#wanted to put Sam and Tucker in here somewhere but it felt too busy rip | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tourettesdog · 2 years

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DP x DC prompt where Bruce and Tim go to investigate Amity Park, with Jason in tow, all suited up. They’ve heard a strange claim about “ghosts” there, and trying to research the town revealed a concerning government presence and tampered records.

The moment they enter the town, the ectoplasm in the air starts rapidly filtering out the corrupted ectoplasm in Jason’s system and strengthening his underdeveloped core (kinda like To Join the Whispers). Jason doesn’t tell Bruce or Tim at first since he’s kind of freaking out about how the Pit is responding to the town. Then Jason’s arm goes through a table and they don’t really have any idea what is happening and are now all freaking out about it. Danny sees this happen and immediately recognizes the same sudden, uncontrollable power displays he had after the Accident.

Danny is extremely torn because he wants to help (a new halfa?? or something close enough??? and he’s a vigilante???? hell yeah), but he’s also Terrified of Batman going anywhere near his fucking house. So he introduces himself as Phantom and tries his best to steer them away from FentonWorks while also trying to help talk Red Hood through everything and dump a lot of ghost facts on them. Going to see Frostbite is extremely tempting, but Danny’s pretty sure he can handle this. Pretty sure. (He does Not want Batman near the portal, since it means being in his gd house, and he doubts he can get Red Hood there without Batman following.)

The bats didn’t even know who Phantom was until they arrived in Amity and they’re all a Little concerned that this random, powerful ghost child is this excited about Jason essentially going through ghost puberty in record time. It’s even more concerning that Phantom doesn’t seem at all surprised that a human can be part ghost in any way, which means either Phantom is somehow human himself (somehow) or that this is just not a new occurrence in this town.

They came here to figure out wtf was happening in Amity, and Phantom’s raising about 50 more questions by the second. Bruce sees Phantom take down a mutant ghost bear ripping through town and now he’s pretty sure this ghost child (who may or may not be partially alive??) is a load-bearing feature of the town. He’s not a fan of that. Bruce is even more concerned that, upon mentioning the government presence in town, Phantom says the GIW is causing more problems for the town and is actively hunting him.

Jason’s just... having a time. He’s never felt so zen and anxious at the same time. He wants to feel skeptical about Phantom and what’s going on, but being anywhere near the kid makes him feel like he’s hanging out with his best friend since childhood, wrapped in a warm blanket and safe as can be. (And the Pit is quiet and his mind feels Clear.)

The only reason the bats didn’t attack Phantom and drag Jason away in the first place is because Jason doesn’t Want to leave and jumped to defending the kid oddly quick. They tried to drag Jason out of town but he’s turning partly-intangible now whenever someone touches him and they physically can’t.

Danny’s pretty much adopted Red Hood as his new brother and even if he doesn’t trust Batman as far as he can throw him (far), he feels like he’s doing a pretty good job juggling mentoring Red Hood and managing to derail Batman’s investigation at the same time. Tucker helped lure the Drs. Fenton out of town with a fake ghost hunting convention, and the online information for anything in Amity is so butchered (between Tucker, Technus, and the GIW each having their turn at tampering) that the bats are having to rely mostly on word of mouth for their investigation.

He’s not doing quite as good of a job as he thinks he is, though. All it took was Phantom badmouthing the FentonWorks building once in passing for Bruce to look into it. They try to break into the place the moment they think Phantom’s gone-- only the house has some Surprisingly violent security systems and Phantom appears out of no where and drags them away.

They plan to go back the next day, cause there’s definitely Something there and they’re pretty sure it’s the answers they need. (Even just looking at the weird structure on the roof pretty much promises that.)

Only... Jason’s developing core (which isn’t fully formed and is soaking up the ectoplasm in Amity like a sponge) turns out to be an electric core. It starts going Buckwild with pent up energy, and Danny is having None of that. He goes from being very happy and excited to just-- terrified and flighty.

Random sparks of electricity around the kid with the Worst track record with that stuff? Yeah, no thanks.

Danny races home and just paces endlessly, confiding in Jazz that he doesn’t know what to do and wants to help and feels awful for bailing on them-- but he doesn’t feel capable handling someone with electricity sparking off of them like water off a duck. He thinks they need Frostbite’s help, which means letting Batman into FentonWorks, which means opening himself up to the possibility (probability) of Batman finding out more about the Fentons, Danny Fenton specifically, and Phantom.

The bats are panicking because, skeptical of Phantom or not, he was the only person providing them with answers and trying to help. Jason’s stressed to high hell without the calming feeling of Phantom nearby-- AND electricity now jolting from his hands uncontrollably on top of everything. The electricity is just coming and going at random, with him having no control over it.

They go to FentonWorks, their only lead, and this time a girl with red hair answers the door. She’s clearly stressed out about something-- and she has Phantom in her house, looking dejected and still very terrified as he keeps his distance. Why Phantom is in a house that is clearly stacked to the nines with ghost hunting equipment is... suspicious.

Jason’s powers act up almost immediately after entering the house-- causing some very scary damage to the nearest light fixture-- and Jazz is like “yeah no, we need to fix this Now” and marches them straight to the portal. The entire time she’s trying to explain her parents’ work and how they have friends through this portal that can help, and it’s Quite the sell to make on the fly.

They walk past a few family pictures on the wall on the way to the lab and it’s all Tim needs to see to be like “Soooo Phantom is definitely your brother-- hey um why is your brother a ghost??” He expresses this aloud and the way Danny tries to stammer and hide it is as good of confirmation as anything.

And then they see the state of the lab. All of the ghost-hunting weapons just lying around, and the giant portal to hell-- and how Phantom is still visibly keeping his distance from the sparks coming off of Jason. There’s just building rage in Bruce as he’s putting together the parental negligence and trauma. He wants to grill the two kids about their parents (why do they have all of these ghost hunting weapons when their kid is some sort of ghost?? WHY is their kid some sort of ghost???), but now he’s faced with a teenaged girl trying to convince him to go through a mysterious ghost portal to bring his kid to some strange ghost doctor.

Jason is leery as can be of the portal (it Looks a bit too like the Lazarus Pit, and it definitely feels like death), but this girl-- Jazz-- doesn’t seem afraid of going through the portal and is making it very clear she’ll just go into this “Ghost Zone” without them and grab this doctor if she has to. The thought of the girl diving through the portal by herself (and the sparks still flying off of him, making a mess of the lab equipment), is enough incentive to get Jason to go with.

Transporting Jason is... problematic, though. He would absolutely destroy the Specter Speeder if he rides in it. They eventually settle on Danny dragging Jason through the zone by a line (wearing a giant pair of rubber gloves on top of his gloves because he is not playing around).

By the time they get to the Far Frozen, the situation is sort of... solving itself? Being in the Ghost Zone has filtered out the last of the Pit's gunk from Jason and his malformed core is settling down now that it doesn't have good ectoplasm competing with sludge. He still doesn't really have control over the electricity, and feels a bit overwhelmed with energy, but it's no longer firing on all cinders.

Frostbite's pretty bothered by meeting Jason. He recognizes him as something similar to Danny (Bruce isn't going to let the "Great One" nicknamed Phantom has slide also; hoo boy that's another for the Giant List), but... Off. He has a core but it's-- small. Delicate. It was dormant until he entered Amity, and even now it doesn't really have the power or even shape a normal ghost core should.

Frostbite is able to help with the electricity, at least, by just explaining that now that his core has formed (in what capacity it can) Jason has to be careful about pent up energy to avoid it striking out. That the electricity feeds easily off of available energy and, especially if his emotions are high, will lash out if it overflows. He has Jason let out a lot of energy in a secluded space and it feels immensely cathartic.

Jason is still not allowed into the Specter Speeder on the way back to FentonWorks.

Returning to FentonWorks (with Jason's condition stabilized after his GZ spa cleanse) opens the door for a very careful interrogation of the Fenton siblings. Each answer or non-answer they give is more concerning than the last. The straw that breaks the camel's back is learning that the portal itself killed Danny and that his parents are not in any way aware he's (half) dead because of the ever-real risk his parents will hurt him if they find out.

They haven’t even mentioned Vlad. There’s still so much.

Bruce is already mentally signing the adoption papers. Tim and Jason have accepted they're getting two new siblings and are warning the family (and Jason's planning to be as careful as he can with these new powers so he doesn't freak Danny out because knowing Why it was freaking Danny out has him wanting to wear his own pair of rubber gloves and strangle their parents with them).

Danny is just a little shellshocked that these people are nicer than he thought and are willing to help him and not make his life worse.

Also notes: Jason wouldn't have a full roster of halfa abilities. No secondary form (though the white hair tuft prob glows more, and his eyes turn green more often), probably no true flight, and no ectoblasts. He mostly gets a grasp on the electricity and intangibility, and can use invisibility sparingly. The pranks he and Danny (and later Dani) get up to are the stuff of legend.

#this was rocking around in my head and I needed to write it down #dp x dc #dp x dc prompt #danny phantom #dp #dp prompt #batpham #prompt #dogposts #dp fanfic #this also wound up being longer than intended but oh well lol #wanted to put Sam and Tucker in here somewhere but it felt too busy rip #Also I'm extremely incapable of summarizing things and shortening ideas so this got very long #dogprompts

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ladylynse · 4 years

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Part 7 of Passageway [FF | AO3]

The Fenton Ghost Portal in the basement lab is empty, broken. Instead, the portal is inside Danny–and even when he knows something’s coming, he can’t stop it. (Danny as the ghost portal AU)

(Beginning | Previous)

-|-

Crud.

This had been a bad idea.

He didn’t know what he was doing. This was definitely a bad idea. He shouldn’t have left until he had a plan. He knew his leaving would put the others in danger, and now he didn’t even have a good place to hide. What had he been thinking? He didn’t have the energy to run very far or very fast, and he needed to move. He’d been so stupid. When he got recaptured, things would just be that much worse—

Danny coughed.

A few steps later, he coughed again.

As realization dawned, cold fear wasn’t the only thing clawing at his throat.

No. This was bad. This was very bad. He couldn’t do this now. It left him exhausted at the best of times, and it’s not like he had his phone to call Sam or Tucker despite the danger it would put them in, and—

Danny choked and staggered up the street. He was too exposed. Couldn’t do this here. There might be cameras. Or the shifter. Couldn’t risk anyone seeing.

He was gasping, unable to draw air.

He stumbled through an empty parking lot, trying to make it to the dumpster on the far side.

Any cover was better than this.

The coughing continued and turned into choked heaves.

He couldn’t breathe.

Danny fell to his knees in the shadow of the dumpster, retching and heaving and just trying to get it out—

Darkness.

More darkness.

Danny couldn’t tell what it was anymore. Outside his head, inside his head, out of his mouth or always there or just from the spots swirling in front his eyes….

“Hey, kid.”

Danny groaned. He could breathe again. Was it really over? Had it stopped? His jaw hurt, and his throat was raw, but all of that could have been from before, so maybe—?

“Kid. Wake up.”

A boot toed his side. Gently, thankfully. Danny rolled onto his back—again, he couldn’t remember lying down—and opened his eyes, staring up at the night sky.

At the edge of his vision, he could see a blackness deeper than the rest of the night.

He blinked.

It didn’t go away.

“You gonna be okay?” the voice asked again, and Danny turned his head slightly. After a split second, the boy’s smudged face resolved into that of a rather sickly-looking teenager, someone closer to Jazz’s age than his.

“I dunno.” He still ached all over, he was still exhausted, and hungry and thirsty and whatever else, but he wasn’t…. He didn’t think he felt as bad as he should feel, given that he’d been kidnapped for— Was this really only the second night he’d been gone? Had it only been twenty-four hours? Maybe even less?

“You okay enough to help my girlfriend?”

Danny wasn’t sure he felt okay enough to sit up yet. “No?”

He heard a whistle and then something that was undoubtedly a command: “Shadow, help me with him.”

It was a sign of how much he’d been through by now that Danny didn’t scream when the darkness moved and curled around him. He leaned into it, letting it lift him off the ground and deposit him in a standing position. He staggered, and the shadow returned to steady him. He wasn’t sure if the face he thought he saw grinning up at him was imagined. Hallucinating at this point might be normal, right?

The nearest streetlight flickered out.

Yup, perfectly normal.

“You’re doing better now, right?” the teen pressed, despite vast evidence to the contrary. Danny hadn’t thought anyone could look anxious while lounging against a motorcycle, but this guy managed it. “I miss my girl.”

“I can’t….” He didn’t have time for this. He needed to hide. He moved his arms, his shoulders, in something that might be construed as a shrug by the generous. “I don’t have time to help you look for her. I’ve gotta…. I need to go.”

“No, no, you can’t go!”

One cold hand wrapped around Danny’s arm, and he suddenly realized what he hadn’t before.

“She’s stuck on the other side. If I can’t get back to her right now, I need her over here.”

Danny stared at him. Part of him wanted to cry, but he felt too worn out to do even that. Just…. Couldn’t he catch a break?

“I’m Johnny, Johnny 13, that’s Shadow, and Kitty…. She’s the best girl, my Kitty. You can’t separate us like this.”

“I can’t…. I can’t do this right now.” Danny tried to shove at the shadow and pull away, but it tightened around him again, still substantial in a way it shouldn’t be substantial.

“Look, I’ll help you,” Johnny said. “You said you need to go somewhere, right? I’ll take you there. And you can repay me for the ride by getting my girl to me.”

“I don’t….” Maybe flat out refusing to help a ghost when the ghost’s friend—or pet ghost or whatever Shadow was—had him in what could very easily become a stranglehold was a bad idea. “I can’t right away.” He wasn’t sure he could help later, wasn’t sure he’d want to help later, but later was better than now. “Someone’s hunting me down.” If he’d been thinking more clearly, he might not have put it that bluntly, but it was too late now. “I need to hide from them and figure out a way to help my friends and family.”

Danny saw Johnny’s eyes flick down to the cuffs still visible on his wrists—Shadow had avoided covering them—and nod. “I’ll help you. In exchange for being with my girl.”

“I….” Agreeing and not being able to deliver would just make his situation worse. “I can’t promise anything beyond trying.” That was safe enough, right? Not that he wanted to try, exactly, but….

“Climb on, kid.” Johnny moved aside, and Shadow pushed Danny forward. He stumbled, and the older teen—ghost—helped him onto his motorcycle.

Danny was rather glad he didn’t remember that coming through.

His perch on the motorcycle in front of Johnny wasn’t precarious, but Danny didn’t have a helmet, and he’d survived too many years of his dad’s driving to not really regret that. Also seat belts. And, frankly, being able to hold onto something properly.

He used to think he’d love to own his own motorcycle.

He was fairly sure he still would, but he was absolutely sure that he hated the fact that he wasn’t in control of this particular ride.

“Where are we headed?” Johnny yelled in his ear as they sped down the street. Danny had had him turn left, away from the docks, but now….

Now, it was very evident that he didn’t have a plan.

“I…I don’t know.”

“What?”

“I don’t know! I need to hide, but I don’t know where!”

Silence but for the roar of the motorcycle and the wind.

“Been a while since I’ve been through here,” Johnny said at last. “The public library. That still the same building?”

Danny had absolutely no idea. Jazz practically lived there, but the only library he went to was the school one, and he only went there when he had to. “Maybe?”

“We’ll risk it.”

Johnny took a sharp turn and then pulled back on the handlebars. Danny shrieked as the motorcycle lifted into the air and he was thrown back against Johnny. He scrambled for what handhold he could, but with his hands still cuffed—

The motorcycle hovered in the air. By this point, Danny didn’t know whether it could do that because of Shadow or because Johnny 13 was a ghost and he could just do that. Right now, Danny didn’t really care. He was much more preoccupied by the fact that this skyward detour made it more likely that the shifter would track him down sooner rather than later. A flying motorcycle wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.

“Why’d you do that?” Danny hissed, and Johnny jabbed a finger into his shoulder and then pointed. It took Danny a moment to get his bearings and realize that, yes, that was the flag that flew over the public library. “Yeah, that’s still the library, but wh—?”

He didn’t get a chance to finish before they were suddenly plummeting towards the earth again.

It was not like a roller coaster.

It would have been so much better if it had been like a roller coaster.

As it was, Danny probably would’ve flown clean off the motorcycle if Johnny hadn’t wrapped one arm around him just as the plunge started.

If Johnny hadn’t kept his arm around Danny’s middle, he might’ve tried to jump off anyway once it became painfully clear that they were headed for the library and Johnny wasn’t about to slow down.

The motorcycle was moving entirely too quickly toward the stone wall of the corner lot building, something that was solid brick at the base with windows higher up, and Danny hoped fervently that his assumptions about ghosts and their powers weren’t wrong.

And then he remembered what Sidney had told him.

“I can’t go through the wall!” he screamed, and some distant part of his mind was aware that that wouldn’t be enough. Of course Johnny would think that Danny thought he couldn’t go through a wall. He wasn’t a ghost, after all. He wouldn’t be used to that kind of thing. “These handcuffs are immune to a ghost’s ability to do that!” Would that make sense? He didn’t really have time to try again. “Let me off!”

Danny’s panic continued, and it got less intelligible, but Johnny swerved the motorcycle before they hit the wall anyway. Not that Danny saw him do that. He had his eyes closed by that point, busy babbling and praying to whoever would listen to let him keep the use of his hands after the handcuffs were ripped off of him.

When Danny did open his eyes, it was to tire tracks burnt onto brick. The imagined flip must not have been so imagined after all. His stomach turned just thinking of what had nearly happened, and he leaned to one side and heaved. Bile burned its way up his throat. Johnny yelped, and the bike’s shadow shifted out of the way as stomach acid dribbled from Danny’s mouth.

“I’m sorry,” he managed, coughing and trying to spit the last of it free. “I…. I just….” Another heave, this time dry. He sucked in a shuddering lungful of air. He was shaking. When had he started shaking?

“Easy there, kid.” Johnny patted him awkwardly on the back. “You’re fine.”

“You don’t need to keep calling me a kid, you know,” Danny said finally. He kept his gaze firmly on the ground, just in case his stomach decided it wasn’t done. “I’m only a couple of years younger than you are.”

“That’s what you think?”

“Pretty sure I’m not wrong.” He was starting to feel better now, so Danny tried to wipe his mouth on his shoulder—it was dirty already anyway—before twisting around to face Johnny. “Look, I appreciate the ride, and I get that you miss your girlfriend, but I’ve got some stuff I need to deal with before I can help you.”

“Starting with those, right?” Johnny asked, pointing at the cuffs. Danny hesitated and then nodded; his family and friends were more important, but he couldn’t really do anything if he couldn’t even use his hands. “Pull up a clean patch of grass. I’ll teach you how to get out of those.”

“Um….”

“Unless you want to keep them on. Just seems like it might be a necessary life skill for you, from what I’ve seen. But you can leave them on. I don’t have to show you the spot Kitty and I would sneak off to, even if it would be a nice place to cool your heels and hide out.”

Danny blinked. “Wait. You two—? In the library?” He glanced down at the handcuffs. “Oh, man, I did not need to know that. I think I would rather that you knew how to get out of these for criminal reasons.”

Johnny grinned at him and pulled a paperclip out of his pocket. “Never said I didn’t, kid. Now, if you’ve got a thin bit of metal on you, you can do it the easy way….”

It was…nice, taking the time to breathe. To stop and do this, even with everything he had hanging over his head. And, well, it was really nice to get the full use of his arms back once Johnny had freed him.

Danny was taking full advantage of being able to stretch again, knitting his fingers together and pushing them skyward and then pulling them apart and rolling his shoulders and thrusting his hands behind his back—

He had really taken this for granted before.

He was not going to forget how good this felt. He wasn’t going to let the shifter ghost get the better of him again, either. He’d bury the cuffs—couldn’t just pocket them if he was going to let Johnny pull him through the wall, and he wasn’t about to throw them out in case he needed them later—and then he could figure out how to get a message to his family and friends, something that only they’d understand in case the shifter intercepted it, and—

“Danny?”

That was Jazz’s voice.

“What are you doing here?”

He didn’t know if it really was Jazz.

“I thought…. We thought…. Oh, little brother, are you okay?”

It sounded like Jazz.

And the person who rushed towards him and wrapped him in a hug certainly looked and felt and smelled like her, too.

Danny tried to twist in her grip, to see if Johnny had vanished like Sidney had earlier. He caught sight of the ghost leaning against his motorcycle again, arms folded as he watched their reunion. Assuming it really was a reunion. There was no attempt to knock him out this time, but they weren’t alone, either, and—

Danny finally pushed Jazz away, ignoring the hurt expression on her face. “I need to go,” he said. “I’ll explain later.” He couldn’t afford to make a mistake and tell the shifter his plan. Not that he really had a plan. If this was the ghost who had kidnapped him, the cat was already out of the bag. But that didn’t mean he had to make it even easier for them.

“What’s going on?”

“I said I’ll explain later.”

“But….” She was shaking her head. “No, seriously, Danny. Look at you. You look awful. And you smell.”

Maybe it really was Jazz.

“Ghosts are real,” he said.

She rolled her eyes. “Look, little brother—”

“What’s the name of your stuffed lion?”

She blinked. “Did you hit your head?”

He couldn’t tell if she was avoiding the question.

“I know this sounds weird, but if you answer me, I’ll explain now instead of later.”

“Danny, you’re scaring me.”

“Please, Jazz. Your stuffed lion?”

“I don’t have a stuffed lion. I have a stuffed bear. You know that. He’s called Bearbert Einstein for a reason. Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?”

Danny let out a sigh of relief and turned to Johnny. “She’s safe. I’m sure of it. Can we take her, too?”

Johnny smirked. “We can make room.”

“Wait, who’s—?”

But Danny had already tossed the Fenton Cuffs into the bushes, grabbed Jazz’s hand with his left, and reached for Johnny with his right. He tugged Jazz forward, trying to shush her even as she ignored him and tried to pull away. Instead of taking his hand, Johnny nodded towards his motorcycle, and Danny put a hand on it instead as Johnny climbed on and started it up.

“Danny,” Jazz hissed, still twisting her arm in an attempt to escape his grip, “what the heck is going on?”

“It’ll be easier to explain if you come with us,” he said, and she huffed but stopped fighting him.

At least, she stopped fighting him until it became all too clear that Johnny—for all that the motorcycle was moving forward slowly enough that Danny could keep pace with it while walking—was heading for the wall.

“What—?”

Danny shushed her again, adding a kick for good measure. Jazz paused long enough to kick him back, and then Danny felt that…that feeling wash over him. Not cold, exactly. Light, maybe. Detached. Distant.

Johnny’s motorcycle passed through stone.

Still walking, one hand still on the motorcycle and the other keeping a death grip on Jazz, Danny followed, dragging his sister with him.

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#danny phantom #danny fenton #dp fanfiction #phanfiction #dp au #ghost portal!danny #ghost portal!danny fenton #fanfiction #jazz fenton #johnny 13 #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #dp snippet

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shinobicyrus · 7 years

Text

“No Reservations”

So like.

Tucker got it. There was no good time to break up with somebody, but that didn’t mean that it still didn’t need to happen. Sometimes it was mutual: a lack of chemistry, incompatible lives. LaTonya had been sharp enough to realize that Tucker had been hiding something and wasn’t being one-hundred percent honest with her which, yeah, he couldn’t blame her for that. It wasn’t like he could explain that he was covering for his half-ghost best friend who moonlighted as a superhero. He lied to Danny about that one- dude didn’t deserve feeling guilty about it.

A few times it had been totally his fault. Tucker was man enough to admit it. He could be selfish and insensitive at the worst times. The hearts of nice, awesome girls that didn’t deserve it had gotten broken, and he didn’t tell Sam or Danny about it because even years later he was still ashamed with himself.

Once and a while it just had to happen, no if ands or buts. Jackilyn had it in her head that Sam of all people was trying to “steal” Tuck away from her and demanded he end their friendship. Maybe it was a little rude to laugh in her face about Sam trying to steal him, nevermind cheat on Danny, but yeah hahahahaha good one Jacki don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Or there was Anita, who up and asked his best friend’s clone-sis to stop “making her uncomfortable” by just snuggling with her girlfriend and Tucker honestly never expected to get hugged by Valerie of all people after throwing his very recent Ex out of the apartment in front of everybody.

Penny, though? Penny he hadn’t seen coming.

He got it, he really did. If things weren’t working out, you had to strike a balance between doing it delicately but also not dragging it out. With Valentine’s was less than a month away, Penny had done the right thing and ripped that band-aid right off.

It just really, really sucked to be the band-aid.

By this point Danny and him had themselves a post-breakup tradition (always Tucker’s break-ups, of course) of stocking up on snacks and booze, then holing up in the apartment so they could spend the night getting drunk and talking about feelings while playing video games. Then Tucker rode out the emotional hangover that was the rest of January binging on pirated Stargate Atlantis episodes on his hard-drive because Netflix betrayed him. Netflix was a lot like his love life. There was a ‘chill’ joke somewhere in there that he honestly didn’t have the energy to come up with.

Whatever, he could deal. Not like it was the first time he’d been dumped. Definitely won’t be the last; Tucker liked to talk a good game but deep down he knew the score.

God, couldn’t Penny had pulled the rug out from under him before he’d gotten those reservations a month in advance? He’d scored a nice table at like, the third snazziest restaurant in town for Valentines. Sure, maybe it was a tad overcompensating because he sensed there was some distance growing between them- talk about seeing the warning signs too late.

He gave the table to Danny and Sam. No sense in a nice romantic dinner to go to waste -even if Sam could probably make two phone calls and get a table at the fanciest gourmet place in the state, if she wanted.

Most of Tucker’s relationships, even the serious ones, never managed to last more than a few months, and the timing meant that Tucker had a lot more experience spending Valentine’s Day single than with a date. He totally had this covered.

“What do you mean you can’t make the raid either?” Tucker paced around his room while he talked on his phone. “Come on man, there’s no way just nine of us can tackle the Temple of Amaat- we’ll get trounced! We need our epic tank-mage-rogue trio to-” He stopped pacing. “Seriously? You’re spending Valentine’s with Dee and Pocket? In real life? At the same time? And they’re...okay with that? Huh. Dee’s idea? Yeah that sounds like them. Well okay, dude, can’t really argue with that: Baes Before Raids.” He listened to Sherry’s reply. “I’ll hold you to that, dude. Next week then, have fun. Yeah, you too.”

He hung up and sighed. Great. Not only were his plans shot, but now he owed Sam a Level 63 Infernal Battleaxe. One of these days he’s gonna learn to stop betting on relationships- he always got it wrong.

As if having your Legends of Destinyscape Valentine’s plans fall through wasn’t evidence enough. Tucker didn’t know how bad he should feel that so many people in his clan had to cancel because of date plans. Just goes to show that even MMORPG nerds find happiness.

Down the hallway he heard a knock on the apartment door. “Yo Daaannny! Door!” Waited for a response- only heard more knocking. Tucker snorted. Probably too busy getting ready for his big romantic night out. “Fiiiine, I’ll get it!” He made his way down the hall, grumbling on his way to the door. Danny was probably fussing over his outfit for dinner with-

“...Sam?” Tucker blinked. He’d been under the impression that Danny would be flying off to meet Sam at the restaurant, not her showing up at their door dressed in torn jeans and a Widowmaker tee-shirt.

“Hey Tuck,” Sam shouldered past, arms full of reusable shopping bags. “Sorry if I scuffed your door with my boots, couldn’t get my hands free.”

“Uh...it’s fine.” He shut the door as she set her bags down in the kitchenette. “Are you...going out in that?”

“Nope.”

“Hey Sam,” Danny appeared in the hallway.

Tucker threw up his arms. Oh, now he shows up....also dressed in jeans and his laziest lazy-weekend NASA shirt. “Is seven years like the point in the relationship where the romance fades and you stop caring about dressing up?”

“What are you talking about?” Sam gleefully accepted a peck from Danny and slapped his butt. “I love these jeans.”

“It’s nearly seven!” Tucker checked his phone. “I know Danny can fly you, but between getting dressed aren’t you cutting it a little close?”

Sam turned around and started pulling out snacks out of her bags and arranging them on the counter. “Oh, we decided not to go out.”

“What? But it’s Valentine’s Day!”

“Riiight,” she looked over her shoulder to roll his eyes at him. “Because I’m so into manufactured corporate holidays that enforce narrow, traditional relationships.”

“We gave the table you gave us to Val and Danielle,” Danny explained.

“Danielle’s going to be eating at the third fanciest gourmet restaurant in the state. Danielle.”

Danny grinned. “We told them to send us Snaps.”

“But what about your guys’ night?” Tucker demanded.

Sam turned around holding a bottle of expensive wine and a huge bag of chex mix. “We found better plans.”

Tucker sort of...stared at her numbly. His head churned, dissecting, rearranging, and sorting through those four simple words but it kept not making sense. He looked to Danny for some kind of explanation, but his roommate was pulling out a ridiculous amount of candy from Sam’s bag, including some of Tucker’s favorite sour candies that most stores didn’t carry.

Wait. Did. Was she saying.

“You guys want to spend your Valentine’s Day...with me?”

“Took him a second,” Danny said.

“With me.”

Sam shrugged, mouth curving slyly. “Well...I might have had some forewarning that your raid plans would fall through, so I acted accordingly.”

“Kurt told you.”

“You owe me an Cleaver of Khaos, btw. Don’t think I forgot.”

Tucker watched Danny cart the junk food haul over to the coffee-table in front of the TV. “This is...really okay?”

“Tuck,” Sam put down the wine and put a hand on his shoulder. “What do you think we’d rather do more? Eat out at some stuffy restaurant where everyone would look at us funny, or here with you ruining expensive wine with cheap ass candy?”

“I...” His throat felt raw and tight, like he was trying to swallow something thick and painful. “I don’t know what to say,” He managed to croak.

“Say you wanna stay up with us all night having a Marvel movie marathon.”

He chuckled, trying not the sniffle. “Are you gonna spend the whole time complaining about Black Widow not getting her own movie?”

“You know you’d prefer it over Scarlett’s Ghost in the Shell movie.”

“...yeah okay that’s legit.” Tucker said. “I’m...I’m gonna run to my room and grab my portable hard drive.” And totally not cry a little where no one can see.

“Okay, we’ll set up out here.”

It was like they were stupid kids again, all crowded on the same couch with no sense of propriety, not caring about the horrible mess of crumbs and wrappers littered around them. That was tomorrow’s problem. Well...later in the day. Somewhere lost in the chronology between Iron Man 2 and Winter Soldier it had stopped being Valentine’s, but here Tucker was, his best friend dozing on his shoulder and his other best friend sprawled across both of their laps.

“Tuck?” She asked, a little drowsily. The second bottle of wine was mostly empty and was probably somewhere on the floor with the first.

“Yeah?”

“You know you’re a great guy, right?”

Shrugging would have thrown Danny’s head off him, so he didn’t do it. “Sometimes.”

“Sometimes you’re great or sometimes you know?”

“Yes.”

She adjusted her position so her face was pillowed on his lap. Jacki would have flipped her shit at the sight of it. “I actually liked Penny.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“She wasn’t as cute as LaTonya.”

Tucker snorted a laugh. “She noticed. Said you kept staring at her chest.”

“I wasn’t staring. I wasn’t wearing my boots and she was tall, okay?”

The both of them snickered at that, careful to keep their volume low enough to not wake Danny.

“I know it always sounds stupid and hypocritical coming from me or Danny, but you know you don’t have to rush, right? It’s okay to be single for a while, too.”

“Yeah, I know,” Tucker said tiredly. The soft light from the TV played shadows over the creases of the blanket covering them. “It just...it just gets a little lonely sometimes, y’know?”

“Yeah.” Sam said. “But you’re not lonely right now, are you?”

“Nah,” Tucker burrowed a little deeper into the blanket, pressing closer to them. “I think I’m pretty good right now.”

#Happy Valentine's Day #Trio #Tucker Foley #Danny Fenton #Sam Manson #here's some Tuck appreciation #and the Trio having a fun friend-date #because you know Sam would be anti-Valentines #my writing #my fanfiction #of course I made a Valentine's fic about angsty single-Tucker #whilst I sit here #alone on Valentines #writing fanfiction #also I like the idea of Sam and Tuck being in an online Clan together #Danny would love to get in the action too but sadly Ghost-Duties take precedence

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