#i just slept like utter shite sunday night and havent recovered

[darks-ink]

The Visit

As voted on for my 250 followers celebration, a sequel to Fangs!

Rating: K+ / Gen Warnings: Referenced character death; but it’s ok because it happened 15 years prior to canon (and the fic) and also they became a ghost and are totally fine with how things are now. Genre: Friendship/Family Words: 5,646 Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson (platonic) Additional Tags: Developing Friendships, Alternate Universe, Referenced character death, One shot, Fluff

[AO3] [FFN]

---

FentonWorks loomed over the rest of the buildings on the street, a mishmash of building and metal, topped off by the glaring neon sign. Tucker knew very little about the Fentons, besides what everyone said of them.

They’d been crazy about ghosts. Jack Fenton always was, beyond all sensibilities, and his wife had been the only restraint he’d ever known. After she died… It didn’t get any better, apparently. Tucker wouldn’t know, to be honest. It was before his time, Maddie’s death.

But that was why he was here, wasn’t it? Because he’d met Danny Fenton; a kid no one even knew existed. A kid that was, apparently, half-ghost. Born of his human father and his ghost mother.

Crazy. Absolutely crazy. There was no way it was real. Ghosts weren’t even real, never mind ghost-human hybrids. Tucker just had to go in, like he’d been invited to, and find absolutely no evidence otherwise. Which would be easy, because there wouldn’t be proof. Couldn’t be proof, because ghosts, of course, weren’t real.

A hand landed on his shoulder, and he definitely did not scream.

“What are we waiting for?” Sam asked, a grin clearly audible in her voice. “Scared, Tucker?”

He snorted dismissively, shrugging her hand off of his shoulder. “No. If it matters, I was waiting for you. So we could, y’know, go in together.”

“Oh, of course you were.” She grinned, knowingly. “Well, if that’s the case, we can go in, yes?”

“Uh,” he stammered, before straightening out. “I mean, yeah, of course. Let’s go get proof that ghosts aren’t real after all.”

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Whatever makes you feel better, Tuck.”

Together they crossed the street, hopped up the stairs to the door. He paused, hesitated for just the briefest moment, but Sam reached past him and rung the doorbell.

“Don’t run off now,” she chastised. Stepped back a little so she could stop him if he tried to run. “This is the make-or-break moment. Either you’re gonna find real proof of ghosts, or you won’t.”

“I’m not scared.” He tried to sound braver than he felt. He didn’t think he succeeded.

Sure, he didn’t believe in ghosts, but that didn’t mean he had to like what was happening here. He’d seen enough horror movies to be wary of this sort of stuff. Tucker Foley was no fool.

The door opened—not creaky, not silently, but with an ordinary amount of noise—and he jerked back to the moment. Danny stood in the opening, blinking at them for a short moment. Then he grinned, wide and bright. His eyes, the odd blue interlaced with almost unnaturally bright green, scrunched up in clear happiness.

“Sam, Tucker! I’m so glad you came by!” He stepped aside to let them in, and Tucker automatically entered. Sam followed right behind him, blocking the only exit. “I wasn’t sure if you, y’know, would come.”

“Of course we came.” Sam smiled back at Danny, nudging Tucker meaningfully. “We said we would, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, well, people say things all the time, don’t they?” Still, Danny’s smile didn’t falter. “Come on, my parents are down in the lab. You wanted to meet them, right?”

“Uh huh,” Tucker answered automatically. “Is there, uh. Anything we should keep in mind?”

Danny stopped to raise an eyebrow in his direction. “I mean, I don’t think so. Why? What were you thinking off?”

“Like, I don’t know.” Tucker shrugged somewhat aggravatedly. “Topics to avoid? Things you shouldn’t ask ghosts about, or whatever?”

“Oh.” The other boy put on a thoughtful expression, one finger tapping on his cheek. Tucker realized Danny had freckles—pale and tinged almost green, but there nonetheless. “Not really? Just, y’know, be tactful. It kind of differs per ghost, but Mom’s pretty chill about most stuff.”

Well, that was good to know. This way Tucker hopefully wouldn’t end up with an enraged ghost on his tail.

“Just making sure.” Tucker shrugged, trying not to look as tense as he felt. “Better safe than sorry, and all that.”

Danny hummed and continued walking, leading them into what appeared to be the living room. A large and comfortable-looking sofa sat along the wall, with two matching armchairs finishing the circle. A moderately nice TV sat on the other end.

“I guess that that’s fair,” he said, bypassing the couch for another open doorway. “You might want to be careful with some of the other ghosts, but you’ll be fine around my parents. Promise.”

“So you’ll introduce us to other ghosts as well?” Sam cut in, looking far too excited at the prospect. “Like some of the others you’ve mentioned? Ember, Kitty, those guys?”

“Maybe later.” Danny paused in the doorway, allowing Tucker to look past him. Ah, the kitchen? He thought they were going to the lab? “I don’t think it would be a good idea to bring you guys into the Zone so soon.”

“They never come here?” Sam continued to prod, even when Tucker nudged her to please stop talking. “You only ever see them while you’re there?”

“Nah, they come over all the time.” Danny continued walking again, crossing the kitchen towards one of the doors set in the walls that Tucker had assumed to be a storage closet. “But they haven’t mentioned coming over today, so.”

Sam followed Danny to the not-closet, and Tucker begrudgingly followed.

“That’s a shame. They sound like fun.”

“They are!” Danny shot them another brilliant smile, then threw open the door. Behind it laid a staircase leading down, the entire thing—and the walls and ceiling around it—plated in metal. That was… worrying. “They’re my friends, after all. Maybe another time, though.”

He started down the stairs, his shoes scuffing against the steel plating. The sound echoed dully in the room below them.

Why did the lab have to be in the basement, huh? Why couldn’t it be in that huge metal construction on top of the house?

Wait.

What was that enormous construction, if not the lab?

Tucker considered asking, but… maybe not. Maybe, in this case, he was better off not knowing.

Sam shoved him, and he almost fell down the stairs.

Right. Focus on the moment, Foley.

He shot her a venomous glare anyway, then set down the stairs. They really weren’t anything impressive; before Tucker knew it, he was down in the lab itself.

The room was enormous and, much like the stairs, made entirely out of metal. Shelves sprawled all along the walls, bar the wall furthest from the stairs. That one was suspiciously empty, with a complicated machine set next to large yellow-and-black blast doors.

Much of the floor space was similarly taken up by metal tables, covered in all sorts of gadgetry. Inventions of all kinds imaginable—and several not imaginable—covered their surfaces, in various states of assembly.

It was almost enough to distract Tucker from the fear he felt, somewhere deep inside him. Fear that had rared its head, suddenly, pointing Tucker straight towards Danny’s parents.

Not that they would’ve been easy to miss, anyway. Jack Fenton was, true to stories, an absolutely massive human being. Large in every meaning of the word, and clad in a bright orange jumpsuit.

Next to him was the real source of Tucker’s sudden paralyzing fear. A woman in a matching jumpsuit, smaller than Jack but making up the size difference by floating next to him. Her body seemed to glow, even under the harsh lights of the lab.

“Wow,” Sam breathed, having apparently joined Tucker in the lab. “Damn, Danny, what a space!”

Her voice was enough to startle the adult Fentons back to the present, as both twisted in their direction. Maddie’s—because the ghost had to be Maddie Fenton—eyes seemed to lock straight onto Tucker’s, like she could feel his fear. Hell, who knew! Maybe she could!

“Danny-boy!” Jack Fenton boomed, grinning widely at the three of them. Tucker could definitely see the family resemblance in that smile. “Who are your friends, kiddo?”

Danny started leading the two of them towards his parents, apparently choosing to ignore the unblinking stare of his mom. “These are Sam and Tucker. I mentioned them earlier, didn’t I?”

“The kids you met at school,” Maddie stated, cocking her head at Sam and Tucker. She’d looked almost human from far, but as they got closer, Tucker found more and more details that were… off, for the lack of a better word. Her brown hair, for example, was laced through with white. But it wasn’t just singular hairs, like when people went gray; the base of every single hair was white, shifting back to brown the further away from her skin they were. And her eyes, which he thought were hazel, were actually literally golden in color. Glowed, even, casting a yellowish tinge on the rest of her face.

“That’s us!” Sam cheerfully exclaimed, grinning up at the ghost. “And you’re Mrs. Fenton, right? Danny’s mom?”

Maddie stared at them for a brief moment, like she was scouring their souls for… for something. Then she smiled, soft and kind and warm and decidedly mom-like. “That’s me. And this is my husband, Jack.” She gestured over at him, like they could’ve possibly missed the man.

“Nice to meet you.” Tucker inclined his head, first towards her, then Jack. Now what?

Sam took mercy on him, leaning herself against his side. “Yeah, what he said. You two seemed like really cool parents, based on the stuff Danny’s mentioned so far.”

“Is that so?” Maddie stopped hovering besides Jack, instead floating closer to them. She drew her legs together, and they blurred into— into some sort of spectral tail. It curled languidly, the end twitching almost like a cat’s tail would. “Only good things, I hope?”

“Of course,” Tucker answered, hesitantly grinning. This was familiar territory—assuring overbearing parents that their kid wasn’t doing anything wrong. “He’s not gonna stop loving his parents just because y’all let him leave the house, you know?”

“Of course he isn’t!” Jack boomed once more, slinging a massive arm around Danny’s shoulders. “You love us, don’t you, Danny-boy?”

“Daaaad,” the boy groaned, exasperated. Rather than try to wrestle the arm away, he—

um

Faded into translucence? And then just… went through Jack’s arm?

Color returned to Danny’s body when he was away from the arm, and he blew a raspberry at Jack.

“Damn,” Tucker swore, nudging Sam. Make a joke about it, Foley. Make it easier to deal with. “Bet you wish you could do that with your parents, huh?”

She huffed, rolling her eyes, but couldn’t hide the faint smile. “They’re not that bad, Tucker.”

“I’ll be sure to remind you next time they’re slathering you with kisses, then.”

“Ugh.” She jabbed him with an elbow. “I hate you sometimes.”

“Aw, Sam, no.” He reached for his heart, dramatically. Normally he wouldn’t let it play out this far, not in front of like, actual parents and stuff, but… they looked like they needed the normalcy. Or, well, the suggested normalcy. Honestly, they looked stunned that Sam and Tucker were having a regular scuffle instead of making a big deal out of— whatever Danny just did. “You’re killing me, man.”

Oh. Uh.

Was that a bad thing to joke about with ghosts present?

Sam glared at him, apparently thinking so. Danny snorted, though, and Maddie didn’t lash out, so. Tucker would go ahead and consider this a victory.

He cleared his throat. “So, uh. Danny mentioned you had some cool inventions, and honestly, I would love to see some of those. If, uh, you don’t mind?”

Jack brightened. “Well, why didn’t you ask before? Of course we’ll show you! What’d you want to see?”

He scrambled out of the seat before Tucker could answer, bounding over to the other side of the lab.

“Um.” Tucker watched him go, stunned. How could a man that large move that quickly? “Danny mentioned like, a hovercraft? And jetpacks, but I think you were still working on those? That sounded pretty cool.”

“Well, the Specter Speeder is right over there,” Maddie said, gesturing over to a giant heap covered in a sheet. Her expression was carefully neutral, like she was trying to figure him out. “That’s probably the hovercraft Danny described. Jack and Jazz—our daughter—use it to traverse the Ghost Zone.”

Tucker looked over at her, hovering in the air. Then over at Danny. He was still trying to find a tactful way of asking the obvious question when Sam cut him off.

“So Danny can fly, just like you?”

He shot her a disappointed look, but she ignored it, staring at Maddie.

“I can do almost everything an ordinary ghost can,” Danny answered, bouncing a little excited. Probably didn’t get to talk about it very much.

Or maybe he was just happy they believed him.

“Fly, go invisible, go intangible—like I just did. All kinds of stuff!” He grinned at them. The expression was so abundantly happy that Tucker could almost miss the sharp fang-like canines. “Just not overshadowing, but that’s fine—I don’t like that power anyway.”

“Oh?” Sam cocked her head, eyebrows drawing together. Clearly interested. “Why not?”

Surprisingly, it was Maddie who answered. “Overshadowing is much like possession—or how possession is shown in media, at least. You take over a human host, puppeteering their body, and, if done well, they won’t even know it happened. Will have no memory of what happened, or any way to know what you did.”

“Most ghosts avoid overshadowing, anyway,” Danny added, his casual tone clearly forced. “They don’t like the concept of it, of losing control over one’s body like that. So I don’t mind that I can’t do it.”

“But why not?” Tucker asked, despite himself. So sue him for getting curious, there had to be some form of science behind this, right? Ghosts couldn’t just defy all common sense! “Is there something about you being a— a hybrid that’s stopping you?”

Maddie’s eyes narrowed, and her tail swept a slow arc. It reminded Tucker of the agitated twitching of a cat’s tail, but not quite as… angry, if that made sense? To him it did, somehow.

“We think so,” she said, slowly. She kept a steady gaze on him, like she was testing him with this. Testing his… opinion on Danny’s possible half-ghost nature, maybe? That would make sense, wouldn’t it? “We think that, because Danny’s body isn’t entirely ectoplasm, but half flesh, he can’t overshadow anyone. He has more trouble with intangibility than other ghosts, too, and that’s an essential skill for overshadowing.”

“Ah.” Tucker’s mind provided him with an entirely unnecessary vision of Danny turning tangible while inside another person. “Yeah, I can imagine not wanting to risk that, especially for a power you won’t use anyway.”

Danny nodded. “Exactly. Besides, my other powers are good enough. And it’s not like I need them to fight much—most ghosts are less likely to lash out because I’m only half ghost.”

“Really?” Sam hopped up on the edge of one of the tables, sitting down on an apparently empty corner. “You’d think that they would be more likely to lash out against someone only half ghost, rather than less.”

“Well, I know how ghost society works, so I’m not really an outsider.” Danny shrugged, leaning against one of the tables. His mom had floated off towards Jack, apparently no longer interested in the conversation. Maybe they had convinced her that they really didn’t mind Danny’s hybrid-ness. “And I can fight just fine—I’m not the strongest ghost, but not the weakest either. That all helps, I think.”

Sam opened her mouth to continue asking, but a loud clunk echoed through the lab. All three of them whirled towards the noise, finding the source to be Jack Fenton. Maddie floated next to him, holding up a large metal shell of sorts. Based on the fact that Jack was rubbing his head, it must’ve fallen down on him.

Maddie clicked her tongue, then gestured at the maybe-hovercraft near them. Jack pouted but nodded, trudging back in their direction.

What a family.

“Come here, kids, I’ll show you the Specter Speeder.” Jack underlined the statement with a sweeping gesture, like they weren’t already tracking his every move.

“Coming!” Danny pushed himself away from the table, racing over to his dad. Raced to such an extent that he made to leap over one of the tables that separated them.

The boy leapt, and then just… stayed airborne.

Man. Half-ghosts, am I right? Tucker really wasn’t ready to deal with this sort of madness.

Sam jabbed an elbow in Tucker’s ribs, and he startled. Took his eyes off of the other boy. Whoops, no staring, that’s rude.

The two of them wound their way to Jack as well, ignoring the fact that Danny was still floating in the air. Were they going to have to stop him from doing that in public? Was Danny going to fly over hurdles during gym instead of actually jumping?

It was like he’d accidentally befriended a comic book superhero. Did that make Tucker the sidekick? Or was Sam the sidekick, and was he the love interest?

He sure hoped not. Superhero love interests had an awful tendency to die, and he wasn’t sure if the involvement of ghosts made that better or worse.

No point in worrying about all that, though. Danny wasn’t even really a superhero, anyway. He didn’t even fight anyone!

Yeah, let’s just dismiss that whole train of thought and focus on the invention.

“This was the hovercraft, right?” Tucker asked when he and Sam joined Jack and Danny at the covered-up machine. “The… what did you call it? Speeder?”

“The Specter Speeder!” Jack enthusiastically corrected. “And indeed! This baby can carry us powerless humans safely through the Ghost Zone. Its outside is protective with blast-proof shielding, and it’s packed with all kinds of ecto-guns!”

He patted the machine, the sound echoing dully within the vehicle. Then he realized that they couldn’t really admire it while it was covered up and, without further ado, pulled off the cloth covering it.

Honestly? It was a very impressive machine. Tucker had heard some stuff about Jack’s inventions—and he’d seen the bizarre construction on top of FentonWorks—but the Speeder was nothing like all that. It was gorgeous. All smooth paneling and shiny metal, with a cylindrical shape and a rounded window that covered the entire front of the machine. Not to mention the enormous thruster-like engine on the back.

“Wow,” Tucker breathed. “That’s… Man, what a machine, Mr. Fenton.”

“How do you get it in the Zone, though?” Sam asked, ever the skeptic. “It looks too heavy to push.”

“Why would you push it?” Danny frowned at the two of them, then at the machine, then back to them. “It can fly, that’s kind of the point.”

“Even here?” Tucker looked at the machine again. It laid flat on the ground, perfectly horizontal. He could imagine it flying in a world with altered gravity, like he imagined the Ghost Zone to be, but here? “How?”

Jack laughed, cheery and explosively loud. It was Maddie who answered, floating in closer. “Ectoplasm is a rather incredible material. The Speeder is constructed mostly out of an ectoplasmic metal, which helps it defy gravity. It also serves as a very light-weight fuel, lessening the weight.”

“It’s also very explosive, which also makes it a great fuel!” Danny added cheerfully. “It’s a great source of energy. All FentonWorks machinery works on ectoplasmic basis—it’s a great renewable energy source!”

He chuckled. “It’s literally green!”

Both of his parents groaned. Tucker had the feeling that Danny made that same joke all the time.

“But isn’t ectoplasm the stuff ghosts are made out of?” Sam’s brows drew together, tension seeping into her shoulders. Oh boy, here they went again. “Isn’t that, like… animal cruelty? How do you get it?”

“It is the stuff ghosts are made out of,” Maddie said, with a gentle smile. “But only because the entire Ghost Zone is made out of that stuff. You can take it straight from the air. Most of our ectoplasm, we get from the Portal’s filter, which stops loose ectoplasm from seeping through. Without it, the presence of our Portal would contaminate the air and soil of the Earth.”

Tucker nudged Sam. “See? Perfectly cruelty-free. No sweat, man. Do they look like they melt down sentient creatures for weaponry, huh?”

“Right.” Sam shot him a venomous look back, but dropped it almost immediately to turn back to the Fentons. “Sorry. I’m… a big supporter of animal rights, and all that.”

“She’s a super-duper vegan,” he added helpfully. “Won’t eat any animal products at all.”

Maddie nodded, an understanding expression on her face. “Of course. But, yes, no need to worry. Our ectoplasm is exclusively atmospheric. If we weren’t using it, we would just be forced to dump everything the filter collects straight back into the Zone, so we might as well use it. As an energy source, it’s great—better than solar or wind, and just as safe for nature.”

“If you know what you’re doing, at least.” Danny grinned impishly, leaning on his dad’s massive shoulders. He still hadn’t stopped hovering. “Since it’s pretty explosive, and all that.”

“Which is why I’m usually the one handling the volatile ectoplasm,” Maddie said. “Us ghosts can handle ectoplasmic attacks a lot better than humans can.”

“Ghosts can take just about anything better than humans,” Jack pointed out. “Ectoplasm is a lot tougher than flesh, and you don’t have any organs to damage.”

Maddie grinned knowingly at Jack, who pouted back.

These two were entirely too much. One was a ghost and the other human, sure, whatever. But this? Nah, man. He already didn’t like it when his own parents were being sweet to each other, he really didn’t want to watch Danny’s parents do the same thing.

He turned to address Danny. “So how does that work for you? Since you’re a hybrid, and all that?”

“Well…” Danny slipped off of his dad’s shoulders, doing a completely unnecessary flip before landing on the ground. “I’m kinda in the middle for most stuff. I’m tougher than a human, but not quite as tough as a ghost. I’ve got all the ordinary human organs, but I also have a ghost core. There’s ectoplasm in my blood and my flesh, but no part of me is fully ectoplasm—besides my core, of course.”

“Is that why you were eating that weird glowy food?” Sam raised a single eyebrow. “It contained ectoplasm, right?”

“Yeah.” Danny shrugged, leaning back against the edge of a table. “Gotta keep up the ectoplasm levels somehow. Full ghosts can just filter it out of the atmosphere, and I can do it a little, but it’s not enough. I would need more ectoplasm in my body to filter out enough to sustain myself.”

“That sucks, dude.” That sandwich hadn’t looked appealing at all.

But then, maybe to Danny’s half-ghost brain, it looked differently? The glow and color were caused by ectoplasm, weren’t they?

“Eh, it’s not the worst.” Danny shrugged again. “Better than having to take it via needle or IV, which is the alternative. Or drinking straight ectoplasm, but that’s not very good for me, either.”

“Speaking of food,” Maddie interrupted, startling the pants off of Tucker—when had she stopped talking to Jack?, “Jack and I are going to start working on dinner. Sam, Tucker, are you staying over?”

Tucker opened his mouth to refuse, but Sam was, once again, too quick.

“Of course we’ll stay,” she said, smiling up at Maddie. “I should call home to let them know, though.”

“Uh, yeah.” Tucker cleared his throat, awkwardly. “So do I.”

Maddie nodded, before moving towards the stairs. She moved through the air like there was no resistance, nothing that could stop her. Fluid and graceful. No wonder that she never landed. Tucker didn’t think he would, either, if he could fly that easily.

Danny, on the other hand, was equally graceful in the air and on the ground.

Which was not very, Tucker realized, as he watched Danny trip on a table leg.

“There’s a phone in the kitchen.” Danny grinned up at them, having caught himself on the edge of the table he’d tripped on. “Unless you want to use your cellphones, in which case you’ll still need to get out of the lab. No signal down here.”

Tucker glanced over at the metal walls, the metal ceiling.

“Of course,” he said, watching Danny push himself back into a properly standing position. “That figures.”

They picked their way back to the stairs, Sam scaling them first. Tucker was about to follow her when a hand grabbed onto his shoulder and then pulled.

He stumbled backwards, and turned to snap at Danny—

who wasn’t there.

Tucker turned towards the stairs again, and then up. Danny was floating above the stairs with a sheepish grin.

“Sorry,” the boy apologized, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. “I didn’t think you would stumble if I did that—Jazz usually doesn’t.”

“Jazz probably knows to expect it and braces for it,” Tucker grumbled back. He wasn’t really all that angry—Danny had grown up too sheltered to realize, and that wasn’t his fault. “Just be careful, alright? I could’ve fallen and hit something.”

Danny started looking even more guilty, which made Tucker feel guilty, and boy. This was just brilliant.

“Seriously, it’s fine,” he added to try and break this circle of guilt. “You didn’t know any better. Come on, let’s just go upstairs.”

“If you’re sure…” Danny shot him a last worried look, which Tucker dismissed with a flap of his hand, before flying upstairs. Tucker waited for another moment before following on foot.

Sam had already found the phone and was now busy fending off her overly concerned parents. Tucker couldn’t hear what she was saying, but he could recognize that exasperated look from a mile away.

Rather than bother waiting for her to be done, he dug his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed his home.

“Good evening, Angela Foley speaking,” his mom answered.

“Hey Mom.” Tucker’s eyes wandered back to the scene in the kitchen. Sam was still arguing with her parents on the phone. Danny was worriedly hovering over her—literally. Danny’s parents, both human and ghostly, were quietly talking over the stove. “Sorry for the late call, but um. A friend asked if I could stay over for dinner, and Sam already said yes, so…”

His mom snorted. “Tucker, honey, you can just say that Sam wants you over to shield her from her parents.”

“Well, yeah, I know that.” Danny had floated even closer to Sam, and now had his hands wrapped around her shoulders. Someone should teach this guy about personal space. “Sam and I are over at a different friend’s place, and his parents asked us if we wanted to stay for dinner.”

“Oh?” He could hear his mom’s curiosity over the phone. They were gonna have a talk when he got home. “Who’s this, then? I thought everyone else in your class was “stupid” and “insufferable”?”

“He’s new.” Sam had apparently gotten tired of Danny’s clinginess, and was now fending him off with one hand. The other still held the Fentons’ telephone. “I’ll tell you when I get home, okay, but can I stay for dinner at least?”

His mom remained silent for a long moment, then sighed. “Of course you can stay, sweetie. I’m glad you and Sam are making more friends.”

Ugh, embarrassing. Good thing that no one was listening.

Or maybe they were, because Danny stopped flailing at Sam for just long enough to throw Tucker a look. Did ghosts have superhuman hearing? Tucker resolved to find out ASAP.

“Alright. Thanks, Mom. Love you.”

His mom laughed, softly. “Love you too, honey. Don’t be late, okay? And be safe.”

“I will,” he promised. “See you later.”

He hung up. When he looked up from his phone, Danny was grinning at him.

Then Sam swatted the boy in his face, and that wiped the grin off real quick. Danny spluttered at Sam. Sam held out a single warning finger, and Danny settled down again.

Ah. A fast learner, that one. It had taken Tucker weeks of bruised shins to figure out that Sam was a terrifying enemy, and generally not worth fighting.

He stuffed his cellphone back into his pocket, then wandered back over. Danny was pouting at him, curling into a sad ball.

It would look more pitiful if he hadn’t been floating. That kind of made the whole thing rather silly.

“Having fun with your parents, Sam?” Tucker asked, grinning at her wordless growl. Turning to Danny, he added, “My parents are fine with me staying over for dinner, by the way.”

That cheered the boy back up, and he shot Tucker another vicious grin. Well, it probably wasn’t intended as vicious, but come on. You can’t have a pleasant smile with those kind of fangs.

“Mom,” Sam snarled at the phone. “Seriously, it’s just dinner! His whole family is gonna be there. Chill out!”

Ah. It was one of those conversations.

Tucker gestured for the phone, and Sam handed it over without protest.

“Hey Mrs. Manson,” Tucker greeted before he’d even put the phone to his ear. “My parents were fine with me staying over for dinner with Danny, so I can walk Sam home afterwards, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Sam’s mom scoffed on the other side of the line. “Sammy doesn’t need you to walk her home, Foley.”

“Cool, so there’s no problem with her staying for dinner?” Tucker winked at Sam. “Thanks, Mrs. Manson, you’re the best.”

He could hear a sharp intake of breath. Knowing what that meant, he hung up before she could start yelling.

“I gotcha,” he told Sam, placing the phone back onto its holder. “But I think your mom hates me again.”

“I don’t think she ever stopped.” Sam grinned at him. “Thanks, Tuck. Ah, Danny, looks like I can stay over for dinner as well.”

“Um.” Danny blinked between Tucker and Sam, clearly confused. “Good?”

“Don’t worry about all that,” Tucker assured him. “Sam’s parents are… kind of overbearing and controlling. They dislike anyone who doesn’t meet their standards.”

“Their standards being rich and boring as hell,” Sam tacked on. “Seriously, they don’t approve of like, 90% of the people at our school. They’re just extra mad at Tucker and his family because they think that if I hadn’t befriended him, they could’ve stuck me with their rich friends’ kids.”

“Uh, okay.” Danny nodded like he understood, but his expression said that that absolutely wasn’t the case. Tucker couldn’t blame him. The Mansons were something else even if you were used to regular human society. To someone raised by ghosts and Jack Fenton, they were like an entirely different species.

“Oh, kids.” Maddie looked up from the stove, somewhere in the process of nudging Jack away so he couldn’t reach. “It might be a bit before this is done. Why don’t you go to the living room to wait?”

“Or my room!” Danny bounced with excitement over the prospect, the green sparks in his eyes brightening. Wow. They could do that? “That’s okay too, right Mom?”

She laughed obligingly. “Of course, honey. I’ll call when it’s done, okay?”

Danny nodded, then shot the both of them such a sparkly look that Tucker couldn’t have refused even if he’d wanted to.

Seriously, it had to be illegal to have puppy eyes that powerful.

---

Danny lingered in the doorway to the living room, throwing sad looks at Tucker and Sam.

“Sorry we couldn’t stick around longer,” Sam told him, nudging Danny gently.

“It’s fine,” he said, looking very much like it was not fine. “Sorry you didn’t get to meet the other ghosts.”

“We’ll just have to save that for next time, won’t we?” Tucker bumped Danny as well. “Seriously, dude, cheer up. We’ll see you at school tomorrow, yeah? No need to act like we’ll never meet again.”

The other boy shrugged listlessly. “I guess…”

“Seriously, man.” Tucker reached over to jostle Danny’s shoulder. “We’re friends, aren’t we? Why are you acting like we’re gonna disappear?”

“I…” Danny looked up, startled. “We’re friends? Still?”

“What do you mean, still?” Tucker looked back at Sam, but she looked as startled as he was. He turned back to Danny. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

“Well, just…” Danny gestured backwards at the rest of the house. Jack and Maddie were inconspicuously looking like they weren’t listening in, while Jazz was glaring at the both of them for doing exactly that.

“Danny, man, we already knew how crazy your family might be when we met.” Tucker grinned at him. “Seriously, you warned us, didn’t you?”

Sam crept in closer again. “Besides, if you thought that your family was crazy, wait until you meet mine. At least your craziness is fun.”

“Sam,” Tucker scolded, but Danny brightened up nonetheless. Turning back to him, Tucker added, “Anyway, we already said we were friends, didn’t we? It was the start of a beautiful friendship, and those don’t end so easily.”

“Right,” Danny agreed, a hesitant grin on his face. “Nothing beautiful about that.”

Tucker clapped him on the shoulder, then nodded at the definitely-not-listening Fentons. “Besides, who’s gonna do a better job of teaching you about school than the unseen nobodies?”

“Nobody?” Danny guessed, uncertainly.

“That’s right!” Tucker crowed, before turning to the door. “Seriously, we’ll keep an eye on you. Us invisibles, we take care of each other.”

Sam nodded her agreement. “Really, you’re not getting rid of us that easy, Fenton.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Danny assured them, grinning.