Motherghost #3
Credit to @randomstarchild for the idea that created this monster. And @squishywritings for creating the og idea with me. The line divider does NOT belong to me. It’s a little late for a mother’s day one shot, but it’s my series, so I make the rules.
Exceptional Endearment
Summary: When Danny woke up, he expected a lot of things, but definitely not what seemed to be a Mother’s Day gift from his ghost kids.
Words: 2,694
When it comes to the Fentons, the unordinary was ordinary. Normal families didn’t have a lab in their basement, nor an interdimensional portal to a supposed Ghost Zone. Normal Families didn’t even have a giant ops-center on their roof, nor a giant neon sign that screamed their existence to the world.
And yet, the sight Jazz had woken up to was so mundane compared to the worst-case scenario in her head.
“Shit, it’s on fire! Do something, you idiot!”
“Oh, yeah! Because more fire will definitely put out the fire!”
“You have fire powers, absorb it or something!”
“That’s not how they work, Twerp!”
“Unless you have a better idea-”
“Guys!” Jazz yelled, interrupting the arguing duo. Two heads turned to face her, and Jazz noted that both of them were covered in a mess of eggs and… was that batter? “What is happening here?”
Dani faltered under her stern gaze, and Jazz knew Dan was trying to hold back his own reaction as well. She fidgeted nervously, “Well, uh-”
“It’s her fault!” Dan pointed.
“Hey! You helped create this mess too!”
“But it was your harebrained idea!”
“CHILDREN!”
The kitchen was a mess, and Jazz could already feel the headache that would come with cleaning it. The yelling wasn’t helping either. Was this how Danny felt? She vowed to never make fun of his parental headaches ever again.
“You have ten seconds to explain what happened here,” Jazz said slowly. “And if no one speaks up, I will be telling Danny.”
Surprisingly, Dan was the one to speak first. “Well, this little idiot decided that it was a good idea to try and make breakfast-”
“You helped, don’t exclude yourself!”
“‘I tried to stop her, but she insisted and forced me to help her-”
“I did not!”
“-which resulted in this disaster of a breakfast because it seems she inherited Ma’s terrible cooking.”
“Oh, because you’re so much better than me,” Dani rolled her eyes. She turned her eyes to the unamused Jazz and added, “He was the one that decided to ditch the entire cookbook and ‘do our own thing’ despite knowing we needed it!”
Jazz raised a brow at that. “Why would you do that? You could’ve avoided this mess entirely.”
Dan scowled (pouted) and pointedly looked away. “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”
If Dan was being shy about this, that meant it inevitably had something to do with Danny. Only her brother and Dani can get him to act so immaturely, and Dani was right there with him.
“No,” she agreed. “But do you really want me to tell Danny you were being an immature brat when you can just avoid me telling him entirely?”
After a minute of tense silence, Dani caved first. She mumbled something under her breath, and Jazz had to lean a little closer to comprehend the muttered words.
“You… wanted to make him breakfast-in-bed?” Jazz swallowed a giggle, trying to hide a smile as the realization came to her.
Dani nodded meekly, and she could see Dan’s scowl twitching. What was so important about today that they wanted to make him breakfast? They hadn’t caused any mayhem lately, and Danny’s birthday had passed months ago…
“Oh my god, this is for Mother’s Day, isn’t it?”
Dani flushed a bright pink, floating down as though she was too embarrassed to stay up. Dan simply crossed his arms and looked away, but that was enough to confirm her suspicions.
“Oh my god,” she laughed, startling the duo. Her irritation at the mess melted away momentarily. “You guys are adorable!”
Dani’s blush darkened, and Jazz could’ve sworn there were hints of green on Dan’s cheeks.
“It’s not funny!” Dani pouted. “We ruined it, and this place is a mess! What are we gonna do now?”
“It’s only nine, it’ll be awhile before Danny wakes up,” Jazz sighed. “You have enough time to clean all this up and restart. I’ll even help you this time.”
“Really?” Dani looked up from between her bangs.
“Only if you get this done,” Jazz repeated sternly.
“Might as well not do it, then,” Dan crossed his arms. “What’s the point if we didn’t do it?”
“You want to make this day good for him, don’t you?” Jazz asked, knowing his answer already.
And just as she expected, Dan didn’t argue further.
“Now, get to work!”
When Danny woke up, it was to the smell of pancakes and… smoke?
With a gasp, he shot up. He looked frantically for the fire, but all he found was the shy form of Dani standing at his door, shuffling her feet. Dan was beside her, his face twisted in a small scowl that Danny has learned to read as his nervous face.
“Uh, good morning?” Danny greeted awkwardly.
“More like afternoon,” Dan rolled his eyes. “You take forever to wake up, damn.”
“It’s a weekend, I’m allowed to sleep in,” he retaliated. He made move to get up, but he stopped when Dani suddenly yelled, “Wait!”
Danny paused. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, uh, nothing, it’s just that… we, um…”
“We made you breakfast,” Dan was the one to clarify, surprisingly.
Danny raised a brow at his unusually upfront behavior. Dani was acting strangely shy as well. Normally, it was the other way around. He had to admit, it was kind of cute. Then, he comprehended the words being said. “You made me breakfast?” He asked in surprise.
“Y-Yeah,” Dani answered. They stepped aside from the doorway, and Danny’s eyes fell on a floating tray of food. There looked to be a small vase in it too…
“Aw, you guys,” Danny smiled. Dan and Dani made him breakfast? And they looked so shy about it, too. Danny’s heart threatened to melt a little. The gesture was more touching than he thought it would be. “You didn’t have to, really.”
Dan floated the tray closer, plopping it on Danny’s lap without warning. “We really didn’t.”
“Dan!” Dani finally snapped out of her shy trance. “Don’t listen to him, Mom. We both wanted to.”
“Really?” His cheeks burned a little.
“Uh huh!” Dani floated up, dropping herself next to him on the bed. “We figured, since it was Mother’s Day and all-”
“It’s Mother’s Day?” Danny interrupted.
“How is it that we’re the ones that know this, and not you?” Dan rolled his eyes, yet his actions contradicted the gesture as he, too, joined them on the bed, sitting at the foot of it.
“I just… I didn’t expect you guys to do anything for today,” he explained, observing the tray as he spoke. The breakfast was a simple plate of three stacked pancakes, with a piece of butter and maple syrup spilling over the edges. There were even a few strawberries on the side.
“Mom, of course, we did,” Dani frowned. “Did you think we wouldn’t appreciate you today, of all days?”
Dan gave him an annoyed look. “Oh, stop looking so pitiful. We did it because we wanted to make you happy, not because we wanted you to glower in self-depreciation.”
“I hate to agree with the brute,” Dani sighed exaggeratedly, which Danny was sure was just to piss off Dan. “But he’s right. We wanted to make this a good day for you. Sometimes you really don’t know your own worth, Mom.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Danny uttered, trying to find the right words. Here were his two kids that he’s grown to love and care for over the past year, and they were wishing him a happy Mother’s Day? Even Dan, who would rather die than blatantly tell him he cares for Danny?
“You could start with a ‘thank you’,” Dan suggested teasingly. “Do you know how hard it is to make pancakes from scratch?”
“Is that why I smell smo-”
“Ahaha, what are you talking about, Mom!” Dani interrupted loudly with a nervous laugh. “Nothing happened! Nothing at all!”
“But-”
“You just woke up, you’re just sleepy,” Dan added, strangely eager to brush off the topic.
Danny narrowed his eyes at their responses, but let them get away with it for now. After all, they went through all this trouble for him, and if they inherited the Fenton genes right, then it was definitely a tough task.
“Alright,” Danny relented with a sigh.
Dani heaved what sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief. Reaching out, she grabbed a strawberry from the plate and relaxed against Danny’s side. It was an intimately familiar gesture, something they’ve done even before this whole ‘Ghost Mom’ thing, so Danny simply let her be and munched on his pancakes.
Dan frowned at them. “Are you always this touchy, Twerp?”
“You’re just jealous,” Dani stuck out her tongue very maturely.
Danny cut in before another argument could break out. “Cut it out, you guys. Can’t we just enjoy the moment?”
“Oh, sure, you enjoy it, while I-”
“Dan, come here,” Danny gestured with his hand, urging him closer.
Dan scowled, but scooted closer. As soon as he was close enough, Danny steeled his nerves and placed a chaste kiss to Dan’s brow. Dan froze in surprise, unsure of this new gesture. He’s seen Danny do it to Dani a hundred times, but Danny has always been a little more awkward with his maternal behavior around Dan. Dan never outwardly asked for his affections, but he could begrudgingly admit that he was often jealous of Dani.
Dan remained frozen for a moment until he registered what happened. Dani giggled as she watched a bright green blush burn across his face, and even his fiery hair flamed up even more.
Danny, blushing as well, spoke hesitantly, “Was that okay? I know you’re not Dani, but you seemed like you wanted something, too, and I just thought-”
“It was fine,” Dan finally grunted, even though his core was singing with joy. To his core, his very being, this meant that he had somehow pleased Danny, someone he saw as a mother of sorts (goddamn ghost instincts). Not that he’d ever tell danny that. For a second, all he felt was content warmth, but he had an image to uphold, so he wiped away any goopy fondness that must’ve shown on his face, judging by Dani’s shameless giggling.
“Oh my god, you actually melted,” Dani laughed.
Danny pinched her arm in response. “Stop that, Dani.”
“Don’t you have something to give Ma, Twerp?” Dan glanced at her pointedly.
Dani gasped. “You’re right!”
Floating away from Danny, she rummaged through her designated drawer. After realizing how much she loved to hoard things, it was inevitable.
She finally found what she was looking for. It looked to be a sheet of paper, but she flipped it over before Danny could guess what it was. “What is it?” Danny asked, unable to hold back his curiosity.
Dan grinned. “It’s-”
Dani shushed Dan loudly. “It’s my present, shut it, Dan!”
Danny smiled. Whether they knew it or not, their little banter wasn’t fooling anyone. “So, what’s this present, Dani?”
Suddenly very shy, Dani flushed. “Well, I noticed you really like to hang NASA posters, and I… kind of wanted to add something to your collection. It’s not exactly perfect, and you don’t have to hang it but-”
“I’m sure I’ll love it anyway, Dani,” Danny reassured her.
“Yeah, you’re Mommy’s Girl, of course, he will,” Dan rolled his eyes.
“Dan,” Danny gave him a warning look.
“Fine,” he pouted. “You’re no fun, it’s just harmless teasing.”
Turning his attention back to Dani, he smiled, “So, lemme see it!”
Dani hesitated, and then handed it to him. Danny took the paper gently, trying not to add any more creases to the wrinkled notebook paper. He expected a lot of things, maybe a rendition of a poster, or a sketch of the moon, but when he flipped it over, it was none of that. It was better.
There in the center of the paper was what looked to be an attempt to draw a boy in an astronaut suit, reaching out a hand to touch the starry sky above him. The boy had glowing white hair that stood out among the swirling pinks, purples, and blues, of the space around him. More eye-catching was the shining green eyes and the white aura around him.
It wasn’t something an artist like DaVinci would praise, but to Danny, who’s throat was suddenly choked with waves of emotion, it was the best goddamn drawing he’s ever seen. His eyes traveled all over the paper, and they finally settled on the bottom text made of glowing stars that spelled out ‘Happy Mother’s Day!’.
“Dani,” he choked out, his eyes suddenly feeling very wet. “You drew this for me?”
Taking in his overwhelmed reaction, Dani nodded meekly. Dan would’ve normally teased her relentlessly for this sudden change in behavior, but he knew how much effort she’d put into that drawing, so he kept silent.
“It’s… amazing,” Danny said, because that was all the vocabulary he could access right now. “This is amazing, Dani. This must’ve taken so long…”
“I-It wasn’t much,” she tried for a cocky grin.
“Didn’t you spend all of yesterday and before that working on this?” Dan raised a brow at her.
“Dan!” she hissed. But she couldn’t stay annoyed for long because Danny was gaping at her in wonder. “You spent two days on a single drawing, just for me?”
“Y-Yeah, I guess,” she mumbled. She lifted her gaze from her feet and asked, “Do you like it?”
“Like it?” Danny repeated uselessly. “I love it! I’m definitely hanging this!”
“You don’t have to!” Dani said, but Danny could see the way a pleased blush made its way to her cheeks and ears. Dan saw it, too, and this time he really had to stifle a grin.
“I will anyway,” Danny insisted. “This is beautiful, and the world needs to know I have the world’s best kids.”
Dan almost startled at him being included. He wanted to say he was worried that Dani would be annoyed he was included in her glory, but a small part of him really enjoyed being included.
Dani, on the other hand, smiled giddily for two reasons. One, Danny had praised her work. He said he loved it! Vlad had never praised her like this, but Danny offered praise like an endless stream of love. Two, he had called them “the world’s best kids”. Danny may be their Mom, but he had a hard time shifting his perspective to fit their image sometimes. For him to freely acknowledge this… it sent unbidden joy straight to her core, and she was sure Dan agreed.
“God, you’re so sappy, Ma,” Dan groaned despite the small pleased smile that made its way across his face.
“Can you blame me?” Danny grinned at them. He set down the paper gingerly, “I’ve barely started the day, and the first thing I wake up to is you two appreciating me on Mother’s Day.”
“You’re exaggerating this,” Dan said.
“Not really,” he denied. “It’s one thing to have close friends, but it’s another to be loved by your pseudo-ghost-kids.”
Dani grinned. “Jeez, Mom, keep this up and I might actually self-combust.”
“What a shame that would be,” Dan rolled his eyes.
“You’d miss me, admit it.”
“No way in hell, Twerp.”
“You know what? You keep using that as an insult, but at least with this size, I get to cuddle Mom more frequently!”
“What makes you think I want cuddles? You can have all his attention, I don’t care.”
“Then what was that blush back there when he kissed you?”
“I didn’t blush!”
“You so did!”
Danny rolled his eyes as the banter started again, but with all that’s happened, all he could feel was warm contentment deep in his core. So, he relaxed against his bed, and went back to his breakfast, the banter acting as a comfortable background noise that grounded him to the truth that, yes, this was his reality.
He glanced back at the drawing Dani had made for him, and couldn’t help the smile that came to him.
‘Happy Mother’s Day’ indeed.
The end (?)
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