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raaorqtpbpdy · 1 year

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Five-and-a-Half

Based on the Phic Phight prompt: Danny gets de-aged and Sam and Tucker have to take care of him til he's back to normal without anyone noticing. (from @yellow-rhymes-with-dna)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for mentions of past trauma]

Tucker had gotten used to a lot of strange things over the years, especially with a best friend like Danny. Giant robots controlled by a technologically controlled ghost he could deal with. A blob ghost hunter in a heavily armed mech suit was a piece of cake. An evil ghost king sucking their town into another dimension was more than Tucker alone could take care of, but he could at least keep his cool. Sam Manson showing up at their apartment with a five-year-old Danny was a bit much, even for him.

"Sam, I love you, but what the hell?"

"For the record, this was not my fault," Sam said immediately. "Danny was the one who pissed off Clockwork and got himself kidified. I told him to shut up twice, and we've both told him that the clock tower is not the place to hide from his royal duties."

"Who's this, Miss Sam?" Danny asked, looking up at the goth girl with wide, curious blue eyes. He was so small now that he had to reach his arm almost above his head in order to hold her hand.

"God, your cute," Sam said through gritted teeth, then sighed. "This is Tucker. You remember him, don't you?"

"Tucker?" Danny looked back at his oldest friend, shock written all over his baby-face. The two of them had met in preschool when they were three, and had been together ever since, first as best friends, and now in their little triad with Sam, So even de-aged as he was, Danny should know Tucker. "No way! He's way too big to be Tucker! He's old!"

"I'm not old! I'm only eighteen!"

"That's so old!"

"How come he calls you 'Miss Sam', all polite like, and he calls me old?" Tucker demanded with a pout.

"Can you let us in already?" Sam said, rolling her eyes at the question as she pushed past Tucker into the apartment the three of them got together when they started at the local community college. Sam and Danny had both desperately wanted to move out of their parents' houses, and Tucker wasn't about to be left out.

Danny had been so understanding and kind, insisting that they not hold themselves back just because he had to stay near the portal after high school. Of course, Sam and Tucker had completely ignored him and applied to Amity Park community anyway, even though either of them could've gone to a much better college.

"I take it he doesn't have his memories?" Tucker asked, closing the door behind them and going to sit on the couch.

"Nope," Sam confirmed. "He doesn't have his powers either. His body and mind have been completely reverted to his five-year-old self."

"I'm five-and-a-half!" Danny piped up.

"Right," Sam obliged, "his five-and-a-half-year-old self. I figure we'll wait for Clockwork to cool off, finish whatever work Danny interrupted, and then bring him a gift basket of time-pieces or something to butter him up and ask him to put Danny back to normal."

"I'm normal!" little Danny insisted. "I'm totally normal! My sister says so!"

"Of course you are Danny," Tucker agreed. "She didn't mean it like that."

"Until then, we have to make sure nobody sees him like this," Sam continued, "which means we have to keep him here and watch over him, at least for a few hours."

"Do you have any crayons?" Danny asked. "I wanna draw."

"Uh... I think Sam has some markers she might let you use if you ask really nicely," Tucker said, and Sam immediately gave him that look she gave him when she wanted to punch him but wouldn't because she loved him even if he was an idiot.

"Miss Sam, can I pretty please use your markers to draw?" Danny asked, very sweetly, batting his eyelashes the way Jazz used to to get whatever she wanted from grown ups when she was a kid. Sam clenched her fists and her jaw, but, much to Tucker's amusement, she seemed incapable of saying no.

"How did you live like this?" she shouted. Her combat boots pounded on the floor as she trudged to the studio/lab they'd converted the spare bedroom into. "Thank the Ancients I didn't meet him until we were in middle school. He's too damn cute—it's unbearable!"

"Is Miss Sam always such a pushover?" Danny whispered to Tucker.

"Believe it or not, she's usually pretty strict and bossy," Tucker whispered back. "She's just soft on little kids."

"Oh." Danny looked up at him, blue eyes strangely piercing, as if looking right through him.

It was strange. These days, Danny had gotten very good at masking his expressions to hide how he was really fearing. It was a skill he'd learned to hide his fear, to reassure civilians, and to show his enemies he wasn't intimidated, no matter the danger. But over time, that mask had edged into his personal life too. Danny put on a brave face, a reassuring smile, a too-wide grin, but his partners could never be certain what he was truly feeling. It sent a pang through Tucker's heart to see Danny's feelings so openly in his expression.

"Are you really Tucker?" the kid asked. "My best friend Tucker?"

"Yeah," Tucker confirmed. "Actually, I'm your boyfriend Tucker, and Sam's your girlfriend. A few hours ago, you were the same age as us, and then you got turned into a little kid."

"So I get a girlfriend and a boyfriend when I grow up?" Danny asked excitedly. "That's so cool! I must be pretty awesome to get both of them!"

"Tucker!" Sam chided as she came back into the room with her box of expensive, artsy markers. "Don't tell him that!"

"Why not?" Tucker asked. "What's it gonna hurt? It's not like this is his past self, it's his age regressed present self. I'm not changing the past, and if we lie, he'll be upset at us when he turns back." Sam's lips pressed together in a thin line as she considered his argument.

"Fine, I guess it won't do any harm," she relented after a moment. She put a stack of papers on the coffee table, but before she put down the markers she knelt down to look Danny sternly in the eyes. "Now Danny, these are very expensive, and very special markers, and they were a gift from my grandmother. You have to be careful with them and use them gently so you don't mess up the tips because if you do, I'll be sad. Do you understand?"

Danny nodded, brows set in determination. "I got it, Miss Sam! I'll be very careful with your special markers so I don't make you sad, I promise!"

Tucker could almost see Sam biting her tongue to stop from cooing as she put the box of markers on the coffee table and opened it up. She plopped down in front of the couch while Danny knelt next to the coffee table and uncapped a blue marker. "He's... such an earnest kid," she muttered as she leaned into Tucker's side. "It's different."

"Yeah," Tucker agreed softly. "He used to wear his heart on his sleeve. I never thought about it much, but it sucks that he can't really do that anymore."

"We've been by his side for so long, sometimes I forget how much more he's been through than we have." Her brows pulled together in a frown. "Why does he always go where we can't follow?"

For a long moment, Tucker didn't respond. He felt the same way she did. As much as they'd all gone through together, as much as they tried to stay by Danny's side, there always came a point where Danny had to forge ahead without them. "Because somebody has to."

Sam sighed and slipped a little further into Tucker's body, letting him wrap an arm around her. She was undoubtedly thinking of something melancholy that she'd eventually share at a goth poetry slam, but didn't want to talk about with him. Aside from physical reassurance, there wasn't much he could to about it, but he could do that much, and maybe offer a distraction.

"What are you drawing, Danny?" he asked the kid.

"I'm drawing a rocket ship!" Danny chirped, turning his head to grin at Tucker. Then he scrunched up his face. "You can't look yet! It's not done!"

"A rocket ship, huh?" Tucker asked. "Are you gonna draw yourself on the rocket ship?"

"Duh! I'm gonna be an astronaut!" Sam and Tucker wore the same sad smiles when he said that, both remembering the time they had to console him in the aftermath of his first physical exam after the portal accident. He'd discovered that because of his altered physiology, he would never be accepted into any space program, and he'd been utterly distraught. Now he was studying engineering, because he said if he couldn't go to space, at least something he'd built could.

"Can me and Sam be on the space ship with you?" Tucker asked.

"Sure!" Danny agreed cheerfully, his expression back to that beaming smile. "You guys can come with me!"

Tucker's heart ached. How many times had they heard Danny say, "You guys can't come with me. It's too dangerous for you." A dozen times? A hundred? Easily too many to bear, but they bore it anyway.

"Where are we going?" Sam asked. "Is the rocket going to the moon?"

"Nuh-uh," Danny shook his head. "We're going to 51 Pegasi b! They just discovered it a little while ago and it was super exciting! I read in my mom's science magazine that the guys who discovered it got nominated for a Nobel Prize because it's the first planet anyone's found orbiting a star like our sun! Its orbit is just four days long, and they think it might be the core of a decomposed star!"

"That's so interesting, Danny, tell me more," Sam encouraged, and Danny gasped in excitement at the invitation. He hunched over his drawing as he continued enthusiastically babbling about the planet his imaginary rocket was going to. Sam lifted her head to ask quietly in Tucker's ear, "Did he do this a lot as a kid?"

"Yeah," Tucker confirmed. "It's kinda why we got along so well. He would talk a lot about space, and I would talk a lot about computers, and we would go back and forth like it was a conversation, except we were just taking turns talking about completely different topics. Children of STEM parents with highly specific interests gotta stick together, y'know."

After a while, Danny interrupted his rant about space to show them that he'd finished his drawing. Despite being drawn by the unsteady hands of a five-year-old, they could tell clearly enough what it was. The rocket was gray, and each one of their faces smiled out from one of the three round windows.

"Look, that's me at the front because I'm the one flying the rocket, and Tucker in the middle, and Miss Sam in the back!" he said.

"Wow, Danny, that looks great!" Sam complimented.

"Yeah, I think this one goes up on the fridge," Tucker suggested, eyeing Sam with a devious look. "What do you think, Sam?" She looked back at him with a matching expression.

"Oh definitely," she agreed. Danny was going to be so embarrassed when he was back to normal, and the two of them could practically see their boyfriend's tomato-red face already. Danny grinned and let Sam take the picture from him to stick up on their fridge with one of the little ghost-shaped magnets Sam had bought for them. "Since we're in the kitchen, are you hungry, Danny?"

"I'm hungry!" Tucker said.

"How about some sandwiches," Sam suggested. "What kind do you want, Danny?" She already knew Tucker's favorite sandwich, Turkey, roast beef, and Swiss on rye bread. Since they'd all started dating, she'd even coaxed him into liking some vegetables, though she'd given up on convincing him or Danny to go vegan like her. Her own preferred sandwich was all vegetables, of course. Tucker liked to call it a salad on toast.

"Peanut butter and blackberry jam please!" he asked.

It was kind of funny. The Danny they now knew was so different from the five-year-old awkwardly climbing up onto one of the kitchen stools, but despite all that he'd been through and all that he'd changed, he still liked space and blackberry jam.

"Do you want the crusts cut off?"

"Yes, please!"

Tucker handed her three plates and cleared his half-finished homework off the kitchen island for them to eat at. He'd been working on it when Sam knocked—she'd forgotten her key and Danny couldn't phase them through the door—and then the situation with Danny had distracted him from going back to it. It was just calculus; he'd finish it later.

Sitting around the island, eating sandwiches, Danny asked them questions about his future.

"Are you guys astronauts?"

"No," Tucker said. "We're in college now. We'd have to finish to become astronauts. I'm studying computer programming."

"That makes sense." Danny nodded. "I remember you like computers and stuff. I'm studying to be an astronaut, right? What's Miss Sam studying?"

"Actually, you're studying engineering," Sam corrected, but when she saw the confusion on Danny's face she backtracked, not wanting to tell the child that he'd never achieve his dream. Once was more than enough. "But engineering is one path to becoming an astronaut." It wasn't a lie, even though she wasn't telling the whole truth. She changed the subject. "I'm studying ecology, with a minor in political science."

"And we all go to the same school?" Danny asked.

"Yup!" Tucker said. "We go to Amity Park Community College."

"A community college?" Danny frowned. He'd heard enough about college from his parents to know that a community college was not as good as a university, even if he didn't know the difference between the two. "We couldn't get into a University? Mom and Dad went to University of Wisconsin."

"It's not that we couldn't get it," Sam assured him. "We could have gone to much more prestigious—er fancy schools, but we wanted to stay in Amity Park. We have obligations here, at least for the time being."

"What kind of obligations?"

"We hunt ghosts," Sam said, trying to make it sound exciting instead of annoying. Tucker made a cutting motion to stop her from saying it, but it was too late. Danny's expression immediately fell into disappointment and he looked moments away from crying.

"But... but I don't wanna fight ghosts," he said. "Ghosts are stupid!" Sam blinked in surprise and looked to Tucker, only then seeing in his expression that she shouldn't have said that.

"Uh..." she cringed, visibly trying to find a way out of this. She liked kids, but she had no idea how to handle a crying child. Thankfully, Tucker chose that moment to step in.

"Danny, you have to know, that even though we hunt ghosts, none of us are anything like your parents, okay?" Tucker promised, his voice very gentle and earnest, in contrast to his usual sarcasm, a tone which all three of them shared. "Sometimes it's scary, but we would never hurt the ghosts, and we would never try to experiment on them. If they cause trouble, we make them stop, and send them home, safe and sound, okay?"

Danny started to cry, and reached out for Tucker, who picked him up and held him close to his chest, rubbing soothing circles into his back. "I d-don't like ghosts! I d-don't ever w-want to see a ghost!" Danny bawled.

"It's okay, Danny, you're not gonna see any ghosts," Tucker said. "We'll keep you far away from them."

"Y-you promise?"

"I promise."

Slowly, the tears subsided. Danny had tuckered himself out from crying and drawing, and fallen asleep.

"I'm sorry, I thought he'd think it was cool," Sam whispered, so as not to wake the sleeping child in Tucker's arms. "Why'd he react like that?"

"His parents have always been overzealous about ghosts," Tucker responded. "When he was really little, his parents rants scared him a lot. They talked about finding ghosts and running tests, and experiments. Most of their science talk didn't get to him, and he even thought it was cool, but something about ghosts got under his skin, even back then, you know?"

"I wonder why?" Sam said thoughtfully.

"I dunno," Tucker said. He started to shrug, but aborted the action when Danny hummed and shifted in his sleep. "Do you think Clockwork's calmed down yet?"

"It's been two hours for us," Sam said, looking at the clock on the wall. "So probably a year-and-a-half for him? Yeah, probably. The trick is getting him through the Fenton Portal into the Realms without his parents seeing."

"Yeah, and we don't have his invisibility and intangibility to help us out like we usually do," Tucker said. "So what? False tip?"

"Already on it." Sam's phone was already in her hand and she hit the contact for Fenton Works. When she spoke into the phone it was with a low, nasally voice that sounded nothing at all like her own. "Hello, am I speaking to the Fentons, the ghost hunters? Yes, this is Audrey Goldberg, and I have a ghost problem I hoped you could help me with. It's haunting my bathroom. Twelve-nineteen Pine Road. Yes, come as quickly as possible. Thank you." She hung up. "You got Danny?"

"Yup," Tucker confirmed. "Don't forget the key to Fenton Works."

"Right." They headed downstairs and out of their apartment building, walking to Fenton Works since Sam insisted none of them needed to get a car. It wasn't far, even carrying a kid. All the ghost fighting they did had eventually whipped even Tucker into shape. When he first realized he was getting some actual muscle, Tucker had worn sleeveless shirts for weeks. Neither of his partners said anything positive about it, but he knew they secretly love his muscles.

The GAV was long gone when they got there and Fenton Works was empty, allowing them to go in without any resistance. With Danny fully human, thanks to being de-aged, they didn't even set off the ghost sensors. They headed down to the lab and borrowed the Specter Speeder to go to the clock tower.

Navigating the Ghost Zone was a tricky thing, especially since everything within it was constantly in motion, but they'd figured it out, more or less. To be perfectly honest, even they didn't know exactly how they did it, but as long as they got where they needed to go, it didn't matter.

The door to the clock tower swung open when Sam knocked on it and they climbed up to the top, where Clockwork would be.

"Clockwork, buddy, how've you been?" Sam greeted.

"Samantha, Tucker," Clockwork said blandly. "I assume you've come to ask that I revert young Daniel back to his proper age."

"Yes please," Tucker requested. "I don't know exactly what he did to piss you off, but we really can't have our boyfriend as a five-and-a-half-year-old anymore. Humans have laws about that kind of thing."

"Very well, I suppose the Infinite Realms can't have a king so young either, or so human." Clockwork waved his staff and Danny rapidly aged back to his nineteen-year-old self. Tucker's knees buckled under the sudden increase in weight and the pair of them collapsed onto the ground. Danny woke up to sore knees and Sam hunched over laughing at them.

"Thanks so much," Tucker grumbled, trying and failing to sound sincere. "Now that we've got our boyfriend back, we'll get out of your beard."

"From now on, perhaps you'll think twice before coming to bother me just because you're bored, won't you Daniel?" Clockwork asked pointedly.

Danny blushed, and put a hand over his mouth before nodding. "Yeah, yup! Lesson learned."

"You're ears are steaming," Sam teased, even as she offered a hand to help each of the boys up.

"Shut up!" Danny said as she pulled him to his feet before helping Tucker. "Bye, Clockwork. Thanks for not making me go through puberty again."

"And if you don't disturb my work, I never will," the old ghost warned.

The trio headed back down the stairs and to the Specter Speeder. "You guys are gonna take that awful drawing off the fridge, right?" Danny asked.

"Not a chance in all the Realms," Sam said.

"Yeah, no," Tucker agreed. "If you even try to get rid of it, we'll make you regret it." Danny groaned and buried his face in his hand.

"I can't believe I did all that," he mumbled. "I cried like a baby and then fell asleep."

"In fairness, you were five," Sam said.

"I was five-and-a-half!" Danny snapped, put his face in his hands again. "Why did I say that?" His partners just laughed as they climbed into the speeder and flew home.

#phic phight 2023 #phic phight #fic #things i wrote #everlasting trio #dp #danny phantom #danny fenton #tucker foley #sam manson #de aging #dp clockwork

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prettytoxix · 2 years

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Jealousy 🍂

Billy Hargrove x Reader

Pov: hes not a jerk

A/n: just imagine this if billy was not an a hole and was actually a decent human being. There’s just a lot on angst. Enjoy.

Summary: you and your boyfriend billy go to a Halloween party

Content: angst, fluff?

Word count: 1380

Billy insisted that we go to a party tonight. Something about how this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often But let’s be real, it’s high school…There’s a party every other weekend because someone's parents are always away on a trip.

He says this one is going to be different because it’s a Halloween party. I want to say “no,” I really do. But I can’t. Billy doesn’t ask for much so I feel like I owe it to him. What's the worst that could happen anyways? I told him I’d only go if he would do a couples costume with me though, to which he agreed surprisingly fast. I got him to dress up Danny Zuko from Grease, which was really easy because he already had everything for it. Black jeans, and a leather jacket. Easy. I’m going as Sandy, wearing a simple leather-type material jumpsuit.

After getting ready (it ended up taking over an hour because Billy couldn’t stay focused), we get into his Chevrolet and drive over to the party. On the way there we blast music from a CD that Billy keeps in his car. We drive by the house once before finding parking because of how packed it is. There are probably about 15 cars parked on the road and several more in the driveway. I can only imagine how many people are inside and I can already feel myself getting overwhelmed. I’ve never done too well with large groups. I start to twist and turn my rings from anxiety and Billy takes my hand in his own.

“Hey, relax. If anything starts to go south we’ll leave, alright?”

I take a deep breath and stop fidgeting with my rings. “Okay,” is all I can say.

We both get out of the car and Billy locks it behind us. On our way inside, Billy takes my hand into his and gently rubs circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.

Before we even get inside some of Billy’s friends pull him away to the backyard for some contest going on. I’m not overly interested in partaking in it so I head into the house where the music is overwhelmingly loud. There are so many people in there and it begins to feel too crowded. Maybe if I go to the bathroom for a minute I can calm myself down and try to enjoy the party. I walk up to the bathroom door and lift my hand up to knock but I can hear arguing inside.

“Bullshit! All of it!” “So it was all a lie?”

I don’t want to get involved, so I walk away. I think about it for a second and those voices sounded very familiar. Was that Steve and Nancy? It doesn’t matter. I move into the kitchen area to see if there’s anything to drink. On the island in the kitchen is a big punch bowl. I’m sure it’s spiked with some sort of alcohol but at this point, I don’t really care. I grab myself a cup and start to ladle the punch into it.

I stand kind of near where the punch was for about 10 minutes maybe just surveying the crowd. Seeing all the faces I recognized because of how small our town is. I take note of painting in the living room just trying to avoid socializing at any cost.

Steve approaches me, obviously drunk. He’s probably upset if he’s the one that was arguing in the bathroom. He grabs a cup, starts to fill it with punch, and looks me in the eyes.

“Do you wanna dance, Y/l/n?” His words slur together. I don’t have anything against Steve, but I know Billy would kill me if he saw me anywhere near Steve. Billy and Steve don’t have the best history.

“No thank you, why don’t you go ask someone else?” Steve puts his arm around my waist and I try to pull away but I can’t. I look around to see if anybody is seeing this and just then Billy walks in through the back door. We lock eyes and I plead for him to help. He furrows his brows together and rushes over, taking long strides. He makes it by my side quickly, abruptly pushing Steve away from me.

“What’s the matter with you, Harrington?!”

“I’m just trying to have a little fun, man.” Steve shoves him back. I tug at Billy’s arm.

“Can we just go?” I whisper into his ear. Billy grabs my hand and leads us out of the house.

“We’re not done, Harrington!” He snaps before leaving out the front entrance.

We walk to his car and Billy just stands outside not unlocking the car for a moment. Placing his hands on the top of the car and lights a cigarette.

“Can you believe that guy? Unbelievable. I’m going back in there.” He blows out a large puff of smoke.

“Billy, can we just drop it and go somewhere…do something else? Anything?”

“Y/n, he put his hands on you-”

“Are you jealous? Billy Hargrove is jealous of Steve Harrington? I don’t believe my eyes.”

“Me? Jealous?” he scoffs. “No…. No, I’m not jealous.” Now he’s just trying to convince himself of that fact.

“Whatever you say, Hargrove.” I chuckle. He unlocks the car reluctantly and I sit inside finally feeling myself relax a bit. I’m just glad that things didn’t end in a bad fight. Billy starts the car irritated.

“Hey, do you want me to drive? You know I don’t like it when you drive when you’re angry.” He steps out of the car without saying another word and trades spots with me. I sigh out loud knowing the conversation we’re about to have isn’t going to be my favorite.

“You know you don’t have to be jealous of Steve, right?”

“I’m not…” He mumbles under his breath.

“Billy, please look at me.” He looks up grudgingly and I search for anything in his eyes. Anything at all that says he’s telling the truth but all I can see is pain.

“Listen, I want to believe you, I do…” I turn the car off because this conversation obviously is going to take a minute. “but your body language and attitude are saying different.”

“Fine! Maybe I’m a little jealous of Harrington! Is that what you wanted to hear!” He throws his hands up defensively.

“I’m not trying to start a fight here! Don’t snap at me!” Billy slumps down in his seat and apologizes quietly. He’s had a bit too much to drink I can tell. “You know what, never mind. Let’s just forget any of this happened.”

I start the car and pull away from the house while Billy sulks in the passenger seat smoking. I drive around for a bit to relax my nerves before I finally park in an empty parking lot near his house. Billy suddenly breaks the silence between us.

“I’m jealous of Steve because he’s much more desirable than someone like…me… you deserve more than this mess that I am.” He gestures to himself.

“What do you mean by that? Steve isn’t as desirable as you think. I prefer you. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Y/n, I’m just scared of losing you. And I’m scared that I’m going to put walls between us and shut you out like I do everyone else.”

“I’ll make sure that never happens.” I’m feeling so overwhelmed with everything that happened tonight that I can feel my cheeks start to heat up and a tear or two fall down them. Billy looks over and places his hand on my face and uses his thumb to wipe my tears away.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Billy tugs me close to him as we lean over the center console of his car while our lips embrace passionately and hungrily.

I have never found so much comfort in a person even after a fight.

#stranger things fic #stranger things imagines #stranger things blurb #stranger things 4 #billy hargrove #Billy Hargrove fic #billy hargove x reader #billy stranger things #Billy Hargrove blurb #Billy Hargrove imagine #Billy Hargrove stranger things #dacre montgomery

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wintercoatkiszka · 7 months

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I'll Watch You Bloom

hey party people, welcome to day two of flufftober. today, we're exploring writing two real people... exciting stuff. wc is about 2k so enjoy :)

If there was one thing that everyone had to say about Danny Wagner and Sam Kiszka, it was that they were attached at the hip. It started the day the big moving truck parked itself in the driveway next door to the Kiszka family household and, originally, Sam was just curious about the loud, stinky vehicle, but then he saw him emerge. Small and dark haired, a young boy hugged his mother’s leg tightly as she unlocked the door to their home. Sam was too nervous to approach, so he just watched from the hedges that just about obscured him until his mother came up behind him and pulled him along to go welcome their new neighbors. The other boy’s name was Danny, Daniel actually but everyone just calls him Danny, and he was the same age as Sam, starting kindergarten in the fall.

From then on, you would be hard pressed to find one without the other. They spent long summer afternoons playing in front yards and backyards, especially the woods that backed their homes; school projects were done together and always aced; sleepovers were had and then extended to days at each other’s houses playing pretend and, eventually, making music together. Those nights were always Sam’s favorite; he would play piano and Danny would play guitar or drums, usually the latter because he insisted that he was terrible at guitar, and the pair would get lost in the melodies they created together until Danny’s mother would come down to the basement and remind them that even budding musicians have to sleep at some point. Then, Sam and Danny would flop down on the pillow fort that had become a permanent fixture over the years and they would whisper and giggle the night away, lanky limbs tangled together in nothing more than a friendly, no, brotherly way.

The summer before the pair started high school, the Kiszka-Wagner clan ended up at a small cabin on the shores of one of Michigan’s many lakes to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. A long weekend of lake swimming, tanning on the beach and pretending to be tourists in the small town a short bike ride away seemed like it was ripped straight out of a movie and, as all of the boys and their parents gathered along the edge of the lake on the warm evening of July fourth, time seemed to slow in recognition of a perfect night. The fireworks would be starting shortly, always shot off over the lake to minimize the risk of fire and to enchant all who watched as the fireworks reflected off the water, creating a second show.

Bright colors sparkled overhead as Sam and Danny lay tangled up with each other on a beach blanket, pointing out the different shapes and which ones were their favorites. When the show came to an end, the moms yawned and stretched, bidding the boys good night and heading back inside for an early night. Shortly after, Jake and Josh snuck off to the next cabin over as they had been invited earlier in the day to a party being thrown by some kids they knew from their time in town. They had threatened Sammy and Danny not to tell their parents and, knowing that the pair was unlikely to say anything in the first place, they ran off with a mention of being back by the time the sun rose.

Sam and Danny remained on the blanket though, heads resting next to each other, Sam’s leg over Danny’s, reveling in the noise of the muggy night. It wasn’t human produced noise, rather the noise of the woods coming alive: crickets chirping, frogs croaking and splashing in the woods behind them and something swishing through the grasses as it looked for its next meal. Sam let out a deep sigh, and Danny shifted so that his large, gentle fingers could comb through Sam’s hair, a habit they had gotten into over the years of laying next to each other. Sam turned his head and began looking at Danny’s features, taking them in as if seeing them for the first time. The freckles on his nose mirrored the stars in the sky perfectly, his lips perfectly shaped, the dark curls of his hair shifted as Danny looked down, making eye contact for a moment before Sam blushed and averted his gaze. “You don’t have to do that Sam. I don’t mind,” His deep voice vibrated against where Sam’s hand lay on Danny’s chest and he nodded, sucking in another breath.

“Daniel…” He started, feeling a lump rise in his throat, cutting off any of the words that Sam really wanted to share with his dearest friend. “I… I hope this night never ends.”

All good and familiar things must end, though, and as the beginnings of high school quickly became the end of their senior year, Sam realized that his blissful childhood with his best friend was coming to an end. “Daniel, have you attempted the calculus homework from last night? I swear, the only thing that teacher grades on is how many tear stains have dried on the paper!” He flopped down dramatically next to Danny, who let out a huff of laughter in response.

“You’re telling me. I don’t know man, I’ve been stuck on this one eight bar improv for days now. Nothing I put on paper seems to sound right,” Danny moaned, loudly setting his pencil down on the paper in front of him.

“Maybe a little jam session would help you out?” Sam asked, peering at the smudged pencil marks through eraser shavings.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that,” Danny responded with a nod, missing the looks that the rest of their friend group were shooting between each other. None of them thought that Danny and Sam’s love was just as strictly platonic as they assured and reassured the group it was and there may or may not have been a betting pool about who would confess their love first and when.

The confession didn’t come before their senior homecoming, or the deeply romantic sunrise where the pair was too deeply engrossed in each other’s eyes to notice that sun had even come up or even at the Christmas party where the group had decided to play a game of drunken Truth or Dare and, before anyone knew it, they were all seated in caps and gowns, listening to their principal drone on about using your past to push yourself forward and how far they were all going to go in their future careers.

A short summer later, Sam was upside down on Danny’s bed, watching him pack the last bit of his familiar life into a gray duffle bag, the same duffle bag that he had used when they went to summer camp together when they were twelve. “Must you really go, Daniel?” Sam asked, staring through the doorway at something in the middle distance.

“I’d be gone faster if you’d help me pack Sammy,” Daniel replied, throwing a small, squishy ball at the lump on his bed. “And the faster I’m gone, the faster I’ll be back. So, how about some help?”

“I don’t know if my heart can physically handle it. Remind me, why do you have to go to that smelly music school all the way on the other side of the country?” Sam asked, squeezing the ball as he sat up and met Danny’s eyes.

“Well, that smelly music school offered me a full ride. And what do you have against the west coast? It’s really nice out there!” Danny protested, abandoning the duffle bag and sitting next to Sam, resting his head on the other’s shoulder.

“If you’re out there, then you aren’t with me,” Sam replied, trying to hide the sudden waver in his voice. Sam didn’t know who he was without Danny, they had been there for each other every hour of the day for the last fourteen years of their lives and now Danny was going to move out to the coast, find a nice partner and, sure, they might keep in touch for the first year or so, but what about after? Sam didn’t want to be forgotten… especially by Danny.

“Sammy, what’s wrong? I’m not leaving forever,” Danny said with a concerned edge in his voice. He wrapped an arm around the slight young man and hugged him close. Sam turned his head so that he was flat against Danny’s chest, trying to commit his familiar, safe scent to heart.

“Daniel, I love you,” He said into the black fabric of Danny’s shirt, not quite loud enough for him to hear.

“What was that?” Danny asked, pulling back just enough to free Sam’s mouth.

“Daniel, I love you. Don’t leave me, please,” Sam repeated, eyes closed against any retaliation he might face if they were open.

“Sam, I-I… Do you really mean it?” Danny asked, eyebrows knit together, staring down at the mop of brown hair that was still pressed against his chest. Sam nodded slowly and Danny gently grabbed his chin, pulling it up until their eyes met, Sam’s full of tears and Danny’s with confusion, then understanding and finally landing on a cautious optimism. “Sammy, I didn’t know you felt that way. I love you.” Danny broke out into a grin and Sam sniffed away the remaining tears before allowing a smile to cross his face.

“Does that mean you aren’t going to school?” Sam asked one last time, hopefully.

“I’m still going, I have to. But now I’m much more excited to come back for winter break,” Danny said with a laugh, standing up with renewed vigor to finish his packing.

As his parents finished packing the last few boxes in the back of their car, Danny and Sammy stood at the top of the driveway, interlaced fingers cleverly hidden by Danny’s leg. The rest of the Kiszka’s were coming over to say good-bye any minute now and it was taking everything in Sam not to burst out into tears again. Jake and Josh provided enough of a distraction when they came over that Sam was able to collect himself and even managed a laugh at one of their terrible jokes. Their mothers stood down by the car, talking about how time just flies and neither of them can believe that their babies were already going off to college as Danny’s father shut the trunk.

“Ready kiddo?” He called up, shielding his eyes from the sunlight to find his son. Danny nodded and hugged Jake and Josh, dramatically telling them that he’d miss them so much and he’d think about them every day. Next, he hugged their mother, thanking her for all of her help and telling her that he’d be back home soon as she wiped a tear away from her cheek. Finally, he got to Sam and pulled him into a tight embrace, taking a deep breath and committing his scent to memory. No words were exchanged, everything that needed to be said had been said in Danny’s bedroom, so they just stood interlocked for as long as the other needed.

“See you in a few months,” Danny said when he finally pulled back, blinking rapidly to rid his eyes of the tears threatening to spill over.

“Yeah, see you,” Sam replied softly, not as lucky with his tears. They were already streaming down his face and Danny reached out to gently wipe them away with a sad smile.

As the stuffed car drove away, Sam lost any semblance of control over his tears and they flowed freely as his brothers pulled him into a tight hug. “I know it hurts Sammy, but he’ll be back before you know it. Come on, I know what’ll make you feel better. Alcohol,” Josh said gently, leading the trio back towards their home, slipping a twenty into Jake’s back pocket. Josh really thought the confession was going to be at graduation. Oh well.

#flufftober 2023 #gvf fanfiction #sam gvf #danny wagner #sam kiszka x danny wagner #they're growing up and i'm pining for something i never knew #love confessions #beach scene!

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lexosaurus · 3 years

Text

Going Angst Week 2021: Instinct

Read: [1: birth]

Warning: Ghost Hunger

---

Ectoplasm was poisonous to humans. Danny knew that, it was one of the first things his parents had drilled into him when he was a kid.

If humans ingested small amounts of ectoplasm, they’d be sick but would likely be fine the next day. If they ingested large amounts of ectoplasm, they’d be rushed to the ER to get their stomach pumped, and if they didn’t make it there in time, they’d die.

Danny had accidentally eaten ectoplasm-infused cookies enough times in his childhood to be able to taste it’s gross battery-acid flavor. He’d felt enough stomach cramps from his mother’s cooking before Jazz insisted that they install a second fridge in the lab to store their samples inside of to know how much the human body hated the substance.

Ectoplasm was poison. Period.

So then why was it that when he stared down longingly at the carnage before him, did he want nothing more than to dip his hand into the delicious pool of green and scoop it into his mouth?

He knew he should leave—his parents would be arriving soon—but as he stared down at the unfortunate remains of the giant ectoplasm mosquito on the pavement, all he could think about was how hungry he was and how sick he’d been all week and this was it, this was the thing that would cure him, he just needed to reach down...

Danny shook his head in disgust. He was still partially human, he couldn’t just eat ectoplasm.

But he was so, so hungry.

Nothing he’d eaten in the past week had satisfied his hunger. No, this was something else. Something that originated deep down in his core. No human food could fix this, he knew that on instinct.

Ectoplasm was poison.

But he was starving.

Danny closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. This wasn’t the first time he’d gotten these strange cravings. They’d been happening ever since he learned how to shoot ghost-rays with his hands.

At first, it was easy to ignore. Just a twinge of his stomach here, a slight watering of his mouth there. Little annoyances, but nothing he couldn’t blame on exhaustion or academic stress.

But lately, the hunger had been getting worse. Just looking at a pool of ectoplasm made his heart skip a beat, and the sight of an entire ghost mosquito carcass was enough to make him want to collapse in relief.

He needed to do something. Leave. He couldn’t stay here, he was going to lose it.

God, this was horrible. He was disgusting for even entertaining the idea.

Danny glanced back at the mosquito. Its core had smashed somehow during the fight, allowing its fresh ectoplasm to pool onto the pavement before it. The sun was setting, and it was hitting the fresh green in just the right way.

“Shut up,” Danny snapped. He wasn’t some feral vampire, he was Danny Phantom. Amity Park’s local ghost protector. He wasn’t just going to…

He glanced around. No one was here, and no one was passing by on the street either. Maybe he could afford just one little taste…

...just one…

...no one else had to know…

...he just needed to reach down and…

His fingers brushed the cool liquid, and as if he were shocked he jolted up, pressing his back into the brick building behind him and breathing hard.

That was close. Too close. He needed to get out of here quickly before he lost control.

But as he stared back down at the gooey carcass, it was as if a trance had overtaken him. His mind fogged up, and all his worries and stresses seemed to melt away.

The only thing he knew was that he was starving, and there was food.

Danny crouched down over the mosquito and shyly stuck his hand back out over the glowing pool of liquid. He hesitated, as if there were still some part of his mind that was trying to resist when he knew that he just needed to chill out, Danny. It’s okay. Trust yourself.

He was a ghost. He knew what he was doing.

Closing his eyes, he dipped his hand into the ectoplasm. He shuddered, allowing his hands to explore the cool liquid. It felt...nice. And his hunger seemed to yell louder until he couldn’t ignore the voice in his head goading him to eat the ectoplasm, just eat it, eat the ectoplasm, eat the food.

He brought his hand up to his mouth, and it was as if something inside him shorted out.

His brain switched off, all thoughts left his body. The only thing that mattered was the ectoplasm, the food, his hunger, god this tasted so nice.

His world was green, and that was all he needed.

---

“What’s wrong with me?” Danny cried. “Why can’t I stop?”

His hands were plastered in ectoplasm, and he could feel the sticky substance dripping down his suit, threading in his hair, smearing across his face.

“Well, isn’t it obvious?” Vlad said, hardly looking up from his paperwork on his desk. “You’re starving yourself.”

“But—but I don’t…” Danny collapsed in a chair and buried his head in his hands.

“Daniel, really. I thought you were better than this pointless drivel.”

Danny shook his head. In a muffled voice, he whimpered, “Please, just tell me how to make this stop. I—I can’t stop. Please. I don’t want to be this monster.”

Vlad sighed and set down his pen. “Halfas have unique biologies in that due to the nature of our deaths, we have naturally powerful cores. The more powerful the ghost core, the more self-generating ectoplasm they can produce for their bodies, which then can offset any ectoplasm lost through daily functions. Like blood cells. Except, if you use more ectoplasm than your body can produce, it starts looking for other ways to replenish it. Typically for ghosts, the ambient ectoplasm in the Ghost Zone would do. But in the human world, there isn’t enough ambient ectoplasm for us to use, so we starve until our core takes matters into its own hands.”

“So, what. I have to move to the Ghost Zone? I don’t understand. Do you get like this?” Danny lifted his head up to see Vlad massaging his temples.

“Well unlike you, I’m not a complete moron who lets themselves get to the point where they can no longer control themselves.”

“But I don't want to do this! I don’t want to...to eat other ghosts.”

“Then don’t.” Vlad stood and yanked Danny through the floor and into his lab. He shoved Danny into the corner of the room. “Clean yourself up. I won’t have you dripping used ectoplasm all over my clean floors.”

Danny hung his head in a mixture of shock and shame as the hot water from the decontamination shower sprayed down on his body, washing the green stains from his suit onto the floor and down the drain.

Meanwhile, Vlad flitted around the lab, wasting no time in between plucking various tubes and files from their shelves to simultaneously berate Danny. “Really, Daniel, I know you’re an idiot but even you can’t be this appallingly stupid. There are many ways to consume ectoplasm that don’t involve tearing the cores out of your adversaries. Of course, if you continue to insist on being a toddler about your different biology then I have no doubt you’ll be back in this sorry state sooner than you can imagine.”

“Please, just tell me what to do.”

Vlad pulled out what appeared to be glowing green lettuce. “These are ectoplasmic vegetables. They grow in the Ghost Zone. I tend to prefer them with a nice cherry vinaigrette and paired with a glass of dry chardonnay. Do you understand, Daniel? The Ghost Zone is a parallel of the human dimension. If there are plants in the human world, there will also exist a variation of those plants in the Ghost Zone. You find the right ally, and you have your dinner.”

Danny stared dumbly at the plant. He’d only been to the Ghost Zone once before, when he was terrified his parents were getting divorced. And that trip had left him too scared to even think about going back.

“Where do you get yours from?” Danny asked.

Vlad put the lettuce back in the metal refrigerator. “Skulker. You know, my lackey? You may have heard of him.”

“Right.” Danny furrowed his brows. He couldn’t ask Skulker if he could have some of the plants—the ghost wanted to kill him. Again.

But he didn’t know anyone else who had ecto-plants either.

“I don’t know where I’d get them. I don’t know any ghosts.”

“Well, that seems like a personal problem.”

“Please!” Danny begged. “There has to be another way. I don’t know anyone! I can’t do this again. Please, Vlad.”

The true question was hidden underneath. But Danny knew what Vlad was going to say, and judging by Vlad’s vicious smirk, Danny’s assumptions were correct.

“Maybe if you stopped fighting your true nature, you wouldn’t have to beg for my food like a pathetic child.”

“Vlad, I—I don’t know what to do.”

Vlad transformed into his ghost form, his eyes glowing a harsh red against the dim light. “You may be a human, but you’re also a ghost. It’s time you started acting like one.”

He could feel it. His core, taunting him from under his skin. Telling him to give in, just trust it, trust his instincts.

But he couldn’t do it. He was scared, he didn’t understand why his instincts were telling him to act certain ways and do certain things. Why were the emotions of his friends and family suddenly so important to him? Why did he feel so compelled to play protector to the town? Why did he have to try to be so normal around Sam and Tucker?

Why couldn’t he go too long without transforming into his ghost form? Why did it feel like an addiction that was impossible to break?

What was wrong with him?

Give in, just give in.

“I can’t.”

“You have to, Daniel.”

“But if I do that…”

“Then you’ll finally be admitting the truth of what you are. Why is that so wrong?”

Because I’m a ghost, ghosts are evil, ghosts are wrong, they shouldn’t exist, ghosts and humans don’t mix, ghosts are cruel creatures, they’re selfish, they’ll only act in their own self-interest.

But that was what his parents had told him. Was that true?

Did he know anything about ghosts?

Not really. Except for one, crucial thing:

Ghosts were different.

Danny Fenton couldn’t be different.

---

#danny phantom #going angst week 2021 #instinct #phicc #my writing #the life cycle of a half ghost

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ghostgothgeek · 3 years

Text

Pull.

My first for the Phic Phight! 1,685 words.

Danny's been summoned. But not by who you'd expect. In fact, not by an actual person. Prompt by Greyheartwriter.

-----

Danny had been summoned before. Or rather, Phantom has. Usually by Sam, with Tucker occasionally tagging along. Typically when he was grounded. His two best friends always got a kick out of it. Grounded or not, they were going to hang out with their friend, especially when he insisted he should probably stay home “just in case”. He hadn’t gotten caught yet, but there have been a few close calls. Regardless, summoning Phantom was one of the rare moments the trio had to goof off and be regular teenagers. Well, regular enough anyway.

Danny sat with his elbows on the desk, hands gripping his hair in frustration. Falluca had assigned a large problem set to be done overnight. Like Danny didn’t have anything better to do - rest, catch ghosts, nap, hang with his friends, sleep. At 10:30 pm, he was almost done, he was just stuck on this one problem. He thought about calling Sam and asking for help, but he really wanted to try getting this on his own first.

He grabbed his pencil and tried writing out the problem for the 400th time when he felt the pull. “Oh no,” Danny muttered and looked around his room before trying extra hard to focus on his math homework and not the pull. It always failed, but he had been trying to train himself to ignore the pull. “Not. Now.”

Danny put his face closer to his paper and tried to focus, but the pull was getting stronger now. Ugh, why him? Why can’t people summon other ghosts? Well, that could get ugly and dangerous real fast, but come on! He was gonna kill Tucker and Sam. Or maybe…

Maybe his friends were struggling with the same problem as him and they wanted to put all their brain power together. But they could have just called. Regardless, he was still resisting the pull.

The pull was just a feeling of needing to be physically somewhere else. Or it started out that way, anyway. It was like holding your breath and forcing yourself to not hiccup again. You could try to deal with it absentmindedly, but usually it was all you could focus on until you were satisfied. And that’s where Danny was at now, the pull was beginning to consume all of his thoughts, it was beginning to cloud his brain of anything else. He gripped his desk as he felt another strong pull. Whoever was calling him had done it at least 3 times now. Again, Danny tried to focus on his paper.

Another pull, and Danny’s vision became cloudy. He felt anxious. He needed to be somewhere. What about math homework? That was supposed to be his top priority, they had a test on Friday. He gently started shaking as he tried to refrain.

He fell out of his chair at another pull, another call. Fuck it. He couldn’t hold on anymore.

He sighed, took a deep breath, and focused on the pull. He felt immediate relief as he answered. He felt the familiar feeling of following the call, like riding a waterslide or a rollercoaster in the dark. You had no idea where you were going, you couldn’t see anything in front of you. You didn’t know how long the ride would last and you had zero control. You were just being forced in a different direction, sometimes feeling the whiplash of the unexpected.

He could feel his core becoming colder. He felt his transformation into Phantom, and soon enough, the blackness was beginning to fade, and he tried to gather his surroundings. “Sam, Tucker, if it’s you I swear I’m gonna-”

Oh, OH. This was new. Danny didn’t even know that this was possible. He guessed it made sense though. Maybe Ouija boards were like cell phones in the Ghost Zone. Ghosts had to get a hold of each other somehow.

He turned his body as he slowly looked around. He didn’t know this part of the Ghost Zone. He didn’t even see any ghosts around. He started to panic. He didn’t know where he was, or who called him, or if anyone even actually called him at all. Was this some new stupid ghost power he had to learn to controll again? He just figured out how to keep his pants from falling down when he tried to flirt with girls. Not important right now, he reminded himself. He formed a small ectoball of energy in his hand, preparing himself for any attack.

But no attack came. Instead, he just felt a little nudge at his feet. Looking down, he sighed and dropped his ectoball. “Really?” He glanced down at his caller. “First of all, how did you even learn to do that?!”

Headbutting his ankle was the small green fluffball nicknamed Cujo, in his puppy form. To answer Danny’s question, he used his nose to nudge the planchette on the board, moving it around until Danny began to feel the pull again, though this time the pull wasn’t as strong because he was already in his destination.

Danny chuckled and scratched the pup’s ear. “What’s up buddy? I gotta finish my homework.”

Cujo barked and wagged his tail ferociously, sticking his butt up towards the air as he bounced around. Eventually, the dog dragged his squeaky toy towards the halfa and barked again.

“I can’t play! I have to finish my homework so I can try to get a few hours of sleep in a row tonight. Sorry dude, but no.”

The puppy’s excitement level deteriorated quickly. He let out a little whine, and gave Danny his best puppy dog eyes. Danny sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. Cujo was adamant on playing, that much was clear. He called him 6 times already, what was going to stop the pooch from doing it again until he got what he wanted? Maybe just for a few minutes…

Cujo’s tail began wagging again as he could see Danny caving in. “Alright, alright. I needed a break anyways.” He formed another ectoball and threw it as hard as he could. “Go long, Cuj!” He smiled as the pup darted after the ball at lightning speed and stretched his muscles for the few seconds it took for Cujo to return with the ball. The pup barked excitedly.

Danny smiled, he always wanted a dog anyway. He threw the ball for Cujo for another few minutes, before playing tug of war and teasing the dog with the squeaky toy. “Who’s a good boy?” Danny said in a voice only reserved for Cujo and other animals (except for Sam’s pet snake...he couldn’t use his little baby voice on that thing, it was too weird). He rubbed the dog’s belly, laughing when Cujo’s back leg would twitch in response to the belly rubs.

The phantom yawned as he laid down on the ground next to the pup, using one hand to prop his head up and the other to scratch Cujo’s chin. “I’ll admit, you are making me feel more relaxed.”

Soon enough, Danny was snoozing with the little puppy curled up into his side, snoring softly. Though, the moment of peace didn’t last more than 15 minutes as Danny woke up to the feeling of being pulled again. He groaned, gave Cujo a little kiss on his head, and answered the new call.

Sure enough, he was in the middle of Sam’s room, falling to her rug as he was still too drowsy to make a better landing. He heard Tucker’s laugh and jolted up, shaking the remaining grogginess out of his head. Danny groaned, “what?!”

“Look who woke up on the wrong side of the...rug…” Tucker tried. Danny could feel Sam rolling her eyes as she offered him a hand so he could stand up.

Danny couldn’t help but let out a low growl, “Tucker…”

“We’ve been trying to call you for 25 minutes already! Guess you didn’t have your phone on you. Thank the goddesses for Ouija boards,” Sam stated as she straightened out her skirt.

“Why? What’s wrong? Is there a ghost?” Danny examined her room, making a face at the snake that he swore was glaring at him.

“School starts in 4 minutes, dude,” Tucker explained as he grabbed his backpack.

“You gotta fly us to your house to get your stuff then fly us to school, and maybe we won’t get detention this time,” Sam put her backpack on as well.

“Ah, fuck,” Danny quickly grabbed his friends’ arms and flew as quickly as he could to his room, grabbing his backpack and flying to school. His parents were already in the lab working on stuff, and Danny doubted they even noticed he was missing and almost late for school. A bomb could go off in the town and they would be so immersed in their work that they wouldn’t hear it. His overattentive sister, on the other hand, had apparently been trying to get a hold of him for an hour now, only stopping when Sam texted Jazz that they had Danny with them.

The trio landed in the bush as the first warning bell rang. Danny transformed and they ran into the school together, making it to their homeroom late, but for once luck was on their side as the teacher wasn’t paying attention...her car alarm mysteriously went off.

Danny pulled out his notebook and realized he still had to finish that math problem. Shit.

He turned as Sam tapped his shoulder, handing him her homework. He smiled gratefully.

“Don’t worry, Tucker had to copy mine too. That problem took me 5 hours to solve. You both owe me.”

Danny sighed in relief and nodded. He had 10 minutes to copy this down, and it was two pages long. It should be a crime to assign problems that long. He pulled out his pencil and started scribbling down the solution when he felt it.

Another pull. Damn that dog. No, he loved Cujo. Damn that Ouija board. “Remind me to find Cujo a puppy friend,” the halfa muttered to his friends.

#phic phight 2021 #danny phantom #stephanie writes sometimes #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley

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thesoulspulse · 2 years

Photo

Her character development is coming along nicely so I decided to compile what I have put together so far for Veronica in a character sheet! If the one above is hard to read I’ll share just the text down below!

Veronica Masters

Gender: Female Age: 38 Birthday: August 25th Birthplace: Same small town as Vlad.

Species: Human

Personality: Charming, coy, devious/wicked, calm & collected, intelligent, ruthless, and secretly a romantic at heart.

Likes: Science, doing research, inventing, reading, traveling, fine dining, calling Jack and Maddie out on their flaws as parents (especially Maddie), flaunting her relationship with Vlad and lavishing him with affection, playfully teasing Danny since she has a soft spot for him and Jazz, and finally letting the whole world know Vlad's the most important thing to her and if they ever try to hurt him or take him away from her she will destroy them utterly.

Dislikes: Useless idiots, gold-diggers, those who underestimate her, Jack for causing Vlad's accident and Maddie for not doing anything to help or apologizing to him sooner either, when things go wrong, anyone who insults Vlad, and being wrong.

Story: Veronica was Vlad's childhood sweetheart, or at least she's always had feelings for him ever since they were little. She used to sneak over to his house where they would take turns telling ghost stories and Veronica made a promise to always be his friend and that she would help him prove ghosts were real so nobody could make fun of him anymore. Sadly, not long after making that promise Veronica was forced to move away and reluctantly parted ways with Vlad, however, she never stopped thinking about him and vowed to find him again one day.

In fact, Veronica was planning to crash Vlad's college reunion as an excuse to finally see him again after all these years, but then her father's health took a turn for the worst and she regrettably had to cancel her plans. Months later, disappointed that her brilliant plan to finally see her old sweetheart she used to affectionately call Vivi, Veronica's mother insisted on her going to some sort of fancy event to get her mind off of things when really...she was just trying to get her daughter hitched to someone. But fate smiled on her that night because as it so happens, Vlad Masters was there too and Veronica managed to seize her chance at long last to see her oldest and dearest friend again. A friend, she hoped, who would soon become something more.

#danny phantom #danny phantom oc #oc #original character #veronica masters #character concept #character sheet #thesoulspulse #thesoul'spulse #the souls pulse #the soul's pulse #character reference

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url-is-url · 3 years

Note

Can you please talk more about valerie red huntress symbiote au ? Just general thoughts on how it would work ? I know barely anything about Venom but imagine valerie would get the symbiote from Axion Labs.

OH GOD OH NO OH GOD OH NO I DIDN'T MEAN FOR THIS TO BE AN AU I JUST WANTED TO DUNK ON BUTCH HARTMAN AND HIS PLAGIARIZING HABIT AND MY VENOM OBSESSION

First of all: I will be referring to the symbiote as Venom, a la movie canon, because I have a deep and passionate loathing for the past three years of Venom comic canon, do not get me started on this because I will not be able to stop.

Okay firstly: YES Venom totally comes from Axion Labs. I have not watched Danny Phantom since it was actually airing so I'm definitely checking the ole wiki as I write this but apparently Axion Labs was its own thing and then VladCo bought it? Idk how Venom got to Axion Labs, but it got there and the scientists were like "idk wtf to do with this" and just sorta. Put it in a drawer with a label that says "weird space goo" and forgot about it. (That is VERY MUCH a thing that happens in science labs you would not BELIEVE the shit you can run into if you start poking around old storage objects in labs.) And then VladCo buys Axion, and Intern Valerie is helping organize things and she finds the jar of lost space goo. Idk what happens after that; maybe she determines it's some flavor of alive and passes it to Vlad under the assumption that it's a Weird Space Ghost, maybe she drops it and Venom escapes and bonds with her. I don't know, the details of how they get together aren't important IMO, the important part is the interactions between symbiote and host.

Valerie is still in high school and this is very important to me. Depending on what you do and don't consider canon, Venom is between several thousand and six hundred million years old. Depending on what you do and don't consider canon, Venom has BEEN TO EARTH BEFORE! I am of the opinion that Venom is actually extremely knowledgeable about physics and chemistry and other like, not-Earth-specific things, because they're old as balls. So imagine you're in high school and you're in AP World learning about the Vikings, and you hear this bass-ass voice in your head go actually it wasn't like that at all and suddenly you're RELIVING some other creature's memories of fighting Vikings. Or you're in high school and you're in biology watching a video about octopus camouflage and this voice in your head goes we can do that too and your arm turns "invisible". Imagine you're on your period and you ran out of Advil and you think to yourself "I swear to god if this lunch line doesn't move faster I'm gonna eat the kid in front of me" and the voice in your head goes no, eat the one behind you, he looks juicier LIKE WHAT THE FUCK

Valerie and Venom get together way after Danny becomes Phantom. So Valerie has this huge crush on Danny, but then she also hates Phantom's guts. Venom has senses that humans don't so they can tell that Fenton is Phantom, and Venom regrets their life choices re:bonding with a human, because oh no, these bald apes are so fucking stupid. Every day Venom considers informing Valerie about the secret identity thing. Every day Venom remembers that Phantom's ghostly wail is extremely deadly to them specifically. Every day Venom does not tell Valerie about the secret identity thing.

Most of town is probably at least a little convinced that the huntress is some sort of weirdass ghost, because humans aren't that big. I headcanon Valerie as being short but muscular as hell, around 5'4". Venomized Valerie? Pushing 7' and built like Athena. People assuming she's a weirdass ghost pisses Valerie off SO MUCH, and it pisses Venom off too though for different reasons (I AM TAKING VERY GOOD CARE OF MY HOST SHE IS ONE HUNDRED PERCENT ALIVE I AM INSULTED BY YOUR INSINUATIONS THAT SHE IS IN ANY WAY DECEASED)

Oh hey wait, if Venom can tell the Dannys are the same person, Venom can also tell that the Vlads are the same person. Vlad has never demonstrated anything along the lines of a ghostly wail, so his secret identity is NOT safe and Venom tells Valerie what's what. Valerie is so disturbed, but then she decides to give Vlad the Homophobic Rich Grandpa treatment and pretends to go along with what he wants so she can get that sweet sweet tech, then she turns right around and does whatever she wants when he's not looking. Maybe Venom (as in the big lady) and Red Huntress are assumed to be two different people because Valerie works for Vlad as Red but then does her own stuff as Venom?

Carnage. Oh god, Carnage. So, the Carnage symbiote (often referred to as Red, I love a coinkydink) is Venom's offspring. In the comics, it is possible for a host to experience sympathetic morning sickness and shit in advance of the symbiote spawning. Please imagine you're in high school in a small town, and you are nauseous as fuck and having weird dreams and cannot eat enough chocolate (chocolate is a good source of phenylthylamine, which is a neurotransmitter that symbiotes need to eat) and one of your shitty high school friends goes "omg are you PREGNANT" and you know that whatever you say, everybody in the universe is gonna hear it. You've never had sex in your life but you still have a moment of panic like OH GOD AM I THE NEXT VIRGIN MARY SHIT and then your body roommate is like actually, this one's on me. DO YOU LOSE YOUR WHOLE GODDAMN MIND OR DO YOU LOSE YOUR WHOLE GODDAMN MIND. "wait Venom I thought you were a guy" "why would you think that i have a concept of gender" "...your voice is deep?" "humans are so fucking stupid"

The big weaknesses of symbiotes are fire and certain frequencies of sound. Venom is scared shitless of Ember McClain, send tweet.

There's a re-appearing ghost who hosted Venom when they were alive. This could be a canon character or an OC. Either way, the interactions maximally play up the "awkward ex" thing.

A better source of the phenylthylamine Venom needs to live is BRAINS. This is now a ghost hunger AU also and Valerie catches Phantom noshing on like, a ghost deer or something. Cue Venom SEE IF HE CAN DO IT WHY CAN'T WE

Hey Venom's an alien who is old as balls, it's called the INFINITE REALMS, there's probably LOTS of alien ghosts with opinions about symbiotes

One day Phantom gets hurt really badly and Valerie feels bad enough to go save his ass (if only because the only person that gets to kill Phantom is HER tyvm). Venom is very Exasperated Parent about all of these fool human children so they just. Pick him up by the scruff like a disgruntled kitten and drag him to safety.

Venom has a very, very low opinion of the Doctors Fenton. Venom knows one (1) thing about humans and that is Protecc The Children and these morons are continuously shooting at their own child. The only reason Venom has not eaten them is because a) Valerie insists that humans are off menu and b) Danny's ghostly wail is scary. Also the only competent ghost hunters in this town seem to be Sam, Tucker, Danny, Jazz, and Valerie. Valerie why are the only competent people in this town children. "i wish i FUCKIN KNEW"

I'm now headcanoning that Valerie has a Very Southern grandma or auntie just to have an excuse for Venom to learn Very Southern expressions. Please imagine doing something stupid and the alien that lives in your brain stem just goes "oh bless your heart". Please imagine that some asshole yoinked the whole town into the Ghost Zone again and the alien that lives in your brain stem is like "dear jesus give me patience" I just think that would be funny.

#please don't ask me to talk about venom i will not be able to stop a;lskdjfsa;lkdfj

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terrific-togekiss · 3 years

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Okay, so when I first saw Danny Phantom, I came up with the idea of friends for Dani Phantom.

Not only because the poor girl could really use some other friends than Valerie and Danny, but it struck me as an eventual thing to happen to her.

As she travels the world and forges more about her identity, she's bound to open up more and meet new people.

In addition, I was surprised this isn't more of a trope in the Phandom. Like, is this really that hard? Dani's treatment by the Phandom is very... hit or miss in my opinion.

Mostly because fans are more interested in having her stay an extension of Danny. Seriously, what's the appeal of her being Danny's daughter? He's a fourteen year old, with hormone induced morals: end of story.

Rant out of the way, I present to you...

Kalvin Williams and Caitlin Suzuki.

How did she meet them? Let's get into that.

Shortly after the events of "D-Stabilized", Dani is off exploring the earth like in canon.

She's already seen and visited a handful of places such as New York and Arizona. Keeping to Western countries for now, as that's both in her comfort zone and if she needs to call Danny for help or not. Not too proud on the latter, as while she does appreciate Danny, he's a reminder of what she's not. Keeps that last point to herself by the way.

And she tries to avoid danger, unless necessary or if she's bored and wants a challenge. Not only for her own safety, but because she knows of how the world feels about ghosts and ghost hunters.

What surprises her, is when she comes across a small town that is preparing a celebration of the dead, as opposed to the opposite.

Young Dani Phantom is a small town in Mexico, preparing for the Día De Los Muertos holiday in a few weeks.

Fascinated by humans that honor dead people, than hunt them, she decides to stay.

She even possesses a hotel manager to get a free room, out of childlike wonder for this event. Some of you may find that too harsh, but she is Vlad's adopted daughter, whether she admits to that or not. She would inherit some traits of his.

This is where Kalvin Elijah Pablo Adan Martín-Williams comes in. Don't worry, he only goes by Kalvin.

While enjoying the festivities, Dani notices him performing a couple of magic tricks for younger kids. The Afro-Latino teen seems completely human, except for the fact Dani's ghost sense gave off the closer she was to him.

Wanting to observe him further and hopefully not escalate things, she introduces herself and tries to get to know him.

Kalvin is, rather fun to say the least, in Dani's eyes. He's very hyperactive and smart intellectually, but surprisingly would rather stick out than just be like everyone else. With a penchant (and perhaps love) for the supernatural and magic, that Dani assumes is ghost powers and he's just pretending to be human.

Nope. He just enjoys what he does and mostly for personal gain, or to prove he's better than others.

Dani doesn't realize this herself and assumes that his friendly and outgoing persona, was because he knew she was a ghost as well. The moment she transforms, well as you'd expect the opposite happens.

He doesn't stop fanboying and keeps calling her "La Llonora's lost child", much to Dani's confusion. Before she can explain herself and ask why he's not transforming, a ghost shows up.

This ghost, dressed in a luchador mask and changes into a wispy body, starting to wreck havoc and steal gold. The ghost is called El Infierno, as stated by Kalvin. Dani intervenes, but struggles to find a way to stop the ghost as she lacks a thermos of her own. Only to listen to Kalvin's advice and goad El Infierno into a wrestle match. If they win, he leaves. If they lose, he stays.

They're victorious the moment Dani possesses Kalvin and he's a man of his word, that leaves to the Ghost Zone. Thus a close friendship is born, as the two of them enjoy the festivities and use their combined skills to entertain people more and make money, that Dani plans to use to travel more.

Kalvin is only visiting Mexico with his parents for Day of the Dead and promises that if she's in the neighborhood, the two of them can hang out more. He develops a crush on her, with Dani being oblivious to it out of her own insecurities.

Kalvin's crush on her mostly comes from how cool she seems to him and how she's not afraid to voice how she feels. And looks very pretty.

How does Kalvin have magic powers? That remains unknown except for an offhanded comment about a dead twin... ;)

Moving on, Dani finds herself at an airport in Ireland, that's going to leave in the next 6 hours.

While looking around for something to pass the time, Dani notices a small ghost cat wave at her before phasing through a wall. Assuming the ghost cat is up to no good, she follows after it, ending up in the middle of an airport mall.

While there she notices a tall redhead girl shopping for dresses that proceeds to pet the ghost cat and lightly scold her for rushing off. This confuses Dani and while she's staring, she fails to notice said girl noticed her. This is Caitlin O'Conner Suzuki and her pet ghost cat Neko.

Caitlin is at the airport with her family, about to visit relatives in Tokyo. She left on her own to go for a bit of shopping and insists that she takes Dani to "expand" her wardrobe. Dani is in very little position to object and plays along. The two of them get along and the Japanese-Irish teen acts like the cool older sister Dani never had, but always wanted. Introducing her to latest fashion trends, getting her a phone and taking time to get to know her. Even if there's many holes in Dani's stories.

Too bad she may or may not collect ghosts for her own gain.

Eventually, the airport is running amuck with ghosts and Dani insists Caitlin gets to cover.

As she fights them off, Caitlin shows up with a ghost hunting gadget of her own: The Ecto Shine.

A katana with more of a focus on weakening ghosts, until they are safe to capture or beat until they can't fight back.

The two of them save the airport and the ever girly Caitlin insists on Dani coming with her. She agrees and tags along of course.

So yeah, these are my Danny Phantom OCs. I wanted them to be to Dani, what Sam and Tucker are to Danny. And be reverse versions of them to an extent.

Kalvin is more of a chemist that loves magic tricks with a bit of a superiority complex, in contrast to how Tucker has a bit of an inferiority complex with a love for technology.

Sam is "not like other girls" and looks down on other girls for being girly, while Caitlin is generally accepting of others with an unashamedly girly side to her. Though she can be a tad immature, she's not dumb by any means.

I'll most likely write little snippets of the three of them hanging out and I'd love to hear what you guys think of them.

#danny phantom #dp #dani phantom #dani fenton #dani x oc #dani phantom x oc #oc tag #my ocs #oc tag: kalvin williams #oc tag: caitlin suzuki #sam manson #tucker foley #long post #terrific togekiss

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whenwordsmakesense · 3 years

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Day 4: Queer

@pridewrite2021 (I haven’t done day 3 because, man, angst is hard to write. But it will be up soon! I hope).

Anyways, here you can find my other two works that I have done for this lovely event!

Awakening

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Ship: Derek Hale × Stiles Stilinski

Words: 1.3k

Summary: Kid!Stiles realizing boys are equally as pretty as girls.

Read on AO3 or right here:

Warning: None.

>> Starts from here onwards.

Mrs. Rose was Stiles Stilinski's favorite person. She was a sweet old lady, with the voice of an angel (she'd smiled the biggest when he'd told her that), and she loved reading to him and the other kids in the library. Stiles' favorite place was the library, and he was very happy that he got to go to the library and talk to Mrs. Rose everyday!

“I'll see you in the evening, okay, Mischief?” His mom's voice made him look back at her, and he smiled and nodded.

“Okay, mommy! Bring back a cookie for me? Please?” His mommy worked in the best bakery in town, and he loved the chocolate cookies the best. If he'd been good in school, his mom would even bring him back some desert! And he'd been really good today.

Mom smiled and pulled him in a hug, then kissed his forehead and told him to be good, leaving him in the lounge area of the library to wait for Mrs. Rose to come. His mom always dropped him off some time before the reading session started, but he didn't mind it. He loved exploring the library all on his own.

Today was a little different, though. Normally, only kids around his age came in with parents, and they either sat in the lounge area or followed him around—he was the only one allowed to touch the books (which he could reach), because most kids didn't understand the value of books—asking him to take that or this book down, just to see the cover. It annoyed him, but his parents had told him that he was what adults called a ‘precocious’ child. Which just meant he was eight going on eighty, if his dad was to be believed. Stiles was not eighty! He was eight! And he just liked learning new things, correctly, that's all.

So it was understandable that he was shocked when an older kid—a teenager—came into the library, looking sad and angry all at once, and also looking irritated when a small girl ran away from.

The girl kind of looked like the big boy. She had the same colored skin, and their face kind of matched. But she had dark brown hair, darken than Stiles' own, and the big boy had perfect black hair and it looked like Superman's did, like even the biggest wind wouldn't ruffle it. Stiles couldn't see the big boy's eyes clearly, but it was a light color, he could tell. The girl though had brown eyes, same color as her hair. She looked really nice.

Stiles realised he didn't know her. And he knew everybody who came to the library.

He made his way to the brother and sister, the big boy looking at him for one second before making a face and moving away.

“Hi! I'm Stiles, who are you? I haven't seen you here before and I come here everyday!”

“Everyday?” She asked him as if it was the worst thing ever.

“Yes!” He frowned. “If you don't want to be here why are you here?”

She made a face and told him, “Because Derek is a jerk!” She shouted the last bit to the big boy and Derek told her to shut up. Stiles looked at her with wonder.

“You just said a bad word,”

“So?” She asked him with her nose in the air. Arrogantly. That was the word. Mrs. Rose had taught them this last week.

Stiles' dad was a deputy, and he put bad guys away in jail. He always told Stiles that using bad words is not good, and he is a deputy, so that must be true! But this girl said it, and she didn't seem bad. Just annoyed.

Stiles didn't answer. Just took her hand and led her to the reading room, where Mrs. Rose had arrived and was setting up. She smiled at the two of them.

“Made a new friend, did you, Stiles?” She asked. “Who might this sweet little princess be?”

“Not a princess!” She said arrogantly. “I'm a warrior,” she looked ready to fight anyone who might tell her that no, she wasn't a warrior. That was stupid. Girls didn't always have to be princesses, and boys warriors. They could be anything they wanted. Lydia Martin, the smartest girl in his class, had told their bad teacher Ms. Argent that when she'd forced Danny to be a warrior instead of a prince like he wanted.

“Oh! Do you know how to fight with a sword?” As far as Stiles was concerned, that was the only thing you needed to know to be a warrior.

“I do.”

“Then you can be my knight! We can play Royals and Knights after!”

“What's that?” She asked, and Stiles found her to be really pretty, when she didn't look angry. But he'd found her brother to be pretty when he was angry... Could boys be even called that? Pretty?

“It's like Princess and Knights, sweetheart,” Mrs. Rose answered.

Stiles listened as Mrs. Rose introduced herself to Cora, and Cora finally told her name, and then soon it was reading time, but his attention was mostly on how Derek was pretty. The boy had come in after some time, calling out for Cora, and then at Mrs. Rose's insistence stayed in the room. Stiles couldn't look away from him. Whenever he did, he would always look back to Derek to make sure he was still there. Stiles even felt some mice dancing around in his stomach when Derek looked him in the eye, but he wasn't hungry. He didn't think he was, but mice in his stomach meant he was.

It was all so weird, how could he find both boys and girls to be pretty? This wasn't the first time he'd thought boys were pretty too, but he hadn't thought much of it. But today he'd told Danny he looked pretty in his new shirt, and the other boys had looked at him weird. Even the girls had. Only Lydia nodded and agreed with him, and led Danny back to their table.

Were boys not supposed to find other boys pretty? He would have to ask Mrs. Rose that, she would know the answer. She was old—even if she didn't like being reminded of it—and she knew stuff. She was very wise.

So, after pretty much everyone had cleared out, and minutes before his mom would be here—she came sharp at six, but right now it was fifteen minutes to six—he walked towards his favourite person.

“You weren't paying attention today, were you little Mischief?” She asked him with a smile. This was why she was his favourite. His mind tended to work very fast, he had something called ADHD apparently, and so he normally couldn't focus in classes for too long. Reading hour was kind of like classes too, but here Mrs. Rose didn't scold him for not paying attention, just asked him what was it this time that had caught his attention. This was also why she was the only one other than his parents who could call him Mischief.

“No,” he said, and quickly asked, “I think Cora is pretty but I also think Derek, her brother, is pretty. Danny is pretty too and Lydia is too, but the other boys didn't think so when I said that Danny is pretty. Are boys not supposed to find other boys to be pretty?”

Years later, Stiles would remember the conversation that followed, and he'd smile. Derek, his asshole (quite literally, too) of an husband, would just know by looking at his smile what he's thinking of, and would tease him about being Stiles' bi awakening years before they were even friends. Stiles would smack him playfully, and then somehow, like always, they'd end up tangled together in each other's arms.

#pridewrite2021 #day 4: queer #queer #bisexual #teen wolf #sterek #stiles stilinski #derek hale #cora hale #claudia stilinski #my fic #whenwordsmakesense

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halo-jpeg · 4 years

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I know I asked one already today but what about slashers with a male SO? Like, a soft boy?

Y E S. I’m writing this one on my laptop (The first time I’ve done that!) so there will probably be a lot more information. Writing on my laptop just makes ideas flow better. Maybe I’ll do this from now on.

Slashers with a Soft Boy S/O

Michael Myers

Opposites attract- he’s obsessed with you. He values that you don’t feel like you have to follow the stereotyped gender norms. You’re different, and unique and absolutely adorable.

Every single instinct inside of him that usually screams ‘Kill kill kill!’ scream ‘Protect protect protect!’ and he likes the change. It’s also, in a way, similar to getting your parents approval- if the voices don’t want you dead than the two of you must be meant to be.

He also enjoys the contrast you two share. You’re kind, and you speak quietly and wear light coloured clothing. Meanwhile, he’s dark and brooding and the opposite of nice, preferring darkness and evil.

He appreciates your softness, it’s calming. After a long night of difficult hunting, he appreciates your love and affection.

His favourite thing is when you comb your fingers through his hair or pepper his face with kisses. He can feel vulnerable, he can let his walls down around you. That’s something he’s never had before.

His trust in you is absolute. You get to see his face, you get to hear his voice, you get to tell him what to do and you get to place whatever boundaries you want. He will respect them and you until the end of time.

Jason Voorhees

Soft boy? Yes please! If he was a human of normal shape, strength and lifestyle, he’d probably be a soft boy as well. He likes flowers and small animals and the quiet nature.

Speaking of flowers, he’ll want you to teach him how to make flower crowns. If you don’t know how, then you can learn together! Along with flower crowns he’ll also make any other gifts or pressed flowers for you that he can, collecting nice looking plants and pressing them to keep in a scrapbook he insists you keep.

Your calm mannerisms are a nice break. Like Michael, his days are usually filled with chaos, screams and bloodshed, so coming home to you curled up on the couch is amazing. He’ll pamper you, hugging you and playing with your hair.

He won’t let you stray too far from the house without him, afraid that you could get hurt- or spotted by other people who think you’re as cute as you are. He doesn’t want to be childish, but sharing is not something he’s willing to do.

His mother loves you too. You’re kind, and she knows you’d never ever be rude to him like this kids were all those years ago. She thinks you’re a perfect match for her boy.

He’ll do whatever you want- want to spend your evening reading? Sure! Maybe a movie? Okay. You’re so kind to him, you always get to pick how your days are spent. He never complains, he loves you too much for that.

Billy Loomis & Stu Macher

Billy, Stu and you are three points to a triangle. Billy is a bit of an edgelord, mysterious and threatening, while Stu is the definition of an energetic crackhead. You balance each other out- or maybe you create the perfect storm.

Billy is a calmer guy than most, so he likes to spend his free time hanging out with you in a chill environment, like watching a movie or something similar. Whether you chat quietly as you do or just enjoy each others company, he’ll be satisfied.

Stu, on the other hand, likes to cuddle, cracking jokes all the while. Again, he’s more energetic than Billy so calmer times like these are a break to you.

Billy likes to be big and strong, so having a softer S/O makes him feel like he needs to protect them. He’s clearly more than capable of it, too, so don’t ever worry about being in danger.

Stu is similar, but he’s more up front about it. If anyone even implies anything that he doesn’t like, he’ll call them out for it in a playful but clearly passive-aggressive way.

One of them will always be with you, yet most of the time it will be both of them. They’re attached to you and they aren’t subtle about it.

Danny ‘Jed Olsen’ Johnson

Danny will never call you by your real name, not when you’re as cute as you are. You’ll constantly be called things like ‘Sweetheart’ or ‘Honey’. He usually calls everyone nicknames like that, but now that you’re here, they’re for you and only you.

He’ll pull out his old, classic Polaroid camera since he thinks it matches perfectly with your whole soft boy aesthetic. He strings any good photos along the walls with fairy lights.

He likes to go out in public with you, flaunting his adorable S/O and waiting for people to send him jealous glances as if you’re the worlds greatest prize- which you are.

However, if anyone ever makes a move or compliments you he snaps and gets super territorial. God forbid anyone ever tried to take advantage of you. Their body would turn up days later for sure.

He’s pretty much an opposite of you, wearing dark clothes and loving dark comedy- and, of course, killing people. He thinks it’s cute that you love him so much when he’s so different from you.

He stares at you almost all the time. If you’re ever sitting on the couch, silent, not doing much and you look over at him, he’ll be looking right back at you already, a smirk splitting his features. ‘Just takin’ in the eye candy.’

Brahms Heelshire

Brahms is also a soft boy. He was more than surprised when you showed up as his nanny, but he fell in love with you the moment he realized how similar you were to him.

T e a p a r t i e s. If you act like him you must like the same things as him, so he won’t ever even ask. He’ll just... take your hand and drag you to the table where he’s already set out a teapot with some of his best tea inside. That’s the one thing he can make without wrecking it, and he makes it good.

He loves when you read to him in your calm, sweet voice, and swears he could listen to you forever.

He’ll trust you quicker than he’s ever trusted anyone, so he’ll use his normal voice and show his face quite often, either babying you or being babied, playing with your hair or having you play with his.

He’s a cuddle fiend, so he’ll cling to you all the time at random, hugging you for minimum 10 minutes whenever he gets in a clingy mood.

He’s so scared when you leave the house, afraid that you won’t come back (choosing not to or being stopped) so he’ll actually go into public with you. He hates it, but your calming energy makes him feel much more comfortable.

Norman Bates

Literal definition of soft boy (at least most days). He’s like your carbon copy, doing the things you do and acting the way you act.

He’s a poor nervous little guy, so he’s never too keen on PDA, but he’ll hold your hand and try to be confident while doing so. He’ll also apologize a million times, saying that he really want to hug you but he’s just too scared.

If you are ever threatened he’ll go crazy, snapping much more common than he normally would. He tries to keep it under control, but in the right environment and with the right scenario he’ll go crazy and beat the offender to a pulp- or to death, sometimes. Eek.

After his explosive episodes, he’ll feel so bad for potentially scaring you. He’ll hug you tightly and he’ll promise he won’t let it happen again. You both know he can’t control it, but these promises soothe both him and you.

He’s usually always working, cleaning, etc. but with you he’ll take a step back and relax with you when he almost never does.

The best at making you feel perfect. He’ll compliment you every second he can, kissing your hands and cheeks and nose. you can also see the pure unadulterated love in his eyes.

Vincent Sinclair

Vincent l o v e s you so much, you’re just the type of person he needs in his life. You’re so sweet and kind to him, which counter’s Bo’s snappiness, while you’re also very calm and soothing, a good counter to Lester’s high energy.

He’ll teach you how to sculpt like he can as best as possible, spending hours standing behind you and guiding your hands over his work-in-progress.

He enjoys towering over you, making him feel big and strong- again, the opposite of how Bo makes him feel. you give him a purpose, he feels useful when here’s there to protect you.

He’ll soak up any praise you give him, returning it full-force in the form of flowers, wax gifts, and stuff he’s scavenged off of tourists. He knows he’ll never be able to repay you for all you do for him but he’ll sure as hell try his best.

He refuses to kill in front of you. From time to time Bo will drag an unconscious (but still breathing) victim down into the basement for him to wax alive so the form is easier to get right, but Vincent will usher you out of the room so you don’t see the body or the following process. It’ll taint your perfect personality.

He soothes his insomnia simply by looking at you. Your calmness lets him know that everything is okay, and sleep comes easier when your nestled against his side snoring gently.

Bo Sinclair

Bo thinks its hilarious and impossible that you ever fell for him, a big, dangerous man with no sense of mercy. It’s also strange that he fell for you, since no one else had ever caught his eye before.

He trusts you not to run to the police, and by god you’d never even try. He thanks whatever god may be listening for the gift that is your love, wondering every single day how he got so lucky.

Your softness is foreign to him but once he gets used to it he noticed that it’s slightly similar to how Vincent acts. He is soothed by the familiarity that this realization brings.

He’ll want nothing more than to cuddle you day and night, but he knows he has to work so he’ll request that you work with him to keep him company. He also wants to keep an eye on you but would never admit to that. It’s not like he’s always terrified for your well being or anything baka

On days where he feels extra sweet he’ll make you breakfast and ask for Lester to pick up some flowers from the nearest town, wanting to make you feel special since he doesn’t ever have the chance to shower you with the love he wants to.

He’ll never believe that you know he loves you, he’ll always doubt it, and he’ll always claim he needs to show you better. Whatever gifts he can get his hands on go to you.

Lester Sinclair

Your softness is something he’s never properly seen before. He’s curious to learn about every single one of your likes and dislikes, and soon enough he knows every little thing about you.

He won’t have any spare cash- he uses it all to buy you things or to gather things for a nice date. His favourite, as I’ve said in other headcanons, are picnics at night in the bed of his truck, staring up at the stars.

If you’re ever in his truck with him while he’s working, when driving down the road, if he ever sees some pretty flowers he’ll pull over just to pick them for you, tucking them behind your ear or bundling them into a bouquet.

He treats you like glass. Even though he isn’t strong and would never accidentally hurt you, he is scared anyways.

He’ll hold your hand and kiss your knuckles whenever he’s got the chance.

Whenever Bo yells at him, your soothing voice calms him right back down. It’s so soft and gentle he can’t stay sad or angry, so he gives into the smile trying to crawl onto his face at the sound of it.

Bubba Sawyer

You’re everything he wishes he could be. He tries to be soft and gentle in nature as not to scare people (unless he’s trying to of course) but he’s just too tall and burly to do so.

He’ll try to examine how you act, incorporating it into his own actions so he can seem more like you and less intimidating. It doesn’t help much but it’s endearing that he wants to be so much like you.

Despite Drayton’s shouting and demanding he still clips sunflowers to gift to you, and you have so many sunflower-crowns, wilted and new. He also presses and dries flowers for you.

Your softness completely contrasts the chaos of his life. His brothers, all three of them, are loud, energetic, and obnoxious, but you’re the polar opposite, the calm within the storm. You make every day worth living.

You’re so sweet towards all of his siblings despite how difficult they can be, and it warms his bog ‘ol heart.

P R O T E C T. He’ll sacrifice his own life to save you, and when your life is on the line, depending on the day he can act two ways- p a n i c, where he loses track of himself and freaks out, or c a l m, where he knows EXACTLY what he’s doing at all times, and acts with strange precision and determination.

Thomas Hewitt

You are as different from him as one could get. You remind him of his mother, and he loves you just as much as he loves her. He likes standing beside you and seeing how different he is from you.

He’ll try to imagine the two of you with swapped personalities, where he’s the soft one and you’re the big scary one. He can’t imagine it no matter how hard he tries.

He’ll ask you every day if you actually choose to be with him, and when you say yes he gets just as happy and giddy as always.

He’ll collect things off of victims to gift to you in exchange for your ‘adorableness’, as he puts it.

He won’t let anyone get too close to you- not even his brothers, only his mother. The same goes for victims. Anyone who gets even a step too close to his basement gets a quick mallet to the head. He won’t take any chances.

He gets a n g r y when anyone says anything remotely bad about you. That goes for his brothers as well. He’s usually a pushover, obedient, but if they so much as say your name in the wrong tone he’ll snap and turn into a menacing beast not to be messed with.

Billy Lenz

S o f t b o y ? Y e s

He cherishes you more than any other slasher here. You aren’t a rude asshole like most of the people he’s seen in his life, you’re so perfect and different and fantastic.

He’s a soft boy too, so he’ll ask you to play with his hair while he plays with yours, like some sort of two-sided braid train. Speaking of which- braid this poor boys messy hair, he loves it.

No attic for you >:{ it’s too dark, you could hurt yourself! He doesn’t want that, it would be his worst nightmare to lose you! After explaining why you can’t go in the attic he’ll start crying simply because of the thought of losing you.

You’ll have to cuddle him lots or else he’ll cry. This little dude is a cry baby, but like all cry babies he just needs love. Lots and lots of endless love.

He will never want you leaving the house because he can’t go with you, and he gets lonely very quickly. Before you met he was always lonely, but now that he knows he has someone to love and spend time with the loneliness is amplified tenfold.

Leslie Vernon

You’re the cutest!! He appreciates every little thing about you, and analyzes you in the beginning of your relationship to learn every tiny thing you do. All your quirks, traits and nervous tics are imprinted in his mind.

He knows your daily routine and lines his up with yours so he can keep an eye on you at all times. He knows you can handle yourself but he enjoys every little thing you do and wants to see you at all times in your natural environment.

He likes to plan his hunts with you at his side to talk to him about anything you want, even if it has nothing to do with what he’s planning. Your whole aura gives him energy and creativity since you’re so different from what he’s used to.

He makes sure never to involve you with his killing, afraid that it could be traced back to you and get you sent to jail. Even if he got caught, you would still live your normal life and that’s comfort enough for him to go on.

Always missing you, every second of the day. It’s like he can’t breathe the air if you aren’t breathing it too.

He is in love with every little thing you do, trailing off mid-sentence and getting distracted by your stunning eyes or heart-stopping smile.

Pyramid Head

YOU ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM HIM AND HES SO IN LOVE WITH IT.

As far back as he can remember everything has been dark and scary. You don’t belong in a dark world like this, but here you are, with him of all people! The scariest, most dangerous one here, but you have him basically purring like a kitten, putty in your hands.

Nothing even thinks to mess with you since P.H. is never far away. You basically own the place, and no matter how nice you are to all the beasts they’re all still terrified of you and the promise of death hanging around with you in the form of an S/O.

He wishes you were in a happier place than this. You don’t deserve the fear and danger, you deserve a perfect life where you’re treated like you deserve to be treated. He feels so bad that you’re stuck here too.

The rage inside of him gets to be too much sometimes, but he’s always soothed by your presence alone, the sound of your voice washing away any negative emotions.

Huge separation issues. He doesn’t know why but he can’t be away from you for long or he’ll break down.

#slashers #slasher #horror #slasher community #slasher headcanons #headcanons #vincent sinclair #bo sinclair #jason voorhees #michael myers #pyramid head #billy loomis #stu macher #billy lenz #leslie vernon #thomas hewitt #bubba sawyer #brahms heelshire #norman bates

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five-rivers · 4 years

Text

Sleep Paralysis

Gift fic for @sporks-metal!

William Lancer had never been a superstitious man. He enjoyed reading about the supernatural, true, about mythology, legends, folklore, but he wasn't superstitious.

In Amity Park, believing in ghosts did not count as superstition. It was simply common sense.

Even so, this was pushing the limits of common sense. The almost-empty salt container rattled softly in his hand as he shook out the last few grains. Sweeping all this up, each white line he had drawn at every threshold and every windowsill would be a pain. A greater pain than the splinters and thorns he had picked up from the 'sacred trees' he had alternately planted in his yard and cut up to hang over his doorways.

William didn't have a choice. He was at his wits end, and he was being haunted.

He was being haunted, and the normal methods of dealing with such things hadn't done a thing. Of course, the 'normal methods' were 'wait for Phantom to show up' and 'call the Fentons,' so he wasn't quite sure what he had been expecting.

The teenage ghost didn't exactly have a hotline and while the Fentons did, their services had been less than efficacious. They'd camped out at his house for two nights, and the only things they had removed from it were all of his sweets. The ghost had not made an appearance. It (they, she, he, William didn't know) was smarter than that.

The Fentons had told him that he was most likely suffering from a case of nerves or stress (what nerves, what stress, in the middle of summer?) and had given him a small ectogun. On the house. Neither of these things comforted him.

Oddly, part of William insisted that if Mr. Fenton, that is, Danny, not Jack, had been there, things would have gone differently. Differently how, that part of William wouldn't say. When he thought about it, he honestly couldn't imagine why Danny's presence would change things. He liked Danny. Somehow, the younger Fenton had found his way to being William's favorite student, even if he was also an incredibly inconsistent student, but he was also shy, never in place when a ghost showed up.

... Huh. There was something there, but William's tired mind couldn't quite reason it out.

If the ghost would just let him be, let him rest.

William pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. What he wouldn't give for some rest... He'd even call the Fentons back, if it came to that. He exhaled slowly and sank into his armchair, the laughably tiny ectogun balanced on his thigh, his fireplace on his right. He had covered the hearth with salt, too, just in case.

He was losing his mind, wasn't he?

No. Ghosts were normal in Amity Park. He wasn't crazy. He wasn't even superstitious, for all that he was resorting to older apotropaics. There was a reason the garden supply store sold so many different varieties of holly, rowan, and sage.

He took a deep breath, let it out. Nothing had happened yet, tonight. Perhaps the Fentons had scared the ghost off. Perhaps he could pass this night in peace. His hand inched towards the small table next to his chair. He had a book there, one he had been reading before this started...

A fire roared to life in the fireplace. William's breath caught in his throat.

For several long minutes, the only thing that changed was how much sweat glued William's pajamas to his skin.

Then the whispers started.

The ghost haunting William was not like the Box Ghost. William could deal with the Box Ghost. He had dealt with the Box Ghost. That cardboard-loving spirit could have been a threat, in another world, in another life (death?), but in this one he was more of a pest, than anything. Sort of like a barking dog. A very small barking dog.

But this ghost, this ghost that William hadn't even seen but somehow managed to turn his life into a paranoid hell, this ghost wasn't like that. Wasn't like any of the ghosts he'd seen at the school. Wasn't like any of the ghosts he'd seen on the news. Wasn't like the ghosts the Fentons talked about.

This ghost, it was more like things he'd seen in stories, in books, myths, legends. Something ethereal, something that stuck to shadows, drove men crazy, stole the breath from their mouths and light from their eyes, or burned down their house while they slept.

Or pushed a person so far that their inattention and exhaustion did them in. If it was the school year, and he had to drive... But, maybe, if school was in session, he would have been able to flag down Phantom after one of his fights.

William's hands shook as he pressed buttons on his coffee machine. He needed to sleep. He couldn't sleep. Not with the ghost always, always waiting for him to relax.

He was a mess, and he didn't know what to do.

He did not save his coffee from boiling over until it was far too late to salvage. He felt sick. He needed air.

Going outside was risky. Too many accidents had dogged his steps yesterday, even accounting for his fatigue, but staying inside wasn't any better.

He stepped slowly and carefully over his salt lines and onto the porch. Fresh air hit him like a sledgehammer. The space just below the top of his head buzzed uncomfortably.

Looking to the side of his door, William noticed that his extra rowan cuttings were all gone. He shivered. He was only wearing his pajamas. This really wasn't dignified.

He was afraid to go back in.

Something across the street caught his attention. He looked up, half afraid of what he would see.

Danny Fenton.

William let his shoulders slump in a mixture of relief and intense embarrassment. What kind of a teacher was he, letting his students see him dressed like this?

What was Danny Fenton doing here, anyway?

Danny tilted his head to one side and blinked a few times. Slowly, William raised a hand in greeting. Danny seemed to take this as an invitation, because he smiled brightly, raised one of his hands, laden with a shopping bag, and crossed the street, walking right up to William's porch.

"Hi, Mr. Lancer!" he said, with an energy William hadn't felt in years. "Jazz and I are back from our college tour." Which was obvious, really. "Mom and Dad said you weren't feeling well, so I brought you some stuff." He shook the bags. "Should I just give them to you, or put them down somewhere?"

William's sleep-deprived brain was still caught on being embarrassed, but he did manage to make himself nod. He had been wishing for Danny to be here, like he was some kind of lucky charm. But... was it safe for Danny to be here?

"Safe?" asked Danny.

"Did I say that out loud?"

"Yeah," said Danny. Amusement mixed with worry in his tone. "You really must be sick. You look like you haven't slept in days."

William pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "Something like that," he admitted. "I'm being haunted."

Something William couldn't interpret passed over Danny's features. "Mom and Dad couldn't find it?"

"No."

"Well, maybe some of this could help. Have you tried candles? Or eyes?"

"What?"

Danny's face twisted into a wry grin. "Mom and Dad use modern methods," he said, "and I see you've been trying other things. Like salt, and the holly. But not all methods work for all ghosts." He put one foot on the steps of William's porch. "I can help you set up."

"But if the ghost comes-"

"Hey, I've dealt with ghosts before," said Danny.

William frowned. "So have I," he said. "So have your parents."

Danny shrugged. "Like I said, they prefer modern methods. They don't always work." His head tilted again. "Not all ghosts are like the Box Ghost, you know."

There was confidence, there. Quiet, yes, but... Danny wasn't confident. At least not in class, and... William felt like he was being trusted with something, almost. With a glimpse.

His head hurt.

"Alright," said William. He took a step back, towards his door. "Come on in."

Danny laid boxes out on the dining room table. "This is just snacks," he said, pushing one box towards William. "Keeping your energy up is important. This stuff is apotropaics, which is mostly supposed to keep ghosts away in the first place, so I don't really know if they'll work." He picked up a rock painted with a blue eye, and a pendant with the same. "It can't hurt, though." He handed the pendant to William. "So, what's this ghost like, anyway?"

Feeling dazed, William just watched Danny take candles out of the bag and stand them up on the table for a few minutes. "When I relax," he said, finally, "that's when it comes. At night, mostly. Sometimes it doesn't. And then it does. It gets hard to move. I get-" He put one hand over his chest, and pressed down. "Then things happen. The fireplace. Stuff gets all-" He moved his hand up and down. Some English teacher he was, he could barely speak. Words escaped him. "What does it even matter?"

"Different ghosts have different weaknesses," said Danny. "Like, if you were dealing with a, um, more traditional Chinese ghost, you might be able to confuse it by breaking sight lines. They only like to move in straight lines, some of them. Feng shui or whatever. Spirit mazes." He wiggled his fingers. "But you've got walls and doors and stuff, so I don't think it is one of those." He stared down at the table and the objects on it, frowning slightly.

"What do you think it is?" asked William, tiredly. "And why didn't your parents bring this up?" He had the feeling that he really should find this whole situation more suspicious than he actually did, but he'd do almost anything for sleep, at this point.

"I don't know," said Danny, shrugging. "Did you ever have sleep paralysis? Or sleep walking? Night terrors?"

"Please don't try to tell me this is sleep paralysis," said William, scrubbing his hands over his face. His jaw felt like sandpaper. "I know what that feels like."

"But you did have it."

"Yes," said William. "I used to. But it stopped."

"When?"

"When I got a new medication."

"Which was?"

"I don't know. Last March, or February."

"Right before the ghost king stole the town?"

"What are you getting at, here?" asked William.

"I think-" The windows rattled, cutting Danny off. "Oh, it doesn't like that, does it?"

William felt the weight in his chest like a stone. Couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think-

Danny pulled on his elbow, and suddenly he could move. "We need to get out of here," he said. "Sunlight."

"What?"

"You never had sleep paralysis," said Danny, pulling William along. "You were possessed, and it wants back in."

"What?" wheezed William, and it was getting really hard to breathe. Black spots danced in his vision. He fell.

"Hey!" shouted Danny. Something like a growl rippled in the air. "Back off! You can't have him. He's mine."

Which didn't make any sense, but then, nothing made sense right now, he couldn't think except for terror.

And suddenly the missing holly branches were in Danny's chest. Danny staggered. Went down on one knee.

"Don't think you can kill me that easily, pest."

And William's vision went black.

William woke up in bed. In his bed. With the covers drawn up to his chin. He'd been sleeping on his back. He never sleeps on his back.

Other things are off, too. His slippers were in the wrong place. His throw rugs have been moved. A picture shifted to hide a burn mark on the wall. The dishwasher has been run. Several cups are missing.

So are all the supplies Daniel had brought him, earlier.

It was as if someone, or something, wanted to make William think that everything that had happened was just a dream, but William knew that it wasn't. There were too many discrepancies, too much evidence, and, more to the point, he remembers.

He hoped it was Danny trying to cover things up. He really did.

If it was the ghost... William didn't want to think about that.

Should he call the Fentons? He still has their number.

But he didn't know what happened. He could remember, but... it didn't make sense. It didn't make sense for the ghost to cover this up, or to let him sleep. Except-

William nearly threw up when he remembered the branch embedded in his student's chest. That was- That was awful. That couldn't have been real. He must have been hallucinating. He had passed out, right after.

He shook his head. No, this was how people convinced themselves that something was 'just a dream' in movies. That hadn't been a dream. He hadn't dreamed that whole awful, terrible thing. He hadn't dreamed he was being haunted. He wasn't going to gaslight himself.

That thought turned over for a few minutes, then he lunged for his phone.

This was stalking. William was stalking his student.

That sounded bad.

It was bad, honestly, but William needed to see for himself that Danny was intact, and it wasn't the school year. He couldn't just wait for Danny to stroll into the classroom, thirty minutes late.

What if the ghost has latched on to him?

But, no. Even if the Fentons hadn't found it when it was haunting William, if it was after their own son, surely they'd realize it.

William just had to see. He'd look, he'd see, he'd maybe knock on the front door if Danny insisted on staying inside all day, and-

Danny walked out of his front door and bounced down the front steps of Fentonworks. He turned and started walking up the street.

Great. Now William should go, Danny's fine, but...

William did not go. Rather, he did go, but not home.

Now he really was stalking Danny, and he was being as stealthy as possible, given that this could likely cost him his job if anyone noticed. Stealth was difficult. Danny walked surprisingly quickly. Deceptively quickly. His half-skipping gait looked slow, but it ate up the ground, and trying to keep up with it left William feeling winded.

Of course, that might just be the effect of barely sleeping for who knows how long. Who knew? Not William.

But Danny went up the street and so did William.

They had almost reached the local park, when a ghost attacked. Because of course a ghost attacked. This was Amity Park, after all. Thankfully, for William's nerves, it was a normal ghost, not like whatever had been tormenting him. He even knew this ghost's name. Skulker.

Which was less of a comfort considering that the ghost was intent on attacking Danny. Why this was the case, William didn't know.

The metal-covered ghost sent missile after missile after Danny, and Danny just. Kept. Dodging. Oftentimes, by little more than an inch.

It was terrifying.

Danny didn't look particularly scared. Which was somehow even more terrifying.

After what couldn't be more than a minute, the ghost swooped low and close, and Danny whipped something white and green from behind his back, and a blue light poured out of it, engulfing the ghost and sucking it in.

Danny continued down the street.

William went home.

When school started again, William watched Danny more closely. As closely as he dared. Now that he had his eyes open, it was easier to see that there was something off about Daniel. Not really wrong, per se, but not normal.

It wasn't just skipping class, although that was part of it, or the way he and his friends hold themselves aloof from the normal social hierarchy, or how there were sometimes burn marks on his homework, it was something deeper and more elusive. Something more fundamental.

Halfway through October, William realized Danny didn't move nearly as much as someone his age should. He's still. Too still.

In November William found a pattern to Danny's absences. He didn't like it, and he tried to forget. He tried to stop looking, stop watching. Tried to tell himself that it wasn't possible.

But by December, William was fairly certain: Danny was dead.

Danny was dead.

His student.

Dead.

And a ghost, on top of that.

William had no idea how to cope.

But he didn't know for sure. Didn't know that Danny was out there, day and night, fighting ghosts, so he simply... ignored it. Treated Danny like normal. Like a student. Even if he was a ghost, he still had a right to an education, didn't he? Being dead was simply... a disability, of sorts. William's training covered exceptional students and accommodations. He couldn't very well set up an IEP meeting with the Fentons to discuss how Daniel was no longer among the living and how that might affect his ability to learn, but as a classroom teacher and as vice principal, he could make things a little easier for Daniel.

None of this really settled his anxiety, but it kept it at manageable levels.

It helped that his sleep paralysis did not come back. He didn't want to think about that too closely.

But then he couldn't ignore it, because he walked in on Danny changing, peeling off his skin and burning it like flash paper, in an unused classroom, and now there was a ghost tearing up the school behind him, and a ghost tearing up and hyperventilating in front of him, and he didn't know what to do.

"Just," said William, holding up his hands, "just breathe, Danny." He had no idea if that would help, no idea if Danny even needed to breathe.

"Mr. Lancer?" asked Danny. His voice wavered beneath a supernatural echo. He blinked hard, deliberately. "You-" He inhaled raggedly. "You can't- Please don't tell anyone!"

"I-" started William, unsure if or what he should promise. Now that he knew... Did that change what he should do? As a teacher? As an adult?

He didn't know.

Something crashed behind William. Far behind William. Somewhere in the vicinity of the cafeteria, he'd guess.

Something flickered over Danny's face. "I've gotta go," he said. "Please, just, don't tell anyone."

And then he vanished.

The next time Danny reappeared it was in front of William's house, between two of the holly trees William had planted that summer. He was wearing a coat that was much too thin for the weather, and had a box in his hands that just screamed 'bribe,' for all that it was wrapped in Christmas-tree themed paper.

William watched him through the blinds. He wasn't sure if he should invite Danny in.

Danny was a ghost. A dangerous ghost. Arguably the most dangerous ghost in Amity Park. A ghost that beats up other ghosts on a daily basis.

Danny was also his student, and he was standing out there in the cold, looking terrified.

William walked over to the door and opened it, slowly. It creaked and the cold made his toes curl inside his socks.

"Mr. Fenton," he said, "Danny... Why don't you come in?"

#danny phantom #prize #phanfic

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datawyrms · 4 years

Text

More Than Lost (2/2)

Dannymay day 9, Glow. A continuation of this, but you can get the gist without if needbe :v

Danny’s hazmat suit wasn’t simply misplaced, it was missing. Despite checking every reasonable place in the lab, and several nonsensical places, the suit did not turn up. Danny never used it, he had almost seemed embarrassed about it, much like Jazz was. How had it just up and vanished? It wasn’t even a reasonable thing to steal, not many scrawny fourteen year olds were in the market for hazmat. Even if a ghost had decided to try and steal some Fenton tech, taking Danny’s suit and ONLY Danny’s really wouldn’t help. Though ghosts could be completely erratic it still didn’t feel like the correct answer. Surely if a ghost had stolen it, they would have flaunted their ‘win’ over the ghost hunting couple, much like how Phantom casually used a stolen thermos with zero remorse daily, to going as far as stealing the Ecto-Skeleton and defacing it with it’s own ghostly attributes.

A human wouldn’t bother stealing it, and if a ghost had, they would know by now. So why was it missing? Her eyes rested on the Boooomerang, the choking weight of concern setting back on her chest. She couldn’t be certain if the ghost had meant it to be a small taunt or credible threat. At the bare minimum it showed the specter was back in the human would, and didn’t care if the ghost hunters knew it. Was it so cocky to think they were no threat to it? Or was it a reminder that it knew exactly where their children lived if they angered the beast again?

Thankfully Jack could always be trusted to drive such concerns away with loud bravado and strong embraces, even if he might be a tad too optimistic in this case.

“Don’t worry Mads, that ectoplasmic punk’s got another thing coming if it thinks it can threaten the Fentons! The house will know if it sets one slimy foot inside!”

“I know Jack, something just doesn’t feel right. What if it already did something?” her hands fiddled with a pen, unable to write down any reasonable actions the ghost might have taken, or relate anything to the missing hazmat.

“Oooh! I can take the Fenton Environmental Ectoplasmic Entity Detector for a spin! I think I’ve managed to have it filter out the standard amount in our house. All thanks to your calculations!” his grin was infectious.

“Aww, I know implementing them was all you sweetheart.” Still, having Jack do a quick sweep of the house would be comforting. Knowing the pesky pretend ‘hero’ ghost had not approached their children might quiet the strange dread she couldn’t shake from last night.

Jack accepted a peck on the cheek before racing off to finish re-assembling the device while she busied herself with going over the ghost shield schematics. Phantom had a nasty habit of appearing inside areas protected by the green domes, and the sooner she figured out what flaw the terror was using to get through, the better. If she could tune it to reject any quantity of ectoplasm, she would. Unfortunately with the portal, and that whole little problem with the entire town getting dragged into the ghost zone almost everyone in Amity had some level of contamination. Nothing worrisome, but enough that it could harm humans if she wasn’t careful in accounting for that. Maybe a mode for full deflection at night?

The paper was soon filled with calculations and tiny sketches so that Jack could have a helpful visual, completely losing track of time.

“Maddie?” Jack’s lack of joviality was more worrisome than anything else, her attention towards her work gone in an instant.

“The scan wasn’t good?” she asked, privately hoping he simply had failed to get the invention working completely.

“Er well. It definitely tracked a ghost leaving the portal.” he rubbed the back of his neck, showing his wife the glowing trail the ghostly intruder left highlighted on the small screen of the device. “The problem is it completely loses it after it goes upstairs-”

“Into Danny’s room?” she finishes, heart in her throat. If that thing had done anything to their son…

Jack nods, managing to keep his voice steady. “It can’t still be in there, but it doesn’t pick up anymore shed ectoplasm after that. Maybe I over compensated and the ghost was just moving too fast to shed enough ambient ectoplasm?”

“Or that monster has a way to suppress expelling ectoplasm for brief periods. It is in our world far more often than most ghosts manage.” She tried to focus on the possible solution instead of the horror of where the ghost had been. At least it had not gone after Jazz as well, it had likely planned to but ran out of time. “We’ll just have to give the kids a good check after school.”

“And some spector deflectors! You think they might complain less about wearing them if they look like a watch?” Jack was pacing, hands moving as if he was already planning on cobbling the idea together. “Is the belt too ‘uncool’ for the kids?”

“When it comes to their safety, we don’t care how uncool it is. It’s a good idea though, Jazz might prefer it.”

“Alright! Operation: Hands off My Kids, Ghost Scum! Is underway!” Jack seemed a bit more at ease with an actual plan of attack, sprinting off to the lab without barely a second glance. They’d just have a big dinner to make up for all the meal skipping, it was fine.

She knew Danny had always been a bit leery of their inventions, and had expected some pushback from the boy, but she hadn’t expected Jazz to be so vocally opposed.

“Mom this is the fifth time you’ve accused me of being a ghost! Your obsession with them is making you see symptoms that don’t exist!” she pointed an accusing finger at the both of them before grabbing her brother by the shoulders. “Come on Danny, we don’t have time for this.”

“It’s not like that Jazzy-pants! We know you aren’t a ghost, but one of those putrid piles of protoplasm might have done something to you two.” Jack insisted, blocking the exit to the room, barely managing to weather the teenager’s glare.

“We’re much better at detecting ghosts now sweetie. No blasts or goop, no invasive checks. It’ll only take a few moments, then you two can get going, okay?”

“Absolutely not! We are not indulging in your paranoia, I know I’m fine, and I know Danny’s fine, and that should be enough for you.” she almost seemed to be shielding her little brother as she went on. “Your inventions fail all the time, and you’re trusting that over us?”

Danny was remaining strangely silent throughout the argument, as if he was hoping he could become invisible if he scrunched in on himself enough. He was rather timid, but he’d usually have some sort of complaint by this point.

“Well, okay. I guess you’d know if your brother was possessed.” Jack admitted. “Just to make sure you two stay that way, I got you some Fenton Watches! It tells the ghosts that it’s never time to try to touch you!” He held the green and silver timepieces proudly, not noticing how Danny visibly recoiled more firmly into his sister’s grip.

“Oh and become complete social pariahs? Danny has enough trouble connecting with his peers and you’re going to try and force that on him? Honestly.”

That finally got a reaction from her son, the boy glaring at his sister. “Hey! I have friends!”

Jazz gave him the patented sibling ‘Shut Up’ look before going back to glaring at their parents. “I’ll let you know if we start acting out parts of the Exorcist. Until then, all of this? Paranoia, and we’re not indulging it.” With that the redhead forced her way past her father, brother in tow.

“Maybe the ghost did get to Jazz.” Jack muttered, glancing at the stairs the two went up.

“It might have. That’s okay, we can use the EctoIlluminator at dinner. When she understands ghosts are a real threat she might stop protesting so much.” Maddie clutched the flashlight-looking device firmly, trying to keep calm. Something was definitely up with the two of them, now that she was looking more closely. Has this ghost problem been a long term one? They had tried to stop assuming any oddness was ghost related after the incidents Jazz mentioned, but perhaps they had been wrong to do so.

Jazz was still putting up the defensive front, eyeing their served meal before touching it. “If this has any sort of magic ‘ghost detector sauce’ I’m tossing it and ordering something.”

“It’s just food dear.” Maddie started eating her own meal, feigning casualness as she watched the two picked at their food, Jazz eyeing every bite as if it was going to jump up and do something, while Danny just looked too tired to eat with any speed.

“So how was school?” Jack prompted, apparently bothered by the silence.

“Long.” Danny muttered, still chasing a pea with his fork instead of using his knife to help pick the vegetable up.

“Maybe he’d have more to say if you asked about his interests. Or anything that wasn’t school and ghosts.”

“Jazz.”

“What? It’s true! If they actually wanted to have some family time they could at least try to be interested in us as people.” Jazz crossed her arms, apparently satisfied by the wince Jack made.

“Jazz.” Danny repeated, a frustrated edge in his tone.

“You’re right Jazz. We’ve been so busy with the portal and all the ghosts that we may have been a little more distant than you would like.” Maddie felt a pang of guilt, Jazz’s accusation mirroring her own worries. If they had paid more attention, would they have caught that something was wrong sooner?

“When I was a teenager I never wanted to see my folks! Thought you guys might be the same as your old man.” Jack apologized, and Jazz actually smiled at him.

“No, I take after dad. Can I go now?” Danny asked, already half pushing out of his chair.

“We haven’t even had dessert, hold your horses kiddo.”

The boy slumped back into his seat, glaring at Jazz. “Whatever.”

Jazz ignored it, going off on a tangent about her day and future plans, Jack nodding and adding comments about his time in high school as Danny continued to do his best to melt into the chair. Other than a few glances at each exit of the room, the teenager seemed to be incredibly bored.

Everyone seemed distracted enough to run the quick test, slipping the EctoIlluminator out of the cupboard along with the box of cookies that was being used to hide it from view.

The beam of light passed over Jazz with no reaction other than her own, a furious “MOM, we JUST talked about this!” as she got to her feet and moved surprisingly quickly in the direction of her brother, but Maddie’s wrist was faster.

The half awake teenager grunted at the bright light, eyes narrowing to block the worst of it. Yet the glowing green that replaced his normal blue hue and shined back at her confirmed their worst fears.

The ghost using Danny as a meat puppet didn’t seem to notice the change, shielding himself with an arm. It was strange, as if there was an entire separate layer hiding under his skin, almost like a glove. Had their son been possessed so long that the ghost was everywhere, not just in his mind?

“Can you not flash light in my eyes mom?” the ghost asked, blind to their reactions.

“I knew it.” Maddie nearly growled, weapon out in seconds as Jack got to his feet.

Danny’s body swallowed, trying to look at both of them at once. “Knew what? You’re kinda freaking me out here.”

“You think we didn’t notice your threat last night?”

“I haven’t threatened anyone?” the fake insisted, looking to Jazz for support. “Did mom and dad get overshadowed or am I missing something?”

“You’re hopeless.” Jazz said as she stood protectively between her parents and the thing she thought was her brother. “Your gadgets always pick Danny up, stop threatening my brother.”

“Overshadowed, huh? Is that the word you used when you threatened my son?” she ignored Jazz’s outburst, it was for the best that it was solved now. “Sounded nicer than possessing him?”

The ghost frowned, confusion clear on Danny’s face. “Mom, I’m not overshadowed.”

“Humans don’t have glowing green eyes. I don’t know what you did to Jazz to make her defend you, but you’ll pay for it.”

That got it’s attention. He froze for a moment before actively hiding more behind Jazz. “I swear I’m not overshadowed, I can explain-” he was struggling to find words,

“He’s not. Danny is still Danny, green eyes or not.” Jazz insisted, still keeping her position between them and the sputtering ghost.

“Jazz, I know he seems normal, but it’s a ghost impersonating him. Just let us save your brother, okay? Jack lowered his weapon slightly as he tried to appeal to Jazz.

Their daughter just continued to look furious. “I’m doing enough of that, seeing as you’d be shooting at him!” She only spared a moment to glance back at her brother. “You need to tell them.”

“I can’t, look how bad they’re taking it already!” he hissed back

“Either you do or I do.”

“It’s not like they’ll believe me!”

Their argument only made Maddie’s heart hurt. Somehow this ghost had been around long enough to convince Jazz having some ghostly bodysnatcher around was a good thing?

“Mom. Danny isn’t overshadowed, or possessed, or anything else. Put the weapon down.” she squared her shoulders, showing the famous family stubbornness. “He’s just more ecto-contaminated than other people, you know that. He sets everything off.”

“I know you mean well, but the ghost hiding behind you is not your brother.”

“Yes, he is! Listen to me! He’s no different today than from last week! It’s not my fault you can’t see that!” she only had eyes for her mother, not noticing how her large father could be surprisingly quiet when he had to be.

“It might be a very good mimic, Jazz, but ectocontamination wouldn’t make his eyes glow like a cat’s. We know what we’re talking about.” This was agonizing, her own daughter being tricked into defending some filthy ghost so strongly.

Jack managed to hit the thing squarely in the shoulder, knocking it away from Jazz as it yelped and clutched at Danny’s arm, trembling slightly as he got back to his feet. No ghost emerged from the boy, but she spotted as his eyes flared green again, if only for a second.

“Can I go to my room now?” the ghost asked through gritted teeth.

Jack instantly looked apologetic, looking as if he’d run to the boy’s side to bandage any wound he may have gotten.

“Don’t fall for it Jack, it just has a strong grip on Danny. I saw it.”

“No you didn’t! You just shot Danny, no ghost, and you’re still going there’s a ghost? You need to stop this, right now Mom.” Jazz was in her mother’s face, trying to snatch the weapon away. “You need help. You’re seeing things.”

“Fine.” Maddie let Jazz fumble the gun away, keeping a sharp eye on the ghost pretending to be her child. “You said you could explain, so do it.”

Danny swallowed, apparently hoping that she would have forgotten that stammered excuse. “Um. Well. You know that ghost flu everyone had? I’m like that but all the time? Kinda?” he kept rubbing at his arm. “And not sick! I’m fine, really.”

That was quite some time ago now, and a terrible excuse. It almost pained her to address this ghost as her son, but she had to play along with Jazz long enough to get something stronger to cure Danny with. “Danny, the amount of ectoplasm created by that illness would have killed any human exposed to it for more than two weeks.”

“Well I’m not sick! I just...glow sometimes, okay? I knew you guys would freak out, but Jazz saw it and well-” he cut himself off, noting how Maddie’s face didn’t shift an inch. “You don’t believe me, do you.”

“No, I don’t.”

He seemed to be struggling to say something, needing to glance at Jazz before finally sputtering out, “I’ve been like this since the accident, okay?”

Suddenly her boy being possessed didn’t seem like such a bad thing. If he had been ‘like this’ since the accident, could it possibly mean that- “I’m listening.” she managed to force out, hoping she didn’t sound faint.

“After that I uh. Could do weird things. Like the eye glowing thing. I’ve pretty much figured it out, but I was scared to tell you so...I didn’t.” he was mumbling, looking down at his shoes.

Maddie managed to catch Jack’s eye, able to tell he had the same thought, and it broke her heart. How had they completely failed to notice? She crouched down a little, trying to be a little less intimidating. “I’m sorry we scared you sweetie.” she could barely hold the tears back, struggling how to even ask for forgiveness properly. How did you ask your child to forgive you for causing their death and not even noticing?

Jack seemed to have similar problems. “You died in the accident?” the horror in his voice might have been funny if it wasn’t a true statement.

“What? No! I’m fine, heartbeat and everything.” Danny insisted, grabbing at both of their hands so they could feel the slow yet steady pulse. “I’m just a bit. Weird now.”

He didn’t even know he was dead. He must put all his time and energy into looking human, not to fool the world but to fool himself. It would explain why he seemed so tired all the time, burning so much energy to fake a pulse and warmth while barely getting any back from the surrounding air, seeing as how he likely never stepped foot in the ghost zone to replenish himself.

“We’re very proud you haven’t misused that weirdness.” she said, trying to think of a way to ease her son into realizing the truth of the matter.

“Mom! That’s just rude.” Jazz still had a bunch of opinions, apparently buying that Danny wasn’t dead. Of course she would, she wouldn’t want her little brother to be dead.

Jack looked at her oddly, but didn’t argue, deciding she must have a plan. If Danny was a ghost now, that didn’t mean they didn’t love him, but he couldn’t go on pretending to be something he wasn’t.

“...Yeah. Okay, now you know, I have homework so-” he fidgeted.

“Danny, can you just answer something for me before you go?”

“Sure?” his anxiety was contagious, it practically wanted to make her start pacing around the room.

“Did you wear your hazmat suit on the day of the accident?”

“I did. Why?”

“Do you know where it is now?” It would be easier to lead him to the truth by making him realize it himself. “It’s not in the lab.” His mouth slammed shut again, apparently that was going to be his answer.

He continued to struggle over what he wanted to say before finally sighing. “Not really.”

“I know you don’t want to hear this Danny,” she pushed her goggles up so she could look him in the eyes. “The suit is on your body. You lost it when you died.”

“I’m not dead!” his insistence was confident, not the silent acceptance she had hoped for. “I didn’t lose it. It’s just gone.”

Jazz elbowed her dead brother, who gave a bit of a scowl.

“Danny, hazmat suits don’t just vanish. We still love you, even if you’re a ghost.” Jack added his approval and love of his son, but the ghost still seemed obstinate on this point.

“Okay, fine! I know where it is.” he groaned, shooting Jazz another look. “I’m not dead. It just looks a bit different.”

The Fenton parents weren’t expecting that, wondering if Danny had made himself a very long and complicated reason to keep denying his death. “Where is it then?”

“You saw it. Last night. Actually you see it a lot.” the boy rocked on his heels, still looking unsure about something.

“Just spit it out Danny, before they start planning your funeral.” Jazz snorted.

“I’m trying okay! It’s still kind of hard to ignore the being torn apart threats okay?” he said with a huff.

No wonder he’d denied it so long, he must have been scared senseless that they would have treated him like one of those ghost blobs instead of as their son. “We haven’t seen it anywhere.”

Danny let out a long sigh, resting his forehead on his knuckles for a second. “Yes you have. You promise not to shoot?”

“Of course we won’t!” she wasn’t sure what he was planning on showing them, but that was an easy enough promise to make.

“No, he’s totally right to make you promise first.” Jazz muttered, glaring pointedly at her brother’s singed shoulder.

“Yeeeah about that…” Danny looked at them for a while longer before apparently deciding they were genuine. A bright flash, brighter than the flashlight had been summoned two rings of light at around the boy’s midsection before sweeping over him.

He changed from a very human looking boy to what was unmistakably a ghost. A ghost they knew and had fought countless times.

“I guess the ghost zone thought I looked better inverted?” Phantom said, a weak grin accompanying the ghostly green eyes and stark white hair, his frosty glow making the whole room feel frigid. “I really was lost last night.”

All they could do was hold Danny close in a choking hug, tears falling as they struggled to let their poor boy know how sorry they were without words, as their minds couldn’t even begin to think of where to start.

#dannymay2020 #Danny Phantom #Maddie Fenton #Jack Fenton #jazz fenton #my stuff #this got too long #my goodness #also it's super obvious but w/e #i had fun

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the-sweetest-dragon · 4 years

Text

Things Can Only Get Better - Chapter One

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Pairing: Stiles Stilinksi x OC (Evangeline Monroe)

Word Count: 11k

Warnings: allusions to trauma, me explaining things, anxiety, an extremely slow burn

AN: Hi... I am alive, barely. I honestly don’t know if anyone really wants this, but I’m posting it because @nerdsarebetter told me to <3. This is purely self indulgent but I’m actually kinda proud of it so uh..... yeah. Sorry this isn’t my IT fic but this has been making me really happy so you’re just gonna have to deal with it. Oh, the dots symbolize a change in point of view, just so everyone is aware

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“The wolves in the woods have sharp teeth and long claws, but it’s the wolf inside that will tear you apart.” -Jennifer Donnelly

Mom and I drove through many different states during our drive from Kansas to California. We watched the sun set in New Mexico and the sun rise in Arizona. None of them compared to Kansas, but we’d learn to deal. Mom and I paused to rest when we reached California, since we had been driving for what felt like forever.

The move was necessary; we all needed a bit of a fresh start. We were returning to Mom’s old home, Beacon Hills, where my aunt and cousin still lived. Now, you may be wondering why we were living in Kansas when we could have been living in California the entire time. My parents met at the University of Kansas; she was an art history major and he was a law student. It was instant chemistry and after they were married, they just never saw a reason to leave Kansas. Until Dad got this job offer and decided that we all needed a change of scenery.

Was that partially my fault? Yeah, kinda. Last winter was rough for all of us, and I knew it was one of the reasons Dad accepted this new position. I also knew he wouldn’t ever insinuate that it was fully my fault, even though it definitely was. Mom assured me that Dad wanted this job anyways, and I tried to believe her.

We settled down for the night in a cheap motel just inside the California border. I took the time to relax and update my cousin and Dad about our travels. Dad sent me a picture of the new house, with him smiling in front of it. I couldn’t help but smile; he looked so happy already. Lydia, my cousin, gave me details about the high school that would be starting the day after we arrived. She told me about her life, the classes and teachers we would have, how excited she was to see us.

I knew having Lydia Martin as a cousin would help me find friends, but she was insistent that I would have to have a boyfriend. Now, I wasn’t going to think too hard on that one, especially since I knew that with Lydia around, finding a boyfriend or even a guy that was interested in me would be practically impossible.

Lydia looked a lot like me, in a lot of ways. We shared the same red hair and our faces were very similar. When we were little, people would confuse us for sisters when we would visit her and her parents. The small differences between us weren’t necessarily in looks, but in our personalities. Lydia had always been bossy and confident, and remained that way. I have always been more of a classical bookworm; I would sit alone and read during recess, I never had many friends, and I wasn’t the prettiest. Despite sharing similar faces, Lydia didn’t have to struggle with her weight. I had… issues, that came to a head last winter.

We started the drive back up again early this morning. It was only another two hours in the car and then we were in Beacon Hills. I watched in awe as the city sprawled out in front of us. We drove down several streets, Mom exploring her old home that she would be able to share fully with her family. Soon we were turning onto the street to our house.

As we pull into the driveway for our new house, I can’t help but admire it. Dad had found probably the prettiest house I could have ever imagined. It’s painted a deep blue color, with ivy crawling up the sides. The front porch held an old picnic table and a few boxes from Dad moving a few things in. It’s pushed up against the woods, the tall trees embracing the back half of it.

I pull myself from the leather seats and stretch before getting out of the car. Mom smiles over at me before doing the same. I can see her mind working on how to improve the house, where she can plant her garden and let it blossom. Distracted by the house, I don’t hear another car pull up behind our own.

“Evie!”

At the sound of my name I quickly turn to find Lydia standing near the parked U-HAUL Dad drove up here a day before. I let out an ungodly squeal and run towards her, catching her in a hug before she can tell me to stop. She let out a soft sound of discomfort before I let her go.

“Sorry,” I say with a smile. “Wasn’t expecting you to be here already.” I tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear and readjust my glasses to sit more comfortably on my nose. “Are you here to help me or…?”

Lydia laughs softly and shakes her head, strawberry curls bouncing slightly at the movement. The light caught her green eyes, making them sparkle like emeralds. Not for the first time, I wish I had inherited green eyes instead of my father’s dark brown ones.

“I’m here to tell you about my party that you’re the guest of honor this Friday.” I let out a soft groan; parties were one of my least favorite activities. “No, I will not hear any of that. You are my cousin, you have to be introduced to the public in the grandest way possible. I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning, ok?” I nod, agreeing silently. Arguing with Lydia was not something I wanted to do, ever. She would win and it’s much easier to just agree with her.

Lydia left with a pat on my arm, leaving us to move in on our own. She stopped to hug my parents before getting into her car and driving back to her own house, in a much more expensive part of town.

Moving all my boxes into the house took longer than I originally expected. By the time I had gotten everything into my new room it was dark outside. Instead of unpacking, I decided to take a short walk into the woods, just to explore a little. The air had turned chilly, so I grabbed a hoodie and changed into more comfortable shoes.

“Don’t forget a flashlight!” Dad says before I head out into the dark. He hands me one with a smile. He was used to me sitting at the edge of the woods at our old house, reading a book against a tree.

As I enter the dark of the woods, I can immediately sense something off. The woods in Kansas never felt like this, never felt so… sinister, like something was watching me. I shake the feeling off, knowing I only felt this way because it was new.

I walk for maybe twenty minutes before I trip on a tree trunk. I wince, hands and knees scraped and bloody from the fall. I wipe the blood from my hands off on my jeans when I hear a howl in the distance. I fix my glasses and tilt my head, making sure I heard it correctly before continuing. The sounds of animals were familiar and not threatening, but it was still spooky. I make it another few feet when I get the sense that something is following me. I check over both shoulders and see nothing but the feeling doesn’t go away. I turn back towards the house and quicken my step, refusing to run quite yet.

The feeling continues and I’m so distracted by it that I trip again. I land hard on my already cut knees, my flashlight disappearing into the brush. Biting my lip so hard, I taste blood, but refusing to let out a sound of pain to alert whatever was following me that I was injured. I fumble, trying to pick it back up when I feel something close around my ankle.

Before I can scream, I’m being dragged backwards, farther into the woods. I try to kick at whatever is holding me, when I feel wickedly sharp teeth latch into the fleshy part of my calf. I scream, both in frustration and pain as I double my efforts to get free. Nothing I do seems to make it let me go. The pain becomes secondary to the panic that fills me. What happens if I can’t get free? Will anyone come to find me? What will be left of me to find? I feel immense anger take over me; I did not come all this way just to be taken out by some anonymous thing. Letting the rage fuel me, I kick my attacker so hard that I hear a bark of pain and the teeth let go. The moment I feel it release my leg I’m up and sprinting back to the house.

I run until I can see the light of the house and I’m out of the woods. I check over my shoulder to see if anything follows me but the only thing I see is darkness. Collapsing on the front porch, the pain finally hits me. The reek of my blood fills the air and the sight of my own blood leaking out of me makes me want to vomit. I press a hand to my calf to check the damage, feeling the bite marks that it left there. A sob escapes me and that's the moment Mom decides to open the door.

“Honey! What’s wrong? Where’d all this blood come from? Are you hurt?” she questions in rapid fire succession. Instead of answering, I break down in tears. Mom pulls me inside where Dad is waiting with a first aid kit. He calmly applies pressure to the bite mark, asking quiet questions about what happened. I give a quick version of the story, including my thought that it was a wolf that bit me. Dad nods but Mom looks like she may argue with me. Thankfully, she doesn’t.

Dad cleans out my various wounds with alcohol and I wince softly. He apologizes and puts bandages on my hands and knees, then wraps my calf in gauze and tapes the edges with medical tape. The wound still bled a little.

“Can you stand?” Dad asks gently. I nod and he pulls me up carefully.

“We should take her to the hospital Danny! She could be seriously injured!” Mom exclaims, her panic evident in her voice. Dad turns a level look at her, one hand resting on her shoulder.

“The marks aren’t deep enough for stitches, Mandy,” he says calmly. “We cleaned them out really well, so there shouldn’t be any infection. We’ll keep an eye on it, okay?” Mom nods, wiping at a tear that had fallen. Dad helps me up the stairs to my bedroom.

After he deposits me into bed, Mom sits down beside me with a glass of water and a few painkillers. She runs a hand over my uninjured leg and smiles at me.

“I remember when I was little, your grandma always warned me to stay out of the woods. She said bad things lingered there.” She sighs, a frown forming on her face. “I never understood the warning, but I do now. Please, don’t go back into those woods. I know you like to read in secluded spots but from now on, the woods are off limits, especially at night. Do you understand Evie?”

“Yes, Mom. I understand.” She nods, a sigh coming from deep within her. “I think it’s for the best anyways. They kind of freak me out. It’s nothing like the woods in Kansas.” Mom laughs softly, shaking her head.

“You got that right kiddo.” She sighs. “Well, try to get some rest babe. Lydia will be here bright and early I’m sure.”

I nod and she gets up off my bed, walking to the door and leaving my room. I drift off sometime around one in the morning, Persephone, my cat, curled up next to me. I, surprisingly, have no dreams, not even with the horrific events of the night plaguing my waking thoughts.

My alarm goes off at six and I groan before getting up. My hands and knees still ache from my falls in the woods, but the bite had stopped bleeding sometime in the night. I would have to get Dad to replace the bandages anyways, just to be safe. I carefully remove the gauze from my calf, checking it out in the mirror before turning on the hot water. The marks themselves weren’t big but they went deep into the muscle of my calf. I take a quick shower and sit patiently on the toilet seat for Dad to rebandage my leg. He does it without complaint, even giving me a smile before patting my thigh and returning to his own morning routine.

I dress quickly, in an outfit I had planned on the drive here. The loose fitting plain pants paired with a white button down, the shirt half tucked in and I unbutton a few buttons then roll up my sleeves past my elbows. I put on a gold locket I got as a present from Nana before leaving Kansas and admire the way in glints in the light. I finish the outfit off with a thick black belt before rushing to do my hair and makeup. I keep my makeup light and pull my short hair into a half ponytail, letting my bangs fall slightly in my eyes before putting my glasses back on. A honk from outside makes me rush to put in earrings and I grab my shoes and bag before rushing out the door to Lydia’s waiting car. I wince as I get into the car, my wounds still aching. Lydia lets out a wolf whistle, admiring my outfit. She’s dressed rather nicely too, though that is her default. Dressing nicely gives her confidence, and Lydia has always had a great sense of style. I smile, showing off my outfit for her, her expert eye noting all the little details and gives me a nod of approval.

“Great first day outfit Evie. It’s almost perfect.” I laugh as I buckle my seat belt, leaning down to roll the cuffs of my pants a few times and slipping on my boots, accidentally flashing my bandage at her. “Woah what happened to your leg?”

I retell my story to her, leaving out some of the scarier details to not freak her out as badly. As I tell her, Lydia’s eyebrows retreat further and further into her hair, her eyes going wide at the mention of feeling like I was being stalked. I show her the bandages on my hands as well, laughing about how clumsy I was right before I was bit.

“That’s so weird. We’ve never had animal attacks before,” she says. After a pause, she continues. “Well, just stay out of the woods, Evie, and we won’t have an issue.” I laugh softly as she turns the ignition and we drive in comfortable silence to school. Once there, she turns to me, her curls moving with her. “So, I’ll introduce you to Jackson when we get inside. I’m sure he’ll love you.” She smiles, giving me confidence. Having Lydia’s vote of confidence meant the world to me.

“I’ll do my best to make a good impression.” I shoot her a lopsided grin, my glasses perched precariously on my nose. Lydia gently pushes them back up and boops my nose before getting out of the car, making me laugh. I unbuckle my seat and grab my bag before doing the same.

I follow her through the main doors of the school, ignoring two boys talking on the sidewalk. One was taller than the other, with fluffy hair and an uneven jaw; I vaguely recognized him. Maybe I had seen him on the street yesterday? The other had a buzzcut and whiskey brown eyes. They’re discussing some body the police found in the woods last night and I feel a surge of panic fill me. My stomach turned sour and I’m suddenly glad I hadn’t eaten yet. That body could have easily been me. It had been found ripped in half, by an animal they thought. Their conversation stops as we walk by.

“Hey Lydia! You look… like you’re going to ignore me,” the buzzcut one says. I turn and shoot him a soft smile in apology and hurry along with Lydia. Poor boy is probably in love with her, like most boys are. Jackson is a real lucky guy if Lydia chose him out of the millions of guys prancing around trying to impress her.

The feeling of panic settles in my gut, and I suddenly remember that I hadn’t stopped to take my medication before leaving the house. All eyes fall on us, making Lydia smile as she struts down the hallway to her locker, but I frown pausing slightly. She definitely didn’t prepare me for this. A boy quickly joins her side and I hurry to catch up, trying to forget about the panic lacing my body. I check my bag for my antidepressants, but realize they aren’t there quickly. I quietly curse, hoping no one heard me as I race to catch up to Lydia before the bell rings.

I bounce on the balls on my feet, a smile flashing across my face at the boy, who I assume is Jackson. His face is handsome but seems to be set in a permanent scowl. He gives me a quick nod and turns back to Lydia. They have a soft conversation right before the bell rings. I wince, the sound too loud in my ears. Lydia gives you a worried look before taking me to the principal's office for a tour.

She leaves me with a smile and a promise to meet me at lunch. I walk in and have a short conversation with the secretary, giving her the files from my old school that I had put in my bag, the one important thing I had remembered to take with me today. The tour is short, mostly going through where my classes were going to be before she drops me off at my English class, where another new girl is being introduced.

“Class, these are our new students Allison Argent and Evangeline Monroe. Please do your best to make them feel welcome.” The other new girl is pretty, with dark curls and pretty dark eyes. I shoot her a smile before heading towards one of the only open seats, coincidentally near the boys from earlier. Allison does the same, sitting behind the one with fluffy hair. I watch as he turns to hand her a pen, a grin plastered on his face. The other one turns to look at me and I catch a whiff of his cologne, which is far too strong for a Wednesday morning.

I gag slightly at the smell and he makes a face at me before turning his attention back to the teacher. God, I had never had such a strong sense of smell before. Maybe I’m coming down with something? Trying to quell the panic before it sets in, I push my glasses back up onto my nose to distract me, and try to concentrate on the lesson and not the awful smell radiating from the boy next to me.

He smelled of the woods and death on top of his strong cologne. Now that I thought about it, so did the other boy. He had the reek of blood lingering on him as well. I’m so focused on the smell that I drop my pen. As I reach for it, so does buzzcut and we hit our heads on each other.

“Ow,” he says rather loudly. I mouth sorry and he hands me my pen, grimacing slightly.

“Stiles, if you have something to share with the class, maybe you should stand up.” The boy, Stiles, shakes his head and the teacher continues with his lesson. I readjust my pony tail and continue to take notes quietly.

The next half of the day passes quickly and soon it’s lunch time. I search for Lydia in the cafeteria and spot her sitting with Jackson, having a heated conversation about something. I pause after getting my food and feel the ache in my leg start to lessen. I smile to myself, happy that it’s started to hurt less. Lydia spots me and waves me over to her table, where the other new girl, Allison, is also sitting. I walk over quickly and sit down next to Lydia.

“Evie, please help me convince Allison that she has to come to our party.” I make eye contact with Allison, who shakes her head slightly, making me laugh slightly. “She says she has a family thing but we all know that’s a load of bull.”

“If she doesn’t want to come, that’s her business Lydia.” I smile and extend my hand to Allison. “I’m Evie by the way, Lydia’s cousin. You just moved here right?” She nods and the conversation flows easily after that. We compare schedules and find out that we share three classes with each other in the afternoon: PE, chemistry, and math.

Apparently, PE is used as an extra practice for the lacrosse team, which I won’t complain about. I hate mandatory physical exertion. However, as Lydia explains the game to Allison and I, I’m lost within five minutes and Allison seems just as confused as I am. Lydia gives us all the details on the guys on the team, mostly in relation to which ones she thinks we should date. She completely skips over 24 and 11, deeming them undateable by not mentioning them. Allison and I share a look, already wondering who the two could be.

“Who’s number eleven?” Allison asks. I raise an eyebrow, turning to Lydia to hear her answer. Lydia purses her lips, an unreadable expression on her face.

“I’m not sure,” she says after a slight pause. “A freshman maybe?” I laugh softly, shaking my head. It’s just like my cousin to not know the boys that don’t catch her eye. We watch both boys take off their helmets to get a drink and their identities are revealed quickly.

“Oh, it’s those boys from English class,” I say with a flick of my hand. Lydia laughs, Allison joining in soon after but quieter. I lean forward, balancing my chin on my hand. “They’re kinda cute, in a nerdy kind of way.” Allison nods and Lydia’s face pulls into a frown.

“Out of all the guys, you think they’re cute? Them? Seriously?” The confusion on her face makes me want to laugh, though I refrain from doing so. “Evie, I can understand. The boys at your old school were atrocious to look at, all weak jawlines and colorless eyes. Not sure about you Allison, but you have to have better taste than that. You’ve been all around, surely there’s better guys than those two?” I shrug, turning my attention back to the boys running on the field.

“It’s not just about looks Lydia, it's about personality. I much prefer someone with a sense of humor over someone with perfect cheekbones,” Allison says with a smile. I nod, agreeing. I notice how she watches McCall and already I know she’s interested in him.

“Personally, I don’t really care about gender either. If they have a good personality, what should it matter what they look like?” I say. Lydia just shakes her head and turns her attention back to the field to watch Jackson practice. I nudge Allison and lean in close to whisper in her ear. “That got her to shut up, huh?”

Allison laughs and bumps me with her shoulder. The rest of the period passes in relative silence. At one point, I pull out a book and start reading, the pages fluttering in the slight breeze. McCall apparently has improved immensely over the summer according to Coach. However, every time the ball was caught a shiver ran up my spine at the sound. It hurt my ears to hear, like nails on a chalkboard but not nearly as bad. It got to the point that the sound was making my head throb in pain. I rub my temple and dig through my bag until I find the bottle of ibuprofen I had stashed in there. I take three and take a swig of water out of Lydia’s bottle. I pat her leg before going inside at the sound of the bell.

“See you after school?”

She nods, dismissing me with a wave of her hand. I grab my bag and hurry to my next class. The rest of the day passes quickly and I meet Lydia back at her car. Jackson and her are making out quite ferociously on her side of the car, making me roll my eyes. I sigh and go to find another ride. Maybe Allison could give me a ride.

As I walk back towards the school, I get body slammed by some guy, sending me tumbling to the ground. My books fly everywhere and the other person makes a loud sound of pain.

“I am so sor- oh it’s you.” The guy sighs, and overs a hand to help me up. “You really need to learn to watch where you’re going.” It’s the guy from English, Stiles I believe, that I had bonked heads with earlier. He hauls me up to my feet and picks up my sprawled books while I dust myself off. The cuts on my knees are screaming, but the pain is quick to fade after a few seconds.

“Thanks,” I say with a smile, happy to reconcile. I hold out a hand. “I’m Evie, by the way. Stiles, right? I’m really sorry about earlier.” The boy blinks in surprise, not used to female attention. He takes my hand and shakes it. I tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear, taking my bag back from him. Stiles looks over my shoulder, realizing without me saying anything why I was walking away from Lydia’s car. “Would you mind giving me a lift home? My ride’s kinda busy.” He gets a funny grin on his face before nodding.

I follow him back to his car, an older Jeep that I instantly fall in love with. Jeeps have always been my favorite car, and I was saving up for one before… well, before last winter. I can feel my face breaking trying to contain my smile. Stiles raises an eyebrow and opens my door for me. The inside of the Jeep is messy, as if he kind of lives in it.

“So, Evie. How’re you related to Lydia?” he asks as I climb into the car. I throw my bag in the back and buckle my seat belt.

“She’s my cousin, our mothers are sisters. I just moved here from Kansas.” Stiles frowns, as if Kansas is an insult to him personally. He turns the ignition and we drive silently after I give him my address. I wince only once, when we hit a pothole in the road that reminds me that my calf is not ok. I lean down to check the bandage, but there’s no new blood. Stiles looks over at me at that moment.

“What happened there?” he asks.

“Oh, I got bit by some animal last night in the woods,” I say with a wave of my hand, like it’s no big deal that I probably should have gotten a rabies shot. He slams the brakes, shooting me forwards in my seat and hitting my head on his dash. “Ow!” I rub my forehead, with an indignant look on my face. “What is your obsession with hurting me today?” He turns towards me quickly, one arm flinging itself over the back of my seat.

“You got bit in the woods last night?” he asks.

“Yes, what part of that did you not understand?”

“My friend Scott was bit last night too! Why were you in the woods? Did you hear about the body that was found?” he says in rapid fire. “I wonder if it was the same animal… Can I see the bite?” My eyebrows scrunch together in confusion but show him the wound only to discover that it has fully healed. His eyes go wide and I hear him mutter, “oh fuck.”

“I - I don’t understand. It was bloody this morning…” Stiles looks panicked, and honestly I’m on the precipice of a panic attack myself. “I promise! I had to change the bandage this morning because it had bled through the first one. I have no reason to lie to you.”

“I don’t understand then. You don’t even have a scar.” I sigh and lean my head onto the dash. Could this day get any weirder? Stiles sits up straighter in his seat, as if an idea came over him. “Have you been having hearing and light sensitivity? Scott said earlier that the lights were hurting his eyes and that he had heard someone’s phone call from outside.” I nod, narrowing my eyes at him.

“I’ve also had a sensitivity to certain smells. Like earlier, you smelled awful.” A hurt look crosses his face, and I try to quickly amend. “You smell fine now, but earlier you reeked of death…” I pause. “Maybe that was Scott. I apologize for saying you smelled bad.” He shakes his head, a small smile on his face.

“You’re forgiven.” The smile falls when he realizes how close the symptoms were to each other. To be honest, it was kind of freaking me out as well. Before I know it, the Jeep is in motion again but the opposite way from my house.

“Where are we going?”

“My house, we need to do some research.” At the word research, a smile floods my face, despite the panic still racing through me. I adore research. Stiles turns to me, a frown on his face. “We have to figure this out. You and Scott could be in serious trouble if we don’t find out what the hell is going on.”

……………………………………………………………………………………..

We researched for hours, her chair pulled directly next to mine as we poured over any information on werewolves and the supernatural that we could find. Every once in a while I would look over at her, still astounded by how much she looked like Lydia. They could almost be twins, if you didn’t look too long at them. Evie must have gotten her dad’s eyes because they were a deep brown, darker than even Scott’s eyes, while Lydia had green eyes that reminded me of spring grass.

Everytime Evie scooted her chair closer to mine, I moved away slightly. Not because I didn’t like her, but because she kind of scared me, and not in a fun way. If she and Scott are what I think they are, they could be really dangerous. As we collected evidence, the more worried Evie became. I watched as her eyebrows scrunched together with every new piece of information.

“So, if I am a werewolf, when’s the next full moon?” she asks suddenly. I do a quick search and look back at her, finding that her eyes had gone wide, the pupil completely taking over the brown in her eyes. The next full moon was this Friday, coincidentally the same night as Lydia’s party. “Oh this is bad… this is very, very bad.”

“Why? It won’t be that hard to just not go.” She shakes her head, running her fingers through her already messed up hair. It had come down from her small ponytail about an hour into our research.

“The whole reason she’s even having a party is because of me. It’s my introduction into Beacon Hills.” Evie sighs, tugging on her hair once more, as if it was a nervous tick that she couldn’t control. “She’ll be pissed if I don’t show up.” She turns to me, worry shining in her eyes. “I’m a pretty calm person. Do you think I’d be ok?”

I pondered the question. Evie did seem pretty laid back and generally pretty calm. I didn’t know her that well, but if the hours we had spent pouring over information wasn’t an indicator of how calm she was, I didn’t know what would be. But with all the information we had found, I wasn’t sure she’d be able to stay calm, especially in a party setting. The lights, the music, the drinking. It was a lot to handle, even for a normal person.

“I have more confidence in you than I do Scott, but I still don’t think it would be a good idea.” She nods, a sad look crossing her face and I instantly feel bad. I lay a hand on her shoulder and squeeze gently. Then, an idea pops into my head. “What if I went with you to the party?” She raised an eyebrow.

“As what, my date?” I blink a few times, not having considered the possibility that people would think we could be dating.

“I mean, it would be easier to explain than the actual reason. And, I don’t think I’d be invited unless you personally invited me anyways,” I say. Evie considers it for a moment, thinking through all the possible scenarios and how it could go wrong if she didn’t have someone with her to calm her down if the change was too powerful. “Before you decide, I really should call Scott and tell him about what we’ve found. I don’t think he’ll be as accepting of this fate as you are.” She nods.

“Do I need to find a ride home or do I need to be a part of this? What would you like me to do?” she asks and I balk at the question. I had just assumed she’d stay, not really understanding that she may need to go home to her family. It was weird how comfortable I was around her already, despite our rocky start. I consider her question for a moment, before deciding Scott would probably be more willing to hear it from a stranger than me.

“I think you staying would be a good idea. Scott isn’t the most perceptive guy, usually needs a helping hand to understand things. Maybe if you’re here to help me explain, he’ll be more apt to not do something stupid.” She laughs, a bright happy sound. I notice that we haven’t eaten yet, and it’s getting to be kinda late. “Hey, I’m going to go call Scott and then order a pizza, anything in particular you want?” I ask, hoping she doesn’t say something dumb like pineapple. She taps her chin, considering all the options.

“Do they have meat lovers?” she asks. I nod and go off to take care of my calls, leaving her in my room alone. The one to Scott goes immediately to voicemail, as usual. Placing the order to the pizza parlor was a lot easier and quicker than I thought it would be, considering the time. I walk back into my room, only to find that Evie has made herself comfortable on my bed and is doing homework. She looks up and says, “What? I have math homework.” I just shake my head, a small smile on my face.

We work on our homework in relative silence, Evie only talking when she has a question about a math problem. The pizza arrives and I finally get a hold of Scott, who’s at my house in less than ten minutes. The call was filled with him gushing about asking Allison to the party on Friday, though I’m not sure how he pulled that off. He’s at my house in less than ten minutes, a knock at the door announcing his presence.

I watch Evie shake out her shoulders, as if preparing herself for battle. She’s not entirely wrong. Opening the door for Scott and ushering him in takes all of five seconds and he’s heading up to my room before the door is even shut. I hurry after him, only for me to run into his back. Hard. He had paused in the doorway, blocking me from entering.

“OW! Dude you can’t just stop in the middle of a doorway!” Scott turns to look at me, a confused look on his face.

“Sorry, wasn’t expecting you to have a girl in your room!” I snort, a bit impressed with myself at the realization that I did have a girl in my room, and push past him into my room, where Evie is sitting cross legged on my bed. She waves, a piece of pizza in hand. Scott looks back at me with a gleam of mischief in his eyes. I huff out a sigh, already knowing what he’s thinking.

“It’s not what it looks like… I mean, it may look like what it looks like, depending on what you think it looks like but it’s not…” I drift off, earning a snort from Evie. I glare at her, but she just shrugs and nervously starts picking at her eyebrows. “Not helping.”

“So what’s she doing here then? Is this a date? Am I interrupting or…?” Scott asks. Evie just laughs, shaking her head. I glare at her again, she’s really not helping my case at all.

“No, you’re not interrupting, but we do have some things to share with you,” she says. She meets Scott’s eyes, not an ounce of fear in her body. “We have the same problem. Both of us were bit by an animal last night in the woods that half a dead body was found in. I can’t be sure that it was the same animal, but my bite has disappeared, and I’m assuming yours has as well.” Scott looks at me, confusion written plainly on his face.

Evie just sighs, already distraught. “We’re werewolves. The light and sound sensitivity, the heightened smell, the quick healing. All signs point to lycanthropy.” Her eyes drop to her hands, which had moved from messing with her eyebrow to messing with the ends of her pant leg. With a sigh, she pulls the pant leg up, showing Scott where her bite mark had been. Evie runs a finger over it, as if checking to see if there was anything left of the wound. “This morning I was bleeding and now there isn’t even a scar. I know it’s a lot to take in but we have to be careful from now on. We’re dangerous,” she says, her voice dropping to a whisper.

Scott looks at me, and I nod, confirming what she had said. He shakes his head, either not believing it or not wanting to believe it. I open my mouth to explain more, but he’s out the door before the time the words can form. I exchange a look with Evie and hurry after him, hoping to catch him before he goes completely loco. I catch up, winded and with a racing heart.

“Dude, you have to believe us. This isn’t some prank. You have to be careful, especially on Friday.” Scott turns quickly to look at me, making me backpedal a few feet so I don’t get run over, again. Confusion is written plainly on his face. I mentally kick myself; of course Scott wouldn’t know what Friday meant in werewolf terms.

“Why? What happens Friday?” he asks.

“Friday’s the full moon, man. That’s when your bloodlust will be at its strongest. You won’t be able to control yourself, especially around Allison.” His eyes flash yellow, something I hadn’t seen Evie’s do yet. I don’t back down, even though I really should have. Anger radiates from him, and I put my hands up in surrender. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but you gotta believe me. I’ve seen the way Allison affects you, it’ll be easy to lose control, especially at the party. You have to cancel.”

“I can’t do that! This may be my one shot with her! Nothing will get in the way of that!” he yells. I stop, not used to being yelled at by Scott. He turns away from me, returning to his fast pace and I let him leave. Knowing he won’t come back, I turn back towards my house

Once inside, I raced up the stairs to see that Evie was packing up her homework, her back turned towards me. She turns when she hears me at the door, a sad smile on her face. Evie tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear and pushes her glasses up her nose before speaking.

“So, he took that rather well huh?” I let out a strangled laugh and collapsed on my bed. I feel, rather than see, her sit down beside me. “Hey, if nothing else we’ll know where he’ll be Friday. We can keep an eye on him.” She smiles down at me and I smile back, before a thought hits me.

“We should have told Scott that we were dating. Would have made Friday so much easier.” She snorts, flopping back on the bed.

“May have made it easier, but I have a feeling he’s going to ignore us like the plague.” She sits back up with a huff. “Well, I guess you better get me home. I had told my parents that I was studying with a friend but after last night it wouldn’t surprise me if they gave me a tighter curfew.” With a groan, I sit up as well. It was well past ten, we had been here for at least seven hours.

The drive to her house was quick and mostly silent. I could tell that all of this weighed heavily on Evie; her shoulders had drooped and her eyes were dull. As I pull into her driveway, she turns towards me, putting a hand on my arm and squeezing lightly.

“My dad is standing outside. He’s going to say some really dumb things,” she says. I nod, not fully understanding but agreeing nonetheless. “Pick me up tomorrow morning? I don’t know if Lydia planned to pick me up or not and I’m not allowed to drive.” I scrunch my eyebrows together, confused. Evie just shrugs. “I’m not… a safe driver.”

I hop out to help her out, still pretending her leg hurt even though it had healed over. I grab her bag for her, a tight smile pulling across her face. Handing it to her, I look towards where her father lingered on the porch. I wave and he starts coming closer to say hi, I guess. Evie stands there nervously, unsure to how her father will react. He meets us at the Jeep and we shake hands. I make sure to keep a smile on my face, though his grip feels like he’s going to break my knuckles.

“Thanks for bringin’ her home, it’s much appreciated.” I nod, trying to seem as non threatening as possible. He claps me on the back. “Now then, was this a date or just studying?”

“Dad!” Evie exclaims. Her dad just holds his hands up in surrender and smiles at his daughter. “No, it wasn’t a date. Stiles was helping me with math, right Stiles?” I gulp and force a smile.

“Yes sir, just math.” Evie smiles at me before pushing her dads towards the house.

“See you tomorrow!” she calls over her shoulder, her dad’s laugher catching on the wind. I smile as I get back into the Jeep. Maybe, just maybe, this will all work out okay.

………………………………………………………………………………………

My sleep that night was less than restful. I had dreams where I had claws and fangs and I ran through the woods naked. I woke up to my mom yelling my name from downstairs. I groan, dragging myself out of bed to get dressed quickly. I pull on a patterned green sweater with a black skirt and grab my boots from downstairs, not bothering with makeup or trying to make my hair look better. I ran my fingers through it and called it a day. Grabbing a granola bar and my bag, I was out the door and hurtling for my ride within ten minutes. I skid to a stop when I see not only Lydia’s car, but also Stiles’ Jeep waiting for me.

“Well this won’t end well,” I say under my breath. Lydia gets out of her car and reaches me first, a confused look on her face. I smile at her, hoping that she won’t be angry.

“What is he doing here? I thought I was your ride to school!” she says with a stomp of her foot. I look over her shoulder and make eye contact with Stiles, hoping he understands that he needs to get his ass out of the car now.

“He gave me a lift yesterday,,” I say as Stiles hops out of the Jeep and rushes towards us. “Stiles offered to pick me up today, since I hadn’t heard from you.” I smile apologetically at my cousin, watching her eyes narrow at the two of us. Stiles throws an arm over my shoulders, giving me a small smile. Something must click for Lydia because her face quickly changes.

“I said to get a guy on the lacrosse team!” she exclaims, surprising me slightly.

“You play lacrosse right?” I ask, actually unsure if I had dreamed that part of the day or not. He looks back and forth from Lydia to me before nodding. I turn back to Lydia, a smile on my face. “You never said that he had to play, just that he had to be on the lacrosse team.”

“Be careful with my cousin,” she says before getting into her car and speeding off.

“Let’s get going.” Stiles opens my door for me, yet again. “Thanks, but you really don’t have to do that.” He just shrugs and I get into the car with a sigh. The ride to school was relatively quiet, mostly filled with our combined anxious sounds. Stiles wouldn’t stop drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and my leg wouldn’t stop bouncing.

“So, how are we planning to make people think we’re going out?” he asks. I sigh, a headache already forming.

“Lydia already assumes we either hooked up or something. She’ll spread that like wildfire. We won’t have to do anything,” I say softly, pulling at my eyebrows in nervousness. Stiles just nods and opens my door for me, yet again. We walk into school together and immediately people start staring. Stiles and I hurry towards English, with moments to spare.

The stares don’t stop there. I’m not sure if it’s out of confusion or jealousy, but either way I’m not a fan. It follows me the entire day, only stopping when I get to lunch and a different scandal has happened, taking the heat from Stiles and I.

After grabbing my tray, I search for his shaved head, already deciding that I would rather sit with him and Scott than deal with Lydia’s angry eyes that had been following me all day. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long. Almost instantly, Lydia is there, Jackson and Allison in tow. Jackson plops down, a scowl on his face. I really don’t get a good vibe from him, but that’s a conversation for another day.

“We are going shopping after school today,” Lydia states. I make eye contact with Allison, who was sitting very closely to Scott. I raise an eyebrow at her, somehow already knowing that she won’t want to go.

“Is there a reason why?” I ask. Lydia flips her hair over one shoulder, hitting Stiles in the face. I hold in a laugh, knowing that would set her off. Allison shakes her head at me, desperate to get out of this endeavor. I turn towards Lydia, a frown settling on my face.

“You both need new outfits for the party,” she states matter of factly. I sigh, already knowing we won’t win this argument. “Evie’s closet is totally void of any party clothes and I know Allison’s is pretty much the same.” Lydia pointedly looks at both Scott and Stiles. “Since my friends refuse to find acceptable dates, everyone’s outfits will have to be perfect. Especially you, Biles.”

“It’s actually…” he starts, then Lydia glares at him. “You know what, Biles is fine.” I laugh softly, gaining a frown from Stiles.

“If I agree, do I get to pick out my own dress?” Allison asks. I shake my head, already knowing the answer. Lydia would not relinquish that particular thing. If she couldn’t pick our dates, she sure as hell would pick what we wore.

“Of course not, I already have them picked out. We just have to go pick them up.” Allison and I make eye contact, shrugging. What could go wrong? It was just shopping.

The shopping actually didn’t take too long. She really had picked the outfits out already. Lydia refused to let us see them, but insisted they would fit perfectly. I hated to doubt her, but I was pretty sure she didn’t quite understand I wasn’t a size four. So, I made sure to check at least the size of the dress was correct. Shockingly, it was and I was insanely grateful that she hadn’t tried to stuff me into something too small.

We dropped Allison off first, her house not too far from my own but much larger. Her family must have money out the ass to afford it. After exchanging goodbyes (and numbers since I had basically no one's information), Allison hops out and leaves Lydia and I alone in the car. I decide to take the plunge and apologize for this morning.

“I didn’t mean to upset you this morning. I didn’t know you’d show up to give me a ride,” I say softly. Lydia shakes her head, waving a hand to dispel any hard feelings.

“I was more confused than upset. I wasn’t expecting you to get a guy so fast.” She nudges me with her shoulder, getting me to laugh. “While I still don’t get why him, I won’t question your choice too much, as long as he keeps you happy. You deserve to be happy after everything.” I smile sadly and she grabs my hand, squeezing twice. I grab all my stuff from the backseat and head inside.

I work on homework for a few hours and take a break to answer texts and eat dinner. Around ten, I hear my phone ring and Stiles' name pops up on my phone. I answer, a smile on my face.

“Hey, what’s up?” I ask quietly, fully aware of my parents sleeping in the room over from my own. I close my door, hoping that keeps the noise to a minimum.

“I have a lot to talk about, are you home?” I furrow my brows. His voice is echoey and filled with anxiety, making me wonder what he’s found.

“Yeah…” I say cautiously.

“Okay, great! I’ll be there in a few.”

I wait for a few minutes and then I hear rocks hitting my window. I open it, seeing Stiles standing not too far away with a handful of pebbles. Racing downstairs, I let him in and hold a finger to my mouth to signal that he would have to be quiet. We’re up the stairs in record time and I softly shut my bedroom door behind us. I watch Stiles take in the mess that is my room, and I rush around to pick it up a little to make it look less like I just moved in, even though I had. Stiles watches me with a grin on his face, all anxiety from the call dissipating from his face.

“So, what happened?” I ask, keeping my voice low. He takes a deep breath, readying himself before launching into his story.

“Me and Scott were in the woods, trying to find the other half of the body that was found because he said he saw it before he got bit. We didn’t find the body, but we did see Derek Hale, who was being extra spooky in the woods for apparently no reason and-” I hold my hand up for him to pause and he stops mid sentence.

“Hold up. Who’s Derek Hale?” I ask.

“Oh, I totally forgot you just moved here. Of course you don’t know. Duh Stiles.” He hits himself on the head, making me laugh a little. “Six years ago there was a fire at the Hale house, and lots of the family died. Only a few survived, one of which being Derek. Everyone thought he left after the fire, but apparently he’s come back.” I nod, now somewhat caught up. “Anyways, he was in the woods being creepy and threw Scott’s inhaler back to him. We think he may be behind the murder and you guys being bitten but we aren’t sure and have no definite proof.” At the mention of the bite, I start to pace. Stiles sits on my bed, picking at my bed spread.

“So, if he’s the one that bit both me and Scott, what does that mean? Is he the alpha?” I ask. Stiles shrugs, unsure. He seems to be more occupied with looking around my room. I sigh, deciding to sit down next to him, forgetting that I was already in my pajamas. With a boy in my room. The urge to pull the blanket over my head was getting stronger by the minute. Lydia would skin me alive when she found out that I had Stiles in my room and didn’t make out with him. I laugh softly and turn myself towards him.

“What?” he asks, his whiskey brown eyes searching my face. I just smile, knowing he may not like my answer.

“Lydia will be so disappointed in me,” I say with a sigh. His eyebrows furrowed together, making me laugh again. “I have a boy in my room, with no intentions to make out with him.” He laughs, shaking his head. I pat his knee. “Well, anything else you need to tell me?” I ask.

“How’re you doing, with all of this?” he asks. I sigh, running my fingers through my hair, contemplating how much to share. This was just one more problem in my life that couldn’t be fixed, and I had a lot of practice with such things so I wasn’t nearly as freaked out as someone else would be. I settle for a nicer version of the truth, knowing that while I felt comfortable around Stiles, he didn’t need to know all the dirty details of my life right now.

“To be honest, not well. Every little sound is amplified tenfold and certain smells make me want to vomit. Heightened senses are not the superpower I wanted,” I say with a slight smile.

“You’re handling it all really well, a lot better than Scott is. You just seem so…” he pauses, searching for the right word. I raise an eyebrow as he settles on the word that everyone uses to describe me. “Calm. If I were you, I’d be freaking out.” I shrug, stretching my legs out on my bed.

“My constant state is freaking out. I was diagnosed with anxiety in middle school and I take antidepressants that even me out a lot. I haven’t had an attack since last year,” I say, hoping he won’t ask me to elaborate. Thankfully, he does not. Stiles just nods, as if understanding without me having to say anything. “This whole werewolf thing may be good for me, maybe the healing factor will seep into my brain and repair the pathways that make me anxious.” He laughs.

“Well, it did fix Scott’s asthma.” He pauses, pondering something. “Have you tested the extent of your reflexes? Scott got weirdly good at lacrosse right after he got bit, catching every ball that was thrown at him. I wonder if yours have gotten better too.” I shrug, unsure if I really wanted to know or not. I was never good at sports before, what would be the point in trying out for them now?

“I’m not really an athletic person,” I say, gesturing towards my body. Stiles rolls his eyes, a funny look on his face.

“Oh please. Every time I turned around today some new guy was staring at you. Every guy on the team thinks you’re an absolute babe,” he states. The compliment catches me off guard, though not totally unwelcome. It had been a long time since someone noticed the way I looked, without being creepy about it. Stiles pats my bare thigh, not noticing the way I tense up as he does so, and stands up. “Well, I’d better get going before your dad threatens to kill me.” I laugh, shaking my head. “See you bright and early tomorrow morning?”

“Sure thing,” I say with a smile. He starts to walk out, but pauses in the doorway. Stiles turns to look at me, a weird glint in his eyes.

“Oh, and by the way. I meant what I said. You’re a total knockout.” He leaves with a smirk, my mouth hanging open like a fish. I stay like that for a good amount of time, trying to decipher if he was flirting or just being nice.

It takes a while, but I finally settle myself down enough to sleep and for once, I don’t have any nightmares or dreams.

I woke up on time for a change and took time to look nice. I showered, removing the bandage and deciding that I wouldn’t put another on. The people who knew wouldn’t notice and it was a waste of gauze. I select a cream colored button down sweater, a pair of brown trousers, and a pair of ballet flats. I curl my hair a little and add minimal makeup along with my necklace and a few rings. Shockingly, I even have time to eat an actual breakfast before I hear the Jeep pull into the drive.

I kiss my mom’s cheek on the way out, grabbing my bag and heading out. Stiles opens my door for me and I smile up at him. We chat on the way to school about nothing in particular and our day goes much the same way as yesterday. We eat lunch together, Allison and Lydia joining us once again. Jackson is there too, but he doesn’t talk much; he mostly just glares and looks moody. I sincerely don’t know what Lydia sees in him, I can’t detect any sort of a personality coming from him.

Lydia drives me home after school, our conversation filled with talk of the party. She seemed confident in my abilities to get there myself, not offering me a ride or anything. Getting ready by myself feels like a monumental task, especially since tonight was not only the party but also the full moon. My first full moon as a werewolf, and I was going to a party. Honestly, how dumb am I?

I pick nervously at my cuticles as I pull the outfit we decided on out of it’s bag. I let out a soft gasp; Lydia had picked out a deep green dress with a corset-esque bodice and long lace sleeves. It was short and made of a satin material, which would hug my curves nicely without feeling clingy. If I was being honest, the dress kind of scared me. I’m not used to showing so much skin, especially since I would be in front of so many people.

I slip the dress on, skipping looking in the mirror just yet and heading towards the bathroom to do a more dramatic makeup look. My version of dramatic is just a heavier blush and a slight winged liner. I refresh my curls from this morning, making a few frame my face. I also make sure I put in contacts, though I have noticed my eyesight getting better. I slap on a little lip gloss and hurry to put on the heels that Lydia had chosen.

Remembering that tonight may not go so well, I pack a small bag with extra comfortable clothes, just in case I wolf out and end up naked somewhere. I pat Persephone on the head as I grab a pair of sneakers to throw into my bag when I hear Stiles’ Jeep pull up to the house.

He gets out to help me get myself out to the car, somehow knowing I’m worthless at walking in heels. I notice that he’s gotten very dressed up for a party. He’s paired a light pink dress shirt with a black tie and grey suit jacket with skinny jeans. I raise an eyebrow, wondering if he got dressed in the dark but not really caring too much. I have come to appreciate his weird sense of style, with his many layers of shirts and odd pairings of colors.

When he finally looks at me, his mouth drops, making me laugh loudly. I can’t say I was expecting that kind of reaction but I won’t say no to it.

“You look… wow!” I shake my head at him, a smile crossing my face.

“Yeah?” I do a little spin for him, just to get the full effect. Stiles laughs and helps me into the Jeep. I watch him rush to his side and get in the car.

“So, I’ve got some things prepared in case you feel like you may lose control.” He pulls a duffle bag out of the back seat and hands it to me gently. “I have rope, cuffs, and if it comes to it, chains. You said Lydia had a basement, right?” I nod and he continues. “If we have to, we can keep you down there away from everyone.” Something on my face must have betrayed my thoughts of worry, because he quickly adds, “not that I think you’ll have too much of an issue with it. You seem pretty in control right now.”

I smile, but something must have changed in my face because Stiles’ eyes lock onto my own. Fear leaks out of him, the smell of it hitting me quickly.

“What? What’s wrong?” I ask, immediately worried.

“Your eyes were yellow for a second. I hadn’t seen them do that yet.” His fingers start drumming on the wheel, an anxious tick of his that I nearly duplicated by bouncing my leg.

“Oh. Is that bad or…?” I gnawed on my lip, hoping that my eyes changing color wasn’t a bad omen of what was to come.

“I don’t think so. You weren’t doing that on purpose right?” I shake my head. “Maybe it was triggered by feeling anxious. I’m sure it won’t be a problem.” He smiles, but the reek of fear lingers.

The party goes off without a hitch. Lydia really does throw great parties, though I barely see her or Allison the entire time, though I try to periodically check on them, just to make sure. Allison seems to be having a really good time with Scott, and Lydia is off with Jackson somewhere almost constantly disappearing into dark corners to make out.

I stick with Stiles most of the time, his hand on my arm a constant comfort. We drink a little, but I mainly try to stay away from the alcohol. The lights outside hurt my eyes, so we stayed inside. He barely leaves my side, only leaving for a few minutes to check Lydia’s basement. Stiles is back within moments, finding me in the same place he had left me. We dance a little, his moves goofy and catching me off guard. I genuinely started having a good time, the worry that had consumed me for the past few days slowly leaking out of me.

However, sometime around ten, Stiles rushes out to follow Scott out of the party and leaves me on my own, without much of an explanation.

“I’ll be right back!” he yells before disappearing. I try to keep to myself after that, not wanting to risk anything. Not long after he leaves, I realize that I haven’t seen Allison in a long time and go to find her.

“Hey have you seen Allison?” I yell over the music to Lydia. She shakes her head, and continues to dance with Jackson. I sigh, irritation crawling its way up my spine. It couldn’t be that hard to know where one girl went, right? I quickly crush the irritation, knowing that won’t help me find anyone.

I head towards the bathroom, deciding that would be the quietest place to make a call. I call Stiles, he doesn’t pick up. Then I try to call Allison, no answer there either. Frustration and anger fill me, nearly overtaking the anxiety of the situation. I grip the sink and watch my fingers lengthen and grow sharp claws. Looking up, I watch my face transform slowly; the space between my brows becomes flatter, my eyes turn a bright shade of yellow, and two pairs of fangs rip through my gums. I groan, realizing how painful having extra teeth in my mouth was.

I try to take deep breaths, to find my center but nothing works. God, Lydia will kill me if I mess up this stupid bathroom. My face stays the same and at that moment I’m glad Stiles left to trail after Scott. I don’t think I’d want him to see me like this. Shockingly, at the thought of Stiles my claws slowly start retreating. I watch as my hands return to normal in a few moments and the pain in my gums recedes slowly.

Closing my eyes, I try to think more about Stiles and the way he calms me down. I think about how his hand on my arm kept me stable tonight and my eyes return to their usual dark color. Focusing on the image of him dancing in my head, I can feel my face settle back into its normal position. I sigh, letting go of the sink and stare into the mirror to make sure everything is back to normal.

Once I’ve assured myself I’m back to being myself, I smile at my reflection. A sense of pride overcomes me, making my smile turn into a grin. I didn’t hurt anyone. A weight is slowly taken off my shoulders and I feel as if I can finally breathe again. I made it through my first full moon without doing anything stupid, I wasn’t naked in the woods, no one was dead. I could handle this. I could do this.

#teen wolf #stiles stilinski #dylan o'brien #new oc #werewolf #i have too much time on my hands #things can only get better #teen wolf season one

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ghostgothgeek · 3 years

Text

Shallow.

Another for the Phic Phight 2021! 4,596 words. Rated T for mean girl shit.

FFN || AO3

Danny finds out why Paulina and Sam actually hate each other. Prompt by Ozone.

I had actually been planning on writing this before it was a Phic Phight prompt, and had even started writing it already! I refuse to believe that Sam would just hate a girl for no reason.

The "Danny and Sam meeting in detention in 7th grade" is a nod to Myaibou's The Lunch Club. I love that being the way the trio met. This author has a lot of other great fics too, I highly recommend!

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“So I’m thinking about organizing a rally against police violence. Would you guys want to join?” Sam asked her two friends at lunch. She was poking at her salad.

“Yeah! Something I’ll actually want to do!” Tucker exclaimed, forcing Sam to fist bump.

“Sweet. How about you Danny?”

“Yeah, I’m in,” Danny popped a fry into his mouth and grinned.

“Awesome! Okay so, I was thinking next weekend at the park. We can make flyers and posters and make an event on social media to get people interested. Would you mind doing that Tucker?” Sam pulled up her checklist on her phone.

“Huh? Yeah sure. Remind me later.”

“Danny, do you think we could maybe have a short appearance from Phantom? I feel like having a celebrity of sorts would really get people excited,” Sam continued. After no reply from Danny, she glanced up at her two friends, noticing they were distracted once again by Paulina. Sam rolled her eyes. “Danny?”

“Uh huh. Sure.”

Sam let out a sigh of frustration. “We could even reveal your secret, make a huge event out of it.”

“Yeah, yeah. I feel you,” Tucker replied.

“And then I can jump off the roof in a pink tutu…” Sam added.

“Sounds good,” Danny sighed and rested his head in his hand.

“Then I’ll mud wrestle my parents in a floral bikini.”

“Yeah that sucks,” Danny replied again.

Sam just groaned, “You guys aren’t even listening to me!”

Danny glanced at her. “Yeah we are! Something about a uh….poster? Environment thing?”

Tucker finally looked at her as well. “Did you say something about you wearing a bikini?”

“Argh! Stop staring at Paulina for two seconds please!” She drummed her fingernails on the table impatiently.

“Wait, Sam’s wearing a bikini? But it’s winter!” Danny replied to Tucker’s comment.

Sam let out a small scream and started packing her stuff up. “Ugh, forget it!”

Noticing Sam was about to leave, Danny put a hand on her shoulder to sit her back down. “No no no, don’t leave Sam! You have our attention.”

“Really? Because it seems to me you two were just making a puddle of drool that would still be less shallow than Paulina.” Sam glared at the girl in question, who was clinging to Dash and trying to get his attention as Kwan put forks up his nose to look like a walrus.

“Jeeze, lay off. What’s your problem with Paulina?” Tucker turned back towards his friends and sipped at his energy drink. It had been a long night capturing Technus.

“Yeah, you just hated her from day one. She didn’t do anything! She literally just moved here,” Danny added.

“No, she didn’t. You just never noticed her until other guys started to. And I have my reasons.” Sam stabbed at her salad harshly, as if she was making a Paulina voodoo doll out of her food.

“Well then, why? Why do you hate her?”

“I don’t just hate her. She hates me too. It’s a mutual hate,” Sam growled.

“Okay but why?” Tucker chimed in.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Sam said shortly.

“Well either tell us or stop complaining,” Tucker replied.

Danny made a grab for her fork and held it away from her. “Danny, give me my fork back.”

“No,” Danny said stubbornly. “We’re your best friends! You can tell us anything. And trust me, I’m desperate to hear your reasoning.”

Both boys stared her down. She would have stabbed both of them with her fork if she still had it. She was pissed. But then Danny’s stare down turned into his puppy dog eyes and pout, which she knew he knew would get her to cave. Damn him. She turned her focus to Tucker so she could keep her angry face, but he too started pouting. Sam hated when they ganged up on her like this. She could usually save face when Tucker pouted. Danny’s big sad questioning eyes almost always swayed her. She could get either of them to cave with a glare or, in very rare cases, her puppy dog eyes. It was so rare that it would immediately get her what she wanted. But when two of them ganged up on the remaining member of the trio, it was difficult to say no.

Sam let out a long groan. “Fine. If you can actually focus and not stare at the queen bee for two minutes, I’ll tell you.” As soon as that was out of her mouth, both boys stood up straight and focused all their attention on her, eager to finally hear why the two girls despised each other so much. “And we will never bring this up again. What I tell you doesn’t leave this table.” Both boys nodded unanimously. “Okay, remember those few years from 3rd grade to 6th grade when I went to a different school?” The boys nodded again. “Well, I never really told you guys why I was only there for a few years. You obviously know the part about my parents wanting to send me to a different school after that fiasco with the lunch box in 2nd grade, but they forced me to go to a private school. In 5th grade, Paulina moved to Amity Park from Florida. And...ugh, this is gross...We…” She trailed off and muttered something the boys didn’t catch.

“What?” Both boys pressed.

“We...used to be...friends,” Sam choked the words out.

Both Danny and Tucker’s eyes widened, eyebrows raised in complete surprise. They thought Paulina moved here in 9th grade, but of course if she went to the private school, they never would have seen her. They definitely didn’t hang out in the same places or with the same people. Hell, they forgot Sam existed until she went back to public school again in 7th grade with her goth look. Before that, they weren’t even friends with Sam, just classmates. Then all three of them had to spend a week in detention with each other, they became friends, and the rest is history. Sam’s break in private school was the reason they were still learning some things about her, like her playing video games and her family being wealthy. It was shocking that her and Paulina were friends once upon a time, because now the girls wouldn’t even talk to each other or acknowledge each other.

“What happened?” Tucker asked in dismay.

“Armageddon.”

“Class, please welcome our new student Paulina Sanchez. She moved here all the way from Florida!” Mrs. Wellington clapped her hands, motioning for her students to do the same. “Miss Sanchez, there is an empty seat behind Miss Manson. Miss Manson, please raise your hand.”

Sam Manson raised her hand as she studied the new girl. She seemed nice enough. She couldn’t tell if they had the same style or not because they had to wear uniforms, but she had a pretty butterfly clip in her long wavy hair. Paulina had some pink lipgloss on and already looked like she was….developing - even at 10 years old. She smiled at Sam and took her seat behind her.

Once the teacher started getting their math lesson started, Paulina whispered in Sam’s ear. “I love your bow, it’s so pretty!”

Sam smiled and glanced back at the new girl. “Thanks! I like your clip. Do you want to sit with me and my friends at lunch today?”

“Yes please! I don’t know anyone in this weird town.”

“I’m Samantha. Samantha Manson.” She stuck her hand out.

Paulina, with a perfect manicure, shook Sam’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

For the entirety of 5th grade, Sam and Paulina had become nearly inseparable. They played with Paulina’s large dollhouse when they got together after school, they skipped rope and chanted nursery rhymes at recess, and braided each other’s hair at lunch. There weren’t many kids at the private school, for it was very exclusive...and expensive.

That fact had been Pamela Manson’s primary reason for sending her daughter to that school. Public school was turning her sweet daughter into a barbarian. Fighting with boys at school? Well, considering the boy threw up in her lunch box, the fight was almost justified. Almost. The Mansons were disgusted that the teachers would allow that to happen. Samantha had only been in public school in the first place due to her grandmother’s persistence. Ida Manson insisted public school would be better for their little Sammykins. She would meet more people that way. Reluctantly, Pamela and Jeremy agreed. Although the Mansons were furious at first that their little girl had gotten in trouble, they were eventually delighted because they now had an excuse to send Samantha to a better and more dignified school.

Pamela Manson adored Paulina. She was glad her daughter had finally picked a proper friend. Samantha had been getting a little too close with those two boys who always riled her up. Folten or Fenton or something. Foley? She didn’t care to remember, her daughter wouldn’t be seeing them anymore. Paulina wore pretty pink dresses and was always groomed properly and well behaved. She had hoped Paulina would be a better influence on Sam after those boys. Plus, Pamela loved outings with the Sanchez family. She and Isabella had frequent mother-daughter outings with their girls.

Everything was perfect until 6th grade started. A few weeks into that first semester, all hell broke loose.

“Hey guys,” Sam sat down at her lunch table, joining Paulina and a few other girls she had become friends with.

“Hey Samantha!”

“Samantha, Kylie was just telling me how pretty my hair is!” Paulina bragged.

“It is lovely,” Sam commented, opening up her lunch box and discarding the meat products her mom had the butler slip in. Paulina had originally thought it was a little odd that Sam did that, but when her friend explained it was because she loved animals so much, Paulina agreed that they were too cute to eat but kept on with her own ways.

“I know!” Paulina chirped.

“Wow, Samantha. Your hair is really pretty too!” Kylie reached out a hand and started running her fingers through Sam’s almost hip-length black hair. “Oooh and it’s so soft!” A few other girls joined Kylie in playing with Sam’s hair.

“Thanks,” Sam laughed. She really didn’t care, but she found it amusing that her friends were so enthralled by her hair.

“What about mine?” Paulina pouted, upset the attention wasn’t on her anymore.

“Yours isn’t as soft, but it’s still nice!” One of the girls replied, still enamoured with Sam’s raven locks. “Is this your natural color?” Sam’s nod was followed up with coos of approval.

Paulina crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at the other girls. Sam was her best friend. She loved Sam. But Sam didn’t care about that kind of stuff. Paulina did! She was used to getting more attention from people. Paulina was the first in their grade to get a bra, she liked to flirt with boys, and she loved being pampered. When outside of school, Sam didn’t really dress up anymore. She would just wear dark t-shirts and shorts and put her hair up into a ponytail. She wouldn’t even let Paulina put flowers in her hair to make her more girly! Instead, Sam scolded her for killing a living thing and disrupting nature or something stupid like that.

After Sam and her family had taken a short visit to one of the industrial plants they owned, she hadn’t been the same. Sam had told Paulina that there was trash in all the pretty trees and flowers, and then Sam had done some research and found out that her parents’ friends’ companies tested on animals, polluted the environment, and had poor labor conditions. She was really upset about it and thought things were wrong, and Paulina would just politely agree with her. She liked that Sam loved the earth and stuff, but then it started to get really annoying.

Sam started reading these weird books after their class learned about Edgar Allan Poe. Stuff about magic and mythology and the occult. Even though Paulina and the other girls thought it was weird, Sam was still their friend. Kind of. Paulina was going to drop Sam until she had been invited to the Manson mansion and found out just how rich Sam’s family was. That kept Sam in good standing with Paulina. Despite the weird factor, Sam was still admired. Sam got better grades than Paulina. Sam got attention from boys because she would still play kickball in her jumper and didn’t mind getting dirty. Sam’s family had a bigger house than Paulina’s. Sam’s family had more money. Sam’s hair was softer, longer, prettier than Paulina’s.

As Paulina watched her friends doting on Sam, taking turns to play with Sam’s hair, she realized she was a little jealous. No matter how hard Paulina had flaunted herself and tried to show up Sam, she felt like Sam always won in the end. It was extra annoying because Sam was so nice. Everyone loved her. Everyone wanted to hang out with her. Sam was a lot of things Paulina tried so hard to be, and Sam had done everything so effortlessly. It wasn’t fair!

They were both very dominant girls, and Paulina realized there wasn’t enough room for the both of them. She needed to prove to everyone, to herself, that she was better and she was in charge of things. Filthy rich or not, Paulina began to ice Sam out and Sam didn’t even seem to notice! After trying and failing to persuade the other girls to drop Sam, she realized she would need to take more drastic measures. She could make people not like Sam anymore. She could make her hair prettier than Sam’s. Sure, it was petty and low, but petty and low is what teenagers are.

Paulina ignored the lesson and stared at the back of Sam’s hair. It was so shiny and looked so soft. Sam smiled as she felt Paulina pulling her long black hair onto her desk, blocking Paulina’s view of her textbook. Paulina pretended to play with Sam’s hair as she dug something out of her purse. After a few minutes, Paulina had shoved several sticks of gum in her mouth, chomping spitefully as she stared at Sam’s hair. Paulina silently spit the large wad of gum into her hand and she carefully placed it on top of Sam’s hair. Furiously but nonchalantly slamming her text book shut with Sam’s hair and the gum still in the middle of it. That should get the gum thoroughly stuck in her hair. Paulina grinned to herself as she tried opening the textbook again, the pages stuck to the hair and gum mess she had made.

When the class all stood up to go to lunch, Sam cried out as Paulina’s textbook yanked her head back. “What?” Sam tried to figure out what was going on, looking behind her.

“Oh my god!” A boy in the class yelled, which caught the attention of the rest of the class, causing them to start yelling as well. The teacher scrambled over to see what was wrong, trying to get Sam’s hair out of the textbook.

“Ow!” Sam yelled and glanced back at Paulina, who pretended to be shocked as she covered her mouth with her hands.

“Oh no Samantha! I’m so sorry, it was an accident!”

Tears welled up in Sam’s eyes as the situation got progressively worse. The teacher told all the kids to go to lunch as she worked on Sam’s hair in the classroom alone. It was no use. The teacher grabbed some scissors and began cutting as low as she could. “I’m so sorry sweetie.”

Sam sat there furiously, eyes full of tears. She knew Paulina had done that on purpose. Paulina had been meaner to her lately and they weren’t allowed to have gum in class! She reached back and felt her choppy hair that now landed a little past her shoulders. When the class had returned from lunch, they were all gasping and pointing at Sam’s hair.

Though the teacher had given Paulina a detention and made her pay a fine to replace the textbook, Sam didn’t feel that was a fair punishment. The teacher had sent Sam home and apologized profusely to Pamela Manson, who had called the school screaming and demanding the teacher be fired. Sam’s hair had to be cut even shorter to even it out; it now sat about an inch or so above her shoulders.

“Oh yeah, that’s pretty shitty,” Danny commented as Sam finished the story.

Tucker nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah that’s pretty low.”

Sam sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. She had kept it short so Paulina wouldn’t get the chance to mess with it again. “That’s not the end of the story.”

Tucker and Danny exchanged a look as she continued.

Sam had stopped going near Paulina after that, but she still hadn’t forgiven the girl. Her mom, though angry at Paulina, told Sam to just leave it alone. Like hell Sam was going to let her get away with this. At lunch the next day, she snuck an innocent little worm on Paulina’s lunch when she wasn’t looking. Paulina of course screamed and caused a commotion, easily pointing the finger at Sam. Teachers had no proof Sam did anything, so they just got Paulina a new lunch and told her to calm down.

Pranks and nasty incidents just escalated after that, until Paulina had done something so terrible it got Sam expelled.

Paulina had a crush on Ricky (ironically no relation to Lunch Box Ricky) and Ricky was chatting away happily with Sam about some comic book. Paulina was already over all the pranks: spiders in her purse, “accidentally” ruining her new shirt...Sam had been careful to not leave behind too much evidence so she never got in trouble. Paulina wasn’t as clever and had to serve a few detentions. And now, Sam was trying to steal her new boyfriend away from her! She knew she needed to not only win this war, but completely end it. And fast.

Sam had been called into the office the next day. Her parents were also called in to meet with the teacher, vice principal, and principal. Apparently, there were some naked pictures of Sam floating around the school, which was against their code of conduct. As much as Sam explained that wasn’t her and that Paulina was just trying to get back at her, her parents were threatening to send her to a boarding school and she would be suspended for the rest of the year. When Sam tried to confront Paulina about everything, Paulina admitted getting Ricky, who was in yearbook and owed her for letting him get to second base, to poorly photoshop some images together and make it seem like Sam had taken naked photos of herself. Though some kids backed Sam up and validated that Paulina had in fact done that on purpose, Sam ended up getting expelled for punching Paulina square in the face. Paulina said she wanted a nose job anyway. Plus, the stuck up bitch had stuck gum to the side of Sam’s head AGAIN, forcing Sam to shave half of her head.

More kids came forward about the feuding girls as Paulina continued to spread rumors about Sam being a freak and pretending to be rich when she wasn’t. Paulina was so shallow; she only cared about looks and popularity and money (and got the rest of the students at the school on board with being snobby and stuck up) - she showed no remorse for treating her former best friend, who kindly helped her gain her footing in Amity Park, the way she did.

The Mansons eventually learned the truth of what happened and cut off all ties with the Sanchez family after having a huge screaming fit over the phone. Though the school had apologized and said Sam could return to school, the damage had already been done and her parents never forgave the school. Sam and her grandmother had convinced her parents that she could go back to public school for 7th grade. Her parents had continued to force their daughter to go back to the way she was before all of this happened, but Sam just continued to pull away from them. She became spiteful and grim, and had a really hard time trusting anyone after that.

“And that’s why I never told you guys about my wealth and why you knew so little about me. I didn’t trust people anymore. It just seemed like people would only talk to me because they knew who my family was. I mean, we didn’t just get rich off of toothpicks. We have an empire.” Sam finished quietly. Then, she gave a small smile. “But I know now that I can trust you guys. We’ve been through so much in such a short amount of time. And honestly? I wouldn’t trade you guys for anything. I’d rather have two great friends than fifty so-called friends who only liked me for shallow reasons. Plus, after I decked Paulina, I was kind of blacklisted.” Her smile widened, pride beaming through.

“Wow. Sorry Sam, we didn’t know.” Danny rested a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

“I know.” Sam rested her hand on Danny’s, causing both teens to go a little pink in the face.

“Wait wait wait. So you’re telling me there’s nude photos of you somewhere?” Tucker leaned his elbows on the table and clasped his hands together.

Sam rolled her eyes. “No, moron. They were photoshopped. I mean the skin tone didn’t even match, I don’t know how the school thought that was real. I think they were just so shocked anything like that could happen with 6th graders.”

Danny’s face turned more red at the thought of nude photos of Sam existing somewhere, fake or not. He was angry that someone would try to hurt Sam that way, but he was more embarrassed of himself because he was now picturing his best friend naked. His hand suddenly felt hot on her shoulder and he yanked it away quickly with Sam shooting him only a questioning look. He grumbled something under his breath and scooted his chair so his lap was more under the table. Now was not the time.

Tucker snorted. “Amateurs. I was better at photoshop when I was 5 years old.”

Sam laughed. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. Anyway, I guess Paulina’s parents switched her to public school for 9th. I guess the private school didn’t have a cheer squad or something,” Sam shrugged. “When I saw Paulina show up here on the first day of school, I was honestly shocked and a little terrified. Before anything could get out, I cornered her and we swore to never acknowledge that we even knew each other and to stay away from each other. I tried giving her benefit of the doubt, hoping she changed, but then she set up and blew off Danny at the dance to make a jab at me-”

“What?!” Danny exclaimed. “That’s why she ditched me?!”

Sam ignored him and continued, “and I just realized she would never change. She was always going to be shallow and petty, but I would let her start fresh at Casper as long as she stayed far far away from me. I’m too exhausted to care anymore. But yeah, people stopped hanging out with me and started calling me a freak, especially when I became goth. That’s why I hate it when my parents try to push pink and girly on me, it reminds me of that time. It was pretty lonely and I was starting to get self-destructive, until you guys came along.” She smiled softly at them. “You guys saved my life.”

Both boys had their jaws dropped, completely unaware that there had been that huge of a backstabbing backstory that clearly affected Sam way more than she cared to admit.

“You were hurting yourself?” Danny’s voice sounded broken. Sam was so strong now. He never would have thought that she could have killed herself before he even got to meet her. He was suddenly very glad he started talking to her in detention back in 7th grade.

Sam nodded. “Yeah, I kinda hate that I did that. I promise I’m better now. Between you guys and a lot of therapy, I feel better about myself than I ever have. It’s stupid,” she added, “because I really did find myself because of all she did to me, so in a way I should thank her…”

“Uh, no. I’m surprised you haven’t killed her yet. Especially after she tried stealing Dan-” Tucker shut his mouth after he received a swift kick to the shin. Apparently now was not the time to tease Sam about her crush on Danny.

“Yeah. You’re really so kind, Sam. You have a good heart. I know I would have handled that situation a lot worse than you did,” Danny disclosed.

“True. Our Sammy has a soft spot after all.” Tucker huffed as he received another kick for calling her by the nickname he knew she hated. Only Danny could get away with that one.

“Shhh. You’ll tarnish my reputation,” Sam said in amusement.

The bell rang and students in the cafeteria all stood at once, cleaning their tables and making their way towards their next class. When Paulina passed their table, Danny grimaced.

“I can’t look at her the same anymore,” Danny remarked.

Tucker nodded, “Same, dude.”

“Guys, please. This is all as much of a secret as Danny’s identity is, okay? I don’t want that drama coming back. I get revenge in my dreams. Just let her be, it’s not worth it.” Sam threw her spider backpack over her shoulder.

Tucker glanced at Danny before smirking. “Aww, Sam. Too good for this world. Too pure.”

Danny threw an arm around Sam’s shoulder as they walked to their next class. “Such a cinnamon roll.”

Sam groaned at the boys, “Stooooopppppp!” Tucker caught up to them and tried giving Sam a noogie, but his hand was slapped away swiftly. “No. None of that.” She pointed her finger sternly at him. Her head suddenly snapped towards Danny, who was smiling innocently despite the little tug he gave to her ponytail.

“Don’t worry, Tuck. Sam would never hurt us. She’s a softie inside, like a marshmallow.” Danny laughed as she shot him a look.

“I’m plotting both of your murders in my head, just so you know,” Sam grumbled.

Danny’s arm tightened around Sam protectively, pulling her a little closer as Elliot walked up to them.

“Hey Sam, I-” Elliot’s eyes widened as she pulled out a switchblade from her pocket and pointed it towards him. “Never mind!” He scurried away quickly, slipping in the process.

Danny stiffened and Tucker stared nervously at the knife. “Do you always carry that thing around?”

Sam smiled sickenly sweet, “Still soft?” Tucker shook his head. “That’s what I thought.” She closed the blade and shoved it back in her pocket, smiling because their teasing did cheer her up.

Danny gave her a soft squeeze before removing his arm as they entered the classroom. “Only the people who earned it get to know the real Sam, the one with the kind heart who’s also tough as nails. Right?”

Sam smiled back at Danny, “Exactly.”

#stephanie writes sometimes #danny phantom #fic #phic #phic phight 2021 #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #paulina sanchez #sorry I had to make Paulina really mean lol

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