#she's actually dating Sam and Danny is dating tucker maybe?

[lexosaurus]

From Goth to Ghost

Here is my second fic for @ecto-implosion! I was so excited to get @blonchie's art for this round. It is sooooo fun and silly and ah it made for such a great writing experience! Please do yourself a favor and CHECK IT OUT!

Thank you to @lexiepiper and @fridurwrites for betaing!

Characters: Sam, Danny, Tucker Tags/warnings: No Warnings, Halfa!Sam (temporarily) Summary: The last thing Sam expected to wake up to was her body frozen on her bed. But unfortunately, thanks to a certain jock's midnight ponderings and the interference of one wish-granting ghost, that was exactly how she started off her morning.

[read on ao3]

[part 2]

****

In a land far, far away, a figure sat on his bed staring wistfully out his window. The moon gazed back at him, bright and round as it was. A shining beacon of hope for all teen boys around the globe. A message that no matter what trials lay ahead, they could face anything.

This boy in particular didn't just hear that message, but he internalized it deep inside his very soul. He pondered it, he tossed and turned it in his head, folding it gently like a baker mixing fluffy, delicate cake batter. He tasted it, added a pinch of salt, some sugar, a little more flour, mixing—but not over-mixing—until the batter was just right.

It was a powerful feeling, these sorts of deep, poetic thoughts. When most of his day was spent replaying football plays in his brain, or thinking of nicknames for a certain, dweeby classmate of his, having moments where he could just be one with his deepest thoughts was almost meditative.

Not that he meditated, of course. Meditating was for hippies and girls, and he was neither of these things.

For he was strong, he was powerful, and he was truly the master of his own brain. This was why, as he pondered the essence of the Universe and all its inhabitants, he was so lost in thought that he nearly missed the shooting star jetting across the sky.

But, of course, he didn't miss that shooting star—which could have been an airplane, actually—because he could never miss such fine, delectable details about life such as that.

Well, it didn't really matter if that shooting star was moving far too slowly to be a shooting star after all. Perhaps it was a satellite?

This was a topic that a certain nerd would know. Not that this boy cared at all about that dweeb.

Most important, was addressing the reason for all his pondering in the first place. Which was the fact that the local ghost boy was, confusingly, very attractive.

Which made no sense. Phantom was dead. And also a boy. And this intelligent, strong, charismatic soul pondering out his window was a boy, too, and also very much alive.

Was it gay if he was dead?

Either way, it didn't make any sense for him to be attracted to that ghost. Even if they were both very amazing, handsome guys, and even if maybe it would be very cool to date a hero.

Well, as this charismatic and kind young teen stared out his window at the passing definitely-not-a-satellite shooting star and the full moon beside it, an idea suddenly popped into his head.

It was a great idea, really, following the storybooks.

And so, Dash opened his mouth and wished upon a shooting star, "I wish Phantom was a chick."

****

"So you have wished it, so it shall be."

****

Something was off.

That was the first thing Sam knew, even before she was fully conscious. She lay there in her half-asleep daze, trying to fight the looming dread of her morning alarm, and the only thing that her brain could think of was the ever-encroaching feeling in her chest and mind that something, somewhere, was off.

But her alarm hadn't gone off yet, so really, what was there to worry about? It was probably just the vestiges of her mother's voice from last night needling her brain. Sam couldn't even remember now what they'd been arguing about—probably about her wardrobe, again—but either way, it wasn't important.

So, she fell back asleep.

...

And shot up in her bed.

Wait, why did it feel like she was breathing ice?

That wasn't right.

She placed a hand on her chest, and something pushed back.

She froze. Her blood ran cold.

Literally.

She froze herself to her bed.

Sam stared down at her frost-covered legs, her blanket doing little more to keep her warm than acting as a decorative set piece. Her jaw unhinged in a manner that would have had her mom screaming at her to mind your manners, young lady—but her screams were silent, and each breath sent shards of microscopic ice from her lips.

Her room's temperature plummeted, surely, but Sam could hardly feel it. In fact, it felt better to her now that the air was cold.

And then, her brain caught up, too quickly, and began moving light-years beyond her body. Because holy shit, she'd seen this before, she'd heard of this before, from one person, from Danny.

This she felt in her chest was a core. A ghost core. And this frost was ghost powers, and her ice was ecto-ice, and everything about her screamed Danny's ghost powers.

She must have been dreaming. That was right, she was definitely dreaming. There was no way she was a ghost. She hadn't died! She'd gone to sleep last night healthy and happy—okay, she'd gotten in a fight with her mom. But still! Her mom was a total Karen, but she wouldn't have killed Sam in her sleep. She was crazy, but not that kind of crazy.

Before her brain could spiral too far, the cursed sound of her alarm snapped her back to reality. Except, her hands had frozen to her pajamas.

And she had no idea how to turn her powers off.

Great. So, not only was she dead, but she was also cursed to be the most obnoxiously annoying haunted-mansion ghost that Amity Park's ever known.

Perfect. It was just what every goth always dreamed.

How did Danny turn this thing off? His powers tended to flare when he was agitated, which meant she just had to calm down.

Okay.

Yeah.

She could totally calm down.

She sat there, head spinning, the alarm still blaring, and half expecting her mother to storm the gate that was her bedroom door and demand Sam get out of bed right this instant, but no, that wasn't helping.

So she closed her eyes and breathed.

Just breathed.

She thought of a warm day. Even if the goth inside her wanted shadows, she thought of the sun. A human sun, on a warm day, with a full-blue sky that turned into a warm, summer night. Peaceful, surrounded by nature, roasting vegetarian hot dogs around the campfire with her two geeky homebody friends who'd finally put down their technology to join her in this moment.

Her fingers wiggled, and it took Sam a moment to realize that the ecto-frost was gone. When she opened her eyes, her clothing and bedding were dry like the frost had never been there to begin with.

But before she could wonder if she'd gone crazy, she felt another pulse from that alien chill in her chest, and reality hit her like a truck all over again.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

She shut off her alarm.

The world was finally, finally silent.

And Sam was afraid to move. Afraid that one wrong twitch would set off her new ghost powers again. Afraid that next time, her mother really was going to barrel through her door and gasp and faint because, "Oh, Sammykins! What happened to you?"

She looked at her hands, but human skin stared back at her.

Human skin. Not glowing, green-tinged ghost skin. Human skin.

She peeled back her comforter, but her legs didn't glow either. They were dressed in the same black and purple fleece pants she always wore to sleep. Not a ghost outfit, a human one.

What. The. Hell.

Without thinking, she grabbed her phone from her nightstand and swiped to the one name on her contact list she knew could help.

Or, she hoped.

The phone rang in her ear. One ring, two, then three. Sam's heart thudded in her ears. Wait, heart? Since when did she have a heart?

This idiot had better be awake.

Four rings, then five.

If she had a heart, then maybe she wasn't dead. Danny had a functioning heart, didn't he? Sam couldn't remember. His biology was so strange and inconsistent. Maybe he did, which meant that maybe Sam wasn't dead dead; maybe she was just a halfa!

But how?

On the sixth ring, he picked up. His voice was thick, full of unshed sleep as he mumbled in a scratchy, drawn-out voice, "Sam? Wha...?"

"Danny!" Sam could taste the relief on her lips. "Danny, I need your help. I don't—something—"

"Whoa." Danny's voice on the other end was low, and oddly alert.

But whatever issue he was having could hold off. "I don't know how to explain this! I just. You need to. Ugh, I don't know what's happening!"

"Wait," he said, almost distracted, as if he weren't actually talking to Sam.

No, her problems came first right now. "Danny, please!"

"Wait, wait, wait. Hang on, Sam, something—"

"I have a ghost core!"

"My core is missing!"

Silence echoed off the walls of the cell line between them. Sam's body was a cacophony of both wanting to breathe hard because that was what her body was used to, and also scoffing at the idea of breathing to calm down because breathing was pointless and she was a ghost, damnit! She could do better than that! Even though she wasn't a ghost. She was alive, she reminded herself. 

Even if absolutely none of this should be possible.

It was Danny who broke the silence first. "Wait, what?"

Sam needed no further prompting to let the words spill from her mouth. "I have a ghost core now! I just woke up like this and I have no idea how it happened!"

To Sam's surprise, Danny began to laugh.

Genuinely laugh.

"What the hell, Danny?" Sam hissed. Around her, the lights flickered.

"No, sorry, it's just that I'm glad that this mystery is already halfway solved. If you were anyone else, I don't know what I would have done."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying my core is gone, Sam! Not off, but like, gone. It's not in my chest anymore. I'm human. But you have a ghost core. So somehow it seems like my core moved into your body."

Sam jerked back in bed, leaning against her disheveled cushions and scoffing. "That's ridiculous."

Danny didn't miss a beat. "Yeah, but my entire life is ridiculous. That's kind of part of the deal."

"Okay, fair. But still, what the hell am I going to do? I don't know how to use this core! I'm going to get discovered by first period!"

"Sam." Danny laughed. "Be real. I've transformed in the middle of the street and no one's ever caught me."

Well, he did have a point.

"Seriously, you'll be fine. And besides, even if you do accidentally turn invisible in front of someone, everyone in this town knows that when people get ecto-contamination, they sometimes show weird ghostly side effects. It wouldn't be too hard to say, oh I don't know, you accidentally dropped a beaker of one of my parents' inventions on you and you're just having some side effects while it wears off!"

If Sam wasn't trying to reassure herself that everything would be okay, she might have been impressed at how easily Danny thought of that simple lie. Impressed, and also maybe a little concerned.

"You'll be fine! Just hang tight ‘til we can figure out what's going on, anyway."

"Sure," she said. She breathed, releasing the knot in her stomach as she did. "Okay, okay, I'm good now."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Okay, see you in a bit."

She clicked off before he could respond, and her phone slipped through intangible fingers, bouncing against her mattress and settling next to her leg. 

She had ghost powers.

Not just any ghost powers, but Danny's ghost powers.

Somehow.

Inexplicably.

Neither of them had a single clue why, but somehow, they'd managed to swap human-halfa statuses.

So, Sam had Danny's ghost powers. His Phantom powers. The powers he, an overpowered halfa, used to fight other ghosts. And now, Sam had them in the palm of her hand.

Literally.

And she had to act normal. 

Right. Yes. Yup, that was fine. This was all totally fine.

"Sammykins!" the nails-on-chalkboard sound of her mother's shrill voice called from the bannister. "Get up! You're going to be late for school!"

Sam could feel the ectoblast tingling at her fingertips. 

But no, this wasn't a dangerous creature. Okay, her mother was absolutely a dangerous creature, especially when given the power of the PTA on her side.

Sam shuddered. The PTA was everyone in town's worst nightmare.

But still, this was her mother, a human. A very annoying, preppy woman. Not a dangerous ghost. So, she squashed the tingling of the ectoplasm and jumped from her bed. "I know!"

Showering was odd. More than odd, actually, it was downright outrageous. 

The hot water licked her skin like fire. It was muggy, and the humidity, once relaxing, suffocated her. Her internal body temperature rose with each passing second, and where she used to cry a defensive, "Goths don't sweat, we simmer!" to those who would poke fun at her not-so-summer attire, now, that simmering felt more like actual boiling.

Her hand shot out and yanked the lever to the cold setting. Almost immediately, the water went from trying to slow-roast her alive, to gently kissing her skin.

She sighed, both relief and horror filling her at once.

Relief because wow, this cold shower was seriously amazing. 

And horror because to her recollection, the only people on Earth who enjoyed icy cold showers were male social media influencers who posted about waking up at five in the morning for the daily rise and grind.

If ghost powers turned her into a rise and grinder, Sam was going to kill herself.

Miraculously, she managed to get through the morning without her mother noticing anything. Well, probably because Sam and her mother rarely if ever interacted face-to-face in the morning. If they did, all Pam could manage was a comment about how Sam's outfit wasn't ladylike, while Sam could only respond with a scowl in her mother's direction. So, for both of their sanities, they found it best to interact as little as possible before they had their morning coffees.

Intangibility only caused her to drop her spider backpack once before she was able to sling the straps over her shoulders. It really was such a pesky thing, and she almost regretted all the times when she'd made fun of Danny's sudden clumsiness post-accident.

Almost.

But not quite.

Because what were best friends for if not to make fun of each other?

"Bye, Mom!" she yelled to the empty air and then stepped through the threshold of the door.

Or, tried.

She hadn't meant to literally step through the threshold. As in, begin sinking through the floor.

Heart pounding, she swung her hands out and caught the side of the doorframe. Using a mix of adrenaline and physical training, she pulled her body back up. Her legs returned to the world of tangibility, and she sat on the floor, breathing rapidly. 

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. 

What the hell was that?

She'd just stepped through the floor. She'd just stepped through the floor.

"Sam!" yelled out a voice from the street.

She'd never been so thankful to see the obnoxious yellow of Tucker's sweater before.

She opened her mouth, but the words caught in her throat, and her vision began swimming. Had Danny told him? Or was Tucker blissfully unaware? How was Sam going to explain all this?

Thankfully, Sam was saved.

"Need some help?" Tucker asked. "Danny texted!"

Normally, she would have felt insulted that anyone dare ask if she needed help up. But this time? Screw it.

"Yeah, actually."

"Are you leaving?" Sam's mother called from the bathroom upstairs where Sam knew she was layering her face under a mountain of anti-ageing products. 

"Yup! Going now!" Sam answered. "Tucker's here!"

"Tell him not to walk on the lawn! I just got it trimmed!"

Sam rolled her eyes, turning back to the sound of Tucker’s footsteps traversing up their flawlessly power-washed walkway. 

"Here." He held out his arm. "Don't worry, no one's looking."

Once convinced she wasn't going to start sinking to the other side of the planet again, Sam gingerly stood and tested her feet against the floor.

Her brain was happy to report that the floor was, in fact, solid.

Thank goodness.

She made quick work of shutting the door behind her, darting off her property, and, most importantly, getting away from her mother's prying eyes.

Once they were safely on the other side of the tall, privacy hedges, she whipped around to face Tucker and said, "I don't know what the hell Danny told you, but I'm kind of freaking out right now."

"So is he," Tucker said. "He said he'd meet us at school, by the way. He's poking around in his basement for any leads and then is gonna get a ride from Jazz. But I'll be honest, I thought y'all were pulling my leg ‘til I saw you going through the floor."

"Yeah, this is legit." Sam stuck her palm out and let the cold crystals surface on her skin, gathering them until they formed a sheet of ice on her palm. She saw Tucker's eyes widen and heard a sharp inhale with her newly acquired acute hearing, but otherwise, he didn't say anything until she tipped her palm over and let the ice fracture on the ground.

"What the hell?" Tucker breathed.

"Right?" Sam groaned. "I don't know what I'm going to do! I only barely have a lid on these powers right now."

"You'll be fine. Danny was, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, but Danny's core was a lot weaker back then. I've got it at full power right now, and I have zero idea where the brakes are in this thing."

Tucker didn't seem fazed, his stride overly bouncy and dare Sam say joyful for the situation at hand. "Yeah, but you're way more athletic and into the whole occult thing than Danny is anyway. You're a goth! I'm sure you'll figure it out. And if it makes you feel better, Danny's transformed in broad daylight loads of times and nobody's noticed."

"Yeah, he mentioned that over the phone too."

"Right? You'll be fine."

"Thanks, Tuck," Sam said, then faltered, her body flickering out of visibility for a split second before she rounded on Tucker, mouth gaping. "Wait, were you, Tucker Foley, trying to make me feel better? Me, the ultra recyclo vegetarian? Doesn't that go against your meat code of ethics or something?"

"Yeah, I know, right? What has the world come to where I'm out here consoling you? Tragic times and all."

Sam slugged his arm playfully.

"Don't tell Danny or he'll never let me live it down," Tucker added.

Sam snorted, adjusting her purple spider backpack straps and bounding forward. They walked in a comfortable silence for half a minute before Tucker broke her tranquility to talk about some game he was playing (badly, Sam mentally thought). He narrated his great epic about how much he'd grinded until he found some hack—a hack that Sam knew he didn't actually find but probably read about on Reddit—and at that point Sam was forced to interject because if Tucker had just played the game's tutorial properly or not skipped over all the cutscenes, he would have known a far easier way to level up than grinding those low-level monsters he'd been fighting and—ugh, Tucker could be so infuriating sometimes.

"See, I know you're mad at me right now because your eyes are literally glowing."

"I'm not mad at you!" Sam argued, pinching the bridge of her nose like she'd seen Danny do dozens of times to calm his eyes down. It didn't feel like it was doing much for her, though. "I just can't believe you're seriously so inept that you're resorting to digging for hacks on Reddit instead of just playing the game properly! See, this is why you suck at gaming. I don't play video games nearly as much as you but I always kick your ass because I try."

"And I don't?" Tucker said, affronted.

"No! You just look for cheats!"

"Because I'm working smarter, not harder!"

"And that's why you never get any better!" 

They rounded the corner, and the school campus began peeking into view. 

"Oh shit, hang on. I need to make my eyes stop glowing." Sam turned around to face the window of a closed store. Her reflection was faint, but even then she could see her eyes glowing fiercely. "Shit. How do I turn this off?"

"Don't be such a hothead."

Sam stamped her foot. "I'm not a hothead!"

"Oh damn, what am I walking into?" said a voice that had never filled Sam with so much relief as it did now.

A hand touched her shoulder, and Sam peered through her bangs to see the bright blue eyes of Danny Fenton. She took a deep breath from her gut just like she'd always practiced in her weekly yoga classes and felt the power recede into her body. 

"Hey, Danny," she said sheepishly.

"You looked like you were about to punch Tucker through the window."

"I did want to punch Tucker through the window."

"What did that poor window ever do to you?" Tucker quipped.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's the window I was arguing with. You were just the projectile, for sure."

"Seems like you got pretty good control over these powers, though," Danny said, eyeing her up and down.

Sam imagined he was expecting to find her in his typical state: covered in some amount of blood, ectoplasm, and dirt. Fortunately, she'd managed to make it to school unscathed.

"Oh no, you totally missed the part where she literally ate shit going through her door," Tucker cackled, wiping an invisible tear from his eye. "It was amazing. You should have been there. I've never seen our girl look so uncoordinated in her life."

Sam didn't even try to suppress the glow from her eyes as she rounded back on their very annoying friend and glared. "Another word and I will throw you through this window!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure you will!"

Danny stuck his hand out and flicked Tucker's cheek. "So, we going to class or what? Bell's about to ring and if I get one more tardy this week, Lancer said I'll owe him a Saturday detention."

Sam steeled herself, looking across the street at her biggest adversary this year: the school. "Fine, let's go." 

****

Somehow, Sam prevailed through homeroom without falling through her chair. Although, her new ghost core had certainly threatened to send her ass not just through her chair, but into the goddamn floor multiple times.

She had also managed to weather their English written check-in on the assigned book they were reading. Or, the book that some of them had been reading. Sam, of course, was one of the people who had legitimately read it. Persepolis was an easy read, after all, with it being a graphic novel and all. And besides, Sam could never call herself a feminist if she neglected to read the stories of women from other parts of the world.

On the other hand, Sam was pretty sure that both Danny and Tucker had thoroughly failed the open response question, even with her giving a verbal synopsis of the book before class had started. 

"Wait, who's Ebi?" Tucker had asked.

Sam wanted to throttle him. "He's Marji's father!"

"Who's Marji?" Danny asked.

"The main character, Danny. "

Yeah, they'd definitely failed the check-in.

But since the class had finished early, they had the rest of the period to chat. Or, in Sam's case, sit there trying to stay visible and in her chair.

"You have too much energy," Danny explained, looking thoroughly too unconcerned for their current predicament as he doodled spirals in the margins of his notebook. "You just need to burn it off."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Sam asked. "We're in fucking school!"

"You can do it after school."

"Wow, gee, you're so helpful. I'm so glad you told me this at the beginning of the school day instead of, you know, texting me or something before school!"

"I forgot," Danny said, waving his hand as if to shoo her away.

"You're useless is what you are."

And he truly was. For as long as Danny had ghost powers, Sam realized that he didn't actually understand them to a shocking degree. Well, he was a boy after all, and boys could be a bit dense. Then again, there was a bit dense and then there was Danny, who seemed like such an airhead at times, that Sam was concerned that all those ghost fights had knocked all his brains from his skull.

"You'll figure it out," is what Danny said.

Sam did not win the fight to resist throwing her pencil at him.

Mr. Lancer, who seemed to have a knack for turning his head to see the exact moment when a student was breaking a rule, tilted his head in an expression that plainly read: are you fucking serious?

"Sorry!" Sam called. "Danny was being annoying!"

"When isn't Fentwerp being annoying?" Dash snickered.

Danny glared at Dash. "I'll stop being annoying if you take this pencil and shove it up your—"

"Boys!" Lancer's voice boomed through the classroom. "It's too early for this. Stop."

Dash grumbled something under his breath but otherwise turned back to his conversation with Kwan.

"And Ms. Manson," Lancer added, his expression rotating to its previous exasperation, "please don't throw pencils in my classroom."

"Fine, sorry," Sam said without conviction.

Apparently, though, that was enough for Mr. Lancer, who seemed content to return his attention down to the stack of papers and the red pen in his fingers.

"You are annoying me, you know," Sam told Danny. "Seriously, you haven't given me one bit of useful advice this entire day."

"Yeah, well, I don't know. I'm not a god, you know." Then he paused his doodling, chuckling to himself. "I'm not Clockwork."

"Clockwork, oh gracious god of time!" Tucker raised his hands up to the ceiling. "If you can hear us, please do grace us with your presence so Miss Sammykins can not eat shit on the floor! Even if from a purely objective standpoint that would be incredibly funny!"

"No it would not be!" Sam hissed.

Danny glanced up. "He's not gonna come for this, you know. He wouldn't even show up when Vlad had kidnapped me in his basement that one time."

Sam and Tucker rounded on him, simultaneously crying, "He did what?"

Once again, Danny looked far too unconcerned. "Oh yeah, he was trying to get my mid-morph DNA. Did I not tell you about that? The loser was using it for his stupid clone project. Seriously, he's such a creep."

"Oh, so that's how Danielle got stabilized? Vlad stole your mid-morph DNA after he kidnapped you?" Tucker asked.

"Yup."

Sam realized her mouth was gaping like a fish, and she forced her jaw back together. "Your life is so fucked up, you know that?"

Danny just continued doodling in his notebook. "Yeah, well, now you have my core so...good luck!"

If luck was what she needed, then she was about to cast every Wiccan spell she knew to get it. 

Fortunately, she managed to stay mostly intact through the rest of the period. Though, her legs did flicker in and out of visibility a few times. They were under her desk, so no one could see. But for good measure, she stole Tucker's jacket to cover her lap like a blanket, much to his protest.

A blunt "you'll live" was just about all the sympathy that he'd gotten from Sam.

As the day droned on, Sam began to get used to the core in her chest. It was a constant cold presence that seemed to send chill gusts anytime it was looking to cause mayhem in the form of intangibility or invisibility. And once she recognized the feeling of that cool energy balling up, she began learning how to brace herself for when it striked.

Of course, she wasn't successful in stopping all the cool gusts of energy. She was a novice, after all. But she was very proud of herself that she'd managed to begin teaching herself the first steps.

And also, very annoyed because that meant Danny's nails-on-chalkboard advice of "you'll figure it out" actually had some merit to it.

Not that she'd ever admit that to him. He and his advice could eat rocks for all she cared.

Point was, she had actually begun to get a grasp on whatever the hell was going on with her body. In the half hour before the lunch bell, she'd even started to hone her new abilities enough to make tiny ecto-ice crystals in the palm of her hand under her desk. She was at least partially certain that she could make these crystals on a bigger scale given the opportunity, but for some reason, she didn't think her teachers or the school administration would appreciate a seemingly-human student erecting giant crystals of unmeltable ice in the middle of their classrooms.

Though, their reactions would be very funny.

When the lunch bell rang, Sam was—for the first time—the first person out of the room, darting through the halls as if she'd personally been victimized by that biology class. Which, given the amount of worksheets that teacher loved to hand out, wasn't actually too far off from the truth.

Regardless, Sam was already halfway down the hall before she remembered to sling her spider backpack over both shoulders. She was the first to claim refuge in the trio's normally near-empty table, and given her boys seemed to be really taking their time today, to refrain from squirming in her seat like a toddler, she hid one hand in her lap and willed an ice crystal to her fist. This time, she was testing to see if she could make a simple shape with it. A flat disc, she decided. 

The crystal that formed wasn't exactly the smooth, flat disc she'd been envisioning. It was a bit rough, and it wasn't that thin either. But it wasn't like the round, perl-like ecto-ice that she'd willed to existence on a previous attempt. This one was different, and different meant that she was improving.

"You surviving?" a voice called over her shoulder.

She startled, getting so consumed by the ecto-ice, that she forgot that she'd been waiting for her friends to arrive. 

"Barely, but I'm doing it," she responded to Tucker, who'd practically fallen into his normal lunch seat.

"Well, that makes one of us. I thought Mr. Falluca was actually trying to murder us with the amount of homework he assigned."

"Tuck, he gave time in class to do it."

"And I clearly didn't work on it during class. That's what I have you for!" He leaned forward and pressed his fingers into a prayer. "I have you here to lend me your answers!"

Sam frowned. "And what are you offering in return?"

"A free hug?"

"Yeah, I don't think so"

"I know, I was just messing with you." Tucker grinned. "How about the bio homework?"

Sam tapped her chin, pretending to think about it. "Well, well, well, Mr. Foley. You've got yourself a deal." She stuck her hand out, and Tucker was quick to grasp her palm and shake her one hand with his two in an exaggerated motion. 

"Thanks, Sam! You're the best."

"Well," Sam said, taking her hand back. "Don't thank me yet. You still have to do the bio homework. Knowing that class, that could be a whole thing."

"It's fine. Bio homework is usually fast for me."

"We're talking about Bio?" Danny asked, placing his lunch tray down and taking his seat across the table.

Sam looked over, brightening. "Oh hey, Danny! Yeah, we are. Unfortunately."

Danny suddenly looked like he wanted to throw up. "Ugh, hate that class."

"Don't we all?" Tucker lamented

"I don't even know what we're learning right now," Danny said

"I don't think anyone knows," Tucker said.

"And you're doing my homework for me?" Sam asked as Tucker shoveled a bite of food into his mouth.

He chewed for a moment as if to be polite, and then decided to abandon that idea and talk with a full mouth instead. "Don't worry, I'll figure it out. I always do!"

"Gross," Sam scoffed. "I don't need to see your gory, spit-covered meat disaster."

"The school's gory, spit-covered meat disaster, actually." Tucker gestured to his lunch tray. 

"That doesn't make it any better."

"Guys," Danny interrupted, his face contorting into that exasperated expression it always did when she and Tucker started fighting about food. "Seriously? If you two get into this, Sam's eyes are gonna turn green again."

Sam squeezed the edges of the ecto-ice in her palms, anticipation clawing at her skin. "Actually, I've made some progress with it."

Danny perked up. "With figuring out how to switch things back to normal?"

"No. Better! I've starting figuring out how these powers work." Sam presented her palm to the two boys, the misshapen ice-disc proudly on display.

It took Sam a moment too late to realize that she probably looked like a toddler presenting their scribbled drawing to their parents that could be either a human or a cat depending on which angle the parent was looking at the scribbles from.

And she could see in their faces that this was exactly how Tucker and Danny were taking it. From Danny, a police nod at her lump of ice, and from Tucker, a squint through his glasses and a look that said, "huh?"

"The ice," Sam explained. "I've started to figure out how to shape and size it."

"Oh, that makes a lot more sense," Danny said, clearly relieved.

"Yeah, I thought all that ectoenergy managed to loosen a few screws, if you know what I'm saying." Tucker circled his pointer finger around the size of his head in the universal crazy gesture. "But, uh, congrats?"

"That awesome, Sam! Jeez, you're picking this up fast. It took me weeks before I figured out how to not turn the entire room into a blizzard whenever I turned the powers on."

"If it makes you feel better, I'm just copying you." Sam shrugged, placing the ice on the table. She stabbed her lettuce with her fork and held it in the air for a moment, amusement seeping into her at Danny who scooped the ice up like a dog being given a new squeaky toy for its birthday. 

He turned it around in his fingers, inspecting every scratch in the ice. "Hey, this is actually pretty good. It takes a while to get the hang of it. You really have to be specific on how you picture the item. Well, at first anyway. Over time, it gets a lot easier. But when I was first starting out, I had to clear my brain out before I made anything."

"Clearing your brain out? That shouldn't be too hard for you. There's nothing there to begin with."

Danny shot Tucker a glare. "Very funny."

"Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all night."

Sam ignored him. "I just need to practice." She shivered, and intangibility threatened to send her crashing to the ground. It took all her might to stave it off. "And, I need to burn this energy off. Hey, can you show me how right after school? Since we have no idea how long we'll be switched like this and all."

"Yeah, sure," Danny said.

Sam straightened, and began eating her salad with newfound vigor. She was going to burn the energy off regardless, but having someone there to coach her and help her control it would be immensely helpful.

All she had to do was make it through the rest of her school day.

****

part 2 >

[overtherose]

Wouldn't it have been funny if Bruce had a Brucie moment and hired Danny just due to his last name being grey.

I mean like Bruce doesn't regret it cause Danny is very competent. But Danny's last name reminds him of the grey ghost series and his son dick.

One of the Bats has a secret. Something they never told to the others.

They were so very young but they have memories of a sibling, so small and tiny. They remember the burst of warmth they had in their heart when they held the tiny baby for just a moment.

But they weren’t allowed to keep them, their family couldn’t raise them. Money was tight, just enough for three but not for four, despite their shows always bringing in a crowd it was getting harder and harder for the world to be wowed by them in the new age and their sibling was too small and tiny and needed to be cared in a single place than for them to be on the road. Their lifestyle was not good for his tiny sibling apparently.

They had to watch as their parents gave his sibling away to people in suits, them promising to give his baby brother to a loving family when they find a ‘home’ for him. He watched his parents try to be strong only for his mother to break down once the car left down the road, his father holding her and apologizing, the rest of the circus troupe all silently coming over to give the heartbroken family condolences.

Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson had tears running down his face when he last saw his baby brother.

A brother he got to name before he had to be given away.

Daniel ‘Danny’ Grayson.

-x-x-

Dick never told the others. If anyone dug deep into his past they might find his brother’s birth records maybe, if someone got around to digitizing the paperwork for him but given the fact he was placed in the US childcare systems just a few days after his birth and the fact that Dick was still pretty young they most likely believed he didn’t remember his baby brother now. Not after so many years.

But they were wrong, Dick remembers. And he kept the secret close to his heart and memories.

And the only physical evidence he had was a single picture of him holding his brother, a smile on his tiny face towards their father who had taken the photo of them together. When he had lost his parents, lost most of the things that connected him to them, to his past in the circus that had been his whole life, had been taken from him in Gotham’s ruthless childcare system, he held on tight to the picture in secret. Hid it away from anyone trying to rip it from him, hid it from Bruce when the man took him in days later, hid it from Alfred despite how gentle the butler was towards him. He couldn’t, wouldn’t risk losing his photo at the time, he hadn’t trusted anyone and by the time he did he didn’t have the heart to reveal it.

So yes, the existence of his baby brother Danny was his most guarded and best kept secret.

So that’s why Dick, as Nightwing, nearly died from a heart attack when leaving a Justice League meeting he spotted a familiar face among one of the new engineers working in the Watchtower.

It was like seeing a young version of himself. Only, Dick could see that the young man was more than a copy of him, so much more than a clone. He held many traces of John Grayson but also had a bit more of Mary Grayson than Dick did. Small details that Dick foggely remembers taking note when he had held his baby brother.

“Hey, hurry up with that report Gray!” Shouted the head engineer from down the hall, his hand beckoning the young adult to come over.

“Coming! And boss, I told you Danny is fine!” Danny shouted back before hurriedly leaving a stunned Nightwing.

[demonic0angel]

Your Damian Fenton post gave me severe Uncles+Aunt Everlasting Trio vibes.

After the Moment TM of Danny being jealous about Jazz fixating so much on Damian, and everything had been said and resolved, I can imagine Damian being a little insecure, because his own Uncle looked like he didn't like him.

The goggles being a gift from Danny would be the turning point for the two of them.

Imagine, Danny in the lab, looking over notes from Frostbite about some experiment that he wanted to try out, maybe to take neutral ectoplasm and make it into healing ectoplasm, and he's pulling out his hair a little bit, because it's a lot all at once, and Damian wanders into the room, a little nervous, because while Uncle Danny already said it wasn't his fault, Damian still desperately wants his family to like him.

It's the "lightbulb moment" of a successful experiment that turns it around into Danny and Dakian being thick as thieves.

Danny bouncing on the spot, watching the mixture settle and change colors, and as he feels Damian approach curiously, in true Jack Fenton fashion, Damian gets to be squished against Danny's chest like a teddy bear while listening to his Uncle rapid-fire explain what just happened. It's actually pretty nice, getting to go limp and be swung around while cradled against Danny's chest, while Danny purrs with joy.

By the time he's set down again, Damian has a cursory understanding of what the experiment was, and also undeniable proof of love from his Uncle.

From there, Danny breaks out his old lab coat, from when he was Damian's size with the matching safety goggles, and has Damian put them on so they can take a photo together and send it to Jazz.

I can imagine Danny ruffling Damian's hair, giving him the Gremlin Smile and telling him "your mother's gonna flip if she catches you here without safety gear. But don't worry, your uncle's gonna make sure you know how to stay safe."

Danny gets whapped with the newspaper for using Lab Time as a bonding moment, but Damian is still clinging to him and constantly swishing the ends of his lab coat like he can't believe he's wearing it.

From there, by the time Danny, Sam and Tucker finally start dating, Damian has at least one patch in all his jeans, courtesy of Tucker, and he keeps stealing one specific t-shirt from Sam, because she left it in Danny's room and Damian thought it was the coolest thing ever, so he's going to steal it, like the gremlin Fenton child that he's learning to be.

Sam shows up the next day with a whole suitcase of graphic t-shirts for Damian to try.

Do you think the reason why Damian meets the Bats is because the Trio have eventually moved to Gotham, and Jazz+Damian are taking a vacation to go see his Aunt and Uncles?

The Trio take their nephew to a dog park so he can pet the dogs? Maybe also because they adopted a puppy from a shelter and whenever Damian is with them he HAS to be involved in walking the dog every day?

Regardless, one of the Bats see this mini-Bruce racing a dog through the park, and immediately have to go stick their nose into it, to great distress to Damian, and some seriously ruffled feathers from his Uncles, Aunt and Mother. Luckily, not Grandma and Grandpa, this time, because they're busy attending a seminar with Frostbite and his students, or there would be even more threats of bodily harm than there already were.

Danny, Tucker, and Sam were definitely a large part of his life since they babysat him when Jazz was busy. He bonded with them a lot over shared hobbies and interests (Sam with gardening and plants, Tucker with cars and machinery, Danny with ghosts and science and stars).

Honestly, when I thought of Danny being jealous of Damian, it was meant to be a moment between Jazz and Danny since Damian would've been like,,, seven when it happened. However, your idea is super cute! Danny and Damian do often do experiments and hang out with each other, but that's a post for another day 😌 the coat is specifically from Jazz since she gave it to him for his first birthday with them.

The reason why Damian meets the Bats is that the entire Fenton family went there to visit for vacation, but the real reason was that Jazz was planning to move there for work and wanted to take Damian with her, so she wanted to check it out first. Of course, shenanigans ensue as Damian makes friends with the Batkids (who are endeared by the tiny, mad scientist) and then eventually meets Bruce.

[siltyriver]

Get In Loser, We’re Going Ghost Hunting

(Danny Phantom DanDash Prompt #2)

Mean Girls AU in which Danny and Jazz have been homeschooled and/or taken online classes so their parents could travel the country (and sometimes abroad) to further their studies in the paranormal/clean energy (ectoplasm) but Maddie gets offered a position at a prestigious university or lab and they finally settle down enough to go to public school.

Danny is NOT Phantom (…yet?) as his parents never got around to actually building the portal (that would require a stable place of living, and their priorities shifted to ectoplasmic energy more so than ecto-entities) so he’s just plain old Danny Fenton, son of the weirdo ghost hunting scientists.

He is rightfully pretty nervous but finds himself making quick friends with Sam and Tucker who take him under their wing for the first couple of days until he gets invited to sit with the ‘A-Listers’ at lunch (Wes stops him in the middle of the cafeteria to grill him about his parents’ work and research and Dash or Paulina tell him to leave Danny alone, cue the ‘why don’t we know you?’ plastic spiel) and thus springs a revenge plot for Sam and Tucker who have both been wronged by one or multiple of the group.

They make Danny their inside man, passing along the stuff that is talked about and trying to bring the downfall of Paulina Sanchez and Dash Baxter.

But, the more time he spends with the group the more he finds himself just having fun and genuinely enjoying himself (minus the reality checks when one of them ends up bullying someone and no one in the group sticks up for the victim and get uncomfortable when Danny does so — but surprisingly Dash never bullies anyone past a few stinging words and Danny finds himself curious as to why, and maybe there’s angst later if Dash does get physical with someone that pissed him off and Danny realizes he’s not the type of guy he thought he was and Dash has to face the consequences or smth… maybe…)

He finds that Dash and Paulina aren’t actually a couple, they just pretend so that they can stay in the hierarchy of ‘power couple’ that gives them like ultimate status in the school. They’re not in love, they aren’t dating, they’re just really close friends (Paulina is in fact in love with Sam who she spread rumors about being gay in a twisted way to protect herself. Gotta love that internalized homophobia and denial.)

Which then opens the floodgates of Realization and he finds himself getting flustered around Dash, wanting to spend time with him and creating his own schemes to put the two of them together whenever he can. He knows it’s a disaster waiting to happen and he knows that it’s just going to be painful for him, but he can’t stop it from happening, especially not when Dash seems to be flirting back sometimes ???

Yada yada, maybe there’s a burn book, maybe not, maybe someone gets hit by a bus, maybe not, idk I just work here, man

(The school-wide therapy session would be hilarious and it wouldn’t just be the girls in this version which opens even more funny possibilities, but who knows?)

It obviously ends with prom and the couples getting together, finally, so woo hoo that’s a win for love and a wrap

—

(… alternate version where Danny IS Phantom and is also dealing with ghost shenanigans the entire time and trying to maintain his secret identity on top of the new battle of high school drama. enter Wes Weston who is suspicious and keeps trying to get people on board with the conspiracy lmao)

(also bonus points if Jazz actually graduated early so she doesn’t attend school with Danny and is just there for the therapy session ‘why can’t everyone just get along?’ ‘she doesn’t even go here!’ scene lol)

[impyssadobsessions]

Your Halfa!Dash AU is really interesting. Can we please see his ghost form? Or like, get a description of it. Also, does Sam and Tucker ever find out the truth? Would love to see their reaction and what they decide to do(can totally see them helping out). Lastly, what does the town call ghost-form Dash? Do they call him Invisbill? Phantom? Or does he go by something else entirely?

Actually I have more Posts on Halfa!Dash AU~ One with the ghost form. I'll post all the links to everything that has Halfa Dash that I've done. Sam and Tucker find out later, though at first they're hurt that Danny spending more time with Dash. Then they think Dash is blackmailing Danny, especially when they hear from Jazz about them "dating". Jazz didn't know they didn't know and they kind of pieced it together what little she slipped. They definitely do help out.. though threaten Dash that they'll be the one he has to worry about ripping him apart if anything happens to Danny. Despite Danny having explained the situation. I haven't thought of a name much. BullRush maybe? But it might be more of an attack he names. It won't be phantom. Though can see Danny suggest it or mutters what he would have named himself LOL Because I can see Dash having different sets of powers and a different core than Danny. Very reliant on his strength and speed. Not so much on his aim. Good thing Danny learns how to shoot the ghost blaster. Though he has some trial and error too. He just can't help but help. (He will be spicy about it though) And since Dash NEEDS Danny he has to work on his temper. Danny does push his limits with it sometimes because he knows he has the upper hand. He does get karma for it because it does go too far at one point. Oooo what if that karma is Spectre and Dash is so depressed.. Jazz even points out Danny is being too spiteful. So Danny has to comfort Dash so he can save his sister and the school. Dash like y'know what.. I'd probably done worse. "You have." "....I thought this was about making me feel better, Fenton." "It is, but I'm not going to lie. You're better than you use to be. Funny enough, I think its pretty common for death defying experiences to change someone's life.. or after life... or something like that. Jazz is better at explaining it-" "JAZZ!!!" (remembers she's in danger)

[djbunnie]

Oooo!!! What if Sam helped Danny with the "dodging the bullet" moment!!!

Sam knew Danny in highschool Peripherally. He was one of the popular kids (the good kind). And Sam was a bookworm. The new girl Paulina, Sam and she became friends (along with Val, star, dora) a few months later, Paulina started dating Danny. At first she seemed cool and they would talk about everything. At one point, she starts talking about how she has been hooking up with her ex-boyfriend (Dash Baxter) behind Danny’s back. Just before the end of the school year. Paulina tells Sam she is pregnant and that she knows it belongs to her ex boyfriend. She is laughing and really proud of herself because Danny is going to do the right thing. Withdraw his college application and go work to support her and the baby. Her ex, the father of the baby, is kind of a loser, so she thinks it’s the best thing, even if she can continue banging dash while making Danny support her. 

Sam really didn’t know Danny that well, but she got his phone number from an acquaintance of hers who knew it (Tucker Foley aka Danny BFF). Sam anonymously Texted him about the Paulina ploy and said “get a paternity test. The baby isn't yours.”

He then thanked Sam. (through text)

Danny and Paulina broke up. He cussed her out and Danny went to college and made something of his life.

I thought maybe... Paulina told Danny that they had sex at a party when they were drunk, Danny believed her of course, it made sense at the time. but in reality they never had sex because Paulina was with Dash.

Sam did the right thing; she cut Paulina off and moved on with her life…

Meanwhile, before they graduate. Danny wanted to know who sent him the text? He wanted to thank them personally, and wanted to repay them by saving his life.  After a couple of days, Danny almost wanted to give up. He tried calling and texting them. But they didn't respond. Until, when Danny arrived at Nasty Burger and sat at the booth next to Val, star, dora. He overheard their conversation about their ex-friend and how they were lucky to have good friends like Sam in their lives. Praising her for warning Danny from paulina.

When Danny learned that it was Sam who warned him, he went to find her...but Sam was really busy. Because they were graduating soon, Sam was too busy apartment hunting, packing her stuff, and etc.

Unfortunately they never did meet up, after graduation Sam left right away. (I'm being lazy so I'm going to reuse some of the office love idea lol) Sam and Danny met again later in life, (they are 25-26 years old) Sam and Danny were at a bar or some cafe. It was Danny who approached her first. 

Danny: “Sam is that you?”

Sam: “huh? I'm sorry, do I know you?”

Danny: “It’s me Danny! Danny Fenton…we went to the same highschool…and you saved me from Paulina.”

Sam: “Oh! OMG!!! Danny!!!”

Danny: *Chuckle*

They got to talking about life, careers, etc. Sam told Danny about her great job as a game illustrator, originally she wanted to go into business, but she wasn't happy. Then she entered a game art contest, won first prize and got an internship. Sam dropped out of college and has been working for the company ever since. And she loves it. And to further her career she is taking night classes to gain the skills as a generalist animator and/or 3D modeler.

Danny was impressed by Sam, but not as impressed as Sam when she learned Danny is an Aerospace Engineer!!!

Sam: “WOW!!! That is so COOL!!!”

Danny: “it’s nothing.”

Sam: “don’t be so modest, Mr. Aerospace Engineer. I bet you're making Bank. your gf is a lucky lady to have you.“

Danny: “actually…no.”

Sam: “wha?”

Danny: “I-i don't have a gf.”

Sam: “....”

Danny: “....”

Sam: “....im sorry, i have a hard time believing that.”

Danny: “it’s because of the incident with Paulina, i'm having difficulty with trusting women in an intimate/ romantic setting. ”

Sam: “oh..right, yeah i don't blame you.”

Danny: “Sam…i've been wanting to thank you, for saving me from a miserable fate as a factory worker to support that wicked woman and raising someone else's child. It was thanks to you, I was able to pursue my dreams of working in NASA and freedom.”

Sam: “Oh please, anyone in my position would have done the same.”

I was thinking Danny kind of lied but not really, don't get it wrong. Danny was traumatized. He was never serious in a relationship but he has had a lot of one night stands. and Danny has been very careful. He took every precaution. Danny knows he's in a position where women would do anything to lock him down (baby trap him and etc) because he is very successful and financially good, so yeah.

also it will be interesting throughout the years when Danny is sleeping with other women he imagines he's with Sam!!! 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Danny: “What about you? How was your dating life?”

Sam: “It sucks, I've only been with two…well technically one serious relationship.”

The first guy was mostly a “friend with benefits” and the second one was her ex-fiance. (Gregor,) the liar and cheater. Since then Sam has been single since.

I think it would be really sweet if Danny only sees him and Sam having a future together. So Sam and Danny would have a second chance in love/ Friends to lovers type of love story story.

[chaos-bringer-13]

Tumblr deactivated my account but I am back. And I brought you some chaos.

Now, hear me out. Danny Phantom x Frozen crossover.

Just Danny being somehow teleported to Frozen world and meeting Elsa. They bond over royalty problems and ice powers (and their initial struggles with controlling their powers), and Danny uses his Phantom form to match Elsa's white hair, and they complain to each other about how they were hunted for who they are, and Elsa says something about how she's scared that her powers can hurt people after that time when she froze everything and Danny goes "Me too! A version of me once destroyed the world and I had to prevent that from happening!", and Danny's reaction to Olaf is just "It's like when hotdogs come to life in my house but friendly, so cool!"

* runs out of breath, pauses *

And Danny and Elsa both have red-headed sisters who at some point dated not-good-for-them guys. And Anna was frozen before being brought back to life and what if she's a halfa now? She had her hair turning white like a ghost, and she sort of died, right? She should be at least liminal! And Elsa actually could be some kind of Infinite Realms entity, with that whole fifth spirit thing from the second part.

And then Danny shows this cool new world to Jazz, and Elsa introduces Danny to Anna, and now Jazz bonds with Elsa over having chaotic younger siblings who want to save everyone. And when Dani joins, she immediately goes to explore and cause chaos, and she meets that giant snow monster (did you know that his name is Marshmallow? Adorable) and for no particular reason they form some kind of friendship, so now people can see Dani being carried oh so gently by this living mountain. Well, when she's not out of kingdom, of course. She might be starting a revolution in some authoritarian country, don't mind her.

Danny thinks that Sam probably wouldn't like Anna and Kristoff much because they're just such naive sunshines and Sam is, well, goth. Sam tells Danny that if she hadn't liked naive sunshines, she wouldn't have befriended him and Tucker, and proceeds to have a long conversation with Anna about how being from a rich family sometimes makes having any relationship so much harder. She then starts talking with Kristoff about animals rights, and Danny thinks that maybe he unleashed a power he wouldn't be able to stop.

Tucker probably doesn't find anything that really catches his attention in this world because there's no cool tech, but maybe he tries to apply his tech knowledge to magic and gets some crazy results (what do you mean you can't use "water has memory" thing for phone/computer memory? Well, watch him make this new cool computer that can make pictures out of ice and is even capable of making 3-dimensional ice sculptures images! How? Well, some ecto, some runes that Dani found for him in this world, some science... He's just that smart, yes.)

There are unconfirmed sightings of very confused Dan surrounded by trolls. They might have accidentally adopted this sad angry boy to show him love and affection.

[five-rivers]

Need More Than Sorrow

AO3

For @datawyrms

Everyone had things they were ashamed of.  Or, at least, they had things they should have been ashamed of, which wasn’t quite the same thing, but Danny liked to think he wasn’t quite that oblivious.  Most of the time.  

Except he’d realized that he maybe had been for a little while there.  Just a little.  

Or a lot.  

A lot, actually.  

He ran his fingers over the hem of his sweater (NASA themed, of course), and watched his friends bicker over food.  Again.  

Thing was, he could let it lie.  It had been lying for weeks, now.  Tucker hadn’t brought it up, anyway, and neither had Sam.  And… Yeah.  They didn’t seem to be mad at him for anything.

But that didn’t mean they didn’t care about it, or that it didn’t matter.  

So he should probably say something, right?  That was what you were supposed to do.  Kind of… take responsibility.  

Right?

“Danny?  Hey, Earth to Danny.”

“Huh?  What?”

“You okay, man?” asked Tucker.  

“Um,” said Danny.  “Yeah.  I’m just…  I’m sorry.”

“For what?” asked Sam, with a little scoff.  Danny wouldn’t ever tell her, but she sounded a lot like her mom when she did that.  “Getting mind controlled by an evil clown?  You deserve to zone out a bit after all that.”

Danny glanced at Tucker.  “Yeah, I guess.”

“Hey, you’re not responsible for anything you did when you were under his control.”

“Mhm, yeah.  Just, um.  Thanks for coming after me.”

“Anytime,” said Sam.  

“Yeah, we’ve got your back.”

"Thanks…"

"Now eat up." She pointed imperiously at his hamburger. "I know that weirdo didn't feed you."

Well.  She wasn't wrong.

"Hey, how come his burger gets a pass while you're slandering my Nasty Meatacular."

"Three different animals died for that crime against nature."

"Four!  It has mutton now!"

“That’s disgusting.  You’re disgusting.”

Danny took a bite of his burger.  It didn’t taste like anything.  

It would be so easy to just let them keep going.  To just… keep going.  No more.  Don’t rock things.  Don’t test things.  Don’t change things.  

He could do that quite easily.  It would be easy.  The easier path.  What did they say about easier paths again?  What did they say about good intentions?  

Oh, God.  

“Tucker?”

“Huh?  Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, we told you, you don’t need to apologize for anything Freakshow made you do.  And if you did, you should apologize to Sam first.  She’s the one you pushed off a tightrope.”

“He pushed me onto the tightrope,” corrected Sam.  “I fell off all by myself.”

“It’s not about that,” said Danny.  

“Then what?” asked Sam, reaching for her soda.  “Are you going to confess to throwing up in my lunchbox in gradeschool this time?”

“No,” said Danny.  “It’s…  I shouldn’t have overshadowed you that time.  Made you… do things you didn’t want to.  I’m sorry.  I didn’t… I’m sorry.”

“Okay,” said Tucker, not looking at Danny.

“Just ‘okay?’”  Danny ducked his head, trying to get into Tucker’s line of sight.  

“What do you want me to say, Danny?  That it wasn’t that bad?  Well, it was.  It sucked.”

Danny hung his head.  “I’m sorry.”

“I know you are, man.”  Tucker laughed, humorlessly.  “Heck, you said you were sorry about me losing my date when it happened.  I just…  Priorities, Danny.  It would’ve been great if you were sorry before it happened to you.  Or, heck, after Poindexter walked off with your body that one time.  So.  Yeah.  It sucks.  It really sucks.”

“I shouldn’t have done it.  I never should have done it.  It was stupid and cruel and…  Selfish.”

“Yep.  Sure was.”

“If Danny is apologizing, I probably should, too,” said Sam.  Why went unsaid, but it wasn’t as if they hadn’t all been there.

“Is there anything I can do to- to make up for things?”

“Not really.  I mean.  I overshadowed people, too, don’t forget.  The whole Desiree thing.”

“You were kind of being mind controlled during that, too.”

“Yeah.”  Tucker picked at his fries.  “I’m getting real sick of all this mind control.  I mean, you’ve got all this stuff.  All this… People controlling where you go, what you do.  You should at least be able to think what you want.  And what you do.  What you actually do, even if you’re being forced.  It’s not right.  You get me?”

“I guess I just didn’t think about it.”

“Of course you didn’t.  I love you, man, but you’re so white.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry about that.  Jeez.  Just chill, okay?  It’s not like I’ve never been stupid about your powers.  Let’s just… drop it.  And not do it again.”

“That sounds like a deal,” said Sam.  “Do we want dessert?  I want dessert.  I’m going to get some dessert.”  She stood up.  “God, this is awkward.”

Tucker sipped loudly at his drink.  “It is pretty awkward.”

“I thought we were dropping it.” 

Tucker threw a french fry at Danny.  

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Astrotech Dragon Au thoughts compiled

I have apparently made a whole ass au now so here’s a compilation of it since I can’t think of a new flavor of Prisoner’s of Love yet

Parental Bonding: Danny uses his powers like he has a brain and Sam goes on an adventure with Dora while Danny and Tucker explore the world of actually going on a date. Sam winds up with Aragon’s amulet. (Maybe she has to attune with it or something to be able to control it and when it harmonizes with her, it turns her into a smaller dragon which must grow in power)

One of a Kind: Skulker is given the appropriate amount of fear reaction in at least commentary, and Jazz’s interview stunt gets word out about Fentonworks’ technological wonders via the magazine.

Splitting Images: Danny befriends Sidney Poindexter and they prank Dash deviously until Sidney decides to try and just kill Dash to make an example out of him. Danny stops him as Fenton, gaining Dash’s respect and admiration (and perhaps infatuation who knows?)

Attack of the Killer Garage Sale: Dash invites Danny to his party because of The Big Gay, Danny acts the way he did also because of The Big Gay. Dash sees Danny transform, the trio + Sidney convince Technus to abandon world domination (which is lame) and challenge himself to fix the world’s problems through technological innovation.

What you Want: Danny jokingly wishes for a dick when he meets Desiree, who’s wish granting smoke he mistakes for an attack, triggering his first ghostray. Tucker, jealous of Sidney’s new bond with Danny and Danny’s cool powers, wishes to have spirit powers like Danny. Desiree grants this in that Tucker experiences being struck by lightning in a thick cloud of pure ectoplasm. Danny wishes Desiree to the worst part of the deepest pits of the Spirit World and does his best to comfort Tuck through becoming Ghoul.

Bitter Reunions: Vlad’s first reaction to the ghost of a child telling him not to hurt Mr.Masters’ guest is to reveal himself as Mr.Masters. Danny reveals himself in turn. Vlad makes the plan to endear himself to Maddie and Jazz while teaching Danny how to half ghost, and possess Jack every now and then to escalate his behavior into the realm of unbearability for Maddie. Harriet Chin gets the promise of an interview regarding Jack and Maddie’s technology out of them at the party.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

In the Zone (6)

Based on the Phic Phight prompts: Danny and co. go sight seeing in the zone and get lost. Maybe they have to navigate weird ghost logic/physics/laws to make their way home (from @ventisettestars). And Sam and Tucker maybe getting Pharaoh + plant powers? ecto contamination for the win ig (from @corvidspectre).

Chapter 6: The Voyage Home

AO3 Link

[No Warnings Apply]

It was something like three days before Shadow and the other jackals returned, but they made good on their promise. When they came back, they were dragging the Specter Speeder behind them, a little dinged up, missing a few non-vital pieces, but still in good enough condition to get the trio home.

While Danny performed an inspection and a few minor repairs on the speeder, Tucker finished up his training with Soot. In just a few, short days, Tucker had learned to both create illusions himself, and to manipulate the illusions already in place in what was now his lair in the Zone. Soot also taught him how to control his coercion powers more effectively. That was almost certain to become a major nuisance some way or another, even if Sam and Danny could usually resist.

"Okay, I think the speeder is up to snuff now," Danny said, smearing a mix of ectoplasm and machine oil across his forehead as he wiped the sweat away. Thankfully, he'd remembered to lock it back in the city, and because of the anti-ecto coating, no ghosts could get inside, so nothing they left there had been removed or stolen. "It's still a little dinged up, but it'll definitely get us home. We have no idea how far we'll have to travel though, so we'd better get a move on."

"Finally! Let's get out of this sand trap!" Sam said, slinging her spider backpack on her shoulder. "I'm sick of eating nothing but dates, and the trees they come from are terrible conversationalists."

Tucker turned to Soot and bowed his head. The jackal returned to his fully animal form to bow back. "Do not bow to me, my lord," Soot insisted. "It is improper for a pharaoh to lover his head to a mere servant."

"I won't then," Tucker said, straightening up. Everyone had been bowing to him so much since he got there that it felt like the respectful thing to do. "I just want to thank you for helping me learn to use my powers."

"It was my duty and my pleasure to do so my lord," Soot said. "You were an excellent student, though your talk of holograms and virtual reality did confuse me."

"I have to go back to my world now, but while I'm gone, I'm putting you in charge. Don't let all that power go to your head, you hear?"

"I am honored, my lord." Soot bowed his head lower. "I promise I will be a just regent until your return."

"Good." Tucker nodded, satisfied, and with that, he grabbed his bag of things they'd got in the city and joined his friends in the speeder. "Take good care of the place!" he called over his shoulder as he climbed up into the vehicle.

"I will do my utmost, Pharaoh!" Soot called back.

Sam was already behind the wheel, and the second the door closed, she hit the accelerator. "Come on boys, it's time to go home!"

"Goodbye, socks full of sand!" Danny said laughingly. "No offense, Tuck, but I wouldn't want that to be my lair."

"I actually liked a lot of what was going on there, good bones and all that, but I think I'll modernize it over time," Tucker said. "Combining the wonders of Ancient Egypt with the wonders of sweet, modern technology will make that place the coolest lair in the Zone."

"Until Technus finds it," Sam scoffed.

"Technus is a wuss, and he's got nothing on me! I'll beat that old robot's ass any day of the week!"

"Pretty sure I'm the one who kicks ghosts' asses," Danny pointed out.

"We'll see how long that lasts now that Sam and e have ghost powers, you ghostly commoner!"

While the boy's squabbled, Sam watched the compass on the dashboard, keeping the red arrow pointing firmly ahead. They were flying directly toward the Fenton Portal, but who knew how long they'd be flying. They had to prepare for a very long trip.

"Listen, no matter how far we have to fly, we're not making any stops," Sam said. "We'll take turns sleeping, too, so there's always someone at the wheel."

"Whoahhh!" Danny said, looking out the window. The speeder was flying past a dark and spooky planetarium, with gargoyles on the roof and a laser light show on the walk. A sign in front advertised a scary night of astronomy, witchcraft, and technology at the haunted planetarium, anyone welcome. Danny and Tucker both turned to her with wide, pleading eyes. 

She sighed. It was hard to argue when she also really wanted to go. "Fine!" Sam relented. "But we're tying down the speeder with ghost-repelling ropes this time, because I do not want to have to ask for help from Tucker's jackals again!"

The boys both cheered.

By the time they finally got back to Amity Park, spring break was well over and they'd already missed a week of school, too. All three of them were grounded for putting their parents through so much worry, and Danny was doubly grounded for stealing the Specter Speeder and bringing it back damaged.

Ultimately, though, the trip had been a huge success. The trio all knew more about their powers, and the Ghost Zone. And the next time a ghost was foolish enough to attack Amity Park, it had three spectral superheroes to deal with.

First | Previous

[peachdoxie]

This wouldn't work because we already know that Phantom is Fenton, but imagine: a reboot from Valerie's perspective.

It's the same basic plot as the show but it's all about Valerie and her family's fall from grace and her being hired by Vlad and hunting ghosts and all that, balanced with her trying to keep up a social life and developing this crush on Danny, and all that stuff. And of course we see her deal with Phantom and how her hatred of him drives almost every decision she makes.

The show takes its course with Valerie hunting ghosts, hating Phantom, dating then breaking up with Danny, etc etc, but two things slowly become apparent to the audience: first, that Phantom is much more of an anti-villain than the villain Valerie thinks he is; and second, that Phantom has a massive secret. So as Valerie slowly starts to not view Phantom as evil so much as like, mischievous or something, she also starts to suspect something's up with him. A lot of this would be framed through Vlad's information and perspective on Phantom, so Valerie starts to suspect Vlad's meddling on something he shouldn't be.

Meanwhile, Danny's portrayed as this dorky kid who mostly tries to stay out of the spotlight and avoid ghost hunting as much as possible because he's embarrassed by his family, and he's portrayed as utterly terrified of ghosts, and maybe a little bit of a troublemaker, so he's never around when Phantom shows up. But the important thing is that these are seen by Valerie as just normal behavior from a D-student on the lowest tier of popularity and not suspicious of anything else. Maybe he's hunted down by ghosts but Valerie thinks it's revenge on his parents or something. Anything but that he's Phantom.

Because here's the kicker, and why this idea unfortunately wouldn't work: the show would need to present Danny as just some kid Valerie likes and make him 100% not suspicious of being Phantom or in any way involved in ghost hunting. None whatsoever. Valerie suspects nothing. She takes every excuse Danny makes if not at face value then of indicating something entirely else that's "obvious" to the audience. And Danny and Phantom are animated differently so they look similar but not the same and all the voice actors play multiple characters so it's not weird that they sound similar, and maybe Danny's not even that important of a character in the show compared to other teens in Valerie's life — all so the audience completely does not suspect Phantom is Fenton even on a meta level.

The big plot twist, of course, is that Phantom is Fenton. Like any really good plot twist, it's not suspected but also fits in perfectly with all the foreshadowing that's both obviously and not obviously until it's recontextualized by the reveal. Because here's the thing: no one in the actual show suspected Phantom is Fenton because no one outside of the trio, Vlad, and the ghosts knows that half-ghosts exist. So why would they suspect that Phantom is actually also Fenton? And no one in the audience realizes it either unless they make a very good guess just based on possible tropes and no actual indications in the canon.

Then the show progresses differently because forget season three it's not about Danny's story, but about Valerie's. And instead of her confronting Danny about his secret, she instead starts to look at Phantom differently and slowly changes her mind on ghosts, or at least him, all the while keeping it a secret from him that she knows because, well she's kept her secret from him, and so she can understand with very good reason why he would keep his from her. Obviously, Valerie eventually finds out, and she and Danny become good friends and she apologizes to Sam and Tucker and now the trio is a quartet who takes down Vlad, who is of course the actual antagonist.

Like I said, though, this kind of plot twist wouldn't actually work in a reboot because we already know that Phantom is Fenton. But idk I just think it would neat to watch the show from Valerie's perspective but have it be biased and unreliable for what's really going on and have the showrunners play the meta game for a very excellent plot twist.

[drgnrder82]

Fictober22: Do you remember?

Fanfiction

Fandom: Danny Phantom

Warnings: None (surprising even me!)

Word count: 1304

Prompt: Do you remember?

A/N: I thought about this story for a long time... and I thought maybe I've posted something similar before but eh... here it is.

~*~*~*~*~

The note fell out of his locker, landing on his shoes. 

“A-hem!” Sam coughed. “Danny?” 

Danny bent to pick up the note, narrowly avoiding a swing from Dash. 

“OOOOOOH,” Tucker sang. “Danny’s got a secret admirer!” 

Danny spotted Sam swing at Tucker's chest from the corner of his eye. The note felt thick but oddly weightless. No name was written on any of the sides. The only way to know who this was for was to read it. It might not even be for Danny. 

Daniel…

“OOOOOH,” Tucker sang again, not learning his lesson from the first time. “Danny’s really got a…” 

“Don’t. Finish. That. Sentence.” Sam growled. 

Quietly Danny kept reading, and… if this was a love declaration, it would've been channeling ancient times. 

Or, well… it certainly sounded several decades out of fashion. 

“Sooooo? Who’s the lucky girl?” Tucker slid next to Danny. “Who’s Annabeth? There’s no Annabeth in Casper High.” 

“See, someone’s playing a prank. Let’s get to first period!” Without waiting for an answer, Sam stalked down the hall. 

***

The note was only the first strange thing that day. Before lunch, when Danny opened his locker, flowers fell out. Not a bouquet, just loose flowers of all varieties. Then after school, while waiting for their orders at Nasty Burger, Danny found a snack at their table labeled 'for Daniel.' 

After stealing a bit of the cake, Tucker said, "Dude, I like this 'Annabeth' secret admirer. Can we keep her around a couple more days before Danny tells her he's not interested? Unless…" 

"I'm not interested!" Danny screeched. Glancing at Sam, a hot blush filled his face. "But I need to find out what's going on. These things are all just appearing, but…" 

Danny's ghost breath activated, and his heart skipped a beat (hilarious, of course, because if he transformed, he wouldn't have a heartbeat). But before transforming, Danny scanned the area. There was nothing out of the ordinary at Nasty Burger. No one screaming. Nothing that told them, 'hey, ghost over here,' and that was saying something in Amity Park. 

“Today is full of strange stuff, that’s for sure,” Danny said and tried to enjoy his burger. 

***

As Danny stepped out the front door, he realized he couldn't place the feeling until finally, he felt the presence before the gift was placed. "Ah ha! Oh." 

Floating behind Danny on his parents' doorstep, holding a transparent box of chocolate, was a young woman… ghost. There were many ghosts Danny fought. Maniacal, psychotic, eternally loud and boisterous and evil… 

Some looked normal enough until they'd been pushed over a metaphorical edge. But this girl looked like nothing more than a girl. Granted, her dress was about 5 decades or more out of date. And her long, straight hair was pulled into a low ponytail. 

The poor girl-ghost yelped and dropped the ghostly chocolates. 

Before Danny could get another word out, the ghost girl (presumably, Annabeth) squeaked again, turned invisible, scooped up the chocolates, and flew off. 

"Hey, wait!" An alarm went off on Danny's phone. "Oh, man! I can be late and get written up or follow you?"

“Danny!” His father, Jack Fenton, cried from inside their house. “Where is that boy?” 

“At school, honey!” Danny’s mother called back. “Cause if he isn’t, he’s grounded until he graduates!” 

"Guess that answers that question," Danny complained and stomped off.

***

“So?” Tucker, somehow, cornered Danny at his locker. Actually making Danny feel trapped against his will even though he could turn ghost and leave if he wanted. 

“So, what?” Danny asked. 

“Was she pretty?” 

“She’s a ghost, Tucker. Probably mistook me for someone else named Daniel.” 

"Sure, another Daniel who is also a ghost. Come on, man! She's got a hardcore crush on you!" 

Somehow, Sam's books slipped from her hand and fell directly onto Tucker's foot. 

"Look, after school, I'll find her and talk to her. I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding.” 

“You might not have to wait long!” Sam smirked as some screams came from up the hall. 

Then quickly faded. Sure, down the hallway floated Annabeth the ghost, muttering to herself and rearranging the box of ghostly chocolates in neat rows within their box again. As a ghost not trying to scare people, she was mostly garnering strange looks and more than a few snide comments from Paulina about her dress. 

“Yeah… I’ll be right back.” Danny stepped into his locker, letting Tucker and Sam cover his hiding spot as he transformed. 

Danny went invisible and sailed down the hallway, grabbing hold of Annabeth and taking her with him through the closest classroom wall. 

“Oh. OH!” Annabeth squealed, dropping the ghostly chocolates and covering her face. “Daniel! What are you doing?” 

"Name's not 'Daniel,'" Danny said, letting go of Annabeth outside the school in the quiet courtyard. "Actually, it is," he continued, turning visible again. "But only my parents call me Daniel, and that's only when I'm in trouble. I'm Danny." 

"Oooooh," Annabeth sighed, then went to work fixing her mussed-up dress. Though, as a ghost, it was hardly necessary. She even tugged at her hair. "I must be an awful mess." 

“Annabeth?” Danny pulled her hands from her hair. They both hovered just off the ground, but Danny landed and brought her with him. “Who is Daniel?” 

“You…” 

“No… who is the Daniel you’re looking for? Do you remember?” 

Annabeth stumbled back. “You’re Daniel… you’re… oh. You’re not my Daniel?” She moved closer, studying Danny so closely that if he currently had a heartbeat, it would be erratic as all get out. 

Gently, Danny reached out, gripping Annabeth's shoulders and keeping her at arm's length. "What happened? Do you remember?" he repeated. 

“I… no, we were supposed to meet for our anniversary. But… well…” 

"I swear if you tell me his last name was 'Fenton,' I will lose it." 

"No. Not Fen-ton? But his home… his parents… they lived just there," Annabeth said and pointed at the Fenton home. "… and this school… it's the same…" 

Danny chuckled. “That does not surprise me. This school feels ancient!” 

Annabeth's eyes cast down, stifling a sob. Danny had met so many terrifying ghosts (and maybe a few that were not so terrifying **cough cough** Box Ghost **cough cough**), but this girl was not like any of them. Plus, Annabeth was a ghost for a reason… but why? 

“Were you and Daniel together when…” 

She couldn’t hold back the sob any longer. “No. I’ve been looking for him for decades and then you…” 

“How about this?” Danny asked quickly, trying to stem the flood of tears. “We’ll help you look for your Daniel?”

Sam and Tucker, out of breath, came running up to Danny. “We need to hustle to class!” 

“Mr. Lancer is on the warpath,” Tucker added. 

"Ah! If I get written up one more time…!" Danny glanced at Annabeth. "Here," Danny said, pulling out a notebook and pen from his backpack in Tucker's grasp. "We'll figure out where Daniel is together. Write down what you remember about Daniel, about where you lived… about everything, and we'll find him. When not under the impending doom of detention." 

Danny started to change back to his human form when Annabeth jumped into him for a hug. 

“Thank you,” she whispered. 

“Heh, heh, heh. Yeah.” Danny quickly pried the girl ghost off him as Sam seemed to be near fuming again. “Whoa.” A sudden wave of dizziness took hold of Danny. 

“Danny?” Sam asked as she rushed to his side. “Danny, say something!” 

"Excellent work, little one! This new trap works perfectly!" Vlad materialized behind Annabeth, who still appeared stricken by the sight of Danny's sudden illness. 

“It’s a Tuesday, isn’t it?” Tucker asked, tossing the Geometry homework in the air. “This stuff always happens on a Tuesday.” 

TO BE CONTINUED (on another fictober prompt)

[five-rivers]

Jack-o-Lantern

Exhumed was the second winner of my poll, so here's a fairly short, fluffy piece for it!

Warning: mentions of dead bodies and past violence, none actually shown 'on screen.'

.

“Detective Patterson,” said Danny, “why did you leave five messages on my phone on a school day?” After the whole ‘I’ve been sort of dead for a couple years and also I get into massive amounts of trouble all the time through no fault of my own’ revelation, his parents had gotten the whole family cell phones.

Danny still generally preferred talking to people face to face, but he was definitely developing a slight addiction to cell phone charms.

“You didn’t listen to any of them?”

“Why would I do that when I can just call you?”

He heard a loud groan from the other side of the line.

“Oh, is Detective Collins there, too?”

“You heard that?” asked Patterson. “That’s- Okay, Collins. I’m getting there. I know we’re in a hurry. Look, how fast can you get here, Fenton?”

“That depends entirely on where you are and which one of me you want. Also, can Sam and Tucker come? We were going to hang out.”

There was a sort of staticky blaat from the other side, and the skritch skritch cha of a phone being moved, accompanied by unintelligible arguing. “Did you really just ask if you can bring your friends to what might be a crime scene?”

“Is it a crime scene?” asked Danny.

“Not yet,” said Collins.

“So?” prompted Danny. “Can I bring them?”

“You don’t respect us at all anymore, do you?”

“I respect you plenty,” said Danny, “but I like hanging out with my friends, I’m doing this for free, and there aren’t any explosions where you are.”

“You tell him, Danny,” said Sam, giving him a little fist bump, even though she was mostly watching Tucker play bootleg Tetris on his PDA.

“Just because there aren’t explosions doesn’t mean there isn’t anything dangerous,” argued Collins.

“Sure,” said Danny. “But it isn’t like they aren’t in danger all the time anyway. Ghosts attack the school, like, daily.”

“That is a terrible argument.”

“But true,” countered Danny.

“Fine, they can come. Just get here quickly.”

“I would, but you know, you still haven’t told me where you are.”

.

Danny, when touching down in a nearby alleyway, didn’t see anything particularly out of the usual. For Amity Park, that was. Except that no one was out on the streets, and there were several police cars. Still, that could be for anything. Normal things, even.

Except, they had called him.

“You don’t think it’s a dead body, do you?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t really want to see a dead body…”

“If there’s a dead body, I’ll be throwing up on you,” said Tucker, who had, as a matter of fact, been icy calm when faced with Danny’s body the first time around, and had only had a breakdown the next day. “Just, you know, as revenge. Between friends.”

“They did say it wasn’t a crime scene, right?” asked Sam.

“Yeah,” said Danny. He returned to human form. This way, he didn’t have to worry as much about people connecting Sam and Tucker to Phantom… although, that might be a lost cause. He had seen that ‘who is the ghost boy dating’ article a while back.

“So, there probably aren’t any bodies,” she said, reasonably.

“Right,” said Danny. “That makes sense. I think they were this way.”

The street they walked onto was heavily decorated for Halloween. There were skeletons and streamers, blow up monsters, orange and purple lights, spiderwebs, black cat statuettes, blood splatters, houses that almost looked really abandoned, except for the neat lawns… The neighborhood had really gone to town, especially given that this particular town was Amity Park.

Of course, there were also dozens upon dozens of jack-o-lanterns. They were lit, too, which was odd in the daytime, flickering with rainbow colors. Maybe someone was doing a Pride event?

His core chilled slightly, and a thin stream of mist emerged from between his lips. “Oh,” he said, delighted.

“Hi, Danny,” said Patterson, briskly walking over to him from where she and Collins had been observing the street. “We got the call a few hours ago, apparently a bunch of little ghosts have infes- Uh. Gone into all the Halloween decorations here.”

“Were you about to say ‘infested?’”

“Maybe,” said Patterson. “Sorry.”

“Apology accepted, please continue.”

“Anyway, after the whole ghost invasion thing where we got sent to the shadow realm-”

“Nightmare Realm,” corrected Tucker. “The Shadow Realm is completely different.”

“I was making a Yu Gi Oh reference,” said Patterson. “But people are sensitive to this kind of thing.”

“Have they done anything yet?” asked Danny.

“No, but we’ve issued an advisory,” said Collins, finally joining them. “Do you know why they’re here? Or how to get rid of them?”

“There’s not really any reason to get rid of them,” said Danny. “Wisps are mostly harmless. Here, I’ll show you.” He jogged over to the nearest jack-o-lantern and waved the others over.

“Hey, is this the best idea?” asked Tucker. “Aren’t these the guys who accidentally drugged you?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” said Danny. “We’ve moved past that.” He knocked on the top of the pumpkin, and several wisps flew out, happily whirling around Danny. “See? They’re just little guys.”

“Great,” said Collins, “why are they here?”

“Uh, because they were invited, basically?” said Danny. “They’re will-o-the-wisps. And these are jack-o-lanterns. They’re, uh, originally, both of those were names for the same thing, and jack-o-lanterns are supposed to ward off evil spirits and represent good spirits, or house good spirits, and stuff, so…” Danny gestured vaguely.

“This is going to be a city wide thing, isn’t it?” asked Collins.

“Probably,” said Danny. “I mean, wisps are basically all over the place. They’re good little guys.”

Collins placed his hands in front of his face like he was praying. “And if the GIW come after them?”

That would be bad. Danny felt himself bristling.

“The GIW are dumb enough that we could convince them they’re just candles, as long as no one told them otherwise,” said Sam.

“Maybe sow the idea a little bit beforehand,” said Tucker. “Put an ad out for rainbow tealights, maybe?”

Collins looked at them, unamused. “And we’re going to be the ones doing most of that ‘convincing,’ aren’t we?”

“You are the adults,” said Sam, shrugging.

Danny felt himself tearing up. “You guys are the best friends,” he said.

“Oh no,” said Tucker, eyes wide. “It’s happening again.”

“What, what’s happening?” asked Patterson.

Sam pulled Danny away from the wisps. “Wisps are great,” she said, “but they can overcharge other ghosts.”

“In other words, they make Danny high,” explained Tucker.

“I’m not high this time,” protested Danny. “I can’t be grateful for good friends?”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” said Danny.

“Right,” said Collins. “Well, we’re going to give you a ride home. Patterson, you get to explain to the Fentons what happened.”

“What, why do I have to tell them that ghost drugs are a thing?”

“Because I had to tell them about the time his arm came off.”

“I still don’t get why you’re so upset about that,” said Danny, “I put it back on, like, a minute later.”

“That is, in fact, part of why we’re upset.”

“I don’t get you guys.”

[scarlett-green-rose]

People start getting suspicious when Danny Phantom disappears one day and Danny Fenton near instantaneously takes his place in the whole ghost fighting business. Everyone starts freaking out when they slowly start to realise that Fenton looks and acts a lot like Phantom.

Sam, Tucker and Jasmine are frantically trying to do damage control by also helping Danny fight ghosts as a human and spreading rumours that it's impossible that Phantom = Fenton because:

1. The reason that Danny's doing as well as Phantom is because he has 3 (sometimes even more if Valerie or his cousin Dani/Ellie is with them) other people helping him.

2. Phantom's dead and Danny's alive

-

It doesn't help much because people realise that Sam, Tucker and Jasmine have been seen around a lot of Phantom's fights before he disappeared (and hey, wasn't Valerie dating/hanging out with Danny before she became a ghost hunter? (not that anyone is gonna publicly say that they know the Red Huntress' real identity in front of the GIW or the Fenton Doctors) and doesn't Dani/Ellie look a lot like that one ghost that Phantom fought once herself?)

The only thing actually keeping Danny's secret in the bag is the fact that Danny is Alive and Phantom is Dead (has been since at least the Roman Empire) and Wes' Cassandra Curse keeping him from outing Danny and from other people from making the connection because "there's no way that Wes is telling the truth." But it's getting really, really close.

-

It all comes to a head when someone (I'm thinking at least Mr. Lancer, maybe Dash/Kwan and Paulina/Star too, maybe one of the Doctor Fentons) get sent back/forward in time because of [insert villain plot/ wacky shenanigan of the week plot here by Desiree/Technus/Vlad/Random-One-Off-Ghost/GIW/Fenton-Invention] and have to get rescued by Phantom.

While being saved, Phantom says something along the lines of "Don't worry, I know that time travel's very disorientating but I'm here to help," and then realises that it implies that he isn't as old as he is (one of the few things that his secret identity hinges on) and adds, "I've been doing this for millennia after all."

Danny thinks he's managed to keep his secret safe with that. Meanwhile, Mr. Lancer is having an existential crisis because "The Time Traveller's Wife, one of his students is destined to become a ghost and time travel to save the world multiple times for thousands of years."

And then, he realises how young Phantom looks and that Fenton is a near exact carbon copy and it turns into: "Oh, Moby Dick. Danny is going to die soon!"

-

The genre of Amity Park's perspective in the fic then turns from a light-hearted Comedy/Mystery/High School Drama into a Murder Mystery/Existential Literature/Horror fic, as those (partially) in the know (except for Wes, because Danny's transformed in front of him a few times) grapple with the fact that there's a dead boy walking right amongst them and they don't know how he dies and whether or not they should or even could prevent his death.

Because on one hand, Danny's just 16 (14 or 15 if you really wanna up the angst factor), he's just a teenager, a child. On the other hand, Phantom played a really pivotal role in keeping the town safe for the first few months/year(s) that ghosts invaded the town.

But at the same time, can they even prevent his death? They've already met Phantom, they've already felt his influence on the town and in the past. But don't they owe it to Danny to at least try? But what happens if they do succeed? Does Phantom disappear forever? Do they just wake up one day with Amity Park in rubble as they destroy their only saviour? Fuck, what do they do???

If one of the Doctor Fentons are going through this, they realise that they been hunting their son (a millennia old version, but still, their son) for year(s)!

Do they feel guilt? If so, what for? That they've been hunting something (someone?) that used to be (that still is?) their son or that they let their own child become a ghost in the first place? I mean, they can't exactly ignore that Danny's wearing a hazmat suit right? It looks ill fitting, and it's all the wrong colours, but it's still a Fenton hazmat suit.

Does this mean they should stop giving Danny access to the lab? But what if that's what leads him to die down there in the first place? Sneaking in, wearing ill-fitting PPE and dying because of it? Oh, gods, what do they do?

-

Meanwhile Team Phantom is patting themselves on the back for a job well done on keeping off the suspicion.

Well, kind of.

Danny is weirded out by the attention/weird looks that he's getting from everyone but it's nothing new anymore, since he started fighting as a human and he's willing to feel optimistic.

Sam and Tucker are a bit more wary of the way that people are simultaneously trying to befriend them and stay as far away from them as possible, but that might just be the ghost fighting coolness warring with their "loser" reputation.

And Jazz is running on zero sleep between studying for her last year at high school, her parents praising her for her interest in the family business and "Are you sure you still want to become a therapist/psychologist, Jazz? You're really good at this" and the weird looks that she's getting that her brain is translating as pitiful/sympathetic but she's pretty sure are signs of sleep deprivation.

Valerie, Wes, and Dani/Ellie, however, who both know what's on everyone's mind is just sitting in the sidelines with popcorn waiting for the fireworks to happen with smirks that vary from "I-told-you-so," to "i-win-bitch," to "the-fallout-is-going-to-be-hilarious,"

-

And then the GIW kidnaps Danny and the entire fic turns into a Thriller/Horror for everyone. As they all rush to save Danny for around about the same vague motivation of making sure he doesn't die.

Short prompt!

Danny gets bored of winning fights so quickly, like his last fight lasted FIVE MINUTES he barely got in one good one liner before it was over!!!

He needs a challenge… so next time a ghost shows up he stays in /human form/ And it’s so FUN who cares if the fights in the mall? Or his classroom?

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

As much as I believe Vlad to be an iredeemable asshole in cannon, I like the idea of a begrudging mentor Vlad. Like, say in an alternate universe everything starts of the same but he's not got some evil plan to kill Jack and marry Maddie. He's bitter and resents them for turning him into this abomonation, resents them for being happy when he can't, he tries to stay connected, but he just can't stand being near them and fears their reaction to his ghost side. (1/3)

(2/3) He takes advantage of his new powers, he steals and cheats his way to power, living life lavishly, but it doesn't make him happy, none of it fills the emptiness in his heart. He spends most of his life miserable up until one day he invites the Fenton's on a whim, perhaps in some desperate attempt to find happiness again, where he meets Danny. It goes similarly how it went in the show, Vlad discovers he is a halfa like him, see's how his parents treat him... ~ ~ ~ i think part 3 got eaten, bro, but i'm gonna work with what i got.

Vlad sees this kid who's like him who's parents still talk about killing ghosts and destroying them in front of him. not knowing that they're threatening Vlad. that they're threatening their own son. he see's these so called scientist haven't learned anything about ghosts in the years that they've been estranged and that they've managed to make the same mistake twice.

and he see Danny, a moody teenager, going through the traumatic process of dying and gaining hard to control powers on top of being a highschooler and social pariah. he sees this kid in desperate need of guidance and sees his parents who are neglectful and unaware of a fact he learned within a day of knowing Danny. and he says, "if you can't handle the responsibility of having a kid, he's mine now." yoink

except, obviously, he's really, really bad at it. being a mentor, winning Danny over, being a good person. all of it.

initially he just straight up offers to help Danny learn his powers and that works, Danny agrees, because Vlad isn't trying to kill danny's parents or attacking him, or stalking them, so Danny has no reason not to accept the help. Vlad seems okay for all his rich guy eccentricities.

but then the lessons actually start and danny realizes. oh. this guy has no idea how to teach. and oh this guy has the moral compass of a rotary fan. and Danny initially goes with it. in canon danny's can be swayed by petty stuff and money up to a point. he can let a lot of shit go and is even willing to do some soft crime if he thinks it's for the right reasons. and Vlad might beat him up when trying to teach him to fight, but that's part of training, right? and he might be changing a little under Vlad's influence but danny doesn't see that as a bad thing, until Sam and tucker basically call him out and he accidentally hurts one of them. something that Vlad had told him to do.

so danny bails. basically confronts Vlad and tells him he's a shitty mentor and that he's gonna peace out. suck eggs, fruit loop.

but Vlad had thought things were going well. he's gotten attached. he doesn't want to go back to being alone and he and danny are the only two of their species in the world. so typical villain/stalker stuff happens between them for a bit. Vlad tries to win danny over with money, with manipulation, with blackmail. and Danny isn't having it. (he has blackmail on Vlad too). Vlad is growing increasingly desperate and looks and acts a mess. this is a vulnerable Vlad. we're not getting well kept always cocky and put together except when danny embarrasses him Vlad. we're getting a pathetic man trying to cling to the only human(ish) connection he has and slowly falling further into depression and insanity.

and Danny pities him. because Danny had that human connection too. in the early days before he decided he got to see vlad's dorky and cool side. Vlad was generous with his money. vlad only swears in food. he lights up when he watches a packers game and is a total fanboy.

and Danny kinda gets how he became like this. how his isolation and loneliness and fear drove him further and further down the road of corruptness and evil. Danny learns what he would become without his friends and if anything Vlad is better than that. it's almost similar to how he is with val. he understands where she's coming from and sees that she's a good person even if her actions have taken a turn in the wrong direction. he feels the same about Vlad. he thinks maybe he can convince Vlad to be better.

so redemption arc/reverse mentor relationship because danny is gonna be trying to teach Vlad how to stop being a fruit loop and start making some friends his own age. the comedy potential of that is amazing. i have the mental image of Danny convincing vlad to go on a date with Harriet Chin and coaching him from behind her even though he has next to no dating experience either. pure shenanigans.

i also see there being several back and forth instances of kidnapping. Vlad locks Danny in his house because he doesn't want to be alone (Danny eventually escapes and gets mad. Vlad learns never to do that again). Danny kidnaps Vlad to be a chaperone at a school event, mostly to get Vlad to lie for him. another time Vlad kidnaps danny to go to a rich person party because he said he had a kid in a pathetic attempt to make a friend (moral of the episode is lying to make friends doesn't work) so he just has Danny pose as his son that whole episode and they're trying to get along and seem happy, meanwhile snipping at each other in whispers. they think no one is buying that they're related but ironically them arguing at the end of the night is one convinces the person they're family. "me and my daughter would fight all the time, especially at events she didn't want to come to." probably muddies the moral but that's common enough in dp.

just gradually develops into a weird redeemed uncle/mentor dynamic. Vlad really isn't teaching Danny much. he still occasionally has his moments to shine with explaining new powers and showing danny how to commit tax fraud or lie to the police. but he's mostly just this weird guy who's first friend in twenty years is a teenager.

- Hestia

[mahimahi713]

Here it is! My gift for Deathcomes4you. I chose to do their prompt of everlasting trio fluff, where Danny, Sam and Tucker realize they all have feelings for each other, and they decide to all date.

 I actually have a soft spot for Everlasting Trio, and I had so much fun writing this. I hope you enjoy it, Deathcomes4u!

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 Tucker was thrilled when his two best friends got together. He had been watching them struggle with their feelings, accepting them, but not admitting their feelings to each other for years. He had been tempted so many times to tell each one the other liked them, but it wasn’t his place. Finally, they were together, and Tucker couldn’t be happier. They had been together for nearly a year now, getting together in the summer of their senior year at college and they would soon be celebrating their 1-year anniversary.

  They were all still the best of friends. Danny and Sam took extra care to ensure Tucker would not be the third wheel. They made sure they hung out just as much as before and they each had one on one time with him. They also tried to get him to go on double dates with them. Sam and Jazz knew some girls they thought would be good for him, and he had tried it a couple times before saying he just wasn’t interested. His friends, thankfully, respected his choice. High school Tucker would have been thrilled to be set up on dates with the pretty ladies Sam and Jazz knew. Especially because they had all genuinely been interested in him and had been perfectly lovely dates. There was a reason it never worked, and Tucker was slowly starting to realize why. He was jealous. But not jealous about his best friends dating. He wasn’t jealous that Danny, his best friend since they were toddlers, had a girlfriend. Nor was he jealous that Danny was dating Sam, who Tucker could readily admit (to himself) was one of the most beautiful girls he’d ever seen. He was jealous that he wasn’t part of it. He was jealous that he wasn’t in a relationship with both, a relationship where they were all dating each other, and all had the same level of significance.

  It was hard to admit his feelings for each of them. As he got older, Tucker could admit that men were attractive. However, he always thought it was just because he could appreciate another man’s good looks without being attracted to them. And while he was fully supportive of the LGBTQ community, it took him a comically long time to realize that he was in fact attracted to men, along with women. He was bisexual, but he had not admitted it to his best friends yet. Danny was handsome, strong, sensitive, and kind. He was also hilarious and an amazing cook. Sam was beautiful. She fought valiantly for the rights of others and was never afraid to fight for them. She was an advocate for the BLM movement and always made sure that no one ever treated Tucker with disrespect, which sadly, happened on sone occasions. She was incredibly intelligent, she like Danny, was funny. She was kind. They both always made him feel incredible. He realized he wasn’t interested in dating just one of them. He wanted them both. But how could he ever say that? His friends would be disgusted, he was so sure. So, Tucker decided he would just smile and watch from the sidelines, as painful as it was. Maybe he would overcome it one day, but in the meantime, he was going to be happy for them. 

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Sam felt like her dreams came true when she and Danny began to date. Danny was an amazing boyfriend. After having had feelings for him for so long, she didn’t think they would ever get together. But now, at the ripe ages of 22, they had been together for almost a year now. Sam couldn’t be happier. The best part was, that while she and Danny were dating, there was no jealousy on Tucker’s part. In fact, it was almost as if he were happier for them than she and Danny were. She had also been worried that they would unintentionally exclude Tucker or make him the third wheel. But they worked hard to make sure that didn’t happen and had been successful. She was also worried that she was “stealing” Danny away from Tucker. Sure, she was also Danny’s best friend, and she was Tucker’s as well, but before they became a trio, Danny and Tucker had been a duo for a while before she came along. A heart to heart with Tucker helped Sam to see those worries were unwarranted. Sam couldn’t believe she had such an amazing friend as Tucker. She knew their relationship had had its issues in the past, but as they both grew, they overcame that and were all as closer than ever. She could truly say she loved him.

However, while she was completely satisfied with Danny and he didn’t lack in anyway, she couldn’t help but feel as if something was missing. For the both of them. She knew what it was, despite trying to push that truth down further than she used to push her feelings for Danny. That truth was that she loved Tucker romantically and wanted to date him whole dating Danny, she wanted them to date her while also dating each other. Sam never thought she was polyamorous, yet here she was. She could never admit it though. She was sure Danny and Tucker didn’t like men in that way. She was sure if she suggested such a thing, Danny would dump her in a heartbeat and think she wasn’t happy with him, and Tucker would be furious she had hurt his best friend and that she wanted to date multiple guys. And to want him to date Danny? Tucker liked girls and only girls. He had made it so obvious in high school and college. So, to try and overcome those feelings, she got Jazz to help her find a girlfriend for Tucker. It was strange though, because while he had been on several double dates with her and Danny, it never went beyond that. It was only ever that one date, even with the girls he seemed to have chemistry with. Tucker had not been on another double date with them for a while now, stating he wasn’t interested. She knew he was single.

When she really thought about it, it made sense that she had feelings for Tucker. He had grown and matured. She was glad to say that she had as well. But he had become more sensitive, more socially aware, more environmentally conscious. While Tucker did still eat meat, he did enjoy vegetarian and even vegan dishes. He actually ate more vegetables and fruits now. While he would never go over 24 hours without meat, the meat he did it, was from reputable, ecological sources. He was also VERY easy on the eyes. He, like Danny, had grown over six feet. He still was 3 inches shorter than Danny. They both towered over her. But that was only because they were so freakishly tall. Sam Manson was a perfectly average height at 5’2” tall, thank you very much and anyone who said she was short was just ignorant and a fool. He had grown out his hair and had it in dreads, the style greatly suited him. His glasses, despite being the same style from high school, looked better in him now. He also wore contacts on occasion, and he started to dress better. The boy was no longer a walking traffic light. He was hilarious, intelligent, kind. He was successful and Sam was in love with him. She would never dump Danny for him, though. However, she knew that she would never get to date both him and Danny. Sam had accepted that they would never be the 3-person polyamorous relationship she had realized she wanted. She accepted that one day, Tucker would find a lucky girl and she’d have to smile and watch. 

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Danny felt as if her were the luckiest man on earth. How couldn’t he be? He was dating who he thought was the most gorgeous woman on earth. He was thrilled. Sure, he had spent his high school years pining after Paulina and Valerie, but even then, he harbored feelings for Sam. However, his teenage male hormones made think he wanted Valerie or Paulina more. After having grown tall and having gained a muscular body, he started to get more female attention. It was nice at first, but Danny was interested in relationships rather than just singular dates or one-night stands. He finally had realized the scope of his feelings in college, probably at the end of junior year. He knew he had feelings for Sam before that but had no idea of the depth and thought she would never go for him. But then, here they were, nearly at their 1-year anniversary. It was great.

There was a nagging feeling he’d been having lately. He looked at Tucker and he wanted to be with him. He didn’t want to dump Sam. He didn’t want to date him and then her. He wanted them all to get dating each other. It scared him at first. Him, polyamorous? Everyone would be disgusted, he was sure. Tucker didn’t like guys, so he would definitely be scared off. Danny couldn’t stand to lose his best friend. Sam would have felt like she wasn’t good enough and be disgusted. She would think he was just a horn dog. So would Tucker. Danny had always thought Tucker was attractive. Even when others didn’t. He knew it was true. Now, he presented himself as the attractive person he knew Tucker always had been. Not only in terms of looks (better wardrobe, a hair style that suited him better) but the way he presented himself.

Tucker was also brilliant, no doubt he would surpass Steve Jobs and Bill gates. He would do it while also being environmentally friendly as possible and without any unfair labor from workers. That was definitely Sam’s influence, but he knew Tucker agreed with it.  He was also hilarious, and he just had so much fun with him. Danny felt like there was a reason he had fallen for his two best friends. They were both perfect and he thought they were all perfect for each other. He wasn’t dissatisfied with Sam. He wasn’t about to break up with her to pursue a relationship with Tucker. But those feelings were there. Danny didn’t know how he would deal with them, but he had hidden his feelings for Sam for so many years, he was sure he could do it for Tucker for the rest of his life. While it hurt that Tucker used to go on double dates with then, it was bittersweet excuse maybe seeing with a girlfriend would help him get over those feelings. But it didn’t work out and Tucker no longer joined. Danny didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. On one hand, he was happy to see that he wouldn’t have to see Tucker with other women. On the other, he wanted his friend happy.

What had really finally convinced him that he was in love with Tucker and that he wanted to be with him along with Sam, was a day earlier that summer. They had been hanging out at a little cottage Sam’s grandma owned and had been allowing Sam to live at during school. Sam was sitting on top of a picnic table and Tucker was sitting on the bench with his back to her. She was threading flowers into his hair. Flowers that she had grown in the garden. Seeing them smile and laugh together, made him think that they looked cute together and that he wished it was the three of them dating. It just wasn’t meant to be. Danny would live with it. As long as Tucker would remain his best friend and he could continue to date Sam, he would be fine. With time. But he would 

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Danny and Sam’s one year anniversary was finally here. The entire trio was excited. Danny and Sam because they had been dating a year and things were going great and there was no sign that they would have issues. Tucker because he simply was so happy for his two best friends. Both had individually talked to him about their plans and Tucker was thrilled that he was who they both went to. They planned on spending the whole day together. Breakfast would consist of dining at their favorite brunch spot. They would then go on a hike. Then they would return to Sam’s for a lunch of pizza and spend the next few hours just talking and playing video games until dinner. Dinner was at one of the nicest and high-end restaurants in town. You couldn’t get in without a reservation, and it had a formal dress code. After dinner they would go to Danny and Tuckers place to change, before going stargazing in the mountains where there would be no light pollution to mute the stars.

Sam had discussed her outfit with him. She had even gone shopping with him, which he was flattered about. It was actually cute; she was worried he would be insulted. Far from it. It also didn’t hurt he got to see her try on dresses. She looked amazing in them all, but they settled on a beautiful long, dark red dress, with a scoop neckline and golden rhinestone straps. Danny had also tasked Tucker with helping him to buy a suit. Sam had, years ago, drilled it into their minds that every person (regardless of gender) should own a tailored suit if they were able to afford it. She had dragged them to a shop her father went to and got them fitted for suits. Both he and Danny knew they would be something they could never reasonably afford but Sam stated it was in her. It was a graduation present. They tried to still protest, but then they saw how good they looked and after Sam gushed about how handsome they both looked, they gave in. Sam always gave generously, and she always told them that she didn’t mind doing it, because she wanted to do it, it wasn’t as if she was constantly buying them extravagant gifts, and because it was her family’s money and hers to spend. So, they accepted it. Tucker enjoyed watching Danny try on suits as much as he enjoyed watching Sam try on dresses. The boy cleaned up very well and he looked amazing in suits. Danny had picked a slim fit suit, with a maroon shirt and a black tie. They were both going to look amazing. 

Sam wondered if she was an idiot for asking Tucker to go shopping for a dress for her and Danny’s anniversary. However, he had enthusiastically said yes, and she could tell he enjoyed himself. Truth be told, while she did want his opinion, a small bit of her also wanted to see his reaction to her dressing up. She knew from that freshman year dance years ago, Tucker thought she looked pretty when she dressed up. She felt guilty, wanting another man to think she looked nice when she was dating Danny, though. But the chance of seeing him look at her and think she looked beautiful was just too good to pass up. After she saw how he looked at her in each dress, she wondered if there was something more to his gaze than a guy who was just looking at his attractive best friend who he had no romantic feelings for. She could have sworn she had seen Danny look at her with those same eyes and vice versa. It almost tempted her to take Tucker to the lingerie store for her and Danny’s plans after they had gone stargazing. But that would have been pushing it and she was sure that it was just her imagination. Still, for that brief moment, it was nice to pretend and imagine walking into the restaurant, between her two boys, one on each arm, and then cuddling altogether in bed after everything was over. Sam shook her head when she imagines it. It would never be reality. Best to stop fantasizing over impossibilities. She was dating Danny, and he was more than enough, and they were both happy. 

Danny had asked Tucker to go with him to get a suit because he knew Tucker would give him an honest opinion. Not that Danny was completely hopeless when it came to picking a nice suit, but it would be nice to have someone else’s opinion. He valued Tucker’s opinion the most. Well, just after Sam. But that was going to be after. This was the before. So, it made sense that when it came to picking it, he cared about the opinion of Tucker the most. When he had picked out a suit and he came out from the fitting room, the look ticker gave him, it was enough to send him to the moon. He could have sworn it was the very same way Sam looked at him, and he looked at her but that simply couldn’t be. It had to be his imagination. For a brief moment, he did enjoy picturing walking into the restaurant, with Sam on his arm and Tucker on her other arm, then all stargazing together, naming the constellations and looking for shooting stars. He would never have that. However, he would still get to enjoy those things with Sam. That was good enough. 

Sam and Danny had both enjoyed the day together. In had been incredible and they had eaten great food and had so much fun. They were playful competitive when they played video games. They flirted and talked about life and their goals. However, there was on topic that came up, that caused them both to come to a conclusion that they never expected. 

Danny had been laughing the hardest he had in a long time. Sam had been too. They were jokingly insulting each other (badly) after the latest round of video games, when they both sighed and simultaneously said “I wish Tucker was here”

They both froze and stared at each other, eyes wide. Danny immediately began to stutter 

“I d-didn’t! I-I mean that…” but Sam, the more logic of the two (the entire trio honestly), stopped him. 

“Danny. Danny, stop! It’s okay…I said it too, remember?” She reassured him. 

“Oh, yeah…that’s right.” Danny said. He looked down. 

They didn’t speak for a few moments before Sam spoke again. 

“Why do to think we both said that we wished Tucker was here?” She asked him. 

“Oh, no, just because you know, we’re just having so much fun and Tucker also loves video games, you know he’d love all this. 

Sam just silently nodded at him. She fought a smile that was tugging at the corners of her mouth. 

“Danny, do you love me?” She asked. 

He looked into her eyes and told her “More than I love anything or anyone else.” And he meant it, but he had also added the thought ‘I love you and Tucker’ prior to the statement. 

“Danny, do you love Tucker as much as you love me?” She looked into his eyes. He knew he wouldn’t be able to lie to her. 

“Yes” he told her, fearing the worst. 

“Danny.” She said, smiling, tears in her eyes. “So do I.” 

“What?” He asked her. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “This doesn’t mean I want to stop dating you! I want to date you…”

She interrupted him once again. “And Tucker.” She finished for him. 

They both broke out into grins and began talking at once about how they each realized they knew they loved their mutual best friend. 

“I realized it slowly.” Sam stated. “Eventually, I just accepted it.” 

“I know I did in the back of my head, but wasn’t fully willing to accept it, until that day at your cottage, when you were putting the flowers in his hair. Seeing you both like that, I couldn’t deny it any longer” 

“Tucker has grown into such an incredible man. He gets his meat and eggs from reputable sources, he eats more vegetables, he will have the occasional meal without meat. He’s going to make sure his future tech company is going to be ecofriendly and will never take advantage of human labor…I know it’s because of me, but I didn’t even have to ask him, he is doing it on his own.” 

“He really is an incredible person. He’s hilarious and smart and he kind. He actually thinks all my puns are funny. There are video games we both enjoy. He wants to help build rocket and space tech because he knows I am into it.” 

“It doesn’t hurt that the boy had a major glow up” Sam said. 

“Oh, no. Not at all” Danny nodded. 

“So, what do we do now?” Sam asked him

“Well, we either stay silent or we tell him and see what happens…I just don’t want to lose him” 

“I don’t want to lose him either…but when we confessed our feelings for each other, it worked. I have no doubt that if it weren’t meant to be, we would still be best friends, because I would still want to be your best friend and I would be able to get over my romantic feelings as long as I kept you in my life. I know it was the same for you. I have no doubt it will be the same with him.”

“You’re right” Danny said. “If it doesn’t work, we will give him space, but we’ll tell him that he means too much to not have him out lives and we’ll work our hardest to make it all normal.”

“And it will be.” Sam said. “I think it’s better to do it sooner rather than later. Like, now” she said. 

Danny nodded. 

“So do you want to call him or should I?” She asked 

“Let’s both call him.” 

Sam grinned and grabbed her phone. 

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Tucker had been okayed Doom 3 when his phone rang. He was going so well, and he was annoyed that a call was going to make him pause. When he saw who it was, however, he got excited. And then scared. It was Sam calling. Why would she call on her and Danny’s anniversary unless something was wrong?  

He quickly answered the phone.  

“Hey, Sam, why are you calling, is everything alright?” He asked, trying not to sound too frantic. 

“Oh, yeah everything is going great. Danny and I are having an amazing time, listen. The reason I’m calling is because…well. We miss having our third around…we know it’s our anniversary but.” And Sam was cut off and he then heard Danny’s voice 

“But you always rooted for us, and you were there for us and had to deal with us being clueless idiots and you have been so happy for us. You’re like, our biggest supporter, it almost feels wrong to not have you here. Sam and I really want you to Join us. “ 

“Please say you will” Sam said. 

“What? No? What? Guys, it’s your anniversary, you don’t want me third wheeling” 

“You could never be the third wheel, Tucker. You’re just as important. You matter just as much. Please. Join us” Danny said

“But the reservation is for two, it would be rude to add a third” 

Sam spoke up. “Danny’s actually been texting the restaurant, he asked and it’s okay and it’s not that much trouble because it’s just one more person. We’re also going to tip really well.”

“Well…okay, but I need to get ready.” Tucker said, trying but failing to force back a smile. 

“Great!” Sam said. “Make sure you wear a suit, oh and wear that green Tie your mom got you, it makes your eyes pop.”

“And your slim fit suit” Danny added. “It really compliments your body” 

Tucker could have sworn they were flirting but it couldn’t be. No, it must have just been his imagination. Still, he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. If his two, very hot and amazing best friends who he was secretly in love with were inviting him to an amazing restaurant, he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity. 

“Okay.” He spoke. “I’ll be there.”

“Great! We’re so glad! We’ll just meet at the restaurant”

“Cool” he replied. 

They said their goodbyes and right after he hung up, Tucker jumped to his feet and right to his bathroom to shower. 

After a quick shower, he put on his favorite cologne, gifted to him by Sam, of course. The stuff was crazy expensive, so he only wore it on special occasions. He put on the suit that Danny asked him to wear, and the tie Sam requested. He put in his favorite pair of cuff links that Danny had gotten him. 

The reservation Danny and Sam had been for another half hour, and he was within a ten-minute walk and an even shorter drive. So, he sat on his couch and began to try and calm his nerves. 

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Danny and Sam began to get ready as well as soon as the call ended. 

“You men have it so easy. You don’t have to wear makeup, but if you do, I’m definitely not complaining. But it is so easy for you to get ready.” Sam said, jokingly. 

“You don’t have to wear makeup, Sam. You’re beautiful with or without it.” Danny told her. 

“Thank you.” Sam said with a smile. She pushed Danny off into the direction of one of her bathrooms.

“Now get in there!” She told him. “We may have showered already, but you need to wash your face, moisturize, and put on cologne and deodorant.”

Danny paused “Aw, I wanted to get ready together” he said. 

“If we did that, we would never get to the restaurant. Now go! I’ll put your suit on the doorknob” and she went off to get ready herself. 

Sam stared at herself at the mirror as she washed her face. What the hell were they doing? Sure, Tucker agreed to go, but he was probably just doing it for the food or because he felt pressured. What if he really didn’t want to and he felt they were forcing him? Those thoughts continued as she went to her vanity. 

‘Stop it’ she told herself. ‘Tucker is a big boy; he would have said no if he didn’t want to come”

Sam sighed and began to put on makeup. Having been into skincare from a young age, Sam could boast about flawless skin. But she didn’t of course. She knew it was also good genes and luck. Still, she didn’t need foundation or concealer and for that she was thankful. She decided to stick with a simpler look. Mascara, eyeliner, some gold eyeshadow and blush. She opted for a matte mauve lipstick. She put in her dress and put on a necklace Danny had given her and a pair of earrings Tucker had gifted her and a perfume she’s gotten many compliments on, mainly from her two boys. After a final check in the mirror, she headed for her living room. 

Danny had been having his own anxious thoughts while getting ready. ‘I hope this doesn’t absolutely blow up in our faces. Sure, he’s going, and he clearly doesn’t mind because he would have said something. But what if it goes badly?’

Danny realized it wound not do any good if he kept dwelling on the matter, so he busied himself with getting ready. He put on a cologne Tucker had gifted him and that Sam loved, and a pair of cuff links Sam gave him. 

‘Sam is right, it really doesn’t take guys long to get ready.’ He thought to himself. ‘Just that tiny bit of effort but damn, I look good.’ Smiling smugly at himself in the mirror. He headed to the living room to wait for Sam. As he sat on the couch, his thoughts began to return to if things went south with Tucker, so he distracted himself with his phone. 

He waited for about 10 more minutes when Sam came out of her room. His jaw almost dropped. Even though he had seen her in countless dresses since he knew her, even though they’d been dating for a year, he was still taken a back at how pretty she was whenever she dressed up. 

“Damn.” He breathed. “And I thought I looked good.” 

“Oh, you definitely do” Sam said. “Just not as good as me”

“Oh, really? You think you look better? Hmm. That’s cute” 

“What’s cute is you thinking you look better. All these years Danny, and you’re still clueless. How are you so smart and yet so ignorant as to think you look better?” She replied. 

“You can keep thinking what you want, babe, if You really aren’t able to see that I am the better looking of us both then there’s no hope.” He said, grinning. 

Sam laughed “You do look really good, but let’s get going. Don’t want to Tucker wait, do we?” 

“No.” He answered, and they both walked toward the door. As he held the door open for Sam, he asked “Are you nervous?” He asked her. 

“I am SO nervous.” She told him. “But there’s no backing out now, and if we don’t do it now, I’m afraid we never will.” 

“That’s how I feel. Promise me this, that if he doesn’t want to be part of us, we won’t hold it against him, and if one of us sees it happening, we’ll call each other out. That we will work to make things okay again if he rejects us.” He said

“I promise.” She told him. 

Promise made, they headed out the door and made their way to Sam’s car.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

Meanwhile, Tucker was just as nervous. 

‘Why would they invite me to their anniversary dinner. Sure, they love me as a friend, but this is…strange’ be thought to himself. But not an unwelcome surprise. 

It wasn’t before long until all three of them found their way to the restaurant.

As Sam pulled into the restaurant, she caught site of Tucker’s impossible to miss green car. It stood out amongst the higher end cars, but it wasn’t totally out of place. There was a space right next to him and Sam pulled in with her own black Mercedes. It was an electronic car, given to her as a graduation present by her parents. It definitely fit in more with the rest of the cars. But Sam didn’t care. 

Tucker stepped out of his car as Sam put her car into park. 

He watched as his two best friends stepped out. 

‘Man oh, Man’ Tucker thought to himself. ‘They look amazing. Like a damn dressed dressed Hollywood couple. Minus the drama.’ 

Sam looked like a goddess in her red dress. Sam didn’t dress in red often. But when she did, she looked amazing. His heart swelled when he saw she was wearing a set of earrings he had given her. And he was just a little turned on. Especially when he smelled that she was wearing a perfume he loved. 

Danny looked like he belonged in ad for designer suits. The suit fit his body amazingly and it was like it was entirely designed just for him.  He was just as turned on as we was by Sam wearing his earrings when he smelt the cologne, he’d gotten him. 

They both carried themselves with a confidence and grace that high school him would have killed for. 

As soon as Tucker stepped out of his car, both Danny and Sam thought they would start drooling over Tucker. His hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. He had gone for contacts tonight. While he looked great in glasses, it was nice to really be able to see his eyes in all their beauty. 

Sam saw that he was wearing the tie she asked him to wear and she felt a flood of happiness. Danny felt that same happiness when he saw that he was wearing the suit he told him to wear. They each felt bolts of heat zing through their bodies when Sam smelled the cologne, she gifted him in him, and Danny saw the cuff links he gifted him. 

There was no denying it. Tucker was handsome as hell. 

‘The man looks like he should be a model waking around a high-end men’s suit store’ Danny thought. 

‘That, right there’ Sam thought ‘along with Danny, is the epitome of a good-looking man’

They all hugged and greeted each other and began making their way to the restaurant 

“We’re to glad you’re here, Tucker.” Danny said. “We actually booked a private room, so it’ll be really nice.” 

“Yeah, you thought booking a regular table was hard, booking one of their rooms for parties of 3 or less is even harder. They only have 5 of them.” Sam added. 

“The food here is amazing. There isn’t any pretentiousness to the menu, nothing ridiculous like a plaster cast if the chef’s mouth that he then fills with a lemon foam, curd thing.” Danny said. 

“They have amazing steaks here.” Sam said. “Feel free to free whatever and as much as you want. The includes alcohol. Tonight, is on us.” 

“You guys don’t have to do that.” Said Tucker 

“We definitely have to. We invited you.” Danny said

“Will if you insist.” Tucker said

“And we will totally be able to tell if you’re holding back from ordering.” Sam said. “If you do that, I’ll have Danny use his powers to destroy the cameras and I’ll hurt you”

“What a kind threat. Thank you. I feel loved.” 

Sam paused, before entering the door Danny was open for her. 

“You should.” She said. 

The maitre’d greeted them. 

“Good evening, do you have a reservation?” She asked them. 

“Yes, party of three, under Sam Manson.” Sam said. 

The maitre’d confirmed the reservation

“Okay, I’ve got you.” Said with a smile. She began to lead them to their room

“I see you booked our private room, is there anything special you’re celebrating tonight?” She asked. 

“It’s mine and her 1-year anniversary.” Danny said. “He’s our best friend. We invited him because he was always rooting for us and he’s so important for us…it just made sense to invite him.” 

“That’s actually really sweet.” She said. “Well, here we are.” She opens a door to a small but comfortable room. There was a table with candles, a bottle of wine in a bucket of ice. There were three place settings. The table would fit the three of them more than comfortably. 

“Well, I’ll leave you three, your waiter should be here soon. My name is Stacy, please don’t hesitate to come to me if you need anything.” She said with a smile. 

The trio thanked her, and she left. Tucker sat down and he smiled as he watched Danny pull out Sam’s chair for her and she smiled up at him.

“I will never stop believing that you two are the cutest couple that has ever existed. I am so glad you two are together. I’ve had to spend years watching you dance around your feelings for each other.” He said. 

“Sorry we put you through that.” Danny joked. “But we appreciate the fact you’re so happy for us.” 

“Yeah, we’re really lucky to have you, Tucker. You’re an amazing friend.” 

Tucker was about to thank her, but the waiter walked in.

“Hi! My name is Jason and I’ll be your waiter tonight!” He greeted as he handed out the Menus. 

He poured them all water and asked, “Can I start you out with any other drinks?” Moving in to pouring wine for them. 

“I think we’re okay for now.” Danny said as he looked around the table. 

“Perfect, I’ll give you guys some time to decide, and I’ll be back in a bit. Happy anniversary, by the way. I’m so glad you chose to celebrate with us.” 

The three sat silently for a moment before Tucker spoke up. 

“So, happy anniversary! 1 year strong. Sorry, I didn’t get you anything.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. You don’t need to give us anything. I think that would have made things awkward.” Danny said. 

Tucker nodded. “So how has it been, how does it feel to have made it to a year?” 

“Incredible” Sam answered. “I can’t wait to see where we go. I want to grow old with Danny, I want to experience things with him.” She too. Danny’s hand and smiled at him. 

Danny smiled back at her. 

“She’s everything I want and more. Sometimes I wish we dated earlier but now; I think it’s actually better we didn’t start to date until now.” Danny said. Squeezing her fingers. 

Tucker smiled at his friends. He thought he would burst from happiness. There was a small amount of sadness lurking there, however. If not being part of it. Of being in love with his best friends and wanting to be with them but realizing it was impossible. 

“I never understood the phrase, you complete me…but now I do.” Sam said. “Danny helps to complete me…but there’s still…. I feel...” she paused and looked down. 

“What?” Tucker asked. “What’s wrong?” ‘Oh no…is something wrong? We’re they breaking up? Did they ask me to come here to give me some bad news, like parents telling their kid they’re getting divorced? But they’re so in love. What could possibly make them break up? They seem happy so it’s not by their choice. That makes things worse.’ As Tuckers thoughts began to race, he didn’t notice the look that his friends were exchanging. 

Sam looked at Danny. She didn’t have to say a word. He knew what she was asking. He just nodded at her. 

Sam sighed, she held Danny’s hand tighter.

“Tucker, there’s actually something really important we need to tell you. We really hope it doesn’t ruin things, but it needs to be said.” Danny said. 

Tucker snapped back to reality. “What is it?” He asked, hesitantly. He wanted to ask them if they were breaking up, why? What could possibly be going on to make them break up? But he stayed silent. 

Sam and Danny both reached for his hands, and he let them grasp them. 

“This is something that took us both a while to realize and accept.” Sam said. “But knowing this truth has been like a burden has lifted.” 

“We don’t want to scare you, and if this is too much you can leave, but well, here it goes. Sam and I, we are deliriously happy with each other. No doubt about it.  But we realized that we do not think we’re meant to be monogamous.”

“You’re…. opening up your relationship?” Tucker asked. This struck him as strange. He knew Sam was demisexual. That’s why her love for Danny made sense. Neither of them was a fan of flings or one-night stands or relationships that were purely physical. 

“No! Hell no.” Sam said. “What we meant was, we’re polyamorous.” Sam felt her body beating up, she was so anxious. ‘Please don’t let this screw everything up’ she thought. 

“We love each other,” Danny said, looking at Sam. His nerves were building, His heart racing. “But there’s someone else we also both love.” And he shifted his gaze to Tucker. ‘Please, don’t let this low up on our faces’ Danny thought. 

‘No. It can’t be.’ Thought Tucker, staring at his friends. He saw how they were looking at him. He had only ever seen them look at each other like that. 

“What we are trying to say is…” Sam started. She took a deep breath, and simultaneously, she and Danny said “We love You, Tucker.” 

There was just no way. There was no possible way it was true. Surely this was a dream. An amazing dream that he never wanted to wake from. 

“Do mean like a friend…. guys you need to tell me, do you mean like a friend??” Tucker said. 

“No, like we love each other.” Danny said. 

Tucker started to laugh from the immense joy. He had been so worried. He thought he was alone and now here he was. His best friends confessing they loved him like he loved them. 

Danny and Sam Immediately got worried. Was he laughing at them? At how ridiculous it was? Did they just do something really stupid? Both were thinking along those same thoughts. 

He was able to stop. 

“I’m sorry for laughing. I’m just so happy…I never dreamed this would ever happen, but I love you guys too!” 

Both their jaws dropped. 

All three of them stood up at the same time and they all hugged each other. 

“We we’re so scared we were going to scare you away!” Sam said. “I was scared you were going to think I just want two boyfriends and that I was gross” 

“I thought you were going to be disgusted with me and insulted for thinking you would ever want a guy.” Danny said

“I pretty much had those same fears” Tucker said. “How long have you known?” 

“For a while now.” Danny said. “I realized it that day at Sam’s cottage when she was putting flowers in your hair. Well, I knew before that, but it was then that really made me accept it.” 

“I realized more slowly, over time.” Sam said. “But we both only just today learned about each other loving you.”

“It didn’t take me too long to realize I was bi, but it wasn’t until I saw you two dating, that o realized that I wanted to date you both.” Tucker said. 

“So, is this is? Are we a…a throuple?” Danny asked.

“I think so. But I think I want to date you guys a little more before we make it official.” Tucker said. 

“Of course, that totally makes sense.” Sam said. 

“Also, can we wait before we tell people? I’m also not out as bi, yet.” Tucker said. 

“I totally get it, only Sam, and now you, know I’m into guys, too.” Danny said. 

It was then that their waiter entered. 

“Hey, are you guys ready to order?” He saw them all standing. “Is everything okay?” 

“Everything is perfect, we just shared some really happy news. We’re really sorry, but it’s going to take us a bit longer to decide.” Tucker said. 

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience.” Sam said. 

“No inconvenience at all!” Jason said. “I’ll give you three more time.” 

The trio sat down and began to look over the menu. 

“So…Tucker…you know, after star gazing, Sam and I are doing to go back to her place to…finalize our anniversary….” Danny said. 

“It will actually be our first time; we haven’t done anything beyond some heavy making out before now because we wanted to take things slow.” Sam said. 

“Would you want to join us?” Danny asked. 

“That’s really flattering, but I’m not ready for that quite yet.” Tucker said. 

“That’s perfectly fine. We are happy to go at whatever pace you’re comfortable with.” Sam said. 

“I appreciate that. All that said, I am hungry, so can we please decide what we all want?” Tucker asked. 

Sam and Danny laughed and agreed. 

So, on the night of Danny and Sam’s anniversary, the trio became a throuple. Dinner was filled with laughter and amazing conversation. Their bond grew even stronger that day, and nothing they faced would ever break it. 

...