#we need more good parents content where they still try to shoot danny

[meowmeowmeowmeow4x]

Supersons +1 prompt answer Parte Dos

Parte Uno

Original Prompt

Jon couldn't help but take a peek at the large metal ring constructed behind the massive form of Dr Fenton, its size and shape dwarfing man and son. He couldn't watch for much longer, however, as their encounter with Daniel was expedited by Damian's impatience. Maybe he was just itching for a fight, or a supervillain to beat down. Either way, as Superboy, it was his job to make sure Daniel walked out with all his limbs intact!

"Daniel Fenton." But Damian was interrupted just as fast as he had started.

"Ew, no, it's Danny thank you very much. Only my parents when they're angry, and- bleh- Vlad, call me Daniel."

Damian scowled (he was doing that a lot today). "Daniel Fenton, we have some questions for you."

"Guess that's not gonna happen."

Time to intervene. Jon stepped between Damian and Danny, arms outstretched, with a friendly but diplomatic smile. "What Damian here means is we're suuuuper curious about your dad's research, aren't you Damian?"

"...Yes."

"If you wanna know more about my Dad's research, why don't you uhh." Danny bobbed his head at Mr Fenton's direction, the man in the midst of grabbing onto an unfortunate bystander and extolling the virtues of his next invention.

"Your father has proven lacking in his ability to explain his own work, which is why the responsibility now falls on to you, Daniel Fenton, if that's even your real name."

Wow, laying it on real thick, aren't you Damian.

Danny very pointedly ignores the death stare (hehe, death stare) from Dami to look to Jon. "And you are...?"

"Jon, I'm here with my dad too! He's a reporter, but some of this stuff's got me bored out of my mind. I mean, a flying toilet? Really??"

This manages to get a chuckle out of Danny. "You saw that too? And here I thought I'd get to see some normal inventions around here."

"I know right! I feel subconscious even with bathroom stalls and stuff. What are you gonna do, bring a flying curtain?"

"Honestly I know some folks back home who could find it handy." Danny said, a mysterious smirk on his lip. What could be so mysterious about a bunch of streakers back home? Or...

"Would you like to elaborate on that statement, Fenton?" Damian cut in. "Or the function of the garish-looking gateway erected by your Father?"

"Oh that? That's the Fenton PortaPortal."

"Porta what?" Jon asked.

"The Porta Portal. Portable Portal. It's like the one back home, 'cept it's light enough to move around."

"Portal to where exactly?"

Danny shrugs. "The Ghost Zone, where else?"

"You mean to say your parents have breached the afterlife using science?"

"Hah!" Danny laughs. "But it won't work, trust me." There was that knowing grin again.

"You seem pretty sure, Danny. Also wait, you have one of these back home?"

"Yeah, and it let in the raging hordes of the undead on my town. Overshadowing (that's possession btw), taking over the school with meat, box-based assault, replacing people like changelings, that one time a ghost tried to blow up my sister with a laser, that one time the Ghost King kidnapped the entire town and transported it to the Realms..." Danny listed out various dangerous situations like it was Tuesday, ignorant of the dawning horror upon his audience's faces. Jon himself was starting to feel a little green. Ghosts? Hundreds of ghosts? Each of them capable of possession, and according to Danny, much more?!

"How has the Justice League not heard of this kind of thing?" Jon tried, but failed to hide the slight shiver in his voice.

Danny shrugged. "Guess they dismissed our calls as pranks or something."

"Your father wishes to unleash the legions of undead upon Gotham?!" Damian stepped forward, getting up in Danny's face.

"Woah woah woah, chill out man. Mom and Dad actually learned from the last time and built like eight layers of shielding around the portal, not that it'll be necessary since it won't work anyway."

"And why are you so sure? Did you sabotage it? For whwat purpose would you tamper with your own parents' inventions?"

"Dami, maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions." Jon said, trying to pull Damian away without any obvious use of super strength.

"Yeah Dami, I'm just a kid, like you. You see an engineering degree anywhere that can be used to sAboTAgE anything? 'Cause I don't."

Damian glared at the other boy for just a second longer, before Jon was finally able to pry him off the poor kid. "I'm so sorry, Damian's just kinda intense sometimes, he really means well I-"

"It's fine. Besides, I'm bored as hell over here too. Since we're about sixty-nine million years below the average age of this place. what say we hang and laugh?" Danny got up and stretched his legs.

"Sure! Hey you seen the oven that's supposed to bake pizza in under ten seconds? Come on, Damian spotted this amazing design flaw, you just have to come with."

As Jon dragged them away, Damian muttered under his breath, deviously. "Good job, Kent, escorting Fenton to a secondary location for further questioning."

~~~~~ They spent the next hour roaming the convention centre, laughing and snorting their lungs out at the inventions, and the rich suckers lapping them up. Although Damian was initially as frosty as Superman's ice breath, Danny's mention of a glowing green ghost dog managed to gain his attention, if veiled behind suspicion and accusation. Looks like no squeezing was necessary, but the idea of a whole town of magical beings that possessed as easily as they breathed still made Jon nauseous.

"My parents actually get me keep him, without the threat of dissection, it's amazing!"

"Your parents dissect animals?" Damian spat out with all the hatred of a thousand dying suns.

"Ghosts, and they never have. Kept getting away. For some reason. Nowadays they're more into non-invasive study. and by non-invasive I mean totally invasive of things like privacy, and alone time." Danny grumbled.

"I feel you, man." Imagine having a dad with super hearing. Or growing up with the world's greatest stalkers.

"Privacy is an illusion." Damian being normal challenge IMPOSSIBLE

They had no more time to banter before Dr Fenton's booming voice echoed across the centre.

"AND NOW FOR THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR, THE SHOWCASE OF THE FENTON PORTAPORTAL AND THE LATEST IN FENTON SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY, BEHOLD!"

"Just watch." Danny said.

Jack slammed his fist upon the on button, which was thankfully on the outside this time. The circular rings around the portal spun and spun, creating an electric whirring sound building up to a crescendo...

Only for the portal to fizzle out, as the crowd's jeers reached a fever pitch.

"Told you so."

Danny's triumph lasted not for another minute, however, when his body shivered and a cold mist broke through his lips. "Shit." He muttered. At least Jon and Damian were looking away. Danny's eyes scanned the crowd. Jack Fenton's sorrow was wiped away as the sensors in his suit came to life. He whipped out a comically large ecto-gun, shouting. "I KNEW IT! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK FROM GHOSTS!!!"

Danny needed look no longer as piercing laughter filled the auditorium. A swarm of green bats descended upon the centre, causing chaos and confusion. Those among the crowd sensible enough to run for the exits found themselves halted by bars locking them shut. Jack opened fire, but was overwhelmed by dozens of ghost bats.

Danny looked for anywhere he could silp away and transform. Damian and Jon did the same. None of them could an opportunity, as two pairs of hands swept them off their feet, and bindings tied them together. Their eyes widened as they gazed upon their captors. Two men adorned with white face paint. One in a gothic waistcoat, the other with green hair and a purple suit.

The infamous Joker, and the not as infamous Freakshow, both in hysterical laughter.

"I really gotta give it to you Danny-boy, that sabotage act you pulled really put us for a loop!" The Joker gasped out between laughs. He pulled out a remote with a large red button. "But I, the Joker, have out-sabotaged your sabotage! AHAHAHAH"

The Joker pressed the buttom, causing the portal to roar back to life.

"Damian!" Bruce Wayne yelled.

"Jon!" Clark Kent shouted.

"DANNY BOY!" Jack cried out, but they were too late to stop the swarm of bats carrying all three boys through the newly reactivated portal, and were too late to follow before the whole thing blew to pieces in a fiery halo.

To be continued....

[five-rivers]

Face Your Dreams

Almost forgot to post this here as well!  @anthropwashere 

Phic Phight 2021

Prompt from Anthrop: Any flavor of the Reverse AUs that strike your fancy. Who gets the ghost powers? Who becomes the ghost hunter? Who gets ghost magick'd into the villain of the week?

 Danny’s phone was dead.  Which was just typical, really.  His parents were brilliant, wealthy inventors that played with the fabric of reality on a daily basis and had managed to turn, not one, but two of Danny’s best friends into half ghosts, but they couldn’t be bothered to get Danny a phone that was actually reliable.  Although they hadn’t intended to do the half ghost thing and didn’t know about it.  

Probably.  

Maybe.  

(Honestly, Danny didn’t know.  His parents were weird.  And Danny suspected they were keeping secrets.)

Back on topic.  Phone.  Not working. Which was a problem because Danny was something like ninety-percent sure a ghost had been following him for the last block or so and he couldn’t call for help.  

Correction, he could call for help all he wanted, he just wouldn’t get any that would be any good against a ghost.  If he got any at all.  It was the middle of the night.  

He should have taken up Sam’s offer of a flight home. Or Tucker’s.  But, no, he had to be sulky about how both of them were developing yet more really, incredibly cool powers and Danny was still just…

Himself.  

Faceless, boring Fenton.  Only notable for the number of bullies he attracted and the people he was related to.  No special skillset, no dreams he had any hope of achieving, no triumphs.  Nothing to contribute.  Not in and of himself.  Only useful to enemies that wanted a hostage.

He was about to be murdered by a ghost and he was still sulking.  God, he was pathetic.  

(Not all ghosts were evil – Sam and Tucker’s stories had taught him that much, on an intellectual basis.  Was it too much to hope that he could reach home without the ghost attacking?  Too much to hope that it was just watching?)

White noise tugged at Danny’s ears.  It reminded him of the sleep CD Jazz played when Mom and Dad were being loud.  

… and, also, oddly, of a video he’d once watched about what stars might sound like, based on how they vibrated.  

Danny shuddered, his heartbeat redoubling as he picked up speed, reaching a run.  If he could get home, he could turn on the ghost shield and call Sam and Tucker from his home phone.  They’d be annoyed that he was bothering about a ghost so long after a patrol, but he was freaked out enough to not really care about their teasing.  

(He’d been freaked out enough for the past two blocks.)

His breath began to catch in his lungs, his side burning. He splashed through a puddle, dark, oily liquid sticking to his right sneaker and pant leg.  It glittered in the light of the waning crescent moon.  

Wait –

It hadn’t rained for weeks.

He slipped and fell, skinning hands, knees, and chin on the sidewalk.  Something wet, sticky, and smooth as silk spread over the pavement beneath him.  It bubbled like a tar pit, and captive stars shone from within.  

Danny tried to push himself up, but the liquid held on to him, pulled him back down.  

He was sinking.  

He flailed for the sidewalk, reaching, trying to stay afloat.  It didn’t work.  His elbows were below the level of the sidewalk, and inky, glittery black dripped from his front.  It seemed to be eating through his clothes.  

Forget useful help.  He’d take any help.  He screamed.  

And he fell.  

.

“You have such lovely dreams,” said the masked man, his horns curling into galaxies.  “Impossible dreams.”

Danny couldn’t breathe.  He was in freefall.  A vacuum.  No ground in sight, only the cold, heartless stars, perfect in their beauty.  

(And his eyes.  Oh, god, was this really a ghost?)

It was his dream, to be an astronaut.  With this little twist, it became a nightmare, and yet—

Yet.  

“You feel faceless,” continued the masked man.  “But there’s freedom in that, is there not?”  

Danny shouldn’t be able to hear him.  There shouldn’t be any sound in space, and there wasn’t.  Not except for his voice.  

“Freedom,” said the man, “to follow your wildest dreams, unshackled from responsibility, from reality, from reasonability.  No longer dependent on those that call themselves your friends, who claim to be your family, who walk over your dreams for the sake of theirs.”

Suddenly, Danny hit the sidewalk, and he could breathe again.  Something thick dripped from his nose, his mouth, his eyes.  He pushed himself to his hands and knees.  His clothing was gone.  His limbs were painted with the night sky in all its glory.  He froze, staring.  

From Danny’s shadow, the masked man rose, towering over Danny until he felt like little more than a shadow.  “Don’t you want to have the chance to see your dreams come true, child?”

Danny blinked.  It was hard to force his eyes back open.  They seemed to want to stick closed.  

“Who are you?” Danny asked, words garbled by the dripping stars trying to force their way past his lips.  

“I am Nocturne,” the ghost said, leaning closer.

“You’re like,” Danny choked, “like Desiree.  I don’t want—”

Nocturne scoffed.  “Desiree.  A creature of wishes, of momentary things.  I do not care for what you wish for.  What matters is that you dream.”  

There was something in Nocturne’s hand, round and white and moonlike.  It looked small, held between two of his fingers, but it had to be the size of Danny’s face.  

“Don’t you dream of flying?” purred Nocturne.  “Of being among the stars?  Don’t you dream of a peaceful world, where your friends are safe, and the accident never happened?  Where you’re a friend, not a weapon supply, a sidekick, or a damsel in distress?”

Danny had been thinking something so close just minutes ago and he couldn’t—

“There, there, my child.  No need to cry.”  He brought the round thing closer.  

Danny could see, now, that it was a mask.  Just his size.  

“Close your eyes,” said Nocturne, gently, cupping Danny’s trembling shoulders with his other hand.  “Close your eyes and dream.  Let your face go, for a little while.”

(Danny did as he was told.)

.

“Hi, Sam,” said Mrs. Fenton, her voice crackling slightly through the phone speaker.  “Have you seen Danny today?”

“I haven’t seen him since last n—Since yesterday,” said Sam, correcting herself halfway though.  Mrs. Fenton didn’t know about their nightly escapades, and for good reason.  “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know yet,” said Maddie.  “He just…  I haven’t seen him either.  He usually says goodbye before he leaves.”

He didn’t, but Maddie didn’t need to know that.  

“Have you checked with Tucker yet?  Sometimes they hang out without me.  Guy things.”  This… was also not entirely true.  Danny and Tucker hadn’t had a ‘guy thing’ for ages.  They’d been smoothly replaced with ‘ghost things’ like most everything else in their lives.  

Sam… might have felt a little bad about that.  All of their normal friend activities being replaced by ghost things, that is.  Often ghost things that Danny couldn’t really participate in, because Danny couldn’t fly or shoot lasers from his hands.  

He did do a good job of setting up obstacle courses and covering for her and Tucker’s—

Wait, no, not the point.

“He hasn’t seen him, either.  Jazz doesn’t know where he is.  I don’t—”  She broke off, sighing.  “Call me if you see him.  Or tell him to call me.”

“I will,” said Sam, opening the window and preparing to take off.  

“Thank you,” said Maddie.  She hung up.  

Sam went ghost with a burst of green fire.  She floated up and out of the window, fading out of visibility as she dialed Tucker’s number.  

“Starboy’s missing,” she said.  

“Yeah, I’m already searching for him,” said Tucker, the microphone crackling with static but otherwise clear.  Tucker’s powers both did and didn’t mesh well with technology.

“Any luck?”

“No,” said Tucker.  “This is one of those times when I wish he did have friends other than us.  Then we could ask them about where he is.”

“Do you think he’s been taken by a ghost?” asked Sam.

“I mean, maybe?  There was that whole thing with Desiree…”

“And the second thing with Desiree,” added Sam.  

“And Skulker.”

“And the second thing with Skulker.”

“And Spectra.”

“And the second thing with Spectra.”

“Not to mention Vlad.”

“What a freak,” said Sam.

“Are you picking up a pattern here?”

“Yeah, maybe.  Who’s only kidnapped Danny once?”

“I’m not sure…  Maybe it’s a new guy?  We do get new guys now and again.”

Sam sighed.  “Never mind that,” she said.  “Where have you looked so far?”

“Not too many places.  Do you want to meet up, or…?”

“No, we’ll have more luck going separately.  I’ll check in with you in a bit.”

.

A whole day passed without any sign of Danny. They did, however, find a lot of ghosts with stitched-shut eyes, which they decided was probably related and also incredibly creepy.  

By that time, the police got involved.  Danny was officially a missing person.  

But they were distracted.  Didn’t have the manpower to search for just one missing person.

Why?

The sudden surge in coma patients.  

“I don’t get it,” said Tucker.  “Is that more of a, you know,” he lowered his voice, “doctor thing?  Like, if it’s a bunch of people, don’t you think it’s a disease or something?”

“The police think that someone poisoned ‘em,” said Sam.  

“How do you know that?”

“How do you think I know that?”

“Dude.  You have to stop eavesdropping on the police.  I’m, like, ninety percent sure that’s illegal.”

“Not for ghosts, it isn’t.”

“Okay, I’m one hundred percent sure it is.  You’ve read the anti-ecto acts, haven’t you? I’m not the only one who did that, right?”

“It was, like, fifty pages thick.  And stupid.  The only reason I’d read it would be if I wanted to break the laws more efficiently.”

“Seriously?”

.

An alien world spread out below Danny, a place to explore to his heart’s content, the sky twinkling above him.  He couldn’t see it, but he knew it was there, in the nameless, infinite way you knew things when you were dreaming.  

He was an astronaut.  An adventurer.  An explorer.

He was doing everything he had ever dreamed of.

The only thing missing were the people.  His friends.  His family.

But… He could bring them here.  He knew that, too, in the same way.  

He just had to reach out and touch them.  Feel them.  Take them.  

(A bit of black and starlight in their eyes, a touch of the gift given to him.)

(Nocturne whispered in his ears.  A song only for him.)

.

They found the ghost responsible for the comas.  And maybe they should have realized a ghost was causing them, but Danny was the one who usually put the pieces together, and he wasn’t there.  Which was the problem.  

(What Sam wouldn’t give for some kind of reliable ghost-detecting power.  Or even technology.)

(No, the Fenton Finder didn’t count.)

It was small, human proportions, human skin tone, where it wasn’t covered with some kind of ghostly paint that mimicked the night sky. Its hair was colored the same way, and a blank mask covered its face.  Seemed to be directing the green stitched-eye ghosts somehow, despite not saying a word. So.  All in all, typical ghost, if somewhat more annoying due to his lack of witty banter.

Then he shrugged off the thermos beam like it was nothing.  Almost like he was human.  

Then Tucker froze.  

The ghost was carried away from the fight by its minions, faster than Sam or Tucker could go.  

“Tucker!  What was that?”

“Birthmark,” gasped Tucker.  

“What?” asked Sam.  

“That was Danny’s birthmark.”

“Oh my god,” said Sam.  “Did he really get himself transformed into a ghost again?”

“This seems different than Desiree,” said Tucker. “I don’t…  Were we really fighting him?”

Sam rolled her eyes.  “Let’s go get the Ghost Catcher.”

.

The Ghost Catcher was not in evidence in the Fenton basement.  

“What now?” asked Tucker.  

“Beat it out of him?” suggested Sam.  

“That is a terrible plan.  No, I can’t even call it a plan.  It’s just bad.”

“Do you have anything better?”

(Tucker did not have anything better.)

.

(And Danny still couldn’t find his friends, to show them this dream come true.)

.

When about one in ten people in Amity Park was in a coma, things managed to get even worse.  The people who were asleep began to sleepwalk.  And sleep attack people.  

Sam and Tucker were used to fighting ghosts.  Not humans.  They didn’t want to hurt anyone.  

Especially Danny who was especially vicious. And also seemed to be targeting them.

.

Danny was so close.  So close he could almost touch them.  He could feel them, electricity and green things and dreams of power and justice.  He could feel them, feel them, feel them, and he was so, so close to inviting them into the dream and he needed it, needed them.  Wanted them.  

His dream, the dream, his dream, it just wouldn’t be complete without them at his side, wouldn’t be right.  

He reached for them, reached for Sam, brushed her sleeve and—

A meteor shower threw them apart.

.

Tucker dragged Sam away from Danny’s hand and the sleep-inducing liquid it was coated in.  

“We have to go,” he gasped, looking out at the veritable horde of ghosts and sleepwalking humans.  

“Yeah,” said Sam.  “Yeah, we have to – Have to regroup.”

They retreated to the Ghost Zone, and, predictably, were separated.  

.

The ghost’s name was Undergrowth, and he was interested in Sam.  Interested enough to offer to teach her.  

His power was the same as hers.  Nature.  Plants.

His rage against humans was… much greater. Overwhelming.  Too much, too far, to extreme.  She was glad he didn’t see her as human, didn’t seem to know that she wanted to protect humans.  

(That she wanted to save Danny.)

.

Tucker already knew Technus.  Had met him, fought him, beat him.  More than once, even.  

So, he had to ask why Technus was suddenly helping him.

The ghost fixed Tucker with a look that managed to be both incredulous and flat.  

“Ghost child,” warbled Technus, “I, Technus, Master of All Things Electronic and Beeping, know what being electrocuted feels like!  By the very power we both now wield!”

“Oh,” said Tucker.  “Yeah, that makes sense.  You were saying?”

.

Sam and Tucker stood in front of the portal, side by side.  

“Ready to be a wake-up call?” asked Tucker.  

“You’d better believe it,” said Sam.  

.

Danny was caught, trapped in Sam’s vines.  

“This isn’t working,” said Tucker, lightly shocking Danny once again.  The ectoblast didn’t help, either.  “Usually, this’d zap the ghost out of him, but…”

“Maybe we could try to overshadow him?” asked Sam, dubiously.  

“Ugh,” said Tucker.  “My least favorite power.”

“It could be the only way to find the ghost actually responsible.”

“Let’s do this.”

.

Danny was thrilled!  He’d finally found his friends.  True, he couldn’t move, but—

The stars shuddered.  Shifted.  Blinked.

Nocturne was angry.

.

Sam was knocked out of the sky at full speed, making a crater in the dark ground.  People were gathered nearby.  Amity Park people.  

This couldn’t just be the inside of Danny’s mind (overshadowing had never worked this way before, but, well, it wasn’t like they experimented with it a whole lot), it had to be some kind of shared dream.  A special power of the ghost, perhaps?

Sam fired up her powers, reaching for the nearby plants. They didn’t respond.  

Crud.  

This was a dream.  They just looked like plants.  

Then Tucker lit up the sky like a dying star, electrocuting everyone in range.  

.

Danny woke up, throwing Sam and Tucker out of his body, something metallic clanging against sidewalk pavement.  Out of his mind, out of his dream.  Out of that dream, the one Nocturne had made for him.

Oh, god.  He’d just spent the last week—Had it been a week, or longer? —out of his mind, in that dream, reality at one remove, if that.  He’d been blind and—

He reached up to his face, to that mask and he pulled.  It stuck. He pulled harder, and felt the goo sticking it on give, the mask coming away while dripping thick strands of ooze. He gasped.  And it felt like the first breath he’d taken in—

How long had it been?

He opened his eyes just in time to see Nocturne rise out of his shadow.  

.

Both Sam and Tucker had more of an advantage out here in the real world, without having to worry about hurting people.  Well, without having to worry about hurting people more than usual.  Wrecking buildings and missing with ectoblasts were still concerns.  

“Draw him towards the park?” called Tucker, once they got close enough to confer with each other.  

“You grab Danny?”

“I don’t—” started Tucker.  He dodged a swipe from the large, starry ghost.  “He might be safer, if—”

A column of blue light strobed into the sky, and Nocturne was pulled into the Fenton Thermos.  The Fenton Thermos held by Danny Fenton.  He coughed, black liquid dripping down his chin.  

“Hey,” said Danny.  “Thanks.”

“I’ve got to stop losing that thing,” groaned Tucker.

“I think the more important thing here is getting Danny some clothes,” said Sam, shielding her eyes.  

“Yes, please,” said Danny.  

“Glad to have you back, man,” said Danny, landing next to Danny and transforming.  “Honestly, without you, we kind of suck at the whole investigation angle.”

“What?” asked Danny, taking the sweater Tucker offered him.  

“We missed you,” clarified Sam.  “A lot.  We kind of… don’t do to well at anything about ghost fighting.  Or life.”

“Yeah, our social life sucked even more than usual.”

“Oh,” said Danny, wrapping the sweater around his waist. “That’s cool.”  He spit some of the black liquid out onto the sidewalk. “I need a shower.”

“Yep.  Hugs are going to be deferred until then.”

“I’m okay with that,” said Danny.  “I kind of… don’t want to be touched, for a while.”

“Ah,” said Tucker.  “Well.  I’m depressed again.”

“Just.  Until the shower,” said Danny.  

Sam reached out as if to pat Danny on the shoulder, then drew back.  “Do you want a flight back home?  Or to, uh, Tucker’s house?  To shower. And get some clothes.”

“How is that different from a hug?  You’ll still have to carry me.”

“It just is,” said Sam.  

“It really is,” said Tucker.  

There was a long pause.  

“I lied, I want a hug so bad,” said Danny.  

His friends practically flung themselves at him.

[kinglazrus]

Dead Man Walking

Phic Phight | AO3 | FFN

Submitted by @syrren: Instead of making him half-dead, the portal accident makes Danny unable to die. This....changes things.

(or: how canon changes if the accident leaves Danny with deadpool-style regeneration abilities to make for a horrifyingly self-sacrificing vigilante, or with some kind of reset ability every time he dies to equally horrifying implications)

Summary: The accident changes Danny in ways he never thought possible. Sam and Tucker watch him fall from the portal dead and burnt beyond recognition, but he doesn't stay dead for long. He never stays dead. Of all the things Danny expected to happen when he walked into that portal, getting unlimited regeneration wasn't one of them, but now that he has it, he's going to put it to good use. Deadpool AU.

Word count: 3606

The first time Danny dies, his friends bear witness. They will never forget the ominous whirr of the portal as it turned on, the warning crackle of electricity, the final throat-tearing scream of their best friend. There are other things, too, that burned into their minds that day. How his body hit the floor of the lab with a thud, burnt beyond recognition, burnt so bad there wasn't any blood. How it smelled, to their horror, not so different from charred barbecue.

They like to pretend that part never happened. It's easy when all they need to do is call his phone and hear his voice, unaffected by the savage electrical heat that brought him to ruin that day. When he doesn't stay dead, it's not hard to pretend he never died at all. It took minutes for his body to fix itself, blackened skin overtaken by fresh pink muscle, which then sprouted new skin, perfectly unblemished.

Even the scar he got when he was fell off his bike at six years old disappeared.

"I liked that scar," Danny says, pouting when he finally notices its absence three days later.

"I don't think that's the right thing to get hung up," Sam says.

"But it looked like a spaceship!"

"I always thought it looked like an upside-down nine," Tucker muses.

"Or six," Sam says.

"Upside down nine is more fun."

They proceed like this for three weeks, mentioning the accident only in the lightest of terms, joking about their new, shared trauma. They are content to move on with their lives, forget it happened, go on as normal high schoolers. Until Danny dies again.

—

"What do you mean you don't want to hunt ghosts?" Jack exclaims. He gapes down at the trio, wholeheartedly baffled by this confession.

"I'll stick with tech, thanks," Tucker says, holding up his phone.

"Ghosts just aren't cool anymore," Sam says.

"Can I go back upstairs now?" Danny asks. At his question, Sam and Tucker fall silent. None of them make eye contact, and neither do they look toward the portal innocently humming only a few feet away. Danny is very aware that this is his first time in the lab since the accident. The same thought runs through Sam and Tucker's minds.

Jack doesn't notice the sudden change in mood. "Nonsense, Danno! You love ghosts. Why, I remember when you were just a tyke, you wanted to be a ghost when you grew up." He clenches his fist. "It was unacceptable. But that's okay! You can hunt them instead!"

He turns his back on Danny and his friends, eagerly going over the array of tools laid out on the counter. Ghost detectors, ecto-guns, protective shield, and an empty space where a thermos should be. "I forgot the best part! Wait right here, kids." Jack charges upstairs, leaving the kids alone.

Danny glances at the portal, unable to suppress a shiver. "You think he'd notice if I snuck away?"

"Nuh-uh, if you go, we go, too," Tucker says.

No one gets to go. Two sets of slimy green tentacles poke through the portal, probing the empty air. Their soft bodies soon follow, revealing a pair of ghostly octopuses.

"Holy shit ghosts are real." That is all Tucker has time to say before the ghosts attack. They launch themselves forward, shrieking in excitement. One goes for Sam and the other charges Tucker. They try to jump out of the way, but the ghosts are faster. The ectopuses tentacles wrap around them, pinning their arms down.

"Danny!" Sam shouts.

In retrospect, a smarter person would have gone for the ecto-gun lying on the table, freshly loaded and ready for a demonstration. Or, they might have shouted for his father, a ghost hunter who has trained his entire life for this scenario. But Danny acts faster than he thinks. He dives toward Tucker, the closest of the two, and digs his fingers into the ghost's tentacles. It screams as Danny's nails dig into its flesh.

The ghost's body goes translucent. Tucker slips out of its grasp, dropping to the floor in a heap, but Danny's hold stays firm. The ectopus panics, thrashing and tugging, its flailing limbs cutting through Tucker over and over without harming him. No matter what the ectopus does, it can't shake Danny loose, and his nails are starting to cut.

"Dude, you're doing it!" Tucker says, too soon.

As it flails, one of the ectopus' tentacles smacks Danny in the face, making his head snap back. At that moment, he and the ghost have the same realization. If he can touch it, it can hurt him back. The ectopus gives another shriek and its remaining seven tentacles surge forward. They wrap around Danny's arms, his chest, curling so tight his bones ache. The last one closes around Danny's throat.

His throat, weak like the ghost's flesh, crumples in an instant. His air disappears. No sound leaves his mouth, not even a wheeze, and his eyes bulge as panic sets in.

"Danny!" Sam and Tucker scream. Sam struggles against her captor kicking and gnashing her teeth, but her boots can't reach its body. Tucker grabs Danny, tries to pull him away, to bat off the ghost’s grip, but it is no use. The ghost is too strong, and Tucker can't touch it in this state.

Danny loses focus of them, then. His brain goes fuzzy, everything blurring around him while his face grows hot. All he can feel is the burn, the ache, the need to breathe, breathe, breathe damn it! The haze of the ghost looming over him fills his vision, slowly overtaken by red, then black spots.

As everything goes dark, Danny's last thought is this:

I guess I'm dead after all.

—

He hears the sobbing first. It starts off quiet and distant, but quickly grows louder, great hiccupping coughs scattered between heart-wrenching cries.

"Mr. Fenton!" someone screams. It happens fast, after that. Thundering steps, a deep cry of shock and pain that cuts him to his core. A piercing whine followed by two quick blasts.

The ectopuses' retreating shriek cuts through Danny loud and clear. His eyes snap open and air rushes into his lungs, a hoarse, wheezing breath that he holds for a moment. Then he takes another, and another, and he's breathing again, and he's not anymore.

Sam and Tucker, kneeling at his side, cry out as one. They throw themselves on him, blubbering messes the both of them. Danny's father, facing the portal, turns disbelieving eyes on him.

Danny's gaze drops to his father's hand and the ecto-gun clutched in it. "Oh, right." The word scrapes against his throat. He swallows, twice, until speaking doesn't hurt and says, "I forgot we had the gun.

"Danny!" Jack dashes toward them, dropping to his knees beside Danny. Sam and Tucker scramble back, giving him room. "Are you alright? What happened? You looked..."

Dead.

Because he was. Again.

"I'm fine," Danny assures him. "Lost consciousness, that's all.

"Danny, your face was blu—" Tucker yelps when Sam punches him in the shoulder, cutting him off mid-sentence. He rubs the spot, shooting her an offended look, but Sam's eyes are only on Danny.

Danny nods, just enough that she can see, a silent thanks.

"I think you kids should go upstairs now." Jack's voice trembles. He raises his hand, about to run it through his hair, but stops when he sees the gun he's still holding. "I'll take care of things down here. Call your parents and all that."

For the first time, Danny notices the green splotches littering the floor and the wall. Probably from the ectopuses.

Sam loops an arm around Danny's shoulders, hoisting him up. He stumbles when he gets to his feet, bracing himself against her as the room spins. It settles after a few seconds, but he still feels a bit lightheaded. A side effect of choking, maybe?

Tucker helps from Danny's other side. They go up to Danny's room in silence, their steps thumping up the stairs. Only once they're safely behind his closed door, and Danny is lying on the bed, does Sam speak.

"You died again," she says.

Danny touches his throat. "Yeah." Pressing gently, he feels is no lingering pain. Just like before, he healed without a trace. "Can I just not die now?"

"More like you can't stay dead," Tucker says.

"Tucker!" Sam hisses.

"What? It's true! Sorry that I'm not handling seeing my friend die twice very well!"

"Be quiet!"

Danny cuts in before they can devolve into shouting. "Let's just leave it at two, okay?"

Sam and Tucker share a glance over Danny's prone form and nod. The weight of that action is lost on Danny, whose only thought is that he wants to sleep for a very long time.

—

The knives don't kill him. They hurt like hell, but they don't kill him. He sees them flying toward him and leaps out of the way. Something strikes him in the gut, a solid punch that blows the air from his lungs and knocks him back into the walls. He thinks one of the frozen steaks got him, but when he looks down, he sees the handle of a kitchen knife sticking out of his stomach.

He stares at it, stunned, not feeling anything at first. Then, his body jolts, like a shock of electricity is running through him, and his nerves scream, heat building, until every little twitch sends a jolt of pain so deep coursing through him that he can hardly breathe.

"Danny, look out!" Tucker, or Sam, he can't tell which, so lost in his pain, cry out a warning. Danny doesn't move in time and two more knives bury themselves in his body, another in his stomach, and the other through his chest. The Lunch Lady cackles with glee as Danny gurgles. The last knife got his lung, and he can feel it slowly filling.

The pound of Sam's boots on the tiles reaches his ears. She shouts something, but he doesn't hear it. Trembling, Danny grips the handle of the knife in his lungs. In first-aid, they tell you to leave whatever object stabbing you in. It keeps the wound plugged, stops you from bleeding out. But Danny's instincts cry out against everything he was ever taught.

Take them out! Take them out!

He braces himself, then yanks. It hurts so much worse coming out, now that he's aware of the pain, the sharp edge searing as it rips the wound wider. He drops the knife and goes for the next one. All three fall to the floor beside him with a clatter, their blades shiny and red. Danny can't breathe, can barely think through the pain. He presses a hand against his chest, feeling the wound beneath his shirt.

It stitches itself together beneath his fingers. The searing pain retreats, replaced by a dull ache. By the time Sam reaches him and rips his shirt open to see his wound, his chest is healed.

"Technically, I didn't die," Danny croaks.

Sam sobs, covering her mouth with her hand. There's relief in her eyes, beneath the horror, and she makes a noise that might be a laugh, choked and garbled as it is.

Danny dives back into the fight with renewed vigour. Twenty minutes and one Fenton Thermos later, the ghost is gone, but not before half the student body saw some bloody idiot fighting it bare-handed.

"Did you see who it was?" Dash whispers to his friends.

Danny, clean of blood and wearing his gym t-shirt, slumps against the wall nearby, listening. Someone called the police when meat started flying through the hallways, and they apparently called Danny's parents. Ghosts are real and everyone knows it now, but Danny doesn't care about that at the moment.

"No, man. I wasn't close enough," Kwan answers Dash.

"Whoever that was, he totally just saved us all," Paulina says. She clasps her hands together and leans against Star. "He's such a hero."

Hero. The word resonates with Danny. He can't explain it, but it pulls at him. A hero. The school is in chaos, the yard covered in raw meat, the hallways hacked and slashed, but everyone is safe and unharmed thanks to Danny.

"More like a dumbass," Sam mutters from Danny's left.

"Semantics," Tucker says.

Between them, Danny only grins.

—

Jack paces in front of the portal, a tub of fudge cradled in the crook of his arm. Every few steps, he grabs a square and pops it in his mouth, chewing furiously. Between bites, he mutters.

"I'm telling you, Mads. He must have been some kind of ghost," he says.

"I don't know, Jack." Maddie, staring at the computer screen, tilts her head. They managed to grab a few stills from the school's security footage of the figure who fought off the ghost, but they didn't come out right. The surroundings are a little grainy, but no more than a standard security camera, so they know there's nothing wrong with the film itself. The ghost, who called herself the Lunch Lady if Maddie remembers correctly, is little more than a green haze in the image. They expected this. Ghosts don't interact with most technology well, not unless it is designed to interact with them.

But the smaller figure is distorted, a twisted shadow obscuring their form. Not ghostly, but not human either.

She clicks to the next image, getting the same results.

"Are you saying it's a human?" Jack asks without breaking stride.

"It's humanoid, but I don't think it's human, either. Yet it bled, so it's not a ghost. And look at this." She closes the files, revealing a folder full of pictures, all of them taken over the past couple of weeks as ghost sightings increased. "They show up at most fights and leave lots of bodily fluids behind." Jiggling the mouse, she circles a series of four images with the courser, all pictures of significant blood splatters. "But the samples..."

As one, she and Jack turn to the sample tray sitting on the far counter. Where the blood is deep red in the pictures, the samples they took have slowly turned to a dark, murky brown, like thick mud. The oldest sample from the first sighting is black.

Jack grabs a handful of fudge and shoves it in his mouth. "Not to mention," he speaks around the chewy squares, "what does it do with the ghosts?"

The lab door squeaks as it opens. Maddie and Jack fall silent, gazes turning toward the stairs. A pair of red sneakers appears on the top step, creeping down, until the wearer slowly reveals themself. Their son, Danny, with what looks like a thermos clutched in his hand.

"Sweetie, are you only just getting home?" Maddie asks.

Danny yelps in surprise. He jerks the thermos behind his back and swivels to face his parents, freezing on the step. "Oh, hey. I didn't think you guys would be here..."

Maddie narrows her eyes. "What did you do, young man? You were supposed to be home from school an hour ago."

"Nothing! I just got held up." Danny tugs the collar of his jacket.

That's odd. Maddie doesn't remember him leaving with a jacket this morning. The sleeves drape over his hands, down to his knuckles, and he has the collar turned up to cover his neck. It must be cold outside, even though September is only just ending. "What held you up?"

"Uh, that's kind of why I thought you guys wouldn't be here? There was another ghost fight. It got pretty bad." He shifts, pressing his arm against his side. Is his jacket darker there, against his ribs?

"Another ghost?" Jack exclaims. He slaps the fudge down on the closest surface, rattling the test tube samples. "Mads, we gotta go! There might still be some evidence!"

Maddie's eyes widen. "Oh, shoot. You're right! We need fresh samples." They race to grab their equipment, snatching up sample gathering packs from their desks, and charge up the stairs.

Danny presses himself against the wall, offering them a nervous smile as they go. "Stay safe!" he calls. The front door slams as Maddie and Jack make their exit, leaving the house in silence. Still, Danny doesn't relax until he hears the rev of the Fenton RV and the familiar squeal of its tires against the pavement. His shoulders slump and he breathes a sigh of relief.

"That was close." Taking his hand out from behind his back, he looks down at the Fenton Thermos. "Now let's get you taken care of."

As he empties the thermos back into the Ghost Zone, his gaze wanders to the computer screen, still open to the photo evidence. Danny reads the title of the folder. "Challenger?" He snorts. "That's lame." As he skims the photos, a couple jump out at him. In most, he can barely make out the shape of his own body—something he tries not to think about—but in one or two, he can recognize the colours of his clothes beneath the distorting shadow.

Danny slaps the cap back onto the empty thermos before moving closer to the computer, frowning at the screen. "That might be a problem."

—

Danny stands in front of his friends, fists resting on his hips, and shows off his new look. "Well? What do you think?"

Tucker looks him up and down, body shaking as he suppresses his laughter. "Is that a paper superhero mask? Did you spray paint your hair white?"

Danny's hands rise to his head. "It's a spray-on dye! I thought it was cool!"

"Ten bucks says it's super crispy."

"Don't be mean," Sam admonishes Tucker. "I think he looks pretty good. For a discount Jack Frost."

Tucker snaps his fingers. "Emo Jack Frost! The real one would never wear this much black."

"We are no longer friends," Danny says, turning away from them.

"Come on, don’t be a spoilsport."

"Nope, too late. I'm already dead to you."

Sam and Tucker share a confused glance. "Don't you mean we're dead to—" Before Sam can finish the sentence, Danny turns and throws himself out his bedroom window. "Danny!" They scramble after him, falling against the sill as they lean outside, peering down to the alley below.

Danny lies face-first on the pavement.

"Are you dead?" Tucker asks.

Danny raises his arm and gives them a thumbs up.

—

Valerie holds back a startled shout when the metal suit crashes onto the sidewalk next to her. She is not scared, but anyone would be surprised if two tons of metal suddenly fell from the sky. A scream, rapidly increasing in volume, drawings her gaze upwards just in time for a black-clad figure to plummet inches from her nose and land with a sharp crack on top of the suit.

This time Valerie cries out because holy shit, is he dead? Her panic sputters out when she peeks at the possible corpse and gets a good look at exactly who, or what, came falling after. A human figure dressed in all black with poorly coloured hair. It looks crispy as hell.

Valerie sneers. What kind of cheap dye did they use?

She recognizes the Challenger on sight. By now, more than half of Amity Park can, although Valerie can't account for the sudden style change. Maybe they realized how lame their regular t-shirt and jeans are and decided to switch things up. This isn't much better, though. Black hoodie, black pants, black boots, no style.

No one knows their name, but the moniker the Fentons gave them seems to have stuck. Valerie thinks it's a little on the nose, though.

Something wriggles in the corner of her eye and she looks to the Challenger's fist. It clutches a bright green blob, with stubby limbs and a wide mouth.

"Let go of me!" The blob beats its penny-sized fists against the Challenger's thumb. "You are my prey!"

The Challenger groans. "Can you shut up for a second? I think my neck broke." They squeeze the blob until it squeaks.

"Hey. Watch where you're throwing this stuff around." Valerie kicks the arm of the metal suit. "You nearly crushed me!"

The Challenger jolts. Their head whips up, accompanied by a loud crack, and they lurch to their feet. A mask covers their eyes—cheap like the hair dye, probably from a costume stored—but judging by the way their eyebrows shoot up, they look at Valerie with wide eyes.

"Uh, hey, Va—citizen." Their voice drops a solid octave. "Sorry about that! I'll watch out next time." They are about to say something else when a loud squeal interrupts up, the signature sound of the Fentons' approach. The Challenger pales. "Sorry, gotta go!"

They dash into the nearest alley before Valerie can get another word in, leaving her with the empty metal husk and the sound of the Fentons from two streets away. She gapes after them, unsure what to make of the brief exchange.

"Actually, wait a second." The Challenger pops back around the corner, leaping over the ghost's suit to reach Valerie. They grab her shoulders in a cold grip. "Are people really using that dumb name for me?"

At a loss for words, Valerie nods.

"Ugh." The Challenger groans and lets her go in favour of rubbing a hand down their face. "Stop that. It's so boring. Just call me... Phantom. Okay? See ya!" They spin away, too fast, and trip over the metal suit.

Wow, Valerie thinks as Phantom scrambles around the corner once more. We have the lamest superhero ever.

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 20: Energy - The Green Sun Project Chap.10: Time To Score For The Cannibal Core

Danny’s gonna need a bit to recover and recover his energy. Energy that is very ectoplasm focused.

“DANNY!!!”. Danny winces a bit on the ground from the volume of that, but he isn’t about to bitch about his heightened hearing anywhere near his parents.

Sam and Tucker immediately grabbing his arms while going a little wide-eyed over the horrid state of his shirt. He probably looks like he got mauled, which he kinda had. By a scythe. Which was still hilarious. Danny mumbling an, “I'm fine”. Which of course gets two, “bullshit”’s in response. While his parents kneel next to him, Maddie hovering her fingers over him cautiously for a beat before pulling his shirt. Everyone, including Danny, sighing over the complete lack of injuries. ‘Massive thank you for your crazy ass healing, little buddy’.

‘Home’s home. Safe’

‘Yeah. Safe.... hopefully’. He absolutely appreciates his friends pulling him to sit up but his parents just look like they’re studying him. Jack looking in the direction where he had flopped out of a portal, “he came through a portal...”, then giving Maddie a look.

Sam and Tucker both scowl at his parents, Tucker moving to grab his legs and the two of them carry him off inside his house and to the couch. His parents don’t even bother following in a surprise to no one.

Sam grumbling, “there are times I truly hate your parents”. Danny just hums at that while Tucker pokes his shirt where there’s not bloodstains, “why’s your shirt look like you attempted to send it through a meat grinder?”.

Danny chuckles slightly emptily, “oh I don’t know. I just got impaled by a scythe, it’s no big deal. And shot a couple times, no problems here. Little mild abduction happened too, but we’re all good. I know what it’s like die now though, so that’s something to stamp out on the injury bingo card”. Both of them glare at him and his Core gives him a seriously unimpressed bass-boosted whine. Neither get to ask what the Hell as his parents come back in. Maddie walking over and kneeling to be on eye-level. ‘At least she’s attempting to seem gentle and genuinely worried about me and me alone’. “Sweetie, feel like telling us what happened? Were you in the Ghost Zone?”.

‘Okay, to lie or not to lie... that is the question. Dad totally saw the portal though. There’s so not another explanation for that and saying I don’t remember is, like, a super bad idea’. Having to make a point not to roll his eyes over Little Star sending a sad whine and comforting nuzzle. ‘Oh, it’s fine’.

Danny shrugs slightly, very pointedly ignoring the everything he’s also seeing at the moment; it was oddly already seeming like easily ignorable background noise or something. Not that he doesn’t totally appreciate the easy adjustment, “ah yeah. Ghostly abduction-”, he doesn’t even get to continue as his dad bursts out. “WHAT!?! It didn’t do anything to the Zone Core or try to take it!?!”, lifting up a blaster, “where is It and when can I shoot It!”.

‘Of course that’s what they care about’, expected but it still stung a little. His Core obviously agreeing with definitely audible bass-boosted sounds. That makes Maddie give a relieved sigh though, “It’s still making sounds, Jack dear. I think It’s fine”. Danny just scowls over being treated like he’s not even here. Maddie standing up and looking down at him, “you should have called us”.

Jack adding in, “was it that new ghost we spotted!?”, and cocks the blaster a little.

Danny would seriously prefer to be in his bed than on the couch, but of course his parents wanted to keep an eye on him. For experimentation purposes probably or just making sure he -his Core, the Zone Core- didn’t destabilise. Rolling his eyes, “it’s not my fault some psycho ghost shoved me through a portal. But no it wasn’t that ghost, dad”. No way is he telling them he can make portals now, they’d abuse that in a heartbeat. Or try to. Not like Danny would let them.

Grinning a little when he gets smacked in the face by a t-shirt, which is definitely Tucker’s fault.

‘To protect’

‘Yeah. That. Those two using me, us, as some kind of screwed up all-access pass to the Zone is super not cool. They’ll be Zone damned before I let them use me like that’. Forcing himself not to smile at the nuzzling and faint hum. While he pushes himself to sit up and goes about getting out of his ruined shirt, pulling the new one over his head.

Only kinda listening as Maddie speaks, “you need to be more careful, Danny. Not only were you completely unprotected but who knows what could have happened to the Core in there”. Danny sighs as she keeps going, “I’m this close to making your wear a hazmat full-time”. Which just makes Danny groan tiredly as she snatched away his shirt and inspects it, handing it off to Jack who runs down to the lab. Hooray, he was providing samples.

Maddie looks back to him, “do you have any idea why you were targeted?”. Sam rounding on her, “he doesn’t need to explain to you. He needs to rest”. Tucker just nods strongly.

Maddie rolls her eyes disappointedly at the teens and sounds like she’s talking to naive children, “we need to know. Who knows what would happen if ghosts got their filthy ectoplasmic hands on the Zone Core. The energy in It is extremely powerful and pure, a ghost could raise the world into oblivion with that kind of power. Danny obviously knows better than to use such disgusting things but any ghost would eagerly try to take advantage of him if they found out what he has”, huffing, “that’s why It was supposed to be and stay in proper containment”.

Sam’s scowl deepens, “so what? Danny clearly handled himself just damn fine. You breathing down his neck doesn’t help anything”.

“He could have useful information!”.

“Is that all you care about?!?”.

Maddie looks appalled, “of course not! He’s my son!”.

Sam snapping, “sure doesn’t sound like it”, and turns her back on Maddie. Her and Tucker moving to yank him up off the couch and drag him up to his room. Which he is totally cool with. ‘My room would be seriously so much nicer’. His Core giving a soft hum in agreement. He does pause a bit, signally to his friends to hold up for a bit. ‘I should at least ease their worries, because they are kinda founded. Those ghosts did show up to steal Little Star after all. Plus... if I’m never ‘forthcoming’ with information they’re gonna get suspicious of me’.

‘Let. Mean’

‘Yeah but they’ll be worse if they think they can’t trust me. Plus maybe if they realise they don’t know everything they’ll maybe possibly be open to new ideas. Doubtful but it’s worth a shot’ only getting annoyed bass-boosting in return.

“Hey”. Getting his mom's attention while he can feel his friends giving him ‘I hope you know what you’re doing’ looks. “The Core did that zapping thing so no ghosts actually got close”.

She nods and hums, looking genuinely relieved which was nice to see even if it might not be over his well-being entirely or at all. “While I’m happy, that might have drained It, Danny”.

Danny deciding to stick with the sorta honesty train, “yeah it did. Kinda wound up in the centre of the Zone place and ‘restocked’ or whatever”. She just blinks, hums, and runs off down to the lab. The three teens all rolling their eyes and helping drag Danny up to bed.

He just lets them toss him down in bed with a tired groan. Tucker snorting, “wow you sound impressively tired. Coffee?”.

Danny grumbles into the blankets, “probably a bad idea. The freaking god of time -yes we meet- said Am needs to fix me up”.

“From... the impaling?”. Danny and his Core hum a yes. While Sam scowls at the now-closed door, “Zone do they have to be so, so, so self-centred! Their kid gets abducted and all they care about is their damn science project!”.

Danny lifts up a finger, “technically their son is the science project“. She chucks a slipper at him, “that is not what I mean and you know it!”.

Tucker pats Danny’s back, “so, god of time huh? Nice”. Danny smirks and gives him a weak high-five, “they're kinda the one that went scythe happy on me though, also saved my life though so I’m getting some serious mixed messages. But hey, the Observants wanted me super dead so I’ll take it”.

He can feel his two friends staring at him. Tucker falling on his ass on the ground laughing, “your first genuine ghostly encounter and it’s the freaking Observants and a mythological god. Your luck man!”.

Danny lifts his hand up to give a thumbs up, “and turns out the Zone Core needs to actually be connected to the Zone to do the whole supporting it thing. So that happened. I can see literally the entire Zone right now”, all of them chuckle at the sad whining, “hey now, it’s weird but I’m good. I don’t feel like I’m on acid anymore”.

Tucker actually sounds worried now, “maybe you should stay home for a while”. Sam scowls, “oh like his ‘parents’ won’t force him purely for observation. Have to make sure their precious little project is perfectly fine and dandy”, everyone can feel the sarcasm dripping off her words there.

‘Agree. Mean. No like’

‘You’re not wrong. But you can’t help who your parents are. Who made you. And technically they’re your parents too. They made you too’. He ignores the slight bass-boosted sound and yawns tiredly.

Sam sighing and sounding like she just kicked Tucker, “obviously we should let you rest, but is Am tired too? Considering what you told your... ‘mom’”.

Tucker perks up, “oh yeah, you said It replenished. You actively absorbing ectoplasm now? Like a sponge”.

Danny chuckles, that probably would have been preferable to being sorta force-fed even if it felt stupid good. “Let's just say putting ghost hunger on that test might have bit me in the ass”, he can easily hear Sam gag so he adds on, “only ghost flowers though, Sam”. His Core making a low content purr, obviously having no problem with Its enjoyable meal.

Sam absolutely notices, “why are you purring”, but sounds like she doesn’t actually want to know.

“Oh because it is positively delicious”. ‘Purr more just to gross her out’ and smirking to himself over his Core doing just that, though with added crackling.

“You disgust me”.

“I would ask to try but, you know, that would melt my stomach lining”.

“And you disgust me even more”.

Danny just laughs, passing out minutes later.

-

Is Danny surprised he slept for an entire day? No, not at all. Sure he had been stirred awake a couple times from coldness when his parents had come to check on him and had had a few groggy tired conversations. But for the most part, he slept like a rock. Though the entire time he was sleeping it was like he was having an out-of-body experience and floating around the Zone, his mind mentally focusing in on different spots and places. It was cool but also the weirdest ‘dreams’ ever.

He wouldn’t mind sleeping more though because even now he was still absolutely exhausted, which fine made sense. He appreciates being able to feel Little Star feeding him energy, definitely not enough though. But hey, he got the rest of the week off -which was honestly only one day but whatever- for ‘getting caught up in a ghost attack’. Downside? His parents hovering like they’re watching a Petri dish that’s not doing its shit fast enough. At least that’s what he remembers from his half-awake conversations. He’s also pretty sure his mom ran an energy scanner on him, which made sense considering he had told her about depleting his Core’s energy and just being in the Zone, in general, warranted getting scanned. He’s pretty sure he caught her muttering about him basically having an endless tolerance for ectoplasm. ‘Which I had kinda figured. Told ya you didn’t need to worry about me getting ecto in my system’

‘Good safe. Need rest’

‘Heh. You mother henning me is honestly hilarious. Humans can’t sleep endlessly though. Don’t think I even can sleep anymore for now’

‘Human, ???. Sleep, ???’

Danny can’t help chuckling at that, muttering tiredly into his blankets and scrunching them up into his face, “my humanness and human things will likely always be strange for you. Though I’m guessing my tiredness is entirely not a human thing. Low in ecto”. Rolling onto his back and bunching up his pillow some as his Core hums and pulses in that comforting way. Which yeah, he’s come to quite enjoy. Sighing in content tiredness, “yeah. So sleeping honestly probably isn’t helping me much”.

‘Help yes. Absorb ectoplasm easier’

“Huh”. ‘Guess I should try sleeping more then. Don’t go gettin’ your hopes up’. Chuckling a little over getting a bit of bubbling.

Not ten minutes later Maddie knocks and comes in, smiling when she spots he’s already awake, “still feeling tired, sweetie?”.

Danny nods, “yeah”, and yawns a little just because.

Maddie holds up a solid plastic cup with a lid and straw, “whipped up something that might help”. Maddie walks it over and Danny takes it gingerly. Danny guesses by the way she stands and watches him that she’s pretty well just testing something on him. Looking at the cup, which is obviously intentionally set up so he can’t see what’s inside, ‘hey, if this is purified Zone core ectoplasm -Defted ectoplasm?- you’ve got to not freak out on me. I don’t want her seeing me behave like that. Okay?’. Danny brings the straw to his mouth as the whine in his head changes to a slight accepting hum.

Taking a sip and yup, Defted ectoplasm. Opening and closing his mouth a few times and pulling away from the drink to make it seem like he’s never tasted this before, “uh, that’s a lot of lemon, lime, and... white chocolate?”; the lemon and lime telling him there was just plain ol’ regular ectoplasm mixed in. Weird choice but damnit, now he was hungry; and maybe this would actually help. His parents weren’t morons, they did have good ghost-related ideas.

‘CONSUME’

‘I know, I know. Wait for her to leave’

Maddie nods, and Danny doesn’t miss the slight smile, her speaking as she heads to his door, “well you should probably drink all of it. Feel better okay?”. Danny nods as she closes the door.

Waiting only a beat before physically tearing off the cup lid, licking his tongue around the straw and inside of the lid, before putting that to the side. He can feel Little Star trying to jerk his hands to his mouth, ‘slow slow, don’t wanna, spill. Want all, right’

‘YES’

Danny smirks as he bends the cup slightly to angle it so that he can get as much into his mouth at once. Gulping it down greedily and moaning slightly, Core practically singing with purrs and hums. Elongating his tongue so he can lick over every inch, before putting the cup on the side table; screwing back on the lid with a sigh. Patting at his chest, ‘better?’. Getting happy humming in return.

Licking his lips and turning back over, sigh another small moan and snuggling into the blankets again; falling back asleep pretty quickly.

-

The next time he wakes up, Sam and Tucker are chilling in his room playing on their handhelds in their beanie bags. Him watching them for a bit before deciding to chuck a pillow at Tucker, not Sam because he has some sense. Least he felt genuinely less tired now.

“What the! Ack!”, Tucker snaps his head to him, abandoning the game on the floor, “Danny dude! You’re up!”.

Sam smacks him as she gets up too, “quiet before you get his parents up here”. Tucker just rolls his eyes as they sit on his bed. Sam points at the cup on the side table, “your mom dropped that off”.

Tucker chuckles, “with a warning for us not to touch it, ominous as fuck”.

Danny chuckles, Core bubbling too, “well it’s pure purified ecto so that's fair. I don’t think she’s realised I know that though”. Sam immediately sends the cup a scowl, Tucker meanwhile nudges him to drink it. Which honestly just makes him chuckle more and go from just bubbling to crackling. Which Sam smacks him lightly for, “stop that”, pointing at Tucker, “and you, don’t encourage him. If he needs it that’s one thing, though he absolutely should be asking where it’s coming from. Because so help me if they are just bleeding some ghost dry-”.

Danny feels the need to butt in with that because no way would he drink that then, “Sam it’s mostly the stuff from the centre of the Zone, which is at most from some plants. The rest is absolutely just sapped from the portal. I would know if there was a ghost here, which right never got a chance to mention I can sense ghosts and how strong they are”.

Tucker claps him on the shoulder, “Zone damn that’s awesome man. Guessing that’s why your breath went all visible icy mist”.

“Bingo”.

Sam rolls her eyes though smiling, “alright that’s okay, sorta, then”.

‘Good. Ego one no mad. Drink now?’ Making Danny snort and roll his eyes.

“Hey, I said it was alright”.

Danny blinks at Sam and laughs a little, “no. Not rolling my eyes at you”, and laughs a bit more while he pushes himself to sit up. Tucker finger-guns at him, “half a conversation”. This time Danny is absolutely rolling his eyes at his friends as he grabs up his cup, ripping off the lid and looking down. ‘Yup. More ecto’

‘Want, ?’ The unsureness of that makes him chuckle a little, little guy was being considerate. Or as much as It could be past the instincts, though him feeling less tired probably helped in that regard. Weird that he was awake enough to actually be able to tell that that heavy wetness in his veins that he’s become used to was ‘lighter’ than normal. ‘Well that’s one way to know I’m low, huh’.

‘Want’

‘Geez someone’s pushy’.

“Do we want to know why you’re just staring at it?”. Danny jumps a little from Sam’s voice, spilling some on his hand, “oh damn”. Both of them lean away slightly but laugh a bit at him licking his hand off, him muttering, “damn”, again and humming to cover up the whole moaning thing; he does absently note the fizzing to his eyes though as he effectively dumps the cup in his mouth. ‘Well that’s new, guessing I was too, ah, low before to be all, eye sparky’ getting some agreeing humming but it’s mostly pleased humming and pulsing in his chest.

“Your eyes are all green again dude, also, ten bucks says you can’t stop drinking right now”. Danny flips him off but... doesn’t stop. Tucker immediately laughs at him.

Danny licking off the cup and pointing at Tucker as he puts the cup to the side, “shush, nothing from Mr. Meat Sense. None of us have normal diets, at least mine is just ‘cause I’m ecto-drained from, like, so much bullshit”.

Tucker smirks but points at him, “speaking of bullshit, so you lowkey fought an Observant? Badass man, put that on your resume”.

Danny blinks at him, “Tuck, I’m pretty sure all of them were there. It was like an army of floating eyeball assholes in cloaks and precisely one dude with a clock fetish”. Danny squinting at an image from the Zone getting pushed into the forefront of his sight by his bubbling Core, an image of ClockWork holding a sign reading ‘clocks are quite fashionable, Daniel’. ‘Oh my Zone, yes I like this bastard of a ghost’

“Wow. How did you not die”.

“I did. I explicitly mentioned that”.

Tucker sticks his hands out to the side, “I didn’t think you were serious”. Sam points at both Tucker then him, “to be fair, you have claimed to have been killed by a great many things not limited to: cold coffee, an old brown shoe, a hairball, the new ceiling fan-”.

Danny butts in there, “hey, the ceiling fan did try to kill me”.

She points at him, “but did it succeed? No”, putting her hands on her hips, “and Danny, you almost die at least once a year”. Everyone chuckles at his Core whining very unhappily at that, Danny giving his chest a little pat.

Danny flops to lay back down, arms spread out, “you know, kinda surprised Little Star didn’t wake me up when y’all showed. Did every time my parents came in”.

Tucker grins, “I think It’s saying It trusts us more than them”.

‘Yes. Good homes’ home. Orange, blue, bad’

‘Fair. And my friends aren’t about to stab me with a needle in my sleep or shoot me first thing in the morning might I add’

Grinning at the bubbling before looking to his friends, “yup, little guy approves of you guys”. Both of them grin stupidly at that.

Sam starts up as her and Tucker both flop down in the bed on either side of him, “we got back our test results by the by. Almost everyone failed”.

“If you guys did I am making you sit through one of dad’s lectures”.

Both of them immediately shouting, “oh Zone no! Zone be damned not happening”.

Danny smirks and chuckles, “why I’ll have you know I damned myself a long time ago”, earning a very satisfactory round of groans, “but seriously, am I about to bleed disappointment?”.

Sam rolls her eyes enough to move her head with the motion, “with us and Valerie? Naw. Everyone else? Very. I know at least four people who only got one right”.

Danny screws his face up ‘you've got to be kidding me’, “how the Zone does that happen? Half that shit was bare basic common knowledge! Most else was barely above that!”, groaning and getting crackled at, “man Lancer so won the bet”.

Tucker leans over him, “you made a bet against him? How much? Do I get anything?”. Sam leans up just to shove Tucker off the bed, “you idiot”.

Danny chuckles, “no, just means I’m stuck teaching a class now. Screw both of you”, while Tucker crawls back onto the bed. Neither give him looks of sympathy. ‘Those bastards’ his Core crackling more. ‘You bastard’.

Danny is perfectly content with the silence until Jazz busts in, without even knocking fuck you, “Danny, you need to do whatever hides that glow and turn off your eyes”.

All three jerk to sit up, “what? Why?”.

She crosses her arms looking annoyed, “G.I.W. are here, again. They picked up on the portal problem you caused. You better not make this a reoccurring thing, I like getting to study in peace sometimes”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “hey that wasn’t my fault”.

“Don’t care. Just be normal”.

Danny shakes his head at the closing door. ‘Aaaaaaaaaand she’s gone. Can’t let anything take her away from her schooling, can she? Ugh whatever. Hey bud? You good to curl up? Because yeah no, hard pass on those twats finding you even slightly’

‘Bad. Hide. Trick. No absorb ecto’

‘Ah well appreciate the heads up’

Danny sighs and rubs at the twisted up feeling, grumbling, “hooray. More hiding. Fun”, and wincing from his stomach dropping or something, putting his hand over his stomach, “oh”.

Tucker laughs, “what? Can’t handle the ecto now?”, and laughs more. Danny laughs himself, “I very much feel like a human with a stomach full of ecto yes”.

Sam scowling, “could we not?”. Making both boys snicker at her; Danny giving his chest another comforting pat letting Little Star know he’s alright. He could feel the ectoplasm rolling and bubbling, which was weird as shit. ‘I’ve eaten weirder. Rather this over the rotten underwear again’

[slafkovskys]

baby, take it or leave it / o. lindmark

my masterlist!

here’s the request!

title from fetish by selena gomez ft gucci mane

please be advised this contains mature content

-

“hey, y/n?” patty calls as she walks into the kitchen. you look up from your phone with a raised eyebrow, “you’ve got another table.”

“are you serious?” you huff, hopping down from your perch. “how many?”

“two,” she responds with a wink which can never be good. “cheer up. it’s your last one and then you don’t have to come back for two days.”

she leaves with a shrug as you sigh, grabbing two coasters and two sets of utensils. you push through the door and walk towards where she points, rolling your eyes when you hear a familiar laugh. you drop the coasters in front of the two boys and reach for your notepad, “so, patronizing me at home isn’t enough for you, dan? you have to come and do it at my job too?”

you look at your twin who has a shit eating grin. your eyes flick to the boy with him and you send him a genuine smile, “hi owen.”

“hi y/n,” he blushes and your eyes shoot to your feet. danny must’ve not been paying attention when he flushed because he would’ve called him out on it, but he didn’t. “how’s your day been?”

“it’s been good. thanks for asking,” you send him a wink and he bites his lip, turning his head to look out the window. “what are we drinking tonight?”

“water,” danny says and owen says the same. you click your pen and go back to the kitchen. you lean against the sink and sigh.

their time as teammates was over, but their time as best friends wasn’t. when you’d gone to visit danny for a weekend in january, you and owen actually hung out for the first time. when one thing led to another, you ended up in bed together and afterwards you couldn’t stop talking on the phone with each other. you officially put a label on it soon after you flew home and agreed to keep it a secret from your brother. now, you weren’t really trying to hide it, but danny was just oblivious to his surroundings sometimes. or he just didn’t care.

you grab two glasses and fill them with ice before filling them with water and going back out. you sit them on the table with a promise of returning before going to your other table, the third to last one in the place. you collect your money before going back over to your boys. owen was alone this time and you took the opportunity to stand closer to him.

“so what’s the plan for tonight?” you mumble just in case danny decided to return.

“danny was talking about a movie night or something?” he says, sitting his phone down and looking up at you with adoration in his eyes. “i’m sorry i couldn’t talk much today. danny’s been keeping me busy.”

“it’s fine,” you reach out and run a hand over his arm, letting his hand wrap around yours. “but i was talking about after the movie. what’s gonna happen then?”

he ducks his head and blushes again. before he can answer, you see danny round the corner on his phone. with a final squeeze you drop his hand move back, “so what are you boys gonna be eating tonight?”

-

an hour later patty dismissed you to go home and you were relieved. the boys waited for you to clock out before you walked to your cars. owen rode with danny to stop by redbox while you drove straight home. your parents were already asleep when you arrived and you knew addison was gone on vacation with one of her friends so the house was quiet.

you hang your keys on the hook and head upstairs. you shut your door behind you and sigh. you look at your bed and smile, catching sight of the owen sized indentation left over from the night before. you plug your phone in before going into your bathroom and stripping off your clothes for a shower.

after stepping out and drying off, you pull on some old sleep shorts and a loose long sleeve that belonged to danny at one point but you claimed it shortly after he’d left for his first year in the program. you pull your hair into a ponytail before grabbing your phone off the charger and going downstairs.

the boys are in the kitchen digging through the pantry and are startled when you speak up, “popcorn’s by the fridge. we’ve been over this.”

your hand brushes against owen’s hip as you nudge past him towards the cabinet. you grab the box and sit it on the counter, “i’m calling dibs on dad’s chair.”

“good because i got dibs on the couch. if i fall asleep, don’t wake me up. i’ve had a day,” danny huffs and you and owen send a glance towards each other.

“he got beat in golf and he’s been sour about it since,” owen explains and you nod, giggling when danny protests. you grab yourself a drink and go into the living room, grabbing a blanket as well. you sit your phone on the arm rest before putting up the chair to prop up your legs. danny brings you some popcorn in a bowl and starts setting up the movie they had chosen.

the movies not fifteen minutes in before you hear a snore from the couch. you look over towards your brother before looking at your boyfriend who was scrolling through something on his phone. you smirk and quietly put the chair down. you slip into his lap and snatching his phone out of his hand, setting it down on the coffee table.

“what are you-” you cut him off by shaking your head and leaning down to press your lips to his. he pulls back after a second and looks worriedly at danny.

“he’s a heavy sleeper, o. besides, i want you,” you move your hips over his blanket covered lap and smirk down at the bespectacled boy, “and it seems like you want me too.”

you groans as you lean back down to kiss him again. his hands come to rest on your hips as yours slip under his shirt. you make out for a minute you scoot down his body. he looks at you worriedly, “he’s right there y/n!”

“i’m trying not to think about my brother as i’m about to blow you, owen.” you sigh, before looking at him seriously, “if you’re really that uncomfortable, we can go up to my room, but i can’t guarantee i’ll still be in the mood.”

you can practically see the wheels in his head turning. he knew a blowjob from you was a rare occurrence because it wasn’t really your vibe. you watch as he sighs defeatedly, “if he wakes up-”

“then i’ll take the blame because i wanted to please my boyfriend. happy?” you ask, pulling on the waistband of his sweats that he’d changed into. a burst of adrenaline shoots through you as you pull his dick out and place a kiss at the top.

you pump him a couple of times before finally engulfing him in your mouth, looking up just in time to see him throw his head back against the pillow and let out the softest moan. his hand rested on your head as you began to bob, taking more of him each time. you make your way down to the base and your throat clenches, causing him to let out a loud groan. your eyes widen and you pull off with a pop, glancing at your brother who hasn’t moved an inch. “i know it feels good, but you need to be quiet.”

you take him all the way down and he mumbles out a broken, “baby.”

you suckle on his tip for little before he pulls on your ponytail, indicating his release was near. his hips start thrusting shallowly and his cock twitches before he’s shooting his load down your throat. he pulls you off and lets you swallow before pulling you down in a hot kiss.

you pull his pants back up to cover him and send him a sly smirk, “see, o, that wasn’t so bad.”

“that’s the most reckless thing i’ve ever done,” he says, breathing heavily as you press kisses to his neck, “and holy shit do i want to do it again.”

[five-wow]

considering what we now know, one of the last of these i might ever get to do: i watched 10.18! thoughts under the cut.

the previously on reminds us of adam’s yakuza problems, so i was braced for that, and then we get an establishing shot of the mcgarrett house instead! and suddenly steve is ironing a shirt on a towel in his kitchen again, and for a moment i was extremely confused because this is very clearly not the same shot as in the valentine’s episode but it’s also... the same thing?

BUT THEN, of course, we get steve raising a finger and going “don’t” just before we’re shown that danny is SITTING ON THE KITCHEN COUNTER WATCHING HIM, again i might add, and danny hasn’t even said anything yet but steve is already defensive and claiming that he likes ironing (which i love, that is a wonderful headcanon) and as far as déjà vus go, this is one i do not mind in the slightest. this is, in fact, the exact content i come here for.

okay wait, EVEN BETTER, danny seems to be sitting on the counter... reading a book? he is... in the kitchen, reading (writing in? idk) a book (in a room where there are zero chairs, which is usually where people locate their asses when they read books), while steve is also in the kitchen, ironing a shirt? dear lord. danny moved in and suddenly eddie wasn’t the only guy following steve from room to room in his own house anymore, i guess.

waiiit, steve is going on a date with emma. that is. not bad, just, so very confusing. (potentially very much a lie, omfg. that kind of confusing.)

HAH. i’m not the only one who went “?”, because danny doesn’t believe steve either.

fdjkfd steve asks alexa for his schedule to prove he’s telling the truth but what this really proves is that if it’s a lie, steve had the foresight and intention to put a fake appointment in his calendar, which i would in no way put past him. that’s the easiest thing in the world.

also, danny casually dropping in that he bought alexa for steve? i??? danny is just “casually” hanging out in rooms steve is hanging out in while it makes no sense for danny to be there, buying steve presents, pulling steve’s pigtails by questioning everything he does when he gets the chance, and that’s? that’s normal now?

junior!!! junior pops into the kitchen!

and he’s GOT A DATE TOO, which is a) WONDERFUL and b) a reason for danny to start describing tani which is fascinating and c) a reason for steve to say “well you know what, i think it’s great that you and tani are giving it a go, bud”, which is super cute and it’s A+ to know they have steve’s official stamp of approval (i mean, he’s their boss, that could’ve somehow gotten awkward), but also leads to a shot we get of danny pulling a face that’s kind of “ugh” and “yeah right” mixed into one and just. you know where i’m going with this. if you’re on this blog and you’ve read this post all the way to this point you definitely know where i’m going with this, but yes, this is absolutely danny mentally yelling that it sure is great THEY’RE giving it a go, steve, and doesn’t that potentially inspire you to ruminate on something going on in your own life, like, say, how you feel about your best friend and partner who also works on the taskforce with you and has a big mouth and whose name is oddly close to tani, actually, for that matter?

steve gets a call about shots fired at adam’s building and i’m just now realizing i’m only two minutes into this episode. i’ve spent at least ten times the amount of time rambling that i have watching anything. gonna need to shake that up a little bit.

fdjkfd lou and hpd enter adam’s apartment and they find at least three guys in actual gear, all dead, and adam curled up on the floor in what looks like sleep clothes, with blood all over him, and a) is adam literally superman now? but also b) even if i do accept that it’s possible he killed all of those guys before they managed to hit him anywhere vital even once, then how did he get smeared in blood that evenly all over? did he roll around on the floor before he curled up in the corner? i’m not an expert, but i feel like that’s not how a person would look after fighting off three attackers and presumably shooting most of them.

oh BOY. adam, with a crazy glint in his eyes: “i’ve been trying to dismantle kenji’s operation for months now. and i finally have the evidence to do it.” i both unexpectedly like this, and already low key hate it for how it’s probably going to be used as the show’s way of clearing adam from all the completely bonkers things he’s been doing all on his own with zero authorization or backup and bringing him back into the fold of five-0 as a somehow still trusted team member.

oh dang. opening credits do their thing, and then there’s no pause to check whether there’s even actually any actual evidence on that thumb drive adam was holding, but we just jump to swat, adam, lou and junior rolling up to kenji’s house and engaging in a huge shootout.

adam is now the lone dude pursuing kenji through the dark woods, who is also alone, of course. they brawl, adam gets the upper hand, and he gets a chance to shoot kenji which he doesn’t take, and then he calls for emts (good! this is good!) and extremely dramatically tells kenji “you were right not to trust me. i was working for five-0 the whole time”, and it just sounds like such a weird brag at this point. so i guess adam never went to the bad side again, suddenly? he just... keeps pretending he does over and over, and the criminals on this very small island keep being stupid enough to trust him, which honestly, is on them.

adam keeps bragging and oh gosh, tell me there’s a twist here and this is not just his victory lap. there’s so much of the episode left that something has to go very wrong about adam’s nice plan to wrap it all up neatly.

aha! it’s implied that letting kenji live might go badly for adam because kenji has information about adam that is bad for him. they did not completley forget that adam did crime stuff!

noelani seems to be at a funeral and we meet her parents and they don’t exactly seem super proud of her achievements, which i think we were told in the past, but now we’re shown, and it hurts my heart.

oh noooo. noelani gets to the open casket and immediately finds marks on the body that she clearly thinks are suspicious. that’s! not going to go well, gosh.

fdjkfdjkf adam and steve are in steve’s office and steve basically just went “so your plan to fight the yakuza was to join the yakuza” and adam very seriously goes “yes.”

steve is very not happy and adam doesn’t truly seem to grasp why and then steve’s phone rings and there’s a case, which is very nice timing for adam. saved by the bell.

so five-0 is on a ship that got robbed by pirates but it’s all very mysterious, and then they realize there might still be a pirate on board and they split into search parties and it’s junior and tani as one (who start talking about their missed date), and steve and danny as the other (who are not shown talking about dates, but who knows), and just. i love watching both of those duos work together, and the junior-tani vs steve-danny parallel is once again very in your face, hah.

tani gets locked in a kitchen with the pirate and junior is outside freaking out and that’s angsty but then junior and steve finally break through the door in a combined effort and they and danny rush in, only to find tani has already solved the problem without their help. YES. GOOD CONTENT.

jkfdfjdk over on the island, quinn is now helping noelani intimidate the coroner who wrote a bad report on noelani’s uncle’s death and that is ALSO very good content.

dfjdk lou welcomes most of the team back to hq and asks “anybody left pining”, which he follows up with the rest of a sentence about the high seas, but UH. YES. i know some people who might be pining.

lots of plot stuff happens and it’s genuinely interesting to watch, but also, oh my god, quinn and noelani are making me cry.

fjdkfd tani goes to meet one of the guys from the magnum pi crossover and he says he’s still waiting to hear back from quinn about the dinner he was hoping to have with her, and i like that because my lesbian quinn headcanon is still going strong.

quinn and noelani encounter a teen trying to get out of gang life who might be on a wealthy person’s hitlist, and my first thought is just. put the kid in the mcgarrett house. not only will he be instantly adopted by steve (and thereby gain a complicated network of siblings), but he’ll also be living in a place where he’s protected by not one, not two, but three members of five-0, two of whom are former seals. just. aside from the dire lack of beds, it would be so good.

jfkdslf, steve, danny and junior find the pirates and a room full of bags of powder that looks like drugs but probably isn’t, seeing as it killed the pirates, and then a small army rolls up outside and starts shooting at them, forcing them to take cover in the room with the powder, which starts dusting the air as the bags get shot. i love how the writers made the circumstances work here, omg.

I LOVE THE WAY THAT PLAYED OUT EVEN MORE, because it made a) for a very interesting shootout with clear stakes, and b) for a somehow both hilarious and potentially super angsty moment when danny is fairly affected by the powder, which has to bring up some bad sarin gas memories for him, and then steve shoots one last bad guy right over danny’s head and danny’s ears are ringing and he yells something and steve doesn’t understand him and just kind of pats his back in comfort, which in turn gives me strong driving-a-nuclear-bomb-through-the-woods, name-your-restaurant-Steve’s-please flashbacks, oh my gosh.

tani makes a REALLY LAME PIRATE JOKE and i LOVE HER.

quinn got the whole team together at a bar so noelani wouldn’t be sitting at home alone!!! the type of supportive female friendship i want to see!!!

and then quinn wants noelani to come dancing with her, but the magnum pi guy shows up and noelani tells him that maybe he could take her place. GAY QUINN IS SOARING. also, poor woman. this has strong vibes of danny setting steve up half against his will.

tani and junior watch quinn and the guy dance and decide to join and/or dance fight them in the best conversation ever, and it looks they’re all having SO MUCH FUN and it makes my heart happy.

what ALSO makes my heart happy is how much i enjoyed this episode, because i thought there would be a lot of yakuza stuff after that “previously on” and the beginning, but adam just kind of disappeared after his talk with steve, and suddenly there were two entirely unrelated plots which were both very neat and gave me so, so many character interactions i adored, ahh, how wonderful. i love season 10 so much.

[going-dead]

What if..?

Hey back from months of making zero DP content, hyper fixation is back and here for a while. So here’s my entry for Danny phantom angst day as well as Ectober day 1 prompt: What if? (list by @fruitloopghost )  I wrote this in one sitting instead of doing something productive like homework so sorry for any errors, I’ll comb through and edit when I have time. Click the read more to read it.

What if they hate him, try to capture him, or just shoot him? What if he gets thrown out, allowed to live but not around them. That would somehow be worse Danny figured. “Well are you going to say anything?” Danny asked, staring at his parents. He would settle for anything talking, questions, yelling, any type of reaction just not silence. Transformation rings split once more leaving a dark haired boy in their wake. Jazz was nervously looking between their parents. Danny didn’t know what she was nervous about, it was his half-life at stake.

Maddie’s hands were shaking as she lifted them as if to ward off her son. Her face steeled. “No. Jazz take Danny upstairs and make sure he gets to his room. Your father and I are going to work this out, we will solve this Danny don’t worry. You’ll be rid of Phantom soon”

Danny’s face twisted in a mixture of hurt and confusion. “But there’s nothing to get rid of? I’m me still, kinda human still, I just have a bit extra tacked on. But that bit is still me, Phantom is me as much as I am Phantom. It’s not a ‘we’ scenario it’s me.” He tried to explain, turning his hand invisible as if to prove a point. He looked to his father pleadingly who had yet to speak up,

“It will be okay Danny, but we’re scientists. We observe the world with facts. And the fact is that we just found out our son as you put it is ‘half ghost’. This is an unknown and we are going to have to be wary until have the facts.” Jack gave a smile, but it was obviously forced. The man smiles so much it’s easy to tell when it isn’t genuine. He gave Jazz and Danny a shooing motion. Leaving no room for argument as he and Maddie descended into the lab with hushed argument.

Jazz rested her hand on Danny’s shoulder, a gesture of comfort, and led Danny upstairs. “Don’t look so glum Danny. Look on the bright side, they didn’t shoot you or try to take you into the lab!” They stopped outside his bedroom door.

“Honestly I’d rather have them try to attack me, at least that way I’d know how they felt about all of this.” He shrugged. Just because they were tolerant of him at the moment didn’t mean that their attitude won't change at any moment. He didn’t have to alert Jazz of that though she had enough worries.

“I’m sure they just need some time, they’ll see that your ghostly half doesn’t make them any less their son.” She gave him a hug before going to her own room. They had school tomorrow, it would give their parents time to adjust by themselves.

Danny gave a weak smile before retreating into his own room. He fell face first onto his bed and hugged his pillow. No matter the end outcome of this his relationship with his parents would never be the same as before. He let his thoughts fade as he drifted into sleep.

Danny didn’t wake up strapped to a lab table or connected to a bunch of instruments, so that was a plus. Did normal teens have to worry about that? Probably not Danny mused. He threw on some clothes and headed downstairs for breakfast. He was surprised to see the table set and filled with food. His brows knitted in confusion, usually he would have to make himself breakfast, his parents still asleep or already down in the lab. Jazz would cook occasionally if she woke up a bit earlier but nothing like this. 

Jazz herself came down a few seconds later, confusion evident on her face as well. The question of who was answered shortly after when Jack and Maddie stepped into the kitchen. “Ah good you’re both up. I was starting to worry you wouldn’t have time to eat. Your father and I decided it was time we had a family breakfast for once.” Maddie smiled clapping her hands together.

Danny and Jazz looked at each other in suspicion, but sat down all the same. Food was loaded onto everyone's plates, everyone except Danny started to eat. He poked his pancake with his fork, as if he expected it to explode. Jack was already halfway done with his food when he noticed Danny’s plate was still full. “Come on Danny-bo… Danny, the pancakes aren’t going to bite you.”

“Biting isn't what I’m worried about.” He mumbled, though food trying to eat the Fenton family members wasn’t unheard of, ecto-radiation was no joke. All the same he slowly took a bite of his food. He waited a few seconds, not passed out or hunched over in pain, he shrugged and continued to eat. That wasn’t to say he was comfortable, the moment the food passed his lips his parents seemed to watch his every move, studying him. He suddenly felt like an animal in the wild being observed by researchers. 

Not soon enough it was time for Danny and Jazz to head to school. Jack had already excused himself, Danny not sure to as where he went. He shouldered his bag walking with Jazz towards the front door. “Bye mom, I love you.” He called over his shoulder.

“Goodbye Danny.” Danny pretended it didn’t hurt when she didn’t say I love you back, she always said I love you back. But it was fine, teenagers aren’t supposed to tell their parents they love them anyway. Right? It didn’t matter, he had to get to school. At least that way he wouldn’t have to see the disappointment in his parents eyes everytime they looked at him. At least his teachers had a reason to look at him in disappointment.

School was uneventful, other than Sam and Tucker being relieved to see him okay. He was pretty sure the whole school could feel how nervous he was as the school day drew to an end. He didn’t want to go back home and have his parents treat him like something other. His teachers didn’t call him out when he fell asleep in class, even Dash stayed away from him that day. It wasn’t until he was in the car with Jazz did he figure out why. 

“Um Danny are you okay?” His sister asked almost warily.

“You mean other than the fact that our parents could turn on me at any second? Just peachy.”  Danny snapped. He was surprised to see Jazz almost flinch.

“Can you tone whatever you’re doing down a bit? I’d rather not get frostbite and feel an overwhelming sense of terror driving. It’s just not safe. You can talk to me you know that right?” 

Tone it down…? He looked down at his hands and saw his ghostly aura flicker around him, much brighter and far reaching than usual. And while the green and blue mixture was pretty to look at, that isn’t the case if a human comes in contact with it. Of course they can’t see it, but they sure as hell can feel something wrong. He flinched. “Oops sorry Jazz, didn’t even notice I was doing it. It’s probably just because of nerves. I really don’t need to figure out a random new power while mom and dad are watching my every move.” 

Jazz nodded her head in agreement. Shaking the effects of Danny’s aura off her she pulled out of the school parking lot. “If you want, I can spend the day with you. That way you don’t have to be alone in a room with mom and dad.” She offered glancing at Danny out of the corner of her eye.

“Yeah that’d probably help.” Danny answered. Secretly relieved and happy she offered. When they entered the driveway he took a deep breath, scaring his parents with his aura or ‘scary eyes’ would not help his situation.

Entering the house his parents voices immediately called out from the lab “Danny? Could you come down here for a second?” Danny shot a panicked look at Jazz. She motioned for him to breathe, grabbed his hand and walked slowly down the stairs and into the lab.

Jack looked up hearing footsteps descending down the stairs. “Oh hey Jazzy-pants, you don’t need to be down here. Just going to confirm some things with Danny.” Seeing Jazz’s glare he quickly backpedaled. “Not saying you have to leave though! More the merrier right hun?”

“Of course dear. No need to look so worried Danny, we’re your parents we wouldn’t ever hurt you intentionally.” Maddie walked over to her kids. “Nothing bad, we just need a few samples. Hair, saliva, vitals those sort of things. Only blood if you allow it of course.” 

Danny shifted on his feet uncomfortably, he couldn’t really say no now could he. Plus he was a bit curious about what they’d find. They led him to the chair near the computer and sat him down. Jack grabbed the hair, saliva, and blood samples, with Danny’s consent. While Maddie started on taking his vitals. “So what we were thinking was: What if we could find out what is causing your ghostly abilities. Could we remove them? Make you normal again?” 

Danny was about to speak up about being ‘normal’ but Jack interrupted. “Maddie come look at this!” He was leaning over a microscope. Danny took off the blood pressure cuff and followed his mom over to where his father was. Jazz was on her phone looking up occasionally to make sure Danny was fine. “It’s incredible, I haven’t put it through the scanner yet but I’d bet my fudge that is ectoplasm mixed in with his normal red blood cells. There that word was again normal. What if Danny didn’t want to be normal. 

Maddie took the samples and carefully put them into the scanner. She tapped her foot waiting for it to finish. She jumped to attention when the results showed up on screen. “DNA...blah blah blah...fifty percent… Oh no.” Maddie staggered away from the machine, looking absolutely crushed. “Oh Jack!” She pulled her husband into a hug. “There’s ectoplasm directly entangled with his DNA, we can’t fix him. Our boy Jack, he’s never going to be the same baby boy we held in our arms.”

Danny looked at his parents, not in fear or anger, no it was in defeat. “Does that really change the fundamental aspects of who I am? I’m still me still Danny, i’m still a teenage boy who sleeps in class and likes video games. I’m not a broken toy you can just throw out because I'm no longer what you want. I’m your son! You’re supposed to love me and accept me for who I am unconditionally.”

Maddie looked at Danny confused. “Of course we still love you. This is just a hard thing to accept, it’d be one thing if it were something like you and Tucker decided to date, we would support you fully. But you have to understand this from our perspective. We found out that our son who we’ve cared for since he was born, is part ghost.”

Danny shook his head. “I understand just fine. I’m the one who had to come to terms that I pretty much died. That I was the only one actually qualified to fight ghosts without obliterating them. I’m the one who had to figure out ghost powers while still going to school, alone except for Sam and Tucker. I’m the one who had to stitch wounds closed and hide the pain of broken bones, that thankfully only lasted a few days. Injuries I got trying to save people all while the government,  my classmate, and my own parents tried to kill or tourture me.  But no, you're right, finding out your son happens to be different, that has to be so much harder.” He gave a dry laugh. “I’m going to my room. I can figure dinner out myself. Come get me when you’re done mourning, not all that or that you’re the reason I’m like this in the first place, but a son who is still here.”

[hollymartinswrites]

Chapters: 13/? Fandom: IT - Stephen King, IT (Movies - Muschietti), Doctor Sleep - Stephen King, Doctor Sleep (2019) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh Characters: Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Mike Hanlon, Original Child Character(s), Dan “Danny” Torrance, Abra Stone Additional Tags: Fix-It, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Domestic, Light Angst, Family Feels, Childhood Trauma, Adoption, Kid Fic, Adopted Children, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Marriage, Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier Are Parents, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Minor Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier Are Best Friends, Catholicism, Richie Tozier Has Issues, Extended Tozier Family, Medical Examinations, Stephen King References, The Shining References, Doctor Sleep References, References to Depression, Depression, Mentioned Sonia Kaspbrak

Summary:

Eddie and Richie embark on the most terrifying experience of all—parenthood. Or, the author desperately needed a domestic, family fix-it for Richie and Eddie and it turned into a much longer, angstier exploration than I expected.

Chapter XIII: Eddie and Richie go to the source of all this Shine business.

One year earlier

“It’s okay, it’s okay, Tess,” Eddie repeated softly as he gathered his crying daughter into his arms. “You’re okay, I’m here. Papa’s here, Lydia’s here. You’re okay. You’re safe.”

“Daddy?” Lydia yawned from across the room.

“Go back to sleep,” Richie said gently. “Your sister just had a bad dream.”

“Again?” Lydia asked.

“Yeah,” Richie said, tucking their oldest back under her blankets. “We’re gonna take her into our room so you can get some sleep, okay?”

Lydia nodded and yawned again, rolling over onto her side and immediately falling back to sleep. Eddie stood with Tess in her arms and followed Richie to their bedroom. He gently laid her down onto their bed but when he tried to straighten, she wailed again and clung to his shirt and neck.

“It’s okay, sweetheart, I’m not going anywhere,” he sighed, gingerly climbing into bed beside her. Richie rounded the bed and crawled in, laying down and frowning. He rested a hand on Tess’s shaking back.

“We’re right here with you, baby,” he whispered, his frown deepening when Tess merely ignored him and tightened her grip on Eddie. Eddie sent him an apologetic look over her head.

“Papa and I are here with you,” he whispered, wiping gently at her tears. “You’re safe, I promise. Just breathe with me.”

Tess sniffled and slowly relaxed against the pillows. She hiccuped and hid her face against her father’s chest, exhaling slowly. Eddie tried to relax as well, determined not to let his daughter feed off his anxiety.

Richie tentatively reached an arm and rested it over his daughter. Eddie noticed his visible relief when she did not tense away from him and felt oddly guilty. Tess had been in their lives a little over four months but her overt favoritism towards Eddie was still eating away at Richie.

“You wanna tell us what’s bothering you?” Richie asked quietly.

Tess shook her head and burrowed deeper against her father’s chest.

“A bad dream?” Richie offered.

Tess merely shrugged and sniffled again.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Eddie replied, “because you’re with us and we’ll always keep you safe. I promise you that.”

“That’s right, kiddo,” Richie agreed. “That’s our job. And it’s a pretty good one, I gotta say.”

“Job?” Tess repeated, her voice tiny and searching.

“Yeah,” Richie repeated. “And we take it very seriously.”

“What your Papa is trying to say,” Eddie explained at her confused face, “is that you never have to worry or get scared anymore. Because we’re here to protect you. We promise.”

“Pinky?” Tess whispered.

With his free arm, Eddie raised his pinky finger and Tess immediately twisted her own around his.

“Hey, let me get in on this,” Richie said, reaching his own pinky to tap at their entwined ones. Much to their relief, Tess giggled as she entwined her pinky with Richie’s. He leaned over to kiss her on the top of her head before reminding her it was time to sleep. Tess nodded and snuggled down between her fathers.

Eddie swallowed as he recalled this moment. Pushing back his covers, he swung his legs out of bed and stood, hoping Richie wouldn’t notice.

“Where are you going?”

Eddie sighed.

“I’ll be right back,” he whispered and hurried out of the bedroom. He crept down the hallway and nudged open Tess’s bedroom door. She was asleep, with her stuffed unicorn beside her. Who had given her that? Bev? Maybe Richie’s sister? For a brief second, Eddie wondered if you could astral project stuffed animals but shook his head.

He carefully walked up to her and, holding his breath, wedged his hands beneath her and brought her up into his arms. Luckily, she merely sighed and continued sleeping. He carried her back to his bedroom. Richie looked over, squinting in the darkness, and immediately cleared a space for her between them. Eddie leaned down and gently laid her on the bed, climbing in beside her as Richie tucked her in. Tess rolled over and snuggled her unicorn to her chest. Both men exhaled shaking breaths.

“You okay?” Richie whispered.

“Yeah, just…” Eddie searched for the right words. “I couldn’t...I want her close by.”

Richie nodded. They were both silent for several long moments, listening to her steady breathing.

“Eds?” Richie whispered suddenly.

“Yeah?”

“Is that you shaking?”

Eddie blinked, raised his arm, and watched as his hand trembled ever so slightly. He curled it into a fist and lowered it beside him. He cleared his throat.

“How do we protect our daughter against something we don’t understand?” he asked quietly. “Something we can’t even see?”

Richie didn’t respond. Eddie glanced over at him, his heart lurching when he saw how tightly curled up he was, his free hand grasping their daughter’s.

“Why can’t things ever be easy?” Richie whispered instead. “I can take the fucked up bullshit, but why do our kids...why can’t Tess be left alone?”

Eddie swallowed again, his throat and mouth suddenly dry.

“Do you want to meet this girl?” he asked. “Abra?”

Richie sighed.

“I don’t know,” he answered tiredly. “Eddie?”

“Yeah?”

Richie fell silent again and Eddie was about to repeat himself when he heard Richie whisper, “I know it’s selfish of me, but I’m so fucking grateful you’re with me. I couldn’t...I’m not strong enough to deal with this alone.”

Unsure of what to say, Eddie merely reached his arm over and caressed the side of Richie’s face.

“I love you,” he whispered.

Richie closed his eyes, smiled, and answered, “I love you, too, Eds.”

The change was slow at first. Tess was always quiet, often content to take the backseat to her sister’s more confident and outgoing nature but soon, Richie noticed that, even when playing alone, Tess was silent.

Then there was the pouting. Kids pout, not a big deal. Lydia was a master pouter but now Tess was giving her a run for her money. One evening, Eddie overheard Lydia telling her sister to stop acting like a baby—which only resulted in tears.

Finally, there was just an overwhelming sense of sadness within their youngest daughter and it bothered the shit out of the two men. Richie went into overdrive trying to make her laugh and Eddie spent extra time reading and re-reading her favorite stories at night but nothing seemed to work.

Finally, after nearly a week of a cloud hanging over their daughter’s head, her fathers gave up with all the distractions and Richie did what they should’ve done from the first place (but had been too frantic merely getting her to smile to actually slow down and fucking think).

“Baby, just tell us what’s bothering you,” he begged as he held her on his lap. “Please. It’s okay.”

Tess shrugged.

“We won’t be upset,” Eddie offered from his spot across the living room, Lydia on the floor in front of him as he brushed the knots out of her hair. “We just want you to be happy.”

Tess’s lip quivered and she rubbed at her eyes tiredly.

“Abracadabra left,” she sniffled.

Both men tensed, glancing at one another guiltily.

“What do you mean she left?” Lydia asked. “She’s imaginary. Just pretend.”

“She’s real,” Tess shot back, tears in her eyes. “And she won’t visit anymore.”

“Maybe she got tired of you moping,” Lydia observed, earning a glare from her sister and a stern “Lydia” from her Papa.

“We know she’s real, sweetheart,” Eddie said gently, swallowing down his regret.

“But she left,” Tess repeated, her voice so small.

“Well, maybe not forever,” Eddie said quickly. Richie stared at him, wide-eyed. “Maybe she just went on vacation.”

Tess considered this before nodding once and leaning against her father’s chest. Richie wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the forehead.

“Besides, you got us, kiddo,” he whispered. “And we’re pretty cool, right? Right?” He tickled her and Eddie relaxed as she collapsed into giggles.

“Ow!” Lydia exclaimed as he absently ran the brush through a particularly nasty knot.

“Oh, sorry, honey,” he offered quickly.

“You can stuff your sorries in a sack, mister,” Lydia replied, grinning.

Eddie paused and then looked up at Richie.

“Are you watching Seinfeld with her?” he asked.

Richie had the good sense to look contrite and smile sheepishly. Eddie sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“You know she’s too young for that,” he insisted.

“It’s funny, Daddy,” Lydia said, looking up at him.

Eddie tried to shoot a reprimanding look to his husband but he was too busy tickling their daughter, grinning as she laughed. Eddie smiled and continued with his brushing.

“You sure she’s on vacation?” Tess asked as Eddie lifted the blankets around her that night.

“Well, I’m just guessing,” he admitted, hating the look of concern on his daughter’s face. “Maybe she just got really busy. Maybe she got school, too.”

Tess sighed and cuddled her stuffed unicorn against her.

“It’s not fair,” she mumbled. “I miss her.”

“I know,” Eddie agreed, brushing her hair off of her face, “but like Papa said, you got us and we’re never going to leave you.”

“Promise?” she asked, raising her pinky finger.

Eddie smiled and wrapped his own pinky around hers.

“I promise,” he repeated. He leaned down and kissed her gently. “Now, off to sleep. Things will be better in the morning.”

“Okay,” she yawned. “Night night.”

“Night night.”

Eddie stood and quietly headed towards the door, flicking off the overhead light and keeping her door slightly ajar before walking to the kitchen. Richie was rinsing the last of the dishes and placing them in the drain board, his back to his husband. Eddie walked up to him and wrapped his arms around his middle, resting his face against him.

“You okay?” Richie asked quietly as he turned off the faucet.

“I fucked up,” Eddie sighed.

Richie rested his own hands over Eddie’s.

“Are you talking about Abracadabra?”

“Yeah,” Eddie admitted. He shook his head. “I told myself I was just protecting her but now she’s miserable. My mom did the same thing.”

He felt Richie tense ever so slightly before asking, “Eds…”

“She used the excuse that she was just protecting me at the expense of my own happiness.”

“Eddie, we didn’t do that to Tess.”

“No, I did,” he insisted.

“Eds…” Richie turned in his husband’s arms and tenderly took his face in his hands.

“I think we need to talk to her,” Eddie admitted softly.

Richie raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Abracadabra?” he asked.

“Abra,” Eddie clarified. “Dan said she’s in New York, right?” Richie nodded. “I’m not saying we give her the go-ahead to just inject herself into our daughter’s life but maybe we could...understand better. Besides, I want to know all of my daughter’s friends.”

Richie nodded.

“Alright,” he whispered. “We’ll go to New York. Together.”

Eddie leaned up to kiss him firmly.

“Together,” he repeated against Richie’s lips.

Much to their relief, Tess didn’t have a meltdown when they dropped her and Lydia off at Richie’s sister’s house. She was distracted by the appeal of playing with her older cousins and her aunt’s promise to make Halloween crafts while watching The Wizard of Oz so she merely kissed her fathers goodbye and, with her sister, disappeared to go play.

“We’ll be back tonight, around dinnertime,” Richie repeated to his sister.

“I know, you’ve told me like eight times, Rich,” Sarah replied.

“Hopefully we’ll be on the road before rush hour.”

“What are you guys doing in the city, anyway? Is it for work?”

“No, just…” Richie trailed off.

“Alright, fine, be cagey,” Sarah shrugged.

“Can I come along?” Fiona asked excitedly. “I won’t be in the way, just drop me off downtown and I’ll meet up with you later.”

“You’re too young to wander the city alone,” Richie replied. “Got the keys, Eds?”

“Yeah,” Eddie said. He looked at Fiona, who smiled at him hopefully. “Maybe next time, okay?”

Fiona sighed dramatically and pouted in a manner that reminded Eddie of his own daughters.

“I can handle the city alone,” she insisted before smiling sweetly. “I’ll treat you guys to coffee!”

“Next time, kiddo, promise,” Richie replied, ruffling her now purple hair. “Alright, see you guys later. Wish us luck.”

“I would if I knew what you were doing,” Sarah said, raising an eyebrow.

“Good luck!” Fiona called as they left.

Eddie waited until Richie was buckled before starting the car.

“I almost feel bad not taking Fi,” he admitted as they began their journey.

“She’ll be fine,” Richie replied, scrolling through his Spotify playlists. “And she’s not even fifteen yet, way too young to be left alone in the city.”

Eddie shrugged.

“I know, but you gotta admit, our niece can be persuasive,” he observed. Richie was silent and Eddie could sense his eyes on him. “What? What is it?”

“That’s the first time you ever referred to her as ‘our’ niece,” he said, awestruck.

Eddie frowned, feeling oddly embarrassed.

“That can’t be right,” he insisted.

“It is,” Richie continued, “you’ve always called her ‘my’ niece.” Richie grinned and Eddie glanced at him, smiling at how bright his eyes appeared. “About time, we’ve only been married for five years.”

Eddie swallowed and remained silent. Richie leaned over and kissed him gently on his cheek.

“You’re a good uncle,” he said, still smiling. “She loves you. All of our nieces and nephews love you.”

“If you’re trying to make me feel guilty, you’re doing a good job,” Eddie sighed.

“No, babe,” Richie replied, “I’m just being honest.” He looked down at his phone again. “I’m in a Carly Rae Jepsen mood. That okay?”

“Sure, nerd,” Eddie replied, smiling.

It wasn’t until they were walking into Central Park that Eddie suddenly became nervous.

“Maybe this was a mistake,” he said, his hands shoved in his pockets so Richie wouldn’t notice them shaking.

“Babe, we’re already here,” Richie pointed out, “plus Dan came all the way from fucking New Hampshire. We should at least say hello and see if they are full of shit.”

Eddie shook his head, chewing at his lip.

“What if they’re both crazy?” he asked.

“Then they’ll just be two more crazy people hanging out in Central Park,” Richie replied, shrugging. “Won’t be the first or the last.”

Eddie ran a nervous hand through his hair and Richie frowned.

“Look,” he said, stopping and resting his hands on Eddie’s shoulders, “let’s agree to five minutes. We meet them, we stay for five minutes, you want out, you say so, and we go. Alright?”

Eddie swallowed as he considered this option.

“Alright,” he sighed.

“All else fails, we spend the afternoon in Central Park,” Richie offered. “Not a bad way to spend the day.”

“No,�� Eddie agreed. He paused and then took Richie’s hand into his. “You know, this is the first time in like a year that we spent the day together? I mean, just us alone.”

Richie furrowed his brows.

“Really?” he asked. “A year?”

“Longer, I think,” Eddie said. “Not since we got Tess and that’s been over a year.”

“Shit,” Richie muttered, running a hand through his hair. He offered a bittersweet smile to his husband. “When we first got approved we promised we’d always make time for the two of us? Guess we fucked up.”

Eddie shrugged.

“It’s okay,” he said quickly.

“No, it’s not,” Richie replied. He grasped Eddie’s hand and brought it up to his lips. “We gotta do better. More dates. Just the two of us, okay?”

“Okay,” Eddie said gently, his heart skipping a beat. He felt heat rising to his face as Richie kissed his knuckles again. “We’ll do that.”

Richie smiled at him and took a step closer, leaning down to kiss him, when they heard a young voice ask, “Richie Tozier?”

The two men turned. A young woman—possibly a teenager—gazed at the two of them, her hands in her pockets and her big eyes searching.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Richie offered slowly. He hesitated. “You look a little too young to be a fan of mine, let alone know who I am.”

“I’ve seen gifs of you,” she shrugged. She turned and waved, calling, “I told you it’s them!”

Richie and Eddie followed her gaze and saw a man, around their age, cautiously approach them. He was eyeing them warily as he protectively stepped up beside the young woman.

“You don’t need to yell,” he muttered.

The girl rolled her eyes before stepping up to them and extending her hand.

“I’m Abra,” she said pleasantly.

The two men blinked. Eddie’s stomach seemed to flip as he stared at her, taking in her warm smile, bright eyes, and overwhelmingly confident demeanor. He realized he had never truly considered her a real person and was overwhelmed with the sight of her. Had this truly been the mysterious girl who had helped his daughter?

“Abracadabra?” Richie whispered.

Her smile widened and she nodded, her hand still outstretched. Richie shook it and smiled happily. Eddie merely stared and then remembered the strange man behind her.

“Oh, this is Dan,” Abra said, motioning to him. “My uncle.”

The three men looked at one another, all seemingly too on-edge to say anything. Suddenly, Abra rolled her eyes and sighed in a manner that reminded Eddie of both his daughters.

“So are we gonna sit and talk or what?” she asked, turning towards the park benches.

Eddie blinked and followed her. She sat, motioned to her uncle to sit beside her, and then gazed at Richie and Eddie expectantly.

“Well,” she said, clapping her hands together and smiling, “what do you want to know?”

“Hey, how’d everything go?” Sarah asked as the girls got into their jackets and put on their shoes.

“Good,” Richie replied, “really good.”

“And are you gonna tell me what it’s all about now or…?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Eddie saw Richie motion towards the kids and shake his head. Sarah seemed to get it.

“Okay, okay,” she said. “Well, we had a good day, too, right, girls?”

“Yeah,” Lydia exclaimed, “we made Halloween decorations and masks and even watched Hocus Pocus.”

“Isn’t it a little early for Hocus Pocus?” Richie asked. “Halloween’s not for another three weeks.”

“It’s never too early for Bette Midler,” Sarah replied. “Did you guys eat? I got leftovers.”

“We’re fine,” Eddie said, tying up Tess’s shoelaces. “Thank you, though.”

“Where’s Fi?” Richie asked.

“At the movies,” Sarah answered, handing Lydia a tote bag filled with crafts. Eddie could see glitter and he winced.

“With who?”

“Her friends,” Sarah replied, “who do you think?”

“Just checking,” Richie muttered. “Does she need a ride home?”

“I’ll be picking them up, don’t worry. You sound like our father,” Sarah laughed. “What are you gonna do when Tess and Lydia want to go out with their friends?”

“We’ll be going, too, right, Eds?” Richie insisted, taking Lydia’s hand.

“We’ll talk about that later,” Eddie muttered. “Ready, girls?” At their nodding, he thanked Sarah again and promised they would watch her kids next. Tess and Lydia kissed their aunt goodbye and headed to the car with their fathers. Eddie nervously reached a hand into his jacket pocket and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the folded piece of paper in there.

Eddie walked into Tess’s bedroom and smiled as he watched Richie close up the Dr. Seuss book he had just finished reading aloud. She had only just started allowing Richie to read to her and he jumped at every opportunity.

“All set for bed?” Eddie asked quietly as he stepped towards the pair of them. Tess nodded as she snuggled down under her covers. “Good. You had a busy day today with your cousins.”

She nodded again and yawned. Eddie caught Richie’s gaze and took a deep breath when he nodded and smiled reassuringly at him. He sat beside her on her tiny twin bed and unfolded the paper he had hidden in the palm of his hand.

“You see this?” he asked, holding it open for her to gaze upon. Tess looked at it curiously. “It’s a letter. From Abracadabra.”

Tess’s head jerked up in surprise and she grinned so happily, Eddie felt his heart grow light.

“Really?” she asked, breathless.

“Yes, really, your Papa and I got it today” Eddie continued. He cleared his throat. “She wants you to know that she hasn’t disappeared or gone away.”

“She hasn’t?”

“No, baby,” Richie said, taking her little hand in his own. “Abracadabra’s like us. She’ll never leave you.”

“But how come—”

“She explains it a bit in this letter,” Eddie said. “Do you want me to read it?”

Tess nodded quickly. Eddie leaned forward, kissed her briefly, and then gazed down at the letter in his shaking hands.

“Dear Tessy,” he read, “I’m sorry I haven’t been around a lot lately. I’ve been very busy with school, just like you and your sister. I promise I haven’t left you forever. I just think you’re so clever and brave, you don’t need my help that much anymore. I will still visit with you when your dads give permission so don’t worry, I will see you soon. I’m so proud of you and remember that you have lots of power. See you soon, Abracadabra.”

Eddie swallowed and slowly raised his eyes to his daughter. To his immense surprise, she looked contented.

“So Abracadabra can visit?” she asked happily.

Eddie huffed a laugh as Richie grinned.

“Yes, sweetheart,” he said, “she can visit when you and your sister and her don’t have school or aren’t too busy.”

Tess clapped her hands and smiled widely.

“Yay!” she exclaimed. “I can’t wait!”

“Wasn’t that a nice letter?” Richie asked, running his thumb over her little hand.

“Yep,” Tess said, “she’s always nice to me.”

“It’s good to have a friend like that,” Eddie offered. “You’re a lucky little girl.”

“I’m not lucky,” Tess declared, pointing at the letter in Eddie’s hand, “I’m clever and brave.”

Richie grinned and Eddie, with tears pricking at his eyes, agreed, “Yes, you really are, Tess.”

[a-vast-horizon]

👀👀👀👁👀👁👀👁👀👁👀👁👀👀

oh boy, i’m not sure i have 14, lol

i’ll give a little sampling anyway

-

(from an Agent Stern/Barclay The Adventure Zone: Amnesty fic)

It was a bad idea to mix work with your personal life. Agent Stern knew that, really. It was just that when you were traveling for work, your whole life sort of became tangled with your job to some extent. Now, obviously, there were some hard lines to be drawn. When he was suited up and on the case, questioning witnesses and examining evidence, he was on the job, no personal matters allowed.

But when he got back from doing his job to relax at the Amnesty Lodge, was it really so wrong if he found the chef cute?

-

(from a Danny Phantom and Bendy and the Ink Machine crossover)

The storage room was, as ever, a mess. You might have thought the Fentons, as scientists, would have some interest in being organized, but you’d be wrong. You probably should have considered the fact that they were *ghost-hunting* scientists, and realized they were absolute messes. As was the storage room.

The spare drill Danny has been asked to fetch was just barely visible on a high wall-mounted shelf, tucked between a raggedy old plush toy and some dusty bottles. There wasn’t any space on the crowded floor for a stepladder, not that Danny would have been able to find one in the mess, so he settled for trying to balance on his tiptoes as he reached for the shelf. And it almost worked, too. He had one hand on the shelf, inching towards the drill to pull it forwards, when a can rolled out of place beneath his foot, sending him wildly off balance. The hand Danny had on the shelf grabbed it for balance, and evidently that was more than it was cut out for, because it promptly detached from the wall, sending its contents down towards Danny.

-

(from a My Hero Academia AU tentatively titled ‘explosive temper’)

Izuku’s nose was buried in his latest hero analysis notebook, revising his notes from that morning’s fight with Mount Lady. He was therefore oblivious to the fact that the sewer grate behind him was being lifted until he heard a voice call out, “Damn nerd! Get your head out of your book and look behind you!”

So, of course, he did, and found himself a scant few meters from an enormous body of slime oozing its way out of the sewer.

-

(from an Animorphs AU tentatively titled ‘butterfly effect’)

We met up outside the entrance to the Gardens on Saturday. With a lot of cajoling at our gymnastics lessons, I’d managed to convince Melissa to come, and judging by the fact that Jake showed up, Cassie had invited him like I’d told her to.

“Hey, guys,” Jake said. “Marco’s dad is sick, so he can’t make it.”

“Aw, too bad,” I said. Had Cassie told Jake to invite Marco, too? They were her tickets, but I’d have thought she’d want to spend time with just him.

Then again, maybe Jake was the one being oblivious in this situation and invited Marco along himself. Considering his talents were more oriented towards shooting balls through hoops and playing video games than talking to people, it wasn’t out of the question.

-

(from Koda’s upcoming fic in the Super[Natural]Heroes BNHA AU)

“So if you’re not coming out here because you’re hurt, what is it? Boredom? Looking for adventure? Problems with your family?”

Koda… hadn’t thought this far ahead? What did he tell her? What would be enough to get her to stop worrying?

Apparently, in the absence of an answer, Ragdoll had made up her own mind about what was going on, because she didn’t wait for Koda to come up with something.

“Well, it’s none of my business!” she said. “But if you ever do need help, you should come find me or one of the other Pussycats!”

-

(from an Ant-Man-centric Endgame AU fic)

He pressed the button on his suit to return him to normal size, knowing it was futile. He’d pressed it probably a hundred times already since the others had stopped responding on the radio. The Quantum Realm didn’t follow the same rules of physics as the rest of the universe did, and that was why they needed the Quantum Tunnel to leave it safely. Still, he couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. He had to get back to his life, to Hope, to Cassie!

He pressed the button again, again, hearing it click uselessly over and over. Still, he kept pressing it.

And finally, it worked.

In a dizzying flash of light and motion and expansion, Scott went from the Quantum Realm to the back of the X-Con truck, pressed between the closed doors and the powered-down Quantum Tunnel. A thick layer of dust covered the van’s interior, and Scott began coughing as the helmet of his suit automatically retracted. He managed to unlatch the back doors of the van and tumbled out onto concrete. This wasn’t the parking lot where the van had last been parked, though. Scott looked around to see boxes and boxes with his name on them, chain link fence, a ceiling overhead. A storage unit? But who had moved his stuff here, and how had they done it so fast?

-

(from Attempt #218, a Good Place fic [spoilers for the end of season 1])

In theory, it was the perfect torture.

Tahani was beautiful, boastful, high society and incredibly open about it: just the kind of person to get under Eleanor’s skin, to lance her worries about not being a good enough person. Eleanor, meanwhile, was pressed to keep her past a secret and pretend to be a human rights activist who volunteered at a local animal shelter in her spare time, so Tahani would struggle to make conversation with someone that couldn’t give her a straight answer. It wasn’t quite as good as pairing Tahani with someone who couldn’t talk at all, like Jason, but it was a bit less obvious, more of a slow burn that could last a few hundred years before she caught on. And the guilt Eleanor would eventually feel over having a perfect soulmate and hating her guts was sure to be entertaining.

Of course, if everything worked the way Michael had theorized, they wouldn’t have been on attempt 218 at all.

-

(from a BNHA crossover with… well… I’ll say it when the fic is released)

“Fine,” Tenya conceded. “What are you looking for, anyway?”

“Not sure,” Ochako said. “Anything that might be worth reselling.”

“You came here without an idea what you were looking for?” Tenya asked.

“Hey, that’s why I brought you! Your family works on cars, so you know what’s in good enough shape to resell.”

Tenya didn’t say anything, but Ochako could sense the judgemental look he was giving her even without looking over her shoulder. 

“Look, we’re just… tight on cash this month. I just want to help my parents out,” Ochako said.

-

(from a Trollhunters fic where Jim is part-changeling)

“Blinky? What’s going on?” Jim asked, desperation soaking his voice. If anyone would know what had happened, it would surely be Blinky.

“It seems that the gaggletek worked as expected,” Blinky said, his tone eerily calm in a way Jim couldn’t decipher. “It forces changelings to change their shape when they touch it.”

“But I’m not a changeling,” Jim said. “At least, I don’t think so? Can you be a changeling without knowing it?”

Blinky shook his head, crossing one set of his arms while the other wrung its hands nervously.

“Changelings are aware of their true nature from the moment they set foot out of the Darklands,” Blinky said. “Which means… you have been deceiving us ever since you met us.”

-

(from a TomStarCo rewrite of the Star vs. the Forces of Evil finale)

“Well, I would still like to be friends with you, Star. I still really like you. I just… I have feelings for someone else, too, and I know you also do,” Tom said.

“What? Who are you talking about?” 

“Marco.”

“Yeah, I guessed that’s what you were thinking, dummy. I meant who do you have feelings for?”

“Well…” Tom’s voice trailed off sheepishly.

“Oh,” Star said. “Oh. You like him, too?”

“I mean, I didn’t want to. I just can’t help it!” Tom said.

“Yeah, no, I totally get it,” Star said. “Same boat here, remember?”

[darks-ink]

Disinterred CH.9

Chapter 9: But Now I Tell A Single Truth

“I really am sorry,” he reiterated, moving slightly closer to her, as if he wanted to console her. “For all it matters, I really do appreciate you coming to me to talk, instead of, I dunno. Trying to shoot the information out of me.”

(click here for author notes/previous chapters/fic summary/content warnings/mirror links to AO3 and FFnet)

It was a stupid idea. A profoundly, incredibly, unbelievably stupid idea.

But Valerie had always been a little too reckless. A little too quick to act. It was one of those traits that made her a good ghost hunter, to be able to act quickly and without hesitation.

Nevertheless, going out looking for Phantom was a stupid idea. Sure, the ghost always insisted that he was a good ghost, that he didn’t want to fight her. And the whole situation with the body that the police found in the woods was just too bizarre, had caught her attention even before the rumors that had captivated Casper High.

But, even if it likely involved ghosts, and even if Phantom knew anything about it… How likely was it that the ghost would talk to her about it?

Hell, the ghost only ever seemed to show up to fight other ghosts, and usually fled the moment he saw her. How was she even going to talk with him in the first place? Let alone bring up sketchy topics like this one? She could just imagine flying up to him while he was distracted, approaching him before going “hey, you know anything about that dead body in the woods?” Nah, he would probably just think that she was blaming him.

Which, to be fair, she probably would’ve. She still wasn’t sure about Phantom, about his goals and methods. But it seemed that the body predated Phantom’s stay in the city, and while he could have killed that person before anyone had ever seen him… It didn’t seem like his MO.

Besides, if Phantom was secretly a killer, well. He probably would’ve killed more people since then, no? Especially now, while the majority of Amity celebrated him as a hero who can do no wrong. Hell, he could probably blame it on another ghost and most people would believe him.

So no, Valerie didn’t think Phantom was responsible for this. But still, it likely involved ghosts, so Phantom might know more. At the very least, he might’ve gotten curious and spied on the police. He certainly could’ve done so more easily than Valerie, thanks to his innate ability to turn invisible.

Which had led to her current plan of finding Phantom and talking with him. Which was more easily said than done. Really, she should’ve realized so sooner, but, well. She wasn’t always the best at planning ahead.

Finally, however, a stroke of good luck happened upon her. Her ghostly scanner went off, alerting her to a fairly weak ghost nearby. And then, almost immediately, a second ghost appeared right next to the first. Valerie had already turned her hoverboard into the right direction before she checked the signatures of the ghosts. Her scanner told her what she had already expected: the Box Ghost and Phantom.

She sped over there, making it just in time to see Phantom cap his thermos and hook it on his belt. She forcibly relaxed her posture, to make herself look less threatening. And then she called over to him.

“Hey, Phantom!”

The ghost started, whirling around faster than humanly possible. When he saw her, he tensed up. Against her expectations, however, he made no move to leave. Instead, he quirked an eyebrow at her. “Hey Red… No weapons today?”

“Nah,” she answered, leaning back a little in the hopes of looking casual. If he saw her nerves and struck… Well, her new suit might respond to her thoughts, but summoning a weapon still takes time. “Actually, I was hoping that we could… talk?”

“Huh?” was his eloquent response, as Phantom dropped his tense posture again. His eyes had gone big, mouth hanging open slightly. Really, a picture-perfect depiction of bafflement. “Really? After 2 years of non-stop hunting, you want to talk? About what, exactly?”

“About that corpse the police found in the woods. I’m pretty sure it’s got something to do with ghosts, which means that you probably know more about it, no?”

Phantom tensed up again, slightly. He crossed his arms over his chest, eyes guarded. Uh oh, looks like she messed up somehow. Did he think she was blaming him?

“And you’re what, blaming me?” Yep, he definitely thought she was blaming him.

“No,” she said, voice straining as she tried to keep herself from snapping at him. “But you do know a lot about ghosts. More than me, at least, and probably more than the Fentons.”

“Oh,” was all he offered in return. His glare had softened slightly, more calculative and thoughtful now. “I guess you have a good point there. And you’re right.”

“About?” She was right! Her hunch was correct! She wasn’t quite sure what about, yet, but she would find out. For now, she would take this win.

“Well, about both of those things, I guess.” Phantom shrugged at her. “I do know more about ghosts than anyone else in this town. But I meant that you were right about suspecting a ghostly element.”

Valerie grinned, not that Phantom could see it while she was wearing her helmet. This whole thing was going way better than planned! “So, was a ghost responsible?”

“Uh, well,” Phantom spluttered, before snapping his mouth shut. He shifted around a little, and Valerie tensed up, expecting him to suddenly shoot off.

But then Phantom settled down again, raising his hand to scratch the back of his neck. “I kinda… can’t tell you?”

“What?” Valerie snapped. Was this ghost for real? “Why not?”

“I, uh. I told the police everything I knew about the situation, helped them out a little, you know? So I’m not allowed to talk about the uh, the whole thing.” He was still rubbing the back of his neck, a green blush creeping up. Oh lord, he was serious about this? Must be, because you can’t fake embarrassment like that, not even as a ghost.

“So… there’s nothing you can tell me?” She fought to keep the longing out of her voice, but couldn’t stop the frustration from seeping through instead. She was so close!

“No. Sorry, Red.” And he looked genuinely sorry, damn him! He dropped the hand again, giving her a sheepish smile instead. Unbelievable! The bastard always found a way to make her life hell, without even trying!

But she couldn’t deny that he had a point, if he wasn’t lying about this. And he didn’t seem to be, despite ghosts being prone to doing so.

So she sighed. “That’s fine, I guess. Can’t be helped.”

“I really am sorry,” he reiterated, moving slightly closer to her, as if he wanted to console her. “For all it matters, I really do appreciate you coming to me to talk, instead of, I dunno. Trying to shoot the information out of me.”

“For all the good it did me,” she grumbled, but she had to admit, Phantom had a point. It had been pretty nice to just… talk with him. And he really was right, he likely knew more about ghosts than she did. Knowledge she could use to hunt other ghosts, more dangerous ghosts.

But he was still a random element, a potential danger just lurking around. She couldn’t trust him.

“I’ll see you around, Phantom. Don’t cause any trouble.” She pointed at her eyes and then him, a movement clearly recognizable as the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture, despite the fact that she was wearing a helmet. And then she turned around and flew off.

So, she hadn’t learned everything that she had hoped to. But now she did know that ghosts were involved. And that, in turn, gave the rumors of Casper High just that bit of proof that they needed.

She didn’t want the rumors to be true, of course. Danny Fenton was a sweet boy. Hell, she had even dated him for a while!

But the rumors weren’t based on nothing. There was already a surprising amount of proof gathered, and, well. Valerie had the means of confirming the rumor. No matter how little she wanted it to be true.

And sure, there were things that didn’t make sense about it. After all, Danny’s parents were ghost hunters! Surely they couldn’t have a ghost for a son?

But, well. The Fentons aren’t great ghost hunters, at all. So she wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they had a ghost living under their roof without ever knowing.

So, no, there was nothing concrete to strike the rumor down. Nothing to prove it wrong. So Valerie had to figure it out herself. Find the evidence she needed.

Now she just had to wait until the right moment to strike.

And, that Monday, Valerie saw the opportunity she was waiting for. It was lunch, the hallways were deserted, and she had just returned from a ghost fight. She wasn’t expecting to run into anybody, let alone the guy that she was hoping to talk to.

But there he was, alone in the hallways. Danny Fenton, for once without Sam or Tucker by his side.

It was not only the perfect opportunity, but one that she wouldn’t get again. Sure, she wasn’t sure why Danny was alone in the corridors of the school, without his friends by his side, but it didn’t matter. She had more important questions to answer.

She pulled out a ghost scanner, an old one from her first suit. It might not be quite as good as her current one, but it wasn’t recognizable as belonging to the Red Huntress. And, while it might not be able to read ecto-signatures, she just needed to tell if Danny was a ghost or not.

Twisting the dial to the highest sensitivity, she saw a dot light up on the display. Located right where Danny was standing.

She straightened out her posture, squaring her shoulders in an attempt to make her look more confident than she felt. And then she stepped forward, approaching the boy she liked. The one person she still considered a close friend.

The boy that had probably been a ghost the whole time.

“Hey, Danny!”

The boy in question jerked, visibly startled by the sudden call. With a loud thump the backpack in his hands dropped to the floor, a metallic clang emitting from it.

When he turned around and saw Valerie, he relaxed again, a relieved grin on his face. “Oh, hey Val. Wasn’t, uh, expecting to see anyone here.”

“Yeah, same,” she admitted. The ghost scanner was pressed against her leg, its display hidden from the boy in front of her. “Kinda convenient, though. I kinda… needed to talk to you.”

“Oh?” God, he looked so innocent, with those big blue eyes. Even if he was a ghost, and he probably was, she couldn’t imagine him hurting anyone. “What about?”

Uh oh, she hadn’t thought of a good way to bring up this topic… Dammit, Valerie, she cursed herself, should’ve thought ahead for once. When will you learn?

“It’s… about those rumors going around.”

“Oh, those,” he grumbled, as he crouched to pick up his backpack. “Surely you don’t believe stupid rumors like that? I mean, can you imagine that? Me, a ghost?” He barked out a laugh, sharp and cutting.

Valerie hummed in response. “Kinda do, actually.”

Danny stiffened, still crouched. Then he turned to look at her, a frown on his face. “Really? Why?”

“Well,” she started, as she turned the ghost scanner in her hand so that Danny could see its display. “This is kinda convincing.”

The boy grabbed it out of her hand, and she let him. Danny looked it over for a moment. Then he sighed, shoulders drooping. “Guess I should’ve known that you would figure it out.”

“So… You are?” She paused, before speaking again. “A ghost, I mean?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, finally standing up again, backpack in his hands. “Since the start of freshman year.”

She knew already, of course. But to hear him admitting it… It made it more real, somehow. And it didn’t help that this was someone she knew.

Because, sure, ghosts are dead people. Everyone knows that. But you don’t really think about it, not as a ghost hunter. Then they’re just enemies, powerful beings from a different dimension.

Not this kid that you’ve known for years. Who still lives with his parents. Who went out of his way to befriend you, after you lost your old ‘friends’.

“So, now what?” Danny asked, and Valerie snapped back to reality.

“What do you mean?” she asked, eloquently. Smooth, Valerie, she chided herself.

Danny rolled his eyes, swinging his backpack around so it hung off of his shoulder. “What comes now? What are you going to do next?” He offered her the ghost scanner.

Valerie frowned at him, taking the gadget back. “You mean… because of our friendship? You’re worried that I won’t be friends anymore?”

He snorted. “Honestly, Val, you ending our friendship is one of the least scary things you could do to me.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, before her thoughts ground to a halt. Wait a minute, what did he mean by that? Because, sure, he was right. As a ghost hunter, she was always carrying around ghost hunting equipment, including weapons.

But he didn’t know that, did he?

He must’ve correctly read her expression, because he shrugged and offered her a sheepish grin. “Yes, I know about your ghost hunting. Have known pretty much from the start.”

“What- How?” she bit out. Her suit started buzzing in the back of her head, ready to form to protect her.

Danny, however, simply raised his hand and started rubbing the back of his neck. God, how could he still look so innocent? “You kinda ran into me and Sam in the park, when you first started. We recognized your voice.”

He was right. She remembered that. She had encountered Phantom in the park, playing with that stupid dog of his. She had chased him, but he had thrown her off, and instead she came across Danny and Sam kissing in the bushes. She couldn’t remember what, exactly, she had said to them. But she knew for a fact that she had spoken to them.

God dammit, how was she this much of an idiot? Spoiling her secret identity so easily, and not even knowing about it? Because if Danny and Sam both knew, then surely Tucker did as well.

She grunted, angrily, resisting the urge to punch the wall she was standing next to.

A cold hand landed on her shoulder, and instinct drove her to swing a punch into its direction.

Danny flinched back, but her fist swung clean through him. The feeling was bizarre, but one she recognized.

He had turned intangible. Like a ghost.

Because he was a ghost. God dammit, more proof she didn’t need. Didn’t want.

“Hey, calm down. Please?” Danny had his hands raised, as if trying to calm down a wild animal. The thought was kinda ironic to Valerie, that the ‘dangerous’ ghost was trying to calm down the ghost hunter.

She chuckled at the thought, and Danny offered her a hesitant grin in return.

“Sorry,” she finally managed, loosely folding her arms over each other. “I kinda… freaked out on you, didn’t I?”

“Eh,” he simply answered, shrugging. “That’s okay. Totally to be expected, considered the circumstances.” Then he looked her over, a somewhat guilty glint in his eyes. “Are you okay now?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I think so. I just… I tried so hard to keep it secret, y’know? And now I find out that you’ve know this whole time. You, and Sam and Tucker… And who knows who else too?”

“Ah.” He grimaced. “I know how much that sucks, yeah. But, if it makes you feel any better, we haven’t told anybody. Sam, Tucker, and I, that is. And I don’t think anybody else knows.” He winked at her. “They’re not too great at discovering really obvious secrets around here.”

She snorted, allowing herself to calm down. He was right. If the people of Amity Park couldn’t figure out that Danny was a ghost, then surely they didn’t know that she was the Red Huntress.

And as for Danny… Well, he might be a ghost, but he didn’t seem to be an evil one. Despite everyone always saying that every ghost was evil… She just couldn’t imagine it from Danny.

And yes, sure, he lied. To her, and to everybody else. But he kept her secret too, without her even knowing about it. Hell, he had even dated her, despite knowing that she was a ghost hunter.

No, Danny hadn’t done anything wrong. As overwhelming as this all was, as much as she needed time to process everything… She knew that much, at least.

“Danny...” she started, before trailing off. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Danny, thanks for telling me. I- It must’ve been hard to tell me.”

He made a face, but nodded. “Yeah, kinda. Which is why I put it off until I couldn’t deny it anymore.”

She hummed her agreement. “I’m… gonna need time to- to process this. To work through it.” He flinched, and she quickly added, “But I’m not upset! It’s just… a little much, you know?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I get it. I’ll leave you alone so you can think.” He turned around to walk away, but then stopped. He looked at her again. “But, Valerie. If you ever need to talk, or something… You know where to find me, yeah?”

And then he trotted off, and Valerie was left in the hallway alone with her thoughts.

[kinglazrus]

The Haunting of Danny Fenton

Chapter Four: Fear the Reaper

Word count: 2494 | [ffn] [ao3] | [previous] [next]

Valerie makes it through dinner, somehow. It’s just her, Maddie, and Jack seated around the Fenton’s modest table in their cozy kitchen. Tucker left some time while Valerie was upstairs. Danny stays in his room the whole time, sleeping, or so his parents say. She helps clean up, because that’s the polite thing to do, and Maddie points out the frozen meals she’s prepared for the week ahead.

Danny needs hearty foods, she tells Valerie, but nothing too dense. If he doesn't have the appetite for it, make sure he eats at least one full meal. Otherwise, he subsists off smoothies chock full of vitamins and protein. Valerie feels more like a babysitter than a bodyguard as Maddie gives her a rundown of life at Fenton Works and Danny's daily routine.

Much to Valerie's relief, they leave the boring discussion behind soon enough and move on to what really matters—the Shade.

“We'll set up the fence tonight and leave it there for the week." Maddie passes Valerie one of two black boxes. "It's not very complex, so if Danny wants to move it, you can."

"Why would he move it?" Valerie hefts the box in her arms, surprised by its weight. It's not very large, fitting neatly under her arm, but still substantial enough that she needs two hands to properly secure it.

Jack, emerging from the basement door with two long extension cords on his arms, answers for Maddie. "It gets pretty boring being stuck in the same spot night after night, don't you think?"

Valerie, who sleeps at night and therefore prefers being in the same room the entire time—because waking up somewhere else would be incredibly disorienting—does not know how to respond to Jack's statement beyond a quiet, "Huh?"

Ignoring her noise of confusion, or simply not hearing it, Jack walks to the bottom of the stairs and calls Danny's name.

"Shouldn't we let him sleep?" Valerie asks. If it were her, and she had a choice in the matter, she would much rather be unconscious when the Shade shows itself.

Maddie glances over her shoulder toward the front door.

Outside, the setting sun paints the clouds in pink and orange hues, cool purple shadows cutting through the streaks of colour. It's a beautiful sight, the sky behind the clouds a gradient of darkening blue, turning gold in the distance. It's the kind of sunset Valerie admires from her hoverboard, flying high over the city. Dusk has always been her favourite time of day, and she takes in the rich, colourful sight with a content smile.

Maddie watches the sky with dread in her eyes. "Danny won't be sleeping now. It will start soon."

Danny's bedroom door groans as it opens. The sound, low and despondent, reminds Valerie of the oppressive aura she endured earlier. Logically, she knows the door's whine is born from poorly oiled hinges, but she can't shake the notion that the house itself is moaning in anguish, grieving for Danny and his haunting.

Danny lingers beyond the doorway, in the shadows of his room, the hall's dim light barely touching his toes. With one hand, he grips the doorframe, his thumb stroking the stop in a gesture Valerie would almost call comforting, a sort of soothing caress. His lips move, barely, but he speaks too quietly to hear.

Valerie watches this and thinks it's the weirdest damn thing she's ever seen.

Danny's hand falls to his side. "My room's fine tonight. I need my computer." He retreats further into his room.

"You heard him," Jack say, smiling over his shoulder.

Jack goes up the stairs first, Maddie right after him, with Valerie trailing behind. When they reach Danny's room, Valerie raises her eyebrows at the setup. His desk is in the middle of the room, a foot of space on every side, while all other furniture is shoved back against the wall. Danny's already sitting down, legs crossed on his chair, a tumbler dotted with condensation sitting beside his keyboard and a bowl of trail mix resting in his lap.

Weirder still, the light is off, and his curtains are drawn, leaving the soft glow of his computer screen to be the only light source. Neither Maddie nor Jack seem to mind this, making no moves toward the light switch on the wall.

"Got everything you need?" Maddie sidles around Danny's desk and sets the box she's holding, identical to the one in Valerie's arms, down on the floor.

"Snack, smoothie, extra water bottle in the drawer. Textbook's are beside my chair. Pillow and blankets under the desk," Danny says.

Squinting, Valerie sees the aforementioned pile of bedding stuffed in front of his chair.

"Bathroom?" Jack asks as he dumps the extension cords on Danny's bed. He starts unravelling them with practiced ease, watching his son for an answer.

"Already went."

"Are you... are you staying there all night?" Valerie asks. The thought of being stuck in that chair all night has her pursing her lips. It reminds her far too much of high school, languishing for hours in cramped desks with hard, plastic chairs. She always hated high school.

Danny gives her a sidelong glance. The longer he stares, the more Valerie fidgets, and she does not fidget, ever. But Danny's eyes, which appeared dull and hollow before, seem to glow now. Not with vitality, but with an eerie, soulless light that disturbs Valerie so much she can't avert her eyes. She's shaking, and sweating, and it takes her far too long to identify this feeling: fear. Danny cuts the least impressive figure Valerie has ever seen in her life, but right now, she's afraid. Afraid that when he she turns her back, he will still be there. Still watching.

"Valerie, dear, you can set that down over here." Maddie's voice, casual, unknowing, compels Valerie to look away. Maddie crouches by the short side of Danny's desk—Valerie didn't notice her move—and taps the floor beside it.

Valerie jolts into action, eager for a distraction, and drops beside Maddie, holding out the black box. Maddie takes it, placing it on the carpet. For a few seconds, she fusses with it, prodding it, pushing it this way and that, until it sits exactly where she wants it.

"You might want to scoot back a little. The other post is already in position."

Valerie puts a good few inches between her and the 'post.' Apparently satisfied with Valerie's position, Maddie reaches out and bops the top of the box. Valerie recoils when the post bursts open. The sides unfurl, falling flat, and the top caves in, exposing a mass of wires and antennas. Something whirs. A spool at the bottom of the device starts spinning, and a slender cable of dotted lights shoots out. It curves around the back of the desk, stretching out of Valerie's line of sight.

Movement to her right gains her attention, and she sees a second cable of lights unwinding around Danny's chair. The new cable hits the post just as the spool stops spinning, locking into a plug at the end of the first cable. Three sharp beeps ring out.

"Looks good!" Maddie claps her hands. "Jack, can you plug it in?"

"Already on it." Jack plugs one end of his extension cord into the post in front of Maddie and Valerie, takes the other end, and rushes out of the room. The extension cord whips after him, snaking off of Danny's bed and out the door.

Valerie eyes the device dubiously. Maddie called it a fence, but it doesn't look very fence-like to her. Looking at it, it's hard to imagine it stopping anything, much less a Shade. But Valerie knows better than to underestimate the Fentons, and she might as well use this opportunity to learn from her ghost hunting heroes.

"What does this do?" she asks.

"Do you know what GZF is?" Maddie asks.

Valerie's heard of it, tried to read a few articles about it, but overall knows very little. "Vaguely."

"It stands for Ghost Zone Frequency. Think of the electromagnetic spectrum, spanning everything from radio waves, to the visible and invisible spectrum, to gamma rays. The Ghost Zone, which exists on a different plane from us, has its own equivalent spectrum we call GZF. It has its own spectrum because, so far, it can't be properly sensed by human instruments or human eyes," Maddie explains.

"But we can see ectoplasm. And we can see ghosts," Valerie points out.

"You see what you want to see," Danny says.

Valerie nearly flinches, and she hates herself for it. She hates Danny for it. It's not fair that he can drag such a visceral reaction from her just by talking. Even less fair is the fact that she doesn't understand why he sets her on edge so much. At least he isn't looking at her now, instead concentrating on his computer screen.

"What does that mean?" Valerie asks.

"It's pretty straight forward. Your brain can't see it, so it fills in the blanks with what it thinks should be there." Danny's eyes flit away from the screen for a moment, glancing over her before going back. "You ever read anything Lovecraft?"

"Maybe in high school."

"Well, he does this thing when he writes—he describes something as indescribable. And our measly little human brains try to understand what that indescribable thing is, but it can't, because it's indescribable to us. Ghost stuff is like that. But, unlike Lovecraft's monsters, ghosts aren't monsters from another dimension; they're the flipside of our reality. Because of that, our brains are able to perceive ghosts without seeing or hearing them. And since they know something is there, they fill in the blanks. Otherwise, we'd all be twitching balls of anxiety that constantly feel like we're missing something glaringly obvious."

Danny twists, draping his arm over the back of his chair, and regards Valerie with a fervent stare. "Got it?"

Valerie refuses to look away this time. "Sort of."

"Good enough for me." As Danny turns back to the computer, he twitches. A glower takes over his face. He rolls his shoulder, as if brushing off an unwanted touch. Ever so subtly, he lifts the hand opposite from Maddie and Valerie, cupping it over his ear.

"Danny?" Valerie reaches toward him.

"Shut up. I'm fine. Shut up!" He hurls his last words at the empty space to his right, bearing his teeth.

Valerie marvels at the open air. She can’t see a trace of the Shade, not even a faint shadow. But Danny’s eyes glide across the room, unmistakably tracking something as it moves around them. The hairs on her arm raise as Danny’s gaze roves over her. If she didn’t know any better, she would have blamed it on a chill in the air.

"Remember, sweetie. Don't respond to it." Maddie's voice is calm and even, as though she's said this line a hundred times before. She probably has.

Danny nods, a sharp, jerky movement, and hunches over. Valerie notices his jaw clenching and his toes curling. Despite how pained he appears, his eyes grow brighter still. Maybe Danny is a lot stronger than he looks. How very Fenton of him, to cast Valerie's expectations aside like that.

Jack's voice, a faint boom, drifts through the open door. "Plugging in!"

The cable lights flare to life. Narrow green beacons curve upward, converging over Danny's head He visibly relaxes, some of the tension bleeding out of him.

Valerie stretches her hand out, watching Maddie for any sign she should stop. When she gets none, she holds her hand over the beacons. The lights remain uninterrupted even though she blocks three of them with her palm.

"How does this stop a Shade?" she asks.

Maddie's eyes widen. "Oh, that's right! I never finished answering your question. Through our research, Jack and I discovered Shades exist in a thirty point range on the GZF spectrum. This is a rudimentary blockade design for small quarters. The cables are identical, one beacon for each of the thirty points in the Shade range. They're aimed straight up, but the identical points are attracted to each other, making them curve like so.

"The completed arcs generate an energy signature that stretches out four feet from the point of convergence, although it gets weaker around the edges. All thirty arcs together create a dense space that makes it hard for Shades to move within this area."

Valerie's brain buzzes as Maddie keeps talking. This is rudimentary? There's nothing rudimentary about it.

"But it needs such a narrow field that we can't make the shield any wider. And it isn't perfect. A strong enough Shade could break through it, but thankfully the one haunting Danny doesn't appear to be one of them," Maddie finishes.

Valerie's mouth drops open, but she can't think of a response, instead staring dumbly at the fence.

"Mom, I think you broke her," Danny says, grinning smugly.

"Oh, not again."

Valerie's mouth snaps shut with a clack. She shoots Danny a withering glare, then turns to Maddie. "I'm fine. It's just a lot to process. Guns are more my expertise."

"Danny could teach you a few things while you're here. He likes to pretend he doesn't care about science, but we all know he does." Maddie winks.

"Space science! It's different from ghost science," Danny declares.

Maddie hides her mouth with her hand and whispers loudly, "He loves both."

Danny grumbles under his breath. "I'll show you loving science."

Valerie rolls her eyes and shares a smile with Maddie, both of them laughing quietly at Danny's expense. He stubbornly ignores them, typing away on his computer, but there's a smile on his pale lips.

Valerie prefers Danny like this, smiling and joking. It reminds her that they were supposed to be classmates. If his accident never happened, if he never got his disease, if he wasn't homeschooled, they might have been friends. She doesn't remember meeting him way back during freshman orientation, but now she wishes she did. Their first interaction might have gone better that way. But it's too late for that now.

She wonders which one is the real Danny. The sardonic punster with a bitter glare. The eerie wraith that chills Valerie to her core. Or the happy boy before her now whose grin lights up his face, momentarily gracing him with the warm glow of life his illness and haunting has stolen from him. Maybe they're all him. Humans aren't so simple that she can reduce a person to a few key words and say that's all they are. Taking everything you see at face value is a habit Valerie abhors.

But that only means she can't trust any face Danny puts on, no matter how genuine it appears. He can be all of them and none them. In the end, she doesn't care. She's just here to do her job.

[five-wow]

annnd i’ve hit 10.05! putting this under a spoiler because it got moderately long (which generally just means i really enjoyed an episode, ha).

steve trying to scare the trick or treating kids was WONDERFUL and EXACTLY the kind of silly content i want to see, but then junior showed up and they did this almost rehearsed bit where together they hyped up the big scary thing coming which was EDDIE in a LION COSTUME and that’s where i totally lost it, because holy shit, yes, I LOVE THAT. in general i’m all for how much eddie has been in this season, but he’s also in it in such delightfully domestic, comedic relief ways, which is EVEN BETTER, because it also means steve gets to experience all this silly stuff and it’s 101% what i want for his character.

max!!!! i knew he was going to be in this episode, but it’s still really good to see him, ahhhh.

all of the halloween costumes at flippa’s party are A+, but suddenly tani and quinn walked onto screen together and i just, yes, those are both PERFECT and that they’re hanging out at this party together is MORE PERFECT.

noelani introducing tani and quinn to max was great (different five-0 generations overlapping! this is the stuff of fanfic) but then the camera panned to kamekona who is just... wearing an orange shirt and a shrimp hat. his costume. is shrimp. i. i love that. i am dead

i love the idea of max adopting a kid, but this introduction where they’re already at the party for what seems like a little while and suddenly he’s like “and HERE’S MY SON” is so hilariously dramatic and random, omfg. where did he hide him until then??

neolani!!!! i didn’t expect her to be a focus of this episode but now she’s angry at herself and almost crying over the body that got stolen and i’m crying right along with her, oh god

there is SO MUCH going on in this episode and it makes it almost hard to keep up with, but i really like that. it’s very tense! very halloween-y.

TANI AND QUINN ENTERING A HOUSE TOGETHER. listen, at this point they’ve had a handful of scenes together and it doesn’t seem like their interactions are going to be super scarce, but i still jump and go !!! every time it happens because i’m just so starved for interactions between women on this show, and suddenly we’re getting them(!!!) and the reason they have scenes together isn’t even that they’re both women (which has definitely been the case in the past sometimes, especially for kono, and it doesn’t diminish my excitement about seeing two women talk to each other on screen, but it does give it that strange double feeling of “somebody needs to talk to this one-off female character about something, and we have exactly one (1) woman on our team, so that’s her job now while the guys get to do whatever case stuff they want” which is not exactly great).

tunde making friends with this basically innocent and extremely abused and traumatized Monster Guy by handing him a piece of candy is such a ridiculous coincidence and extreme cliche and I DON’T CARE because i will cry about literally anything and i’m a huge sucker for exactly this kind of thing. human kindness. oh god

duke about Monster Guy: “if he tries to run or endanger any of my officers, we’re gonna have to use lethal force.” okay, but why?? maybe i’m very naive here, but can’t you just... shoot him in the leg? idk, use a stun gun? aren’t there ways to incapacitate him that wouldn’t immediately kill him?

MAX. max’s speech got me crying more, and i almost kind of wish the biological mother hadn’t shown up, because it’s a neatly tied up ending this way, but it might have been more impactful if it had just been “other people can accept you (without needing to have any big reason for doing so)” instead of “in the end your biological parent might end up changing their mind and accepting you anyway after abandoning you to your fate for thirty years and that’s what will fix things”.

anyway. i REALLY LIKED THIS EPISODE. enough so that i was two-thirds of the way in before it occured to me that i hadn’t seen danny yet, which is high praise for the rest of the cast, gosh.

also, now that i’m caught up again, a temporary final assessment: this season has A) this oddly gay subplot where danny tries ridiculously hard to hook steve up while steve drags his feet which i love for a thousand little reasons, B) lots of eddie, which is awesome because DOG, C) some pretty interesting cases, so far! and D) ANOTHER MAIN FEMALE CHARACTER ON THE TEAM, who actually gets SCREENTIME with the other main female character, and THEY LIKE EACH OTHER and i could cry, honestly. this is so good and all i wanted and i am very happy. on the surface level it’s such a tiny, almost infinitesmal improvement upon what it was (even with quinn pretty much replacing jerry, we’re currently still at 7 men and 3 women in the title credits), but it feels HUGE, because the difference between one single lone woman in the core main cast and two women who can actually talk to each other? there’s a grand canyon of bechdell test passes seperating those two, oh wow.

[darks-ink]

Disinterred CH.5

Chapter 5: I’m Still Here, But Not Completely

The text, a rare single text considering it was send by Jazz, was simple and to the point. ‘mom and dad think that a ghost killed danny and replaced him, wtf?’ God, what a mess. How did he always get himself into trouble like this, without even trying?

(the full summary, previous chapters, author notes, content warning, and the links to AO3 and FFnet can be found here)

Several hours later found Danny floating above Sam and Tucker as they zipped through Amity Park on their scooters. The patrol had been rather quiet so far, with few ghostly disturbances. The overall quiet, combined with the cathartic effect of flying and the presence of his friends, had settled Danny’s emotional level back to normal.

Just as he considered diving down towards his friends to startle them, Danny felt his phone buzz in a pocket of his jumpsuit. Pulling it out, he saw that Jazz had texted him. She must’ve returned home and heard about the events of earlier that day.

He stopped, mid-air, to read the message Jazz had send him. From the corners of his eyes he saw that Sam and Tucker had stopped as well. They had probably seen him, and had decided to wait for him to explain.

The text, a rare single text considering that it was send by Jazz, was simple and to the point. ‘mom and dad think that a ghost killed danny and replaced him, wtf?’

Danny couldn’t stop the snort that came through, and barely stifled the bitter laughter that followed it. God, what a mess. How did he always get himself into trouble like this, without even trying? The universe must really hate him.

He briefly considered the possibility that there was a ghost controlling this sort of stuff out there, similar to Clockwork, but dismissed the thought almost as soon as it came up. If there was a ghost of fate, then it most likely is Clockwork.

He shook his head to clear the thoughts, deciding that he should probably just go and talk with Jazz in person instead of trying to explain the situation via the phone. He sunk lower to the ground so he could talk with Sam and Tucker more easily, white boots soundlessly hitting the asphalt of the street.

“Apparently Jazz just got home, and has been informed by my parents that a ghost killed and replaced me. So I think I’m gonna fly over real quick so we can talk this entire thing through, preferably before she gets all overprotective older sister on me.”

“Dude, I’m pretty sure it’s already too late for that.”

Elbowing Tucker in the ribs, Sam added. “But you should go anyway. We’ll finish up patrol for you.”

Danny nodded. “Alright, thanks. I’ll meet you back at Tucker’s place, okay?”

The other two acknowledged him before turning around and continuing down the street. Danny quickly texted Jazz (‘omw’) before launching himself back into the air, shooting off towards FentonWorks.

Not much later, Danny hung (invisibly) outside of Jazz’ window. Hesitantly, he knocked. Jazz looked up from whatever she was working on, glanced in his general direction, and then nodded.

Permission to enter thus granted, Danny quickly phased through the window, turning himself visible again once he was inside. He opened his mouth to explain, well, everything, but Jazz was faster.

“So, what on Earth is this about?” she snapped at him.

He rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. “Well! When the accident happened and I became half-ghost, I may or may not have left behind my old, fully-human body. And since we were kind of, you know, panicking, we decided to bury it in the forest so no one would ever find out what happened.”

Jazz stared at him, an incredulous expression on her face. Apparently he had stunned her to the point of speechlessness. He didn’t even know it was possible to turn Jazz speechless. Somehow it didn’t quite feel like the achievement it should have been.

Apparently Jazz had finally found her voice again, since she chided him. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were past lying to each other, Danny.”

He hunched up, blushing in embarrassment. “We are! I just… I just kind of forgot?” he muttered the last few words, guilt lacing his voice.

“Oh my God, please tell me you’re joking.” Her tone was a rather odd combination of appalled and bewildered.

Danny remained quiet. He considered complaining that he wouldn’t joke about a situation this serious, but they both knew that he always cracked jokes in situations where he shouldn’t. It was like, his number one coping mechanism. The less suitable the situation, the more he joked.

Jazz stared him in the eye, then sighed. Apparently she had determined that despite his normal behavior, he was not, in fact, joking.

“Danny, how on Earth did you forget about the fact that you buried your own corpse in the woods?”

He shrugged, somewhat uncertainly. “Look, the Accident was a really confusing time, and then I had to learn to control my ghost powers, and then ghosts started attacking and we just kind of forgot, okay? Now will you please help me explain this to mom and dad so they’ll stop shooting at me?”

Jazz looked at him with an expression he couldn’t read, but she put her hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a hug. She didn’t even flinch at how cold his ghost form was.

“Of course, little brother. We’ll figure this out, okay?”

He hummed, wrapping his own arms around Jazz. They remained like that for some time, and Danny felt the last of his dread and panic melt away. Jazz was here, Jazz would help him. Everything was going to be okay.

The assurances no longer felt hollow, like they had before.

Finally releasing him, Jazz put her hands on her hips, face settling on a determined expression. “So, first things first. How much are you going to tell them?”

“Uh, everything, I guess.” He shrugged, biting the inside of his cheek. “Well, except for the Phantom part, they don’t need more encouragement to shoot at me.”

“You’re not going to tell them about Phantom? Are you sure?” She set a scrutinizing gaze on him, and he pointedly ignored her by turning away.

“Jazz…” he sighed, deflating. He shook his head, then turned back to look at her again. “If this goes well I’ll tell them, okay?”

She nodded, before cutting back to the original subject. “Alright, so you’re going to tell them that you got into an accident with the Portal, and that you instantly became a ghost, and that you freaked out and decided to bury your body and pretend nothing happened. Does that sound about right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. You think that that’ll be enough?”

She offered him a smile, and he felt himself calm down even further. “Of course it will be enough. The only reason they freaked out is because they care about you.”

Jazz looked him over for a moment longer before her eyes softened again. “Do you have somewhere to stay for tonight?”

“Uh, yeah, Sam and I are sleeping over at Tucker’s place.” Knowing what she was about to ask, he elaborated. “I’ve had dinner at his place too. Don’t worry Jazz, you’re not the only one making sure that I take care of myself.”

She huffed and rolled her eyes, but ignored the jab. “Good, good. Come by tomorrow after breakfast and we’ll talk this through with mom and dad.”

He groaned, grimacing. He knew that he had to talk with his parents. That was the whole point of talking with Jazz. That didn’t make the thought of coming over and facing his parents any more appealing.

Seeing his hesitation, Jazz spoke again, with a soothing but somewhat stern tone. “Danny, don’t worry about it. Everything will be fine, I promise. Now go and get some sleep, because you need it.”

He eyed her for a moment. Sighing, he rubbed in his eyes with his fingers. “Yeah, alright. Thanks, Jazz.”

“That’s what I’m here for, little brother. Now go, shoo.” She made some shooing motions with her hands as she said it. Danny grinned at her before tugging on his invisibility, disappearing from sight.

Jazz watched him leave, before shaking her head, a fond smile on her face.

The next day, not long after when he would normally have eaten breakfast with his family, Danny found himself hesitating on the steps of his house.

Had this been an ordinary Saturday, he would have been in the kitchen now, breakfast just finished but everyone still lingering around. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t a regular Saturday. Hell, Danny didn’t know if he would ever have a regular Saturday with his family again.

But no matter how much he wanted to leave, he couldn’t. No matter how badly he wanted to put off this confrontation, Jazz was waiting for him. And no matter how much bad everything got, he knew Jazz would come through for him.

He clung onto that thought, took a deep, fortifying breath, and entered the house.

Quiet chattering came from the kitchen, and Danny made his way over. He watched them for a moment from the doorway. They were all sitting at the table, the remnants of breakfast put away. It was a rare occasion, since there weren’t even any inventions of his parents’ around.

He didn’t get long to observe before his dad spotted him, however. The man grinned widely at him, and Danny felt his hopes lift. Maybe his parents had already gotten over him being a ghost?

“Danny-boy!” Jack boomed, but suddenly his face soured, and Danny’s hopes were crushed again. Apparently his ever-brilliant dad just forgot about their last interaction. His mother’s face also fell, and Danny almost winced at their expressions.

Jazz, however, shot him a warm smile, and grabbed their parents before they could pull out any of their weapons. That didn’t stop them from attacking with their words, however.

“What are you doing here, ghost?” Maddie hissed. “Haven’t you caused us enough pain yet?”

This time Danny actually winced, and Jazz glared at their mother.

“Mom!” she chastised. “I asked Danny to come over, not that it should have been necessary, since he lives here.”

“Jazz, honey,” their mother tried to soothe her. “That’s not your brother. That’s some foul ghost playing a sick game of pretend.”

“No, you listen to me!” Jazz continued to glare, so angry it was almost tangible. “Danny has been a ghost for two years, but he never told you. And this is exactly why! And despite knowing that this is how you would react, he still came over to tell you what happened! And you won’t even let him!”

It remained silent for a few infinitely long minutes. Both of their parents were visibly working through this new information, processing it- and everything it meant.

“Jazz, you knew? How- How long have you known?” Danny had never heard his dad so quiet, and he hated it. He hated everything about this conversation. He could barely stop himself from turning invisible, his emotions churning and stormy. He forced himself to stay focused on the conversation, however.

“I’ve known pretty much from the start, but he told me about a year ago. And yes, I know the entire story.” Jazz looked over at Danny, clearly hoping that he would take over to tell the story.

But Danny could barely pay attention to the conversation, let alone play an actual part in said conversation. Seeing this, Jazz picked up the slack again.

“Do you remember when he had an accident in the lab, in freshman year?”

Their parents glanced at each other, sharing a brief but silent conversation before relaxing a little. “Was that it? Was it- Was it one of our inventions that- that killed our son?”

Danny could hear how close his mom was to tears, and he sighed, inadvertently drawing the attention back to himself. He uncertainly rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, kinda. It was the Portal. I uh, may or may not have turned it on while I was inside.” He shrugged at them, smiling sheepishly. “You put the ‘on’ button on the inside, that’s why it didn’t work.”

“Sufferin’ spooks,” Jack swore quietly, eyes locked on Danny.

“But if it was the Portal, then how did your,” her breath caught for a second, “your body end up in the woods?”

“I- We panicked, okay?” He wrung his hands uncertainly as he spoke. “We didn’t know what to do and we didn’t know what happened and we were all really freaked out so we decided to just bury my body in the woods and pretend it never happened.”

“Oh sweetie,” Maddie mumbled, standing up from her chair and walking over to Danny. She touched his face, gently, before pulling him against herself, hugging him. “Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for everything.”

Danny stiffened momentarily, before the events sunk in and he wrapped his arms around his mom. “It’s- It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” Before he could say more, however, a second pair of arms wrapped around the two of them.

“Oh Danny-boy,” his father muttered, and Danny was shocked to see tears forming in his dad’s eyes. “I- We-” The man murmured uncertainly, tripping over his own words.

“No, no, don’t blame yourselves.” Danny pulled himself partially out of the hug so he could look his parents in the eyes. “I don’t blame you, okay? Not for anything. None of it is your fault. Not the accident, not the- the events yesterday. None of it. Okay?”

His parents nodded at him, uncertainly, and he nodded back. Finally they broke apart again, and as they smiled at him, Danny found that he couldn’t keep the truth to himself any longer.

“Actually,” he started, before hesitating. He anxiously licked his lips, and glanced over to see Jazz nodding her approval. Thus steeling his resolve, he cleared his throat and started again. “Actually, there’s something else that I need to tell you. Uh, promise you won’t freak out?”

“Oh sweetie, of course. You can tell us anything.” His mom laid her hand on his shoulder, her smile a little more uncertain but still kind.

He nodded, smiling back, but carefully shook off her hand and stepped away. Then he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, focusing on the feeling of ectoplasm coursing throughout him. He braced himself, then called on his ghostly core, letting its power wash over him. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes again,  looking away from his parents.

“I’m, uh. I’m Danny Phantom too. This,” he made a vague hand motion towards himself, “is what I actually look like as a ghost.”

Suddenly he was drowning in warmth again. His father hugged him, ruffling a hand through his hair. “Look at my son the ghost hunter! I knew you would follow my footsteps!”

Danny grinned at his dad. “Yeah, I guess I had some good role models.” Seeing his dads uncertain expression, he winked theatrically.

“Well, I still think that Phantom has done some… questionable things,” Maddie trailed off, apprehensively. “But… knowing you as I do, I’m guessing that you can explain all of that?”

“He can, trust me.” Jazz cut in, not wanting to ruin to moment for Danny by having him recall those events. “He has told me everything, about all of that and more.”

Maddie nodded, and once more smiled warmly at her daughter, and then at her son as well. “Then I must say that I’m proud of my ghost-hunting son as well. My own little superhero, huh?”

She re-joined the hug as well, and Jack grabbed Jazz and pulled her in as well. Danny melted away in the familial love, feeling far happier than he had in a long time.

But he knew that the same didn’t go for his parents. They thought that they had killed him, for fuck’s sake! He said he didn’t blame them, and he didn’t, but it wasn’t enough. The guilt would be eating them alive. That was the main reason why he hadn’t told them before. After the Reality Gauntlet thing, he knew that they would accept him. It was their reaction to themselves he was most afraid of. As long as they thought that they had killed him, they would feel guilty about it.

So what if they knew that they hadn’t killed him? After all, he wasn’t actually dead, was he? So maybe- maybe if he told them, they would be happy too?

And surely if they accepted him as a full ghost, they would accept him as a half-ghost too? It was weird, yes, but they were his parents. They had said it themselves, in that alternate reality. It didn’t matter if he was a ghost, or a human, or a little of both.

He took in the moment a little longer, letting the warmth soak into him. Then he phased through the arms holding him in place, grimacing at the startled expressions of his family. He released his hold on his ghost form, allowing the warmth of his human body to roll over him again. It was little compared to the familial warmth he had just given up, but it was better than nothing.

“I-” He hesitated, cleared his throat again. “There’s something more. Something else I need to mention as well.”

Jazz quirked a questioning eyebrow at him, before she realized what he was going for. She also untangled herself from the group hug, walked over to Danny, and wrapped a supportive arm around his shoulders. He looked at her, uncertainly, but she nodded her approval.

“I’m not- I’m only half ghost.”

Silence lingered for a few, uncomfortable seconds. The expressions on the faces of his parents had shifted, an array of emotions that he couldn’t decipher playing on their faces.

He bit his lip, glancing at Jazz for strength. Then he took another deep breath, looking his parents in the eyes.

“I’m not actually dead. I’m only half ghost. I, uh. I don’t know the exact science behind it and stuff. But that’s why I can switch.”

“Sweetie,” his mom said, softly. “There are all kinds of ghosts who can take on a more human appearance. You don’t have to lie, to yourself or to us, okay?”

“But it’s- it’s different! The ghosts know it too! They call me a halfa, a human-ghost hybrid.” He groaned, mussing up his hair with his hands. He had to convince them, somehow. But how?

Suddenly an idea struck him, and he strode towards his parents. He pulled off his moms glove, and placed her bare fingers against his neck.

“Danny, what-”

“Feel it. Feel my heartbeat. Ghosts can’t replicate that, can they?”

She opened her mouth, about to protest, but suddenly stilled. Her eyes grew wide. She glanced at Jack, uncertainly, and then back at Danny.

“How?”

He shrugged, offering a sheepish smile. “Like I said, I don’t really know how it works. Running theory is that it has something to do with the supercharged ectoplasm in the Portal.”

Frowning, Jack inserted himself into the conversation. “So why not tell us from the start? Why make us think you were a ghost?”

Danny shrugged again. “It’s… hard to explain. Mostly, I don’t tell anyone because it’s kind of hard to believe?” He grimaced. “And right after the accident, I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t get my powers to work right so I couldn’t prove that I was telling the truth.”

His mom finally pulled her fingers away from Danny’s neck, slowly putting the glove back on. She frowned as well. “But then what about the body?”

“Well, I’m not a scientist, obviously. And the only other halfa I know of… Well, I’m not really on speaking terms with him, so I couldn’t ask him either.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But what I- What we think happened is that my DNA was altered by the ectoplasm. But you can’t just infuse a body with ectoplasm, so a new one had to be formed. Or something like that.”

“Well, son, how about this,” Jack said, pulling out a chair and gesturing for Danny to sit down. “Why don’t you tell us exactly what happened, and then we’ll figure all of this out together. As a family.”

Danny nodded, smiling, and sat down.

“Alright, so it all started two years ago, in August...”