#that's what i want. all the time. amity's gonna get stuck with both these idiots for life

[crimeronan]

there's ALSO hilarity potential in the princess luz AU w amity being like "okay. so he's your cousin on a technicality but like barely acts like your cousin and is basically your brother but you don't call him your brother and you guys are a lot weirder and clingier than i've ever been with my siblings but you're also definitely not lovers so what..... what DO you call him" and luz being like "he's just hunter :) he's my special little guy :)" while hunter, who's been listening to and watching this entire exchange bc he's around luz All The Fucking Time, is like [inb4 amity can say it herself] "i'm her pet dog. woof."

[goldenchan-fx2thepeacock]

Don’t Go Running Off Into Danger, Even If I Do pt 3

Hek. I woke up today and found that my FNP phic has 41 notes and my DGROIDEIID phic is gaining attention and reblogs; holy shit. And I woke up at noon. It’s Saturday. I sleep in on such days. Anyways. Last I checked, Val and Danny were gonna go get Dani, but we need some Dip and Mabs action cause I forgot last night. I will probably develop an uploading schedule later. For now, just have random updates. I might even make a side blog for this shit.

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Chapter 3

Dipper stood off in the background as Danny got into an argument with a dracula ghost. By the amount of times he heard Plasmius, this must’ve been Vlad. Danny looked pissed when he finished. He still took Dipper and Mabel to their classes, but when they tried to find him at lunch, he was absent.  “I wonder where he is?” Mabel pondered.  “I’m sure he just had something to do,” Dipper replied. Some guy walked up to their table.  “Hey, you’re the kids Fenton is touring. Listen, he’s Phantom and I have proof!”  “And you are?” Mabel said patiently. “Wes Weston. Listen, you gotta believe me!” “We legit just moved here, we have no clue what you’re talking about. Leave us alone,” Dipper said. Wes looked taken aback.  “Fine! Fenton better worry. I will expose him. I just need more proof,” Wes stalked off. Dipper and Mabel exchanged a look.  “Should we be worried?” He asked Mabel. “He seems to have it under control,” 

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Danny stared off into the daylight as they flew. Val set down.  “Come on. She’s fine. Why are you losing it?” “Just a certain Wisconsin Ghost told me about you keeping her,” “Vlad?” “Wait, you know?” “I’ve known since I met Dani,” “Jeez. I’ve known since I met the guy during my parents college reunion. I’m still pissed at him for that whole invisble wall fiasco,” “That was him?” “Yeah. I mean, I started it, but he kept trying to get in my mom’s pants. I needed to put him down a peg,” “You made his wall invisble!?” “Yeah. But it’s not like being naked on camera is going to tell the public any secrets,” “I’m confused. Why do care so much?” “It’s nothing,” Danny grunted. They were headed to the basement. “It seems to be something,” “I have things I’d prefer not to reveal to the entire school,” “No one saw your dick. You managed to catch it in time,” Val was confused. Danny laughed.  “Hey Val. Why would a guy have a female clone? Oh right. I forgot to tell you. Dani is more or less my clone because Vlad was being extra creepy,” “Weird. So she isn’t your cousin. Wait. OH MY GOD! Danny, I understand completely. If Dash knew, you’d be dead meat,” Val caught on quickly. Danny couldn’t but laugh at the dead meat. “Hey! What’s funny?” “I am dead meat Val!” “I’m an idiot. Anyways, we’re here,” She opened the basement door. Dani was sitting on the couch.  “Danny? Val? What’re you guys doing here. Shit, sorry Danny,” “It’s fine. She knows,”  “Who else knows anyways?” Val said.  “You, Jazz, Tucker, Sam and literally all the ghosts,” “Vlad included?” “Vlad included,” “And Amity Park can’t connect the dots?” “No one knows Danny Phantom has a human life. I’d be seriously pissed if someone told the general public,” “That’s fair. Anyways. We’re here because a certain Dracula cosplayer told Danny you were in danger,” Val said. Danny snorted. “Dracula cosplayer? I have to use that on him,” “Why would anyone think that’s a good look?”  “My ‘dad’,” Dani said. Thus causing both her and Danny to break out in laughter. “Where does the whole cousin thing come in?” Val asked. “My ‘Unkie Vlad’. It’s his way of making me family,” “Unkie?” Val looked lost. “I like being a little bitch to him,” “He deserves it! You should expose him,” “If I expose Plasmius, Masters exposes Phantom,” “Oh jeez,” “And there is a very good reason not to expose Phantom. And they wear way too much white,” Dani said quietly.  “I’d prefer not to get dissected,” Danny said haughtily. “They already want to,” Val made a noise of disgust.  “How could anyone with a set of morals do that?” “Heh. I’m a ghost. Not really real to most of the world. I don’t have feelings. Don’t feel pain,” Danny repeated what the ghost hunters had told him way too many times.  “That sounds awful, but we should get back to school. Cya Dani!” Val waved and put on her helmet.  “Hey, wanna leave the quick way?” “What do you mea- AAAAAAAH!” Val screamed as Danny made them both go intangible and up through the roof. “Never. Do that again,” “Hey, at least you didn’t end up going through the table and random floors and get banned from handling anything fragile,” “I’m confused,” “When these powers first came in, I was stuck dropping everything. From my pants to beakers,” “Oh jeez. So, why aren’t nerd and nerdette with you?” “Tucker had to go see a doctor out of town and Sam’s mom took her to this convention thing. They’ll be back tomorrow,”  “No comment on the nicknames?” “They’ve been called worse,” Danny shrugged. “And I’ve been shoved in way too many lockers to care,” “I have one last question. Why on earth would you try to date me when I was trying to kill you? And why did you destroy the suit when I could’ve been inside?” “That’s two questions. But Fenton and Phantom needed a distinction, and I knew you weren’t inside. Technus was controlling the suit,” “You are a mystery,” “I’d like to keep it that way,” “You won’t tell anyone my secret if I don’t tell anyone both of yours?” “That makes it sound like you’re going to tell one of them,” “That’s not what I meant,” “We need to come up with an excuse as to why The Red Huntress suddenly has a truce with Phantom,” “Later. I need coffee,” “I couldn’t agree more,” The plume of blue air showed up. “OH COME ON!” “What,” “I have to deal with something,” Danny sped off. 

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Dipper and Mabel looked at the chaos in the caf.  “Students! Hide under tables! Ghost Hunters and/or Phantom will be here soon,” Mr Lancer yelled into a megaphone. “Already here!” Someone yelled. A flash of white said Phantom. There was blue ghost throwing boxes around.  “I am the BOX GHOST!” It yelled. “Yeah, we know. Just say it already,” “I will win this fight with boxes of... spoons! BEWARE!” “Don’t you know not to bring a spoon to a knife fight?” “You do not have a knife!” “No, but I do have a thermos!” Phantom pulled out a green and grey thermos and flipped the lid.  “I will not stay in your cylindrical object!”  “Looks like you’re gonna have to,” Phantom pressed a button and a beam of light came out of the thermos and sucked the Box Ghost inside. “Is everyone okay?” Kids pushed out from under the tables.  “Phantom! Will you sign my book?” Dash said. This must be a cruel joke.  “Ghost boy! The Fenton Peeler is back in action,” “Whoops, gotta go!” Phantom dashed off as Jack and Maddie Fenton came rushing in. “Darn it. Missed him again,” They ran off. Danny walked into the caf and ran over to them. “You guys are lucky that your first ghost attack was the Box Ghost. Harmless,” “Doesn’t look very harmless to me! That’s gotta’ve been at least a level 5,” Dipper opened the journal. “Nah. Box is a solid 2. Hardly a step up from an ectopus. Might get concerned if Desiree shows up. She’s a level 5,” “What’re you?” “We more or less tested it. Pretty sure I’m a 7,” “That means they aren’t a big concern to you most days,” “Mmm. King Pariah was a level 10. That was terrifying. Vlad’s an 8. Convinced he’s a 9,”  “Okay,” ���Skulker gets to be a 6 on a technicality. Without the suit, he’s a 1. He can be an 8 on a bad day. I think Frostbite is a 9. He won’t bother you guys though. Dan must’ve been a 9, but I’m not going into that. Technus is an 8, but can be a 10 if he gets his hands on the right tech. Clockwork is an 11, which technically doesn’t exsist, but Clockwork breaks the mold. He won’t bother you unless you end up destroying the world in the future,” Danny shivered.  “Who’s Dan?” Mabel looked confused.  “Nobody. Just a horrible way to learn not to cheat on tests,” Danny shivered again. “But that’s not important. I didn’t cheat on the CAT,” “Your life seems more hectic than Gravity Falls sometimes,” Dipper said. “Where is that? I’ve never heard of it,” “Oregan. Never Mind All That,” He knew the rules. “You know, the way you say that is kinda creepy,” “We’d be breaking the law if we told you why,”  “Jesus. Well, it’s not like we’ll get another Pariah unless an idiot thinks it’s a good idea. He’ll never get his hands on the crown of Fire,”  “Time Out,” Dipper and Mabel looked around.  “Umm, CW, why aren’t they out with everyone else?” “They’ve met Cipher. At this point, I cannot pause time for them,”  “Eh, whatever. Mason, Mabel, this is Clockwork. What’d you need?” “I actually came to speak to you about the Crown of Fire. In defeating Pariah, you gained ownership,” “I, uh, did what now?”  “Gained ownership of the Crown. Though in your case, it would be the Crown of Ice,” Clockwork repeated. Danny looked lost.  “I don’t need to be the King of the Ghost Zone,” “Someone must take the place. It’s your duty,” Danny looked like he was about to have a full on panic attack.  “Can it wait?” “Two years is a long wait as is,” “B-but it went thousands of years before!” “Because they failed to remove the crown and it wasn’t a singular person,”  “What’s two years in the Ghost Zone? As far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t seem like a long time. Walker was gonna give me a thousand year prison sentence,”  “You get some time, but I’ll tell you, if you take the crown, the Ghost Zone enters an era of peace unprecedented,”  “Danny, what’s happening,” Mabel asked. Danny snapped and started hyperventilating.  “I can’t. No. Why? I just wanted to keep the world safe! Is that too much to ask?” “Daniel, you do get time to think about it. Just remember, time can pass however fast or slow I want it too,” “Right, of course. Cya CW,”  “Time In,”

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Danny trudged home. Exhaustion and anxiety gripped him. Mason and Mabel had been concerned, but he wasn’t about to explain everything. He’d talk to Sam and Tucker tomorrow. It didn’t help that he’d had gym after lunch. At least there wasn’t any more disappearing walls.  “Danny! How was school?” Mom asked as he walked in the door.  “Great!” Danny said and rushed upstairs. He’d deal with The Box Ghost in a minute. Jazz stood in his doorway. She didn’t know about Dan, but she did know about Pariah. “Danny, is everything okay?” “No, everything is not okay!” “What happened? Is it Dash again? We should report him,” “It’s not just that. You remember the Pariah incident?” “Yeah, you don’t just forget that,” “Well, turns out that by beating him, I ‘gained ownership’ to the crown,” “That doesn’t sound bad exactly,” “It’s horrible!”  “How?” “I just wanna be a kid, ya know? It’s hard enough living a double life, but ruling the Ghost Zone? I’d have no chance to do anything remotely useful in the human world,” “You wouldn’t need to. If you ruled the Ghost Zone, ghosts wouldn’t come here anymore,” “The King can’t enforce rules in the Human World. It’s just scary,” 

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Aight, that’s a chapter, I guess. The ideas tend to come from random places, and my brain is running out of ideas. I need to do another “planning session” which is coming up with scenarios in my head to make sure they make sense.

[drabbles-of-writing]

Bonesborough’s Resident Troublemaker

This is part of my Four Years AU

AO3

Masterpost

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Bonesborough, even by Boiling Isles standards, was never an incredibly normal place.

First of all, it was the home of Emperor Belos. A town housing a man with such power was bound to be recognizable by name alone.

Second of all, it seems to have a knack for attracting trouble. Even more so than other towns. Small or big, Bonesborough has it. From a thought-to-be extinct basilisk attacking the local school to a cursed owl beast appearing every once in a while to a random human girl of all people staging a prison breakout.

Speaking of the human girl…

Last, but not least, Bonesborough held some of the most powerful and strangest witches the Boiling Isles had ever seen.

The two most notable ones being The Owl Lady, a covenless witch that was once the strongest witch alive. Advanced in wild magic and sharing a half-curse with her sister, also known as the former Emperor’s Coven leader. Until her magic died out. Though there are rumors she is finding a way to regain it.

And then there was her apprentice.

A human girl who appeared out of nowhere and learned her own form of magic. In just a single month she had been banned from Hexside School of Magic and Demonics, somehow managed to enroll in said school, convinced the principal to let students study multiple tracks, befriended the Bat Queen, defeated Grometheus, and fought Emperor Belos himself. And she survived.

To the rest of the Boiling Isles, Bonesborough was a battleground of the strangest people with even stranger stories.

To Bonesborough, however, it was any other morning with the residents of The Owl House. And their most common troublemaker the past few years; The Owlet.

“Owlet, that better not be you.”

Slowly, very slowly, a black and white owl mask poked up on the other end of the stand.

“Hey,” The Owlet waved shyly, slowly pulling her purple hood off.

“Owlet, no.” The greengrocer warned, grabbing her produce at the edge of the stand and pulling it closer today.

“Please?” The Owlet begged, her mask's eyes going as big in her puppy-dog look that everyone knew Eda must have taught her.

“No, bad Owlet.” The greengrocer teased, lightly swatting at the thief's hand as she tried to reach for the vegetables. “Go steal from someone else. Or, you know, pay?”

“But I’m saving!” The Owlet whined. “You see, I had an idea--

“I hate to sound rude but I frankly don’t want to know or be involved with whatever idea you’ve concocted.” The greengrocer butt-in. “I have a business to keep.”

The Owlet whimpered and dramatically lay her chin on the table, staring longing at the vegetables. The greengrocer looked between her produce and the girl for a few moments before sighing and shaking her head.

“If you really need to steal something,” She said slowly, noticing the way the Owlet perked up. “I know of a certain someone who can definitely afford it…”

“Stealing from the rich? Even better!” The Owlet exclaimed, jumping up excitedly. “Where do I find them?”

The greengrocer, surprised and mildly amused, pointed further down the marketplace.

“He sells somewhere down there, closer to the richer side of town. He’s got a big banner that’s cluttered with saying how ‘fresh’ and ‘organic’ his produce is.” The greengrocer huffed.

“Normally I wouldn’t care so much, but the guy literally uses magic to grow his produce and only makes his son do it on the side. I’m not exactly worried about his financial status.” She grumbled.

“Well then, I will be delighted to be of help.” The Owlet grinned, pulling her white staff off of her back. “Thanks for the tip!”

“Now you be careful out there, young lady!” The greengrocer warned as the Owlet rose into the air. “You’re still just an Owlet!”

“Pfft, since when did that ever stop me?” The Owlet replied.

She saluted the greengrocer before flying off, vanishing among the growing morning crowd.

The countdown for morning shenanigans had begun.

“Miss Blight?”

“Owlet again?”

“Yes, Miss Blight.”

Amity sighed and rubbed at her temples from where she sat at her desk.

“What did she do this time?”

“Stolen produce,” The guard said. “We have her bound as we speak.”

“Is that Amity in there?” A voice called from outside the tent.

“Think you can handle her this time?” The guard asked, a smug tone in his voice.

“And what’s that supposed to mean, Keene?” Amity demanded, a little too quickly, as she stood up from her desk.

“Nothing, Miss Blight.” The guard said simply, turning his head to the side. “Good luck trying to wrangle her.”

“Thank you,” Amity growled through gritted teeth, grabbing her gray beaked mask from where it hung on the wall and slipped out of the tent.

“Amity!” Owlet grinned.

The thief had her wrists bound together with rope and was being led from said rope by one of the newer guards.

Poor guy.

“I’ve taken all of her glyphs, Miss Blight!” The young guard said happily, waving around a handful of paper cards with glee.

“Good job, Laris.” Amity sighed, knowing very well there was no way he had gotten all of her glyphs.

“Where’s her palisman?” She asked, walking up to Owlet and looking down at her, pulling her best ‘Really?’ face.

“Over here, Miss Blight.” One of the other guards said, holding up Owlet’s staff...with no palisman on the end.

“That’s a staff without a palisman, Xena.” Amity deadpanned.

“What? Where--?” The guard, Xena, began looking around frantically for the snow-white owl, who had somehow escaped her grasp.

“Where’s Snowy, Luz?” Amity sighed, turning back to the Owlet, who was looking very smug.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” The Owlet said smugly. “I’m not talking. You’ll have to torture it out of me.”

“I can arrange that!” Xena called gleefully from where she was still searching for the palisman.

“No! No, Xena, we are not doing that.” Amity said sternly.

“Aw,” Xena mumbled.

“Titan save me,” Amity mumbled. “Look, why were you stealing produce?” Amity turned back to the Owlet. “I know why you stole from that guy, but vegetables? Can’t Eda steal her own?”

“Pfft, and let me miss out on all the fun?” The Owlet grinned. “And I’m saving.”

“...is this seriously about the glyph tattoos?”

“Yeah,”

“Oh for the love of--” Amity pinched the bridge of her nose, remembering just where she was and who was watching. Best to not reveal more to a whole squadron of Emperor’s Coven guards.

“You’re impossible,” She grumbled.

“I know,” The Owlet smiled. “Anyway, it was nice chatting with you, and especially you,” She nodded to Laris. “But Lilith’s gonna be mad again if news of my capture makes the news. Again.”

“Hey, you’re not going--”

“Laris!” Keene shouted. “Duck!”

The new guard only froze up before a screech sounded from above. The Emperor’s guards all looked up just in time to see a large snow-white owl swoop down.

It knocked right into Laris’ head, almost knocking off his beaked mask as Amity wisely took a few startled steps back.

With Laris’ hold on the Owlet's bindings loosened, she managed to jerk out of his hold. She dug both her tied wrists into her cloak and revealed a hidden pocket within the cape itself and drew a fire glyph.

“Get her!” Xena shouted as Amity pulled on her mask, becoming invisible among the swarm of guards as she moved further to the back.

She’d tried ‘fighting’ the Owlet before, and it did not end well.

The Owlet only smiled and tapped the glyph, burning the restraints off her wrists and sliding out of the way of a guard lunging for her.

The Owlet darted through the crowd of guards, leaping and kicking a few to get momentum to where Laris was frantically trying to gather up all the stolen glyphs he’d dropped.

“Thanks for holding these,” The Owlet grinned, causing him to jerk his head upwards.

The white owl swooped down again, shrieking as it kicked and clawed at Laris’ mask, making him yelp and stumble back.

Owlet ducked to the side as a guard threw a spear that impaled through one of her plant glyphs.

“Hey, rude!” The Owlet snapped, grabbing multiple glyphs off the ground. “Now I can’t use that one.” She complained before grabbing a new plant glyph and tossing it at one of the guards.

It lit up upon impact and a massive vine exploded from their forehead, reaching out and entangling many of the other guards.

“C’mon now, don’t be shy.” The Owlet said, stepping back and scooping up more glyphs in her other hand and spreading them both out like fans, showing what she had to the guards.

“Who wants to go next?”

“Ten snails say that she’s late again.”

“She is not going to be late again.”

Among the many other things the residents of Bonesborough dealt with were certain...thrill-seekers. Namely kids who had discovered the newest hiding spot of the Owl House and tried to have a little fun. Which ranged from waiting to see if they could catch a glimpse of one of the residents or trying to break in. Yes, that happened.

Twice.

The Owl House may have gotten a new hiding spot every month, but it was never overly far from Bonesborough. And Hooty did his job well.

During break-ins, that is.

“Jorah, I’m telling you, Owlet is definitely going to be late. My uncle said she got caught by the Emperor’s Coven again.”

“I’m not giving up my snails that easily!” The boy snapped, glaring at his other three friends. “I still have three minutes left.”

“You stubborn idiot,” One of his friends shook her head.

“Frances, I dare you to go talk to the tube bird.” A second girl grinned.

“I am not doing that.” Frances shook her head. “First of all, I’ll be caught. Second of all, that thing terrifies me.”

“Then why did you come?” Jorah raised a brow.

“Because you guys would bully me if I didn’t,” She grumbled.

“She’s not wrong,” The fourth kid shrugged.

“It’s just because you’re a wimp.” The second girl taunted.

“Would it kill you both to shut up?”

There was a snap and a thump from far off in the trees, and all four kids went quiet. They ducked down in the bushes that were only a few meters from the house.

Frances slowly stuck her head between the bushes and looked around.

Mere moments later, a figure flew out from the trees and crashed to the ground in front of the Owl House, groaning as her staff clattered onto the front porch.

“Hi, Luz!” Hooty greeted.

“Am I late?” The Owlet worried, taking off her needless mask and hanging it around her neck.

“Hmmm, nope! You got here with a minute to spare.” Hooty said cheerfully.

“I’ll take it,” Luz sighed with relief. “Sorry, Snowy.” She apologized to her palisman, picking up her staff and stroking the birds head.

Snowy chirped and turned her head away grumpily, but didn’t refuse the pets.

“I WIN!” Jorah cheered before slapping his hands back over his mouth.

Luz whirled around, staff raised and body tense as Frances darted back into the bush as her, and everyone else, gave Jorah furious glares and terrified looks.

“Who’s there?” Luz demanded, raising her staff.

“Some kids were betting in the bushes,” Hooty said, head coming out of the door slightly. “They thought you were going to be late again.”

“Oh,” Luz instantly relaxed, looking mildly annoyed at the worst. “Well, since they’re game is over and I’ve got a certain someone who’s going to be visiting and berating me soon, do you mind escorting them off?” She asked the door bird.

“Would I?” Hooty said excitedly.

“No, no! We’ll leave, we’ll leave!” Frances shouted, quickly getting up and already backing away.

“Too late!” Hooty chirped before extending his neck straight-on towards the kids.

They screamed and began bolting back through the woods, Hooty talking gleefully all the way.

“Sorry, kids,” Luz winced, a tad regretful as she placed Snowy back on her staff. She then opened the front door and stepped inside.

“You’re late,”

Luz sighed and looked towards the couch, where Lilith was ‘casually’ having a cup of tea.

“No, I’m not. I had one minute to spare. Could you not hear Hooty?” Luz said, hanging her mask on a hook by the door and resting her staff next to it.

“It was a very close call.” Lilith said simply. “You left, what, over three hours ago? You only went to get vegetables and spoons.”

“...well I got the spoons,” Luz said, sheepishly pulling out a handful of silver spoons from a pocket in her cape.

“Good enough for me!”

King scampered into the living room and climbed up Luz’s leg to snatch the spoons from her hand. She didn’t bother to react or stop him as he dropped back to the ground and hurried into the kitchen.

“Nice to see you still alive, kid,” Eda greeted much more casually as she poked her head in. “No vegetables, though?”

“Sorry, you’ll have to get them yourself.” Luz apologized. “I kinda...maybe…” She glanced at Lilith and weighed her options for a moment. “...got caught by the Emperor’s Coven.”

“Again?” Eda and Lilith accused.

“They got the jump on me!” Luz defended. “Besides, it was only Amity’s group again. Nothing to be worried about.”

“Kid, at this point, I’m convinced you want to be caught just to bug Amity,” Eda snickered, shaking her head.

“Well, it’s not true all the time…”

“You both are ridiculous,” Lilith shook her head. “Eda, you need better control over your apprentice.”

“Says you,” Eda rolled her eyes. “In case you haven’t noticed, not every kid is like Amity.”

The front door slammed open, startling the inhabitants as they whirled around. Even King poked his head out of the kitchen.

A rather grumpy Amity stood in the doorway, mask pushed up on her head. She hadn’t even bothered to change.

“Speak of the devil,” Eda muttered.

“Hey, Amity,” Luz waved shyly.

“Again with the glyph tattoos?” She demanded, shutting the door.

“You’re still on about those?” Lilith blinked.

“They could be useful!” Luz insisted, sitting on the couch, opposite of Lilith. “I may have a lot of pockets and places I can stash glyphs, but the tattoo glyphs could be useful! Especially with the stronger ones.”

“We don’t know what something like that is gonna do to you, kid.” Eda shook her head. “This type of magic hasn’t been used in forever, it’s unlikely you could use magic with those glyphs without causing harm.”

“We don’t know that,” Luz said, scooting further into the corner as Amity exhaustedly sat on the couch between her and Lilith. “It could end up being really useful! And if it ends up being a bad idea, I can get a tattoo over it to cancel out the glyph.”

“You're barely seventeen, Luz. It’s illegal.” Amity pointed out.

“Since when has that ever stopped me?” Luz raised a brow. “And can’t I get them with permission from Eda? Or is that just a human realm thing?”

“How much have you saved for one already?” Eda asked.

“Almost two hundred,” Luz said proudly. “I wanted to try and get a less-dangerous spell first. Like a fire or a whirlwind glyph.”

“A fire glyph?” Lilith exclaimed.

“Would you rather I have a glyph that will shoot a spike of ice from my skin?” Luz raised a brow.

“Luz, for Titans sake, my parents are rich ,” Amity groaned, running a hand down her face. “I can pay for any of your tattoos you don’t have to excessively steal while you save.”

“It’s your parents who are rich, Amity. Not you,” Luz reminded. “I’m not forcing you to talk to them for snails for my sake. What kind of degenerate asks her girlfriend's parents for snails to get tattoos?”

“First of all, you’re not forcing me.” Amity raised a hand. “Second of all, I meant I would ask Ed and Em to be the ones to ask for the money. I promised I’d never speak to my parents again, and I’m upholding that.”

“Too bad, I’m paying for this myself.” Luz crossed her arms and turned on the couch so she was leaning against the armrest and lay her legs across Amity’s lap. “So take that, Miss Blight.”

“Shush,” Amity grumbled, cheeks pink as she glanced away.

“Hmm,” Eda thought, leaning on the other side of the couch armrest. “I guess a small one wouldn’t hurt…”

“You can’t be serious?” Lilith demanded. “You’re allowing this?”

“My kid, my rules.” Eda said, giving her sister a righteous look. “It’ll only be a small one, anyway. See how it goes before we try more.”

“You’re the best!” Luz grinned, reaching behind her to grasp at Eda, who stepped out of range.

“I know I am,” Eda said proudly.

“Amity, you’ve dated into a family of morons.” Lilith deadpanned, looking towards her apprentice and taking a sip of her tea.

“You’re part of the family, too.” Eda pointed out.

“Suffer with the rest of us, you fiend!” King called, trotting in from the kitchen and climbing up onto the couch to flop on Luz’s stomach, making her wheeze at the sudden weight.

“I regret a lot of my life choices, but especially the one that led me to this moment.” Lilith grumbled.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have cursed me when I was sleeping, huh?” Eda sneered.

“I don’t think that cemented it in--”

“Irrelevant,”

Luz, Amity and King all silently watched the women continue bantering for a few minutes before they all looked at each other with faces that said ‘well this isn’t going to end soon.’

“Anyway,” Luz sat up more and picked King up to place him on the couch head. “I told Gus I’d be meeting him at the library for more studying. He said he found some old human relics that could be enchanted.”

“Actual enchantments this time, or alleged enchantments?” King raised a brow.

“Actual enchantments, King.” Luz said, swinging her feet off Amity and getting up.

“I’ll come with,” Amity said, quickly getting to her feet as well. “Since you’re going to be using my hiding spot, as per usual.”

“Excuse you, I think the correct term is our hiding spot.” Luz teased, kissing her cheek. “But don’t you have to send in a report later?”

“Keene can take care of it,” Amity waved her hand like it was no big deal. “You’re more important.”

“Aww, you’re so sweet,” Luz teased, laying her head on Amity’s shoulder.

“Hey, flirting teenagers, could you not do this in the middle of our argument?” Eda snapped her fingers, getting the girls attention. “I’m about to win it.”

“No you are not! I am making reasonable points!” Lilith insisted.

“You’re not even arguing about the curse anymore!” King threw his small paws in the air. “You're just bringing up mild annoyances that happened last week!”

“Your point?”

Luz rolled her eyes before turning and smiling to Amity. She returned her look of smothered amusement.

“Let’s hurry before they start getting into a glyph-fight,” Luz said, grabbing the witch's hand and hurrying to the door, making sure to grab her mask and staff along the way.

“You do know that people recognize you more with the mask than without it, right?” Amity asked, flipping her own mask down.

“I know, but I think it looks cool.” Luz shrugged, bringing up her hood. “Last one to the library has to clean Hooty!” She shouted before throwing open the door and racing out.

“Wha--not fair!” Amity shouted, tearing after the Owlet as she raised her staff and flew into the air, laughing all the way.

Amity summoned her own snake staff from the air beside her and leapt onto it. But by then, the Owlet was already gone, having raced through the trees and into the town.

And aside from the occasional on-looker, nobody batted an eye.

[k7l4d4]

Midnight Striga: Fairy Tail/Owl House Cross Fic Episode 7 Part 2

Hello all, I’ve returned for another piece of Midnight Striga! Everybody Clap Your Hands!!

Scowling to himself, Hunter ducked away from the human. He… wasn’t supposed to be in Bonesburough, not really, but it was one of the few days off he got, so he decided to make the most of it with some research. Events had shifted. What before everyone would’ve laughed off as some kind of joke, or the words of a deluded fool, were proven true when a group of human rogues decided to raze the Covention, using magic!! Hunter wouldn’t deny, he burned to know how they did it, how did they overcome the biological limitation? If ever questioned, he could and would easily decry it as Wild Magic, something to be locked away for the heresy against the Titan it was… but in private, he craved that power for himself. Not for glory, or conquest, no! He wasn’t an idiot.

He wanted to be normal.

“Stupid human, thinking I would buy a cheap excuse like that.” He muttered. It burned, it truly did, that she somehow thought he would fall for a ploy, even if she had no clue who he truly was. ‘The Emperor’s most trusted agent, The Golden Guard himself!’ He puffed out his chest, smirking in pride at what he’d accomplished. And it WAS an accomplishment. Anyone who knew the truth of his situation would no-doubt cry about how he had it all handed to him by his uncle, and if they did he would have no problem laughing at the fools, behind their backs of course, no need to start a fight when he could finish one.

For as long as he’d been in his Uncle’s care, he’d worked and slaved to obtain his position. He’d studied, trained, honing his body and his mind to be the best. If someone crossed him, he found ways of getting even, and without even having to get his own hands dirty half the time. Seriously, he understood the need to maintain the Coven’s image of being the best of the best, but most of them were just stupid!! ‘Even Clawthorne.’ He scornfully smirked to himself. He was ecstatic at seeing the cocky witch being taken down a peg, especially by her own hand. The fact that it showed the Isles what she really was, a worm and a cheat who slinked her way to the top, made it all the sweeter, and not to mention that her actions unleashed the most dangerous Wild Witch in generations into the populace. He knew that’s not how it actually worked, but it was a convenient lie that people would reach of their own free will, and would make an excellent tool for getting her out of the way when she finally outlived her usefulness.

But that’s besides the point. He shook his head lightly, clearing his thoughts as he leaned against a bookshelf. The human was here, in the library, and that was an opportunity he wouldn’t let pass. He wouldn’t stalk her or anything, but he’d be watching, waiting, and listening to see just what exactly she intended for the Isles. The mad laughter of those maniacs who had been brought in echoed in his ears, his eyes hardening into stone at the memory. If she turned out to be a threat, he would destroy her. Even if he never gained the secret to the humans’ ability to wield magic, he would gladly sacrifice it to protect the Isles. He swore it.

“This place is both amazing, and kind of ridiculous.” Luz commented, having put aside any thoughts of that rude guy from before, determined to make this a good day. She ducked under a book flying overhead, glaring at it as it shrieked at her. “I wonder if anyone would be willing to help me navigate this place.” She murmured, rubbing her head at another near miss.

“I believe we can help with that!” A voice that seemed to mix charming and cheese together in a corny mess sounded out behind her. Turning around, Luz raised an eyebrow at what she saw. Two Witches, a male and a female, and by her guess twins, if the incredibly strong resemblance and similarity in age was anything to base her decision off of. The two were standing back to back, the boy shooting a cocky grin that he probably thought made him look “so cool!” beneath his deep green hair and golden eyes, his apparent sister tilting her head in a different direction, gazing off in thought, a mysterious look in her eyes.

Luz turned on her heel, already done with these two. “Yeah, if you’re trying to flirt with me, I prefer homemade food and some shopping,” She said, not watching as the two collapsed in shock. “Also, you guys kind of come across as desperate.” She added, turning her head back to shoot them an eyebrow.

“W-we weren’t flirting with you!” The girl shouted, face flushed, even as her brother sat in a heap, poking at the ground with his finger. She marched over, her flush fading as her look shifted from it’s brief moment of outrage to some measure of control. “We just overheard you saying you’d appreciate someone showing you around, and we happen to know someone. We’d be cool introducing you.” She explained, looking Luz up and down as she did so. She shrugged. “But yeah, we probably would flirt with you normally, but we don’t have time for that today. Ed!” She called, her brother raising his head in response. “Let’s go find Mittens!” Her brother nodded in agreement, still seeming a little dazed from Luz’s snark from before.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Luz rebutted, raising her hand in a halting motion. “Did I say that I agreed? Because I don’t think I did.” She said, crossing her arms.

The girl huffed, hands on her hips. “Do you have a reason to actually refuse?” She challenged.

Luz paused, thinking for a moment, before shrugging. “Fair. Okay, let’s go.” She stopped, causing the girl to groan.

“What now?” She asked.

“I just remembered I never got your name.” Luz sheepishly admitted.

The girl blinked, before chuckling, some of the tension in her face bleeding away. “Yeah, I did too.” She stuck out her hand in a shaking gesture, leaning forward at an angle that honestly looked a little silly. “Emira Blight, at your service.” She smirked.

“And I’m Edric!” Edric called out, popping up behind his sister.

Luz laughed. “Heh! Good to know! Since we’re formally introducing ourselves, not that I don’t believe for a second that you don’t know who I am,” She said, shooting the two a challenging smirk. They had the good sense to accept it with a shrug and a nod without putting on airs. “The name’s Luz. Luz Noceda.” She declared, shaking the slightly older girl’s hand. Her grin turned mischievous. “So, I’m assuming that Mittens is Amity?” She asked gleefully, leaning forward, even as the two siblings did the same.

“You know Luz, I think we are gonna get along just fine.” Emira declared, an equally mischievous smile on her face, mirrored by her brother. With that, the trio rapidly began plotting how to best fluster the composed youngest Blight. Hey, Luz more or less liked her, but she thought a little harmless goofiness would get her to destress some. Not too much though, she liked her head on her shoulders. The trio walked off, heedless of their watcher in the isles.

Boscha breathed out a sigh of relief. “They’re gone.” She muttered. Not only was she here, but so were Amity’s older siblings!? Yeah, she wasn’t gonna stay and get caught in whatever craziness those two decided to get into. With a spine-cracking stretch, Boscha pulled away from the Isles, pulling a book to her chest. She breathed in deep, sighing out, before freezing at the sight of flame licking out of her mouth. Clamping her jaw shut, she rapidly shifted her eyes back and forth, already feeling paranoid at anyone having seen that. She clambered off towards the checkout, the book white-knuckled in her grip.

The book’s title read “Mysteries of the Mind, and Other Dark Truths.” Maybe now Boscha will be able to get some answers.

Luz rounded the corner, arm slung over Emira’s shoulder, chatting away with the other girl. “-And that’s why I never date a girl with fire magic without asking if they are medicated or not first!” She boldly declared, completely unbothered by her own past misadventures. Admittedly, she and Azzie probably would’ve still been together, if she wasn’t head over heels for a childhood friend who ran away with the circus.

Edric sprayed out his drinking, choking on his laughter. “And she let you live!?” He asked incredulously, choking and wheezing all the while.

Luz sheepishly shrugged. “Yeah, maybe trying to tell her that I wanted to break up while she was waiting for her medicine to be refilled, and while she was practicing her spells to boot, wasn’t my smartest move.” She was SOOO lucky she dodged that initial attack, her butt still felt like it was singed at the memory!!

Emira gave her an amused smirk. “Oh, I wonder why?” She playfully ribbed the other girl. Her look of amusement softened. “You know, I was honestly all geared up to tear you apart at first.” She casually admitted, even as Edric stared at her in shock and Luz raised an eyebrow at her admission. “Yeah, after I got a rundown about what you accidentally dragged Mittens into, and trust me, I know you wouldn’t be able to stop her, I was totally prepared to dismember you and bury your corpse so you could never get involved with her again.”

“Eh, not the worst thing anyone’s admitted to wanting to do to me.” Luz said, shrugging the casual death threat off. Edric just wordlessly worked his jaw, somehow at a loss for words.

“But… as much as I want to blame you, I get that it wasn’t your fault, what went down. So I’ll be keeping an eye on you, but I’m not gonna try anything. Especially not now that I know how fun you are!” She finished, giving Luz a chipper wink, getting a friendly smirk in response. As the next area caught her eye, she perked up. “Oh! I think we’re here!”

“Finally!” Edric cheered, having gotten bored of the place a few stacks ago, with only Luz’s stories to keep him going. Who knew you could cause so much chaos with Cheese, a banjo, and a juggler!? He must find a way to top that…!

Peering around the corner, Luz’s eyes widened. “Is that what I think it is?” She asked, her voice tight with awe and fervent hope.

“Yeah.” Emira squeaked, equally overcome.

Edric just raised his eyebrows. “I don’t get the big deal, but you guys do you, I guess.” He said, shrugging.

Before them sat Amity Blight, her normally stern look having fallen away, a look of innocence and kindness gracing her features, as she read from the book in her lap to the children surrounding her, Skara standing to the side with a happy smile of her own.

“‘What do you think you’re doing?’” Amity read along, keeping pace with her place in the book, her eager audience leaning in closer, with Skara sidling up too, a sheepish grin on her face at how captivated she was with the simple reading. “‘We’re your friends and we wanna help!’ said the Tin Boy with a yelp. Otabin smiled and paced the floor. ‘I’ve never had real friends before.’”

Luz suddenly found herself very much identifying with a children’s book character from a story she never read, just from that one line. She turned to the twins with starry eyes. “Amity reads to kids?” She stated more than asked, getting an enthusiastic nod from Emira and a playful smirk from Edric.

She watched in slight awe as Amity continued. “‘Then we’ll be your first.’ The Chicken Witch Clucked. Otabin couldn’t believe his luck.” She turned her gaze to the kids, eyes glowing in delight at this simple kindness she was performing. “So, Bookmaker Otabin, surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship and that’s the end.” She finished cheerfully, the children cheering and applauding, while Skara threw an arm over her friend’s shoulder, which Amity playfully shoved off.

“Yay!”

“Thank you so much.”

“Goodbye.”

One particular kid walked up to Amity and hugged her legs, before speaking in a strikingly deep voice. “Thank you for the story Miss Amity.”

Amity gave the little demon boy a kind smile, reaching down to return the hug. “Ah, thank you Braxas. Have a good day, and give your dad my wishes while he heals up. See you next week.”

The little demon, Braxas apparently, cheerfully ran off, waving in reply behind him. “Okay!”

Skara gave a soft laugh, clapping her hands. “That was so sweet, Ams!” She cheered. She shot Amity a mock critical look. “And just why haven’t you shown this to me before?” She asked faux-haughtily, even as Amity snorted.

“I think what I do to destress is my own business.” Amity replied dryly, getting a sheepish laugh from Skara in response. Her smirk softened into a smile. “But still, I’m okay with you having shown up. The kids really liked you.” She gave Skara an appraising look. “I honestly didn’t expect you to be cool with something like this.” She softly admitted.

Skara gave Amity a stern look. “Amity, I get that I can be judgy, but I’m not gonna bust your chops for being nice to kids.” She said sharply, before shifting into a teasing smirk. “Still, you know that now you have to do something I like to do without other people, right?”

Amity spluttered. “I don’t remember agreeing to that!” She said hotly, her face flush.

Skara spun on her heel, pulling Amity along with her. “Ah, don’t be such a buzz-kill! It’s nothing illegal, and I promise, you’ll enjoy it.” She said, giving Amity a wink, prompting the other Witch to roll her eyes.

At that point, Luz decided that it was about the right moment to reveal herself. “Well, well, well! It looks like Hexside’s number one lemon drop has a secret sweet center.” She commented, stepping into view.

Behind her, Edric and Emira shared matching looks of glee, mouthing the words ‘lemon drop’ to each other in delight. Oh yeah, they liked Luz, for sure!

[the-curious-butterfly]

Team Owl vs Team Raven

(Another story to go into my Mother/Daughter collection. While this does come after the events of YBOS the spoilers here are quite tame) 

Today was meant to be a day of training, a day to test their students to see how far they’ve come since that interesting day at the covention. At least that’s what they agreed upon before they brought their apprentices up here to The Knee. Turns out the only testing to be done was to be on Lilith’s patience. And to a lesser extent Amity but while the witchling also wanted to train she also couldn’t complain about seeing Luz so happily enjoying herself. 

That was until a snowball hit her in the face and knocked her backwards. 

“Direct hit!” 

“Woooo, that’s my girl!” Eda and Luz exchanged a high five from behind the large boulder they were using to hide. 

“Edalyn! We are suppose to be training!” Lilith huffed as she helped her student up. Her strand of gray hair falling in front of her as she leaned down, a reminder of why they needed to train. 

“This is training! We’re simulating a battle.” Her sister called out, unbeknownst to her that she was readying another projectile to fire. 

 “How is this simulating a battle, snowballs aren’t even that-ahhhh!” This time it was Lilith’s turn to get hit in the face and fall on her rump prompting Luz and Eda to burst out into fits of laughter. 

“That does it!” Lilith growled out before turning to her now standing protégé “Amity.”  

The young Blight needed no more direction as she was already drawing a spell circle. “Abomination rise!” 

Not just one but two decent sized abominations rose out of the ground, one to build a fort around them and another to grab as much snow as it could and roll it up into a huge ball. “Alright, show us what you got then!” 

Safe to say the sight of a huge snowball hurtling their way was enough to shut them up for a spell. 

“Oh... shoot” 

“Kid, move!” The owl lady grabbed her kid by the collar and dragged her away from behind the boulder into the open. Seems Lilith was anticipating that for she used magic to greet them with a barrage of her own. 

With her quick thinking Luz laid down a glyph to summon a wall of ice before them to deflect the snowballs. 

“Nice thinking, Luz.” Eda praised her student before leaning out from behind the wall of ice to return fire at Lilith who only had to duck for the abomination had created a rather impressive fort. In fact it looked like an actual fort, with four pillars and everything....wow.

“Drat! It’s gonna be difficult to get to them now.” 

Edalyn chuckled at Luz’s words. “Watch and learn, kiddo.” She stepped out from behind their, mediocre by comparison, defenses and summoned three different spell circles to rain fire upon the snow fort, successfully melting it in record time. 

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Amity pointed an accusatory finger at them. 

“Says the ones who started using magic first!” Luz teased back and for just this once Amity wanted to wipe the smug smile off her face instead of kiss it...just this once. Although like, she’d still be willing to kiss it later. 

“You said this was a battle simulation, what battle doesn’t involve magic?” Lilith reasoned though she didn’t understand why she should have, in her mind it just made sense. 

“Fair enough.” Eda replied calmly before “surprise attack!” She lifted a great heap of snow with magic and hurled it at the opposing side. At the last moment Lilith used a spell to shield her and Amity, unaware that Eda’s pupil had sneaked around behind them.

“Surprise attack!” This time they were not quick enough as Luz jumped up and hurled two snowballs directly at their chest effectively knocking them down. 

“Yes!” Luz whooped as she held her fist up in the air, her mentor doing much the same. 

“That’s my kid! Watch out for Luz and Eda.” 

“Baddest Snowball fighters on the Boiling Isles!” Luz completed for her as she ran over to wrap her arms around Eda’s waist. 

“You know it.” Eda reached a hand down to ruffle the kid’s hair causing Luz to giggle. 

The two on the ground watched the display with their unreadable expressions before turning to each other with soft smiles that turned smug before addressing the others again. “Rematch!” They yelled in unison. 

One rematch quickly turned to three and then five and so on. Each team managing to one up the other but otherwise fairly equal in strength and energy. For Eda’s part she hasn’t remembered the last time she’s seen her sister laugh and enjoy herself so much. And for Luz, she doesn’t think she’s ever seen Amity like this, it was...really nice. 

Eventually exhaustion did catch up to the four along with the realization that getting hit with so much snow can make you very cold. So they found a log and while the kids sat huddled together to warm up, the two adults proceeded to make a fire along with something warm to drink. 

Eda handed a mug to Luz, unable to finish saying “Watch out it’s hot.” Before Luz brought it to her lips. She held the mug away and stuck her tongue out instantly, fanning it with a hand. “Ow ow ow ow!” 

“Well what were you expecting!” Eda chastised while drawing a small spell circle to heal Luz’s poor tongue. ‘Poor’ because it belonged to an idiot...but Luz was her precious idiot. 

Lilith appeared next to Amity with her own mug, unsure of what to say as she handed it over she settled on “You did well today.” For she really did, at one point she had managed to throw Luz and Eda into the sky. 

Being rather reserved herself Amity had no idea how to responds besides with “Thank you, Miss Clawthorne.” 

Lilith looked to her sister and Luz, seeing the easy interaction between the two causing something unfamiliar to stir within her before she looked back at Amity. “Actually, call my Lilith.” 

Amity was honestly quite taken aback by the development but in no way was it unwelcome. She would also feel something whenever she watched Luz and Eda. Part of it she understood as her crush on Luz, she liked seeing her happy, but the other feeling she couldn’t put a finger on. “Okay, Lilith.” 

“Perhaps tomorrow we can do some actual training?” The eldest Clawthorne directed to her sister. 

“Yeah yeah, sure, whatever.” Eda commented back though she was more preoccupied with keeping Luz from spilling the hot substance all over herself. Poor girl was losing consciousness fast. That’s what happens when you’re a kid drinking something warm after so much playing in the snow. Seems it was affecting Amity too. It was honestly quite adorable. 

Eda set the mug down on the ground before picking Luz up and cradling her in her arms. “Imma go ahead and put Luz to bed.” The two had brought separate tents, that Eda had lying around from the human realm, for themselves and their students to share. They would have let the girls shared one but they weren’t that big to comfortably hold both sisters together, along with other points that made sharing one with each other a little much right now. 

“I’ll do the same with Amity.” Instead of picking her up Lilith directed her with a gentle hand. The witchling still conscious enough to at least walk. 

“Afterwards we can sit out here and just talk or something. If you want?” Edalyn suggested to which Lilith answered with a smile. 

“I’d like that.” Even though it’s been some time they still haven’t really had a one on one conversation since...that day.

The owl lady merely nodded, though she suggested it she was unsure what she’d really say to her sister so she simply focused on the task at hand which was getting Luz to bed. 

Eda laid Luz down on the sleeping mat inside the tent before grabbing the blanket and tucking her in with it. Making sure she was nice and snug so there wasn’t a chance of her getting cold through the night. Once she was finished she stayed kneeled and watched Luz with a warm but somber expression. Unready to leave because really what was she gonna say? 

But she knew she had to eventually go back out. It was her suggestion after all. Lilith was already sitting on the log. The look on her face made it obvious that she was also worried her sister had backed out but it eased up when she saw her. 

“I was worried you wouldn’t show.”

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it.” Eda sat down on the log but kept just enough space between them. Space that had never been there before. Not even when they didn’t see each other as much. 

“I would understand if you did.” Lilith looked anywhere besides at her younger sister. After the initial exchange came the silence that seemed to drag on. Really what can they say to each other? Finally Lilith decided on a topic that would most likely be her best shot at breaking the ice. “Never thought I’d see you acting like a mother though.” Her words were accompanied by a quiet and rather nervous laugh. 

“What’s that suppose to mean?” 

“Just that I recall you saying on more than one occasion that you’d never want a kid.” 

Eda crossed her arms in front of her with a huff “I mean I was a kid, what kid want’s a kid.” 

“As I recall you were 27 the last time you spoke about it, saying a kid would only slow you down.” Lilith spoke with more confidence, at least enough to tease Eda with. 

“Yeah, well.....ugh shut up! The last thing I needed was a kid while I was dealing with a curse.” 

“Kind of ironic that a kid did end up being what you needed.” Instead of coming up with a retort Eda simply smiled sadly as she looked down at the snow beneath her boots. It wasn’t exactly a lie. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize how much she meant to you. I thought you kept her around as a pet, she was a human after all. I didn’t realize till later that your bond with her went deeper than that. Probably deeper than the bond we use to have.” Lilith’s smile was just as sad as she looked at her sister out of the corner of her grey eye. 

Edalyn shook her head “No, our bond could never have been replaced. My bond with Luz is just as strong but different. I don’t know if I can ever forgive what you did to her but I appreciate that you apologized.” Eda finally looked at her and despite the fact that she didn’t forgive her Lilith still managed to feel better. After all it be wrong to hope for any forgiveness right now. 

“You, on the other hand, I know you always wanted a kid to share your knowledge with. You could probably develop something just as strong with Amity, Isles knows she needs a better parental figure than what she already has.” Eda sighs as she remembered everything Luz told her from the day they helped Willow with her memories. 

“Truth be told I already knew of that, I just never found the time to address it.” She knew it was an excuse “But now I guess I have all the time I need to fix that.” It would be nice. Lilith didn’t really have any relationships outside her sister and with how rocky that was right now. She could really use someone the way Eda had Luz. And here was a small girl who needed the same thing. 

“Look at us, who’d have thought we’d be where we are today?” the younger sister asked with a chuckle. 

“Certainly not I.” the older sister answered with one of her own. 

After that the silence returned but it wasn’t as bad as the first time. Until Eda ruined it by saying “By the way, me and Luz totally schooled you guys today!” 

“As if!”

Eda gave a little snort as she laughed. 

(That episode was so nice. I would love an episode like this in the future ^^.) 

[saturn-in-autumn]

BRO your art and writing are both so good ajsbsjjs can I request a danny reveal to valerie? I would assume this would be a small drabble prompt but I'll let you choose how to do it and if you even want to do it in the first place whoops

ASDFGJHJK Thank you so much! 

Omg, first off I am SO SO Sorry this took me so long to get back to you! It’s actually so bad... But I finally finished your request!! It took me a while to figure out how to phrase everything and get my head around it but I ended up getting a little carried away in the end, I’m sorry... 

So here it is I suppose! I’ve also posted it to Ao3 here if you’d like to have a look, but it’s also under the cut if you want to read it on here! 

Thank you so much for your patience, I only hope it was kind of worth it? Idk. I ended up writing a short story/one shot rather than a drabble haha, I just didn’t expect it to get so long!  And thanks for the request idea! 

- Fire and Water -

Valerie sometimes thought Danny was like water.

He was so perfectly clear somehow, an undisturbed lake shining in the moonlight. His iridescent blue eyes sometimes felt like they could see right through her, somehow sense exactly how she was feeling, understand her deepest secrets.

That eerie calmness rippled and cascaded through him, so clear and tranquil, yet so incredibly dangerous.

He had a depth that terrified her to no end, a feeling that if she dove down too deep he would overflow, drown her with his power. As if his little lake held all the fierce might of the sea.

(In which Danny has a secret to tell Valerie, but doesn't quite know how to go about it)

“Ugh, what am I supposed to do Tuck?” Danny groaned, resting his head on his elbows in the grimy corner booth.

Tucker shrugged, patting his back awkwardly in what he hoped was a comforting manner. “I don’t know man, I don’t have a murderous ghost-hunter for a girlfriend.”

Danny sighed, looking forlornly across the crowded restaurant of the Nasty Burger. Valerie was still standing by the till, laughing with some customer as she took their order. She was gorgeous even in the grease-stained yellow of the fast food uniform. Silently Danny watched as she tucked a stray strand of dark hair out of her eyes and looked away. He was such a loser.

“Hey… but then again, it’s not really our decision to make.” Sam’s voice cut through Danny’s musings and he looked up at her dolefully. “Whether or not you want to share it with her is up to you.” She took another slurp of her slushie and frowned. “I thought you had sworn not to. Why the sudden change?”

Danny looked away, straightening to peer out the window at the passers-by on the street. “I don’t know… I just feel… like it’s wrong to keep lying to her is all…” Danny could feel Sam and Tucker’s eyes on him as he sighed again, “Look, we’ve been going out for almost a year… That’s, like more than I’ve ever been in a relationship my whole life! Plus, even if she doesn’t know it, I know her secret, but she doesn’t know mine, I can’t help feeling like I’m cheating on her or something weird like that…”

“Danny…” Sam started but he continued.

“But at the same time, I’m terrified that if she finds out she’ll hate me y’know? Like… I don’t want to lose her in the process…”

“Look Danny, as the current female representative at the table.” Sam said, placing her drink firmly on the table to look at him in the eyes, “I can safely say that telling the truth is probably your best option. If she finds out and it’s not from you, it’ll probably hurt her a lot more than just coming clean.”  

Tucker nodded, “You know, Sam’s right, if you really care about her what’s the worst that could happen?”

“The worst is that she’ll shoot an ecto-blast through my chest faster than I can say ‘Sorry’.” Danny moaned. “Or she’ll tell my parents or something… Then I’d really be dead meat.”

“And the best-case scenario is that she doesn’t mind.” Sam said with an eyebrow raised. “I’m sorry Danny, but if you guys really care about each other then keeping secrets probably shouldn’t be on the table. Valerie has a right to know if you’re hiding things from her, chances are she’ll figure it out sooner or later. Her aim’s getting better by the day.”

Danny winced, rubbing his upper forearm where the burn mark still stung.

Sam’s eyes softened and she reached over, taking his hand gently, “Danny I honestly think that anyone who knows you, the real you, won’t hate you no matter what you are. The real test is whether or not you think you can trust her enough to tell her and get away with it. She’s still the Red Huntress after all. I wouldn’t take this decision lightly.”

Danny nodded but smiled. “Would you guys mind though?”

Tucker blinked, “Dude, we’re your friends. If you want to date the most dangerous ghost-hunter in Amity Park we have your back. As Sam said, it’s you’re secret to share with whoever you want.”

Danny closed his eyes and stared at the ceiling, “Thanks guys…” he mumbled, glancing over to where Valerie was once again. It looks like she was packing up. “I think I’ll try and tell her tonight…”

At that Tucker’s eyes widened, “Wait, really? Like you don’t want to think about this a little more before you run in guns blazing?”

Danny blinked at him, “Well, I know it’s a little brash sure, but the sooner I do it the sooner I can sleep easy right? Whether she hates me or not I’ll at least know.”

Sam sat back, “You heard the man Tuck, if he’s stubborn enough he’ll do it.”

“Hey!” Danny said, sounding offended, “Okay maybe I’m not 100% on it, but I’ll feel better if I’m not lying to her. Besides…” He smiled slightly, “We’d kinda already had a date planned for tonight. I might as well make use of it…”

As if on cue Valerie walked over, she’d thrown a dark green jacket over the orange of her uniform that perfectly complimented her eyes. “Hey!” she said, arm raised and smiling, “You ready to go?”

“You bet!” Danny laughed, sliding past Tucker and leaving his money on the tray, “I’ll… talk to you guys later then?” He offered and Sam winked.

“Go get em’ tiger.”

Danny grinned, giving Valerie a quick peck on the cheek and the thumbs up to Tucker before the two of them walked out of the restaurant.

***

When they were gone Sam’s lips quirked into a smile, “He’s gonna die.” She chuckled, taking another slurp of her drink as she sat back in the booth.

“Wait what?” Tucker asked swinging his saucepan-sized eyes to her in disbelief, “What was all that about ‘accepting who you are’ then?”

Sam eyed him across the table, “You kidding? Valerie’s gonna stomp his heart into pieces with five-inch high stilettos, but even then, I doubt she’ll hate him for it.”

Tucker sighed and took another bite of his burger, “I don’t know. It’s just odd he has this sudden conviction to tell her everything. It’s a pretty big deal is all.”

Sam shrugged, “Yeah, but then again I guess it’s just a sign of how much she means to him. After all, he told us pretty soon after it y’know… happened…”

“Yeah but that’s different, we’re his best friends and you’re one of the main reasons he got his ghost powers in the first place. Plus, Valerie hated his guts on principle back then because she was still with the A-Listers… now she just hates him for different reasons…”

She scowled at him, but nodded, “Well then fine. Maybe he just wants to take their relationship up a notch. I don’t know why you’re having such a hard time with this Tucker, if Danny wants to go blabbering about his powers to people, he has his reasons for it. Despite appearances he’s not that much of an idiot to get caught by his parents or the GIW.”

“I know it’s just…”

“Ohhh,” Sam grinned, cutting Tucker off with a shit-eating grin. “Oh, I see, you’re jealous.”

“What!” Tucker shrieked, “Am not!”

“You’re jealous that Danny is opting to bring someone else in on the team, this was the same thing with Jazz! You’re too proud to admit that you like being a sidekick.”

“What!? Never. I’m Danny’s guy-in-the-chair! His wingman! His Q to his 007! It’s not like Valerie could—”

“Oh yeah totally, the Red Huntress with an arsenal of weapons and ghost-hunting experience would never take Tucker Foley’s precious slot as the guy-in-the-chair.”

“Fuck’s sake Sam.” Tucker spat, “I’m not jealous, and fine then, I don’t care who the hell Danny goes and talks to. Are you happy?”

“Ecstatically.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck me yourself coward.”

“I hate you so much…”

“I know. So… you down for Doomed later?”

He shrugged, standing up and throwing a few notes on the table, “Sure. I’ll catch you around 9.”

***

Danny hadn’t planned for this at all.

He mentally slapped himself as he and Valerie walked to the movie theatre, absentmindedly chatting as best he could about her day. The street was almost deserted at this time in the afternoon, couples walking to and from places, laughing as they held hands. Danny smiled. They were all so… alive.

Valerie said something and Danny watched her out of the corner of his eye. Her breath clouding in front of her face before hugging her jacket closer to her body and cupping frozen hands around a fresh cup of coffee to keep warm.

Amity Park in autumn was both beautiful and freezing with the golden brown and red of leaves staining the paths and parks like wounded soldiers on the fields of battle.

He would have shivered if he could.

As it was Danny looked away, the cold didn’t really seem to affect him in the same way anymore. A pang of guilt struck his chest as Valerie laughed at something, she sounded so happy. If only she knew who she was walking with…

After the movie, he vowed, after the movie I’ll tell her. She deserves to know.

“Hey! Are you even paying attention?” She asked and he blinked, startled out of his musings.

“Uh yeah, sure… what did you say again?”

She sighed throwing her hands up in exasperation, “Honestly, you can be so… distant sometimes. What the heck goes through your head anyways? Stuck in the stars again NASA boy?”

Danny laughed, “I guess you could say that…” Was he really that obvious?

“Well, I asked, what do you want to see?”

“Oh right!” Gazing up at the selection he paused, “I…” he bit his lip, his mind going blank, it didn’t feel right to choose… “I don’t mind, how about you pick?”

She looked at him sideways, “Man you’re acting jumpy today.” A gleam caught in her eye and Danny gulped, “How about a horror?”

“Uh well… if that’s…” Danny stumbled over his words.

“Great! Glad that’s decided. I want to get really scared tonight, two tickets to your most horrifying film my good sir!” She chimed to the guy behind the counter.

The guy looked them up and down but shrugged, “Cinema 5, have fun.”

***

Danny wasn’t really paying attention through the film.

Guilt was eating away at him, gnawing at the edges of his subconscious as Valerie laughed and jumped at the loud noises and crappy special effects that Hollywood perceived ghosts to be. Danny smiled absently, they really had no clue how wrong they were compared to the real thing.

She held his hand in the gentle darkness of the cinema, and Danny couldn’t help but look at her in the faint light from the screen. Her green eyes glistened with excitement and curiosity, taking in all she saw with such conviction.

He smiled, she was light, warm and comforting. Even as she gripped his ice-cold skin Danny couldn’t help but admire her. She laughed when she felt like it, got angry when she felt like it, smiled and danced in her own brilliant warmth. Danny’s eyes softened as he leaned into her touch, savouring this moment. Feeling her heartbeat through her skin.

She was dazzling.

Danny pulled away slightly, his eyes narrowing, but she was like fire to his ice. She melted him in ways she could never understand, but he was sure, he was frighteningly sure he was going to burn her irreversibly in the end.

But if that’s the way it had to be, then so be it.

“Hey Val?” He mumbled, leaning further into her shoulder in the gloom of the theatre, feeling her warmth against his cheek. She stopped gazing at the screen and turned to him, her eyes still dancing in that dull luminosity. Danny sighed, letting his dark hair fall into his eyes so she couldn’t see that he was on the verge of tears. “I’ve been… keeping something from you. For a long time now… I just… don’t know how to say it…”

He felt her shift under his weight, and he pulled away, looking in the opposite direction. She was looking at him, he could feel her green eyes taking him in and he felt his heart panged with annoyance. Annoyance at himself, at how weak he was.

“Danny…” Valerie started, and he looked at her, she was smiling softly in the light, “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me anythi—”

“No, you deserve to know. But… maybe in a bit if that’s alright?” He grit his teeth and looked back up at the screen as the final scene began, he smiled sadly locking eyes with her. “I just… want this moment to last a little longer is all…”

***

Valerie sometimes thought Danny was like water.

He was so perfectly clear somehow, like an undisturbed lake shining in the moonlight. His iridescent blue eyes sometimes felt like they could see right through her, somehow sense exactly how she was feeling, understand her deepest secrets.

It was awe inspiring. Like Danny knew exactly where she went when she snuck out of class, knew her connection to ghosts and the other shadows of Amity Park. Knew who she really was.

But he never seemed to care. It was why, she supposed, she was so drawn to him in the first place. The eerie calmness that rippled and cascaded through him, so clear and tranquil, yet dangerously so. Pooling with something else.

A darkness. A depth that terrified her to no end, a feeling that if she dove too deep he would overflow, drown her with his power. As if his little lake held all the fierce might of the sea.

Why did that feeling surface now? That dread that crashed against the shoreline of her heart. Breaking the tension as Danny lead her out of the theatre and into the cool night air. What was this in her chest that felt like the pressure of being unable to breathe?

He laughed at something and Valerie felt a shift in the atmosphere as she looked at him in the light of the street, his blue eyes reflecting something she couldn’t see. Something beyond where they stood outside a bustling theatre.

“I want to show you something,” Danny said, there was a kind of relief to his words, like he’d been daring himself to say them. “But not here.”

He glanced at her and she felt that terrible drowning sense in her chest again as his clear-blue eyes softened in the moonlight. He looked… so sad, like this was somehow the last time she’d ever see him.

Danny stayed silent as they walked, weaving in and around the humdrum of pedestrians and life that flittered around them like moths to a flame.

She let him pull her along, feeling the familiar chill that buzzed between her fingertips of his skin brushing hers. He was so cold, so frozen in time. It gripped at her.

It was only now that she started to watch him in comparison to the people on the street. In his dark, navy jacket and worn jeans he stood out and blended in at the same time. Like he wasn’t meant to be there and was there all at once. It seemed unnatural somehow…

She shook her head, following him across the street to the park, letting the dull glow of the stars guide them along the cracked paths.

What was it he wanted to show her? And why did it feel like an ending and a beginning all at once? Her curiosity ate at her but if Danny was willing to show her, she would be patient.

The park seemed twisted at night time. The trees warped somehow in the dark, green grass glowing blue in the silver light of the moon.

Danny looked around and hurried on, pulling her up the hill to where a small crop of trees nestled between the undergrowth. There was no one around for miles but Danny seemed extra cautious, double and triple checking their surroundings to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“Danny, you’re scaring me you know that.” Valerie finally said, breaking the silence that had hung over them for so long.

He chuckled softly and came to sit next to her, looking out at the twinkling lights of the city spread out below them like a map. A perfect mirror for the stars above.

The throb of life buzzed about them, the shrieking of tyres, the chink of glasses and the laughter of people. The metropolis was a beating heart but here in this secluded tower, they watched it all in silence.

“I’m so sorry Val…” Danny finally said, and she looked at him as he laid back, staring upwards towards the sky. “I feel like I’ve been lying to you, from the very beginning.”

She wanted to interrupt, wanted to tell him what a mysterious jerk he was being and just to cut to the chase, but she said nothing, too entranced by the wandering lights that reflected in his irises.

“The truth is, that I…” Danny’s expression changed slightly, and his teeth gritted together. Whatever it was that he was trying to say to her, Valerie knew that it was probably something major.

“Danny… you don’t—”

“No, I do.” He said, pulling an arm across his eyes so that she couldn’t see him. “I have to tell you; cause otherwise you’re just going to find out from someone else and then I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

He sat up and turned to her, his dark hair framing his face as he gripped her shoulders. Her heart fluttered slightly in her chest; he was crying.

She watched as that perfectly clear water fell from his eyes, carving rivers in his pale skin. She felt something press against her lungs, that fear of drowning, and she opened her mouth to speak.

“I—”

“I love you��” Danny said, cutting her off, his head bowing as she blinked at his words, numbly they settled on her like falling snow as she felt her heart lighten. “I love you so much… That’s why it’s not fair to keep hiding myself, the real me, from you any longer.”

“Danny I—”

“No, Val, please, let me finish.” Danny looked at her and she felt a pang of guilt cross her chest. He smiled, such a sad smile, as he continued. “Val, I love you. I didn’t think I would fall for someone so hard as I do for you… you’re incredible you know that? You’re so strong and dazzling to look at it hurts my eyes.”

She felt her eyes widen but he continued, “Ever since I met you, you’ve shown me time and time again how great you really are. And quite frankly, I don’t think I deserve you. But I wanted to tell you that I love you. Let you know how much you truly mean to me so that you don’t lose sight of who I am.”

Danny looked at her, “I’m an idiot you know that? I’m such a complete and utter loser that I take so much of what I have for granted. Sam and Tucker have always told me so and that’s why I want to stop hiding from you Valerie. Because I care too much for you to continue acting, continue pretending that I’m alright.”

Danny began to shake as he spoke and she shifted closer to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him in close to her as a smile lifted her face. “Hey. Look at me,” he lifted his eyes to hers and Valerie smiled, “You know, if you’re scared to tell me you don’t have to Danny. Cause…” She felt light, “Because I love you too.”

He blinked at her and smiled, “I was afraid of that…”

She laughed, “Oh yeah and why’s that wisecrack?”

He smiled but didn’t laugh. “Because of who… no that’s not right… because of what I am Val.”

She stopped laughing, he was dead serious, she gripped her chest, that tightness was suffocating now. The fun-loving idiot she had fallen for seemed to melt off him as his eyes narrowed, turning to her fully to look at her dead in the eyes. “Val, I don’t want you to think any less of me, I really and truly want us to continue being close, I want to hold your hand and laugh, go see movies and continue living like this with you for the rest of my life…”

Wait. What was he saying? What did he mean by…

“But, Valerie Grey. I can’t keep hiding forever. I brought you here tonight to tell you something about myself that I can’t share lightly with anyone. But you have to promise to trust me, promise me Val. Please promise me that you won’t think any less of me for it and that you won’t tell anyone else... please this is important.”

She felt the pressure in her lungs choking her now, but she nodded, why was she so scared? So utterly terrified that she might lose him? “I promise. I promise, whatever you want to tell me it’s okay Danny. It’s okay, you can tell me…”

Danny smiled and nodded, his shoulder’s sagging as he did so as if all the tension released from him in one motion. Like he had been waiting his whole life to hear those words. “Val… I…maybe it’s easier if I show you instead?”

She blinked but nodded, allowing him to let go of her as she sat back.

Danny looked at her, she was so perfect, sitting there patiently waiting for him to show her what he meant. He closed his eyes and looked to the stars, here goes nothing…

“Val, I’m so sorry…” he whispered, and triggered his transformation.

Valerie watched in mild horror as the light sparked around his mid-section, twin-rings expanding at his waist.

Wait what?

They broke and spilt, traveling over his body slowly as he stood there, changing him.

What’s happening?

Danny sighed at the feeling of relief, the cool sensation of weightlessness taking hold as the rings reached the base of his neck with a rush of adrenaline.

Valerie felt her hands fly to mouth to cover the shriek of shock as Phantom touched down lightly in front of her. His skin glowing in the eclipse of the moon, the black jumpsuit replacing the familiar jeans and jacket Valerie knew so well…

She stumbled, her mind racing a marathon as her heart banged so hard against her chest, she swore it was audible. No. No this couldn’t be right… Danny was… Danny was?

He looked at her with that same sad smile and she allowed herself to gasp. The clear blue of his eyes now glimmering green like emeralds against the sky.

He sunk to his knees and looked away; he’d ruined it hadn’t he? The curling white of his hair intermingling with the evening breeze. Looking down almost resentfully at the snow-white gloves that adorned his hands. “I’m so sorry…” His voice echoed across the space between them and Valerie inadvertently shivered. “I’m so sorry Val…”

Valerie just sat there, staring blankly at the scene in front of her as Phantom… no Danny, hung his head in his hands. She reached out, but paused, no this couldn’t be right… This was all a big misunderstanding, right? A joke?

She pulled her hand back, cupping it against her chest. But it felt so real, so obvious that she mentally cursed herself for being so stupid.

Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom, he’d barely even changed his name. She blinked, observing the shape of his face, the style of his hair, it was all the same, all exactly the same… But even then… Danny couldn’t be a ghost! Surely not… surely… and of all ghosts Phantom? The town hero? Her ultimate enemy? It couldn’t possibly be real; this couldn’t possibly be happening right now…

“You’re probably wondering what happened right?” Valerie snapped her attention towards him as he laughed dryly, the sound was grating, so completely alien to her, “That’s usually the first question I get asked…”

She nodded, she felt so numb.

“It was the Fenton Portal.” He smiled, the white of his hair playing on the breeze like snow, “Mum and Dad couldn’t get it working so I thought it was safe enough to look inside… I… it turned on while I was in there…”

Valerie shuddered, phantom screams of Danny being electrocuted rattling her skull as if she’d been there herself. That was how he’d died? Screaming and alone?

“I’m so sorry Val…” He said again, looking at her, she jolted at the green of his eyes, but he continued, “I’m so sorry you had to find out, but I couldn’t lie to you forever. I just couldn’t keep pretending it was all fine considering our… history…”

A sharp pain rippled through her heart as she realised that he did know. Of course he did. Phantom had known she was the Red Huntress from the beginning, and yet even after every fight they’d had, every insult and curse she’d flung his way… Danny still continued loving her, being around her even then. Even then…

She felt cheated slightly, like he’d known her deepest secret for so long that it wasn’t fair she didn’t know his in return. But she stopped, hadn’t that been the point though? What would she have done if she’d known earlier? What good would it have done to know?

She reached for him cautiously and he flinched as she touched his shoulder. He was so cold, so incredibly cold but she gripped him, feeling the static of ectoplasm under her fingertips as she turned him to her.

His eyes were wide, but she smiled slightly, pulling him down into her, drawing him into a hug.

He was like ice against her, buzzing with electricity and energy that was the only way he could survive. “You’re so stupid you know that?” She felt him twitch slightly against her but she smiled, “I can’t imagine what it was like… what you must go through every day Danny… knowing that there is this side to you that you can’t share with anyone…”

“You’re not scared? Or angry? You don’t hate me, do you?” He sounded so timid, like a frightened child.

She thought about it, sure, she was certainly angry. But not as much as she’d expected, she laughed slightly, she hadn’t planned on this when she finally had Phantom in her grasp.

“Danny… I… don’t think I do… You never told me the truth because I never gave you a reason for it. I was so completely bent on destroying you that I don’t know… I lost sight on what I was fighting… but I’m glad you waited until now to tell me…”

He pulled back from her slightly so she could see his face, “You mean that?”

She nodded, “If I had found out earlier, I might have blasted you to bits. But as it stands… I’m…” she grinned, “I’m really glad I got to know you, Danny Fenton.”

He blinked at her reaction, pulling back further so that they were at eye level. “I…” he started but she pushed a finger to his lips.

“Let me finish loverboy. I believed ghosts were… well monsters. Bent on destroying this world and everyone in it, senseless and unstoppable monsters and nothing more… I never let my guard down, never let anyone see me weak. Until you Danny. I let you in and now, you’ve let me in. And that means so much more than I think you realise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty shocked, and it’s gonna take me a week to digest all of this… but I love you Danny. You, no matter what you are.”

His eyes widened and he laughed, the familiar sound tinkling against her making her smile.

Valerie didn’t exactly know how she found himself in the position she was in next, but all she felt was the soft press of lips against hers and she wrapped her arms tightly around Danny, feeling light as air. She slipped her hands from his waist to over his shoulders, pushing in for the kiss. Danny felt like his world had exploded into stars, she tasted like strawberries and sunlight mixed together in utter happiness. And Valerie smiled against him, he tasted like static but she didn’t care. Danny could’ve stayed like that forever, and he probably would’ve if Valerie didn’t slip her hands off of him and gently push away.

She smiled, the heavy fear had lifted from her chest and she sighed as it dispersed. The clear water moving in it’s wake.

“So what do we do now?” She asked and Danny blinked, smiling softly as he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

He looked to the stars, feeling lighter than ever, “I don’t know.”

“Well, Phantom, how about a truce to begin with.” She winked and Danny laughed, getting to his feet he took her hand and pulled her up with him.

“My my, the Red Huntress herself is offering a ceasefire? I never thought I’d see the day!”

“Oh hush, I can still shoot you.”

He gulped but nodded, a bright smile lighting up his face as he began to float slightly off the ground.

“Not for nothing,” she murmured, eying the space between his feet and the ground warily, “But how about you… uh… what’s the word you use? Switch back? Cause if you walk me home in that state, I think my dad’s gonna have to bring out a little heavier an artillery than a shotgun.”

Danny nodded, touching down without a word, feeling the rings of light split around his waist again as the world held weight once more.

Valerie gasped as Phantom fell away but regained her composure, “Somehow I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that…” she muttered, and he laughed, his blue eyes sparkling.

“Val… I’m… I’m really happy with how tonight went…” Danny grinned as they walked back towards the path, “But you’re sure that you’re okay with this whole… me being Phantom thing?”

She hummed in thought but nodded, “Yeah, but you’re going to have to answer a bunch of questions I have about yourself and the other ghosts. Plus,” she winked at him, “I still expect to be able to fight. Treat me as an equal ghost boy, I refuse to be your sidekick.”

Danny laughed but waved a hand, “Oh don’t worry, I think Tucker wouldn’t talk to me again if I let you have that role.”

“Then that’s settled then… shall we—”

Danny’s breath misted in front of his face and Valerie stiffened as a wave of static swept the park. “Oh no,” she mumbled, a sensor beeping quietly on her watch as she reached for her backpack, flicking the switch on the underside.

He speeder hit the ground and Valerie’s eyes narrowed as she pulled down her hood, snapping the butt of her ecto-gun against her palm as she whirled to Danny.

He was already in fighting mode, the human boy she’d fallen for melting away as the half-ghost hero Phantom stood by her side. Just as a massive, bloated figure rounded the corner ahead of them.

She looked at him a smile playing on her lips, “You ready ghost boy?”

He grinned, “You bet, partner.”

[keydawolf]

Calming the Flames

Chapter 3

Matchoff

Boscha growls through the halls, she had woken up in a bad mood and everyone knew it from her posture, her clenched fists, the way she bared her teety at anyone walking by and the way she walked heavily on each foot, givimg very audible warning that she was approaching. One student however, didnt seem to get the schoolwide memo to leave her alone. Indigo seemed to run into Boscha after almost all their classes and happily waved and tried to speak to her, no matter how many times Boscha growled and told them to "Buzz off" Much to the dimay of anyone who liked Indigo, they kept at it, Luz, Willow, Gus and even Amity had told them they would end up hurt if they kept approaching the fuming witch, yet Indigo just shrugged with a smile. Once lunchtime came around, Indigo noticed Boscha heading for the gymnasium once again, this time they decide to not disturb her, lest she damage the door most, they do howver wait outside the gym. When Boschs did eventually come out, their mood was a little lighter, but upon seeing Indigo sitting there, obviously waiting for them, that mood changed back to anger. "Alright Weirdo, I've had enough of you following me around!" Boscha yells but the reaction she got was not what she'd expect. Rather than suprise, fear or anger, the weirdo simply smiles and stands up then has the audaxity to ask "Why? You seemed lonely to me" "Lonely? As if! I can't stand all you goody goody idiots, even if I was lonely, which I wasnt! Why the heck would I want to hang out with YOU instead?" "Cuz you are lonely, even if you wont admit it, I KNOW you don't hate seeing me around" Boscha felt her thrid eye twitch in irritation, then, an idea comes to mind and a smirk forms on her face. "Alright then, how about this, after school, one v one grudgby match, if I win, you have to leave me alone from now on" Indigo's eara twitch upwards in interest "And if I win?" Boscha snorts "If you win? You can bug me wherever the heck you like! I wont even get mad!" Boscha says, the weirdo may be good at dodging, but there was no way they could beat Boscha at scoring. "Sounds good to me" Indigo says and sticks out a hand to shake on the deal. Boscha looks at the hand in disdain but shakes it anyways, it wasnt a deal if they didnt shake on it after all. "You better not flake out on me" Boscha snarls and walks away. "Wouldnt dream of it" ----‐------------------------------- "You did WHAT?!" Amity almost yells as Indigo sits back down at the table with her news. Willow, Gus and Lux just stared, Before they all started talking at once, which made following all their words difficult. "...make an oath?" "....Can't possinly expect to..." "......Gonna really hurt you...." "....need to think before you...." Indigo's ears twitch downwards ans they frown at the others, which makes them all stop, Indigo wasnt one to frown often, so when they did it caught everyones attention. "I'm doing this" they state and even use their full worded voice to make it clear to everyone before them. The others don't argue, staring at them. "Why are you putting so much effort into Boscha?" Willow asks suddenly, gaining Indigo's attention "All she has ever done is hurt others, mentally and physically, heck she's clearly not opening up to you, why put yourself through all this just for her?" Indigo is silent for a long minute "Because she's stuck in the dark, she doesnt know what the light feels like yet, but she never will if no ones willing to show it to her" Indigo says and to Willow and Gus it just seemed like a metaphore, but Luz and Amity knew exactly what Indigo was reffering to and their eyes met for a moment, a look of slight understanding passed between them. Amity sighs and looks at Indigo. "Boscha is very prideful in her abilities for grudgby, she doesnt take defeat well at all, she WILL try to hurt you if she thinks she will lose to you" Indigo nods "I'll keep that in mind" Willow pipes up as well "Also make sure she doesn't pull the rusty smidge ploy again, make sure it isnt on the field" "Got it"

The line of concersarion continued until the end of lunch, apparently others had heard about this 1v1 match and were planning to come watch and see who won, though apart from a few grudgby fanatics, it was pretty much just Skara and the other grudgby teammates, Luz, Amity, Willow and Gus. Indigo stood on the grudgby field, staring across at Boscha, Indigo had chosen a nice blue uniform, Luz and Amity had done their face paint, red and blue lines down their cheecks from their eyes. Boscha had gone for the normal Banshee design. "You know the rules weirdo?" Boscha asks with a smirk. "Yup, is the rusty smidge on the field?" "Nah, if i'm gonna beat you, I wanna make it a good one" Boscha says with a smirk. Indigo smirks back as they wait for the ball to fly. Luz, Amity, Willow and Gus are cheering for Indigo on the sidelines, as the ball is sent into the air, Indigo had the height advantage and was able to grab the ball first, keeping it however, was harder than it looked. Boscha knew how capable Indigo was at dodging and didnt have any qualms charging full tilt at them for the ball, Indigo had to dodge a lot of attempts, trying for a goal too early just to get Boscha to stop, it misses and bounces off the goalpost, right into Boscha's waiting arms, she tears off to the other side, getting halted by an earth spike trap, which lead to a tackle from Indigo. Bischa had to commend the weirdo for their form on the tackle, but she refused to allow them the ball that easy, struggling out of their arms with a lot of effort and kicking the ball before they reach her again, scoring first. Indigo stands, wiping the dirt off their face, catching their breath. "Nice one" they compliment as Boscha gets back into place. "Hmm, your tackle wasnt too bad at all, but your aim is terrible" "Heh, we'll see" Indigo replies as their hand circles behind their back, unseen by Boscha, a clone of Indigo appeared behind her and as the ball shot up, the clone tackles Boscha before she can jump so Indigo can hop over them with the ball and head for the goal. "Agh, forgot you did Illusions too" Boscha grumbles and elbows the clone hard, it poofs away and she gets to her feet in time to see Indigo toss the ball through the goal with ease. Indigo's group cheers loudly, Gus waves his flags with vigor. Indigo jogs past Boscha to her place, grunning from ear to ear. "Pfft, you look like you just won the whole game, it eas only ONE goal" Boscha says condesendingly but Indigo doesnt falter at her snide comment, simply grinning as they waited for the next ball. "Man, psyching them out is NOT working" Boscha thinks to herself in annoyance. A few more goals on each side and it was all tied up, 5 points to each of them. Boscha glares up at the clock, only time for one more play, someone HAD to get this one. The ball flies and both girls jump, but rather than grab it, Boscha bats it right into Indigo's chest, Indigo couldnt dodge in the air, the shift in intent was too fast for them to even register, they hit the ground with a cough, clutching the ball. Boscha lands and folds her arms, waiting for Indigo to call it quits. "Hey! That cant be legal!" Luz yells. "It's a completely legal and well known play in grudgby" Skara answers from the next aisle "Besides, Boscha gave up control of the ball, if Indigo can get back to their feet, they keep it unless they miss" Amelia adds in. "They're right Luz, its a common play, but most grudgby players know not to leave their middle wide open" Amity adds with a look at the two, who nod in response. "Yeah... its usually for well prscticed captains that the other team want to slow down, but Boscha is risking a lot giving up full control of the ball like that, if Indigo can score, they win, if they cant, its a tie, so the only winner here is Indigo in the end" Amelia replies. Amity thinks it over "Yeah... that... isnt like her, what is Boscha trying to prove?"

Boscha waits as Indigo struggles to their feet, making their way slowly towards the goalpost, she hadnt skimped on that impact, they were quite resiliant, though the hit had very obviously hurt, they were still doing what they could to get the ball close enough to score.

waiting for Indigo to call it

"Hey! That cant be legal!" Luz

"It's a completely legal and well known play in grudgby" Skara answers from the next

"Besides, Boscha gave up control of the ball, if Indigo can get back to their feet, they keep it unless they miss" Amelia adds

"They're right Luz, its a common play, but most grudgby players know not to leave their middle wide open" Amity adds with a look at the two, who nod in

"Yeah... its usually for well prscticed captains that the other team want to slow down, but Boscha is risking a lot giving up full control of the ball like that, if Indigo can score, they win, if they cant, its a tie, so the only winner here is Indigo in the end" Amelia Boscha waits as Indigo struggles to their feet, making their way slowly towards the goalpost, she hadnt skimped on that impact, they were quite resiliant, though the hit had very obviously hurt, they were still doing what they could to get the ball close enough to score.

Indigo got to the goalpost and looked up at it, they had 20 seconds left, in one last ditch effort, they tossed the ball as high as they could, but it wasnt high enough, bouncing off the very bottom of the post and falling back.

One very small vine errupts from the ground, catching the ball and tossing it through the post, just before the timer ticked to zero.

Everyone looked surprised, naturally everyone also looked at Willow, who immediately raised her hands up,.

"Willow didn't cast that, I checked when I saw it" Skara confirms immediately when Bosxha looks their way.

Boscha shrugs and nods "Must have been the court itself then, guess it liked their determination" she says and walks away, no fuss, no screaming or flaming grudgby balls flying everywhere.

Everyone watches in astonishmemt as the three eyed witch leaves in complete calm.

Indigo had fallen back to a sitting position with a grin on their face.

"Thah was.... so much fuuun!" They yell loudly as they try to get on their feet.

Luz was the first over to help them up "You did great!"

Amity walks over soon aftwr with Willow and Gus in tow "I have to admit, if I was still captain I'd definately ask you to join the team, those were some smart plays"

"You did iiiiit!" Gus yells as he runs in circles around Indigo and Luz and waves his little flags eagerly.

"That was weird at the end though right? The court normally stops goals, it doesnt usually score them" Willow says quietly.

"Heh, this one tends to have a mind of its own, I hate to say it but Boscha must be right, it didn't send one obstacle to stop Indigo getting to the goalpost" Amoty observes.

"So wait... what was it you got if you won?" Luz asks curiously.

"Boscha can' geh mad if ah hang around 'er now" Indigo replies matter of fsctly.

"Wait... thats all you wanted?" Willow asks with a raised brow.

"Yeh" Indigo says with a grin."Eh was de opposi'eh oh whah she wan'ed" they explain

"Oh, I kinda doubt she'll keep to that, she was way too calm when she left, normally when Boscha loses... everyone loses... and I dont mean the game" Amity says.

Boscha sighs as she heads to change, noticing her potted plant had poked out of her bag for some sun, it had three little buds growing upwarss now.

"Hmph, is that some cheesy reference to my eyes? Titan damn it Amelia, if this flower matches my hair too I swear" she says and rolls her eyes, zipping her bag up so no one would see the plant.

[aggressivelyclueless]

hey @kiinotasha this one’s for you

human!Danny/runaway/pitch-pearl

a handful of regret, a little solace, and a pinch of fluff

i know it’s super late but thanks so much for being patient! the end bit took me like six tries to get it to stick how i wanted

i will also be posting this on ao3 at some point fyi

Winter had officially rolled in that morning.  Amity Park had all but shut down with the snow - after-school activities had been canceled; the highways had turned to skating rinks in the mid-morning sleet; even retailers had begun to close their doors for the afternoon to wait out the worst of the storm.  Before five o'clock, when the sun would have set, the streets were vacant.  Everyone, it seemed, had holed up at home.

Everyone except Danny.  Nevermind the snow - he couldn't stand to spend another minute at the house.  His mother's accusing voice still cut through his mind: you'll never listen to reason, will you?  Look at the facts, Jack!  It's simply not possible!  None of it had been directed at Danny, but he resented both of his parents nonetheless.  December, to him, was the season of hey-Tuck-can-I-stay-the-weekend and please-Sam-I'll-do-anything-to-be-out-of-the-house and if-I-have-to-keep-putting-up-with-this-I'll-die.  When he wasn't home, at least he could hear himself think!

It wasn't fair.  He hated how easily any conversation could slide into animosity, he hated the gnawing misery that crept up steadily from November onwards (and that was if he was lucky - one year the radio stations had all conspired to deliver tell-tale sleigh bells as early as October the twenty-first), and he hated how no one listened whenever he said he disliked the holidays.  It was always oh, but you've got to celebrate something, don't you? or how can you be so sour at such a lovely time of year? or the affronted but surely everyone loves Christmas! as if he'd stricken the event from the calendar simply by wishing it ill.

If only.

So, despite the snow and despite the cold, he'd made his way out to the Nasty Burger in the hope it would still have been open, and in the hope that Sam and Tucker might still be there.  It wasn't; they weren't; and after a moment of overwhelming frustration and despair he'd turned tail and run.  In that moment, he didn't care where he ended up, or how far away it was - all that mattered was that he left his stupid house and his stupid parents and their stupid fight behind.  Forget the snow, the fire in his belly grumbled, forget the cold.  Just run.

By the time he'd run out of breath, he'd made it as far as the bus station out of town.  He had a few bucks on him, but only one line was still running due to the snow.  He didn't care; he took it, ignoring the rough night out there, isn't it? from the driver as he boarded, and collapsed into one of the seats in the back.  He wondered how far he'd really have to go before he could escape the last echoes of his mother's voice.  Even then, as the bus trundled sluggishly through the snow, he could still hear her.

It's not possible, Jack!  Such a feat defies science!  Jack, you can't be that foolish!

How many years of it did they expect him to take?

By the time the bus dropped him off, he was numb.  The doors creaked open, he shuffled out, and the cold bit him anew.  It was dark out now - how far had he gone, he wondered.  The streets certainly looked the same.  Had he ended up a town over?  Three towns?  Ten?  Distance meant nothing; the bus doors closed behind him, and it lumbered off.

He was on his own.

The snow appeared to have let up, although it hadn't quit entirely.  It fell not with icy malice but was fat-flaked and lazy, and the scene before him was silent save for a street-plow that rumbled from the parking lot down the road.

Isn't this what you wanted? to hear yourself think?

His mind began to tick again, and the lonesomeness finally struck him.  He really was on his own, without Sam or Tucker or even Jazz at his side, and the silence of the town seemed to press in on him.  Go on, something in him whispered, you wanted to be alone, didn't you?  How long do you think before they'll even notice you're gone?  Two or three days, maybe?  Or maybe they'll only think twice on the twenty-sixth, after they've wrapped up?

He couldn't bear to think that.  Tears stung in the corners of his eyes, refusing to be dismissed by his palm or the back of his sleeve, and the tightness of pent-up anger gave way in an instant to a cold hard lump of dread.  He really was alone.

Now what?

He turned to the road again.  The bus had dropped him off near the edge of town, it seemed - how far had he really gotten from Amity Park?  Where had he ended up?  He didn't remember which line he'd taken, just that it had been the only one available to him, and he cursed himself out for it.  How stupid are you?  Out of all the days you could have picked to run off, you decided that the best time to do that was in the middle of the snow?  Great going, idiot!

He held his mobile in one hand.  It didn't like the cold; it had been at 66% earlier that afternoon, but had steadily dripped down to 27% within the span of an hour or two, and it skipped to 16% even as he stared down at it.  You know no one's going to be able to come get you, right? said the sharp voice of guilt.  You think even the Fenton RV could handle the roads like this? and that's assuming Mom and Dad quit arguing long enough to even answer if you call home. . .

He had to call anyway.  He knew that much, even as his vision blurred around the edges and tears froze in the corners of his eyes.  He slipped behind a line of shrubs to escape the wind, hit Home, and tried to collect himself as he waited for anyone to pick up.

Come on, please, I'm so sorry. . .

"Hello - ?"

"Mom?  I'm so sorry please don't be mad I need you to - Mom?"

The mobile had died in his hand, but for a desperate moment he failed to process.  "Mom. . .?"

Something in him cracked, and he stared down at the device.  The screen was dark, and failed to respond to his touch, but it felt as if he'd been purposefully abandoned.  Look what you've done.  This is your fault.  What are you gonna do now?

He didn't have an answer for that one.  Don't stay out too late, kiddo, you'll freeze out there!  He remembered his father saying that once, when he'd said he and Tucker were going to go out.  That had been last year, in January after the fights were over and there was enough snow to go sledding.  He remembered, too, that he'd had a second jacket then.

Would he really freeze?

He shoved the mobile back into his pocket.  It hadn't been quite so cold earlier - how long had he already been out?  There had been daylight for a while.  An hour, maybe?  That sounded about right.  It always got dark early in December.  Still, he'd have to find someplace to hole up.  Maybe this town's Nasty Burger, or MacMeaty's - they'd still be open, probably, and they might even have a phone he could borrow.

That, and then he'd find out how far he'd gotten himself from home.

With a basic objective in mind, he set off again.  So long as he was moving, the cold didn't seem so bad.  The storm had relented, at least, and it didn't look to have snowed as badly as it had in Amity Park - but, out of familiar territory, he was lost.  With only one direction to go, he kept along the side of the road in the hopes it would lead him into town.

The road led him through a stretch of trees, all heavy with snow and ice and bowing downwards, and he knew the rest of the town couldn't be too far ahead.  The hazy yellow of the streetlights was cast into the sky somewhere to his left, and as soon as he spotted the path off the main road he took it.  He hardly registered anything else until the pavement gave way to uneven dirt under the snow, and he paused; not city streets but a cemetery sprawled out before him, but he only hesitated for a second before treading onwards, ignoring his own superstitions.  Graveyard, went his mind blankly in an effort to get the word to stick to something.  It didn't.

The breeze shifted suddenly, and Danny stopped.  It wasn't that the snow was going to pick up again - it appeared to have quit for the moment - but something was so awfully and so suddenly wrong that, for one perplexing instant, he was pulled out of coherent thought altogether.

Graveyard finally stuck.

Danny turned about himself.  The only tracks in the snow were his, and without the snowfall everything around him was perfectly still.  Why, then, could he so clearly feel the eyes upon him?  Where were they coming from?  Without meaning to, he cast his gaze downwards - have you stepped on someone? - but could discern nothing from the blanket of white beneath him.  It was bad luck, he'd been told once, to tread on a body at rest.  Had he just done that?  He stepped back as if he had, although he couldn't really tell for sure.  "Sorry," he mumbled, as if it was adequate, and felt stupid.  Look at you by yourself in the dark, apologizing to someone who's already dead, who you probably didn't even step on anyhow.  What, like they're going to care?

Ghosts, according to Danny, weren't real.  That was a fact in his mind.  Both of his parents had been ghosthunters for their entire careers, as far as he was aware, and neither one of them had actually seen one.  If the anomalies did exist, surely one would have been caught by now?

What manifested before him, however, looked very much like how he imagined a ghost to look.  It appeared, suddenly but without a sound, on one of the headstones still visible under the snow.  Its body was cast predominantly in shadow except for two bright green eyes which were most definitely affixed on him.  It was vaguely human-shaped, although Danny had to squint a little to see it; it was peering out at him from behind the stone, or at least that's what he thought it looked like it was doing, and when he stared it flinched back.

Ghost, went Danny's mind, and the sentiment stuck the first time.  It couldn't have been real, and yet it was exactly like every explanation his parents had ever given him about one.  Great.  What does it want?  Do you really have to deal with this too now?

The spirit - if that was what it really was - stared back in equal silence.  Danny hadn't fled; emboldened somewhat, it crept upwards to peer over the top of the tombstone rather than from around the side.  Its body remained mostly in shadow, and only when it moved were the white wisps of its fingers and hair visible against the backdrop of snow.  It grasped the corner of the stone, as if looking over a tall countertop, and was still again.  After a moment of deliberation, it finally spoke: (Lost?)

Danny hesitated.  What could he reasonably expect to tell it - that he'd come out here by himself to get away from his parents and that he couldn't get back home?  Nevermind, for the moment, that this was a genuine ghost.  "What?"

(You didn't run) said the ghost, almost optimistically, eyes still on Danny.  (How come?)

Danny stiffened.  "Hey, wait a sec, what's it to you, anyway?  Are you even real?"

The shadow slumped, and the eyes fell.  (Yeah)

A small part of Danny was surprised at how quickly he'd accepted than answer - then again, he'd been told since infancy that the anomalies were real, and had only really rejected it out of spite for his parents - but that led to the pricklier questions.  If ghosts were real then they were also dangerous (he'd been told that, too, countless times) and he was acutely aware that he was on his own.  "What do you want?  Don't you have anyplace to go terrorize, or is this it?"

The spirit met his gaze again.  (Terrorize?  Why would I - ?)

"Because that's what ghosts do," said Danny, "Probably.  Look, no offense, or maybe some offense, but I didn't come here for you to show up and bug me."

(Then why did you come here?)

"Hey, that's none of your business," Danny snapped, refusing to acknowledge exactly how ridiculous it was that he was in a graveyard at night having an argument with a real ghost, "Go away."

The apparition's eyes flashed.  (Why don't you go away?  This is my spot.  I was here first)

"Fine.  Whatever."  Danny jammed his hands an extra inch into his pockets, shoving the encroaching chill away and turning to stomp across to the other side of the graveyard.  Stupid ghost.

The ghost, on the other hand, seemed to change its mind.  (Wait, I didn't mean it - please come back)

Despite himself - you wanna freeze out here? - Danny turned.

The shadowy spirit wafted up from its place by the headstone and floated closer.  In the air, Danny could make out the suggestion of its limbs, and the white fog of its hands and feet, but even when it faced him he couldn't distinguish any features aside from its eyes.  (Please stay)

Danny wanted to run.  Everything his parents had told him about ghosts was marching through his mind - they're dangerous, kiddo! you don't wanna face off against one by yourself! - and it had finally dawned on him what might happen if he didn't get into town.  Despite that, he found he couldn't run.  The spirit sounded desperate.  Probably because it'll tear you apart as soon as it gets your guard down, snapped the relentless voice of his mother, but he shoved it away.  What if it really was desperate?  What if it needed his help?

What if it wanted to rip him to shreds instead?

The spirit's eyes dimmed, as if perhaps it was thinking about something, and when it asked its voice was slow and careful.  (You're not okay, are you?)

Danny frowned.  "How do you know that?"

(You didn't run) said the ghost, (everyone runs)

"Yeah, maybe both my parents are ghosthunters," said Danny, as if that might ward it off if it decided at any point to attack him, "Maybe you'd better leave me alone."

(You think I'm going to haunt you)

"I'm supposed to think you're not?  I don't know you - didn't know you - ugh, you know what I meant.  You're dead.  I'm not.  Ghosts haunt people.  That's kinda their thing.  Why would you not come after me?  Why are we even having this conversation?  I told you to leave me alone."

The ghost went silent for a moment.  It slunk downwards onto the snow, huddling a little tighter against itself as if wrapping its arms around its knees.  (I guess I thought maybe since you didn't run you wouldn't be scared of me.  I just wanted someone to talk to)

"Don't you have - oh I don't know - ghost buddies or something for that?"

(They moved)

"Moved?"

(On)

Danny bit his tongue.  The loneliness struck him again, just as mercilessly as it had before, but this time it wasn't his own.  All of a sudden he felt foolish - is he really the only one that's lonely? - and he let all his breath out in a prolonged puff.  "You're the only one left here, aren't you?"

The spirit nodded; despite that it only barely held a coherent form, the motion was clear.

"You're lonely."

(Aren't you?)

Danny recoiled as if struck.  Of course you are.  Lonely, lost, and real stupid.  You did this to yourself, remember?  He turned, dashing a palm under his eye as if the ghost wouldn't have seen it.  "Maybe."

(Maybe?)

"Yeah," Danny snapped, although there was little anger he could muster.  "You heard me.  Look at you, asking all these questions - who even are you, anyhow?"

(Just a phantom) said the phantom, glancing back at the headstone from which it had appeared, (name's long gone)

"Just a phantom," Danny echoed, making the spike in his chest twist.  You still wanna just leave him there by himself?  He couldn't do that.  He knew he couldn't.  Nevermind the cold - he wasn't going to abandon anybody that had no one left, even if it was someone who was already dead.  "That's - that's really it, huh?"

(What about you?) the phantom asked, (you're still kicking.  You've got a name, don't you?)

"It's Danny."

(Oh, I like that one) said the phantom brightly, sliding upwards a little, (you promise you'll stay?)

"Yeah.  I mean - maybe.  I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but - I'm kind of in huge trouble.  With everything.  Ugh, I'm so stupid - "

(Tell me about it) the phantom ventured, (I mean, if you want to)

Danny sat with a soft crunch in the snow.  Once it started to come out, he found, it suddenly became much easier.  "I guess I did it to myself.  Maybe I thought I wanted to be on my own, I mean I can't just keep listening to them argue like that, so I left, I thought it'd be easier, maybe it doesn't matter, but now I can't get back and it's so cold and it's my own fault I'm so stupid - "

(I don't think you're stupid)

"Look at me.  I'm sitting here, in a graveyard, in the dark, talking to a ghost about my problems, which are my own fault to begin with," said Danny, one sob coming out instead as a sardonic laugh.  "Sounds pretty stupid to me."

The phantom hesitated.  After a moment it slid over to sit next to him, and its eyes brightened.  (I don't think it counts unless you can't fix it)

"What are you talking about?"

(You're still breathing, aren't you?)

Danny felt like he'd struck a nerve somehow.  "I didn't mean it like that - "

The phantom's eyes turned upwards.  The snow had started up again; even in the past few minutes it had dusted Danny's hoodie with white, and if given another few minutes it might pick back up to the storm that had rendered Amity Park helpless.  The phantom stared for a moment, and the snow paused.  (Ice core) was the only explanation it offered, and its eyes turned upwards in what Danny could only assume to be a smile.

"You did that," said Danny, who was a second slower to process, "How'd you - ?  I didn't know you could do that - "

The phantom nodded slowly.  (Usually, it's only for a few seconds at a time.  Closer it is to the solstice, though, sometimes I get a little leeway.  Longer nights or something like that.  I wasn't gonna question it)

"Huh."

The phantom rose abruptly, turning back and offering one wispy hand to Danny.  (Can I show you something?)

Danny took the hand and flinched.  The sensation was like ice, not physically tangible but piercingly cold, and he was pulled up to his feet as well.  "Where are we going?"

The phantom kept Danny's hand.  It floated higher, pulling him off the ground with it; he yelped, wide eyes darting back up to the shadow in the air, and his grip tightened.  (Don't let go, okay?)

Danny wouldn't dare.  "What are you doing - ?"

The phantom was smiling again, but wouldn't answer him.  They both ascended over the ice-white treetops, and all of a sudden the town opened up below them through a yellow-white haze.  (You said you were lost) said the phantom, (didn't you?  Lost and lonely, same as me.  I wanted to help)

Danny was silent.  His mind had all but ground to a halt - the first time he'd ever seen a ghost, and the ghost had just plucked him up off the ground with no effort whatsoever.  I wanted to help, it said.  Weren't spirits like that supposed to do the opposite?

The phantom turned back to the town beyond the cemetery.  (There's houses over on that side) it said helpfully, pointing with its free hand, (you think one of them's yours?)

"Well, I - " Danny forced his mind back into processing again, once he was very certain he wouldn't fall.  He kept the phantom's hand tightly in his own, knowing that was the only thing keeping him up, and finally cast a glance across rooftops and streets below.  "No," he said, "They're not.  Look, I. . ."

(Oh jeez this is too much, isn't it?  I'm sorry)

"No it's not that - I mean, don't get me wrong, this wasn't exactly what I was expecting to be doing tonight, it's kinda out-there, but - "

(I'm so sorry I swear I just wanted to help)

"Hey wait - no don't go down yet - you really can see pretty far from up here, can't you," Danny scanned the streets below, hoping to spot someplace that was still open.  The cold was really starting to get to him, especially up in the open air - he couldn't quit shivering, and his fingers and nose had gone all but numb.  Even his lips had begun to resist movement, and he had to be careful to articulate when he spoke.  "I came in from that way," he spotted the road the bus had taken when he'd been dropped off, and gestured vaguely downwards.  "Don't suppose you know how far Amity Park is from here?"

(You're cold)

"Well, yeah," said Danny, "But I gotta get home - "

The phantom's eyes widened, and it shook its head.  (Not like that!  Oh, man, you're still kicking, you have to stay warm, I forgot I'm so sorry) the phantom descended, taking Danny down too, and they both landed at the side of the cemetery.

Danny shoved both hands back into his pockets, although they wouldn't warm up entirely on their own.  At least the wind's not so bad down here, and you know where the town is.  You'll have better luck than you will out here, anyhow.

The phantom was unblinking.  (That was my fault.  I should have remembered.  You have to be careful - when you're alive, I mean.  Stuff can happen, I wasn't even thinking about it - )

"Hey, don't freak out.  I'll be fine.  So it's snowing a little.  Big deal."

(Yeah but I don't wanna see you freeze out here, not on account of me, anyhow, you know - )

"Wait," said Danny, and asked before he could stop himself, "Wait is that - that's how you - well, you know - isn't it?"

The phantom didn't answer.  Its eyes slid pointedly away form Danny's, opting instead to stare through the snow-laden trees.  The distant rumble of a street-plow came and went, and the snowfall slowly started up again.

Now you've gone and done it.  Should have kept your mouth shut, idiot.  "I'm sorry."  He let his breath out all at once.  "I guess I shouldn't have asked you that.  Please don’t be mad."

(You're really far from home, aren't you?)

Danny hesitated, but then nodded.  "Yeah.  I am.  I really screwed up this time.  Look, no offense, I get that you wanted to help me out and all, but - I don't think this is something you can just fix, you know?"

(You're having troubles at home) said the phantom, (I think.  That was what you said earlier, wasn't it?  That’s why you came all the way here)

Danny nodded again.  "Yeah.  My parents have this stupid fight every year, and I said I wasn't gonna let it get to me this time but it did anyway.  So of course like some kind of moron I thought maybe getting away from it all would have been just fine - "

(Well, you're the first moron I've talked to in a long time) said the phantom helpfully, (you can't be that bad)

Danny sighed.  "Thanks.  I guess."

(Besides, you don't have to be out here all by yourself either.  I think we both kind of win, right?)

Danny frowned.  "Not sure that's how it works?  If I didn't run away then none of this - "

(Then you'd still be having a bad time, right?  But just at home.  And if you hadn't come out here then I'd still be having a bad time too.  Like I said.  We both kind of win)

"Well.  I mean," Danny gave up.  "Sure.  Yeah."

(And you'd be sad if I left now, wouldn't you?)

"Yeah."

(Then I'm not going anywhere) said the phantom, and its eyes turned up again.  (Consider yourself haunted)

Despite himself, and despite everything that had happened, everything he'd done, and that he was a mess standing at the edge of a graveyard in the snow with a ghost as his only companion a town or more away from home - despite it all, Danny laughed.  Something in him released all at once; perhaps the coil of stress wound one tick too tight and snapped, or perhaps it was the realization that he wasn't on his own, not really, not so long as the phantom hung around, even if it couldn't help him on a tangible level.  Haunted.  It was so succinctly absurd, and so, so good to let everything else fall away.  Before he fully realized he'd meant to, he'd reached over and taken the phantom's hand again.  "Thanks.  I guess I really needed that."

The phantom just smiled back.  (You're really stuck with me now.  How're you gonna get home otherwise?  By yourself?)

Danny was somber again in an instant.  "I don't know.  Buses back to Amity don't start up again 'til morning.  Phone's dead.  Can't even ask anyone to come and pick me up."

(Well) the phantom turned back to the town beyond the trees.  (Hm.  Oh, hey, I wonder if some the gas stations are twenty-four hours?  I think there's at least one.  Maybe they'd have a phone you could borrow?)

"You think so?"

(Yeah.  Come on.  You thought flying was cool?  Check this out) and without waiting for an answer it flew ahead, pulling him through snow and frozen trees and shrubs as if they didn't really exist.  For the moment, they may as well not have existed, and the next thing Danny knew they'd come out in the back parking lot of what appeared to be a Denny's.

Danny turned back to the phantom.  "What'd you do?"

(Shared) said the phantom, (thought it'd be faster than going around.  Don't you think?)

"Yeah, but - " Danny paused, and then tried again: "I don't know, just - warn me next time?  Phasing through solid objects isn't really as straightforward, you know?"

The phantom gave Danny what he assumed to be a half-hearted shrug.  (Okay, but I think the place is a few blocks over from here)

Danny trotted ahead, following the sidewalk around the corner of the building and having a look across the front lot and down the road.  "All I'm seeing is streetlights.  I’m guessing you know this town better than me."  He shot a look back to the phantom, expecting it to take the lead.

The phantom hesitated, but only for a moment.  (The living don't really - you know, you don't see the dead wandering around most times, do you?)

"Wait, what're you getting at?  You think I'm just gonna ditch you from here on out?"

(I'm just saying don't act all surprised) said the phantom.  It was as if it was taking a deep breath; he materialized fully, finally allowing himself a face, and appeared in a simple jacket and black jeans.  His eyes still carried their ethereal glint, but apart from that he appeared human - he shook his head briefly, sending his white hair flying, and then gave Danny a grin.  "I get leeway, remember?"

"You're a showoff," said Danny, who had not known the phantom could manifest so clearly - so that's what his face looks like - and was not about to let him get off easy about it.

"What, I gotta go around looking like an oil slick all the time?  Give a guy some credit, will you?  Besides, you know what'd happen if people saw a shadow like me on the loose?  They might call your parents.  That's what."

Danny's gaze fell.  "Right."

"C'mon," the phantom took Danny's hand as he passed, and led the way into the streets.  Danny noticed, after a moment, that he was the only one leaving footprints behind - he also appeared to be the only one exuding clouds with every breath.  That's because he's not breathing, stupid, he chided himself, duh.  Still, something just seemed right about the phantom, and it wasn't only because it was the only other option to being on his own again.

For the life of him, though, he couldn't place the feeling.

The two of them stood in the parking lot outside the gas station.  Sure enough, the lights inside were still on, and the sidewalk looked to have been shoveled fairly recently.  That was probably for the best; the snow had gotten going in earnest, and Danny speculated it had probably caught up to them from Amity Park where the worst of it had been earlier.  He trotted ahead, pausing with one hand on the door to turn back to the phantom.  "You coming?"

"Yeah," said the phantom, "Just in time, too.  You don't look so good.  Told you you'd freeze."

Danny ignored that last comment, and ignored the numbness from his feet and the tips of his fingers, and pulled the door open.  The single clerk behind the register looked bored, but it wasn't until Danny asked to borrow the phone that either he or the phantom were acknowledged at all.  He took it, giving the clerk one of those awkward-thanks smiles, and took a deep breath.

You know you're gonna have to fess up, and you know it's probably Mom who's gonna answer.

Let her, if it means I can go home.

It only rang once; sure enough, it was his mother.

"Mom," said Danny, daring himself to keep his composure.  Despite his best efforts, his voice splintered and he was crying.  "Mom - look, I'm okay, I just - "

"I promise I'm fine"

"I know"

"Can you and Dad come get me"

"Please"

"No, I'm with a friend"

"Yeah"

"Okay"

"Hi, Dad"

"Yeah"

"Yeah, I'm okay"

"No"

"Okay"

"Love you too."

     - - - -

"Phantom?"

The two of them sat on the curb, watching the snow and waiting for the Fenton RV to pull up.  Danny's mother had said forty-five minutes; his father had promised fifteen.

"Yeah?"

Danny hesitated, knowing he probably wasn't going to get an answer he liked.  "Don't suppose you'd wanna come back with me, would you?"

The phantom snorted.  "You kidding?  Your parents are ghosthunters, man.  You said so.  No offense, or maybe some offense, but like.  Yikes."

"Yeah," said Danny quietly, "Thought so."

The phantom was silent for a moment, but then shifted to lean back on his hands.  "You were right, though.  Earlier."

"What?"

"When you asked how I died."

Danny turned to him, opened his mouth to protest - you shouldn't have to tell me if you don't want to - but the phantom put up a hand to keep him silent.

"It went pretty much how you think it did.  Lemme tell you, dying really sucks.  I don't know if it's like that for everybody, maybe I just got unlucky, but - I just didn't want you to end up like me, you know?"

"Hey - are you okay?"

The phantom turned skyward, doing his best to blink away the tears that dared to creep up into the corners of his eyes, but after a fruitless minute he swiped at them with the back of his wrist anyhow.  "Look at this, you got me feeling stuff, I can't believe it.  I'm almost as much of a wreck as you now."

"Hey," Danny protested halfheartedly, but knew there was little he could say in his own defense.  He really had done it to himself; everything that had happened the whole evening had been more or less directly his own fault. That said, he was glad that the phantom had stuck with him.  He wondered what might have happened if he'd been alone all night - no, he had a fairly good idea of what might have happened, and he didn't really want to find out for sure.  Dying really sucks.

The phantom had recomposed himself, and stood as an excuse to stretch out.  "Hey, s'that them?"

Danny followed the phantom's gaze - sure enough, a double pair of headlights had turned onto the road, visible even through the haze of snow.  He rose to his feet, turning back to the phantom and giving him a final smile.  "Thanks," he said, "for sticking with me.  I guess I owe you one."

The phantom had his arms around Danny in an instant.  The motion was on impulse; it took them both a second to realize what had happened, and a second after that for the phantom to feel Danny's arms around him in return.

 "Don't forget about me, I mean it."

"I won't."

The headlights swerved into the lot, and the phantom faded into thin air.  Danny was alone only for a moment before both of his parents burst out and immediately began to fuss.  He let them; he knew he'd catch heat, but not until they got home, and he had until then to sort everything out.

I wanna see you again, he'd meant to say, but had been cut short, and now it was probably too late.  He wondered, if he came back into town sometime, if the phantom would still be there.  You think he's got anything better to do? said something in him, but that part was at war with the part that insisted why would he sit and wait around? just for you? aren't you a bit selfish to think that?

Was he, really?

     - - - -

The phantom watched Danny go.  Ghosthunters had sit ill with him since the living boy had mentioned them, and he knew he didn’t want to get involved.  Who could blame him, really?  He'd seen the kid off, and made sure he was alright.  Now he could get back to. . .

. . . what, exactly?

Not much.  That was what it amounted to.  The phantom had, for most of the evening so far, been able to fend off the crushing loneliness of death.  He was lucky - very lucky, considering that Danny hadn't fled at the sight of him, and luckier still that they'd gotten along.  He should have counted it as a decent night.  All had ended well.

The empty pit in his stomach, however, begged to differ.

Even if it had just been for one fleeting instant, just then, before he'd vanished into thin air so the hunters wouldn't have seen him, he'd felt alive again.  Maybe it was the solid warmth of a living body, or maybe it was the assurance that, in that moment, he wasn't on his own.

Now Danny was gone, fading with the taillights of the RV as it turned a corner and disappeared altogether.

That pained him.

It pained him - now you're back to the usual, and isn't it horrible? - and it was too much.  He burst into silent tears, alone and unseen in the parking lot of the only gas station in town that was still open.  He'd never see Danny again.

Why didn't you go too?

He wished, beyond anything, that he could have gone, but he knew the hunters would have caught him if he'd dared show his face.  He'd seen them coming, and he'd vanished before they'd gotten so much of a glimpse of him.  Look at you.  You let him slip through your fingers, and you know exactly why.

There were plenty of reasons why.  Ghosthunters was only the first; I've never been out of town; finding him again would be such a long shot; everything I have is here; besides, maybe he'll come and say hi sometime; I don't even know how far it'll be.

Some small voice in his core grew sharp.  You’re making excuses.  You're just afraid to go.  What's keeping you here?

That made the phantom pause.  His grave had never been the most appealing place to hang out, but it was the only thing with his name on it (in theory, anyhow - a gang of vandals had seen to that once a few years back).  What did he have left, when push came to shove?

Why didn't you go?  You're just a scared kid, that's why.  You thought you had it together, didn't you?  Now you've missed your chance, and you get to go back to being alone.  You did it to yourself.

You're a lot like him.

He'd turned down the only living being that had spoken to him in over a decade.  How stupid was he?  He wanted, more than anything, to take it back.

Quit making excuses.

He swiped the last of his tears away, and cast a glance skyward.  Amity Park, Danny had mentioned.  That must have been where he lived.  The phantom had never been there before.  In life, he hadn't traveled much.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

He ascended over the ice-covered trees and drifted for a moment in the air.  From the height, he could see the town below, and he could see the cemetery where his grave and his dusty old carcass lay.  Who needs that old thing, anyway, he thought, eyes tracing the smooth road carved out in white between the trees.  I came in from that way, Danny said.  It wasn't much to go on.

Wonder if I could fly all the way from here?  Never done it.  Might make it.  Might not.

You never know.

This time of year - might get a little extra leeway.

[phantomphangphucker]

A King For Tonight’s Fentertainment - Chap. 1: In Pixie Dust We Do Not Trust

Summary:  Most kings homes are inside their kingdoms, but that is exactly where Danny doesn’t want his. But, as per usual, the GIW have to mess everything up

Danny groans as he looks out the Casper High classroom window, groaning again as he places his chin on his hand. Glaring out at the white jet in the sky, “now what are those GIW idiots flying around for?”. Danny squints at what appears to be sparkling blue powder coming out of, or off of?, the jet, “oh fuck, goddamnit”, groaning exaggeratedly and muttering under his breath, “why couldn’t it have just been Skulkie or Boxy instead?”, as he raises his hand.

“You can’t go to the bathroom, Mr. Fenton. But I’m sure you’ll leave anyway”.

Danny smirks as he stands but promptly has to grip the edge of the desk as the whole damn building shakes. Muttering, “oh great, it’s something fast-acting. Wonderful. Love it. Absolutely perfect. Couldn’t have asked for anything better. Fuck my very existence”. Meanwhile, the rest of the class erupts into screaming as the building continues to shake.

“Quiet down! Quiet down! A Cask Of Amontillado! Remain in your seats!”, Mr. Lancer points at Danny, “sit down! Standing is certainly less safe!”. While the rest of the class do indeed sit down on the floor, most hugging the walls, Danny’s too busy staring out the window as the sky slowly bleeds to a toxic glowing green. Groaning, “oh extra fuck me. Something tells me I’d rather snort Nasty sauce than deal with this. Goddamnit”.

While Danny’s off muttering to himself, Valerie slips and crashes into the classroom door, falling inside the classroom. Muttering to herself, “shit, there’s a teacher here. How the fuck am I supposed to-”. Mr. Lancer cuts off her mutterings, “Ms. Gray! Why aren’t you with your class!”. Valerie groans and reluctantly crawls into the classroom as Mr. Lancer aggressively motions for her to come in and sit down.

Danny can’t help but snicker at her misfortune, as he slides down the wall to sit down, muttering, “well at least both teenage superhero idiots are stuck by the suffering that is American Highschool”. Danny flops to lay down on the ground while most of his classmates' whimper. Deciding to lighten the mood, Danny chuckles, “I’m too old for this shit”.

Lester gapes at him, “you’re the same age as us? And do you just not care? We’re going to fucking die-”. Dash cuts him off, “oh like some wimpy wind is going to take me down!”.

Danny snickers, “naw, all you need is a shrink gun”.

“What was that Fentonio?”.

“A quip, witty banter, snide remark; you know, a joke”.

“Daniel, considering the situation we find ourselves in, I don’t think now’s the time to be baiting your peers!”.

Danny chuckles as the shaking stops partway through Mr. Lancer's words. Smirking from the floor, “I think the situation you’re complaining about isn’t a situation, in this situation”, pointing out the window, “but another situation has, clearly, been greenlit”.

Valerie glares at the ceiling, “Danny what the hell does that even me-”, cutting herself off as she looks where Danny’s pointing, “oh, oh fuck. Is that?”, looking down at Danny’s face, “that’s the Ghost Zone, isn’t it?”. Danny nods with a frown while Dash pipes up again, “wow Fentlowaskey, what did your screwed up parents screw up now?”. While Paulina’s crying about Phantom saving them, Danny rolls his eyes and sits up, “this daily dose of ghostly suffering is brought to you by the colour white”.

Mr. Lancer gets up, cracking his knees and back as he does, before helping students get up. Talking at Danny as he helps up Nathan, “and how would you know that, Mr. Fenton?”. Danny jabs his thumb at the window, “white jet spewing blue glitter, the STI of the craft world just assfucked us into the Ghost Zone”.

Dash whimpers and looks out the window, attempting to not appear as scared as he actually is, “b-but they could have just made the s-sky green right? We’re not, like, actually in the Ghost Zone?!”.

Danny frowns as he stands, batting away Mr. Lancers offered hand, “seems we are. But it’s not like this is the f-”. Dash cuts Danny off, crying out, “oh god we’re dead! I can’t be dead! I’m too awesome!”. Danny just stares at the freaking out jock for a second, while the rest of the class slowly starts to panic more.

Danny facepalms, not wanting everyone to utterly lose their shit any further, “Dash, you are not dead, we are not dead. We’ve been over this once before. In the Ghost Zone doesn’t equal dead. We’ve been here before, remember?”. Dash stops and lets his arms flop down to his sides, “oh...right”. This seems to settle down most of the other students, with a couple even starting to snicker at the jock.

Danny shuffles his feet, looking to find a way to get away, “soooo. I'mma just gonna go get my parents”. Valerie snaps her head towards him, “oh yeah! I, um, I’ll go with! Make sure Danny doesn’t get sidetracked or whatever”. Danny rolls his eyes but smirks, knowing full well what she’s doing, but he only gets two steps before Mr. Lancer grabs both him and Valerie. Mr. Lancer shakes his head at the two of them, “oh no, I’m certain the Fenton’s are well aware of Amity’s current predicament. So as is required in these situations, we will be staying together. As a class. And make our way into the parking lot”. The entirety of the class groans, but none louder than Danny; who full-on tilts his head back and sags his body, in an overacted show of annoyance and exasperation.

Mr. Lancer doesn’t let go of their wrists as he does a headcount, fully aware of the twos tendency to run off; even when doing so should be impossible, with Danny particularly.

Eventually, all of Casper High is gathered outside and most are gaping at the sky. Valerie glares daggers at it, blatantly annoyed. While Danny is relaxed and sitting on the grass, Mr. Lancer standing next to him. Danny chuckles at Valerie, “what? Trying to glare it to Death?”.

“It’s already dead, Danny. But if glaring would make it go away, I’d find a way to glare harder”.

“Now that I’d like to see. Not sure glaring harder is possible. But if you developed eye death rays then your glare would be literally deadly”, Danny just smirks as she glares at him before opening his mouth again, “anyway...standing around ain’t doing shit sooooo...”. Danny gets up and attempts to bolt off, promptly getting caught by Ms. Teslaff, “awwww, come on...”.

“Thank you Ms. Teslaff”, Mr. Lancer walks up and pretty well drags Danny back, “I’m pretty sure this one doesn’t know how to stay for more than twenty minutes”. Danny grumbles, “I’m not a dog”.

Dash sneers, “you’re about as well trained as one”.

“Dash...that, that doesn’t even make sense. Dogs are known for being well trained or trainable. No fucker’s training me to obey their shit”, Danny smirks at Dash, “but props for pretending to have enough brain cells to be witty. You still get an F though”.

“Fuck you Fentone”.

The relative peace and calm that Danny had effectively settled over everyone by being a cheeky little shit, gets disturbed by a crash and following explosion. Resulting in tons of screaming students and adults. Danny sighs, “oh for fucks sake”, before grumbling into his hand, “you’d think by now everyone would be used to explosions and shit. But no, they still lose their shit”. Danny then can’t help but bark out a laugh. As two lightly smoking GIW agents come running, from the direction of a billowing pillar of smoke. Danny stands up and smirks at the men, “what? Did you think damning our town to death wasn’t enough of a burn so you burned yourselves for good measure?”.

“We’ll have you know, that, we had found a way to rid this town of all its ecto-entities”, the wheezing agent glances around, “this, wasn’t supposed to happen though”.

Danny laughs, “wow, big surprise, real shocker, absolutely bewildering. Who would have thought the GIW would screw up with something ghostly?”.

Valerie mutters, “everyone”, before pointing at and snapping at the two agents, “why do you guys have to mess up every single thing you do? Like, look at this mess? What did you even hope to accomplish?”, shaking her head aggressively and attempting to stomp up to the men but getting stopped by Mr. Lancer. Valerie snaps at them again while trying to shake off Mr. Lancer, “what did you idiots even do? How the hell do you send an entire town into the freaking Ghost Zone?!?”.

Danny chuckles at Valerie, though frowns at the agents, “it has happened before though. So this isn’t exactly a first”. Valerie snaps her head around to him, “a ghost did that, that’s different. Ghosts fuck shit up by their very nature”. Danny rolls his eyes while the second agent responds, “we were attempting to rid this place of such nuisances, using ecto particle homing dust”. The first agent nods, “designed to send anything ecto back to the Ghost Zone”.

Danny groans before laughing at their sheer stupidity, “you mean to say, you used something that teleports anything ghostly into the Ghost Zone...on a town...that is...coated and bathed and infused and embedded, with ectoplasm”, laughing again, “of course the entire fucking place went to the dead side!”.

Both agents glare at him, before one speaks up, “you’re the Fenton boy, aren’t you?”, that agent shakes his head, “it only teleports things with sentient ectoplasm and things contaminated by latent ectoplasm. Not free-floating ectoplasm. General ecto-contaminated things and people shouldn’t have been affected!”.

Danny’s not sure if it would have been better if it only affected him, but this does make a ton more sense now. Seeing as Amity Park was a ghostly lair, his ghostly lair, and thus coated and filled with his latent ectoplasm. Raising an eyebrow and pointing at the men, “so ghosts, ghost items, and ghost lairs? Are you twats incapable of basic research? Maybe you should add some gray to your colour schemes, might encourage the development of some gray matter up in those bigoted heads of yours”.

“Of course that’s what it targets! That doesn’t explai-”. Danny cuts the agent off, “holy fuck, what rank are you two? I’d like to know just what level of stupid I’m dealing with here, that way I know how slowly I have to speak”.

“Daniel, that’s quite enough. While I’m aware your family, and thusly you, are highly ecto-knowledgeable; harassing government agents, who could help us, isn’t productive”, Mr. Lancer speaks while Danny rolls his eyes at him.

Both agents cross their arms, “agents L and G. We’re both beta class. Now if you have any information paramount to our situation, you’d be advised to give it to those of us who can make use of such knowledge”.

Danny sneers at them and gestures mockingly, “what? You? You couldn’t use the back half of a barn to herd braindead sheep, none the less actually fix this shit”, Danny waves off their glares, “but with that low rank that means that at least you’re not too stupid, and you’re young. So you couldn’t have been indoctrinated for too long. Anyway,”, Danny puts one hand on his hip and gestures to their surroundings and other people, “Amity Park, its buildings, its people, its pets, its damn air. All of it is coated and ecto-contaminated by latent ectoplasm and free-floating ectoplasm...This whole town is a ghostly lair, you dolts”.

Everyone gapes at Danny while Valerie whirls around and shouts incredulously, “WHAT!?!”. Mr. Lancer sputters, “are-are you quite certain about this Daniel?”. Danny nods while both agents shout, “that is hardly possible! Child! Ghosts can’t sustain themselves on earth! None the less establish an earth-based lair!”.

“You’re not wr-”, Danny gets cut off by a massive dragon ghost flat-out landing directly behind the two agents, causing both of them to jump into the air in shock. The ghost dragon lashes out its tail, batting both men into a wall. Danny groans, “great, idiots onto dragons. Lovely”.

While the ghost dragon breathes purple flames into the air at random Valerie jerks her head around, trying to figure out if anyone has any way to defend or fight; thoroughly annoyed when no one does and watching everyone fleeing or hiding all over the place. Well except some people who are frozen in place...and Danny, who’s just groaning loudly at the sky. Muttering to herself, “and like always I’m the only one close to capable”. Danny smirks, having easily heard her, “ouch, must you insult me so? I’ll have you know I am capable, of some things”.

After the ghost dragon slams down Its tail a little too close for comfort to the collection of humans, and starts slamming Its wings into buildings and the ground at random, the remaining humans begin to huddle together; with Mr. Lancer practically dragging Danny along. Valerie manages to tuck and roll out of the converging humans; while Danny goes wide-eyed, realising she intends to go full Red up in this shit. Blinking rapidly while multiple people gasp, as Valerie summons out her suit. She mutters all the while, “secrets aren't worth death”, smirking under her helmet, “besides, it’s not like I’ve got anything to be ashamed of”, before gliding off to battle the ghost dragon.

Danny mutters, “fucking props to you, you crazy huntress”, before glancing at the GIW men. Tickled pink that they’re unconscious, and pretty sure Red is equally as pleased by that.

Everyone else, meanwhile, freaks out.

“WHAT THE FUCK!”.

“VALERIE!”.

“MS. GRAY! Do you have any idea how dangerous what you’ve been doing is!”.

“HOLY SHIT! My classmates a freaking ghost hunter!”.

“That’s hot....”.

Danny can’t help but sputter and cough at that last one he hears, muttering to himself as he sits on the ground lazily, “I mean, the guy’s not wrong”, while Red’s blasting off ecto-shots, Danny taps on his chin, “probably says something about me that my attempted murder is an attractive quality in someone. There’s probably a kink for that or some shit”, chuckling, “I’ll have to ask Tuck about that, creepy womanising fucker always knows bout that shit”.

Danny can’t help the slight proud smile as Red captures the ghost dragon in her own thermos, before he looks out to the surrounding Ghost Zone. Grumbling, “this many humans, gonna attract more ghosties”. Danny groans before planting his hands into the grass, in between his crossed legs. As discretely as he can, Danny pushes and manipulates his latent ectoplasm in the environment and the Ghost Zone’s ectoplasm to slowly form a ghost shield around the town. The forming shield, unsurprisingly, doesn’t go unnoticed; promptly causing more freakouts.  

“OH GOD!”.

“WHAT THE FUCK!...AGAIN!”.

“Are we being attacked?!?!!”.

“GREAT GATSBY!”.

Red’s staring up and mutters, “that...that’s just a ghost shield...”, just as Maddie comes running over to the group. Mr. Lancer was about to be soothed by Vale-The Red Huntresses words, until he caught sight of Maddie’s deeply concerned face. Maddie shouts, “that’s not a hunter made shield! Don’t be fooled!”. Danny mutters at the ground and his hands, “well fuck, there goes one explanation”.

Maddie runs up to the principal, “is everyone here? Everyone safe? Danny?”. The principal looks around quickly before nodding, eliciting a relieved sigh from Maddie before she spins around to face the group, “alright everyone! Just stay together while us Fenton’s figure out who, or more likely what, is making the shield and why! You all just wait for your families!”.

While Danny grumbles about being offhandedly called a ‘what’. Dash sneers, “does that include every Fenton. Cause I certainly ain’t putting any faith in a wimp”. Danny would glare but he easily hears a few people mutter about how they’d take Danny over Jack any day. So it’s rather hard for Danny to actually be annoyed. Danny sneers right back, “the only one you put faith in, is yourself. And last I recall, you’ve been screaming like a little bitch”, Dash glares at him while Danny chuckles, “while I’m quite content. Not a worry to be found. Everything’s fucked, but that’s expected at this point. Everything’s always fucked”.

In truth Danny was fucking worried, his entire lair and all his humans were in the fucking Ghost Zone! And not intentionally. And punching the lights out of the ones responsible was both useless and pointless. Danny mutters, “seeing as their lights currently are ou- oh? Okay, never mind”, Danny groans and facepalms painfully hard as the two agents stagger upright.

Maddie points at them, having had her attention drawn to them because of their movement, “this is your doing, isn’t it?”. Danny stands up, unsure whether she’s talking about the shield or the fact that they’re in the Ghost Zone. But deciding that he’d rather have the attention off his shield, and the dumb fucks really were responsible for the Ghost Zone issue. Danny turns to her and speaks, “for the in Zone shit? Yup, we’ve already established that. Not particularly helpful info unless you’re just looking to mock them though”. Maddie nods curtly at Danny before turning to glare at the GIW men.

Danny’s chuckling at the glaring match until he spots Red, staring and gaping at him, out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head and raising an eyebrow, slightly concerned because fuck knows why she’s staring, “uh? What’s with the face? Did ya break a brain cell or have you realised I’m still a looker”. Dash snorts, “the only thing worth looking at you for, Fentit, is to better aim my fist at your face”. While Red sputters incoherently and waves her hands erratically at Danny.

Nearly everyone jumps as two ectopusses slam into the shield before flying off dazed. Red jerks and shakes her head, taking a step towards Danny; hardly believing what she’s seeing, “Danny you...you’re...this is”, glaring at him, “you’re doing this, it’s you. The shield, it’s you”.

Danny responds nervously, “uh, pretty sure I’m not a shield”, muttering to himself, “though I wind up being one too damn often”. A good portion of the group is shooting both of them worried and confused glances while Red shakes her head, “no. No, you’re making it. Made it? Whatever. What the fuck Danny?”.

Maddie finally pays attention to them now, “oh don’t be silly, humans can’t do that. Even one lone ghost couldn’t create a shield of this size”. Danny snorts but covers it up with a cough, since he knows she’s flat-out wrong. Pretty well all powerful ghosts could, it was just rather difficult and usually pointless. So why bother?

Red points at Danny and then taps on her helmet, a strange new visor visible, “I could, can, see it. The free-floating, er latent, ectoplasm. Around you. It’s wafting off you and swirling all around you, over you”, Red looks up at the shield while Danny twitches and mentally begs for her to shut up. Red continues speaking, still looking up, “it’s tied to and feeding into the shield. You’re doing it”. Red looks back at him, “and that’s not the onl-”.

Maddie cuts off Red as she speed walks cautiously towards Danny, who stands up quickly and holds his hands up in a surrendering motion, “sweetie? What does she mean? Surely you couldn’t be doing this?”, snapping her head around to Red, “let me see. The visor, let me see”. Red’s too stunned to refuse and slowly walks up, handing the extra attachment over to Maddie as she gapes at, the clearly awkward and uncomfortable, Danny.

[pocparks]

just shooting shit here(this is going to be some real unorganized stream of consciousness, word salad nonsense but bear with me i just need to get my thoughts out or ill fuckin explode)

but i think what makes ironwoods plan /feel/ so god awful was how fast he was willing to abandon mantle when push came to shove

maybe they could have shown him mulling over the plan for the whole volume, maybe during the “i trust you all :)” phase when he was telling the team all his plans he could tell team rwby about it but have it be like something thats always been there(from the beginning of atlas) as an absolute worst case scenario plan, to evacuate all the citizens of mantle into atlus and shoot the whole thing into space using the relic, and throw in a “i hope we never have to use that plan but i just wanted to let you all know about it because i trust you :)” yknow wink wink nudge nudge

have the volume go as planned, (maybe have ironwood show more concern for mantle so yknow people could trust the character you want them to trust, have that be the reason why he goes crazy trying to balance his plan to tell the world with the struggle to keep mantle safe while watts and tyrion fuck around on the streets and the council+jacques put him in a headlock) then when salem shows up and calls ironwood a bitch and rwby reveal that they didnt trust him until everything fell apart, have him snap and call for the space protocol, when ace ops go to order the evacuation of mantle into atlas have him go “its too late we have to go now” or something (maybe salem said she was on her way during that skype call)

then when rwby oppose him like “we cant just leave the people of mantle :(“, instead of “no you see we HAVE to sacrifice the less fortunate!” it could be a “well whats your plan? you told me she couldnt be killed and you waited until AFTER it was too late so im stuck with the actual worst case scenario ” or something along those lines, or have his focus be “i need to get the relics far a fuckin way from big bad to avoid the shit you told me about and the easiest way to do that on short notice is shoot atlas into space” or something

idk,,, anything that doesnt make ironwood into a heartless monster of an antagonist because we really dont need any more of those especially while the ones we have are just sitting pretty in some room twirling their thumbs waiting for shit to do, and rwby dont even have a damn plan, and they never have had one since ozpin went into the timeout corner, and they never bothered to think up a plan /on screen/ about what to do with salem, ruby’s eye beams are strong but unreliable when it comes to big grimm (unless she went the oscar route of self improvement and trained them off screen) so staying an fighting as just 1 and 3/4 of a huntsman squd is dumb

and before anyone says anything about boot licking ironwoods plan fucking sucks shit both ways, idk why people are so adamant on defending his decision to leave mantle to die, and leaving atlas vulnerable to the whims of whatever the hell is up in space for however long he thinks salem will wait for without any renewable food sources. but hey at least it will get the relic(s) away from salem, which /in theory/ is the goal, to keep petty and pettier from zaping the earth out of existence (AGAIN) its an idiotic plan and hes really not doing it with keeping the relics from salem as a priority but its still a plan and still better than what actually happens (that being the bad guys getting a relic and only 1 and 3/4 of a hunstman squad vs every grimm ever and nemesis herself)

meanwhile rwbyjnr’s plans seem to be to fuck up any and all plans they become involved with and spend 0 time thinking of what they should do in regards to salem and cross their fingers that the Plot will get them through it and its tiring because i cant root for anyone because no one knows what the fuck theyre doing not even the centuries old constantly reincarnating wise old man chracter knows what hes doing and the writers dont seem to think this is a problem

it would be one thing if in the office ruby gave ironwood a plan maybe a “hey my eyes are grimm repellent, maybe we can buy some time to get as many people of mantle into atlas as we can and then shoot that up into space” and have ironwood say no to that, (or have ruby being up a plan way earlier that gets shot down in favour of amity comm tower) but they just get upset, incapacitate some of the best fighters that could help fight off salem and her giant snow globe and hop on an airship to go ???sightseeing???? idk where they’re going, to mantle?? so they can watch people die and feel sad and blame ironwood when their lack of foresight and inflexible sense of justice has doomed not just mantle but also atlas

maybe instead of cuddling penny they could yknow freaking talk about what went so catastrophically wrong?? have ruby say “if only we told him earlier we could have saved all those people!” or something thats not nothing can we see the characters talk about whats going on after the fact for once havent they had enough of sad looks and cuddles, can they talk about their mistakes? how shit ironwood is? where the hell qrow and oscar are(not even one failed call on a scroll just sad smiles and cuddles im sickkkkkk)?? what theyre gonna do now??? something thats NOT NOTHING its so unfulfilling to watch a series where you’re not rooting for everyone but my damn middle school nostalgia and sunk cost fallacy wont let me just drop this damn series im sick and then all of that do watch salem ride in on a glass marble with giant cutout in her dress and an awful boob contour and it really feels like a tragedy that didnt need to get as bad as it does and god the more i think about it the more i really dont like it and hope the next volume saves it

[just-one-string-in-a-silent-sea]

Baron Corbin x Reader requested by anon (This is fine art, you illiterate fuck + You look like hell)

“This is fine art, you illiterate fuck” + “You look like Hell” + Baron Corbin

Pairing: Baron Corbin x Reader

Word Count: 1,252

A/N: in which the reader takes her best friend Baron Corbin to an art show while in New York for Summerslam 2017 week. Baron is unimpressed, fluff ensues.

“Baron! Baron! Baron! Papa Bear! Wolfman! Big Daddy Cheese curl!”

“What the hell did you just call me?” Said the near-seven-footer as his hotel door I was banging on swung in, and I smiled up at him cheerfully.

“You look like hell,” I remarked, brushing past him into his room, setting down the tray of drinks and handing him his bag of McDonalds, plopping down on the side of his bed, opening my bag as he walked in.

“Thanks, but you look way too cheerful, what are you planning.”

I grinned and tried to hide my blush, maybe I’m cheerful because I get to spend time with you, I thought to myself, but didn’t say anything. Rather just shrugged and waited for Baron to get a mouthful in before exclaiming excitedly, “There’s an art show! It’s right across the road!”

Baron choked, before coughing a few times and calming himself, looking over at me incredulously, “(Y/N), I am not going to an art show with you. I am hung over and bright lights are not gonna go over well for me. I know you’re pretty far below them, but I, unfortunately, am not, and my head is pounding louder than you were hitting my door.”

I crossed my arms, “Baron, you promised today we could do something I wanted to do. I went with you to see The Amity Affliction last night, it’s my turn. You promised.”

“No.”

“You promised.”

“Anything but that, how about a movie? Where it’s dark?”

“Baron!” I snapped, before softening and giving him puppy eyes. I stuck my bottom lip out, even made it quiver a little, hard as it was not to smile.

“(Y/N) put that thing away I am not giving in on this one,” He grunted, taking another bite of his big mac, and I sighed, disappointed.

I stood, dusting myself off, “Okay,” I murmured, trying to mask my real disappointment by overdoing it, “I guess I can always ask Sami or Kevin to go with me instead,” I said, walking to the door, but when I heard a frustrated groan and then, “(Y/N), fine. You win, I’ll go.” I couldn’t help but smile.

It took us almost an hour and a half to even get out of the hotel, Baron was moving so slow. He refused to take off his hood or sunglasses, and would only walk at his own pace, saying that those were his stipulations since he was being forcibly punished for drinking.

I rolled my eyes as he grumbled, “Baron, it’s not my fault you polished off 17 shots and a four loco in two hours last night. You were the one who was mad because you lost to Cena. Everybody else was just having fun, you were pissed.”

He scowled, and I could picture his eyes despite the dark glasses. I felt my stomach drop, hoping I hadn’t made him mad.

God you’re an idiot, (Y/N) I thought to myself, biting my lips, how do you expect him to like you when you say shit like that?

But before I could overthink too much, we were there, paying our admissions and walking amongst the white washed walls and paintings, surrounded by snooty rich people who glowered at Baron and I, in our T-shirts and hoodies and jeans.

We stopped at a few paintings, and finally Baron broke the silent spell, “That literally is a can of soup. Seriously?”

“This is fine art, you illiterate fuck,” You tried to deadpan, but looking at Baron’s ‘I know you’re bullshitting me’ face broke me and I laughed aloud, turning a few heads, but they quickly stopped staring when Baron dropped his sunglasses to glare, and then put them back on. He turned back to me, smiling at my loss of composure. God, Baron could level anyone with those dangerous brown eyes. It was one of the things I loved about him.

Shut up (Y/N)! You can’t be thinking those things, what if he doesn’t feel the same?

“Penny for your thoughts?” Baron’s voice spoke beside me, gently, and I jerked, but not enough for him to notice, as I turned to look up at him.

“Let’s go somewhere else.”

Baron was much too happy to oblige. We practically levitated out of the art show, and for a while, we just walked and talked, until we reached the cobblestone courtyard of Barclay’s center, where a street performer was drumming on various kitchen supplies.

He was definitely impressive, and Baron and I both dropped 50s into his donation hat (I mean it wasn’t like we didn’t have any to spare), knowing he needed it. The man didn’t seem to notice how much we had given him, and I couldn’t wait for him to get home and have that little surprise waiting for him.

As we started to walk back towards the hotel, Baron seemed to be deep in thought.

I had noticed him casting me these weird looks all night, and his little smiles when I laughed or said something dumb and caught myself.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I mimicked, and he stopped on the sidewalk, making me stop as well. He turned to me, and looked at me for a second before he took a deep breath and mumbled something about wishing he was drunk right now.

“Baron?” I asked, concerned, had I done something wrong? Was he mad at me?

He sighed, “Look, you know I’m not very good with this stuff, so I’m just gonna come out and say it, okay? Look, since the very first time you gave me a haircut at one of my matches, I fell in love with you. Your smile is like moonlight, and your eyes are like the stars, and you know how much I love the night. Look, (Y/N), I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you all this for nine months, and then today, when you laughed in the art show, and all those snobs looked at us but you didn’t care, I knew it had to be today. I knew I had to tell you, so this is me, bearing my soul to you, okay? And…(Y/N)? Do…do you want me to go?”

I had started to cry, and Baron rubbed the back of his neck, “Oh god, (Y/N), please don’t cry, I’m so sorry, I understand if you don’t feel the sa-“

But he was cut off when I did nothing short of a complete leap to reach his shoulders and yank him down to kiss me, right there in the middle of the New York sidewalks.

He smiled into the kiss, dropping his arms around my waist, and I smiled too, squeezing him tightly. He was purring, doing that rumbling thing he did when he was happy or when I played with his hair, I always teased him about being a cat.

He tasted like cinnamon and ice cream and home, and when I let him go and looked up at him from the ground, his grin reinforced the home part.

“I’m so thankful for you,” He said, resting his forehead against mine, and I giggled.

“I’m thankful for you too, big daddy cheese curl.”

“Okay seriously what the fuck.”

[anthropwashere]

of all the things that might have been: ch. 7

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

AO3

FFN

(Later than I meant it to be because I fucking swan-dived into ~30,000 words worth of FMA WIPs, honestly just save me from myself. I’ll be doing Camp NaNo in April so don’t expect another chapter ‘til May, sorry and thank you!)

=

It's such a relief to be around the familiar again. Cars and houses and restaurants and streets, all of it almost exactly as he expects Amity Park to look. Sure, he might have ended up in the year he was born, but with how far he's traveled a couple decades is barely worth noticing.

With familiar territory, it’s so much easier to set up shop. There’s plenty of food that’s plenty easy to steal, decent enough medical supplies, and good clothes are an invisible flight through a department store away. Most importantly of all, there’s camping gear. Big, practical, brightly colored camping gear. And it’s fall now, just cool enough to warrant cozy layers but not cold enough to regret sleeping out in the woods like the homeless freak he is.

He can almost pretend like he’s on vacation!

There’s cause for all this, of course. He remembers this year, these two months living on the outskirts of his home town. Normally he prefers to hop from hotel to hotel, overshadowing clerks long enough to mark a room taken and paid for so he can sleep as long as he likes. Clean sheets, hot water, all the garbage continental breakfast he can eat-- an errant time traveler’s paradise. And here he is, stuck with sleeping bags and canned food instead. Ugh.

Past him better be grateful he’s doing all this for him, if he has anything to say about it.

In the failing afternoon light, he appraises his little camp built for two and nods, satisfied. It’s not the prettiest or most high tech setup he could have gone with, but then, pretty and high tech isn’t what he’s aiming to teach, is it?

He grins. Him? Teaching? This’ll be good for a laugh-- on this side of things, at least. He doesn’t remember laughing much, the first time around.

Him? Teaching? Ha!

Crouching, he stokes the campfire with a branch stripped of its yellowed leaves. He hasn’t started up the stew yet since it’ll just boil over once he has to rush pell-mell into the forest. He’ll have time, later. As he feeds dry twigs to the fire he thinks of FentonWorks, and of the young couple that’s only a few years older than he is now. He hasn’t even been been born yet, in this timeline. He’s still not used to it; unable to step foot in the house he grew up in.

Not for the first time he misses his mom’s cooking, his dad’s boisterous laughter, his sister’s coddling. He misses coming home-- after beating up the ghost of the day, more often than not-- to the smell of burgers or pasta or the dreaded Leftover Nights. Good, hearty meals he didn’t have to make himself from stolen ingredients, shared with a family that he could still call his.

He laughs, tossing the branch aside. Now isn’t the time to get all wistful. He’ll have his hands busy with blood and tears soon enough, but after-- yes, after he’s handled his past, he can look to the future again. He’ll fix this, no matter what his future self had to say about it. For now, he’s waiting--

“Nngh!”

Sudden pain cuts through him like a knife, taking his breath with it. He staggers back from the campfire, gasping, clutching at his aching chest. For one terrible instant he thinks he’s wrong after all, that he’s doomed to die here, that no younger self will appear after all. But-- no. No. He has to be right. He knows.

He stands tall, his sternum clicking its protest, and he waits.  His past self will show up far from him, that’s fact. There was no way for him to recognize where his past would appear, so he’d just picked a clearing near the stream and called it home. What’s one fallen tree in a forest, right? He evens his breathing, waits for the smallest flash of blue light to leak through the undergrowth--

There!

He’s off at once, running so quickly he doesn’t quite touch the ground. It’s long, awful seconds before he hears the first scream, bitten ragged with pain. He forgoes the pretense of running at all, blurs away from one second to another, and then there he is.

One look and he regrets not grabbing his first aid kit. Distracted, anxious, not thinking clearly. Idiot. He knows-- remembers-- that it isn’t as bad as it looks, but it’s still a worrying amount of blood.

Past Him is fetal in a burnt-black clearing, the smell of vaporized dead leaves and rainwater and pine smoke heavy in the air. Past Him is younger, years younger, and he’s wearing brand new clothes and there’s a bulky bag beside him that must weigh as much as he does-- not saying much, since god, but he’s skinny. His face is a twisted mess of snot and tears and pain, which makes sense, considering he’s got a tree branch stuck right through his forearm. Phased, rather than pierced, and all the more brutal for it.

“Hey,” Danny calls out over his past self’s screams. And again, “Hey!”

Past Him hiccups shock, twitching away from the tree and only succeeding in wrecking his arm a little bit more. He goes white as a sheet, mouth yawning for a scream that gets tangled up in his throat. Danny winces in sympathy, holding up his empty hands to get the kid’s attention.

“It’s okay,” he says, trying to speak calmly though his own heart is racing. “It’ll be okay. I’m here to help you. I just want to help.”

It takes Past Him a few tries to make a coherent sentence. “W-who-- hhgk-- are you?”

“I’m you,” Danny replies patiently, and rolls up his sleeve to display his own forearm. It's been years now, but he still has two faint circles there, noticeable even at this distance. Ghost healing speeds everything up, but scars still take a long time to fade.

Past him is too distracted by pain to really react to that, which is fair. He just huddles a little closer to the log and looks like he’d love nothing more than to never move again. Danny sighs.

“Okay. We can call this lesson number one. When you time travel, you always, always, always need to phase. It’ll be a pain in the ass until you get used to doing it, but the alternative is getting stuck in a log. Enjoying this so far?”

“Nnn-- hhfh-- no....”

“Yeah, I figured as much.” He kneels beside his past. It is, briefly, very weird. He remembers this moment from when he’d been fourteen years old and shredding his nails against dry bark, jaw clenched so tight his teeth should crack. He remembers the scraping and tugging of the branch in his arm, muscles rigid, his hand spasming. He remembers looking up at a young, leanly-muscled man with wild eyes and a menacing grin. He remembers being so certain that this was how he was going to die.

Flash forward and now he’s the menacing stranger looming over a defenseless, injured kid in the middle of a forest.

Hmm. Awkward.

“Okay,” he says, “I’m not gonna yank you free. I’d do more damage, and you’ve already pulled some muscle out like a champ-- no no, don’t look. Trust me on this. Just-- hold still, okay? I’ll try not to make this any worse than it has to be.”

Well that wasn’t menacing or anything. So sue him, he’s nervous. It’s weird, meeting himself like this.

“I’m gonna cut the branch instead of phasing you off it for now, because we’re about a mile from camp and I’d like to minimize your blood loss as much as possible. I’ll fly us back so it’ll be easier on you. That all sound good?”

“Hhh-- hhgn-- yeah--”

“Awesome, I love it when I'm on the same page as myself.”

Past Him’s eyes are starting to get a little glassy, which means it’s time to shut up and move. It’s quick work to rip his unrolled shirtsleeve off-- he really should have grabbed the first aid kit, way to drop the ball there, Fenton-- and tear it into strips to staunch the bleeding and tie the branch in place. A quick slash of ecto-energy cuts the branch free. Past Him writhes, clawing at the still-smoking ground and his leg both, a shriek scraped through his bared teeth.

“Sorry, sorry!” Danny says hastily. Probably should have warned him, oops. “Sorry. I’m gonna pick you up now, so hang on.”

“My buh-- bag,” Past Him gasps.

“Got it.” Another flare of energy to summon the bag, and he swings it over his shoulder, absently adjusting the strap to fit his broader frame. He remembers this bag; remembers a Sam who knew what to expect, and knew what he’d benefit most from. Sturdy quality, nondescript color, lots of pockets. Past him is gonna lose it before his sixteenth birthday, if he’s lucky. “You just came from seeing our Sam and Tucker, right?”

“Muh-- hhgh-- hh-- month ago.”

Danny scoops him up bridal style, wincing when this earns him another strangled cry. Past him curls like a pill bug, glaring daggers. “I warned you, sorry!”

He flies for camp, talking as he goes. He remembers that too, now that he’s here again. How he’d latched onto the rambling voice of his weird future self as a distraction from the fucking hole in his arm. The memory makes him ramble more. “Once you’re stitched up I can give you something for the pain. It’s just over the counter stuff, but it’ll take the edge off for now. If you need something stronger I can steal some tomorrow, okay? I’ll need to go into town for more supplies anyway, so don’t stress it. All you need to think about right now is not passing out, okay? You’re gonna be fine. This isn’t so bad. I know it hurts right now, but you’ll be okay soon. Just breathe, nice and steady, yeah, like that. I’ve got you. You’ll be okay. You’ll be just fine.”

Back at camp, Danny lays him on the spare blanket he’d laid out just for this. “Keep pressure on that,” he orders. “I’ll be right back.”

He doesn’t hear the weak reply, already rifling through the tent for his trusty kit. It’s been through hell with him-- if you want to call bouncing around the infinitude of forced trans-temporal hopscotch “hell,” which hey, some days. It’s dented and stained and the red cross on its lid is just about scratched gone. It still closes though, which is good enough for him. Kit in hand, he drops his past self’s bag near the edge of the blanket and kneels down beside the boy.

“Hold still,” he says, and hands him a piece of old leather. “Put that in your mouth. I don’t need you biting our tongue off, okay?”

Field surgery done by an amateur is, as expected, kind of a disaster. It’s easier than it would be if either of them were anyone else; it’s useful, sometimes, to be a couple of freaks. Past Him is too much of a ghost to bleed out from something as minor as this, and Danny’s too inured by years of stitching himself back together to allow his hands any hesitation.

“It’s kind of nice to be the living proof I don’t fuck this up and kill you,” Danny remarks lightly as he prods and massages the twisted muscles back into place.

Past Him gives him a look of deepest loathing.

Eventually, the wound is sewn and cleaned and bandaged, and it’s over. Past Him sprawls out on the least bloody corner of the blanket and just lays there and breathes. He’s gray-faced and shaking, skin cold to the touch. Danny gives him a bottle of water and a bag of trail mix and, as an afterthought, pulls another blanket out of the tent to toss over him.

“Sip slow, eat slower,” he says. “I’ll get dinner started once I’ve cleaned up.”

Canned soup takes basically zero effort to heat over a campfire, so he keeps one eye on Past Him and makes lists as he stirs. What will need to be stolen, priority versus indulgence. Medical supplies, obviously. More bandages. Ice too, for the swelling and for storage. It’s kind of weird, having perishables around. Fresh fruit, definitely. Red meat, for the iron and protein-- or would that fall under an indulgence? No no, Past Him needs it. Well, in a few days. For now he should probably stick to chicken broth. He’s had a hard time of it; too much rich food will just make him sick. Yeah, alright. That’ll do, for now.

He ladles out two steaming bowls and plops down on the blanket. Past Him twitches like it’s a habit. Danny doesn’t blame him. He remembers the first year like a bad dream, memories springing unbidden that still make his heart race over nothing. Trauma, Jazz would say if she were here. No shit, Danny would retort. He doesn’t have the looping scars on his arms and legs anymore, but they’re still a raw pink on Past Him. He remembers, even if his skin doesn’t.

A flicker of green energy levitates the bowls, leaving his hands free to gather up a pile of soft things to prop Past Him up. “Hope you’re hungry, because I’m not letting you sleep ‘til the bowl’s empty.”

Past Him stares. “How-- how are you doing that?”

His voice is weak. That should pass soon. It has to. Not like either of them can risk a trip to a hospital. “Doing what?”

“I can’t make stuff float.”

“Oh. Practice,” Danny nods at one bowl, setting it down beside Past Him and plucking his own out of the air. “We’ll get to that.”

“Um. We will?”

“Course we will. What do you think I’m doing here? Well, apart from saving my own life by proxy, I guess.”

Past Him hesitates, his spooning halfway to his mouth. “You’re... really me then?”

“Yup.”

“Then--”

“Shut up and eat, okay? We’ll talk once you’ve had some sleep.”

Past Him is too worn out to put up much of a fight, which is just fine with him. There’s time now, to put things off until tomorrow. There’s time a-plenty for them, for now.

In the morning Danny wakes to the patter of a light rain against the tent, and Past Him is gone.

“...Idiot.”

He floats out of his sleeping bag and gets dressed, shivering when the cold air nips his chest. On his way out of the tent he grabs a second hoodie with a grumble. It’s barely raining, really more of a fine mist if he’s gonna be technical, but it’s pretty chilly out and Past Him’s still weak. If the idiot popped so much as a single stitch wandering around the forest on his own, he’s gonna backhand him into next week! He wasn’t this dumb when he was fourteen, was he?

...Okay, maybe he was. Still!

He finds Past Him by the nearby stream, sitting cross-legged with his hurt arm resting in his lap, lost in thought. Danny huffs.

“Y’have a nice walk?” He asks, walking up. Past Him comes back to himself with a slow shake of his head, but doesn’t reply. With another huff Danny sits next to him, turning his gaze to the stream. The water’s so clear he can see the pale river stones at the bottom, and little shadows of fish darting around. It burbles and splashes, louder than the drizzle on the gold and red leaves still clinging to the trees. It’s peaceful here. Soothing.

They sit a while.

“How you doing?” He asks eventually.

“...’M’cold.”

“That’d be the blood loss, dude.” Danny tosses the hoodie at him, earning an indistinct noise of protest. Past Him pulls it on anyway, careful of his arm. When his head pops out he’s glaring. The hoodie’s a size or two too big for him; he ends up looking like a little kid pouting over not getting any cookies before dinner.

“You’re awfully cheery about all this, you know that?”

“Well sure, why not? We’ve got food, clean water, shelter, we can communicate with the current populace no problem, and I know when our next jumps are gonna be. Oh! And toilet paper. I picked up a bunch of that yesterday and you are welcome.”

Past Him sneers. “Well you might be satisfied with toilet paper, but I’m not looking forward to having this conversation again in ten years.”

Danny laughs. “Wow, thanks! I’m twenty for your information, so it’s only gonna be six years until you can make fun of your moping teenage self crying over how hard his life is, uh boo hoo hoo.”

“I’m not crying--” He stills, the irritation bleeding from him. “...Six years?”

And the snit he’d been working up to vanishes in a puff of morosity. “...Six years,” he says again, and rubs his thumb along the bandages on his arm.

Danny gets it. He does. Six years is forever when you’re fourteen. Six years is impossible to imagine, even when it’s snarking at you and making sure you haven’t popped your stitches. Past Him wants so hard to pretend this will all work itself out, that he’ll get to go home before this can really get out of hand. It’s written on his thin face plain as day. But here’s his future self, aged twenty and some change, as harsh a truth as a slap in the face.

Danny gets it. Six years still seems like forever to him now. But at least Danny’s already lived the years between fourteen and twenty. He knows that it gets better than it’s been for Past Him, that it gets easier. He’ll survive, and he’ll learn and see more than he ever thought possible, even if he has no control of the whats or whens. He hasn’t stopped wanting to go home, and he hasn’t stopped trying to get there either. But he understands that rock bottom could be so much worse than this. And if he’s turned out okay, then Past Him will too.

He has to. Right?

“Hey.”

Past Him says nothing, lost in the middle distance again. Danny rolls his eyes. Forget trauma, this is just drama now. He reaches out and shoves Past Him into the stream. The squawking and yowling that comes after is loud enough to chase a flock of birds out of the treeline, and Danny throws his head back and laughs and laughs.

“What was that for?!” Past Him splutters furiously, hip-deep and soaking wet.

“For brooding!” Danny shouts, flat on his back and kicking his feet.

“For-- what?”

Danny drops his legs, swinging himself upright to give Past Him a Very Serious Expression he can only just hang onto. “We future-Dannys have a strict no brooding policy.” This is a staggering lie. “Breaking this rule will earn you a swift and merciless dunking! If there’s no nearby body of water around, we’ll settle for a good punch to the nads.”

Past Him gapes for several seconds, and then finally-- god, was he this slow at fourteen too? He must have been but jeez, this is tragic-- he remembers his arm. With a yelp that’s half-panic and half-pain he throws his arm over his head, horrified. “My stitches!”

Danny floats to his feet and turns back towards camp, chest aching and mouth sore from grinning. Man, he’d needed a good laugh. “Phase ‘em dry! You’ll be alright.”

Still chuckling, he leaves his past in the water.

Breakfast is scrambled eggs with bits of ham and bacon. Danny grimaces his way through a cup of instant coffee, the gritty taste waking him up better than the actual caffeine. He leans back in his squat fold-out chair, plastic plate balanced on one knee and plastic cup perched on the other, gives Past Him an appraising glance. He phased himself dry but is still wrapped up in a fleece blanket against the chill, pulled up to his ears. His bandages ought to be changed too, as a precaution.

“So does this time travel garbage get any less random?” Past Him asks.

Danny snorts, setting his empty plate aside. “Pfft, I wish.”

“Then how come you’re here too?”

“Because this is what happened for me when I was your age, and now it’s happening again.” He shrugs. “I try not to think about it too hard when this kind of thing happens.”

“So, what, I’m destined to time travel for at least six years just to save my own butt?” Past Him stabs at his plate, looking furious. “How’s that fair?”

“It isn’t destiny, alright? Don’t make it sound like we’ve been prophesied into a magical loop of time hobo bullshit. It’s Clockwork, alright? This is all Clockwork’s fault.”

Past Him doesn’t say anything, picking at his eggs. But there’s a tension in his shoulders that wasn’t there before, even when he’d been racked with pain. Hmm. Danny thinks back again, tries to remember this conversation. It’s indistinct now, dreamy shapes instead of true memory. He remembers the meals shared rather than the words that passed between them. Mostly, he remembers being scared and overwhelmed and homesick. Trying to understand what had happened to him and unable to wrap his mind around the possibility of being preordained into having this conversation twice.

Damn.

“Hey.”

Past Him eyes him warily, like he’s somebody dangerous, somebody to be threatened by. Which, considering things, is a fair assessment. Still, ouch.

“I know this is a lot to take in. It’s been-- what, four months for you?”

A nod.

“Right, and it’s been shit. I remember. And Sam and Tucker, they told you what’s gonna happen, but hearing something bad is a whole lot different than seeing it.” He gestures at himself, smiling and hoping he looks apologetic. “You don’t want to believe, and that’s fine. But the fact is, I’m your best case scenario.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’ve seen an alternate Danny or two by now, right?”

Past Him winces. “Just one, in person. The other one was, um. His parents said he was dead.”

Yeah, that’s more common than he’d like to think about. Comes with the territory though, idiot kid hero trying to save the city one punch at a time. Dannys get hurt or they get dead, or if they’re very very very lucky, they get to grow up. “No, no. I mean alternate time-traveling Dannys. Ones like you and me.”

He looks at Danny uncertainly. “I… don’t think I have?”

“You’d know if you did. They’re usually dead.”

Ah hell, that was too blunt. Now Past Him looks all panicky again. “I mean-- what I mean is, this isn’t--” He clears his throat, tries to channel Jazz’s Lecture Mode. “Time travel is dangerous. Your arm’s proof of that. One slip up in a jump can be fatal. Statistically, it is way more likely that we’ll die instead of finding a way to fix this. A foot to the right and instead of a branch in your arm it would’ve been the whole log through your gut. You’ve made it this far okay and I’ve made it farther, but there’s six years between us and I can promise you you’re going to find some dead Dannys along the way. I’m sorry, but that’s facts.”

Past Him says nothing for a moment, stirring his eggs again. “...What happened to your face?”

“Huh? Oh.” Danny touches his cheek, tracing the edge of a scar even his supernatural healing hasn’t touched. “Ended up back in the bad future again, only a few seconds after I’d left. The Observants hit the big reset button while I was there.”

“Observants?”

“A bunch of one-eyed time cops who can’t grasp the concept of trans-temporal travel to save their skins.” He scoffs. “Clockwork works for them.”

“Really? He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who, y’know, works well with others.”

Danny laughs. “Far as I can tell, you’re right on the money. There’s definitely some mutual hatred between them, but I couldn’t tell you why. It’s not often I’ve run into the Observants, and when I do I have to explain everything all over again and hope they don’t try and kill me.”

“Why?”

He leans forward to stoke the campfire with a long stick, prodding at the ashy logs until the embers burn brightly again. “Why what?”

Past Him shifts, taking another bite of his eggs. “Lots of whys, I guess. I dunno. Why would they try and kill you? Wouldn’t helping us out make their jobs easier? Being, uh, time cops and everything?”

He sighs, leaning back in his chair again. As he answers, he waves and jabs the stick for emphasis. “They put on this big show of passivity-- observe, but never to act, kind of their whole thing really-- but they’re just as trigger happy as any ghost if you startle them right. And like it or not we startle everybody, because of this.” He pats his chest. “No matter what I’ve told them, they always think I’m trashing their tidy little timelines on purpose. They don’t do much about me, obviously-- it’s kind of in their name-- but they’re annoying. They bristle up and make a big fuss in every timeline I come to as if I’m gonna go out of my way to wreck their tragically linear grasp of past-present-future, but since we’ve got this--” He pats his chest again, “--they just kind of grumble and posture ‘til I leave.”

“You….” Past Him frowns, rubs his face, and makes a visible attempt at sorting his thoughts together. This really is a conversation that should wait until the kid’s got a full five liters of blood to oxygenate, but Danny knows it won’t. Stubbornness is something he’s always been guilty of. “They don’t know who you are, over and over?”

Danny allows the clumsy question to be left alone, though he dearly wants to poke fun. Blood loss. Trauma. Et cetera. “They don’t, that’s the thing. They’re incredibly limited in their-- you know what? Here, we need some visuals, I think.”

He floats off his chair to a stretch of dirt closer to Past Him. A soft sweep of power brushes an uneven square clear of leaves and loose stones, and using the stick he’d stoke the fire with Danny draws as he talks.

First, a lone vertical line. “This is one timeline; one whole stupidly long stretch of reality as our little minds understand it from start to finish. Big B and E, Beginning and End, here and here.” Two little horizontal ticks to mark each. “And the Observants have existed in one form or another since like, right after the Beginning.” He doodles a circle around a dot in a rough doodle of an eye. Dirt’s a hard medium, so sue him. “They can see the whole of this timeline laid out like a movie reel. They see everything that will happen, is happening, or has happened within that scope, and they can see when calling in the big guns might be necessary.”

“Big guns-- meaning Clockwork?” Past Him asks.

“Yeah.” He draws another vertical line beside the first. “The thing is-- as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now-- is that there is waaaaaay more than just one timeline out there for us to bounce around in. And the Observants from this timeline--” He taps the first line, “--can’t even tell this timeline exists at all. If you try telling them Timeline A is different than Timeline B because everybody in the U.S. speaks German or whatever, they’ll call you a lunatic.” He fills the rest of the open dirt with vertical lines, more for visual effect than is strictly necessary. “Same in Timelines C through Z, onto infinity. You follow?”

“Yeah, I follow. Kind of the only thing that makes sense with all the, um. Places I’ve been.” Past Him rubs his wrist absently, tracing the shallow scars rather than the edge of his bandage.

“...I wasn’t a fan of her either,” Danny says quietly, and nods at the scars when Past Him looks embarrassed. “At least there was water then. You’re gonna hate Duulaman, if you stick around long enough to end up then too.”

“Who is--”

“Maybe later,” Danny cuts in, making an attempt to smile but feeling it strain across his teeth. Past Him huffs, but at least he isn’t twitchy like earlier. Talking all this out is a distraction, if nothing else.

“Okay. So Clockwork works for these Observant guys, right? Having us-- me?-- getting jerked all over the place is definitely gonna mess up something eventually. Have you tried telling them about how Clockwork’s left us out to dry?”

Danny barks laughter, tossing the stick aside. “Are you kidding me? That asshole may as well be my imaginary friend at this point. It doesn’t matter what I tell them; they either don’t believe me or nothing tangible comes from it. They don’t interfere.”

“...I see.”

“I can’t remember, have you tried going to his lair yet?”

“Yeah. Four times, before I gave up and went Earth-side again.”

“Ah, okay.” Another soft sweep of power brushes away the doodled timelines. He stands, stretching out his back with a groan as something pops. “Yeah, I’ve tracked his lair down a hundred times if I’ve done it once. No luck. Mostly I just get lost in the Ghost Zone for a while, until I pop into a time period where someone made a stable portal in Amity Park. Usually it’s some variation on Mom and Dad, but there’ve been a few surprises.”

“So he is avoiding me. Us. Whatever.” Past Him shuts his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose with his good hand. “This is… way more complicated than I’m prepared to deal with right now.”

“That’s fair. Here, you’re still looking pretty ragged ‘round the edges. How about you try and get some more sleep? I promise you won’t go anywhere for a while.”

He nods. “I… yeah. Sleep-- sleep sounds like a good idea.”

It’s evening by the time Past Him stirs again, and when he stumbles out of the tent he’s a little more put together, a little more coherent. As Danny sets him down by the fire to change his bandages again, he looks around with the first spark of interest he’s shown since he showed up. “Where’d you get all this stuff anyway? Did Sam go on another shopping spree?”

“Nah, I don’t think Sam’s even been born yet. Quit squirming.”

“Then quit poking it. What year is it?”

“Mom and Dad just put up the Fenton Works sign on the house.”

“So it’s only--” He frowns. “Did you get them to buy all this?”

“They’re not our parents. Not yet anyway.” He tugs on the bandage to make sure the clip isn’t loose, then pats Past Him on the knee. “And besides, these are pre-Portal days for them anyway. They’d think I was crazy.”

At a loss, Past Him looks out at the campsite again. It’s downright spartan, compared to the camping trips Mom and Dad used to take them on. Necessity has made Danny stingy and cautious, used to having nothing but the necessities at the best of times. But for this jump he splurged on lanterns and sleeping bags, a roomy camping tent and pre-cut firewood. Stuff that your normal American family wouldn’t think twice on bringing out to the woods, but it’s all stuff Danny’s gotten used to not having. It is, personally speaking, a shit ton of stuff.

“How did you pay for all this?”

“I didn’t.”

“Then--” His eyes widen, understanding at last. “You stole all this?”

“We gotta survive somehow, y’know?”

“I-- well--” He fumbles. “Yeah, I guess. But stealing?”

Danny smiles, not unkindly. “Lemme get dinner started before you get all high and mighty on me, okay?”

Past Him glowers. “I’m not hungry.”

“Bullshit, you’re not. You’re really gonna turn down chicken soup because I stole it? It’s like a dollar a can right now anyway, it’s peanuts.”

“Then you could’ve paid a dollar for it.”

Danny purses his lips, resting his hands on his hips as he levels a distinctly unimpressed glare at Past Him. “Before you look at me like I said I kick puppies for fun-- yeah, that look, knock it off-- just think about it for a minute. What’s the longest you’ve been anywhere so far?”

He may as well have flipped a switch to make Past Him look so miserable so quickly. “Two weeks.”

“Right, and civilization was kaput then anyway, so it wasn’t like you could buy a sandwich if you had the money to.” He huffs. “I’m not saying it’s all post-apocalyptic wastelands from here on out, okay? But the point is, it’s really rare for me to be anywhen long enough to land some honestly-made cash to honestly-buy anything. All of this--” He gestures at their little camp site, a circle of garish colors and a smattering of tacky camo, “--is very, very out of the ordinary. I only stole all of this because I knew you’d be showing up too, and I know how long we’ll both be here.”

Past Him makes a face. What, did he really forget this was a temporary setup? “How long is that?”

“Two months, give a take a day or two for both of us. I’ve been here three days already, so I’ve had time to prepare. And yeah, that means I stole a whole bunch of junk I’m not gonna take with me when I leave.” He shrugs, dropping his arms. “It sucks, okay? I know it sucks. But it’s steal or starve, and frankly dude, I’ve had my fair share of starving. Haven’t you?”

It’s a rhetorical question. Past Him looks like a pile of kindling somebody draped a t-shirt and a pair of jeans over. “You did all this… for me?”

“Yup, but don’t feel guilty about it. You weren’t the one who robbed half the camping section of Wal-Mart, I did. This is all just to help me spin you up.” He smiles. “Trust me, I woulda been perfectly happy sleeping in a nice hotel room for two months, but this little fall camping trip is where I learned how to survive, so now it’s my turn to repay the favor.”

Past Him shuts his eyes, leans back in his chair. The flickering light of the fire spills black shadows in the hollows of his eyes, across the sharp angles of his cheeks and jaw, down the taut lines of his skinny throat. Poor kid. He’s had it rough. Danny remembers, with that quiet distance memory gives to all bad things. An echo, absent of pain, softened by time. Long days and longer nights all blurred together, the panic and fear and hunger rubbed away, leaving only the distinct feeling of a loneliness that dogs him still.

Six years really is forever.

“Chicken soup it is,” Danny says.

A week passes quietly. For the most part Danny leaves Past Him be, answering questions when he’s asked and providing commentary on little things around the camp without expecting much response. Fire maintenance, trash disposal, washing their clothes in the stream; those kinds of things. He leaves a few hours here and there, to steal more medical supplies and food, and to furtively spy on the house so recently named Fenton Works. Mom and Dad-- no, Maddie and Jack, they aren’t his parents, they don’t even have a son yet anyway-- are hard at work fortifying the roof to support what will eventually be the Ops Center. Jazz is too little to be left unsupervised long, so they take turns to play with her and feed her, a gingham blanket and lots of pillows and toys strewn on a safe stretch of rooftop. Mom’s-- Maddie’s-- hair is long and curly, and there’s no gray touching D-- Jack’s-- temples yet. They’re really not much older than he is.

They’re happy. He’s glad, to see them happy.

A week since Past Him showed up, and he’s just about healed up. One of the perks of being a freak; even a branch shunted through his arm really can’t slow him down for long. The stitches come out and the heavy bandages are replaced with just two gauze pads, and even that’s not all that necessary. The new skin is raw and tender, looks like ground beef instead of scar tissue, but it’ll be fine. He’ll be just fine.

“You okay?” Past Him asks that night, dinner eaten and plates cleaned. They’ve been sitting by the fire, bundled up against the autumn wind whipping through the trees. Branches sway and and creak, black outlines against a night sky spilling over with stars. It’s a nice night, quiet. Past Him’s even been cracking jokes.

“...I gotta show you something,” he says, reluctantly. He should have done this days ago. He’s put it off long enough.

“Uh-oh. You got all serious. What is it?”

He unzips his hoodie, kneads the hem of his t-shirt in his fingers and swallows. “Something you really won’t like.”

“You’ve already been nothing but bad news,” Past Him grins. “C’mon, spit it out.”

“I wouldn’t call this ‘bad news,’ per se, more of an ‘oh my god’ kind of news,” he replies, and lifts up his shirt.

“Whyyyy are you stripping-- oh my god, what.”

The firelight makes it look worse than it really is. Idiot, he should have thought of that. He should have waited until morning, when the light would be better, when the shadows would be honest. But he might have lost his nerve by then, and he’s put it off long enough, he has. This is a cruelty Past Him has to know.

Danny doesn’t look down, only watches horror etch hard lines into Past Him’s skinny face, at the disgust twisting his mouth, the bulge of his eyes, how he recoils in his chair. He doesn’t look down because he doesn’t have to. He knows the shape of the hole in his chest like the back of his own hands, has traced its growth a thousand times with careful fingers. He knows the mottled purple bruising, the sloughed flesh that looks more like candle wax than skin, the white expanse of exposed bone, the slippery pink muscles, the glistening edge of subcutaneous fat. The hole in his chest doesn’t bleed, but the steady pulse of his beating heart can be touched, if he hooks his finger right.

Past Him’s hands have jumped to his own chest, reflexively trying to cover a wound he doesn’t have yet.

The fire shifts with a startling loud pop and crackle, sending up a flurry of orange sparks to wink out in the darkness above. The wind sighs, and goosebumps break out across Danny’s bare skin. The cold bites at his chest, a bone-deep ache like chewing on ice cubes, and he waits for Past Him to speak.

“What--” He swallows, shakes his head, tries again. “What the hell?”

“The time medallion,” Danny replies simply. It’s explanation enough, really.

“Howww are you… not dead?” Past Him makes a pained expression, rubbing his chest nervously. “Are you dead? Have you actually been dead this whole time and my ghost sense just didn’t work, because--”

“I’m not dead. You’ll know when you’ve found a dead Danny, trust me.”

“Shit,” Past Him breathes. “Sam and Tucker told me the medallion was gonna mess with me, but I didn’t think-- I didn’t think it’d be so-- so graphic.”

“It’s really not as bad as it looks.” He adjusts his grip on his shirt a little, fetching a pocket knife from his hip and flicking it open. The little blade shines blackly, a wavering streak of orange dancing down its edge. “And it doesn’t make me as vulnerable as you’d think it would.” And he demonstrates this by burying the knife in his chest.

Past Him shouts, jumping to his feet, but Danny’s already pulled the knife out. He tosses it underhanded to Past Him, who nearly drops it in surprise. He stares at it, then at Danny. The blade has rusted away to nothing.

“Only Dannys like us can really touch it,” he says, tapping his sternum. The tick-tick of his fingernail is loud, like tapping a pencil on a school desk, the kind with a cubby hole for your textbooks. It doesn’t echo, but the sound of a cluttered space inside is clear enough.

“...I’m going to throw up.”

“It’s not that bad.” Danny tugs his shirt down, zipping up his hoodie again.

“It’s pretty bad, actually!”

“Don’t be such a baby. You’ve got a while before it’ll start to show on you.” Past Him’s face loses its revulsion, gets that miserable dismay he wears whenever Danny talks about the future. “Once the bruising lingers, you’re gonna have to get quick with the lies, and creative with how you hide it. Nobody who isn’t in the know about what you are or what’s happened to you can see it.”

“...Who’s in the know?” Well, that’s begrudging as hell, but at least he’s not putting up as much a fuss as Danny had been afraid he would.

Danny closes the distance between them to pat him gently on the shoulder. He smiles, hopes it’s a comfort. “People you can trust. Who that ends up being is up to you.”

Past Him shakes his head, pulling away. He looks at the knife handle clenched in his fist like it might bite him. “But-- but how? You’ve got a-- a-- you’ve got that!” He points unnecessarily. “I think it’s bigger than my fist! Does it-- god, does it leak? Does it hurt? Like, all the time?”

“Of course it hurts,” Danny retorts. “You already know that. It hurts like hell after every jump, and after a while it doesn’t stop hurting.”

“But you-- you never said anything.”

Danny shrugs. “What’s the point of complaining?”

“What d’you mean, ‘what’s the point?’” Past Him flails a little, jabbing at his chest with the handle. “That’s horrible! That’s-- how can you live with that?”

Danny huffs again. “Because it’s either live with it, or don’t live at all.”

Past Him stops. Drops his hands to his sides. Looks at Danny like he’s seeing him for the first time. And he staggers back, falls into his chair, and crumples up like a paper napkin. Shaky, breathless laughter jangles out of him, the knife handle falling from his limp hand to the dirt with a muted thud.

“I can’t do this,” he says. “I can’t, I can’t, I’m in over my head. This is crazy. I can’t.”

Jesus. He’d forgotten, he’d actually forgotten how much this messed him up the first time around. What can he say? Is there anything? What’d he tell himself the first time?

...Ah, it’s been too long. He can’t remember.

“You have to,” he says quietly. “I’m your best case scenario.”

Past Him says nothing, so Danny leaves him by the fire.

After that, Danny stops hiding his chest. He doesn’t turn away when he changes in the tent or when they go down to the stream to bathe, breathless and swearing in the cold. Past Him goes white and quiet every time he sees the wound, and he presses his hand to his own chest when he thinks Danny’s not looking. That’s fine. He doesn’t have to stop being scared of it. He just has to understand what it means.

As the weeks pass Danny finds himself in an almost constant state of déjà vu, opening his mouth to speak only to have dim memories fall from his tongue. He wastes a lot of time blinking and shaking his head, knowing he looks like a strong advocate for helmets in the eyes of his teenage self and not really able to do anything about it. It’s not like he isn’t aware of how unstable he looks; he remembers this much. He’s already done all this. He remembers thinking, with laughable clarity, Oh good, I go totally banana sandwich because of this.

He doesn’t bother excusing these brief yet annoyingly frequent bouts of confusion. They happen. They keep happening. It’s almost convenient, actually, to have half-buried memories on-hand to help with the lessons he’s pulling out of his ass. It helps him sound like he knows what he’s doing, which is still very, very hilarious.

News flash to Danny Fenton, age twenty and some change: Teaching is a lot harder than it looks. If he ever gets a chance to apologize to Mr. Lancer, take it.

Past Him doesn’t like hunting. Danny remembers that too, with that weird double-layer to his memory of this jump. Saying something and remembering someone else say it when it really was him saying it after all. He remembers being disgusted before, and horrified, and scared, and young.

Him now? He’s so frustrated with this idiot kid he could scream.

“Do you really want a repeat of Plant Queen Sam’s vegetarian nightmare apocalypse?” He asks impatiently, fed up with all the protests he’s gotten over this. “You’ve been here almost a month now, getting three solid meals and all the Zs you could ask for thanks to me, but this isn’t a permanent setup. We’re both gonna leave, and you need to be able to fend for yourself!”

“I’m just saying,” Past Him says, just as exasperated, “There’s got to be a better way than this.”

This is a rabbit caught in a trap and a hunting knife. This is also, apparently, an exercise in futility.

“There is, and I showed you, and you went and had a big hissy fit over how it wasn’t ‘fair’ to the animals!”

“They don’t stand a chance that way!” And he grimaces and folds his arms over his chest, haughty and self-conscious and not looking at the shivering rabbit at his feet. “It just-- it doesn’t feel-- it’s not right.”

Danny does a little loop de loop in the air to burn off some tension. It’s that or slap some sense his dumb idiot terrible teen self. They’re both ghost right now, two black-suited shadows flitting through the forest, checking traps and finally finding something caught, and it is sorely tempting to slap Past Him through a tree or two. He’d survive it just fine, really. “You’re thinking about this as murder.”

“Yeah, ‘cause that’s what it is.”

“No, it’s survival. Practical application of your powers in order to sustain your own existence at the cost of an animal’s. It’s the food chain, dude.”

Past Him makes another face. “You sound like one of Jazz’s textbooks.”

“Because I didn’t think you’d kick up such a fuss over this and now I’m jumping through hoops trying to to find a way for this to make sense to you, you tremendous baby.”

Past Him throws up his hands. “I don’t want to murder a deer with my ghost powers-- or a freaking machete, for that matter!”

Danny laughs. “Wow, no. For one, this is a hunting knife. Totally different types of knives. Two, who said anything about deer? What are you, greedy? What the hell would we do with a whole deer? I made rabbit traps for a reason.”

“You know what I mean.”

The rabbit thrashes against the rope around its feet, panting heavily. Danny glares. “Look, it’s terrified right now. You’d be doing it a favor and getting a couple meals out of it. Kill the fucking rabbit!”

“I don’t want to!”

“You know what? Fine.” He phases his hand through the rabbit’s chest, a slash of motion too quick for the thing to see. It spasms once more and goes limp. Dead so quick it couldn’t have known what was happening. Quicker and more merciful than knives or guns or bows, and bloodless besides, and Past Him is a gutless coward who’d rather starve than kill an animal with his own hands.

“You win,” Danny snaps, picking the rabbit up. “Have fun going hungry again.”

“Wait, what?”

Danny stalks back toward the campsite, turning human mid-stride. Past Him flits after, nervously, like he’s expecting to be punished. Well Danny’s not gonna play Disappointed Dad with teenage him. He’s too young to be a dad, and too damn peeved besides. “From here on out you don’t catch dinner, you don’t eat dinner.”

“What? Hey, hang on!”

He ignores the whining and protesting all the way back to camp. Past Him doesn’t shut up even when he skins and guts the rabbit with practiced hands, though he does hang back and go a little greener than usual. He keeps up the noise as Danny gets the rabbit on a spit and over the fire. He goes on and on, crying about how it’s not fair to ask him to kill a defenseless rabbit when they’re just a few miles away from Amity Park. As if proximity to easy-access food is something that can be relied on indefinitely, as if that isn’t something Past Him is damn well acquainted with already. As if supermarkets and drive-thru fast food have existed since time immemorial and will keep on existing until the sun burns out.

Eventually, disgusted and irritated and fed up and tired, Danny chases Past Him out of earshot with a burning branch in one hand and a ball of ecto-energy in the other to get some peace and quiet.

“I’m trying to teach you a valuable lesson, you ungrateful ass!” He hollers after the disappeared flick of a ghostly tail.

Past Him lasts two days, lurking in the nearby woods. Any time Danny catches him in his peripheral he fires off a few blasts, aiming wide to warn the idiot off. On the third day Past Him drops a dead squirrel on his head, and Danny laughs and waves him down.

“I hate you,” Past Him spits.

Danny nods. “Then we’re getting somewhere.”

There’s just a few days left now.

Danny can’t remember who left first, so to be on the safe side he’s double- and triple-checking both of their bags. Necessities are priority-packed; medical supplies and emergency rations, spare socks and underwear, knives and iodine pills and parachute cord. All the frivolous trappings he’d splurged on for this jump will be left behind, one more ghost story the humans will tell and retell one another, missing case files that won’t ever get solved. He sorts through t-shirts and shoestrings and canteens and tries not to think about the married couple that aren’t his parents, only a little older than he is, unaware they’ll have a son one day.

Past Him watches him work, floating idly about ten feet off the ground. These two months have been good to him; he’s filled out, gotten some color in his face. He could walk down the street and no one would think anything of him, just one more kid killing time after school. He props his chin up with one hand and hums. “Does it get better?”

“Your cooking? Obviously.”

“No, I meant this.” He flaps his other hand vaguely. The two round scars on his forearm stand out like they’ve been drawn on with marker, but otherwise there’s no telling that he’d ever been hurt. “All this stupid time traveling.”

Well now. There’s a choice to make here if there ever was one.

Brutal honesty, half-truth, outright lying. It’s true that it stopped being hard once he got the necessary skills hammered out. It’s amazing, really and honestly amazing, what he’s seen and what he can still expect to see. It’s been incredible and terrible and humbling, to see the many facets of himself, all the hims that could have been and all the hims that never got to be, because they died or were never born, and someone else got to live in his place. Seeing a hundred variations on his friends and family, and a hundred generations of people before and after them too. All the lives lived, all the lives never known.

Yeah, there are many times he could say he’s even been happy.

This time, he doesn’t need to rely on déjà vu to tell him what to say. He’s been expecting this question-- expecting, not remembering that it was asked. They’re almost out of time. It was bound to come up.

He stops rooting around for his toothbrush, sitting back on his heels to look up at Past Him. “Listen,” he says. “This sucks. It really, really sucks, and sometimes I get so homesick I could puke, and I spend so much time scared out of my mind that I’m gonna die in some hole a million years ago and no one I care about will ever know what happened to me. I’m scared I’ll say something or do something wrong and mess up a timeline in some huge, awful way. Maybe I already have and I just don’t know it yet, because I haven’t been back to that timeline. Maybe I’ll never get to know how badly I mess stuff up, or how many people I hurt by accident or by choice. Maybe that’s a good thing. Or maybe not knowing is worse. I don’t know. I just….”

He sighs.

“I don’t know,” he repeats. “I never imagined I’d grow up to be a time hobo, y’know?”

Past Him smiles down at him, a wry slice of teeth in a sun-browned face. “I don’t think anybody ever aspires to be a time hobo.”

“Ha, yeah. And I mean-- like I’ve said before, the day-to-day stuff all gets easier. We jump, we acclimate, we get as comfortable as we can until we jump again. Rinse and repeat and hope maybe next time there’ll be a ghost portal to go through. We learn how to really roll with all the weird shit that gets thrown at us, and I’m saying ‘we’ because I met a future time hobo Danny once who had this kind of-- I dunno. Stone-cold, grizzled, badass action dad vibe thing going for him. It was very impressive. I was very impressed.”

Another smile. “When does that happen?”

“I was seventeen. If you’re lucky, you’ll see him too.”

“How old was-- no. You won’t tell me, will you?”

“Nope.”

Past Him gives an exaggerated sigh, but lets it go.

Danny stands, stretching on tip-toe with his hands over his head to ease the tightness in his spine. One of his knees pops satisfyingly. Geeze. He’s only twenty, and he already feels old. “We both get better at this,” he says. “And maybe one of us will be lucky enough to find a way to fix this. Maybe I’m not your best case scenario after all, and maybe the future Danny I met wasn’t mine.”

He almost says what that would mean, for both of them, but the memories of lonely bones and cold metal steal the words from him. “I… ah, hell. It sucks. It really does. Sometimes it gets better, but then it gets worse again, and some stuff there’s just no helping. I just had to keep going.”

“Like your face?”

“Like my face.”

Past Him drops to eye-level, an eyebrow pointedly raised. “And you’re still not gonna tell me how exactly you got that? Even though really, I’d think you’d appreciate changing your past so your face doesn’t get ripped open.”

“It wouldn’t be my past if you managed to avoid tall, dark, and homicidal. My past is for keepsies whether I like it or not.” It’s all tree branch and tributary metaphors for time travel; the past can’t be fixed, only altered enough to create a new timeline stemming from the thing you tried to change. The past may as well be set in stone. That’s just how it is.

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve said.” Past Him lands, hands in his pockets. “It’s still worth trying to change how it goes for me though, isn’t it?”

Danny said the same thing, when he was fourteen. “...Good luck.”