Opera Cake

I'm Your Angel/Because You Loved Me

[Danny isn't fine and it was easy to miss that because he was such a good actor]

~

Danny did not like being touched.

It wasn't something obvious to Elsa. He was very good at evading touches or keeping any contact extremely short. He was very good at putting up a front of being normal. She should have known better than to trust his sweet smile.

Danny did not like restrain.

Danny have always told her that he liked being dominant in the bedroom. He will let her try some stuff but he liked being the one to take charge. She didn't really think much about it until she learned that he didn't like being touched and recalled his story of being locked up and treated less than an animal by the GIW.

Danny did not like having someone take charge over him.

She originally brushed this off as him being something of an Alpha male or some such. She wasn't a master at reading a man's mind. She also thought that it have something to do about him being the Ghost King and with it, a large ego. She was wrong.

Danny did not like being controlled.

Danny sometimes spent days locked up in his studio and no one will tell her what that was about. She thought he needed times for himself. She knew that his missions can be very messy and mentally scarring. Although he healed fast, that said nothing about his mind and heart. She can't see the healing progress for either. After all, they were invisible even to Danny.

She knew trauma and she knew that mental and emotional scar can take its toll on the patient without anyone noticing. But Danny have always been so strong and so sturdy she was blinded. She should have known better. She should have been more aware.

So now as she walked into his room, being the only one given free access to his studio through all the ridiculous security that still flew over her mind, PhD or not, she found him curled up in the shower with the water running. His green-blue eyes were vacant and it was like he was hollowed out. She found welts all around him with Lichtenberg branches from the welt on his skin, looking purplish maroon and angry. It looked like he was wrapped by a live cable all around his body.

She knew that they will disappear.

But right now, he wasn't moving.

Danny was trapped in his mind.

Elsa took off her clothes and climbed into his shower with him, voice humming and she softly sang. She sang a sweet song by Celine Dion, I'm Your Angel, hoping to reach to him deep inside his psyche;

[And then you will see, the morning will come; And every day will be bright as the sun; All of your fears, cast them on me; I just want you to see; I'll be your cloud up in the sky; I'll be your shoulder when you cry; I hear your voices when you call me; I am your angel; And when all hope is gone, I'm here; No matter how far you are, I'm near; It makes no difference who you are; I am your angel; I'm your angel]

She touched the tips of him finger, watching as the glowing claws receded back into blunt human nails. He twitched as she continued to sing the song. She continued to sit there under the rain shower, just being there and slowly touching him more and more, rousing him away from the horrors behind his eyes. The reason she chose the song was because of it's significant to him and it's connection to her.

She knew that he held onto her words, as insignificant as it had meant to her at the time, as his rescue line. She was his Angel of Salvation and Elsa took that role seriously. She was the spider thread promising him deliverance from his hell. Although she could not fight his battle for him, Elsa knew then that the fight wasn't always on the frontline. The harshest fight was now, here in the small shower, wrestling him out of the hands of his demons.

He needed her to be his strength at his lowest.

As Danny came around and leaned his head against her shoulder, Elsa slowed into a gentle hum, letting his feel the vibration coming from her to slowly guide him out of the darkness in his mind. As she softly massaged him, Elsa thought about the time before her. She didn't know how he handled this moments of PTSD before her. It must have been hard. He might have sat under the shower head for hours, perhaps until a whole day passed before he came around and realized that he wasn't trapped with the GIW. Perhaps he lashed out violently, fighting threats that only he can see.

She cannot fight his war for him. But she can fight his demons with him.

[You were my strength when I was weak; You were my voice when I couldn't speak; You were my eyes when I couldn't see; You saw the best there was in me; Lifted me up when I couldn't reach; You gave me faith 'cause you believed; I'm everything I am; Because you loved me; Ooh, baby]

She blinked when he started singing 'Because You Loved Me' to her in a soft tone. As if replying to her, coming around and slowly becoming more lively. He kissed her neck, rubbing her back. Elsa hummed along to the tune, joining him as he 'return' to her. Elsa did not think she was all that. She was just someone who loved him and wanted to be with him.

He picked her up, despite her protest, and carried her to his bed. She lamented that the bed will be soaked through but a quick phasing and the water was gone. She hoped that it did not hit anyone down stairs or break any equipment as he kissed her. Then he climbed under the blanket with her and snuggled up. Elsa let him spoon her. As much as she enjoyed spooning him at times, Danny stayed through to his words.

He preferred to be in control.

"Thank you,"

Elsa hummed, "I love you,"

He hummed back, "Love you too,"

Danny did not like being touched but he let Elsa touch him whenever and wherever because he loved her and trusted her with himself.

Danny did not like restrain but he let her hold him and even grab him randomly because it was her and not someone who he did not trust.

Danny did not like having someone take charge over him but he let Elsa push and pull him, telling him what to do and where to go simply because he loved her.

Danny did not like being controlled but he let Elsa control him because he knew that she would never abuse him.

The privileges he gave her was an honor.

He was the perfect gentleman with her because he loved her and she would honor him the same because she loved him too.

But this also meant that he had been controlled, restrained, and abused. Elsa knew that for all the sweet things he allowed her lied a dark undertone. One that she kept missing because her happiness around Danny tended to blind her to his subtle traumatic behavior. His quick temper and his violent lashing out was his self defense against a possible threat to him. His patience and sweetness to her was only because he loved her and he trusted her to share the same sentiment.

Elsa wasn't blind to his short coming. She wasn't blind to his controlling behavior and his possessive nature. Everything about his nature as a ghost was a bleeding red flag. She had taken some time with Jazz learning about all the quirks behind a ghost's habit and behavior. All so that she will not trigger his trauma response. But also to know when to be there for him emotionally and psychologically.

Ghosts were those who died violently and restlessly. Danny might be the most 'alive' ghost she have ever met and will ever met. But he still died in a traumatic manner.

Tonight was one such night where his trauma overwhelmed him.

She can't fight his battle for him but she can fight his demons with him.

~

[I often lament how most people thought that someone can only be strong when they can kick someone's ass. And that a woman can only be strong when she can replace a man. Part of my reason for writing this story is to see a dynamic where a woman doesn't have to fight her man's fight but she can be just as much a fighter as he is. It is rare to see a woman who is a partner to a man and not someone who people call Queen or a slave to a man's will. His equal, in everything, despite being physically weaker or less powerful than he. I don't see much dynamic like this around. So here you have it; a woman that is the guardian of her man's heart]