#Danny's quirk came in when the house was destroyed | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

quirkless-accident · 3 years ago

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More father figure

dadzawa is my favorite flavor

Shouta was tired.

After the events of the training camp, he had gotten multiple calls from worried parents from every single student except one. And it was one he had begrudgingly grown attached to. After the training incident when he had gotten into a scuffle with Bakugou and then had a panic attack at the prospect of Aizawa treating him like every other fucking adult in his life.

He was tied, and didn't want to have this conversation. He didn't know how it was going to go. But maybe being surrounded by his peers in more than just a school setting would ease Danny's nerves. He was always so jumpy.

The building was a standard brick and mortar, with a gaudy neon sign at the top. His shoulders sagged as he walked to the front door. He allowed himself one more sigh before straightening back up and knocking.

The door swung open, revealing Danny in a faded Jaxa t-shirt and a headset. He paled and looked behind him to see if anybody was there. Instead of inviting Aizawa inside, he stepped out in his bare feet. He said a quick goodbye to whoever he had been speaking to, and pulled the headset down, letting it rest across his shoulders.

"Not that I totally don't want to see you, but why are you at my house?" Danny asked. He was nervous and clamming up. The alarm bells in Aizawa's head couldn't be louder.

"I came to talk to your parents about moving you into the new on-campus dorms," Aizawa explained calmly. Danny seemed to pale further.

"Ok. Cool, coolcoolcool." He looked behind him at the closed door before turning back to Aizawa.

"I just-listen," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. His voice held all the seriousness of Midoriya when Kaminari had jokingly threatened to destroy one of his All Might figures. "You cannot-absolutely under any circumstances-tell my parents I have a quirk." Aizawa raised an eyebrow, and opened his mouth to speak, but Danny was faster. "Listen, I know it's confusing, and I promise I'll explain everything, but they don't know I have powers. To be honest I don't even think they know what school I go to. So please," Danny's eyes were wide and fearful. Pleading.

Though there were many questions swirling around in his head, only one was spoken. "Why?"

"Because I have ghost powers. My parents are ghost hunters. I didn't get my powers until I was fourteen. Sensei, they can't know. Please."

Danny was implying a lot of things. Would the Fenton parents hurt Danny just because the nature of his quirk defied their beliefs? Danny seemed to think so. And he knew his parents best. Aizawa stared at Danny, long and hard. Those large, blue eyes never wavered.

"Fine. But I expect an explanation when we move into the dorms. Understand?"

"I promise I will tell you everything," Danny said, his shoulders sagging with relief. "Come on in."

The Fenton's house was about as standard as any other house. It was clean, and decorated with family photos. There was one near the coat rack that caught Aizawa's attention.

It had the Fenton parents and Danny, along with a slightly older red head he vaguely remembers being in Present Mic's class. He had heard Danny talk about his sister a few times, but hadn't cared enough to pay attention to what was said. Now, though, he was realizing he never said a single thing about his parents. Even Bakugou talked about his occasionally.

He followed Danny to the kitchen and shot Aizawa one last thankful look before opening a side door and disappearing down the stairs. There were sounds of saws and welding tools. Were his parents in the support course business? No, couldn't be. Danny said they were ghost hunters. (He was still wrapping his head around that one.)

A few minutes later, there was an exasperated shout and Danny's nervous mumbling, and three footfalls on the long set of stairs. The door swung open again, and a large man in a bright orange jumpsuit walked through. Behind him was a smaller woman with red hair and wearing a matching turquoise suit. Behind them, Danny followed. His shoulders were pulled up to his ears, hunching over as if trying to make himself smaller. It was quite odd, seeing as how the kid could turn invisible.

Aizawa stood up and shook their hands and introduced themselves. At the mention of him being Danny's teacher, Jack sent a warning glare to Danny. Maddie busied herself with making tea for them, with an offhanded comment about how that was the first thing Danny should have done when they invited his teacher in.

The way they offhandedly dragged their son around made Aizawa's blood boil, though he didn't show it. Instead, he took the offered tea and tried to give the kid a calming look. He sat down next to Aizawa, and his leg started shaking up and down. He said nothing, and stared at the table as the adults talked.

"We are so sorry for our son's behavior," Maddie started, throwing a pointed look towards Danny, who seemed to shrink further in on himself. "Though he must like you considering you're the first teacher of the semester to pay us a personal visit. Who knows, maybe he'll actually learn something."

Her tone was light and airy but the comment fell like a lead balloon on Aizawa's ears.

"Danny is not in trouble, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton," he said. He was proud of his voice not wavering with anger as he spoke. "In fact, he's one of my best students. He has been nothing but exceptional."

"Oh, well that's a first," Jack laughed. It was a thundering, ominous sound given the comment.

"I'm here to talk about the new dorm system that U.A. is setting up," Aizawa said evenly. "Due to some complications with the hero course, we though it be best to secure the safety of the student body with an on-campus dorm system."

"And you want Danny to move in?" Maddie scoffed. Then realization dawned on her face as she turned to Danny. "Since when did you go to U.A?"

"Since the beginning of the year, mom," Danny replied. His voice was quiet. Aizawa ignored the tone Maddie used. It was condescending, and it made his blood boil.

"Oh. Well, good job, sweetie. I'm sure the general education is happy to have you."

Aizawa opened his mouth to correct them, but he caught Danny's eyes. Right. They didn't know he had powers. Let them believe he was a quirkless kid in gen ed because it would raise less questions.

"We are," Aizawa said instead. "He has some of the highest grades, and has surpassed every goal we've given him with flying colors. You should be proud."

There was a sudden line of tension in Danny's shoulders, though he didn't say anything. He just kept his head down.

"We are," Jack said. "He's finally learning something! Maybe one day he'll be smart enough to join the family business! Have you ever heard of ghosts, Mr. Aizawa?"

-----

The conversation was long and boring and Aizawa never wanted to speak to the Fenton parents again. It was easy enough though, getting their permission for Danny to move into the dorms.

Danny walked him back out silently. The driver had left to pick up All Might from the Midoriya's place, leaving him alone with Danny for a few minutes.

"Sorry about them," he said. He was still tense, jittery. They had done nothing but show off their ghost hunting equipment, and had at one point gone into full detail about how they would dissect one. No wonder Danny didn't want his parents to know about his powers.

"It's not a problem," Aizawa said with a shrug. But it was. The casual way they put Danny down, the dismissive behavior they portrayed as ignored him until they called him stupid. Aizawa hadn't been kidding when he said Danny was one of his best students. He was one of the brightest, both in the classroom and on the battlefield. Aizawa was proud to be his teacher.

"Still," Danny shrugged, not meeting his eyes. "Usually the don't go as overboard with the, uh, details." He paused before straightening up and looking Aizawa in the eyes. There was nothing but relief. "Thank you for not bringing up my powers. And I promise I'll tell you everything. I just-I thought I could last until graduation. Then I could finally leave."

"Well, if you need a place to stay for breaks, you can always crash with me." The words were out of Aizawa before he had a chance to stop them. Though, he hadn't really wanted to, either.

"Wh-really?" Danny asked, eyes wide with disbelief. Aizawa nodded, and he broke into a grin. "Thank you so much sir!" The sincerity in his voice hurt Aizawa's heart. Aizawa was barely being nice. He had a couch, and a cat. The guest bedroom had long since just become a storage room.

But seeing the sheer delight on Danny's face from not having to go home...It gave him the motivation to finally clean it out.

"It's not a problem," Aizawa says again, but he hopes Danny hears the underlying message. You're not a problem. Danny just beams at him. God, with him and Midoriya they'd blind the whole city with their smiles.

"I'll see you on move-in day," Aizawa said once the car pulled up a few minutes later. Danny nodded his head excitedly as he waved goodbye.

"I can't wait!"

#shouta aizawa #eraserhead #dadzawa #danny fenton #danny phantom #jack fenton #maddie fenton #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #bnha #father figure

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phantomrose96 · 7 years ago

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Souls Follow After

Half an hour late--here’s my Christmas Truce fic for @bloodblossomtea, who requested something based on an old fic of mine, Minds Follow!

So, here’s the companion piece to Minds Follow: Souls Follow After

The death of Daniel Fenton had been called a lot of things.

“Tragic” ranked among the most common, near-tied with “heroic” and “untimely” and “heart-breaking.” Every new media account blended the themes, calling Daniel soft-spoken and meek and kind, unpopular and unnoticed and bullied, culminating into a sacrifice all the more tragic, all the more heroic, all the more heart-breaking when he gave his life for the sake of his classmates.

Vlad Masters had stopped listening to the media accounts.

He saw it differently, in a light the papers and newscasters and forums didn’t capture.

It had been a betrayal.

Daniel had cut their game short.

He’d thrown his life away with no regard for what it meant to those around him, no thought spared for how many of Vlad’s plans came crumbling down, long-term intentions and near-solidified future snipped short.

Vlad raged, and Vlad grieved. He mourned for his son who’d died, his child in everything but blood, and he destroyed his lab in an outpouring of rage for the manner in which Daniel had gone out. It had been that one most irritating trait, that one so distinctly un-Vlad-like quality that Vlad so despised, that Daniel so reveled in—that self-sacrifice for others. It had been as though Daniel’s final words were “I’m nothing like you Vlad,” and as though he had died before Vlad could offer so much as a single word in rebuttal.

Vlad called in with his condolences to Maddie, as any politician and any bachelor would, but he did not expect anything to come of this. That family of him, Maddie, and Daniel no longer existed, and that resentment of his spilled over to Maddie. She’d raised her son to be like this. She shared the blame.

Vlad did not attend the funeral. It was the right choice. He wouldn’t have wanted to be present when Danny turned up anyway.

Because unlike everyone else, Vlad Masters was not interested in giving Danny a second chance. When his ghost form appeared at his own funeral, disoriented but still so charmingly Danny, everyone had been so quick to forgive. Joyful, tearful, thankful relief greeted him from a gathering of loved ones and admirers who had believed him truly dead. Vlad alone wasn’t so quick to forgive.

He’d considered it. In the mangled twist of emotions gripping his heart, sipping wine in a living room so far away and removed from Amity Park, he thought about revoking his grudge. Maybe he would still pursue what had been rightfully his. That family and that half-ghost—…whole-ghost son. But the more Vlad considered it, the more he seethed against the pieces that Daniel had irrevocably tainted.

Daniel had thrown away his half-ghost identity, that single uniting tether between him and Vlad, setting them apart as the two isolated individuals who could ever hope to understand each other. Daniel had revoked that. And he’d imprinted himself on society as that thing Vlad so despised—a “hero.” The childish kind. The comic book kind. The kind that threw their life away for high school nobodies, useless sniveling pathetic teenagers who’d only ever mocked him.

And, perhaps the thing that Vlad detested the most about the whole situation—Daniel was now holding all the cards. He made this clear to Vlad with an irritatingly smug phone call a few days prior, because now Danny’s identity was common knowledge, and so now Vlad’s identity was held hostage. Danny offered to keep Vlad’s identity secret under the condition that 1) Vlad stayed away from Amity Park. 2) Vlad no longer targeted his dad. 3) Vlad forked over $10,000 to Danny, for the hell of it.

The $10,000 was nothing. It was the blow against his pride that stopped the words in Vlad’s throat. He hated it all, but more than anything, he hated being held by the neck.

So he did what made most sense. He moved on.

Vlad wouldn’t say he lost. That wasn’t in his vocabulary. Instead, Daniel just wasn’t worth his time anymore. He was an idiot, a traitor, a fool, and worst of all a ghost. Not a half ghost. Just a ghost, a ball of proto-plasm, a construct of filthy spiritual energy. He had no claim to his humanity anymore, so he had no claim to Vlad’s interest.

Vlad buried himself in projects far more important. Vlad’s networking through the ghost zone expanded. Plans to successfully acquire Pariah Dark’s powers formed from the ether. His A.I.s advanced, a Maddie who understood him intimately, and now a Daniel who would never betray him. They’d rule at his side, timeless and ageless, important features since Vlad intended to procure the immortality that came with the Crown of Fire.

Money bought power, and experts, and silence. His laboratory evolved into a labyrinth of cutting-edge breakthroughs and ghost weaponry the likes of which no one had seen, the likes of which Maddie and Jack Fenton could only dream of. As the years passed, the contact that Jack made with Vlad slowed to a trickle, and stopped all-together. Vlad left all of Jack’s messages unopened and unread. He wanted nothing more to do with the Fentons, as he understood finally the truth of the matter: they had only held him back. He never needed Daniel, dead now. Nor Maddie, dead to him now. Nor Jack, who was simply not worth the energy to make dead.

The A.I.s developed. They understood him. They valued him. They called him “Dear” and “Dad.” The Maddie A.I. occupied the bed with him at night, gentle light and soft buzzing warming the room. The Daniel A.I. Vlad altered over time. He removed the most Jack-like features from the boy’s face—that wide nose and flat jaw, those blue eyes, that idiotic stubbornness—telltale in the crease of his brow and quirk of the eyebrow. Vlad took them away. He swapped them for features recognizable in himself.

They were Maddie and Daniel Masters. Ten years on, the name “Fenton” hardly crossed Vlad’s mind.

…

When the phone rang, it was a number instantly recognizable. It was embedded in Vlad’s memory from years back.

On a whim, Vlad answered.

“Hello.”

“Vlad?’

Vlad trailed his hand along the arm of his recliner, sweeping around it and sitting down, legs crossed, leaning into the phone. “Oh if it isn’t Maddie Fenton. What a pleasant surprise hasn’t it been ages? How are you? To what do I owe this distinct pleasure, my old flame?”

A beat of silence followed.

“Hi Vlad… Yeah it’s um. It’s been a while. I’m fine. But it’s um, it’s Danny…”

Vlad investigated his manicured nails. There was such an organic nuance to Maddie Fenton’s voice, something he hadn’t quite perfected in Maddie Masters. It was almost nostalgic to hear that again, so…lacking in adoration for him. He’d train the Maddie A.I. on this voice recording. Maybe he could barter to get Daniel on the line as well.

“Oh how is the young lad? Last I saw him he was only a teenager. When, ten years back? How time flies. Has he married that little goth friend of his yet?”

“…No, Vlad. Danny’s not—It’s um… it’s more complicated than that.”

Vlad bounced his foot. That was right, Maddie used to over-enunciate the first syllable of her words, pitching up. He’d tweak Maddie Masters’s speech program to incorporate it.

“Complicated how, my darling?”

“It’s something about his ghost form… He’s been acting strange. Slowly. For a while Jack and I thought he was maybe um, just coping with losing his friends to college.”

“Has he attended college?”

“No.”

Vlad faltered at this, jaw tensing. His foot stilled, and an old tinge of anger licked just beneath his ribcage.

“I see. He’s given up all aspirations of the future to stay home and play hero. Typical of him. It’s rather cute.”

“Yes but… no, Vlad. God um… I thought Jack told you.”

“Jack?” Vlad eased. The Fentons weren’t his problem anymore. He’d answered the phone out of simple nostalgia. Vlad kicked the recliner footrest up. “I haven’t heard from old Jacky in years. How is he?”

“Jack… No he’s messaged you. He—it—never mind. Danny. Something’s off with him—been off with him. Ghost theory. Well it—he—sorry, Vlad. I thought you knew most of this from Jack.”

“Knew what?”

“I’ll—” Through the phone, Vlad heard the sound of a door shutting. “I’ll start over. Danny’s not been himself. Slowly. Since the incident. He can’t leave the town, and he’s been…” Static crackled through. “Jack and I have theories. It would be easier to explain in person. Samples and tests. But, explanations don’t fix anything. We’re at a loss. You��re the only other expert who maybe. I know you don’t owe us any favors, but if you could just—somewhere in your soul find it to… We still live in the same house Vlad. We aren’t going anywhere. If you could come by, and maybe just, see if you can find something we can’t.”

Vlad pursed his lips. He’d been growing rather bored lately, and Wisconsin winter had been growing cold.

“Ooh, sorry Maddie Dear. I’m quite the busy man these days. It’s just not feasible.”

“I’ll have dinner with you.” The phoneline crackled again, the shifting of hands. “I talked it over with Jack. I know what sort of man you are Vlad. I still am your friend Vlad… even if I don’t trust all of the person you’ve grown into.”

Vlad let a smile pass over his lips. “You’re assuming that I haven’t moved on from you.”

“Vlad, please…? For Danny, if not for me.”

Vlad stood, and stretched, and mulled the offer over in his head. He quirked an eyebrow, and nodded only to himself as he realized, if nothing else, it was a perfect opportunity to record Maddie’s mannerisms in person. And his A.I. deserved only the best training data.

“Alright Maddie. I’ll see what works with my schedule, and I’ll let you know.”

…

Jack had grayed. Maddie herself was not far behind. Vlad eyed her thinning hair and bag-creased eyes with a twinge of smugness. Maddie Masters retained her youth.

“Hey there, V-man, safe trip…? Um, do you still go by V-man?”

Vlad set his suitcase down, and he shook Jack’s outstretched hand. “I never went by V-man.”

“Oh, haha.” Jack looked away after a moment, hand moving to the back of his neck. He was just as hefty as he’d been ten years back, orange-clad and aging. His small eyes were watery, veined with crows feet. Laugh lines ridged through his cheeks, set above peppery stubble. He’d lost something. His buoyant energy had vanished. “Been a while, yeah? Um, y’know I’ve sent some messages to ya here and there. They must’ve gotten lost in your spam filter, huh?”

“Oh, must have.”

Vlad broke off conversation, and he stepped over the Fenton threshold to Maddie, who he pulled into an all-consuming hug. He let it linger, smelling her scent, tracing the contours of her back. As much as he preferred his Maddie A.I., he had not yet figured out scent and touch. Future models, he planned, would have a physical body.

Finally, Maddie pushed away.

“It’s nice to see you Vlad… Thanks for finding the time to come out here.”

“Oh it’s all my pleasure,” Vlad answered, his eyes roving over Maddie, drinking her in. She’d aged too, once-smooth skin scrunching with wrinkles, cheeks more pallid, more sallow than the rosy ones he’d fallen in love with. Her eyes were tired, and Vlad was so glad that Maddie Masters was eternally pleased to see him.

Vlad broke away from her. “Now, I was thinking Italian for dinner. Or, if you would prefer, an upscale Hibachi restaurant. Money is no object, my dear.”

Maddie studied him, eyes wide, words chosen carefully. “Danny. He’s in the basement.

“Oh right, the little badger. It’s such a shame to hear he’s been feeling off.”

“I sent you a document,” Maddie continued. She stepped closer to the basement, eyes lingering behind on Vlad, as if pleading him to follow. “It’s all of what Jack and I have theorized so far. Experimental procedures and results. Have you read it yet?”

Vlad waved her off. “My apologies. I haven’t found the time. I am very busy these days. I’m sure you can get me up to speed.” He followed, arms folded behind his back, attention set on the basement. Maddie walked next to him, visibly tense.

“He hasn’t left the basement in a few days now,” Maddie continued.

“I think he’ll change his tune when he sees me.”

Maddie remained silent. She set a hand to the basement door, easing it open cautiously. Vlad paused behind her, stealing glances. She’d lost weight, instantly obvious in comparison to the Maddie A.I., who’d been a flawless duplicate of Maddie Fenton ten years back. Vlad pondered absently on how much Daniel may or may not have changed. Certainly something mental had changed—it was what he’d been called in for. But the state of Daniel Fenton had no bearing on Daniel Masters, so it mattered to Vlad little.

Vlad followed Maddie down the creaking stairs, and ten years’ worth of petty, vengeful thoughts filtered through his mind. It may have been his last chance to make Daniel owe up to the grief he brought into Vlad’s life.

The lights were off, the portal open. Vlad blinked as he noticed the gleam, starkly emerald and blindingly bright, swirling through darkness, casting a swath of light that sent shadows dancing across the wall. Someone small stood just in front of the blaze—floated, rather. Tail flickering listlessly, gloves trailing worn patterns into the dusty portal edge, eyes hypnotized in the gleam.

Maddie folded her arms in against her stomach, taking a step back as Vlad overtook her, a twisting discomfort swamping through his mind.

“Daniel? Haven’t aged much my boy, have you?”

Vlad paused. Danny did not move. His tail flicked, his hands traced, his eyes remained consumed in the brightness before him.

“Daniel.”

No response. Vlad pressed forward. He stood beside Danny, right hand raised to shield his eyes from the brightness of the portal. His brow furrowed, investigating the glassy nothing that seemed to exist behind Danny’s eyes.

He turned to Maddie. “Certain ghosts possess hypnotic powers. He could potentially—”

Maddie shook her head, resigned. “Jack and I ruled that out already. It’s not hypnosis. This was gradual…”

Heavy footsteps creaked down the first few stairs. Vlad glanced, finding Jack hovering just as the door to the stairwell.

Vlad ignored him, fixing his attention back on Danny. “So it’s something to do with his ghost core then?”

Danny’s eyes sparked, shoulders dropping, head perking. He twisted to face Vlad, a single, sudden, jerking movement. “Ghost?”

Vlad stared. The spark in Danny’s eyes seemed to be little more than an echo, glassy glazed and empty, like a recording. Like a reflection. Like a memory, rather than a person in and of himself.

“Is that what you’re doing Daniel? You’re hunting ghosts?”

“Where?” Danny asked, firecracker-like excitement. His tail flicked, and he floated closer to Vlad, until mere inches separated them. Vlad stepped back. Danny’s breath froze over.

It was as though the gun fired. Danny pounced, throwing himself against the portal with the fervor of an animal at feeding time. His gloves skimmed the swirling surface, tracing ripples through the portal as his aura flared like fire around him.

“Show yourself!” Danny shouted. “How’s about an ectoblast that fires off at mach 3? If the blast doesn’t wreck you, the shockwave will!”

“That’s all he responds to,” Maddie said quietly. “Ghost.” She moved beside Vlad, putting a hand out to rest on Danny’s shoulder. The boy studied it quizzically, rolling his shoulder to free himself. Maddie let her hand drop without resistance. “We think it’s—”

“An obsession.”

“…Yeah,” Maddie conceded.

Vlad rubbed his forehead a moment, thoughts sober. His smug giddiness drained away, replaced with something dense in his chest. “Why though?”

Maddie leaned a shoulder against the portal. “We have… a couple theories. It’s maybe a flaw in…what he is. That ghost-human hybrid… It made something about him unstable.”

Vlad chewed his lip, feeling out a twinge of power beneath his palm. “No. I don’t believe that theory. What else?”

“…A ghost sickness, perhaps…”

Vlad shook his head.

“No.” He offered no further elaboration. The Fentons were not entitled to his research.

Maddie’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Jack doesn’t like this theory, but I’m—it’s what I’m most convinced of.” She moved forward again, and trailed her hand along Danny’s cheek. He’d calmed down once more, only hazily aware of his surroundings, eyes fixated on the portal. “I think it’s… maybe that Danny wasn’t meant to come back. And it was this obsession that brought him back. He died saving people. It’s what his ghost half knows to do. Fight the ghosts. Save the town.”

Maddie lowered her hand to Danny’s shoulder once more, turning him to face her. He turned, but he did not look at her. His eyes saw through her. Scanning. Eternally searching. She leaned in and kissed his forehead, lingering against him, eyes shut to forget.

When she leaned back, she continued. “It was his obsession that came back, that’s his ghostly fuel, and the rest of him just came along, the parts that were supposed to be dead. We didn’t notice. We didn’t do anything. Those pieces can’t live in the human world. …And they rotted away. And they left behind just what a ghost is… just an echo.”

Vlad backed away.

“Something doesn’t make sense. So many ghosts still have their identity. This is different.”

“If Mads is right, then… it’s our fault,” Jack answered, easing down a few more steps. “He had other things keeping his spirit alive, back when he was in school and had his friends and his sister. He had a job even, once. But those things… Danny graduated, and his friends went to college, and he just kinda… He lost those other things that mighta been keeping him healthy… Danny can’t leave—it’s this radius—some kind of barrier that keeps him a certain distance from the portal. And it just kept shrinking. It—we were trying to make it easy on him. He was losing so much. So when he doubled-down on ghost-hunting… I was excited. We let him… We let him just… boil down to an obsession…”

Vlad hesitated. “Maddie, Jack, would you two kindly leave the basement for a few minutes? I’d like to speak to Daniel.”

“Why?” Maddie asked.

“Just something I would like to test.”

“What, though?”

“Do you want my help or not?”

“Yes but—”

“Then leave. I won’t harm him. It’ll be quick.”

Reluctantly, Maddie backed away. She retreated to the steps, climbing until Jack set a heavy hand to her shoulder and guided her out. Vlad heard the door click shut behind him.

“Now then.” Vlad squared his feet, breathing deep, allowing a sudden lash of power to envelop his body. It swept over him, chilling, invigorating, sparking like electricity. Aura swamped him, skin turning pale sickly blue, eyes red, fangs glistening, cape sweeping out behind him. Vlad rolled his shoulders, and he cracked his neck.

“Ghost.”

Danny turned with an instantaneous flicker. His eyes were consumed in fire, deliriously giddy and yet hardly present. He fired off a blast that Vlad absorbed into his shield.

“Daniel, we’re going to have a little chat about this.”

Danny lunged, firing off round after round of ectoblast. Vlad dodged and blocked with ease, spinning and catching Danny by the neck. The boy choked, sputtered somewhat, and then squirmed under Vlad’s grip. Vlad turned, and slammed him against the portal edge.

“Listen, Daniel. It’s Vlad. Vlad Masters. Vlad Plasmius. If there’s an ounce of the real you left in this shell you’ll recognize that name. Tell me you recognize the name!”

Danny’s struggling eased. He stared back instead, eyes filmy and neon. He blinked, brows twisting in pained concentration, his face just as young and boyish as the last day Vlad had seen him a decade before.

Danny set a hand against Vlad’s chokehold, inquisitive, stressed, the tiniest spark of thoughts trying to form behind glazed nothing.

Then Danny squeezed, and Vlad’s fingers cracked, and Vlad howled, dropping Daniel to the floor.

“Thought you had me, didn’t you ghost? How’s about an ectoblast that fires off at mach 3? If the blast doesn’t wreck you, the shockwave will!”

“Daniel, stop.” Vlad closed in. “It’s bad enough you died. It’s bad enough you betrayed me. It’s absolutely unacceptable that you tarnish your own dignity in this way. Is this how you’d like me to remember you, oh Hero of Amity Park? Like this?”

Danny raised his hand. Green energy gathered in his palm. “Hey ghost, how’s about an ectoblast that fires off at mach 3?”

Vlad snarled, and then he screamed, and he let off a single shot of violet energy that struck Danny dead center. The boy flew back, cracking against the lab wall. And the rage welling in Vlad’s chest—the anger of betrayal, of loss, of grief, of insult to the boy he’d once called his son—all vanished in a sudden new ice front. Some other all-consuming feeling that climbed his throat and snuffed the fire in his chest.

After having given up so many years ago, he realized with a jolt that, perhaps, he was staring at his own future after all. Not the one with Daniel dressed in a tailored tuxedo, and Maddie in a ballgown by his side, as guests made of the world’s most affluential people flocked to the Masters’ mansion for Vlad and Maddie’s engagement party.

This was a different future, one of empty feral eyes and one-liners, repeated on record, until all identity had sapped away. Vlad stared at Danny’s bruised ghost form, and he understood instantly. Daniel’s transition to full ghosthood hadn’t been a measure to separate himself to Vlad. Rather, Daniel had just gone ahead first. He died and found the future that, someday, may be the fate awaiting Vlad. Empty eyes and repeated one-liners about, what exactly? His A.I.s? Maddie? Danny himself?

Vlad gave one last look at the green nothing staring back at him. And then the lab door burst open. And Vlad vanished through the wall.

…

Maddie had reached out to Vlad three more times since then. The first time had been the very same day, leaving a heart-felt apology for whatever had provoked Danny to attack Vlad like that, and begging that he not give up on helping. There was still hope. She was still available for dinner.

The next time she called came a decade later, the day that Maddie’s sister died. Maddie left a message, rambling and incoherent, broken mutterings seeking reassurance. She’d been leaning on her sister for support all these years, and breast cancer had taken her away. She had no one left to tell the things that hurt Jack too much to hear about. Danny hadn’t spoken in years. Jazz almost never called home. Maddie had these dreams, recurring nightmares, that she went to the basement and found Jazz there too, empty eyes on the portal, gone. She wanted to shut the portal down. She wanted nothing more to do with it. She was afraid that Danny might vanish all together if she did that.

She left this all in a message. Vlad did not pick up.

The third phone call came after seven more years. She was calling because Jack had died, peacefully, in his sleep. He felt no pain. He did not suffer. It was just her now, her and Danny, in the house. And Maddie could not sleep at night. Not without Jack’s snoring beside her, not without his warmth. Not with the sound of the portal humming through the night. And then she trailed off, silent, voicemail recording nothing but the shallow sound of her breath. Vlad had not answered. Maddie put the phone down.

Perhaps she did it because she had no one to stop her. Maddie pulled the RV out of the garage, and she kicked the engine to life, and she drove. It took two days, hardly sleeping, hardly stopping, just the nav and the hum of the engine around her. It was easier not to think like this, easier to believe none of it had happened.

When Maddie pulled up to the Masters’ mansion, she took out the key she’d stuffed in her pocket, a decades-old relic, given to her back when Vlad still craved her company—“if she should so ever get tired of that bumbling fool she married.”

Maddie let herself in, and the mansion was dark. She flicked on light after light, calling out Vlad’s name, scanning the walls with wary eyes. A thin layer of dust coated the windows, the book shelves, the sills, the light switches that Maddie flicked. Looming granite archways felt hollow, abandoned, like the dark catacombs of a cave, untouched. The living room was icily cold, a window left cracked, water damage staining down the length of wall beneath it. The wind blew, and the window howled. Maddie kept on.

She came to the library, and she pulled out dusty book after dusty book. She knew Vlad Masters well enough to know he had a lab hidden away somewhere—that an empty house did not necessarily mean he was not in it. And she knew Vlad Masters well enough to know he would hide it away in the most grandiose way possible.

One of the statues clicked under her touch, cold and copper-headed, and the nearby wall opened up to a stairwell below.

Maddie followed it, shivering with the temperature drop. Her breath curled in front of her, crystalized. She hunched her shoulders in and braced herself. Marble stairs carried her footsteps with resounding echoes, clacking forward, consumed in the dark nothing ahead of her.

At the bottom, the floor leveled out, and another few steps brought her around the corner, where everything she expected met her eye. Crackling equipment stretched floor to ceiling, strung up with wires and flashing warning colors. The air turned sharp and citrusy, poorly ventilated. Maddie walked, heels clacking, carrying her through rooms of lab tables lined with beakers whose contents had solidified to the bottom, incubation tubes large enough to house humans and lit from the inside, monitors flickering with jagged static images. The citrus smell turned to rot as she came upon the last room.

“Vlad?”

Maddie looked around her, peering through darkness.

“Vlad?” her own voice echoed back.

Maddie spun, and found herself staring into her reflection. Though it wasn’t her reflection exactly—it was a younger Maddie, eyes bright and untroubled, hair curled, jumpsuit unzipped just a fraction down the front. This reflection batted her eyes. “Are you ready to snuggle, Vlad?”

Maddie let out a strangled gasp and kicked back. She knocked against a table, and grabbed it to steady herself.

“Dad?”

When Maddie turned, it was as though chains had tightened around her heart. Danny watched her from the other side of the room—her Danny—human Danny—his hair dark and his head quirked, blinking quizzically. “Are you home yet, Dad? I was hoping you could show me how to use my powers.”

“Do you like them?”

Maddie gave a third startle, ducking forward and clutching at her chest with a pained gasp. She looked up, eyes wide, certain she’d grown too old for surprises like these.

She squinted, recognition bubbling beneath the fear. It was a familiar form, glistening fangs, pallid blue skin, piercing red eyes.

“It’s you! The Wisconsin Ghost. You’re still here?”

“Please. Call me Plasmius.”

“Are you home yet, Dad? I was hoping you could show me how to use my powers.”

Maddie pushed herself away from the table. “You’re still around.”

“Indeed I am. Does that surprise you?” the ghost asked. He quirked an eyebrow and stepped closer. A fiery acid-green crown sat atop his head, casting a light ghoulish and sickly across his face.

Maddie didn’t answer. It wasn’t worth dwelling on anymore.

“I’m looking for Vlad.”

“Vlad dear, I baked you a pie. Let’s cuddle up.”

Maddie flinched, but managed to ignore her own voice. Another side-long glance revealed that her look alike flickered and wavered, her form cold blue and transparent. The fake Maddie smiled, and it was a look full of love.

“Why are you looking for Vlad?” Plasmius answered. He inspected his manicured nails, a ring as bright as his crown nestled on one finger.

“I don’t have anyone else to turn to anymore,” Maddie answered. She watched the Danny hologram from the corner of her eye. There was emotion in his eyes. It twisted Maddie’s heart to recognize it.

“Maybe consider making a few new friends then. Vlad isn’t really around much to be your emotional shoulder to cry on.”

“Where is he?”

“Preoccupied, at the moment. He’s absolutely crushed with work.”

“Dad, are you home yet?”

Maddie shut her eyes. She breathed deep. Jack. Oh god, Jack…

Her nose curled, on the air, something rotten drifted. Under different circumstances, Maddie might have fought away the thought that crossed her mind. Lately though, she’d been dealing with enough grief to believe it.

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Maddie looked up, inspecting the emotionless nothing in the Wisconsin Ghost’s eyes. “…Did you kill him?”

“Oh… in a sense, I suppose.” The ghost shrugged, and he flashed a fanged smile. He jerked his head toward the corner of the lab. “A nasty accident, but for the best I might say. Don’t dig too far through the fallen machinery over there, you might not like what you find rotting beneath.”

Maddie shivered. She didn’t let it show on her face.

“Are you saying it was a lab accident?”

“I’m afraid so. I’d almost be embarrassed—crushed to death beneath some poorly-anchored machinery.”

“And why are you here?”

Plasmius’s face split into an awful grin. He reveled in the moment. “Did you really think young Daniel was the only half-ghost among us?”

Maddie’s heart pounded, pieces clicking. Icy dread washed through her core, shriveling up a part of her that she thought had been too wrung-out to feel anymore. She gripped a hand to the table, and lowered herself slowly.

“…God.” It was a name she’d heard him shout to the portal, time and time again. Plasmius. Images of the 20 year reunion party flashed through her mind. Incidents of Phantom and Plasmius gripped in battle. This cruel, twisted, awful creature, from a world made of cruel and twisted and awful creatures. The last man she had come to for help. “I really have no one then…? Is that really you Vlad?”

“I’m sorry to say it is.” He swept his hand across his body, dark under the sparse lighting, lit by the flaming crown on his head. “In the not-quite-flesh.”

“Are you going to go in the same way too?” Maddie asked quietly. She glanced around the lab, fizzled and dying and abandoned equipment.

“Hey Dad, do you have some time to play football later?”

“The same was as Daniel? No, dear Maddie, I will not.” Vlad gestured behind him, capturing the distant shimmer of a portal tucked away in the very back end of the lab. “I’m only here for a brief visit. My alarm system tripped so I figured it would only be polite of me to come say hello to you after all these years. And to pass along my gratitude.”

Maddie stared at him, losing the will to properly care. Whatever happened to him, or to her at this point, it hardly mattered, not with the way everything had slipped away around her. She fixed her eyes on the Danny hologram once more. He waved. Maddie did not wave back.

“Visiting Daniel was a bit of a wake up call, my dear. I ran some choice experiments after that visit, and your theory was spot on. Daniel gave into his obsession, trying to exist in the human world as a ghost, and he let the rest of himself rot away.”

Maddie glanced to him. Vlad spread his arms wide, cape billowing out. The crown threw shadows against the wall.

“When I woke up from my accident, just a ghost form torn out of a body that had been crushed unrecognizable beneath a two-ton monitor—well, I knew what I needed to do.” He stepped forward, pausing just in front of Maddie and crouching to her level. Vlad gave a fanged smile and tilted his head. “I did exactly what could have saved young Daniel.”

Maddie’s head jerked up. The thought sent something writhing through her, a discomfort like suffocating guilt. “We could have saved him?”

“Most assuredly. It worked for me.” Vlad stood again. “I cut all ties with my obsession.” And he turned, and walked a path over shattered remnants of equipment and fizzling cable. “I cut all ties with you.”

“Were you…really that obsessed with me…?”

“I was consumed with you,” Vlad answered, spinning back, lashing out, his form towering and ghastly to behold. He reeled himself in, and smiled once more. “With you and Daniel both, with the family we would made. My desperation drove me to make a family of my own.”

“How’s about that pie, dear?”

Maddie locked eyes with herself, an expression untroubled, frozen, echoing someone she might have been. Maddie breathed out, her breath in crystals.

“But, I did what had to be done. I stopped caring. These A.I.s? They’ve been frozen here for fifteen years. So has this whole lab. They’re nothing to me—they don’t think, they don’t feel, they’re heartless, empty worthless. I don’t care for them. And I don’t care for you. And I don’t care for Daniel rotting in your lab. I don’t care for anyone really but myself. I’ve beaten my obsession. I get to live my afterlife on my own terms.”

“…You’re a monster,” Maddie whispered in response.

“No.” Vlad retreated, his feet beating a path toward the portal at the far end of the room. He turned once more, eyes locked on Maddie, and he tapped a single finger against the crown on his head. “I’m the king of monsters.”

He vanished, whisked from sight into the swirling matrix of the portal, and it closed down behind him. It threw the lab into utter darkness, pricked only by the glimmering hollow light of the A.I.’s left behind in the lab.

“Hey Mom, when Dad gets home, can we all watch a movie as a family?”

Maddie sunk low to the ground. She crumpled forward, and buried her head in her arms.

“Yes Daniel, your father would love that.”

Maddie did not move. She hardly breathed, because she refused to cry again so soon. She steeled herself, and lost herself to the dark nothing around her.

“Good. I miss him.”

#Danny Phantom #dp fanfiction #bloodblossomtea #dark fic #dp #christmas truce 2017

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ibelieveinahappilyeverafter · 6 years ago

Text

Your Words On My Skin - Chapter 3

Bonjour, mes chers! Sorry that this chapter is a little bit later than I would have liked, but Anime Midwest really set me back - it was very fun, though! A very long chapter, as per usual, so I hope you enjoy!

AO3 FFN

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Summary: Danny Fenton was born with writing on his arms that proved he had a soulmate out there for him that was much, much older than his parents were comfortable with. The result was his skin being covered as much as possible and Danny warned that he shouldn’t look at the words or write any back. Danny has always been a little bit curious as to who his soulmate was, but he never thought on how curious his soulmate was about him.

<<First Chapter>><<Last Chapter>><<Next Chapter>>

Chapter Three

“Doesn’t believe in technology- What kind of person doesn’t believe in technology?!” That was- That was such a bad lie that Danny bet his dad could have seen through it- And his dad believed every lie everyone told him!

“Are we sure this guy is your soulmate and there isn’t some kind of mix-up?” Tucker asked, looking very serious about the matter. Danny probably would have laughed if he wasn’t so keyed up and worried. “Come on, Danny, maybe he’s just shy.”

“When you’re shy you say that you lost your password, or something. You don’t suddenly blurt out that you don’t believe in technology.” Yeah- Yeah! See! Sam got it! If Danny’s soulmate was going to lie, then he could have at least made it a believable lie.

“I should pry. I should pry, right? No- No, that’s a bad idea. Prying is a bad idea.” He wanted to pry and dig his way to the right answer, but what if he ended up being insensitive? Or rude? Danny didn’t want to drive his soulmate away when he just got one!

“You can always try asking for an address and mailing him?” Yeah, but… That’d be an even slower way of communication than writing across their skin. “You really can’t do much without phones or an email, can you?”

“Maybe he doesn’t want you to find a picture of him and realize he’s ugly, or something.” Tucker gave the worst points- Except… Well. Danny’s parents had kept him from looking at his skin for a reason. Just how old was his soulmate?

“Danny.” Glancing to Sam, Danny paled at the look he was being given. “You know what you have to do-”

“No. No, no, no, I can so totally handle this on my own. I mean- I mean, I don’t need her help.” There was no way Danny would sink that low as to go to her for relationship advice. He’d rather ask Dash for help.

“Dude, I mean… I know she’s kind of low on relationships herself, but I mean, when hasn’t she made you feel better after you talk out a problem with her?”

“That’s not the point! She’d never let me live it down is the problem!” Seeing the dual looks, Danny groaned and whined as pathetically as he could. “Guys, please. Please, please, please don’t make me go to my sister for love advice.”

“Come on, man, Jazz wouldn’t torment you that badly.” Yeah, Tucker said that now, but it was Jazz. She would bring this up in the pettiest fight and then crush his will to win beneath sensible, kitten-heeled shoes. “You’re being dramatic in your head again, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.” He would have asked his soulmate for advice, of course, but his soulmate didn’t believe in technology. “Why would he lie about this, anyways? I mean, yeah, okay, maybe he doesn’t want me to find out who he is, but how could I do that from a phone number?”

“He’s trying to keep you from guessing where he lives? I mean, area codes, yeah?” Damn, that was a good point, but it wasn’t like that would narrow it down enough to have any real effect.

“Just go to Jazz and get her advice on what to do,” Tucker sighed, throwing a pillow at him. Danny let it phrase through him out of spite, pleased when Tucker frowned. “You couldn’t even throw it back.”

“Never doubt my pettiness, and… Yeah. At least she’ll give me good advice before destroying my will to live.” Okay, yes, the flat looks he got were deserved this time, but his point remained. “But not believing in technology-”

“Go to Jazz!” Wisely choosing to change into his ghost form when both of his friends yelled at him at the same time in the same tone, Danny fled out of Tucker’s room and headed straight for his own house.

“‘S still stupid.” He could have just told Danny that he wasn’t comfortable enough yet to give him a phone number. Yeah, okay, Danny would have felt a bit hurt and pouted about it, but at least he would have understood. He was just- He was sick of being lied to about things.

God. He was such a hypocrite. Shaking his thoughts off and taking a deep breath, Danny phased into his room before changing back and heading into the hall, staring at the door that led to his own personal hell- Right, okay, maybe his friends had a point about him being dramatic.

“Hey, Jazz?” Knocking on the door, Danny raised his voice a little. “Can I talk to you for a bit?” A bout of silence and oh, god, he was going to have to say it, wasn’t he? “I need advice-”

“And you came to me?” Jesus Christ did she teleport across her room to open the door that quick? Danny didn’t even get to ask before Jazz was pulling him in, shoving him to sit down on the bed, and then taking a seat in her computer chair. “I want you to know-”

“Nope, no, don’t- No. If you’re about to say your speech about how you’re ‘thankful I came to you’ and ‘this is a safe space’ then I will walk out that door.” Crossing his arms, Danny waited, raising an eyebrow when Jazz was silent for a long few moments before shutting her mouth and looking away. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Yet you still came to me for advice.” Okay, Danny wouldn’t fault her for being a little happy. He had been kind of busy with everything, lately. Jeez, he needed to spend more time with her. “So, what-”

“I have a soulmate, his name is Andrew, he loves to write, he’s rude, he’s right-handed, he draws frowny faces when I guess something he didn’t want me to know and I’m right, and he just told me he didn’t believe in technology when I asked for a phone number or email address.”

There was a long silence and Danny could almost see the three dots above Jazz’s head. In her defense, he supposed he had kind of unloaded a lot of information in that one sentence. When the silence went on for what felt like too long, Danny cleared his throat. “Uh, Jazz? You okay?”

“He doesn’t believe in technology.” Oh, good, she had focused on the important part of the conversation. That was good. “Okay- Okay. And how does that make you feel-”

“I need big sister Jazz, not therapist Jasmine.” Danny could almost see Jazz flip personalities as she relaxed into her seat and crossed her arms.

“Your soulmate is an idiot, isn’t he?” Ah, that was much better. “I mean- I mean no offense, but that’s just a really bad lie- I think even Dad would know that was a lie.”

“See! That’s what I thought, too!” Danny slumped back to lay on the bed, sighing as he stared at the ceiling. “I don’t know. Maybe he just realized I’m an annoying soulmate and didn’t want to deal with me anymore than necessary.”

“Your self-esteem is terrible. Remind me to throw a pillow at you, later.” Fair enough. “Okay, it was a lie, but maybe he was lying with good intentions? There could be a lot of reasons why he doesn’t want to have too much contact with you, right- Wait.”

“Wait?” Danny sat up, blinking as Jazz narrowed her eyes and oh, boy, that was a look. It was a mix of sister and therapist rolled into one.

“Andrew.” Yeah? “He.” Ye- Oh. Right. “I know you hate this line, but this really is a safe space, and if you need to talk-”

“Jazz.” Waiting until she looked at him, Danny shook his head. “After everything, that doesn’t even make the top ten.” Danny liking guys really wasn’t that big of a shock after everything else in his life - plus, well… He had kind of figured that out on his own last year, anyways. “Lying for a good reason?”

“Right- Right! Sorry, but, you never know. Maybe he’s just trying to protect you.” Protect him, huh? Mm…

“Maybe.”

“I don’t believe in technology.” Andrew was angrily pacing around one of his offices, not even sure which one he was in and not really caring because he had more important matters to worry about at that moment, like the fact that he was a writer and he couldn’t even lie well. “I told him that I don’t believe in technology.”

“Hundreds of lines, lies, and excuses, and you go for that one?” Randy looked to be holding back cackles as he watched Andrew pace, shoulders shaking with his suppressed laughter. Andrew kind of wanted to throw a knife at him. “Andy-”

“I know! It was bad, and stupid, and now he’s just going to be suspicious, but I don’t- I don’t exactly have a phone or cell service here, Randall!” He didn’t even have internet besides when he went to the human world.

“Actually, I hear Technus is attempting to get phones to work in the Ghost Zone. He’s been noticing that radio signals from Amity Park slip in where there’s a stable ghost portal always open.”

“Really?” That… That didn’t really sound like science, but, well. They were all ghosts. Science rather went out the window once one died. “Any idea on when he’ll get that working?”

“Long enough that you need to figure out how to tell your soulmate that you lied.” Hmph. Figured. God, this was awful. “Just tell him you’re shy and don’t want to talk, yet. What’s so bad-”

“Because if he gets any closer then he might find out I’m a ghost!” That’s what Andrew was worried about. He could handle Danny knowing all about his bad habits and quirks and odd ways, but he couldn’t… He could not let Danny find out that he was a ghost. “Randy, could you imagine what that would do to a person?”

“Well… You’re still alive in a way, yeah? I’m sure he’d understand once you explained it to him.” Randy looked about as confident in that idea as Andrew felt. “Look, I know this is hard, but-”

“Randy, imagine if you had a soulmate-” Andrew paused and swallowed, feeling a little shame at the way he chose to word that before Randy gave him an understanding smile, and, right. “Imagine if you were alive and you had a soulmate who was dead. What would you do?”

“I…” Randy trailed off, tilting his head back and going silent. Andrew was thankful that he was giving it some honest consideration instead of joking around. “I suppose I might think about killing myself to be with them.”

“I want to talk to my soulmate- I want to talk to Danny and see him and learn about him, but I don’t- I don’t want to know that it was my fault if something happened.”

“Andy, it wouldn’t-” Randy cut himself off, sighing in the face of Andrew’s glare. “That won’t happen.”

“No, it won’t. I need-” A tumbled idea of a character standing on the edge of a cliff with steel in his words and blood on his hands and it’s not going to happen, and it was such a weak lie that no one believed it except he would make them believe it and no, it won’t-

Andrew shot towards Randy and shoved him around to get to his pockets, dragging out a pen and writing the idea down on his arm as quick as possible. Once he was done and satisfied that he would remember it, he looked back to Randy and… “What do I need?”

Randy snorted and choked on a laugh, taking his pen back as he shook his head. “You, frérot, never change.”

“Yes, yes, but- Ah, yes, right. I need an excuse. A better one, preferably. Perhaps I can say I broke my phone in an embarrassing manner and I didn’t want him to find out about it.”

“And then he’ll ask for an email address.” Damn. Andrew hated when Randy had a good point. “Have you ever considered maybe, just maybe, telling him the truth?”

Staring at his brother for a few seconds, Andrew groaned as he collapsed onto the couch Randy was sitting on, throwing himself over the man’s lap and whining as loudly and annoyingly as possible. “That’s the worst idea.”

Randy, for his part, gently ruffled Andrew’s hair instead of shoving him to the floor and oh, dear, he must be bad off if Randy was being careful with him. Sighing and feeling as if all hope was leaving him, Andrew looked to where he had written his idea down, pausing as he saw a group of stars and a little note.

‘This should be right after someone important gets seriously hurt not the mentor though thats too obvious make it either the love interest the best friend or the little sibling and then have them die either just as the day is saved or right when the hero is about to fail.’

Staring, blinking, and having a thought of an impressive battle across an airship with broken glass cracking underneath feet- Andrew groaned, dropping his arm over his eyes. “Fuck.” He was pretty sure he was already in fucking love with this kid.

He felt Randy move his arm around and then heard a quiet noise. “Damn. He’s perfect for you, isn’t he?” He could see it in his head so clearly. The precocious little brother who was built up to take the hero’s place when he failed only to push the mentor out of the way and take the hit meant for him and then life finally leaving and the glass was cracking more and more and it was an eternity down to the ground below and there was only one more chance and the world may not be safe for him anymore, but he would make it safe for everyone else-

Andrew felt more than saw the pen dangled in front of him before he was grabbing it and flying over to his desk in a flash, digging for a notebook and writing down everything he could remember as quickly as possible.

“So, what are you going to do about your little soulmate problem?” Fuck. Glancing up from his notes, Andrew looked to his brother and groaned. “You have nothing.”

“I have nothing.” He didn’t want to hurt Danny, but that was all he would ever do if he kept lying and distancing himself, and, really. Fifteen years was enough distance. If Andrew could help it, then Danny would never know what it was to feel decades of loneliness. “I don’t want to hurt him, Randy.”

“You will.” Flinching at that, Andrew shot his gaze to Randy and saw nothing but kindness in his eyes. “You love him already, Andy, even I can see that. You love him, so you’ll end up hurting him.”

“That’s… That’s very depressing.” Andrew swallowed, clutching his notebook closely. “I don’t want to hurt him.”

“I know, but you will, and that’s okay. We always hurt the people we love, yeah? ‘S okay, though, as long as we can fix it.”

Fix it. Right. He could fix this. He could find a way to fix this and, if he was lucky, he could find a way to fix the fifteen years of silence between them. “I know this might sound bad, but I’m very thankful you died.”

That had Randy giving a loud, bright laugh, Andrew relaxing at the sound as he looked back to his arm where Danny was already throwing more ideas out. He was such a bright, eager little thing and Andrew loved him. Oh, he could tell right now that Danny was going to push him to his limits and annoy him to hell and back, but he loved him. He was going to love him. This was the one he would fall in love with.

“Oh, Danny.” He would find a way to make this work. No matter what happened or what truths would end up coming out, Andrew would find a way to make them work.

He always had been partial to a happily ever after.

“A-hem.” Wincing at Jazz’s not-so-subtle cough, Danny hesitantly glanced up from where he was writing on his arm and gave a weak grin. “Oh, you have it bad, don’t you?”

“So bad,” Danny groaned, collapsing back against the bed once more. “I see him write something on his arm, and then I have to comment, and then he has to comment, and soon enough I’m laughing and can’t remember why I’m laughing so much.”

“It’s worse than I thought.” Even through the dramatics, Danny could tell Jazz was both happy for him and very worried. Honestly, at this point that might as well be her normal state of being. “We’re in for a long conversation, aren’t we?”

“Probably. And I mean, yeah, okay, I get the whole- The whole ‘trying to protect me’ thing, especially after what Mom and Dad told me, but… It’s weird.” No matter how much they talked, Andrew never sounded… He never sounded old. He sounded like Jazz’s age, maybe a bit older, but not much more than that.

“What’s weird?” Jazz scooted her chair over, raising an eyebrow down at Danny’s arms. “Do you two just write wherever there’s space?” Mm. “Danny.”

“Maybe- Unimportant. Hey, okay, so, uh, it’s weird because- He should be like forty or something, right? According to you guys? He doesn’t- He never sounds it. I mean, he acts and talks like your age.”

“That doesn’t have to mean anything.” Ah, so they were doing Devil’s advocate, today. Great. Danny loved a good debate. “There could be a multitude of reasons. Maybe he’s trying to seem closer to you, perhaps he’s trying to hide his real age, and maybe that’s just how he naturally is. Personality doesn’t change very much once we hit a certain age.”

Okay. He loved a good debate when it wasn’t with Jazz. Jesus, she knew how to make the Devil himself give up. “I don’t think that’s it- At least, not the first two. I mean, if it was, he would be trying to find ways to get closer to me, wouldn’t he? Wanting to meet up and all that? Right now, it’s more like he’s trying to distance us.”

“Hm.” Jazz leaned back, looking to be thinking the problem over. As she did so, Danny saw more words were appearing on his skin.

‘I believe I might end up stabbing my brother today. Oh, yes, I love him, and he is very helpful sometimes, but he’s also destroying my kitchen. He has to die.’ It took everything Danny had to not burst out laughing.

‘If it helps my sister is helping me with a problem and shes just making little humming noises as she thinks it all over and its getting annoying but she never REALISES that the noises are annoying so now i’m stuck here suffering’

‘Truly we suffer as the younger’ The words stopped, Danny raising an eyebrow and waiting. Andrew never did stop writing for long. ‘He touched the chocolate chips. He dies now.’ That was all it took to have Danny bursting into laughter and oh, god, Andrew’s brother sounded worse than Jazz!

“Am I truly that boring?” Ah, shit. “You’re smitten with him, aren’t you?” Alright, yes, okay, Danny was maybe just a little bit smitten with him.

“You know, I’m pretty sure I came in here for advice on the whole ‘not believing in technology’ thing of his.” Which, yeah, Danny was still kind of frustrated by that, but Andrew wasn’t shutting him out or anything, so that was good. “How do I pry into someone’s life without them knowing I’m prying? I mean, that’s something psychologists have to know, right?”

“Technically…” Jazz made a face, Danny doing his best to hold in a laugh. “I wouldn’t say pry but establish some open communication with him. Let him know that you understand he may not want to take that next step, but you’re here to talk about why he doesn’t if he wants to.” That…

“Holy shit.” Danny stared at Jazz, slowly giving a shake of his head. “Jazz, that’s- That’s actually good advice.” And it made sense! “You might actually be a good therapist or whatever one day!”

“Thanks,” Jazz snorted, moving to sit on the bed beside him and oh, no. Here came the- Yeah. Yep. He was being hugged. “I’m… I’m worried about this, Danny, but I trust you and I trust your judgement. If he’s good for you, then I’m happy.”

“You’re so sappy.” Danny squirmed around to hug her back, grip tight on her. “Love you, Jazz. If you tell anyone else that I ever said that, though, I’ll deny it.”

“Yes, God forbid that someone thinks you love your sister,” Jazz laughed, hugging him a touch tighter for a second before letting him go. “So, what are you going to do next?”

“Establish open communication?” Waiting until Jazz looked fully proud, Danny grinned. “Then I’m going to see how long it takes for him to realize I’m flirting with him.” Ah, sister glares. All was- Ow. “Why?!”

“I told you that I was going to hit you with a pillow.” Yeah, but- But he didn’t think she would actually do it. “Why are you so mean to me?” Oh, there was new writing.

‘He’s begun making brownies, so he’s been spared for the current moment.’ Okay, Danny would calm down at the promise of brownies, too, though. ‘Perhaps I can shove his head in the bowl if he’s not paying attention.’

‘Dont risk it instead get a bit of mix like you want to taste it and then slam it on his head’ Danny watched as a delighted looking smiley face and a few exclamations appeared next to his words and oh, god, that was so cute.

“As I said. Smitten.” Yeah, well, there was nothing wrong with being smitten with his soulmate. “I’m happy for you, Danny. Really.”

“I just… Fifteen years, you know?” Andrew had been alone with the idea that he didn’t have a soulmate for fifteen years. “There’s a lot to make up for.”

“Yeah.” Jazz brought him back into a hug, ruffling his hair. “I have faith that things will work out. Maybe not the way we expect, but… Things have a habit of working out for us Fentons, right?”

Wasn’t that the truth. It would be okay, though. Even if there was something weird about his soulmate, Andrew was still amazing. Besides, it could still just be the child genius kind of thing? That wouldn’t explain why Andrew never told him his age, though. There was… There was a lot of mystery in this, but, well. Danny probably had his soulmate beaten in the bad luck category considering his own ‘life.’

‘Success! I’m hiding as far away as possible, but Randy has successfully been brought down a few pegs.’ Plus, how bad could someone be if they were able to shove brownie batter on top of their brother’s head?

‘Good but maybe stay out of sight until the brownies are actually done’ Danny paused, drawing a little heart after his words and biting his lip. He didn’t realize he had held his breath until four others were drawn around it, and, god, okay, that was- That was just- He was so in over his head.

“You know,” Jazz grinned. “There’s a reason they call it falling in love.” Snorting, Danny capped his pen and stood up with a stretch, snagging the pillow he had been hit with and tossing it in Jazz’s face.

“Yeah, but this isn’t me falling in love.” That had Jazz pausing and looking up at him in worry, Danny laughing at the look. It wasn’t… He wasn’t falling in love. “This is me walking straight into it.”

Andrew was going to be the one he was in love with for the rest of his life, and Danny couldn’t be happier for it.

Tapping his pen against the pages of the notebook he was currently using, Andrew looked between the half-completed sentence he had been writing and the words that were scribbled out across his skin. He had been writing down Danny’s commentary on his ideas to save as notes for his next rough draft, but he had stopped once a thought hit him- Not ‘a’ thought, really, but the thought.

He still hadn’t asked why Danny had kept silent for so long. It would be understandable if Danny was in elementary or middle school, although thank god he wasn’t, but he had to be in high school or even college, by now. He still didn’t know which one, but a part of him knew he was too afraid to find out the answer. God, he still didn’t even know Danny’s age - not that Andrew was much better.

While Andrew would talk to Danny as long and often as possible, he had been careful to not reveal anything specific, especially anything that could link back to who he really was and just how old he really was. Danny may not have mentioned his age, yet, but that was probably because he hadn’t thought to. Andrew was just hiding out of fear as he had always done.

“He should have mentioned something by now, shouldn’t he have?” Since Randy was asleep in a corner somewhere, it was Vidya to answer him, brushing against his thoughts softly and warmly. “It’s- He hasn’t even hinted at why he kept silent for so long.”

Perhaps he was scared? Depending on how long he had been alive, Andrew’s words had been on him for a very long time.

“Fear doesn’t explain why he would start writing now and then never mention it. Yes, alright, he started writing because he was out of paper, but there has to be more to it than that.” Right?

Or maybe not. Their circumstances were odd, yes, but they were finally together. Shouldn’t they be happy with that?

“We’re not quite yet together, though.” Andrew sighed, floating out of his chair and flying over to collapse on a couch. A blanket fell over him and Andrew knew Vidya would have wrapped him up in it if she could. “There’s- There’s so much to this that I can’t even begin to guess.”

Perhaps he should speak with his mate about all of this? He was one half of their pairing, after all. Without speaking to him, an answer would never be found.

“I know,” Andrew groaned, half-glaring up at the ceiling as Vidya played along in his head a tune that he had heard Randy play thousands of times. “You’re not cute.”

Talk to him more. Find out more of the little things. You don’t find out who a person is by asking of them, but you find out by talking to them. Put himself in his mate’s life. That much alone would allow him to begin to find his answers.

“What if he doesn’t want me in his life.” Danny always responded to him, yes, but there were times it felt like… It almost felt like Danny was trying to keep them at a distance. No… Maybe that was just Andrew who was keeping them at a distance and was too afraid to get any closer to him. “There should have been a response by now. He should have written something about it by now.”

Not necessarily. They had written only a few words to each other and then they had meshed as if they had known each other for lifetimes. Maybe they had. Either way, why speak of the past when the present was being lived?

“You’re supposed to agree with me,” Andrew grumbled, sitting up and letting the blanket drape around his shoulders. “I don’t like it. I need- I- Maybe I don’t need to know, but don’t I at least deserve to know?” Because… Because he had spent so long alone.

Decades was a long time to be alone… But he had never been truly alone, had he? He may have deserved to know why his mate was silent, but would he truly risk everything to get that answer?

“Yes. Yes, I would.” Because what if Danny went silent, again? Andrew needed to know how to avoid that.

Looking down at his arms and seeing just how much free skin was left, which wasn’t much, Andrew huffed and tucked his blanket around him before heading off towards the kitchen. He usually didn’t bother to wash his arms off until he showered, but this was… This was too important a question to risk it being unseen.

“I’ll find a way to tell him who and what I am eventually, but this seems like the lesser evil for the moment.” Getting to the kitchen, Andrew flew over to the sink and turned the water on, lathering soap on his arms as much as possible.

It may be the lesser evil, but it was still an evil. Did Danny really deserve to be pushed for this information when he seemed just as lost in all of this as Andrew?

“Do I deserve to be pushed?” There were still questions from Danny on his arms where he had been trying to find out more information. Andrew didn’t dare answer any of them, only turning them around and distracting Danny before he could notice he had never truly answered. “I need- I need to know.”

Perhaps. There would be no going back once his mate saw that message, however. He would have to wait and perhaps an answer would never truly come.

“I know, but I deserve to have at least one truth told.” Scrubbing at his arms a bit more viciously, Andrew sucked in an unsteady breath. “I won’t push if he doesn’t answer, but, Vidya, I have to try.”

Yes. He did. That was just who he was, it seemed. He was someone who could not leave a mystery unsolved and, while that might end up being his end, she would stand by him through it all.

“What did I ever do to deserve you as a lair, Vidya?” Andrew rather had the feeling that Vidya would be smirking if she could. She certainly got close to it with the cheeky tune she was playing. Shaking his head, Andrew shook his arms off before patting them down with a towel, most of his writing faded or vanished completely.

Grabbing his pen, Andrew carefully uncapped it before chewing on his lip, and, right. He needed to find the best way to phrase this so Danny knew he wasn’t angry or blaming him for anything. Then again, overthinking it could just lead to even more problems, which was something Andrew wanted no part in, honestly.

Okay. Okay, okay. Writing. Right. Except now all the words in his head seemed to have vanished and Andrew had no idea how to ask the questions he wanted and-

Why not just ask it? It was a question. There was no need to upset himself by overthinking such a thing. He just had to breathe, calm himself down, and ask. If nothing else, his mate would tell him that he wasn’t comfortable enough to answer. Yet.

“You’re right.” Danny had been the one to write to him, after all, that it was okay if Andrew was scared to give him a number or address. The words had been sweet, but Andrew had been wracked with guilt for hours. Still. The point was the same. Danny would understand, and Andrew would understand if Danny didn’t want to talk. “Right. Just ask him.”

As he wrote across his left arm, the words felt… They felt heavy. Andrew couldn’t bring himself to be very surprised by that fact, though. He had spent so long wondering over this very question and had spent years knowing that he would never get an answer, but now… Now he had someone who knew the answer to that question. Hopefully Andrew would get an answer, but if he didn’t, well… At least he had tried.

“Why don’t we make some cookies, Vidya, and surprise Randy with them for tomorrow?” A happy little tune played through his head as Andrew collected the ingredients, mind still on the question he had asked.

‘Why did you never write back?’ Hopefully, when next he looked, there would be an answer.

#danny phantom #iambic prose #soulmate au #words on my skin au #yall i just found out if i copy over from word #it saves the italics!!!#i no longer have to spend an hour uploading chapters on tumblr!!!!!#thank you microsoft word for not being a total dick at times!!!

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