#i’m pissed at him for screwing lewis over

[formulawolff]

i’m mad at toto rn so that means no fics today

[spiderbeam]

pairing: mercedes driver!reader x lando norris

warnings: lots and lots of swearing reader is very frustrated can you tell, rivals to lovers-ish

a/n: based on this concept moodboard i made!

“What’s wrong with you?”

Lando’s voice trailing after you is the absolute last thing you want to hear now. You pick up your stride, hoping that he at least gets the message that you absolutely do not want to talk to him.

Your fireproofs are tied around your waist, your Mercedes cap thrown on your head to hide the sticky, messy hair you ended up with after the race. Reporters and journalists are out of earshot now, but you’re not particularly keen on risking any sort of confrontation with Lando while there’s media nearby.

Your skin itches. It really itches, and you have to stifle the urge to scratch at your arms. You wonder whether you’re having an allergic reaction for not saying what you actually wanted to say during the post-race interview.

“You were leading in P2 for the grand majority of the race—how do you think you lost your position?”

Goddamn journalists. A week ago, you would’ve chewed his head off. You would’ve been honest. You would’ve been torn between asking what kind of a fucking question is that? and telling him what you really thought—that you lost your opportunity for your first 1-2 with Lewis because Lando went ahead and fucked your front wing trying to overtake you. What pisses you off the most is that he did overtake you, and that he didn’t even get a penalty for screwing you over. After that, you miraculously ended on P3—thanks to Max’s DNF—and Lando with the second place that he ripped from your hands.

But you’ve received your warnings. From Toto, from your PR team, from the Mercedes PR team—fuck, even Lewis has made a comment or two. Learn to take it in stride. This rivalry you seem to have developed with the McLaren driver is not good for your or Mercedes’s image.

You need to handle this professionally, Nina told you. Because while people claim that there’s no such thing as bad publicity—that everyone loves a good rivalry—you know you’ve been pushing the limit. And while you might be a consistent driver, it’s not only your skills that matter in this sport. It doesn’t exactly reflect well on Mercedes if you have Lando’s entire army of fans on your ass every time you post something on social media.

So, you drill the words into your head until they hopefully become second nature. And when that asshole journalist asked you the question—the question meant to get a rise out of you, to get them videos of you cussing Lando and making snide comments at him—you forced yourself to breathe in. And you could see the surprise in their faces when you smiled.

You felt constipated.

You’re not even sure what you answered. Your hands were gripping the microphone so tightly you thought it could snap. I’m grateful for sharing a podium with Lewis. Things like these are common and it’s just part of the sport. Congrats to Lando for P2. You drew blood from biting your cheek halfway through the press conference.

Take it in stride. Deal with it professionally. Don’t rise to the bait they put out. You’re sure as hell not gonna put your seat at Mercedes at risk because of someone like Lando Norris.

No matter how easily he gets under your skin.

“Did you hear me?” You have to swallow the frustrated groan that threatens to rip past your throat. Lando jogs to catch up to you, the scent of champagne pungent in the air. You fear he’s here to gloat—until you notice the sneer he usually regards you with is nowhere to be seen. Instead, there’s confusion, if not a slight wariness in his face. “What’s wrong with you today?”

You jerk your head back, a scowl starting to form. Cameras are still in sight. And while they might not be able to hear you, they very well could get video of you fighting with him and exploit it. You set your lips into a line, shrugging forcefully. “Nothing’s wrong with me.”

Lando’s confusion deepens, overlapping with his suspiciousness. He searches your face for something he doesn’t seem to find. Then, much to your surprise, he presses the back of his hand to your forehead. “Are you ill?”

You slap his hand away, shooting him a glare. “Quit that. I mean it.”

Lando narrows his eyes at you. “You’re acting weird.”

You scoff in disbelief. First he fucks up your race and now he thinks he can just get in your space? “I’m acting weird? You know what—” You’re a second away from giving him a piece of your mind before you hear Nina’s voice in your head. Be professional. Don’t rise to the bait.

For a moment, you wonder whether it’d be worth facing the consequences that will surely unravel if you bitch slap Lando.

You can feel cameras on you—you can see them out of the corner of your eye. You force a smile. “I feel great. Thank you for worrying, Lando.”

The moment the words leave your mouth, Lando stares at you as if you’ve just told him you’re secretly a pile of lizards in a trench coat.

“Are you concussed?” he asks genuinely.

You smile again, grinding your teeth together. You shove him in a way that looks playful, if you ignore just how much force you put into it. Lando’s body jerks back as he gapes at you. “You’re funny.”

“I’m—what?”

Lando is still staring at you in disbelief as you finally walk away. Even as he gets to his driver room, skin still sticky with champagne, he finds himself mulling over your conversation with him.

You congratulated him. In front of a room filled with cameras. There’s video evidence of you congratulating him even after he unintentionally fucked up your last lap.

It’s creeping him the fuck out.

And as he sits inside the McLaren hospitality, phone on his hand as he replays the video of the press conference, he still doesn’t believe it. He also doesn’t understand why he finds it so off-putting. He can’t stand you. You’re annoying, way too smug, and always find a way to grate at his nerves.

Is this some reverse psychology ploy to throw him off his game? It’s far-fetched, but he wouldn’t put it past you.

Your voice still replays inside his head. Thank you for worrying, Lando. You’re funny. Maybe he’s the one with the concussion.

As Lando stares up at the ceiling of his driver room, the only words out of his mouth are—

“What the fuck?”

a/n: i saw lilli mention the idea of a warm-up for writing and i honestly needed this 🙃 i haven’t been able to write anything in a while so yeah…….. i probably won’t expand on this, but my moodboard gave me enough inspo to get this out!!!!

[propertyofwicked]

sea sick | harry lewis

content warning - mentions of sick and throwing up

short, fluff <3

-

you usually didn’t mind helping the boys with filming. it wasn’t often - only for big videos where the boys split up - and since you were the only girlfriend who wasn’t publicly known, it made it easier to avoid suspicion if you and harry were seen together. it wasn’t a big deal at the end of the day you’d just rather avoid the hassle of having a big online presence.

today, however, made you wonder who you’d pissed off in a past life to deserve this. in hindsight, you should’ve realised that when harry said it was a fishing video that it would involve being on a boat. you’d suffered with bad travel sickness your whole life in cars, boats and planes, so getting on a boat and filming could not have been a worse plan, especially with the hot sun and loud men screaming into the lens. so far, you’d been on the boat for close to an hour, trying to distract yourself from your stomach doing backflips by focusing on filming the boys fishing. as long as you stayed in the centre of the boat you weren’t rocked about too much and it became manageable. but every time you had to move locations, sitting on the side of the boat began to bring your breakfast up to the back of your throat.

as long as you could keep it together for the next hour, no one would suspect that you felt violently sick, and you could maintain some aspect of professionalism. focus on the content, and not the blood draining from your face. and it was going so well.

the boat hit into a wave, sending the boat rocking a little to much for your liking. your response would’ve gone unnoticed had harry not been talking directly into your camera with a direct view of your eyes widening and you swallowing a lump in your throat.

“you ok?” he asked, eyes softening and his voice lowering at the sight of you pale and clearly lost in your own head.

“yeah, don’t worry i was just thinking.” at the end of the day, it was easier to lie - you don’t want to take him away from the video.

“hey, you don’t look great, ill take the camera just sit down for a minute, yeah?” he said, reaching for the camera before you could even respond.

“harry, i promise you im fi-”. suddenly it was all coming up and out of you without a moments notice. thank god he had taken the camera or it would be covered in your breakfast.

he put the camera on the bench and walked behind you, holding the sides of your waist to manoeuvre you to the edge of the boat. you’re hands grabbed the railings and your head stayed over the side, eyes screwed shut. harry’s hands come up to your hair, pulling it back and rubbing small circles on your back until you were done saying goodbye to any food you’d eaten that day.

after wiping you mouth on the back of your hand you turn around and rest your forehead on harry’s chest, tears falling down your cheeks. you didn’t mean to cry, it’s just something that happens when you throw up.

“im sorry i just, i hate boats.”

“don’t apologise. it’s my fault, i knew you got sea sick and i still got you to film for us,” he said, hand on your chin pulling your face up to look at him and using his thumb to wipe away a tear, “don’t cry, it’s ok, you’re ok. i think we’re stopping soon. i’m sorry.”

“it’s not your fault, i could’ve said no - i should’ve said no,” you respond as he presses a kiss to your forehead. at the same time, you hear the sound of someone else being sick, and look over to see tobi sat on the floor.

“oh for fucks sake, not another one,” kon laughs, zooming his camera in on tobi.

[russilton]

I must admit I'm actually quite impressed and jealous of George's ability to haunt Perez / Rbr in every single race no matter where he and they start

Dude it’s wild to me how we don’t talk more about George’s unhinged feral hatred of Red Bull in all forms.

Like it Makes Sense- his favourite people on the grid are Lewis and Alex, two people notoriously screwed over by them. He spent 10 years trying to get into Mercedes, their main rival. He (supposedly) turned down their junior offer as a teen in the pursuit of Merc. The man is practically custom built to abhor them and he takes their every action personally. HE EVEN DISLIKES THE REDBULL RING TRACK BC OF ITS NAME.

My favourite race (other than Brazil) in 2022 was the French GP bc George was so deeply mad at Perez he pulls performance out of his ass just to get past the fastest car on the grid so he can share a podium with Lewis. That’s the race Toto had to get on radio and tell him to shut up because he was so angry Perez pushed him off without penalty he kept ranting, and he then went out of his way in another race to do it back to him.

I’m also pretty sure George aims his ire at Perez just because he can’t reach Max, we all saw Barcelona 22 and Baku 23, if he could, George would spend half his races pissing him off. Calling AD21 unacceptable didn’t get him anything, so he decided he’s going to punish them personally by being as annoying as he can physically manage.

[f0point5]

Ferrari will tell Lewis he isn’t the shit if he isn’t performing. Ferrari won’t let him do everything the way he wants to run shit because they haven’t let seb, kimi or Charles do it either. And Charles is their predestined prince. He is the first of their fda drivers to get the Ferrari seat, the one with the longest contract in history even longer one than Michael, he is managed by Jean todt‘s son, the fda was build for jules, he got this contract now because Ferrari wants him to succeed. They want to win with him. Binotto was biased and in my opinion heavily influenced by the sainz camp. But Fred isn’t like that. Fred cares about Charles and about making Ferrari Ferrari again. And if the team fails Charles the fans will riot. And I believe there will be protests in front of Maranello if they screw him over.

Lewis isn’t owed anything. He didn’t drive well enough in 2021 to win the title because he got cocky. He didn’t defend successfully enough against max so max overtook him and won ten race and title. Lewis got benefits from the fia for years and if he got penalties they weren’t as big ones as for the other teams. The sport is biased towards the British teams but mostly the British drivers.

I think Alex said it best „when I’m doing well I’m a London born driver“ I don’t have the exact thing in my head but it was along those lines. The media doesn’t care that he races under the Thai flag when he has great results but as long as he isn’t good they ignore his heritage.

Let’s see how much Charles will be dragged through the mud when he is beating Lewis. Or how much Lewis will be glorified again when he is beating Charles.

I don’t think Ferrari will tell Lewis anything. They will know, but they won’t say. Because they didn’t spend £200m on him just to piss him off while he’s driving the car, which will be a short stint compared to the continuing relationship they will likely have. Ferrari will Ferrari for sure, they won’t let him do things his way, but I don’t think they’ll want to piss him off either. They’ll placate him in the way they do. And Lewis will languish there for a couple of years before retiring and promoting Ferrari Style, or whatever.

I am of the opinion that Ferrari has failed Ferrari, and Charles is failing Charles. I think they’re both to blame for their current predicaments and this will likely be the case for the duration of Charles’s career. Fred may want to win a WDC, I don’t think anyone above him cares as long as the brand is still standing, and that’s the brand as a whole, not the F1 team.

I think the Charles/Lewis pairing will be a mess. They will trip over each other constantly, more than just on track. At the end of the day you have the guy the team says they’re behind…and the guy they paid a quarter billion euros for. With two of the most fanatical fan bases in the sport…in the team with THE most fanatical fan base in the sport…no chance this works well.

And for all this “Fred wants Charles to win”…Fred recruited Lewis, and he was the only one who could. I don’t think Lewis will be there that long but I don’t think it wi be plain sailing for Charles while he is.

[fcb-mv33]

So tired of everyone saying Max was a bad loser for wanting fastest lap to maintain his championship lead. Did everyone forget that during his first title fight every single point was important. Max knows not every season can be like 2022 and he saw the downfall of brocedes first hand. Every point counts and the reliability issue cost him 7 points, he damn well wasn’t going to make it 8. He was driver of the day for a reason. He gained 13 positions and he was only 5s behind Checo. Max needing to get through traffic was the ONLY reason why there was a pace difference during the first stint. The team didn’t want to risk a DNF, that’s the only reason Max didn’t try to gain on him. Max was faster than Checo until he was given a target lap time, while struggling with issues. 18 points is better than none. This is the fourth race Checo has won due to Max having issues beyond his control. Baku: an inherited win from Max’s tyre and Lewis’ magic button. Monaco: Max was in the middle of a lap that could’ve put him on pole, and Checo crashed, whether intentionally or not. He screwed his teammate. Singapore: whatever the shitshow of a qualify session. And now a reliability issue in qualifying for Max. Checo has not won a Grand Prix with Red Bull (his performance in Sakhir in 2020 was brilliant, but Mercedes fucked George over, he was leading up until that point and could’ve taken the win) that wasn’t on pure pace over Max. Yes absolutely formula 1 is also about capitalizing on others misfortunes, but don’t let that distract you that Checo has not outperformed Max during a race since he joined Red Bull.

Checo deleting his original tweet that included “I want to be champion” is everything you need to know where Red Bull’s priorities lie. Do you really think they’ll upset their driver that they’ve signed till ‘28? The longest contract in formula 1? Over someone that’s gotten one year and two year contracts. That won’t happen. Saudi was about minimizing damage from qualifying and getting Max to cross the finish line.

I also believe that the “team orders” for maintaining a lap time was to soothe Perez that the playing field is after Brazil and that Max is willing to follow team orders. Buying some good will. They don’t trust each other. Max asked if Perez is also hitting the target lap time in Bahrain for a reason. He returned the favour in Saudi. If Perez doesn’t follow team orders next time out Red Bull has every opportunity to call him out on it and reprimand him. Ricciardo might not be looming over his head but Lawson might be. Marko was prepared to have him replace Max if the needed. That’s a huge amount of trust in a rookie, they’ve kept him around for a reason.

Let’s be honest as well Max had every right to be pissed on Sunday. He was dominating all weekend and through no fault of his own he started p15 when he should have been on pole and would have won that race I don’t blame him for being pissed. He said it himself he is there to win and when he gets fucked over by reliably he has every right to be pissed.

Checo has only ever won when something happened to Max it’s literally so simple to say that. Since Brazil Checo has been playing up to the “Checo is the victim” narrative and it’s so fucking embarrassing. Since he has gotten to Red Bull Max has always smashed him, Max was a half a second quicker all weekend. Are we also forgetting that Checo fucked his start and also locked up under pressure like twice? We saw that last season after Monaco he crashed in quali in Canada and fucked up multiple times last season.

I think it’s also funny that Checo was so suspicious of his team…he didn’t believe them when they talked about the fastest lap, he called out his own team like I’m sorry but that’s so fucking embarrassing. Checo was told to push and Max decided to charge his battery to push on the final lap WHICH Christian said Checo fucked up. I think it’s pretty embarrassing from Checo that his teammate finished 5 seconds behind him after starting p15 and with another driveshaft issue.

He can tweet about being champion all he wants but it says more about a driver needing to manipulate the media rather than getting it done on track. That’s why Max is the much better driver and person cause he doesn’t cause abuse towards drivers by lying in the media and gets his shit done on track.

[slow-button-off]

Last year I already had my doubts but this year …

If Charles is behind, he will fight for him not to pass even if it means losing opportunities for the team (we were talking about P6 yesterday with 3 points ! Doesn’t matter who ends up 6 or 7 as long as you don’t let merc pass)

If Charles is in front, Carlos will not defend as much. And if the team needs him for team strategy, he will fight orders.

We need some new pairing soon so that they are ready if they have a good car.

They are like 15 points apart with Charles having taken so many penalties (most of them being the team’s fault) and Carlos having a win. I’m sorry but it’s not a good look for Carlos. And people KNOW. Like in 2021, Carlos gets most of his results when Charles is unlucky/screwed over. So it’s not that that will change his role at Ferrari. He should have learn to stay low and play for the team. It’s just a disaster waiting to happen if we are again in a position to win things.

I used to think maybe Lewis/George was the worst on that side. But I think the team reacts way more than Ferrari. Now maybe will have those fights at McLaren too ! If we don’t have fun races at least we’ll have drama.

I wouldn't have even half as much of an issue with the shit he pulls if he was at least honest about it. But he isn't and that pisses me off. Or if he didn't say things like the fact that he was "sacrificed for Charles" in Suzuka when that's not even remotely close to what happened.

yup.. all things considered Carlos season is meh considering how much Charles was struggling and how close he is with way more DNFs and the Bahrain DNF alone without correcting Jeddah too is a 17 points swing in Charles direction.

So Charles who supposedly is having a horrible season is super close to a Carlos who is having a supposedly good season.

I can't wait for this car to disappear.

[vinvantae]

ᴛᴡɪɴ ꜰʟᴀᴍᴇ

Part 16/25

<< Previous Part

Rating - Mature

Warnings - Mentions of sex, alcohol, explicit language

******************************************

You were so disappointed; you’d always wanted to do a F1 race at spa but the rain absolutely pissing it down has ruined your chances. You’d done two laps behind the safety car and the race was currently red flagged - the rain had screwed your qualifying yesterday so you were stuck in 9th.

Dan had managed to get up to 4th which was really good for him but he was a little frustrated that he wasn’t able to race it too. After a brief interview with Sky he came over to you and looped his arms around your middle. He’d joked that this race probably seemed like an episode of the Office with all of the clips of the drivers playing around in the garage - Lando was currently having a nap.

“I’m so disappointed that we can’t race” You sighed softly. “I’ve never got to do it in my Redbull before.”

“One day, baby.” He purred softly. “Besides, you spun yesterday and Lando got hurt. Don’t want to risk your life just for a race.”

“The poor fans.”

“Hey… come with me.”

He took your hand and pulled you over to a small gap in the barrier between the pits and the track where the fans could clearly see you. The Australian threw you a smile before attempting to get the crowd to do a Mexican wave. The first attempt was pathetic, but the second time around they were all cheering and waving in perfect sync.

You smiled fondly, even when he was bummed about the race - he was doing his best to make sure everyone else was happy. He spent his day watching videos with his team, goofing around with Michael and of course sneaking off with you.

He’d been asked in his interview why, compared to all the other drivers, he seemed to be really high energy still. The Australian had said it was because he didn’t want to lose his momentum so napping wasn’t an option for him. The truth was really the two of you had been having sex in every private nook you could squeeze yourselves into and both of you were high of the adrenaline of being potentially caught. You felt like a pair of giddy kids in love and you were having so much fun with him.

You felt your cheeks heat up when Max bumped into you and Daniel coming out of the Redbull garage after a particularly intense round in your driver’s room.

“Dan mate, get off your back and do some of the work, man!” The Dutchman teased, making Dan run his hand over the back of his head to readjust the curls that had been ruined by exactly that.

“Oh trust me, he does plenty.” You smirked, raising a brow and making the Dutchman recoil.

“Ugh, don’t make me picture it.” Max mock gagged, earning a shove from his former teammate.

Dan looped his arm around your waist. “You’re all just jealous that I get to tap this.”

“Hey.” You whined, jabbing him in the side. “What have I told you about objectifying me like that!”

The three of you headed back down to the track as it was rumoured the FIA were going to make their decision on the outcome of the race. You wanted them to cancel and reschedule for tomorrow but unfortunately you knew that this was going to be about money for them.

You were all instructed to return to your cars while the rain was absolutely lashing it down. You could practically hear Vettel yelling about the state of the track from where you were on the grid - he’d been the one who insisted on the red flag before Lando was injured. The idea of racing again had clearly angered him to no end and a lot of you felt the same. It was dangerous when even Max, at the front of the grid, couldn’t see a thing.

Dan pressed a kiss against your helmet before pulling on his own. “Good luck.”

“Stay safe.”

Your team lifted the top off your car so you could slip into it. God, this is dumb.

The race ended up being over after two more laps after the safety car and you were all awarded half points with Max, George and Lewis on the podium. You only received one point but thankfully Lando and Bottas - your two biggest rivals - didn’t get any points so your lead on them stayed. Next up would be Max’s home race, the big one, he had to win.

Dan jogged over to you after the race with an umbrella over his head. “Wanna get out of here?”

“Please. We’ve gotta head straight to Zandvoort in the morning… I need some cuddles with my favourite cute koala.” You keened softly, stepping under his umbrella.

“I love it when you’re all cheesy.”

“What can I say, you bring it out of me.” You giggled.

The pair of you made it back to the hotel fairly quickly and packed up anything you didn’t need tonight or first thing in the morning. You collapsed onto the bed and curled up under the duvet with a soft yawn.

“Baby girl.” He chuckled, stroking your forehead. “Are you really just going to fall asleep?”

“Tired. Today was mentally exhausting.” You mumbled.

He slipped under the duvet beside you and pulled you into his warm chest. You took a deep breath in and just enjoyed his smell - there was a comforting nature to it; he smelt how the earth did after rain. Fresh. Peaceful. There was no other scent on Earth that grounded you in the same way. It was just him.

“I think I just want to stay here forever.”

“Me too.” His voice was soft, tired. “But I know you’ll hate me if I let you fall asleep with jeans on. Besides, we’re going for dinner with a couple of the boys.”

“Ughhh.” You groaned. “Do we have to?”

“Yes, darling. We do. Your teammate and my best friend is waiting for us there.”

You looked up at him from where your face had been buried, he was looking at you with a fondness that made your insides feel all warm and gooey like a marshmallow. “How did it take me this long to realise how madly in love with you I am?”

“I don’t know, I’m pretty fucking awesome.”

You lightly smacked his chest and slid out of bed to change into something else for the evening - you wanted to look nice but be much more comfortable. Dan turned on the tv while you were changing and the sound of Alex’s voice filled the room.

“We were all disappointed to hear you’d lost your seat. What do you think of y/n’s season so far?” The interviewer asked.

“Yeah man, it sucked. Unfortunately not all of us can sleep our way into a seat.”

Dan tried to shut off the TV but it was too late, you’d grabbed the remote and turned it up. Is he serious? You could almost feel the steam coming out of your ears.

“That fucking twat! We said we would be civil!”

“I wouldn’t say that’s fair” The interviewer spoke up against the former Redbull driver. “If that was the case she would be McLaren. And you’ve seen her performance this season, she’s been phenomenal.”

Alex blushed and stuttered uncomfortably as he tried to come up with a sufficient comeback but the press had clearly put him in his place.

“Hey, looks like the media has your back.” Dan said softly, taking the remote out of your tense grip.

“In fact-“ The reporter continued, clearly unimpressed by Alex’s comment. “With silly season coming up, I wouldn’t be surprised if multiple teams try to steal her from Redbull. No one has been a good partner for Max since Dan until now.”

“Who is this woman, I love her.” You chuckled softly, finally turning the tv off. “Remind me to send her a thank you note.”

“I will. Now, let’s get to dinner.”

You met Max, Lando and Charles for dinner at a local pub; you were seated in a nice quiet corner away from the general masses. Dan had a lazy arm draped across the back of your chair as he browsed the food menu.

“I can’t believe what Albon said.” Max spoke up. “It was out of line.”

You shrugged. “I’m trying not to let it bother me and be the bigger person. I know I earned my seat; he’s just bitter.”

“I hear he’s trying to get back on the grid next season.”

“Oh yeah? With who? Alpha tauri seems pretty set on Pierre and Yuki for another season and, fingers crossed, Redbull are keeping me with Max.”

“Williams.”

“Does that mean George is finally going to Merc?”

“As far as I heard. Nothing’s been signed officially yet because they need to wait for Kimi to announce his retirement.”

You nodded solemnly- you knew Kimi’s time in F1 would’ve come to an end soon but you were hoping to share a grid with the legend a little longer than a year. He always shared quiet compliments with you about your drives after the race ended.

“I’ve just really enjoyed this season and I really hope Redbull gives me another chance, y’know?”

“Babe. Neither Pierre or Alex have even come close to how you’ve been performing this season.” Dan gave your shoulder a gentle squeeze. “They’d be stupid if they dropped you.”

“Christian is still bitter about us and I’m worried he’ll use it against me.” You sighed softly, leaning against his side.

“I’ll kick up shit if they dare try anything.” Max said, meeting your eyes across the table. “You’re phenomenal and one of the best teammates, sorry Dan, the best teammate I’ve ever had and they’d be insane to lose you just because you’re shagging that idiot.”

Dan grinned proudly and you thanked Max. Your boyfriend left the table with Dutchman to go get another round of drinks so you were left with Charles and Lando.

“How are you feeling Lando? That crash was pretty gnarly yesterday, I was worried about you.” You asked.

“I’ll be alright. Still feeling a bit achy but I’ll be all ready to go by next weekend.” He smiled softly. “How are you feeling? Not your best finish.”

“Honestly? I know we didn’t get to race but Dan qualifying 4th and then finishing there? I’m so happy for him. I’m hoping that this is the beginning of lots of good results for him… this has been a tough season..”

“He was really hoping that coming to us would help him break the streak of bad luck he was having but it seemed like he was in a slump. I really want him to do well - he deserves to be back on the podium.”

Dan and Max returned, placing the drinks on the table before your boyfriend leant down to give you a tender kiss. He smiled down at you. “Hi.”

“Hi. Missed you.” You returned the smile, placing a hand on his thigh as he retook his seat beside you.

“Missed you too, darling.” He chuckled fondly. “What were you all talking about?”

“How you’re gonna be back on the podium any day now.” Your voice was soft, almost private for his ears - the others took the subtle hint and began to chat amongst themselves. “Preferably with me.”

“You really think so?” There was a hopeful glisten in the pools of molten caramel of his eyes as he stared deep into yours.

“I know so. You’ve worked so hard for it. I know the car doesn’t match the way you drive but you’ve come so far since you joined McLaren and I think you’re finally coming into your own.”

He pressed a soft kiss to your lips. “You’re wonderful… and just because I don’t think I ever said it, I’m sorry for what I said way back when about you only being good because you’re in a Redbull. You’d top the grid in a Haas any day.”

You rolled your eyes playfully and brought a hand up to cup his face, brushing your thumb over his stubble. He leant into your touch and let out a content sigh.

“I’m so proud of you.” You whispered.

“You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that. I want to win… but knowing that you’ve got my back no matter what? Means everything to me.”

“We’ll get you that win, Danny. I know it.”

You smiled fondly as he moved in to kiss you once more, your three friends so used to the PDA at this point they paid no mind to it. As much as you wanted Redbull to win the championship, you really wanted Dan on the podium. You wanted Dan to win. You knew it would do wonders for his self esteem and although he liked to pretend to be happy all the time, you’d seen how broken he was when things didn’t go his way.

You didn’t know when the win would come but it was definitely on the horizon and Daniel Ricciardo would get to lift a 1st place trophy once again.

************************************************

Next Part >>

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[dizzyduck44]

This week’s Lando based rant

OK deep breath. I thought I was getting a week off. Should this become a series at this point?

I appreciate for some of you this is the first time you have come across a driver outwardly appearing to bad mouth their teammate, but please trust me, what has been said today is nothing and people are taking it far to seriously.

I actually believe that Lando said what was reported, clearly in context to Daniel joining the team and not as some people are trying to claim about mental health. Why do I believe it?

Well last year he was asked did he feel sorry for Charles Le Clerc and how bad the Ferrari was. The interviewer was obviously expecting he would have sympathy as he was a “friend”. Lando’s response was “No. Charles has had podiums and wins poles that other drivers would kill for so why would I have sympathy for him now?” That was a televised driver’s conference and bears a lot of similarity to what has been said today.

Let’s not forget, Lando had no sympathy for Carlos when he failed to start the Belgium Grand Prix last year, quipping “one place up”. This attitude is nothing new from Lando.

Do I think that Daniel feels exactly the same? Yes. He has gone from team to team in recent years. He has never expected his teammate to help him. It is not Lando’s responsibility to help him get familiar with the car, it’s not up to Lando to solve issues Daniel has. Asking does he have sympathy is ridiculous, of course he doesn’t and Daniel probably isn’t looking for it.

Daniel comes across as someone who owns his own mistakes. He knows full well that he laid it on thick with Lando last year telling him he’ll “end him”. Now he’s eating a bit of humble pie but Daniel knows the only one who can fix the issues right now is Daniel.

Daniel himself has sat in press conferences and taken the piss out of Lewis and Seb and Fernando to name but a few. He dishes it out but he can also take it. I’m pretty sure fans are more upset than Daniel himself will be right now.

Why do I think this is nothing? I’ve seen drivers put themselves first for as long as I’ve watched the sport. If you watched the last race so have a you. Wasn’t what Bottas did exactly the same?

I’ve just finished reading a book that explained in the 2007 season the relationship between Lewis and Fernando got so bad that when the press cottoned on to the fact Fernando was complaining to the team, Lewis would fan the issue in press conferences painting himself as the angel of the story. The mechanics started hating both of them for their behaviour as Lewis was stirring up as many issues in the garage as Fernando.

Please go and look at some of the comments Juan Pablo Montoya had about other drivers. If nothing else they were hilarious but did he have sympathy for anyone, no, absolutely not.

Ayrton Senna once told his team principal, either I come out of the first corner first or I’m not coming out of that corner. This preceded him taking out his championship rival at the first corner.

Let’s not forget that George Russell has said things to put Lando down more than once, Lando has done it to George. Do you think when Lando managed to single handily screw his own F2 championship up and effective hand the title to George in Russia, George had one tiny bit of sympathy? God no! You go to the wrong pit box, line up wrong on the grid and then crash out, not my problem but thanks!

The winners in this sport get there because they are willing to climb over everyone else to win. It’s ugly yes, but only one person is World Champion. That means that everyone else’s misfortune (including your teammate) is your advantage. “Friends” in F1 are not the same as we know the meaning of the word. It literally means I don’t despise you, I’d miss you if you left, I might even apologise if we crash into each other rather than outright blame you, but if it’s you or me for the win, it’s always me. Best example of that, Hamilton v Rosberg.

So let’s stop acting as if Lando has done anything wrong here. This just feels like this week’s excuse to hate on Lando if you want to hate on Lando. Same thing happens with Lewis. People need a second hobby.

[ricciardhoes]

as someone who has followed this sport since childhood and is now works in it, it hurts. this has been a season from the start where the fia has been inconsistent. in reality, both redbull and mercedes have benefitted from the decisions made this season, it's not a mercedes or lewis is the only victim party, that part pisses me off as well. the fia went into this last race with the possibility of protests and the court as a likely. max and lewis have worked hard this season whether people like it or not and are both screwed over by the fia. there's a reason they both feel targeted and it's because they were, they were fighting for this championship and the fia focused on them.

it should hurt more that the integrity of this sport is suffering rather than hurt that lewis didn't win or that max won.

babe with all due respect, i couldn’t give a fuck about “the integrity of this sport” & the fact it’s suffering right now. there has been a LONG history of people & teams turning into cheaty mccheatface when it comes down to the wire — it’s just more public now. if you want me to talk about how i feel seeing the sport get slandered in every news publication this week? i’m happy, it means people see the sport for what it is. unfair. ❤️

and trying to get me to feel sorry for max/red bull? insinuating they’re also victims??!? miss me with that shit. there is only 1 victim here after sunday and it’s lewis hamilton. he’s given his everything to this sport and MORE and the FIA can’t even follow their own damn rules for him. if you’re going to drop essays in my inbox, at least make sure it’s not waffle 🤍

[erelavent]

Merc's strategy this entire race was absolute garbage. Lewis was 1.8 seconds away from Max in the last few laps. If he had better tyres, he WOULD have caught him. I'm pissed af. Also, telling Bottas not to go for fastest lap? Wtf was that? Pitting Lewis on lap 71 of 72 to ensure Bottas didn't get fastest lap even when they should have done it earlier basically screwing both Lewis and Bottas over?

Daniel having to move over for Lando and for what?

Only saving grace of this race is Gasly in P4, Alonso in P6. Everything else can take a hike.

[fortysevenswrites]

📓📔📒📕📗📘📙📚📖!!!!!!!!!

Okay. 9 books, 9 fics. You're welcome.

1. Kastle/The West Wing Crossover Every time I watch TWW, I think about Karen and Donna Moss being friends, and once I thought of a fic where during the early seasons of TWW, the President and staff go to New York and Karen is moderating one of the series of town halls they're there for (specifically one where Josh Lyman is speaking). And of course that one, because reasons I had not yet come up with, gets attacked by The Hand, and Karen, Donna and Josh (who gets injured, because Josh ALWAYS gets injured) get rescued by Frank and it basically ends with the President demanding to meet Frank to thank him for saving Josh's life and everyone is like, "Mr. President do you not understand that Frank Castle is technically a MURDERER and the Secret Service will n e v e r let you in the same room with him and it's bad enough that you're currently on the same ISLAND?" So, yeah.

Here's something I wrote for it:

“Josh, did you hear?”

“I have impeccable hearing, Donna,” Josh says without looking up from the memo in his hand. “What is it that I am supposed to have heard?”

“Carol told me that she heard from Lindsay in credentialing that Karen Page has been assigned to cover the President’s town halls in New York for the New York Bulletin!”

He waits for her to keep going, but she doesn’t so, he looks up and sees her waiting expectantly, “And?”

“Karen Page? What It Means To Be A Hero Karen Page. She’s connected to half the vigilante-superheroes in Lower Manhattan. She was held hostage by ninjas. She interviewed Tony Stark about the Sokovia Accords. Last year, The Punisher himself may or may not have held her hostage after saving her from that terrorist Lewis Wilson.”

“And?”

“And, would it be inappropriate, as a member of the White House Staff, to ask her for her autograph?”

Kastle: The Big Indulgence

This is one of the first long fics I came up with for Kastle (and come hell or high water I WILL write it one day). Basically, it puts the NMCU actually IN the MCU. Post TPS1, Sarah tracks Karen down and they become friends, and at the same time, Frank becomes friends with Bucky Barnes (yes Emily, I know he's not your fav) by way of Curtis' group (Curt, of course, regrets ever letting them interact ever). Karen gets nominated for an award for her journalism work by the Maria Stark Foundation, where she meets Pepper, Natasha, and Darcy, and befriends them as well. Everything comes to a head and Karen and Frank reunite after the discovery that Sarah Lieberman is related to one of Bucky's surviving family members (the Liebermans are Jewish, Bucky's family is Jewish, it works!). Then, things related to Billy and Hydra happen, there's an incident where a few people disappear into an alternate universe for...an... amount of time, the Avengers meet the X-Men to help get them back, and Frank may or may not be a little psychic. Someone ends up coming from that alternate universe who doesn't belong here, but it's okay because she's [redacted] and also Leo's [redacted].

Leo-Centric, Kastle

Leo gets an internship as Darcy Lewis' assistant (well, technically she's working for Jane Foster, but it's basically working for Darcy), where she meets Karen, matchmakes her with Frank, and also gets a girlfriend. I think the summary says it best:

Summer 2021.

In which Leo Lieberman gets the internship of a lifetime—working for Jane!Freaking!Foster’s soon-to-be former personal assistant, Darcy Lewis—both comes out of the closet AND gets the girl, and helps her long-lost murder-uncle finally reconcile with the ace reporter of his dreams.

If Frank was actually bulletproof, it would totally be just like Superman and Lois Lane.

5 Times Seth Tells Kate He Loves Her

A five-times fic where Seth is just ass over tea kettle in love with Kate, and makes sure she knows it and doesn't care what other people (read: Richie and Scott) think about it. The first one takes place the night they get back from Matanzas, and I just love the little bit I've written so far. I know 2 that I'm going to write so far, so...3 to go.

Kate Meets Vanessa Post S3

So I started writing this around Valentine's Day this year, and I might keep it as a Valentine's Day fic no matter what, but basically, in a grand universal coincidence, Vanessa strolls into Jed's just because she's stopping for lunch on her way to...somewhere. She meets Kate, who is covering the bar for Kalinda and Greer (a culebra OC that I will one day actually formally introduce in my fics, I promise), who are downstairs "checking on inventory" read: screwing in a maintenance closet because it's Valentine's Day, and then Seth comes out and there's a little, very awkward reunion, and basically Vanessa is the MOST amused, Seth is the MOST uncomfortable and Kate's just like...okay? And? Also, Seth is still bitter about Vanessa taking the tire iron to his car back in early S1.

The SK/Detroit 187 Fusion

Seth is a detective in Houston PD, who comes into the office one day to discover they...hired an intern? Said intern is Kate Fuller, a grad student at the University of Houston, who is working on her master's thesis by studying something related to crime (duh). Seth thinks she's a Disney princess in human form and they're very antagonistic with one another, but also he likes her way more than he thinks he should (but feels a LOT better about it when he finds out she's 23, not like...barely legal to drink or anything. Angst happens when a gang (Malvado's, but Carlos' branch of it) attacks Kate's family and kills her parents, and Seth takes her to Eddie and Richie for protection while he and his partner, Ximena, and the rest of the department solve the case and put Carlos' crew away.

SK Post 2x02 AU

After Kate and Seth part ways in 2x02, Kate goes back to Bethel, but Scott isn't there (so Jessica lives). She ends up in Houston for two years, working at a gym and keeping her to the ground looking for word about her brother, until one night, she's attacked by a bunch of Culebras, and is saved by Seth, Richie, and Kisa. She finds out that Carlos and Malvado are after her because she's the key to the way to the Blood Well, and Carlos and Malvado's henchwoman, the one and only Sonja, draws them all back to Bethel by putting Jessica in danger, and...it's all going to come to a head in some way that involves them saving Jessica from Sonja and killing Malvado and stopping the events of S3 from ever having to happen.

SK Season 1 AU

I don't know if i'm ever going to go anywhere with this, but I had this thought of...what is Carlos as Kyle wasn't a dick to Kate, and he took her to Mexico instead of Kate going back with Jacob and Scott. She ends up at the Twister before Seth and Richie do, and spends time with Kisa before she goes out to perform, and somehow it ends up with Kate going through the labyrinth with the brothers? I don't know. Something like that.

The FDTD/The Punisher Crossover That Starts Off In New York

So this is one of 2 crossovers I have for SK-meets-Kastle, but I love it. This is post 2x02, and Kate ends up in New York after not being able to find Scott back in Bethel. She ends up going to work as NM&P's assistant, and befriends Karen. To get to know one another better, Karen takes Kate to Josie's, where Kate discovers that Josie is a culebra, and Josie promises to keep Kate's secret. One day, this...guy shows up at the office, asking to talk to Karen, and Karen kicks Kate out of the office while they talk, and when she comes back, the guy is gone and Karen doesn't want to talk about it. (It's Frank, of course it's Frank). Also featuring one day where Frank is on the roof, Matt gets wind of it and goes up there to confront him about seeing Karen again and comes back with a black eye, and Kate is V confused whereas Karen is 10000000% pissed off at them both. Not long after, Kate and Karen are out one night, and they're attacked by a bunch of culebras. Frank helps intervene while Kate really is the one to save the day...and then she has to explain culebras to them. Of course, Karen saw aliens fall out of a portal above Stark Tower, so...snake vampires? Whatever. Kate calls Freddie to figure out why she was attacked and it turns out Carlos and Malvado are after her (and, later found out Karen too). Kate, Karen and Frank end up in Texas and things all come to a head at the blood well, as it does, and while Carlos shoots Kate in front of Seth, Richie, and Scott (which, BAD IDEA), Kate falls into the blood well, and when she's pulled out, she's healed. But...she also has something inside her that wants to destroy the world, and everyone has to race against time to figure out how to get Amaru out of Kate before she takes over completely and destroys them all. They figure out a way, but it has an...interesting side effect for Kate and Seth. Also, this is the one where Maggie takes one look at Freddie and Ximena and shrugs and says, "You know what? Porque no los dos?"

So yeah, there you go!

(Also, I thought about also including the Amaru isn't evil, she's just cranky and wants to go home, S3 AU, but we just talked about it yesterday, so I figured it doesn't count hahaaha.)

send me a book emoji of any kind and i will tell you about a fic idea i have

[yepiamthesmileyface]

sick/injured fic) + 56 (awful first meeting) = 83 (this fic)!

CW: vomiting, sick fic (not covid19 related), vaguely h*rny tho*ghts, overuse of em-dashes and parentheses

Arthur sniffles, wiping his nose on his sleeve irritably. He is not sick, no matter what his uncle may have implied when he clocked in. If he was actually sick, he wouldn’t have come to work (read, wouldn’t have been able to come to work). He isn’t sick, because being sick is the worst, and if he were sick, he would have to bundle up even more in the already-sweltering Texas summer, and he would have to lie in bed all day, not doing anything, just sitting there alone with his thoughts and  —  no. Just…no.

So, no. He isn’t sick. If only his stupid runny nose would just get the memo. He swipes at his nose with his sleeve again, bracing himself on the sun-heated frame of the car he’s in the middle of fixing. The engine in front of him swims a little. He blinks hard, trying to force the details to sharpen back into focus. It doesn’t exactly work.

“Get it together, Kingsmen,” Arthur growls to himself, shaking his head to clear it. He only succeeds in making himself feel steadily dizzier, swaying on his feet as he clutches at the metal with growing desperation.

A large, warm hand touches his shoulder lightly. The beautiful, smooth baritone of the most handsome man Arthur has ever seen (seriously, it’s unfair that anyone should be allowed to be that attractive, he reminds Arthur of the few pictures of Michelangelo’s David he’s seen online, but if David had a fluffy pink pompadour and warm, tawny brown skin but was still completely gigantic and could probably pick Arthur up with one hand  —  customer, he is a customer, Arthur is trying to fix his car for money, this is not the time to develop a crush on a stranger  —) sounding from behind him, audibly concerned. “Hey, are you feeling okay?”

Arthur blinks again, trying to make sense of the man’s words, then turns to tell the hot customer that he’s just fine, thanks. But as he turns around and opens his mouth, his stomach rolls. Arthur barely has time to get his head down so he doesn’t vomit on Hot Customer’s chest and  — vomits directly onto the man’s pristine purple converse. Arthur stumbles away, spluttering and choking out half-formed apologies along with more bile and the remains of the cold pizza he managed to force down for breakfast. His knees buckle, and he collapses to his hands and knees a bare few steps away, retching and coughing.

Hot tears sting his eyes as bile stings his throat, humiliation and pain a double edged sword cutting straight through him. He heaves one more time, a trickle of bile burning out of his throat. Far too late, his stomach settles a little.

As much as he wants to curl up in a ball and never come out, or perhaps sprint away and run out into the desert never to be found again, he forces himself to stand and face the customer, shaking like a leaf. “H-holy fuck I’m s-so sorry, I’m so fucking so-sorry, I  —”

Hot Customer steps forward, his shoes making an unpleasant squish that both of them wince at. He pauses for a second, kicking off his vomit-soaked shoes and socks before continuing forward barefoot. He reaches out a little, hesitating before putting a bracing hand on Arthur’s shoulder, steadying his shaky, swaying stance. “It’s…it’s okay. Let’s get you somewhere where you can sit down, it’s okay.” His voice is about a pitch higher, disgust evident in the curl of his lips, but his hand is steady and firm, and Arthur can’t help but lean into the touch.

“I’m so  — so sorry,” Arthur blurts again, wiping at his mouth. “God, I can’t  — I li-literally can’t apo-apologize en-enough, I’m  — I didn’t  —  didn’t even th-think I was  —”

Hot Customer steers him towards the garage, an arm around his shoulders (and Arthur’s not quite so far gone in his haze of guilt and horror and dizziness that he can’t feel how well-muscled said arm is). “It’s okay, I promise. It’s not the first time someone’s vomited on me,” he tries to joke.

Arthur just shuts his eyes, shame flooding every inch of him as he is led back towards the office, fighting back tears the whole way.

Distantly, he can hear the bell above the door jingle, Hot Customer making quiet conversation with Lance, who sounds pissed-off-but-secretly-worried (Arthur is very good at reading the different nuances of pissed off in his uncle’s voice). He staggers over to collapse in one of the chairs set out for waiting customers, leaning over to put his head between his knees, letting the sounds wash over him in unintelligible waves.

After a few moments that stretch out like hours, his head stops spinning quite as much. It’s enough for him to make out his uncle, who sounds much closer now than he was a minute ago, say archly, “Not sick, huh?”

“Sorry, Uncle Lance…” Arthur groans, not picking his head up.

Lance clears his throat, the awkward grimace audible. “Go lie down in the breakroom, I’ll give ya a ride home once this is dealt with. I don’t trust ya behind a wheel right now.”

Arthur groans again, curling up tighter. The whole scenario is making him feel like he’s back in high school, and he’d dropped out of high school for a reason. “‘m fine, really…just need a bit of a break, ‘s all…”

“Do I need’ta take you back to my house t’make sure you actually rest?” Lance threatens.

Arthur’s eyes fly wide, and he sits up straight, immediately listing to the side as his head violently protests. “N-no, I’m  — Uncle Lance, that’s n-not  —”

“Those are your options, kid. You’re not gonna work yourself through this shit. Whether you recover at my place or your apartment.”

The blush still staining Arthur’s cheeks deepens a few shades, and he can’t stop himself from glancing over at the amazingly attractive man whose shoes Arthur just ruined. Michelangelo’s-David-But-Hotter is standing a few feet away, typing on his phone, clearly trying to give them some privacy. His bare feet stand out like a sore thumb against the rest of his immaculate appearance (for fuck’s sake, he is wearing a waistcoat). The sting of mortification rises to a higher peak, and Arthur, finally, just nods.

The rest of the day passes in a blur. He falls asleep in the breakroom without even obsessing over how horribly he fucked everything up for more than a few minutes, then falls asleep again in his uncle’s truck, and then again on the rickety couch in his apartment. The next day is spent much in the same way, though he falls asleep in his bed most of the time. But on the third day, as Arthur’s fever begins to drop, there’s a knock on the door.

Arthur, wrapped in a thick comforter (after he admitted to himself that he yes,he really is sick, and subsequently stopped ignoring every signal his body sent out, the chills made themselves known with a vengeance), makes his way to the door, frowning in confusion. His foot catches the handle of a discarded screwdriver, and he pitches forward, crashing against the door. With a litany of various swears, he scrabbles to right himself, and finally manages to open the door just a crack. He peeks through and comes face to face   —   or, really, face to chest   —  with a dapper purple waistcoat. His face goes pale, then bright red as he slowly peeks up to meet the eyes of the unbelievably attractive customer whose shoes he literally vomited on.

Said customer looks torn between amusement and concern. “I…are you alright?”

“Fine!” Arthur squeaks, backing up a little and grabbing for the shattered remains of his dignity. He opens the door wider, so it looks less like he’s trying to hide (even though he definitely wants to). “I’m fine! Uh. What are…what are you doing here?”

Hot Customer looks a little sheepish, one hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. “My parents run a restaurant here in town, and I…well, I wanted to bring you some soup?” He proffers a takeout bag.

Arthur eyes the bag, deeply confused. The logo on the front is familiar, two stylized hot peppers forming a heart. He grimaces a little, swallowing hard as he glances up at the other man. “Thanks? I   —  your parents run the Paradiso? Also, uh, I…really don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth here, but…how spicy is this….?”

Hot Customer grins at him. “Apparently, they’d already heard from your uncle that you were sick, and had an order ready to go when I asked.”

Arthur relaxes with a nod, then blurts, “Okay, why the hell are you being so nice? I literally   —  I puked on your shoes, and you’re bringing me, a stranger, soup?!”

“You’re sick, I’m not going to hold that against you. If I   — if this comes off as creepy or invasive or anything, I totally understand, but it’s not like   —  I’m not mad at you or anything.” Hot Customer (Arthur really needs to get his name, he’s not a customer of Kingsmen Mechanics anymore and while he is hot-with-a-capital-H, it feels weird to mentally refer to him as Hot Guy) shrugs a little, offering the bag again.

Arthur stares at him for a moment, dumbfounded, then reaches out to take the bag. Their fingers brush as Hot Customer hands it over, and Arthur has to fight down a blush, with arguable success. “I’m   —  I’m Arthur.”

Hot Customer beams at him. “I’m Lewis. It’s nice to meet you.”

Arthur hesitates. “I…I’d invite you in, but it’s kinda messy and I’m still a little sick…”

Hot Customer   —  Lewis   —  shakes his head, his smile still at full force and full beauty. “If you honestly want company, I’ve got something of an iron immune system. And, well, I’m used to a little mess.”

Arthur nods again, stepping back so Lewis can come in. He quickly kicks the screwdriver away from the door, sending it spinning off towards the wall. “It’s a bit more than a little mess, dude.”

Lewis takes a step in and scans the room, and Arthur has the sudden, panicky urge to shove him back out into the hallway and slam the door, immediately hyper-aware of every tool, nut, bolt, screw, empty pizza box, and dirty item of clothing in his living room. He draws his blanket cape tighter around him, shuffling further in. “Uh. I’ll   — if you gimme a minute I can clear off the couch, or   — I do have a table in the kitchen, actually, I   —”

Lewis shakes his head, glancing at him amusedly. “Seriously, it’s fine. I have both my own apartment and three little sisters, I’ve got no room to judge you over your place being a mess right now.”

Arthur shrugs, shutting the door behind him and facing down the irrevocability of hot guy In his messy apartment with a twisting stomach. At least, Arthur’s desperately hoping it’s just the anxiety twisting his stomach. Vomiting on Lewis again would be the absolute worst possible second impression. “I just  —  I feel like I should apologize, I mean…I literally puked on your shoes, like, the minute we met, and now you come over and find out that no, I just live like this  —”

Lewis, apparently entirely unconcerned with the state of Arthur’s apartment, begins carefully picking his way over to the couch, sitting down and  — starting to stack the mess of mugs and empty takeout containers on the low table in front of it. “Arthur, I know we don’t really know each other, but…you’re sick, I’m not going to take the state of your apartment mid-illness as a reflection of how it usually is.”

Arthur decides against informing the hottest guy he’s ever seen in his entire life that no, his apartment is normally like this, and clears his throat. It turns to a few dry coughs, but he’s able to fight those back pretty quickly. He sets the takeout in the newly-cleared space on the table in front of the couch and flees to the kitchen. He grabs a spoon from the dishwasher and takes a moment to put his face in his hands, try not to hyperventilate, and wonder what the hell he thinks he’s doing.

Momentary freakout over with and armed with a spoon, Arthur heads back out to the living room, sitting on the opposite end of the couch from Lewis and toeing a dirty sock under the couch. The rickety couch creaks ominously under their combined weight, and Arthur holds his breath, but it settles in comfortably. Arthur lets out a sigh, putting the container of soup in his lap and prying the lid off. He hesitates, chewing on his lips and glancing at Lewis, who’s started to look a little awkward, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt sleeve. “So, um…your parents run the Paradiso?”

Lewis’s wide smile comes back, and Arthur has the immediate, all-consuming realization that he would do literally anything to make Lewis smile at him like that. “They do! I…didn’t move here with them because I was still in culinary school at the time, and it’s…a bit of a commute,” he chuckles, and Arthur goes bright red.

He eats some of his soup to give his poor heart a moment to steady, the spice simmering just below the upper reaches of his tolerance level. “You’re going to culinary school?”

“Just graduated, actually! That’s why I’m here, in Tempo. My parents want me to work at the Paradiso for a bit, and keep an eye on the girls.”

“That’s  —  that’s really neat. And really nice of you to move down to Tempo, of all places, so you can keep an eye on your sisters.”

Lewis smiles at him and shakes his head fondly. “They’re handfuls, really. But what about you?”

I’d like to get a good handful of you, Arthur’s traitorous brain murmurs appreciatively. His face flames, and he ducks his head quickly. “I’ve  —  I’ve lived here since I was twelve, and I work at my uncle’s garage. That’s  —” he clears his throat, a fresh wave of anxiety bubbling up. “That’s pretty much it. I’m not all that interesting, sorry.”

Lewis scoffs a little, leaning towards him. “C’mon, I’m sure that’s not true!”

Arthur, now desperate to change the topic and escape from the awkward air his self-deprecation sparked, glances around the room frantically. His eyes land on the TV, and he clears his throat again. “So, um…what kind of movies do you like?”

It’s utterly astonishing to Arthur that despite everything, he and Lewis end up talking for hours. The topic shifts from movies to video games to music to collectables to pets (when Galaham woke up and immediately began to demand his freedom, wheeling around his enclosure loudly) to anime. The soup goes cold in his lap as they talk, almost completely ignored.

They’re in the middle of a debate on whether magical girl animes are better (Lewis) or mecha animes are better (Arthur) when Lewis’s phone begins to ring. Lewis takes the call with a small frown and a hand raised to call timeout, switching to rapid-fire Spanish.

Arthur waits, only catching every fourth word or so (languages have never been his strong suit, and he only took two and a half years of Spanish in high school). After a minute or so, Lewis hangs up and glances at Arthur, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “My mamá  wants me back home so I can babysit.”

Arthur’s stomach sinks, but he nods, pasting on a crooked smile. “No problem, dude. Thanks for the soup and the company.”

Lewis stands up and holds out his hand. “Give me the soup, I’ll heat it up for you.”

Arthur startles, suddenly remembering the soup in his lap. “Oh! Right, yeah. You don’t have to do that, I can do it myself…”

Lewis shakes his head firmly. “You’re sick, I’m not going to make you get up and microwave it when I’m here and already up.” He reaches for the soup in Arthur’s lap, and Arthur’s brain short-circuits.

To save himself the embarrassment, Arthur hastily hands Lewis the soup. As Lewis heads to the kitchen, Arthur presses the blankets to his face and lets out a soft whine that wants to be a scream. He handed Lewis the soup because he wanted to avoid the fantasies that would come from Lewis reaching for his lap with that fond smile, but they’re bubbling up in his mind anyway.

Lewis comes back into the living room with the now-steaming container of soup and that affectionate smile. He puts it down on the table in front of Arthur, then hesitates, visibly bracing himself. Arthur braces himself for a comment on the weird scream Lewis probably heard, or his creepy behavior, or a gentle letdown that Lewis is straight, but, instead, Lewis blurts out, “Can I get your number?”

Arthur blinks, bemused, and his smile grows. “Sure? I mean, how else am I gonna win this argument?”

Lewis laughs, just a little louder than the rest of the ones Arthur’s heard. He pulls out his phone and hands it down. “Yeah, right. I’m not budging on this one, Art. Here, put your number in.”

Arthur quickly saves his number, hesitating for a brief, agonizing moment before putting his name in simply as Arthur. Just because he was kinda-maybe-sorta flirting for the last few hours doesn’t mean Lewis was, too. Lewis probably thought they were having a friendly conversation and nothing more, so putting a heart after his name was both terrifyingly presumptuous and completely inappropriate. Of course, none of that stopped it from being a tempting idea.

He hands Lewis’s phone back with a grin. “Text me when you can. I’ve got nothing better to do and we’ve got a score to settle here.”

Lewis smiles back, and there’s something in his eyes that Arthur can’t quite place, something almost heated. “Talk to you later, Art.”

[smuggsy]

IN PLAIN SIGHT / Chapter 2 A Band of Brothers Story (Chapter 1) + read it on AO3.

There’s no doubt whatever training these men are being put through is thorough and demanding (not that hers hasn’t been, except she can’t really say she’s been made to run up and down a mountain in full gear in the middle of the bloody night. If anything, she’s been doing quite the opposite: just staying in one specific spot unflinching, unmoving and patiently waiting for her targets to give themselves away and receive a couple of harmless empty shells right in the chest).

Private Christenson keeps putting each foot in front of the other without delay, without stop or hesitation.

She, on the other hand…

“I can’t…” she wheezes, her M1903 dangling from her shoulder - Captain Sobel would surely have something to say about that. Private Brown, pick up that goddamn rifle!

  Christenson is a few steps ahead but glances back nonetheless at her breathless remark.

“Believe me, you don’t want to antagonize Sobel” he provides, turning back front. Olivia frowns but hasn’t got enough breath to muster an answer. She’ll antagonize him, all right, or she’ll fall dead before she can reach the top. “He’ll feist on you, newbie.”

This time she lets out a groan and almost falls face down on the dirt - courtesy of a protruding rock. Christenson looks back to her again at the sound of the near-trip.

“He can’t be that bad!” she says, trying to maybe make conversation and sway her attention from her dry throat and throbbing feet, “go on, I’ll meet ya at the top.”

The other private lets out a snort and - bless him - stops running to look at her hunched over and panting her lungs out. He smiles, the mocking idiot, and shakes his head.

“C’mon man we’re nearly there” he nods towards the darkening path ahead, but Olivia gestures for him to continue with an insistent hand gesture.

  “You go, I’ll catch up” she stands up straight, thinking maybe she shouldn’t be slumping down like that, like a wounded animal. Not a great first impression. “Save yourself from the wrath of the big bad wolf” she smiles, getting just a bit more air in her lungs now.

Christenson returns the smile and slowly resumes his pace, slowly so as to give her a chance to join in.

She doesn’t. She feels faint.

She really wasn’t prepared for this - she’d only been here for thirty minutes, for crying out loud!

You’re supposed to have this mastered, remember?

  Well, sue her. They didn’t have a Currahee to climb back in her training camp.

  Her companion isn’t going to risk getting further punishment himself - he gives a short nod in camaraderie and starts getting further away with every second. Olivia doesn’t blame him at all. She does make it to the top eventually, about twenty minutes after he runs past her again.

In short: she’s screwed.

Christenson is nowhere to be seen when she finally makes it back into the training grounds - but Sobel is standing there like a persevering life-statue of Satan himself, arms crossed and stone-faced.

He doesn’t allow her the time to make any excuses.

“Follow me” he simply says, looking way too pleased with himself, much to Olivia’s chagrin. She’s properly carrying her rifle now, and Private Guarnere’s rucksack is still on her back. Her boots are moody and her pants dirty. As for her lungs… probably barely functional.

She doesn’t appreciate her Captain making her walk the entire length of the camp again only to reach his own office and dump all her belongings at the foot of the steps, at her feet.

“You are not fit to be part of my company, private. I suggest you go back to whatever shithole you came out of and repeat whatever shitty training you got. I’ll see you in a couple of years.”

With that, he starts stomping away.

“Sir -”

And he turns around just as quick, furiously stomps back.

“I did not grant you permission to address me, Private” he speaks slowly, clenching his teeth and eyeing her down like she’s the worst scum of the earth.

“Sir -” she shoulders her rifle and stands up straight. “Permission to speak, sir?”

“Denied.”

You tight-up bastard.

  He resumes his walking to the kitchens - light up and cheery - undoubtedly packed till the last table with freshly-clean and tired paratroopers-to-be.

She knows she’s pushing her luck, but she catches up with him again - only a few more chances to try and make him change his mind before he ventures into the sea of soldiers where she cannot follow - what an embarrassing sight that would be, her being turned down and sent back within the hour.

“Sir, I am a sniper, I have passed all my tests - physical and otherwise - I am prepared to-”

“Well you have not passed my test, private, and this conversation is over.” He doesn’t turn around as he dismisses her again. She’s only grateful he hasn’t called her on her insubordination again - speaking out of turn.

The chanting from the kitchens becomes louder and the lights become stronger as they approach - and Olivia is short of aiming up that gun at the bastard and shooting that hat off his head.

“Sir - Captain Sir -”

“WHAT?” He turns around for the second time, spitting on her face like a venomous snake.

Olivia takes a deep breath and stands up straight again, proud.

“I am the finest sniper in my company sir, you can verify that in my papers! I have been assigned to the Airborne as an asset and to aid my comrades in battle! And rest assured I am qualified to do that, sir!”

Her captain seems to weigh her words for a moment. She holds her breath - he can turn around and push that door open and that’ll be the end of it. Lieutenant Nixon will come out and tell her ‘I told you so’ with an egotistical knowing-smile. Mikey will mention it till she’s gray and pissing her pants. God, her father will never speak to her again!

“Very well” Captain Sobel stands up straight himself, and Olivia thinks she’s misheard. There’s a glint in his eyes that she doesn’t notice - he turns around and enters the noisy lunch place and renders it rather silent. He’s out before she can let out that breath, and he’s holding a glass in his hand. “Let us be witness of your almighty abilities!”

And she’s got an audience now - Christenson among the lot, carelessly sharing a fag with a shorter bloke next to him, coming down the steps.

“I ain’t got all night!” Sobel shouts as he walks away - Olivia catches Lieutenant Nixon’s eyes for a split second before she turns around and walks to that bag of rice her Captain has just hastily thrown onto the ground at her feet. He yanks her rifle off her shoulder just like he did with her muffle bag earlier and he makes a face at it as he finds the safe lock. “Three shots, Private Brown. The chance to prove your worth. You miss, you’re out of my camp.”

“I - my bag sir, the ammo -”

“You won’t be using your rifle” Sobel almost sings in his mocking voice, as if addressing a five-year-old, as if that’s obvious information. The Captain makes a nod to someone near, and Olivia turns around to see a short-haired ginger hand over an M1.

When she looks back to Sobel, he’s well away. Far enough that she wouldn’t even hit a melon with this piece of crap.

Well, make do.

Ignoring the mumbling going on behind her - getting louder and only meaning her crowd of onlookers is getting bigger - she silently and slowly kneels and then gets down onto her position, resting her upper chest and left arm on the bag of rice and finding it very uncomfortable.

Sobel shakes the glass in the air and sets it on the ground, easily more than 300 feet away.

“Three!” he shouts again, just in case she didn’t understand him before.

“For heaven’s sake” she hears someone mumble near in disbelief, she doesn’t turn to look at him - not that she’d be able to find him anyway.

“Told ya to keep it up, boy” Christenson’s voice comes up among all the excited bets being placed. “That’s the big bad wolf right there” he laughs. Olivia clenches her teeth.

The M1 is less practical to maneuver, and she’s just getting into position when she hears someone coming up to her. Shiny boots.

“Get up, private” Lewis Nixon demands, impassible.

She doesn’t flinch.

Isn’t Sobel the one who’s got the last say, anyway?

“No, sir. I’m fine.”

“You’re panting like a dying goose, you’re not gonna hit that target now get on your feet.”

She still doesn’t move - despite knowing he’s damned well right. She’s only postponing the inevitable. That is a fucking transparent glass - it’s dark and she doesn’t even have the proper equipment.

She sighs, focuses on slowing down her breaths. She’s shaking too much.

“Got nothing to lose sir, I fail I go.”

The Lieutenant lingers for a bit longer, as if battling with his thoughts. He gives up shortly after and takes a few steps back towards the men.

Sobel is impatiently waiting at a safe-distance from her target - an insulting stretch of land, she thinks, and it only helps to feed her resolve to make it burst into a million tiny pieces of glass right in front of him. She’s still not ready, though, and with half of Easy Company on her rear being inconsiderately loud, she’s definitely not coming down her hype any time soon.

“Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye…” a mocking voice sings near, laughter follows.

I will be saving your fucking asses, you bunch of ungrateful idiots.

“Cheeri-o, here I go, on my way!” a few more voices join in.

When she sees Sobel taking a step towards them she gets lower - even closer to the ground - and rests her finger on the trigger to gain herself some time. She can barely make out the shape of the glass by squinting her eyes. It’s too damn far!

“Ey blondie, think ya could aim a little more to the left and up?” Someone jokes near, and that nearly prompts a laugh out of her. Good to know someone’s sharing her sentiment.

She takes the first shot in between heartbeats - just as she’s learnt and just as she’s always succeeded in hitting her targets before.

This one she doesn’t hit.

She tries to drown out the whoops and giggles from behind and clear her mind - closing her eyes, breathing down deep, deeper. Letting the air out slowly through her mouth and completely shutting one eye to get a better perspective - it doesn’t make much difference: the next shot doesn’t reach its target either.

Sobel starts making his way back, swaying proudly like the egotistical asshole he is.

‘Don’t dwell on it, just shoot. Don’t think, if you’re calm enough you take the shot, you’ll have mayhem around you, you don’t have time to think! Time is not on your side! Just. Shoot.’

At the sound of the glass exploding, she sees Sobel turn around abruptly to confirm what he’s just heard has actually happened - to be honest, it’s his reaction what makes her believe it as well, and his unhappy face as he stomps his way back to the group. She’s still on the floor - frozen in place by shock - when a bunch of guys behind start cheering.

Actually cheering.

By the time she’s on her feet again, Sobel is nowhere to be seen and she feels a bit like throwing up. She only sees the back of Lieutenant Nixon walking behind the hellish Captain before she’s surrounded by men patting her shoulder and grinning at her like she’s their pet-puppy.

She’s never felt so out of place in her entire life.

“Holy shit!”

“Imma be honest I thought you were outta here” a tall blonde one says with a strong southern accent.

“Did you see Sobel’s face?” A shorter one asks to no-one in particular, excitedly.

“What platoon you on?”

Olivia turns to the ginger as everyone becomes silent and awaits her answer.

“2nd Platoon” she says, uninterested, still rather dazed by the whole thing.

There’s more cheering after that.

Another brown-haired trooper throws an arm around her shoulder, “Whas’ your name again?” he asks, offering a happy grin.

“It’s Oliver you muck!” someone provides near.

“Outta my way boys! Imma get young Oli here a drink,” he offers his hand, Olivia shakes it with her free one, still tightly holding onto the M1 Garand that isn’t even hers. “Alex Penkala.”

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 8: Identity - Legless On Maim Chap. 3: Oh, You’ve Got Secrets, Alright! Just Not Super Ones!

Danny can’t have a single day without dramatics, Lewis probably shouldn’t be talking about cannibals with any level of fondness, and Valerie’s going to have a heart attack if Danny keeps this crap up.

Danny gets woken by someone clearly fiddling with the window and a faint beeping. Blinking his eyes and turning his head, raising his eyebrows at Val’s back as she seems to be reattaching the window to its hinges and turning off her ghost radar. Moving his tail under himself, “I thought only ghosts rejected using doors”. Making her jump and bang her head slightly, which Danny snickers over.

Valerie flips him off over her shoulder and finishes with the window, speaking as she turns around, “the hospital wouldn’t let me up and the window doesn’t open wide enou-Zone Danny!”.

Walking over to him with wide eyes as he chuckles, “they’re not supposed to be peopled-sized. You know, for safety”.

She grabs a chair and sits down right next to him, running a hand over his right arm cast. Muttering, “fuck it”, and pulling out a sharpie and signing it.

Danny sighing, “I’m probably going home in a few days, most of this is just being over cautious”.

Valerie glares at him, “somehow I doubt that”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “my parents have a doctor friend. As in the head surgeon kind of doctor friend. Great guy, I’ve seen more of him than my own hair. So to say I’m being given special treatment might be a major understatement”.

Valerie sighs and nods with a smile, “okay that makes more sense then. A head surgeon can probably do what ever he wants. Including unnecessary stuff just in case”.

“Exactly”, sighing and deciding he should probably get the elephant in the room over with, “but, um, look down Val”.

She looks at the floor making Danny laugh and shake his head, “I mean down me”. Watching as she looks to his ‘legs’ and sucks in a breath. Then poking at the sheets, pushing down till her finger contacts the bed itself. Dragging her finger towards him, so he makes his tail invisible and intangible to keep her from bumping into it. She stops her finger a bit away from where his torso ends. Before breathing out again and leaning back.

They sit in silence, her staring where his legs should be, until the faint beeping starts again. Her grumbling, “oh shut up”, turning off her radar again. Which is actually concerning to Danny. He can tell there’s no ghosts here and her suit can’t normal detect him. Could it be because of the tail? That, and she doesn’t just ignore a possible ghost. Danny sighs softly, “you okay?”.

“I just, I, I’m”, she looks at him then, tears in her eyes which just hurts for Danny to see, before she shakes her head and blinks them away. Swallowing harshly, “why are you asking me that?”.

Danny gives her a soft smile, “because I’m fine and you don’t seem to be. This is, well, it’s a lot. But I’ll be fine”, chuckling faintly and looking down to his ‘legs’, “my folks are already going off about exoskeletons and Mecha’s and robo legs. And you’ve seen the stuff they make. I’ll be fine”, looking back at her, who’s teary eyed again, “and I’ve never seen you ignore that beeping thing”.

Valerie blinks and gapes at him a bit, shaking her head, “I, you noticed that”, shaking her hair again, “it’s just not...important enough right now”.

“Don’t let me stop you. I don’t want people stopping their lives and fun over me”.

Valerie stares at him some more before looking pissed off, “you’re an idiot Danny”, standing up and running her hands through her hair, messing it up pretty badly, “I can’t believe you!”, turning around definitely pissed and gesturing at his ‘legs’, “you are missing limbs! You lost your legs! You only have half a body! And you want me to just shrug that off! And! AND GO CHASE SOME STUPID DAMN GHOST?!? WHAT THE FUCK DANNY! DO YOU JUST NOT CARE!”.

Danny stares, caught off guard and a bit startled, as she walks away from him and bangs her head against the window; clasping her hands over the back of her head. Danny looks at himself, he could understand how it’s upsetting. His friends and sister would probably be more upset if they didn’t know about his healing and weren’t so sure they’d grow back. Lewis was a doctor, the surgeon who removed them specifically, of course he wasn’t bothered. His parents were adults and probably felt like they ‘had to be strong’ for him, and they were strange people. Valerie was just a teen like him, one who dedicated her time to fighting ghosts and protecting people. Who...absolutely never wanted anyone else to get hurt. Deciding to give her the same thing Lewis gave him, “it was a drunk driver, not a ghost. In case you didn’t know. And I’m...I’m hardly the worst off”. Danny cringes and makes a point to shake off that train of thought. Easily being distracted by Val breathing out loudly.

She walks back over and sits down again, sighing and staring at where Danny’s ‘legs’ should be for a bit. Looking to his face and playing with her hands, while he gives her a soft smile. Shaking her head, “no I didn’t know that”, shrugging, “I guess that makes it a bit more okay”.

Danny snorts, giving her a smirk and lowering his voice, “no way a ghost could ever seriously hurt a Fenton!”.  

Valerie glares at him, “I’m really tempted to hit you. I still can’t believe you”, she blinks realising exactly what she had yelled at him, screwing up her face before she starts laughing with tears in her eyes, “oh Zone I just told you I chase ghosts!”.

Danny watches her curl up a little bit, unsure if she’s laughing or sobbing, “are...is everything okay?”.

Valerie shakes her head and breaths a little, “no Danny. Nothing’s okay”. Then resting her arms and cheek on the railing of the bed; occasionally wiping at her eyes and watching his face.  

They just stare at each other for a while, Danny eventually sighing wistfully, “I’ve missed this you know”.

Valerie nods slightly, knowing damn well he wasn’t talking about the state of his body or the hospital. Jerking from her radar going off again, it being far louder in her head.

Danny shakes his head as she turns it off again, “can’t you just completely turn whatever off?”. She shakes her head and she rests against the rails again.

Muttering as she stares off into space, “nothing to do with those damn spooks can ever be so simple”.

“Tell me about it”, Danny wiggles around some, which Valerie actually cringes over. Danny, deciding she had basically outed herself, asks, “I’ll take it that sound’s a ghost sensor or something?”.

She nods, still staring off, “I’d rather not give my backstory or why right now. It’s not importantly currently”.

Danny blinks, she had pretty well said he, or at least his current state, was more important than being Red. “That’s fine. But, um, what’s it even sensing?”.

Valerie shrugs, “don’t care”.

“Well I do”.

Valerie looks at him then, sighing as he looks rather serious. It made some sense, his parents were hunters and he couldn’t exactly...run...Zone he couldn’t run at all. Ever. Shaking her head to clear the new tears and pulling out her sensor as subtly as she could. Scrunching up her eyebrows at it, whispering, “you. It’s you”, then looking at Danny with confusion.

Danny groans, of course it was him, great, “I was afraid of that”, shifting some and pulling his tail out from under himself, Valerie’s watching his face so she doesn’t notice the movement. Danny, knowing her scanner was far more specific than his parents, “is it flat-out calling me a ghost?”.

Valerie looks back to her scanner and shakes her head. It was labelling him as one of the little wisps. Which were practically ectoplasmic fauna or just part of the Zone’s atmosphere rather than true ghosts. Clearing her throat, “no. Wisp”, she’s just going to assume he knows what that is; with his parents he really should.

Danny nods with a smile, “good, that makes sense”.

Valerie snaps shut and turns off her radar. Snapping without any real bite, “how the fuck does it”, shaking her head, “whatever, doesn’t matter. Ghost everything can get fucked and leave me alone right now”.

“Um, ow?”.

Valerie looks at him and he cracks a wide smile; eventually making both of them start laughing. Valerie patting his arm, “thanks. I needed that”, sighing and giving him a soft smile, “your ghost, or whatever is going on, is fine”.

Danny snorts, “glad to hear it. My folks haven’t noticed it yet. But, um, think you could give me your two cents on it? Before they do? Since you do what they do, obviously, but are less crazy”, Danny leaves out the fact that, unlike his friends, she wouldn’t just tell him what he wants to hear. And Lewis is...well, okay, Lewis is too weird. He wants a somewhat normal persons input.

Valerie sighs and fiddles with her hands, “I can’t believe I just dumped that on you”, nodding at him, “but shoot”.

Danny swallows and shifts some, “you heard of phantom limbs?”, at her nod he continues, “well my body seemed to take that a little literal”, then poking his ghostly tail out near her and wiggling it at her.

Valerie blinks a couple times before cupping her hands, Danny letting his tail rest in her hands as she speaks, “is that? Is this?”. At Danny’s nod she moves one hand and lifts up the sheets. Watching the ghostly tail wiggle and vibrate, bits of ectoplasm misting and evaporating off occasionally. Looking back to the portion in her hand and rubbing her thumb over it. Which Danny shivers from.

At her raised eyebrow, Danny shrugs awkwardly, “it’s a new sensation okay.  And I’m pretty sure that was, like, the equivalent of petting my feet”.

Valerie screws up her face before snorting and laughing. Danny slipping his tail out of her hand and huffing, rolling his eyes, “and here I gave you the gift of being the first hunter, or whatever, to hold a humanish ghostly tail”.

Valerie calms down and sighs, “how is this even possible?”, shaking her head, “I’m glad you still have something though. It’s not...painful or uncomfortable, is it?”.

Danny shrugs, poking the tip out again, just leaving it to wave slowly, “no. Like weirdly bendy liquid and light legs, stuffed in one of those fake mermaid tails. Sorta staticy too, I can tell it’s made of energy. Though I can’t make it stop moving really, which yes, is a bit annoying. Especially since I’m hiding it”.

Valerie blinks and nods, his weird behaviour made more sense now. Having this...tail, probably made him not feel like half a body. It was ‘like legs’, so it was almost like his legs had just...changed. But still...how was he supposed to walk around with this? He can’t. And the hiding, he certainly couldn't just go around with this on display. Running her hand over the tail a bit more awkwardly than in shock and awe, and higher up which doesn’t make Danny shiver. “How are you even hiding this from the staff? Your families doctor friend?”, shaking her head, “if I were you, I’d be sort of scared of this”.

Danny snorts, moving his tail away from her and curling the tail tip in front of his face, “it startled me yeah. But it’s not like I can’t control or feel it. So it’s just my body. Plus-”, Danny fixes up his hair with the tail some, “-its basically my only free appendage. I am decidedly not a fan of someone damn spoon feeding me”.

Valerie giggles lightly at that. Danny, rolling his eyes, “oh shut up, it’s degrading”, shuffling and wiggling the tail back under the sheets. Letting it move around as it pleases, “and doc knows. He noticed before I did. Let’s just say, there’s a reason he’s friends with my folks. Stick around and you’ll probably meet him”. Danny’s almost worried since it’s nearly noon and literally no one else has shown up to check on him. Sure it’s nice, but also not normal.

Valerie nods, watching the tail basically squirm under the sheets. It’s definitely freaky and she wouldn’t like it coming off her. But if Danny’s okay with it then she’ll just roll with it. Shaking her head, “Zone that’s weird”, then looking to Danny’s face and resting against the railing again, “but it’s your body. How are you going to get around though? This, Zone Danny, you still don’t have legs. I’ll gladly push you around school, but I don’t think you’d actually like that”.

Danny shakes his head, “I’m not going back to school till I have some form of legs. And honestly, I’d rather not have people know about the legless thing”.

“So you want to pass off fake or ghost ones as your...er, originals?”. She stares at him as he nods somewhat erratically. She can’t blame him for just wanting to be treated normal. Well, treated normally. People would treat him different if they knew. Which makes her wince and sigh sadly. Nodding at him, “if that’s what you want to do, I’ll go along with it”, smiling at him, “I wouldn’t want a pity party either”.

“And I don’t want one from you”.

Valerie looks down at the bed and nods slightly before looking back up to his eyes, “it’s more that you scared me. Reminded me how much I damn care about you. I...ended things, because I didn’t want you to get hurt because of what I do. And here you are, hurt anyway. I could have done something, maybe if I had been with you, I could have done something”.

Danny sighs somewhat fondly though worrying about Amity again. Cringing slightly over the thought of her being with him and thusly getting injured. “I’m glad you weren’t. I’ll take my injures being worse over someone else getting hurt. You know damn well I’d be beating myself up if you were with me and got hurt”.

Valerie smiles slightly, it’s a little forced, “we have some issues”. Danny just hums in agreement, while she traces her fingers over the cast. Clearing her throat, “so...”.

Danny smiles slightly, staring at each other, “you were an idiot back then”, smirking at her embarrassed eye roll, “I mean really, my parents are hunters Val. Reckless, aggressive and slightly crazy ones”.

She sighs and nods slightly, “yeah...I know. It’s just, I cared, I care, and I just...didn’t want you to get hurt”, glancing down at the tail again and shaking away the attempting to form tears.

Danny shifts his head to be a little closer to her and nods, “I can understand that. I never want anyone to get hurt. I’ll gladly take the hits instead”.

Valerie blinks, “is that why you never hit Dash? So he doesn’t aim for someone else?”.

Danny swallows and nods, twitching slightly, “I mean yeah and um, is he beating other people up?”.

She glares at him, “fucking Zone Danny”, he sounded more bothered by the idea of Dash hurting someone other than him, than he was about losing his own damn legs. Especially watching him huff, twitch and look at her again, seeming almost pleading. Shaking her head, “you’re a damn idiot”, sighing, “no. He actually seems more bothered by you being gone and hurt than Sam and Tucker do. Your, um, locker has a lot more dents in it now”, she screws up her face and laughs slightly, school was really weird right now, “there’s flowers and stuff around your locker, your pictures on it too. He keeps punching it”.

Danny can’t help but laugh at that mental image, satisfied that he was still somehow protecting people from the bully. Though he can’t help but blink and wonder, is Dash becoming Obsessive over bullying him? He should probably be more bothered by that possibility, but it would assure Dash always aimed at him. Shaking his head, “you’d think I died”.

Valerie shrugs, “I guess everyone sort of realised how much of a staple you are of the school. Your weird is just part of the school and town. Like if Dash or Paulina got hurt. Everyone’s noticed the absence”, tracing on his arm cast again, “it’s like everyone’s in Danny withdrawal. Even the weathers been weird”.

Danny shifts a bit awkwardly, that might be more accurate than she thinks. Amity was his lair, and they were all part of it. His lair would be missing him, reacting with displeasure to the lack of his constant shedding off ectoplasm. And of course all his humans would be very used to his shedded ectoplasm. Technically they literally were in withdrawal from him, from his ectoplasm. That’s one side affect that he didn’t see coming. Guess it made sense that his lair and his humans were attached to him, as he was to them. Though that makes him feel a little bad, would one of his general Amity humans go into literal withdrawal if they tried to move out? Were away from him too long? That would be bad and harmful for them. Which is firmly not okay. Clearing his throat and twitching, “you make it sound like I’m addictive”, forcefully chuckling, “think any of you could quit me?”.  

Valerie squints at him, “it’s not like no one’s ever left, so duh Danny. You’re just a normal part of everyone’s life. And no way am I quitting you”, glaring at him, “so don't you dare die”.

Danny nods with a slight smile, that’s right, Mia and Hanna had moved away as soon as they graduated; pretty sure they got married too. Curling his tail out and using it to pat her shoulder, “I ain’t about to let the other half of me keel over”.

Valerie gapes at him, both stunned and unsurprised he just made that kind of joke. Whacking his head, “oh my Zone! I can’t believe you!”, glaring at him before shaking her head with a slightly smile, “I, fucking Zone Danny, you damn well better not”.

Danny smirks devilishly pretty much letting his tongue fly, “ah one of the things I’ve always loved about ya, not afraid to give me a good beating”. He really did enjoy their battles and even as Fenton she had no problem giving him love taps. Though thinking over that just makes him blush a little and look away from her, glancing around the room; regretting his mouth slightly.

Valerie blinks, Danny always managed to be startling, and both disarming and alarming. Feeling the now somewhat awkward tension building up a little, looking at and tracing her fingers on her arm, muttering, “fuck it”, before looking at his face; him turning to her and raising a confused eyebrow. Goddamn him and his adorable stupidly expressive face.

Pushing off the railing and kissing him almost aggressively. Which Danny melts into a little, tail wiggling a bit more erratically and curling around some. Near whispering at her as she pulls away a bit, “if this is spurred on by guilt or pity, I’ll be pissed”.

“No you damn idiot”.

Raising his eyebrows at her mischievously, “but a cute idiot right?”.

Valerie rolls her eyes and kisses him again, more softly this time, before sitting back down. Resting on the railing again, “idiot”.

“Oh so I’m not cute?”.

“I can’t believe you”, rolling her eyes at him giving her a pouty face, “yes you are cute, happy?”.

Danny smirks, “very much so and you don’t seem to be able to believe much about me today”.

She flips him off, “you’re in a hospital without legs, and your body’s pulling some strange shit; while you’re cracking jokes. You’ve earned my total disbelief”.

Danny smirks but looks down at his tail, which is still moving around a bit erratically. He’s deciding to just let it do it’s thing, considering he’s got to get used to it always being there, instead of just when he’s flying; possibly for the rest of his half-life. Valerie following his line of sight, giggling a little awkwardly, “it’s really energetic huh?”.

Danny snickering, “very energised you could say”.

“Oh my Zone Danny”, shaking her head at him and poking the tail through the sheets quickly. Which Danny makes his tail still somewhat for. Valerie rolls her eyes at that and looks back at his face, “don't stop on my account. Probably sucks not being able to really move much”, giggling more genuinely, it was as if it was reacting to Danny’s feelings or whatever. The kiss. Kissing. Deciding to test that out because it was honestly a good distraction and yes, she was an idiot before.

Danny knows she’s up to something when she catches him off guard with another kiss but smirks through it, clearly seeing she’s watching his tail. Deciding to humour her, he lets it do its thing; wiggling and pulsing happily. She laughs genuinely, making Danny feel quite content with himself, as she sits back again. Shaking her head after a beat before leaning against the railing once more, “this is so weird and you’re not the only one allowed to be an idiot sometimes”.

Danny shrugs and looks around a little awkwardly, “well I’ve got to get used to it, and, well, so does everyone else. Whose close to me anyway”, shrugging, “don’t wanna make you uncomfortable with all the waving and squirming”.

Valerie rolls her eyes and flicks his head, prompting him to look back to her as she talks, “idiot. It’s weird yeah. How could it not be Danny? But weird’s kind of your thing”, shrugging and giving him a soft smile, “if weird bothered me I wouldn’t be here”.

Danny makes a face and nods, “point”, Danny shifts his head to be closer to where she’s resting, “I guess you’re pretty strange yourself”, chuckling, “guess you’d have to be and by the way, Sam and Tuck have seen the tail too”.

She pats his head, “no surprise there”, she blinks and laughs, “oh Zone. This is why they have little white snake plushies on their backpacks”.

Danny huffs, “those little shits”, honestly Danny’s a little touched and amused by that.

Valerie smirks down at him, “I’ll have to ask where they got them”, smirking more as Danny gives her an overacted pouty face.

Danny then blinks and glances at the clock, it was well past one now, looking back to her, “are you skipping school?”.

Valerie raises an eyebrow at him, “you’re one to talk. How often are you actually in class? All class?”.

Danny just rolls his eyes as they sit in silence again. Eventually both of them just close their eyes and exist in each other’s space. Danny, taking a bit of a risk, lazily and absent-mindedly winds his tail around in her hair, effectively petting her. Asking softly after a while, “this fine?”.

Valerie hums, “feels kind of nice actually”, cracking open an eye at him, “what does it feel like to you though?”. She doesn’t really have a word to describe it but it was like a snake winding around in her hair. A cold snake, that was occasionally making aborted attempts at braiding, or something, her hair. Also like being really close to something very high in static electricity. His...ectoplasmic energy -Zone that was weird to think- prickling at her scalp, almost tickling.

Danny tilts his head some, not bothering to open his eyes, “hmmmm. Kind of like licking your hair but without taste buds and very limblessly. Which-”. Danny snorts as Valerie mutters, “goddamnit Danny”. Danny picks back up, “which hair seems more textured this way. And I’m pretty sure I can actually feel some of my shedding ectoplasm seeping into you. Also, that pun was not intentional”.

Valerie glances at the tail, watching it wiggle slightly and ectoplasm definitely misting off occasionally. Still incredibly weird that was attached to him. She might as well not question it though. She knew about half ghosts and those didn’t make a lick of sense. Blinking some, wait...technically, right, wasn’t Danny technically half ghost now? Just a lot more literal. Zone that was messed up. Forcing down feelings of pity, because Danny doesn’t want and doesn’t need that. Letting his tail running through her hair bring her back to the conversation, “that’s a little gross Danny. Everyone around you is going to be horribly contaminated”.

Danny can’t help but laugh at that. That was already accurate, more so than she knew. Opening his eyes and smirking at her, able to see his tail to the side, “be glad I’m leaving ectoplasm not saliva”. She hits his forehead for that.

Lewis walks in barely five minutes later as they’ve settled into silence again. Danny and Valerie looking at him as the door slowly closes, holding two coffees and a container. Lewis raises an eyebrow, “am I interrupting something?”. While Danny’s tail had paused in its twisting up of some pieces of Valerie’s hair.

Danny, being someone without much in the way of shame, “what’s up doc? Apparently I’m not as single as I thought”, tail resuming its ‘task’.

“Oh my Zone Danny”, Valerie tries to bat away his tail, which he manoeuvres around her hand for a while before letting her actually bat it off.

Lewis gives him an unimpressed glare and puts one coffee, with a straw, on the table, “that is never funny. I expected better from you”, shrugging loosely, “ehh at least there’s no tendrils”.

Danny squints at him, “what is it with you and... ‘tendrils’?”.

Valerie grumbles, “I’m content not knowing the answer to that”.  

Danny shifts and sips at his coffee some, it was decidedly not hospital coffee. Pointing his tail at Val, “this is Valerie by the way”, pointing at Lewis and looking to Val, “this is Dr. Lewis, though the doctor parts kinda obvious”.

Lewis smiles cheerily as he puts the container to the side, “yup. I’m the guy who whacked off his legs”.

Danny uses his tail to facepalm, muttering into it, “oh Ancients”. While Valerie cringes and near physically recoils, making a face at Lewis.

Lewis turns around speaking, “what?”, before spotting Valerie’s, definitely freaked out face. Clearly she was a more normal person, meaning his comment was probably really unpleasant. Clearing his throat, “I believe I’ve made a bad first impression”.

Danny rolls his eyes and has some more coffee, “understatement doc, not everyone around me is completely strange”.

Lewis nods, he really shouldn’t assume but everyone he’s met who’s around Danny were very much strange people. Pointing the rim of his cup at Danny’s tail, which is hanging off the bed slightly and waving in the air, gravity clearly didn’t apply to it, “well you were doing something arguably weird and she seemed fine with it. So she’s got some tolerance for strange”.

Valerie grumbles, “strange is not the same as making jokes about...that”, shaking her head and glaring at Danny, “I’d expect that out of you though. And I’d call you an idiot over it”.

Danny smirks at her, “what? no side of mild assault?”, looking to Lewis as she whacks Danny in the face, “she likes to give love taps”.

Lewis taps his chin and laughs, “you know. I walked in on a friend of mine tipping the fridge over on another friend of mine, screaming, ‘how’s that for a love tap bitch!’”, Lewis shrugs, “I just stood there for a while, as the first friend tried to shove part of the other friend down the sink drain. But hey! they make great coffee, so positives”.

Danny looks at his cup and nods a bit awkwardly, “you’re not...wrong. But your friends have issues. A lot of them”.  

Valerie bends over and wheezes, before sitting back up straight and wiping away a tear. Shaking her head at Danny, “pretty sure I overheard Tucker mention that you got a flaming stove thrown at you once”.

Danny points his tail at her, “but I wasn’t friends, or possibly lovers, with them!”.

Lewis jerks, going slightly wide-eyed and snaps his fingers, “that’s right!”, making the two look at him, “they are a couple. One of them said so, the other just said ‘what? We are?’ and looked confused yet hopeful. The first practically shrieked at him, “of course we are you idiot! You think I’d put up with this crap from anyone else you absolute fool!” and threw a pot at him; which ricocheted into my face. It’s been a morning”.

Danny shakes his head, “good for them? You friends are absolute disasters. I’m not sure if that makes things better or worse”, people who sound like this much of a mess don’t accidentally just decide to become murders. And they also don’t get away with it unless people are just letting them do it.

Valerie pokes him, “pot calling the kettle black. I’ve been calling you an idiot all morning. And are you trying to claim you’re not a disaster?”.

Danny flinches a little bit, “we’re not the same”. Lewis easily picking up that was over being compared to someone, two someones, who hurt people. Nodding quickly, “Danny’s much more moral and the two of them really barely hold themselves together most of the time. That’s without taking into account the excessive drinking, tendencies that probably verge on suicidal, and frequently shutting themselves off from the entire world”.

Valerie looks at Danny and pats his head, “um, thanks for not doing that”. While Danny just chuckles awkwardly, there was plenty that those two did that he would never do.

Lewis squints at Valerie and then looks to the door, which had been locked, tilting his head. Looking back and asking, “how’d you get in here anyway?”.

“Window”.

“I’m sneaky”, Valerie looks at Danny, “you idiot”.

Lewis scratches his head and looks at the window, “I'm guessing you undid the hinges. Though how’d you even get up this high?”, blinking and looking at her, “did you scale the building?!?”.

Danny knew she had just flown her board up here but he couldn’t exactly say that. Since she didn’t know he knew and her being a hunter wasn’t his secret to be telling. So instead he shrugs and looks at her.

Valerie blushes slightly and just shrugs. Not about to give some random weird adult that answer.

Lewis shakes his head and looks at Danny, “you know, part of the reason for the locked door is so people can’t just waltz in here and see your quote-unquote ‘weird’”, tapping his chin and pointing at Valerie, “And isn’t it a school day?”.

Valerie groans as Danny points his tail at her, “oh no an adult called you out, better scam before you get in trouble”.

“I’m not ten Danny, I don’t have to listen to adults”.

Lewis clears his throat, “well this is actually my hospital. More or less. So technically”.

Valerie tilts her head back and stands, “oh Zone, fine”, walking to the door, “don’t do something stupid or die”, pausing to turn around and point at him, “don’t do something stupid and die”.

Danny smirks, “ouch”, as the door closes. Easily overhearing someone saying, “hey! You’re that girl who was trying to get in earlier!”. Hearing Valerie mutter, “oh shit”, before Danny laughs over hearing running footsteps.

Lewis raises an eyebrow at him so Danny shakes his head with a small smile, “your nurses or security or whatever are giving Val shit, chasing after her”, smirking devilishly, “they won’t catch her though”.

Lewis tilts his head as he grabs the container, “how do you know they’re doing that?”, taking a piece of chocolate cake out of the container and putting it on the table, “cake?”.

Danny blushes slightly and looks around awkwardly, “good hearing”, looking at the slice of cake, “considering you said your friends cook with blood, where’d that come from?”.

Lewis waves him off, “I made it. It was an apology cake for those two since I didn’t exactly have permission to be telling vague tales about them. They let me keep two pieces because of hitting me with a pot”, squinting at him, “and that’s some seriously strong hearing you’ve got then”.

Danny shakes his head, grabs the fork with his tail and takes a bite, blinking and speaking with a full mouth, “furk you mack goo caughck”, and having some more.

Lewis shrugs, “I’m the cook and baker in the marriage”.

Danny points the fork, “then your at least partly on cooking duty’s at the house. Unless it’s fudge, my parents cooking is questionable”.

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me”.

After a while of Lewis quietly sipping his coffee and Danny polishing off the cake and it’s plate. Danny takes a sip of his coffee, “soooooo, obviously you talked to your...Ancients...murder buddies”, looking at the cup, “they make a strong coffee by the way”.

Lewis nods and sips his, “nothing weird in it. One of them just likes his coffee, and I quote, ‘physically painful enough to consume, that it cleanses me of my sins’. I’ve seen him chug it while both boiling and ice cold. Sometimes he goes halfsies with hard liquor and even I can’t drink that. I prefer my tongue and throat intact”.

Danny blinks, muttering, “oh Ancients, goddamnit”, looking at Lewis, “I prefer ‘bitter enough to yeet my ghost out of my meat-suit and leave my shell a bloodied husk’”.

Lewis dips his head, “that’s arguably more intense and disturbing. Vee would approve”.

Danny blinks, “sweet Ancients, did I just get an actual name”.

Lewis nods as he tosses his empty cup and sits down, ankles crossed, “technically they don’t have a name, but ‘Vee’ is what everyone calls them. They’re the weird one. The other, Eddie, is the disaster”.

Danny grumbles, “they both sound like disasters”, before sipping at his coffee and staring Lewis down, “so they said they’re cool with you telling me their shit? And what did you tell them about me?”.

Lewis smiles and chuckles, it had been an interesting morning, “yes they did. And honestly, barely anything. The first mention of you was simply that you had a strange physiology and had things in common with them. Vee instantly got excited and near shouted at the other, ‘increasing social circles is healthy! Eddie! Go be healthy!’. Which just became an argument about wether or not they needed more friends. Vee won that one. The only other things I told them was that you’re a minor, which Eddie wasn’t too pleased by but also didn’t seem to care much, and that you weren’t literally like them. The last thing was that I’m treating you for injuries and that they really should wait to say hi until after your healed”.

Danny blinks, that little? Seriously? Either they really trusted Lewis’s judgment or they have very very little sense of self preservation. Shaking his head, “that’s kind of sad really”.

Lewis isn’t about to deny that, “me and my wife are their only friends really. The bodega lady is almost a friend though. But she likes anyone who buys her stuff and saved her life, so long as they don’t cause problems for her”.

Danny shrugs, he couldn’t really judge. He just had two human friends too. And a girlfriend apparently. But he also had his parents and he was on friendly terms with most humans. And most ghosts he’d met were either friends or frenemies. Quirking an eyebrow, “wait, why’d you have to point out I wasn’t exactly like them? Did they literally just jump to the conclusion I was?”.

Lewis chuckles and nods, “yeah. The one thing they are genuinely paranoid about is others like them. See, Vee is basically a complete outlier. All the others like them that have ever been around are basically evil. They were functionally exiled and marked for death because of being different. So there isn’t any others like them around”, Lewis frowns, “that’s kind of why I was so eager at the prospect of you, someone with at least some things in common with both of them, possibly befriending them”.

Danny breathes out, “fuck that sucks but I kind of know the feeling”, considering how the G.I.W. would treat him if the world ever found out. So this ‘Vee’ didn’t fit in, which was pretty literally like him. Except it was over behaviour, or way of thinking maybe, rather than deadness. But at least there were others like Danny.....okay one was crazy and sort of evil and the other was a clone. Nodding, “the only other like me for a long time is basically evil, so I get that”, squinting a little, “but these two aren’t really or fully human, are they?”.

Lewis smiles and nods, not wanting to make an assumption that Danny is guessing that because he’s not truly human. Which honestly, he probably could be considered part ghost, couldn’t he? “Vee’s an alien actually. Eddies human. But-”.

Danny cuts off Lewis, looking very excited, “ALIEN!!! Dude you should have started with that! That’s AWESOME!! I am a goddamn space nerd dude! Oh Ancients that’s cool! Where are they from!?! What’s it like!?! Rock texture!?! What’s the air like!?! How many stars are there!?! What’s their trajectory with earth!?! Other solar systems!?! Oh! Oh! Have they been closer to Canis Major!?! I’ve always loved that one! Liked to think if I just went fast enough I could rocket up into space! And-OH MY ANCIENTS! HAVE THEY! OH ANCIENTS END ME! HAVE THEY BEEN TO OTHER PLANETS!?!”.

Lewis blinks as Danny just goes off on a massive tangent about what possible kinds of planets he thinks could exist and star situations in different galaxies. He guesses that maybe he should have mentioned the alien thing way sooner. If only to make Danny more comfortable and interested. He’s also chalking up Danny not seemingly pausing for breaths as an ectoplasm thing. Blinking, slightly startled, as Danny has just completely lost him; the sheer amount he knew would probably startle an astronaut. Watching excited brightly glowing green eyes and his tail basically just vibrating, waving and coiling all over the place. It was like Vee with chocolate. Bordering on obsessive and disturbing. Which was actually impressive. Listening as he goes off about the inner workings of spaceships and ‘how did they get here!?! What’s their ship like!?! Do they have one still!?!’ And how Danny apparently knew how to pilot spaceships. Lewis puts up his hands at Danny basically saying he actually did pilot one once, “woah woah Danny! I’m not the alien. And what do you mean you ‘landed one once’?”.

Danny blinks, breathing for a bit before looking at Lewis, he did say that didn’t he? Stupid mouth. But...SPACE! Finally clueing in that his eyes are basically blazing ectogreen grounds him a fair bit though. Blinking a few times and pushing down his ectoenergy, “heh heh. I really like space”.

“I can tell”.

Danny shrugs awkwardly, tail still whipping around and vibrating excitedly, “and you just told me your friend is from space. Excuse me for needing my ‘freak the fuck out’ moment”.

Lewis chuckles, “far be it for me to dictate what you take interest in. I’d say obsess over but that’s got different connotations with you. Also the landing a spaceship thing?”.

Danny chuckles awkwardly, “it’s a wonder space isn’t my Obsession. And yeah that happened. Ghost stone thing brought a spaceship to life, it tried to eat me, took the stone out and had to pilot the spaceship to land safely”.

Lewis blinks, “starting to think you have a very long list of very weird exploits”.

Danny shrugs, looking to change the subject, “soooo...aliens? Or alien really”.

Lewis laughs and shakes his head, obviously Danny didn’t exactly want to talk about everything he’s gotten up to. “Yeah just one alien. There were others actually but they all died. Which is honestly good, the others goal was to basically take over our planet and consume everything. Vee and Eddie stopped it. Vee’s from a planet called Klyntar. But that’s all I know”.

Danny huffs, “why does Earth have to have the lame name? It’s so dirty. Really soils our image”.

Lewis chuckles and shakes his head, Danny’s humour seemed to be a constant about him. “It’s not too creative, Klyntar is also their species. Though they’re called Symbiotes here. Vee doesn’t seem to mind at all”.

Danny nods, he got called a few different things himself. Species wise. Halfa, hybrid, half ghost, halfbreed...none were really wrong or all that insulting. Much better than ‘freak’ or ‘thing’ or ‘bastardisation’.

Lewis decides to just keep talking, since Danny’s clearing thinking through somethings, “they were brought here by one really stupid rich entrepreneur trying to make humans able to live in space. Through human experimentation. Eddie found out and accidentally broke Vee out. Had a rocky start-”.

Danny cuts him off with a snort, “the whole destroying Eddies insides? That’s more than rocky doc. What? did the whole world saving gig form a friendship? Love interest?”.

Lewis can’t help but laugh at that, since it was really the opposite way around. Getting up, “I’ll explain while I do your wrappings”, which Danny sighs over, “trust me, you’ll want a distraction a little. Since I’m pretty well explaining the ‘need to kill’ problem”.

Danny cringes but nods, “okay yeah, sounds like a plan”, as Lewis sets up and gets to work.

It was just as weird going through the tail as before, but at least it wasn’t totally foreign this time, “Vee originally was on board to destroy earth and humanity but Eddie changed their mind. I’m pretty sure Vee’s loved him since about a day after they met. But they also have something called perfect symbiosis. See Vee’s called a Symboite for a reason. Their species are basically parasites but they can exist symbiotically. Vee lives inside Eddie’s body”.

Danny snorts, “wow that is pretty damn weird. Explains why they’re attached at the hip, they are literally attached”.

Lewis smirks and nods, pulling at some bandaging, “exactly. Vee will die within minutes without a host. And Eddie happens to be a perfect match for them. Kind of like how you said your ectoplasm matches the rest of you so it doesn’t hurt you. Normally hosts die within a week. Normally Symboites don’t care about their hosts and basically just use them up like cheap batteries. Consuming their bodies and moving on. Parasites, very aggressive parasites. But Vee’s different, wants symbiosis and hates being labelled a parasite. Seriously, don’t call them that. Eddies the only one who can get away with that and usually even he doesn’t”.

Danny blinks, so basically Vee was fucked and pretty well damned to be evil from birth? That’s pretty fucked up. They just fought that nature, or whatever, because of a guy. That is incredibly cheesy. Does make him feel a bit better about the whole....killing...thing. Doesn’t explain it though. “So Vee’s past behaviour is negligible, but why still doing the...killing?”.

Lewis scrunches his eyebrows and looks at Danny’s face, “you’re pretty quick to write off past behaviour?”.

Danny shrugs, “big believer in second chances”.

“Fair enough”, finishing up the new wrapping, pretty sure Danny’s legs are regrowing at this point. Which would be weird if his friends didn’t also do that. “So this shouldn’t be surprising but Vee has different needs. Fresh raw human brains and chocolate. Phenethylamine, aka brain juice as Vee tends to call it. Basically a super carnivorous predator”.

“Ancients fuck Lewis. They fucking eat people? That’s some fucking zombie shit. Ancients. I mean consuming ectoplasm is sort of like eating ghost body parts, which is a thing I’ve never thought about before, but still”, Danny blinks harshly, “so Eddie’s basically forced into cannibalism for, by?, his body roommate?!? That’s really damn messed up Lewis”. But it is also one Hell of a reason. Of course the alien probably didn’t even see it as weird or wrong. Like eating deer or some shit. So fine, they’re excused. But why the Zone would a human go along with that? “Why the fuck is Eddie okay with this?”.

Lewis finishes packing up the excess supplies and wrappings before responding, “I’ve asked myself that many times. Part of it’s definitely love though. Eddie can be a bit of a ‘I’ll burn down the whole world for you’ kind of person. But Eddie’s always been something of a vigilante. Taking down corrupt organisations and politicians and gangs with his words. He’s got a big heart and will gladly sacrifice his own health or do things he’s uncomfortable with to help or protect-”.

Danny cuts him off, “you are describing me at this point. And I would never kill. Since he can clearly help without Vee then why the Zone is he going along with this?”.

Lewis sighs, most people felt that way until they were presented with either dying or killing...or someone else dying or killing...or world destruction or killing. “I would argue with you on the ‘never’ bit but I don’t think you’d take that well”, sitting down as Danny glares at him, twitching. Lewis speaking again, “simply put there’s major benefits to hosting a Symbiote. Near indestructibility, near invulnerability, and near immortality. Better senses, new senses, strength, speed. A new body basically and literally in a way. Eddie could only help with his voice and a pen before; and often that didn’t do a whole lot. Now he can fight and truly get rid of the bad guys. He’s basically playing judge, jury and executioner. Vee’s the one going along with it. And only because that’s what makes Eddie okay and happy. Helping. Doing good things, even if it’s in bad ways”, shrugging, “Eddie’s never really been a ‘do things by the book’ person. The ends always justified the means. Which is absolutely messed up. Good guy, just not moral”, shaking his head and chuckling, “he’s such a nice guy that he didn’t even complain really about Vee just body snatching him. Until the killing him from the inside out thing. Vee didn’t even really apologise for that, still does it and tells him so, when Eddie’s annoying them. But they can fix up any damage they do, so Eddie just gets mildly annoyed and refuses to buy the fancy chocolate”.

Danny just stares at Lewis for a bit. What kind of person just goes ‘whelp! I guess I’ll just murder and eat people for the greater good and my alien body buddy’. Blinking a few times, “the alien I can get. They’re a fucking alien. But the human? Yeah no, there’s no way that’s remotely okay. If he can choose not to kill people then he damn well should. Just eat a fuck ton of chocolate and animals or some shit”.

“I asked the same honestly. I’m tolerant of what they do, not some huge supporter. They’ve also tried that themselves. To say it didn’t work would be an understatement. If Vee doesn’t get enough their body will simply start eating Eddie’s. Whether they want to or not. And Vee actively will destroy anything for Eddie. Including themselves. They nearly did that once. And Symbiotes actually can have complete control over their hosts body if they want. So even if Eddie did everything in his power not to, Vee would basically force it on him. Vee’s being nice by letting Eddie pick who can qualify as food. This also means that Vee could technically stop Eddie from attempting to separate. But Vee would do anything, including separate, for Eddie. They’ve done it”.

If Danny could he’d be throwing his hands up in the air. This reason was a goddamn viable reason. “So Eddie wants this? Or them at least? Even with freaking cannibalism as a condition to the relationship? WHY? I mean, fine, he gets a pass with Vee inside him. But if they could separate or stay separate, why wouldn’t Eddie want that?”.

Lewis shrugs, there wasn’t really a good reason, “love’s stupid and Eddie, though I love the guy, is nearly the definition of incredibly stupid and occasionally self-destructive. But I know part of it is that Vee basically sacrificed themselves, only surviving by pure luck, to save the world. Just because of Eddie. So Vee doesn’t deserve to basically be abandoned or left to die because of their diet. Like I said, Eddie’s nice. Too nice. But he was pretty much a wreck after he thought Vee died. I don’t think he consumed anything other than alcohol and coffee for days. Definitely wasn’t washing up and was either awake for days or passed out on the floor for days. As it stands, I think both of them would rather die than be separated”, smiling a little because it was honestly kind of sweet, “if you found the one thing or person or purpose in the entire universe that was absolutely perfect for you, wouldn’t you get a little attached?”.

Danny blinks and screws up his face some, looking down at himself. They were with each other like he was with protecting. Which his ghosts side pretty well instantly rationalises. You don’t make a ghost go against their Obsession, you don’t question it, you just don’t. Regardless of what it was. Looking at Lewis, “so they’re basically each other’s Obsession”.

Lewis restrains a laugh, Danny, for a guy who can’t actually move much, is almost disturbingly still. It reminded him of how Vee, who’s body was always moving liquid, would just still if they were serious. Nodding slightly, “they’re not ghosts or ghostly but yeah. They need each other”.

Danny nods, tail wiggling faintly again, “okay then. It’s alright. Obviously I don’t approve. But they’re fine”.

Lewis is a little damn thrown. It was like a switch had just been flipped in Danny. One second twitching and not even kind of okay and the next calm and even relaxed. Lewis is a little confused, “oooookaaaaaay. What did I say that just made you suddenly okay with my murder friends?”. And Danny doesn’t even flinch at ‘murder’ this time. Should he be worried?

Danny shrugs, “well my Obsession’s been pacified. More or less. They’re doing what they absolutely have to, and expressing it in the best possible way, to sustain and satisfy what’s basically an Obsession. That question you asked was basically the definition of an Obsession. The one thing perfect for you and you need above everything, including self. So it’s fine. Arguably better than CW actually”.

Lewis tilts his head, “CW?”.

Danny snorts and looks around a bit, “me and my mouth. One second”, switching into ghost speak and whining dramatically, “T̵i͏m̡͝͠e͏͝D̨a͏̵a͝͏̨a̸add̡͢y̶̶y҉͢yy̡y͝͠?̵͞ ͘I ̸k͝n̕ow͏̸ ͝y͢͞o͡u̵̴͢’͞r͢͠e ̸s̛u̕p͝͏p͟o̴̡s̕͘e͝҉d̶̢ t̶̕͟o͝ b͘e͝ ͞͠a̧͏l̴͞l͘ ̴s͞ecŗ̶͟e̴̶͜t̷̴ ҉and͜ ̢͝s͞h̕͟i҉̡t̶ ̡b̶u͡ţ͡ y̴o͡u̵ w̕e҉r͏͏e ͏a̢ ̶͢li̕tt̵̢l̷e̕̕͜ ̶͟s̴h̶i҉̶t͢͢ ̨̧e̵̡͡a͜rl͢͠i͠e̡r͢͝,̶̧͟ ̶̧s͞o͢ ͞l̡͜҉i̡͟st̵en͘ ̢t͝͡o҉͘ your̶ ̶p̸̸ro̷͢b̧̛l͡͡ȩm̨͝ ̷͡C͜HII͢͢Į͢͜II̵I̡͢I͠L̴͜D͝”.

Lewis jerks back a bit, that’s was certainly a...sound? Scratchy static with an echoing reverberation, it’s honestly creepier than Vee’s gravely and inherently predatory growling voice. And now he’s firmly reminded of the first time he actually heard Vee’s voice. Danny has another thing in common with those two. Except Lewis isn’t sure what language that was. Scrunching up his eyebrows in confusion as a hourglass seemingly comes out of nowhere and smacks Danny in the head, landing on his forehead. Watching as Danny picks it up with his tail and stares at it.

Danny smirks and chuckles at the little ‘it’s the right time’ written on the bottom. Snapping his eyes shut as the bottom falls off, dumping the purple sand on his face.

Lewis takes the (broken)hourglass when Danny basically hands it to him, looking inside it as Danny wipes off his face. Squinting at the writing, ‘hello Lewis. It’s sim-BYE-oat not sim-bee-ote’. Lewis looks up and then to Danny with a very confused frown, “I just got my pronunciation corrected by an hourglass”.

Danny chuckles, “what’d you mess up?”.

Lewis looks back down then up, “Symbiote, it’s ‘bye’ not ‘bee’”.

Danny nods with a smirk, “yeah that’s a pretty noticeable difference. No surprise CW called you out then”, Danny looks to Lewis and snorts at his confused expression, “CW’s really good at confusing. Short for ClockWork, that’s the ghost who was playing chess with me last night”.

“That honestly explains nothing. Except that you’re friends”, squinting at Danny, “have they been listening to our conversation? How do they even know the right pronunciations? I only got permission to tell you, not your ghost dad. And that language?”.

Danny sighs, “Lewis, they new about Symbiotes before you did, before Eddie did. Before even Vee did. Before they even existed. That language was ghost speak, I was asking if I could tell you of their existence, because they are a secret entity. Very few know of them and near none know about them. Very powerful ghost with omnipresence and omniscience basically. You might know them as Father Time. The being that controls and watches over all of time”.

“So a god?”.

“Yeah, pretty much”.

Lewis puts his hand over his mouth and wheezes, “well congrats. I’ve got no weird friend story for that one”.

Danny smirks, “am I officially the weirdest person you’ve ever met?”.

Lewis taps his chin and shakes his head, “possibly weirdest situation and life, but my friends are still weirder people”.

Danny points his tail, “but that’s combined right?”.

Lewis rolls his eyes, “they’re one unit. Vee’s like your ectoplasm but more sentient and conscious on their own”.

Danny rolls his eyes right back, “my ectoplasm is just a puddle of green goo and base instincts without me”.

“Vee’s just a puddle of black goo and base instincts without Eddie”.

Danny screws up his face, “motherfucker. Well Vee clearly has their own personality and non-instinct based wants. My ectoplasm does not. It’s not it’s own person or being. Damn positive Vee is”. Phantom may be his ghost but he was Phantom. Phantom wasn’t some other entity. Sure people not in the know looked at Phantom and Fenton and saw two different people. And oh Zone, people not in the know looked at Vee and Eddie and thought there was just one person.

Lewis dips his head, “I’ll give you that one”.

Danny nods absently, if he wants to be really weird about it, he sort of was two people, both playing different roles and emphasising different parts of his personality. And these two apparently acted as a unit, so weren’t they really kind of like one being? Two beings doing things as one, and Danny as one being doing things as two? Then there was the whole, they’d hate to be separated. Which, same. He literally and intentionally electrocuted himself with four billion volts just to be a halfa, Phantom, again. And oh Zone, Eddie freaked over being separated. Became depressive or something. Danny reacted way worse. Danny was a dick, who was he to harp on this random man for freaking out over being split. Danny had fucking murdered and destroyed the world over being separated. Fuck. He was saying they should be separated, should want to be. He was saying they should be split. Literally his own worst fucking nightmare. And they already killed, what the fresh Hell would their Dan be? That’s a horrifying mental image. But also...

Lewis watches as Danny twitch’s and makes some clearly freaked out facial expressions at the ceiling. It’s sort of like when he mentioned his name but seemingly worse. If it wasn’t for Danny’s more unique physiology, which he knew from Eddie could really mess with a persons thought processes, he might recommend him to a psychologist. Which for a sixteen-year-old paints a pretty unpleasant picture. Couple that with all the scarring. Deciding this is another mental spiral that doesn’t need to continue, “Vee can make tendrils out of Eddie’s body, by the way”.

Danny pauses his mental musings and blinks, ‘tendrils’ was a jarring word. Looking at Lewis, “that...explains a lot, I think?”, shuffling, “question, how long has Vee been here? Earth?”.

That’s yet another question Lewis didn’t expect, “just over a year now, why?”.

Danny blinks, so technically it was feasible that, due to differences in timelines, Vee possibly either never came to earth or never met Eddie in Dan’s timeline. So it’s possible that future him didn’t brutally slaughter them as a unit. Eddie though, he definitely did. So that was...marginally better. Vee might be the only potential? friend? Dan didn’t fucking murder. The fucking murder alien might be the only one free from being murdered. The absolute irony of that clears Danny’s head and makes him start laughing and wheezing.

Lewis is just wondering if this was the beginning of that Obsession insanity problem. “Yeah only a year. Neither have made a single new friend besides me in that time. So new friends would be helpful”.

Danny wheezes slightly, shaking his head, “and that comment wasn’t helpful. But, uh, nice attempt?”.

Lewis shrugs, “not sympathetic. Works with Vee because they’re blunt and don’t really know what sympathy is. Eddie, well, any amount of affection works with him; very affection starved”.

Danny scrunches his eyebrows, “I’m feeling more and more bad for your friends”.

Lewis chuckles and nods, “I guess it could be easy feeling bad for them. One’s basically a murder tag along drunkard who was abused as a child and chased out of New York, who’s constantly getting in trouble because he just can’t stop pissing off powerful people. The other spent six hundred million years part of a violently murderous hive mind being endlessly mocked and was going to be sacrificed as food to do ‘one good thing with their pathetic existence’ and then fucked that up too, and is all alone on earth. They’re self-proclaimed losers and idiots, who have standing ‘kill on sight’ orders against them from nearly every planet and species. Because Klyntar in general and especially with perfect symbiosis can devour worlds, thus they will be killed for the crime of being able to possibly destroy a world or worlds in the future”.  

Danny blinks a few times, firmly startled; but also feeling major deja-vu. Sputtering, “well fuck. That’s, uh, that’s really shit. And I thought life stiffed me. Well, I mean, it did. Their life kinda sucks, mine’s just kinda dead. Though, um, been there done that, for that last bit”.

Lewis squints at him, “the rest of the universe does or did have standing kill orders on you? Because they think or thought you’d destroy a planet or planets?”. Lewis thinks that is so far out of character it’s absurd. Sure Venom doesn’t try to destroy any planets but they would if either half was separated or for their own protection. But destroying a planet rather requires killing, Danny pretty firmly wouldn’t do that.

Danny shrugs and looks at the ground, “more like the entirety of the Ghost Zone. Which is were all ghosts, from everywhere in the universe, exist. It was pretty reasonable though. Arguably. And honestly, I’m startled enough right now to not even be all that freaked talking about that time I destroyed all of humanity, ghosts and earth. And CW decided that, naw this probably shouldn’t happen, showed me the crap and lowkey helped avoid it from happening”, sighing, “and that’s how I met and fought Dan, my jerky evil mass-murdering-world-destroying older self”, glaring at Lewis, who looks suitably shell-shocked, “and thats why I won’t kill. Cause Dan kills and I’m not fucking Dan and I never fucking will be”.

Lewis blinks a few times. Alright, so calling Danny Dan really would be a really bad idea. And clearly there’s a boat load of things he doesn’t know about Danny. Because this skinny sort of battered teenager firmly does not seem like a threat. Occasionally startling sure, but capable of wrecking a planet? No, not really. Then again, Eddie looked like an only somewhat functioning trash fire of a guy when the two weren’t all Venom. Clearing his throat, “that’s a lot of shit you just unloaded. But I'm guessing there’s some major stuff I don’t know about you. Also, yeah thanks for not being that Dan. Feel free to be like this Dan though, saved a lot of lives. If it’s helps anything, those two could probably destroy the world in a month or so if they tried”.

“Like I said, you don’t know the half of it. And no, not helpful. Dan could in days at most, if he tried. But nooooo, took ten years, because he wasn’t trying, because he was enjoying himself. Killing was a game, Earth a playground of meat-sacks to mangle, and apparently scaring people and being a relentlessly stalking looming threat of brutal destructive suffering till people succumbed to hopelessness was half the fun. The other half, just how much pain he could cause till their bodies gave out-”.

Lewis is calling bullshit on Danny being able to talk about this without freaking out, as his tail is spazzing out and eyes glowing almost painfully bright. It was a good thing that generalised gore was an everyday thing for Lewis, Danny was being quite descriptive. Honestly, Vee would probably be impressed with Danny right now and that’s honestly a bit horrifying. Cutting Danny off, “so let’s not speak about this before you break the bed. Clearly you have some anger issues or repressed desire to hurt people in some way. But it’s cool, you’re literally the most moral person I’ve ever met. And the most gung ho about it. I honestly can’t imagine how you could be anything like who you’re describing”.

This instantly reminds Danny of the whole splitting/separating thing. Pretty instantly becoming rather melancholic, “ya remember how I was saying Eddie should wanna be separated? Yeah sorry about that. Being a major hypocrite there”, shrugging, “cheated on a test, family and friends died aka failed my Obsession, got experimented on by a psychotic rich frootloop, got ghost split from human, ghost went insane human went dead”.

Lewis blinks and nods after a bit, “Yeah, Eddie and Vee would probably do the same if split. The irony though? Eddie and Vee met because of being experimented on by a psychotic rich madman. And Vee’s family dying let them live peacefully. Or more peacefully anyway. And I’m going to call you on something just to be distracting”, while Danny squints his eyes at Lewis though chuckling very slightly over how that really was ironic. Lewis continues, “you’re not entirely human are you? I’d guess half ghost to be honest. And not just because of the legs. Eddie and Vee are two halves of a whole, making Venom. You’re relating in a way that says you also have two halves. Plus there’s all the ‘half’ jokes”.

Danny snorts, “you know most pass humour off as just that, jokes”.

“You’re a puns kind of guy, not fabrication. So there’s a truth to it all”.

Danny would blame his damn mouth but he pretty well walked into this willing. And based off what Lewis knew about these two friends of his, he was goddamn trustworthy. Plus, a doctor friend is good to have. And! yeah this was a good distraction. Thinking of being Phantom generally made him feel better, especially with flying involved, which Ancients did he miss. Maybe he could sneak out or duplicate out. Go be goddamn Danny Phantom for a while and be one with the stars or some shit. Giving a somewhat weak and empty smirk, “smart man”.

Lewis smirks in return, “I am a doctor after all. I’m paid to be smart”.

Danny chuckles, “and my parents are paid to hunt and know about ghosts, yet they haven’t caught on to what you have”.

“Confirmation without confirming. And I seriously doubt you’ve told them most of what you’ve told me”.

Danny snorts and rolls his eyes, “I’m a paranoid guy. And why would I? They hate all things ectoplasmic filth and spend their dinners talking about dissecting them”, shrugging, “plus, they’d feel bad and that would hurt them. Part of the same reason they don’t know about the scars”.

Lewis sighs and shakes his head, paranoid was a little too true, “I’ve known them a long time, for their kids or even friends, they’d accept near anything. Definitely including being part ghost. Can’t say I get why they’d feel bad. Eddie’s better off as he is now, same with Vee. I’m sure you are too. That’s something to be happy about I’d say”.

Danny chuckles sadly and shakes his head, “I know they would, in short term anyway. Been there, done that...twice-”

Lewis chuckles cutting him off, “so it’s more you don’t like change, want to keep your secrets from the ones you live with, and don’t want to hurt them with the knowledge”.

Danny glares at Lewis, “I’m positive you don’t have kids, but imagine you did. Say you found out that the thing you spent most of your life slaving over and building lovingly with your own hands, painfully and brutally murdered your own kid; and that you didn’t even notice. Celebrated it even. Do you think you’d be happy about that? And then for the next two years blabbered about dissecting them and actively hunting and trying to destroy them, all because you didn’t recognise your own kid? Or that the kid on tv well known for spending nights getting the absolute crap kicked out of him was your own flesh and blood? The injuries I came in with barely counted in my top ten worst Lewis. A fourth of my scars are from them”.

Lewis blinks, point goddamn made. Danny might actually have a more complicated life than Eddie and Vee. Their life was mostly domesticity, hunting down and picking fights with and eating people they had very little chance of even being hurt by, and working in journalism. Danny’s seemed to be a constant series of fights -probably with ghosts not ‘weak’ humans- paranoia secret keeping, and obviously schooling. Eddie and Vee had each other. They knew how their bodies work, very explicitly in Vee’s case. And they were full grown independent adults...not responsible though. Danny was alone in his body and Lewis has a gut feeling that near everything Danny knows about his body is through his own trial and error; researching. Danny was clearly responsible, mature if silly. But still a teen, which was easy to forget and that said it all didn’t it? And the whole ghost = dead wasn’t really something he had thought about. “I never considered how you wound up this way beyond ‘accident with parents stuff’, you’re quite literally a bit dead. And yeah, knowing all that wouldn’t make anyone happy. Though I do think they’d prefer to know”, snapping his fingers, “and you pretty well said you can do something like shape-shifting. They can do that too”.

Danny raises a eyebrow, “oh? And dead is a pretty duh thing for ghosts. I know they probably would prefer to know. I’d rather them be more okay with ghosts first”, poking him a bit hard with his tail, “that’s were you come in. I’m just a teen so they don’t exactly listen to me on the whole ‘ghosts are sentient beings with fully aware thoughts and feelings, that are dynamic creatures’ thing. But you’re an accomplished intelligent adult friend. You won’t be so easily written off”.

Lewis blinks and smiles softly, “you’re a sneaky one”, leaning back, enjoying the even slightly more relaxed conversation, “they basically switch who’s on the outside. Sometimes Eddie is, sometimes Vee is. That also switches who’s more naturally in control. Though really it’s more like they’re combining fully. Symbiotes take their hosts body and up grade it into an apex predator. Claws, big teeth, larger, stronger, faster, more durable, and So on. Each one’s different though. Some make whips or can turn their hands into giant blades. When they quote-unquote ‘combine’ they go by Venom, and have a hard time thinking as separate beings. Big, muscular, black body with white veins, white eyes, massive razor teeth upon teeth, claws, and an honestly ridiculously long tongue. They’re also venomous, hence the name”.

Danny’s brain had nearly stalled at the whole black and white thing. Tilting his head, “black and white huh?”, before snorting and laughing. Of course they had the same damn colours! Goddamnit, those were his colours!

Lewis is wondering why Danny cares about their colour pallet rather than the tongue thing. While Danny snorts again, “they got any accent colours by chance?”.

Lewis squints at him, “okay, why is colour what you care about? Massive teeth and tongue? The tendrils?”, shaking his head and tapping his chin, “their tongue’s pink and sometimes their saliva is green. Tied into the venomous thing”.

Danny looks at him slowly, “oh my Ancients. Those assholes. I knew I should have trademarked myself”, blinking some before snorting, “and the fucking comedic name”. That wasn’t even mentioning the similar powers.

Lewis blinks and raises his eyebrows, ‘comedic’ was not a word used to describe Venom. Well, okay, that wasn’t strictly true. The two could have a way with words, and some of the things they did could be pretty amusing. Chuckling, “they aren’t comic relief at all really. Most actually seem to agree they’re pretty damn terrifying as Venom. Papers even referring to them as a demon”, shaking his head but squinting at Danny, “I’m going to make a guess and say that your other form is black and white”.

Danny looks around a bit awkwardly, it was a pretty sure thing that Lewis was pretty well gonna know exactly who Danny was. And really, Danny knew a ton about ‘Venom’ at this point. Would be kinda a dick move to not let good guy Lewis in on his shit and thusly these two fucking cannibalistic, Ancients that was still messed up, ‘superheroes’ as well. Okay, ‘superheroes’ was probably the wrong word. Even ‘vigilante’ was being a little nice. But when had Danny ever made things easy for people? Smirking at Lewis, “monochromatics are my favourite schematics”, titling his head, “wait, the news reports on them? So their city knows about them?”.

Lewis is firmly sure that was a snide way to say yes. Though, he guesses, Danny full well knows Lewis knows that, based off the smirking anyway. He’s just playing a bit of a game. Tilting his head, and Danny’s eyes could glow green. So same accent colour, and there was something clearly toxic about ectoplasm. That’s similar enough to venomous. Nodding at Danny, “well I’m pretty sure the nineteenth century has the best claim on monochrome’s. So you’re a bit late there. But yeah, everyone knows about them. Most articles are about how they’re saved this person or that person. That, or it’s about the occasional unfinished meals. Which are usually viewed rather positively actually. Sorta seen as cleaning up the scum of the world. The other third are about them as a creature, because their look is more than a little startling. Most of the papers have taken to calling them either The San Fran Demon or The Lethal Protector. They do still get GooMan though, which they hate”.

Danny had scrunched his face up in deep offence and looked like he had just walked in on an active murder scene, at the notion that this city was basically supporting and cheering for their local murderer. What the absolute fuck? And they knew about the murdering and eating. And were still like, ‘yes, this pleases us. Do continue’. While Danny gets fucking chased around and attacked, even though the worst thing he can arguably be accused of was stealing and that wasn’t even willing! Scowling at the air, “that is so not fair. I’m nothing but a good boy and the fucking murder meat-grinder machines get more support and love. The fuck? I even look super friendly and have a proper civilians voice! But no! The serial killer gets more Cheerios Cheers. I get more cheers from fuckers successfully shooting me, then pulling some hero shit. Y’know? They fucking do polls on what fuckers think of me. Like half the town hates me. While their city is all like, ‘yes please sir, I’d like some gratuitous gore along side my buckets of blood fine wine. That would just go sooooo nicely. Because the best place to eat is where a beastial alien feasts, and sleep where lethal one’s beat and reap lives’. And my city’s all like, ‘fuck you kid! Stop getting your damn ectoplasm all over our nice roads, it’s hard to fucking drive! And stop breaking shit, you pearly packing bag of ghost shit. But totally thanks for stopping the Mecha from impaling my car and blowing up my work. Totally don’t care though. Because fuck you and all that you are, damn fucking spooks’. But fuck it, at least I have apparel”.

Lewis is pretty sure half of that didn’t make much sense to him. But apparently Danny feels pretty damn under-appreciated. Which, yeah, if Venom is getting more praise than someone who doesn’t graphically and unabashedly murder and eat people, Danny’s pretty fair in feeling that way. Lewis is also a bit impressed and amused at Danny’s colourful language. He was definitely saving ‘ murder meat-grinder machines’, Vee will love that. Lewis mutters, “they have apparel too actually. Teeth, tongue and eyes are pretty recognisable at this point”.

Danny turns his head to him and scowls exaggeratedly, “how dare. So people parade around with a well known slaughter bunny on their chests? What is wrong with their city?!? And, wait, ‘GooMan’??? Oh man that’s bad, ha!”, Danny snorts and laughs, damn right they better have an embarrassing and horrible nickname, before shaking his head and scowling. “Goddamn Inviso-bill is still worse though”.

Lewis restrains an amused smirk and laugh, that was pretty bad. Shrugging, “I mean, if you want a list, a few of the items on it would be mass poverty and one of the worst housing markets in the country. There’s a lot of disenfranchised folks. On the other hand, Amity seems pretty wealthy. So people are more privileged and entitled. Though yeah, I’m not entirely sure why so many support Venom. Nothing about their public image is appealing really”.

Danny rolls his eyes and snorts, “Amity’s the most haunted city in the world, also got one of the highest rates for property damage, ghost drills are a real thing, and most crime is done by powerful asshole ghosts”, shrugging, “but I guess no one’s going up to Venom and giving them drawings”.

Lewis laughs and blinks at that, “I think I would have a heart attack if someone did that. I think even Eddie might. Vee would just end up pestering Eddie about ‘strange flesh-bag customs’”.

Danny smirks and shakes his head as Lewis’s pager goes off, “Ancients, Eddie must have explained so many things to them”.

Lewis nods as he heads to the door, “oh yeah, but he loves it. So does Vee. Technically Vee could just go through all of Eddie’s thoughts and memories for answers. By they prefer Eddie explaining it personally”.

Danny blinks and mutters to himself, “fuck that’s adorable”.

Danny snorts as a few minutes later the door opens back up with his parents on the other side. Both hurry over to him as Lewis waves, “I do have, I’m still impressed you said that, meat-grinding to do. So I’ll check up on you later”, before hurrying off.

Danny smiles at his parents, “how’s the house? Ghosts?”.

Jack tilts his head as he sits down and bends over, “you know, it’s strange, there really hasn’t been any ghosts. Couple of ectopuss’s and other small things but that’s it”, chuckling, “it’s like they know someone special is hurt and are giving us space”.

Danny does his damnedest not to cringe, knowing full well why there wasn’t much in the way of ghosts, nodding slightly, “good then I guess”.

While Maddie pats his arm, “the house is perfectly fine sweetie. We fixed up a little hover board so you can get around the house easily”.

Danny chuckles, of course they wouldn’t let him use anything normal... like a wheel chair. Which fine, stairs would be an issue then. Just flying himself up them would get more strange looks than walking on his hands would.

Jack beams, “yup! That way you can reach everything easily and can go where you please! Working on a few other things as well but that’s nothing to worry your head over yet. You just keep being the strong kid we know you are”.

Danny gives an awkward smile, “easier than pie”, is it weird that talking about freaking murderers was more ‘pleasant’ than this? Danny knows full well the other projects are probably legs. No way his folks were focusing on anything else.

Maddie smirks and digs in her bag, “speaking of food. Thought you’d like something to spice things up from hospital food”.

Danny smiles at the container of spaghetti, pretty darn sure there’s a little ectoplasm in it. Smells that way. But that’s fine and expected from Amity food, which he honestly missed. Since the place was his lair, everything changed ever so slightly to please him. Taste of food included. That fact used to freak him out, worrying he was changing people and controlling them, but it turns out it was all really minimal and seemingly only done to non-sentient things. Sure mosquitoes also left him alone, but that was more because ectoplasm was basically deadly to them and they could smell that it was so. Only one problem right now, he couldn’t just use his tail in front of them. Restraining a groan as his mom just starts loading a fork up. Pretty well having to let her feed him, which again, degrading. Which definitely bothered his ghostly pride. Seriously hoping no one else comes in.

Thankfully it’s over with pretty quickly and Danny manages to shake off his slightly bothered and hurt ego. As his folks settle into telling town gossip. Apparently Ms. Trent accidentally blew up her garden, the Ravens won a game, a new cop transferred from New York of all places, and people representing companies working with the hospital kept showing up only to have the worst luck ever.

Danny chuckles, listening to his mom talk about how a guy working with indoor lift services had five pots fall near him, doorknobs randomly locking when he went to open them, every cup of coffee he bought was mysteriously cold, and so on. Apparently his lair was having none of these random people implying Danny needed their help. Which definitely was both amusing and a slight ego boost. Smiling slightly, “glad things are as weird as ever then”, looking between them, “what’s Jazz up to though?”.

Maddie smiles and pats Danny’s hair, “she’s talking with Mr. Lancer about your school work. Pretty sure she’s trying to get most of it waved”.

Danny’s honestly thankful for that, he really had time to do school work as it was. Technically he had more time to do it right now though. Chances were Lancer wouldn’t wave much, just make things more simple or give him easy projects. Smirking slightly, “obviously gym’s being waved entirely”, looking around a little awkwardly as they both cringe slightly. Normally his folks bounced back from things petty quickly, but he guesses that something like this was a fair bit more than the normal bad crap that happened. Shifting to readjust his tail under him slightly, “I really am fine you know. Maybe I’ll go to gym just to freak people out”. Deciding to broach the topic himself so they don’t feel awkward, “good chance to show off and test out whatever you guys build me, I’d say. Not that I’ll actually be telling anyone though, just make everyone really confused”.

Maddie and Jack look to each other, smiling slightly after a while. Normally Danny didn’t like their inventions, but this was a different situation. Maybe they could really impress him with this and give him the best damn legs ever. That was already the plan, but knowing he was seemingly okay with it was encouraging. Jack smiles warmly, “oh! They can be as impressive or covert as you want! We’ve got a few plans actually!”, shifting a little uncomfortable and hoping this doesn’t bother Danny, “if you’d like to see them any way?”.

Danny nods with a soft smile, what they built really was interesting and he could arguably build with them. One of the side affects of protecting his ghostly ass was having a very intimate knowledge of how their inventions worked. The only reason they didn’t know that was because half the stuff hurt or reacted to him. It doing that while around his folks risked his secret. So it was better to just not be around it at all.

Maddie speaking, “are you looking to hide them though sweetie?”, as Jack tries to not seem too excited about pulling out one of their little work tablets with schematics and ideas in it.

Danny nods, “heh, yeah. I’d prefer this not really be public knowledge. You know I don’t like being fretted over or pitied. People knowing would basically ensure I would be. At the very least I’d like things to go back to normal for a while before anyone realises. So if this could maybe not be town gossip, that’d be nice”. Before looking over at the tablet, snorting at the kind of ridiculous look of the first one, “a little more subtle dad”.

Maddie comes to stand beside Jack, so it’s easier to see the screen. It’s not too surprising Danny wants to treat the...new legs, as if they were just his regular ones. Internally smirking over being very right when she told Jack that Danny definitely didn’t want weaponised ones. Watching as he flips to the one that was weaponised where Jack had gotten a bit to excited over ideas. Danny, glaring at it and Jack slightly, simply saying, “nope”. Arguably weaponised legs could be useful but they could also attack him.

Jack makes a point to not seem disappointed. Switching to one of Maddie’s more sleek designs, though very colourful; in FentonWorks trade marked greys and ecto green.

Maddie smiles and ruffles Danny’s hair, “I was tempted to go with whites and black, plus the green. Based on that jumpsuit we made for you years ago. But, well, Phantom”. Making a point to not think about the strange ghost as he wasn’t important right now. Even if he had been acting kind of strange lately.

Danny chuckles awkwardly, “I definitely prefer the skinnier option, actually matches me some”, aiming to make them feel a bit better, “would be much easier to adjust to”, smirking a little now, “I’d be down for the feet being black. Dark grey maybe. Stick with the more muted tones. Paler green. Cause no offence, but neon might show through if my pants get wet or something”.

Jack blinks, exchanging a glance with Maddie, neither having really considered that. Or how it would all look under clothing. More focused on making them actually work, how they’d attach them and trying to figure out a way to get some kind of nervous system in them. It was good they had something to work off of, due to their old battle-suit design. At least Danny’s contamination made for an easy self-replenishing power source.

Jack jotting down some notes about colour alterations and making everything look slightly more defined. A lean rather than skinny or bulky design.

Danny chuckles at the little notes, both surprised and not, that they were taking what he was actually okay with into account. He’d almost feel bad about wasting their time if his legs grew back, but they loved inventing. Any inspiration was welcome, well okay, they’d probably prefer to not have this particular reason for inspiration. Reading over the next screen with inner workings all over it. Firmly surprised most didn’t seem to have much in the way of ghost related anything. Smirking, “besides the ectoplasmic power source, this is pretty not ghost. You guys okay?”. Even the toaster was more ghost oriented than most of these plans.

Maddie smiles, “ghosts aren’t the focus and we know you don’t exactly like all the anti-ghost stuff. Ectoplasm is just an amazing power source and you do have your own supply”.

Jack perks up, “Dan’s been pretty good about that actually! Really rolling with it!”.

Danny struggles to force down his cringe at that. Of course his folks were going to use his first name, and Danny couldn’t exactly explain to them why they shouldn’t. But again, maybe this might be good for him. Hopefully. Forcefully chuckling, “seems really good at rolling with just about any level of weird”, tilting his head at the screen, “won’t use up too much plasm, will it?”. Danny would rather not be weakened by whatever they wind up making.

Maddie shakes her head, “there’s not much to power in most designs so your....ectoplasm, will be fine”, Maddie’s not sure what’s caused Danny to become fond of that stuff in him. But he was seemingly stuck with it, so it was probably for the best. By the same notion, he was just so...okay, with his injuries. What’s he’s...lost. But he was tough and a Fenton, so it made sense to a level.

Danny nods with a little smile, “good, that’s good”, smirking a little, “as for the design, maybe we could slap a Fenton symbol on an ass cheek. You know, placement”.

Maddie and Jack blink before laughing. While Danny just gives a wide grin.

Not too long later, Maddie and Jack have ran out of things to catch Danny up on; devolving into talking about some pretty minimal things. Well until, Maddie shakes her head at her phone screen, “Phantom sure has been doing some strange things. There’s a video of him doing poses around a billboard”.

Jack chuckles, “think he’s bored? No ghosts to fight”.

Maddie frowns, genuinely worried about that. Clearly Phantom had some kind of Obsession tied to fighting. Sure he usually seemed to take it out in a helpful way. But ghosts were bad by default, it wouldn’t take much for him to revert to doing bad for his Obsession.

Danny blinks, highly confused, “Phantom? Huh?”, that doesn’t even make sense. He wasn’t even in Amity. Clone maybe? But why? Vlad gave up on that. Maddie turns the phone to him and it takes all Danny’s restraint to not facepalm or tailpalm at seeing the red eyes and how ‘Phantom’ is holding himself. Fucking Amorpho. Why? Was he literally covering for Danny so people wouldn’t realise Phantom disappeared the same time as Fenton? Part of Danny wants to say that’s giving the ghost too much credit. But it took a level of intellect to effectively pretend to be someone else, especially many different people. The guy was just a little reckless, liked the spot light a little too much. Plus ClockWork was in town, who knows what they’ve gotten up to. Smirking slightly to himself, well Amorpho would be getting that attention and Obsession satisfaction in a big way. Parading around as him, pretty well the most famous, or infamous, ghost in the Mortal Realm. It satisfied him a bit to know that. Shaking his head at the screen, “well okay then. That’s one way to get some attention”.

Maddie tilts her head and blinks. Could that be it? Fighting ghosts did get Phantom a lot of attention. Shaking her head and checking the time. It was getting pretty late. Ruffling Danny’s hair as she pats Jack’s shoulder, “well regardless, it’s late. We should get going”.

Jack nods almost eagerly, “yes! Plenty of work to do!”, smiling at Danny, “gotta make sure we get things just right after all. None of these plans will actually work yet, but! They will!”, patting Danny’s arm cast with very noticeable gentleness, “and you best rest”.

Danny chuckles and smiles, he was getting way more rest than he was honestly used to and it was, frankly, really damn weird. He never thought he actively wouldn’t want yet another full nights rest. He wanted to get woken up at one a.m. for some ghostly bullshit or another. Which pretty well just guarantees he won’t be sticking around tonight. “You two better sleep yourselves. I know how absorbed and excitable you can get”, looking at the tablet as Jack puts it away, ”what’s not working with them though?”.

Jack waves him off, “nothing for you to worry about Danny-boy. Just figuring out wiring and weighting”.

Danny nods, “makes sense I guess. See you later”, as they wave at him, before walking out the door.

Danny waits for a bit before curling out his tail and waving it erratically just to let it really move. Sighing and looking at the dark sky, clear bright stars basically singing his name. Looking at the door before muttering, “fuck it. I’m out bitches”, duplicating from his tail to avoid messing up the casts and bandagings.

Danny smirks at the duplicate as he floats and stretches out, “oh fuck yes, I needed this”, pausing and smirking at the original Danny. Both speaking in unison, “we needed this”, and laughing.

Original Danny smirks and pokes his duplicate with his tail, “now you better go fly you lucky idiot”, snorting and looking at the duplicates ghostly tail, “fucking should have figured you wouldn’t have legs”.

Duplicate Danny finger gunning, “wiggle boys”, before turning invisible and intangible, flying out the window.

Original Danny closing his eyes and just enjoying the sky through his duplicate. Spinning and diving around street lamps, occasionally bopping them with his tail and giggling. Having ‘races’ against random cars and soaring slowly through night air. Tracing out patterns of stars and scaring the crap out of a few birds.

Looking down, seeing a lady dropping her wallet without noticing. Shaking his head and flying down. Subtly returning it to her purse and smiling slightly. Deciding to wind through the streets doing whatever little good deeds he could. Which there wasn’t exactly very many. This city was quiet. Which for flying was great, for helping, not so much. But it still left him with a squishy satisfied feeling. Ectoplasm singing in his originals veins as the duplicate floats back up slowly. Smirking and deciding to just gun it straight up. Stopping slowly as he breaches earths atmosphere. It truly was a wonder when he discovered it was safe for him to just be in space. Just exist outside of earth with nothing but stars and planets in every direction. Letting himself spin in a slow circle, giggling and gradually speeding up until everything’s a blur of colourful and starlight streaks.

Chuckling and letting himself fall back towards earth, letting gravity grab him as he renters; watching the stars as he goes and defying gravity once more at the last second. Getting slammed with the adrenaline and endorphins, doing that always granted him. It was better than any battle and didn’t have the bite of ‘need to win’ and inevitable injuries.

Laughing as he slowly drifts to lay on a roof top and watch the stars above him. Looking at and flipping over his human looking hands. Guess it was easy to fly and float with a tail regardless of form. And feeling the air on bare skin was kind of nice. His jumpsuit really did block out a lot. Tilting his head down to stare at the flesh coloured tail, “yeah that looks fucking wrong”. Shaking his head and transforming just the tail, sending a ring down across it and smirking at the black wiggling thing; before leaning his head back again. Partial transformation had been a nice skill to pick up. Really he always had it, just took time to master it. Normally he used it to just be unnecessarily flashy about his transformations. But right now, well, black was his colour; or one of them anyway. Blinking at the sky, fucking Venom. Black and white. Fucking stealing his shit. Probably not literally. Tilting his head, “I’ll have to ask about that. Did they pick their colours?”. Shaking his head some and yawning. Okay, time to head back. Technically he could just send away this duplicate but flying back was far nicer. Plus, he’d get to really look himself over that way.

Slipping in the window and floating to look down at himself from the angle a visitor would get. “Ancients this looks both sad and so much worse than I figured”. Floating around the bed and giving his original a little wave. Which both of them chuckle over. But both abruptly stop and snap their heads over to the door to see a gaping Lewis.

Duplicate Danny quirks his mouth up into an awkward half smile, “uhhhhhh, what’s up doc?”.

Lewis’s brain is firmly stalling, there is two of his patient. One just sort of standing....okay floating, next to the bed. Both looking suitably shocked and like he just caught him? Them? What? with an adult magazine or something. The one doesn’t even have any bandaging or anything actually. So technically, that one? is naked. Officially worried he’s sleeping, Lewis turns around and walks out of the room. Loudly shutting the door.

The two Danny’s look at each other. Worried he officially weirded out Lewis. He can’t decide between being proud over accomplishing that or worried about being a startling freaky bastard. Lewis probably came from a long surgery or something. So Danny settles with the duplicate having a look of worry and the original wearing an amused smirk. While Lewis opens the door and comes back in.

Lewis looks between the two again, alright not asleep or dreaming. Danny’s, one of the Danny’s?, greeting finally catching up with his brain as he finally engages the clutch in his mind properly. Levelling, them?, with an unimpressed glare, “don’t you ‘what’s up doc’ me. You’ve already used up your one allowance with that today”, pointing between the two, “what am I looking at here?”. He’d really also like to know how.

The Danny’s look to each other, pretty damn well caught, so both shrug and look back to Lewis. Original Danny speaking, “so I might, might, have powers-”.

Lewis blinks and cuts him off, “‘might’ my ass”. Making both Danny’s snort and laugh. Lewis follows with his eyes as one Danny floats to sit on the foot of the bed. Noticing now that this one has a black ghost tail. Well the transparency makes it seem more grey than black, but he’s sure it’s black. This Danny looks slightly worried, “you okay though?”, the one in the bed snickering, “have I truly freaked you out yet”.

Lewis blinks, “it’s not the weirdest thing. But that thing you’re not old enough to be hearing about”.

Both Danny’s pull exaggerated disgusted faces, not needing any kind of details, considering he knows of a certain someone with ‘tendrils’. Both Danny’s shake their heads almost aggressively, both speaking, “nope! Don’t wanna hear ‘bout that!”.

Lewis screws up his face some. This was...a little bit beyond strange. Part of him wanted to say ‘nope’ to this. Whatever this was. But the other part is interested. Insanely interested. How could someone have two bodies? How are they formed? Is he fully aware of both at the same time? Where’d all the extra mass to make a whole new body come from? Why’s the tail different? Why’d he even make a second of himself? Lewis knew full well Vee could make multiple heads, but they were just made of goo really. Not flesh, and bone, and brain matter, and blood, and organs, and nervous systems. And they firmly could not make a separate fully functioning body. At least if the legless plus tail thing counted as fully functional. Lewis blinks, “what?”.

The Danny’s exchange a glance, the bed one speaking, “you okay? Like, seriously?”.

Lewis nods and actually walks forward, feeling slightly stiff, “yeah, yes. Just a little...confused? How? What? Why? When? Who? Where?”.

Duplicate Danny snorts, “making a checklist huh? The how’s straight forward enough”. Original Danny nodding, “yup, ectoplasm can multiply its size or shrink it at will. Replication. Duplication. Duplication is also the ‘what’. The...power”.

Lewis looks between them, duplication was pretty damn well on the nose. So he quite literally replicated his entire body. While the Danny sitting on the edge of the bed, which Lewis is guessing is the duplicate, continues on speaking, “‘when’ is, like, two hours ago. Where is here, obviously. Why’d you even ask that? Who is also kinda duh. Both Danny’s are Danny. The duplicate, me, is just a bunch of ectoplasm though. No organs or shit”.

Bedridden Danny whacking the other in the side of the head with his tail, “so I can pretty well dissolve this fucker whenever I feel like it”, chuckling awkwardly, “was about to do that before you showed”.

Lewis walks in front of the confirmed duplicate and looks it up and down, “for a, and I quote, ‘bunch of ectoplasm’, you look pretty damn much like a complete replica down to the bones”.

Duplicate Danny rolls his eyes, “course. Looking exactly the same is the point. Ghosts can do that it and do it to confuse and make it extremely difficult to pin down their original body”.

Lewis nods, made sense, before poking the duplicates cheek. Feeling the same as skin. Shaking his head and looking at his fingers, “so why then?”.

Bed Danny, original Danny, snorts, “Lewis dude, I have been confined to a bed for days. Why the Zone do you think? So I could stretch out and move around”.

Lewis nods, “so you can feel and see and everything through both”.

Both Danny’s nod, “yup. Real body is just more defined, sharper”. Duplicate Danny puts his hands behind his head and looks out the window, “went out the window, wandered the town, was...helpful, got into some car races, space happened”.

Lewis puts up a hand, “wait what? How did you do any of that?”. It’s certainly good he got the Obsession dealt with, because again, dealing with him freaking out over that more and more would be annoying. And not something he can really do much of anything about. But the rest? Confusing. Well actually, intangibility probably explained how he got out, and right, he had been floating earlier. The tail definitely didn’t follow gravity so maybe it let him functionally fly? Well at least he didn’t scale the building, positives. Screwing up his face, “wait, am I going to hear reports of a kid with a tail floating around?”.

The Danny’s exchange a glance again, fuck it at this point. Probably the only thing weirder Lewis could have walked in on, would be some body manipulation body horror shit. Or maybe overshadowing? That ability was probably really confusing and messed up to others. But then again, Vee basically was constantly ‘overshadowing’ Eddie, so Lewis might actually be excited about that. Turning both Danny’s heads to Lewis and smirking, before turning both invisible.

Lewis blinks before chuckling, sneaky, “well, that’s useful”, shaking his head as they both reappear, “just how much can you do?”.

Duplicate Danny looks down at his tail as it curls and wiggles around, “minus the, goddamn tendrils, well and I’m not venomous. Okay I guess that depends on how you look at the whole ectoplasm is corrosive and toxic thing”, shaking his head, “same shit as your friends and more”.

Bed Danny chuckles, “ghosts are apex predators after all”.

Lewis nods and taps his chin, eyeing the second Danny. So basically they, he, was possibly actually stronger than Venom. He already knew Danny was unusually strong, so he was just enhanced in general and had powers on top of it. Tilting his head, “that still doesn’t explain you implying you just randomly went to space. Clearly you’re not in any pain and I’m guessing you have healed everything but the legs at this point? So leaving is arguably fine”.

Bed Danny smiles wistfully while duplicate Danny floats up and flips upside down in the air to float near the ceiling. Lewis following with his eyes. Oh yes, this was very weird. But he couldn’t help but notice that both looked very content, and the tails were both wiggling softly. So obviously this floating/flying was rather common place and possibly deeply enjoyed by Danny.

Duplicate Danny speaking, “not really a high limit to flying. So just-”, motioning with his hands, “-went up. I can nullify gravity around myself so the lack of gravity in space isn’t even noticeable. Don’t exactly need to breath. Ectoplasm protects my blood. Cold doesn’t bother me in the slightest. So it’s safe. Which is just, like, so great. Cause space yeah? Never go far away though. ‘Cause earths home and that would leave it unprotected and that’s just not okay”.

Lewis nods up at the duplicate on the ceiling, “of course”, smirking slightly, “I almost feel bad for Vee. The questions you’re going to ask”, shaking his head at the new smirk on Danny’s face, pointing at the black tail, “why’s this one’s tail different?”.

Duplicate Danny grumbles slightly, transforms his tail back ‘human’ and gestures exaggeratedly at it, “because this just looks wrong”, and transforming it back.

Lewis honestly agrees but he’s more focused on that light ring thing. Very bright, looks about the same colour as Danny’s core. “The ring?”.

Lewis watches as the duplicate Danny floats down from the ceiling and sits back on the bed. Before seemingly getting absorbed into bed Danny’s tail. Lewis shakes his head at that while Danny speaks, “the rings basically how I shape-shift. It’s made of Core ectoplasm. And before you ask, duplication is kind of annoying and tiring to maintain. Also, yeah I’m healed up. Well, except for one thing anyway”, Danny looks down to were his tail is wiggling under the sheets, “now clue how exactly that’s going to heal though”, shrugging and looking back up to Lewis, “losing organs is pretty habitual, limbs not so much”.

Lewis coughs at that, Danny made a habit of losing internal organs? Did he just not need any of them? Clearly, like Vee, Danny’s body defied logic and the basic rules of the universe. Lewis clears his throat and sits down, “well, they are growing back. At least a little. Which, thanks to Vee, Eddie can do too. I’ll make a guess, that if you let your healing do it’s thing, they’d grow back for sure”, shaking his head, “totally ruined all my work”.

Danny huffs, he’s not truly surprised but to know, for sure, was, well, it was a problem. Because that meant he couldn’t just ignore it anymore. He actually had to address the issue. He hated when he had to do that. Hitting stuff was so much easier and enjoyable. Sleeping was nice too, maybe going and hanging out at the mall. Firmly ignoring the problem was so much more appealing. Grumbling, “I hate problems I can’t hit”.

Lewis blinks, pretty sure Eddie had said that once. Shaking his head, “are you...bothered by that? Most people would rather have their legs”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “and how the fuck am I supposed to explain that? People don’t regrow legs Lewis”.

Lewis shrugs, “blame your ectoplasm?”.

Danny gives him some seriously unimpressed eyebrows, “there is a limit to what they’ll buy. Me setting off detectors is one thing, messing with my vitals was pushing it, changing how I heal to such a level is way beyond believable”, Danny points his tail at Lewis as the guy shrugs, “whether you think it’s believable doesn’t matter. You’re too weird to say what normal people would find reasonable”.

Lewis dips his head, it was a fair point. But Jack and Maddie were pretty weird themselves. But they were ghost ‘experts’, apparently they were missing an awful lot though. “I’ll give you that. Guess you’re just hiding it then”.

Danny snorts, “duh. Could probably, hmmm, like, just, no. Well, could block the healing forever?”.

“Kid, no”.

Danny grumbles, “stupid doctor and his stupid desire for people to actually heal their shit”.

Lewis shakes his head and sighs slightly, Danny was willing to just intentionally not have legs to keep his secrets and avoid solving a problem. That was a bit ridiculous. Pointing almost aggressively at Danny, “you're healing your legs”.

Danny grumbles a bit petulantly, “you can’t make me”.

Lewis gives him a seriously unimpressed look and points at the, unattached, medicine bag, “over producing your ectoplasm makes you do more ghostly stuff. I’d guess to say that would include your healing”.

Danny squints his eyes at him, “good luck getting that in me. Intangibility”.

Lewis smirks and leans back in his chair, “I’m head surgeon for a reason. I have my ways”. If he had to gas Danny’s room just so he’d actually let his body heal, he would. Because this is just absurd. He doesn’t let Eddie and Vee get away with this level of problem avoidance, he’s not tolerating it from Danny either. Besides, convincing, or occasionally forcing, people into needed medical treatments was technically part of his job. Sure if Danny wanted to hide it from his folks, whatever, thats his prerogative.

Danny and Lewis stare at each for a beat, Danny sighing and leaning his head back, “dick”, sighing again, “but I guess I could, maybe, let them heal over night at home. And just, I don’t fucking know, pass them off as robotic legs? But knowing my folks they’d want to run ‘diagnostics’ which would be a problem”.

Lewis shakes his head and gets up, patting where the tail is, “you’ll figure it out”, smirking at him, “I’m sure you haven’t kept this part ghosts thing a secret for however long without being good at bullshitting”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “they can be pretty oblivious”.

“And you’re very paranoid”.

Danny snorts as Lewis heads to the door, “rightfully so”.

Lewis chuckles, “well you think on it, see you-”, Lewis pauses and mentally slaps himself. Right, he came here for a reason. Turning back around, Danny raising an eyebrow at him. Lewis asking, “so can I tell my friends more about you?”.

Danny chuckles, “would be kind of a dick move to say no. And while they sound kind of like a mess, it doesn’t exactly sound like they have anyone they even could tell. But”, Danny smirks which is why Lewis isn’t really worried, as Danny continues, “don't give them the Fenton name. It’s”, chuckling, “its Phantom, Danny Phantom. See if they can make the connection”.

Lewis smiles slightly, of course he had his own name for his other form. Even if Lewis still didn’t know what it looked like. Tilting his head as he realises something, “wait, that’s a pun and rhymes with Fenton...”, squinting at Danny, “wait, you use your real first name? In both forms? That is, that is incredibly stupid and reckless. How doesn’t everyone know?”.

Danny snickers with a shit-eating grin, “‘cause being a halfa is supposedly impossible. No one questions the impossible. No one has figured it out yet. Not a one. Sam and Tuck know because they were there when the whole dying thing happened. And Jazz, I literally transformed directly in front of her face. And even then she only believed what she saw because she’s arguably weird too. I absolutely have frequently transformed in the middle of the day, in the middle of massive crowds. People are blind. The only ones who see and easily accept the exceptionally strange are people who are strange themselves. Everyone else sees a trick of the light, a sleep deprivation induced hallucination, a wild conspiracy theory”, flicking out his tail and rolling it around in the air, “my other form, looks hardly any different. Venom sounds pretty different. I just glow and get a colour pallet change. And yet, even if Fenton and Phantom stand side by side, no one clues in. Not even my folks”.

Lewis blinks as one of those rings passes over Danny’s head. Leaving green eyes, white hair and glowing skin. That’s it. Nothing else. Sure the glow distorts him a fair bit, blurs his features. But still......Danny chuckles and it echos. Speaking and that echos too, “and you’re damn right Phantom’s a ghost pun. The big DP. But the real irony? The girl who has a shrine to Phantom and claims to be his future wife? has actively rejected Fenton. The guy who claims to be Phantom’s biggest fan and runs the fan club? the biggest bully in school and guess who his favourite target is? Fenton. And literally every single ghost knows Phantom is Fenton. Irony, lots of irony”.

Lewis looks to and blinks at the door, then back at Danny, “that is almost impressively ridiculous, but I guess you are right. Alive and dead is logically impossible”. Probably says a lot that Lewis didn’t question that much at all.

Danny chuckles, “speaking of colour palettes. Why are they the colours they are? I’m literally just an inversion, the other side of the coin, the flip of my living form”.

“They were born that way. Vee was. Symbiotes can be born pretty much any colour or even combinations”.

Danny shakes his head, “guess I can’t be pissy they have my colours then”.

Lewis just shakes his head and waves as he heads out the door. Eddie and Vee were either going to love this kid...or hate him.

Danny smiles and wiggles into the sheets some, changing his head back to Fenton and yawning again. Might as well get some sleep. Tail curling up around himself and snuggling it under his chin. This was kind of nice actually. Officially feeling like he’s been under appreciating his ghostly tail and yawning again.

On the verge of falling asleep only to jerk from the window clattering to the ground. Grumbling, “okay I know I asked for this, but what damn time even is it?”.

“About two. Um, I’m not good at this crap”, Danny tilts his head up at Val’s voice and goes wide-eyed, jaw dropping slightly. She was in suit and just deactivated her helmet. Why?????

Danny uncoils his tail from himself and emphatically points it at her, “Val, what the fuck? This-”, gesturing his tail up and down her, “-is not how you do a reveal”, tilting his head and laughing slightly, “I mean, props for dramatics I guess. But Zone, you don’t break the ice by shattering it into a million pieces. That’s how you drown”.

Val/Red walks over to him with a raised eyebrow, “are you...are you seriously giving me shit for how I told you? Danny, I, Zone. You have messed up priorities”.

“I’m a secretive bastard. I take personal offence to this level of a crappy dramatic reveal. No high stakes. No getting caught red handed doing something highly questionable. No awkward explanations. No little by little hints. No chances for complete escalating misunderstandings. Nothing. You didn’t even try. Where’s the respect for secret identities? No panache, no style, no glamour. I expected better from my girlfriend. Try again”.

Valerie sputters and just bends over laughing. Wheezing as she pulls herself into a chair and leans on the railing. Shaking her head at him before bursting out into laughter again. Wheezing, “I really can’t believe you! Zone Danny! I prefer tearing off the bandaid not plucking it off slowly and painfully. And...and are you seriously asking me to just...pretend? you don’t know and do a take two? Seriously?”. Valerie snorts and starts laugh again.

Danny rolls his eyes, “the drawn out painful agony is half the pleasure. Unless you’re revealing a shit ton. Then tearing off multiple bandaids in rapid succession is a fantastic way to confuse and startle”, poking Val, “and more like take three. I’ve know for years”.

Valerie jerks up, “WHAT!!!!!”.

Danny laughs and points at her with his tail, “see that’s how you do a dramatic reveal. Timing matters, two a.m. is horrible timing. Wait till the tension is high, not when one bastard is half asleep. Throw some disarming humour in, which at least you dropped the window so you tried. Make it relevant, don’t just pull it out of the damn blue. Show off a little, you didn’t even whip out the suit in front of me. Failing that be utterly underwhelming, you could have done that but no, you still acted like this was some big thing. Shoulda just sat down and acted like this was totally normal if you didn’t want to be showy. Have some pride for Zone’s sake. Presentation Val, presentation”.

Valerie blinks at him, “I’m still stalled at the fact that you knew”.

Danny points his tail in her face and smirks, “that’s because I have style. Had impact and presence to the words. I give myself a solid seven out of ten. But you? Two, maybe three. And only because you semi revealed yourself earlier, and dropped the window”.

“Oh my Zone Danny”, standing up and sending away her suit. Doing a silly twirl and summoning it back, “fucking happy you damn idiot? Now what do you mean you knew”.

Danny snorts, “you know I pay attention to shit. Your first suit didn’t alter your voice Val. It was obvious. And in case it isn’t brutally obvious, I’m a little bit ghostly. Which is also obviously why and how my body was even able to form a ghostly tail. I have damn good hearing”. Honestly, why the Zone didn’t her first one have voice modification? Even Sam could tell it was her. Danny expected better from Vlad.

Valerie looks down at herself, “oh my Zone”.

Danny shrugs and pats her shoulder with his tail, “but I’ll give you points for startling me. That’s pretty hard to do. Now care to redeem yourself a little by awkwardly and painfully explaining things?”. Sure Danny hates doing that himself but that was exactly why he enjoyed others having to suffer through the same.

Valerie hits him, “what would even be the point of that? You already know?!?”.

“To humour your boyfriend?”.

Valerie bangs her forehead on the railing, “I have regrets”.

“With how horrible of a reveal that was, I bet you do”.

She lifts up her head and glares at him, hitting him again, “Zone you are a complete idiot”, shaking her head, “but yeah, I’m the Red Huntress and apparently severely underestimated the kid of two ghost hunters”, blinking and laughing lightly, “oh of course the son of ghost hunters would recognise a new hunter”, resting her head on the rail and laughing.

While Danny just smirks and pats her back.

Eventually she calms down and yawns. Which makes Danny screw up his face and yawn, “damn you, you stupid hunter”.

She yawns again, muttering tiredly, “screw you, you stupid Spook...sorta Spook”. Danny just nods and curls his tail around himself again. Quickly falling asleep.

Meanwhile, Lewis decides Danny’s outed himself enough that it would be perfectly fine for him to google him. Typing ‘Danny Phantom’ into the search bar and getting seriously thrown. There were thousands of pictures of him. Just in full view. Good definition even. Danny wasn’t even trying to hid.

Most of the images are action shots, with him either fighting or getting injured. The sheer amount of images featuring injuries is alarming actually. Danny wasn’t kidding about getting hurt constantly. But it also made a bit more sense why people didn’t realise it was him. In every single picture, Phantom practically bled confidence and power. Every stance was bold, chest was full and proud. Goofy smirks and exaggerated motions. And the blur affect his glow had was much more extreme in photos.

The rest of the images were him signing things, carrying people to safety or waving. It was clear he was a people person. And there was something about it that made Danny seem like something above everyone, and not just literally. He looked like a hero. Of course no one thought he was some Highschool teen. And honestly, Danny’s right. No one would want to know a teen was getting this battered and being their hero. Doing what they couldn’t. Sometimes people didn’t like being friends with doctors or other high skill jobs for the same reason.

Clicking on some videos and pretty well getting bombarded by Danny getting injured, endless amounts of jokes -mostly puns-, and what he assumes is what Danny meant by ‘civilians voice’. All of it was both concerning and impressive. Even beaten up he stood -floated- commanding and assuring to people. The ‘civilians voice’ especially, made him seem like a wildly different person. A leader standing on a podium, to be listen to and not questioned.

Which makes him lean back and realise something. People seeing Phantom, Phantoms ‘persona’, was at least half of how Danny kept his secret. And he damn well knew it. Otherwise he wouldn’t bother with the voice. Over all, he seemed different from the Danny he knew but he could see Phantom’s ‘persona’ in his patient. The jokes, the carefree disregard of injuries, the dramatics.

Chuckling over Phantom’s outfit then, black and white indeed. But much more contrast and style. It really was a costume or suit, rather than just his body. Squinting at the chest symbol and sighing as he realises it was a flaming D with a P inside it. Jokes to every single thing. Though didn’t Danny say that his entire look as Phantom was just colour inversion of how he looked when he partly died? What the Hell was he wearing?

Lewis tilts his head and blinks, really looking at the outfit. It was a jumpsuit, like what Jack and Maddie wear. He’s a sort of ghost, hunting ghosts, wearing a ghost hunter jumpsuit. Lewis snorts, Danny probably got a kick out of that. Still didn’t explain the symbol though.

Turning his head to his wife as she wakes up with a yawn, “what are you doing?”.

“Satisfying curiosities, Anne dear”.

Anne smiles and sits up, stretching in her always controlled way. Looking at the computer, “is that a floating superhero?”.

Lewis chuckles, one look and it was clear Phantom was a superhero. One look at Venom and most think villain or monster, “that”, pointing at the screen, “is my patient”.

Anne shakes her head, “Eddie is going to be so far out of his depth”.

Lewis shakes his head, “no I don’t think so. Not too much anyway. This kids just built up a very showy persona. He’s more civilian, I guess, in person”.

Playing a video where Phantom is flying practically chest first at some robot and punches it with dramatic flair and a poster worthy smile. Lewis’s shakes his head, imagining Venom doing this would be ridiculous. They were definitely more of an ‘in the shadows and the dead of night’ vigilante.

Anne gets up and heads to the bathroom, so Lewis pulls out his phone and Google’s ‘Danny Fenton’. Not surprised there’s way less results. But instantly thrown by the images. This was a wildly different Danny. Perpetually slouching, head held somewhat low, eyes large and childish yet seemingly filled with caution, walking with shuffling feet and hands in his pockets. Only seemingly smiling at his friends and only laughing with them. The clothing too was so different, baggy and oversized.

Flipping to videos, there’s barely any. One of him dancing goofily, him getting bullied, awkwardly reading out assignments. This...was another persona. He could see some of this Fenton in Danny. The occasional awkwardness, not wanting to impose on others. But Phantom seemed more close to the Danny he knew. Danny was playing two different roles. Just to hide.

Shaking his head and comparing photos of the two forms. Yeah, this explains a lot. Sleek, fit, cocky, in charge. Scrawny, push over, cautious. One dominated and owned every scene he was in. One faded into the background and seemingly shrunk down in every scene, even if he was the focal point or the only one. It was almost jarring to know they were the same.

Closing the screens, Venom still behaved like Eddie and Vee. If you knew them it was a bit obvious. Eddie’s desire to help and fearlessness to charge into any situation. Vee’s threatening demeanour and occasional wit. Even not all Venom they were still explicitly Eddie and Vee. Even if both of them had changed in behaviour and personality since achieving symbiosis. Of course they had though. Just like being part ghost obviously changed Danny.

But Danny, he didn’t seem to be the real him, ever. In normal or public life anyway. Probably only those who knew, saw the real Danny. The amount of self-control that would take, for someone who’s seemingly a bit of a mess. He just lets himself be a mess. So Lewis guesses, it would probably be easy to feel bad for Danny too. A kid in two masks constantly getting battered in both. Who died partly and painfully, yet uses it to help but gets hurt in return.

Eddie and Vee are complete messes and morally corrupt. Danny is morally gold and strict resolution.

Guess that’s the difference between a vigilante and a hero, self-control and public image.

[pi-cat000]

MSA shorts (Lewis and Arthur)

Summary: Arthur gets into trouble. Lewis gets him out again. (Lewis and Arthur friendship piece)

Context: So this is a discarded scene from the ‘msa time travel idea.’ It’s set before canon and was originally going to be a flashback. You don’t have to read the ‘ msa time travel idea’  to enjoy it. 

...

Arthur immediately notices the motorbike when it pulls off the highway, engine revving, ties squeaking across the pavement. It slides right into the only vacant spot outside Pepper's Paradiso, taking up all the space, leaving no room for additional vehicles.

Though the muscle-bike is impressive, heavy, built for long distance travel, it’s not that which draws his interest. As the bike's leather-clad rider kills the excessively loud engine, Arthur’s attention is pulled to an incongruent rattle, signalling a loose bolt or screw. Not immediately noticeable, drowned out by other motor noises, Arthur strains to place the potential fault. He squints up at the engine, scanning the bike's frame. He can’t tell from where he’s sitting, but the impressive array of exhaust piping seams off.

The staring earns him a harsh glare from the bike’s owner who stalks past. Arthur averts his gaze down to the pavement, unwilling to provoke someone who’s either in a bad mood or generally spoiling for a fight. A familiar bell chime, the diner doors open, and the man disappears inside. Casually, Arthur stands, pauses for a beat, then meanders away from the entry in the direction of the bike.

He is in the middle of waiting for Lewis to finish his shift. It’s taking longer than usual, the dinner seeing an abnormal increase in customers for this time of day. Of course, Lewis has to hang back and help his parents deal with the sudden rush. It has left Arthur with little to do but loiter in the carpark, watching patrons come and go. Despite his friend’s insistence that he take a table inside, Arthur’s not a fan of crowds or noise and doesn’t want to occupy any space or attention when they’re so busy. Thus, outside, sitting on the curb, fiddling with his phone, is where Arthur’s been.

The bike is the first exciting thing to happen in the last thirty minutes. Nonchalantly, Arthur glances over his shoulder, but there is no sign of Lewis or the bike’s owner. He really should leave this alone, that leather-guy looks like a person he doesn't want to piss off. Arthur circles the bike, ignoring his better judgment. He’ll make this quick. After he confirms his suspicions, he’ll resume his patient sitting.

The bike is doubly impressive up close.

One of the band-clamps, connecting the exhaust piping to the collector, is loose. Arthur eyes it critically, crouching down to get a proper view.  Shoddy maintenance work, he concludes quickly. Someone has obviously taken the whole bike apart, replaced several pieces, then rushed putting it back together. The error, not something immediately noticeable, will inevitably screw things up in the long term. It’s a shame because the bike is really nice. He stands and takes a step back. Okay. Suspicion confirmed. Time to bug out and mind his own business.

Quickly, Arthur powerwalks over to his van on the opposite side of the parking lot, pulls out his toolbox, snatches the correct wrench and powerwalks back, crouching back down. If he quickly tightens that bolt there and moves this a bit here, it’ll shore-up the pipe’s integrity and prevent a major failure.

“Oi. What the fuck are you doing.”

Arthur doesn’t even manage to tighten the first bolt. A hand grabs the back of his vest and yanks him away hard. He goes sprawling across the concrete, getting his arms under him, so he narrowly avoids hitting his head. On his back, Arthur squints up at a bulky, leather wearing, very angry, bike owner.

Rattled from hitting the ground, Arthur blurts, “Nothing!” An angry scowl is his unfavourable response.

“I mean,” He rushes to clarify, holding up his incriminating wrench, “I’m obviously doing something, but it’s nothing bad. I swear. “

“Sure kid,” Knuckles are cracked, “and I’m a priest spreading the good word.”

Damnit, why couldn’t he have just left well enough alone?  Quick, talk fast, explain the situation.

“The exhaust pipe is super screwy. Whoever put it together is an idiot, they obviously don’t know what they are doing…ah…”

“What did you say…” The man steps over him, casting a threatening shadow. Okay. That was the wrong thing to say. The guy is probably friends with the mechanic or is the mechanic. Arthur is very aware of how his downed position places him in a precarious spot. Regret. He regrets everything!

Before the taller man can take a proper swing a foreign hand flashes out from behind, catching his arm.

“Is there a problem?” Lewis steps around into view, still dressed in his chef uniform, shooting Arthur a puzzled glance. Arthur shrugs helplessly, having no excuse for the current situation.  

“Fuck off, this isn’t none of your business,” The leather-guy continues to scowl at Arthur, yanking at the grip.

“I work for this diner. And that’s a friend of mine,” Lewis steps forward, so he’s hovering near Arthur’s head. Slowly, he releases the other’s arm. The leather-wearing bike owner shifts in response, giving Lewis a critical once over. Unlike Arthur, who is wiry, athletic and generally unthreatening, Lewis is tall, heavy-set, and very intimidating when he wants to be. Usually, that’s enough to deter a fight, and deterring is important because Lewis hates physical confrontation.

There are a tense few moments while leather-guy considers Lewis like he’s weighing up the pros and cons of starting a brawl right then and there. Luckily, the guy’s not a complete nut-job and, after some inaudible grumbling, steps away.

“Little punk insulted my baby,” Is groused as the guy stomps back towards his bike, dismissing both him and Lewis.  

“Ah, your exhaust pipe is loose. I was trying to fix it,” Arthur calls after him, sitting upright now he’s not in danger of being punched. Lewis, who is in the process of helping Arthur up, gives him a withering look.

The leather guy turns slowly, growling, “Like I believe that shit.”

“Arthur’s a mechanic,” Lewis explains diplomatically, pushing Arthur behind him and out of sight, “A good mechanic. If he says there is something wrong with your engine, then there probably is.”

A disbelieving grunt, but the other man doesn’t come back towards them, “Whatever kid.”

The leather-guy mounts his bike, calling, “A word of advice. Don’t start fights when ya can’t follow through.” The engine roars and both rider and bike tear out the car park and onto the highway. A second later and they are gone. Lewis breaths out a sigh and turns to give Arthur an exasperated frown. He is tense, not entirely happy.

“What was that about?”

Arthur grimaces, feeling a bit guilty for dragging Lewis into a potentially dangerous situation, “Yeah. Okay. So that wasn’t my brightest moment, but there really was something wrong with the exhaust pipe.”

“And what. You just decided to fix it without informing the possessive owner?” Lewis gestures at the wrench he’s still holding. Now the adrenaline is fading, Lewis is relaxing, sounding a mix of amused and exasperated.

“It was a nice bike,” Arthur defends, “and I thought he would be in the diner for longer.”

Lewis shakes his head, “Nope. Only here for the restrooms. Saw him leave one as I was finishing.”

“I sort of figured,” Arthur mutters, examining the grazes running up both his elbows. Blood is pooling just under displaced skin. Probably a result of hitting the pavement. Lewis watches, wincing in sympathy.

“Do you want…”

“I’ve got gauze in the van,” Arthur anticipates the question, “Ugh. Some people have zero chill. What do you think? A gang member or something.”

“Not sure. He’s staying in the Tempo Motor Inn. So, we at least we know where to avoid for a while.”

Arthur pauses his inspection, glancing at Lewis, a question on his lips.

“The perks of grocery shopping multiple times a week. Mrs Burton mentioned seeing an ‘unpleasant man in leather around the motel.’ How many men in leather can there be?”  Lewis elaborates, walking over to pick up his bag, which lying discarded near the diner’s entrance.

“Lots. If it’s a gang.” Arthur jokes, adding, “And Vivi says there are no benefits to gossiping.”

Lewis laughs, finally losing the last vestiges of tension, his shoulders relaxing. He slings his bag over a shoulder. Likewise, Arthur also lets himself relax, thankful his dumb idea hadn’t caused irreparable harm. They both start walking towards his van. Vivi’s still needs to be picked up. Arthur has already texted her, but he doesn’t want her to wait any longer than necessary. While Arthur pulls out his first aid kit, Lewis pulls off his work clothes, messing around with his hair till it sits right.

“At least it’ll make an interesting story,” Arthur remarks, wincing as he applies disinfectant to the injury. Lewis takes the driver’s seat, Arthur being preoccupied. Not long after they hit the town proper, quickly navigating the sparse streets. Vivi is easily spotted, a blue blob, sitting on the steps outside her workplace, eyes glued to a thick book. Lewis sounds the horn to get her attention, causing her to glance up, frown quickly turning to a grin.

NOTE: Hey look I wrote something that’s not angsty