#but yeah danny realizing that there's SO much that the living have and experience that ghosts don't even in the infinite realms.

[fridurwrites]

@eldest-of-katts Yo! Happy truce! I tried pushing two of your prompts together into one, I hope I did them justice. AO3 Link here!

Pride, Anxiety, and Awkward Teenage Confessions

“Er. Mr. Lancer?”

William Lancer looks up from the final he’s putting together. It’s early morning, June first. The sun is barely starting to come up, the dew still fresh on the plants outside.

In theory, he came in to finish working on the draft of his English 2 final in peace. So what in the City of Night is the chronically late freshman Danny Fenton doing here already, peeking around the corner of his office door?

Actually, hold onto that thought. Danny’s still got eye bags the size of the old purse in Will’s closet and he looks rough, like he’s been in a fight of some kind. There was a ghost fight earlier in the morning, but Danny shouldn’t look like he’d taken part. Will carefully slides the unfinished test draft into his desk drawer before gesturing to the other chair in the room. He wants to tread carefully here. Danny isn’t in the habit of coming to him with problems, but it’s no secret that the kid has plenty to spare. “Is something the matter, Danny?”

Danny hesitates, then slips inside. “I dunno. What’s with the tie and flag and all that?”

“What do you mean? I know you’re familiar with pride flags.” Will says, eyebrows knitting. He really hopes he’s not wrong about that, or- worse- that he isn’t about to hear something wildly out of character for the boy.

“I- er-” Danny fumbles for a moment. “I mean, of course I am, I just wasn’t- why are you wearing, uh?”

Ah. Well, that’s not unheard of. Students always seem to think their teachers’ lives begin and end with the ringing of the school bell. Will quirks an eyebrow, giving Danny a smirk. “I would think that’s rather obvious?”

Danny’s face goes through a few stages of bafflement before finally landing in the realm of realization. It’s hilarious. Will has to carefully school his face not to give away just how amusing it is, actually. It’s not like Danny has any reason to have thought about this, but watching him rationalize the idea that his teacher is more than just the bald man that knows way too much about old books and plays is really entertaining. 

Finally, the kid settles on a breathless “Oh.” before sinking his head into his hands.

Will is probably not supposed to hear the way he mumbles something about getting his head hit harder than he thought. He blanches for a moment, makes a herculean effort to recover, then clears his throat. “Are you all right, Danny?”

“Mhuh?” Danny lifts his head, frowning, then nods slowly. “Yeah, sorry.”

That’s unsurprisingly hard to believe. Will returns his frown, leaning back in his chair. How best to approach this?

“Why are you here, anyway? School doesn’t begin for another two hours.” 

“Oh, uh. Just. Had to take care of some things early.” Danny’s eyes fall to his hands. “Didn’t feel like going home, so here I am.”

Will frowns. He could ask. He should, probably. But he’s had enough experience asking Danny questions when the kid feels evasive that he knows it’ll be a losing battle, and both kids have vehemently denied any concerns that their parents are responsible for the various injuries Danny occasionally sports.

He’s still thinking about how he might find out why Danny didn’t want to go home at six in the morning on a Monday when the kid’s intense stare snaps back up to him. “Can I ask you a weird question, Mr. Lancer?”

“Of course.” Will says, automatically. The mystery gets pushed aside in favor of helping in the immediate.

“So, um- you’re gay, right?”

“I identify as bisexual.” Danny makes an odd face, then shrugs. “Close enough. How did you know that you like guys?”

Ah. So the morning takes another twist and turn. Still, Lancer’s had this conversation with questioning students before. “If you’re looking for a dramatic story, I’m afraid it’s not quite that interesting. I had just started college and I realized my feelings for my best friend at the time were a lot more involved than just enjoying his company when I went out on a date with a woman and kept picturing him in her place.”

Danny’s face goes a bit pink. “What’d he say about it?”

Will smiles, watching his student closely. Now that’s interesting. “Ah, you know, it took me weeks to finally tell him how I felt. Things weren’t as simple back then, so I had to work up the courage. It turned out he was straight, but I don’t regret it. We still talk, and through him I met my actual first boyfriend.”

“He wasn’t mad?”

“Stone Butch Blues, no! He was flattered!” Will laughs. “Flattered, and glad that I’d trusted him enough to tell him.”

“Huh.” Danny tilts his head. It reminds Will of a curious puppy, not that he’d ever tell the boy that. “How’d you tell him?”

“Well, I had come up with this elaborate speech, studied all the best poetry I could find, but when I went to try to tell him about it not a single line stayed in my head. I wound up just outright asking him out to dinner.” Will shakes his head. “Not my finest moment, but he seemed to think it was a lot better when he did eventually read what I’d been planning on saying.”

Danny snorts, then stiffens, but Will smiles with as much acceptance and kindness as he can. “We still bring it up, sometimes. It’s good for a laugh, especially now that I teach English.”

“I- huh.” Danny fidgets again. “Um. Well. Thanks, Mr. Lancer, I, uh. Sorry I interrupted whatever you were doing.”

Will waves his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Are you heading home now?”

“Ah, eh.” Danny shrugs. “I kinda thought I’d just find somewhere to take a nap or something? Is that allowed?”

Will tries very hard not to scowl the way he finds himself wanting to. Sure, there’s not that much time before classes begin, but he thought he’d take a nap somewhere on campus? “Where were you thinking you’d do that, exactly?”

Danny rubs the back of his neck, frowning, like he’s just realizing maybe he said something he shouldn’t have. “Uh.”

The boy’s eyes go wide when Will gets up, and he starts to stand as well, only to pause when Will walks over to the corner of his office and grabs a box of textbooks off of the covered recliner there. It takes a few moments to clear the chair off enough to pull the sheet off of it, but when he does, Danny’s eyes go wide. 

“I had a period where I was getting migraines in the middle of the day.’” Will explains, balling the sheet up and tossing it into the adjacent corner. He can deal with it later. “Amy was vice principal then, and she helped me sneak this in to rest on during lunches.”

“Amy?” Danny asks, squinting.

“Ah. Principal Ishiyama, sorry.” Will shrugs. “Anyway, I’m just going to be doing some work. If you want to use it, you’re welcome to. I’d rather you be somewhere secure than in an empty classroom or in one of the halls.”

Danny’s still squinting at him, like he can’t quite determine if Will’s genuine or not. Will doesn’t say anything. He’s starting to think he should treat Danny almost more like a cat, and so he sits back down at his desk, pulls out the exam he was working on before, and gets back to it without another glance at the kid.

It takes a whole five more minutes before Danny’s curled up in the chair, quickly falling asleep. Will sighs quietly, makes a note to call Jasmine- not the Doctors, he’s learned that lesson after one too many times having to clean up a classroom after the tornado named Jack Fenton tore through it- and lets himself focus on his work again. 

It probably says something unkind about his home life that when Danny woke up from his nap in Lancer’s office, he felt more rested than he had in months. He decided not to think about it, thanked Lancer for the chair, and went to get his books from his locker and his backpack from the wall he’d phased it into earlier.

He had other things to worry about, anyway.

He still does, halfway into fourth period. 

It’s just that Tucker is right there, okay? And at some point today, emboldened by Lancer’s words (which, wow, not something he imagined he’d ever be thinking) he really, really wants to tell him that. Well. Okay, they’re fourteen, and it’s probably nothing, and Tucker’s so loud about the girls he wants to date, and.

Whatever. Point is, Danny wants to tell him about the way his stomach gets all weird when he’s carrying Tucker somewhere as Phantom. He wants to say that he keeps stopping himself from grabbing Tucker’s hand when they’re walking together. He wants to let him know that he’s listened to him ramble about tech or code or games or whatever he wants to talk about since they were old enough to have interests like that and he still doesn’t think he’ll get sick of it. 

He thinks he’d rather fight Pariah again without the ecto-suit than have to figure out a way to actually voice those things, and yet. Lancer said his friend had been flattered. Lancer said they still talked. 

He’s lost in his head when the bell rings, and startles bad when Tucker nudges his shoulder. “Bwhuh?”

“You good? Class ended like two minutes ago and you just sat there staring.”

Danny stares at his crush friend for a long moment, then nods, getting up and grabbing his bag. Lunchtime means a chance to make this happen before his nerve disappears entirely. “Yeah. Um. You think we could, maybe, talk?”

Tucker gives him an odd look. “Sure?”

He- he really hopes he hasn’t already sabotaged this. He might still before he even gets to the really scary part. “Without Sam?”

That makes Tucker frown, and for a moment Danny’s heart rate reaches something akin to a healthy resting level for a normal person again. “Uh. I guess, but she’s gonna be waiting for us already at the cafeteria? It’s Monday, so, you know.”

Danny does know. One of the lingering vestiges of Sam’s somewhat insufferable past moralizing about her veganism is Monday, the dreaded veggies and rice day. They’ve all grown up a lot in the months since then, he’d like to think, but she still seems to find a vindictive kind of pleasure in watching Tucker choke the vegetables down. 

Even if he’s sympathetic, even if this is his crush, he’s secretly at least glad that Tucker has one meal away from home that’s not greasy and protein-laden. He’d like both his closest friends to last longer than he did as something that can be called alive, thank you. He sighs anyway, puts on a grimace that he thinks Lancer’s drama elective would probably give him a good grade for, and wraps an arm around Tucker’s shoulders as they walk.

He’s going for comforting, in theory, but he doesn’t let go even when the pair find Sam waiting for them next to the cafeteria door as usual. Tucker’s warm. He always has been, and humans are all warm compared to Danny now, but something about Tucker’s warmth makes him want to hold it close. 

Or maybe he’s just gayer than he’s ready to admit. ‘Liking boys’ and ‘crushing on Tucker’ is already a lot to accept about himself, he feels, so he pushes that thought aside and flashes a nervous grin at Sam. “Heeeey.”

She stares at him for a long moment, then rolls her eyes. “What is it this time?” “Nothing bad! I just need to talk to Tuck. Alone. We didn’t wanna no-show you though.”

Their friend narrows her eyes in just the right predator-glare way that Danny wonders if Dora’s amulet didn’t have some kind of lasting effect. He shrinks a bit under her gaze, and Tucker snorts. 

“I dunno what’s up with him, but I think this time it’s not actually anything huge. Probably just the reason he was spaced out all last period.” 

Sam blinks at that, and the pressure Danny swears he feels from her attention fades. She glances between the pair, then- to his abject horror- a smirk slowly pulls at her lips. “Oh, really?”

Danny manages a reedy noise before clearing his throat and nodding. She’s been onto him for a while, he realized that a week ago, but in a rare show of restraint she hasn’t actually said anything. He almost wishes she would’ve, because maybe then he would’ve started thinking about it sooner, but a Sam that doesn’t make your business her business is a precious thing and he’s not about to complain too much.

“Well.” Sam says, and fuck, he’s blushing, isn’t he? His blood might be thick and cool compared to a normal human’s, but he can still feel the way it rushes to his face so hard it colors the tips of his ears. “I’m going to eat my delicious lunch by myself, and if you two need me to, I’ll cover for you with Falluca.” Tucker huffs. “You’re just in a good mood because it’s Monday.”

“Sure.” Sam’s smirk is sharp and unrelenting. “Have fun with whatever you’re off to do, but I want details later.”

“Yeah.” Danny squeaks, his voice cracking, and if he weren’t in such a public space he’d just vanish into invisibility and try this again tomorrow after something like that. “Cool. Later, Sam.”

She shoots him a completely conspicuous wink before she marches off into the throngs of students behind the cafeteria door, leaving the boys alone in the hallway.

Great. 

Before Tucker can say anything, Danny’s pulling him toward the nearest empty room. If he waits, if something interrupts them, he’ll lose the momentum that’s gotten him this far. He can’t afford that. Can’t allow it. If even Mr. Lancer could do this, surely he can too. 

Once the door is shut firmly behind them, he releases his hold on Tucker and takes a deep breath. “So, uh.”

His friend raises an eyebrow, and Danny stutters over nonsense syllables for a moment before settling on “I need to tell you something really important?”

“More important than lunch?” 

“More important than anything.” Danny says, hands twisting around each other nervously. 

Tucker blinks, then reaches out and puts his hand on Danny’s shoulder. Danny tries not to lean into his touch like some kind of touch-starved cat. “You mean that, huh? This is serious-serious.”

Danny nods once. 

“Okay.” Tucker frowns. “You’re not like, dying the rest of the way, right?”

“What? No! Besides, I’d tell both of you if it was something like that!” Danny squawks. 

“Hey, it’s not like you haven’t been weird about ghost stuff before!” 

“I promised to keep you both in the loop after the whole ‘ghost cold’ thing!”

Tucker rolls his eyes. “Well if it’s not something like that, then what else is so important, huh?”

Danny’s mouth feels like someone glued his tongue down, suddenly. He swallows to try and clear the feeling away. “It’s, uh. About. Um, crud, I mean- I think I, uh, maybe- do you like guys?”

Tucker looks at him like he’s struggling to parse the words Danny stuttered out. When his brain catches up, his eyes widen, and Danny’s sure this is the moment of rejection at best. Tucker’s been his friend since they were in diapers, why did he think this was something worth risking that over, Lancer said he was in college when he asked and Sam was probably just teasing him, and-

“I,” Tucker manages, before he pauses again and makes his ‘thinking’ face. Danny’s seen it countless times when Tucker’s elbow-deep in a problem and dialed in on solving it. It’s rare for it to come out in a conversation like this, but, well.

Danny’s used to feeling like a problem to be solved. He’s just not used to feeling that way around the people he’s closest to. It kinda sucks, but it’s not that much worse than the building heartache, so, you know. 

“I don’t know? I guess, uh, hm.” Tucker says, and Danny’s brain feels like it’s lagging out. Huh. “I guess I never really thought too hard about it before? But I mean, Too Fine Foley should be for everyone, maybe?” He makes a weak attempt at a grin. Danny stares at him in disbelief, and Tucker plows on through the awkwardness. “Why do you wanna know?”

“Er.” Danny thinks- well, he thinks he needs someone to smack him like a cartoon record player. Tucker’s not saying any variation of no, though. He honestly didn’t think he’d get this far. “I. I think I do. Like guys. Well, a guy. Maybe?”

Tucker’s face does something complicated. There’s the tickle of nerves and hope mingling in Danny’s sinuses, as much as he’s trying not to cheat with his weird empath bullshit. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

The pair stare at each other for what feels like an eternity.

“It’s, um. It’s you. I mean. The guy I, y’know, like.” Danny says, because the silence feels like it’s clawing at the inside of his skin. 

Tucker exhales an “Ohthankgod”, then reaches forward and pulls Danny into one of the tightest hugs either of them has ever experienced. Danny’s instantly glad he doesn’t actually need to breathe, wrapping Tucker up in a hug of his own. It’s more restrained- a confession like this would be ruined by accidental use of ghostly strength- but he thinks he’s got it just right to feel no less secure.

Then, maybe because they’re both a little overwhelmed and Danny’s basking in the open love and relief that pour off Tucker to the point it maybe has him a bit giddy, he plants his hands on Tucker’s cheeks and pushes the most awkward, genuine, meaningful kiss a fourteen year old has ever managed onto his friend-crush-boyfriend-whatever’s lips. 

It’s not a good kiss, really, and Danny will probably remember that much. Their noses are uncomfortable scrunched against each other, he’s off-center, he’s pushing Tucker’s glasses up with his face. It doesn’t matter, because it’s him kissing the boy he spent the last year realizing he kinda maybe loves in ways that don’t make sense if he just wants to stay simply best friends. 

It’s not until Tucker pushes at his shoulders that he realizes that the other boy needs to breathe still, and he pulls back, both of them gasping and grinning and so red in the face they’ll both be sent to the nurse if they get caught right now.

“Holy shit.” Tucker says. Then he grins again. “You are ass at kissing, dude. I gotta work on that with you.” Danny gawps at him. “Hey, I think that was pretty good for a dead dude’s first try! Not all of us practiced in a mirror like you did!” They stare at each other. Tucker starts giggling, and Danny follows suit, and they end up falling over each other in a mutual laughing fit.

When they finally emerge from the classroom several minutes later, it’s with Tucker refusing to let go of Danny’s hand. And when Lancer passes them in the hall, eyes landing on their locked fingers, all he does is smile and nod, a quiet and knowing sort of congratulations.

Sam’s first words in the cafeteria that day are “Finally! Took you long enough.”

Danny can’t help but agree. 

[starry-bi-sky]

mmmmm danny with sensory issues both in and out of his ghost forms, but on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Ghosts can't experience sensations the same way humans can when they're in the mortal realm. They're naturally intangible, and it takes energy to be physical. When they're physical, all touch feels the same barring the texture. They feel no heat, no chill. Sunlight passes through them, and so does wind and rain.

You know when your foot falls asleep/goes completely numb, and you go to touch it with your hand and it causes a strange jumble of sensations? You can feel the skin there, your palm is pressing against an object and there's resistance, pressure, but you can't feel the heat? It's kinda something like that. Like he's feeling everything through a set of gloves.

As a ghost, when it rains, he can feel the raindrops hitting him, and he can feel his hair getting wet, but he can't feel the chill of the water and he can't feel the wetness. His suit is soaked but there's no weight like there should be. During the winter snowflakes don't melt when they land on him, and he can't feel the chill of the snow when he gets buried under it.

Sunlight passes through him, a nice breeze ruffles his hair but there's no relief in the sensation. All pressure, no sensation. It's like a strange form of sensory deprivation. And of course, the internal things. It's even worse when he's intangible, when he's not putting energy into being physical. He doesn't feel real.

As human, things become too much. Especially when he's been a ghost for hours. He can feel the weight of his ribs pressing against his ribs, he becomes hyperaware of the expanding of his lungs when he breathes, the feeling of his heart pulsing in his chest.

He curls his fingers in and out slowly and becomes fascinated by the feeling of the joints moving. He turns and grabs Tucker's hand, and soaks in the warmth of his body heat -- he can't feel it as a ghost. He runs his fingers through his hair, and he can feel the individual strands.

There's a weight when he walks. A small drag when he bends his knee and lifts his leg and takes a step, and when he's been a ghost for too long he stumbles over himself, drags his feet along the floor and stomps when he doesn't mean to because he forgot to weigh his steps. Sometimes when it rains he goes out and sits on the front steps of the house just so he can come back in shivering and soaked through to the bone. Runs his fingers obsessively over the goosebumps up along his arms and legs because he can't get them as a ghost even if he's cold.

Because there are certain things, even when he's in the ghost zone, that are exclusive to the living. The little internal things you don't notice and take for granted. Things like breathing and goosebumps and exhaustion exclusive to running that makes your heart pound against your ribcage and your chest hurt with the need for air. Sore muscles from working out and sweating. Thirst and dry mouths, chapped lips and hands, blinking and dry eye, the feeling of the sun soaking into your skin on a nice summer's day.

As a ghost, Danny faces sensory issues in the form of not enough. When he can't feel the hair behind his ears or the weight in his limbs where there should be muscle, tissue, and bone. He can't feel the sun or the wind, everything is in a permeable state of 'just fine', and its maddening. He can breathe if he wants, but there's no point to it. He has no lungs, he can't feel them expand, and there's no relief behind it. He's going through the motions without any of the reward.

On those days, the idea of going ghost again makes him feel ill. Paranoid. He can't stand the thought. He needs to feel. He needs to feel the soft texture of the rug beneath his feet and the grooves in his knuckles, he needs to feel dirt crumble beneath his fingers and get stuck under his nails, he needs to feel the heat of his sister's hand and the feeling of body warmth passing from her to him. He lays on the carpet room and stretches out, and focuses on the feeling of his heart beating and the weight of his bones and muscles and tissue pinning him to the floor.

As a human, Danny faces sensory issues of too much. When all the things he's starving for suddenly make him sick. He feels trapped in his own skin. His ribs become a cage and breathing becomes a dumbbell that he can't put down. He can feel the hair along his arms and it rashes him. He's too cold, he's too hot. He feels like a ghost puppeteering its own corpse and he needs out.

On those days, Danny dips away when he can and goes ghost, and Sam and Tucker don't see him for the rest of the day. He's gone invisible, intangible, and he does nothing but exist.

Just, him experiencing sensory issues as both ghost and human, but in opposite directions from each other. And the idea that ghosts experience the mortal realm differently, and that there are certain things that are just exclusive sensations for the living that Danny doesn't realize until he's a halfa.

[clockwayswrites]

Birdritch part 2 Yeah, there's a subscription post now...

Danny pulled another sweet potato fry from his bag before refolding the top to keep it warm. He’d finish all the fries before he even got home, he knew that, but that was future him’s problem. Right then being able to munch on the sweet, salty goodness as he took a shortcut through the park was just what he needed. There was something about Robinson park that always settled him.

It was probably because of the park’s wild, otherworldly nature that came from Poison Ivy’s control. It almost felt ghostly in how unreal it was. It was another thing Danny tried not to think too hard on and just enjoyed. It wasn’t that Danny was ignoring the fact that he was half ghost (as he always tried to convince himself), he just wasn’t dwelling on it anymore. Ghosts had consumed his life for so long and he needed a break.

Even before his accident (it was easier to just call it an accident when people asked about his scars), his parent’s obsession controlled their house, family, and lives. He got now that it wasn’t normal to grow up not cooking because the food might eat you. Or because your parents were too busy in the basement lab to remember. His time away from Amity Park in college made Danny realize that Jazz and his childhood had been at best unsafe and at worst negligent.

It had taken Danny a lot of therapy to be able to say those words.

Being honest, Danny still needed a lot of therapy, but there was only so much progress he could make when he couldn’t really explain that he was half dead and had spent the end of his childhood fighting ghosts, the government, and his parents. He was half tempted to try and track down Harley Quinn and see if she was up to taking on a new patient. (Danny was pretty sure that she wouldn’t rat him out to the authorities.)

A vine thrashed suddenly in front of Danny, hitting the sidewalk with a meaty thump.

Danny froze.

Fuck.

His phone was out of power.

He couldn’t check if something was going on in the park.

While Poison Ivy was much more Pamela Isley than rogue these days, as seen by the city just letting her have control of much of the park, she was still temperamental and the right— or wrong— sort of thing could set her and her plants off. (Sometimes the plants went off on their own. Everyone knew not to be a sleaze bag in Robinson park.)

Slowly Danny started to back up.

Several more vines wretched themselves out of the ground around him.

He could hear shouting somewhere off to his left. Out of the corner of his eye he could see movement from the plants that direction.

Alright, not angry at him then.

Danny crept forward slowly, keeping his motions as calm and small as possible. Just because they plants weren’t angry at him it didn’t mean they weren’t a threat to him. His best chance was to stay on the path and head in the direction away from the noise.

And away from the over sized flowers.

Well fuckity fuck.

Most things Poison Ivy could do weren’t really a threat to Danny. He could phase away from vines, after all. But the flowers? The flowers had pollen and pollen was an unknown; one that Danny didn’t want to be known. Sam was rather certain that the pollens could effect Danny in odd and unknown ways due to his half ghost nature.

He had refused to let Sam experiment on him to figure it out. Comparing her fervor to his parent’s helped shut that idea down for good. Danny didn’t regret avoiding being a lab rat, even as he was staring down the ruby red flowers to his right. He still just had to keep his motions as calm and small as possible.

The flowers were only an issue if they let their pollen out.

Danny started to move in as wide of an arc as he could around the flowers.

While they were closed up he was safe.

Danny’s left hand spasmed.

The paper bag of food crinkled.

The flower petals unfurled.

Fuck.

---

AN: I know there are issues, another no read through late night post, but I'm getting my serotonin where I can. Stay delightful, darlings.

[bonchobrick]

Duke and Danny bestie fic im co-authoring with some cool people for Patrol Partners! :D

A fic where Duke knows a lot about Gotham’s new problem, ghosts. The Waynes think the worst and assume he’s had some terrible experience with ghosts in the past (in reality is just very happy to talk about his best friends culture and doesnt realize how odd it is that he knows all this stuff)

Or

Duke is pretty much just vibing, the bats are having a meltdown, and Danny is having a blast!

—-

Then Duke pops the question

“So, what are you guys researching?” He asks raising a brow to the papers littered all over the room

Collectively the entire room groans as Duke absentmindedly picks up a paper on the table with the failed, static over-run image.

“We don't know!” Steph bemoans frustrated

Tim starts, “There are new entities–”

“Creatures.” Bruce corrects

Tim casts a piercing glance at his father, “I am pretty sure those are entities. Eye witness reports state that they look fairly human-like–”

Bruce challenges him right back, “Eye witness reports were also very likely to be unfactual, they seemed partially intoxicated. It’s more likely they are some kind of mutated animal.”

His son’s teeth grit, “Even so we still can’t rule out–”

“Oh right, the ghosts are back in town,” Duke's comments, gaze absorbed in the static image

Silence drowns the room as their weary eyes blink at Duke, processing what he had just said.

Then it clicks

“R-repeat that?” Tim stares intensely at Duke

“Um, the ghosts are back? That's what these are.” Duke nervously replies confused, “It’s been a bit since they visited Gotham

Tim opens and closes his mouth, immensely struggling to find any words to say. It seems like the rest of his family is fairing no better, some of them letting out noises of surprise and shock with others trying to hear if they heard that sentence right.

“There used to be ghosts in Gotham?” Bruce says incredulously

“Yeah?” Duke tilts his head, “I mean they don’t like living here with the corrupt ectoplasm but I’m friends with a few ghosts?”

Jason springs on him with wide eyes, “What are ghosts like, personality-wise?”

Duke thinks and responds with the first thought that comes to mind, “Fickle, they can be super friendly or super destructive. They do whatever they’re in the mood to.”

“Are they aggressive?”

“Sure? Sometimes?” Duke blinks at them bewildered before a petty smile crosses his lips, “They can be, hmm, commanding.”

Dicks eyes turn cold and protective, “What–”

“Listen guys,” Duke backs away from the discussion going with his internal task list in mind, “I gotta go wrap up putting together all my documents for my topic on my science fair project so uh, see-ya!”

The second youngest bounces out of the cave and the rest of the family stare dumbstruck at him.

New entities (ghosts?) pop up in Gotham + Duke describes them as fickle and commanding =

Duke is being made to do things for Ghosts who can be kind and cruel which =

= Duke is being bullied by Ghosts?!

Not on their Bat-watch!

Damian is already sharpening his ‘not murder tools’, Tim has sprung into research on the bat computer and the rest of the family have already dipped into Gotham ready to search for these perps!

Paranoid Family #1 will help Duke’s ghost problem starting now!

( pssst heres the fic :)

[underforeversgrace]

after the water

DannyMay2023 Day 30: Post Reveal

title: after the water

words: 1770

Summary: Part 2 of under the river by popular demand

Part 2 of 2

Warnings: None!

AU: Trans Danny Fenton

Beta by: @probably-dead

~~~~~~

Silence stretched like a chasm between the two hunters and the ghost of their son, neither sure how to respond.

“Yeah,” Jack finally said. “It’s us, kiddo.”

Jack grimaced as Danny glanced to the weapons on his and Maddie’s belts before coming closer and accepting his father’s outstretched hand. Jack tried to give a comforting smile as he pulled the specter close to him in a gentle hug, the ache in his chest having nothing to do with the recent near-drowning experience he had suffered.

“We need to talk, don’t we?” Phantom mumbled, setting his feet on the ground but not releasing Jack’s hand, which was a small comfort.

“I think so, sweetie.” Maddie said, stepping closer and reaching for him as well. He flinched some but recovered quickly, giving her a tentative smile, which she took as permission, gently laying a hand on his shoulder.

Phantom glanced at the water behind him, where Jazz’s car now rested. Ah, they were going to have to buy her a new car, weren’t they? Well, it wasn’t Jack’s fault Jazz’s normal car hadn’t been able to handle that curve at a hundred twenty miles per hour! The GAV would’ve been able to! And Jazz was the one who insisted on having a normal car and not letting her parents build her one when they’d offered!

Oh, she was going to be so mad.

“I think I need to give us all a lift home, if… if you trust me?” Danny said with a wry grin. Maddie and Jack shot a quick glance at each other before simultaneously nodding. Ghost of their son or not, this was still their son. He still had done everything he could to save his father. Did this mean they had three children now? Jazz, Danny, and Danny’s ghost?

Did Phantom already live there? He had just called it home. Or was he just remembering his life?

“Uh, prepare for liftoff?” He said as he grabbed both his parents’ hands firmly. A chill sunk deep into Jack, spreading from his hand to his entire body as Phantom passed his abilities to them, lifting the two of them effortlessly. “Might feel weird, by the way. I’m going to make us all intangible. Apparently the wind is a little much for humans.”

Another, deeper cold settled into Jack and the sudden sensation of not being able to feel swept across him as they flew. The sun, the temperature, the wind, Danny’s hand in his own - Jack could feel none of it. And then - after several minutes of silence, none able to hear over the roar of the wind as the flew the many, many miles home - when Danny phased them in through the top of the building, Jack felt suffocated as his entire body went through solid concrete and steel, a sudden instinctual fear gripping his stomach as he wondered what would happen to him if Phantom decided to return them back to the tangible plane while they were encased like this.

But his fear was entirely unfounded as Phantom simply guided them to the kitchen and set them on the floor, releasing his grip on them immediately and floating back several feet away from them, keeping an eye on the ghost shield button across the kitchen from where he’d set them.

Realization - again - slapped Jack across the face. Danny had put them as far away from the button as possible so if either of them made for it, he could escape before the shield came down.

“So. Talking?” Danny asked, crossing his legs and floating in midair.

“Are you okay?” was the first thing out of Jack’s mouth. He had a million other questions but first he needed to know if his son was okay.

“Well, I haven’t been shot today!” Danny said with a grin before a face of embarrassment settled as both parents looked at him in horror. “Ah. Not a good joke. Sorry. Are you okay, Dad? You’re the one who nearly drowned.”

Jack waved the question away. “I’m fine, son. You saved me, after all.”

A green blush rose into his face. “No problem.” he mumbled.

“Can I ask what happened?” Maddie asked cautiously. “I understand if not!”

“Oh, uh, yeah I can talk about it. Any ghost can, actually, some just don’t want to. It is typically something traumatizing, y’know?” he answered with a shrug. Jack took a deep breath, bracing for whatever his son was about to say. Ghosts didn’t form from peaceful deaths and Jack only knew of one incident Danny had been in that could have hurt him that bad. “I may have lied about how bad the portal was?”

Jack ran a hand through his hair, gripping and pulling at some strands. “You died.” he whispered, a statement, not a question.

“I got better!” Danny quickly insisted, suddenly standing (floating?) back up, shaking his hands at them to calm down.

“And you’ve been hiding this from us?” Maddie spoke up.

Phantom’s eyes dropped to the floor. “Can you blame me?” he asked softly.

“You really thought we wouldn’t accept you?” Maddie asked, the hurt in her voice mirroring the pain in Jack’s heart. “We’ve always accepted you!”

Danny snorted. “Are you really trying to equate me transitioning to this situation?”

“We told you then - you will always be our child, our son. That’s still true. We will always accept you.” Jack said gently.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t see the similarities in buying me a binder and getting me scheduled with a doctor equated to becoming a ghost!” Danny snapped at them. He continued, quieter. “You don’t hate men. You don’t hate trans people. You loathe a ghost’s simple existence. Even before the portal opened, I knew what you wanted to do to a ghost. What do you want me to say?”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Jack began. “We do. Only us. You should have never had to doubt us. We were so happy when you came out to us, Danny, that you trusted us, that you knew we loved you and always would. We messed up somewhere to make you doubt that.”

“Jack’s right. You never should have felt the need to hide this and that is our fault. Not yours.” Maddie agreed, heavily sitting into one of the kitchen chairs, dropping her head into her hands for a moment before looking back up, a sudden fierceness in her face. “Danny, look at me. I love you. You are my child first and foremost. I love you and your sister more than anything. There is nothing in this entire world I will ever hate more than I love you. Do you understand me?”

“I…” Phantom started, slowly floating back down to the ground until his feet rested on the floor, glancing at Jack.

“I will never feel anything for you other than love and acceptance.” Jack answered his unasked question.

“You guys are okay with this? You’re sure?”

“Are we okay with the fact our invention killed you? No. Are we okay we’ve shot you and made you afraid of us? Also no. Are we okay with everything else? Of course. It just may take some getting used to, having three kids.” Maddie answered.

“Three?!” Phantom exclaimed, his face immediately morphing from cautious hope to extreme shock. “Are you pregnant? And this is how you’re telling me?!”

“Do you and human Danny still count yourselves as one person?” Jack asked. That would be… confusing.

“Yes?” Phantom answered, more as a question than an answer.

“Okay, so still two kids, but one of them occupies two separate bodies. I can work with that. We can work that.” Maddie said, though Jack could practically see the gears turning in her head. “Do you want your own room? Or have you been living here and sharing with… other Danny? What’s the appropriate terminology?”

Bafflement settled onto Phantom’s tan face and then a bright flash of white light seemed to burn Jack’s retinas.

A half hour ago, Jack had determined that waking up feeling like he was drowning without water, Phantom clung to him and crying, was the strangest thing he’d ever experienced in his life, the biggest shock he would ever experience as he realized Phantom was the ghost of his youngest child.

“What the hell are you two talking about?” A very clearly human Danny Fenton answered and Jack suddenly had a new biggest shock of his life.

Maddie made a sound of vague confusion and Jack felt his brain trying to reboot.

“You’re… dead?” Maddie finally managed.

“We’ve already established I’m half ghost, mom,” Danny said, looking at his parents like they were the crazy ones.

“We have established no such thing, young man.” Maddie said, slipping into her mom voice.

“Maybe we should restart? Start from the beginning?” Jack offered up, though he finally slipped into a chair as well.

“What did you two think was going on?” Danny asked, apparently realizing there had been some sort of miscommunication somewhere.

“You went into the portal, got very hurt and… and died, long enough to form a ghost, before somehow recovering.” Maddie answered.

“Oh. Uh. You’re half right?” Danny responded, awkwardly shrugging. “But it isn’t a human Danny and a ghost Danny. One Danny with two forms. I’m half and half.”

“Half… ghost.” Jack managed. “How?”

“You two are the scientists. Our best guess is ‘ghost biology is weird.’”

“‘Our?’” Maddie asked.

“Uh, Sam and Tuck were there for my accident?”

The two adults remained silent, their minds trying to process the absolute upheaval of everything they had ever known. Danny began to fidget nervously. “Is this still okay?”

“Yes.” Maddie said immediately. “We just… you just negated decades of research, both that we’ve done and others in the field have done. We’re reevaluating our life choices, not you.”

“Well… now you can study better! You can meet some of the other ghosts! So, uh, noninvasive studies only.” Danny said, grinning. “Family field trip to the Ghost Zone! You can meet my doctor and my mentor and my ghost dad who controls time and this queen who I helped overthrow her brother and-“ He continued to excitedly babble about all the things they could do in Zone, all the various ghosts he knew.

Looking at Maddie though, at her messy hair and the hand still half buried in her hair, the look on her face so clearly ‘I am listening but my brain short circuited fifteen minutes ago,’ Jack had to bite down a giggle.

And then - “Wait, did you just say a ghost dad who controls time?”

[brightdarkness-2013]

Chapter 1: Three am idea I had to write down

Jazz lived like he would live forever. Like nothing bad could ever happen to him. He had no problem with bending and breaking rules. No real reason to worry about anything. A prank here and there was no problem. Homework not done? As long as he was passing it didn't matter too much to him. He did fine on the tests anyway. Speeding ticket? Well they'd have to catch him first and he knew from experience that if he kept driving and got home, so long as his parents weren't there, he could could get away with it by just not answering the door and making sure the car was locked up in the garage. They couldn't snoop and they'd get bored of knocking eventually. It was pretty easy to ignore them with music blaring in the background while he played video games. Arrive late to work? The managers and other employees liked him and with a smile and an apology and he usually got off. If he did get fired well it was a part time job and people were always coming and going in those places. He could always get another. Yes things were lined up just fine as far as he was concerned. The pestering about what he was going to do after high school was always a pressure he had no issue ignoring. It didn't really matter yet. He had a little over another year to go to figure that out.

His walk along the pier on his way home had been rather typical besides the threat of rain and wind. He had his collar raised up to his nose as the wind batted at him. Bringing droplets of seawater hitting him from his right. He hadn't heard a thing over the wind and music pounding out of his headphones, but the splash of color that didn't belong out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He glanced at it then did a double take. Out in the water on one of the rocks was a figure. Water crashed against the rock and washed over the figure. He paused and squinted. Black and white with a few splashes of red. It didn't appear to be moving. It took him several minutes to realize that it was a mer. Grabbing his phone from his pocket he pulled up his camera to zoom in and get a better look.

Walked back the way he came to see around the high edges of the creatures resting spot he struggled to get a good view. It was blurry, but from what he could tell it appeared to be hurt. Great. Now he had to call the rangers. The MWPA or Marine Wildlife Protection Agency. Were a great group and all, but damn did the rangers get touchy. You'd think they were cops from the way they interrogated and lectured people. Then again he could always call the cops and let Them deal with the rangers. With a sigh he paced back and forth as he cast glances at the mer as he waited for them to pick up. It still hadn't moved. No sign of any others in the area either. No other mers circling and guarding from what he could see.

"Hello? West end police department, is this an emergency?"

"Uh, yeah. There's this mer down here by the pier. I think it's hurt."

Dealing with the cops and all of their questions was never that fun either. The rangers at least just asked for a location and came. No twenty questions, but the lectures on marine life when they got there were just as bad. Jazz decided to hang up after they asked about it's condition and if it was acting aggressive. They were just wasting everyone's time. He watched the still mer for another few minutes before the tell tale sirens in the distance told him they decided to act. So he left things how they were. It wasn't like he could do anything for it.

It was a couple of days later before he even thought about the mer again. The complaints of fishermens traps being raided and the gossip that followed was what got him heading down to the pier again. The mer wasn't there. Not that he had expected it to be on the rock again. He snooped around where he knew the traps for fish and crabs were laid. Surely Danny or Blaster as he was called by his friends was the stepson of one of the fishermen. He was a nice guy, but had spats with MWPA every once in awhile, but he doubted he'd care if Jazz pestered his traps. The traps were being raided and the only evidence that there had been anything there was the scratch marks on the traps and a few scraps. So he watched and waited. Walking and occasionally checking the traps. There was nothing for several hours. Then as the sun sank one of the ropes holding the traps moved. Just a twitch. Then it shifted more. Jazz, not wanting to waste the opportunity peered into the inky water. He couldn't see a thing so he tugged on it not expecting to get a forceful tug back.

It was cold and dark. Water rushing around him. He pushed off the bottom, the water tugging at him, and something brushing against him he broke the surface. Wasting no time he clawed at the side. Water beating against him and making it difficult to pull himself out. He rolled onto the dock with his heart pounding. Well now he knew it was there and they hadn't caught it.

444444444444444444 cause why not fours for a line break?444444444444444444

Jazz fell onto his bed heavily. Steam raising from his skin after the burning shower he'd used to warm back up. During said shower he had come to the conclusion that the mer was stealing from the traps. It was hurt and the cops had either decided not to call the rangers and lost it or it had avoided the rangers and they had assumed it left the area. So now the things was taking from the traps since it couldn't hunt due to its injuries. A quick search told him mers usually ate early in the morning and late at night like a lot of marine life. So the next morning with some day old sushi that his sister had gotten and never finished he went back to the pier.

The water was much clearer with the sun. It didn't take long for him to spot it. It didn't blend at all against the the rocks and warm looking sand. The light blue the water gave off didn't help much either. Not with the natural red edge at the end of its tail. It was still. Not a fin twitching. The wing fins were held stiffly against its back. It simply was watching him with a careful and even mildly irritated stare. Like it was trying to determine what Jazz's intentions were. It's body was lined with cuts and wounds. One of its wing fins were torn and the long fin that traced down to its tail appeared to be broken judging by the way it was bent. Still no sign of a pod.

"What happened to ya? Looks like you picked a fight with something ya shouldn't have." Jazz settled on his stomach as he leaned over the side. The mer didn't even twitch. "I guess you can't hunt like that, but ya can't keep stealing. You're really starting to piss some people off and they might just start trying to hurt ya despite the MWPA. So I guess since they're too incompetent to catch ya I'll have to feed ya until you can leave. I don't have much, but I'll start getting more."

Jazz opened the box and threw one of the pieces toward it. It didn't move.

"Oh come on. I know it's not great, but it's something. Look. There's hardly anything in the trap today anyway. What even is that? It's Tiny."

Not even a twitch.

"Fine. Spoiled brat. But don't come crying saying you're hungry later." Dumping the boxes contents into the water he stood. "I'll see ya tonight."

With that he left.

Next

Masterpost

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Afterlife Lessons

Masterlist

Chapter Fourteen:

“He’s not here,” Sam called to Tucker, poking her head out of Danny’s closet.  “He must have left right after we did.”

“Then he could be anywhere,” Tucker said, looking around in concern.  “Where would Danny hang out as a ghost?”

“I don’t think he does,” Sam said.  “He told us he never got to goof off as a ghost— or, he told us as Phantom, anyway.  I think he really does just use his ghost half for fighting.”

“Okay,” Tucker muttered, tapping anxiously on his arm with his opposite hand.  “I don’t want to ask his parents.  If they start looking for him—”

“Yeah, let’s not do that,” Sam agreed.  “Fuck, okay, um.  He can’t break into the observatory in the middle of the day.  He didn’t look like he’d be in the mood to go pull pranks.  And obviously he just stays here, so that hangout place was a lie.”

“We kinda made it not a lie, though?” Tucker pointed out.  “I mean, with all those decorations and what not.  Do you think he actually appreciated them, or was he just putting on a face?”

“We got them because we knew Danny would like them,” Sam said.  “And we didn’t think we knew what Phantom would like yet.  He has to like them.�� Maybe that’s a good place to start.  I honestly don’t know where else to check.”

“He’d have to show up eventually, right?” Tucker said.  “I mean, he has a life to live too.”

“Unless he just completely tries to avoid us now as a cover,” Sam said.  “Because he’s an idiot.”

“Okay, we’ll worry about that later,” Tucker said.  “We’ll start with the hangout place we set up.”

So they both flew out through the walls of Danny’s room, and off towards the clubhouse place they’d made with Phantom— with Danny.

Which, Sam still had so many questions.  Why on earth had he tried to do all of this alone?  She had first hand experience with how hard it was to learn to be a half ghost, she couldn’t imagine Danny trying to figure it all out without any help.  All of those stories he’d told them about his half ghost friend were obviously just about him, which made her even more concerned, because those stories hadn’t exactly sounded like someone who was handling the transition well.

Not to mention all of the ways she now knew Phantom got hurt on a daily basis.  Ways she couldn’t brush off anymore, because Phantom wasn’t a professional superhero who had tons of experience and knew exactly what he was doing, he was Danny, and he was clearly not doing so hot.  She’d started to realize Phantom wasn’t doing well before she realized he was Danny, and that obviously just made it worse.  God, she really hoped everything he’d said over the past day about Phantom wasn’t something he actually felt, she hoped it was just something he said to keep up the ruse.  But she had a feeling it wasn’t.

All of the thoughts rushing through her head on the way to the clubhouse meant she didn’t exactly say much, but Tucker was clearly in the same boat, so the two of them just held tightly to each other’s hands so they could see each other while flying intangibly and made their way there as fast as they could.

Thankfully, their gut instincts actually paid off for once, because when they got there, Danny was sitting on the ground as Phantom, curled up around the plushie Tucker got him.

Sam exchanged a worried look with Tucker, and then they both flew down to meet him.

“Danny?” Sam said, because why put that part off.  Danny jerked upright, clearly not having heard them coming, and his eyes widened in panic as soon as he saw them.

“Who— who’s Danny?” he said weakly, sliding back while keeping a tight grip on the plushie.  He had tears running down his face that Sam politely ignored.

Instead, she gave him a deadpan look.  “Who’s Danny” wouldn’t have even worked if they hadn’t put the pieces together, they’d talked about Danny before.

Danny seemed to realize this, and pulled the plushie closer to him and buried his face in it.

“Dude,” Tucker said, floating closer and putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder.  “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” Danny said weakly, muffled by the fabric in his face.  “It’s not okay, it’s— I couldn’t save you.”

“You helped us,” Sam said, wrapping her arms around Danny before he could protest.  “You moron, we couldn’t have made it through this without you.”

“You could have,” Danny said, shaking his head, even though he didn’t pull away from Sam, and he let go of the plushie and buried his head in her chest.  “You— it was just easy for you.”

“Yeah, because we weren’t trying to handle everything ourselves, dumbass,” Sam said.  “And because we had you to help us.”

“Dude,” Tucker said, joining the hug from Danny’s other side.  “You can’t protect the entire town all by yourself.  That’s too much for one person.”

“I can’t even do it right,” Danny muttered, seeming to completely ignore the last part of what Tucker said.  “It’s not— I suck at it.”

“Hey,” Sam said, pulling back just enough to whack him on the head.  “Stop that.”

Danny wiped at his eyes and didn’t say anything.

“Hey, seriously,” Tucker said.  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Would you have believed me?” Danny muttered.

“I mean, maybe after we literally turned into half ghosts too, Danny.”

Danny sniffed and wiped his eyes again.  “But then you were dead,” he whispered.  “You were dead and it was all my fault—”

“Oh, my god, I was serious, stop it with that,” Sam said, giving Danny a lighthearted shove.  “How about instead we blame the guy who actually decided to kidnap and kill us, considering he’s the one who actually did it.”

Danny shook his head.  “But he wouldn’t have if I hadn’t—” he started, and then stopped.

“If you hadn’t what?” Sam asked.  “Can we be done with secrets, please?”

Danny looked down at the ground.  “He was trying to make me talk to someone,” he muttered.  “Because every ghost and their dead mother could tell that I needed to.”

“Wait,” Tucker said, sounding baffled.  “Like, he was trying to be nice?”

Danny snorted.  “Yeah.  That’s Vlad for you.”

“Okay but he’s the one who decided the best way to get you to do that would be to actually kill us,” Sam pointed out.  “Which—” she wrinkled her nose.  “That’s dumb.  He’s fucking dumb.  And I’m gonna kick his butt later.”

Danny laughed, and though it didn’t sound like his best, Sam was glad to hear it.

“Point is, of course it’s not your fault,” Sam said, pulling back so she could look Danny in the face.  He didn’t look up from the floor, however, so Sam reached out and tapped his chin until he did.

“I mean it,” she said.

Danny nodded.  “Okay,” he said weakly.

“Good,” Sam said, and she reached out and pulled him into a hug again.  This time, Danny hugged her back, and Tucker joined again a second later.

They all sat there for a bit, though they eventually sat back.

“But hey,” Sam said, drawing Danny’s gaze again.  “For future reference, maybe don’t try and get us off your scent by saying that the beings we just turned into are terrible and dangerous?  Because uh, that sucked.”

Danny looked away again.  “Yeah, I’m sorry,” he said.  “I didn’t think that one through very well.”

Sam snorted.  “No kidding,” she said, playfully shoving Danny’s shoulder.  She added just enough lightness to her tone that Danny started to smile again.

His smile only lasted a second, though, before he was looking down and starting to fidget with his fingers.  “I’m really sorry Vlad dragged you into my mess,” he said.

“Oh, don’t be stupid,” Sam said.  “We’re helping you now.”

Danny’s gaze snapped upward.  “What?  No, I already said—”

“Yeah, you’re teaching us how to fight, and then we can kick some ghost butt with you,” Tucker said.  “I mean, we did alright last time.”

“You really didn’t,” Danny said.

“Oh, and how exactly did your first ghost fight go?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t see why that’s relevant.”

“Danny, come on,” Sam said.  “Look at me and honestly tell me a half ghost fighting superhero doesn’t sound like something I’d absolutely love to be.”

Danny looked at her.  “A half ghost fighting superhero is not something you’d love to be, Sam,” he said.  “It’s not glamorous.  It’s hard and it’s painful and it sucks.  You have to hide injuries and exhaustion and your life starts falling apart.”

“Well, all of that sounds like something that would be a lot easier with three ghosts doing the fighting instead of one,” Sam said firmly.

“And if you think we’re letting you do all of this by yourself, you’re nuts,” Tucker said.  “We already weren’t going to let you do that.  We’re especially not now.”

“Besides, I think part of the reason you think it sucks is because you don’t ever do literally anything else as a ghost other than fight ghosts,” Sam said.  “Are you trying to tell us you didn’t enjoy pulling ghost pranks with us?”

Danny snorted.  “That was so stupid,” he said, with his ‘god I love you two idiots so much’ smile growing on his face.

“But it was also fun,” Tucker said, grinning right back at him.

Danny shook his head, and wiped at his eyes one last time, but his expression was lighter, and he didn’t look quite so miserable anymore.

“Hey,” Sam said, catching his gaze.  “I love you, dumbass.”

Danny smiled, and this time it stayed there.  “I love you guys too,” he said quietly.

“Good,” Sam said.  “Glad we got that settled.  Next time you half die, just tell us, okay?”

Danny gave a short laugh.  “Yeah, you got it.”

“Good.  Now who wants to go steal some ice cream?” Sam asked.

“Oh, I do!” Tucker said brightly, hopping to his feet.

“Sweet, let’s go.”

“You guys,” Danny said, flying after them both as they took off.  “I’m supposed to be the good guy—”

[softpine]

did we enjoy hanging out at the virtual bar last night ..... sorry i didn't finish answering the asks i fell asleep on the floor listening to lover you should've come over on a loop for 3 hours anyway here's the rest 😌 i may not be drunk anymore but i answered them quick fire mode for that authentic experience fjkjsds

i feel like as she's gotten older, caroline became the retrospective/morose kinda drunk and that's beth's natural state so it would be like a healing therapy session for sure. mikaela gets sloppy lmaooo so she would be blabbing about things no one asked, probably dropping some crazy anecdote that no one can tell if it's true or not. danny just gets stupid horny fjksjds sorry, gotta kick him out after 2 drinks or you'll see a lot more than you ever wanted to

he earned it!!!

honestly i never do anything for my sims birthdays because there's just so many of them 😭 but tom bought him a brownie from the dining hall and stuck a candle in it, then they gathered some friends and went out for drinks later but casper paid the whole tab with danny's money lol and his friends back home got on a group phone call to wish him happy birthday 💖

it suuuuuucks :( i know it's necessary and someday it will feel good and hopefully my relationships will be stronger because of it, but in the meantime i just feel like a toddler who doesn't have the words to describe how i feel so i just cry a lot fjkjsds it's definitely easier to give austin the benefit of the doubt because i can relate, but that makes me want to see him improve more than anything. i don't want to live my life in such a closed-off way anymore and austin probably doesn't either... he just isn't at that stage yet where he realizes it's a problem, so it's frustrating to witness him act like this 😭

BETHHH all of the above!! (well except HOA, because fuck HOAs) we've seen her volunteer as a chaperone for school dances, she's definitely asa's most involved parent in his school & general safety. caroline liked interacting with other parents when asa was little, because she was a young parent she wanted to soak up as much parental experience as possible. on the other hand, mikaela felt embarrassed about how she was the youngest parent in the room when she was putting casper through school/sports so she tended to keep to herself, but she did eventually embrace her status as a soccer mom and then football mom lmao. i can see her and beth in a bookclub :')

yeah he's at the tail end of his tour right now, he only has a few shows left. in the last post with caroline & asa in the hospital, mikaela was actually on the phone with danny but it didn't really make sense to include in that scene, so i moved it to the next time we'll see asa's parents. so i can't say too much about him yet!! but yeah he did take a SUPER long break, so his team is not going to be happy if he asks for another. he tries to keep his family out of the spotlight and only shares nonspecific information about them, but of course he taps into his emotions when writing music so i'm sure a lot of his family struggles come through, just maybe not in the way a casual listener would hear and think "oh his son has had mysterious health problems his whole life" or anything like that!

it's honestly been really fun to write!! he's such a stoic figure and his inner monologue is too, but there's a lot he doesn't say even to himself that's just simmering under the surface...

@forgotten-pixels omg it's funny you bring this up!! when i first introduced mac in the story, i wasn't thinking at all about genetics, i just picked a coat pattern i thought was cute and randomly decided he would be a boy, but then right after that i switched my major to biology and took a genetics class where i had to do a whole research project about chromosomal abnormalities and used male tortoiseshell cats as one of the focuses because they have an extra X chromosome which can also occur in humans (though obviously we don't get cute patterns because of it..... sad!) but male tortoiseshell cats tend to have a ton of health problems & lowered life expectancy because of this abnormality, so if we were being entirely realistic mac probably wouldn't have survived into adulthood. but since this is the sims i decided pets can never die fjksjds i did think about doing a silly retcon where once mac is no longer a kitten he runs away for a few days and returns pregnant because oops he's actually a female cat but 1. again, this is sims so who cares about realism and 2. there is no way in hell beth would be irresponsible enough to not get her adopted stray cat fixed as soon as possible. so i just scrapped the whole idea lmao but yes!! mac is just an exceedingly rare kitty :P

aww i'm sorry i think you sent this a couple days ago, but thank you for thinking of me 🥺 i hope you had a good day!!

noo you didn't make me feel rushed at all!! i totally get wanting to know, i wish i could be more consistent but i've given up on expecting that from myself jfkjsdj but yeah don't fear, he's not really dead dead hehe

oh i love this for them, thank you so much 💖 i don't know anything but just from what you've said, i think leo & aries makes so much sense for finn and asa because like they literally were never supposed to be together or even meet in their lifetimes but by god they will NOT let that stop them 😌

@morrigan-sims AHHH yeah i honestly have nothing to add to this fjkjsds you said it all !! i could comment more but that would be spoilers territory so i'll just leave it with saying i love hearing everyone's predictions, it makes me happy that you know these characters well enough to see into the future a bit 🥺

he wouldn't do anything to hurt (physically or emotionally) asa's family, nor would he knowingly let asa hurt them himself. so...... honey you've got a big storm coming i guess 😭😭

she loves animals, particularly reptiles & amphibians, she'd be so great working in conservation or education about animals especially for kids 🥺

she has a vague idea of how certain people would react... she thinks stevie would probably believe her (at least partially) because she's always been pretty open to unexplainable phenomenon, but she falsely believes that stevie wouldn't be able to keep a secret (she doesn't know that stevie has been keeping asa & finn's secret for a decade now...). she would never want to tell elaine, because she knows elaine doesn't believe in anything supernatural and would probably assume she's experiencing actual delusions. that just leaves asa, who she might have considered telling, except that she knows how badly he's struggled with his own mental health so she would never want to potentially make it worse by confusing his reality in a sense...

oh yeah i definitely cannot comment on this one jfkjsds

asa truly does not think about consequences or the future. you wouldn't assume this is the case because of how quiet and thoughtful he seems, but he chooses to live in the moment and deal with problems as they arise, not a minute sooner. for him, there's just no way he'll ever be without finn, no matter what he has to do to make that happen or what he has to give up..

[ginnsbaker]

re: re: the love letter (details)

that quote is so good... but it's true... we're all haters.

hating danny is easy! you're right.. but i think that's why i love his character.. because... he's very obviously... seemingly selfish.. but that makes him human. especially when he tries his best to reason for all of the things that happened. and also the reader! and how you actively.. made them think thru it but selfishly still turned it back onto danny. (read, both danny and reader are human with realistic traits and emotions and i love it. oftentimes people write characters as one sided... so i'm just really glad yours have more dimensions!)

also i definitely don't view danny as an antagonist btw! i don't think anyone could be in such a story like this, but again... s'why i like all the characters so much. they all have their sides to the story. he's just is who he is. as the reader i feel like i should dislike him for what he's done though, especially when he asks the reader to.. keep it a secret??

and yes. leigh is. (i'm repeating myself.) selfish- i was gushing to my friends about this fic earlier before i wrote the love letter, i kept.. describing leigh's character in this as... bitter. (using danny, putting on a show for matt's spirit) and mean.. (when she finds out there's more things being kept from her and she lashes out to - anyone and everyone, etcetc.) and well yeah. leigh is just as flawed as danny and the reader, but it’s like you wrote “Her... directness is refreshing. In a world full of people trying to sugarcoat everything, Leigh just says it like it is. And yes, it can come off a bit strong, but there's something genuine about it. — Formidable.” and ahhh i could pick apart the little things you wrote for paragraphs and why it scratches my brain so good but alas.

long response, stort reply; i don’t hate danny. hate was too strong of a word. danny is human, so is leigh. and we’re all guilty to being selfish at some points in our lives, whether we like to admit it or not.

and honestly, i felt a little silly after submitting the long ask, but i’m glad you had a positive reaction to it. (plus!! you tagged it as a love letter— i know i called it that on a whim, but it made my heart flutter when you tagged it as such.)

thank you for taking time to read my words and respond to them! i also figure.. i’ll be back in this inbox with more love letters when the next chapter comes… so maybe i can claim an anon spot…?

Yes, exactly. I think he needs to do more growing up. I've been around enough to realize that men mature more slowly than women. which is explains why im so appalled by men my age and younger lol

him asking reader to keep it a secret was him not seeing that leigh has become important to reader, or that their relationship is, while still on an acquaintance-level, is layered with something magnetic.

i think when i wrote leigh, just piled on how the show wrote her. they did an incredible job on her. and i was also sourcing my from own experience with this girl i used to like.. who isn't the most pleasant person to be with and kind of aloof and standoffish. and that's what made her so charming to me. so im glad you're noticing that leigh's imperfection is actually her attractive trait.

I'm sorry if it took a bit longer to reply to this one, i was just working the whole day and working on chapter 7. so i set aside specific times of the day to check out tumblr and reply to asks :)

once again, thank you for your thoughts. keep them long, i love reading feedback no matter the length :D

[thatonejumbledmess]

Okay, so going off of the "batfam has no clue she's a clone until Danny shows up" comment and the "Dani is from an alt fimenstipn" comment. Dani and Danny had discovered they could kinda make their own portals into the Zone like Wulf. They're messing around, trying to get a hang of the power, and suddenly, the GIW atack them, in a panic they make seperate portals and go into the Zone.

Except Dani's doesn't open into the Zone. It opens in the middle of Gotham. She also used a lot of energy to do that, and has to wait a while before trying again. Bruce sees her come out of the portal all panicked and offers help.

She tells him about the group chasing her down, and in a twist, the GIW does exist here. But they aren't a government organization, they're a rogue group of meta hunters. Bruce takes them down, and Dani realizes she's not in her home dimension. But by the time she's figured out how to get back she's decided she likes it here.

So on occasion she visits Danny and Jazz, and she stays and loves with Bruce. She gets all of her younger siblings, and constantly talks about them whenever visiting her older ones. She never mentions the older ones to the younger ones though, it just never comes up and she completely forgets she never told any of them or Bruce and Alfred that she's from another dimension and also a clone. They know she disappears sometimes, and that she says she's visiting her old family. They assume she's going to a graveyard wherever she used to live, and staying in town a few days to do some things she used to do with her old family.

Kon happens, and she goes on a huge rant at Clark about how clones are people too, and they didn't ask to be made. And that he should be grateful Kon is perfectly stable, and neither of them had to watch a room full of his siblings melt.

Someone gently broaches the subject that she seems to be speaking from experience. The only thing she says it that she is speaking from experience. And everyone assumes she's the one who'd been cloned.

One day, the batfam is all having dinner together. Dani even got Alfred to sit at the table with them. Then suddenly, a green portal opens up, and a Wulf comes through holding a bundle of baby Danny.

Wulf explains what happened, and everyone present can just barely understand what he's saying, enough to understand the sutuation.

Bruce: "wait the GIW? Didn't I dismantle them way back when I first took you in?"

Dani: "Yeah, the one in this dimension, not the one in my home dimension."

The whole batfam: "Your what!?"

Dani: "Yeah, my home dimension! Anyway, while this isn't the greatest of situations, you all finally get to meet my older brother/template!" She holds up baby Danny for all of them to see.

So much chaos ensues. It's fantastic, and all Dani can say is, "Oops, sorry, I thought I'd said something before now!"

Dani as one of the bats.

Bruce finds a white haired girl floating above Gotham, talks to her, realizes she doesn’t have a home, and decides to take her in temporarily when she accidentally admits that a government branch is after her. And quickly realizes that she is half human.

By the time that Bruce takes down the GIW, hes attached, and decides to officially adopted Danielle Fenton- now Danielle Martha Wayne. The headlines reads ‘BRUCE WAYNE ADOPTS ORPHANED GIRL’. A rumored new hero called the Green Ghoul hit the streets, and Gotham has never been safer.

When Dani turned 13, he took her to Haley’s Circus and they came back with Dick Grayson. Robin enters the chat. Batgirl follows soon after.

Jason was brought to the manor when Dani was 21 and Dick was 16. Dick was not pleased. Dani was. Jason reminded her of Jazz. And new Robin dons the mask and Bludhaven gets their very own hero. When Jason died Dani she went to the Infinite Realms to look for him. She didn’t find him. Jason was alive.

Dani was 24 when Bruce gets another Robin. She’s very supportive of Tim, he reminds her of Tucker. She’s not mad about Robin, she knows Jason’s alive.

Dani convinces Steph to train with them, and Spoiler suddenly has new high tech equipment.

Barbara gets paralyzed when Dani is 26. The Joker is never seen again. No one can prove it was her, but they all know.

Dani is 27 when Jason returned, and his reintegration into the family is smooth with weekly health checks with Frostbite and ghost therapy.

Cass follows soon after, and Dani gets another sister. Soon Black Bat is Gothams most feared vigilante

She’s 28 when Damian joins the colony, all mighty and proud. Dick is desperate to have a good relationship with him. Dick is not the one who takes the cowl. Dani is.

Bruce returns and Dani all but throws the cowl at her. Green Ghoul is back on the streets.

Duke joins and Signal is grappling from rooftops. When his powers form, Dani is the one training him.

Just Dani as the eldest bat :))

Bonus!

Dani so 30 when a five year old Danny stumbles into her apartment. Rouge GIW agents have gotten ahold of him. Soon, the papers are printing ‘ELDEST WAYNE GIRL HIDES SON FOR FIVE YEARS’

If you use this idea plz tag me and comment :)))

[starry-bi-sky]

Danyal Al Ghul: Incorrect Quotes and Miscellaneous Thoughts

Incorrect quotes-style snippets specifically for my danyal al ghul au here (which i really need to come up with a unique au name for atp). Because I thought it'd be funny. And also some miscellaneous headcanons thrown into the mix. Some context for the au: - Danyal is 5 years older than Damian (so 10 and 15) - Danny faked his death when he was 10. Talia knows and helped him with it. - Jazz, Sam, and Tucker do not know he's an ex-assassin.

-------- Snippet 1

Danny, dryly tapping his temple: I have, as the Americans say, irreparable psychological damage, right here.

Jazz, an older sibling first and foremost: well, it's good that you're self-aware.

-------- Snippet 2

Danny, aged 10, in the American foster planning to just age out of the system: *emanating Bad Vibes. Pure, Little Orphan Tom Riddle Energy*

Jazz, aged 12, coming in to adopt a new sibling with her parents: Him. This is my brother now :)

Danny: ...what

--------

Lilo and Stitch is Danny's favorite Disney movie. He watched it when he was 11 with Jazz when she was attempting to connect with him, and by this point Danny was becoming receptive to her efforts. They had a movie marathon in the living room one night.

Safe to say? It resonated with his little 11 year old heart strongly, and he related very strongly with both Nani and Stitch. He got unexpectedly emotional and hid in his room for the rest of the night. Jazz felt really bad, but it had the intended (but kinda unexpected) effect of him trying to be nicer to her afterwards.

-------- Snippet 3

Dash, aged 12, causing trouble again and getting intercepted by Danny: *scaling up a desk* AHHHHH! GET YOUR LITTLE FREAK, FOLEY!

Tucker: Hey! Danny is not a freak!

Dash: GET HIM TO BACK OFF

Tucker, was the kid Dash was messing with: ....whats in it for me

-------- Snippet 4

Danny, saying some questionably immoral shit: What. Why are you looking at me like that.

Tucker: Bro. I mean this as kindly as possible; what the fuck?

Sam: yeah, I'm with Tuck on this one.

-------- Snippet 5

Danny, ranting about Vlad: if it weren't for the laws of this land, I would have slaughtered him

Sam, painting his nails black: I'm pretty sure you'd slaughter him regardless of the laws of the land -- and quit moving, you're gonna mess me up.

Tucker: we've literally seen you debate yourself about this, Dan

Danny: ...you are correct, but it is the principle of things.

-------- Snippet 6

Vlad: I have experience my child, and the money and power attained through using those powers for personal gain, you say. I could train you, teach you everything I know! And all you have to do is renounce that idiot adoptive father of yours.

Danny, was already contemplating committing a Violence: ....

Danny, internally: I'm going to stab him *turns into Phantom*

--------

Funny contrast I realized between Danyal and Vlad that iirc I haven't pointed out yet is that imo, Danyal doesn't rely on his powers nearly half as much as canon Danny does. He falls back instinctually on his League training, and thus sometimes forgets to use his powers in battle. This was prevalent especially early on when he was still getting used to the whole 'halfa' thing.

He incorporates them more often after a year, but still for the most part relies on his own physical hand-to-hand combat. He trusts those skills much more than he does his powers. I'm not sure where he is on a technical level compared to canon, but just to stay safe I'll say he's similar in power skill as canon Danny. Perhaps a little more finessed than him because his League training would probably have him trying to figure out his powers as soon as possible.

But in summary? Danny is strong in hand-to-hand combat, weak in powerset.

Meanwhile Vlad is the opposite. I can't recall if he even knows hand-to-hand in canon, but it makes total sense to me that Vlad Masters wouldn't because he's so confident in his monetary influence and ghost abilities that he sees no need for it.

And he's kinda got some merit behind it. He's very powerful and has 20 years of experience to experiment and fine tune his powers. He's got bite to follow up his bark. He's perfected long-range combat and his ability to phase through walls makes it impossible to corner him, but if you can manage it, then one good hit could probably knock him on his ass.

So in summary, Vlad is strong in powerset, weak in hand-to-hand combat.

And it casts a good contrast between the two of them in that regard. Danny, as a fellow halfa, can follow Vlad when he phases through walls and is fast enough to land a hit on him. His league training as an assassin, albeit rusty, is still deep ingrained enough in him that he can hold up as a rather veritable threat against Vlad without needing his powers.

But Vlad can force Danny to use his powers more often through use of his own. The duplication is the first thing to come to mind: Danny's fast enough to dispel them on his own without powers, and smart enough that he could figure out who the real one is if given a few minute. But that's not always efficient enough.

Good foils for each other that way. Also Vlad's Plasmius design mimics Ra's juuust enough that he looks like Ra's knockoff loser second cousin no one talks about, which only fuels Danny's hatred.

-------- Snippet 7

Danny, ranting about Vlad for the first time: --and it's only made worse by the fact that the little ingrate resembles a cheap knock-off of my grandfather!--

Sam, choking on her water: he what--

Tucker, doing a spittake: HE DOES?

[artistfingers]

how. how does Identity Crisis happen in- Fun Danny and Super Danny. how do the Danny's try to explain their personalities suddenly changing- do they try to claim they got hit by something in the Fenton's lab at the same time and it messed them both up or do they just. try so hard to be normal and keep failing-

[Undercover AU]

OH MAN. IDENTITY CRISIS.

It probably begins with Danny throwing in the towel on needing to be in two places at once. He can’t duplicate and he can’t come clean about his two identities because he’s just too far gone—there isn’t a way to do it that might potentially cost him the friendships. who’s gonna be a fan of, “know how we’ve been really close friends for months and months now? Well i’ve been keeping core aspects of my identity a secret from you and also did some very questionable things in that process. let’s go for ice cream!”

so what does he do? Decide to go check out that Fenton Ghost catcher of course! Once, last year, he accidentally split himself in two with it. Not for long, of course, enough to be creeped out, sure. BUT. It worked, so surely he can keep it up all day, right? And really he only needs to be split like, sometimes. Friday nights and weekends, mostly. Yeah. He can make that work. Why did he never think of this before??

...He didn’t expect that neither half of him would want to go back to leading a double life and just. Straight up refuse. He didn’t expect the personality shifts, either. That’s definitely a new… experience...

Sam and Tucker have already seen the way ghosts can get messed up by tech, what with the way they all met, so it’s pretty easy to explain away as Phantom, if nothing else. As for Fenton? A little harder. I’m really amused by the idea of them trying so hard to be normal, but continually failing pfdhjf for that route, i might make the shifts a bit more subtle, or at least easier for him to put a cap on for a while. Ironically he probably nearly spills the beans on like ten different occasions across whatever week this incident spans and digs himself into several holes

At least he can get sam and tucker to stop bugging him to meet Phantom! Except when he lets them set it up and goes through with it, wow. Uh. interacting with himself is so off-putting and weird. he probably argues with himself about something. There’s an obvious secrete side-huddle between the two Dannys. Sam and Tucker are watching them like hawks and the whole thing ends with more questions than answers for those two.

And, a twist, just for the fun of it: he doesn’t stay stable, split in half like this. So not only is he trying to act normal and living twice as much life as he normally does, but he’s also cut off from half his powers when he needs ‘em, and he’s got worsening destablization symptoms in both forms. And at the point he realizes it’s becoming a real problem, his halves can’t agree on how to fix it. Go back through the catcher? Or enlist Tuck to help build something new, the way he reverse engineered the thing that got Danny stuck as Phantom way back at the start?

So Fenton’s off with Tucker trying to build something new, and Phantom’s off with Sam trying to locate and wrangle Fenton into “helping” them “heal” Phantom with his “parent’s scarily useful inventions” and it leads to a big ruckus in the lab that, once he’s back together, Danny has to lie through his teeth to keep Sam and Tucker from figuring out his dual-identity right then and there hsgdfghs

… and onto Sam’s conspiracy corkboard Identity Crisis goes, and this happens directly after.

[specialagentartemis]

#YEAH YEAH YEAH #all of this shit #toss in the ghosts self perception of themselves #and valerie and mmmn #a good story broth (via @elexuscal)

YEAH

Ghosts have so much potential to play around with this theme, depending on how you take them. As imprints of concepts/formerly human consciousnesses on ectoplasm, maybe they really aren't multifaceted three-dimensional people the way humans are; maybe each ghost really kind of just is everything they appear be. Contrast the ghosts with the singular obsession they never deviate far from against humans - humans aren't like ghosts, they aren't a singular, easily-parseable thing. Humans have depth, they're multifaceted and contradictory and complicated and messy. You have to get to know people as people, because they're not as simple as ghosts. (And there are thus consequences to dying; death, even upon becoming a ghost, is a loss of the full complexity that you are. You only get this as a human - embrace it, cherish it.)

Or play it that ghosts are fully realized people who are just from a different dimension and interact with the world and the concept of existence and selfhood in a fundamentally different way than humans do, and Danny has to be the bridge between worlds, get them to be able to understand each other as people in a way no one has yet bothered to try.

And for Valerie - YEAH. YEAH! Valerie could be soooo interesting because we meet her as one of the Shallow Hot Popular Girls, and then we actually get to know her, and we see a girl desperate to be respected and taken seriously, and she formerly bought a shallow kind of respect that she lost and is having to completely recalibrate her life. We see more of who she is - proud, determined, resourceful, bitter. Wholeheartedly ready to throw herself into ghost hunting. It won't restore her old life, but like Danny, she feels duty-bound protecting the town from the Ghost Menace - and unlike Danny, it's more than a little personal, too. As if when she takes down the ghost boy who ruined her life, it'll make her feel better. We plunge into Valerie's POV and we see so much more than the image we were introduced to. (Ideally we'd get to see special guest episodes for characters like Dash and Kwan and Paulina and Mr. Lancer - the jock bully, the hot girl, the hardass teacher are people too, and in my reimagined version, they actually get to be, sometimes.)

But Valerie particularly, because a big part of her arc can be struggling against the feeling that no one does respect her, acknowledge her, support her, for the part of herself that is the Red Huntress, Amity Park's defender. Her dad doesn't approve of her going out and fighting ghosts. Her "friends" would think she was a weirdo freak for that, her coworkers are just trying to get through their day. The only person who sees that part of her, that acknowledges and respects her for that, that validates her for that... is Vlad Masters. And so of course she won't question him arming a teenager to go fight his battles for him - she finally, finally feels like someone gets it, someone sees her.

(of course, he does and he doesn't - he primarily sees her as a tool and a weapon to be pointed at Danny.)

There is soooo much to be done about wanting/not wanting to be fully seen, and wanting/not wanting to fully see others, and making/not making space for that full complexity of experience that every person has going on in their lives even before the secret identities come in!

If I were in charge of rebooting Danny Phantom, the core theme it would keep coming back to would be idea that everybody has their own internal life and thoughts and feelings and opinions and desires, and they won't necessarily match the simplified image of them that you have in your head, and you have to accept them as complicated messy un-ideal people because the ideal image of them you have isn't real.

All the pieces are there. Vlad as the villain has given himself over to this fantasy world, imagining Maddie as the perfect wife and Danny as the ideal son and Jack as the corrupting influence, without ever bothering to know them as people. He's the ultimate villainous failure state of this.

But also, at the same time, Maddie and Jack have this image of who their son is, and he's actually hiding a lot from them about who he Really is. Everyone has their idea of who Danny Fenton is, and it's what makes them unable to see Phantom as Danny. But also, age 14 can be when you start to realize that your parents aren't all-knowing godlike figures who can solve all your problems and always know what to do, nor are they put on Earth to frustrate you specifically, they're just... also people. Also human beings, who can be wrong, who have their biases. And that can be a hard lesson to learn.

(Tie Jazz's interest in psychology in here: she's interested in learning how people think and why. She's the bridge. She's the way forward.)

And it all comes back to this idea, that everyone has a full and complex internal life, and you have to give them grace and space for that and meet them as they are and accept them where they're at, because you can't make them be who you think they are.

[stardustbarbarians]

Honey, You’re Familiar

A Daniel Wagner / Samuel Kiszka fic

Summary: Sam catches Daniel in a lie.

Tags: blood, slight angst, getting together, fluff, vampires

A/N: I wrote this at 2 am because @ofthecaravel gave me an idea and it wouldn’t let me sleep. So yeah, enjoy this. Title taken from Hozier’s From Eden. Also special shout out to @mintysammykiszka and @t00turnttrauma for gassing me and this fic up, I love all of you so much.

Words: 2.2 k

+++

Daniel wiped blood off his chin with the heel of his palm, a devious grin on his face as he looked down at the body he just drained, his sharp fangs dripping of that crimson ichor that sustained him. Feeling satiated, he tipped his head back and gazed at the moon, a satisfaction in his veins that one could only experience after having a full meal. 

Realizing that he was wasting precious time escaping the authorities, Danny cut his moon bathing session short, wiping all the blood from his lips off and cleaning his hand with his tongue. 

He walked back to the hotel, making sure he wasn't going too fast to arouse suspicion.

Giving himself a good once over, Danny walked into the lobby free of any blood. The only evidence of his crime was the sweet metallic tang coating the inside of his mouth, but no one would be able to find that. Well, maybe one person might, but he wasn't likely to snitch on Danny. 

Daniel walked into his shared hotel room, spotting Sam messing around with his black and red bass as he sat on the bed closest to the window, the sheer white curtains billowing with the summer wind. 

"Did anyone see you?" Sam questioned, not even bothering to look up from watching his fingers play the chords and tabs he wanted to hear from his beloved instrument. Danny was expecting that question, he also knew how to deal with it.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he deflected, trying to make his way into the bathroom to wash away the evidence with his toothbrush. 

"You've got some blood on the corner of your mouth, Wagner," Sam smoothly replied, continuing to strum his bass, the buzz of the strings just barely audible. 

The drummer stopped dead in his tracks, his heel off the ground from trying to step into the washroom. He'd been caught red handed - well, red lipped in this case. The hum of the bass guitar ceased, Sam setting it aside and getting up from his spot on the mattress. 

"Are you still gonna try and deny it?" The bassist pressed, walking to place himself between the vampire and the door to the sink. He crossed his arms over his chest, a slightly disappointed look in his eyes as he took in Daniel. 

"You're bluffing," Daniel retorted, his eyes tracing the features of his best friend. Normally anyone else who had come this close to him would've been shaking in terror, fearing for their lives. Hell, even the twins still flinched when Danny got too close too fast sometimes. But not Sam; never Samuel. 

He should've seen it coming. Daniel, immortal Daniel who had lived through empires rising and falling. Daniel, who had witnessed the birth of modernization and all its flaws and perfections. Daniel, the creature who had come to learn human nature from sheer amount of experience and interaction with them; he thought nothing could surprise him anymore. 

Oh, how wrong he was.

There he was, utterly baffled by the man in front of him. He should've known better than to hold Samuel Francis Kiszka to the same standards and assumptions as everyone else.

Without any warning, Samuel leaned forward and captured the vampire's lips with his own.  It was clear he was on a mission, his tongue searching the caverns of Danny's mouth, a soft whine slipping past his lips that only someone with supernatural senses would've been able to detect. Daniel was overwhelmed by the utter taste of Sam, the warmth of his skin, the energy he possessed, and just over all everything that made him Samuel. It was over before Danny knew it, Sam's tongue grazing against his fangs before he detached, resting their foreheads together as Sam panted. Danny would've been at a loss for air if his lungs functioned anymore. 

“Blood," Sam managed between breaths, "I tasted blood."

"You gonna try and gaslight me and say that I'm imagining it, or whatever?" Sam continued, his own grip on Danny's curls getting tighter. 

"No," Danny blurted out under his breath, “no I'm not.”

The hum of night was the only sound in that room, that and Sam's vitals thumping rapidly in order to keep him alive. But only Danny could hear that.

The vampire heard the click of Sammy's throat as he swallowed, the human pulling away so that he could look Daniel in the eye. He needed to look at him, he needed to.

"You know you could've just asked me instead of risking your life out there,” Sam reminded softly, his voice wavering with emotion. And there it was: the reason Danny had lied to his best friend. He didn't want to worry him and all he managed to do was panic Sam anyway. 

"I know," the drummer replied, hanging his head in shame.

"Then why didn't you?" This time, the waver in Sam's voice was from anger. Daniel felt the human's grip tighten even further. If he were still human, he would've been in a lot of pain.

Daniel took a moment to reply, trying to compose his thoughts without making him sound like a cliche and also one of the worst movies he's ever seen in his entire life.

Sighing, Danny decided to just go for it, rip the bandage off to quote an old adage. "Because I wouldn't be able to stop."

Despite sounding like none other than Edward Cullen himself, Sam was struck by the words his best friend admitted to him. Unable to stop? He was afraid of killing Sam?

"Oh, shut the fuck up with your vampire angst, you walking cliché," Sam criticized, pulling away from Danny's grip. He wore a face of disbelief as he leaned against the wall next to the bathroom door, his arms crossed and his leg propped against the wallpaper.

"I tell you that I'm afraid of taking your life and you call me a cliche?" The vampire asked, making sure he was understanding what just happened. His tone was steady and low; dangerous almost. He ran his fingers through his raven curls, a nervous habit of his he was never able to kick from his time as a human.

Suddenly with a point to prove, Daniel grabbed Samuel by the throat and pinned the bassist against the wall, his other hand pinning both of Sam's hands above his head. The once serene calm and quiet of the night was replaced by the rapid thrumming of Sam's heart as fear courses through his veins. Danny heard it kick up a notch as he used the grip on the human's throat to tip his head to the side and expose the vulnerability of the skin there, mesmerized by the pulsing of his best friend's jugular as it jumped up and down. The lightning fast rushing of Sam's blood was filling Danny's ears as he leaned in and lightly pressed his fangs against the tempting vein.

"Where's that blasé attitude now, Sammy?" Danny purred into the human's ear, feeling the goosebumps rise under his grip on Sam's skin.

Sam didn't respond, only letting out a small whimper at the drummer's words. He swallowed again, the feeling of his Adam's apple against Danny's palm just another reminder of the dichotomy between the living and the immortal. 

Daniel took that as an involuntary admission of Sam's terror, too stubborn to voice it aloud. The vampire chuckled darkly, "Goddamn right, you should be scared of me," he growled.

"Not fear," Sam blurted out, his breath shaky as he inhaled.

Not fear

It resonated in Danny's mind for a moment as he tried to understand what Sam was trying to tell him. If he wasn't afraid, why was his heart racing? Why was he releasing hormones that Daniel's unnatural smell could detect? Why was he breathing so shallow?

It hit the vampire like a freight train. 

Not fear- 

He slotted his leg between Sam's legs.

-Arousal

"You're-you're not scared?" He asked, that predator attitude all hit removed from Danny's demeanor. He kept his grip on Sam, continuing to pin him to that wall. There was no reason for this other than the fact that he just couldn't seem to let go. 

"Far, far from it, baby," Sam admitted, his hands squirming against Daniel's hold on his wrists. 

"But... I've killed people." It was so quite, so small. It was clear it wasn't something the vampire was proud of. He knew it was in order to keep himself alive, but why did his life matter above those he's slaughtered over his life to maintain it?

"And? That just adds to it," Sam argued, his voice strained and high pitched as he was slowly losing the brain functionality in order to hold a coherent conversation. 

Daniel was truly taken aback. That was twice in one night that Samuel was able to bewilder a man who had seen a large chunk of humanity unfold before his eyes.

"I could kill you." Once again, Danny pressed the front of his fangs to the pulsing jugular of the man in his grip. His teeth were aching to slip into that thriving vein despite having just returned from feeding. They yearned with unfettered desire to know the sensation of marring Sam's perfect and otherwise untampered neck. It was the first thing he noticed upon meeting Sam, it wasn't just their fans who appreciated that feature of the bassist.

"Once again, adds to it," Sam repeated, his patience wearing thin. Daniel was torturing him with this grazing of his fangs against the human's neck. He was so close to just outright begging Danny to bite him, but he knew that if he took that route he would never get what he desired. Sam was so close he could taste it.

It was finally dawning on Daniel; Sam really and truly accepted who he was, all of him. The pretty parts, and the one he hid from the rest of the world. Sam dug through the mud and the trenches to unearth all those ugly flaws and treated them with nothing but unbridled and tender affection. He didn't just overlook them, no Sam held them close to his heart and nurtured them and allowed them to know love. It was too much for Danny. He felt a mix of love, pride, acceptance, and lust swirling in his mind. 

In the end, it was the lust that won out when Daniel gazed upon the flush and pleading face of the human in his clutches. He as begging Danny to do something, anything to Sam. He was willing  to take whatever Danny was going to give to him at that point and that was enough to make his fangs ache.

"I'm going to bite you," Daniel warned, his voice gone husky as it all dawned on him.

"I thought you'd never ask," Sam replied, a bratty bastard to his core. That quickly vanished when the vampire finally sank his fangs into the human's neck, the pain stinging and harsh but welcome.

The both of them let out noises of pleasure; Sam from the knowledge and experience of finally having his fantasies coming to fruition and Daniel from pure ecstasy of his best friend's taste. 

It only lasted momentarily, Danny detaching himself before he reached a point where he couldn't pull back. It was a dangerous road that he just veered down, one that he now knew had no exit ramp. He'd had a taste of Sam, he knew the tang of his best friend's blood, and he knew immediately that he wouldn't be able to live his life without at least one hit from Sam a day. He was hooked, the claws of yearning and addiction sunk deeply into Daniel just from that one sip.

Sam was also ruined, seeing the affect that his blood had on Daniel. He saw the way his pupils were blown, his nostrils flared slightly and his eyes unable to be ripped away from the spot on Sam's neck he just tapped. Even though he didn't need to breathe, Daniel was nearly gasping for air, his chest rising and falling in large motions. Sam could feel the blood steadily but slowly seeping from his puncture wounds, the rivulets inching their way to stain the white button up he was adorned with. Danny was also covered in blood, but not his own. His lips were stained with Sam's blood, the corners of his mouth dripping with it. It was too much for Sam to know that that was his own.

"You're a messy eater," Samuel commented, out of breath and with a tired but wide smile. "Only when I get a taste of something I can’t resist,” Danny replied, mirroring Sam's smile

The vampire heard the human's heart stutter just a little at that, causing him to smirk. Leaning forward, Daniel licked Sammy's neck clean of blood, his saliva sealing the would he left.

"That's handy," Sam remarked after he felt no wound on his neck. 

"You can say that again," Daniel agreed, reminiscing on the times where he had gotten out of a few vampire hunts by erasing the evidence with that trick.

"Thank you, Sam," the drummer spoke after a beat of silence, "for accepting all of me."

“I wouldn't have you any other way than the way you are currently, Daniel."

+++

A/N: Zara and Karou keep asking for a part two, so maybe that will happen as well. Thank you so much for reading! (also please feel free to make as many twilight jokes as you want it gives me a good laugh)

Taglist:

@doodle417 @sammykiszkasunusedshoes @jmks-housewife @ageoferin @alwayssotiredbutneverofyou @etoilesnoor @ascendingtostardust @godlygreta @s0livagant @gretavanflowerpower @morganic-goods @dannythedog @baguettejuliette @fan-girl-97 @gaby-gvf @age-of-nyahh @mzbrightside @myownparadise96 @xserenax-13 @sammysvanfeet @loofypoofy @chalametpwk @seventieswhore @razorbladekiszka @kdarling1 @capturethechaos @unfortunatelykristin @welightthefire @gretavanfleas @sammiejane22 @satanplayshisfluteforhim @starsasone @mintysammykiszka

Taglist Form

[sorority-system]

Person A is the host of their system, and also happens to be child, both in body and system age. The only other two members of their system are two teenage versions of themselves, who treat Person A like a little sibling.

Bonus: Person A is a very quiet child to the point of not allowing themselves to act like a kid. Headmates B and C, however, are determined to give them some good childhood experiences, and encourage them to do regular child things like play dress up and mess around in mud puddles. Hey, if they had to skip childhood, at least they can live vicariously through Person A! - via @pluralprompts

"No! I'm not doing it!" Shouted Claire as she curled up into a ball, covering her ears. The two protectors sighed as they sat beside her in headspace, looking at each other from the side. They had only suggested they play tea party with her, yk, because Claire acted more like an adult than her actual parents. What was so wrong about that?

"C'mon Claire," Kent said, patting her head cautiously, "It's really not that much of a big deal. Me and Danny just wanna play with you! You wanna play with us, right?"

She shook her head. "Can't. It's a waste of food and resources!" The two gave each other a funny look.

"Claire," Daniel's voice sounded reassuring, reassuring enough that Claire uncovered her ears, still curled up. "You're not gonna waste resources. I think you'd be using them if you were having a tea party! Using resources isn't a bad thing. Don't you want to invite Bear and Piggy to it? We can have little sandwiches!"

She perked up at that, "Sandwiches? Like in Frozen?" Both boys nod readily.

"Yeah! Leave it to us Claire! We'll make you the best tea party ever!" Kent pumped his fist into the air as he said that.

Although hesitantly, Claire nodded uncurling herself and "letting herself be surprised" as they fronted and switched between setting up the party and doing their best to make the food. After about half an hour, it was ready.

"Claire Bear!" Daniel called out. Claire uncovered her eyes and they widen as she realized what the two had done.

Daniel had done his best to cut up the sandwiches using cookie cutters. They were nutella on wheat (her favorite) and on another plate were various cookies and other treats he found. His version of "tea" was white cranberry peach juice, leftover from Christmas dinner. Kent had set up the stuffed animals with Bear on the left and Piggy right next to him (so Bear wouldn't be lonely) and somehow found her lost tea set, which was being used right now. Playing in the background was her favorite, The Mitchells V.S the Machines.

Claire took a second to look at everything, memories of it being prepared coming to her but yet feeling for foreign. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying but Kent and Daniel moved together in headspace to give her a hug.

"Me and Daniel know Christmas was hard, Claire Bear," Kent grinned, "So we made you this! Do you like it?"

Claire let the tears stream down her face for a second for laughing. "Yes! Yes! Yes! I love it!" She grinned as she took her place next to Bear and faced her stuffed animals towards the TV. "Do you think she'll forget?" Daniel said, looking fondly at his somewhat little sister enjoying herself with her stuffed animals.

"This moment? Probably. But us? Never," Kent laughed, nudging Daniel as the three of them enjoyed the little moments they had for now.

[lexosaurus]

Going Angst Week 2021: Family/Friends

Read: [1: Birth] [2: Instinct]

Continuation of the No One Knows AU plotline.

---

Everything had changed since the accident. The biological differences were obvious. He glowed, his hair inverted, his eyes turned green, he had ectoplasm running through his veins, he was cold, he didn’t need to breathe as much in human form—the list went on. 

But the psychological ones were easily more terrifying.

And nothing scared him more than the way his friends and family were treating him as of late.

He knew that deep down he would never be able to match the way he acted when he was fully human. But that didn’t mean that his heart didn’t skip a beat every time someone shot him a worried glance, every time someone asked if he was alright, every time he caught himself doing something wrong. 

He wasn’t human anymore. He wasn’t even sure what he was now, and Vlad seemed to have too much fun emotionally torturing him to give him a straight answer.

“You up for a movie tonight?” Tucker asked, leaning across Danny’s desk. 

“Hell yeah,” Sam said. “My house?”

“Oh, you know me too well. What do you think, dude?”

Danny realized that both teens were looking to him for an answer.

He wanted to stay home. Hanging out with either of them meant there was a chance they would see him slip up, and he couldn’t have that.

“Sure.” He hoped his voice didn’t sound too pained.

“Perfect!” Tucker clasped a hand down on his shoulder.

Danny tried not to duck away.

“So we’ll go to Sam’s after dinner. I can bring snacks. Anything you want in particular?”

The thought of eating anything was nauseating. “No. I’m fine.”

“Alright, I’ll just bring the usual then.”

But Danny should have known that something was up. After all, it had been a while since they’d done a movie night. And lately, Sam and Tucker had been acting...oddly. 

Well, that was nothing new. Danny thought that as time went on, they’d forgive him for being a bit jumpier than usual and everything would go back to normal. 

Except, of course, it didn’t.

The past few weeks had been especially hard. It seemed like they constantly had something to say, but never did. The worried glances had only increased, and the silent conversations seemed to only grow.

Danny had been trying his best to act normal, act human, but it seemed like the more he tried, the worse they’d get.

So of course, in between the first movie and second, the elephant in the room finally stomped all over Danny’s metaphorical floor.

“Hey, Danny.” Sam glanced over at Tucker. A moment passed between the two before Sam nodded and turned back to Danny. “We really need to talk to you.”

Dread pooled in his stomach. He knew exactly where this was going. “I can start the next movie if you want?”

“No, Danny. Listen, can you just sit down for a second?”

His ghostly instincts were begging him to run, but his human side forced him to sit down.

“Listen, we know that...well, Jazz told us about the lab accident.”

Danny could have sworn his heart stopped beating.

“She said it was pretty serious? And she was surprised that you hadn’t told us?” Sam fidgeted with her black rings. “We didn’t say anything to you because we wanted you to be the ones to confide in us.”

“That and we didn’t want you to get upset that we were talking to Jazz about you,” Tucker interjected.

“Right, and Jazz only told us because she was worried. And honestly? We’re really worried too.”

Any oxygen left in Danny’s body was sucked out of his throat like a vacuum.

They’d found out. They knew the truth, they knew he was a freak of nature half ghost and they were going to out him, they were going to tell his parents, they’d tell the school counselor, and Danny would have no one and he’d have to run away to become Vlad’s apprentice and he’d change, he’d be corrupted, he wouldn’t make it out alive.

“I’m just wondering why you didn’t say anything?” Sam asked, her violent eyes brimming with concern.

“I…” Danny’s mouth felt like it was lined with cotton. He tried to swallow, but it was like swallowing sand. “I didn’t want you to worry is all.”

“Yeah, and we get that,” Tucker said carefully. “But, I mean, we’re your best friends. And dude, you’ve been...well…”

At Tucker’s helpless glance, Sam took over. “You just have been acting really off lately.”

“Sorry.”

“No!” Sam nearly leapt out of her seat. “Danny, don’t apologize. It’s not your fault. I mean, hell, if I nearly died in a lab accident I’d be acting off too. It just, you know, it explains a lot. It must have been really terrifying.”

Danny didn’t trust himself to say anything. 

How much of his personality had shifted because of Phantom, and how much had shifted because of the accident? Were his ghostly instincts really creeping up that much into his human form? 

Would he ever be the same again?

Did they know?

“Is there anything you wanna talk about?”

“We’re all ears, dude.”

He had so many questions he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t say a word. Not without outing himself as Phantom, and that was bound to backfire on him in the worst way possible.

Oh god, he was acting too suspicious. He needed to save this.

“I’m good.”

There was a beat of silence.

Sam leaned forward. “Danny...I don’t mean to sound like Jazz, but bottling stuff up isn’t—”

“I’m fine!” Danny snapped. “I didn’t say anything and I’m sorry, but you know it’s not every day like you’re nearly electrocuted to death in your parents’ ghost portal.”

“Is that what happened?” Sam’s eyes grew wide. “Oh my god, Danny.”

“Holy shit,” Tucker agreed.

Danny threw his arms out. “Ta da! I survived, I’m fine. Nothing to talk about.”

“Danny, I—”

“No.” His tone was final. “Drop it, seriously.”

Another beat of silence passed, and then Sam finally sighed. “Fine, but I’m telling you as your friend that if you ever need anything, we’re here for you.”

He wished he could have trusted those words. But he knew they were nothing more than a farce.

It would have been cruel to hold onto false hope.

Still, he tried to smile. “Thanks.”

Even though he knew he hadn’t fooled anyone.

---

Maddie’s POV

Maddie watched her son from across the kitchen table, just as she’d done every night for the past several weeks. Quietly, as inconspicuous as possible, always watching.

Ever since the lab accident, he’d been….different. Jack hadn’t noticed, but to Maddie the changes were far too obvious. The dropped spoons, the flash of green behind his eyes, his limbs losing visibility without him even noticing, their ecto-inventions that always seemed to go off around him.

One day, she even saw him walk through his bedroom door.

At first, she thought it was just a simple case of possession. But there were telltale signs of possession, one’s that Jack, for all his enthusiasm, always failed to take into account.

Sure, Danny’s eyes flashed green every so often, but most of the time they were blue. Human blue.

And then there was his personality. In cases of possession, the ghost would be completely controlling the body. But in Danny’s case, he was still very obviously Danny. Still the sweet boy she always knew him to be, but he was just...different. Jumpier. Scared.

Like he knew he was living a lie.

And then, just a few weeks after Danny’s run in with the portal, a new ghost appeared. 

Of course, Maddie didn’t make the connection at first. The ghost was obviously new, and didn’t seem to have a grasp on its powers. Its fighting was laughable, its ectoblasts nearly always missed, and it seemed to constantly forget about its core powers.

Not to mention, its hair was white. Danny had black hair.

But then the ghost gave itself a name: Danny Phantom. And that was when Maddie decided to take a second look at it.

It was Danny’s height and build, its voice sounded similar to Danny’s, it seemed to know all of Danny’s classmates, it used a Fenton thermos, it wore a hazmat suit that looked eerily similar to the ones in their basement closet—not to mention that Danny’s hazmat suit had gone missing recently.

On its own, one small correlation didn’t mean anything. But when the little similarities kept piling up, then Maddie had to draw some sort of conclusion.

Just what was the conclusion though?

The Danny across the table had gone to school like any other human child, he’d eaten his meals like anyone else, he’d hung out with his human friends, he talked with his human family. On paper, he seemed normal.

Human.

But his grades were in a downwards spiral, Jazz had expressed concern about him and his friends, he’d been breaking curfew, and there were times when she’d peak into his room at night to find him gone.

He could have been just experiencing trauma from the accident. Maybe he was rebelling. There were so many explanations for his behavior that didn’t involve ghosts.

But then he’d do something ghostly or a weapon would beep around him or Phantom would fly nearby, and her red flags would be raised once again.

Maddie learned long ago to trust her red flags.

The Danny across the table took a bite of his salad, and his face immediately scrunched up.

Maddie felt sick.

He swallowed, and Maddie could see his eyes watering. “Is there something wrong with the lettuce, Mom?” 

She feigned innocence. “Hmm?”

“I don’t know,” he prodded a carrot on his plate. “Something just seems off.”

“Tastes fine to me,” Maddie said. “I just bought this lettuce today. Jazz, is yours okay?”

“Yeah,” she said.

Maddie suppressed a grin. She could always count on her “facts and research only” daughter.

“It could be the dressing? I used a new brand tonight. It’s healthier than the other stuff.” 

That, or it was the small amount of blood blossoms she’d blended into the vinaigrette. 

“Maybe.”

But it couldn’t end here. She needed to know. She was a scientist, she had to see the experiment through.

“Eat the rest of your salad, honey. I’ll buy the other brand tomorrow, okay?”

Danny carefully put another forkful of salad into his mouth. He gave a small wince, but swallowed. 

“Good boy,” she said. “I have fudge in the fridge for when you’re done.”

“Oh, fudge?” Jack exclaimed. He shoveled the rest of his salad into his mouth. With a mouth full of food, he said, “Thanks, Mads! You’re the best!”

“You’re welcome sweetie!”

Jazz made a face. “Gross, Dad.”

Jack laughed and bantered back at his daughter, but Maddie had already tuned out of the conversation. Her only focus was on Danny, whose face was now just too flushed to be healthy. Still, he forced himself to eat.

There was just no question. No doubt about it.

No matter how Maddie looked at it, this was proof enough.

Danny Fenton wasn’t human. The portal hadn’t nearly killed him, it probably did kill him. And now here he was, pretending to still be a part of the family while using Phantom to distract them from the fact that he was a ghost.

It was a truly elaborate ploy. And if Maddie was anyone else, his plans probably would have worked.

But she was Maddie Fenton. She had a PhD in ectobiology. She’d been researching ghosts for twenty years.

Dinner ended, and the children went upstairs to do homework. Although, if Maddie looked, she was sure Danny wouldn’t actually be in his room. And if she went outside, like she’d done in nights past, there was no doubt she’d see Phantom soaring through the skies.

But she knew. She knew. She knew.

She slipped a white business card out of her jacket pocket, grabbed her cell off the counter, went into her bedroom, and dialed the number. 

It rang once, then twice, then stopped. A deep voice sounded from the other line. “Maddie Fenton? I figured I’d be hearing back from you. Have you made your decision?” 

“Yes.” Her voice was mechanical, as if she’d only called about a malfunctioning weapon. “I have. I agree to the partnership.”

“Excellent. And the terms are to your liking?”

“Yes.”

“Understood. We’ll be in touch tomorrow to sign the official contract. Will your husband be involved in this, or are you working alone?”

Maddie closed her eyes. “The contract will be for my name only.”

“All right, then. We’ll talk tomorrow. You won’t regret this.” 

“I know.”

---

<previous / next>