kiss. From what it seemed, neither minded the other deep within their personal space bubble. For personal space was to be shared with that of whom you love. The closer they stood to one another, the more they connected with each other, the greater they were able to enjoy their passionate kiss.

At this very moment in time, Clockwork wasn’t even the least bit worried about how his hair looked, certainly the first time he had ever felt this way. Messy, clean, who honestly cared right now? With such an occasion like this, hair was not something he wanted to trifle himself with. All he knew was the kiss and how much he enjoyed sharing it.

It seemed as if they would share their first kiss forever. They would, but the to ghosts knew they would have to stop eventually. It wasn’t as if they had to catch their breath, not liked they really needed oxygen. No, they knew nothing could last forever. Anyways, if it did, it wouldn’t feel so perfect when they had the chance to indulge in such an action once again.

It certainly took them a while, but time was not something they had to worry themselves with. The unlikely couple eventually did break their kiss, though they made certain to enjoy the ending of it before they did so. When they drew back from one another, neither spoke, they simply smiled at one another. This was that defining moment for them. It was the time when they confirmed they were definitely made for each other.

They were able to look deep in each others’ eyes and know for a certain fact this was meant to be. There was no doubt. Clockwork felt as if he could share the darkest secrets of himself and even his time line with Dan. Whereupon Dan felt he could reveal his deepest, darkest secrets, stuff that anyone else would shun him for, and Clockwork would not judge him, only listen thoughtfully. It was safe to say the neither ghost worried the other may judge him in any way, shape, or form.

For the first time in his life, Dan didn’t feel any sort of negative emotion towards the person— or should I say, ghost— he was with. He didn’t feel betrayal, he didn’t feel hate nor spite, he didn’t feel anger or hostility. In Clockwork’s lair, Dan felt completely at ease. This realm, with this ghost, made him feel relaxed. He always would, long as Clockwork was at his side. Whereas Clockwork was simply overjoyed in general; he had found love, he had company, and that company wasn’t an idiot. All of his life, Clockwork was either skulking by his lonesome in this little lair of his or stuck with the company of the idiot Obversants of whom he swore were just waiting to find something he did wrong so they could forever stalk him about it. They were boring, dull, and complained too much for their own good. Dan was someone Clockwork enjoyed having as company.

The two had returned to their previous state of gazing lovingly at the other. They would forever bask in each others’ glory… for always and eternity. Who cared what anyone else thought? As long as they were happy.

Clockwork knew for a fact that there would be many ghosts out there who would have an issue with their love, mostly in his favor. He was certain that the Observants would never let him hear the end of this once word of their relationship status reach their ears. Sooner or later, the Observants would come to visit Clockwork and that would be the end to any solace the two found in this lair. The Observants would complain endlessly about everything relating to Dan, how Clockwork never should’ve have released him, they shouldn’t be a couple. They would never let it go, nor would anyone else. He would always hear how wrong his relationship with Dan was, how royally this would mess up the time line, all sorts of complaints like this.

But Clockwork didn’t care about what anyone else though. He would ignore everyone’s judgmental comments forever. He would never listen to a word they said. For Clockwork knew he would love Dan, always and forever…

Socyberty » clockwork

Love Lost in Time

Balls and Arms