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camels-pen · 3 years

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Denial Only Gets You So Far

DannyMay Day 5 - Doorway

tw: negative self talk, implied death, brief mentions of blood, injury, and body horror

Summary: Danny returns to Fenton Works, doorways are stupid, and good parents are hard to come by.

(sequel to What Could Have Been & 2nd part of the Not Your Son series)

Ao3 link

Just walk in, he thought as anxiety swam in his gut, it’s just a doorway.

Nearly three hours ago, he probably could’ve walked through no problem. An easy action when all it meant was coming over to study with Jazz or leaving to go home to Vlad’s mansion. The small uncomfortable nudge from his core was not helping the matter.

“C’mon Danno, let’s head in;” his dad said as he locked the car. “The others should be coming around in a few minutes and I’m sure you want to get changed before they get here.” Danny’s eyes trailed down to the blood smudged on the cuff of his sleeve, lingering for a few moments before moving back up to stare at the open door.

Fifteen minutes.

It had been fifteen minutes since the ring’s control had been broken, since he gave the ultimatum, since he was Vlad’s son.

So why couldn’t he enter the building? It was his house. He was on the last step. All he had to do was put one foot forward. One foot and he could crash on the couch, put the day behind him.

(He could deny all of what’s happened, could think it was all some elaborate scheme by Nocturn or maybe that someone else had gotten that ring, forcing him to experience a weird dream (nightmare, nightmare, it was a nightmare) so he’d be too caught up in figuring it out to be able to break free. If he walked through the shielded building filled with anti-ghost weaponry in the walls though, his fragile excuses would crumble to dust.

He wasn’t ready for that.

All he wanted to do was turn around and hop right back in the RV, ignore the world for a little while longer and wait until the real Vlad showed up. The vicious, lying, and manipulative one that constantly mocked his intelligence and hated his jokes. The one that had no problem beating teenage half-ghosts into a pulp. The one he hated so much he got the government’s incompetent ghost hunting division to blow up his stupid cheese castle in Wisconsin.

It was just a short hop, jump, skip to the car; he could put the doorway behind him and indulge in this one harmless little temptation, couldn’t he? Let himself live in denial until the crazed up Fruitloop appeared with his latest murder plot?)

His dad put his hands on his shoulders, shoving him through the daunting doorway and making the decision for him.

---

The couch held him close as he was bombarded by worried family and friends and ...Valerie?

(“You’re out of your mind if you think only Jazz and your friends noticed your new chummy-chummy attitude with Vlad, moron,” she said, punching his arm lightly, a smile on her face.)

Even Elle was around, crushing him in a hug and refusing to let go the entire time they all talked.

He learned Sam and Tucker confronted Vlad on a Monday, three days after the dance and the day before a big science project was due. The three had walked to Vlad’s mansion to work on it, Sam and Tucker joking and asking what Danny managed to do to blackmail the guy this time.

“What? Why would I blackmail my dad?” Danny asked, confused as he reached through the door to turn the lock. He groaned in annoyance. “Did he try to sell you stock in his company or something? Because if he did, I’m gonna set up buckets of gravy and feathers in his room and you guys are welcome to join.”

They turned down the offer, worried, and made up some excuse to wander the large mahogany wood halls alone. Tucker needing to rub prescription cream on a ‘super embarrassing back rash’ that he can’t reach and only Sam’s seen before garnered sympathy and a grimace from Danny and he left them to it. (He remembered how indignant Tucker looked while Sam said that. He remembered wondering why his friend looked so badly like he wanted to deny it. It made sense now.)

Vlad was listening in just around the corner.

Apparently his friends tried threatening, cursing, and actually fighting him at some point, all without the younger halfa hearing a damn thing. Sam was particularly miffed recounting the event.

“No matter what you say or do, Daniel’s secret will still be at risk should you expose me and- Charcoal biscuits! Did you just try to bite me?!” He turned to Tucker with a fearful look. “Is this one feral?!”

In the end, nothing changed. Danny still went to school, still went out on patrols, still hung out with his friends, and still acted, overall, normal.

Then he learned that when Jazz got back from her weekend getaway she nearly stormed the place, armed with the Fenton Peeler and only stopped by his friends physically holding her back. The image brought a smile to his weary face.

Next, his parents were going to explain why they didn’t look for him, but he shook his head; even with different parents, he still thought of Jazz as sister to him since the ring only tweaked his memories a bit. He still spent a lot of time in Fenton Works, studying with her a few days a week after school and staying late at night for other things, so it made sense they didn’t notice. And in those three weeks, his sister was always inviting him to hang out or sleepover, Sam and Tuck too, but the constantly unlocked Fenton Portal was what really kept him coming back almost everyday.

(“What kind of idiots don’t lock their own Zone portal?!” he complained, pacing the air in the center of the library. “I mean, what, did they think the ghosts would knock? Float into their lab with a smile and a fucking plate of cookies?” Vlad resisted the urge to snort.

“Language, Danny.”)

All that time spent in Fenton Works, his parents’ usual lack of perception, and the mysterious destruction of their more dangerous weaponry every weekend completely explained why they didn’t notice their only son not living with them for almost a month.

Yup, everything checks out.

---

Over time, Danny learned to readjust to his new normal. He held off on casually using his powers for a while and just focused on helping his parents understand him better and how he became the way he is.

A hero. A half-ghost. A boy with more intimate knowledge about ghosts than either of them combined. He even told them about the importance of his name, Phantom, and what it meant to him.

His parents listened intently and were eager to look over their old research papers with him, but, at Jazz’s insistence, they decided to hold off for a while until Danny felt back to normal. As the boy tried adjusting to living with his family again, however, time started to become more and more of a blur as the days passed.

He thinks at some point, his friends apologized to him. Said they wouldn't have outed him and continued looking for a solution on their own if he hadn’t gone radio silent one weekend. He sheepishly admitted he broke his phone in his Vlad’s training room while testing the durability of his new handmade Phantom sweater; a gift from Vlad made of a thick black fabric with white and green detailing and able withstand ghost rays, electric shocks, and extremely cold temperatures no problem.

(it’s the best piece of clothing he’s ever had)

(he shoved it in the trash the first chance he got)

He wished they ignored it was thankful he was so forgetful, otherwise he might’ve been stuck being all gross and friendly with Vlad for who knows how long.

(they would’ve left well enough alone if you weren’t so stupid, a voice hissed, you could’ve avoided this; could’ve stayed blissfully ignorant in your own little world while everyone else moved on with their lives, as they should, but no, of course you had to ruin it with your stupid little damsel-in-distress routine. Some ‘hero’ you are.)

He stared blankly into his bedroom.

It’s just a doorway, he thought again, just a stupid fucking doorway.

There was a non-existent film in the space between the hall and his room. A thin, staticky little thing that prickled Danny’s skin when he got too close. It leered at him, poking at him and saying to leave, to fly away and never come back.

No one wants you here, it sneered, your parents didn’t even notice you were gone, didn’t even care until the famous ghost menace was involved. Why would now be any different?

He stayed silent, keeping his unblinking eyes trained on the perfectly made up bed sheets.

“Whoops! Sorry there, Danno, forgot to turn off the Mini-Fenton Ghost Shields around your room,” his dad said, popping out of nowhere and making the boy jump. He knocked against the wall in a specific pattern and Danny could hear the sounds of humming machinery powering down. “There we go. Have a goodnight, son!” his dad said, waving as he returned to his own room.

The film was still there, mocking him.

Danny tore his eyes away and leaned against the railing. Maybe he could try again tomorrow night. Yeah, it’s not a big deal—he’ll just stay up to get ahead on homework. It’s not like anyone actually died from a lack of sleep.

He eyed the couch.

---

Fire. Lots of fire. An explosion, one big enough to send him flying through the air, nearly knocking him out as he landed on asphalt. There was a small group of people nearby, phones out and recording. One was smart enough to call the fire department. Good.

Surveying the area, it seemed no one was too badly burned. None of the larger debris seemed to go past the empty parking lot and despite the tipped over oil tanker, no one looked physically hurt either. Relieved, he set his head down on the pavement and breathed deeply. Even though he was exhausted and in a lot of pain, at least no one got hurt.

The sound of something small falling to the scorched pavement caught his attention.

A watch. Dad’s watch, he thought to himself numbly. The sky was clear of ghosts and his ghost sense wasn’t going off so-

Slowly, Danny lifted his head to look directly into the flames.

Vlad’s burning body was laying atop a large piece of debris, metal rods and shards of glass littering his bloody back. His melting face stared at the boy and despite the smoke partially blocking his vision, the halfa could make out an apologetic look forever etched into it.

Danny woke up screaming.

“Danny?! Danny, what’s wrong?!” Vlad burst into the room partway through a transformation. Locking eyes with the crying child he let his rings revert him back to human. The boy furiously wiped at his eyes and turned around, pulling the blanket over his head and sniffling quietly.

“Nothing,” he said, voice muffled. “You don’t have to strap me to some crazy machine or anything.” Silence answered him, but there were no sounds of retreating footsteps, to Danny’s dismay. He ventured a glance over his shoulder.

Vlad had a myriad of expressions cross his face before he took a deep breath and moved to sit on the floor beside the bed. He spoke in an even tone.

“Strapping a child to a dangerous machine is not something I make a habit of doing.” Danny scoffed, resting his head back on the pillow and missing the man’s stiffening posture.

“I know that, but...”—he frowned—“I dunno, ‘seems like something parents would do.”

“I assure you, little badger, that is not something parents do.”

Again silence answered him, but it was more comfortable this time, the empty void filling with an understanding that it was late and nothing more needed to be said. And while the boy didn’t turn back, he knew the older halfa stayed by his side, long after he fell asleep.

(Which, duh, of course he knew. How could he miss the huge puddle of drool on the edge of his sheets? Danny griped at him for it the next morning; it was his turn to do laundry and the load was gonna be light and easy before this. Vlad offered to do it for him, but Danny denied it with a dramatic sigh, citing that he didn’t want his sheets to catch fire.

Vlad sputtered excuses and denials and an “It was only one time!”, missing the teasing smile Danny was sporting. Honestly, 42 years and the man still had no clue how to work the dryer, he chuckled to himself.)

---

There’s one thing Danny couldn’t deny as he clung to the memory, drenched in sweat and digging the balls of his hands into his eyes.

He missed Vlad.

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