Chapter Text
The sound of the bell rang out through the halls of Casper High, followed shortly after by the rumble of hundreds of feet as the entire school rushed to escape the building now that the day was over. Danny was one of them, shuffling along with the flow of bodies as he made his way over to his locker, ducking out of the stream of students just as he reached it. He spun his combination, gave the locker door a little jolt to unstick it, and swung it open, shoving his books away for the weekend. As he emptied out his backpack of the supplies he didn’t need, he glanced down at his watch, absently noting the time. It was 3:23 PM. Good, still on track.
Suddenly, he heard a body impact lightly against the locker next to his. Jumping slightly in surprise, Danny closed his locker door to reveal Sam and Tucker had arrived, both leaning against the wall of lockers and watching him.
“Hey Danny,” Tucker greeted. “What did you think of that last question on the worksheet?”
“I’m trying not to think about it,” Danny joked, zipping up his bag.
“Same. Ah well, it was only worth, what, two percent of our grade?”
“Five,” Sam corrected, checking her nails. “But who’s tracking that? Anyways. Danny.”
She looked up, and her eyes bored into him. Danny paled, knowing exactly what she was about to ask, and wishing desperately that she wouldn’t.
Sure enough, though, she sighed, and demanded, “Tell us you’re finally actually free tonight, for once.”
She and Tucker stared at him expectantly, and Danny shrank back against his locker.
“I, uh…well…”
“Oh, come on, Danny!” Sam snapped when Danny didn’t immediately agree. “You never hang out with us anymore! I don’t remember the last time we went to Tucker’s place, or to the mall.”
“I know, I know,” Danny groaned. “I’m sorry. It’s just…you know how my parents are. Ever since all these ghosts started showing up, they’ve gotten really overprotective and paranoid. They don’t want me out after dark, so I’ve got a really strict curfew.”
Sam looked unconvinced. “You expect us to believe that?” she scoffed. “If that’s true, then why do I keep running into Jazz well after dark at the library and the book store?”
Danny flushed, not expecting to be caught out that quickly. But he’d gotten very good at hiding his true thoughts behind a mask, and so he simply gave a show of looking annoyed. “It’s because she’s older,” he told them, crossing his arms in frustration for good measure. “They say she’s responsible enough to take care of herself. They also arm her to the teeth with anti-ghost gear in case she ever runs into one of them, but they don’t trust me with their stuff yet.”
“It’s not even like it’s that much worse after dark,” Sam argued, putting her hands on her hips. “There’s just as many ghosts during the daytime. Besides, night is when that Phantom ghost shows up, and he’s usually one of the good ones.”
“Oh yeah!” Tucker perked up. “He saved my dad from getting squished by a telephone pole last week! That guy seems pretty chill.”
“Exactly, Tucker, thank you,” Sam said with an approving nod. “See? Night time might be even safer, because then at least there’s a good ghost watching out for people.”
“My parents say there’s no such thing as a good ghost,” Danny told them with a wince. “And that Phantom is likely just trying to lull people into a false sense of security.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Sam asked, giving Danny a flat look.
“Nope,” he said with a shrug. “And they’re the experts, so I try to listen to them.”
Sam continued to stare him down disbelievingly, but Danny didn’t let his expression shift for a moment, lest she sense weakness. Still, he couldn’t help but let his eyes flick towards the clock up on the wall. Crud. Already 3:30? He couldn’t afford to let this drag on much longer.
Sam must have noticed his glance, because her frown deepened. “Somewhere to be, Danny?”
“I told you, I have a curfew.”
“It’s not even four o’clock.”
Danny didn’t really have a comeback for that one, so he just kept his mouth shut.
Eventually Tucker, who had been watching Danny and Sam’s argument with a worried frown, let out a soft sigh. “Let’s just go, Sam. He’s clearly not interested in hanging out with us today. Or ever.”
Sam still gave Danny a dark glare for a few more seconds before she too sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Yeah, you’re right Tuck. Let’s just forget it.”
They started to walk away. Realizing that he was about to potentially screw up his relationship with his two best friends, Danny’s eyes widened in alarm.
“Wait!” he shouted, making them both pause and turn back to face him. Their expressions were guarded, but at least they hadn’t ignored him. “Wait. I can’t hang out tonight, but what about tomorrow? We could go to the mall? I haven’t had a chance to catch the new Kung Fu Croc movie yet, if you guys still want to go see it.”
Sam and Tucker shared a look, smiles slowly growing on their faces.
“Yeah? You’d be down for that?” Tucker asked.
“I haven’t seen the second one yet,” Sam admitted, “but I might have a chance tonight. Besides, I hear this one’s pretty stand alone.”
“Cool. So we’ll meet up at the mall tomorrow for, say, ten?” Danny suggested, feeling a little bit lighter now. His friends were still willing to talk to him! Yes!
“Sure!” Tucker agreed cheerfully. “Good idea getting there early, I’m sure the place will be packed by lunch.”
“Yeah, great idea, Danny. We’ll see you there,” Sam said, and then she nudged Tucker with her shoulder. “Hey, wanna go check out that new pet store with me? I hear they got in some new snakes.”
Tucker went a little green in the face, but he hesitantly held up two thumbs up, giving Sam a shaky grin.“Great. Yeah. Sure, love that.”
“Awesome, come on!” she cheered, grabbing his wrist. “See ya tomorrow, Danny!”
“See ya!” Danny waved goodbye, watching them head down the hall with a relieved smile. He knew the two of them had been getting sick of him brushing them off all the time, but he was glad they were still willing to give him a chance to make it up to them. He was also really kind of looking forward to the mall trip tomorrow. It had been too long since he’d actually gone out and just had fun.
Still smiling, he glanced down at his watch, and then saw the time. Immediately his happy smile dropped as his blood ran cold.
“Holy cow, I’m late!” he cursed, whirling and charging down the hall, shoving past the last of the stragglers trying to leave. He jumped down the front steps, ignoring the shouts of surprise and anger from the A-listers he pushed out of his way, just tossing a quick apology over his shoulder. He’d probably pay for that come Monday, but right now he had bigger problems than Dash’s temper tantrums.
His feet pounded on the pavement as he rushed home, the air in his lungs burning like ice, the stitch in his side feeling like a knife slowly working its way into his skin. But he didn’t have time to pause and catch his breath. His watch was reading 3:56, and he was still at least five minutes from home.
The red light of the clock on the stove blinked a cheerful 4:01 PM at him as he burst through the front door, heaving for breath like a racehorse that had just run the Kentucky Derby.
“I’m…home!” he panted out, carelessly kicking off his shoes.
As expected, only silence greeted him. Danny couldn’t remember the last time his parents were home after school. Sure enough, they’d left a sticky note on the fridge telling him and Jazz that they’d be out late and that there was food in the fridge. Of course, most of the food was expired or so contaminated with ectoplasm that it needed to be hunted down before it could be consumed, but technically they weren’t wrong. Danny tried to be understanding about their frequent absences; ever since ghosts started appearing in Amity Park, most of the time they were the city’s only line of defense. They spent most of their time either hunting down rampaging spooks, or helping the city ghost-proof itself as much as possible with their various inventions. It was a lot of work, and Danny knew that.
Didn’t make coming home to an empty house every day any more fun.
Still, their absence also really worked out in his favour these days, too. Couldn’t notice anything weird was going on with your kid if you were never around him, right?
Shaking away his bitter thoughts, Danny dug a granola bar out of the cupboard, unwrapping it and shoving it into his mouth as he rushed up the stairs. The door of his bedroom slammed shut behind him just as the clock on his nightstand changed to 4:06. Chewing furiously, Danny dropped his backpack to the floor by his desk, kicked a few books and piles of dirty clothes aside to clear some space, and then stood in the middle of his room to wait.
Sure enough, as soon as the clock hit 4:07 PM, the change began. Danny screwed his eyes shut as green sparks started to dance and arc along his skin, starting from his left hand, growing bigger and brighter, until they surged together. A massive bolt of electricity ripped through him, lighting him up from the inside out, and Danny choked back a scream as his world exploded.
Seconds later, where Danny Fenton had once stood now hovered Danny Phantom, still trembling with the aftershocks of his transformation.
He floated for a moment, letting the last few sparks of electricity trail along his newly formed hazmat suit and gloves, before he slowly relaxed with a sigh, staring down at his ghostly form.
“Here we go again,” he muttered to himself.
With the air of long practice, Phantom made his way over to his bed, digging around underneath until he emerged with an old beat up mannequin with black hair, dressed in space-themed pajamas. He dropped it into his bed, tucking it under the covers just so, so that if anyone bothered to poke their heads into his room, it would look like he was sleeping.
“Not that mom or dad will probably bother to check,” Danny continued to mutter. He made a couple of adjustments to the mannequin’s position, stepped back to study the scene, and then nodded in satisfaction.
And then, with another sigh, he launched himself up through the ceiling and out of the house. The last thing he wanted was to be in ghost form and hanging around the house of ghost hunters. Sure, his parents were never around, but that didn’t mean the place wasn’t crawling with anti-ghost sensors and tech. Better to clear out, rather than accidentally set something off. Again.
He emerged through the roof of the house, and floated up a few more feet, just to get a better look at his surroundings. The sun was still shining in the sky, though it was starting to sink towards the horizon. People were just making their way home from school and work, the roads beginning to fill up with traffic. The city, his city, was full of life and activity.
Too bad he couldn’t take part in any of it.
He stared out longingly over the houses below, catching sight of Tucker and Sam in the far distance, making their way down the sidewalk and chatting together. He wanted to go join them so badly. But how the heck was he supposed to show himself to them when he was a ghost now? How could he admit to them that he’d screwed up, zapped himself in his parents’ ghost portal, and simultaneously released all of the ghosts that were currently terrorizing the city and turned himself into some half ghost freak? For twelve hours a day, he was a normal human kid, just trying to go about his business, but every day, at the same time he’d died when he’d turned on the portal, he’d switch, and spend the next twelve hours as a ghost. It was exhausting, trying to keep his secret from getting out, but he didn’t know how people would react. Even his best friends, he wasn’t sure he could trust. Would they accept him and his weird quirkiness? Or would they hand him over to his parents for experimentation? He wanted to believe it would be the former, but he couldn’t shake the fear that it would be the latter, so he lied and hid and did whatever he had to in order to keep his secret safe.
Even if it cost him his friendships.
Sighing, Danny prepared to do his usual patrol route around the city when his breath suddenly puffed out of his mouth in a cloud of blue smoke. Drat. His ghost sense was going off already? It was going to be a long night.
Grumbling under his breath, Danny started flying off in the direction he sensed the ghost. Hopefully it was just a swarm of blob ghosts, and he could take it easy tonight.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
It was not just blob ghosts.
Danny had ended up dragging himself back to his room just before 4AM, bruised, scratched, and exhausted. He allowed the electricity to once again rip through him, transforming him back into his human self, and barely had the energy to shove his body double back under his bed before he collapsed face-first into his pillows, too tired to even change out of his clothes.
He woke hours later, groggy and disoriented, to the sound of someone moving around in the kitchen downstairs. Frowning in sleepy confusion, Danny dragged himself out of bed and down the stairs to investigate who was actually home for once.
He was even more surprised to find his mom bustling around the kitchen. She was tossing a used frying pan into the sink to soak, humming softly under her breath.
“Mom?” Danny croaked, scratching at his hair.
“Hmm? Oh! Good morning, sleepy head!” his mom said cheerfully when she caught sight of him. “Did you sleep well?”
“Uh…sure?” he said, blinking at her. God, it was too early for so much cheer. His mom’s smile hurt to look at. “What are you doing home?”
“Oh, just restocking,” she told him, turning off the sink and heading towards the front door. Danny’s shoulders slumped in disappointment as he realized she was about to leave again. “Your father and I ran into that Phantom ghost again last night,” she informed him.
He was very aware of that, thanks mom. His ribs were still aching.
“He got away again, unfortunately. And our ectoweapons ran out of juice, so I’m just popping in to recharge and switch out cartridges. Someone called to let us know there was another attack down by the park so your father and I are going to head out there to clean it up. Might be a bit of a crazy night tonight, given it’s daylight savings. Not sure how that’s going to affect the ghosts, but we’ll see. Anyways! Help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge, sweetie, have a good day!”
And then she was out of the house without even looking back at him, the door slamming shut behind her. She’d barely even glanced his way the entire time she’d been in the kitchen with him.
“See ya, mom. Love you,” Danny said quietly to the space where she’d been.
“Oh. You’re here.”
Danny’s head whipped up as he registered that someone else had entered the kitchen. His eyes widened minutely as he caught sight of Jazz glaring at him from the doorway, her arms wrapped around a textbook, and he fought down the urge to flinch. She continued to scowl at him, even as she brushed past him, pausing only long enough to grab a water bottle out of the cupboard before she too left the house without saying a word.
Danny’s body remained tense until after she was gone, and then he finally let himself relax, his head hanging low in both relief and despair. As much as it hurt that his lies were slowly destroying his friendship with Sam and Tucker, having to deliberately sabotage his relationship with his sister had been so much worse. But he couldn’t help it! Jazz lived with him! And she was insanely smart, too smart for her own good sometimes. If anyone was going to figure out his secret, it would have been her. So he’d done what he’d had to do to make sure she paid him just as little attention as their parents did. He’d been mean, he’d been rude, he’d even been deliberately cruel, until she’d given up on seeing through his ruse, given up on wasting any of her time on him.
Until she’d given up on him.
It hurt. God, it hurt. But it was for the best. She couldn’t know the truth. She, more than anyone, knew how dangerous ghosts could be, after all their parents’ lectures. Surely she’d be the first to hand him over if she found out what he’d become.
Still, it really sucked. He missed his big sister.
Glancing at the kitchen clock, Danny caught sight of the time and swore loudly. He’d slept in later than he’d intended, it was already well after ten. Enough wasting his time feeling sorry for himself, he needed to make it to the mall before Sam and Tucker gave up on him too and he officially had no one left in his life that cared about him.
Cursing up a storm, he ran upstairs to get changed.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
“Damn, I did not see that ending coming,” Danny murmured as he, Sam, and Tucker emerged from the movie hours later, eyes squinting against the sudden brightness of the outside world compared to the darkness of the theater.
“No kidding,” Tucker agreed, looking just as shell shocked as Danny. “I didn’t even know they were going to make it a two-parter.”
“I’m just glad I managed to watch the second one last night after all,” Sam added, tossing her empty popcorn bag into the garbage. “Like, I know this one basically ignored the second movie, but I caught a couple of references that would have flown over my head otherwise.”
“Like the spaceship?”
“Exactly!”
They made their way past the movie theater’s arcade section and back out into the mall, wandering absently past the stores, occasionally glancing in through the windows if something caught their eyes. Sam dragged Danny and Tucker into the local goth store at one point so she could buy some new earrings, and then Tucker returned the favour by pulling them into the tech store the next hall over. Danny himself was just content to follow his friends around, happy to be spending time with them for once without keeping an eye on the clock.
“What do you guys want to do next?” Tucker asked as he finished cashing out, shoving his new gadgets into his shopping bags. “I don’t really want to go home yet, but I figure we’re pretty much done here, right?”
“It’s a bit too early for dinner,” Sam said thoughtfully, leading them over to a corner so they could talk without getting in the way of the other shoppers. “But you’re right, I’m not really eager to head home yet either. My mom’s going to drag me out of bed early tomorrow for some stupid home and gardens show downtown, even though we’re already going to be losing an hour of sleep thanks to the clocks changing.”
Tucker winced. “Don’t remind me. I hate the spring daylight savings. I’m a growing boy, I need my beauty sleep, damnit!”
“What do you think, Danny?” Sam asked, turning to face him. “You’ve mostly let us pick where to go, anything in particular you’d like to do now?”
“Me?” Danny asked, surprised by the sudden attention. He tried thinking about it, but he honestly couldn’t come up with anything. Just being here at the mall and catching a movie with his friends had been everything he wanted to do today; anything else was just extra.
“Yeah, you,” Sam continued, raising her eyebrow. “You’re not going to turn into a pumpkin just yet, right?”
Her comment reminded him that he’d been deliberately avoiding looking at a clock all day, trying to devote all of his attention to his friends. But now that she’d mentioned it, he couldn’t help but think that it was probably getting pretty late for him. Almost against his will, his arm came up, and he looked down at the watch on his wrist.
Crud. It was already after three, and he still needed to catch a bus back home.
He looked up at Sam and Tucker. Based on the way their expressions were falling, he could tell they already knew what he was going to say.
Still, he said it anyway. “I, uh. I actually need to get going,” he mumbled reluctantly.
Sam stared at him for what felt like a full minute, before she let out a wordless shout of frustration and threw her hands up in the air.
“Seriously, Danny, seriously?!” she cried. “First you show up late, now you’re leaving early? What the heck, do you just not want to hang out with us anymore? Is that why you suggested seeing a movie, so you wouldn’t have to actually talk to us? If that’s what’s going on, just tell us already, because we’re getting sick of you jerking us around!”
“I’m sorry!” he tried to defend himself. “I just need to get home because my parents - ”
“Your parents are busy dealing with an ectopus invasion at city hall,” Sam snapped, cutting him off. “I overheard someone talking about it in the food court. Sounds like they’ll be dealing with it all day, which means they won’t notice if you break your insane curfew just this once.”
“Yeah, come on Danny,” Tucker added, though much more quietly than Sam. His expression was pinched and nervous, his eyes flicking between his friends. “Not like we want to be a bad influence or anything, but your parents are way too strict. You need a chance to just live a little, be a kid, you know?”
“I…” Danny stared at his friends wordlessly, his mouth hanging open, as he struggled to come up with a good excuse for why he had to leave. The longer he went without saying anything, the darker Sam’s expression grew, Tucker’s shoulders drooping lower and lower as they realized that he was still going to leave them.
“I can’t,” Danny finished lamely, his eyes dropping down to stare at his shoes in shame. “I’m sorry.”
They watched him for a moment, as if giving him the chance to change his mind. But as the seconds stretched without Danny whipping his head up and shouting ‘syke!’ he could feel them growing more closed off. Finally, he saw Sam’s boots shift and start walking away out of his peripheral vision.
“Sam? Sam, wait!” he called after her, reaching out to grab her shoulder.
She immediately knocked his hand away, whirling on him with fire in her eyes.
“No!” she shouted. “No, I’m done! I’m tired of always having to work with your schedule, of always hanging out only when it’s convenient for you! Figure out your priorities, Danny, because as far as I can see, we aren’t one of them.”
With that parting note, she turned back on her heel and stomped off, leaving Danny standing there in the middle of the mall, watching her go.
Danny thought that Sam’s words had hurt, but then he felt Tucker come to stand next to him. He turned towards his oldest friend, his heart already sinking as he took in the conflicted expression on Tucker’s face.
“I’m sorry, Danny, but Sam’s right,” Tucker told him, digging the knife in Danny’s heart a little deeper. “I really miss hanging out with you, but it’s hard when half the time you don’t show up. You even missed Sam’s big poetry thing last weekend, and you know she’s been working on that for like a year.”
“I…I know,” Danny said sadly, fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes.
Tucker shrugged. “Look, I’m sorry, man. We just…we need to know you’re here for us, too, you know?”
“I know. I know, Tucker, I promise. I swear I’m not trying to ditch you guys or something,” Danny said earnestly.
Tucker sighed. “Maybe you’re not trying to,” he allowed. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not doing it. And even I’m getting a bit tired of it.”
The words felt like a blow to Danny’s chest. He dropped his head again, hiding behind his bangs as the tears started to leak out of his eyes.
“See you at school, Danny,” Tucker told him sadly as he too turned to go. “Hopefully.”
And then he was gone, and Danny was left alone.
Worse, he only had a minute to try and gather himself, because when he managed to blink the tears in his eyes away long enough to take a quick peek at his watch, it showed that if he wanted to make it home in time to transform, he needed to leave now. So, angrily scrubbing the tears from his eyes and face with the back of his hand, Danny spun around and raced towards the mall entrance that faced the bus stop.
He could be sad about his ruined friendships later. Or never. Yeah, never sounded good. That was healthy, right? Just push the problems down and never think about it, and you’ll be a-ok.
Sure. That was exactly how it worked.
Huffing in frustration, Danny ran to catch the bus.