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rainycat2 · 2 years ago

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Though I Could Not Stop For Death

Chapter Four: Execute the Plan / The Plan Goes Awry.

Gotham?

Fucking whack.

You couldn’t even see the stars, for Ancient’s sakes. And it wasn’t like Danny wasn’t close to the sky, or anything, no, the hotel Vlad put them up in, Wayne Hotel, honestly, was one of the biggest and fanciest in the whole city.

And it was still clogged with god fucking damn smog.

Honestly, it was an affront. Not just to Danny as a ghost with a space obsession, because really, humanity needed to get it together and stop poisoning the Earth before that shit started leaking into and affecting the Realms, but as a Wayne.

The fuck is Bruce even doing with his billions?

(Being Batman is the obvious answer, but still. Switch to clean energy, for fuck’s sake.)

Regardless. If Danny was spiteful enough, he could have asked Undergrowth for a favor to pop out some clear skies for one night, but it wasn’t worth it to have the Ancient with a favor over him. So instead, Danny suffered, sitting on the ledge of the hotel roof, looking down at the city below contemplatively. He was far enough up that he could hear the city buzzing, most of it intentionally tuned out of his enhanced hearing, but not so much that he couldn’t hear anything.

The fact that the woman appearing next to him on the ledge was silent enough that he didn’t notice her until she spoke?

Danny fully almost fell off the roof in surprise.

“Hello, young Prince--”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Danny yelped, scrambling as he slipped, flight instantly kicking in to keep him from dropping.

“No, just me,” Lady Gotham laughed, brushing her skirts down as she sat elegantly next to him. Though he’d never seen her before, he recognized her immediately-- soft, faintly glowing blue eyes over a black 1800’s-era mourning gown, a broach at the delicate lace collar around her throat. She smiled at him as he plopped back down, leaning over to smooth his hair back. “Goodness, you look so much like your father.”

Danny hummed slightly, tilting his head. “You know, I can’t really see it, but I’ll take your word for it.”

Lady Gotham just hummed, gently cupping his cheek as she studied him. “So much like your brother, but I can see the differences clearly. He looks like your mother, but you? Oh, so similar to my beloved Knight-- and not just in looks,” she teased. “You’ve come a long way since Clockwork came to me, telling me that my Knight’s son would need guidance.”

Danny blushed, the tips of his ears going a pale green. “Okay, okay,” he laughed, swinging his feet lazily. “So, you wanted to talk to me, right? Is it regarding the Bats, because I’m really trying to not piss off Batman.”

“In a sense,” Gotham hummed, looking over the city. She’ll point out a section of city, gesturing to the more dilapidated, beat-up buildings. “That section, called Crime Alley--”

“You’re shitting me.”

“I am not, now let me speak.” Danny’s mouth clicked together so fast you could hear it. “Crime Alley, or Park Row as it is officially called, is the territory of a young liminal, the Red Hood. I believe that he could be a potential Fright Knight for you, but I would ask a favor of you.” Gotham looked back to Danny, worry in her eyes. “He struggles with the corrupted ectoplasm of a Lazarus Pit, and I… I cannot help him. It is all I can do, at times, to provide what clean ectoplasm I can.”

Danny paused, looking towards Park Row contemplatively. “So… this guy’s got basically poison in his system, and you want me to go put him on basically a juice cleanse?”

“More or less,” Gotham acknowledged with a shrug. “You do rather have the tendency to cleanse the ectoplasm in your immediate area.”

“Fair.” Danny got to his feet, stretching lazily. “Okay, but a favor for a favor. Please, if you get the opportunity… Let me know if the Bats are getting too close, okay? I really don’t want to have to hash out the legality of my existence with my own dad.” He reached out, offering the City Spirit his hand. “I’ve had my fair share of awkward family dinners, but that would take the cake.”

“I will abide by your request, but do remember-- they are family,” Gotham says softly, taking his hand and gliding to her feet on the ledge. “Trust in them, and you will see it is not misplaced.”

The Prince smiled.

===

Damian, frankly, hated this goddamned family. It all started with a text from Gordon, making a joke about a “secret lost brother” and a photo posted in a chat with the so-called BatClan.

It was obvious that the clone - for in fact, what else could it be, Danyal was long-since dead - was a poor, failed attempt at getting into Damian’s head. The eye color was off, the freckles in the wrong places. And really, Danyal would have better fashion sense than that.

No, it was clear Talia was doing her best to “test” him, though… really, he’d thought they’d moved on from clones at this point. Holding the memory of his dead twin over his head, and not even having the decency to do it correctly?

Now that was just rude.

Wayne Family Dumbasses:

Captain Stabby: Obviously this is a clone, and a poor attempt at it.

Captain Stabby: to think, the great Oracle has fallen so far.

Eyeinthesky: you sure about that, baby bat?

Eyeinthesky: you really wanna say that?

Captain Stabby: I believe I may have made a mistake.

===

No time like the present, taunted the green sticky note on Danny’s laptop screen.

No time like the present his ass, Danny grumbled as he shuffled a few things onto his person. Day One of Gotham City, and he needed to investigate. He grabbed a jacket and a bookbag from his suitcase, tossing his computer, a thermos, a few emergency shots of ecto, and a good-sized ecto-pistol in easy reach, set to stun mode. First things first, Danny needed some Ancients-Damned coffee, and if he’d learned one thing, it was that cities were stuffed to the brim with coffee shops.

“Jazz, I’m gonna go get some coffee and research,” he said softly, poking his head into Jazz's suite. “You want anything?”

A mop of red hair peeked up just barely over the edge of the decidedly-too-fluffy comforter. “...latte. Croissant.”

“Gotcha. Anything else?”

“...locator,” his sister said after a moment’s consideration, muffled by the goose-down pillow. “Keep it on.”

“Obviously,” he chuckled, closing the door behind him quietly before slipping out of the hotel room, tossing his bag over his shoulder after one last check. The hotel was quiet at this time of morning, hardly after five, not quite daybreak, but the city outside? Oh, it was beautiful-- people walking briskly down the sidewalks, cars honking and revving and swerving around each other. Danny’s ears twitched slightly, his head tilted to the side before he pulled out his phone.

“Coffee shop, coffee shop… Aha, here we go.” A mom-and-pop shop, a little ways down the road. Enough for a good walk. Danny plugged his earbuds in, turning on a playlist before putting his hands in his pockets. It only took a few minutes before he arrived, tugging out an earbud and pausing the objectively-too-loud punk rock playlist. “Uh, hi, so this is kind of a weird question, but… what’s the legal amount of caffeine you’re able to give me?”

“I don’t think there’s a legal limit, but you can only get, like, twelve shots I think,” the barista hummed thoughtfully. “Your shots would taste horrible, though-- doesn’t stop one of our regulars, though. I can get you one of his drinks?”

“Sure, why not. New city and all that,” Danny laughed, digging for some cash in his wallet. “I’m just here on business for a little while.”

The barista raised her eyebrow. “You seem pretty young to be on business.”

“Family business,” Danny clarified, handing over the money. “Oh, and can I get a caramel latte and a croissant?”

Twenty minutes later, Danny was given a freshly-baked croissant and latte, and an absolutely terrifying-looking concoction. An iced coffee with the slightest bit of milk and sugar, so full of espresso that the milk hardly made a dent in the color.

Danny took a sip, grinned, and left a 10 dollar bill on the counter before he headed out.

The barista just stared, then shook her head. “Fucking Waynes, am I right?” she muttered to her colleague, getting a laugh.

===

After delivering the latte to a decidedly grumpy not-morning-person Jazz Fenton, Danny pretty damn quickly booked it out of the hotel, idly checking his Twitter as he walked down the street, sipping on his latte. There was a local trending tab, and… well, shit.

A decent quality photo of him paying for the coffee, his hair up out of his face in just. The worst possible shot for his plan to lay low. Already the hashtag #newwayne had 200,000+ tags, primarily users gossiping between each other with a few gossip magazines speculating.

Really. One photo.

One.

Let it never be said that Danny, a fifteen year old idiot, had impulse control. He took a quick selfie, grinning as he took a sip of his coffee. @halfdead : man, i just wanted a coffee. TAGLIST: @mynameisnotlaura @fisticuffsatapplebees @screamingtofillthevoid @lizisipancardo @digitizedworld @dahliasandrosemary

NEXT CHAPTER: ==>

#ticnsfd #dpxdc #dp x dc #dpxdc fanfic #rainycat writing

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switch · 2 years ago

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With the Halloween reruns live I wanted to reminded you in the first Halloween event when we go up against vlad and barely beat him lore wise they basically say he wasn’t even trying and is so fuckin strong. We deserve that vlad, his true power. He should be regenerating from attacks, deal insane damage, he needs a complete skill overall to truly match the fact that he is a vampire even though he doesn’t like the fact that he is.

yeah i’ve been saying for years that it’s gotten annoying how much Vlad’s abilities as a servant has been written about over the past 7 years but he’s to this day never even gotten to do anything between apocrypha, orleans, orleans’ two rewrites, and traum. he’s functionally just a jobber.

i don’t care about powerlevels, but when his legend of dracula form alone has multiple aspects that have gone completely unexplored outside of existing as flavor text inside extra materials, especially when this character has been around as long as he has, it starts to feel ridiculous. like, okay, why are you even telling me about all this potential if some of it is going to show up once for five seconds and never again.

they came up with all this shit for dracula vlad, but there were no real consequences for him appearing because functionally, all dracula vlad is was a way for vlad to be exited from apoc 7 years ago and that’s all it’s ever been, and with all the relevancy it actually had, they could have just axed vlad by having someone kill him in his weakened garden of babylon state instead. at that point, dracula was actually just redundant outside of a method to also not need to write a separate scene to get rid of darnic. all that stupid extra material fluff about dracula being super dangerous and having mystic eyes and how he compares to dead apostles and how he can shapeshift etc is worthless.

if they had specifically and purposefully set out to make vlad a jobber because of his bad luck + leaning into him being a regional hero (not that that would be congruous with other servants, mind, but whatever) that would be one thing, but it doesn’t even feel as purposeful as that.

he gets off better in event stories, but i mean, his own vampirism hasn’t had relevancy in fgo since his goddamn second interlude! his role in traum could have been filled by any one of the boatload of other commanding-inclined servants! none of it is terribly purposeful usage, commentary on, or exploration of this character, it’s just a matter of this character having had no clear direction for years.

frankly, we’re lucky he’s S tier in fgo as it is.

#switch speaks #fate #vlad

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currentfandomkick · 2 years ago

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To make it better/worse, she doesn’t see anything indicating what she’s doing is wrong, and is literally throwing down with anyone in costume seeking her out. Heroes, villains, vigilantes, anti-heroes and anti-villains.

Each time she just screams things like ‘stranger danger’ ‘not today satan’ and ‘flipping fruitloops’.

Ellie is under the impression the cape community and their enemies are trying to make her join their frights (most are not) and the magic users are fairly certain she’s an inter-dimensional being but cannot get anywhere near her as she’s very mobile and very untrusting.

Then we cut to Danny seeing her exploits of fighting various villains and heroes and everyone in-between. Important to note, trans!danny my beloved plus using his core to reform Ellie’s older brothers (see pixie, Frankenstein, ghost sheet and skeleton… perfect one unsalvageable).

Now we can have Dani go to Danny with her prizes as her ‘war spoils’ and presents for ‘hopefully revived soon older brothers’.

Danny is too tired from his own rogue’s gallery using his grave as a portal without his consent, and the GIW’s bs and wrecking his parents inventions to realize he should probably intervene, as he’s got Midterms and finals too.

JL put a tracker on Dani and when it lets them get audio and some visuals, they find her happily showing off her ‘war spoils from fruitloops like Father’ to another teen, and then ask ‘do you think my brothers are ready yet?’ While touching said teen’s belly?

JL are re-evaluating A Lot.

Especially when the teen says ‘According to Frostbite? I should be due during break so we can stay with him. He’s already arguing with the courts to keep Vlad from getting custody… how did you get the candy ring again?’

‘Fruitloops keep trying to kidnap me—but i know better than secondary locations!’

JL recontextualizing, again.

Dani “oh, oh wait this means they’re going to share a rebirth day with me! We don’t have to call you dad, and mom’s a no-go right?”

“Honestly? In ghost speak i don’t care, but outside of that i think we should stick to the cousins cover so you can crash for a while again. Jazz did some digging and if you pretend to be on the run from Dad’s side for being ‘meta’ or having magic he’ll ignore everything ghostly and instead triple down on defending you.”

“So, are we telling him about the cores?”

“…honestly debating that. Mom would be too suspicious and may try to run tests on them, which is Not Great.”

JL, going Through It as… 1) pregnant child with multiple babies (how many???) 2) questionably safe homelife 3) girl beating them up thought they were kidnappers 4) looks like a multidimensional pregnancy and 5) the girl is bringing their stuff to pregnant person (possibly birth parent???) as gifts for pregnancy problems looks like.

Dani straight up handing him superman’s wallet with a ‘and this guy i kicked in the nuts like you said!’

‘Good job—wait that’s a reporter. Shit, do you think he sicc’d the other assholes on you?’ —Danny, forgetting said ‘assholes’ included heroes and just sees ‘pretty sure that’s the reporter Wes is obsessed with atm’ who could pull strings.

Dani doubles down on fighting superman after this, and when a civilian pressed her about acting her age she grumps as ‘it’s not my fault fruitloop numero uno aged me up! I’m only seven months old!’ as its true ans jarring enough to get a lot of people to short circuit for a clean escape without using her powers.

Up to you what happens from there,

Ellie isn't allowed to travel alone Anymore

So! Ellie was raised in a Lab by a Genuine Bonefied Supervillain. She was raised to be a Villain as well, so her Moral Conpass is a little skewed.

Sure she *mostly* knows what is right and wrong from Danny's quick lesson before her Adventure around the Country, but she still has trouble separating what is moral and what is not from time to time.

So it's really no surprise that the moment she left Amity Park she somehow ended up being branded a Villain.

Look, it's not her fault she didn't know not to attack the flying guy in Blue Spandex when he approached her! One of Danny's biggest warnings shen she left had been Stranger Danger! She did what any 12 year old girl would have done when approached by a strange Older Man!

Its also not her fault that her powers (being Magic based), managed to affect him! She didn't even use her full power! (She maybe should have kicked him in a different place tho...she hopes he wasn't planning on having kids...)

So she did what her instincts told her to do. She took any money he had on him and ran the hell away!

It wasn't until she was 2 cities over when she saw a newspaper titled, "Little Villain Girl Mugs Superman in Broad Daylight!", that she realized she may have screwed up...

After that, she really had no excuse.

She knew that she probably shouldn't have kept Mugging the Heroes who approached her, but she wasn't a Fenton for nothing! Her Family Motto had always been "Commit to the Bit", and she was gonna stick to it!

So when the Fast Red Guy tried to tie her up, she phased off all his clothes and took off with his money (not the mask, she knew enough not to take that off)

And when the Grumpy Bat Guy tried to corner her with some weird papers he pulled out of his Belt, she just distracted him while her clone picked his pockets and made off with the wheels of his Car. That one made her a pretty penny!

The flying Green Guy was fun, his attacks were just throwing Ghost Candy (pure willpower) at her. He did stop doing do after she nicked his fancy talking Ring however, but it was fun while it lasted

Then she came across a Orange Fish Guy, and he actually seemed nice enough. But she was committing to the Bit, so she took the fancy Trident he had and sold it at a nearby Pawn Shop for some extra cash. He would probably be able to find it, that's why she chose a nearby location.

All in All, her Adventure had been really fun! So she decided to visit Amity Park again to tell Danny all about it!

...

Aquaman walked into the meeting room of the Watchtower, a very frustrated look in his eye.

Barry spoke up first, "Oh! I know that look in your eye! She got to you too didn't she!"

Arthur just glared at Barry for a second before walking over to his Chair, sitting down with a thump. "She is certainly a tricky child."

"What did she take this time?" Clark asked.

"..mttrident..." Arthur grumbled out quickly.

"What was that?" Asked Barry with a twinkle in his eye. He heard it, but he wanted everybody else to know.

"She took my trident, Okay!" Arthur shouted out.

"I feel ya man." Responded Hal, "At least with me she threw it back at me when she realized it wasn't making 'candy' anymore. What did she do with yours?"

"She sold it at a Pawn Shop!" Arthus yelled in frustration, "She managed to steal one of the most Powerful Magical Weapons in the world, the Symbol of the entire Atalantean Royal Bloodline, and she sold it and a Pawn Shop!"

"...how much did she get for it?" Asked Hal.

At this, Aquaman just collapsed to the table and groaned.

...

Alternatively she could have just kept all those things, and gradually built up a collection of all the JLA's most treasured possessions.

She has Supermans Wallet, not very important to him but it was her first mugging

She has Batmans Utility Belt (trackers removed) along with his Tires

She took Flashes Costume Ring (his civilian clothes still stuck inside)

She took Green Lanterns ring as well, but unfortunately it managed to escape after a few days. It was feisty.

And her crowning Jewel is the Trident she took from Aquaman.

(She avoided WW, cause she likes her too much to steal anything from her)

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itshype · 2 years ago

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Triple Threat (DC x DP)

So, this is based slightly on this prompt I wrote! Here is the link to my DC x DP masterpost, and one of my last notfics I posted here was Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, Godhood where Danny and Vlad try to manipulate and mansplain their way out of trouble with the JLA. So, Danny and Billy are brothers. Maybe they're twins separated at birth, but I prefer that they bonded at some other point, maybe they adopted each other after meeting on the street. Danny's parents said they didn't care he was a halfa, but their behaviour changed so much because they were utterly incapable of hiding their fear of him. He ran away. Billy was at this time, already living on the streets.

They 'come out' to each other on the same day revealing their powers out of brotherly love and unconditional trust - not as an accident. And you know what? Trans Rights! They can come out that way too. At this point, Billy is working with the justice league and Danny is spending a lot of his time in the Zone. He is the king, but mostly his job is to be a key judicial figure as the 'only dude who can pretty much beat anyone up' and has a lot of friends there. Hey, the sovereign ruler of the ghost zone was locked up for thousands of years and nothing really seemed to happen so I can't imagine he'd have a lot to do day-to-day. Actually, instead of sleeping on the streets they both spend most nights in the Zone in Danny's Haunt (though I'd imagine Billy also sleeps frequently at the watchtower because the pair of them are quasi-immortal homeless children who also somehow have fulltime jobs that pay nothing. And the watchtower has a kitchen). When I think of Danny's personality displayed as a physical location, I think it looks like a little suburban street lined with weird ghostly trees growing sentient flowers. There's a nasty burger though it's empty of employees and food; they still use it as a dining room. His actual house (ghosts don't need one but I still think Danny would have one) is moderate in size and charming. But it has defences built in, to the same absurd level as home alone or that live action scooby doo film https://youtu.be/2x7W225iC88?t=62 where there's a trapdoor under the doormat. There's a park across the road (which is always empty of cars but has a pedestrian crossing anyways) with purple grass and some plants that are only vaguely carnivorous. Every now and then, Billy helps out Danny with some magic tomfoolery in the Zone (you cannot tell me Aragon's amulets or Desiree aren't magic over and above normal ghost shenanigans). In one of Billy's first ever team missions he calls Danny as backup. He barely knows these people and he knows he won't be able to do his best hero-ing when he can't fully trust them to watch his back. Phantom doesn't end up having to do much because the JLA members are nice and trustworthy, but he is physically and visibly there. At the conclusion of the mission, following a nice orderly debriefing, Wulf comes to pick up Danny to get Walker back in line. This is a point where there are only a few JLA members, but Batman carefully adds "Brother/Twin??: King of Ghosts - The Phantom" to Shazam's file and begins investigating ecto-activity. A few years pass. Enough that Billy’s and Danny’s lives get a lot busier. Billy is doing some non-traditional school shit (I refuse to google the laws around out-of-school younger-age education in a foreign country for a city that doesn’t exist) and Danny is now working in a space agency. He obviously can’t be an astronaut because of the required physical -which he would not be able to pass - and he is busy with king stuff often enough that going into space for half a year isn’t really do-able. I think his Jack Fenton genes might kick in and he bulks out just a tad. It took him a year to be able to look at his ghost self in the mirror because he looked like Dan’s scarier big brother.

The justice league stop some evil invasion but in the process disable a giant spaceship that is now floating, untethered through their solar system. The aliens had been prepared for superman so there is artificial kryptonite meaning he cannot just punt it into the sun. They contact some space scientists to help them figure out how much of a problem this floating object will be; if it will affect future space travel attempts, if it could crash into the moon or Earth itself, if benevolent alien visitors in the future could think Earth was full of deranged murderers if they came to visit and encountered it.

Every agency they contact recommends one guy.

So, Shazam has need of his cool older twin Danny to come and help out with this problem! He is visibly thrilled and eventually admits that Daniel Nightingale (he wasn’t going to add to the prestige of his parents name or risk dragging his career down with their shenanigans) is his brother.

Only a couple of the original members remember all those years ago that Marvel has a brother they’ve met and that’s who they’re expecting when Danny arrives with his team. Of course, the magic ghost is a good option for a dicey mission. But no, it’s Danny. He does a great job and there’s a lot of content here. But after Danny and Billy leave, Batman holds a meeting to update JLA members that have only been around a few years. Apparently, Captain “the champion of magic” Marvel, and Phantom – the king of ghosts are triplets with Danny “Just A Guy” Fenton.

#dc x dp #dp x dc #billy batson #danny phantom #danny fenton #mine #notfic #justice league #the justice league

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batpham-discord-highlights · 3 years ago

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Danny is a Hisuian Zoroark

Source: #crack

DANNY PHANTOM POKÉMON AU

WHERE DANNY IS SECRETLY A HISUIAN ZOROARK

Because they’re half ghost-type, half normal-type!

Jazz found him one day

And was like

"is this a little brother?"

Danny as a tiny zorua, staring at Jazz: ….sister acquired

It’s funnier if it isn’t even a Pokémon au Danny is just a Zoroark dumped into DP

Do all the Danny phantom ghosts qualify as Pokémon rules ghost-types?

Because a funny thing about Hisuian Zoroark is that it is completely immune to ghost-type attacks because it’s part normal type

It is also immune to normal and fighting type attacks

Vlad shoots ectoblasts at Danny and Danny doesn’t even try to dodge them because he’s completely immune

Someone tries to punch Danny and it just goes through him

Vlad thinks Danny is a halfa, which. To be fair. He is half ghost. He’s just not half human. He’s an illusion-making fox thing.

Bonus dc crossover: Damian brings home a small white fox that turns out to be 1. sentient and 2. a supernatural entity

Danny as a zorua is really funny because he is just a smol fox

Smol fox, big punch

Danny is pretending that he is Just A Normal Fox Nothing To See Here because Damian is feeding him and leaves him unsupervised with his computer while he’s out vigilante-ing

until he shape shifts into Damian/j

and Damian gaslights his father into thinking he has a twin(?)

Jason, looking at Danny: something’s… off with you.

Danny who looks like this:

Danny: ✨ what could you possibly mean? ✨

Danny sucking up to Alfred because he makes the food

On a darker note danny wouldn’t be able to eat ectoplasm contaminated stuff because of his ghost-type immunity (which is most of the food in the Fenton house) so when he gets a chance to eat anything that’s not nasty burger/whatever jazz can get to him you bet he’s taking it

Danny falls through the floor and into the batcave at one point

Bruce finds him asleep on the computer

Now I'm imagining him turning intangible while asleep and falling down, so he has literally no clue why Batman is waking him up

Bruce for his part has no idea how Damian’s pet fox got into the batcave

Danny is throughly bamboozled especially when Batman (!?!?) picks him up and carries him until somehow they’re back in Wayne Manor

Now that they think he knows what's going on (he really, really doesn't), Damian gives his abnormally intelligent fox a comm and declares him to be moral support

Danny, over the comm line: zor-zorua?

Damian: excellent. Carry on.

Jason and Bruce are about to get into a major argument again, so Oracle signals Danny and he makes cute fox noises to distract them

Damian scolds them for upsetting Danny

“You made Danny cry.”

Danny, half asleep: makes a sad fox noise on cue

Damian: you should be ashamed of yourselves, Father, Todd

Damian: if you will not be professional in the field, perhaps Danny should join us instead

And so BatFox is born

he’s got a tiny cape

Danny evolves into a Zoroark when Damian has a run-in with the Joker and then you just have this ghost fox monster beating the joker’s ass

Danny is very obviously Not A Fox now, but they all avoid talking about it or acknowledging it because they have no idea what to do about it

Danny, who is now taller than Damian: shit I can’t sit on your lap anymore I’m bipedal

Damian: you can talk

Danny: fuck zor-zoroark

Danny is still Alfred’s favourite even though he’s too big to sit on the counters (doesn’t stop him from trying)

Jason, looking at Danny: I knew you weren’t a normal fox!

Danny, remembering his illusion powers: shifts into jason

can see danny shapeshifting into one of damian's other pets so they can both sit on his lap LOL

Sometimes danny illusions himself back into Smol Zorua form

Maybe tim was out when Danny evolved and he comes back to the manor for dinner and there’s just this fox monster sitting at the table very carefully using a fork and knife

Tim: what

Dick: oh that’s just Danny

Tim: Danny was a quadruped two days ago

Danny finally uses his illusion human form one day and nobody notices him because he blends in with Bruce’s horde of children

They only notice because Danny (fox form) is missing

:dick_laugh: (note: custom emoji)

Danny: so yeah I can walk through walls

Damian: Todd will never see us coming

Danny gradually becomes more of a brother than a pet

He teaches Damian how to prank and successfully learns to cook from Jason

Without blowing up the kitchen even once

How does he end up with Damian anyway

I can’t see him leaving Jazz of his own free will

I feel like he lets himself be treated as a pet because it’s better than beings kicked back outside

Jazz, kicking down Wayne Manor’s door: Where Is My Brother

maybe he was stolen uou- lol

Jazz came home one day with a little boy whose form seemed to flicker but her parents didn’t notice that part

They adopted him

Danny still had the portal accident but because he’s immune to ghost-type energy he was completely unaffected by it, it just startled him enough that he lost control of his illusion and fell out of the portal as a little fox

Danny is largely unbothered by his parent’s inventions since he’s got type immunity, it’s also hard to beat him up since he’s immune to most kind of physical attacks humans can perform

Maybe in this au dc is another dimension and he got punted their via the Ghost Zone? I don’t want to Emotionally Destroy the Boy via his family being dead/hunting him for being a ghost

Smol Fox Danny ends up in Gotham, lands right in Damian Wayne’s lap. Is instantly adopted.

Danny’s powers in this au:

-Intangibility (because he’s a ghost)

-His type immunities (Ghost, Fighting and Normal)

-A bunch of Pokémon attacks (mostly normal and ghost type attacks, though he also knows flamerthrower purely for arson purposes)

-Illusions that are almost like shapeshifting (he can also make himself invisible)

-Being fluffy

He’s not quite as OP as regular Danny but his type immunities mean that most attacks from both the DP and DC universes won’t touch him (For our purposes nearly all forms of physical fighting count as Normal or Fighting type)

HUISIAN ZOURA IS DANNY !!!! WOKE!

he's a SHINY HISUIAN ZORUA

INDEED

Tucker is Porygon Z

Sam is a Hisuian Weavile

@yaintbeet

#danny fenton #danny phantom #dc x dp #batman #bruce wayne #damian al ghul #jason todd #tim drake #jazz fenton #pokemon #crossover #crack channel

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kawaiikenna · 3 years ago

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I’ve been sucked into the rare pair hell that is Dark Ages. So y’all get to suffer with me. -w-

Our lovely story starts at the height of the rebellion/revolution where Pariah Dark is finally put away into the Sarcophagus of Eternal Sleep. At this time Clockwork is nearing the end of their carrying term and is fearful for their and Pariah’s child. So there’s the betrayal of Clockwork being the one to strike the final blow as Pariah is locked up. Sometime later, after Danny is born, the Observants come to the Long Now and try to kill baby Danny because of the whole; he’s going to turn into a tyrant just like his Sire was if not worse. Clockwork beats the ever loving shit out of them and escapes into a timeline.

They’re now looking for an adoptive family to take Danny in. Even though it’s the living realm, Clockwork is able to find the Fentons. In this timeline Jack and Maddie are more scientifically centered and less biased towards ghosts. But imagine their surprise when their second prototype portal spits out a beaten down purple specter and a tiny glowing bundle of blankets. Conversations happen and the Fentons agree to take Danny in. Clockwork basically erases the family from any and all timelines. This way the Observants won’t be able to find Danny. But in doing this Clockwork will also not be able to find him. But hoping against all hope they do it with the slim chances of a reunion later in their child’s life.

So Danny grows up as a human in the living realm. He’s happy and healthy and a normal kid. Well, at least as much as he can be with two scatterbrained scientist parents. They are definitely more there for both Jazz and Danny but they get distracted by ghosties and science and research more often than not. So sometimes they’re not there all the time. Definitely more stable than canon though. They’ve finally settled in the tiny town of Amity Park and things continue to go along. Danny is now entering high school as his parents are putting the finishing touches on their final portal. The accident happens but instead of getting spit back out into the living world, the Infinite Realms takes him back.

So Danny’s just chilling in the GZ completely unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time before a clock tower appears in his path. Clockwork on the other hand felt a disturbance in the ectoplasm and had come to investigate before the Observants could themselves. What they were not expecting to find was a newly dead child floating in the vast expanse of the Realms. So they take him in and only then do they recognize their child. So when Danny wakes up he doesn’t feel as afraid as he thinks he should be. If anything he feels safe and secure in this familiarly unfamiliar environment. Conversations and bonding happen between Danny and Clockwork. But Danny has to go back to the living world because it is still not his time to be able to stay.

Back in the living world Danny’s human friends and family are waiting for him. In a fairly calm and collected manner. This is because Jack and Maddie knew something like this was going to happen at some point. They wished that it hadn’t been this specific way, but what happened, happened; and there’s nothing more they can do than forge forward and look to the future.

Fast forward, Clockwork is more of a parent and mentor for Danny and Vlad has been thrown into the picture. Vlad gets jelly and goes after the Crown and Ring (I have a vague remembrance of these events. I’m going to have to watch those specific episodes to brush up on what happened and how.) and ends up freeing Pariah Dark. He’s pretty out of it from the amount of crazy that the Crown and Ring have given him. But once Danny defeats him and takes the Crown and Ring, Pariah is much more clear headed. It is then that he realizes just who Danny is.

This also makes Danny the Heir Apparent to the throne. As he defeated the prior ruler in a trial by combat. With this new status the Observants can no longer bring harm to Danny. Otherwise they risk the wrath of the Infinite Realms themselves in retaliation.

More bonding and soft family moments. Danny is still wary about Pariah and this makes the previous king sad. A possible redemption arc happens and the two grow closer? Maybe? Idk, I just want all the cute soft family moments between the three. -w-

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dp #dp dark ages #pariah dark #clockwork #fenton family #send help #I’m stuck in rare pair hell #ghost king danny #more like heir apparent but close enough -w-

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reindeerswillsavethisworld · 2 years ago

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Since several great points were made, here’s an addendum:

1) while yes, Jazz is just as chaotic and unhinged as the trio, it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have a braincell often. In fact, she has AT LEAST two braincells for, idk, about 90% of the time. The thing is, you see, having a braincell and using said braincell is like orcas “playing” with seals: they can just eat them, but they consciously choose not to. Same principle here. Like, did Jazz know that Vlad is a manipulative sleazeball with a penchant of stubbing people in the back? Yes. Did she know that going to him without weapons and/or back up, not even informing anyone where she went, is extremely dangerous? Uh, yeah, she did. Did she know that Vlad will try to double cross her at the earliest convenience? Obviously. She just… decided to consciously ignore all of that and still purposefully walked into that trap with her eyes wide open.

To be fair tho, I think there’s also exists a competition between her hoarded braincells and the entity old as time, which every sibling knows as the famous “Cain Instinct”. And she either gets braincells or Instinct, whichever wins out. Like that time she purposefully trapped herself inside a murder armor and beat the shit out of Danny, instead of trying to “stage fight” him? Sorry, but Cain Instinct won that one, guys.

2) the thing we all need to realise is that all residents of Amity Park do most things purely out of spite. All of them. The only exceptions to this are Jack Fenton, because he is golden retriever given human form, and Technus, because why inconvenience yourself with petty squabbles when you can ruin everybody’s day with your genuine plans of world domination just fine.

I think Danny Phantom fandom is absolutely sleeping on the sheer dumb bulshittery Danny, Sam and Tucker generate on the regular and it’s a fucking shame. Like, the three of them have exactly one (1) single braincell between them, and the only one to use it at least semi-regularly is Jazz. You literally can’t leave them for five minutes without them stumbling into some new bullshit every single time. Granted, a lot of times bullshit finds them first instead of the other way around, but by god will they make the situation worse. They run into the situations with the same reckless abandon the cockchafers fly into any solid obstacle in their way, and you’d think that at least one of them will be the voice of reason, and you’d be dead wrong.

Danny? He thought pranking a murder happy millionaire with a vindictive streak the size of Grand Canyon was a great idea. And then, like a moron, he decided to use equally murder happy government agency with a huge prejudice against ghosts and a vendetta against him, personally. Absolutely nothing that could go wrong with that, obviously!

(spoiler alert, things did go very wrong very fast)

Tucker? A valid choice at the first glance, except he is always down to commit crimes for either his friends or just for funsies. Remember that time he ran an obviously illegal babysitting scam business? Or that time when he brainwashed and then dimensionally displaced the whole school into Ancient Egypt setting? Another notable instances of Tucker being a menace, in no particular order: organised o pro-meat protest in a few hours, tried to shoot a ghost with his phone as a projectile (and succeeded), sold Sam out to a ghost out of sheer pettiness, gave Skulker an alarm-induced ptsd, almost killed Danny that one time (don’t worry, Danny was fine) and in general committed to being bullshit-enabling gremlin.

Now Sam would seem the most grounded and reasonable out of three of them, but it is what SHE wants you to believe. She is just as, if not more, unhinged as the boys, she just hides it better. Remember that time she trashed the castle and antagonised a few dozen of armed guards, while having no back up, no weapons, no allies and while being in some shithole in the Ghost Zone? And then basically told a tyrannical asshole with op dragon powers “fuck you and your entire kingdom” in the face? And then rode another dragon who put said asshole through a wall? Good times.

They all seem like perfectly reasonable people at the first glance, and then Tucker and Danny would dare each other to lick that weird glowing green rock, and Sam would roll her eyes and groan about how stupid boys are, and then Tucker would dare her to lick that glowing rock too, and Danny will say, “Come on, Tuck, it’s okay if she’s too afraid to do it-”, and yes, Sam and her mother have many disagreements on a lot of things, but both her mother AND Granny did not raise a fucking bitch, move over, Tucker, or so help her the spirit of Pandora-

They all end up absolutely miserable in ecto-containment units sick as hell with ecto-flu and on all questions answer that no, they don’t know how this happened, maybe it was ghost attack last week, they did get blasted by that green goo, after all, but really, they have absolutely no idea, honest. Jazz suspects something, but she also has no proof and therefore can’t prove anything. In the end, it was one of the worst weeks in their life and they all ended up swearing to not do it ever again.

(they do end up doing it again two months later)

#also shoutout to the person who wrote “fanon danny only has a corn chip” in the tags it’s my new favourite thing #and you are my new favourite person <3 #btw if anyone interested valery’s deal is the same as jazz’s #she has a braincell but simply decides not to use it from time to time #understandable honestly #also WHAT the fuck happened with this post why is it so big lmao #danny phantom

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phantomphangphucker · 2 years ago

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Phic Phight - Sing-U-Lator

For: @thefalsefangirl @higgidigs @briarlovesu @bibliophilea @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy

Song inspiration: Addict - Vivziepop and Alastor’s Reprise - Vivziepop Vlad and Danny have a proper talk but it's not really a talk or proper

Danny roughs up his hair, frustrated, why did Lancer always have give such open-ended ‘up to your imagination’ projects? Sure Danny didn't lack creativity but his creativity wasn’t exactly… normal. Plus, how was he supposed to make a song prompt without ripping off Ember? Sometimes being friends with a singer was a major double edge sword.

He’s half tempted to just call Vlad, dude gave some solid advice… even if it sometimes seemed slightly sketchy. What would he know about this though? Maybe he writes poetry in his rich person free time?

Thumping his head on his desk a couple of times, fuck it. Flipping out his phone and leaning back, “hey yo, Vladdie”.

“Daniel? Is there an issue. I am rather… preoccupied at the moment”.

Danny snorts at that, “I’d say with what but you're still all mysterious half the time. Anyways, my homework isn’t home working. Know anything to do with music?”.

“… I’m beginning to believe that you have a very concerning sense of timing, my boy. I’ve rather recently… acquired a seemingly ectoplasm infused music generating bow tie”.

Danny blinks hard at that, not for the first time since meeting the man, Danny’s had the feeling Vlad had sticky fingers or something. Sure, Danny also stole stuff… and maybe did so more now than he used to -which now that he thinks about it, might be ever so slightly due to some Vlad-related encouragement. But that’s a thought for another day- but Vlad was way more sticky fingered. “Why? Though I guess that could just make my music prompt for me”.

Danny jumps at a sudden voice, “that could be quiet a good idea. You are rather bad at this”.

Danny whirls around, “eh yo, what the fuck?!?”. It’s goddamn GhostWriter… Well at least it’s not Walker, or Boxy, or Skulker.

The GhostWriter seemingly ignores the teen, eyeing the paper instead, “you clearly have no love for the written word, as painful as that is, can’t have you embarrassing ghosts with your lack of lyrical diction”, summoning out his keyboard, fingers flying.

Danny groans loudly, “oh come on! Not this shit again”.

“Language, Daniel”.

The GhostWriter narrows his eyes at the phone, “and I would appreciate my artefact returned”.

And suddenly Danny gets hurtled out his window, half shrieking, “VLAAAAAAAD!”, angrily all the while. Granted… he couldn’t blame his -sometimes sketchy- mentor too much; Danny was usually the one who caused issues and Vlad certainly wasn’t immune to trouble making. Vlad yelping, “butter biscuits!”, on the other side of the line at least means this was probably going to be both of their problem(s).

The two halfas groan and push themselves up from the hard smooth ground.

So they weren’t outside on the dirt/grass. Good to know.

Danny grumbles, “I don’t know whether to blame you, blame GhostWriter, blame you, blame myself, blame you, or blame Lancer”.

Vlad giving a very dry reply, “funny, I was thinking something very similar”, then chuckling faintly, “perhaps halfas merely attract ill luck”, glancing around as he stands and brushes himself off, “we appear to be in some sort of cafe”.

“Ah fuck yes, tell me there’s coffee”.

“Language”, Vlad shakes his head, “you consume enough of that stuff to kill you a few times over”.

Danny snorts, “aw, you’d miss me”.

“But of course”. Vlad’s voice is genuinely fond, making Danny mutter, “I know it’s 🎶till death dooooo us part, but we're already past that phase🎶”.

Both of them stop at that, Danny looks insanely confused and slightly pissed off; Vlad quirks a single eyebrow. Quirking another eyebrow at the bow tie, which is apparently tied around his wrist now, as it starts making music, a electronic piano beat, “I don’t think this is going to end well”.

Danny grumbling, “sounds like the story of my half life. Shit always so seems to be going south since the whole dyin’ while tryin’ to be helpful thing”.

Vlad eyes him, “but 🎶this could be a brand neeeew start🎶”, grimacing a little after because seriously?

Danny huffing, yeah sure the whole dying thing really legit could have effectively given him a new ‘lease on life’ as it were, but instead he’s just spending all of his time fighting and anxiously hiding his shit. Even if he legit honestly likes the way he is now, he had cool powers and stuff. Grumbling, “tell me about it. 🎶I think I deserve some praise for the way that I ammmmmmmm🎶”, gesturing around a bit ridiculously because he might as well just go along with this and no one else was actually here from the looks of It to witness this bullshit. Being a ghost was fucking great okay? Regardless of his parents anti-ghost ectophobia bullshit.

Vlad glances around and shrugs, he’s been involved in stranger, sitting down in a random chair, “🎶despite becoming a ghost, and ending up nearly comatose🎶”; Vlad was still baffled by how severe Danny’s portal-related accident was. The fact that his body survived getting blasted by an entire dimension worth of ectoplasm and being electrocuted by over four lightening bolts worth of electricity was impressive and a bit horrifying.

Danny rolls his eyes at that, flicking his wrist pointedly at Vlad as the bow tie adds in fucking finger snapping to its tune, “🎶I don’t give a daaaaaaaamnnnnnn🎶”, eyeing Vlad with a bit of a smirk, “what about you?”.

Vlad snorts and stands up, “🎶I let my emotions go, and fudge being a sober hoe🎶”. Danny looks a little scandalised by Vlad’s almost swearing but takes the offered flasks because at this point, fuck it.

The GhostWriter is one hundred percent manipulating this into a musical or some shit, and no one wants to deal with that shit fully sober.

The two taking steps, gesturing, and dancing a little while their hands are almost connected due to holding the flask. Singing together, “🎶this is the maaaantra, this is the liiiiife🎶”. Regardless of anything Danny liked the way he was and he damn well knew Vlad did too.

Separating and twirling, still singing together, “🎶we’re playing with our lives noooooow, till the end of every niiiiiiiight 🎶”.

Vlad eyeing his flask, “🎶eventually surrounded by fiiiire🎶”.

Danny laughing, “🎶my fighting passion igniiiights🎶”.

The two eyeing each other and grinning a little, “🎶a hit of the heaven and hell, a helluva hiiiiigh🎶”. At this point they were in this shit together, even if Danny had a feeling that Vlad was a less than stellar influence, and Vlad knew that Danny might one day force him to reconcile with his ‘old friends’.

Vlad turning away, “🎶I’m addddddicted to the madddddness🎶”, he knew damn well all the crime and less than legal stuff he did was something he got a massive rush from, and what did he care if he screwed a few people over for his own personal gain?

Danny turning away as well, “🎶this tooooown is my atlaaaaantis🎶”, this town, Amity Park, was his Everything and he was protective as Hell of it. It was nice that a lot of the town was starting to actually view him as their protector, made him feel like his purpose was actually being seen.

Vlad chuckles, eyeing Danny quickly, “you do a lot of rather illegal things to protect ‘this town’, you know”. Danny chuckling right back, “as if you don’t do the same to satisfy your possessiveness”.

Danny puts up a fist for a fist bump and Vlad rolls his eyes though supplies him with his requested fist bump, the two singing together again, “🎶we’re forever gonna have a fucking/fudging reason to sin🎶”.

Vlad glares at him a little over the swearing but everything help him if he didn't already know that Danny had a bit of a foul mouth and that it was kind of pointless to correct the boy. Besides, Danny’s ‘soul’ or whatever was a lot cleaner than his own, “🎶let me leaaaaaave my soul to burn🎶”,

Danny pointing at him agressively, “🎶I’ll be breathin’ it in🎶”, then making a face, “I mean that your mentorship is actually kinda good, not that I’m going to literally breath in your burnt ashes, what the fuck GhostWriter”, and glares at the ceiling; faint ghostly laughter could be heard.

Vlad can’t help grinning at that a little, “🎶and I’m addiiiicted to that feeeeeeling🎶”.

Danny gesturing up, “🎶then get hiiiiiigher than the ceiiiiiling🎶”.

Vlad nods curtly, because as not harmful as this was, it was still annoying.

The Ghostwriters voice comes down from the ceiling, “🎶and I’m neeeever gonna want this feeling to end, just conceeeeede and give in to you inner demons again🎶”. Vlad fires a blast at the ceiling while the bow tie adds in a metallic drum beat for a bit before slowing to a more soft sound.

Danny eyes Vlad a little, “you know I know what you ‘inner demons’ are at this point, right? Your thing for mom?”, cringing and rubbing his neck, “and I mean sure, 🎶yeah, you fell in loooove. But-🎶”, gesturing at the flask, “🎶-you fell deeper in a piiit🎶”.

Vlad blinks, sure he knew Daniel would figure that out eventually but this was definitely not how he wanted that to come out. But what were ghosts if not their past regrets and obsessions? He couldn’t give up on her, not yet, maybe not ever. Throwing a hand out to the side and trying to hide that that comment hurt a little, “well 🎶Death didn’t get us aaabooove. So count your blessing because this is it🎶”, that came out more bitter than he really meant it.

Danny quirks an eyebrow at him and moving to get a bit in his face, “🎶sooooo you’re not letting goooOooOOOOoooOoo🎶?”.

Vlad shrugs, taking a swig from his flask and eyeing the musical bow tie with contempt, “🎶so what if I misbehave🎶”.

Danny huffing, crossing his arms, “🎶I guess it’s what everybody craves🎶”, then pointing at Vlad, “but, 🎶look around and you’ll already knooooOoOooOOOoow🎶”, pausing and rubbing his temples, “it ain’t gonna work out for you, you know”.

Vlad shrugs more vulnerably than he really means to, “I know, I really do. You think I can’t tell, Daniel? Meeting you and seeing them again makes that so clear. But-”, eyeing the boy, “-an apprentice changes a mentor as much as a mentor changes their apprentice”, holding out a hand, “🎶so, come if you’re feeling brave, and fancy yourself a mentor🎶”. Bow tie beat picking back up again.

Danny chuckles, okay Vlad’s thing for mom was weird and would never work out but if Vlad was content to redirect himself towards mentoring Danny himself then who was Danny to argue against that? Heck! It was probably a really good thing, plus Vlad was -maybe? Possibly?- morally questionable enough that he wouldn’t take Danny’s shit but also wouldn’t question him about being socially unacceptable. “🎶you want it, I got it. See what you liiiikeeeeEEEeeEe🎶”.

Vlad nods, when he first met Danny and realised what he was, a fellow halfa, it was just a maze of endless possibilities. When he realised that Daniel not only formed as a ghost at a far higher ectoplasmic level but also had more room for growth, he was amazing. Daniel could beat Pariah some day, if he tried. Having that boy as his was far too tempting and far more enticing than any amount of money or Maddie. Daniel could take the world if he wanted, and Vlad could guide that, could stand beside him, “🎶we could have it allllllllll, by the end of any niiight🎶”. If Daniel tried he could probably take over the entire Infinite Realm today if he so desired.

Danny snorts, waving him off, “I can’t tell if you mean this world or the afterlife. But here it would be, 🎶your money and power🎶 and in the ghost zone it would definitely be, 🎶my sinful deliiiight🎶”, chuckling, “you know how much a lot of ghosts hate me at this point”. Him chuckling again, “🎶I’mma hit of that heaven and hell, a helluva hiiiiiigh🎶”.

Vlad can’t help chuckling himself at that, Daniel had managed to piss of an impressive amount of ghosts in a very short amount of time, “🎶it’s like you’re addiiiiicted to the maaaadeness🎶”.

Danny waving him off, “🎶this tooooown will always be my atlaaaaantis🎶”.

Vlad ruffles up his hair, “🎶we’re forever gonna have a fudging reason to sin🎶”.

Danny collapsing over a table dramatically, “🎶let me leave my soul to burn, I’ll be breathing it in🎶”; which Vlad rolls his eyes at.

Vlad pokes the boys forehead, “🎶you’re addiiiicted to the feeeeeeling🎶”, Daniel was more combative than Vlad would actually like. Obviously he didn’t really have to worry about Daniel getting hurt but it really was like he was addicted to getting into fist fights sometimes.

Danny bats his finger/hand off, “have you seen the amount of ghosts that show up to cause problems? It’s a perfect excuse to 🎶get hiiigheeer than the ceeeiliing, and I’m never gonna want that fucking feeling to end🎶”.

Vlad sticks his hands out to the side, “🎶so you’ll just concede and give into your feelings again🎶?”.

Danny glares at him and pushes himself up from laying down on the table, “oh like you don’t constantly, 🎶concede and give into your inner demons again🎶”.

The two stare at each other for a bit, definitely recognising that they were both a bit fucked up and their mentorship/apprenticeship thing was extremely all kinds of fucked up. But neither of them could deny that it was good, they bounced off of each other and called out each others shit. They were both better for it. Vlad’s Obsession over Maddie had dwindled some and Danny had an actual adult to turn to. It was good, they both needed this more than either one was willing to admit.

Then the GhostWriter decides to be an asshole again, piping up from the ceiling again, “🎶you should never want this feeling to end. Just concede and give into your inner ghosts again🎶”.

Danny and Vlad both glare at the ceiling, Vlad firing off a pink ecto-blast for the point of it, the bow tie giving a more mellow beat in response like it was mad at them.

Danny eyeing Vlad, “you really have a problem with my mom, huh?”.

Vlad rubbing a hand down his face, “I used to think that if it wasn’t for my accident we would have wound up together but…”.

“Mom and dad love each other?”.

“Indeed. Though well, I am a ghost”, looking at Daniel, “you and I both know how hard letting go can be. It’s like 🎶I’m addiiiicted to the soooorrroooowww🎶”.

Danny nodding, leaning against one of the tables, “you'll get there, I think. But yeah, it’s like with all the fights I pick even, 🎶when the buzz ends by tomorrow🎶 and every fight after that, 🎶is another rush of poison flowing into my veins🎶”.

Vlad sighing, “giving both of us 🎶a dose of pleasure that resides by the pain🎶”, craning his neck, “🎶I’m addiiiicted🎶”.

Danny pushing himself up off the tables and gesturing agressively at the windows leading out to Amity Park, “🎶I’m deeepeendaaaant🎶”.

Vlad runs a hand through his hair, smiling a little, “🎶looking awwwwwwsome🎶”. While Daniel leans against the cafe/club window, “🎶feeling heeeelpleeess🎶”. Vlad glancing back at the teen and not for the first time realising that Daniel, maybe, wasn’t really okay… and honestly? Neither was he. Vlad sighing and walking over to the boy, “🎶I knooooooow I’m raising cain by every highway in hell🎶”, he was thinking that maybe he could move and become the mayor here, “🎶maybe things won’t be so terrible inside this home town🎶”; it would be good for Daniel and maybe it was a change that Vlad himself needed.

Danny jerks while the bow tie tune picks up again in a more fancy dancing manner, “you’re thinking of moving here?”. Vlad nods, so Danny continues, “I think that would be good, honestly. 🎶’cause we’re both one of a kind🎶”, Danny making a mocking gesture at him, “and I’m sure I can 🎶give a burning fool a place to dwell🎶”.

Vlad grabbing his hand an twirling him around ridiculously, “🎶and your ideals are just laughable, but hey kid what the Hell. We’re both charming ghost beaux🎶”.

Danny laughing and going along with the twirling, “🎶’cause inside of both of us is just a lost cause🎶”.

Vlad chuckling right back, “🎶but we’ll dress us up for now with a smile🎶”.

The GhostWriter adding in, “🎶a wicked smile🎶”, with an eerie laugh.

Vlad nods to himself, officially making his decision. This town could not survive with just Daniel and was definitely going to need someone with deep pockets who could manipulate the government into giving them money for all the insane damages. “🎶I’ll show these simpletons some proper class and styyyyyyleee🎶”.

Danny snorting, “🎶and I’ll chlorinate your closets with some punny flair🎶”. That feels ominous in Vlad’s opinion.

They nod at each other, speaking in unison, “🎶here in this spooooooooky town, we’re sure our plan is sound🎶”, both of them pointing up, “🎶and our little annoyance will be fooooouuuuund🎶”, which promptly results in the GhostWriter falling through the ceiling due to the songs/GhostWriters keyboards manipulation of reality, and the two halfas outright pounce on him.

His shriek is very girly and their maniacal laughs are very… maniacal.

Danny stuffing the ghost in his thermos and ‘Vlad’s’ artefact too for good measure after yanking it off the other man’s wrist. “So you’re really going to just, try to become mayor here and move?”.

“There’s not much else for me to do with my time and someone needs to keep an eye on you”, Vlad sighing, “and maybe being more exposed to the way Maddie really is will help things”.

Danny chuckles, “good vampiric mentor”.

“I will decide you need a lesson in endurance”.

“Oh be still my fucking tits!”.

“Daniel!”.

Danny just pouts exaggeratedly at him as they try to sneak out of the restaurant/cafe/club without being noticed. That predictably doesn’t go as planned, with Valerie poking her head around, “I have a lot of questions about that opera bullshit”. Oh Ancients, she saw that shit.

Vlad puts up his hands, “now Valerie-”. But Danny cuts him off, dramatically putting a hand to his chest, “are you cheating on me”; this situation was beyond un-fucking-salavagable. Making both his mentor and his friend/fellow ghost hunter look at him like they both bit lemons. Danny rolling his eyes, “what? The only reason for Vladdie to not be super freaked out is if Valerie here already knew about him and no way he would tell anyone other than an apprentice or maybe close friend”.

Vlad shrugs very awkwardly, “I’m not one to put all my eggs in one basket”. Both Valerie and Danny glare a bit murderously, before punching him in the face. Vlad just sighs, “I suppose I deserved that”.

Both of them snapping, “you think?!?”.

Valerie looking at Danny, “who did you even think got me into this?”.

Danny shrugs, “I thought you were just following spontaneous murderous desire all on your lonesome”.

“You’re a fucking idiot”.

Vlad sighing, “yes, and a fool that should dispose of a certain someone before he causes us any more issues”. Danny rolls his eyes, “at least I got help with my project out of this… kinda”, then actually moves to meander off like he’s told, shouting behind himself, “still good for training tonight?!”.

Vlad eyes Valerie, who shrugs, so Vlad shouts back, “as always, though you’ll have a sparring partner this time and finish that project first! I don’t want you wasting this evenings absolute mess!”. Danny holds up double thumbs up before tripping over his own feet and falling to the ground flat on his face.

Valerie facepalms, “what have I gotten myself into?”.

---

Mr. Lancer was later both very confused and impressed with the… odd direction of Daniel’s song prompt project. It was like one part theatrical musical, one part taking out some kind of issue(s) with song, and one part spite? It was creative though, which is what he asked for. Full marks and maybe a side note about seeing the school therapist.

End.

Prompts: Write a fic inspired from any song released in the last six years. and Danny has to go to Vlad for help and Lancer gives the class a project that Danny finds a very ghostly solution to. and Try as he might, Danny can’t think of a prompt for his creative writing homework. So Ghost Writer decides to step in, and do the writing for him. Shenanigans ensue. and AU where Vlad isn't blatantly evil in Bitter Reunions, and Danny initially sees no reason not to accept his mentorship and Vlad was starting to regret stealing his current artifact.

#Danny Phantom #phandom #phic phight #phic phight 2023 #danny #vlad #ghost writer #crack #singing #mentor vlad #fan fic #phan phic #my writing #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #gothmoth

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wolffallsintodanmeihell · 2 years ago

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// chainsaw man manga spoilers

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Cursed thought but imagine danny phantom but instead the plot is like chainsaw man type like shit is going wild, pacing through the roof keeping you on your toes, you never know who's gonna die next, vlad's limo beating him out in a popularity poll

get to the end of part 1 and danny's had to literally vore spectra in a stew to defeat her and somehow wes or kyle has managed to outlive 80% of the main cast through sheer willpower and luck

#danny phantom #chainsaw man #cursed thoughts #shitpost #wolf rambles #meg rambles

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currentfandomkick · 5 months ago

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Atm too much on plate to personally, but can add more Chaos Options for everyone’s amusement

Dan is mentioned by Jazz and Danny on occasion. No one gets why the two won’t answer questions about him until a green stickynote covers a camera when asked in an interview and said stickynote states ‘stop invoking supernatural timeline criminals’. Danny’s only response when asked to elaborate is ‘oh, dude went omnicidal after his fright was slaughtered in a GZ part of IR specific political assassination by the Eyeball brigade. And if those idiots haven’t forgotten, i beat his ass and got amity to the correct dimension, place in time, and location in said aspect of spacetime on my first try no training. I can and will switch from IR anthropology track to learning magic out of spite if they start up on assassinations again. Yes that is a threat because you already know what I’m like with basic sigils. Do you really want me to be aware of what i’m capable of, or are you going to leave me to my timeline as is?”

The responding stickynote in a pale green read ‘we agreed to the cease and desist. Cease invoking your corrupt kin.’

Jazz’s only comment on the matter is to hum and go ‘IR denizens have more intrapolitical drama than expected. And the seers are horrified since my brother is a possible candidate as the United Zone’s next leader. Which he’s refused multiple times. And as a reminder to the eternal voyeurs? I watch back’

Dani and Danny going over their relationship and Dani/Ellie slowly growing into the same Ellie for her human form as she starts identifying not as Danny’s Clone or Vlad’s Failed Experiment but as another menace in the Lex Gen Sibs.

Let jazz be the truly terrifying one and let her go after lionel mentally. Girl deserves an apprenticeship with Nocturne and is allowed to use Lionel as her gineua pig after he tries to target her siblings

Arguments during Uno Revenge between the Extended Luthor Family (add Mercy and Lena. Possibly Kara—depends on version you like). Show the messy alliances and Jazz’s nightmare competitive streak with Kon’s ‘i don’t need to win—i need x to lose!’. Have this be what JL bug catches. Bonus if Dani is there and the JL catches Luthor checking on both Dannies form ‘stability’ and asking if either wants to do a check after or not. Danny rolls with being tested while Dani asks if they’re taking core difference into account as ‘my doc said my water core means i can reform from goop form as long as there’s emotions nearby.’

Luthor’s Alarmed Dad Face is caught and him immediately bulldozing to find ways to help her and theorizing aloud is oddly comforting to the kids. Especially as Danny is shown to mother hen Dani instead of Jazz as the JL expected.

Kon rambling about Tim is similarly caught on the bug as he discusses Tim with Danny while Danny is seen visibly tinkering and muttering about ‘ethics of checking Library Of Possible for a cure to varied illnesses unsolved in this timeline. Tim is fixated on kon’s portion. And Bi Crisis continues.

Steph and Tim being in the phase of their relationship where they are both doubting their romantic feelings for the other. Tim is aware he’s attracted to Kon and Danny (to his own horror). Steph is debating if she likes Tim better as a friend (shit is MessyTM)

Paulina turns into a dragon at a gala when a rogue has the brightest idea to try and take her necklace. It is returned by a sighing Danny publicly with a ‘hey, Paulie, Paulie! I got it back, can we do a big yell at the sky and then look at me? Great, do you want me to put it on you?’

Oddly this works. Paulina is seen grumbling about idiots taking from Her Hoarde. Danny is seen as openly sympathetic while Billy Batson asks Paulina if she wants any help getting in touch with the dragon community in Fawcett.

Danny and Kon hate a lot of reporters (Clark Kent is at the top of the list for Ignores Them Reasons) but genuinely like Billy and only let him handle interviews

Danny is publicly reminded he is not allowed in Gotham without escort after they found out instead of having a fear response or any normal response to Gotham Specific biological warfare, his body processes it and the corrupt ecto combined as Ghostnip. He requires a minder or else he WILL find Mr. Freeze, and give the guy a summon for Frostbite. The goal is to avoid him giving out Overgrowth to Ivy.

Kon is caught rough housing with Jazz and Danny and Dani regularly. When the paparazzi tries to spin it as ‘evil signs’ Kon is seen raising an eyebrow and stating ‘holy fuck, i forgot how many flavors of bigot there are.’

Danny and Jazz then casually dropping ‘oh, yeah, because our mad scientist bios forgot lab safety in the IR we qualify as denizens around blob ghosts level. danny is worse since the accident, but oops’d into being bi-dimensional on top of being oops kids two times over.’ ‘Kon was planned by dad. Ellie was planned with her late brothers and still had health complications, but she’s liminal too.’

Kon is out here ready to rumble if you insult his siblings, thanks.

Jazz can and has been seen taking out multiple people and disarming guns before handing them to Danny. Who disassembles them to scrap metal in moments with a manic glint in his eyes. Jazz openly states she’s not allowed long distance weapons as she has her birth father’s aim. Danny is caught taking out aliens with their own tech as a civilian when one of them had the audacity to call Lex ‘the shiny one’

Public learned Danny did not get his bio father’s aim, and can understand multiple alien languages as ‘liminal thing. I suck at speaking them unless its the fun words or sayings. Russian and Catonese are more my speed for speaking day to day.’ When asked about his skills fighting, he reports ‘i’m still waiting for invasion drills at school. We had them bi-weekly in Amity and everyone learned what roles we do best. Lead three counterattacks for my year during a few major invasions when Phantom was handling GZ things.’

Dani routinely caught climbing her siblings like a squirrel while Danny is always fiddling with Something.

When asked why danny is good at drawing he actually looks confused as he states ‘no? I’m pretty awful since this is supposed to be a scientific sketch and i’m way off scale.’ Danny is only off by millimeters.

Kon is the most ‘adjusted’ as he has a lack of life experience, and harasses Sam, Tucker and Paukina’s crew for information. Asking Jazz gives him a headache.

Dani is asked her age at one point in a Live and answers with ‘uh, in months i think I’m 13 and a half now?’

Public loses it as Ellie is now a Confirmed Clone (she never hid it? Was that a thing to hide?) while all of Amity Park tags pics from the day Dani visited Casper High with a tag of ‘literally everyone clocked that. Why is this news?’

Lex is seen with people demanding he explain why he cloned Danny.

Lex denies cloning Danny.

Clark is about to jump on ‘but you cloned someone!’ Route when an overwhelmed Dani goes ‘should i not have been made?’ In a confused-scared-vulnerable tone that hits clark with a Guilt Brick.

Danny ruffles her hair while Kon hops in with “ask vlad masters. He’s the one who cloned Danny Senior over here.”

Danny and Jazz answer with ‘Danny/my evil godfather obsessed with our bio mom. And Danny since he met him at a college reunion.’

Danny points out he met his clones and watched them die, rates it as ‘-100/10’ and carries Dani off stage while Kon raises an eyebrow at the press and looks So Damn Luthor it hurts before stating congratulations, you made a child who has less than two years of existence under her belt cry. Hope you’re all so proud of how Lionel you all are,” before escorting jazz and Lex off stage.

Let Tim’s only interaction with this be ‘i am batman’s emotional support robin, your turn to handle Clark wrangling… hey greta? Can you check on our little buddy? Thanks.’

Greta and Dani solidarity. This extends to any liminal they run into.

Kon being asked about the villains in his family and responding with ‘legally or vibes wise?’ Repeatedly throws off everyone. As which one has evil vibes is now hotly debated. Kon slips off and texts his friends a ‘so Jazz is the true Drama Queen of our family and terrifies me. She refuses to go Villian on principle but tell me how else she can get Grandpa Kidnapper to shut up with glance in trial? She owns it and uses it for good. For now anyways.’

Casper high commenting asking about the ‘sentient hotdog army’

Danny responds by sending an update video to social media (public, posted under wrong one) of the sentient hotdog drawer and him gifting the hotdogs more chicken wire and feeding them cooked carrots and onion.

The hotdogs are Pleased with Danny and Do Not Attack him. In the video he is heard stating ‘its been seven years since my bio parents fucked up so hard that not only could they not use our fridge without being attacked by their own oops creation, but that my ass imprinted on these violent terrors at pet shaped. Tomorrow is pretzel day as they are low on salt, but their teeth suck. Will be making gross oversoaked pretzels to make them happy.’ One is seen climbing into Danny hand and climbing up his arm. ‘Hey, i told you i cant give you my current phone. Don’t worry, touch screens suck… yes stabby, that’s my face. Do you want more blueberry mush?’

Public Loses It when they find out Fentons made abominations. And Danny adopted them in first grade.

Amity park just wants vids and calls most of public ‘weak sauce’ ‘cringefail’ and ‘lemmings’ in response

Danny and Sampson the Gorilla article resurfaces. Jazz is seen teasing Danny for overshadowing her interview. Danny’s defense of ‘i do not control the idiocy of researchers for not using sign and making clear approaches and following basic boundaries.’

‘Didnt sampson threaten to adopt you after that?’

‘In the GZ i think she’s got partial custody still—lemme ask wulf.’

Wulf seen showing up at Luthor Residence as he pleases to check up on Danny

Paulina and Sam arguing about safety standards for beauty products ans ethics of animal testing (Paulina and Sam know less than they thought. Luthor asks if they want to see the process and decide for themselves what alternatives there are.)

Tucker and Danny are a Know Tech Terror Team. Tim often joins to Bruce’s amusement and horror. They feed each other’s ideas in horrifying ways.

Tucker is a technomage. Tim makes apps that speedrun summoning. Danny is in call with Kon ans his friends when the two get too deep into coding magic. Kon cackles at Danny’s misery as ‘your not-boyfriend is stealing my bestie. Make him stop’

Kon refuses. It is good enrichment for their gothamite skater boy.

Danny is seen with a number of Infinite Realms Denizens, often with sparing. Superman keeps trying to intervene only he cant touch the ghosts and they find him Rude.

Combat = core communication aspect for Infinite Realms Denizens. Danny is asked to explain it and only says ‘you do realize they’re infinite and combat is fairly universal, right?’

Let Dani be a little shit. And prank Damian.

Bruce has decided he and Lex are in Tired Dad to Many Adoptive Kids solidarity.

Former Bruce, Lex and Oliver roommates. This is part of why Bruce and Oliver know Lex isn’t 1000% evil but can see through his BS.

fenton portal is brought to Metropolis against JL wishes. Danny stating ‘my grave my call’ haunts many JL members, especially as the magically inclined clocked Danny’s core latching onto Lex as ‘New FrightMate ElderMentorParent’ bond and Danny’s anxiety being far from the machine that killed him and leaving it in unknown hands.

Lex is openly called Dad by his kids. Liminals started it and Kon rolled with it

The fun of Pandora rocking up calling Danny Elipsis and Lex having a ‘did i adopt a demi-god’ panic

He did not (for now?) but Pandora is a Ghostly Parent to Dani and Danny. Danny has Frostbite as MentorElderFamilial bond too, but its more Uncle or Fave Adult Cousin than parental. Danny is not a god or godling, but is a symbol of Hope for the IR as the first out and about Veilborn/halfa since their genocide under Pariah.

Vlad vs Amanda Waller over GIW and the fake gov organization Legal Battle.

Metropolis demanding Amity return their ‘feral raccoon boy’ when Danny visits (he visits to check on the city spirit)

Mitten, amity’s city spirit, and Gotham have Unexplained Beef (gotham is Cursed. Amity is a master at creative curse application into blessings. Mitten is not explaining shit as Gotham keeps almost killing her favorite human.)

Babs, Tim, and Tucker are hacking buddies but unaware of it.

Realistic overturn of Anti-Ecto Acts with Waller leading the charge (JL is side eyeing this So Hard until Tucker and Danny are seen together and someone realizes Tucker is Waller’s youngest son. Then its ‘oh, Oh!’)

Kon, Tucker and Sam are required to have a fourth in the room. No one has worked out why Danny counts, but he does chill the trio out from their ego trips.

Main ships to sail/endgame? Danny and Val (romantic) with qpr everlasting trio, TimKon, Let Jazz Have A Love Interest (legit, anyone she has good chemistry with. I love her with Jason but idk if that works as well here given her direction so far, and too big of an age gap with Dick. Maybe an OC at this point or Other DC character. Tag your ideas or drop somewhere on post).

Let Lex go through a rollercoaster character arc and be the main thing stopping his kids from hunting Clark and Superman down.

Tim’s internal pain with realizing Kon is a rescue hero in training and hates Robin for spying hur has a crush in him as Tim. As a teen angst treat.

Clark is not Evil but the Antagonist for a long time. Also keeps trying to get Danny to move portal to Safer Place. Danny keeps it in a Luthor Lab, and public knows it’s Legally Danny’s but not why.

Danny makes Lex pay off loans, debts and housing/bills on gofundme. Dani/Ellie enjoys having Lex buy and forgive international debt.

Jazz makes him start up an insurance company non profit that doesn’t deny coverage for any reason. If you pay, you are covered. She refuses to let him close it unless there’s universal health car that’s both affordable and not prone to denting people their healthcare. Especially mental, psychological AND prescriptions! And disability accommodations dad! Fund it if youre going to be a stupid billionaire!

They keep this hidden from the public until Clark runs a story about the strange funds. Kids return with receipts for the exact amounts to their organizations.

Lex being liked by public for many of these with him citing his kids at each turn as ‘its important to give credit where it is due’

Clark realizing the change is Real and Sticking. Max confusion.

DC X DP PROMPT

Lex Luthor after years of r&d stumbles upon ectoplasm. He then uses this experimental fuel source to power his machines for years.

The GIW gets wind of this, the GIW who currently have both Jazz and Danny in containment after Maddie and Jack handed them over.

Lex finds these two children and for a moment he’s back in his childhood, remembering his father. His horrible drunkard of a father, and he sees red. When he calms down the GIW base is nothing more than a smoking crater and he is carrying the two children.

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jerryboo · 3 years ago

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DLS characters as parents! (pt 4 Noe)

Noe:

- honestly never thought he would ever be a father

- fakes an air of ease around laia

- he’s actually shit scared-

- misses his parents a lot and wishes they could have seen him as a father

- but he knows internally that they’re both extremely proud of him :’)

- will hold his child in the strangest ways just to see them giggle

- this nearly gives laia a heart attack when she sees them

- but they both know that noe will never compromise his child’s safety

- loves calling his child offspring for some reason

- “LAIA OUR OFFSPRING IS CRYING” - noe

- will get into daily diaper changing fights with laia

- they both look to shove the baby into each other hands as soon as they get a whiff of a smelly diaper

- when that fails - they both get into elaborate rock, paper, scissors games that usually ends with noe losing

- laia claims she beat him using ‘psychology’ but it’s really just him purposely losing - he loves his wife

- when the baby cries at night it’s always noe, he never wakes up laia and lets her sleep

- somehow some sort of baby whisperer

- makes vlad come over every weekend because the baby needs ‘peaceful vibes’

- vlad agrees, it’s a noe + laia child, chaos reigns in that house

- as the child grows up, noe is more of a friend to them than a father

- imagine gilmore girls but with noe

- makes them cool tools and lets them tinker around his workspace

- teaches them to never be prejudiced to any group of beings - laia snorts at this remembering noe’s hate for humans

- that child is attached to noe by the hip literally will not let him go, follows him everywhere

- raises an extremely snarky and curious child

- noe himself is worse than a teenager so his child just skips that whole stage

- tells his kid to beat up any bully and to stand up for himself and his friends

- laia hates that and teaches them conflict resolution instead

- noe’s behind laia’s back rolling his eyes and yawning at her speech, thus effectively distracting the child and drawing laia’s ire

- very surprisingly the stricter parent if they do something really wrong

- will remind them how privileged they are to have the life they have and that they shouldn’t do anything wrong to throw it away

- always makes sure to organise monthly trips for his child with all his aunts and uncles ( aka leo, sandra and vlad)

- does not trust babysitters at all and will drag them everywhere

- loves giving them dating tips but freaks out when they get a partner

- usually ends with him silently sobbing about how they’re growing up too fast

- laia is torn between consoling him and laughing at him.

Thank you so so much for enjoying and liking my work!! I am so incredibly happy to be able to bring all of you some joy through these! I will do more domestic bliss scenarios but if any of ya’ll have any specific requests do tell me! I’d love to try my best! Thank you again! <3

#dracula a love story #dls #rc dls #romance club #rc #dls vlad #dls leo #dls sandra #dls noe #dracula: a love story

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kpopfanfictrash · 5 years ago

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Raise the Barre (Ch. 6)

Author: kpopfanfictrash

Pairing: Jimin / Reader

Rating: 18+ (Eventual Smut)

Genre: Enemies to Lovers / Dance Academy!AU

Warnings: Underage drinking, sexual harassment (not from any of the main characters)

Word Count: 7,295

Summary: You and Park Jimin have been rivals for as long as you’ve known one another; ever since he tripped you in the front row of your first dance convention. When you graduate from high school and enter Russet Ballet Academy, you tell yourself you’re leaving all past quarrels behind. The main problem with this though, is that your past seems determined not to leave you alone.

Worse still, the obstacles you face while out in the real world might prove more challenging than anything your enemy has to offer.

Dr. Gonzalez’s assessment of your ankle turned out to be correct; by the end of the week, you were feeling much better. You had to give some of the credit to Jimin, who’d been like a hawk in his watchfulness all week. The second you landed a difficult jump, Jimin would pop up beside you like the worst kind of clickbait, scolding you for not marking your movements.

At first, it drove you crazy – it was like having your parents out on the dance floor. Each time you pliéd, Jimin would clench his jaw hard enough to crack walnuts. It got to the point though, where you began to find it amusing, pretending to do something full-out just to mess with him.

Jimin didn’t find this as amusing as you did.

The Monday following your injury, you returned to Dr. Gonzalez’s office for a check-up. After examining your ankle and a few routine tests, she nodded in satisfaction and declared you fit to dance. A massive weight lifted from your chest, you practically bounded upstairs and into ballet.

Mr. Vlad’s ballet class wasn’t the type of place people usually bounded to, so you drew several stares when you entered the room. Dropping your bag beside Noelle, you stood at the barre and began to shed your warm-ups.

“It feels so good to be back,” you groaned, lifting your leg.

Noelle grinned, mirroring your movement. “It’s good to have you back,” she agreed. “I felt like a worried mom all week, constantly watching out for your ankle. Now, I can finally be selfish again.”

You laughed. “Well, thank god for that.”

“Miss Y/L/N!” Smiling, Mr. Vlad came to a stop alongside you. “Good as new, I take it?” he said, glancing down.

“Yep,” you said, rolling your ankle in a circle to show. “Dr. Gonzalez cleared me to dance earlier this morning.”

“Good, good.” He nodded. “I’m glad to hear it. It’s always a shame to see talented dancers injured. Make sure you don’t jump back in too quickly, though. Take it easy.”

“Will do,” you said, somewhat dazed as he turned to walk away.

Noelle leaned forward. “Dude,” she whispered, staring at his back. “Mr. Vlad just called you a talented dancer. Mr. Vlad. Vlad Copson.”

“I know,” you whispered, trying to stifle a laugh. “Wow.”

It was a wow moment indeed, since before now you hadn’t been sure whether Mr. Vlad even liked you. He’d given you and Jimin a compliment a few weeks prior, but everything else you received from him was criticism. Despite knowing this to be his reputation as a teacher, you honestly had no idea where you stood with him at all.

Hearing him call you talented was enough for you to hope it would be a good day. Barre passed by quickly and, true to your word, you tried not to overdo things. Despite your initial positivity, it soon became apparent you’d fallen behind. By the time you finished barre and walked to the center, your earlier enthusiasm had somewhat waned.

Although you’d improved since the start of the year, taking a week off had put a damper on your progress. Even just seven days of marking was enough for you to feel lost while moving through the combinations. Luckily, Jimin was there to help you remember the steps.

‘Luckily, Jimin’ was never a phrase you thought you’d say and yet, here you were. Aligned by the same goal, Jimin had proven himself to be a useful partner. Nearly a month into your truce, things were going well between you. Steps came easier once you were certain he wouldn’t drop you on purpose.

Obviously, you still had work to do between you, but it was easier without constantly wondering what Jimin was thinking. Trust was tricky enough without years of rancor between you, but somehow you and Jimin were making this work.

Miss Britt had explained during your first week that pairings at Russet were random on purpose. It was one of the most valuable lessons your first year could teach you, she’d said – learning to trust someone you didn’t choose for yourself.

Oftentimes, your company or choreographer would pick your partner. Even if you didn’t like them as a person, you needed to learn to trust them as a dancer, which was something you had no experience in before. By this point though, you found you no longer harbored dislike for Jimin as a person or as a dancer.

Jimin helped you during the week, walking you through tricky steps you’d missed the week prior. He even stayed late one night to practice a lift without you even needing to ask. By the time Friday rolled around, you felt almost completely caught up in your classes.

Miss Britt’s class was quickly becoming a favorite. She was more modern than some of the other teachers, choreographing to contemporary music instead of the traditional classical. This alone was enough to make you ecstatic, but she also encouraged improvisation.

You supposed this was why Miss Britt had suggested you practice the fundamentals. It was impossible to learn the fun, partner lifts if you couldn’t even complete a pirouette.

Today’s combination was one of the hard ones – Miss Britt tended to do that on Fridays, adding more complicated moves as a way to end the week. This turned out to be both blessing and curse, since it was fun to branch out, but it came at a cost.

“And – from the top!” Miss Britt called from the front. “Sissonne, sissonne! Cabriole, and chassé – tour jeté! Plié! And rise – hold! Plié, battement and grand fouetté!”

Seokjin stood at her side, demonstrating the moves with grace and poise. Every now and again, Miss Britt would join in to show particularly tricky footwork.

By the time you executed the combination full out, you and Jimin were sweating, fingers slipping while you grabbed at each other’s hands. Grand fouettés – sometimes called Italian fouettés – were difficult enough without adding pointe shoes and a partner. In grand fouettés, the woman did a grand battement effacé (facing forward), swept her leg through first position while turning, only to end up facing the same way with her leg in attitude derriére (behind her, and bent). All of this, of course, occurred within two counts of eight.

Jimin helped you balance, although he needed to move fast to avoid getting kicked in the head by your leg. The combination moved across the floor, starting in one corner of the room and ending up in another. By the time you’d practiced the moves a few times, both of you were dripping sweat on the floor.

“Shit.” Gasping for air, Jimin lowered both hands to his knees. “Miss Britt isn’t taking things easy on us, huh?”

Silently, you shook your head no, as you fought to catch your breath.

“Alright!” Miss Britt clapped her hands together. “Line up in the corner and we’ll go two couples at a time. Sabrina, Paulo, Alex and Jasmine – you’re first.”

Sabrina and Paulo were practicing close by, dutifully finishing the steps of the combination. While you watched, you saw Sabrina wobble and Paulo’s hand slip from hers. Sabrina managed to keep her balance, but her timing was thrown, and she missed the last fouetté.

“Sabrina!” Miss Britt called out sharply. “Be sure to stay on the beat!”

Stricken, Sabrina’s head turned as she finished. Landing in fifth, she managed a nod before she turned to cross the room. Paulo followed suit, swallowing at the look of annoyance she shot him.

Once they were in the corner and ready to go, Miss Britt motioned the accompanist to play as she crossed her arms.

As the music began, the first group moved forward. This time, Sabrina got her timing right for the fouetté turns, but still didn’t seem happy. Finishing the combination, Sabrina struck her ending pose – only to exhale, expression dropping as soon as she stalked from the floor.

Miss Britt didn’t seem to notice, her attention already moved on to watch the next group. Nudging Jimin with your elbow, you indicated you both should move up in line. Noelle and Eamon were in the second group across the floor, so you two would be next, along with Irene and Brian.

Waiting to start, Jimin exhaled and rolled his neck. Glancing sideways, you were surprised to find you also felt nervous. This was a difficult combination, so you couldn’t expect to do things perfectly, but the fact that Sabrina had failed didn’t bode well for you at all.

“Next group!” Miss Britt called.

Breathing deeply, you placed your hand in Jimin’s and fell into tombé. Your first steps were in unison, feet skimming the floor while you traveled forward. Jimin’s hands gripped your waist, lifting you easily to set you back on the ground. Each step flowed to the next, barely allowing time to think as your limbs found each other.

Even the complicated footwork section was in tandem, Jimin’s plié matching yours when he lifted you overhead. The ending segment – a series of partnered jetés, culminating in a grand jeté – happened easily, making you feel as though you were floating on air. When you landed and struck your ending pose, your heart hammered against your ribcage.

“Very good, Y/N and Jimin!” Miss Britt smiled before she moved on.

Schooling your expression to stay calm, you felt almost giddy as you ran from center. Jimin was close behind, barely able to contain his excitement.

“Did you hear that?” you gasped, spinning to face him.

“A very good from Miss Britt.” Jimin wriggled both brows. “Might as well move us to the top of the class now.”

“Don’t get cocky,” you warned, though you laughed when he high-fived you.

Walking off to the side, you joined the rest of your classmates who were waiting in line. As you waited to reverse the combination on the left, you practiced the steps in your mind.

Miss Britt continued to yell corrections and when your turn finally came, you took a deep breath to relax. Emptying your mind, you forced yourself to focus only on the movement. For the first time since your arrival at Russet, the steps felt almost natural.

Partnering had been difficult for you to learn after so many years of solo competition. Unlearning your independence as a dancer was hard, but you finally felt as though you were making progress. When you and Jimin finished on the left side, you realized with some amazement Miss Britt hadn’t yelled out any suggestions.

As soon as everyone had gone, Miss Britt motioned for the pianist to stop and walked to the center.

“Good job, everyone,” she called. “Just a few notes today. Irene, be sure and keep your weight centered in attitude. Don’t rely on your partner to keep you steady. Louis, make sure you really push Ari across the floor. Her momentum should come from you, not just her legs. And Sabrina,” Miss Britt said as she turned.

Sabrina straightened, clearly expecting a big heaping of praise. Miss Britt always had something nice to say for her star pupil. It wasn’t bitterness which made you say this – Sabrina was just that good at ballet. As much as you disliked her as a person, you couldn’t deny Sabrina’s prowess as a dancer.

Miss Britt frowned. “Don’t step so far forward next time. Paulo had to rush to catch up, which is why your timing was off. And Y/N,” she said, moving on.

Sabrina froze, staring wide-eyed at Miss Britt’s back. The shock in her expression was clear and if Miss Britt hadn’t moved on to you, you would’ve relished for longer in Sabrina’s confusion.

“Excellent work.” Miss Britt smiled. “That was a beautiful combination. Have you been practicing with Jimin as I suggested, Y/N?”

Instantly, heat rose to your face.

“I, uh,” you stammered, searching for words. “I’ve been working with Sana Minatozaki, actually. She graduated last year from Russet?”

“Ah, Sana!” Miss Britt’s face lit up. “Did Seokjin introduce you?”

Seokjin nodded, giving you a thumbs up as soon as Miss Britt turned.

“Well, it was wonderful,” Miss Britt continued. “Much improved, both of you – keep it up. Jasmine,” she said, moving on. “You’re lowering your chin right before you turn.”

In the corner of your eyes, you saw Jimin glance in your direction, but chose instead to stare at the clock. Pretending as though the time needed your undivided attention, you managed to avoid him for the rest of class.

Across the floor leaps were always the last combination of class – they were considered the ‘fun’ part of ballet, so of course teachers chose to save them for the end. As you turned and jetéd across the floor, your stomach churned imagining what to say to Jimin.

Maybe you could pretend Miss Britt had been confused. You could say she mistook you for another student, or that you’d never considered asking Jimin for help – even as you thought this, you released a small sigh. You should just tell him the truth and get it over with. If Jimin had proven one thing to you over the past couple of weeks, it was that he wasn’t the person you’d always made him out to be.

Still, it would be humiliating for Jimin to know how close you’d been to being kicked out. Miss Britt had told you to seek help barely a week into classes and now, Jimin would know that.

A part of you hated this since that same part of you thought often about that one practice session. The night Jimin had stopped and said he loved watching you dance.

You still weren’t sure what to make of that night, but you couldn’t deny it was something you often returned to.

As soon as Miss Britt ended class, you made a beeline for your things and plopped down on the floor. Undoing your pointe shoes as fast as you could, you tossed these in your bag and pulled on some sweats. Throwing your bag over your shoulder, you garbled an excuse to Noelle about needing to go and frankly ran towards the hall.

Glancing over your shoulder, you checked to make sure the coast was clear – only to crash into Jimin as soon as you left the room.

“Whoa!” Jimin caught you by the arms. “Careful, Y/N. You’ll sprain your other ankle.”

“I didn’t sprain my ankle,” you huffed.

Arching a brow, Jimin continued to hold your arms. His dance bag was slung over a shoulder, sweatpants pulled on over his ballet clothes. Dimly, you realized he hadn’t had to take off any pointe shoes. Stupid male dancers and their stupid male benefits.

Behind Jimin, you saw Noelle exit the classroom. Tossing a beseeching glance in her direction, Noelle saw you and paused – only to wink and continue walking away. Aghast, you stared in shock at her back.

Traitor, you decided. She’d pay for that later.

“Can we talk over there?” Jimin nodded down the hall.

“I – sure,” you said, unable to think of an excuse. Why couldn’t you think of an excuse?

Releasing your arms, Jimin turned to leave and you followed. Once you were far enough away from class to not be overheard, he turned around. Coming to a stop, you fiddled with the strap of your bag pulled across your chest.

Oddly enough, Jimin seemed as nervous as you were. “What… was that?” he asked, glancing towards the ballet room.

“What was what?”

Jimin gave you a look. “That comment from Miss Britt. Were you going to ask me for help, or something?”

Wincing, you glanced away. Hearing Jimin speak brought back all the resentment you felt when Miss Britt first pulled you aside. You thought you’d grown since then – and maybe you had – but remembering that day still made your stomach sink. If there was one thing you hated, it was admitting you weren’t perfect.

“I – well, no,” you said, looking up.

Jimin’s expression remained unsure and after a moment, you sighed.

“Alright, yeah,” you said. “Kind off. Miss Britt… suggested I ask you for help at the start of the year.”

“Oh.” Jimin’s face was unreadable.

Someone laughed far off down the hall and another door banged open, a different ballet class letting out. Jimin glanced away, hesitating a moment before his gaze returned to yours.

“Want to get going?” Jimin offered. “The next class is starting, so Danley is going to get crowded.”

“Sure,” you said, following as Jimin turned around.

You were silent the entire trip down the hall and even outside, as you began to walk down the sidewalk. Jimin was correct; Danley Hall was crowded at this time of day. After Miss Britt’s classes on Fridays, you didn’t have any set schedule unless you chose to take an afternoon master class.

Jimin walked next to you on the sidewalk, brow furrowed and seemingly lost in thought. About a block away from Danley, he glanced in your direction.

“Why didn’t you ask me for help?” Jimin said.

Rolling your eyes, you hitched your bag higher. “Oh, come on,” you sighed, shooting him a look. “It wasn’t like we were on the best of terms. You wouldn’t have said yes.”

“Maybe I would’ve.”

“Be serious.”

“Maybe I would’ve!” he insisted, cracking a smile. “Look – you’re not the only one who needs extra practice. What did Miss Britt say you needed to work on?”

Falling silent, you stared straight ahead and considered what to reveal. The air around you was crisp, the sky blue overhead and the leaves orange against it – in other words, it was a perfect fall day. You hated to ruin something so wonderful with talk of improvement.

At long last, you sighed.

“Technique,” you admitted. “You know that my background isn’t as a ballerina. Miss Britt thought it would be a good idea for me to take lessons from someone strong in ballet.”

“Hm.” Jimin considered. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Hey!”

He looked your way in surprise. “What? You’re the one who said it was something you needed to work on!”

“I know,” you grumbled. “It just sucks hearing you say it.”

“What’s wrong with hearing me say it?”

“You know,” you said, gesturing vaguely. “You’re you. Park Jimin. Hearing you say it just reminds me of all the ways we’re different. All the ways you’re… better than I am.”

Jimin didn’t react in the way you expected. You thought maybe he’d deny it, or maybe even gloat, but instead he just frowned.

“Different doesn’t mean worse,” Jimin said slowly. “It just means… different. You need help with ballet technique? Well, I need help with performance.”

“You – what?” you said, caught off guard.

Jimin gave you a rueful smile. “I kind of wish you’d said something sooner. I got feedback last month that I needed to work on emoting. Apparently, my technique is good, but I forget what to do with my face in difficult combinations.”

“Really?” you blinked, somewhat amazed. “I’ve always thought you were good at that.”

“Well, I’ve always thought you had great technique.”

“Was that... an actual compliment, Park?”

“Don’t act so surprised.” Jimin snorted. “Most people think I’m a really nice guy.”

“Yeah, well. Most people haven’t had you tell them to break a leg and mean it.”

“I didn’t mean it.” Jimin’s lip twitched. “Most of the time, anyways.”

“Aha!” you said, leveling a finger in his direction. “So, you admit it. You meant it some of the time.”

Jimin shrugged. “What can I say? I wanted to win. Sometimes it felt like… I don’t know, sometimes it felt like you were the only thing pushing me.” He paused, then continued, “There were some days things were so bad, I just wanted to quit. I wanted to give up, but then I’d think about you. I’d think about our bet, our next competition and… I’d keep going,” he said, finishing quietly.

You remained silent for a moment, allowing this to sink in.

Deep down, you understood what Jimin meant. Dance was difficult; that much was obvious from your first semester at Russet. It was hard to find the drive to keep going. You’d be lying if you said you hadn’t sometimes felt the same way. There had been weekends in high school you just wanted to be a normal student and hang out at the mall – but then you’d remember Jimin’s maddening smirk when he won and force yourself to work harder.

“I guess fear is a great motivator,” you said softly.

Jimin hesitated, then nodded. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like you were the only reason I danced. It’s just… on some days, you were that push.”

Again, you knew what he meant. The mental, physical and emotional exhaustion of dance could eat at a person until there was nothing left. An iron-clad will only got you so far – on some days, you just needed something more, something external. That push.

“I get it,” you said, glancing his way. “I felt that way sometimes about you, too.”

Jimin straightened. “Really?”

“Yeah.” After a moment, you shook your head. “But seriously – would you be interested?”

“Interested in what?”

“In helping me practice,” you said before you could talk yourself out of it.

The words hung in the air between you, Jimin blinking while he considered your proposition.

Immediately, you wondered if you’d made a mistake. Sabrina’s easy dismissal came to mind, but you tried not to jump to any negative conclusions. For all the difficulties you’d had in your past, Jimin hadn’t done anything detrimental to you in nearly a month.

At some point, you needed to learn to move on.

“Does that mean you’ll help me, too?” Jimin glanced hopefully sideways. “I wasn’t kidding about the feedback I got. I’ve been trying to find someone to teach me for weeks.”

“Deal,” you said, offering him a smile.

Jimin nodded, digging around in his pocket for his cell phone. “What’s your number?” he said, glancing up. “I can check the practice room schedule and let you know what’s available.”

Rattling off your information, you waited for Jimin to send you a text. When he did, you pulled out your phone and saved his information.

“Cool.” Jimin shoved his phone back in his pocket. “I guess I’ll see you around, then. What’re you doing tonight?”

Normally on Fridays, you’d take one of the available master classes, but part of your new deal with Finn had been to see each other at least once a week. Tonight, you were heading to a club with Finn and his friends despite having ballet tomorrow. This had been a compromise on your end, which was something you realized you hadn’t done much of.

“I’m going out,” you said with a shrug. “What about you?”

“Before Mr. Vlad’s ballet class?” Jimin raised a brow. “Brave of you, Y/N. I’m probably just going to read, go to bed early. Real wild stuff.”

Adjusting your bag, you laughed and turned away. “Brave or stupid?” you called as you climbed the steps. “Don’t knock yourself, though. Your night sounds pretty great to me. Self-care and all that.”

“Yeah, sure.” Jimin laughed. “Have fun at your thing. See you tomorrow, Y/N!”

When you reached the top of the stairs, you turned and saw him wave goodbye. Returning the gesture, you pulled your key from your pocket and let yourself in. As soon as the door swung shut, leaving you in darkness, you realized Jimin was saved in your phone.

After a moment of pause, you continued your walk down the hall. If you’d told yourself one year ago that this would happen, you would’ve assumed it to be a prank or a joke.

It only went to show how easily people changed.

Except for people in clubs, it seemed.

Seated in a back booth of Excelsior nightclub, you drummed a hand on your knee and gazed around the warehouse. A strobe-lit dance floor lay directly before you, a DJ booth situated on a table several feet above the dancers.

Sweaty, half-naked bodies writhed to the beat of deafening music. Watching this from afar, you couldn’t help but wince. It wasn’t that you hated dancing – obviously, not. It was just this form of dancing which always confused you. There was no intimacy to it, no emotion, and no connection to gain from grinding your ass on someone’s crotch.

Most men didn’t bother learning to dance, anyways. Most were content just to sway side to side, watching their woman do all the work. Finn was amongst this crowd, but you couldn’t really blame him for that – the man truly had no rhythm. This led to you oftentimes being bored on the dance floor; there was only so much you could grind with a stationary being.

Even the people who went to these clubs were annoying. Eager, college freshman waiting to try out their new fake IDs. Tipsy sorority girls at the bar, sipping on cranberry vodkas and scanning the room for a partner. Around the edges of the dance floor lurked creepy men, attempting to grab on before their faces were seen.

You hated all of it, but you especially hated it sober. Had you been drunk, maybe you would’ve found the noise and crowd to be tolerable. As it was though, you were completely sober and found everything around you to be incessantly annoying.

Finn and his friends had pre-gamed before your arrival at his dorm. By the time you reached them, Finn was already three beers deep, red-faced and tipsy when he threw open the door.

“Y/N!” he had cheered, pulling you in for a hug.

You’d already forgotten several of his friends’ names by now, although this wasn’t entirely due to your faulty memory. Half kept calling one another by nicknames, making it difficult for you to keep up with their discourse.

Compared to the other girls in the party, you found yourself to be severely underdressed. They all were wearing tight body-con dresses and stilettoed heels. You, on the other hand, had thrown a cardigan over your tank top before you left in case it was cold.

The look on the other girls’ faces when you entered continued to burn uncomfortably in your mind. They’d looked at each other over the rims of their drinks, clearly unimpressed. Their meaning had been clear enough. This was Finn’s girlfriend?

Usually, you didn’t care what other people thought. As Jimin had pointed out, you weren’t the type who acted insecure. In that moment though, surrounded by Finn’s inner circle and feeling entirely out of place, you’d had a brief lapse of inadequacy.

Not being able to drink had solidified this wedge between you. Friendships were often forged in the throes of drunken adversity – your sobriety placed you firmly on the outside.

To his credit, Finn did his best to include you. He’d stayed by your side the entire evening, pulling you into games and introducing you to everyone in the room as his girlfriend. It was physically impossible for him to be everywhere at once though, so there were some unavoidable moments when you were left alone.

The pregame had started nearly four hours previous – sometime around midnight, you’d traveled downtown to the club and now the time was close to 1:00 AM. You kept glancing at your watch, wondering with increasing anxiety when you would leave. The group showed no signs of slowing down and your ballet class started at 8:00 AM the next morning.

You probably should’ve discussed this with Finn earlier, but he’d just been so happy to know you were coming. You hadn’t wanted to throw a wrench in this excitement by demanding he make a schedule.

Toying with the rim of your water, you glanced over at Finn and realized he didn’t seem bored. Ben was seated on his other side, a guy named Rico across the table and two of the blondes were sandwiched on either side.

The rest of Finn’s group were already on the dance floor, having found suitable partners soon after arrival. Two of his friends were currently sucking face by the DJ booth, and you’d seen another two earlier try and sneak towards the bathrooms.

Rico snorted, which prompted laughter from the rest of them. You didn’t see what had been so funny about Ben’s joke – it had seemed kind of demeaning towards women – but the two blondes at the table didn’t seem to mind. You tried not to think less of them for that, lips tightening as you looked away.

Given how stifling the club was, you’d removed your cardigan soon after arrival and tied it around your waist. The air felt sticky on your skin, heavy with the musk of so many people. Finn had smiled when you did this, slipping an arm around your waist to pull you closer. It’d been a sweet gesture at the time, but now the warehouse was boiling and you felt dangerously close to overheating.

As the music switched to a new song, one of the girls across the table gasped and jumped to her feet.

“This is my song,” she said, clapping both hands. “Come on, guys – let’s dance!”

Grabbing her friend and Rico, she pulled them onto the dance floor. Ben downed his drink and joined them, so Finn moved to stand.

“You in?” he said with a grin.

Hesitant, you glanced around. “Can we sit for a while?” you yelled, fighting to be heard over the music. “I’m kind of tired after today.”

“You sure?” Finn called back, also fighting to be heard. He frowned. “Come on, Y/N. Just one dance!”

The rest of the group proceeded to enter the dance floor, hands up while they sandwiched themselves between other people. The sight looked frankly nauseating, but you caught the look of open desire on Finn’s expression.

Knowing he wanted to join them, you pushed aside a sigh and stood. “Okay,” you said, slipping your hand into his. “One dance.”

Finn instantly brightened, tugging you along towards his friends. Shoving your way through the crowd, you tried your best not to breathe through your nose. Slightly claustrophobic at the best of times, clubs had the ability to become your worst nightmare. Especially when everyone was drunk except for you; it made you feel even less in control.

Turning around, Finn lifted your arms and placed them on his shoulders. “See?” he said, sliding closer. “This is fun, right?”

Tilting your head upwards, you nodded and concentrated solely on him. Usually, you found Finn’s touch soothing, but tonight his grip felt too hot and people kept bumping into you from behind. All you could think about was how badly you wanted to leave. It had been such a long day of dance and you needed to wake up early tomorrow.

Pressing yourself closer, you tried to lose yourself in Finn’s normally clean scent. Tonight though, he smelled like sweat and alcohol, and so you released a sigh.

Hearing this, you felt Finn’s arms tense around you. Lowering his lips, he brushed them to your ear. “You’re not having fun, are you?”

Stricken, you looked up. “No – no! I am.”

Finn gave you a look.

“Alright, fine,” you admitted. “I’m just… tired, Finn. I didn’t know we’d be out so late.”

Rather than apologize or offer an explanation, Finn tensed a bit more. You knew from his face he was drunk; you’d known this objectively, given all the beer he consumed. When Finn drank though, he tended to resort to stubbornness. Seeing his expression harden, your heart slowly sank.

“You didn’t think we’d be out late at a club?” he asked you, brows raised.

“I thought we’d pregame, head to the club and then leave,” you said, somewhat defensive. “How long can you dance with the same, sweaty bodies?”

Finn’s jaw clenched and he looked away. “Don’t you mean – how long can you dance with me?”

Eyes widening, you pulled away.

“What? No! Finn, what are you even saying?”

Although his hands remained on your waist, his grip wasn’t gentle. Finn’s expression stayed tight, looking over your shoulder in order to avoid your gaze.

“You love to dance,” he said slowly. “So, what you’re saying is you don’t want to dance with me.”

“Finn.” You stared at him in amazement. “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just tired – that’s all! I had dance early today, I have dance early tomorrow. Can’t we go and grab food somewhere? Just the two of us?”

Finn exhaled and it seemed as though he might acquiesce – but then he exhaled and returned to you.

His gaze seemed clouded, and you wondered in alarm how much Finn had drank. You didn’t know how much he’d had to pregame and found yourself wondering if he might throw up. Finn had a very thin line between tipsy and puking.

“Why don’t you like my friends?” he demanded, hurt in his gaze.

Taken aback, you could only stare. “I – what?”

“See?” Finn looked away. “You didn’t even deny it.”

“No, I – you just took me by surprise,” you said, reeling a little. “Your friends are fine, Finn. They’re just not my friends. I don’t know them very well.”

“Well… alright,” he said, slightly chastised.

Unsure where this was coming from, you stood there a moment and let everything sink in. Finn wasn’t a yeller – he still wasn’t really yelling – but something was clearly bothering him. Maybe it was the dance club around you, but you had a feeling it wasn’t just that.

“What’s this really about?” you said, having to yell in order to be heard over the music.

Finn shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Finn.”

“Nothing!”

“Why don’t we go somewhere so we can talk,” you said, stepping back. “My head’s starting to hurt, anyways. We can go –”

“No,” Finn said abruptly, cutting you off. “I don’t want to leave.”

Your eyes widened in amazement. “No?”

Finn met your gaze. “You said this was our night, Y/N,” he said, stepping closer. “I haven’t seen you all week and you promised we’d go out together tonight. This is what being out looks like, Y/N!” he said, sweeping an arm. “Look around!”

“I – okay,” you said, baffled. “But I have class in the morning.”

“You always have class the next morning.”

“Because I do!”

Dropping both arms, Finn took a step backwards. His expression hardened a little, but beneath all that exterior you saw an undercurrent of hurt.

Lifting a hand, you rubbed at your temples. You hadn’t been lying when you said you felt a headache coming on. This was the same argument you’d had weeks ago, but you thought that had been settled. A few weeks prior, you wouldn’t have come out to the club at all but now here you were, nearing 1:00 AM.

“Nothing’s changed, has it?” Finn asked, his voice louder than normal. “You still don’t want to be here, do you?”

“Want to be here?” you blurted. “I mean, no – not really, Finn! I wanted to spend time with you and instead, here we are. Clubs kind of suck!”

“Well, sorry the things I want to do aren’t fun enough for you.”

“Do you seriously want to be here?” you asked in disbelief. “You want to be sweat on by strangers while drinking a watered-down rum and coke at 1:00 in the morning?”

“Yeah, kind of!” Finn huffed. “Sorry if my interests aren’t high-brow enough for you, or whatever.”

“That’s not what I meant,” you groaned.

“Well, that’s what you said.” Shaking his head, Finn glanced away. “Fine. You know what? If you want to leave so badly, then go.”

“Well, I don’t want us to leave if –”

“Not us,” he corrected, returning his gaze to yours. “You. You can go if you want Y/N, but I’m staying.”

Before you could respond, Finn spun on his heel and shoved into the crowd.

You stared after him in shock, jaw dropping as he disappeared between people. Before you could run after, someone stumbled into you hard from behind. Cold soda and ice poured down your back, making you yelp as you jumped.

Nearly slipping on liquid, you spun around – only to realize your perpetrator was wasted. The girl giggled, then hiccupped, not realizing her drink was empty as she raised it.

“Sorry,” she slurred, blind to your distress.

Rolling your eyes, you stalked past her. Yelling at someone that drunk would offer no sense of retribution.

Scanning the crowd, you searched for Finn’s clothing but saw nothing. He’d been wearing a dark t-shirt and jeans, so he unfortunately blended easily into the crowd. After tapping several strangers on the shoulder and in turn, getting hit on by several strangers – probably due to your soaked, see-through tank top – you gave up and walked towards the edge of the dance floor.

Vision starting to blur, you yanked out your cell phone and swiped up. Your fingers hovered over the call button a few times before you gave up and shoved your phone in your bag. The logical thing to do would’ve been to find Finn, or to find one of Finn’s friends and convince them to leave but for some reason, you just couldn’t.

The idea of seeing Finn right now made you furious. He’d been a jerk and you knew if you saw him, you’d only end up saying things you’d regret. Instead, you clutched your bag tighter and spun towards the front.

As you passed by the coat check, you slowed enough to notice the line outside. People stretched down the block – if you left the club now, there’d be no getting back in. Turning around, you once again searched the crowd.

The booth you’d sat in wasn’t far away, but it remained empty, all of Finn’s friends still out on the dance floor. Had you seen Finn at that point – had you seen anyone familiar – you might have decided to stay, but as it was, you saw no one. Finn hadn’t run after you, he hadn’t called and he hadn’t sent a text. Clearly, he didn’t care what happened to you tonight.

Buoyed by this knowledge, you gritted your teeth and walked out the door.

As soon as you stepped outside, the air dropped ten degrees. Shivering a little, you pulled out your phone and checked the Uber app. The moment you saw the surcharge, you winced. The cost for a cab back to Russet was three times the normal price. If you had to pay that, you’d be screwed.

Exiting Uber, you opened the train schedule and again checked the time. When you saw 1:15 AM, you groaned. All trains in this neighborhood stopped running at 1:00 AM. This was why you’d planned on splitting an Uber home with all of Finn’s friends.

“Hey, you! Princess!”

Head jerking upwards, you found an unfamiliar guy leering at you from line. Glancing over your shoulder, you realized he was talking to you.

“Yeah, you!” he said, hanging over the ropes. “Want to come in the club with us, princess?”

Immediately, you wrinkled your nose. “Why would I want to go back in the club?” you responded. “Didn’t you just see me leave?”

His smile dropped. “Damn, I was just asking. No need to be rude!”

Rolling your eyes, you stuck your middle finger up in the air as you walked away.

“Whatever, bitch!”

Fighting back a shiver, you continued to walk until you were halfway down the block. It was quieter there, but that wasn’t always a good thing. Glancing around, you saw several alleys and tried to place yourself strategically away from the shadows. You hated going to parts of town you didn’t know, especially at night and especially alone.

Suddenly, your rash decision to leave the club struck you as foolish. Opening your phone, you pulled up Finn’s number and pressed call. Screw your dumb pride – you’d forget all about the fight if he’d come stand outside. Finn may have been drunk, but he wasn’t an asshole. You knew if Finn knew your situation, he’d immediately leave the club.

His phone went straight to voicemail.

Blood turning cold, you stared straight ahead for a moment. Hand shaking, you pulled your phone away and stared at the screen. Finn’s outgoing message continued to jabber, but to you the audio seemed almost blurred.

Trying his number again, you once more reached voicemail. At this point, you began to see red. No matter how annoyed he’d been at you, Finn had absolutely no reason to turn off his cell phone. And yet, it was the only explanation.

Spinning around on your heel, you marched back up the block and to the front of the line. Tapping the bouncer on the shoulder, you waited until he turned around.

“Yeah, hi,” you said, not bothering with a preamble. “I need to get in.”

The man gave you a strange look. “Huh?”

“To the club,” you said, jerking your chin. “I need to get back inside.”

“Uh, sure. You and the rest of the line.”

“No, you don’t understand,” you said, crossing both arms over your chest. You were just now remembering the spilled drink from earlier. “I was in there earlier. Look,” you said, showing the stamp on your wrist. “You must’ve seen me exit a few minutes ago. Just let me back in!”

“No can do, sweetheart.” He shook his head. “Rules are rules. When you left, we let someone else in. The club’s already at capacity.”

Stomach sinking, you stared at him for a moment, but he refused to budge. Glancing over his shoulder, you could see the dance floor in the distance, strobe lights flashing and bass thumping. Before you could try anything else, the leering guy from the line reached the front.

Seeing you, he did a double take. “Princess!” he said, slurring a bit. “Did you change your mind? You want to come party? I’ll forgive you if you give me somethin’ in return…”

Teeth gritted, you immediately turned and walked away. The guy continued to call after you, so you sped up your pace to put distance between you. Fighting another chill, you forced yourself to keep walking and not turn around.

In one hand, your thumb hovered over the emergency button on your phone. If the guy broke from the line, you weren’t above calling the cops. Finally, both his shouts and the sound of the club faded away.

Paused on the sidewalk, you realized you were in the same place as before. Knowing this was a bad situation, you reluctantly opened the Uber app once again. Screw the cost – better to be in debt than abducted from an alley.

As soon as you opened the app, you saw the surcharge remained at 3x and the wait time had risen to fifty minutes.

“Oh, hell no,” you groaned, closing the app.

Staring at the street, you went through your mental checklist of options again.

The train was a no, as was Uber – you could walk and find a cab, but this was an unfamiliar part of the city and you didn’t like those odds. You had none of Finn’s friends’ numbers and Noelle was likely asleep. She didn’t have a car to come get you, anyways.

Still, she could probably figure out a way to find you if you asked. Sighing, you thumbed through your contacts until you found the right number. It took you a long moment before you forced yourself to press call.

Lifting the phone to your ear, you hugged yourself with one arm while you waited. When the person on the other end answered, you squeezed your eyes shut.

“Hey,” you sighed. “It’s me. Can you… come pick me up?”

Author’s Note: Thank you for reading 😊 New chapters of Raise the Barre will be posted weekly; dates are listed on the series Master List. Requests for updates will be deleted.

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#bangtanarmynet #btsbookclub #jimin fanfic #bts fanfic #jimin writing #bts writing #jimin series #bts series #jimin dance au #bts dance au

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