Yo gurl started college, so updates might stretch longer, and I’m really sorry about that! That being said, enjoy my newest addition, both to the story and to the Phantom family. Credit to my partner @squishywritings. I don’t own the line divider.
Small Steps
Summary: the Phantom family gains a small new addition. But it brings its own share of angst as it dredges up bad memories. Poor Dani.
Words: 1,661
Danny regrets a lot of things. He regrets pulling his friends into danger. He regrets not being there for Dan. He regrets being too late to save Dani. He regrets his tense relationship with his parents.
But all of that feels like nothing in the face of this evil.
“Please,” his no-good, cute, and pouty ghost-kid whines.
Danny can feel an incoming headache, and a clench in his heart, but he keeps a firm voice when he answers, “Do you even know how to take care of a blob ghost?”
“Yeah!” Dani says, sounding affronted. “Vlad told me that all they need is a bit of ectoplasm. We can just use your parents’ lab for that!”
He understands her drive. He really does. The blob was oddly adorable with its round form and its big eyes that were definitely pouting at him. Dani said she’d found it on the street, scared and shaking. It had probably wandered away from the ghost zone and couldn’t find its way back.
So, it was a stray. And while Danny definitely understands why Dani wants it so badly, he still has to be responsible and consider the glaring problem here.
“Dani, what if my parents catch it?” he sighs.
“We can keep him in the Haunt!” she presses. “It’s a pocket zone from the Ghost Zone, he should be able to survive there. Besides, you let me and Dan stay here, and you didn’t worry about us being caught!”
“I did worry about that, actually.” There was nothing more nerve-wracking than hiding your ghost-kids in your own house, which also happened to be the house of two ghost-hunters. “I still do, but you and Dan are smart and responsible, you know how to stay hidden. Ghost blobs don’t have that same level of intelligence, Dani.”
“Oh,” she frowns. Her brows furrow, and Danny has raised her long enough to recognize that as her thinking face. She looks up at him again, her eyes determined when she says, “I promise I’ll look after Ditto! I’ll take care of him and I’ll watch him and make sure he doesn’t get into trouble. I promise, Mom! So can we please keep him?”
Ditto? Oh, Ancients. She already named him.
Danny takes in her determined expression, and something inside him melts. She must really want this blob. He can say no despite her affirmations, but Danny doesn’t think he can handle her heartbroken expression. The last time he’d seen it on her face was after their misunderstanding at school, and he still felt like shit for putting the expression on her face. He doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice.
He heaves a sigh. “Fine, you can keep him.”
Dani’s expression lifts immediately. Jumping into a float, she cheers loudly as she throws the blob up as one would a baby. “Did you hear that, Ditto? Welcome to your new home!”
Danny watches as Dani dances in the air with her new pet. She’s laughing and smiling, and the blob, Ditto, seems to understand her joy as he lets out a sound resembling a cheer.
It’s an adorable sight, and it melts away all of Danny’s concerns. If it made Dani this happy, who was he to ruin that, he thinks with a fond smile.
Dani turns to him after a while of cheering as though she’d forgotten he was there, but he doesn’t resent that. He could never resent her happiness. Still, he has to be responsible, so he clears his throat and says, “He’s your responsibility, okay? I’m trusting you to take good care of him.”
Dani nods, her smile never faltering. He’s about to say something else, but he’s surprised when she suddenly throws herself at him, hugging him tightly as she whispers, “Thank you, Mom.”
His core afloat with her contagious joy and love, Danny just smiles, hugging her back just as tightly. “You’re welcome, gremlin.”
“Damn it!” crash! “Get back here you little shit!”
“Hey! Don’t call Ditto bad names!”
“Like hell, I won’t! Did you see what the little shit did to my hair?”
“I don’t know Dan, the new look suits you.” a cackle.
“HE BIT OFF MY HAIR!” boom!
Danny sighs as the ruckus only got louder and louder. The headache he’d anticipated so long ago makes a notorious return, and with it, it brings back all of Danny’s regrets of adopting Ditto.
He should have known Ditto would copy Dani and cause chaos. He should have known.
While Danny is happy that Dani loves the little guy (as does Dan, but he would never admit that), he wishes Ditto would stop causing ectoplasmic explosions into his house.
He is so glad his parents are out right now.
Another blast sounds, but this time it sails right by Danny’s head, nearly singing his hair in the process. Danny looks toward the culprit, and Dan tenses slightly. Looking somewhat sorry, he apologized, “Sorry, Ma! I was aiming for Dipshit.” Curiously, he never stepped closer, even as Ditto settled comfortably on Danny’s head.
Danny can feel something snap as he stands up. Dan must have seen how twitchy his expression was because he minutely flinched.
“Dan, if you hurt Ditto, I swear on all the Ancients, I’ll-” Dani stops in her speech, looking more visibly startled than Dan. Ever the brave one, she asks, “I-Is everything okay, Mom?”
Danny exhales. “Oh, nothing. I just nearly got my head blown off because Dan was chasing your wayward pet.”
Dani sweats nervously. Danny couldn’t feel actual fear from them, which was good because he really didn’t want them to fear him, but he can still feel a similar, but lighter, feeling to fear from them. Good.
Raising a brow, he asks, “Now, whose responsibility might this be?”
“M-Mine,” Dani answers meekly, floating down to the ground. Dan still hasn’t said anything.
“You don’t say,” Danny drawls. “Then, I don’t suppose you taught Ditto that it was okay to intake ectoplasm by eating Dan’s hair?” He looks pointedly at the missing chunk of Dan’s flaming hair.
Dani doesn’t answer him, so he pushes his displeasure at her core. Finally, she caves and says, “I… did.”
She looks genuinely sad now. Danny sighs, pulling away. She doesn’t relax, but then again, neither has Dan.
“Look, I’m not mad, per se,” he explains. “But you promised me that you would keep Ditto out of trouble, not in it.”
“It was funny at the time,” Dani mumbles, shuffling her feet.
Dan huffs indignantly. “My hair isn’t food.”
“I’m glad you didn’t mean any harm, but it’s still gotten out of hand, Danielle.”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” she looks at him through her bangs. “I didn’t think it would get this violent.”
“Don’t apologize to me,” Danny gestures to Dan.
Dani looks like she bit on something on a lemon, which is a change from her bashful expression earlier. Still, she says, “I’m sorry, Dan.”
“Whatever, Twerp,” Dan says, but he looks less affronted than before, so he supposes it’s better than nothing.
This is the best he can get out of them anyway.
Dan sounds surprisingly concerned when he asks, “Are you gonna take Dipshit away?”
His brows furrow in confusion. “Why would I do that?”
Dan relaxes, but Dani still isn’t looking at him. Concern growing in his core, Danny asks, “Danielle?”
She finally looks at him completely, but her eyes are wet and her hands are shaking. “W-Well, that’s what Vlad did.”
Danny grits his teeth. Vlad. It’s always Vlad.
Going by what she said, that must mean that she had a blob before meeting Danny, and Vlad had taken it away from her for whatever fucked up reason.
And she thinks that Danny will do the same.
He’s not sure what he should feel from this. Anger at Vlad? Hurt for being compared to Vlad?
No, don’t think like that, Danny shakes his head. Focusing back on Dani, Danny notes that her entire being was shaking now. Why? Did his anger leak into her core? She must know that he wasn’t mad at her, right?
Dan looks ready to jump in upon seeing his sister, but Danny raises a hand to stop him. Walking the distance toward Dani, he crouches until he’s at her level. “Dani, look at me.”
She lifts her gaze carefully, and Danny’s heart aches at the sight of her fear. “I’m not taking Ditto away.”
Dani’s eyes widen in surprise, but he doesn’t stop. “I would never take away something that makes you happy. If Ditto makes you happy, he can stay forever. Hell, you can adopt a million other blobs if it makes you happy. I just want you to understand that being responsible for him isn’t a small thing.”
“Oh,” she utters. “Then… you’re not mad at me?”
“Never.”
Her sadness finally lifts as she lets herself smile, and Danny is helpless to returning the smile. Even Dan was smiling at them, he knew it. Unable to stop himself, Danny pulls her into a hug.
And just because he can feel Dan’s jealous grumbling, he says, “Come here, Dan.”
“Leave me out of your ridiculous sap fest,” Dan glares, but it lacks its usual heat, and he caves embarrassingly fast.
Their position is awkward, with Danny kneeling slightly to hug Dani properly and Dan crouching completely so he can be pulled in as well, but Danny wouldn’t have it any other way. Even Ditto was nuzzling into Dani’s cheek.
When he relinquishes Dan so he can go back to being grumpy, Dani doesn’t pull away completely. She smiles jokingly as she says, “So, about that million blobs thing-”
“Don’t even think about it, you brat,” Danny pinches her cheeks warningly, but he’s still smiling, and so is she, and so is Dan.
Vlad can go die in a ditch for all he cares. Nothing can ruin this castle he’s built for him and his family. Nothing.
We got two babies! I will put pics up here tomorrow. We’ve named them Omen and Iida.
And in stories that piss me off, Iida, the gray and white we got had been returned previously for nebulous "litter box problems" I've seen him go in and out and heard scrapping many times. I'm willing to bet the "problem" was they had another cat and didn't bother to get another box.
