#phic phight team ghost
Text
Local Traditions
fanfiction
ao3
word count: 2026
Amity Park has a lot of strange local traditions that baffle outsiders.
phic phight lets gooo
“Why did we come back here?”
“Come on, Parker. We’re finally gonna catch us some ghosts in this city.”
Parker followed slowly behind him. “I thought you said this wasn’t the place we were looking for? And we weren’t able to get anywhere near any of the ghosts. What would make this time any different, Don?”
Don turned around with a big smile on his face. “Because we’re gonna start how we should’ve started in the first place. We just came in assuming we were gonna be able to find a ghost to capture without knowing what any of the patterns are. Where the ghost attacks happen, how often, which ghosts are attacking.”
He pulled a notebook out of his pocket and shook it around. “We’re going to observe first and then make a plan on how we’re going to capture our ghosts. This time I’m sure we’ll get it.”
Parker shook his head. “What are we starting with?”
Don continued walking down the sidewalk. “We’re going to observe what the residents are doing in relation to the ghosts. They’re gonna know best the patterns of the ghosts. Which ones are a danger and which ones they don’t have to worry about.”
“Okay. We’re going to use this to try to predict when a ghost attack will happen?” Parker asked.
“Yes. Exactly.” Don pointed at someone stepping outside of their house. “There’s someone now! Observe.”
This person who had just exited the house was carrying a cardboard box. They were sure they were taking the box to the recycling bin, but instead it was placed in the grass by their garage. Parker and Don waited until they made their way back instead before they headed across the street to see what was in the box.
Parker knelt down and started rummaging through it. “We have a box of… Smaller boxes? Bubble wrap, sandwiches, and.. A single left shoe? What is this?”
“Maybe-” Don was cut off when a booming voice started talking behind them.
“Beware!” He shouted. “I am the box ghost! And how dare you, foolish humans, plan to steal my offerings!”
“Offerings?” Don asked. “People give offerings to the ghosts?”
“The people of this town understand how powerful and terrifying I am! With my sharp corrugated corners and the booming pops of my bubble wrap! They offer me items in exchange for me not releasing my wrath on this little mortal city!”
Don and Parker exchanged a look together before looking back at the ghost. The ghost stared at them for a few more moments.
The ghost blinked at them.
“I am the box ghost!”
He suddenly grabbed the box out of Parker’s hands and flew away, disappearing in between the buildings of the city.
Don opened his notebook and wrote out the box ghost’s name. “He must be a powerful ghost if they’re offering him things in exchange for him not attacking them.”
“I think he’s annoying.” Parker said.
“Let’s go observe more things. This is a good start.”
They were walking down another street when they caught a whiff of something.
Parker groaned. “What is that smell? It smells like a sweaty cookie.”
“I actually think it smells like gym socks and snickerdoodles.” Don said, scrunching up his nose.
“I think it might be coming from that house over there.” Parker pointed at a blue house. Outside, a teenager was spraying something on the bushes outside their windows.
They walked up to the boy. Don smiled at him. “That sure is some pesticide. We could smell it from all the way over there.”
The boy’s eyes lit up. “Glad you caught the smell. It’s my cologne, Foley. By Tucker Foley.”
Parker's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. “Why are you spraying cologne all over your bushes?”
“Gentlemen.” Tucker walked over to them. “Have you ever wanted a cost effective ghost repellent that also acts as the most womanizing cologne ever? The Fenton’s make all sorts of equipment and weapons, but most of them are not for public sale. And if they are, they’re very expensive! Foley by Tucker Foley is only a fraction of the cost! And it works just as well as a ghost shield!”
He leaned forward. “If you’re interested, I can even give you a deal. Two for the price of one. Or half off a gallon bucket with a pesticide wand. What do you say?”
“Sorry, but I don’t think pesticide cologne is really my thing.” Parker said.
Don was busy scribbling in his notebook. “How did you discover this mix of ingredients was a ghost repellent?”
Tucker puffed out his chest with the proudest look on his face. “Lucky shot. Got it on my first try. Discovered it when the school got infected by ghost mosquitoes. It works on regular mosquitoes too, if that convinces you at all.”
“This is how they got rid of the mosquitoes?” Parker whispered to Don. “Weird.”
“Thank you for all this information. Maybe we’ll have to think on it and come back. Have a nice day!”
“You’re not serious are you?” Parker gaped at Don. “This kid’s cologne is probably just so rank that the ghosts wanted to get as far away from it as possible. I can’t believe people are spraying it outside their houses. That’s probably what I’ve been smelling this whole time.”
“We’re observing, Parker.” Don looked at him. “We could get the cologne and compare it to the Fenton’s anti-ecto weapons.”
Parker shook his head. “Anyways. We’ve been at this for awhile, should we head and get some grub? I’m getting hungry.”
“Sure. I could go for some food. You up to burgers? I saw some place called the Nasty Burger and it looked kinda cool.”
“That name does not bode well for us.” Parker typed the name into his phone. “Let’s go.”
It was busy when they got to the Nasty Burger. They walked inside and saw that the line was long. As they walked through the building towards the end of the line, they couldn’t help but notice one strange delicacy that everyone seemed to have on their tray.
“What are they eating? Roses?” Parker leaned forward to whisper in Don’s ear. “That’s so strange. What a weird item for a fast food place to carry.”
“Sam, you have to go get my food for me. I can’t go up to the counter.”
“You just don’t want to order for yourself.”
“No, Sam. The flowers! It’s flower friday.”
“Flower friday?” Don questioned.
“Fine. Just go save our spot. Tucker can order when he gets here.”
“Next!” The cashier called. Don walked up to the counter.
“Hi! Can we get two mighty meaty cheesy melt meals?”
She punched their order into the register. “Anything else?”
“No, thank you! That’ll be all.”
She hit another button and looked back up to them. “Your total is $14.77. Would you like a complimentary blood blossom with that?”
“A what?” Parker frowned at the name.
She looked at them like they were dense. “A complimentary blood blossom. It’s an edible flower with anti-ghost properties. Eating them helps ward against overshadowing.”
“Uh..” Don hesitated. “Sure. We’ll try some.”
They paid her and she printed their receipt out. “Your order will be ready soon. You can wait over there to pick it up when it’s done.”
“Thank you.”
“This town is strange.” Parker’s eyes widened as a realization came over him. “If all these people are developing their own ecto-signatures, do you think they’ll ever get to the point where they won’t be able to consume these blood blossoms anymore?”
Don’s eyes opened wide and he turned to face Parker. “That’s such a good question. I don’t even know.”
The girl who was behind them in line laughed as she was talking to the cashier.
“Sorry, no blood blossoms for us today, Valerie. You know how Danny’s allergies are. He won’t even order his own food on flower Friday’s.”
Valerie barked out a laugh. “I can understand that though. Tell Fenton I say hi, will you.”
“I will. Thanks.”
“Fenton? That Danny kid is the one who registered as a level eight ectoplasmic entity the last time, right?” Don asked.
“Yeah.” Parker looked at the table the Fenton kid had sat down at. “Weird that he registers as a level eight ghost and he’s also allergic to the ghost repelling flowers.”
“Yeah. That is weird.” Their food came out to the counter. Don grabbed the bag and started walking toward the booth the Fenton kid sat in. “Come on. Let’s see if we can overhear any information.”
They slid into the booth next to the teenager and started digging into their food. Even with the offputting name of the restaurant, the food was pretty good.
Sam walked over and slid into the booth behind the. “Valerie says hi.”
Danny sighed. Don peeked over the top of the booth to see him lovingly looking towards the counter. He could practically feel the eyeroll Sam was giving her friend followed by a snort.
“You better not let her catch you looking at her like that during patrol again. The last time she almost got you pretty badly.”
“Come onn, it wasn’t that bad.”
“She broke your nose.”
Don shot Parker a bewildered look at that. Parker stopped mid chewing to make a face.
“Whatever. I just have to be more careful when I’m looking at her.”
“Danny-”
“What is up my dudes.”
“That Tucker kid is friends with him too?” Parker asked.
Don stood up and tried peering over the top of the booth again and looked eyes with the girl. She frowned at him.
“Can we help you?”
Don jumped. “Ah, sorry. I was just, uh, you’re the Fenton kid right?”
He nodded. “You guys are the weird ghost hunters from out of town that didn’t know what they were doing, right?”
“What, we knew what we were-”
Sam barked out a laugh. “You thought I was a ghost and just grabbed me. As if that would do anything to restrain a ghost. How’d the pepper spray feel?”
Don’s eyes widened again. “Not great.”
“Good. Now how about you guys leave us alone. Unless you both want to get sprayed this time.”
“Leave me out of this. I'm sitting in my seat minding my own business and eating my food.” Parker said. Don glared at him.
“Now, now, Sam. Maybe they were interested in buying some Foley. By Tucker Foley. I was giving them my pitch on my ghost repellent slash cologne earlier today.”
Sam rolled her eyes. “We do not need any more people spraying that stuff all over town. It stinks.”
“But my profits are-”
Suddenly the Fenton kid stood up and ran towards the bathroom. Then the whole restaurant went silent.
People started standing up and packing up their food. Don and Parker looked around, unsettled.
“Hey, kids. Where’s everyone going?”
A jock was walking by their table and overheard them. “What are you new here? Everyone knows that if Fentina runs to the bathroom like that a ghost attack will follow.”
“Are you serious?” Parker asked. “Everyone just takes that as gospel?”
“Yeah.” Don looked towards the bathroom. “That’s strange.”
Sam shrugged and packed up her food. “That’s fine. You don’t have to believe us. Stay if you want.”
Don nodded. “We will.”
Tucker snickered as they walked away and soon the restaurant was empty except the two of them.
“They can’t be serious.” Parker took another bite of his food. “Why would the Fenton kid’s potty breaks be any indication of when a ghost attack is going to happen?”
Don shrugged. “Maybe none of their traditions actually do anything. Except for the Box Ghost one. He actually took those things.”
“Maybe everyone here is just-”
“Feel my fury!”
The voice of an older woman emanated through the room. The doors to the kitchen burst in and a meat tornado flew out. It only lasted a few seconds before it moved outside, but when everything settled and went quiet, Don and Parker looked at each other, both covered in meat.
“Don.”
“Yeah, Parker.”
“Can we go home?”
#gorgi writes#danny phantom#phic phight#outsider pov#fanfiction#fanfic#fic#phic#phic phight team ghost
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Micro-Unmasking - Chapter 3
Final chapter! Hope you all enjoy!
Summary: Great timing prevented Danny’s secret from being revealed to Dash during their shared experience with the Fenton Crammer. But what would happen if his timing had been just a little off and Dash saw more than Danny wanted?
Phic Phight Prompts:
Thanks to seeing how various injuries are treated as a member of the football team, Dash actually has a decent background in first aid and anatomy. He gets adopted into Team Phantom when circumstances keep leading him to be the one patching up Phantom after fights. - for Ikiracake
Write one of YOUR ideas that you haven't written for whatever reason. Have you been too intimidated to write it? Are you afraid people won't like it? This Phic Phight season, none of that matters. Whatever it is, put your feelings aside and give it a try, even if it's just one scene! - for @astatia-ghast
AO3 Link
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Begrudging Redemption
The Fenton GAV screeched to a stop, leaving long, dark tire marks on the road. It careened around the corner at such reckless speeds that no one saw it coming until it slammed into Phantom. Jack poked his head out of the window and whooped as he thrust his fist in the air. “Oh yeah! We got ‘im Mads! Told ya that Fenton Ram-O-Rama battering ram was a good addition to this baby!”
Tucker and Sam stared at Danny’s unmoving body, their faces pure masks of horror. “Get up Danny. C’mon, get up Danny,” Tucker pleaded under his breath, but his ghostly body still didn’t move.
Sam took a step towards Danny, but Tucker grabbed her arm and gestured towards the Fentons as they stepped out of the GAV. Jack held two overly-large ghost weapons in his hands with another slung around his shoulder, while Maddie sported a more sensible blaster and a Fenton thermos. “We have to distract them. We can’t let them get to Danny.”
“But shouldn’t one of us check on Danny?” Sam asked, but even as she said it she noticed Dash running as fast as he could towards Danny. He skidded to a stop and dropped down to his knees to check on him. “Oh no, no we can’t let him do that.”
“Sam! Come on!” Tucker urged. “We’ll figure it out later!” He pulled Sam over towards the Fentons and ran right into their path.
Maddie stopped short as soon as she saw Danny’s friends…without Danny. “Sam! Tucker! What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in school?” she asked suspiciously as she raised an eyebrow.
“We…got sent on an errand!” Tucker lied smoothly. “We had to grab something for class. But then these ghosts attacked and–”
“Ghosts? You mean more than one?” Jack asked as he looked around the street for another ghost.
“Yeah, this giant bear ghost,” Sam added as she caught on. “We tried to run away, but it got Danny and–”
“What do you mean it got Danny?” Maddie shrieked as she dropped her weapons and grabbed Sam’s shoulders. “Sam, where’s Danny?”
As Tucker and Sam weaved a fake story about Danny being bear-napped to get the Fenton parents off Phantom’s trail, Dash tried his best to help Phantom–Fenton. He immediately placed a hand near his mouth to check for breathing, but he couldn’t feel anything. He pulled out his cellphone and placed it near his mouth, looking for a wisp of a breath, but nothing.
“Oh God, he’s not breathing,” Dash panicked aloud as he fumbled with what to do next. His eyes hovered over Danny’s glowing form when realization struck him and he hit his forehead with his palm. “Idiot, of course he’s not breathing! He’s a ghost! C’mon focus Baxter, focus.”
He couldn’t try to help him here. He remembered what Danny said about his parents not knowing and he couldn’t risk letting them get to him. He needed to move him and get him somewhere else. He ran a hand along Danny’s spine to check for breaks. When he didn’t feel anything, he shifted Danny slightly in an effort to pick him up. He heard a groan and took that as a good sign before he hefted him into his arms and ran off down the street. He kept running down random streets until he thought he got far enough away to lose them before he ducked into an alley between two shops. He set Danny down as gently as he could manage and tried to shake him awake. “Come on Phantom, wake up. Wake up.”
~*~
“Phantom!”
The shout jerked Danny into awareness. He instantly regretted it as his entire body flared with hot, white pain. The sharp agony barraged him from all sides. It consumed him and drowned out anything else around him. His head spun around and around and around to the point where he thought he might be sick. He closed his eyes as the siren call of the dark blackness of unconsciousness serenaded him with promises of numbness. That had to be better than this. Anything had to be better than this.
“No no, Phantom, stay with me!” the same voice yelled. Two strong hands lifted him back up into a sitting position. More pain raced through him and he choked out a cry. It unfortunately brought him back again and forced the world into greater clarity. He expected to see his friends or Jazz but instead he saw–
“...Dash?” he mumbled out. “What are you…what happened?” Stringing those words together took so much effort. The sheer agony of everything clouded out his thoughts and made thinking so incredibly difficult.
“I don’t know if you took a blow to the head, so you have to stay awake,” Dash instructed. “You were fighting a ghost and then–”
A gray shape slammed into his side. He flew through the air and crashed into the pavement with a loud crunch.
Danny blinked his eyes a couple times and looked at Dash who had stopped talking. He didn’t even hear the rest of what he said. “I’m…what? I didn’t–I don’t think I heard all that,” he said slowly as he tried to pull words through the molasses inside his brain.
If Dash felt annoyed at having to repeat himself, he didn’t show it. “Your parents hit you with a car.”
The gray shape. The GAV. The indescribable speeds his father drove at. The hit that threw him through the air. “Of course they did,” he groaned.
He managed to slump into a position that only mostly hurt. Every bone in his body throbbed with the echoes of pain, but they didn’t scream and blossom anew with fresh torment so long as he didn’t move. Thank god he didn’t have to breathe right now. “Are they here?” he asked after a moment.
Dash shook his head. “No, I think your friends stepped in. I grabbed you and got you out of there as quick as I could.”
Immediately the warmth of relief spread through his chest. He didn’t think he could evade his parents right now and he felt grateful he wouldn’t have to thanks to Dash’s quick thinking. “...Thanks,” he muttered. Much as he hated to admit it, Dash had actually helped him out and gave Sam and Tucker a chance to distract his parents. He owed him one, as weird as that felt to admit. He shuddered to think what Dash would ask as payment for this. More text messages? Joining him on a hunt? Somehow thinking about that made the pain feel even worse.
“Yeah man, of course,” Dash replied with a nod.
In an effort to not make him even more indebted to Dash, he tried to stand. He needed to find Tucker or Sam or get home or something so he could figure out why he was still in such blinding amounts of pain. He used his arm to push himself off the ground and immediately yelped in pain as his arm gave out and planted him into the ground. He fought hard against blacking out again as the searing pain consumed him. Tears poured down his face as he cradled his arm. He hated to admit that he cried in front of Dash of all people as he sobbed in agony. He waited for the tease or the laugh or something to come from Dash, but he only felt his hands gently guide him into a sitting position again.
“You really shouldn’t move,” Dash advised. “I think you dislocated your shoulder. You may have even broken it.”
Danny leaned against the wall and took deep breaths as he tried to ride out the pain. He didn’t really need to breathe, but the cool air seemed to help. The wall also felt surprisingly cool to the touch even though he felt like his body was on fire, and he took solace in that grounding sensation. “Great,” he grimaced through gritted teeth.
“I think you cracked a couple ribs too,” Dash added as he gestured to the lower ribs on the same side as his shoulder.
Danny tried to wave a dismissive hand with his uninjured arm, but it came across as barely a gesture. “Yeah, when aren’t they cracked? I can handle those.” Cracked ribs healed and broke themselves again all the time. The shoulder though…that was going to cause a problem, and it would be even harder to hide.
“I didn’t get a chance to look over anything else,” Dash admitted. “You hit the ground hard though. I don’t know if you hit your head.”
Danny closed his eyes as he tried not to feel overwhelmed. A head injury…would make sense. Something made it hard for him to process thoughts. Everything still felt too fast and at the same time too slow. He struggled to hold onto any thought other than the excruciating pain that shot through him. Maybe the pain alone and the shock could explain it, but he couldn’t rule out a concussion. “It’ll be fine,” he said, not sure if he was trying to reassure himself or Dash. “I heal fast. It’ll be fine.”
“You really should go to a doctor,” Dash suggested.
Despite the fog and the pain and the panic still gripping around his heart, Danny managed to level a disbelieving glare at Dash. “Dash, I can’t go to the hospital. I’m a ghost.”
“Well yeah, but not always,” Dash tried to reason.
He tried not to get frustrated, because he knew Dash didn’t know, but he didn’t have the capacity to explain this right now. God, where were Tucker and Sam? “I still have signs as a human. Ectoplasm. My core. Those don’t go away. A doctor would see them.”
Dash screwed his face up in thought. Was he trying to understand that concept or trying to problem-solve their situation? “Okay, okay that makes sense. Then I’ll do it.”
Danny raised an eyebrow. “Do what Dash?”
“I’ll fix it.”
He shook his head. “No no, I’m fine.” Absolutely not. He wasn’t going to let Dash give him some spotty medical aid because he wanted to be useful. “I just need to get home.” He tried to stand just using his legs and the wall for support, but his legs felt like jelly and he barely lifted his bum off the floor before he fell down again.
“No Fe–Phantom,” Dash corrected as he cast a quick glance down the hallway. Even if they couldn’t see anyone, he felt grateful that Dash was still trying to keep his identity secret. “I can do this. Come on, you can trust me.”
Danny leveled a glare. “Trust you?” Dash was the last person he trusted for anything.
A flicker of pain crossed over Dash’s face, but he clearly pushed it aside as he leaned closer. “I know I haven’t been someone you can trust. I know I haven’t earned any of this. But you can trust me now. I promise.”
Danny still eyed him warily. The only thing he could ever trust from Dash was a reliable shove in the locker or to be there at the absolute worst moment to rub his embarrassment into him further. On the list of people he would go to for anything, he fell below Vlad, and that was saying a lot. At least he knew Vlad meant well in his heart. Even if that favor came with a price, he at least knew what that price would be. With Dash, he had no idea what this would cost him later even if it did turn out.
But at the same time, hadn’t Dash already proven himself? He could have run. He could have abandoned him. But instead he took him away from his parents and watched over him. He touched him gently and seemed genuinely concerned about his well-being. He hadn’t made fun of him for crying or being in pain or not putting on a brave face. Maybe it was the head injury or the pain messing with his thoughts, but Dash had been there for him.
Dash must have sensed Danny’s indecision because he pushed on. “I told you I wanted to make things up to you. You said you’d believe it when you see it. Well how can you believe it if you never let me show it?”
He sighed as he rested his head back against the wall. How many times had he asked his parents to give Phantom a second chance? Or Valerie? Or the public? How many times had he asked for a second chance from his friends because he did something stupid? How many times had he given a ghost a second chance? And now Dash wanted one. Could he really say that as a bully Dash was completely irredeemable? Fundamentally he really didn’t like the idea that someone couldn’t be redeemed, and yet he’d set himself up in his mind that once a bully, Dash couldn’t be anything but a bully. It didn’t negate all the years of harm that he did and it wouldn’t make up for it, but if Dash wanted to try to come back from that, could he really get in the way of that attempt?
“...Fine,” Danny agreed. He thought he’d feel a stab of regret as soon as he agreed to it, but he surprisingly felt lighter, like he’d let go of some ill will he’d been harboring in his heart by giving this kid who’d made his life a living terror a chance.
Dash smiled wide as his face brightened. “You won’t regret this.” He pulled off his sweater and handed it to Danny. “I need you to bite this.”
…Or maybe he did regret it. “Bite it? Seriously Dash?” What kind of suggestion was that?
“I have to pop your shoulder back into place,” he explained. “Then we can see if it’s actually broken. It’s gonna hurt, so you bite this to muffle the screams.”
Right, dislocated shoulder. He’d seen this in movies before. It would hurt but it had to be done. He could see the logic in that, much as he hated the idea of experiencing more pain. “I thought the goal of your new redemption arc was to stop hurting me,” he joked weakly as he took the sweater with his good arm.
Dash rolled his eyes and positioned Danny so he had better access to his shoulder. He stayed surprisingly gentle, which Danny didn’t expect. He had always been so forceful and bold and brash that these kind movements felt so out of place.
“How do you even know how to do this?” Danny asked, both out of curiosity and as a way to delay the inevitable.
“I want to go into sports medicine: taking care of athletes and stuff. My dad got me into a summer program where I got to shadow a guy in soccer and I saw all kinds of crazy things,” Dash explained.
“So have you done this before?” If he had, he really should have led with that and it would have been a lot easier to trust him.
“Well…no. But I did see it done. I know what I’m doing,” Dash emphasized again, probably because he could sense Danny’s hesitation. “Are you ready?”
“No,” Danny admitted. He took in a big breath and let it out slowly. “But do it anyway.”
Dash grabbed Danny’s elbow and shoulder and pressed him into the wall. He bit his lip and hesitated for a moment before he pushed. He didn’t falter and he didn’t hesitate. He was quick and the whole process took maybe a couple seconds. To Danny it felt like an eternity. The bone of his arm grinded against the bone of his shoulder. It pulled and strained the muscles in directions they weren’t meant to go. His arm felt numb, like it had been disconnected somehow. His nerves burned. His muscles screamed. His bone throbbed. His entire perception of the world boiled down to his shoulder as the bone popped back into his arm.
He slumped against the wall partly in Dash’s arms. His head swam again in pain. This time when the blackness threatened to consume him, he gave himself over to it. Anything to escape the pain.
~*~
He shifted against something soft as awareness slowly filled his senses. Pain immediately chased that awareness. His shoulder burned and ached and he almost wished he could throw himself back into that darkness so he couldn’t feel it anymore. Unfortunately the pain blocked him from hiding in that sweet respite and he opened his eyes. Familiar sights surrounded him: his model spaceships, his poster of the constellations, his glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling. He was in his bedroom?
“Hey, you’re awake.”
Danny frowned because of all the voices he expected to hear, he never would have guessed that it would belong to Dash. “...Dash? Why are you in my bedroom?” Even saying it felt wrong, like a paradox he couldn’t speak or it would unravel the very core of the universe.
“Keeping watch,” he said simply, like that could explain everything. It didn’t, and left so many more questions. How did he even get here? How long had he been out? Why was Dash sitting on his bed like a concerned friend? “He’s awake!” he called out of the room.
Danny frowned as he reached up to feel his head. Did he actually suffer some kind of head injury and now he was in some alternate reality where absolutely nothing made sense? He noticed his scalp felt warm to the touch and he realized he’d transformed back to his human form. He must have really passed out this time.
Jazz threw herself into the room, her face filled with relief at seeing Danny awake. “Oh thank god, I was starting to get worried.”
“Wait, Jazz? How are you here?” Danny asked. Wasn’t she supposed to be at school? How did she even know he’d be in need of her help?
“I called her,” Dash replied. “After you passed out and turned back into Fenton I didn’t know what else to do, so I called Jazz to pick us up.”
“Wait you…called her?” Danny questioned further as he struggled to fit the pieces together in a way that made sense.
Dash shrugged. “Well yeah. You told me she already knew, so I figured it’d be safe. And I had her number from when she tutored me.”
Right right, he’d forgotten about that. Or rather, he’d purposefully tried to forget about that.
“He was right to call. Passing out twice after a possible head injury is reason to be concerned,” Jazz added as she walked over to his bed to check on his shoulder. He finally noticed his shoulder had been wrapped up in some medical tape. He cast a glance over to the side of his bed where his first aid kit sat open and now depleted of various medical supplies.
“Uh, it was technically only once,” he defended, though he didn’t know why that felt like something he needed to argue. “I stayed as a ghost the first time.”
“Oh, well that changes…nothing,” Jazz deadpanned. “You still passed out. And even though you don’t have many brain cells left to damage—“
“Hey!” Danny protested.
“—you need to keep all the ones you do still have,” she finished, but with a teasing tone.
Dash stifled a smile in his elbow, but quickly forced his face back into its serious frown. Did Dash not understand the self-deprecating jokes that he and his sister engaged in? Maybe that just wasn’t for him? Or did he feel bad for laughing because he didn’t know how it would be perceived? It gave him pause to see further evidence that Dash was trying to change, and it still felt weird to see.
“Dash you did a good job with this wrap,” Jazz complimented. “I can’t say I’ve ever set a shoulder, but this looks good.”
“Wait you did this?” he asked Dash. He had just assumed his sister did it since she typically took the lead on first aid.
Dash shrugged. “It’s just part of setting it.”
“It’s better than I could have done. You might be able to get by skipping the doctor.” Jazz mentioned.
Danny shook his head vehemently. “No doctors Jazz.”
“I know, I know, but if Dash wasn’t here to help with this, we would have had to go to the doctor,” she insisted. “So really you owe him.”
Hearing Jazz echo the thoughts he kept trying to ignore made them ring even louder in his head. He’d never tell her this because it would go to her head, but he always trusted her opinions on things, so much so that whenever he gave voice to his conscience, it always sounded like Jazz. If she agreed with that nagging voice that he owed Dash, he knew she was right. “I know,” he finally sighed. “I do owe you one,” he said as he tried to regard Dash with as much genuine gratitude as he could.
Dash shook his head. “No you don’t.”
“No, pretty sure I do,” Danny repeated as he gestured towards his arm. “I don’t know how I would have made it off the street without you.”
“No really, you don’t owe me anything,” Dash insisted. “I’ve been a real jerk to you in the past, and that means I’m in the red, not you.”
The room grew awkwardly silent. Danny fiddled with the edge of his medical wrap while Dash traced the constellation designs on Danny’s bedsheet. Jazz must have noticed the tonal shift (because of course she did) and she slowly backed up to the door. “I’m going to give you a chance to talk,” she decided. He didn’t miss the knowing smile that crept onto her face as she closed the door.
If Jazz thought that leaving them alone to talk would fix the awkward silence, then she really needed to read more psychology books. He shifted awkwardly in his bed. The silence felt deafening as it pounded in his ears. Or maybe that was the concussion. But the pressure of the silence closed in around him, reminding him of all the things he needed to discuss but just couldn’t seem to find the words.
Finally he broke because he just couldn’t take it anymore. He opened his mouth and expected some lame joke or statement about the weather or something to come out, but not an actual coherent thought. “I have to ask, what changed? Obviously you found out I’m Phantom, but what really changed?”
Dash shrugged but refused to meet Danny’s curious gaze. “I dunno, I just…started thinking. About us. About what happened.”
“You mean with the teddy bear?” Danny asked as he raised an irritated eyebrow. That dumb teddy bear caused him so much grief over his school life, and he hadn’t even stolen it either!
“Well yeah, that and just how it got to where it did. A lot of it I don’t even remember. I was a dumb kid. But I just remember feeling powerful, you know?” He looked up at Danny, trying to gauge if he could understand his perspective.
And really, Danny did know. He’d heard the siren song of what he could do with his power. He knew how hard it could be to turn those thoughts away. Sometimes he was better at doing that than others. But he had Jazz and the conscience she drilled into him to help keep that at bay. He had Tucker and Sam who kept him in check. Did Dash have any of those things when he felt that tempting urge? He honestly didn’t know.
So Danny nodded slightly, and it seemed to be the gateway to get Dash to open up a bit more. He relaxed a bit on the bed as he shuffled his feet on the floor. “People laughed and I guess that made me feel important. Cool. And by the time someone told me it was wrong, I just didn’t care anymore.”
He stopped himself and held up a hand. “That sounds like an excuse. I’m not here to make excuses. It was wrong, and I know that. But you want to know what actually changed? I realized you were actually a cool person under all that loser. Phantom is that cool person, but if I didn’t see that, what else didn’t I see? And maybe I should give people more of a chance because other ‘losers’ might also be cool people inside too.”
He was pretty sure Dash still called him a loser, but he decided to let it slide. He couldn’t expect too much of him too quickly. Besides, was he actually witnessing Dash learn empathy for the first time? It seemed shocking that it took him until high school to understand the concept, but maybe it was better late than never?
“You know…that happens to me with ghosts,” Danny admitted. Jazz always told him that if he wanted to get a little in a conversation, he needed to give a little. “I assume they’re bad, and sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they help me out later. I’m not saying it’s the same, but I’m saying I get it.”
Dash shook his head. “I don’t need you to get it. I’m not trying to make you see things my way or forgive me or anything. But you wanted to know what changed and…that’s it. And now I just want to make it up to you. I want to be different.”
Danny looked down at his bedding as he fiddled with the comforter. He appreciated that Dash wanted to change. He really did. How long had he been hoping that Dash would suddenly decide that he didn’t want to be a bully anymore? He could honestly say he thought about it every time he wiggled his way out of his locker. And now that Dash finally wanted to make good on that hope and really change…he didn’t know how to react. Did he praise him? Did he forgive him? Did he just let bygones be bygones? He wished he could be the kind of person who just let it all go, but he didn’t know if he could do that.
He knew he needed to give him a second chance and an opportunity to prove himself. He’d really stepped up today and showed that he could be trusted. If Dash wanted a second chance to turn things around, he’d give it to him, but he didn’t know if he could give Dash everything that he wanted. There was too much of a history there and too much of a past. Just because someone wanted to change seemingly overnight didn’t mean he could do the same. He needed more time, and hopefully Dash could respect that without setting him back through all the progress he’d already made.
“I’m glad to hear that Dash,” he replied with a small, honest smile. “That’s a good thing. And I want to help you with that, I do, but this…this doesn’t make us best friends or anything. Like we’re not gonna start hanging out.” It felt harsh to say, especially after Dash had been so open, but he needed to set his boundaries. He could support his journey without having to go to the movies with him or eat lunch with him.
Dash shook his head and waved one of his hands in dismissal. “No, that’s fine. I’ve got my own friends and football and stuff. I just wanted to make things up to you. Help when I can.”
Okay, well that made him feel slightly better that he wouldn’t have to put up with social hangouts with him, but at the same time, trying to account for yet another person on ghost hunts stressed him out. He already knew he couldn’t tell Tucker or Sam to stay away from a ghost fight after everything they’d done, and by now they had a pretty good idea how to hold their own. Jazz started out wanting to be there for ghost hunts, but he managed to have a heart-to-heart with her about how much having another person there to protect stressed him out and she showed up to the actual fights less and less. He really didn’t want to have to take care of Dash too and show him the ropes. He actually felt like Dash could pick it up quick being so naturally athletic, but he just didn’t want to invest the time into training him.
“You know I can’t let you come with us to every ghost fight, right?” Danny mentioned. Dash’s shoulders sagged, and Danny knew he’d finally gotten at the core of what this discussion really entailed. “I know it probably looks cool from the outside and all, but it’ll draw too much attention. People ignore the three of us. We’re not popular and people forget about us, and that works in our favor. People will notice the star quarterback.”
Dash sighed but he nodded in resignation. “No, I get it.”
“But look, that doesn’t mean you can’t help. You can help keep the heat off of us. We can let you in on some of the excuse plans. Honestly, we were kinda running out of them.” They’d used almost every plan on every teacher by now, and really they were just hoping that enough time had passed that they could try the same trick on the same teacher (except Lancer - nothing got past Lancer twice; it barely got past him the first time).
Dash brightened up at actually being given a job and he nodded his head enthusiastically. “Yeah! Yeah I can do that! I come up with a lot of football plays, so I can work out a whole series of coordinated excuses for you!”
…Okay, that would actually be really helpful. He’d mostly suggested it as a way to make him feel like he was being useful but that…that was actually useful. Hard as it was to believe, this was actually working out better than he originally thought it would. “That would be great. Really helpful,” Danny agreed, and Dash preened under the praise. “And the first aid was really helpful too, so if it’s ever something I can’t handle, it would sure be nice to have someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“I bet I could take a first aid class too! Get even more training!” Dash suggested. He turned on the bed to truly face Danny and he could see the resolution in his shoulders. Man, was this how he got before football games? It was kind of intense to see the way his body just radiated with excitement and drive. It was almost exhausting to look at.
“I mean, if you want to,” Danny hedged. He didn’t want him to get too crazy about this. “And look, maybe we can call you in now and then too, like we do with Jazz. Not all the time,” he was quick to add as he saw Dash’s eyes grow wide. “But when we need you.”
“So like an Honorary Team Phantom?” Dash asked as he leaned forward, his face full of boyish anticipation.
“...Sure.” Dash’s eyes shined with so much hope Danny really couldn’t shoot him down, not after he’d been a surprisingly good sport about all this. Yeah that was maybe pushing a bit far, but it was a concession he could give…for now. And hey, maybe having something he could take away if Dash got too out of hand could be a worthwhile way to keep him in check and help guide him on his path of redemption.
Dash balled his hands into fists and punched the air with determination. “Yes! I won’t let you down, I promise! I’ll be the best Honorary Team Phantom member that there is!”
If this was what it felt like being on a sports team, then he felt grateful that he didn’t make it onto the middle school football or baseball teams. He really didn’t know if he could take all this aggressive goal-setting and celebration. Hopefully he’d calm down, but he had a feeling with a pang of regret that he probably wouldn’t. But if aggressive jock energy was the major downside to getting escape plans and free first aid…he really couldn’t be too upset with how this negotiation turned out. Tucker and Sam would hate it though.
“Oh by the way, what happened to Tucker and Sam?” Danny asked. It felt strange that they weren’t here yet to check on him.
“Oh, they were off distracting your parents,” Dash said off-hand.
“Do they know what happened to me?”
“...No. I don’t have their numbers.”
“Right.” Danny winced as he finally thought to check his phone and noticed a bunch of messages asking if he was okay, where he was, and if Dash had taken him away somewhere to exact revenge on him or stick him in some Phantom shrine. That last one pulled a slight chuckle out of him, which he instantly regretted as it pushed on his broken ribs. He typed a quick response that he was safe at home and immediately they messaged they were on their way. “Alright, they’re on their way.”
“Which means I should probably go,” Dash offered.
“You don’t have to,” Danny mentioned. Yeah he didn’t really enjoy Dash’s company, but he’d done a lot for him today and the least he could do was not chase him away.
Dash shook his head. “Nah, I should probably head back to school. Got football practice later. Besides, the way your girlfriend glares at me kinda freaks me out.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Danny groaned. How many times did he need to remind people of that?
“Uh-huh,” Dash chuckled. “Whatever you say.” He stood up from the bed and gave him a respectful nod. “Get better, ‘kay?”
“Yeah, I will. And Dash? …Thanks.” He didn’t really know what he was thanking him for: the first aid care, still keeping his secret, the offers for help that he gave, respecting his boundaries when he did lay them out - really it probably encompassed all of it.
Dash seemed to get it because he gave him a soft smile. “Thanks for giving me a chance.” He waved goodbye and headed out the bedroom door. He could hear muffled conversation that got quieter as they moved further away, which must have meant that Jazz decided to escort him downstairs. Of course she would, she’d want the gossip on what took place in that room. Come to think of it, she’d had an entire car ride to talk to Dash before he woke up…
He felt dumb for only now realizing that she probably guided Dash through what to say. Looking back, he could see Jazz’s guiding hand on the whole thing. He wanted to be angry at her for interfering like that, but honestly…he couldn’t be too mad about it. He felt a lot lighter and more at peace. Yeah things with Dash weren’t perfect, and he didn’t think they ever would be, but he didn’t feel the burden hanging over him anymore. He finally felt like he’d found peace in a war ten years in the making, and that relief washed over him like a warm blanket.
He knew it wouldn’t be without its challenges. He knew Dash would probably say something dumb or insensitive because he was still learning. He knew he’d probably lose his temper at Dash being around too much. He knew his friends would hate Dash being around more. But he could really see this being a good thing in the end, and if he could say that the time he spent on Dash made him treat other people differently going forward - well he’d count that as a win.
He settled back in his bed, content to rest until Tucker and Sam got here. He knew better than to close his eyes because Jazz would freak out that he fell asleep, but despite the pain that ravaged his chest and shoulder, he stared at the ceiling feeling content.
His phone buzzed in his hand and he looked at his phone expecting some kind of update from Tucker or Sam.
“So what happens when you suck a ghost in a thermos?”
For the first time, Danny didn’t groan seeing Dash’s text. He chuckled lightly and typed out an actual, thoughtful response this time. After everything he’d done, he’d earned some real answers, and honestly, he didn’t mind.
Hopefully these last two chapters added a little more fun to the story! While I still like how pithy and compact the first chapter is, I do think these final two chapters rounded things out a bit more. It was nice to give Dash more of a proper redemption arc, and hopefully I managed to do that while still keeping Danny's reaction to it realistic.
I definitely don't want this to come across as being a bully-apologist because bullying is horrible and I will never condone it, but I am also a firm believer that people can change if they want, but it has to come from inside them. Or maybe I just like to see the best in people.
Also, credit to my IRL best friend for the Fenton Ram-O-Rama name. It was beautiful and she deserves so much credit for that bit of genius.
Anyways, hope you had fun!
#danny phantom#fanfiction#danny phantom fanfiction#danny fenton#dash baxter#phic phight 24#phic phight 2024#phic phight#post identity reveal#canon divergent#dash baxter redemption arc#team ghost#phic phight team ghost
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Why Am I Like This?
4043 words, GrayGhost, written for @duchi-nesten's prompt for last year's phic phight that I never posted on here 😭. Welp, had to get it done before this year's phight. Enjoy!
“You know how there were rumors a while ago that I had a girlfriend?” he asked, and, Ancients, did his voice have to crack on that last word?
“No need to be so embarrassed, Danny-boy! We already know that you’re dating the Red Huntress!” his dad bellowed.
What.
“Yes,” his mom said curtly, “ we do.”
Or
Danny’s brain was short-circuiting.
How was he supposed to explain that he’s dating Valerie Gray, who was definitely not a vigilante ghost hunter, without giving away that he was definitely not a half-ghost vigilante ghost hunter, too?
He got a feeling that Clockwork was laughing at his pain.
Danny set his fork down carefully, grateful that tonight’s dinner wasn’t trying to kill him. He didn’t need that tonight, not when his plans were already going to be so stressful.
“So,” he started, and immediately three pairs of eyes zeroed in on him. His parents were looking at him expectantly, like they’d just been waiting for him to speak up which was… not a good sign, but Jazz was giving him her encouraging-yet-I’ll-be-disappointed-if-you-don’t-do-it look, so he kinda had to follow through now.
“You know how there were rumors a while ago that I had a girlfriend?” he asked, and, Ancients, did his voice have to crack on that last word? His parents were still waiting for him to get to the point.
“Yes, sweetie?” his mom prompted, her violet eyes shining with feigned nonchalance as she picked at her plate. At least she was pretending to be casual; his dad was openly staring at him again. He inwardly cringed, remembering the last time his dad thought he had a girlfriend.
He coughed and started rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh, well,” Why did it have to be so embarrassing to tell your parents about your love life! “There’s this girl, you know. And she’s super kickass and fiery but also determined and loyal and compassionate? Uh, sorry, you already know her–”
Suddenly his dad clapped him on the back with enough force, ghost-enhanced physique or not, to nearly make him faceplant into his mashed potatoes. “No need to be so embarrassed, Danny-boy! We already know that you’re dating the Red Huntress!” his dad bellowed.
What.
“Yes,” his mom said curtly, “we do.”
Danny sent a look Jazz’s way that was more a cry for help than anything else, but she was just as bewildered. Their mom sighed.
“After ghost fights,” she said, “Jack and I still hang around the area just to collect extra samples or run a few numbers while the ectoplasm’s still fresh. But we also see you there, sweetie, talking with the Red Huntress or even riding around with her on her board going who-knows-where.”
Danny’s brain was short-circuiting. He was half tempted to check if dinner had been contaminated with ectoplasm, after all.
The reason he was hanging around with Val after ghost fights was because he had fought alongside her during the fight. And somehow, instead of figuring out his identity, his parents… figured out his love life? Sort of? He wanted to think it was a stroke of good luck, or - more likely - another case of his bad luck to be added to the file. How was he supposed to explain that he’s dating Valerie Gray, who was definitely not a vigilante ghost hunter, without giving away that he was definitely not a half-ghost vigilante ghost hunter, too? He got a feeling that Clockwork was laughing at his pain.
“What?” he says a bit too cheerfully, “No -pfft- come on, I’m not dating some masked ghost hunter! I was just there after ghost fights because, uh…”
His dad guffawed before slapping him on the back again. “You’re a riot, son! Maddie and I once saw you exit a janitor’s closet in your school after a fight with ol’ Red, the both of you looking pretty flustered.” The big man was waggling his eyebrows at Danny.
Danny wanted to phase through his chair and into the floor.
“Of course, we all know that proximity to ghosts and ghost fights is very dangerous,” his mom was all business. “If that girl is putting you at risk, sweetie, we’re going to need to have a very long talk with her. And you’ll need more combat lessons!” she added cheerfully. “I know you’re afraid of the ghosts, but if this relationship is turning your interests toward them, then…!”
And that was when Jazz intervened. “Mom, Dad! You’re embarrassing him, look!” She went on, “This is not the kind of conversation that is conducive to a healthy psyche, especially not when the subject is so touchy among boys his age. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to leave the scenario you’ve created.”
He so owed her. “Yep! I’ll be going now, bye.” And if he used a little of his ghostly speed to get out of the dining room and up the stairs faster, no one would know. Except for Clockwork.
Clockwork was definitely laughing at him.
–
Danny started eavesdropping, invisible outside his parents’ door, in time to hear his dad sigh loudly with relief.
“I told you he couldn’t be dating Valerie, Maddie! The girl’s way out of his league!”
Danny had to hold back a scoff. Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Dad.
“And the Red Huntress isn’t?” his mom challenged.
Danny pouted. Et tu, Mom? (Aha! A Shakespeare reference. He was so going to actually get higher than a passing grade this semester.) He was so tempted to barge in and loudly declare that he was, in fact, dating both of those girls. That girl. He sighed. There’s the problem.
“Even if she is his age - and so help me if she’s older - we’ve seen them meet up before and after ghost fights!” He could hear his mom’s light footsteps as she paced the length of the room. “What happens when ‘before’ or ‘after’ becomes ‘during’? You’ve seen how aggressive she is sometimes! She puts him in danger!”
Danny heard the creaking of a bed as his dad flopped down onto it with a sigh. “She’s probably swept him off his feet, too.” Okay, so maybe Val has rescued him a few times, even carried him bridal style once, but he’s saved her, too!
His dad continued, regardless of Danny’s wounded pride, “I know how hard it is to resist a force of a woman.”
Danny’s thoughts came to a halt. What was with that tone…
He heard the shuffling of sheets. “Speaking from experience, are we?” his mom asked with a chuckle.
“You’d know it, you were there,” his dad replied - and nope! That was about enough for Danny. He was glad his parents had a happy marriage but he did not need to hear how happy it was.
He retreated to his room, head buzzing with the mess he and Val had gotten themselves into.
Crud.
–
Danny had been trying for a week.
He’d flunked his English paper (the assignment wasn’t about Caesar, go figure), and he’d been dodging Valerie all week. A few months ago, he would’ve meant dodging her blasts and hits, but now he meant trying to get out of hanging out with her or - Ancients forbid - having her come to his house. It also meant that by virtue of not wanting to make Valerie feel like she was being excluded, he couldn’t have Sam or Tucker over, either. He was starting to lose his mind all alone in the house. And no, he was not going to Jazz for help about it.
Look, it was an embarrassing problem, okay? His parents disapproved of the relationship they thought he had with the ghost-fighting alter ego of his girlfriend because they thought it was reckless and put him in danger. And they knew about it because they’d basically walked in on their more… private moments. Letting them actually meet with Red and lecturing her on how to properly protect him and save him like the damsel in distress they thought he was for being so afraid of ghosts this whole time was a total no-go - he’d never hear the end of from Val!
He was trying to figure out why this whole situation felt so familiar when Jazz walked in on him pacing the length of his room. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. “Can it. I don’t wanna hear it, Jazz.”
She pouted a little at that, then huffed. “If you’re not going to listen to my advice about healthy communication in all relationships in your life, just let me say that our parents are stubborn to a fault. If they latch onto an idea, they need solid proof to discount it.” She shot him A Look. “You know that better than anyone.”
She turned on her heel with a little ‘harrumph!’ and disappeared from his doorway, her orange hair swinging as she went.
Danny sighed, and tried to get back into brainstorming convincing arguments against his parents. He’d tried to completely deny that anything had happened between him and the Red Huntress, claiming that in this freaky town, it could’ve been ghosts! (You know, the ol’ reliable). He’d told them that at most, the Red Huntress was just a friend. Then his dad started to ask him why he blushed whenever they brought it up and started to tease him and… he lost that argument pretty soon after. He went for a partial denial after that one. He wasn’t dating the Red Huntress, they’d just made out a couple of times. Sort of like a fakeout-makeout, even. That one made his parents angry. “Son,” his dad had said with a distinct tone of fatherly disappointment, “I did not raise you to play with people’s feelings. If you’re not dating the Huntress, then–” “Just kidding! Haha, I meant that we weren’t dating at the time! Wait. I mean, we’re not dating!” Danny resisted the urge to put his head in his hands. That went well. He’d even considered outright telling them that he was dating Valerie and showing them proof, but he shut that idea down. What if they thought he was a two-timer (ugh.). What if they put two and two together for once and figured out that she was the Red Huntress? And he didn’t want to drag Valerie as proof over just to have her watch him either be very awkward with his parents or argue with them. Valerie had too much on her plate for her to be wasting her time in his family drama.
Wait, what was it that Jazz had said about ‘proof’? That his parents were stubborn and needed it to be convinced of something. Well, duh. They were scientists. Sure, though they had definitely dropped the idea a while ago, they used to be extremely biased against ghosts. They held onto the idea that all ghosts were evil so stubbornly that Danny was legit afraid to be around them in the beginning. At least they’d warmed up to Phantom lately.
But what proof did his parents need? They actually had too much proof on their side, evidence that Danny couldn’t refute.
Something green glinted in his peripheral vision, His head whipped around to look at it, and he found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror. In his stress, his eyes had turned that otherworldly green, a shade that seemed so out of place with his regular complexion and black hair.
Oh, right. There was something else that his parents were being stubborn about.
(Maybe it was related? Jazz could look into their family’s seemingly genetic stubbornness, but – she probably already has several papers on it.)
He sighed. He didn’t need to convince his family that he was dating Valerie, not the Red Huntress (because, hey, they were right for once. Sort of. And he didn’t want to ask Val to fake-date him or something, it’d just be too complicated). He needed proof to convince them that dating her was not putting him at risk.
He ran a hand across his face, and in the reflection he could see that his eyes had smoothly transitioned from green back to blue. He sighed. He was going to need to ask his sister for advice on this one.
–
Danny waited until the last second to dodge a glowing green ghostly cube of doom, stepping nonchalantly to the side in midair and watching the Box Ghost’s frustrated reaction with smug satisfaction. But he’s not ignoring the guy just to mess with him. He was just focused on someone else.
“Red!” he hissed. Normally, he’d love to just watch her during combat, because in the fruitloop’s words, she really was good at this, but he needed to talk to her. They were flying higher than some of the buildings around, but his parents were directly beneath them and for all he knew, they’d made a Ghost-Whisper-Detector-Inator or something.
“Oh, so now you wanna talk!” she replied, the distortion from her helmet making her voice sound more metallic and making her angry tone all the more sharp and unsettling. She grunted as she hefted one of her heavier canons onto her shoulder before taking a shot at the Box Ghost. Danny winced as the projectile hit its mark directly and the poor guy got launched a couple blocks down the road. The two of them sped toward where he’d crashed into a wall and blocked his exits, one of them on either side of him. It was way overkill and the Red Huntress was clearly fuming, but Danny couldn’t resist saying, “Guess you could say we boxed him in.”
He couldn’t tell if the groan that came from the Box Ghost was a result of his injuries or Danny’s pun.
Red came closer, pressing a finger to his chest. “I’m about ready to box your hide–”
Danny’s voice cracked as he interrupted her, “Yep! So, can we have this little lovers’ spat over there,” he pointed at a nearby rooftop that was just tall enough to give them some privacy from people on the street, “you know, where my parents won’t see?” He put his hands in the air as he floated away slowly, toward that rooftop. Behind him, he heard Red huff before the telltale humming of her board followed him there.
As soon as they alighted on the roof, the Red Huntress stored her board away and took off her helmet. Valerie’s long, brown curls billowed in the wind and Danny tried not to stare. The whole Technus-enhanced suit she used to have was cool and all, but it was a little creepy, especially since Technus had been so… involved in their first relationship. He much preferred this suit, made by Tucker and the rest of the team using both Vladco and Fenton Works tech. She crossed her arms. “Start talking, Ghost-boy.”
Danny blinked. That took him back to the good ol’ days of when she was trying to kill him - was he sure Clockwork wasn’t messing with the timestream or something?
“Right,” he started, “So, sorry for ghosting you this past week.” His eyes widened in alarm. “Pun not intended, pun not intended!”
She just scoffed and muttered under her breath, “Yeah, right.” But some of the tension left her shoulders, and he could tell that she was holding back a smile. He took it as a sign to continue. He’d been trying to figure out the best way to explain the whole thing, but in the end he just said, “My parents think you and I are dating.”
She cocked an eyebrow at that. “And is that the problem?”
“Sort of.” He reached for her helmet. “You see, they think you,” he gestured to the red helmet in his hands, “are dating me,” he quickly transformed and gestured to his human self. “They think you’re putting me in danger,” he sighed, handing the helmet back to her.
Valerie took the helmet back and his words in slowly. Then she burst into laughter. “They think that I,” she said in between chuckles, “am putting Danny ‘Protector of Amity Park’ and ‘Heir to the Ghost Throne’ Phantom in danger?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Danny groaned. He knew it. He was never going to hear the end of this. She was going to tell the rest of the gang using the groupchat that he was definitely not a part of.
“So that’s why they’ve been chasing me down all week, too,” she added, calming down.
“They’ve been what?” Danny felt a sudden wave of guilt wash over him. He’d been so caught up with trying to keep Valerie free from the stress that his family was causing him that he hadn’t even bothered to check in with her.
She shrugged. “Guess their shouts of ‘Something something my son!’ and ‘Stay away!’ make a lot more sense now. For a moment there, I thought they were tryna run me outta town.” She looked him in the eye. “Is that what it was like for you, y’know,” she said quietly, “before?”
Danny stepped closer to her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorta.” He held her hands through her suit’s gloves and was happy to feel her give him a returning squeeze. “But that was before, and my parents have been harassing you all week. Are you okay?”
“They’ve been harassing both of us all week and we just didn’t know it,” she chuckled. “What idiots. I just missed you, is all.”
He sighed. Jazz was right (Jazz was always right), if he’d just communicated with his relationships or something… “Sorry,” he said again. She just nodded.
“So, what’s your plan?”
–
“You sure you’re okay with telling my parents?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s totally fine.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not like you already revealed my secret identity to my dad and got me in a lot of trouble.”
“Hey!” he protested. “It was one time…” he added guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck.
She grinned and punched his arm playfully. “I know, I know. Not like I didn’t deserve it.”
He frowned a little. That was true, but he still felt like the action had crossed a line. If anyone knew the importance of a secret identity, it would be him. He reached for her hand and she accepted the gesture, holding his hand as they walked to the edge of the roof. “True,” he said. “You used to be pretty morally Gray.”
“You are lucky I love you, Fenton.”
He stopped just short of being visible to those on the ground and gaped at her. She was shorter than him, but she stood tall with all her confidence and an expectant smirk. There was a challenge in her eyes, even if maybe the effect was kinda thrown off by the blush on her cheeks.
“I love you, too,” he said, and she rolled her eyes as if to say ‘duh.’ “And I love that you won’t whoop my ass in front of my parents? Unless, uh, you wanna show me all fifty shades–”
Valerie pressed a quick kiss to his lips before he could finish that sentence. “I love you, but that won’t help you if I hear the end of that sentence.” Helmet back on, she pulled him by the scruff of his shirt and yanked him onto her board before launching them both off the edge toward his parents.
“There she is, Maddie! And Danny-boy’s here, too?”
“Red Huntress! Be careful with my son!”
Red guided the board smoothly over until they arrived in front of his parents.
“Don’t worry, sweetie,” his mom greeted him as soon as he and Valerie stepped onto the street, “we already dealt with the Box Ghost that Phantom just left for us.”
“Now, Maddie,” his dad interjected. “The Box Ghost is small fry! Phantom trusts us with that kind of thing.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she conceded with a sigh. And– Danny knew that this truce was the longest one that had ever lasted between Phantom and his parents, and he knew that Jazz had beaten the anti-ghost bias out of them a long time ago, but hearing the way they were so quick to defend and accept his alter ego now was still jarring. In all this time, even if he didn’t realize it, he was already a lot more relaxed about his identity, not caring if he let something suspicious slip or sometimes even being careless on purpose. It’s just that his parents were too stubborn to see it.
“Speaking of the Ghost-boy,” his dad continued, “where’d he go?”
“We’ll deal with that in a sec,” Danny dismissed easily. He gestured to the Huntress behind him. She stepped forward as confident as ever, her hand outstretched for a handshake. “Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, the Red Huntress.” He watched as his mom accepted the gesture easily, though somewhat stiffly, while his dad’s handshake threatened to pull Red off her feet. “But you also know her from somewhere else.”
On cue, his girlfriend took off her helmet, and Danny continued despite his parents’ shocked gasps, “Val, these are my parents.”
His dad was the first to speak up. “Damon’s girl?” He chuckled with delight. “I knew you were out of Danny’s league!”
“Hey!” he started, but Valerie spoke up for him instead. “If anything, Mr. Fenton, your son’s too good for me,” she said, looking back at him with big, green eyes. He shook his head at her, and put a hand on her shoulder.
“You can call him, Jack, dear,” his mom said. She’d taken off her hood and goggles and she was smiling softly at the two of them. “And I’m Maddie. It’s nice to really meet you.”
Danny and Valerie smiled at each other. “It’s good that I can tie a face that I trust to your girlfriend, Danny,” his mom said. “But! That doesn’t mean that she can take you around with her to ghost fights if we don’t set some ground rules first.” The older woman turned to Valerie. “I know you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, but poor Danny’s been afraid of his own shadow since the ghost portal went up, you see.”
Danny’s dad nodded. “Gotta make sure our boy is looked after!”
“Actually,” Danny butt in, “I can take care of myself.” His parents went quiet and looked at each other. His heart was pounding.
“It’s good to be confident, Danno! But–”
“No ‘buts’, Dad. I haven’t been completely honest with you guys, and it’s not fair to ask Val to reveal her identity when my reveal is way overdue.” He looked down at the street, missing the way his mother’s hand traveled to her mouth and his dad’s jaw was set with knowing determination. Valerie’s hand found his and squeezed it reassuringly. He took a deep breath.
The rings of his transformation glided smoothly over his form. When he opened his eyes to look at his parents, he tensed for just a moment as his vision was filled with the sight of the two of them barrelling toward him. But then they both crushed him in a hug, and all the tension left his shoulders. Even Val was squished in here with him and he laughed wetly. “I guess you guys finally caught the Ghost-boy, huh? Guess you weren’t ex-specter that one!” Then everyone groaned.
After a while, they all pulled away.
“Don’t think we won’t be having talks about all of,” his mom gestured vaguely to him, then to themselves, “this.”
“Oh, sonny, there’ll be a lot of talking to do.” The man looked to his wife. “And I’m going to have to edit the ‘birds and the bees’ spiel a bit, eh? We gotta take into account all your ghostly biology, after all!”
“My ghostly…” Danny turned as green as ectoplasm. Val was as red as her suit.
“Dad!” he whined, making his parents chuckle.
It wasn’t perfect, but, eh. They’d figure it out.
–
“So, how did you end up thinking that Danny was dating the Red Huntress?” Valerie asked, and Danny choked on his mom’s mac and cheese. He glared at Jazz from across the table, and she tried her best to stifle a laugh.
“Well…” his mom started, looking at her husband with a knowing smirk on her face.
“Mom!” he said, accidentally flashing his eyes green.
“No ghost powers at the table, sweetie,” she replied without missing a beat. He huffed and sat back in his seat. He met Valerie’s eye and she had one eyebrow up in an expression that felt like she thought she should be amused, but she didn’t know why yet. Oh, she was going to regret that fast.
His dad picked up the story, “You know the janitor’s closet on the third floor of Casper High?”
#phic phight 2023#phic phight#danny phantom#valerie gray#team ghost#late post I am sorrrryyyyyyyyy#the title is from that one Heartstoppper song#gray ghost
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Phic Phight 2024 Master Post;
I participated in Phic Phight this year on Team Ghost!
Please see the links to all my fics below.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you click on a fic, please read the tags! Some themes may not be suitable for some. Trigger Warnings are provided.
Total Words: 62k+
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ONE
@pennerjones's prompt: Clockwork tends Pariah Dark’s wounds after a hard battle.
All We Wanted (CW patches up PD's wounds) || Tumblr; Ao3
TW: needles, wounds, etc.
TWO
@ashesoriley & @underforeversgrace's prompts: A look through Mr lancers eyes as he tries to figure out what's up with the Fenton kid (&) Lancer notices Something is up with the Fenton kid and intervenes.
Didn't You Know (Mr. Lancer Helps Danny) || Tumblr; Ao3
THREE
@lavendarlily's prompt: Who knew Danny Fenton was so agile? Paulina makes it her personal mission to get him on the cheer squad.
Gonna Make You a Star (Cheer AU) || Tumblr; Ao3
FOUR
@aggressivelyclueless's prompt: Backstory: pick your favorite ghost and flesh out their history a little. How did they die? What do they miss most about being alive?
All Boxed Up (Crack fic about BG's death) || Tumblr
TW: character death
FIVE
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme and @bellsandmischief's prompts: Danny is a merperson who has always been fascinated by humans (&) Danny, but make it Disney prince/princess.
The Little Phintom (Mer AU) || Tumblr; Ao3
TW: Dark Magic, Body "Horror" (Danny gets legs), Body Modification
SIX
@duchi-nesten's prompt: Danny’s been enjoying spending time with Nocturn lately, even with the unfortunate side effect of his skin being replaced by stars. That’s… probably fine, right?
Becoming (Mentor Nocturn AU) || Tumblr; Ao3
TW: Body Horror, Body Modification
SEVEN
@fangirlwriting-stories, @xscarletsakurax, @summerssixecho, @46-reasonable-hamsters, & @ikiracake prompts (I'm not going to post the prompts here lol):
I'll Be Your Hero (No One Knows Except Dash AU) || Tumblr; Ao3
EIGHT
@greatbigolhampuckjustforme and @bellsandmischief's prompts: Danny is a merperson who has always been fascinated by humans (&) Danny, but make it Disney prince/princess.
J.O.Y. (Just One Yesterday) (Vlad Time Travels) || Tumblr; Ao3
TW: False Hope
NINE
@currentlylurking & @duchi-nesten's prompt: Nobody really knew anything about how the Ghost King was determined, but that didn’t change how sure they were that Danny Phantom would be the next king. It didn’t change how wrong they were, either. (&) Who knew being the ghost king included having to hold a tea party for all the still-existing, previous ghost kings? Surely not Danny.
Peace of Mind (Ghost King Danny) || Tumblr; Ao3
TEN
@jackdraw-spwrite & @ave-aria's prompts: There are more rooms in Clockwork's lair, Danny thinks, than he could find in a week of looking. So he opens doors, flies through windows. Explores. Clockwork lets him, and that means he can't get in too much trouble doing it, right? (&) "Someone once told me you can bring a person back to life just by remembering them."
A Haunting Melody (CW has a painful secret) || Ao3
TW: Implied Child Loss
ELEVEN
Chrysanthemum, @sidewalkgloom, @scarletsaphire, @hannahmanderr, @ghostlyhabato's prompts (I'm not going to post the prompts here either lol):
Boundaries & Baggage (CW has a curious past with PD) || Ao3
TWELVE
Dekalkomania, @kinglazrus, Saphir, @raaorqtpbpdy, @TourettesDog, @littlebadger, @fangirlwriting-stories, Lumi, @fentoaster, Ghxstkids, & @Anguished-Lurker's prompts (not posting prompts here):
Lightning In a Bottle (Danny is dying slowly) || Ao3
TW: Heavy Angst, Anxiety, Trauma, Abandonment, Character Death
THIRTEEN
@aggressivelyClueless & @bloggerspam's prompts: "Backstory: pick your favorite ghost and flesh out their history a little. How did they die? What do they miss most about being alive?" (&) Danny and Ellie Parent Trap a Fighting/Divorced Johnny and Kitty:
Fate Deals In Bad Luck || Tumblr; Ao3
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If links are broken or incorrect, please let me know! I'll fix them right away!
#phic phight#phic phight 2024#team ghost#phandom events#phandom#dp fanfiction#ao3#ao3 link#fic writing#fanfics#ashseadreamer#writers on tumblr#writeblr#writing#danny phantom#dp#danny phantom fanfic#danny phantom fanfiction#danny fenton#jazz fenton#jack fenton#maddie fenton#clockwork#mr lancer#vlad masters#box ghost#johnny 13#kitty#disabled au#disabled danny
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Dash, Star, and Paulina all take a nice walk through the park, before the girls abandon him. It's a good thing Danny Fenton is there to keep him company!
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Fic 6 for @phicphight! This prompt fill is for @nat-space-obsessed, and is also the spirtual successor to Cheerleader Lock In, but is also perfectly functional as a standalone fic. Prompts used are listed at the bottom!
It was a nice day for a walk in the park. That's what Star had said when she'd invited Dash out. She was right; it was a beautiful day for a walk. The sun was out to warm his skin but not enough to burn, the wind was just strong enough to be cooling and comforting, and to rattle the leaves, and the birdsong was on point. He couldn't think of a better way to spend it then with his two best girl friends, Paulina and Star.
If only he actually was spending time with them.
They'd made it to a scenic picnic table, in the shade of a tall willow tree and overlooking the lake, the kind of table that was rarely ever actually available. Dash had barely sat down before Paulina was looking at her phone and announcing that they had "important girl business to take care of" and that he needed to sit right there until they came back.
Dash picked at the flaking wood of the table. It was bullshit; the day was perfect, and here he was, waiting for the two girls to figure out undisclosed girl talk. It was probably something to do with their period. Dumb crustacean cycle. Mother nature was a bitch for making girls go through that kind of thing. It should've been him, and his fellow men who had to deal with that shit; he was fairly certain he could handle it. Besides, his mother had told him it made girls more tolerant to pain, and that would help him on the field.
Dash had managed to peel off a solid three inches of the table, and all in one piece too, when he felt the bench shift underneath him. He looked up, hoping to see that Paulina and Star had made it back. Instead, he was met with Daniel Fenton sitting across from him. He was beautiful; the sun was shining down on him in just the sort of way that made his hair look like it was floating in the wind and gave him a halo, his smile was small and slight but so charming, and the freckles across his nose spread in such an intricate pattern, unlike anything Dash had seen before.
"Um... do I have something on my face?"
Dash shook himself out of his stupor. He wasn't surprised that he'd ended up staring; he normally did, when it came to Danny. He'd just never gotten caught doing it. "Uh. No. Sorry. I was just um. Looking at the pond?" Nailed it.
Danny laughed, and Dash had to put effort into not staring again. "Right. So, um. What are you doing out here?"
"Oh, Star and Paulina asked me out," Dash replied. He immediately started backtracking. "Not as like, a date! Just as friends. To enjoy the weather."
"It is really nice out, yeah," Danny agreed. "I guess you're waiting for them?"
Dash nodded. "Yeah, they had some stuff to take care of. I'm sure they'll be coming back. Eventually."
"I know how those two are. Always up to something."
"Yeah. If you want to, you can join me? Until they come back? Or after too, I don't think they'd like. Kick you out or anything, since you're their friends too and all."
"I can stay for a little while," Danny said with a full, proper smile, and Dash could feel his heart skip a beat in his chest.
There was a beat of silence, and then two, and Dash could feel the awkwardness filling the air. He spoke to try and break it, but Danny had the same idea.
"So, what are you-"
"I saw you at-"
They both stopped at the same time too, before laughing together. "You go first," Danny said.
"You sure?" At Danny's nod, Dash continued. "I was just wondering what you were doing out here?"
"Oh! Just. Going for a walk," Danny said, and Dash was almost able to convince himself that he was blushing. It was probably just a trick of the light though.
"It is a nice day," Dash said. "What were you going to say?"
"Oh, I was just going to say that I saw you during the game last week. You were incredible, as always."
Now it was Dash's turn to blush, and this one was definitely real. "Thank you," he said. "You did amazing too. I don't get how you can be thrown around like that and not vomit all over everyone else. I'd be spewing chunks everywhere in a heart beat." Yeah, real smooth, Baxter. Talk about vomiting. That'll get him to like you.
"It's not that hard, really," Danny said. "You get used to being in the air after a while, and I've had a lot of practice."
"I thought Paulina recruited you because you were already so good at stuff like that?"
There was a brief pause. "Uh, well, yeah, she did, but that was mostly cause I'm flexible and know how to do flips and stuff. Not because I was comfortable in the air. That came after."
"That makes sense," Dash nodded again. "Cause I was gonna say, I don't think most people get a lot of experience in the air without, you know, doing something in the air."
Danny laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, you're right."
This time, the awkward silence fully descended upon them.
Dash glanced around the park, but there was no sign of Paulina and Star anywhere. "Where did those two girls go?" he mumbled.
Clearly, he wasn't quiet enough. "See, about that," Danny said. "This might have been a set up?"
Dash blinked in surprise. Mostly because he had no idea what Danny could mean by that. "What?"
"Well, the cheerleader lock in was yesterday, and they said that you have a crush on me, which I'm not saying you do or don't! That's just what they said, and then they kind of read that I have a crush on you, which, once again, am neither confirming or denying, but after that they said that you would never like. Actually ask me out? Because you were scared of crossing a boundary, which I get and super appreciate, cause if I didn't like you back that would've been super weird and awkward, but they also knew I wouldn't ever ask you out, and they were right, so they put together this scheme to get us alone together? And so I guess I'm asking you out now? But only if you want, to, I'm not going to force you or anything, and also if they were lying than please let me know, because I wouldn't put it past them, and-"
"Danny." Dash put his hand on Danny's, effectively interrupting the other boy's rambles. "Do you want to go get ice cream?"
Danny's smile was bright enough to blind, and Dash couldn't help but return it, even while his cheeks burned red hot. "Yeah."
Dash did not let go of Danny's hand, even as they stood from the table and started walking towards the park's exits.
Those girls could come back to an empty picnic table, for all he cared. Dash had found a better way to spend the day.
--
Natt- Is there something on my face?
#danny phantom#danny phantom fanfiction#danny fenton#dash baxter#golden twinkie#swagger bishie#teddy ghost#phic phight#team human#phic phight 2024
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Oh. I can already tell. Phic Phight is gonna consume my April but I love it.
I would not sleep and just write if I could.
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i love you (don't kill me)
Title: i love you (don't kill me)
Words: 4591
Warnings: Major Character Death, (semi) Graphic Depictions of Violence
Prompts:
Sherry_A_H: Tearing up Phantom molecule by molecule is something the Fentons will regret for the rest of their lives.
Nocturnal Starr: Maddie struggles to come to terms with Danny being Phantom.
Astatia Ghast: When Danny’s body is purged of ectoplasm, he begins to waste away. It turns out the Accident changed his body so completely that he can no longer survive without ectoplasm.
Even with as many times as it’s been explained to her, Maddie still just can’t understand. She can’t grasp her son, her black-haired, blue-eyed little boy, being Phantom. It just wasn’t possible. It wasn’t.
Maddie leaned back in her chair, rubbing her gloved hand across her tired face as the heart monitor beeped steadily. At least they were able to handle this at home. Express fake concern that it was high level ectoplasmic contamination, that he couldn’t be admitted to a general hospital because of it. But there was nothing to be done, was there? Not anymore. She and Jack had gone too far, messed up too severely this time.
Maddie just sat there, listening to the monitor. Danny’s heartbeat was far too slow. Even his friends had said this was lower than his normal. Well, Tucker had advised them of that. Sam refused to speak to them. Even Tucker had been short and to the point in his response, his voice cold and hard.
Jazz had been the one to fill them in, Tucker nor Sam could be in the same room as Maddie and Jack for longer than a few seconds, far too little time to go over the events of the past two years. Jazz couldn’t bear to look at her parents either, though. She hated them. Maddie could find no kindness or softness in her daughter’s face anymore, no hint of love for them. And she found she couldn’t blame Jazz for her reaction.
They all knew what Jack and Maddie had done.
A small alarm trilled from her pocket, pulling Maddie back to the room. The blue room with the stars on the ceiling and model rockets littered on shelves along the walls. The blue room with the hospital bed, with her dying son.
She pulled the timer out from her pocket, silencing it with a button press.
“Time for another injection?” A male voice asked behind her, near the door.
The man was named Michaels, he was a bodyguard Sam had hired to watch over Danny, because Sam didn’t trust his parents alone with him. While Maddie could hold her own against most people, Michaels was not one of them. He was an even more skilled black belt than she, an even better shot with the human gun at his hip.
He was a stranger in her son’s bedroom, he was an unwelcome figure in her family’s suffering.
He was her son’s protector while she had been his executioner.
Maddie sighed. “Yes, it is.”
“The red one again?”
“No, the blue one.”
“Is it really already time for the blue one again? He’s already had one in the past twenty four hours.” Michaels responded, his voice light but his eyes narrowed at her in distrust. He didn’t know the full story - what Danny was, exactly what his parents had done to him - but he was no fool. Then again, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize something was wrong when he’d been explicitly told to keep an eye on Maddie and Jack.
“He… he didn’t stabilize with that one this morning. Normally, he has an increase in his vital signs - his heart rate, oxygen levels, temperature - but he had none of that. No use in giving a booster when the shot didn’t take.” Maddie replied, her heart clenching in her chest.
Her eyes strayed to the bedside table, where a small present wrapped in starry paper sat. Her little Danny had turned sixteen eight days ago. He’d been in a coma for ten. He’d never open that present, would he? See the car they’d bought for him? The keys sat in that little box - a singular key with a NASA emblem on the keychain, to an older model car they’d parked at the Mansons’.
Tears pricked at the mother’s eyes and she blinked them away before they could fall. She still held onto hope that Danny would suddenly awake, happy and healthy and whole in whatever way he wanted, and she didn’t want him to see her crying.
“Here,” Michaels said, handing a syringe over to Maddie. Thick red liquid seemed to bubble in the glass, or was it a gas? Ectoplasm was such an odd thing. Michaels shot her a firm nod then stepped back by the dresser, locking the case with the chemicals back up. Yet another safeguard for Danny’s life, at risk from his parents. Their concoction had been tested by ectologists even more renowned than the Fentons, to make sure it would not harm a ghost. It was kept in a locked case and only the other scientists were allowed to formulate more, based on what Maddie and Jack had created. She never touched them except when it was time for one.
Did the Fentons even count as ectologists, Maddie wondered? Or just monsters with guns, shooting down and destroying anything that didn’t fall on the ‘right’ side of the alive/dead binary?
Maddie popped the protective cover off the needle, turning Danny’s arm so the crook of his elbow looked up at her - covered in bruises and needle marks from where she’d been desperately trying to save him.
Ironic, isn’t it? Maddie had fantasized about doing this to Danny Phantom. About strapping him to a table, cutting him open, injecting every possible substance under the sun into his arm to see how his spectral body would react. She’d already known she would have to ignore the creature’s screams. Not sentient. Not able to feel pain. Not able to die when he was already dead.
Her and Jack had discussed the best ways to slice him open - though, then, they’d still been calling Phantom an it - without destabilizing him. They didn’t want his core to give out before they’d even started, after all. They’d wanted to carve off chunks of Phantom’s ‘fake’ skin, rip their way into whatever he had in his chest cavity. Wanted to cut and take samples and biopsies from every inch of the ghost, inside and out. And it would’ve all started with a simple shot, wouldn’t it? Some sort of suppressant to keep the ghost’s abilities at bay.
So, no, Maddie couldn’t be upset at how her daughter and her son’s friends were acting.
She’d gotten her dream. She just hadn’t realized it could ever be a nightmare.
But this was definitely a nightmare she was in, a hell of her own making, as she gently pressed the needle into him, piercing through flesh and injecting the mixture into him. She looked at the monitor connected to him, all the wires measuring all the signs of life in him, desperate to see an improvement.
But there was nothing. He hadn’t reacted. He was just as still, looked just as dead.
Pain pierced her through the heart as she collapsed back into her seat - she would’ve almost sworn she’d been stabbed, the pain felt so real, so tangible. This was their last idea. Human blood supercharged with ectoplasm, with enough electricity going through it to take out a city block, to try to make them bind together, to mimic what they’d stolen from Danny.
But it failed. They had failed. She had failed. How could this be happening? It just wasn’t possible. It wasn’t. How could they have messed up so badly?
“We’ve got it, Mads!” Jack yelled, running to the glowing form on the ground.
“Nice shot, dear!” Maddie called, a wide grin across her face as the two ghost hunters caught up with their prey.
Danny Phantom looked up at them through the net, eyes unfocused, mouth moving without sound.
“It worked! Whatever brain pattern it has mimicked isn’t working!” Jack said, proudly hoisting the overly large gun onto his shoulder, beaming at his wife.
“The Fenton Scrambler might just be one of our best inventions!” She said, clapping her hands together as her husband grabbed the net and began dragging it behind them, back towards the GAV. Maddie opened the rear doors and Jack tossed the ghost in. It made a noise and placed a hand against its head, slightly shaking its head, doing a very good job of mimicking confusion.
Jack and Maddie hopped into their seats and Jack floored it, sending them flying back towards their home, tossing any and all driving safety recommendations out the window.
Within minutes, they were home, their catch unloaded and dragged down to the lab, still unable to speak. Unceremoniously, Jack tossed the ghost into a containment block at the corner of the lab, all sides blocked by phase proof glass.
“Hmph, Danny still hasn’t done his chores!” Jack whined, looking at the messy lab. The table they needed was half buried under old, never finished inventions. Mess covered every flat surface - from old pizza boxes to ectoplasm and everything in between.
“We’ll remind him when he gets home!” Maddie said, kissing Jack on the cheek. They began to clean, both shaking with excitement.
Maddie kept glancing over at the corner, licking her lips in anticipation. The ghost seemed to be getting some of its limited faculties back, the net had slipped off when it’d been tossed in. It pressed a hand against its eyes and wrapped the other arm around its center. It’s ability to pretend to be human was so impressive! She wondered if its insides would be as impressive. Was it so desperate to appear human that the illusion would go beneath its faux skin? Would there be bones? Kidneys? An appendix? How cold was it? Would it be colder inside? Butterflies fluttered around in her stomach, excited anxiety burrowing deep into her very being.
Taking far longer than she would have liked, they got the lab in a semi-acceptable state. The table was cleaned off, the scalpels and syringes were sat on trays to the side, and the rest of the mess was, uh, out of sight and therefore out of mind.
“It’s time!” Maddie hollered, jetting towards the door of the containment area, her hand resting on the handle. “Hit the ghost shield!”
Jack hurried over to the side wall and slammed his fist onto a comically large button with his face on it. The sound of machinery whirring and then the ghost shield encased them, an eerie green that made the air beyond the bubble look fuzzy. Jack held up another gun, ready to shoot at the ghost if needed. Maddie was better at hand to hand so she would be the one getting in close contact with Phantom, Jack would provide back up with an ecto-grenade (that had an area of effect even larger than the room, it was physically impossible for even Jack to completely miss).
They nodded to each other and Maddie threw open the door.
Phantom looked at her, pushing itself to its feet, eyes still unfocused.
“Mom?” It asked, the otherworldly echo sounding out of place for such a simple word.
“Excuse me?” Maddie asked, bewilderment temporarily replacing excitement.
“Mom?” It asked again, stumbling forward. A cold hand grabbed her forearm as Phantom continued to look around, confusion painted heavily onto its face. “What’s going on? I feel weird.”
Maddie turned to look at Jack, wondering if she was hallucinating, but the look on Jack’s face mirrored her own emotions.
The ghost groaned, releasing its grip on her and collapsing to its knees, holding its head in both hands, partially out of the containment cube.
“Phantom, what are you-“ Maddie started, but was cut off as bright white lights encircled Phantom’s waist. She heard Jack begin to charge the gun up, though he didn’t fire as the light seemed to split harmlessly, only changing the clothes between the rings as they moved.
She had exactly zero idea how she was supposed to react when Phantom vanished, her son in his place.
“Mom?” Danny asked, the echo gone. “What’s happening…?” The sentence trailed off as he looked up at her. Maddie’s jaw clenched as she saw his eyes - radioactive green.
“Jack, get the Fenton Ghost Catcher!” Maddie barked, grabbing Danny’s arm and jerking him up. Jack nodded wordlessly, concern and fear etched on his face as he ran towards the sub basement, where they’d stored the Ghost Catcher while they made upgrades to it.
Danny yelped in pain as she pulled him up roughly and her chest tightened. She never wanted to hear that sound again. But that did seem to pull Phantom out of whatever haze it had been in - Danny’s voice didn’t sound as confused when he? it? spoke again. “Mom, what are you doing?” He called, trying to dislodge her grip from him, pulling weakly.
“Get out of my son, Phantom.” Maddie hissed.
“What? I’m not overshadowed! It’s me, Danny!” Her son insisted, doubling up his efforts to escape her grasp. That net must have worked even better than they’d expected since Phantom had hidden itself inside a human. A human would be having a severe headache, nausea, and persistent confusion. But her ‘son’ had recovered too fast. This wasn’t her son, her son was being used as a puppet.
“I don’t know what kind of weird overshadowing ability you have to completely change forms, but get. Out. Of. My. Son.” She hissed the last few words.
“No, no, no, no! It’s me, Danny, there was an accident and I’m half ghost and that’s why I have two forms and why all your inventions lock on me and -“ He began stuttering. Maddie tightened her grip on his arm, pulling him roughly towards her as she grabbed his other arm as well.
“How long have you been in my son?” She growled, holding him tight enough to bruise. But Phantom would protect her son. It was a side effect of overshadowing - the human host got the ghostly parasite’s durability. “Our weapons have been honing in on him for two years, how long have you held him?”
“No! It’s not like that! Please just listen or ask my friends or Jazz! We’re - I’m - the same person! C’mon, even the name is a pun! Fenton? Phantom?” Danny was babbling now, fear etched into his eyes. Maddie stared into his blue eyes, that for some reason now seemed to be flecked with green when she was this close, anger building up in her. That was her son’s fear she saw, the fear she’d continue to allow Phantom to possess him and strip away his free will.
It was then that Jack lumbered back up the stairs, Ghost Catcher in hand. He brought it over to where they stood, sitting it beside Maddie and the ghost, pressing a newly added on button. They’d made adjustments to it - it would purge all ectoplasm from the human body. Who knew how much ectoplasmic contamination her son had after two years under a ghost’s control? She hated herself in that moment - what kind of mother doesn’t realize her son has been taken over by a malevolent spirit? For two entire years? She’d make it right, she’d fix this.
Danny’s eyes widened. Of course, that’s how Phantom knew about all of their weapons and other inventions! It had heard them talking around the dinner table! It knew the Catcher had been improved!
“Dad, mom, stop! Just listen to me! Please!” Danny yelled, clawing at Maddie’s hands. That must be her true son shining through - forcing his much lower strength over Phantom’s so she couldn’t be dislodged. “That’ll kill me!” He screamed as Maddie pushed him towards the device, Jack’s face uncharacteristically solemn. Even he knew they had messed up, they had missed something huge for so long. “Please, stop!” He continued, tears starting to streak down his face. Maddie wasn’t sure if it was Phantom trying to pull on her sympathies or her Danny crying in joy that he’d finally be free of this monster. She hated that she couldn’t tell.
“Everything is gonna be okay, Danny,” she whispered in his ear.
“Stop!” He called out again. Maddie pinched at a pressure point in his neck and he went limp in her arms.
Gently, she and Jack passed Danny through the center of the Catcher and watched in horror as Phantom split from him, liquid ectoplasm dripping to the floor. How much ectoplasm had Danny had in him? Both were still unconscious.
Maddie carefully sat her sleeping son on a nearby chair, smiling as she watched his chest rise and fall as he breathed. Meanwhile, Jack bound Phantom to the table, triple checking that all of the restraints were tight enough. Both parents were angry at this stupid ghost, this awful, horrible creature that had stolen their son from them for so long.
Jack shoved some fabric into the ghost’s mouth, pressing phase proof tape along the outside to keep it in his mouth.
The ghost awoke before their son did. It cried its fake tears, screaming behind the gag as they took out both their revenge and scientific curiosity out on its body. They sliced and diced as much as they wanted, amazed by the exciting specimen in front of them. At one point, Maddie moved her scalpel towards its eyes, holding eye contact for longer than necessary. As pain reflected in its eyes, Maddie found herself questioning her conviction that ghosts couldn’t feel pain. She lowered her scalpel and began excising the eye, viciously hoping this ghost could feel pain, could feel every incision they were making.
They had ripped apart over half the ghost’s body before it finally stopped fighting and went limp in its restraints.
The joy of righteous vengeance enacted brought her so much pride, made even more delicious by finally getting to live out her fantasy on Phantom. It had always been an odd ghost, different in ways they couldn’t understand.
It wouldn’t be until Jazz came home several hours later and found them in the lab that they realized what they might have done when she explained through sobs, her hands covered in ectoplasm from where she’d ran to the table, screaming Danny’s name.
When Danny never woke up, however, they realized what they’d done, just as how much they’d messed up. They hadn’t listened. They hadn’t thought of all the times they’d seen Danny go through ghost shields, how Phantom had grown older with Danny. They’d never even stopped to consider what if they were wrong.
Maddie felt the wet soil beneath her knees, felt the chill settling into her bones as it seeped through her pants. She hadn’t worn her suit since the monitor went off for the last time, since the coroner had come out for her son’s body. Pain, grief, had settled like lead in her chest. She had no more tears left to cry as she gazed at the headstone in front of her.
Daniel James “Danny” Fenton
April 3, 1993 - July 19, 2009
A beloved hero and cherished son
They’d chosen to release the truth after Danny had passed away, so his DP insignia also was engraved onto the stone, above his name. They’d lied about his cause of death. He died from ghost fighting, after being poisoned. His parents, who loved him more than anything in the world and were among the world’s leaders in ghost science, had immediately dedicated themselves to saving him, no matter the cost. Only those closest to Danny knew the truth, and even then, only his parents knew the extend of it. Knew his last words were pleading with them to stop, that they were going to kill him. Knew that they had tortured another part of him to death. Only Maddie knew she’d taken joy in his suffering.
Jazz had informed them she would not be speaking with them again, to not reach out to her, ever. Sam and Tucker made it clear the only reason they weren’t telling the cops Jack and Maddie’s negligence had actually caused Danny’s death was because they knew he wouldn’t want that. He would blame himself for not telling them. For letting himself get caught.
Maddie had had to come to terms with a lot since the day Danny first went into the coma. She’d had to accept she was wrong. Phantom was a hero. Her son was selfless and kind, and she’d been too prejudiced to see Phantom was so, so good.
Thunder cracked in the sky above her, rain began to fall softly. But she didn’t move. The cemetery was quiet.
The funeral had been yesterday and it had just been too much. Fans of Phantom, people who had come to send off a dead ghost. Originally, Maddie had been so angry. How dare these people? Her son was dead, why were they talking about a damned ghost? But that ghost had been her son. She’d lost count of the number of speakers, all the stories of what Danny had done as Phantom.
Employees of a daycare that had caught fire, saved by Phantom. She had written that off as Phantom’s intelligence - he knew saving children would make him look good.
An elderly woman who’s home had been targeted by missiles from Skulker, the only reason it hadn’t been made into wreckage had been Phantom throwing a shield at the last moment. But he hadn’t gotten out of that unscathed - he’d gotten struck and bled green all over her front porch. Maddie had written that one off, too. That ghost was only here to attack Phantom regardless and Phantom had only caught that missile because he’d forgotten to go intangible, like he’d done dozens of times before. Now Maddie wondered if that had been intentional, though. All the times he’d gotten blasted out of the sky - his body would cause much less damage than some of the projectiles the other ghosts would use.
Someone from the local Observatory, who would sometimes see Phantom stargazing. Who’d talked to him and realized he was just a kid who loved the stars, who saw the way Phantom’s cheeks glowed like constellations the more he saw or discussed he stars.
A jock from Casper High, who had mercilessly bullied her son, who now knew how easily he could’ve died if his target had ever fought back, but Phantom - but Danny - was good and had used his powers for good.
Sam and Tucker had gone together, telling stories of Danny, showing the child behind the hero. They never specified Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom when they talked about him. Because there was no difference. It was always Danny. Just Danny.
A thought that routinely haunted her. Those had been some of the last words of his life and they played on repeat in her mind.
A police officer from the local station was outside the cemetery - to guard Danny’s grave in case any of his few detractors tried to hurt his grave. Even the police loved Phantom, it seemed. He helped in a lot of traffic accidents. And the officer had assured her someone would be there around the clock for a while.
Maddie had no doubt that the only reason she was able to be here - alone, kneeling in front of her child’s grave - was because the officer had kept fans and haters alike out.
She leaned forward, pressing her forehead against the cold, smooth stone. Apparently she wasn’t quite out of tears, she realized, as she began to cry again.
“Are you alright?” Came a familiar voice behind her. She whipped around, unwilling to believe it until she saw it.
There, with a little half smile on his face, floated Danny Phantom, white hair dancing in a way that didn’t quite match the current breeze.
“Danny?” She breathed.
“Yep, that’s me! Do I know you?” He asked, tilting his head to the side in curiosity.
“You… you don’t… know who I am?” She asked, her voice stuttering.
“No, I’m sorry! I just heard crying and could feel you were in pain, so I wanted to make sure you were okay!” Phantom said, an easy smile on his face that Maddie recognized. Danny used to smile like that - carefree, relaxed - a long time ago. When had he last smiled like that? When he was eight or nine?
Maddie was unsure what to say. What, exactly, do you say to your dead son that you violently killed, who has no idea who you are, who just wanted to make sure a stranger in pain was okay? “I… lost someone I love.” Maddie settled on.
“Danny?” A new voice joined in. He appeared in the blink of an eye. A ghost clad in purple, clock staff in hand and clock workings in his chest. If he’d been human, Maddie would’ve thought he was nearly a hundred, as bent over as he was, long white beard nearly as long as he was tall.
“Hey, dad!” Danny chirruped, floating higher up and hugging the ghost.
Maddie’s heart felt like it had been ripped out and stomped on.
“Child,” the older ghost chastised softly, smiling, “I told you to stay near me.”
“I know,” Danny whined, drawing out the ‘o’ sound. “But this lady felt like she was in pain!”
The purple ghost ruffled Danny’s white hair. “I know. Can you head home? I will be there shortly.” He said, waving his hand almost boredly. A portal appeared where his hand passed. Danny nodded then zipped through the portal, which closed behind him immediately.
The remaining ghost turned his attention to Maddie, smile sliding away as red eyes bore into her own. Maddie fidgeted under his gaze.
“I am his guardian now. He will not be returning to this plane.” The ghost stated, answering questions she hadn’t even decided to ask yet.
“Is he…still Danny? Is he happy?”
“Yes, he is still Danny, just without his memories. Due to the…traumatic nature of his death,” the ghost scowled at her, “his life is forgotten to him and will be for many decades. You will be decaying before he remembers. But, yes. He is happy. He is still the same ghost child, still with the urge to help everyone.”
Maddie’s vision was swimming with tears. She didn’t know how to feel. She had tortured and murdered her son. But he had come back - again - as a ghost. But he didn’t know who she was, he’d never be on earth again during her lifetime.
“I… I didn’t think he’d be able to restore his ghost side.” Maddie said.
The red eyes continued to bear down on her, unblinking, as though he could see her very heart. “You only killed part of his soul. This is what remains.”
Maddie nodded, wrapping her arms around herself as the rain picked up.
“Goodbye, Madeline Fenton.” The ghost said, waving his hand like he had done before to open the portal.
“Wait!” Maddie blurted, reaching out for the ghost. The portal appeared next to him, swirling and beautiful, but he did not go in. He said nothing, waiting for her to continue. “Can…when he remembers, can you tell him how sorry we are? We love him and we will never forgive ourselves for what we did, but we are so, so sorry.”
“He knows. He may not know what he knows, but he knows you regret your actions. His love for you is the only reason I’ve brought him here, and to your husband, to give you closure.”
Maddie nodded, at a loss for what to say.
As quickly as he appeared, the clock ghost disappeared.
And Maddie was left with the rain beating down on her, soaking her, with only her son’s grave beside her.
#Grace writes#Danny phantom#MIND THE WARNINGS#Phic phight 2023#Team ghost#It's 4am and I wrote this in 4 hours#Don't judge me
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Medium - Part 1 (Phic Phight 2023)
Jazz had always been gifted. So gifted she was the only one in her family who could see ghosts and help them move on. @summerssixecho
WC: 2040
AO3 Link
—
The first time Jazz had seen a ghost, she hadn’t believed it. How could she?
Ghosts were her parents speciality — and that meant running around in ridiculous jumpsuits and running down the streets and shooting green gloop everywhere. It was humiliating to the highest degree, and it didn’t help that she and Danny were held with the same regard of idiocy as her parents — even though they were only children. They were twelve and ten, respectively.
She was twelve when she decided to study psychology. Twelve when she finally decided what her life’s purpose would be.
Twelve when that plan all fell apart in one failed swoop.
All because she’d seen a ghost.
It’d been at the park by the picnic benches, she’d decided to find new areas to find some tranquillity as her parents ramped up their inventions. Some plan of a portal, of sorts? She didn’t know — she didn’t stay long enough to care.
Most likely it would fail like the rest of the inventions. And it would also fail because ghosts weren’t real.
But then she’d seen that thing…him?
At first Jazz didn’t know what to think when the thing wandered up to her bench and sat down. He was like any other teenager but on a second glance a bit too pale, a gaunt face, black hair dried like straw. His clothes hung off him.
“Do you want anything to eat?” She’d asked, shivering from the cold in the air. A sensible part of her thought it was stupid to talk to strangers — especially an older teenager. But he looked like he needed help. She’d glanced down to her lunchbox, ready to give the whole thing if need be. She could always make a new lunch.
“I’m good—far from needing food anymore.” He’d chuckled, before pausing.
That was a strange response to give — and his voice had a strange echo to it.
He’d looked at her as if she was the strange one.
“You can see me?!” Then she’d noticed his eyes, a piercing icy blue that was far sharp to be human. And the only other alternative was… ghost.
“No, no, no.” She’d shook her head. “You’re not real!” And in a moment of embarrassment, threw her lunchbox at him — the ghost — and fled.
He couldn’t be real. Couldn’t. Wasn’t. Shouldn’t be. But she’d definitely seen something — she hadn’t thrown her lunchbox for nothing. Jazz would have to go and pick that up again later.
She spent the night huddled in her bedroom, swaddled in three thick blankets and Bearbert Einstein for company. Waiting in a tense silence, until she finally reassured herself that it probably wasn’t real — just a figment of imagination. That there was nothing to worry about.
“You forgot this!” A clunk of metal on wood.
She’d peered over the blankets, and there he was. Standing there — not standing — floating.
“How did you get here?!” Jazz had nearly screeched. Him in the park was one thing. But here, a stranger in her own bedroom. She didn’t even like Danny entering. And he was floating.
“I flew through the wall.” The thing shrugged, as if it was the most casual thing on earth to admit flying through walls. As if that wasn’t a ghostly thing to do.
“You can’t be.” She’d shaken her head. Even though there was so much evidence, she’d refused to believe. Her parents were wrong. They were stupid and humiliating and wrong.
“I am a ghost.” He’d folded his arms. “And you’re the first person who’s been able to see me since…ever. I mean I haven’t been a ghost that long compared to some others…but I would’ve thought…maybe.”
“Maybe what..?” She’d questioned, barely able to believe she was actually entertaining this, not shooing him out the house or shouting for her parents or calling the police.
“Maybe someone could help me pass on.” He looked at the lunchbox. “I mean, I brought you that back.”
As if a lunchbox would be a fair trade for helping a ghost pass on. It seemed ludicrous. Was this real again?
And Jazz reasoned—what could it hurt to try? Maybe she’d be seen as an absolute idiot talking to herself, as only she could see him.
But having the surname Fenton meant she was already far past that hurdle. Her parents had done most of the work on that one.
”Okay…?” She’d held out her hand, forgetting she hadn’t asked his name.
”Isaac.” He’d given a crooked smile, his icy eyes now holding a glimmer of hope.
”Okay, Isaac. I’ll try my best to help you pass on.”
—
Isaac was, in all honesty, the first friend she’d ever made. Whereas Danny had easily melded with Sam and Tucker from day one, she’d found it trickier than he had.
A Fenton’s first friend being a ghost. Of course it would be like that.
“I drowned.” Isaac admitted to her as they stared over the grassy park. “Eight years ago me and my friends went out to the lake. It was the lake that I could see from my bedroom window…and then it was where I’d died.”
Jazz paled. She couldn’t even begin to imagine. So she didn’t say anything, letting him continue.
“We went out onto the lake, me Matthew and Jesse. It was fine at first when we got into the water, but then Jesse had started struggling. I’d gone over to him and tried to help…but then I was underneath. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. It was just all blue.” He stared down, fussing with the edge of his blue t-shirt. In a cruel twist of irony, it had wave patterns decorated on the front.
He saw her staring at the t-shirt.
“I know, right?” Isaac chuckled, but there was no humour behind it. “I drown and of course I wear a t-shirt with waves on it.”
“So, what do you want to do?” Jazz asked. She didn’t know what any of this process involved. Did she take them back to where they died? Did she tell them to pass on and they would? Was there a specific task for each one?
“Every ghost has a thing that’s unique for them. It mightn’t even be related to their death.” Isaac explained at her confused expression. “For some it might, and personally for me, it is. Some can pass on themselves but others…struggle.”
“And that’s why you’ve been here?” She tilted her head. A nod.
“I don’t know how the time process works. It just does go on longer for some, I guess. Some like being ghosts so they don’t want to move on just yet. But for me, I know I shouldn’t be here. Like I’ve overrun, I guess? I should’ve seen Jesse years ago and been able to go on.”
“So that’s it. Finding Jesse?” It’s an understandable quest, probably an easy one.
“Yeah.” Isaac nodded. “So I can see him and tell him it’s not his fault.”
“And it’s not your fault, either.” Jazz clarified. He might not be, but just in case he was thinking it. It was a tragic accident, no one could be blamed.
“Thanks.” He smiled, although there was still the slightest glimmer of guilt in his eyes.
That was interesting, she observed. The sparkle in Isaac’s eyes was the way she could easily read what he was feeling. Sure, there was smiles and frowns and grins, but the shimmer in his eyes led a deeper understanding.
She saved the snippet for ghostly knowledge. Maybe she’d need it one day.
—
Tracking down Jesse was surprisingly easy. Her and Isaac had been at the arcade, it was for Isaac mostly, so he could revel at all the new games there’d been in the eight years he’d been dead. But also since Jesse had been obsessed with video games. It was the next logical choice, Isaac reasoned.
“I always wanted to see a place like this.” He admitted as he stared in amazement at the pinball machine which some Caspar High kids were playing on.
“You’ve never been to an arcade?” Jazz almost had to stop the surprise in her voice.
“No.” Isaac shrugged. “I lived in a little village, not in a big place like this. Only came here because of the rumours that there were some people who were making ghost equipment or something.”
“That’ll be my parents.” She grimaced. Thank heavens Isaac hadn’t ended up in their grasp. And sure, they couldn’t see him, but they’d probably have an invention of sorts that could detect him. “Did Jesse not live in the village with you?”
“Oh yeah. Course he did. But his family moved away pronto after I died. Too much grief, my guess.” He shrugged. “And now he’ll be eight years older, so I won’t even recognise him.”
“Can I help you?” A new voice shouted from across the counter.
Jazz flushed. No one could see Isaac. Here she was, talking to herself.
Then she’d seen the person’s name tag.
Jesse.
Jazz didn’t know what to do. Here was Jesse, the Jesse that had watched the ghost right next to her take his last breath. The one who’d sat on the shore as medics tried their best to save him, the one who’d moved away because the pain was too much to bear.
“That’s him.” She whispered. Isaac froze beside her, confirming her thoughts.
“Jesse.” He whispered. But of course Jesse wouldn’t hear him.
As a way of comfort, Jazz placed a hand on his shoulder. A tiny reassurance, that she would see this through. He would get to talk to Jesse again. The ghost was radiating cold that numbed her when, but she didn’t care.
And then everything flipped.
Jesse’s gaze moved from her, diverting to Isaac.
“Isaac?” Jesse spluttered. She could hear his breathing become more rugged, more in disbelief.
“He’s real.” Jazz reassured. Jesse looked to her, as if he’d forgotten her presence. “It is him. I promise.”
Jesse only nodded, eyes never leaving Isaac.
“It wasn’t your fault, Jesse.” Isaac swallowed. His eyes glimmered with grief. “It wasn’t your fault, wasn’t my fault. It was an accident.”
“But if I hadn’t..if I hadn’t gone out on the water then you’d still be here.”
“And if I was still here, you wouldn’t be here, working your dream job.” Isaac looked conflicted. “It’s been eight years. There’s no changing what happened. I need to move on, and so do you, too.”
Jazz only watched, remaining silent. This wasn’t her place to intrude, unresolved conflict between friends.
Jesse didn’t say anything, pushing forward to embrace Isaac tightly. To Jazz’s surprise, the ghost remained solid under the contact.
And then, Isaac was fading. He becoming washed out, seeping away to wherever he’d progress next.
And then there was nothing but her and Jesse, the bright lights of the arcade, and eight years of thick grief finally trickling away.
With that, Jazz took her leave, a strange feeling embedded in her chest.
“Wait.” Jesse called. He reached into his pocket and pulled out something small and square. “Here.”
Hesitantly, she took it, turning it over.
Up at her, a teenage boy stared up at her. His skin was a healthy pale, face still slightly chubby, a crooked smile across his face. His blue eyes glimmered with mischief.
“Something to remember him by.” Jesse smirked.
“Thank you.”
That night, Jazz pondered of where to put the photo. She didn’t want to put it on her dresser, not by her posters, that was tacky. In the end she opted for a cork-board, a forgotten, dusty thing from the back of her wardrobe. She hung the cork-board above her desk with a length of twine, pinning Isaac’s photo up.
But no one could know. Only her.
With a twinge of guilt, she shifted the cork-board around so that it faced the wall, Isaac’s photo obscured. But she knew — and she supposed that was all that mattered, if she was the only one who could see them.
The weird feeling in her chest returned again, but this time it felt better, more prominent.
And this time, she knew what it was.
Purpose.
Her purpose was to help ghosts.
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Posting my first Phic Phight phic ever woooo!
Title: Errant Reflections
For: @roundaboutnow
Prompt: Wes is a clone of Danny whose human and ghost DNA got mixed up (in human form he has ectoplasmic green eyes and Maddie's red hair while in ghost form, he has white hair and blue eyes), but otherwise he's a near perfect clone. What's his relationship with Danielle/Ellie like? And when Vlad plants him and Ellie at Casper High to spy on the Fentons, what is their relationship with Jazz, Danny, and their new classmates like?
(I did not write the bit about Wes also being half ghost but as for the rest…)
Excerpt:
Sometimes, Wes lingers at mirrors to study his reflection. He’ll run his fingers through carrot-red hair, trace the constellations of freckles across each cheek, stare down a pair of ecto-green eyes and wish his face didn’t look so wrong.
Read on AO3
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A broken tether, A new path forged.
For: @q-gorgeous @tourettesdog @kawaiijohn @lovelyunknown @modordracena
Summary: Jack and Maddie discover their mistakes regarding their son and need to make it right.
Also on AO3: A broken tether, A new path forged.
Danny sneezed. He didn't know why; it was mid-spring. So, must it be allergies? But was it, though? He shrugged it off. He was glad to be enjoying his time with Sam and Tuck. Ghost sightings had been at an all-time low. Zero. Even the lower ghostly fauna, like blobs and spites, have been strangely absent. He knows he should be worried, but it's honestly pretty nice. This afternoon was in the low seventies. He kicked a rock down the road. He, Sam and Tucker were on the way from the local bowling alley.
Danny tuned back into their light-hearted conversation. His friends were laughing at a joke he’d missed. But he chuckled as well, not wanting to be left out. Sam smiled.
“I don’t get it, Danny. How is your aim with a bowling ball soo baaad.” Tuck teased. He scoffed, but Tucker continued, “I mean, you have perfectly good aim as Phantom. How does a bowling ball change things?” Danny kicked the rock with a little more force down the road. Danny shot Him an incredulous stare.
“You’re one to talk. Mister gutter balls. At least my rolls actually hit some pins.” Danny teased in turn. “And I have to pull my throws. It’s hard to gauge sometimes.” He grumbled under his breath. Tucker conceded, then turned to Sam, who was smirking at their exchange.
“Why are you so good at like every sport ever!” Tucker whined. Sam closed the distance. Sam laughed.
“You could be too, if you too if you didn’t have this aversion to touching grass.” Her tone was pretty condescending. Danny shoved his hands in his pockets.
He turned to them and cut in. “If you could be one of my rouge galleries for a day, who would it be and why?” Danny had succeeded because his friends’ argument ceased as they both contemplated.
“Technus, the way can manipulate tech is sick. It’s honestly wasted on him, with how he uses flawed software. His hardware is top-notch.” Tuck pumps his arm for emphasis.
“Hey, how do you think Technus could actually build or design hardware without possessing some base machine first? Like building something from scratch?” Danny thinks he’s only seen the tech ghost possess and modify. Was it just an innate thing? Or actual understanding?
Danny’s thoughts were cut off when he was hit with a strong sense of wrongness. He felt phantom hands brush along his limbs. Someone was touching him.
His tether.
They were moving him.
Defiling him.
Sam grabbed Danny’s shoulder. He barely felt it. His breaths were coming in greedy gulps now.
“Danny, what’s wrong?”
“So- Some-one’s found it. I need- ” Danny trailed off in heavy gasps. He broke out of Sam’s grasp. Danny stumbled down the sidewalk a few paces. Then he remember it he could shift.
He did, and God, it was soo much worse. Everywhere! It was fucking everywhere! He could feel it with his whole being. Their fucking hands! They were rubbing something all over him. It was also appearing on his skin, red and sticky.
It fucking burned!
He shot off in the direction his core was urging him to go with increasing franticness.
Earlier that day at Fenton Works.
Maddie was finishing folding and putting away clothes. She and Jack’s latest efforts to keep ghosts out of Amity had been working. They had been planting Sanguinem Germinabunt, more commonly knowns as Blood Blossoms. More so around their house because it housed the portal, and other places the ghosts most frequented.
Maddie wasn’t stupid she knew their anti-ecto blast doors weren’t perfect. No matter what changes they made, ghosts always slipped through. Though the blossoms seem to be the most effective method so far. They had seen neither hides nor hairs of any ghost, especially that dratted Phantom.
She put more socks in his drawer. Danny had been short of breath and sneezing quite a lot. She should book an appointment. That’s when she saw a small composition notebook, well worn. It looked like a diary of sorts. Curious, flipped it open. She immediately felt guilty and closed it again. But, this might give her a glimpse at what’s been wrong with Danny.
They’d been so close. It was only about 18 months that the changes presented themselves. No, she needed to do this! She flipped it open.
And started reading.
Maddie sat on the edge of her late son’s bed, shell-shocked.
That’s how her husband, Jack found her. He asked what’s her what was the matter, and she wordlessly handed him the notebook. He took it from her and began reading. He sat down next to her.
A tear rolled down Jack’s cheek. He hugged Maddie for comfort. Maddie broke down and cried in his shoulder.
They sat like that for a while. The silence was thick in the air.
Jack gently uncoupled from Maddie. He stood up. “Madds, we gotta make this right.” Maddie looked up at him, her face completely desolate.
“Too little too late, Jack.” Maddie’s voice was strained with the effort of holding off more ugly sobs.
Jack left her to retrieve something from the storage room just down the hall. She guessed this based on the rustling.
Her husband soon returned with one of his ancestors, much like the one detailing blood blossom use and cultivation.
Jack quickly started flipping to an entry he obviously remembers from a prior reading.
How to set a ghost free. A permanent exorcism. They knew the rough location. Now they just need to prepare.
Maddie would give her boy a proper send-off.
“It should be right around here,” Maddie grunted as she hacked through the foliage. They had to abandon the GAV to continue on foot. This neck of the woods was too tight for it. Jack was carrying most of the supplies they’d need.
They finally got to the edge of a clearing. It was just like the journal description. There at the other end, was the large oak tree. At the base was a large patch of grave bloom hugging its shade. A flower that only grows near corpses as they emit ecto-radiation as the body breaks down.
It was still an abnormally large patch. More akin to a mass grave than the single one they know is there.
“Jack fluid, I think we found it.” Jack unhooked the canister of fluid and began dousing the patch. It was a concoction that leached ectoplasm from the grave blooms and the ground purifying the area. The delicate blooms quickly wilted and blackened. That was the first step.
Once the ectoplasm had been thoroughly cleaned, it was time to start digging. It didn’t take long. Maddie saw the melted glove first. She chokes at the sight and backs up into who catches her as her knees give out.
“I guess I was holding out some hope. But seeing it now…” She breaks down in a fit of sobs again. Jack sets them both and gives Maddie a few minutes.
“Come on, we need to finish this.” He helps her up to her feet.
Soon they unearth the rest of him.
The body was very well preserved despite the damage from the cause of death. Most of the skin was charred black. There were green Lichtenberg figures all over the corpse, even after all this time, still positively radiating ecto energy, looking recent. It explained that large patch of grave blooms.
They set him down and prepare the paste. It was a special blood blossom mixture, highly flammable. They soon coated the body with the blood blossom paste. It was meant to weaken the ghost’s foothold over the corpse.
Now it was time for the final step.
That’s when they feel static and cold. Phantom arrived. Their son’s remnant. But he was wrong. His eyes were solid green. His skin and suit were fracturing. He was covered in the paste as well, a red vapour wafting off of him.
“What the fuck did you do to my body?!” The scream was layered with shifting, creaking, groaning, and shattering ice.
A tear rolled down Maddie’s cheek as she dropped the lit match.
Danny saw as the match landed on his corpse. He could do nothing as it ignited. It burned hot with a blue flame. He felt his outer shell fracture further before mimicking his body by erupting into a ghostly green fire.
He was too weak to fly, let alone walk, so he crawled. He needed… need to get… to get to his body.
He crawled at an agonizingly slow pace. He didn’t know why.
Danny couldn’t move. He had too little energy. Even just simply existing now was taxing.
Crack
He whimpered and keened it was all too much. His mom walked over and gather him up in her lap. He renewed weakened struggles trying to get away, back to his body. He needed… needed-
Dark started to encroach on the edges of his vision. He felt his mom cart her finger through his hair like when he was small. It was comforting. But there was something he needed to do, right? He thinks it was important. Why had he been so angry before?
He was scared, confused, and in so much pain. Why was Mom’s smile so soft? His Dad sat beside him, squeezing his hand.
The pain was fading. He was pretty sure that was probably a bad thing.
“It’s all right, Danny-boy. Now you can find peace now.” His Dad’s voice was unnaturally quiet, it carried a soft, sombre quality to it.
“We’re so sorry we hadn’t noticed the extent of your suffering sooner.” Mom choked on the start of more sobs. “Oh God, we did this to you! Our invention did this!”
Dad wrapped his arm around Mom, holding her and Danny closer to himself. He didn’t understand. What was going on?
“But we’re making it right now.” Danny tried to ask what was happening, but his voice was too weak, and they couldn’t pick up what he said.
Mom shushed him, “It will be all over soon.” It clicked into place slower than he wanted, the thick brain fog nearly stopping his thoughts.
He was dying.
For real this time.
Crack
His vision faded, but he could still hear and feel his parents. This was not what he expected when they found out. At least this was a mostly peaceful end. He was not fading on an exam table. He saw no hatred in their eyes before his vision left him. They loved him. He smiled.
Crack
Another crack filled with love.
There was an odd tingling warmth that was comfy. But it was fading like the rest of his senses. Danny was really tired. Maybe, he’d take a nice nap. Yeah, one of those sounded nice.
Danny’s core soon couldn’t support the ectoplasmic matrix it was housed in. Danny was losing the feeling of his parents, but he knew they were still there. It started with his fingers and toes working up to his wrists and ankles. It accelerated once it passed his elbows and knees. Soon he was nothing but his core, tiny and fragile.
Then there was the final crack, and with it, the tether snapped.
The elder Fenton’s sat and held each other. They had done it. Their boy was now at peace. The clearing was mostly intact, sans the scorched and overturned soil.
Maddie had taken it upon herself to plant more blood blossoms to leach any remaining ectoplasm from the soil.
They gathered Danny’s ashes and the dust of his crystallized matrix, placing it in a nice urn they’d gotten on the way here. Black with silver etching. Simple and elegant. The two parents left the former grave site of their son with no fanfare.
They had to get their story straight. There were funeral arrangements to be set. Now Danny would get the funeral he deserved. No longer a tortured soul left to linger. He was at peace at least they could give him this final kindness.
He groans, he tried to hang on to the last dregs of unconsciousness. But it’s futile. He cracks one eye open. All he was met with were green swirls and floating purple doors.
Where was this? Who was he? He hyperventilated. What was his name?! He didn’t know own his name!
“Your name is Janus.” Janus? whirled around. There was a strange new blue-skinned ghost in purple hooded purple robes.
“That’s my name? I know you?” Janus (?) took a hesitant step toward the ghost. The ghost nodded.
“Yes, quite. I am Clockwork, Elder Spirit of time. And you, young Janus, are my charge, the current Spirit of Space. You and I will be working together for the foreseeable future.” They smiled warmly, and it was familiar. Janus approached Clockwork less apprehensive. Now that he had a name for both the ghost and for himself.
Janus felt it in his core, it told him the ghost was honest. This ghost was family, his parent.
He winced.
“Why does my core hurt so much?” Janus rubbed at his sternum.
Clockworks hummed, “A tether violently shredded, a core shattered. It left its mark, leaving you as you are now. Fractured, a blank slate.” Clockwork held out their hand. “You need rest, then you must train. Come.”
Janus frowned as Clockwork didn’t elaborate. He took Clockwork’s hand anyway. Janus felt something slot into place in his core.
His body shifted and changed, endless boneless limbs spouted and sinking. Heads countless with everchanging features rolled in and out of the galaxies dancing across his inky skin. Countless eyes blinked all around his form, swimming soothingly along the constantly altering maws along his skin.
Janus felt the loving ticks of his father ripple through his liquid from the contact.
He was beautiful, perfect.
Right.
He trusted and loved Clockwork with everything he was. What came before didn’t matter. All that mattered was the path he and his father forged forward.
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Chapters: 2/3
Fandom: Danny Phantom
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Frostbite
Characters: Danny Fenton, Frostbite (Danny Phantom), Penelope Spectra, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Jazz Fenton, Jack Fenton, Maddie Fenton, Dash Baxter, Valerie Gray, Undergrowth (Danny Phantom)
Additional Tags: Emotional Ghost Hunger, Empathy, Empath Danny, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Danny, Starvation, Frostdad, Adoption, Foster Parent Frostbite, Fenton's B- parenting, they're trying tho, Jack Fenton has ADHD, Identity Reveal, no beta we die like danny, Phic Phight (Danny Phantom), Phic Phight: Team Ghost (Danny Phantom), Phic Phight 2023
Chapter Title: A Call from the Other Side
Chaper 2 @phicphight ! I almost made it! ヽ(｡◕o◕｡)ﾉ
@astatia-ghast for this chapter we're adding one of @majorastudios's prompt, hopefully they'll like it!
Now I'm off trying to write down chapter 3 in three hours, wish me strenght!
(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
#the dragon writes#danny phantom#phic phight 2023#team ghost#frostbite#frostdad#surprise adoption#CPS are mentioned several times#Fentons' B- Parenting#they're trying tho#angst#hurt/comfort#the feels#oh Ancients be prepared for the feels#jack fenton#maddie fenton#sam manson#tucker foley#jazz fenton#ghost yeti OCs
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Friendship Blossoms (in the wake of shared trauma)
Summary: Nobody Knows AU. A week after the asteroid nearly destroyed the world, Sam is back at school trying to adjust to daily life after a traumatic worldwide event. That adjustment is hard enough, but the presence of her former best friend who was just revealed to be Danny Phantom complicates it even further. After not speaking for two years after he seemed to give up on their friendship, how is she supposed to act around him now? And why does she keep running into him around the school?
Phic Phight Prompt:
AU where no one knew Danny was Phantom until PP (or some alternate big reveal of the author's choice). Sam and Tucker are sure that a famous hero like Danny Phantom is too cool to be their friend again, especially since they haven't talked since before freshman year of high school. Danny just wants to be part of the trio again and has no idea how to ask - for Pax
AO3: Link
Going back to school after an asteroid nearly destroyed the entire planet felt so anticlimactic. It felt so banal and normal. In some way it felt good to go back to a routine. The planet kept turning, so civilization kept moving on. People went back to work, cars returned to the roadways, prices for items returned to normal, and now school was back in session. It felt comforting that society could bounce back after such a terrifying tragedy, but it also seemed like no one had really recognized the collective trauma felt by the entire world.
In a way, a week was not enough time to deal with the emotional ramifications that the entire world had almost died. That an unexpected asteroid had almost obliterated their entire planet and everything in it. That attempt after attempt to destroy or avoid the asteroid had failed. That their only saving grace had been a last ditch attempt by the Fentons of all people and the ghosts that had terrorized the city to turn the world intangible. It was a crazy idea. No one thought it would actually work, and yet the world threw so much effort into this insane plan because it had nothing else.
She could still remember clear as day (too clearly - probably some newly acquired PTSD that refused to let her forget any moment of it) sitting with her parents, her grandma, and the Foleys in the safe room (of course her insane parents had a safe room) watching the news feed of the crazy attempt to turn the world intangible. She sat and prayed with them and actually cuddled with her mother for support as they waited with bated breaths to see if Phantom’s crazy plan would work.
She forced herself out of her thoughts and back onto the cracked faux-leather of the bus seat in front of her. If she let herself, those memories of the day would consume her, and she knew that wasn’t healthy. Did she need a therapist? Probably. Could she get one now? Nope, because there weren’t enough of them to go around. Her parents agreed that going back to a routine would be good, that it was proof that the world kept spinning and kept moving and that life could get back to normal. She could see the logic there. Getting back on the bus felt familiar in a reassuring way, but it still felt too soon. It had only been a week, and she felt like she hardly had enough time to deal. Even the ghosts had been quiet and hadn’t attacked, so it was too soon even for them.
The bus slowed to a stop and Sam felt her stomach lurch with nerves. What could she possibly be nervous about? The school day would likely be pretty easy since it was everyone’s first day back.
“You think he’ll be here?” Tucker asked from beside her. They spent most of the trip sitting in the comfortable silence of two friends who spent far too much time together, but the finality of the bus making its final stop outside of the school seemed to pull his internal thoughts out.
She didn’t have to ask who he meant, because Sam had been thinking the same thing, and as her stomach churned again she realized the source of her nerves. “Does it matter if he is?” she replied plainly as she gathered her bag and got ready to file off the bus.
“Well…yeah. Shouldn’t it?” Tucker pressed.
Sam shrugged. “Even if he is, it’s not like he’s going to talk to us.” She stepped off the bus and gazed upon Casper High. A strange sense of security washed over her that the school still looked exactly the same despite everything. She had complicated feelings about public schools, especially her time spent in one, but it felt reassuring to know that it still stood strong. Darn, maybe her dad had been right about her needing a routine again. Well, she certainly wasn’t going to tell him he was right at least.
“Well, no,” Tucker said with a sad sigh. “But it feels like it would be good to know. Just so we could like, prepare.”
“Prepare for what?” Sam barbed as she turned to give him a hard look. She could see that hope blossoming in his eyes and she had to squash it before he was hurt again by their former friend’s behavior. “Prepare for him to ignore us? Prepare for him to avoid us? How would that be any different than any other day of school?”
“Yeah but–”
“No, there’s no ‘buts’ here Tucker,” Sam interrupted. “He’s ignored us for two years. Two years. And you think that now is the time he’d talk to us? Now, when he’s apparently a superhero of all things? No. He’s a celebrity now. He has even less reason to talk to us now than he did before.”
Maybe that’s why she’d been struggling so much. She wasn’t just working through her own trauma, but she had to somehow acknowledge and accept that one of her former friends was a superhero. The superhero. Her former friend Danny Fenton, who had been thick as thieves with them throughout middle school before he ditched them, was Phantom: the ghostly superhero who protected the town from other ghostly threats.
That realization had left her spinning, sometimes into dangerous and dark places. How did this happen? When did this happen? Had he always been like this or was it a recent thing? Was her friend dead? Sure she had been mad at him, but she never actually wished him dead! That thought chilled her to the bone. Had her friend died and none of them even realized it? Did he die and she just continued on with her life as normal? Is that why he pulled away? Did he pull away because he died and none of them even noticed? Was she more to blame for Danny ditching them than she ever let herself believe?
That was absolutely a road she refused to mentally traverse. He pulled away. He stopped talking to them. He kept running away every time she tried to talk to him. He avoided texting until she finally realized that a string of fifteen unanswered texts was a sign enough that she needed to stop. If he was going through something he should have said something. If he died he should have said something. She would have understood. She could have helped him. He did all of this, not her.
A group of students rushing past them pulled her out of her maddening thoughts. A moment later another group ran past. Excited chatter echoed down the hallway and seemed to reach a fever pitch as sunlight streamed down the hall from the outside doors opening. The excitement of the student body charged the hallway around them with an uncomfortable buzz. Sam instantly knew what happened: their local celebrity had arrived.
As if confirming her thoughts, excited murmurs of “he’s here!” or “it’s him!” fluttered around her as students pushed in closer to the doors. They flattened Sam and Tucker against their lockers as more and more students flooded the hallway. Tucker was so close she could feel his breathing grow shallow, and she reached over to squeeze his hand because she knew he got claustrophobic. She was fine - enjoying tight spaces was almost a requirement for being a goth - but being surrounded on all sides by hard metal and smelly teenagers wasn’t the kind of tight space she enjoyed.
A bubble of unoccupied space formed in the middle of the crowd of students. In the center of the bubble a familiar tuft of black hair caught her eye. Danny walked purposefully through the swarm of students with his hands tucked into his pockets and his head down. The students naturally parted around him as he moved through the hall, like water naturally parted around soap. Or how fish part around a shark. Everyone wanted to gawk at him, but no one wanted to risk getting near him. Sam felt a twinge of sorrow for her former friend because no one ever wanted to be avoided like that. Well…no one except Danny. He seemed to love avoiding people. Maybe this was actually what he wanted?
As soon as he broke even with them, he looked over in their direction. Their eyes locked for just a moment before Danny quickly averted his gaze. He sunk deeper into his hunched shoulders and walked faster down the hall. The students clamored to part around him faster to still keep that natural distance. He moved out of sight as the student body followed from their safe distance, taking the crowd with him.
Tucker breathed in a couple large gulps of air. “Was that really necessary?” he complained as he stretched out and tilted his head towards the ceiling to bask in the open space around him. “I mean, yeah it must suck for Danny, but did they really have to force us into the crowd too? Horrible.”
Sam didn’t even listen to half of his complaints as she silently fumed. Why did he look away so quickly? Was he worried that their mutual acknowledgement of the existence of the other would somehow obligate him to talk to them? He’d learned a long time ago how to avoid that. But then why did he even look over at them in the first place if he wanted to avoid their gaze? It didn’t make any sense.
“Come on, let’s go to class,” she decided. She wanted to take advantage of the clear hallway while she could.
“Are you sure?” Tucker hesitated as he looked down the hall that Danny and his new throng of terrified admirers disappeared down. “It feels weird to–”
“No,” she snapped, still sore from the reminder that her friend had been through some shit and hadn’t even bothered to reach out. “It feels exactly the same way it’s been feeling. He’s avoiding us again, like he always does. Come on.”
They packed up their things and trudged off to class. The routine felt deceptively normal, even though they knew nothing would be the same.
~
Just like the rest of the student body, Sam’s thoughts throughout class focused on Danny. Not intentionally, but they just kept drifting to him. He sat in class with them, towards the back like normal. She purposefully refused to look at him, but she could swear that sometimes she felt his gaze on the back of her head. At one point she entertained the thought that he might be trying to get her attention, but that was silly. He didn’t want their attention and nothing he’d done in the past two years had changed that, and it certainly wouldn’t change now.
As soon as the bell rang for class Danny practically shot up out of the room. She couldn’t really blame him. People in class knew him well enough that they tried to talk to him. Ask him questions. Pester him with comments. Paulina tried to flirt with him, and Sam didn’t know why that bothered her as much as it did. She rarely heard him talk, so either he answered in a quiet voice or he avoided their questions. Well, he was good at avoiding, so that made sense. And as soon as he got the chance, he avoided them all again by fleeing the classroom. She didn’t know what salvation he expected to find in the hallways because it didn’t seem any better outside of the classroom, but the strange bubble must have seemed preferable to the questions.
She met up with Tucker next to their locker to switch out their books when the mass of students flooded past them again. This time they knew what to expect and waited it out as Danny walked past them again. Sam found it odd to see him in this hallway again because she knew that his locker was much closer to their next class and he didn’t actually need to go this way. Maybe he just enjoyed the walk?
“I kinda wish he’d talk to us,” Tucker lamented as their local celebrity disappeared around the corner.
“I don’t,” Sam snapped, and she slammed her locker door for emphasis.
“Really? Do you really mean that? Or are you saying it as a way to act out?” Tucker pressed with a knowing look that Sam did not appreciate. She’d been friends with him for too long.
“Shut up. I mean it.”
“But don’t you have questions?”
“Of course I have questions,” she countered. What kind of question was that? “I have so many questions. But I’ve had questions for two years and he hasn’t bothered to answer any of them, so why would he start now?”
“Well, I was kinda hoping that this,” Tucker gestured to the hallway like it was all the explanation he needed, “was the reason for a lot of it. And with that out of the way, I dunno, maybe he’d be more willing to answer them?”
“That sounds like wishful thinking,” Sam dismissed.
“Well…yeah…maybe it is. But I can still hope,” he shrugged.
Sam didn’t quite have it in her heart to tear down his hope even further, even though she knew it would crush him later when he realized it was forlorn. She liked to think of herself as a realist, and everything Danny had done since high school showed her that nothing would really change. The news coverage of his transformation and maybe an expose news article in the future would be the only answers they’d get about what happened to their friend, and she knew better than to hope for something more.
Danny had shown them time and again he was unreliable: that when they needed him, he wasn’t there. When he promised to do something, he didn’t deliver. And he had no excuses or explanations ready, just a hollow apology that meant less and less every time he used it until he just stopped apologizing altogether. She could see now that some of that was probably because he was fighting ghosts, and she could be gracious enough to allow that as a good excuse, but he should have told them. He should have trusted them. He didn’t, and he let their friendship degrade to the point where even the shell of their former friendship crumbled into dust. She knew better than to expect anything to change or for some friendship to rise from the ashes, because those ashes had been swept away by the wind long ago. Hadn’t they?
She growled and walked off towards class without even announcing it to Tucker. He seemed to get the hint and rushed after her, but both of them remained quiet.
~
“Do you think he’s trying to talk to us?” Tucker asked as they scoped out an empty table for lunch.
“Again Tucker, that’s wishful thinking,” Sam sighed.
“But he seems to keep popping up around us,” he pointed out. “Usually we barely even see a glimpse of him.”
She had to admit that she’d had the same thought. She’d seen Danny’s face more today than she had the last full week of school. He kept walking by their lockers even if he didn’t need to and she kept feeling his eyes on her. He also sat closer to them during one of their classes, but she also had a feeling that was out of necessity to avoid the prying eyes and attentions of the class. Was he trying to see how they were reacting? Trying to gauge how they were handling the news by stalking them? Well if that was the case, then she was happy to see that her poker face of generalized displeasure seemed to be doing its job because it looked like he was still looking for an answer. A small part of her felt satisfied and preened at his uncertainty - about time for him to be left in the dark about something for a change.
“It’s coincidence,” she dismissed. “He’s trying to avoid everyone else, and since everyone else avoids us, it’s putting him into our path.”
Tucker shook his head. “No, I don’t think that’s it.”
Sam plopped her lunchbox onto their usual table and sat down. She actually felt excited about her lunch today; ever since the asteroid her parents made a concerted effort to embrace her as a person more and started buying more vegan-friendly food. She appreciated the gesture, even if it took literally the end of the world for them to finally see eye-to-eye.
Tucker sat down across from her absent-midedly, and she followed his distracted gaze to see Danny enter the cafeteria. Immediately all the other eyes of the room fell on him and a strange hush settled across the large room. That was a bold move, entering such a crowded space. Danny must have also realized the error of his ways because he stood awkwardly in the doorway, unsure of whether he should press on or run. She noticed a lunchbox in his hands, so the need to buy food clearly didn’t drive him to enter the cafeteria, so she had to wonder what insanity drew him in here.
She would have found some secluded spot and ate lunch there. She knew he preferred a spot on the edge of the campus under a large tree because she’d seen him eat there far away from them time after time. She and Tucker tried to approach him there once, early on in their crumbling friendship when she thought they still had a chance to patch things up. He practically ran away from them when they approached. He yelled at them to take a hint and to stop bothering him. She never tried to seek him out at lunch again. It really had been the beginning of the end.
His indecision on what to do seemed to be his downfall. After a morning of keeping a safe buffer around him, the student body grew more brazen. Emboldened by the fact that Danny really hadn’t done anything ghostly or aggressive the entire day, they risked getting closer. And closer still. They closed the gap around him slowly. The volume of chatter in the room grew into a crescendo of questions and calls and shouts aimed at the ghostly celebrity.
Danny must not have realized what was happening until it was too late. They lurched forward as one unit until they were on top of him. Surrounding him. Touching him. Pulling him towards their table or their conversation. He held his hands up in defense, pleading with them to let him go, but none of them listened. He wasn’t a person anymore. He was a celebrity - an object that existed at the beck and whim of the population to fulfill their needs and desires.
Sam watched as Danny’s individual rights as a person disappeared under the horde of students. Anger boiled under her skin. No one deserved to be treated that way, but Danny least of all. Sure they had their beef. Sure he treated them horribly. But he was a hero. He had saved them and the school and hell even the world and he deserved better than this.
She stood up and pushed her way aggressively through the crowd. She had no problems throwing the full weight of her combat boots onto the feet of people who refused to step out of her way. She fought through the masses as she screamed at them to leave him alone. She shoved people out of the way, kicked at their shins, and stomped on their feet until she reached the center. Surprisingly, Tucker followed after her. She couldn’t imagine how claustrophobic he must feel willingly plunging himself into this mob of students, but he pushed his way in nonetheless.
As soon as they reached Danny they formed a circle around him. She reached her arms back around to grab Tucker’s hands as they formed almost a protective cage around him. They couldn’t give him much of a buffer and she felt people press on her arms, but she tried.
“Get away!” she yelled as she lightly kicked someone who got a little too close for her comfort. “You can’t just mob people! He has a right to his own personal space!”
The crowd didn’t seem to have any care for her protests and only pushed in harder. The sound of their cheers and questions almost deafened her and it swallowed up her verbal protests. This really wasn’t getting them anywhere.
“Danny, just get out of here!” Sam ordered as she craned her neck to catch a glimpse of him behind her. “Do something ghostly and get out of here! We’ll hold them off!”
She stood firm as she waited for Danny to save himself, but she didn’t notice any change. What was taking him so long? Why was he hesitating? Everyone already knew so there was no point in continuing to hide it.
Finally she heard the students around her gasp and they stopped pushing against her. Danny must have finally used one of his powers to escape. About time. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold them off. But what the hell was he waiting fo–
A tingle followed by an unnatural chill raced through her body starting from her arm. Her stomach dropped as she fell, and she yelped until the ground swallowed the sound. She only saw soil around her, but she couldn’t really feel it. If she focused on it she maybe felt like a gust of wind passed through her when she fell, but it felt so faint and non-specific that she had to wonder if her brain just thought she felt the breath of wind because she knew she should feel something when passing through solid matter.
Something tugged on her arm as she traveled quickly through soil and rocks and tree roots. That tugging sensation pulled upwards and she emerged from the ground and into the air. She felt weightless hovering above the ground for just a moment before Danny’s hand let go of its tight grip on her arm and she dropped down onto the padded grass.
She clasped a hand to her chest and clenched onto the now solid material of her black shirt. Her wide eyes looked around and noticed the school in the distance - the building they had just been in before she traveled through the ground. She also noticed a large tree beside them - the same one that Danny always took refuge under. The same one where he told them to leave him alone. And yet this time he brought them here instead of chasing them away.
She finally noticed Tucker sitting in the grass next to her, so he must have brought him here too. She also caught his wide-eyed stare as he looked at his new surroundings with shock and maybe a little awe, but mostly shock. He clearly needed a moment to gain his bearings, and honestly she still did too, because they had just traveled through the ground. Not over it or above it, but through it. Something that should have been impossible for anyone except…well a ghost.
Danny must have picked up on their shocked expressions - in fact he seemed incredibly attuned to their reactions - and he immediately backed up a few steps and blushed. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry,” he quickly apologized. His wide, panicked eyes looked desperately between the two of them as he tried to gauge their reactions further. “I probably should have asked and not just assumed I could–” He ran a hand nervously through his hair and ducked his head. “I just didn’t want to leave you there.”
“It’s okay man,” Tucker finally said as he fisted his hands in the grass below them. “It was getting a little cramped in there, so it’s good to have an out.”
She should have felt grateful he thought about saving them because otherwise she and Tucker would have been left in the middle of a dissatisfied crowd with only them to blame for Danny’s disappearance. And she was, but his stupid antics put them in that situation in the first place!
She stood up to glare at him properly and he recoiled slightly. That recoil gave her pause for just a moment. He fought monstrous ghosts. She’d seen pictures of some of them and they were horrifying or incredibly powerful. Phantom always stood firm against those ghosts. So why did he back away from her of all entities? She pushed on and gave him a light shove. “What the hell were you thinking?” He shrunk further against her onslaught. “Going into the cafeteria? That was stupid!”
Danny blinked slowly. If he had been building himself up for a response, he clearly did not expect that one. “What?”
“You’re getting swarmed everywhere you go, so you decide to go to the most populated room in the entire school? What kind of idiot does that?!”
“Oh. Um…” He grabbed at his arm and ran his hand along the hem of his shirt. “Well I…I was looking for you guys,” he admitted quietly.
Sam dropped all her bluster as she regarded him with confusion. “You were looking for us?” He hadn’t actively sought them out since high school started, but now, today of all days, he finally decided he wanted to talk to them?
“Yeah I…I kept trying to talk to you. Don’t know if you noticed. It just never felt like the right time. Too many people or not enough time or you guys just looked mad. And you have every right to be mad!” he added quickly as if trying to preemptively stop an argument. “But then Jazz told me there would never be a right time and it was always gonna be awkward and boy was she right about that, so I just decided to go for it. Didn’t really think that one through though.”
“I don’t understand,” she admitted bluntly. “You wanted to talk to us? After everything now you want to talk to us? Did you want to make sure we saw the news? Because don’t worry, we definitely did.” That came out harsher than she intended, and even Tucker gave her a warning glare.
“No! Nothing like that! I just–” He let out a huge breath as his shoulders dropped in defeat. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I’m sorry I pulled away. I didn’t really know what to do. All of a sudden all this…stuff started happening and I didn’t know what to do. I thought about telling you, all the time, but I didn’t know how to explain it. And then I worried maybe you’d freak out or think I was some kind of freak or something and I just got scared. And then it just kept snowballing and I felt you getting more and more annoyed with me so I just pulled away.”
“You should have said something,” Sam snapped as she crossed her arms over her chest. Yes it felt good to have an answer. Yes it felt good to have a reason, but she realized that none of that actually mattered when faced with the fact that her friend knowingly hurt them because he didn’t trust them.
Danny winced, but he took the blows without argument. “I know.”
“You lied to us! You abandoned us! And with zero reasons!” she yelled as she lashed out against him with two years worth of pain and suffering that she’d kept bottled up inside. “You were afraid of us abandoning you? Well you abandoned us! You told us to never bother you again! How do you think that felt, huh Danny? Because it sucked! It hurt! And we had no idea why!” Danny winced at her onslaught, but she didn’t intend to stop. “And I think it’s rich that you could do it to us because you were too scared that we would do it to you.”
“Sam, come on,” Tucker spoke up as he tried to play the role of the peaceful negotiator. “Some of that isn’t fair.”
“No, it’s okay,” Danny said as he looked sadly between his friends. “What she’s saying is fair. I deserve it.”
Something about being given permission to rage angered her even more. “Damn right you deserve it! Friends don’t keep secrets Danny! And they especially don’t keep big secrets like this! You should have trusted us!”
“I know,” he sighed.
“I mean do you think so little of us that we would have disowned you or treated you any different because of this?”
“No! Of course not! I just…I didn’t want to take the risk. I thought I’d lose you,” he admitted quietly as he looked down at the ground.
“Yeah, well you lost us anyways,” Sam snarled. He looked up at her and she could see the hurt etched across his face and the rejection glimmer in his eyes. She’d gone a little too far there, and she recognized that, but he had! He kept this secret from them so he wouldn’t lose their friendship, and then he sat by and let it happen anyways! The only difference was he got to control when that happened. He got to do the breaking up instead of the one being broken up with.
“Ouch Sam,” Tucker remarked from the side.
She rounded on Tucker this time. “Oh no, you don’t get to act like you’re the level-headed one. You’re just as mad at him as I am! I know you are!” How many times had they sat and ranted in her room? How many times had Tucker been the first one to curse Danny under his breath because he ditched them again? How many times had Tucker gone on text rants about losing his best friend and Sam could only listen and try to help him vent as much as he could? No, he didn’t get to act all angelic about this when she knew that fury and that hurt burned in him too.
Tucker didn’t back down against her ire and stood his ground. “Yeah, I am. What you did sucked bro,” he seconded as he turned to face his friend. Danny dropped his gaze back down to the ground. “But is this really the time? All day I was hoping maybe now we could talk. And hey look, we are. I don’t really want to spend all that time yelling at each other. That’s not gonna get us anywhere.”
Sam’s anger deflated because Tucker made a valid point. Did raging at Danny make her feel better? Absolutely. Did seeing that hurt on his face fuel some horrible vindication in herself? Unfortunately it did. But none of that would actually fix anything. None of that would give her or Tucker the answers they wanted and maybe even needed. And if Danny wasn’t going to argue and engage in a good knock-down argument where they both screamed at each other until neither of them had anything left, then she’d have to calm herself down to engage in a civil talk.
“No, it’s okay,” Danny allowed. “I deserve the insults and the yelling. I was a jerk. I abandoned you, I shut you out, I lied to you, and I didn’t trust you. That’s not what a friend does, and I know it. That’s why I stopped trying to be one.”
“We could have helped you, Danny,” Tucker said sadly. “With all of this. You had to be going through a lot. We could have helped.”
“...I know,” he sighed as his shoulders sagged. “I wanted to say something. I kept hoping maybe you’d just figure it out. Not like this obviously. This is literally the worst. But by the time I felt like maybe it could be okay, we already weren’t talking and it just felt like it was too late.”
“Is it?” Sam asked with a much calmer voice.
Danny looked up with a raised eyebrow. “Is it what?”
“Is it too late?”
Danny shrugged as he scuffed his heel along the grass. “I guess that’s up to the two of you. I just…I really miss my friends.”
His voice broke a little on the word friends, and despite how angry Sam felt at him for the past two years of treating them like gum under his shoe (a nuisance he couldn’t get rid of fast enough until it finally dried up enough to scrape off and discard), her heart broke a little for him. She truly thought about his situation for a moment. How scared he must have been to tell them. How physically different he had become and the fear that would impact the way he related to everyone else. How alienating and isolating it had to be now that he was somehow a ghost and a person at the same time. Her stomach twisted and she felt so sad for her friend in that moment and the emotional turmoil he had to be experiencing.
Yes he should have trusted them, but maybe she and Tucker didn’t do enough to show that he could trust them. Maybe they didn’t make the friendship seem safe enough that he could tell them anything? She hoped she did, but if she didn’t, then that was on her just as much as it was on Tucker. And despite offering to talk and promising to understand numerous times over text, if he didn’t actually trust that to be the case, then she could understand his hesitation. This was a big secret because it basically changed Danny into an entirely different person, and she had to accept that he wasn’t obligated to share it with them until he was ready.
Sam wrapped her arms around her torso and gave him a small smile. “We miss you too.” Her voice cracked a little too with emotion, but in this moment she didn’t actually care. This was a good emotion, and she didn’t have to hide it behind some tough exterior, not right now.
“Yeah man, it hasn’t been the same without you,” Tucker echoed.
Danny smiled weakly as he wrapped his arms around himself in a self-hug. He gestured to the shade under the nearby tree. “Look can we…I know I have a lot to make up for, but can we talk? Like really talk?”
“I think we’ve all been needing to talk for awhile,” Sam agreed. And she’d do her best to stay calm and not let her own emotions cloud what needed to be said. She’d try to remember that she may not be blameless for the deterioration of their friendship, and she needed to be okay with that. And at the end of it, she probably had to be ready to forgive. She didn’t know if she had been quite ready to forgive him when she started the day, but she had a feeling she’d be a little more open to it now.
“And then dude, I have so many questions.” Tucker’s excited voice broke the somber mood for just a moment. “Because this whole ghost superhero thing is awesome and I want to know everything!”
Danny chuckled a bit and ducked his head as a blush spread across his cheeks. “Really? It’s not like weird or freaky or anything?”
“No man, it’s so cool,” Tucker affirmed as he pulled him into a one-armed hug from the side. “And I’m dying to know more.” He paused for a moment with a wince. “Okay, poor choice of words there.”
“Or the best choice of words,” Danny offered with a laugh.
“Yeah yeah, not all of us are insane and love puns,” Sam sighed as she shook her head, but she also smiled because it just felt so easy. Sliding back into the puns and the light teasing and the fun. It felt so natural and right and even though she knew so much bitterness existed between them, it brought a lightness to her heart to have that again.
“Or are you just not used to them after I ghosted you for so long?” Danny asked with an exaggerated wink on the emphasized word.
Sam forced her lips into a scowl as she tried so hard not to laugh. She hated Danny’s puns, always had, but that one was legitimately clever. As Tucker cackled from the side, she couldn’t stop the corners of her lips from curling into a smile.
“Are we here to talk or make stupid puns?” she finally asked when she knew she could keep a straight face.
“I mean, I can be here for both,” Danny suggested with a smirk. There, right there she saw Phantom. That confident, fun smirk. She didn’t know how she didn’t see it before. Well, probably because she hadn’t seen that smirk from Danny in over two years. She pushed that bitter thought out of her mind because that didn’t help their new mutual goal of clearing the air. She gave Danny an exasperated look and didn’t even acknowledge his statement before she sat down pointedly under the tree. The other two joined her on the pleasantly cool grass.
“Oh man, we left our lunch on the table,” Tucker groaned, but his stomach groaned even louder.
Normally she’d give Tucker a hard time for always thinking with his stomach, but her own hungry belly thought back to her abandoned black bean hummus wrap with resigned disappointment. She had been looking forward to that, but she didn’t think any of them should go back into the cafeteria right now.
Danny shifted nervously in the grass, a marked contrast to his previous joking nature. “...I can go get them,” he said, barely louder than a mumble.
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Danny, you’re literally the last person who should go back into that school right now.”
He sighed. “No I mean…I can sneak in and get them.”
Right. Ghost powers. Somehow she kept forgetting. That realization had been on her mind so much since she saw the news report. It consumed her thoughts all morning and really, that realization was the only reason they could talk right now. How she hadn’t put the pieces together astonished her.
Tucker also finally realized what he meant and his eyes grew wide. “Oh my god yes! Oh this is so brilliant. Yes yes, go get it!” he encouraged as he practically vibrated with excitement.
Danny hesitated for a moment as he bit his lip. He looked so nervous, and Sam’s heart went out to him that he was so scared to show this part of himself to his friends. Finally he nodded and stood with some renewed internal resolution. He took a deep breath as two rings of light appeared around his waist.
She saw the opposite transformation on the news footage. She’d replayed it over in her head multiple times since she saw it because her mind struggled so hard to accept it. But seeing it on a screen and seeing it in person were two very different things. One moment her friend stood there, and then the next there was Phantom. But this time when she looked at the face of their ghostly protector, she could see Danny in there now. That strange glow that emanated from his skin hid those familiar features before, but she could see them now that she knew to look for them. A strange energy lingered in the air after the transformation, one she could swear she remembered feeling around Danny before. It left the hair on her arms standing for just a moment, but it wasn’t unpleasant. She could get used to it.
She was proud to say she only jumped slightly, but she made it a point to put on a reassuring smile as his glowing eyes searched their faces desperately for a reaction. Tucker looked about ready to vibrate out of his skin with excitement. “So cool,” he breathed out in awe, and Danny blushed.
She remained calm and just gave him a supportive nod. He smiled weakly back. “I’ll uh, be right back.” He disappeared from sight, causing Sam to jump again. A breeze blew past them, and she had a feeling that meant Danny had flown off.
“That was a test right?” Tucker asked after a moment when he was sure Danny was gone.
“Oh yeah, it was definitely a test,” Sam confirmed. He was making them prove they could handle this. Those fears of rejection still clearly gnawed at him, and before he threw himself completely into talking everything out and building a new foundation for friendship going forward, he needed to ensure this pillar was strong. Well she could do that. She didn’t care about him being a ghost or part ghost or whatever he was. She didn’t care about the powers or the ghost fighting. She only ever cared that he abandoned them. So if he needed proof that she was a solid pillar he could lean on, she could give him that.
“Do you think we passed?” he pondered with a slight frown.
“Yeah, I think we did,” she said as she tucked her knees to her chest. “But we’ll know for sure if he comes back.”
It didn’t take him long. Danny made it to the cafeteria and back with impressive haste. Maybe he wanted to get back before they had the chance to leave, or maybe he wanted to maximize the amount of time they had to talk before lunch ended. Maybe he was just hungry. Sam really couldn’t say why, but she was grateful they didn’t have to put the talk off for too much longer. She spent a good amount of time blowing up at him (she refused to say she wasted that time because she really felt like she needed that), but she also needed the time to really talk with him.
He appeared suddenly beside them, still floating in the air. Even though she knew he would be arriving at some point, his sudden appearance still caused her to jump. Tucker not only jumped but let out a slight yelp and placed a hand on his heart. “Danny! God you can’t–we are not making this a trend. My out-of-shape heart cannot take that. We need to figure out like a warning or something.”
Danny laughed as he sat cross-legged in the air. That flash of light transformed him back into himself - or rather the other form of himself - and he plopped down onto the grass beside them. He passed out their lunchboxes while a slight smile played across his lips. He seemed more comfortable with them, more like his older self. If he hadn’t just turned visible, floated in the air, and summoned a ring of light around his waist, Sam would have thought it was two years ago by how easy it felt to sit together as a trio again. They must have passed the test.
With a deep breath Danny looked at both of his friends. “Alright, let’s talk.”
It wouldn’t be perfect. It wouldn’t be easy. A lot of bad blood still existed between them, and one conversation wouldn’t wash away all of it. But it was a start. Maybe they could get back to where they were before, or maybe that friendship could blossom into something even better now that they had a shared understanding between each other - that remained to be seen. But knowing that they had a chance to talk, really talk, and air out their grievances and misunderstandings filled Sam with a warmth she hadn’t felt in years. Maybe she could finally have her friend back. And for the first time since the threat of that deadly asteroid shook the very foundation of the world, Sam actually had a feeling things would be okay. Life would move on, life would get better, and she would get better with her friend back at her side. Because sitting in the shade of the same tree in a circle with her two best friends made everything feel right in the world once again.
Note: Thanks for reading everyone! I had a lot of fun with this one. It's my first foray into a Nobody Knows AU and I really enjoyed it! Also there's no way you could dangle a prompt that's a post-reveal and allows me to show the student body's reaction to Danny post-reveal without me latching onto it.
#danny phantom#fanfiction#danny phantom fanfiction#sam manson POV#Nobody Knows AU#but now Everyone Knows AU#Phantom Planet Compliant#but not really#friendship#friendships are hard#but you can work through it with effort#post identity reveal#phic phight 2024#phic phight#phic phight 24#team ghost
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Why Am I Like This?
Written for Phic Phight 2023, for Team Ghost.
Prompt by @duchi-nesten: Don’t get him wrong, Danny did want to eventually tell his parents that he and Valerie are dating. But he wanted to introduce the idea as Danny Fenton dating Valerie Gray. Not as Danny Fenton dating the Red Huntress. How did they mess up so badly?
Word Count: 4042
Summary: “You know how there were rumors a while ago that I had a girlfriend?” he asked, and, Ancients, did his voice have to crack on that last word?
“No need to be so embarrassed, Danny-boy! We already know that you’re dating the Red Huntress!” his dad bellowed.
What.
“Yes,” his mom said curtly, “ we do.”
Or
Danny’s brain was short-circuiting. How was he supposed to explain that he’s dating Valerie Gray, who was definitely not a vigilante ghost hunter, without giving away that he was definitely not a half-ghost vigilante ghost hunter, too?
He got a feeling that Clockwork was laughing at his pain.
Danny set his fork down carefully, grateful that tonight’s dinner wasn’t trying to kill him. He didn’t need that tonight, not when his plans were already going to be so stressful.
“So,” he started, and immediately three pairs of eyes zeroed in on him. His parents were looking at him expectantly, like they’d just been waiting for him to speak up which was… not a good sign, but Jazz was giving him her encouraging-yet-I’ll-be-disappointed-if-you-don’t-do-it look, so he kinda had to follow through now.
“You know how there were rumors a while ago that I had a girlfriend?” he asked, and, Ancients, did his voice have to crack on that last word? His parents were still waiting for him to get to the point.
“Yes, sweetie?” his mom prompted, her violet eyes shining with feigned nonchalance as she picked at her plate. At least she was pretending to be casual; his dad was openly staring at him again. He inwardly cringed, remembering the last time his dad thought he had a girlfriend.
He coughed and started rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh, well,” Why did it have to be so embarrassing to tell your parents about your love life! “There’s this girl, you know. And she’s super kickass and fiery but also determined and loyal and compassionate? Uh, sorry, you already know her–”
Suddenly his dad clapped him on the back with enough force, ghost-enhanced physique or not, to nearly make him faceplant into his mashed potatoes. “No need to be so embarrassed, Danny-boy! We already know that you’re dating the Red Huntress!” his dad bellowed.
What.
“Yes,” his mom said curtly, “we do.”
Danny sent a look Jazz’s way that was more a cry for help than anything else, but she was just as bewildered. Their mom sighed.
“After ghost fights,” she said, “Jack and I still hang around the area just to collect extra samples or run a few numbers while the ectoplasm’s still fresh. But we also see you there, sweetie, talking with the Red Huntress or even riding around with her on her board going who-knows-where.”
Danny’s brain was short-circuiting. He was half tempted to check if dinner had been contaminated with ectoplasm, after all.
The reason he was hanging around with Val after ghost fights was because he had fought alongside her during the fight. And somehow, instead of figuring out his identity, his parents… figured out his love life? Sort of? He wanted to think it was a stroke of good luck, or - more likely - another case of his bad luck to be added to the file. How was he supposed to explain that he’s dating Valerie Gray, who was definitely not a vigilante ghost hunter, without giving away that he was definitely not a half-ghost vigilante ghost hunter, too? He got a feeling that Clockwork was laughing at his pain.
“What?” he says a bit too cheerfully, “No -pfft- come on, I’m not dating some masked ghost hunter! I was just there after ghost fights because, uh…”
His dad guffawed before slapping him on the back again. “You’re a riot, son! Maddie and I once saw you exit a janitor’s closet in your school after a fight with ol’ Red, the both of you looking pretty flustered.” The big man was waggling his eyebrows at Danny.
Danny wanted to phase through his chair and into the floor.
“Of course, we all know that proximity to ghosts and ghost fights is very dangerous,” his mom was all business. “If that girl is putting you at risk, sweetie, we’re going to need to have a very long talk with her. And you’ll need more combat lessons!” she added cheerfully. “I know you’re afraid of the ghosts, but if this relationship is turning your interests toward them, then…!”
And that was when Jazz intervened. “Mom, Dad! You’re embarrassing him, look!” She went on, “This is not the kind of conversation that is conducive to a healthy psyche, especially not when the subject is so touchy among boys his age. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to leave the scenario you’ve created.”
He so owed her. “Yep! I’ll be going now, bye.” And if he used a little of his ghostly speed to get out of the dining room and up the stairs faster, no one would know. Except for Clockwork.
Clockwork was definitely laughing at him.
–
Danny started eavesdropping, invisible outside his parents’ door, in time to hear his dad sigh loudly with relief.
“I told you he couldn’t be dating Valerie, Maddie! The girl’s way out of his league!”
Danny had to hold back a scoff. Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Dad.
“And the Red Huntress isn’t?” his mom challenged.
Danny pouted. Et tu, Mom? (Aha! A Shakespeare reference. He was so going to actually get higher than a passing grade this semester.) He was so tempted to barge in and loudly declare that he was, in fact, dating both of those girls. That girl. He sighed. There’s the problem.
“Even if she is his age - and so help me if she’s older - we’ve seen them meet up before and after ghost fights!” He could hear his mom’s light footsteps as she paced the length of the room. “What happens when ‘before’ or ‘after’ becomes ‘during’? You’ve seen how aggressive she is sometimes! She puts him in danger!”
Danny heard the creaking of a bed as his dad flopped down onto it with a sigh. “She’s probably swept him off his feet, too.” Okay, so maybe Val has rescued him a few times, even carried him bridal style once, but he’s saved her, too!
His dad continued, regardless of Danny’s wounded pride, “I know how hard it is to resist a force of a woman.”
Danny’s thoughts came to a halt. What was with that tone…
He heard the shuffling of sheets. “Speaking from experience, are we?” his mom asked with a chuckle.
“You’d know it, you were there,” his dad replied - and nope! That was about enough for Danny. He was glad his parents had a happy marriage but he did not need to hear how happy it was.
He retreated to his room, head buzzing with the mess he and Val had gotten themselves into.
Crud.
–
Danny had been trying for a week.
He’d flunked his English paper (the assignment wasn’t about Caesar, go figure), and he’d been dodging Valerie all week. A few months ago, he would’ve meant dodging her blasts and hits, but now he meant trying to get out of hanging out with her or - Ancients forbid - having her come to his house. It also meant that by virtue of not wanting to make Valerie feel like she was being excluded, he couldn’t have Sam or Tucker over, either. He was starting to lose his mind all alone in the house. And no, he was not going to Jazz for help about it.
Look, it was an embarrassing problem, okay? His parents disapproved of the relationship they thought he had with the ghost-fighting alter ego of his girlfriend because they thought it was reckless and put him in danger. And they knew about it because they’d basically walked in on their more… private moments. Letting them actually meet with Red and lecturing her on how to properly protect him and save him like the damsel in distress they thought he was for being so afraid of ghosts this whole time was a total no-go - he’d never hear the end of from Val!
He was trying to figure out why this whole situation felt so familiar when Jazz walked in on him pacing the length of his room. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. “Can it. I don’t wanna hear it, Jazz.”
She pouted a little at that, then huffed. “If you’re not going to listen to my advice about healthy communication in all relationships in your life, just let me say that our parents are stubborn to a fault. If they latch onto an idea, they need solid proof to discount it.” She shot him A Look. “You know that better than anyone.”
She turned on her heel with a little ‘harrumph!’ and disappeared from his doorway, her orange hair swinging as she went.
Danny sighed, and tried to get back into brainstorming convincing arguments against his parents. He’d tried to completely deny that anything had happened between him and the Red Huntress, claiming that in this freaky town, it could’ve been ghosts! (You know, the ol’ reliable). He’d told them that at most, the Red Huntress was just a friend. Then his dad started to ask him why he blushed whenever they brought it up and started to tease him and… he lost that argument pretty soon after. He went for a partial denial after that one. He wasn’t dating the Red Huntress, they’d just made out a couple of times. Sort of like a fakeout-makeout, even. That one made his parents angry. “Son,” his dad had said with a distinct tone of fatherly disappointment, “I did not raise you to play with people’s feelings. If you’re not dating the Huntress, then–” “Just kidding! Haha, I meant that we weren’t dating at the time! Wait. I mean, we’re not dating!” Danny resisted the urge to put his head in his hands. That went well. He’d even considered outright telling them that he was dating Valerie and showing them proof, but he shut that idea down. What if they thought he was a two-timer (ugh.). What if they put two and two together for once and figured out that she was the Red Huntress? And he didn’t want to drag Valerie as proof over just to have her watch him either be very awkward with his parents or argue with them. Valerie had too much on her plate for her to be wasting her time in his family drama.
Wait, what was it that Jazz had said about ‘proof’? That his parents were stubborn and needed it to be convinced of something. Well, duh. They were scientists. Sure, though they had definitely dropped the idea a while ago, they used to be extremely biased against ghosts. They held onto the idea that all ghosts were evil so stubbornly that Danny was legit afraid to be around them in the beginning. At least they’d warmed up to Phantom lately.
But what proof did his parents need? They actually had too much proof on their side, evidence that Danny couldn’t refute.
Something green glinted in his peripheral vision, His head whipped around to look at it, and he found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror. In his stress, his eyes had turned that otherworldly green, a shade that seemed so out of place with his regular complexion and black hair.
Oh, right. There was something else that his parents were being stubborn about.
(Maybe it was related? Jazz could look into their family’s seemingly genetic stubbornness, but – she probably already has several papers on it.)
He sighed. He didn’t need to convince his family that he was dating Valerie, not the Red Huntress (because, hey, they were right for once. Sort of. And he didn’t want to ask Val to fake-date him or something, it’d just be too complicated). He needed proof to convince them that dating her was not putting him at risk.
He ran a hand across his face, and in the reflection he could see that his eyes had smoothly transitioned from green back to blue. He sighed. He was going to need to ask his sister for advice on this one.
–
Danny waited until the last second to dodge a glowing green ghostly cube of doom, stepping nonchalantly to the side in midair and watching the Box Ghost’s frustrated reaction with smug satisfaction. But he’s not ignoring the guy just to mess with him. He was just focused on someone else.
“Red!” he hissed. Normally, he’d love to just watch her during combat, because in the fruitloop’s words, she really was good at this, but he needed to talk to her. They were flying higher than some of the buildings around, but his parents were directly beneath them and for all he knew, they’d made a Ghost-Whisper-Detector-Inator or something.
“Oh, so now you wanna talk!” she replied, the distortion from her helmet making her voice sound more metallic and making her angry tone all the more sharp and unsettling. She grunted as she hefted one of her heavier canons onto her shoulder before taking a shot at the Box Ghost. Danny winced as the projectile hit its mark directly and the poor guy got launched a couple blocks down the road. The two of them sped toward where he’d crashed into a wall and blocked his exits, one of them on either side of him. It was way overkill and the Red Huntress was clearly fuming, but Danny couldn’t resist saying, “Guess you could say we boxed him in.”
He couldn’t tell if the groan that came from the Box Ghost was a result of his injuries or Danny’s pun.
Red came closer, pressing a finger to his chest. “I’m about ready to box your hide–”
Danny’s voice cracked as he interrupted her, “Yep! So, can we have this little lovers’ spat over there,” he pointed at a nearby rooftop that was just tall enough to give them some privacy from people on the street, “you know, where my parents won’t see?” He put his hands in the air as he floated away slowly, toward that rooftop. Behind him, he heard Red huff before the telltale humming of her board followed him there.
As soon as they alighted on the roof, the Red Huntress stored her board away and took off her helmet. Valerie’s long, brown curls billowed in the wind and Danny tried not to stare. The whole Technus-enhanced suit she used to have was cool and all, but it was a little creepy, especially since Technus had been so… involved in their first relationship. He much preferred this suit, made by Tucker and the rest of the team using both Vladco and Fenton Works tech. She crossed her arms. “Start talking, Ghost-boy.”
Danny blinked. That took him back to the good ol’ days of when she was trying to kill him - was he sure Clockwork wasn’t messing with the timestream or something?
“Right,” he started, “So, sorry for ghosting you this past week.” His eyes widened in alarm. “Pun not intended, pun not intended!”
She just scoffed and muttered under her breath, “Yeah, right.” But some of the tension left her shoulders, and he could tell that she was holding back a smile. He took it as a sign to continue. He’d been trying to figure out the best way to explain the whole thing, but in the end he just said, “My parents think you and I are dating.”
She cocked an eyebrow at that. “And is that the problem?”
“Sort of.” He reached for her helmet. “You see, they think you,” he gestured to the red helmet in his hands, “are dating me,” he quickly transformed and gestured to his human self. “They think you’re putting me in danger,” he sighed, handing the helmet back to her.
Valerie took the helmet back and his words in slowly. Then she burst into laughter. “They think that I,” she said in between chuckles, “am putting Danny ‘Protector of Amity Park’ and ‘Heir to the Ghost Throne’ Phantom in danger?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Danny groaned. He knew it. He was never going to hear the end of this. She was going to tell the rest of the gang using the groupchat that he was definitely not a part of.
“So that’s why they’ve been chasing me down all week, too,” she added, calming down.
“They’ve been what?” Danny felt a sudden wave of guilt wash over him. He’d been so caught up with trying to keep Valerie free from the stress that his family was causing him that he hadn’t even bothered to check in with her.
She shrugged. “Guess their shouts of ‘Something something my son!’ and ‘Stay away!’ make a lot more sense now. For a moment there, I thought they were tryna run me outta town.” She looked him in the eye. “Is that what it was like for you, y’know,” she said quietly, “before?”
Danny stepped closer to her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorta.” He held her hands through her suit’s gloves and was happy to feel her give him a returning squeeze. “But that was before, and my parents have been harassing you all week. Are you okay?”
“They’ve been harassing both of us all week and we just didn’t know it,” she chuckled. “What idiots. I just missed you, is all.”
He sighed. Jazz was right (Jazz was always right), if he’d just communicated with his relationships or something… “Sorry,” he said again. She just nodded.
“So, what’s your plan?”
–
“You sure you’re okay with telling my parents?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s totally fine.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not like you already revealed my secret identity to my dad and got me in a lot of trouble.”
“Hey!” he protested. “It was one time…” he added guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck.
She grinned and punched his arm playfully. “I know, I know. Not like I didn’t deserve it.”
He frowned a little. That was true, but he still felt like the action had crossed a line. If anyone knew the importance of a secret identity, it would be him. He reached for her hand and she accepted the gesture, holding his hand as they walked to the edge of the roof. “True,” he said. “You used to be pretty morally Gray.”
“You are lucky I love you, Fenton.”
He stopped just short of being visible to those on the ground and gaped at her. She was shorter than him, but she stood tall with all her confidence and an expectant smirk. There was a challenge in her eyes, even if maybe the effect was kinda thrown off by the blush on her cheeks.
“I love you, too,” he said, and she rolled her eyes as if to say ‘duh.’ “And I love that you won’t whoop my ass in front of my parents? Unless, uh, you wanna show me all fifty shades–”
Valerie pressed a quick kiss to his lips before he could finish that sentence. “I love you, but that won’t help you if I hear the end of that sentence.” Helmet back on, she pulled him by the scruff of his shirt and yanked him onto her board before launching them both off the edge toward his parents.
“There she is, Maddie! And Danny-boy’s here, too?”
“Red Huntress! Be careful with my son!”
Red guided the board smoothly over until they arrived in front of his parents.
“Don’t worry, sweetie,” his mom greeted him as soon as he and Valerie stepped onto the street, “we already dealt with the Box Ghost that Phantom just left for us.”
“Now, Maddie,” his dad interjected. “The Box Ghost is small fry! Phantom trusts us with that kind of thing.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she conceded with a sigh. And– Danny knew that this truce was the longest one that had ever lasted between Phantom and his parents, and he knew that Jazz had beaten the anti-ghost bias out of them a long time ago, but hearing the way they were so quick to defend and accept his alter ego now was still jarring. In all this time, even if he didn’t realize it, he was already a lot more relaxed about his identity, not caring if he let something suspicious slip or sometimes even being careless on purpose. It’s just that his parents were too stubborn to see it.
“Speaking of the Ghost-boy,” his dad continued, “where’d he go?”
“We’ll deal with that in a sec,” Danny dismissed easily. He gestured to the Huntress behind him. She stepped forward as confident as ever, her hand outstretched for a handshake. “Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, the Red Huntress.” He watched as his mom accepted the gesture easily, though somewhat stiffly, while his dad’s handshake threatened to pull Red off her feet. “But you also know her from somewhere else.”
On cue, his girlfriend took off her helmet, and Danny continued despite his parents’ shocked gasps, “Val, these are my parents.”
His dad was the first to speak up. “Damon’s girl?” He chuckled with delight. “I knew you were out of Danny’s league!”
“Hey!” he started, but Valerie spoke up for him instead. “If anything, Mr. Fenton, your son’s too good for me,” she said, looking back at him with big, green eyes. He shook his head at her, and put a hand on her shoulder.
“You can call him, Jack, dear,” his mom said. She’d taken off her hood and goggles and she was smiling softly at the two of them. “And I’m Maddie. It’s nice to really meet you.”
Danny and Valerie smiled at each other. “It’s good that I can tie a face that I trust to your girlfriend, Danny,” his mom said. “But! That doesn’t mean that she can take you around with her to ghost fights if we don’t set some ground rules first.” The older woman turned to Valerie. “I know you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, but poor Danny’s been afraid of his own shadow since the ghost portal went up, you see.”
Danny’s dad nodded. “Gotta make sure our boy is looked after!”
“Actually,” Danny butt in, “I can take care of myself.” His parents went quiet and looked at each other. His heart was pounding.
“It’s good to be confident, Danno! But–”
“No ‘buts’, Dad. I haven’t been completely honest with you guys, and it’s not fair to ask Val to reveal her identity when my reveal is way overdue.” He looked down at the street, missing the way his mother’s hand traveled to her mouth and his dad’s jaw was set with knowing determination. Valerie’s hand found his and squeezed it reassuringly. He took a deep breath.
The rings of his transformation glided smoothly over his form. When he opened his eyes to look at his parents, he tensed for just a moment as his vision was filled with the sight of the two of them barrelling toward him. But then they both crushed him in a hug, and all the tension left his shoulders. Even Val was squished in here with him and he laughed wetly. “I guess you guys finally caught the Ghost-boy, huh? Guess you weren’t ex-specter that one!” Then everyone groaned.
After a while, they all pulled away.
“Don’t think we won’t be having talks about all of,” his mom gestured vaguely to him, then to themselves, “this.”
“Oh, sonny, there’ll be a lot of talking to do.” The man looked to his wife. “And I’m going to have to edit the ‘birds and the bees’ spiel a bit, eh? We gotta take into account all your ghostly biology, after all!”
“My ghostly…” Danny turned as green as ectoplasm. Val was as red as her suit.
“Dad!” he whined, making his parents chuckle.
It wasn’t perfect, but, eh. They’d figure it out.
–
“So, how did you end up thinking that Danny was dating the Red Huntress?” Valerie asked, and Danny choked on his mom’s mac and cheese. He glared at Jazz from across the table, and she tried her best to stifle a laugh.
“Well…” his mom started, looking at her husband with a knowing smirk on her face.
“Mom!” he said, accidentally flashing his eyes green.
“No ghost powers at the table, sweetie,” she replied without missing a beat. He huffed and sat back in his seat. He met Valerie’s eye and she had one eyebrow up in an expression that felt like she thought she should be amused, but she didn’t know why yet. Oh, she was going to regret that fast.
His dad picked up the story, “You know the janitor’s closet on the third floor of Casper High?”
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Giving Up Ghost Hunting by Ajility
DP one-shot, 1.2k words
Written for @faedemon for Phic Phight 2023, Team Ghost!
What do you do when your nemesis makes a really good point about wasting time and how exhausted you are? What do you do when it turns out he's right, and you don't need to be putting yourself through this?
Valerie doesn't know, but she'll figure it out.
(Read on ao3, or keep reading below!)
Valerie has three upcoming tests, two papers, and a never-ending list of homework and practice problems to get through. Despite being part-time, she’s been scheduled to work for five of seven days next week — definitely over 20 hours. And there’s been at least one ghost attack every. single. day.
She’s running on fumes, but at least she’s doing a good job hiding it.
…or at least. She thought she was doing a good job hiding it.
“...what did you just say?” she demands through gritted teeth, her ecto-gun aimed and ready.
Phantom holds his hands up in mock-surrender. “Nothing!” He says automatically, then pauses and sighs, letting his hands drop. His usual taunting demeanor drops with them. “...just. You look tired.”
She looks tired? Ha! What would he know about that? It’s none of his business, and she has a mask on, and-!
…and she is tired.
“Well if you’re worried about my beauty sleep, why don’t you start running?” She scoffs. “The quicker we get this over with, the quicker I can work on my paper and go to bed.”
Phantom just sighs again. “Or you could skip chasing me and go work on your paper now.”
Valerie growls and gives a warning shot just a few inches to the left of his head. He doesn’t even flinch. “Nice try, ghost. You’re lucky I’m even talking to you right now, I’m not gonna just let you go.”
“Yes, you will. Because you always do. Because if you ever actually caught me, you’d have to deal with all the ghosts in this town, by yourself.” Phantom says flatly. “You’re barely keeping up right now. You have tests to study for, papers to write, and work. That’s a lot even without the ghost hunting.”
What? “How do you-” she starts to say, but he cuts her off.
“I handled the ectopus today. I handled Kitty and Johnny earlier in the week. I dealt with Boxy and there wasn’t even much property damage this time. You got there late every single time because you’re so tired, you’ve started falling asleep in class. Stop being stubborn and wasting both of our time, and take a break before you get yourself hurt. Your paper is due tomorrow, you’re already not getting sleep tonight.”
He turns and flies off before she’s even finished processing all that… which unfortunately means he’s gone before she can shoot him for it.
Who does he think he is, telling her off like that? She’s handling everything perfectly fine, thankyou-very-much! She has plenty of time to- to… tomorrow?
Today is Tuesday, the paper isn’t due until… oh. Oh, no. Today is Thursday. The paper is due tomorrow.
She lowers her gun and speeds home; she doesn’t have time to figure out where Phantom went tonight or how he knew all that.
---
On the upside, Valerie does get her paper done and manages to turn it in on time… on the downside, Phantom was right: she doesn’t get any sleep.
It grates on her nerves, but… without him right in front of her, it’s much easier for her to admit he has a point. She is exhausted. She does have too much work to get done. She has been arriving to ghost fights late, and she’s been making stupid mistakes. She’s going to get herself — or someone else — hurt.
She can’t risk someone else getting hurt.
…which is also why she can’t just leave the ghost fights to Phantom. He’s a ghost. He clearly doesn’t understand, and isn’t going to protect everyone properly! She can’t trust human lives to a ghost.
Except… she kind of has been, unintentionally. By showing up late to fights. And no one’s gotten hurt yet. If she’s going to keep being late and keep risking people’s lives… maybe she should take a break. So she can be ready when she’s actually needed.
Maybe- just for a week?
Dammit.
She hates that Phantom has a point.
---
A week goes by. Then two.
Valerie doesn’t hunt any ghosts, including Phantom.
No one gets hurt.
She gets her papers turned in, passes her tests, catches up on sleep… She feels good.
Good, but empty.
Phantom was right, she doesn’t have to exhaust herself chasing ghosts, she doesn’t have to exhaust herself chasing him, and the world keeps turning… Ha. That’s messed up, isn’t it?
She kind of wishes someone got hurt. Not because she actually wants anyone hurt, of course, but- because it’d prove she’s needed.
Instead, the exact opposite has been proven: she can put her hoverboard down, leave the ecto-guns hidden away, and Phantom will handle all the ghosts juuuust fine — if anything, things are going better now that she’s not hunting him. She isn’t needed. At all.
What does she do with that info?
Now that she doesn’t have a billion normal life things to worry about, now that she’s caught up with school and things have calmed down and she has free time — what does she do?
Ignore the fact she’s not needed and go back to hunting anyway?
The few patrols she’s gone on, she hasn’t seen more than a blob. Shooting blobs isn’t any fun, it just makes her feel mean. That’s why she’d been leaving them for Phantom even before this…
And- she doesn’t think she can go back to just hunting Phantom. As much as she hates him, as much as she wants to… he was right. And he hasn’t let anyone get hurt. It doesn’t matter if she knows he’s awful, as long as he’s keeping people safe and doing just as good a job as she had been.
But then- what does she do?
Valerie grits her teeth. She’s not going to start crying in the school library over this. She’s not.
She’ll find a hobby. Maybe she can start… painting. Or photography. Or something.
The A-listers are at least neutral towards her again — maybe she can make new friends, now that she has the time and won’t be making excuses to get out of plans because she has to deal with another ghost-bear.
This line of thought is not helping. She rubs at her eyes and groans, then looks around to make sure no one’s paying attention to her… and spots Danny Fenton hunched over a book, a few tables away.
She bites her lip. She hasn’t properly talked to Danny in months, he’s one of the people she could potentially try befriending… and he looks exhausted. More than she did a few weeks ago, before she stopped hunting ghosts, which is as worrying as it is impressive.
She knows he struggles in a lot of classes (everyone knows that) and the portal is in his basement… even if he’s not hunting ghosts, he probably has to deal with them a lot. Honestly, she’s surprised his parents haven’t made him get into ghost hunting yet.
Maybe- maybe that’s what she can do: help Danny Fenton. It might end up getting her involved with ghosts again— but there’s no guarantee so it’s fine, it doesn’t count.
Besides, she should pay it forward right? Phantom helped her when she was exhausted, so… she’ll help someone else now. And this could go towards a ‘make new friends’ goal too, so even if she does just end up helping him with studying and school work, it’ll be a success.
Mind made up, Valerie stands up and makes her way over to Danny’s table. She’s got this, she doesn’t need ghost hunting, she can help friends with school instead.
(ao3)
#ajility writes#ajs fanworks#danny phantom#phic phight#phic phight 2023#team ghost#valerie gray#danny fenton#dp ff#dp fic#dp oneshot
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perfect time (653 words) by ei_w
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Danny Phantom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson, Clockwork/Pariah Dark
Characters: Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, Clockwork (Danny Phantom)
Additional Tags: Marriage Proposal, referred DarkAges, Clockwork did not approve to use the Ring of Rage for another purpose than it was destined for, Funny, Not Betaed We Die Like Danny In Embarresment, Phic Phight (Danny Phantom), Phic Phight: Team Human (Danny Phantom)
Summary:
Finally, the day had come, the one he was waiting for so long! — Danny would take the question to Sam.
#danny phantom#dp fanfic#phic phight#phic phight 2023#team human#team ghost#sam manson#clockwork#dp clockwork
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