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q-gorgeous · 3 days

Text

The Fenton-Feel Giver

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 1579

This time, instead of making a weapon to hurt ghosts, the Fentons make a weapon that allows them to “get their feelings back”. Problem is, they already have them, so what happens when you take an already emotional ghost teen and amplify it by 10? @Amabsis

rararararararararara

Danny sat at the kitchen table, tiredly eating cereal while Jazz read a book next to him as she ate her eggs. He held his head in his left hand and he was about to nod off when his parents erupted from the door to the lab.

“Hey, kids! Come look at what we just finished!” His dad bellowed. Danny jumped at the loud sound of his voice.

“It’s too early for this.” He groaned as he and Jazz forcefully followed their parents downstairs into the lab.”

“It’s our newest ghost hunting weapon!” Maddie smiled excitedly.

Danny flinched as his dad brandished his new gun.

“This bad boy will give all these apathetic ectoplasmic post human copies all of their feelings back! They’ll never know what hit them!”

“Dad, how do you really know that ghosts don’t have feelings?” Jazz asked him, looking between Danny and their dad. “You’ve never had a conversation with a ghost. How can you say you know how their minds work?”

“How can any ghost have feelings when they’re terrorizing the city all the time? Surely if they had feelings they would think about their actions and how it might be affecting the people around them.” Maddie said.

“Now you’re just putting your prejudice on them!” Jazz planted her hands on her hips. “Not all ghosts go around terrorizing the city all the time!”

“Also the ghosts just think it’s fun. They don’t care how we feel, even with feelings.”

The three of them looked over at Danny. His eyes widened when he realized they heard his comment.

“See who terrorizes a city for fun?”

“That still doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings!”

Danny rolled his eyes and stood up. This was ridiculous. He didn’t need to sit here and listen to his family argue about something that he knew was false.

“Danny-boy! Where are you going? I haven’t even demonstrated it yet!”

He turned around to face his dad. “I gotta go. I have to-”

He gasped out a breath of cold air. And he inwardly groaned.

“Have to, to- go to the library and check out a book I forgot I needed! It’s about a project on Patrocolos!”

“You’re still learning about that guy?” Jack frowned.

“Long unit.” Danny said as he backed up. “Very important to a lot of different cultures. What a guy.”

“Be back before curfew!” His mom called to him and he turned and dashed his way up the stairs.

When he hit the top he transformed and flew through the roof and scanned the streets around him. Where was the ghost?

“I am the Box Ghost!”

Danny closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, groaning.

“Tremble before me and my boxes of doOoom!”

Danny flew in the direction that the Box Ghost’s voice was coming from. He came into view and he had a swarm of boxes flying around him.

“Hey, Boxy!”

The Box Ghost turned around to face him. “Ah, Phantom! I see you’ve heard my war call! You will face my wrath and get boxed!”

Danny scoffed. “As if. Your wrath is about a centimeter long.”

“You will regret your words, young halfling! My boxes will leave deep cardboard cuts all over your skin! I will-”

Danny sucked the Box Ghost into the thermos as he was talking. He yelled as he got sucked in and the sound was cut off when the beam disappeared. Danny capped the thermos as all the boxes fell into the street.

He heard the screeching of tires below him and looked down. His parent’s van plowed to a stop and they were jumping out.

“There he is, Jack!” His mom pointed at where he floated up in the sky.

“This is the perfect time to test our new weapon, Maddie!”

Danny’s eyes widened. Considering ghosts really did actually have feelings, Danny didn’t know what it would do to him. He didn’t think he wanted to find out either.

They started shooting at him. His dad had the new weapon they showed off at breakfast this morning. His mom had what looked like a regular ectogun.

He dodged as many blasts as he could, but they just kept coming. One flew past him and sent him spinning. He went back right side up but it was too late.

“Haha! Taste the Fenton Feel-giver!”

Danny didn’t have enough time to jump and dodge the blast that his dad shot at him. He put his hands up to block his face when the blast made contact. It sent him hurtling towards the ground. The blast itself didn’t hurt nearly as much as he was expecting but his collision with the ground did and he peeked out from behind his arms to see his dad barely containing his excitement.

Then his mom walked towards him, brandishing her Fenton bazooka and Danny’s heart started racing.

He covered his head and cowered away from her.

“Don’t hurt me, Mom!” He shouted.

“Mom?” Maddie exclaimed.

“I promise I’m not a monster! Don’t hurt me!”

Danny scurried backwards away from her. What was happening to him? His heart was racing and he was starting to hyperventilate.

Maddie lowered her weapon, but she looked unsure about it.

“Jack?” She turned to face him.

“He looks just like a child.” Jack whispered.

“Is he just a child?” Maddie asked him.

Danny looked up at his parents. He could tell by their faces that they weren’t expecting the consequences of actually seeing a ghost’s feelings. That they weren’t expecting him to be so human.

Maddie knelt down to be at eye level with him. She reached a hand forward and Danny fell back trying to get away from it.

“Don’t touch me!”

She pulled her hand back and looked at Jack.

“Phantom, do you remember your human mother?”

He looked at her. How ironic was this. This was some cosmic irony here.

He wasn’t sure what he should do. So he just nodded.

“Did she ever hurt you?”

Ectoblast burns. Bazooka blasts. Kicks to the stomach.

“Not on purpose. But she did.”

Maddie’s felt settled into a sad expression. A tear ran down Danny’s cheek as they stared at each other. She reached towards him to wipe it off but he pulled back and jumped into the air.

“Don’t- don't touch me.”

“Phantom, would you like to come back to our lab with us? We could-”

His heart rate continued to race and his chest rose and fell too quickly with each breath. Scalpels and dissection tables. Samples and tests and inventions and so many other terrifying things were down in that lab. He couldn’t- No. No no no.

He felt his transformation rings appearing. He knew that if he was ever too hurt that he transformed back. If he passed out he’d transform back. He didn’t ever think he’d be too emotionally distressed that it would force him to transform back. He couldn’t. Not here.

He pushed the rings back and they were gone for a moment but they just reappeared a second later.

“Jack, what are those rings? Have you ever seen anything like that before?”

“No I haven’t. What kind of power could that be?”

He couldn’t keep the transformation rings back anymore. They traveled over his body and he watched as his parents confused expressions morphed into ones of horror. The ring passed over his head and he started falling towards the ground.

“Danny?” His mom called in shock.

His dad ran forward and caught Danny in the air before he hit the ground. Danny scrambled to get out of his father’s arms and fell, hitting the ground.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Danny, how is this possible? How did this-”

“You can’t hurt me! Please!”

Maddie faltered and took a step away from him. “We would never hurt you.”

Danny shook his head. “You wanted to. You always talk about how you want to hurt me so badly. About all the nasty horrible things you want to do to me.”

“But we never- if we’d known it was you, we would never have said those things.”

Danny looked her in the eyes. “Even if it wasn’t me, I’m still just a kid. It doesn’t matter if it’s me or not.”

Maddie and Jack looked at each other.

“We’ll make this right.” Jack said. “We’ll get you fixed up and-”

“No! You can’t take it! I don’t need to be fixed!”

“Take what?” Maddie asked.

“My core!”

Maddie’s eyes opened wide. “You have a core?”

“You can’t have it.”

Maddie shook her head. She looked like she wanted to reach out to him and touch him but she kept her hands firmly at her side where she knelt down. “We don’t want your core.”

“We need to reverse the effects that the Fenton Feel-giver had on you.”

“No experiments?” Danny asked. He looked back and forth between his parents.

“No experiments.” Jack said.

Danny was still looking between the two of them. His heart rate was starting to slow.

“You still love me?”

Danny could see the moment his mom’s heart broke. “Of course we do, sweetie.”

Tears welled up in Danny’s eyes and he held out a hand to his mom. She grabbed it and stood up, pulling him with her.

“It’ll be okay. We’ll get you fixed up and then you can tell us how this all happened.”

Danny nodded. He took a deep breath. “You still love me.”

“More than life itself.”

#gorgi writes #danny phantom #danny fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #phic phight 2024 #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #phic

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q-gorgeous · 3 days

Text

Sew Me Up and Keep Me Whole

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 7603

Thanks to seeing how various injuries are treated as a member of the football team, Dash actually has a decent background in first aid and anatomy. He gets adopted into Team Phantom when circumstances keep leading him to be the one patching up Phantom after fights.

ohohohhoho

Dash was walking home after a football game. He was exhausted and was looking forward to going to bed tonight. Plus there was a ghost attack at the end of the game so it ran extra long while they waited for it to be over.

He turned into the park. It was dark in the park, but it made his trip home from the school faster. His dad would be even madder if he woke him up this late. He wanted to get back as soon as possible.

He got to the wooded part of the trees when he heard something. It sounded like voices.

“Tucker, you’re not doing it right.” Somebody whispered angrily. It sounded like Manson.

“Do you want to try doing this?” He hissed back. “I’m the only one who’s taken a sewing class. You didn’t think you should be reduced to something so ‘stereotypically feminine.’”

“-’s not ev’n a fem’n’n thing.” Was that Fenton? “Sewing is a b-basic life skill…”

“That’s not the point!” She hissed back at them. “My mom-”

Dash stepped through the bushes and past the tree separating them and fell short. That wasn’t who he was expecting to be there.

Phantom sat in between Foley and Manson, not Fenton. As he stepped through the bushes their heads snapped up to look at him. Phantom’s head groggily lulled to the side as he looked at Dash.

“Ha. Jus’...what we need.”

Dash frowned. “What?”

Phantom chuckled and closed his eyes.

“No! Don’t close your eyes!” Manson lightly slapped him. When he just groaned and leaned his head back against the tree behind him she slapped him harder.

“...Sam!” He pried his eyes open and glared at her. “Don’ hit m’..”

“You can’t fall asleep until Tucker is done with your stitches. If only he could just hurry it up.” Manson ground out.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Tucker breathed out, his hand shakily pulling another stitch through Phantom’s injury. “I don’t want to leave an ugly scar or make it worse by not doing it well.”

Dash stepped closer to where they were sat behind the bushes. Manson shot another look at him. He could finally see Phantom’s wound and it was pretty gnarly. Foley’s stitches were holding it closed but they definitely weren’t pretty.

“Do you need help?” Dash asked apprehensively. “I’ve seen a lot of injuries during football practice. And I’m not squeamish like you, Foley.”

“Yeah? You know how to sew up wounds?” Manson spit out. “How is watching people get treated for wounds during practice the same as sewing up an injury?”

Dash held up his hands. “It seems like Foley doesn’t know what he’s doing either. I know how to sew already. Isn’t that like halfway there?”

Foley looked at Manson. “If he can get it done faster than me, why not let him? We’re gonna run out of time.”

“How can we trust him?” Manson glanced at Dash, worrying her lip.

“He is literally Phantom’s biggest fan except for maybe Paulina. Do you really think he’s gonna try to kill him?”

A blush rose to Dash’s cheeks at Foley’s comment while Manson kept studying him.

A few more moments went by before she looked back at Phantom. He smiled at her groggily.

She sighed. “Fine. Dash, get over here.”

His eyes widened, stunned that they actually accepted his help. He strode forward and knelt on the ground between Foley and Manson. Phantom looked up at him, the goofy smile still on his face.

“Funny that y’ur the one h’lping me.” He chuckled.

“Why’s that?” Dash asked. Phantom just shook his head and chuckled again.

“Here.” Foley handed him a pair of gloves. “We don’t know if his ectoplasm can irritate or damage skin. We haven't felt risky enough to try it out yet.”

“How often do you guys do this?” Dash snapped his gloves on and took the needle from Foley. Phantom smiled wistfully.

“I get hurt a lot.”

Dash hummed as he made his first stitch. “Well that’s not good.”

“Yeahh.. ghosts suck. And also bullies. They can hurt pretty bad sometimes too.”

Shame wriggled into Dash’s stomach as he made another stitch. What would Phantom think of him if he knew he was a bully himself?

Phantom hummed a wistful sigh as he watched Dash sew his wound closed.

“Y’know, ‘ur pretty cute.”

Dash’s brain stopped for a moment and spent a second processing what Phantom said. He felt like he was short circuiting.

“What?” Dash asked.

Tucker burst out laughing. “Man, you’re not gonna live this one down.” Sam shushed him.

Dash continued sewing Phantom’s wound closed as he tried to get his bearings. He never would’ve thought his hero would think of him like that.

“So.” He said, pulling the thread tight. “Are you guys friends?”

“We’r’ bes frie-” Sam covered his mouth.

“We help him with ghost fights. We don’t know him that well.”

“Oh. It just seemed like you guys are pretty close. He must trust you two a lot.”

Dash finished up his last stitch. “There we go. You’re all closed up.”

Phantom smiled at him again as Dash pulled off his gloves and put them in a bag Tucker held up to him. “Tha’ was s’much faster than Tucker.”

“Much cleaner stitches, too.” Sam said, leaning down to look at them.

“‘Thank you for trying, Tucker. We’re so grateful for you, Tucker.’” He mumbled out as he put all their supplies back in his bag.

“C’mon, Tuck!” Phantom lulled his head in Tucker’s direction. “You’ve stitched up so… so many stitches before now. I’d’d have bled out so many times over with-without you.”

“Thank you, D- Phantom.”

Dash pushed himself up off the ground and stretched. “Do you guys need help getting him back… Wherever he needs to go?”

“We can take him back to my house.” Sam stood up. “My parents are those people who go to bed at eight o’clock and get up at some ungodly hour for their office jobs.”

“Can you stand, Phantom?” Tucker asked him.

Phantom shakily tried to stand up. He only made it up part way before he fell back to his knees.

“Here.”

Dash bent down and picked Phantom up bridal style. He adjusted his hold on him until he was holding him comfortably.

“Okay.” Dash turned to look at Sam. “Lead the way.”

He followed behind Sam and Tucker as they walked through the trees. Phantom was much heavier than what Dash would expect from a ghost. He figured ghosts would be light as a feather since they could fly, but Phantom felt so much like a human it was uncanny.

Phantom leaned his head back into the crook of Dash’s neck. He took a sharp breath in as he felt Phantom’s breath ghost against his neck.

Dash looked down at Phantom and his eyes were closed, but after a few moments of Dash staring Phantom peeked an eye open.

He jumped and looked back up at Sam and Tucker. They were whispering between themselves, shooting glances back at Dash. Phantom chuckled.

“Thank you for helping us.”

Dash looked back down at him. Phantom already seemed to be more coherent than when Dash first stumbled upon them.

“Of course. You should probably thank your friends for letting me help you. They were pretty skeptical at first.”

Phantom shrugged. “They’re just looking out for me. They’re protective.”

“So you are friends?” Dash asked. Phantom looked at Sam and Tucker.

“Yeah. They’re the best friends I could’ve asked for.”

“Are you friends with the Fenton kid too?” Dash asked.

Phantom turned to look at Dash sharply. “The Fenton kid?”

“Yeah.” Dash nodded. “Danny. Hangs around with those two. Kind of a freak.”

Phantom frowned at him and turned away from him. “Oh. The ghost hunter’s son? No. Why would I be friends with him? His parents would tear me apart.”

“Oh. Yeah that’s true. Those three just never go anywhere without each other so I thought maybe he was in on this too. He’s a dork anyways.”

“We’re here.” Sam called behind them.

Dash looked up to see Sam and Tucker stopped in front of a set of stairs leading to Sam’s front door. Phantom suddenly jumped out of Dash’s arms and winced once his feet hit the ground. It set Dash off balance and it took a moment for him to regain it.

Phantom walked over to where Sam and Tucker were waiting.

“Will you be okay?” Dash called to him.

“Yeah.” Phantom said without looking back at him. “I’ll be fine.”

He walked away from Dash without looking back at him. The three of them walked inside the door and shut it behind them.

He stood there and stared at the closed door. A pit formed in his stomach but he’s not sure what happened.

He turned around and started the short trek home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dash was walking in the hallways of Casper High. He was heading to his next class. He just wanted this day to be over with.

Up ahead of him he saw Fenton and his friends. He smirked and started walking faster to catch up with them.

“Hey, Fentoadally lame! Where do you think you’re going!”

He saw Fenton’s shoulders rise and fall as he sighed. He looked over his shoulder at Dash, an angry grimace on his face.

“Anywhere away from you.”

The hallways were starting to clear out as it got closer to the bell. He caught up to them and grabbed Danny by the shoulder, turning him around and slamming him into the lockers to their left. He glared up at Dash.

“What do you want, Dash?”

Dash sneered down at him. “I want to get my afternoon wailing in before I lose my chance and you disappear for the rest of the day like you did yesterday.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “And why does your wailing have to be on me?”

“Because you’re my favorite nerd to wail on.” Dash said as he pulled his arm back, ready to hit Danny.

“Excuse me!”

Something hit Dash in the back of the head. He hissed and when he turned around he saw Sam holding her boot in her hand, glaring at him.

“What the hell, Manson?” He rubbed the spot she had hit. “What’s that boot made of?”

“Steel toe.” Tucker said from where he stood, far away from the action.

“How’s it feel, Dash? Huh? Do you like getting hit? Do you want to know what it’s like to get beat up for no reason every single day?” Sam spat at him.

He took a step away from her. He already knew what that was like. He didn’t need to know what it would be like, just from a different person.

“Sam-” Danny tried stepping out from behind Dash to get to her but there wasn’t enough room for him to move.

“Why should we let you keep helping us with Phantom if we can’t trust you to leave our friend alone?”

“What?” Dash asked, incredulous. “How are either of these things related?”

Sam walked up to him and poked him in the chest. Distantly Dash could hear the late bell ringing. “Because how do we know you wouldn’t turn on Phantom? That if we relied on you, that you would actually be there to help him?”

“But Phantom is-”

“A person, just like Danny.” Sam said. “Just because Danny isn’t your ‘hero’ doesn’t mean he deserves to be a punching bag.”

Dash rolled his eyes. “Fenton just asks for it.”

Sam closed her eyes and shook her head.

“No, you know what? We won’t need your help anymore, Dash. We were doing just fine without you. We’ll manage.”

“I didn’t want to have to associate with you nerds anymore than I have to anyways.” Dash tried to ignore the pang in his chest at the idea of not being able to help Phantom anymore.

“You know, I’ve heard that Phantom doesn’t like bullies.” Fenton said from behind him.

Dash turned and frowned at him. “What do you know?” He shoved Fenton into the lockers one more time and walked away from them. He could hear Sam furiously whispering with Danny about something but Dash tried to tune it out.

Where did Manson get off threatening to beat him? That’d just make her a hypocrite, wouldn’t it? Doing the very thing she hates?

Whatever. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t make it so Phantom couldn’t talk to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, I’ll see you later, Kwan!” Dash said as he walked out of the Nasty Burger. Kwan turned around where he was walking the opposite way down the sidewalk.

“Yeah! See you tomorrow, buddy!” Kwan shouted back at him.

Dash smiled as he started his walk home. Kwan was always pretty good at cheering him up. He’d had a pretty bad week. Every time he’d gone to Phantom to try to talk to him he’d up and disappear or fly away before Dash could even get a word in. Sam and Tucker must’ve said something to him about what happened with Fenton.

He sighed. He’d probably never get to talk to Phantom again at this rate.

He heard some rustling coming from the alley he was coming up on. He paused just before it. Nothing good ever came from inside alleyways.

“Tucker, where are you- Danny, he-”

He could hear Manson’s panicked voice coming from inside the alley. He crept forward.

Dash looked into the alley to see Sam desperately talking on the phone. Phantom sat on the ground in front of her. She was holding a rag to his stomach.

“No, no I already have the supplies. I can’t-”

A tear streamed down her face. “Tucker, I need you. I can’t do this without you.”

Phantom’s eyes slowly opened. He tilted his head towards the end of the alley that Dash was standing in. He locked eyes with him, taking a deep breath.

“Sam..”

She looked up at him. When she saw where he was looking, she followed his gaze until her eyes landed on Dash. Her eyes widened. After a few moments of staring, she put her phone back up to her ear.

“No, Dash- Dash is here. He just walked up. He- He could probably help us again. Just one more time.”

Dash jumped. How serious was it this time that she couldn’t wait for Tucker?

“Dash, get over here!”

He jumped again at her call, but ran to them inside the alley.

“Can you stitch him up again?” She pleaded. “I know what I said, but I-”

“It’s fine.” Dash said. “I’m not that petty that I’ll refuse to save his life just because you don’t like me.”

She pulled a first aid kit out of her backpack and handed it to him. “You’re mean to me and my friends. I don’t want to be around you if you’re going to bully us.”

“Tch.” Dash scoffed. He pulled on a pair of gloves. “As if you aren’t just as mean to us. You go around antagonizing Paulina and forcing things that you want to do on other people.”

She rolled her eyes. “You literally beat people up and stuff them into their lockers. That is not the same thing.”

“Yeah, well-”

“As much as I love watching Sam tell it to you, can you guys hurry it up?”

Dash and Sam looked at Phantom. He had one eye squinted open and he was looking between them.

“Sorry.” Dash said. He threaded the needle and got started stitching up Phantom’s wound.

They were silent while Dash worked. His stitches were quick and soon Dash was done. He sighed.

“I actually used to be friends with them when we were younger. Before they met you.”

“What?” Sam turned to stare at him. “Why are you so mean to them then?”

“My parents didn’t like Fenton’s parents. Or all the nonsense they were spouting about ghosts. I’d come home and tell them all about it and they thought the Fenton’s were ‘corrupting my mind’ or something like that.”

Phantom turned his head to look at Dash.

“My parents told me I couldn’t be his friend anymore. And I told Danny that, but he didn’t get it. And he and Tucker were a package deal at that point. They were more inseparable than me and Danny had ever been. So I just… told them that I didn’t want to be their friend anymore. That they weren’t cool enough. I think I hit one of them. They didn’t go out of their way to talk to me after that.”

They sat in silence for a moment after that.

“Parents, amiright?” Sam said quietly, as she looked at Phantom. “My parents are like that. They try to get me to stop being friends with Danny all the time but I argue too much with them for it to ever stick. Or I don’t tell them when I’m hanging out with Danny.”

“At least you have that luxury.” Dash looked at the ground. “If I don’t listen to my parents… Well, they like to use their fists more than their words.”

Sam covered her mouth.

Dash let out a short laugh.

“And now ghosts are real and they keep asking me all sorts of questions like they expect me to remember the things they told me were bad and wanted me to forget.”

Dash was startled when he felt a hand on his arm. He looked up and saw that Phantom was still staring at him.

“It’s not your fault.”

Dash shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. He shifted so that instead of kneeling on his knees, he was sitting on the ground. He ran his hands through his hair roughly.

“It is my fault!” Dash ground out. “I didn’t have to treat them the way I did! I could’ve broken the cycle but now I’m just like my parents.”

“You don’t have to be.” Sam said. “There’s always time to change. Hell, admitting to how shitty you’ve been is a pretty good start.”

Dash sighed. Phantom looked like he was about to say something but he was interrupted by Tucker sprinting into the alley, out of breath.

“I’m here! I’m here. Did you guys get it figured out?”

Sam nodded and gestured at Dash. “He helped us out again. He really came in clutch there.”

Dash nodded and stood up. “I guess I should get going now. I don’t want to-”

“Wait!” Sam held her hands up in a stop motion. She stood up to look at him. “Do you want to join team Phantom?”

“What?” Tucker looked at her, shocked. “Why are you asking Dash to join the team? I thought you-”

“Clearly having another person around will be beneficial.” Sam interrupted Tucker without looking at him. “You’ve already helped us twice. You could even teach us to sew and stitch up wounds better.”

Dash looked between the three of them. He wasn’t a part of whatever they had going. Would they really be okay with him joining their team? Did they really want him to be a part of it? Or was it just a pity offer?

“Why would you want me to join your team?” Dash said quietly.

“You care more than I thought you did.” Sam said.

Dash laughed. That didn’t seem like a very concrete reason.

“Break the cycle.”

Dash looked back up at where Phantom still sat on the ground. He was staring at Dash.

“Break the cycle.” He said again. “Prove that you can be better. If not for us, just do it for yourself.”

Dash looked away. He nodded. That sounded like a good reason. Work to break the cycle his parents put him in. He nodded again.

“Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll join Team Phantom.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dash stood outside Tucker’s door awkwardly. Tucker said now would be a good time to come over so they could practice sewing. He hasn’t knocked yet though. He hadn’t been back here since they were all still friends.

He lifted his hand up and paused for a moment. Finally, he brought his fist down on the door and knocked twice.

“I’ve got it!” Tucker shouted from inside the house. He heard some shuffling and then a muffled, “Mom!”

Then the door opened, but instead of Tucker it was his mom. His eyes widened as her mouth dropped open. She looked behind her where Tucker was standing and then looked back at Dash. Tucker shrugged behind her.

“Why, Dash, I haven’t seen you in such a long time. How have you been?” She asked him.

He nodded. “Good, good. Things have been fine. How have you been?”

“Things have been good here.” She looked between Tucker and Dash again. “What brings you over after so long?”

“I, uh..” Dash stammered. They didn’t come up with an excuse. He really couldn’t tell her they were practicing sewing so they could sew up wounds.

“Class project!” Sam’s voice came from down the steps behind him. He turned to see her hurrying up the stairs. “We’re going to be working on our sewing today for class. Dash is going to practice with us.”

“Ohh.” Tucker’s mom nodded. “Well that sounds fun. Do you guys have any projects in the making?”

“We’re not quite there yet, mom.” Tucker said as he stepped forward. “We’re still learning so we’ll probably just be sewing squares of fabric together.”

She nodded again. “Let me know if you kids have any questions. I know a thing or two about sewing myself.” She smiled at them.

“Thanks, mom. We will.” Tucker waved them into the house and then closed the door behind them once they were both inside. “Come on, let’s go upstairs.”

He followed behind both Tucker and Sam as they made their way up the stairs. He hadn’t been here in a very long time but little had changed over the years. Except for maybe new photos that had been hung up on the wall.

They reached the top of the stairs and then Tucker pulled down the attic door and unfolded the ladder. They climbed up there and Dash had the fleeting thought that if they wanted to make him disappear, an attic would be a pretty good place to make that happen.

“Boo.”

Dash jumped as a voice spoke close into his ear and then laughter erupted from an invisible mouth.

“Oh that was good. I haven’t been able to get Sam or Tucker that good in a long time.”

Phantom dropped his invisibility and appeared in front of Dash. Dash chuckled nervously.

“Phantom, don’t be too mean to him. We’re trying to make amends, remember?” Sam called to them while she and Tucker dug through some box.

“Yeah, yeah.” Phantom waved her comment off. He looked back at Dash. “I gotta have fun with this whole ghost thing somehow though, right?”

Dash nodded. “I can’t say I would be so chivalrous if I had your powers. I’d probably be sneaking into the girl’s locker room or something.”

“Eh. It was exciting the first couple times but now the novelty has worn off.”

Dash’s eyes widened. Phantom went to spy in the girl’s locker room?

“Anyways.” Phantom drawled out. “What will I be doing today?”

Dash stared at him. “You’ll also be learning to sew.”

Phantom frowned. “Why?”

“If Sam or Tucker, or even me, ever get hurt during one of your ghost fights it might be useful for you to know. Or if you ever have an occasion where you’re alone and need to do it yourself, if you’re able to of course.”

“Are you gonna be like, our teacher?” Sam asked Dash.

Dash shrugged. “I can explain the basics but this is mostly just practice time.”

They got to work practicing their sewing. Sam and Tucker were working together on the other side of the attic while Dash worked with Phantom. They had cut up squares of fabric that they were sewing together. Phantom looked up at Dash as he pulled a thread through his two pieces he had in his hands.

“Why’d you learn to sew?” Danny asked. “It’s not something most guys pick up.”

Dash shrugged. “My parents liked to wreck a lot of my things growing up. They destroyed a lot of stuffed animals, but when they ripped apart the last teddy bear I got from my grandma before she passed away I decided I was going to take it into my own hands and fix it.”

“Oh.” Phantom’s shoulders dropped and he looked at Dash sadly. “I’m sorry they did that.”

“They’re not good people.” Dash made a couple more stitches on his own squares in his hands. “It hurt when I realized that.”

Phantom nodded. “Sometimes I worry that my parents are bad people. They want to hurt me but I know they’re not actually bad.”

“How are they not bad? You just said they want to hurt you.” Dash frowned at him.

“It’s more complicated because of the whole ghost thing.” Phantom shook his head. “They don’t know who I am.”

Dash’s eyes widened. “What? How can they not know?”

Phantom’s sad expression turned into a smirk. “I’ve got to keep some of my secrets.”

Dash rolled his eyes. “Okay, Inviso-bill.”

“Hey!” Phantom pushed his shoulder.

His skin tingled where Phantom had touched him through his jacket. They smiled at each other and Dash looked back down at the fabric in his hands. They worked for another couple moments before Phantom spoke again.

“What if we sewed them all together?”

“What?” Dash looked back up at him.

“The squares.” Phantom held up his small pile he had gathered while they were working. “We could sew all the squares we make together and turn them into a blanket.”

“Ohh. That’d be cool.” He turned around in his seat. “Yo, Manson. Foley!”

They turned around to face him. “What?”

“Phantom wants to turn our squares into blankets.”

“I like that idea.” Tucker said.

“Does your mom have a sewing machine? It might be easier to sew all the rows together with the sewing machine once we get that far.”

Tucker nodded. “Let me go ask her for it.”

He headed downstairs. Sam stood up and walked over to them.

“How’s your practice going?” She asked.

“Good.” Phantom held up his work so far. The stitches were getting neater and tighter as he showed Sam his progress.

As Dash was showing Sam his own squares, Tucker made his way back up the ladder to the attic. He hefted the sewing machine up onto the floor and climbed up with some extra fabric and some kind of stuffing. He let out a breath.

“My mom gave us some fabric and some quilt batting so we can finish turning it into a blanket.”

“How do we decide who gets to keep the blanket?” Dash asked.

Phantom looked at him. “I think you should get it. We can always make more if we’re going to keep practicing sewing. You should get the first one.”

“Yeah.” Sam said. “It can be a thank you for taking the time to teach us and practice with us.”

“Let’s get this bad boy finished.”

They spent the next couple hours practicing sewing the squares by hand and once they were all sewed together Dash took them to the sewing machine. They got all the rows assembled and the blanket put together with the stuffing inside. Dash stood up and held it up for everyone to look at.

Tucker clapped. “Great work everyone. Just, wow.”

Sam rolled her eyes.

Dash lowered it and smiled at them.

“Here.”

Phantom floated forward and grabbed the other end of the blanket and helped Dash fold it. Their fingers met as they folded it together. Phantom passed his end to Dash and their fingers grazed as he pulled away.

“Thanks.” They stared at each other for a few moments. Dash cleared his throat. “Well. I should get going. It’s getting kind of late.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Sam checked the time on her phone. My parents are gonna start calling me if I don’t get home soon.”

“Thanks for helping us out Dash.” Phantom called as Dash started making his way down the ladder. Dash smiled at him.

“Thanks for giving me the chance.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dash stepped out of the school. It was empty in the schoolyard. Dash had had to stay late to finish up a test with one of his teachers.

“Hey.”

Dash jumped at the voice beside him. Phantom flickered into visibility.

“Why do you keep doing that?” Dash pouted.

Phantom shrugged and held his head in his hand as he floated next to Dash. “It’s funny. Like I said, I can’t get Sam and Tucker like that anymore.”

“Where are they anyways?” Dash crossed the street in front of the school and started the walk home.

“They’re busy.” Phantom groaned and flipped onto his back midair. “They had some very important stuff to do and they said I couldn’t come with them.”

“So tragic.” Dash smiled and shook his head at Phantom’s antics.

Phantom laughed as he floated backwards on his back beside Dash, his arms crossed behind his head. Dash smiled as he watched him, a warm feeling growing in his chest. Phantom’s smile felt like the sun.

“I think they’re trying to surprise me for my birthday. It’s coming up soon.”

Dash’s eyes widened. “You still celebrate your birthday?”

Phantom shot a look back at him. “Yeah? Don’t you still celebrate yours?”

“Yeah, but you’re a ghost. Wouldn’t you celebrate your death day instead?”

Phantom scrunched up his nose and stared at a point from where they had come. “I try as hard as I can to not think about my death day. It was painful.”

“What was it like? Dying?”

Phantom turned to face Dash. He studied his face for a moment before he spoke.

“I-”

A roar sounded from ahead of them on the street they were walking down. A ghost turned around the corner of a building and stared down at them.

“Stay back.” Phantom said to him and flew away. He flew circles around the ghost's head and soon it was facing back the other way. It roared when Phantom shot an ectoblast between its eyes.

It swung at him again and again, its slow paws trying and trying to hit Phantom.

“You sure are slow!” Phantom smirked at the ghost and spun onto his back. “You fight like my sister.”

The ghost roared again and Phantom flew back to avoid the swipe but he didn’t move fast enough.

The ghost scratched Phantom across the chest as he flew back. Dash could hear him hiss from where he stood on the ground.

“That’s all you got, ghost?” Phantom held his fists back up.

As if taking that as a challenge, the ghost shrieked. It reared up for another hit. Phantom dodged the first one but wasn’t so lucky the second time.

When the ghost’s claws connected with Phantom, Dash could hear the sound of his suit ripping. The ghost spun and sent him flying backwards down the street.

“Phantom!” Dash shouted as he turned to look where Phantom had been thrown behind him.

He laid there on the ground. He was hardly moving. The ghost started closing in, not paying any mind to Dash.

“Hey!” Dash swung his arms in the air, trying to get the ghost’s attention. It finally looked down at him and paused.

“Yeah! Leave him alone!” Dash shouted. He stuck a hand into his backpack and pulled out that lipstick laser that Tucker gave him. He aimed it at the ghost and took a shaky shot.

It hit the ghost in the chest and it roared, charging at him. Dash took a step back but he yanked his backpack off, desperately digging out the thermos. He shakily pulled it out of his backpack just as the ghost was getting to him and he pressed the button.

The ghost loomed over him before it got sucked into the thermos. Once it was gone, Dash closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. Then his eyes snapped back open and he turned around.

Phantom.

He ran down the street to where Phantom lay. Phantom’s eyes opened as Dash got closer. Thank god.

“Hey. How bad is it?” Dash asked as he dropped down to his knees on the pavement.

Phantom hissed as he sat up. “Not the worst I’ve ever had. I’m not sure any of these need stitches.”

“Are you sure?” Dash studied his suit where it was torn. “I could literally hear your suit get shredded from where I was standing.”

“Yeah.” Phantom nodded. “I think a good chunk of things I need to have stitched up are because I kept fighting and tore them and made them worse.” He looked up at Dash. “Thanks, by the way. For helping me with that ghost.”

“Whaat? It was nothing.” Dash smiled at him.

Phantom laughed. “I could see you shaking in your boots from here.”

Dash crossed his arms and turned his nose up away from Phantom. “Fighting ghosts is a lot scarier without fancy ghost powers.”

“Yeah, but really, thanks.”

Dash looked back at Phantom. He couldn’t help it. It was the first thing he could think to do. He wasn’t going to just let a ghost get him when he couldn’t fight.

Dash was lost in thought for a moment before his mind wandered back to Phantom’s injury.

“Do you at least want that bandaged even if you don’t need stitches?”

Phantom nodded. “Yeah. It’ll help stop the bleeding.”

Dash dug through his backpack where it sat next to him when he dropped it. He pulled out his first aid kit.

“Gauze or giant band aid?” Dash asked.

Phantom looked down at his chest where the scratches were. He thought for a moment.

“Probably gauze. I think these are too long for a giant bandaid.”

Dash nodded. He pulled the gauze out and turned back to Phantom. He blushed.

“What?” Phantom asked.

The thought of Dash asking Phantom to undress was frazzling Dash’s brain. He only had to unzip the top part of his jumpsuit but he’d never seen Phantom in anything besides that before. What would he look like underneath?

“I need, uh, you to unzip the top part of your jumpsuit so I can wrap the gauze around your chest.”

Phantom looked back down at his chest. “Oh.” He unzipped the front of his jumpsuit and pulled his arms out. He looked back up at Dash.

Dash’s blush went all the way up to his ears and he tried not to stare but he couldn’t help it. Phantom’s skin was so different from other ghosts. He was so much more human-like than them.

Phantom held his hand out for Dash and he looked back up to his face.

“I can do this if it’s too weird for you.”

“It’s not weird!” Dash blurted out. “I just, uh- I don’t-”

Phantom grabbed the gauze out of Dash’s hand and started wrapping it around his chest. “That’s okay. Sam was kind of awkward the first time she had to do this too.”

Dash nodded, but he was disappointed. This could’ve been an opportunity to get close to Phantom. To maybe graze a hand against his skin. Feel what a ghosts skin would-

“Dash?”

He jumped. “Yeah?”

“I’m all done. Here.” Phantom tossed the roll of gauze back to Dash. He fumbled to catch it and when he did he stowed it back in his first aid kit.

Dash put everything back in his backpack and threw it back on his shoulder. He stood up and waited for Phantom to shove his arms back into his sleeves before he offered his hands to help Phantom up.

Phantom looked at them for a moment before he reached up and grabbed onto Dash’s hands. Dash pulled Phantom to his feet and then they just stared at each other. Dash’s grip on Phantom’s hands tightened. He took a step closer to Phantom but then someone shouted at them.

“Look! It’s Phantom!”

Dash looked up around him and was shocked to see how many people had gathered around them. Where had they all come from? Were they all watching the ghost fight from their homes?

“Phantom, who is this boy? Why is he helping you?”

“Is that your boyfriend?”

“Who would be crazy enough to date a dead person?”

The voices clamored around them and Dash felt like they were pressing in on him. Phantom glanced at him and let go of his hands and instead wrapped an arm around his side.

“Gotta go!”

“Wait, wha-!”

Dash yelped as he was pulled into the air with Phantom as he took off in flight. He’d never flown before. Not even in a plane. He squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped his arm around Phantom’s shoulder. The flight was quick and soon they were touching down on the ground.

Dash peeked an eye open and saw that they were standing in front of his house.

“That was fast.” Dash said, out of breath.

“Yeah.” Phantom smiled at him. “My top speed we’ve clocked so far is a hundred and twelve miles per hour. I can get anywhere in town pretty darn fast.”

“Dang. That’s cool. Kinda scary.”

Phantom smiled. “You get used to it after a while.”

They looked at each other for a moment before Phantom seemed to remember he was still holding onto Dash. He coughed and pulled his hand away and it drifted across Dash’s back, leaving a trail of butterfly inducing tingles.

“Well, I gotta go. I have things to do.”

Dash let out a nervous laugh. “How busy can a ghost possibly be?”

“Like I’ve said, I’ve got to keep some of my secrets.”

Phantom started floating up into the air.

“Aw, come on. We’re not close enough for that yet?” Dash shouted up at him.

He smiled down at Dash. “Not quite. Maybe one day.”

Phantom waved down at Dash and then he flew away. Dash’s heart fluttered and he waved back belatedly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dash was laying in bed. He was ready to go to sleep after such a long day. He could almost fall asleep right now.

He started drifting off but was interrupted a moment later.

Phantom flew through Dash’s bedroom wall and crashed onto his bed. Dash jumped up and stared at the boy that was suddenly next to him.

“Phantom?” Dash exclaimed.

He was curled up on his side next to Dash, holding his stomach.

“I didn’t… I didn’t have anywhere else to go. Tucker is out of town and the far frozen was too far away for this one- ah!” He clenched his stomach again.

“No, no. That’s what I’m here for. That’s why you guys agreed to let me join your team. So that there was someone else there to patch you up.”

Phantom shook his head. “This one’s worse. There’s a chance I’ll-”

A white ring appeared around his waist. Phantom tensed up and groaned before it disappeared again.

“What was that?” Dashed asked, staring.

Phantom shook his head. “You need to start stitching the wound up now. If we wait it’ll start bleeding faster. We can’t-” He tensed up again. Sparks flew around his middle. “We have to hurry.”

At Phantom’s plea, he hurriedly got up and grabbed his first aid kit from under his bed. He kneeled down and Phantom turned to his side to face him.

“Can you uncurl for me? I need to take a look.”

Phantom nodded and slowly pulled his arms away from his stomach. They were covered in ectoplasm. Dash gulped and studied the wound. It was deep. Ectoplasm was steadily oozing out of it. He pulled a pair of gloves on.

“This is pretty deep, what if I can’t-”

“Sewing it shut will help.” Phantom grimaced. “Once the wound is shut my healing abilities will have an easier time mending it.”

Dash nodded. “Okay.”

He took a deep breath and got started. Phantom flinched with every touch of the needle. Dash was halfway done when the ring appeared around his waist again. Phantom struggled to push it away, but it disappeared after a few seconds.

“Phantom.” Dash kept stitching the wound closed. “What’s happening?”

“I can’t keep it back anymore.” Phantom ground out. “When I transform, I’m going to start bleeding much faster. You have to keep stitching me up, no matter what.”

“What? When you transform? What does that-”

The rings appeared around Phantom’s waist a final time. Dash tried to keep his focus on stitching Phantom’s wound, but then the rings split. They revealed a very familiar shirt underneath them.

“I’m sorry.”

The rings finished traveling over the rest of Phantom’s body. Dash’s hands shook as the ectoplasm that was steadily coming out of the wound turned into blood. The pace increased and Dash got a glimpse at Phantom’s face as the rings went over his head and Danny Fenton was left in his place.

Danny met his gaze for a moment and then his eyes fluttered closed.

“Danny?” Dash whispered.

He didn’t move and Dash went back to stitching up the wound. He was almost done and he was hoping this would be enough. That Danny wouldn’t…

He shook his head. He couldn’t think like that. He had already seen the impossible. Danny wouldn’t die. He couldn’t.

He made his last stitch and cut the thread. He grabbed a bag and disposed of everything inside it. He was about to put the first aid kit away when he thought about putting a bandage on top of Danny’s stitches.

He pulled a bandage and some gauze out of the first aid kit and when he turned back around Danny’s eyes were already open, staring at Dash.

“You’re awake already?” Dash whispered. “I wasn’t sure- I was afraid that-”

Danny shook his head. “My healing powers are already working. It just needed help getting started. It can’t heal if it’s still bleeding so much like that.”

Dash let out a deep breath. “I’m glad to hear.”

A pause stretched between them and Dash looked down at his hands and saw the gauze and bandage he was holding. He held them up.

“Do you want these on there too? Would it help?”

Danny nodded. “They’ll help make sure I don’t bleed into my clothes.”

Dash nodded back at him. “Your shirt looks pretty bad too. Do you want one of mine?”

Danny shrugged. “Sure.”

He set the bandage and gauze down on the bed and headed to his dresser. He pulled out a shirt and turned back around to see Danny pulling his shirt off.

Heat rose to Dash’s face and the comments Phantom made that first time Dash helped him came to mind. Tucker’s laugh echoed inside his head.

Man, you’re not gonna live this one down.

Sam and Tucker must know. That’s why they were being so weird that night.

He sat down at the edge of his bed and looked at Danny. He peeled the back of the bandage off and put it over Danny’s stitches. He spread his hand out over it, pressing the edges down, making sure they were sticking to Danny’s skin properly.

“Can you sit up?” Dash asked. Danny nodded and pushed himself up, wincing.

Dash leaned closer to Danny and started winding the gauze around his torso. Once he was done, he looked up to see Danny’s face only a few inches from his own.

They stared at each other for a few moments before they both spoke at once.

“I’m sorry.”

Both of their eyes widened. Dash sat up.

“Why are you sorry? I was literally the one wailing on you for so long.”

Danny shook his head. “I lied to you. I never told you who I was. I could see the way you looked at me, but I didn’t think you’d look at me like that if you knew I was also Danny.”

Dash flushed. “You could tell.” He breathed out.

“Yeah I could.” Then he rolled his eyes. “And if I couldn’t, Tucker would’ve made sure I knew anyway.”

“Tucker knows too?” Dash whispered. He didn’t think anyone could see his developing feelings for Phantom. He thought they just would have assumed it was because he was Phantom’s biggest fan.

“Yeah. No offense, but it was pretty obvious. Especially if even I could tell.”

Dash groaned and covered his face with his hands as he leaned back onto his bed. He felt Danny lean over to look down at him. Dash opened his eyes.

Danny met his eyes. His eyes traveled down his face to his lips. He slowly bent down and pressed his lips against Dash’s. Dash closed his eyes again and after a few seconds Danny pulled away.

“It helped that I was looking for it, though.”

Dash smiled up at him. “You did call me cute that one time.”

Now it was Danny’s turn to groan. “I don’t even know what I was thinking. I hardly even remember that.”

Dash placed a hand on the back of Danny’s head and pulled him back down and kissed him again.

“Did Tucker ever let you live it down?”

Danny laughed. “No. Of course not.”

“I bet it’ll be even worse now.” Dash said against Danny’s lips.

“Oh, you bet it will.”

Dash kissed Danny one more time and gently pulled him down to lay beside him.

#gorgi writes #danny phantom #dash baxter #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #swagger bishie #fanfiction #phic phight 2024 #fanfic #fic #phic

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q-gorgeous · 5 days

Text

Ghost Buddies

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 2267

(Insert your favorite Casper High student) knew that hiding in the janitor's closet was not the best idea. Now (student) doesn't know what to do after seeing Fenton change into Phantom in the cramped space and leave without noticing. @summerssixecho

more dash hehehehhee

“Okay, you two. What do we do in the event of a ghost attack?”

Two little boys raised their hands up in excitement. She pointed at the one to her left.

“Yes, Dash?”

The other boy groaned and crossed his arms while Dash excitedly gave his answer.

“Find your buddy and hide in the nearest closet or the next best place!”

“Good job!” She clapped her hands.

“Mom! Why was Dash the one to answer it?” The other boy pouted. “I know the answer too.”

“Danny, sweetie. We know your knowledge on ghosts is top notch! We need to know that your best friend Dash here knows what to do in the event of an emergency too.”

Danny still sported a pout on his face but he shrugged. “I guess you’re right.”

She stood up and looked down at them. “Now who wants some ice cream?”

“We do!” Danny and Dash shouted together, chasing Danny’s mom into the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Realistically, Dash knew that hiding in the janitor’s closet wasn’t the brightest idea.

Looking back, the only reason the ghost drills Fenton’s parents made them do as kids had them hide in the closet was probably just so they’d be out of the way while they hunted the ghosts. And also to keep them out of sight of the ghosts. Having seen his fair share of ghost attacks, he didn’t really think hiding in a closet when ghosts could just fly through the walls did much to help him.

But by now it was instinct to run and hide in the closest closet he could find. He was walking down the hall when he heard the ghost attack and darted into the janitor’s closet. He had closed the door behind him and ran to the back of the closet and tucked himself behind the janitor’s cart.

But when the door opened and closed again, he was reminded of how vulnerable he really was just hiding out here. Yes, he was hidden. But he wouldn’t be able to escape if he needed to while locked in such a small space. A ghost could get in here so easily. Why did Dash keep thinking this would be a good hiding spot?

The only thing he had going for him right now was that whoever was in the closet with him now couldn’t possibly be a ghost. They had to open the door to get inside. They wouldn’t pose any danger to him.

He peeked his head above the cart he was hidden behind and his eyes landed on Danny Fenton. At least Fenton still had the same ghost drills literally drilled in his head if Dash was stuck with them too.

Dash was about to call his name when something strange happened. A magical looking white ring appeared around Danny’s waist. What was that supposed to be?

The ring split in two and traveled across both halves of his body. He still didn’t understand what was happening until he saw what the rings revealed when they passed over Danny’s body. The rings passed his hair and fizzled out and Dash’s jaw dropped.

Standing there in front of him was Phantom. Danny Phantom. Danny Fenton.

Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom.

He jumped up and flew through the ceiling and Dash was alone again.

He didn’t move. He could hardly think. What was he supposed to do? Did he tell someone? Did he tell Danny? Did he tell Danny’s parents?

“Whenever we catch our first spook, we’ll tear it apart molecule by molecule!”

No. He couldn’t tell Danny’s parents. His parents would tear him apart.

Did he just sit with this information? Hold it till his grave?

Dash shook his head and sat back down behind the janitor’s cart. He didn’t have to do anything with this information. Him and Danny weren’t friends anymore. He didn’t need to worry about him. It didn’t matter to him that his former best friend and the kid he wailed on also just happened to be his hero. No it didn’t matter one bit.

Suddenly, he heard the announcement signaling the end of the ghost attack. He stood up and grabbed his backpack, heading back out into the hallway.

Walking past him was Danny. He looked like he was in a hurry to get somewhere but paused when he saw Dash coming out of the janitor’s closet. He looked like he was about to say something but he looked away from Dash, distracted by who was walking by.

Dash watched as Sam and Tucker ignored Danny as they walked past him. What was that all about? Were they still friends? When did they stop hanging out? Dash didn’t even know the last time he saw them eat together at lunch, now that he thought about it.

He opened his mouth to say something but Danny was walking away from him already.

Did no one know Danny was Phantom? Did he have no one on his side?

It was then that Dash decided he was going to be better. He wasn’t sure how he could help Danny with any of this, but he could make an effort to not make his life hell anymore. Maybe he could even try to become his friend again.

He could at least try, right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was left unspoken between them. Danny never tried to ask Dash if he saw anything in the janitor’s closet. He wasn’t sure if Danny was just hoping Dash didn’t see anything or if he just didn’t want to talk about it, so Dash didn’t push it.

But now the bathroom breaks signaling ghost attacks made a lot more sense. Of course it had to be because Danny was Phantom. Not because he carried his parents' weapons around or because he just knew when they were going to happen.

Dash knew ghost attacks happened often but now everytime Danny was missing from class it was different. Danny wasn’t skipping class because he was some trouble maker. He was literally a superhero going around and stopping the bad ghosts that swarmed all over Amity Park.

Dash stood outside the school staring at where Danny stood on the sidewalk, waiting for the light to change. Suddenly a ghost flew by and he looked back and forth, probably looking for somewhere to transform. He was about to run off when his parent’s van drove down the street from the direction the ghost had come from.

Danny had to quickly step back to avoid the van and it was hardly parked when his parents hopped out.

“Dannyboy!” His dad shouted. “Did you see where the spook went?”

Danny pointed. “Uh, I think it went that way.”

An explosion sounded from the direction Danny pointed. Shrapnel and debris flew towards them and Dash covered his head. He started walking toward Danny and his mom.

“We’ve been chasing this ghost all over town. It’s one of the most destructive ghosts we’ve seen so far. It’s taken out a couple different buildings already.”

“It’s caused that much damage?” Dash asked as he walked up.

“Yes. We’ve been having a hard time getting it restrained so we can safely detain it in a thermos. It keeps getting away.”

“Hopefully Phantom will be here soon to help.”

Maddie scoffed. “That spook is nothing but trouble.” Dash looked at Danny. “He’s just a putrid ghost that only-”

A crash sounded behind them, sending more shrapnel and debris flying and Maddie gestured Danny towards their van.

“You two, get in the car.”

“No!” They said at the same time. Danny shot Dash a look and he fumbled, trying to think up an excuse.

“I, uh, I mean- Mrs. Fenton, Danny and I really aren’t friends anymore. I don’t think we should still be each other's buddies for ghost attacks you know? And I also really think there are much better hiding places than your van that’s been taken over by Technus who knows how many times now.”

He pressed his lips together as both Fenton’s studied him. Maddie sighed.

“That last ones a good point.” She said tapping her chin. “Fine. Head home and activate the ghost shield. But stay together. I don’t need either of you getting hurt.” And then she ran away from them.

“Welp.” Dash swung his hands forward and clapped them together. “I’m just gonna-”

“What are you doing?” Danny stared at him.

“What? What do you mean?” Dash chuckled nervously. “I just don’t want to be stuck in your parents' weird van.”

“I don’t need your help.” Danny frowned at him.

“What?” Dash’s eyes widened.

“I don’t know what you saw that day or how long you were in that janitor’s closet.” Danny walked up to him and tilted his head to meet Dash’s gaze. “But you’ve been weird since then.”

“I uh don’t know what you’re-”

“You're just as bad a liar as you used to be, Dash.” Danny interrupted him. “I don’t need you to be nice to me suddenly just because you find out who I am.”

“That’s not what this is.”

“Yeah?” Danny started to walk away from him. “I don’t believe you.”

Dash’s shoulders slumped at that and his heart felt heavy. “I don’t blame you.”

Danny stood there for a few more moments. “Just stay out of it, Dash.”

He started running away from him. He turned into the next alley and soon Dash was watching Phantom flying into the sky and back towards the school.

Was he just doing this because Danny was Phantom? He would like to think he wasn’t. Dash would hope that if Danny was in trouble that he would still care, even without the knowledge of him being Phantom.

Dash started walking away from the fight. Did he just leave Danny alone like he asked him to? How did he prove to him that he just wanted to help?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a cold day out today. Dash just really wanted to get home but his dad sent him out to pick something up from the store. It was just starting to rain and Dash was chilly. He was almost to the store when he heard some commotion coming from down the street ahead of him.

Danny flew from around a corner, drifting in the air as he tried to turn. Blasts followed behind him and shortly after his parents ran around the corner, following him.

Danny twisted and turned as he dodged each of the blasts that his parents shot at him. Dash could tell that he was panicked. His eyes were wide and his fists were clenched shut. He dodged one last time but he couldn’t escape the next one.

Dash watched with his heart in his throat as Danny got hit by a blast from his parents and started hurtling towards the ground.

Without thinking Dash started sprinting towards where Danny was falling. His heart was racing but he had to get there before Danny’s parents did.

Danny collided with the ground. Dash could see his parents running towards him, but he was closer. He managed to scoop Danny up without stopping and kept running in the direction away from the Fenton’s.

Dash could feel Danny shift, tilting his head to look up at him.

“Dash?” He croaked out.

“I’ve got- Shit!”

Dash had to tilt to the left to avoid getting hit by a shot from one of the Fenton’s weapons. He felt Danny grip the front of his shirt at the motion. He had to get out of the open. Where could he go?

He looked around. There was an alleyway up there.

He turned left into the alley and turned left again once he came out of it. He looked over his shoulder and didn’t see the Fenton’s quite yet. Maybe if he ducked into another alley he’d be able to lose them.

He turned left into the next one and hid behind a dumpster. He tucked Danny closer to his chest and waited. He held his breath as the Fenton’s ran past the alley they were in. He waited a few moments before he let it out.

“Dash?”

He looked down to see Danny staring up at him. He was still gripping the front of his shirt but he had an awed look on his face.

“You saved me.”

Dash let out a soft chuckle. “How could I not? You’re literally my hero.”

The awed look fell from Danny’s face. “So you are being nice to me just because I’m Phantom.”

Dash’s eyes widened and he shook his head vehemently. “No, no! I swear! Like, yeah, Phantom is cool. I love Phantom. But I think I probably like Phantom so much because he reminded me of you. And everyone loves Phantom, so it was acceptable for me to also love Phantom. And then I found out you were Phantom, and it like, forced me to reflect on my actions and-”

Danny held a finger up to Dash’s face. “Shh. Don’t hurt yourself.”

A blush rose on Dash’s cheeks. He didn’t realize he was starting to ramble.

Suddenly, that same, bright white light that he saw that day in the janitor’s closet appeared around Danny’s waist.

Danny transformed to his human form and wrapped his arms around Dash’s shoulders.

Dash froze. After a moment he reciprocated and wrapped his arms around Danny’s back.

“I know this is probably crazy to say considering you’ve literally become my bully and wail on me, but I’ve missed you.”

Dash felt like he’d been punched in the heart. His arms tightened around Danny.

“I’ve missed you too. I’m sorry for everything.”

#gorgi writes #danny phantom #dash baxter #danny fenton #phic phight 2024 #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #phic

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My favourite girl

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Of Time and War

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 6313

Clockwork and Pariah Dark are immortal gods from different pantheons trying to learn about humanity by posing as university students. Unfortunately, they are roommates, and neither is aware the other is also a god. Romance and shenanigans ensue.

finally posting this one ahahahahha

Clockwork stood in the middle of this human learning den. How strange that human children traveled so far to learn that they’d need a new dwelling to live in. Weren’t there places to learn closer to them?

How fitting that he was to observe and learn about humanity in a place where humans went to learn. He’d fit right in.

He heard that humans liked to decorate their dwellings with trivial items so he decorated his side of the room with the only thing he could think of. He didn’t like many things but he did enjoy watching the flow of time, so his walls were covered in all sorts of clocks. He had as many different kinds as he could find in this town. Humans made some truly interesting clocks. Much more creative than anything their creatives could come up with.

He was studying a very elaborate cuckoo clock when the door to his room opened.

In the doorway stood a muscular human child. Well, technically he was an adult now by human standards. He was very young compared to Clockwork though, who was as old as time since he was time himself.

“Hello, dwelling mate.” Clockwork stuck out his hand in the ideal human greeting. A handshake. “I look forward to learning this semester.”

The human child stared at his hand and entered the room without reciprocating this human custom. Strange. Was this something that had fallen out of style? Did humans not do this anymore?

“I too look forward to learning at this learning facility.” The boy looked at him. “What’s your name?

A name. Clockwork forgot he needed a more human sounding name.

“My name. Yes, my name.” He looked around the room for a moment before his gaze landed on the cuckoo clock he had been staring at. “Chronos Cuckoo. My name is Chronos Cuckoo.”

“Hello, Chronos. My name is Paimon Black.” He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Clockwork.

Was this an acceptable greeting? Did humans who didn’t know each other greet each other in this way?

“Hello… Paimon.” Clockwork awkwardly patted Paimon on the back. “How long does this greeting go on for? I am not familiar with it where I am from.”

Paimon suddenly pulled back. “Ah, sorry. That is the greeting that I use for my human mother.”

Ah. Yes. That definitely makes more sense. Clockwork nodded.

Paimon looked around Clockwork’s side of the room. “You have a thing for clocks, Chronos?” He looked him up and down. “Or for time specifically?”

“Yes. I love to learn about history and predict what is to come to pass. By learning what has already happened, sometimes we see things repeat themselves.”

“Would you be going for a…” Paimon snapped his fingers thinking of the word. “History major?”

Clockwork nodded. “What about you, Paimon? What interest calls you?”

“I like learning about weaponry and it’s used in combat.”

“Ah. Would you also be majoring in history?” Clockwork asked. That’s kind of what it sounded like.

Paimon shrugged. “Maybe. I’m not quite sure. I still have to-“

“Hey, nerds!” Another human stuck his head in through their open door. “The party in the common area is starting soon. Be there or be square!”

“What do squares have to do with anything?” Paimon whispered after the boy walked away.

“Let’s go find out.” Clockwork walked toward the door. “Are you coming?”

“I suppose. I don’t have much else to do yet.”

They both walked out and Clockwork closed their door behind them, locking. “Don’t you have things to unpack?”

“Oh.” Paimon looked away. “I didn’t come with much.”

“Don’t most humans enjoy decor and paraphernalia that broadcasts their interests?”

“I was advised that bringing in my weapons and using those as decor would be unsettling for some people.” Paimon shrugged. “So I didn’t bring anything else with me.”

“That’s true. In the current gun climate, it’s an understandable request.”

They made their way to their floor’s common area. A big group of students were huddled around a table gathering and plating food and snacks. They walked up to the first table and saw a brown dessert cut up into squares.

“Maybe these are the squares that boy was talking about.” Paimon whispered. Clockwork chuckled at him.

“Hi there!” A cheerful girl spoke right next to them.

Clockwork looked up at her. She had big glasses and her blonde hair was pulled into two pigtails. He smiled. “Hi.”

“My roommate made those brownies. They’re soo good. But just a regular kind of good, if you catch my drift.”

“Are we drifting?” Paimon looked around the floor, confused.

“Ha, you are too funny.” She grabbed a brownie and put it on her plate. “I’m gonna see if I can get an anime club up and running here. Would you guys be interested in something like that? I think I’d be hosting watch parties in the common area.”

Where better to observe human culture and behavior than in an extracurricular setting? Then he can learn why some humans love this anime thing so much.

“I would love to.” He turned to look at Paimon. “Would you like to watch this anime with us?”

Paimon looked back up from the floor. “Sure. What kinds of anime are there?”

“You’ve never heard of anime before?” Her jaw dropped and then a smirk appeared on her face. “How would you two feel about watching some anime in my dorm after the party tonight?”

Clockwork nodded. This would give him the opportunity to learn about humanity’s biggest enigma: the human woman.

“What anime would we be starting with?” Clockwork asked.

“The longest ongoing anime. We’re gonna start with One Piece.”

“Ohh sounds fascinating.”

They milled around the party for a few hours before retiring to the girl’s room.

He stopped as he crossed the threshold to the room. “I apologize, I never got your name.”

“It’s Cindy. And my roommate's name is Libby.”

“Sup.”

Clockwork jumped and turned around to see the other girl. “Hello. My name is Chronos, and this is Paimon.”

“Hi.” Paimon gave Libby a small wave.

Cindy pulled out a small television from inside the closet. “We don’t have much room but I think we could move the dresser to the center of the room and we can all pile on my bed to watch it.”

Once they got everything set up, Clockwork became engrossed as they watched. These pirates were such explorers. They wanted to see the world and accomplish great things.

After a couple hours, Cindy turned off the television after the last episode finished.

“Is that it?” Clockwork asked sadly.

“No, there’s wayy more than that.” Cindy said. “But I think it’s time we turn in for the night. We don’t want to be late for our first day of classes tomorrow.”

“I suppose.” Clockwork said as he stood up.

“Will you let us know when you get your anime association set up?” Paimon smiled at Cindy. “I look forward to watching this again.”

“Yeah! I’ll probably hang flyers up to let others know it’s happening too.”

“Thank you.” Paimon waved as they exited the room. “Have a good night, ladies.”

“I’ve never been so fascinated by anything before.” Clockwork said as they walked back to their room.

“Not even with clocks?”

“Those don’t count. Clocks and time are everything to me. I just meant in terms of such trivial things. I never thought television would be so interesting.”

“You didn’t have a television back home?” Paimon asked. “I thought most families had one.”

“Oh.” Clockwork realized he probably didn’t know as much about humans as he should’ve if he wanted to blend in more. “You’re right. My… Parental units just weren’t interested in it so I didn’t think I had any reason to be either.”

“That makes sense.” Paimon unlocked the door to their room. “Well I guess we should go to bed so we can be up bright and early for class tomorrow.”

“I guess.” Clockwork sighed. “Goodnight then.”

They climbed into bed and Clockwork laid there. He was still thinking about those pirates.

He pulled out his cellular device. He could find a copy of it on the world wide web. He had time powers. He could just watch all of it before tomorrow. He wouldn’t even be late for class.

After only a moment's deliberation, he pulled his ear buds out and found the anime online. He’s never had something catch his attention in this way. He deserved to indulge himself in it a little.

Time did not creep forward until Clockwork got to the latest episode. He didn’t realize this anime wasn’t complete. But now he had something to wait for much like the humans do. He would get to find out what the anticipation of waiting for a new episode felt like.

He finally started time again and let his eyes fall shut.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Clockwork was pleasantly surprised to see Cindy in his first class of the day. He walked up to her with a big smile on his face.

“I finished it.”

She smiled at him as she sat down. “Finished what?”

“The anime. One piece.”

Her jaw dropped. “You finished it? How?”

“I spent all night watching it.” He puffed his chest out.

“No, that’s still not possible. All of One Piece has a total screen time of sixteen days. There’s no way you could’ve finished it all in one night.”

Clockwork froze. He did not think of that when he was deciding if he should freeze time to watch it. “Oh. I must’ve missed something somewhere. Haha. Guess I didn’t finish it after all.”

Cindy chuckled. “That’s okay. I’m glad to see you’re excited about it. It’s cute.”

“Cute?”

Cindy looked at him. “Yeah. A lot of guys think it’s cringe to like anime. It’s cute how into it you got.”

“Why is anything cringe? If one enjoys something they should embrace it.”

Cindy looked at Libby as she walked up to them. “This guy gets it.”

Libby threw up a peace sign at him. “Slay.”

Paimon walked into class and walked up to them once he saw them.

“Hello, friends.”

He wrapped his arms around Clockwork and he froze. He was quickly realizing that this wasn’t the most common human greeting.

“Oh, wow.” Cindy said. “You guys are a lot closer than I thought. How long have you been together?”

“Together?” Paimon asked.

“Yeah, are you guys dating?” Libby asked.

“No!” Clockwork shook his head. “We only just met yesterday.”

“Oh.” Libby said. “You guys just look like you’ve known each other for a while.”

“That’s just how people greet each other where I am from.” Paimon spoke quickly. “I did not realize it wasn’t a customary greeting in other places.”

“Nah, it’s chill. It’s just usually reserved for people you’re closer to. I’m sure everyone could use more hugs in their day to day life though.”

“Yeah!” Cindy said. “It’s really not that weird, just unexpected.”

Paimon nodded.

That was when their professor walked in.

“Well, we should go sit down.” Clockwork said to Cindy. He scanned the room for empty seats and found two at the back of the class.

He waved Paimon to walk behind him and they made their way to their seats together.

They sat down and Clockwork pulled out a notebook and scrambled for a pencil in his bag. Did he forget to pack them? He wasn’t normally forgetful.

“Here.” Paimon said.

Clockwork looked up to see Paimon holding up a pencil to him. He stared for a couple seconds and reached out to grab it. When he touched the pencil, his hand accidentally grazed Paimon’s and it sent a shock through his system. He quickly took the pencil and faced towards the front of the classroom.

He didn’t know what that was. Why such a simple touch made him feel that way. In his millennia he’s never had that happen to him. What was it?

“Hello, everyone. My name is Professor Haggardy. Today we will be going over-”

Clockwork shook his head. It wasn’t a big deal. It didn’t matter. He should focus on his class and what the humans thought was important.

~~~~~~~~~~

A few weeks later Clockwork and Paimon were once again headed to Cindy and Libby’s room. She requested that they bring their own refreshments. Libby was making more brownies and Cindy made something called ants on a log. He didn’t realize humans were still eating bugs, but he supposed that’s why he was here. To learn more about them.

Clockwork prepared his favorite dish that he has witnessed during all his time. The ube cake roll. Paimon was bringing plates, cups, and soda pop because he apparently didn’t know how to cook.

They stopped in front of the girl’s door and Clockwork knocked. He heard shuffling on the other side and then Cindy opened the door.

“Hey, guys!” Cindy said excitedly. “Come on in.”

She ushered them in and closed the door behind them.

“You can put the food on this folding table over here. Then get settled in because I have some cool news.”

Clockwork set down his cake roll and saw Libby’s brownies, but next to it there was a plate of celery with peanut butter and raisins placed to look like ants. He nodded to himself. This made much more sense.

While Paimon was setting his own stuff down, Clockwork turned to walk the short distance across the room. He jumped and landed on Cindy’s bed and he watched as she set up the tv so they could watch the first episode of an anime called Death Note. It was one that she thought Paimon would like because it was basically a type of weapon.

Paimon dropped onto the bed next to Clockwork, landing almost on top of him. His skin felt electric where it brushed Paimon’s arm. Paimon adjusted to get more comfortable, but didn’t move any further away from him.

“So, before we start I have some good news!” Cindy said as she looked at them. Libby gave her a thumbs up from where she sat on the other end of the bed.

“We got approved to start hosting an anime club every week in the common room!”

“Wooo!” Libby cheered. Clockwork smiled.

“That’s great.” Paimon said.

“Yeah! I’m looking forward to getting to know more people! I used to go to clubs when I was in high school and I miss having a group extracurricular that was just for fun.”

“Will we still have our own weekly anime hangouts?” Clockwork asked.

Cindy nodded. “Of course! You guys are my friends. I like hanging out with you. But one of these days I think we should make plans to do something besides watching anime.”

Clockwork nodded thoughtfully. That would give him the opportunity to see what else humans did for fun.

“We could go clubbing.”

Cindy barked out a laugh. “Libby none of us are old enough to go clubbing. They wouldn’t let us in anywhere.”

Libby shrugged. “A girl can dream, can’t she?”

“We could go axe throwing.” Paimon suggested.

Cindy’s eyes widened and she shot Paimon a look. “Axe throwing? I didn’t peg you for the violent type. You seem pretty chill.”

Paimon shrugged and the motion rocked Clockwork a little. “Gotta let off steam somehow, right?”

She laughed. “I suppose. We ready to get started?”

Clockwork nodded in tandem with Paimon and Libby. Cindy hit play on the tv and hopped onto the bed between Clockwork and Libby.

They watched a couple hours of this host anime that Clockwork couldn’t remember the name of. By the time this last episode they watched was ending, he could feel Paimon nodding off, his head resting on Clockwork’s shoulder. Cindy chuckled to his right.

“I suppose we should wrap up for the night so he can go to sleep.” She pointed at Paimon.

Clockwork smiled. “I suppose. I was enjoying the anime though.”

“We can always finish watching it when you two come over next.”

He nodded. “That sounds swell.”

Clockwork turned to Paimon and shook his shoulder.

“Paimon, wake up.”

Paimon groggily looked up, his face inches from Clockwork’s. He met his gaze and for a moment they were frozen there. The tension grew and Paimon looked down at Clockwork’s lips before glancing back up at his eyes. After a moment Paimon’s eyes widened and he backed away.

“Sorry, did I fall asleep? How much did I miss?”

Clockwork’s face grew warm and he stood up. “I’m not sure. We were going to stop for the night since you seemed so tired.”

“Oh.” Paimon said, disappointed. He stood up next to Clockwork.

“Well I hope you two had fun.” Cindy stood up and walked them to the door, waggling her eyebrows at Clockwork. The blush crept up onto his face again. What was happening to him?

“I sure did. We’ll see you two tomorrow.”

Clockwork waved at the girls. Cindy waved back but apparently Libby had also fallen asleep at some point. She was snoring on Cindy’s bed.

Cindy closed the door behind them and Clockwork and Paimon headed down the hallway towards their own room.

Paimon yawned and Clockwork chuckled at him. “Tired today?”

He nodded. “I think I was up too late last night studying for an exam. I’m feeling it today.”

“Well, hopefully you get a better night’s rest tonight.” Clockwork opened their door and held it open for Paimon. He walked inside past him and Clockwork closed the door behind him.

“You’re telling me.”

They got changed and ready for bed. Just before Clockwork was about to turn the light off, Paimon wrapped his arms around his middle. A fluttering feeling erupted inside his stomach.

Clockwork swallowed. “Is this a common goodbye as well?”

Paimon nodded against Clockwork’s cheek. “It is.”

Clockwork lifted his arms up and wrapped them around Paimon’s shoulders. This one felt different. Normally there wasn’t so much tension in a simple greeting. Something was happening to Clockwork. He didn’t think a god such as himself could feel such a thing.

He pushed it down and after another second pulled away from Paimon.

“Goodnight.” He turned off the light. They both got into their beds.

“Goodnight, Chronos.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was their semester break. Everyone else went back home for the holidays but Clockwork didn’t have any family to go home to. He only had the other gods in his pantheon, but they didn’t really celebrate such trivial holidays.

The only other person who didn’t go home was Paimon. Clockwork thought it was odd. He wondered what Paimon’s home life was. He didn’t talk about it very often and when he did it was very stilted.

Clockwork decided that while he didn’t have classes to worry about he could try out having a human job. He applied before the semester ended and he was going on day fourteen with no day off in sight until the semester started. He was tired to the bone and he didn’t understand how businesses could do this to their employees. If a god like Clockwork felt like this after two weeks, he couldn’t imagine what a regular human would feel like.

He opened the door to his dorm room. He could barely keep his eyes open but he could see that the light was off.

Staying quiet, Clockwork took his coat off and hung it up in their closet. He stumbled his way over to the nearest bed and collapsed onto it. He was expecting the soft give of his blanket but instead he was met with someone’s hard chest and a soft oof sound.

“...what?” Paimon breathed out.

Clockwork’s eyes snapped open and he lifted himself up to see Paimon blearily staring up at him.

“I’m so sorry. For waking you up. I thought this was-”

Paimon scooted over in his bed and pushed Clockwork down onto the mattress beside him. Clockwork froze and waited for Paimon to remove his hand from his side, but he never did.

“Paimon?” Clockwork whispered.

“...m tired. Just go to sleep.” Paimon said. His breathing evened out and deepened and soon Paimon was asleep again. Clockwork still didn’t move. If he got up to go to his own bed he would wake Paimon up again. But was this really okay? Would Paimon be upset in the morning?

Clockwork looked at Paimon’s sleeping face. He didn’t seem too bothered by it when he woke up. And he was already back asleep. He must’ve been comfortable enough.

Clockwork shifted, settling in and getting more comfortable. He closed his eyes and soon he was also asleep.

The next morning came by and Clockwork slowly drifted awake. He was laying on his back but he could feel something on his shoulder and draped across his chest.

He pulled his eyes open and was surprised at what he saw.

Paimon had his shoulder resting on Clockwork’s shoulder, with his arm draped across his chest. He looked so peaceful as he slept. Clockwork couldn’t help but trace every line in his face. The way his lips turned up or the sharp slope of his nose. A warm feeling spread across his body and the fluttering sensation was back.

He smiled as he watched Paimon and it was then that Clockwork realized what he’d been feeling.

Love.

Human’s were known for their love. It was what drove the majority of their lives. Clockwork never thought he’d be one to succumb to it. A not to a human, no less.

But as Clockwork stared at Paimon’s face, lit up by the sun filtering in through their blinds, there was no denying this feeling.

He was falling in love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clockwork stood outside Cindy’s door. He wasn’t sure if he should actually knock or not. He wasn’t sure if this is something Cindy would be willing to talk to him about. Would she turn him away?

He raised his hand up to knock and paused. Maybe he shouldn’t-

Suddenly the door opened in front of him and he saw Cindy staring at her keys. She looked up and jumped a little when she saw him. She smiled.

“Hey, Chronos. What’s up?”

He swallowed. He supposed he should just follow through with it.

“Hey. I wanted to ask you about some… relationship advice.”

She smirked. “Oh? Well come on in. We can’t stay too long though because I have to get to work but I have a couple minutes.”

She stepped aside to let him into her room and she shut the door after him.

“Sooo… Paimon?”

Clockwork looked up at her sharply. “How did you know?”

She rolled her eyes at him and sat on her bed. “It’s not that hard to figure out. You guys have had really good chemistry all year, especially considering you two have only known each other that long.”

“What does chemistry have to do with Paimon?”

She laughed. “It’s just a figure of speech. It means you guys work really well together.”

“Oh.” Clockwork sat down on the bed next to her. He looked at the floor for a few moments.

“How does falling in love work?” Clockwork asked Cindy.

The teasing expression fell from her face and she smiled softly at him. “I’m not sure that anyone knows that.”

“Does it happen to everyone?”

She shrugged. “Some people never fall in love. Some people fall in love with a lot of people. It depends on the person.”

“I never thought I’d be the type of person to fall in love.” He said. “It seemed so trivial.”

“Do you think you’re falling in love?”

He looked at her. “How would I know?”

“Well, how do you feel?”

Clockwork looked back at the floor. “I like being around him. He touches me and it feels like electricity runs through my veins. I’m always thinking about him but it also scares me. I’m not afraid of anything, but this terrifies me.”

“I think that’s how you know it’s love.” Cindy said quietly.

“What do I do about it?”

She shook her head. “That's for you to decide. You could tell him or you could keep your friendship the way it is. I can’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t do.” She knocked her shoulder into his. “I can tease you about it, but I can’t seriously tell you what to do.”

Clockwork nodded his head. “I guess I’ll have to think about it.”

“Yeah, do that. Thinking about it is good. It’ll help you decide what you really want to do.”

Cindy slapped her hands on her knees and groaned as she stood up. “But I do have to go to work. You down for some anime again this week?”

Clockwork smiled at her as he stood up. “Always.”

They walked to the door and she pulled her key back out and opened it.

“I hope it goes well.” She said.

“Me too. Thank you for listening.”

“You’re welcome. That’s what friends are for.” She pulled the door closed behind her and locked it. “Hey, while I’m remembering it, do you and Paimon want to come to my sister’s party she’s having at her sorority?”

“Sure. Will it be like our floor parties that we have in the common area?” Clockwork started walking with her as she headed down the hallway.

“It’ll be much more exciting than that.” She smirked at him. “There’ll be alcohol and brownies. But they’ll be the good, good kind of brownies.”

“We’ll be there. I’ll ask Paimon about it.”

“Bet!”

He waved at her as they split and walked down opposite directions of the next hallway. He headed back to his room and opened the door.

Paimon was sitting with his legs splayed against the wall and his head hanging off the edge of his bed. He was throwing a ball up into the air and catching it in his hands as he stared at the ceiling. His eyes darted to look at Clockwork as he threw the ball up again but he missed it as it fell back down and it hit him in the chest.

Clockwork chuckled. “Lost in thought?”

He sat down on the floor in front of Paimon’s face as he groaned.

“No. I’m just thinking about my math class.”

“I could always help you with it. I’m doing fairly well myself. I’d be glad to help.” Clockwork said.

Paimon met Clockwork’s gaze and held it for a few beats before speaking. “Thanks. That’d be super cool.”

Clockwork chuckled and looked away. “Anyways, Cindy invited us to a party at her sister’s sorority. Says it’s supposed to be really exciting. Did you want to come with me?”

“Sure!” Paimon said. “I’d love to go to the party with you.”

Heat rose to Clockwork’s cheeks. “Cool. Did you want to start working on our math homework together? We can go over anything you don’t understand.”

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

Clockwork stood up and watched as Paimon crawled around and readjusted himself so he could stand up. But when he did, he tripped into Clockwork. He grabbed Paimon’s arms so he didn’t fall to the ground and they both froze.

Paimon made eye contact with Clockwork and pulled away. “Thanks. That could’ve been bad.”

“No problem.”

They gathered their math materials and settled down on Paimon’s bed and started working on their homework. Their arms brushed against each other as they gestured to the work in their textbooks and their notebooks. They stayed like that until they finished the assignment and separated to go to bed for the night.

~~~~~~~~~

Clockwork and Paimon walked into the sorority house together. It was filled to the brim with people and the music was loud. Lights were blinking and strung all throughout the house, almost as if it was moving to the beat of the music.

“Have you ever been to a party like this?” Clockwork leaned close to Paimon and shouted at him.

Paimon shook his head. “I wasn’t invited to much back home.”

“Me either. I-”

“Paimon! Chronos!” Cindy called.

She danced her way over to them, her hips swaying to the music and a bottle of alcohol in one hand and a brownie in the other. “How goes it?” She asked.

“We are doing well.” Clockwork smiled at her. “Are you having fun so far?”

“So much fun!” Cindy cheered. “We’ve been waiting for you to get here!”

“Is Libby here as well?” Paimon asked.

“She sure is.”

Clockwork and Paimon jumped at the voice that was suddenly behind them. They turned to see Libby with her own brownie. She threw a peace sign up at them.

“There’s my girl!” Cindy walked in between them to get to Libby, throwing her arms around her. “Now the party can really get started!”

“I’m not sure we have much to add.” Clockwork said. “Neither of us have ever been to a party like this before.”

Cindy gasped dramatically. “Never?”

“Never.” Paimon repeated back to her.

“Such a shame.” Libby said.

“It is such a shame.” Cindy threw her head back sadly.

“What do you usually do at parties?” Clockwork asked. “We could start with that.”

Cindy gasped and smiled at them, looking between Clockwork and Paimon before her gaze settled on Clockwork.

“Let’s play seven minutes in heaven!” Cindy said excitedly.

“What is this?” Clockwork asked.

“You’ve never played seven minutes in heaven before?” Libby asked. “Tragic.”

“We play it kind of like spin the bottle.” Cindy said. “You sit in a circle and take an empty bottle and spin it. Whoever it lands on, you both have to spend seven minutes in the closet doing anything you want.” She waggled her eyebrows at that.

“Some people just sit and talk, some people just wait for their time to be up.” Libby bounced her shoulders up and down. “Some people even get freaky while they’re in there.”

“Let’s start!” Cindy called.

The party goers gathered around and sat in a big circle around the room. Clockwork watched Paimon sit next to Cindy across from him in the circle.

“Paimon, why don’t you go first?”

He looked at her and shrugged. Grabbing the bottle, he twisted it and watched it as it twirled around on the floor.

The bottle spun quickly in the center of their group. It slowed down and finally landed on Clockwork. Paimon looked up at him and met his gaze.

“Ohhhh. Paimon and Chronos. Time for your seven minutes in heaven.” She did a little dance as she smirked at them.

She walked them to the closet and opened it.

“And just so you guys can’t get out before your time is up, I’m putting this on the doorknob.” She held up an oddly shaped piece of white plastic.

They looked at each other and stepped inside the closet. She smirked at them and waved.

“Have fun you two.”

Paimon was staring at the door before his gaze slid over to Clockwork. “What do we do now?”

Clockwork shrugged. “Whatever we want, I guess. We could just talk. Or go over some material from our classes.”

Paimon nodded stiffly. “We could go over our mathematics course?”

“Okay.”

Clockwork started going over the material for their Real Analysis math course. It was such simple math, he was glad to help Paimon with it. They both tested into the course but he could understand why a human such as Paimon would have a harder time understanding the concepts presented to him.

He was going over the next concept they learned that week when Paimon shifted.

Clockwork felt Paimon’s hand slide across the floor and brush his. His heart rate spiked and he swallowed. How did these feelings overtake him so fully? Why was he so nervous? He was a god for titan’s sake.

“This is what humans do when they like each other, right?”

Clockwork nodded. “It is.”

Was he really going to act on these feelings? Could he do that?

Clockwork lifted his hand and scooped up Paimon’s.

They turned to face each other, their faces inches apart when the closet door opened.

“Your seven minutes are up you two!” Cindy singsonged.

Clockwork and Paimon jumped away from each other. Clockwork’s heart was racing. Were they really about to do that?

Clockwork stood up and held his hand out to help Paimon stand up. Paimon reached up and took his hand. They walked out past Cindy and she was giving them eyes. Clockwork’s face flushed and he tried to ignore her look.

“Okay, now it’s Libby’s and Buster’s turn!”

Clockwork walked away from the group as they cheered and Paimon followed after him. Paimon grabbed his hand and Clockwork turned to face him.

“Did you want to get out of here?” Paimon asked quietly.

Clockwork studied him for a moment before he nodded.

The walk from the sorority was quick. They weren’t that far away from their dorm building. Once they got inside the building, they walked back to their dorm room quietly. The air felt charged between them and Clockwork wasn’t sure what was going to happen once they got there. Would it be good? Would it be bad? Would he even like it? Would they just pretend like nothing happened?

Clockwork went to open their dorm room door and it felt like it took an eternity. He opened the door and walked inside, Paimon quickly closing it behind them. Before Clockwork could even turn the lights on, Paimon had walked up to him, grabbing one of his hands again.

Paimon’s other hand lifted and traced over Clockwork’s cheek. He leaned into Paimon’s and and closed his eyes. Paimon rested his head in the crook of Clockwork’s shoulder and he could feel his heart rate spiking. Paimon pulled back a little, his breath warming over Clockwork’s neck.

“Is this the beginning of what we call a human mating ritual?” Clockwork whispered. Paimon’s face was inches from his own as he lifted his head back up. Clockwork didn’t know what a human would do in this situation. He was the god of time. Not… This. But he couldn’t deny the feelings bubbling up inside him. Could he really let himself feel like this for a mere mortal?

“I believe so.” Paimon breathed out across Clockwork’s cheek. He shuddered.

“How do we start?” He asked.

Paimon was quiet for a few moments before he whispered back.

“I don’t know.”

Clockwork’s eyes widened. “You don’t know?” He’s always heard that young men were overly curious about this sort of thing. How didn’t he know anything about human mating rituals?

“I’ve never done anything like this before.” Paimon looked down at Clockwork’s lips.

“Me either.”

“Our floor mates would be laughing at us right now, wouldn’t they?” Paimon chuckled.

Clockwork smiled. He placed a hand on Paimon’s cheek. “Yes. They would be. How is it that they know so much more than us?”

Paimon’s smile fell off his face. “I don’t know exactly what I’m feeling. You make me feel nice. I like being around you. But it’s different than how I like being around that girl that invited us to her fun ‘anime association’. It’s bigger. More encompassing.”

Clockwork stared at him. “Bigger than us?”

Paimon chuckled again. “Yes, somehow bigger than us.” He pulled his gaze away from Clockwork’s. “It’s somehow bigger than us but you couldn’t even imagine how big I am.”

“Is that a human euphemism?”

“No!” Paimon pulled back, a flush creeping up to his ears. “What if I told you something that your small human mind couldn’t comprehend?”

Clockwork frowned. “What would another human be able to tell me that I wouldn’t be able to comprehend?”

“What if I told you that I wasn’t just another human?”

Clockwork's heart felt like it stopped. Not another human? That’d be absurd. What would the chances of that happening be?

“What do you mean, you’re not just another human?”

“I’m not a human.” Paimon said. “I was sent here by my pantheon to observe human life on earth more closely. But we started getting so close and I couldn’t help but feel… Feel like I was somehow taking advantage of you, being such a high power when you’re just a human.”

Clockwork barked out a laugh. It built up until he was belly laughing in the middle of their room. He grabbed Paimon’s wrist.

“See, you’re human mind can’t comprehend it.”

Clockwork shook his head. “No that’s not it. I’m laughing at the absurdity of it. I was also sent here by my own pantheon to observe the humans.”

Paimon just stared at Clockwork for a few moments, processing this new information.

“You’re not a human?”

“Not any more than you are, apparently.”

“What’s your name?”

He smiled. “My name is Clockwork.”

Paimon’s eyes widened.

“Is that why that first night before classes felt like it took forever? You watched that whole anime?”

Clockwork blinked at him. “My powers didn’t freeze you in time?”

“No!” Paimon threw his arms up in the air, Clockwork's hand going with his wrist. “I kept waking up thinking ‘surely it’ll be morning this time.’ And it never was! For so long!”

Clockwork barked out another hearty laugh. “I didn’t even notice anything with my earbuds in. How wild.”

“Pariah.”

“Huh?” Clockwork asked.

“My name. It’s Pariah Dark.”

“Ah, the god of war.” Clockwork let go of Pariah’s wrist and trailed his hands up his arms and around his neck. “I guess you don’t have to worry about taking advantage of me anymore.”

Pariah smiled at him. “I guess not.”

Clockwork looked at Pariah’s lips and inched forward, pressing his own against them. They stayed like that for a few moments before he pulled away.

“How lucky are we to have found someone that’ll stay with us forever?”

Pariah trailed his hand against Clockwork’s face.

“The luckiest of all.”

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q-gorgeous · 8 days

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tumblr is great because no matter how many followers i get it doesn't stop me from being really fucking annoying. other places i will perhaps think before i post. Not here. not here

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q-gorgeous · 8 days

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gouache 🌱

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q-gorgeous · 9 days