Here's me trying to interpret how Danny's hazmat suit would look like if it were more realistic, based on my experience with biohazard PPE.
I feel like I also need to add a disclaimer to not use this as safety advice. Please consult your local health and safety guidelines prior to handling ectoplasm, ecto-contaminated materials, and/or ectobiological organisms!
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A prompt fill for Phic Phight for @oliswamp and their great prompt:
"Lancer finally manages to teach Danny the art of interpreting literature. Years later Danny becomes a teacher and his students appreciate his laid back attitude and paranormal circumstances."
Summary:
“I recognize you,” the student said, “Aren't you one of them?”
“One of who?” Danny asked pleasantly, even if he knew what they were getting at.
The student rolled their eyes as if he was stupid. “The Fenton, Fentons?”
Danny laughed and admitted, “Yeah, you got me there.”
Words: 2,524
Can be read on AO3!
—---
“Let me introduce you to your new English teacher, Mr. Fenton, ” Mr. Lancer said and gestured for Danny to enter.
Danny strode into the room with a wide smile and his hands in his pockets. A whole room full of wide eyes set in round faces tracked his every movement. And the students were so small. Danny had a hard time believing he’d ever looked this young.
Ancients, imagine if he’d met himself when he’d been this age and told him that he would stand here, at the front, as a teacher. He would have laughed himself out of the room.
Danny stopped in front of the whiteboard, next to Mr. Lancer. But here he was, and he found that he really enjoyed it.
Besides, he'd learnt the hard way what misinformation and flawed logic could do to a person and the people close to them, and he was aiming to make sure that the next generation were better equipped to combat that.
He turned to Mr. Lancer with a smile. “Thank you Mr. Principal, I can take it from here.”
Mr. Lancer raised a doubtful eyebrow and Danny could see the restraint he exerted not to start a semantic discussion then and there about using his role as a name, but he just nodded shortly before leaving.
Danny knew his old teacher had looked forward to this almost as much as he had himself; he'd been the one to inspire Danny to choose this path, after all.
As soon as he was alone with the class, Danny clapped his hands and started writing on the whiteboard; big letters spelling out his name, punctuated by a smiling blob-ghost. “My name is Danny Fenton, if anyone calls me Daniel they’ll get extra homework.”
When he turned back around to face the class with a smile, a student had their hand high in the air.
Danny nodded to them to speak.
“I recognize you,” the student said, “Aren't you one of them?”
“One of who?” Danny asked pleasantly, even if he knew what they were getting at.
The student rolled their eyes as if he was stupid. “The Fenton, Fentons?”
Danny laughed and admitted, “Yeah, you got me there.”
Several students sat up straighter, and the one who had asked exchanged their exasperated look for a starstruck one. “That's so cool!”
Which was… A bit different to how his name used to be received when he was a student here. Good to know that he didn’t have to start out this new chapter of his life on the defensive, at least.
Still, he had been spending a lot of time with Mr. Lancer for, so he couldn’t help saying, “Not as cool as classical literature!”
The students' excited looks turned empty and it was all Danny could do not to outwardly cringe. Maybe he had in fact lived long enough to become the monster.
Another student raised their hand and as soon as Danny nodded at them to speak they asked, “If you're a Fenton, can you bring a ghost to class?”
Another student called out, “Can you bring a ectogun?”
“Maybe, and no,” Danny said and then added, “and raise your hands if you wanna say something.”
Five more hands went up.
Danny snorted. “Anyone who wants to ask about something that isn’t related to ghosts?”
All the hands went back down. Danny gave a theatrical sigh, but when he saw the disappointment in their eyes he gave in. “All right. You get three more questions.”
All the hands went back up and he pointed to a girl in the second row, “You. Shoot.”
“You said you can bring a ghost, but you can’t bring an ectogun? Why? Doesn't your family make them?”
“I'm not gonna bring a gun to school! I just started this job, I don't wanna lose it.” She looked like she wanted to argue, but Danny pointed to a small boy in the last row. “You. Go!”
He looked surprised to be picked, even though he had his hand up as high as it went. “If you can bring a… a ghost, can… can you ask Phantom to come?”
“Um…” Danny blinked as he tried to cast about for a plausible excuse. He should have prepared for this! “I think he's busy?”
The boy looked skeptical but Danny nodded to a girl in the middle of the room with wild hair and big glasses before he could ask any follow up questions. So of course she asked, “How would you know that?”
“We… Talk?”
A tall girl in the front exclaimed, “You're friends with Phantom?!”
Danny shifted on his feet. “No comment.”
The class erupted into chaos, kids were standing at their desks, shouting over each other. Danny took a step back, felt the whiteboard at his back and desperately wished he hadn’t told Mr. Lancer that he could leave.
He’d thought ghosts were full of energy. They had nothing on high schoolers.
He raised his voice and tried to get them to calm down. They didn’t even seem to register that he’d spoken. He cleared his throat and added some ghostly reverberation—just a hint of a wail—and said again, “Okay, settle down.”
The class immediately lapsed into silence and everyone stared at Danny with wide eyes. He smiled wide. “Thank you. Now—”
Apparently his little ghostly show wasn’t enough to deter some of the kids, as the same girl with the wild hair and glasses raised her hand again. Danny didn’t try to hide his exasperation as he nodded to her, “Yes?”
“You know a lot about ghosts, right?”
“I guess so,” he said cautiously.
She nodded. “Can you teach us about them?”
Danny raised both his eyebrows. “This is English class.”
“So?” She asked, as if learning about the dead was a perfectly normal part of English… Wait a minute. Didn’t he know the perfect candidate that embodied both the English language and the dead? Ghost Writer would no doubt like the chance to talk about literature to an essentially captive audience. It was a bonus that meeting him would probably turn most of the class off from ever wanting to interact with a ghost again.
“If you behave, then I might be able to talk a ghost into visiting next week and talk about some classics.”
The class erupted into an equal amount of cheers and groans.
One kid called out, “Classics? I thought you were going to bring a cool ghost.”
“He's an expert at literature.”
“But can’t you bring someone—”
Danny interrupted them, “I don’t see any hands! Now, let’s go through what we’re gonna cover this semester.”
The class groaned, but finally started to settle down. Danny might not be used to people listening to him as Fenton, but he thought he could get used to this.
—---
A few days later they were five minutes into quiet reading time when Danny’s stomach reminded him that he’d forgotten to eat lunch that day. His ghost sense had gone off, but then he hadn’t been able to find the ghost in question, so he’d spent the whole lunch period scouring the school and decidedly not eating.
He looked around the classroom, noted with satisfaction that everyone seemed to be concentrating on their books, and then slowly, oh so slowly, took out a thermos filled with snacks from his desk and then very, very carefully placed one in his mouth. He bit down and then he looked up and— And the whole class was looking at him, books forgotten. Damn.
“Sorry?” he said, lowering the thermos back down, “You can get back to your reading?”
“Mr. Fenton. What is that?” a girl in the front asked. Her name was Olivia if Danny remembered correctly.
Danny grimaced, and decided to try and distract them. “Please don't call me that. My name is Danny.”
“Mr. Danny. What is that?”
Well, it was worth a shot. Danny let out a sigh. “Believe me, you don't want this.” Danny said as he popped another crunchy dried piece of ecto into his mouth.
A boy in the third row—Alex—said, “But you always tell us that if we bring snacks then we have to share them!”
“You can’t eat this.” he held the thermos up, tilting it so they could see inside, “See how green it is? It’s ectoplasm. It’s corrosive. You know what that word means?”
His pathetic attempt to get the class back under control failed as Olivia snorted. “Of course we do. If it’s so bad, then why are you eating it?”
Danny shrugged with a smile. “I needed a snack and this was all I had.”
Her eyebrows drew together into an expression of real worry as she quietly asked, “Do they really pay teachers that little?”
Danny burst out laughing. “Oh, no! I’m sorry, it’s not—I’m okay. I like eating this.”
Alex frowned hard. “But you said it’s car—corrosive?”
Another student spoke up, “You like disgusting things, Mr. Danny?”
A lot of the students laughed.
Danny crossed his arms, “I just want to remind you that I have a zero tolerance for bullying in this class. And that applies to me too.” He let a wide grin spread across his face. “And believe me, Poindexter will know, and he'll tell me. Right Sidney?”
“That’s right,” came the disembodied voice of Sidney Poindexter from the middle of the room.
The class broke out into chaos.
“Holy shit, there’s a ghost in here!”
“Mr. Danny actually knows a ghost?!”
“I thought he was lying about that!”
“We’re gonna die!”
Danny laughed and waited until the panic had died down slightly before assuring them, “Sidney is very nice as long as you’re being nice. He won’t hurt anyone. Besides,” He leaned forward and pitched his voice lower, “Do you guys wanna know a secret?”
All of them quieted down and leaned closer, nodding. Danny congratulated himself on being a master of redirection.
“If you guys finish your reading then I’ll tell you where we’re going for our class trip before class ends.”
That settled the argument and everyone went back to reading with minimal complaining. Danny happily crunched on his snacks and ignored the occasional nasty looks he received for it.
As the end of the class approached Danny got up from his desk and everyone immediately focused back on him. Which didn’t really imbue him with confidence that they’d focused on reading, but Danny would take what he could get.
He clapped his hands. “So. I've been told I can't take you on a trip to the Ghost Zone for our field trip—” he was interrupted by a chorus of booing and disappointed exclamation “—but! I thought we should do something even more fun!”
The whole class sat up straighter. Several voices called out, “What's that?”
Danny did jazz-hands, smiling wide as he said, “The observatory!”
Several of the students let out groans and protested ‘Awwws’.
“The observatory?”
“We could have gone to the Ghost Zone?!”
“Hey!” Danny broke in, “The observatory is cooler!”
It was the first time he’d ever been booed by an entire room. He didn’t care to repeat it.
Olivia’s voice sounded out in the room, thoughtful, “I've heard Phantom spends a lot of time here. Maybe we can see him there?”
“O—oh? Really?” Danny said hesitantly. He hadn’t realized he was known for hanging out at the observatory. Not that it wasn’t true, he just hadn’t known that other people had seen him. He would need to be more careful about that.
“Hey,” Alex said, “Isn't it funny that you and Phantom have the same first name?”
Danny said, completely deadpan, “Hilarious. Now. I’ll give you a note to take home and you have to ask your—”
And that was when the ghost that had evaded him during lunch finally showed up.
Skulker burst into the room through the wall—thankfully he was intangible for once and didn’t tank the school’s budget even further—and aimed a gun right at Danny’s face.
Danny sighed and gestured at his class, most of which had thrown themselves onto the floor beneath their desks as per ghost attack protocol, “Can you wait five minutes? I'm working right now.”
Skulker stared at him. “I'm—I’m here to get your—”
Danny shook his head and cracked his knuckles.
Skulker swallowed and drifted towards the back of the room. “I'm just gonna sit right here, then?”
Danny waved him off. “You do that. Just don't scare the kids.” he turned back to face his class, “Alright, what was I saying? The observatory! Bring the slip to your parents and have them sign it before next class. You need a signed slip to come. Any questions?”
Nobody said anything. In fact, nobody was even looking at Danny as all of his students were gaping openly at Skulker, who had crammed himself into a small plastic chair at the back of the room with his flaming hair casting flickering shadows on the walls.
Danny aimed an accusatory glare at him. “What did I tell you? You're scaring them!”
“I'm just sitting here!” Skulker argued, his armor clanking as he huffed in annoyance.
“Do it more quietly,” Danny said with narrowed eyes.
His comment was met with scattered snickers as the students relaxed slightly seeing their English teacher argue with the scary ghost.
Skulker somehow managed to flush green, even across his metal plated outside. “Hey, don’t—”
Danny interrupted him, “If you want to say something then you need to raise your hand like everyone else.”
That seemed to be the last drop and Skulker got up from his chair with a growl and a, “I’ll raise my hand alright!”
And then he tackled Danny through the whiteboard. He did not go intangible this time and Danny could see his next salary fly out the window at the same time as he and Skulker flew across the hallway.
His class screamed and the sound of their fear made Danny throw caution to the wind as he immediately changed into Phantom, raised the thermos and made short work of Skulker as he mourned the loss of his snacks. At least Skulker would have something to nibble on for the rest of the day before Danny had time to release him back into the Zone.
As he made his way back to his classroom he was ready to see his class huddling and scared. Instead he was met by cheers.
“Phantom!”
“Hey, Phantom!”
No tears in sight. No worrying. “Hey, kids! Where’s your teacher?”
“He went out,” one of the kids said easily as they all got up to gather around him. Went out?! He had just been body-slammed though the wall!
Well, good to see that they would ditch him in a heartbeat.
“Did you defeat the ghost?”
“We’re coming to visit you in the observatory!”
Wait. Maybe he could use this… “I promise to meet you there if you all do your homework.”
“Really?” The class collectively lit up.
“Yes!”
“We’ll do it!”
“Promise”
He’d never seen them this excited to do schoolwork. Mr. Lancer would be proud.
A prompt fill for Phic Phight for @yellow-rhymes-with-dna and their amazing prompt:
“Danny is now immortal, and gets a hilarious idea: get a life sentence in jail and see how long it takes for them to realize he isnt dying (crack)”
Summary:
“You did what?!” Sam asked with an incredulous expression on her face.
“Went to prison!” Danny said happily.
“Man,” Tucker groaned, “we didn't meet up for a week, and this is what happens?”
Words: 4,832
Can be read on AO3!
—---
The cell slammed shut behind him and Danny grinned. Finally, something new was happening. As the years passed, the people around him grew older—and he did as well, just a lot slower—and the routine of life became a bit too… routine. So when the cops had shown up, he’d happily gone with them; interested to see what would happen.
One of the guards outside his cell frowned and leaned over to his colleague. “Are you sure he's old enough to be here? The other inmates are going to tear him apart.”
The other guard scoffed and waved him off. “He deserves it. Didn't you hear? He killed someone with his bare hands.”
Danny rolled his eyes as he sat down on the hard cot that served as a bed. What they said was true enough; if you counted fighting a ghost as killing them. He expected Skulker would have something to say about that though, especially considering the fact that it had led to someone else capturing Danny before he did. Danny had seen the look on his face when the police took him away and it had made him laugh the whole way to the station, probably worrying the police officers even more.
Outside his cell, the police officers walked off, chatting among themselves and Danny took the time to really look around. And… He really needed to make some changes in here. A better mattress, a few posters, maybe a plant from Sam… Speaking of, before he got too comfortable he had a visit to make.
As soon as the lights went out, Danny got up, stretched, and went invisible at the same moment as he created a duplicate.
Then he walked out of his cell.
—---
“You did what?!” Sam asked with an incredulous expression on her face.
“Went to prison!” Danny said happily.
“Man,” Tucker groaned, “we didn't meet up for a week, and this is what happens?”
They'd all gone to different colleges. They still saw each other, just not every day anymore.
Sam heaved a deep sigh and then said, in an impressive effort to find the silver lining in the situation which was very much at odds with her goth look, “But you're out now?”
Danny made a so-so gesture. “I have Danny 2.0 holding down the fort until I get back. Did you know the food is actually decent?”
“You're planning on going back?!” Tucker asked with exasperation clear on his face.
“Well, yes. It's free room and board and you know how hard it's been for me to find a place to stay!” A place that wouldn't kick him out within half a year because of neighbors complaining about strange sightings and loud noises. As if he wasn't allowed to haunt his own apartment. “Besides, I have my duplicates so I don’t have to be there all the time. I got this funny idea—”
“Oh no,” Sam grumbled at the same time as Tucker moaned, “This won't end well.”
Danny ignored them and continued, “—that I would see how long it took for them to notice that I don't really age!” He finished his sentence proudly and was a bit miffed that his friends just stared at him in silence for several seconds instead of congratulating him on his genius.
Just as he was about to repeat himself to make sure they'd heard him, Tucker shook his head and said heavily, “You're so stupid.”
Sam looked thoughtful, tapping a nail against her lower lip. “I'll give it twenty.”
“Years?!” Tucker’s eyebrows disappeared under his hat. “He has three. Tops.”
“I was thinking more like forty,” Danny chipped in.
“Well, you see,” Sam said as she patted his shoulder, “the issue there is that you don't think.”
Danny pouted. “Rude.”
“Its a bet, then,” Tucker said as he held out his hand. “Whoever wins has to host the next ten movie nights at their place. Home-cooked meal included.” He paused and then added, with a pointed look at Danny, “Human safe food only.”
“Deal!” Sam and Danny echoed as one, adding their hands to the pile.
They all slapped each others’ hands, grinning like they were fourteen again.
Then Sam paused with a small frown. “Wait, if you know you’re gonna stay for a long time… You got a life sentence?”
“Yeah!” Danny said proudly.
Tucker raised an eyebrow. “Who did you kill?”
“Skulker.”
“He deserves it,” Sam said immediately with an approving nod.
“That's what I said!” Danny agreed with a smile, which then turned into a pout. “But apparently that won't hold up in court.”
Tucker rolled his eyes. “Figures. The only time they’re willing to treat ghosts like humans it’s to add people to the prison system.”
Danny looked away, pressing his lips into a flat line and barely keeping himself from whistling.
Sam snorted. “You didn’t tell them, did you?”
“Then they might now have given me a room!” Danny argued.
“They didn't give you a room!” Sam said as she cuffed him on the head. “They put you in prison!”
Danny laughed and stuck his tongue out at her. “Same thing!”
“Children, stop fighting,” Tucker said with a pretend old-man-voice.
“Alrigh, grandpa,” Sam said and then turned to Danny. “You better still come and visit.”
“Of course I will! I'm only dead and behind bars, it won't stop me.”
“We know it won't,” Sam said with a smile.
Tucker shook his head. “Sadly.”
“Hey!”
—---
The next morning he arrived in the mess hall to a sea of new faces, most of them hard and serious. He steered his feet to the queue for food and after he’d gotten his portion of beige slop he turned around to see a short man at a table at the edge of the room waving at him to sit down.
As soon as he’d joined him, the man looked Danny up and down and said, “You're new here.”
“Yes,” Danny said easily, starting on his food. It wasn’t a culinary masterwork, but after surviving the Lunch Lady’s never-changing menu for years it was passable.
“You don’t seem… worried?” The man tapped his spoon on the edge of his plate with a thoughtful frown. “About being here?”
Danny shoveled another spoonful into his mouth. “Should I be?”
The man shrugged. “Not necessarily, a bit refreshing to see to be honest. The name's Sneaky Juan.”
Danny snorted. “Nice to meet you Juan. I'm Friendly Danny.”
Juan stared at him, then broke into a grin wide enough to push up his big glasses. “I can give you the tour after we’ve eaten.”
“Thank you! That would be kind of you.”
“Nothing here is kind,” Juan said as his smile dimmed, real sadness in his voice.
Which wasn’t really a surprise and Danny hadn’t expected anything else, but he'd grown up with ghosts and all their unkindness and knew how to handle them. How different could this be?
He smiled at Juan and said, “Then let’s change that.”
After they’d finished eating Juan took him around and introduced him to a few others—“This is Lewis. If you ever need your hair cut he’s the man for the job, neatest fade in the joint!”—gave Danny the scoop when it came to the guards—“That’s Michael, he looks out for us. Just make sure to follow the rules. And the guy beside him is Gus. Just… don’t try talking to him and he’s fine.”—and ended the tour by pointing out which of the inmates to avoid. Which led them to stopping in front of a big and bald man who was in possession of enough muscles to make even Pariah Dark look small.
Juan shuffled slightly in place, bowing his shoulders to make his already short and slim figure even smaller as he gestured to the man with what was almost a bow. “Big Dan, this is Danny. He’s new. Danny, this is big Dan.”
Time to handle some unkindness.
Danny grinned wide as he looked up at the man in front of them. “Big Dan, huh? We'll see about that.”
Dan frowned. “Careful little guy. You're stuck in here with us now. You gotta learn the rules.”
Danny grinned, making sure his fangs were visible, and cracked his knuckles. “Oh, no, there’s been some confusion. You're stuck in here with me.”
It didn’t matter that nobody laughed at his amazing joke, his demonstration still hit home.
As Danny laid back on his bunk, ready to celebrate his rise on the pecking order with a good night’s sleep, but after half an hour of tossing and turning he sat back up with a groan.
Typical. Finally, there were no ghosts to disturb him but then the bed was just too uncomfortable. He grumbled under his breath, “Gotta go steal one of Sam’s blankets. And Tucker’s down pillow.” Then his pout turned into a delighted smile as he realized; even if they knew it was him that stole them, what were they going to do? They couldn’t get in here to steal them back. Being in prison was looking better by the minute.
—---
Johnny stepped into the prison with his head high and his expectations low. But he would be in here for five years, so he better make the best of it.
He'd heard some nasty stuff about this joint, not that there was a prison without nasty stuff said about. And his own experiences had only confirmed it.
This time he'd make sure he came out on top.
It started well enough with a guy named Juan willingly offering to show him the ropes. He would just need to look out for any strings attached, owing someone after the first day was a bad call.
There were the usual; the mess hall, the outside court, the laundry, the showers and the dayroom. That wasn't the part that worried him, the unpredictable part of any prison were the people in it.
Speaking of the people, they stopped in front of a mountain of a man and a scrawny kid who almost looked too young to be here. They were both bent over a book talking intently between themselves. Johnny straightened up in interest. Maybe they were devising a plan of escape, maybe it was a way to get weapons in here, maybe—
The big man gestured at something on the page and his voice was booming enough to carry as he said, “And then you take this and—”
“Aaah!” The young guy interrupted him, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “I just don't get it! I refuse to believe abstract algebra is math, it's fucking magic.”
Johnny deflated. Or maybe it was math.
“You still need it to pass the class, right?” the big man said, “Focus!”
Juan gestured towards them, first the small guy and then the big one. “And that's Danny and little Dan.”
Johnny blinked. “Little? But he's double Danny's size?”
Juan paled and shook his head, speaking in a quiet voice, “Don't ask about it ok? Just trust me, between the two of them he's little Dan.” He finished with a gesture towards the big guy again.
Huh. Interesting. And the way Juan was acting in front of the two, the way the tour had ended here, with them… He could see the hierarchy of this place starting to take shape in his mind. It all pointed to him needing more information on Danny if he wanted to stay afloat in here.
So he turned to Juan and asked, “What's he in for? Danny?”
“Unsure,” Juan said with a shrug. “He just says he killed a ghost.”
Johnny blinked. “What does that mean?”
Juan gave another shrug.
Johnny took in the way Dan was trying to explain something to Danny and the way Danny was groaning into his hands at the prospect of having to do math. “He doesn't seem like a killer.”
Juan raised an eyebrow. “Isn't that almost always the case?”
Johnny was quiet for a few seconds, trying to come up with a strategy. “So… I should stay away from him?”
“Oh, no!” Juan shook his head, and then a genuine smile broke out on his face. “He's great. If you ever need something he'll probably try and get it for you. As long as it's not something illegal he can probably swing it.”
Johnny paused, puzzled. “In exchange for what?”
“Company. Stories. Knowledge. You trying your best to better yourself. He's not very picky, as long as it's something he enjoys.”
The astonishment must have been clear on his face because Juan laughed and continued, “I know! It's best not to question it too much. Danny operates after his own rules.”
Which was a wild thing to say in a prison. But then, maybe that meant that this place had a weakness, something he could exploit himself to get stuff in. Or out.
He kept his voice carefully neutral as he asked, “How does he get the stuff?”
“Nobody knows,” Juan said immediately, crushing his budding hopes of a clean escape.
“How is that possible?”
“As I said, don't question it too much! I'm just glad I have a better pillow now. And some actually good coffee.”
Juan seemed happy enough to just accept it, but it was all so… Unexpected. Johnny hadn't thought prisons could surprise him anymore.
Johnny shook his head. “You make him sound like a—a fairy or something. Or a nice demon.” Johnny ended the sentence with a slightly hysterical laugh.
Juan didn't seem to get the joke as he seriously said, “It wouldn't surprise me.”
Which was nonsensical, but Johnny had been in enough prisons in his life to recognize someone who he should stay on the good side of. And this Danny was definitely it.
So Johnny kept his eyes on the guy and it wasn't long until he was even more confused.
A week later he dragged Juan to the side and hissed out, “People come to visit him.”
“Who?” Juan asked with furrowed eyebrows and a tilt to the head.
“Danny!” Johnny whisper-shouted.
If anything, Juan looked even more confused. “That’s not so strange, is it? I had a visit from my sister last week.”
“No, I mean—” Johnny fumbled for words. “Yeah, he has some normal visits, but I mean in here. In the prison. Like, in his cell.”
“Are you sure it's not just other inmates?” Juan asked with a skeptical eyebrow.
“Yes! Or do you know anyone in here that's a red-headed chick?”
“No…” Juan admitted.
“And that's not all! I swear I've seen him walk through walls!” Johnny would never forget it; the sight of Danny just appearing through the stone, acting as if he was out on a casual stroll and not defying the laws of physics.
Juan looked thoughtful at that. “That would explain some things…”
It didn’t seem to get through to him. This was—This wasn’t what he’d expected. Everything was strange and new and Johnny hated it. He groaned and slumped into a chair, putting his head in his hands. “The system has changed, man. They just let anyone in now. This shit would never have happened ten years ago.”
Juan placed a careful hand on his shoulder, “Then maybe work on making sure you don't come back.”
Johnny gave a barking laugh. “That's always the plan, isn’t it? But here I am. Again.”
Juan paused for a few seconds and then said carefully. “Why don’t you come to our Tuesday meetings? We usually have guests that have some cool new perspectives on life.”
Johnny looked up at that. “Guests? I haven’t heard about that.” Usually someone coming in to talk was an event everyone knew about for weeks in advance.
Juan looked slightly guilty. “It’s not an, ah… Official event.”
Johnny put his head back in his hands. “Let me guess. It’s Danny who organizes it?”
“Yeah,” Juan admitted.
Johnny let out a long sigh. What could it hurt? “I’ll come.”
It might be a start. He needed to do some work on himself and make sure he never came back in here again.
—---
Michael had been a guard at this particular prison for a while now and he'd thought he'd started to get a real handle on things. It was just one thing that kept stumping him.
Speaking of the bastard; Michael made the rounds with Sarah, a new hire, when she stopped close to cell 42 and frowned. “Hey, isn't Fenton in the wrong cell?”
Michael couldn’t hold back the long sigh at that. He’d hoped she wouldn’t notice that particular detail. “Try telling him that.”
“Huh?” She frowned in confusion.
Michael almost felt bad that he was going to make it worse. “He claimed that cell for himself.”
She looked at him as if he was an idiot. “Just take him back to his cell.”
“We did,” he said and he could hear how utterly defeated his own voice sounded but was too tired to care about it. “Several times. Somehow, he just ends up back in this one.”
A sudden voice called from the cell, which was definitely too far away for someone to hear their quiet conversation. “I had to settle for the meaning of life since they don't go up to 666!”
“You can hear us?” Michael asked, making sure not to pitch his voice any higher than before.
“No,” came Danny’s immediate answer.
Michael had long since stopped questioning everything strange about the man, but he pulled Sarah along in a futile effort to keep her sane a bit longer.
Which might have been futile as she approached Michael at lunch, slammed her food down on the table and sat down in front of him. “How long has he been here?”
He didn’t have to ask who she was referring to. “He's been here… Gosh, almost since I started. At least ten years now.”
She looked shocked at the number. “Ten?! He barely doesn't look old enough to have been out of middle school for ten years!”
“I know,” Michael said with a sigh as he sipped his coffee. It was a constant topic of discussion amongst the guards; how someone as apparently young, calm, and nice as Danny could have ended up here. But Michael had seen beneath his facade, the man was a troll. “But try and stay on his good side, all right? Everyone likes him here, inmates and officers alike.”
“You’re telling me he has everyone wrapped around his little finger? That sounds… worrying,” Sarah said with a grimace as she speared a broccoli with her fork.
Michael waved her off. “Nothing like that. It’s just that recidivism rates have dropped significantly since he arrived. Some think it's because of genuine reform in the system, but I think they simply don’t want to disappoint him by coming back.”
“Maybe he annoys them into not wanting to come back,” Sarah grumbled as she stuffed her mouth with food.
Michael laughed. “Maybe it’s both.”
“Aren’t you worried he’ll use this good-will from everyone to try and escape?” She gestured with her knife as she spoke.
“No,” Michael said simply. “We know he does.”
She stared at him. “Does what?”
“Escape. In fact, Peter over there has met him at a gas station two towns over,” Michael said with a gesture to a guard further down the table.
“Twice!” Peter called back happily.
Michael turned back to a shocked Sarah and added, “But he always comes back before anyone notices he’s actually missing from his cell, so we let it slide.”
Sarah blinked and slowly put her cutlery down. “But how does he…?”
“No idea.” Michael shrugged. “He's like a ghost.”
“Shouldn't he be put somewhere more secure then?”
Michael snorted. “We've tried.” So many times. “It doesn't seem to make a difference. And he keeps the other inmates in check, so it's better for everyone if he's not in isolation.”
“That’s… worrying. Shouldn’t you make a report about this?”
“And say what? That one of our inmates sometimes goes out for coffee on the town, but somehow still is always in his cell when we check? Who would believe that?”
“Maybe he has a twin…?” Sarah offered weakly.
Michael shook his head. He recognized the want to make sense of things, he’d been the same a decade ago. But it was better to get over this and accept the strange reality they lived in here. “No, we’ve checked the records. Besides, I’ve confiscated enough coffee cups and takeout containers from his cell and others’ to know it’s really him.”
“But why would he come back then?”
“Don’t know. He’s even turned down parole. Twice.”
”What? Why?”
Michael shrugged. “He said something about a bet.”
“And the other inmates just… Accept this?” Sarah asked skeptically.
“Accept it? They love him. He hosts weekly meetings on Tuesdays and I think he’s gotten almost everyone to join at this point.”
“Is that where everyone goes on Tuesdays?” She said with realization, then paused and carefully asked, “Aren’t you worried that they’re planning something?”
“No. I think it’s more like therapy sessions.”
Sarah frowned in confusion. “Isn’t that what we have Jazz for?”
“Ah, no,” Michael looked slightly embarrassed. “Jazz doesn’t actually work here.”
Sarah looked at him blankly for a second before exclaiming, “What?! But I’ve talked to her so many times. She has access to all the inmates! I thought she worked here?!”
Michael shrugged helplessly. “She just showed up one day.” He added weakly, “She does good work?”
“She does,” Sarah grudgingly agreed.
“I think she’s Danny’s sister?” Michael added unhelpfully.
Sarah just muttered, “Of course she is.
Michael made an effort to get the conversations back on track before Sarah lost all the hope in her eyes. “But she’s not part of the Tuesday meeting. During those, they sit in a room and talk and learn from each other.”
“That's… Good, right?” Sarah asked carefully, obviously expecting a but.
Which almost made Michael feel bad as he said, "Sometimes I’ve caught them talking to the empty air.”
“Okay, not good,” Sarah groaned as she slumped down in her chair.
Michael felt bad so he added happily, “But it does seem to help so we’ve left them alone about it.”
“Of course you have.”
Sarah didn’t quiet after that conversation, which Michael was very grateful for. He wouldn’t have wanted to be the cause of another officer quitting after learning more about the Danny-situation.
So it wasn’t even a week later when he found himself making the rounds with her again and they came across Danny talking to another inmate. Or, staring down was maybe more like it as they faced each other in the hallway with tense stances.
It was one of the new arrivals, a hot-head named Patrick. He'd been a bit of a troublemaker ever since he'd arrived and Michael stopped to watch the interaction with interest.
Danny was spreading his hands wide, a disarming smile on his face, “Come on, if you cut that shit out I'll get you Starbucks.”
Patrick was almost red in the face with anger, but Danny didn't even look worried. “I don't want fucking—” then he paused wand asked carefully, “How?”
Danny's smile widened. “I have my ways.”
Sarah snorted and whispered to Michael, “I’ll keep an eye on him. See how he does it.”
“Good luck,” Michael muttered back.
“You better deliver,” Patrick spat and then turned to stalk down the hallway.
Michael was relieved that he wouldn't have to intervene and save someone else after they'd been stupid enough to attack Danny. The guy might be small, but man did he pack a punch.
The feeling of relief lasted all the way until 6 pm when Danny showed up in the mess hall dressed in full Starbucks uniform and carrying two loaded trays of drinks with several bags tucked under one arm. He smiled wide and called, “Delivery for Patrick!”
Michael caught the matching looks of incredulity on both Patrick’s and Sarah’s faces. Patrick stared at the cups in Danny’s hands with wide eyes. “How the hell…?”
Danny presented the tray with a flourish. “I didn’t know what you liked so I grabbed one of everything.”
Sarah slapped Michael’s arm and hissed, “I watched him the whole time! He’s been in the dayroom all afternoon! What the fuck.”
Michael made a decision to protect his mental health and didn’t think about it too hard. “Doesn’t matter how, just that it happened.”
Patrick hesitantly grabbed a cup and then received a muffin from one of the bags. “Thanks?”
“Don’t mention it!” Danny said and then turned to the room at large, “I can’t very well drink the rest myself. Or I could, but it would get cold. Come on, first come first serve.”
What followed was the closest thing to a riot that Michael had ever experienced. He caught glimpses through the throng of people; an inmate cradling a donut like a child, someone army-crawling across the floor with a cup held above his head. Two people tug-of-waring a poor croissant.
Michael and Sarah fought their way into the midst of the chaos. Michael put on his sternest glare and screamed over the hubbub, “You can't bring in food and snacks!”
Danny e blinked up at Michael and Sarah, all false innocence. “How could I possibly do that? She watched me, I’ve been in the dayroom all afternoon.”
“You’re on thin ice!” Michael threatened half-heartedly, mostly as a show for the other inmates so they didn’t get any ideas.
Danny wasn’t faced and only grinned wider. “I love to skate!”
—---
Sarah walked the halls with a mix of nostalgia and excitement. The place hadn’t changed a lot in the last ten years, even if she had. This time she wasn’t back as an officer but as a director of the whole prison. It would be a challenge; no doubt about it. The economy of the place was in shambles and she would really need to find a way to cut some costs without negatively affecting the inmates. As she walked through the whole place to familiarize herself with it she mused that even though the place looked eerily similar, she felt that her new stations afforded her—
“What the fuck?” The words were out of her mouth before she realized she’d spoken.
“Ma’am?”The officer next to her looked uncertain, gazing at her with clear confusion at her sudden exclamation.
But Sarah barely noticed, eyes glued to a man at the other end of the hall. A dark-haired, slim, pale, and smiling young man who could just as well have stepped right out of her memories.
The officer followed her gaze and said uncertainly, “That’s Daniel Fenton? He’s serving a life sentence for murder?”
So not a hallucination, then. “He's still here?! And he looks exactly the same.”
He turned, as if he’d heard them—and knowing him, he probably had—and waved with a wide smile. “Hi, Sarah! Nice to see you again!”
She raised a limp hand back, then shook her head and walked towards him with sure steps. “Okay, that's enough. Get out of here!”
He blinked wide eyes at her. “But I'm in for life? Last I checked, I'm still alive.” He said the last part with a smirk.
She folded her arms across her chest and raised a challenging eyebrow. “And how long are you going to stay that way? You can't just stay here mooching off our resources indefinitely. Go live your freaky life somewhere else.” She ended the whole spiel with a shooing motion.
Danny, predictably, laughed. “Damn. I thought I had at least a decade left before you noticed. I hope you know this means I lost a bet.”
“I don’t care.” She relaxed a bit and allowed a small smile of her own to touch her lips. “I hope you know that we appreciate all the good you’ve done, but you have a whole world out there to explore. Go live.”
He looked uncharacteristically pensive before shrugging. “Maybe it’s time. I’ll go pack my things.”
As he started walking down the corridor towards his cell Sarah called after him, “I hope I don’t see you again!”
Which was her way of wishing him well, to stay away from prisons and find a clean way of life. If his answering smile was anything to go by, he got the message.
—---
Danny walked down the corridor for the last time, a bag slung over his shoulder and a wide smile on his face as all the other inmates called out to him.
“Bye!”
“Bye, Danny!”
“Don't forget to write!”
Danny smiled and waved, “Stay out of trouble, alright? Otherwise, I'll know.”
The calls dimmed down a bit and Danny laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I'll still drop by on Tuesdays. I’ll make sure to bring snacks!”
Danny walked out to the cheers of the other inmates and the groans of the guards.
People on Tumblr really liked the post about the ghost boy. So I decided to rewatch a couple of episodes (and ended up accidentally rewatching almost the entire show)
I decided to add a little more mutilation to ghost Danny because, firstly, I like the idea of ghosts looking like they did when they died (although, in that case, the kid should look like a coal and a pile of fried meat, but oh well), and secondly, I wanted his sides to be a little more different from each other, so that other characters would have a harder time recognizing him
+ another favorite headcanon is that because Danny literally died during the incident, he is almost an ordinary corpse and he is constantly cold and pale (it is even possible that after the accident, his body stopped aging and will now forever remain the body of a 14-year-old, or that his growth at least slowed down a lot. But this is somehow even too sad)
A prompt fill for Phic Phight for @what-even-is-sleep and their great prompt:
"College-aged Danny and Kwan meet at a cafe/library/class/etc and talk about growing up in Amity Park."
Summary:
Danny meets Kwan at uni and they talk about their present as well as their shared past
---
Kwan snorted. “Were you always this annoying?”
Danny raised an eyebrow. “You've forgotten? Isn’t my amazing sense of humor the reason you guys always beat me up in high school?”
“It’s starting to come back to me,” Kwan said with a teasing smile.
Words: 2,295
Can be read on AO3!
---
“Danny?!” Came a sudden voice from above.
Danny looked up from his textbook, shading his eyes from the sun to see… “Kwan?”
And it really was him, standing on the lawn next to where Danny's study-group had spread out in the sun and staring down at him with wide eyes. Kwan seemed to have similar difficulties with the situation as he said, “It really is you. Wow. It's been a while!”
“Yeah,” Danny agreed around the almost surreal feeling of seeing someone from his past here, in sunny Pasadena, California.
Milo from his calculus class looked between them, maybe picking up on Danny's slight unease, and then asked, “You two know each other?”
Kylie—clearly not sensing the current mood—jumped in with a smile and a happy, “Are you friends?”
Danny grimaced at that. “I wouldn't go that far.”
Kwan at least had the decency to look a bit guilty. “We went to school together. In Amity.”
“Ooh,” Kylie nodded, “Danny’s told us some wild stories.”
Milo sent Danny the same slightly annoyed look he always got when Danny talked about things from his home town. “He’s told us a lot of bullshit, is what he’s done.
“They’re not lies!” Danny protested, but he knew it was a futile effort. Milo had never believed his stories about ghosts, his parents, the hunters, and everything that had happened. Which was fine—no matter what Jazz said—he just felt relieved to be able to talk about it sometimes.
Kwan looked interested. “You don’t believe in ghosts, I’m guessing?”
Milo groaned. “Not you too! Is it a town-wide thing? To lie to outsiders?”
“I think it’s cute,” Kylie said with a smile. “Something to bond over.”
“Sure,” Danny agreed, still hesitant to bond with Kwan over anything. But he found that the idea of talking to someone besides Sam and Tucker who understood his past, even if only a small part of it, and who’d been there was very tempting. So he smiled and gestured at the ground. “Come on, sit down. You’re blocking the sun.” Then he turned to his study-buddies. “Is it okay if we take a short break?”
Milo and Kylie both nodded eagerly. Kylie got up and stretched before she said, “Yeah, no problem. I’m going to the cafeteria for some coffee. You guys want anything?”
Milo looked between Danny and Kwan, who had reluctantly sat down, and got up as well. “I’m coming with you.”
Danny felt slightly betrayed, but also relieved that they would get some privacy for whatever this conversation would turn out to be. That didn’t mean that he would ever turn down coffee. “Can you get me a—”
Kylie cut him off with a wink, “A pour over?”
Danny laughed. “Exactly! It’s like you’re psychic!”
Milo rolled his eyes and started dragging Kylie away, “Or you’re just too boring and predictable.”
Danny stuck his tongue out at them and they left and then shifted his focus to Kwan. He immediately closed his mouth and felt his smile strain at the edges.
Kwan and Danny looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before they both spoke at the same time. “So–” and “How–” clashing in the air and falling dead at their feet. They both stared. And then Danny grinned, not able to resist the humor in this awkward and unlikely meeting, and was rewarded by Kwan relaxing slightly where he sat next to him.
Danny asked easily, “How has life been treating you?”
“Good,” Kwan smiled, then he laughed. “Who knew how much time and energy ghost attacks took up?”
Danny snorted and shook his head. “I hear you.” More than you could ever know. “You can get a lot done when you’re not fighting the undead. So, do you also study here?”
“Yeah. Economy.”
Danny didn't say anything, but his instinctual disgust must have shown on his face because Kwan laughed. “I know. I know. But it's actually interesting!”
“If you say so…” Danny didn’t try to keep the doubt off his face, but then he grinned and asked, “So, how does it feel to be a nerd? To be one of us?”
“Ha ha,” Kwan rolled his eyes. Then he sobered and added sincerely, “Good. It feels good.”
Well, that came a bit too close to being genuine for Danny's tastes. He elbowed Kwan with a laugh. “Well, I hope you’re not beating yourself up too much!”
Which seemed to work as Kwan snorted. “Were you always this annoying?”
Danny raised an eyebrow. “You've forgotten? Isn’t my amazing sense of humor the reason you guys always beat me up in high school?”
“It’s starting to come back to me,” Kwan said with a teasing smile and then he froze, as if realizing what he said might be a step too far.
But Danny was simply relieved to not beat around the bush about it. He'd moved on long ago. Figuratively and literally. “Just don’t try anything now. I’m not that much of a pushover anymore and Milo and Kylie would dog-pile you when they come back.” He leaned in closer to whisper, “I’ve seen Kylie bite people in places you wouldn’t believe.”
“I’m not,” Kwan waved him off with a laugh. “I like to think I’ve grown a bit since then.”
Danny smiled at that. It was good, in a way. To see people grow and change so much in just a few years. He spent a lot of his time with ghosts, and even though they could change they were frustratingly slow about it. To see Kwan again like this; happier, surer in himself, conscious of others and comfortable joking around, it made something tense inside of him loosen up. They weren’t the same people they had been back then. The people who had given him hell for years didn’t really exist anymore. It was a comforting thought.
“And you,” Kwan looked down at the textbook next to Danny’s crossed legs. “What are you studying?”
“Mechanical engineering,” Danny said proudly, puffing out his chest.
Kwan snorted. “And you call me a nerd!”
“I blame my family. It basically runs in my blood.” Certain things from that lab certainly did, at least.
“As if my family didn't pressure me about going into finance,” Kwan groaned, but the smile was still there. “How is Sam? Tucker? You guys still hang out?”
“Yes,” Danny said with a smile. “They study Chicago, but we meet up at least once a week.”
Kwan looked surprised. "That's a long way to visit.”
Danny couldn’t really say that he could fly in less than an hour or take a detour through the Ghost Zone and whatever wacky space-time things it got going on and be there in half that time, so he shrugged and kept it vague, “It’s manageable.”
“Nice that you’re still friends,” Kwan said sincerely. “You always seemed close.”
Life or death situations did that top a group of people, Danny thought. “You and the other A-listers are also still hanging out, then?”
Kwan’s mouth pulled into a bit of a grimace. “Not really. Or, we still text and stuff, but we don’t meet that much. We all went to different universities.” He looked a bit guilty as he said it, maybe after Danny’s earlier comment on how often he met Sam and Tucker.
“Fun to think that we all spread out so much,” Danny laughed. “I don’t think there’s anyone from our class that still lives in Amity.”
Kwan rolled his eyes. “Can you blame us? Our childhood wasn’t exactly normal.”
“Fair.”
“I heard even Phantom was visiting towns outside of Amity.”
“Good for him,” Danny said, slightly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.
“Yeah,” Kwan agreed. “He deserves to see the world. And he especially deserves a bit of a rest after all those fights,” Kwan stared up into the sky and then added silently, “I hope he's happy. ”
Danny smiled at that. “I think he is.”
The ghost attacks had petered out as the years went by and he and all the other ghosts established a hierarchy that was more or less stable. Danny had more free time now than he’d had since the Accident and it was doing wonders to his sleep schedule and mood. Which in turn led to even less ghost fights as he now had the mental capacity to find other solutions than simply throwing punches.
They were both silent for a few minutes and then Kwan broke it with a hesitant, “Hey, I just wanna say… Sorry for how we treated you. It wasn't right.”
Danny kept his eyes on the wide open sky above them. He thought about all the conversations he'd had with Jazz. With Sam and Tucker. He let out a breath, turned to watch Kwan, and said easily, “It wasn't.” Then he snorted and turned to face Kwan. “But would you believe me if I said I had bigger things to worry about at the time?”
Kwan looked slightly startled by that, unsure how to react. “I'm… Sorry?”
Danny waved him off. “Don't be. Dash was never as scary as he wanted to believe he was. Do you still talk to him?”
Kwan grimaced, but nodded. “Yeah… He's better now, you know? Finally got that temper under control.”
“Good for him,” Danny said sarcastically. He couldn't even pretend to care about what happened to his former bully. Not that Kwan was innocent, but he’d never been as bad. And besides, Danny could see him right in front of him, see that he’d changed.
Silence descended over them again, and this time it was heavy and awkward.
Then Kwan laughed, and it was only slightly strained before saying, “Do you remember that time Dash pissed off the Lunch Lady? And she forced him to eat only peas for two weeks?”
Danny snorted out a laugh at the memories. “Yeah. I swear he was actually turning green at the end.”
Kwan leaned in closer and almost whispered, “He said he dreamed about them, you know. Just rows and rows of peas, marching towards him.”
They both broke down into laughter.
Danny was aware of Milo and Kylie coming back with coffee. They both exchanged a look before Kylie asked, “Do we even wanna know?”
Milo shrugged. “Probably not.”
But Danny was too lost in memories to care too much as he laughed out, “And do you remember that time he got chased by Poindexter and got himself stuck halfway through the classroom wall?”
“Yes! It was in the lab and he almost failed chemistry that semester because he refused to go back into the room!”
“I think the hole is still there,” Danny laughed.
Kwan shook his head with a chuckle. “No, no, it was part of the renovation the school did after Skulker blew up the north side. You remember? In junior year?”
How could he forget, he’d been in the middle of that explosion. “I remember.”
Kwan snorted and shook his head. “Not to mention that time he tried to get Phantom a real funeral!”
“That was him?!” Danny blinked in surprise. He had been trying to pin that on Sam for years, but she’d just said that she regretted that it hadn’t been her idea.
“Yeah, he even prepared a speech and everything,” Kwan wiped a fake tear. “It was very moving. And quite a bit hornier than I think he was aware of. I can’t even imagine how Phantom would have reacted to it.”
Danny shuddered, suddenly very glad that Vlad had put a stop to that particular event before it started.
“Didn’t you say that Phantom was dead?” Kylie asked and Danny became suddenly aware of his two friends sitting next to them, staring at them both with wide eyes.
“Yes?” Kwan asked, seemingly equally as startled to suddenly have an audience.
“But then how could he react to a speech?”
Kwan tilted his head in confusion. “Because he would probably have been there? It was supposed to be his funeral after all.”
Kylie and Milo stared at Kwan without any understanding in their eyes.
Danny placed a hand on Kwan’s shoulder. “They’re not from Amity remember?”
Kwan blinked and blushed. “Oh, right. Yeah, no. Phantom’s a local… hero? But yeah, he’s dead.”
Milo threw his hands in the air, almost spilling all of his coffee. “I thought you were just making that stuff up!”
“No? Why would I?” Danny asked, reaching for his cup in Milo’s left hand and gingerly freeing it from his friend’s death grip.
“That’s so cool!” Kylie said with way too much enthusiasm for someone just realizing that ghosts might be real. “We have to go there sometime!”
Which… Might actually be fun. “Sure, maybe over spring break. But we need to find a hotel or something, we’re not staying at my parents’. It’s a death trap.” Literally.
“Well,” Kwan interrupted as he got to his feet. “I actually need to go. It was good seeing you, but if I stay any longer I’m gonna miss training.”
Danny raised an eyebrow. “Do you still play football?”
Kwan waved him off. “No. I'm more into track and field now.” He grinned. “Who knew that running for your lives was great for getting you into shape?”
Danny snorted. “We had to have been the fittest class in the whole country. Tetslaff should have cut us some more slack.”
Kwan shrugged. “Maybe all that running was what actually saved our lives.”
“True. I should send her a thank-you note.”
Kwan smiled. “I already did.” Then he paused. “You wanna join me on a run one day?”
Danny laughed and shook his head. “No chance in hell!”
A prompt fill for Phic Phight for @mr-lancers-english-class and their great prompt:
"Pre-reveal, Danny gets a job at the Nasty Burger. It’s not gonna be easy to hide his secret from his ex-girlfriend now-friend Valerie when they work together, but he’s pretty sure he can pull it off…"
Summary:
Danny gets a job at the Nasty Burger and just wants to do a good job and earn some money. Too bad that he still hasn't told Valerie or his other colleagues who he moonlights as, but how hard could it be to keep it a secret?
Words: 2,433
Can be read on AO3!
---
He's finally got a job! And at Nasty Burger no less. Tucker would be so jealous and Danny would finally have the money to get the Nasa merch and model spacecrafts he wanted. And first-aid kits. Couldn't forget those.
He walked into his first shift with his spirits high. There hadn't been a ghost attack for a whole day and he had a good feeling about today.
He was gonna nail this introduction.
He was met by a tired looking manager named Charlie who took him into the back and immediately tried to pawn him off to the first employee they came across. “Here's Val, she's gonna take care of you today.”
And he gestured at a woman bent over the grill with dark hair in a ponytail and a frown on her face. Danny stopped short just as Valerie looked up and spotted him. She looked surprised and put her spatula down as her eyebrows raised. “Danny?”
Valerie. Right.
“Hi,” he said with an awkward wave. Maybe he should have told her that he'd gotten the job. “Surprise?”
She looked unimpressed. Danny couldn't blame her. He knew he was a bit scatterbrained, but he couldn’t believe he’d forgotten to tell her since she’ed been a big part of why he had even applied in the first place, to spend more time with her.
Ever since they’d broken up, ever since they’d become real friends, ever since Val had calmed down some in her crusade against ghosts and Danny—and Sam and Tucker—had deemed it safe to actually spend more time with her.
Valerie expertly flipped the burgers on the grill, signalled for another worker to take over, and then turned to face Danny. “Alright. I’ll show you the ropes,” Valerie said with a grin and her hands on her hips. “Try to keep up.”
Danny smiled and gave a small bow. “Lead the way.”
Apparently there was a lot more that went into making hamburgers and shakes than he’d thought. By the end of the day his head was stuffed full of information and his stomach was decidedly not stuffed with the aforementioned burgers and shakes.
“So we don’t even get to eat the things we cook?” Danny grumbled as he slumped over the break-room table.
Valerie snorted from her place next to him. “You think they would feed us for free? You did see the salary before you signed, right?”
“Yeah,” Danny groaned into the tabletop. “I just didn’t—”
“What? Did you forget that too?” She asked sarcastically.
Danny snorted into the wood. “You’ll never let me live that down, will you?”
“That you forgot to tell your friend that you were selling your soul to the same overlord for some change? Never.”
“Let’s just go home. If I have to see your mug tomorrow too, I need a break.”
Danny sat up with a smile. “You want to come over to Sam’s and bowl?”
Valerie flipped her hair over her shoulder dramatically. “What? You think I don’t already have an invite? If anything, I’m the one that should be inviting you.”
Danny grinned. “Let's settle it on the lane.”
Valerir laughed and in that moment she was all Red Huntress, vicious, self assured, and free. “Oh, it's on, burger-boy!”
—-
“Three Goopy Gobbles!” Came the call from Tobias at the counter.
“Coming up!” Danny called back automatically as his hands moved to place the meat on the grill and then he stood there, staring at the slowly cooking meat. He knew he should get started on the rest, but was so tired after a full night of ghost fighting, and he just needed to rest his eyes for a moment…He just needed to…
“Danny!”
Danny jerked back upright, looking around for the ghost attacking, only to see Valerie looking at him with horror-filler eyes. He blinked at her. “What?”
“Take your hand off the grill!” She screamed and that was when Danny realized that he’d put it right next to the cooking burgers when he whipped around.
He pulled it quickly and stared at the burnt underside with distaste. “Ouch.”
“Ouch?! That’s all you have to say?! We need to go to the hospital!”
“No!” Danny immediately said, now feeling the slight pain of the burn. His body instinctively wanted to ice it, but he couldn’t do that in front of Valerie. He really didn’t want to go to the hospital and see what they made of him there. He decided to go for a part of the truth. “I can’t afford the hospital.”
“Danny,” she said, sounding equal parts horrified and exasperated. “Your hand was almost on fire.”
“And now it's not,” Danny waved it around. “Really, I’m fine.”
“But—”
“Like you said, we don’t get paid enough.” He laughed. “Besides, it looks worse than it is and I heal fast.”
Which was true. Kind of. At least the part about him healing fast.
Tobias poked his head into the conversation, “Where are those Gobblers?” Then he paused and wrinkled his nose. “And why do I smell bacon?”
“Ask Danny and his non-burned hands,” Valerie muttered angrily.
“The burgers!” Danny exclaimed, turning back to the now very crispy patties. He groaned. “I’m sorry, I’ll start a new batch.”
Tobias shrugged. “Go for it, but you’re the one who has to tell them they have to wait longer.”
“But I’m huuurt,” Danny whined as he stopped placing new patties on the grill to grab at his hand dramatically.
Valerie scoffed. “So grave bodily injury isn’t enough to make you ask for help, but an uncomfortable social situation is?”
Tobias looked between Valeri’s scowl and Danny’s wide and perfectly innocent eyes and then at Danny’s hand. He let out a long sigh. “I’ll just go tell them.”
“Thank you, Toby!” Danny immediately perked up. “I owe you one!”
“You’re more manipulative than a damn ghost,” Valerie hissed out.
Danny laughed.
—-
Danny rang up the latest customer and then paused as he felt his ghost sense crawl up his throat. He gave a somewhat strained smile to the next person in line and held up a finger to wait before ducking down beneath the counter.
Eyelevel with some half-empty containers of gloves and half-chewed gum, Danny covered his mouth as he breathed it out. The smoke spread between his fingers, quickly dispersing in the air, as Danny tried to come up with a good excuse to ditch.
But there were people in queue and—and someone was watching him.
Danny glanced up to see Valerie looking at him with outrage on her face. She bent down and whispered harshly, “Are you vaping?!”
Danny blinked up at her. “What? No!”
“I just saw you!”
“I'm not vaping!”
Valerie gasped in outrage. “So you're smoking?! At work?!”
“No! You would be able to smell it!”
“Like shit I could! Everything smells like fries in here!”
“Um… Excuse me, can I order?” asked an unfamiliar voice and they both looked up to see a customer leaning over the counter, staring down at where they were both crouching and whisper-shouting at each other. “Or are you… busy?”
Valerie grabbed Danny's collar and as she straightened up, she dragged him with her. She gave the customer a smile that really was more a snarl than anything and the poor man took a hurried step back. “Of course! So sorry for the inconvenience. My colleague here was just about to take your order!”
“I was?” Danny asked and Valerie casually grabbed his arm and squeezed. And ow ow ow, she really hadn't been slacking off during her workouts lately. Danny desperately tapped her shoulder, “I am! I am!”
The customer smiled and started rattling off their order at the same time as Danny caught sight of an ectopus outside the front door, drifting through the outdoor seating area. Luckily, their little standoff seemed to have attracted some attention and all the customers were focused on them.
Danny distractedly put the order in as he watched the ectopus upend a table and destroy a parasol. Double lucky; the weather had been bad enough that no one was sitting outside.
He glanced at Valerie, who was busy obliviously turning her back to the chaos and restocking containers.
“Hey, Valerie,” Danny leaned close to her and whispered, “I really need to go.”
She rolled her eyes. “So you can smoke?”
Danny watched the ectopus methodically upend all their trashcans and spread the resulting mess around. “No, so I can—”
Valerie interrupted him with a firm. “You need to learn responsibility. This is a real job.”
Danny grimaced at her misplaced lecture and at the way the ectopus tipped over chair after chair outside. “Yes, but—”
He almost wished the walls weren’t soundproofed as a way to minimize the disruptions that came with all the ghost-attacks.
Valerie turned back to her containers. “Now, get back to work or I’ll write you up.”
“You’re as power-crazy as Technus,” Danny muttered as he turned back to the cash register.
“What was that?” Valerie growled out and whipped around. Then she paused. “Who destroyed the outside seating?!”
And of course the ectopus had left by then.
Danny heaved a sigh and gestured for the next customer to order, but of course that was when Valerie added, “Danny, go clean it up.”
He groaned. “Are you serious?!”
“Yes. And don’t smoke out there!”
—-
Tobias came into the back, pale and whispering urgently, “It's a ghost. Ordering a hamburger.”
“Alright? What kind of burger?” Danny asked, confused. He hadn’t heard him call back an order so he didn’t know what to start on.
Tobias looked at him as if he was the strange one and threw up his hands with an incredulous, “I didn't stay around to ask!”
Valerie glanced over from her station at the drive-through. “Did they have money?”
And it was a testament to how much she'd changed that that was what she focused on.
Tobias looked between them, eyes wide. “I didn’t ask.”
Danny tutted. Even he knew better than this and he’d only worked here for like a week. “What did you ask them?”
“I was a bit preoccupied by the whole them-being-dead part!” Tobias said, exasperated.
Danny took off his gloves and dusted his hands on his apron. “A customer is a customer. I'll take care of it.”
Valerie turned her frown on him. “You won’t take the employee of the month spot from me that easily.”
Danny grinned. “I’m simply going above and beyond with my service.”
Valerie groaned and shucked an empty soda cup at him. “I hate you. Just go.”
Danny snatched it from the air and gave her a small bow. “Yes, boss.”
—-
“Tobias?” Danny asked with concern. “You okay?”
His colleague looked away from the take-out bag he was holding out in front of him and staring at it as if it contained a bomb. “A customer sent it back. Apparently the hamburger… is alive?”
“It wasn’t me,” Danny immediately said, hands held up.
Valerie narrowed her eyes at him. “Which means it definitely was you.”
“I’m not Dr. Frankenstein!” Danny complained. “Just his monster,” he added quietly with a chuckle.
Valerie raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “I’ve been at your house, Danny. Are you saying you’ve got the rebelling fridge under control?”
Danny pressed his lips together and didn’t deign that with an answer. She had been there for the cheese rebellion of last year. She knew the answer.
Valerie knew she’d won and patted his shoulder with a condescending smile. “So you’ll take care of it?”
Danny snatched the bag from Tobias’ grasp. “Don’t go out back for the next ten.”
“Should we be worried?” Tobias asked as he wiped his hands on his trousers.
Danny shook his head and then grinned wide. “Just don’t worry about any screaming.”
—-
“What the fuck,” Tobias breathed out, staring at Danny with wide eyes.
Danny raised an eyebrow in question as he walked past him towards the back.
“What the fuck!” Valerie shouted, raising the knife she was using to chop tomatoes, which was rude. He'd barely gotten in the door for his shift, how much could he possibly have fucked up already?
And then he caught sight of something white in the reflection from the metal cabinets.
Danny looked down at himself and froze.
He'd come into work as Phantom.
He slowly looked back up and gave a smile and a small wave. “Um… hi?”
Valerie didn't lower her knife.
Tobias on the other hand lowered his voice as he asked, “Are we under attack or something? Are you here to take down a ghost?”
As if he was some kind of undercover cop. It was nice to hear that he didn't think that he was there to attack them, at least. A memo that Valerie hadn't fully gotten, even though he would count it as a win that she hadn't lounged at him yet. Instead she kept the knife raised and said, “If you're here to ruin my work, then we'll have problems.”
Danny raised his hands in a disarming gesture, remembering at the last second to close his hands as he did so she didn't think he was about to shoot her with an ectoblast. “No, no, I'm just here to…” Think Danny! Think! “Observe?” Ough, that just made him sound like one of the eyeballs. “Learn?” Nerd. “Hide?” Pathetic! “Um…”
Tobias interrupted his rambling spiral with a quiet, “Wait, why do you have our uniform?” Then his voice rose three octaves, “Did you kill someone for it?”
Danny raised an eyebrow and gestured to his clothes. “You think this kind of fashion is worth killing for?”
Tobias sniffed and straightened up. “I happen to think I look dashing.”
Danny grinned at him. “Yeah, you look drop dead gorgeous.”
Tobias pouted. “Rude.”
Valerie slapped Tobias’ arm. “Stop bantering with the ghost.” Then she aimed a glare at Danny–but the fact that it wasn't a gun was good enough in his books. “And you. Are we really hiring dead people now? Management never said we were this desperate for people.”
Tobias shook his head sadly. “I guess the economy is bad enough that even dead people need employment. My condolences.”
“Hey! That’s a rude thing to say to ghosts, you know. Besides, I’m here of my own free will!”
“That makes one of us,” Valerie deadpanned.
Danny wiped a fake tear from his eye. “It was always my dream when I was alive to work at the Nasty Burger.”
Valerie shook her head. “Thats the saddest thing I've ever heard. Now get to work.”
