#and jason was reasonably safe in the fenton household

[kaidatheghostdragon]

Danny has answered the door for half a dozen different people responding to the ad (all out-of-towners - everyone in Amity knew to avoid the Fentons), and assumed it was another one of Jazz's (or ancients forbid even mom or dad's) harebrained ideas to get Danny some extra help with his grades. Frankly, he was amazed there were even that many responders who hadn't been scared off by the Ops Center on top of his home.

This time, the house defenses picked up on a low level ecto-signature, and Danny rushed to the control pad to override them before they decided whoever was on the other side might be a threat. They had triggered his own ghost sense as well, and he was confident he could overpower whoever it was if they turned out to be a problem.

He didn't expect to open the door to a baby halfa.

Okay... maybe 'baby' isn't the first thought most people have when seeing the six-and-a-half foot beast of a man standing on his doorstep. Danny would have definitely believed he was about to get robbed and murdered if he weren't an OP half ghost who fought bigger, scarier eldritch entities almost on the daily.

Or for the smothering aura of awkward-out-of-place the guy radiated (with a tinge of deep-rooted injustice and carefully managed anger, but like, the guy was half-ghost, and in Danny's limited experience, that implied some sort of trauma, so he wasn't gonna judge.)

Or just the fact that Danny is the son of Jack "kool-aid man" Fenton, and he had long since been desensitized to "big and scary," when his mind readily supplied him with all the memories he had of his dad being an utter goofball.

Still, it was all he could do to suppress the ghost instincts to immediately coo at the baby ghost and start a gentle fight to welcome him into Danny's haunt.

"...Hi," the stranger eventually greeted after the awkward silence that Danny definitely hadn't done anything to help, "I'm here because of this ad?" He held up a printed copy that Danny barely bothered to even glance at.

"You're hired," Danny blurted out, then instantly clamped down on the urge to cringe. What the hell, ghost instincts?

Stranger Danger looked just as surprised as Danny felt. "Shouldn't I talk to your parents first?"

"I'm Danny," Danny plowed on, stuffing the internal mortification and simultaneous silent ghost squeeing down until it was no longer a distraction, "I'm the one that needs a tutor, shouldn't I have a say in who tutors me?"

"I mean, ideally, yeah, you should a least have the option to avoid anyone that would make you uncomfortable," Stranger replied, looking (and radiating) a bit off-kilter before straightening into a firm answer.

"Good! Then we're both in agreement!" Danny beamed as he grabbed Stranger's hand and pulled him inside the door with probably a bit too much strength, but the guy luckily didn't falter or stumble. "First, I need to key you into the security system, then I can give you a quick tour and the rules of the house!"

"But you dont even know my name!" Stranger protested as Danny shoved his hand onto the scanner to record his ectosignature. It took a few seconds longer than it probably should have before the LED lit up in confirmation, and Danny mentally filed it away to mention to Frostbite whenever he managed to get the baby halfa a proper doctor appointment.

"My guy, you're the only one that can fix that problem," Danny answered sagely.

Stranger stared for several seconds, then dropped his hand off of the scanner when he realized Danny wasn't holding it there anymore.

"Jason."

"Nice to meet you, Jason," Danny replied with what he hoped was a friendly smile. Jason wasn't really responding to any of the aura cues Danny was giving off, so it was unlikely the guy had much knowledge on ghost culture and etiquette, "This door leads to the basement lab. You won't be allowed down there without supervision until you've completed the safety training lessons. Around the corner is the kitchen. Be mindful when opening the fridge -the hot dogs have recently unionized and are still working out their list of demands. Upstairs is where all the bedrooms are, including the guest room you'll be staying in, and over here is the pneumatic tube to the Ops Center - the UFO on the roof. Same rules as the lab, but it'll be a safe space to retreat to once you've done all the weapons and equipment training."

Danny continued on the tour, dragging Jason around by the arm as he explained where everything was and where to find all the security access panels. Jason's aura grew more and more concerned as Danny prattled on. "Are you safe here?" He asked, interrupting Danny as he tried to explain that the hot dogs make good guard dogs in a pinch.

"Couldn't be safer!" Danny said, waving off the concern, "Mom and Dad are tons better now that they understand that ghosts are sentient. They probably won't even attack you on sight! Which reminds-"

"Okay, first of all, what the fuck? Secondly, I'm sensing a leap of logic here that I've somehow missed. Why would attacking ghosts translate to attacking me?" Jason asked, looking a little panicked and loosing the tightly controlled anger buried in his aura ever so slightly.

"Jason, my guy, why do you think I hired you so quickly?" Danny asked seriously. He could sense Jason swallow a retort by the way his aura did a one-eighty from flippant to straight-up denial.

"I'm not a ghost," he stated, matter-of-fact. Danny almost believed it.

"You sure about that?" Danny pushed, raising a brow. Apparently, they were having this conversation now, and if Danny had learned anything from his older sister, it was that declaring something point blank rarely worked. It was better to lead the person through the logic until they figured out the conclusion themselves. (Thank the ancients it worked on mom and dad.)

"I have a heartbeat," Jason insisted.

"So do I," Danny replied.

"So you're not a ghost either... wait, Danny, did your parents convince you that you're a ghost? Kid, that's fucked up."

"Please," Danny scoffed, "They didn't even know I died until I told them. They're brilliant ecto biologists, but they're terrible ghost hunters. Didn't even know a ghost was living under their own roof. Well, I *say* living, but we both know that's because there isn't really a better fitting term for what we are."

"I came back from the dead. That makes me a zombie, not a ghost," Jason argued, eyes flashing green as he expertly fought for emotional control.

"I can see how you would come to that conclusion, but zombies aren't revived, just reanimated. There's no soul involved, which you clearly have."

"Wouldn't that mean I'm just resurrected?" Jason argued.

"Can you look me in the eyes and tell me you came back exactly the same as you were before?"

That was enough to convince Jason to look back toward Danny, to finally see that Danny could make his eyes glow too.

"Shit-fuck!" Jason exclaimed as he staggered back from surprise. He still wasn't responding to the *same-comfort-friend* that Danny was sending his way, so Danny tilted his head to try to portray some degree of casualness before blinking away the ecto.

Maybe he over-estimated Jason's supernatural bullshit tolerance. He should probably take a step back.

"You came here to take a tutoring job. I'm sorry I threw an existential crisis at you. You're the first person I've met that's the same thing I am and *not* a total fruitloop or my clone. But I'll understand if you want to turn down the job. Just promise to be careful out there? The anti-ecto acts are still a thing and they define you as non-sentient so if you see any creeps dressed in white suits, just avoid them as much as possible. But if you need a place to hide, then you're always welcome to come back. The ambient ecto here in Amity Park is enough to mask your ecto-signature so they can't track-"

"Kid," Jason interrupted, "Danny. Respectfully. What the absolute fuck?"

Danny cringed.

"Are you seriously telling me that there are laws out there that violate the meta human protection act, and they target both of us? And theres other people out there like both of us? And you were fucking cloned? I was looking for a job that could take me *away* from the crazy! Goddammit!" Jason leaned against the wall and slid down till he was sitting on the carpet, running a hand through his death-touched hair. "Well I guess this is happening now. I cant ever get a fucking break, can I?"

"Im sorry," Danny muttered.

"Why are you sorry? Literally none of this is your fault. Dont be sorry for things you can't control. That's just a recipe for disaster."

Danny nodded dumbly.

"Just please, on top of all of this, promise me you're parents aren't abusive, too."

"I promise my parents are not abusive," Danny stated, raising a hand as if in oath.

"Why am I not convinced?" Jason complained, running a hand down his face, "I dont think I can handle this extential crisis on top of kidnapping a kid out of an abusive home," he muttered mostly to himself, but Danny could sense the exasperation.

"Excuse you," Danny said with a snort, "*I'm* the one doing the kidnapping here!"

Jason looked up at Danny incredulously, "Sure you are, shortstack."

"Hey! Not all of us can make it to the shit brickhouse stage before dying!"

Jason blinked, clearly processing Danny's words.

"I was 15. Almost as scrawny as you," he eventually offered.

"Oh, thank god," Danny exclaimed with clear relief, "There's still a chance I'll keep growing."

"You didn't know? That was something you were worried about? I thought you said there's others?"

"Yeah, the fruitloop and the clone. Fruitloop was an adult when he died. Clone was created the way she is, and we have no idea if any changes or lack thereof are ghost shenanigans or clone shenanigans. I mean, she's my clone and somehow a girl? Is the fruitloop incompetent, or is that just how ghosts be?" Danny finished with a shrug.

Jason's aura was a weird mix of processing information like a supercomputer and having an aneurysm. Danny anxiously waited for him to respond, knowing that if he opened his mouth again he'd accidentally info dump even more.

"I still want the job," he finally stated, "assuming your parents approve."

Danny waved off his concerns once again, "They'll love having another ghost in the house. That's twice as much data for their research!"

DP x DC prompt #161

Jason loves his family, he really does, but he needs a break from them. He just needed a break in general. But what should he do? Well, he saw an ad online earlier for a stay-at-home tutor for a high school kid in a place called Amity Park. Danny, if Jason remembers correctly.

[notedgyanymore]

Here's an idea that I had after making this post, just to be clear, you don't have to read my old post to understand this one.

Basically this a typical “Danny runs way to Gotham to escape from his parents and the government” but here's the twist the Fentons don't think he is a dangerous monster who killed their son, no, they think Danny is only dangerous to himself, they see his ghost self as a lifelong sickness that affects the body and the mind and the GIW pretty much thinks the same way. In fact, this started when Vlad's secret was revealed, and he got institutionalized because the court ruled that Vlad couldn't be responsible for his actions as he was influenced by a ghostly obsession, and therefore he should receive treatment instead of punishment.

Shortly thereafter the GIW created screening tests to find and help more people who suffer from similar ectoplasmic contaminations, with their test were able to detect mild curable cases that are just temporary to lifelong chronic conditions like halfas or liminals, it was in one of those tests that Danny got caught. After an evaluation, the GIW concluded that Danny was mostly just a danger to himself and since his parents were specialists in the field, it was best to leave him with them.

Since this all happened, Danny has lost most of the freedoms he once had, he is now homeschooled, has to constantly wear devices that restrict his powers, can't use his ghost form or fight to protect Amity Park, has to go to a psychologist every week and a psychiatrist every month to manage his “ghostly impulses” and gets minor “protective tasks” to safely indulge in his obsession which he knows are completely meaningless. Danny is also strictly forbidden to go outside without supervision in fear that something like a ghost attack might trigger his obsession, so now he can only hang out with Sam and Tucker in his house or talk to them on the phone likewise he is banned from entering his parents' lab not because it's dangerous mind you but because there are things there that might upset him as full ghost still have no rights and are fair game to torture in the Fenton household.

Needless to say there are plenty of reasons as to why Danny ran away from home, and yet when he first got to the city of Gotham he didn't expect to get any help much less from a vigilant who is unaware that he is also in danger of losing his freedom and autonomy but hey Jason can't say he expected to get a new brother either, so you can say that they are both lost when it comes to what the future holds.