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starwrighter · 9 months

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I am not a baby!! (Yes you are)

(Ao3) (Masterpost) (Previous) (Next)

(Part seven lmao)

Sometimes Danny hated being right. Mentally he cursed himself as he clamored into his lifepod. The Aurora was spilling radiation into the water just like predicted it would. A damaged drive core... That didn't bode well for him or the local wildlife. He was a Fenton! He knew the terminology for "This might blow up," in every language, no matter how needlessly complicated you said it.

A radiation suit would be helpful when the ship blew up, if not for him, then for the other survivors. Danny grew up surrounded by radioactive material, he was about as fucked up as one could get, but there was still time left for the other survivors. If there even were any left.

Shaking his head, Danny opened the storage plucking out the remaining Creepvine clusters, and started fabricating. It was hypnotic, Creepvine clusters to lubricant, copper and mushrooms to a battery and copper wire all that and a piece of titanium gave Danny a functioning Seaglide. The device was heavy, the PDA altering the blueprint so it was usable for him.

Opening the hatch up, eager to test his new toy out, Danny dove back into the water faster than ever before. Propellers spun at speeds that would chop his finger clean off if he touched them. A glowing map at the top and a flashlight he could turn off by squeezing the handles. Quick enough to keep up with the peepers while still being able to make quick sharp turns.

The Device whirled as he swam in circles, up, down, left, right, zigzag! Through coral tubes, around stone arches till he got dizzy, divebombing fish and kicking up sand.

"Congratulations, survivor. you have exceeded your weekly exercise quotient by 500 percent. Data indicates that swimming was your favorite activity,"

Heck yeah it was! Swimming is great! He's fast as hell man, radiation could eat shit! Stalkers wouldn't stand a chance, he'd just outpace them! Swimming around, breaking outcrops, and taking samples of table coral for a computer chip. Danny was having a blast!

In time he would have the materials to fabricate a habitat builder and in turn a super cool sea base! A home away from home while he's stuck outside federation space. Currently, the seabase blueprints he had were...limited, but he could work with that!

Rushing to his fabricator the blue lights felt agonizingly slow as he bounced on the heels of his feet, flippers squeaking against the floor. A habitat builder fell into Danny's impatient hands.

Back in the water, Danny scoped out the area. Access to an abundance of resources, food, and water was a necessity. Along with awareness of local predators. The shallows are a perfect place for him to build right now. A temp base to rest and store stuff before moving somewhere more convenient as he explored and met up with any of the other survivors.

Deciding to test out his new tool, Danny placed down a basic compartment. A tiny little tube that would've been big enough if he only needed a place to sleep. Yeah, that wasn't going to work. How was he supposed to pace aimlessly while he wrote notes? How was he supposed to work and live in a high-tech pool noodle? Disassembling the pathetic tube, Danny swam through the shallows plucking up the quartz needed for glass. More materials would be needed to build his base. Thankfully, he’d crashed in a ship made from and carrying the materials he needed. Danny saw no moral issue with “borrowing” titanium from supply crates light enough to lift, but the PDA seemed to have a small issue with it. With a few minutes of tinkering, it was easy to change the machine’s artificial mind.

A loop, he was going to make a base shaped like a zero because that’s how many fucks he gave about Alterra’s dumb rule. Placed upon foundations was the start of his perfect space base. The sides of the Zero became glass compartments, a perfect place to observe the local wildlife. Solar panels mounted jumpstarted the oxygen production, lights blinding when they snapped on. Fish drifted by his base, some ducking underneath his foundations settling comfortably in the shade provided. Maybe if he was here long enough, he’d grow some plants for fish to nibble on?

A hatch was placed on the front of the Zero, finally giving him access to his new base. Cold air punched him in the face as he stepped inside, but it was a welcome attack. Air conditioning at last! Throwing himself to the floor, Danny giggled, noise bouncing against barren walls. A sterile smell cycled through the base with the air filtered in. Like his parent's lab or a hospital room freshly sanitized. Familiar, it smelled like home.

Peeling off his flippers, Danny propped them against the wall. Bare feet against metal floors, Danny took to running through the loop. Brushing his hands against empty walls, he ran laps like it was gym class. The only difference was this wasn't gym class, so it didn't feel like hell. Several laps ran throughout his base until his breath ran out, and he collapsed to the floor.

Winded and panting, he glanced around his base mentally, planning where everything would go. Blueprints were limited, but brainpower wasn't. Making new blueprints for shelving units or a bed should be easy enough. The hard part would be finding the space for it. If he tinkered with the PDA, he could fabricate some blankets and pillows that he could sleep on and store away when he was awake.

First things first, he needed to get a fabricator and some storage set up. A few wall lockers on each side of the fabricator made his little crafting station. His base still felt bare. White walls would get boring real fast. No paint or paper he could use to decorate. No stickers or wallpaper to paint his base to match the stars. Untapped Potential, something to add to his to-do list. If he couldn't decorate anything else, changing the locker's text font would have to do.

Walking in a loop, Danny muttered, his brain working better than his mouth. Words failed, coming out jumbled if they were more than one or two easy syllables. Fangs created a lisp that'd get him verbally castrated if he was back at Casper. That was if he didn't maul them with his newfound face knives. Like a piranha, he was dangerous! Fierce!

Tap...Tap...Tap

Feet freezing, Danny turned to the window, heart jumping to his throat. Several glowing eyes stared back at him, burning a hole into his soul. Stripes of colors ranging from blue, purple, and forest green ran along its massive scaly body and dragon-like head. Two razor-sharp fangs poked out of a closed mouth. Arms glowing blue that faded to pitch black when reaching its four-fingered hands, each claw sharper than a sword. Hands, oh ancients, why does this one have hands? The other one didn't have hands! Curled up, it would be the same size as his base. Danny pointed his scanner at the guy, the results striking terror into the deepest depths of his core...

What the fuck do you mean this guy's a juvenile!?!

@ashoutinthedarkness @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim

#Danny the moment he gets a seaglide: I'm fast as fuck boii #Danny upon seeing Damian: I'm scared as fuck boii #Imagine playing Subnautica and you're chilling in the shallows and you see a ghost gargantuan hybrid leviathan at your door #I'd simply perish at that point #subnautica au #dpxdc #dc x dp #dcxdp #dp x dc #DPXDC #DCXDP #All the tags so people can filter

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grantspectortrash · 2 years

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Bad To The Bone

pairing: Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader

summary: Halloween night, King Steve on the cusp of Good Steve, and a shared love for The Karate Kid. Flirting that you'd never admit to, a party that you'll never forget.

word count: 3.2K

A/N: aha honestly? I just wanted to combine my love for Steve Harrington, Cobra Kai/Karate Kid and Halloween all into one place. Hope you enjoy! Requests are open btw <3

It's Halloween 1984 and somebody is dressed as a skeleton.

But not any old skeleton - they're dressed up as Johnny Lawrence's skeleton, headphones around his neck and all, completely identical to the costume in The Karate Kid.

You wonder how long it took them to create it, and how many times they went to the cinema in order to memorise it down to the very last thread.

You can't see their face, but they're on the dancefloor and they are killing it - no Halloween pun intended.

Tina is the one throwing the party, claiming that she is the 'ghostess with the mostest'. Her house is large enough to host all of your classmates and more. You're pretty sure that there's some underage kids hanging out and drinking in her backyard, but that isn't your problem.

And, while you take in the scenery and stand in Tina's kitchen, you contemplate why you ever thought dressing up as Mr Miyagi was a good idea - bald cap and all.

Robin, your best friend in the entire world, had bailed on you this Halloween. Sure, maybe she couldn't get out of going to her cousin's wedding, but why did it have to be the same weekend as Halloween? The pair of you were always Batman and Robin, and surprisingly you were always Robin. That joke never got old, not to you at least.

Most girls, if not all, at the party had gone for the sexy side of Halloween dress-up. Sexy ghosts, sexy nuns, Princess Leia in her golden bikini. One very specific, very skimpy, sexy E.T. who had lights glowing from her boobs instead of her finger.

You think it's the first time you've seen an alien that wants to get probed. Alas, you digress.

The Johnny Lawrence poser is dancing as '(Don't Fear) The Reaper' is playing from the large speakers that Tina has borrowed from her boyfriend Chris.

Although you're not very close to Tina, you get the urge to tell her that while she's dancing with her friends, Chris is making out with Stacey in the downstairs bathroom behind you.

Each time their hankering bodies collide with the bathroom door, you take one step further into the kitchen and one step further away from whatever is going on inside that bathroom. You're grateful the music covers their noises.

Nobody has spoken to you in about twenty minutes, and the only conversation you did have was when someone, clearly already drunk and dressed like Danny Zuko yelled "Wax on, wax off!" in your face as he grabbed yet another beer bottle from the kitchen counter.

You had wondered if he had a Sandy to pair up with, but when he sauntered back into the crowd you saw the mass of T-Birds waiting for him.

Hiding out in the kitchen has it's privileges. You had already swiped two bottles of the cheep beer yourself, and now you nurse the second by taking tiny sips at regular intervals and clutching the bottle tightly just so that you have something to do with your hands.

The song ends and a new one starts, and you watch as the skeleton gestures to some of the people he's with - you don't recognise any of them.

His thumb jabs over to the direction of the kitchen and soon he's snaking through the throng of costumed people on the dancefloor, all drunk or high to a varying degree.

As he gets closer you wonder if he'll see you. You wonder if you know him. You still can't see his face; the makeup is deceiving and his hair is hidden by the hood of the costume.

The skeleton-clad boy moves to the other end of the kitchen, his back to you. He grabs a bottle from the counter and absentmindedly cracks the cap off with his teeth. It's an act you're sure a dentist wouldn't approve of, but it comes across as quite an impressive act, and a slightly attractive thing to do.

He pulls the cap from his mouth and flicks it onto the counter. It's only then that he takes in what's been going on in the kitchen.

There's a guy who's been stood over the punch bowl for the last ten minutes, tipping in various bottles of spirits and mixers and meticulously stirring it, all while dressed as a baseball player.

A couple, dressed as Fred and Daphne from the Scooby gang, have been arguing just as long. Their hushed tones are hidden by the music, but whatever is going on neither of them are happy about.

And then there's you. And the skeleton boy can see that.

He turn towards you fully, grinning, and it's only then that you wish you hadn't been staring at him all night. You wish you hadn't created an idea of who he might be in your head. Because he smiles and it's unmistakeable. It's pretty and popular and all the girls love it.

You have to stop yourself from cursing.

"Oh shit, Mr Miyagi. Better stay away from you." He takes a sip from his beer and leans casually on the counter beside you.

He is no longer skeleton boy, the guy with the bad dance moves and the good taste in movies.

He's Steve Harrington. King Steve. Douchebag of all douchebags. And your crush since about eighth grade, not that you'd admit that to yourself. Or him.

And sure, the crush faded in and out, because it was never going to be reciprocated, and honestly you didn't care.

But tonight he looked like Johnny Lawrence, and you had to keep reminding yourself who he really was under his clothes and all of that makeup.

A bully. A rich boy. A reminder of why you didn't need a guy in your life.

And yet, even after all your reminding, when he's dressed as Johnny Lawrence he's almost someone else. Almost the guy you created in your head.

"Yeah, one wrong move and you're dead, Harrington." You reply, rolling your eyes and taking a sip of beer for good measure.

Steve brings his own bottle to his lips, and laughs.

"It's Y/N, right? We have maths together." He asks, and you're surprised he even remembers your name let alone the classes you have together.

You nod.

Steve smiles then, almost proud of himself for remembering, and it's difficult to picture his real face under all the makeup - all you can see is Johnny Lawrence and it's beginning to become a little flustering. No, frustrating. Yeah, that's what you mean. Frustrating.

He says something just as the music gets cranked up. 'The Monster Mash' is playing at a deafening volume, no doubt something the neighbours won't appreciate, along with the smoking and yelling and all the other noises omitting from the house.

You look over at the dancefloor to notice Tina is gone - you hope she's not looking for her cheating, scumbag boyfriend. She's better without.

You turn back to Steve, "Huh?" You have to practically yell to be heard.

Steve repeats whatever he said, only for you to not hear him again. You shake your head.

This time, Steve rolls his eyes. Then, he's ducking his head so it's close to yours and his lips are against your ear. His breath is warm and it sends a spark straight down your spine.

"I said, only hot chicks can pull off a bald cap, I'm impressed."

He pulls away and suddenly the heat isn't from his breath, it's across your cheeks and burning the tops of your ears.

You don't want to admit to yourself that it's because of Steve fucking Harrington, so you blame it on the fact he looks like Cobra Kai's bad boy.

"I - uh, umm..." It very quickly seems like you can't find your voice. You swallow hard, hoping to clear the lump in your throat. You don't know what to say.

And Steve's loving every second of it. There's a smug look on his face, and undeniable sparkle in his brown eyes.

You're about to yell at him. Steel yourself and tell him what's what, when the music gets cut.

Everybody turns to the speaker, including you and Steve. Whatever moment the two of you shared passes. Tina's ripped the cord, and she's standing there in her cheerleading outfit, shaking a pom aggressively.

"Where's Chris?"

As soon as she yells his name, Stacey storms out of the bathroom behind you. Her hair is a mess and her identical cheerleading outfit is ripped. A lipstick stain smears the right side of her face.

"You said you'd broken up!" She's marches across the kitchen and Steve pulls you close to him so that you're out of the girl’s way.

Seconds later, Chris appears. His trousers by his ankles and lipstick all over his face and exposed chest. A line of kisses trail all the way down to his boxers.

"Stacey! Tina!" He stumbles across the kitchen, making his way behind you. Once he passes, you push yourself away from Steve, aware of how close the pair of you were.

The two girls start yelling, moving towards the direction of the front door as they start grappling each other. Tina has Stacey by the hair, while Stacey is trying to shove Tina's pom down her throat. Chris hauls ass behind them, yelling apologies that neither of the girls are paying attention to.

They leave through the front door, and the yelling becomes fainter as they move across the lawn. Someone dressed as a ghost pulls the front door shut, and plugs the speaker back in. The music commences, quieter this time.

"Holy hell." You shake your head and finish your second beer of the night. The alcohol hasn't affected you yet, and it's making you feel left out. Everyone here seems even a little bit tipsy. Apart from you. And, well, maybe Steve too.

"Yikes. That’s depressing." Steve replies, and without asking, leans behind him to grab you another bottle. He does the teeth thing again with the cap and you laugh.

"That's a very Johnny Lawrence move, you know."

That earns a grin from Steve, his real teeth showing instead of the fake skeleton teeth painted on his skin. "What can I say? I'm bad to the bone."

You try to hold in the laughter. For someone who was meant to be cool and popular, Steve was proving to be quite corny.

You take a risk by asking, "Talking of bad boys, why aren't you flooded with your usual admiring fans tonight?” Then you carry on, just to add the illusion of disinterest, “And Tommy?”

Then, you take a long sip of your third beer until the embarrassment of asking goes away. You nearly drain the bottle.

"Well," Steve says, glancing over to the masses of dancing girls who are all dressed up like sexy cavewomen. The actual cheerleading squad.

"They found out I was dating Nancy Wheeler, and I had to stop basketball practice to get my grades up. All of which apparently made me lame. And then Nancy dumped me, yesterday actually. So turns out I'm not as cool as I once was."

He reaches out to touch the fake Mr Miyagi beard stuck to your chin. You slap his hand away, with no real heat behind the act.

"Hence why you're talking to me." You laugh, a little bit of the alcohol taking effect now. Your insides feel warm and you're not worried if your comment seems insensitive. Steve doesn't seem to mind.

And the fall of King Steve is almost intriguing to you. He was funny. And had good take in films. And was talking to you like he actually cared.

"Yeah. Right. Hence why I'm talking to you." Steve's voice is full of sarcasm. But, he's smiling. A real genuine smile that makes you think that maybe Steve Harrington isn't so bad. Maybe.

His clinks his beer bottle with yours then, and tips his head up to take a long swig from his bottle. You watch as his Adam's Apple bobs.

You take a sip after he takes his, and he watches as you do. Some impulse draws him closer to you, and he pulls the bald-cap away from your head. You take the bottle away from your lips and take your natural hair out of its hairband. It falls roughly, kind of sweaty and bobby-pinned in place, but Steve nods anyway.

"Much better." He says, and winks.

It's in that moment that you think something passes between the pair of you. Something special, something that's yours. A strange acknowledgement of something that's just begun.

But hey, maybe it's just the alcohol talking.

You pull the fake beard away from your face and set down the third empty beer bottle of the night. "Want to go outside?"

Steve nods.

Five minutes later you find yourself on a swing set with Steve beside you. The beer bottles and the music are forgotten. There's only a couple people outside, all appreciating the slightly quieter outdoors. Two guys are sharing a joint and are deep in conversation, but they're not in hearing distance.

Wherever the love-triangle of Stacey, Tina and Chris got to is a mystery, but you're glad the drama is nowhere near you.

Steve's pulled the skeleton hood off now, revealing tufts of messy brown hair. His heels are dug into the ground, and truth be told he's a little bit too tall for the set, but he swings slightly all the same.

The sky's pitch black but the tree above you has been bombarded with enough fairy lights to attract an entire moth family. The lights reflect in Steve's eyes.

"I'm sorry about Nancy, by the way." You don't know what makes you say it, but the words come out of your mouth anyway.

"Thanks, Y/N. I think you're actually the first person who's actually said that. Everyone else is glad that we’re done."

There's a tinge of hurt in Steve's voice, and he won't meet your gaze.

"Are you glad you’re done?" You ask even though you can already guess the answer from the look on his face.

"Yes, and no. I don't know. She's in love with someone else. I have to respect that. Maybe what we had was love, maybe it wasn't. Whatever."

You know it shouldn't, but his comments gains a laugh from you, "King Steve respecting women, who would have thought it?"

Steve cracks a small smile, almost painful, and suddenly you feel bad.

"Sorry." You say, "That was in bad taste."

He looks at you then, all soft eyes and skeleton makeup. "No, it's okay. You're not wrong."

There's a brief silence between the two of you, and you watch as the couple dressed as Fred and Daphne - who were arguing the last time you saw them - are stepping out of the back door in tandem. The guy’s hands are on the girl’s ass, her's are in his hair. They're snogging at a rapid rate, and not even looking where they're going. They find a tree, and start making out against it. Their kissing noises are off-putting.

"Well at least now I'm single I don't have to be embarrassing like that." Steve laughs, but the act seems perfunctory. "Anyway."

He stops swinging and looks at you, scanning you quickly before smiling. He leans over to poke you on the knee. "What about you?"

You frown, "What about me?"

Your question gains a smirk, "You know. Are you dating anyone? What's up in the world of Y/N?"

"Oh, well, not much." Your hand comes to the back of your neck, suddenly feeling awkward and exposed. Your fingers itch to be holding another bottle of beer - where was that liquid courage when you needed it?

"I'm single. Very. Always. And it's fine, I guess. Yeah. I'm fine."

Under all his face-paint, Steve's left eyebrow quirks up at you, "You sure?" He's trying to hide a smile, and you move to lightly hit his foot with your own.

"Shut up, Harrington."

"No, come on. You must have thought about someone though. Like the prom's coming up soon, who would you ask?"

You groan, burying your face into your hands. Fuck sake.

Steve moves then, you can feel it more than see it. You peek through your fingers to see him crouched in front of you, his hands coming to rest on your knees. There's a warmth radiating off him, one that you can't ignore.

"Y/N, why're you hiding from me?" Steve's voice is barely a whisper. It gains another spark down your spine, one that circles back around your body and straight into your heart.

You were going to have so much explaining to do when Robin got home.

"You." The words come out of your mouth in a mumble, and you're still hiding behind your fingers. Steve moves them for you. You become very aware of his hands on yours, the way his fingers interlock with yours and rest between your knees. It seems easy. It seems right.

"What was that?" You can tell he's not trying to be mean. He's genuinely curious. His fingers slip out from yours and you end up squeezing your fists tight.

"I'd ask you. You know, the version of you that isn't a dick, anyway."

Steve smiles so hard to the point where he ends up looking kinda goofy, and ultimately, a little bit pleased too.

So, you do the only thing you can think of. You push him with your knees and it sends him landing on his ass.

He guffaws, “Damn, I was right. Gotta stay away from Mr Miyagi."

You stand up and offer him your hand; he takes it.

Steve brushes himself off before looking at you again. He notices the tint in your cheeks, definitely not just from the alcohol this time.

"Tell you what, considering that I'm not cool or a dick anymore, do you think you could handle being friends? Go from there?" There's a gentleness in Steve's voice that fully convinces you maybe King Steve is dead for good.

Maybe tonight, dressed as Johnny Lawrence, there's some sort of symbolism there. The last night of being a bad boy.

You nod, embarrassed and endeared all at the same time. "Sure. Cool. Works for me."

Steve sticks his hand out, cracking another smile, "I'm Steve Harrington. Nice to meet you."

You can't help but laugh, even if you do take his hand and accept the shake. It's almost like a deal. A secret between the two of you. And you have no idea how it happened.

"Hi, Steve. You know, for someone who's been popular for a long time, being a corny loser kind of suits you."

"I guess so. Perhaps hanging around with you has that effect."

You're both smiling, but you hit Steve in the stomach all the same. It leads to an all out Miyagi-Do vs Cobra Kai fight, although you're not really throwing your punches and Steve's totally letting you win. But this is a friendship you didn't know you needed. Hell, maybe is was going to be more than a friendship. And it seems wonderful - an unexpected treat on a Halloween night.

#steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington x you #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington fic #cobra kai #stranger things #stranger things halloween #the karate kid

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spark-my-nature · 2 years

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Behind Closed Doors (Part 1) - DRW

I started working on a little something starring Mr. Joshua Michael, I swear, but the uncontrollable urge to write roommate Danny won in the end. This is gonna be a two-parter, just so that those who don't vibe with adult content can enjoy the fluff, and those that DO can proceed to part 2. Eat up, Danny lane!

Word count: 5.4K (Pt 1)

Summary: When your old roommate moves out, Danny takes her place. Secret feelings are bound to be discovered in such close quarters.

Warnings: None, really. Brief mention of alcohol, and a lot of tension and pining, but very fluffy.

Part 2 (Also linked at the end)

You remember how it felt in middle school, when the teacher called out the seating arrangement and you were assigned to the seat right beside your crush? The butterflies, the anxious sweating, the pounding of your heart. Any tiny interaction playing over and over again in your head, driving you insane. Something as mundane as borrowing an eraser becoming an endless loop that kept you up at night. All those feelings?

Now take that, and multiply it by twenty, and then imagine you live with your crush.

Your own personal hell began several months ago, you’d been decompressing at the Kiszka’s, spread out on a blanket in their backyard surrounded by drinks, music, food, drinks, a couple guitars, and more drinks. Ironically you’d just finished telling them how your roommate’s boyfriend had just proposed, lamenting that you’d need to find someone else to split the rent with by the end of the next month.

Just when you’d finished regaling your story of woe, the four of you turned at the sound of a car door shutting at the other side of the house. After a moment, and nobody had come to the backyard, you furrowed your brow.

“I’ll uhhh… go see who that is,” you muttered, rising and heading to the back door. You slipped inside, looking around and spotting Danny’s shoes kicked off at the other door. You let out a relieved sigh and stuck your head back out the door for a second. “It was just Danny,” you called, giving them a thumbs up. Sam gave you a smile of acknowledgement and you shut the door behind you.

Danny had a little fortress of his own in the basement of their house, born of necessity considering the number of nights he spent there. You figured that’s where he’d be hiding, though you were more worried about the why he was hiding.

You opened the ajar basement door, stepping down a few stairs before calling out, “Danny? You down here?” Too many incidents of not warning the Kiszkas had scarred your eyes permanently.

A soft, “Yea,” sounded from the softly lit room, and you proceeded down into the cool air. Danny was splayed out dejectedly across the folded open futon, limbs dangling off the edge. His head was hanging off the far end of it, so all you could see of his face was his sharp jaw and throat.

You took a second to clear your head of those thoughts, padding over to stand by his feet. You poked his shin gently, “Hey you,” you greeted with a small smile. Danny lifted his head up with a strained breath and gave you a crooked smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Hey, you.”

You picked up his calves and moved in under them to sit, laying them back across your lap. “Whatcha doin?” you smiled teasingly, stroking his shin absently.

Danny sighed and readjusted so his head was supported, folding his arms behind his head. In your peripheral you saw his happy trail peeking out from his risen shirt, but you didn’t dare look.

“I guess I needed to get away from home for a bit,” he said after a moment. You nodded, leaving it open for him to continue, which he did. “I love my parents. And Josie. So much.” You gave him a knowing smile. “But I think it’s time to get my own place,” he finished softly.

You looked down at his legs in your lap with a chuckle. “Wanna move in with me?” you joked.

Danny perked up, furrowing his brows. “What about Brianna?”

You flopped back dramatically. “She’s leaving the nest. Her stupid boyfriend gave her a stupid ring and now she’s moving into his stupid house with his stupid cute dogs,” you huffed. Danny laughed, “So you’re serious? You need a roommate?” He sat up fully, looking at you hopefully.

You looked over at him, giving him a slightly nervous smile. You hadn’t thought this through, the possibility that he would actually take you up on your offer. “Umm… Yeah. Yeah I do. I’ve never lived with a boy before,” you giggled.

Danny snickered, “I promise I won’t leave the seat up, I grew up with a sister, remember?”

You nodded and smiled wider, genuinely this time. “Yeah, okay. Let’s do this, let’s be roomies!” You beamed at him, and he returned your excited grin. He swung his legs off your lap and stood, quickly pulling you up into a bear hug. You were absolutely engulfed in his sweater, his soft nutty smell encasing you like his strong arms. Your heart rate doubled and you grinned shyly to yourself, hidden in his chest.

He swayed you back and forth playfully, and you could hear the smile in his voice. “It’s gonna be so fun, we can have movie nights every night, and make forts, and bake brownies at 3am, and have nerf fights,” he rambled, bouncing on the heels of his feet. You giggled and reluctantly pulled away, his excitement contagious. “You can move in anytime, Bri’s gone already, she offered to pay rent for next month though so she isn’t leaving me hanging.” You smirked up at him. “I say we don’t tell her until next month, but you move in now.”

Danny gasped dramatically, “Evil!” The astonished smile on his face told you he liked it, though.

Two and a half weeks later, and after six or seven trips in Josh’s jeep, Danny stood with you in the living room, cracking open a beer while you wait for the moving-day pizza to arrive.

You were looking at the labels on all his boxes, mentally mapping out an unpacking plan, but Danny had other ideas, apparently.

He looked up at you excitedly. “Show me your room! I didn’t get to see it last time,” he sipped from the bottle. You giggled, “That’s because I didn’t wanna scare you off before you signed a lease.” He snorted behind you as you led the way.

You stopped at your door, spinning to face him with a playful smirk, your hand on the knob behind your back. “If you laugh, I’ll switch the salt and sugar on you.” Danny leaned down with an equally mischievous grin, eye-level with you. He whispered, “Do your worst.”

You prayed he didn’t catch the way your breath hitched at his proximity. You quickly turned the knob and turned into your room before Danny could see your face flushing.

You definitely exaggerated the wildness of your room. Yes, you had a few too many plants, and yes you had a mild invasion of string lights and tapestries, and sure, an abundance of throw pillows, but your room was more cozy than crazy. Allowing Danny to wander around and take it in, you flicked on your string lights, thanking yourself for making your bed that morning.

Danny giggled over by your bookshelf and you spun around. He held a picture of you on his shoulders, your sophomore year of high school. You’d been celebrating after one of Danny’s games, his biggest fan since day one, and in a moment of adrenaline fueled joy, he’d grabbed you and thrown you over his shoulder, and one of your friends had snapped a picture.

“Tarzan and Jane,” you joked, coming up beside him. Danny glanced down at you, an unfamiliar twinkle in his eyes, but before you could name it, he was setting the picture back in place and pointing at your twilight books.

“Team Edward or Jacob?” he teased, his eyes crinkling at the corners. You laughed and rolled your eyes, “First of all, those are really old. Second of all, Jacob, duh!” You crossed your arms.

“Better not tell Jake that, might get the wrong idea,” Danny bumped his shoulder into you playfully, earning a giggle.

“Who says it’s the wrong idea? Have you seen those guitar fingers?” You countered with a smirk.

Danny’s jaw dropped and he let out a surprised chuckle. “Forget guitar fingers, drummer hands are where it’s at, babe,” he winked at you with a cheeky smile.

You giggled, flustered in spite of yourself. You looked down and picked up Danny’s hand before you could stop yourself, turning it palm up and running your thumb over his callouses. Danny watched you curiously, letting you examine his hands. Your mind began to catch up with your movements, and you got shy suddenly. Needing an out from the tension you’d created, you curled up each of his fingers except his middle one and held it up to him with a mischievous smile. Danny snorted and rolled his eyes, taking your hand in his.

You hoped your inner panic didn’t show on your face when he lined up the base of his hand with your small one, splaying out your fingers together. “Your hands are so small,” he noted with a gentle laugh, looking up at you. You stared at your hand pressed to his large one, forgetting how to form words for a moment. You tore your eyes away but they were pulled up to Danny’s warm gaze as he stood over you, close enough to feel the heat radiating off of him.

Suddenly breathless, you stepped away from him and cleared your throat, walking to the door. “Wanna unpack a few things before the pizza gets here?” you suggested, slightly breathier than usual. Danny followed behind you, thankfully not mentioning your weird behavior if he noticed. Just before he crossed the threshold, he squinted at you with a raised eyebrow, backpedaling and looking behind your bedroom door. He barked out a laugh and you furrowed your brow concerned, not remembering what was tacked to the door. Danny reappeared and walked out past you into the main room. “Nice poster, roomie,” he snickered. You peered behind your door and groaned, the nearly life-size poster of the four boys taking up nearly the entire door, ‘GRETA VAN FLEET’ printed in their gold font along the bottom.

You laughed and followed him out. “Oh yeah, found that poster in the dumpster out back. You ever heard of them?”

Danny smirked, leaning on the counter. “Oh, maybe, isn’t the singer like three feet tall?”

You snorted, “Yeah, and I think the bassist is allergic to shoes.” Danny nodded, continuing the joke, “Not sure about their drummer though, he’s more of a mystery.” You looked over and met Danny’s eyes, biting your lip and looking back down shyly.

“I dunno, he seems pretty sweet to me.” You shuffled your feet on the kitchen floor, grinning at your shoes.

“Oh yeah?” Danny pried.

“Yeah, he looks like a wild stallion, but he’s a big ol’ teddy bear underneath,” you smiled wider, still not meeting his eyes.

Danny didn’t say anything for a second, and worried you took it too far, you finally met his stare. He didn’t look offended, just gently curious. Letting out a soft hum of acknowledgement, he took a sip of beer. Your mind raced under his watchful gaze, until a knock on the door signified the pizza’s arrival, cutting the tension.

You spent the rest of the afternoon eating pizza and unpacking, making fun of Danny’s golf paraphernalia, and getting increasingly inebriated on cheap beer, and thoroughly enjoying your first day as roommates.

That night, after the laughter had faded and you’d said your goodnights, you lay awake under the galaxy of twinkling lights strung around your ceiling, willing your feelings for Danny to fade away.

Several weeks later, you were regretful to report that no, they had not faded. In fact, they had multiplied like bunnies and you were head over heels in love with your best friend and roommate.

Bunny. Sweeping under Danny’s bed one day, you coughed and sneezed from the dusty air billowing from the broom. Danny leaned on the doorframe, playfully sipping his juice and watching you struggle. “Any goods down there?”

You wiggled out from under his bed, not catching the way his eyes followed your ass. “No,” you huffed, panting as you straightened up on your knees. “Just your army of dust bunnies. You planning to invade Poland?” you said, interrupted by another sneeze.

Danny laughed, shrugging. “Nah, not a big fan of Poland. Now Canada, that would be an asset. So much maple syrup,” he sighed, dramatically wistful. You snickered and emptied the dustpan into his trash. Danny’s sweet tooth, another endearing trait of his to add to the growing list.

You walked up to him, broom in hand, and stuck your tongue out at him as you pushed past to go back to your room. “Last time I clean your room for you, bunny,” you called, letting a silly smile spread across your face once your back was to him. As he flopped on his newly remade bed, sheets clean and spritzed with your homemade lavender spray ‘to help him sleep,’ as you said, he had a similar goofy expression.

“Bunny?” he whispered to himself, a light blush colouring his cheeks.

That was where your little nickname for him originated. You were careful to only call him that when it was just the two of you. You didn’t want the boys getting the wrong idea, or teasing him about it. It was just a silly, meaningless nickname. Friends use nicknames all the time, right? It didn’t mean anything that it made your heart flutter every time he smiled at you with that sweet, beaming smile every time you used it.

Months of this sweet torture only made your feelings for Danny easier to hide, but certainly not weaker. The only person you had told was Josh, and not by choice. He’d put two and two together on his own, and it was confirmed when you slipped up one day. You’d been jokingly complaining about making Danny’s bed for him when Josh held up a hand to pause you. “You make his bed for him?” he chuckled incredulously. You furrowed your brow, “Yeah, so what?” Josh bucked his eyes at you. “He’s a grown man, why doesn’t he do it himself?” You shrugged, “We have a deal, he bakes those muffins with the bananas and chocolate chips, cause he knows I love them and he makes them just right, and I make his bed because he likes the way I do it, yknow, I spritz the lavender spray on his sheets and his pillow cases, and I arrange his pillows all nice-“ you stopped yourself at Josh’s strange stare. “What,” you said quietly.

Josh just chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, nothing, I’m just wondering when the wedding is so I can plan your gifts, is all.”

You blushed, sputtering. “We aren’t- No, it isn’t- he doesn’t- it’s not like that,” you finished weakly.

Josh snorted, “Okay,” sounding entirely unconvinced. You furrowed your brow, “Why do you say that?”

Josh shifted, bringing his knees up to his chest on the floor where you sat. “Honey, you think I don’t know you like him?” Your eyes widened, and he smiled gently at your realization.

“You didn’t say anything! Oh God, does Danny know?” you grabbed his arm and shook it panicked. Josh laughed as you jostled him, “Hey, woah, relax, no he doesn’t. Or at least, nobody told him. I don’t think he would’ve figured it out though, you kinda gotta spell it out for him with these things,” Josh pondered.

You let out a breath of relief and hung your head to stare at your lap. Josh smiled when your voice sounded from within your fortress of hair, “What do I do, Josh?”

He nudged your shoulder with his elbow gently. “That is entirely up to you, mama.”

You whined petulantly. “That doesn’t help at all,” you chuckled humourlessly.

With a reassuring stroke of his hand across your back, Josh assured, “Danny loves you. Romantically or not, he does. No matter what you decide to do, he’s not going anywhere. It seems what it comes down to, is how much longer can you go on the way you are?”

You sighed and lifted your head up, looking at the ceiling. “Yeah, you’re right. As usual,” you turned and smirked at him at the last part, which he beamed his big cheesy Josh smile at.

“Y’know, I think he does like you too…” Josh admitted. You pointed at him threateningly, “Joshua Michael, if you don’t tell me everything-“

Josh batted your hand away with a laugh. “Hey, there’s a thing called Bro-code, missy. Besides, he never said anything to me, its just the way he looks at you.”

You felt your stomach flip. “How does he look at me?” Josh smiled knowingly. “Like Jack looked at Rose, mama.”

That conversation always made its way into your mind when you laid awake.

One Saturday morning, you awoke to an empty apartment. There was a scribble on the whiteboard you kept on the fridge, which you deciphered as “gone to store, be back soon – D” He had drawn a little smiley face by his initial. You smiled to yourself and made a coffee. After you’d finished your coffee and one of Danny’s heavenly muffins, you remembered you still had some of his laundry in your room. It got mixed in with yours, and you’d folded it but forgotten to give it back. You grabbed his pile of clothes off your dresser and went to Danny’s door, creaking it open. You bit your lip, looking behind you, as though Danny might show up and catch you… doing what? Returning his clothes? You shook your head at yourself and went inside walking to his bed. You set the clothes down on the edge of his bed and took a brief glance around. Your eyes landed on his desk, which was in it’s normal state of disaster. Pens and coloured pencils discarded everywhere, his sketchbook laying open, face-down to hold his page. You decided you’d tidy it for him, half a nice gesture and half because you couldn’t stand the messiness. You began picking up his pencils, flipping them all the same direction before setting them in his cup. You set his erasers and pens back in their place as well, and you picked up his sketchbook, swiping your hand over the desk to flick off the eraser rubbings and charcoal dust. As you looked around for a bookmark, the page caught your eye, and you almost dropped the book. Your eyes widened and your jaw hung open.

It was a portrait of you.

Danny had drawn you. He’d meticulously sketched flowers into your hair, a few curly stray strands cascading over your closed eyes. Your lashes fanned across the tops of your carefully freckled cheeks, separated by your blushy-button nose. He’d obviously spent the most time on your lips, though, the detail astounding. Little highlights and shadows creating a stunning 3D, nearly wet looking shiny effect. The soft cupids bow dipping perfectly in the middle, all framed by wispy untamed hair that seemed to blow in the breeze.

You stared at the page for a while. Longer than you probably realized. You felt like you were going to throw up, the way your stomach flipped over and over.

Danny saw you like this? This was how you looked, in his eyes? You brought a hand up over your mouth, unable to comprehend what this meant.

Something inside you urged you to see what else he’d drawn, and so you carefully flipped to the first page. It was actually dated, and you figured it was done around the time he graduated high school. You didn’t know he drew back then, although clearly his skills had improved since. The drawing itself was of an acoustic guitar, the proportions and shading a little off, but still impressive for a twelfth-grade boy. You smiled fondly and turned the page. Another guitar, this time looking down the neck. Interesting angle, you thought, flipping through. There were a couple guitars, a bass, a snare drum with sticks resting across the head. Then he branched off from instruments; a dog, a little bird, a dragon. You giggled at that one, the little nerd. Then a human eye, or rather several. Some more detailed than others, the more he drew the more of the full face he included. One page he’d drawn a woman’s body. It was clearly naked, but he hadn’t drawn any details around the chest area, making you smile wide, knowing how shy he was then, and still is. The next page was a man and a woman, holding hands. Then two profiles kissing, left mostly unfinished except the outline of their faces.

The next page was clearly after a long break, Danny’s style much different and more skilled. He’d drawn a hand holding a little flower, a cute drawing at surface level. But you noticed one little detail that made it all the more meaningful. He’d added a ring on the middle finger, immaculately detailed beyond any doubt, the same ring that you were currently wearing on your right hand. It was unmistakeable, lightly engraved vines and roses around the band, and a single pale pink tourmaline stone signifying your grandmother’s October birthday.

Impatiently you turned the page again, needing to know more. Next was a stunning self portrait. You looked at Danny through a mirror, from his own perspective. It was haunting, and as skilled as he was, the drawing couldn’t hold a candle to his beauty in real life.

Nothing could’ve prepared you for the next page though.

Danny had taken your daydream right out of your head and put it on paper. It was him, and you. Kissing. He’d drawn himself holding you in a dip, as though finishing a dance, his lips on yours with a slight upward curl, your own little smile matching. His hand supported your head, the other wrapped around your waist. Your hands clutched at his biceps, one leg in the air with your dress flared out with it.

Your eyes kept circling back to the way he’d drawn your kiss. His lips so perfectly melded to yours, with his lips on your bottom lip. You absently noted that he was a bottom lip kisser, and your fingers brushed across your lips as you imagined it.

Danny’s keys in the door snapped you out of your stupor like a bucket of ice water. You closed the book and set it on his desk before scrambling out of his room. You’d just closed your door behind you when you heard the main door swing open. You sunk down with your back against the wood, letting a long, shaky breath out as you curled into yourself. You ran your fingers through your hair, mind racing. Outside, Danny hummed to himself, setting down bags and kicking his shoes off. You briefly hoped he might think you were still asleep, until you remembered the laundry on his bed, and your coffee cup in the sink.

“Honey, I’m home,” he called jokingly, making you giggle and roll your eyes despite the eruption of butterflies.

You pulled yourself up and shook your head to clear it, then opened the door and smiled as you padded out. “Hiya, Bunny,” you fidgeted with the hem of your shirt. He looked so… boyfriend material today, it didn’t help your case at all. His hair was tied into a half bun, curls framing his face, and a cuddly-looking sweater hugging his broad frame. He turned from the open cabinet and smiled at you. You weren’t sure if your mind was playing tricks on you, but you swore his eyes twinkled a little brighter when they landed on you.

“Have you eaten yet? I got smoothies,” he pointed at the tray on the table.

“Uh, not really, just a muffin.” He handed you the cup, and you let your fingers brush against his. If you weren’t watching so closely, you would’ve missed the way he inhaled a little sharper than usual. Recovering quickly, he smiled playfully. “I’m gonna start calling you muffin, you eat so many of them you’re gonna turn into one,” he teased. You giggled up at him, “Bunny and Muffin, that sounds like an acid trip fueled kids book.”

Danny’s eyes lingered on your smile for a moment longer before he turned back to keep putting the groceries away. “We’d sell out, it’d make the New York Times,” he proclaimed. You bit your lip shyly, his shirt riding up as he reached exposing a sliver of his toned torso. “Definitely,” you confirmed softly.

Closing the cupboard, Danny glanced at you. “You okay over there, muffin?” he smiled crookedly. You blushed and nodded. “Yeah, yeah I’m good.” Danny looked like he didn’t quite believe you but he left it alone with a nod.

“Thanks for the smoothie,” you said returning to your room.

“No problem,” he answered as your door closed.

You sat atop your bed and drank the sweet blend of fruits and yogurt. Oddly, you felt less nervous than you did before. Certainly not any less excited or eager to be around your roommate, but the feeling of impending doom was gone. Beyond your bedroom door you heard Danny enter his room beside yours, then drawers opening, presumably putting away his laundry. Then silence.

Realization struck, that you’d cleaned his desk, and therefore had touched his sketchbook. You chewed on your lip nervously, knowing that Danny’s mind was probably racing on the other side of the wall, wondering if you’d seen the contents of his book. The silence was deafening for several minutes, and then you heard Danny’s footsteps approaching your door. Quickly, you picked up a book and pretended to read as Danny knocked.

“Yeah?” you called nonchalantly. Danny opened the door, staying frozen in the doorframe. You glanced up from your book, and you swallowed at the look on his face. He looked simultaneously terrified and cheeky somehow.

“What’s up?” you asked casually. Danny lifted his arms up, gripping the top of the doorframe casually and leaning, his arms flexing and his happy trail saying hello under the ridden-up shirt. Your mouth felt dry as you drank him in.

“You were in my room,” he spoke with a teasing, low tone. You smirked. “Yes Danny, your shirts don’t fit me quite right so I gave them back.”

Danny cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at you, a smirk teasing at his lips. “You cleaned my desk, too.” He let go of the door frame and stepped into your room casually, hooking his thumbs in his pockets. You watched him wander into your space, enjoying his matter-of-fact tone way more than you should.

“Um… Yeah, it was messy as hell, you’re welcome,” you teased, nerves leaking into your tone. Danny came to rest at the foot of your bed, and he leaned forward over it, gripping the footboard casually. His big hands supported his weight as his gaze trailed up your bed to meet your eyes.

“You look in the sketchbook?” He finally asked, vulnerability finally cracking his cocky façade.

You let out nervous breath, swallowing under his intense, searching gaze. “I did, yeah,” you muttered.

Danny nodded once. “And?” he questioned.

You knew damn well what he was asking. He wanted to know where you stood, if you were weirded out, if he’d overstepped, any clue as to how you felt. Instead, you prolonged his torture. “You’re very talented. Nice shading, very realistic,” you praised.

Danny’s eyes narrowed at you, saying nothing. You could hardly breathe, the tension in the air was so thick, but you returned his stubborn stare, raising an eyebrow, daring him to make the first move.

A silent war was waged, but ultimately Danny caved first. He broke eye contact, straightening up at the foot of the bed. At first you worried he was leaving, but then he brought his knee up and crawled on the bed. You met his eyes again once he sat on his feet, his knees brushing against your legs. You leaned up on your hands, leveling with him wordlessly. Danny eyed your face for a moment before he spoke lowly and calmly.

“You and I both know what you saw. If you don’t feel the same way, that’s fine, I’ll pretend this never happened,” he swallowed, meeting your eyes intensely. “But I think you do.”

You blushed and a small nervous smile curled your lips. You bit your lip, your eyes dipping to Danny’s parted lips before returning to his burning gaze. Danny watched it happen, and silently, tentatively, he reached his hand up and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. You held your breath, leaning into his touch, and he cupped your cheek gently.

Time moved in slow motion. Danny’s warm, mossy brown eyes flickered back and forth between yours searchingly, and you looked down at his lips again. You leaned in the smallest amount, feeling too nervous to initiate any further. Danny’s eyes dipped down to your lips as well, and he leaned in the rest of the way, tilting his head as he went. Your eyes fluttered shut and then, everything else disappeared except you and Danny as you felt his lips press to yours, so warm and gentle, in the most electric kiss you’d ever had.

You tilted your head further, molding your mouth to his more firmly. His lips moved against yours exploratively as the kiss deepened. Your hand found its way blindly up to Danny’s hair, slipping your fingers through his curls and pulling him into you. Danny reciprocated, his hand running from your cheek back into your hair, lovingly holding your head as the kiss turned more heated.

He ever-so-softly traced his tongue along your bottom lip, making you sigh and giving him entry to meet your tongue with his. They slipped together in a shy ‘hello’, and you whimpered quietly against his mouth.

He pulled back at the sound, fluttering his eyes open as he panted softly. You looked into his eyes shyly, and you both smiled bashfully in sync, then breaking into breathless giggles.

Danny’s eyes never left your face, his hand still cradling your head, meanwhile you ran your fingers down the length of his curls, twirling a strand around your finger.

You whispered, “I do. Like you, I mean.” Danny smiled wide, bringing his other hand up to cup your cheek. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since sophomore year,” he admitted quietly, a shy laugh following his confession. You giggled softly, “Well we’re both stupid, ‘cause I did too.” Danny’s face morphed into surprise and resignation. “You mean I’ve been harbouring a crush on you for…” he counted in his head quickly, “7 years, and the whole time you liked me back?” He shook his head incredulously. “Unbelievable.”

You laughed and blushed, still processing everything, and thoroughly enjoying hearing him finally say it outright. You wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him down to lay beside you. You brushed his curls away from his face, just drinking in his beauty, finally able to appreciate him up close. He seemed to be doing the same, those hazel eyes memorizing your features.

“I think we’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for,” you whispered playfully, leaning closer. Danny’s soft smile took your breath away, and he hummed in agreement, closing the distance again. This time the kiss felt more comfortable, more of synchronized dance. One hand came to rest on Danny’s warm chest, feeling his heart pounding beneath the sweater he wore. Danny snuck a hand around your middle, resting on your back and pulling your body against his. You moaned quietly, and pulled back breathlessly.

“I-I’m sorry,” Danny let go of you. You shook your head quickly, “No, no,” you smiled bashfully, “I liked it, I did. Too much.” You blushed and bit your lip. Danny smirked slowly, “Ohh. Gotcha,” he winked, pecking your nose.

You missed him immediately when he sat up, getting off your bed. He extended a hand to you with a gentle smile, and for the fiftieth time, you felt your heart skip a beat. You took his hand, letting him guide you up and out of your room.

“What are we doing, bunny?” you smiled.

He looked back at you matter of factly, squeezing your hand. “I’m taking you on a date.”

You giggled, feeling giddy. “Aren’t you supposed to ask me first?”

Danny pulled on his boots, handing you your shoes. “You didn’t ask before you went digging in my sketchbook,” he countered.

You nodded, “true, but I can’t be sorry when it turned out like this.” Danny straightened, shoes on. “Me too,” he smiled, lacing your fingers with his. “Now c’mon, I wanna woo you properly.”

You giggled at his word choice, then grabbed your purse and followed him out the door.

*****PART 2*****

#greta van fleet #greta van fic #greta van fluff #greta van fleet fan fiction #greta van fleet fic #greta van fleet fluff #danny wagner fluff #danny x reader #daniel wagner #danny wagner #danny gvf

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hannahmanderr · 1 year

Text

DannyMay Day 8 - Electric Core AU

(day 7 is coming, I promise afhdsj)

Words: 1,804 (FFN)

Summary: Vlad wants more than anything to help the child who has fallen to his same fate. Unfortunately for him, his help is the last thing Danny wants. (dialogue prompt borrowed from @danphanwritingprompts)

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“I want to go home.”

Vlad frowned at the boy huddled into the corner of the couch across from him. “You are home,” he replied matter-of-factly before taking a sip of his tea.

“No,” Daniel said. The dark bags under his eyes stood out in sharp contrast to his paper-white face. His left eye and cheek convulsed in a tic. “You kidnapped me from my actual home.”

Vlad sighed. He’d been over this with the child already. “I didn’t kidnap you,” he said. “I brought you here to help you, my dear boy. I told you, I’m the only one who can truly help you.” The fact that he continued to ignore this fact was beginning to irk Vlad a little, but it was more hurtful than anything.

Daniel pulled his knees even tighter into his chest as his face twitched again. “I had Sam and Tucker. They would’ve helped me.”

“I certainly believe they would have attempted to help you, but their success in doing so is a completely different matter. Do you think they can even begin to understand the things you’re going through? The being you’ve become?”

“Don’t say that!” Daniel shouted. His eyes flared momentarily with a toxic green glow. Tiny sparks crackled in his disheveled hair. “I’m fine. We were figuring it out just fine until you showed up and kidnapped me!”

Vlad gingerly set his teacup down and inhaled deeply through his nose. It was… difficult to avoid showing the painful impact of the child’s words. It was even more difficult to avoid retaliating with his own shouts. “Please, my boy,” he pleaded, switching tactics. “Look at yourself. You can barely keep yourself corporeal! It’s a miracle you hadn’t blown out your parents’ circuit system by the time I found you!”

Daniel pressed his hands over his ears and shook his head like a toddler throwing a tantrum. “No, no,” he said as he squeezed his eyes shut. “It’s just a side effect, it’ll wear off soon. It’s just a side effect, it’ll wear off soon.” He continued to repeat the sentence over and over again like a mantra, his face continuing to tic irregularly.

Vlad found himself at a bit of a loss. It had been a while since he’d been in such prolonged, close contact with anyone, least of all a teenager. He was admittedly embarrassed that he didn’t quite know how to conduct himself here. A consequence of choosing to lead a life of reclusivity, he supposed, but it was now proving to be a disadvantageous choice.

Then again, what other choice could he have possibly had? After being quarantined, after losing contact with Jack and Maddie, after discovering just what he’d become…

He resisted a shudder. No, he couldn’t let the same thing happen to this poor child.

Silently, he rose from his armchair and moved toward Daniel, choosing to simply phase through the coffee table. The boy still had his hands pressed over his ears and his eyes shut tight; his mouth continued to move in his mantra, but no sound was coming out. Vlad knelt in front of him. He reached out to take Daniel’s hand, but he hesitated and settled for grasping the edge of the couch after thinking better of it.

“Daniel,” he said, then, remembering how he’d first been introduced to the boy, said, “Danny…” Buttercream frosting, this was hard. He hadn’t been in a position where he’d had to comfort someone other than himself in years. Was he keeping his voice gentle enough? Did he seem calm? He certainly didn’t feel calm.

Focus, he told himself. Taking a deep breath, he began again. “Danny, please,” he begged.

Miraculously, the boy heard him. Watery blue eyes opened and bored straight into Vlad’s. The man had to resist the urge to shy away from Daniel’s intense gaze. He could see the unfiltered power simmering behind those eyes, and he found himself wondering exactly what the child was capable of.

“Please,” Daniel whispered in a cracking voice. “Please… I don’t - I just wanna go home. I just want all of this to stop.” His cheek convulsed again as he lowered his gaze. Almost inaudibly, he said, “I don’t even know what I am anymore.”

Vlad watched in empathetic sorrow. He’d been plagued with the same thoughts for years after his accident and forced quarantine. Even now, he occasionally found himself second-guessing his own existence. In comparison, the boy’s accident had only happened a few weeks ago. Nowhere near long enough to come to terms with the whirlwind of emotional chaos and confusion that came with it.

“You are… a wonder,” he began slowly. Before he could stop himself, he continued, “You have come face to face with Death and denied him - a feat that few others throughout history have been able to accomplish. You - you have been reborn from the elements of your death, into something far greater than an average human. You are nothing short of the miracle that has led you here.”

Vlad’s own words surprised him. Usually he wasn’t one to wax poetic like that. It was this child, though - this unassuming fourteen-year-old boy who never would have caught his eye otherwise. Something about him compelled Vlad, grabbed him by the shoulders and tore at his heartstrings, stirring in him, for the first time in nearly 20 years, the wrenching pain of care for another.

And he was okay with it. More than okay with it. The realization that he’d meant every word he’d said terrified him, but in the same butterfly-inducing terror that possessed a person just before they took the leap of faith.

He was ready to take that leap.

Daniel stared at him, dumbfounded. “A miracle?” he hissed. His eyes burned with green light again, and Vlad caught a vague whiff of sulfur. “You’re calling this nightmare a miracle?”

Vlad faltered. He hadn’t exactly been expecting this response. “Oh, my child, not like that. Please, I -”

“No!” Daniel shouted. The tears evaporated from his eyes in a tiny puff of steam. Sparks began snapping in his hair again. “I am not your child! Don’t you dare call me that!”

He extended his legs abruptly, nearly knocking Vlad from his feet. The man quickly stood, hands raised. “Danie- Danny, please.” He was struggling to maintain his calm demeanor in the face of a boy rapidly losing control of his already unstable abilities. “All I want is to help you!”

“I don’t want your help!”

Perhaps words weren’t the way to placate him, Vlad was beginning to realize. Maybe a physical demonstration would be more effective. He exhaled and concentrated on the buzzing knot of energy right above his sternum. With the precision of two decades worth of practice, he willed the energy forward, into his arms and hands. He was vaguely aware of the crackling electricity rippling across his scalp and down his spine.

Ever so gently, he expanded his energy further. No need to frighten the boy any more than he already was. But he needed to do this. He needed to show him he could help.

Daniel’s eyes flew wide open. “What are you doing?” he demanded, though his voice trembled. Whether it was from fear or anger, Vlad couldn’t tell.

“I’m trying to show you,” the man explained. In one swift move, he allowed his energy to make contact with Daniel’s, but he was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer strength and ferocity of the child’s aura. A quiet voice in the back of his head began to worry that the boy’s power was too much for either of them to handle.

He silenced that voice quickly. He couldn’t give into that, not now.

Instead, he said, “Can’t you feel it? You and I, we’re the same. Our energies are the same.” It was true. Being so close to Daniel’s own fledgling core, feeling the unwilling yet inevitable ballet between their two spirits, it told him as much. His hot, precise electricity found itself in perfect harmony with the boy’s burning cold lightning storm. The resulting potential was intoxicating. Vlad savored it with every passing second.

He needed this. He needed to help the child, to make him understand just how right it was that he was here.

Daniel, sadly, did not have the same reaction. He yelped and tried to scamper as far from Vlad as possible, resulting in him falling through the back of the couch. By the time Vlad rounded the corner of the couch, Daniel was back on his feet, though his form continued to flicker and his face twitched more rapidly. The snapping electricity in his hair fizzled through strands faster and faster, and Vlad caught sight of an angry red lightning pattern painting the underside of the boy’s jaw, down his neck, and below his collar.

“S-stay away from me!” Daniel shouted, continuing to stumble backward. “We’re not - I’m nothing like you!”

The words stung Vlad like a thousand wasps. Losing all remaining composure, he cried, “That’s not true! Please, Dani- Danny, I can help you! I’ve been through this just like you, I can teach you how to control it, but please, you must calm down before you hurt yourself!” And before I lose you, he added silently.

Daniel’s fingers dug into his biceps. His eyes were shut tightly again, but Vlad could still see the remnants of their toxic green glow seeping through the cracks. His facial tic was uncontrollable at this point. “I’m not - I-I can’t…” he gasped in between short, panicked breaths. The smell of sulfuric ozone was pungent at this point.

Daniel fell to his knees. Hastily, Vlad drew his energy back in and dropped to his knees as well. “Daniel! Can you hear me?”

The boy didn’t respond. Instead, he gasped violently and opened his eyes wide, revealing twin pools of green. “M-my… too - too much,” he choked out as his form flickered wildly.

The moments that followed happened in quick succession. Vlad, operating purely from his panic, reached forward to put his hands on Daniel’s shoulders. In that moment, he felt every hair on his arms and the back of his neck stand upright; the tang of something metallic could be tasted in the air. He recognized the hallmark signs of the impending disaster and, in the next moment, realized he was too late to stop it.

The instant his hands made contact with Daniel, a blinding white bolt of electricity cracked into existence, forming a ring around the boy’s waist.

The resounding force launched Vlad backwards and into a bookcase. The back of his head slammed into the edge of a shelf, and he crumpled to the ground.

The last thing he saw as he slipped into unconsciousness was lightning dancing across snow white hair and Daniel’s acidic green eyes.

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay2023 #dannymay 2023 #danny fenton #vlad masters #electricity #electric core #aka danny is super traumatized #and vlad does not know how to interact with traumatized children #fanfiction #danny phantom fanfic #hannah writes

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five-rivers · 1 year

Text

Flowers, the Leaves on the Trees, the Moss Underfoot

AO3

Part of this series.

@13thcat @modordracena

Like anyone else who had just been gifted (cursed, whatever) with the ability to shapeshift, Danny experimented. He didn’t think twice about it, the concept was so natural to him.

Although, to be fair, that might have partially been because of his upbringing. Alchemists and experimentation went hand-in-hand, Fentons and experimentation even moreso.

And there was a bit of a gap between the first realization and the experimentation. He had to be forgiven, given the circumstances.

His first, panicked, shift had been into a forest cat. His second had been into the form he had once called his one and only - human, teenaged, dark haired, blue eyed, short.

(In other circumstances, he might dispute the ‘short’ part, but he could be honest with himself. Here, alone in the trees, he was the only one who could be.)

For a decent chunk of time, that was it. He didn’t want to shift anymore. He cried himself to sleep cradled by the branches of the tree he was hiding in, mourning his humanity.

Then, the next morning, he woke up relatively rested. When he saw that he had stayed human throughout the night, well… If he could do that, maybe he could go home, after all? Maybe he could hide it?

He climbed down, but as soon as he touched the ground, things changed.

There were so very many things that lived on and in the trees, but the trees themselves were stable. They reached down into the earth and up into the sky and across barriers he couldn’t properly comprehend, but they operated on a scale and in a manner he could understand, and when they changed they changed slowly. Even the lichens and mosses on the trees felt more… orderly, for lack of a better word. Calmer. Or maybe more limited. Or maybe he was more limited.

But perhaps it was simply that there were fewer of them, or maybe his issue was something else entirely, something he didn’t know yet, because it was very difficult to know anything when you’d been changed so much, so fast. All he had were his feelings, and the ground was overwhelming.

It teemed with life. Mushrooms, grasses, flowers, seeds, mosses, tiny crawling things… And his awareness of it all spread outwards, along the ground and deep into it, no longer mediated by the trees.

Although, perhaps awareness was too generous a term for a set of impressions that lived in the back of his mind and curled around the edges of his consciousness. In any case, it didn’t agree with the hold he had on his form.

His legs and back twisted, the nails on his feet becoming thick and black, his teeth going alternately sharp and flat. Patterns of alternating dark and light appeared on his skin.

It was painless, the shifting. The sensation was… strange. Not unpleasant, but strange. Like his flesh was water, rippling, pouring from one container to another, borrowing its shape from what contained it.

He breathed in and out through his nose, stunned by the transformation but trying not to panic. He reached, searching for the grip that had let him be human again, at least in appearance, but his mental fingers kept slipping off the presence of the forest as represented by the things that lived on and in the nearby ground.

Eventually, he couldn’t handle it anymore, and he went back up into the tree. His control came back, and he pushed the inhuman features away.

At least he now knew he could do that, still. As long as he was in the trees, anyway.

He looked down at the ground, feeling trepidation. The ground looked back at him. The plants there reached back to him, quite literally. Where he had stood, a place that had been bare, mossy ground, too close to the tree to grow anything significant, had exploded with greenery. A circle of emerald moss surrounded green grass and shockingly pink wildflowers.

That was… alright, he didn’t know how to deal with that at the moment, so he didn’t.

So. He could shapeshift. He could shapeshift and control it, as long as he was in the trees. As long as he was in the trees.

He couldn’t stay in the trees and go home at the same time. He couldn’t go home if he looked like… like that every time he touched the ground.

He curled up on the tree branch again and tried not to think of much of anything.

Before long, though, he finished sulking.

He probably could have continued sulking for days; he felt like he had a lot to sulk about, overall, and he hadn’t felt any of the usual bodily needs, beyond sleep. That should have concerned him, he felt, but honestly he had bigger problems to deal with than not being hungry. No. What had brought him out of his sulk was boredom. Sitting on a tree branch trying not to cry was boring.

He could shapeshift. He could shapeshift. And, thus far, he hadn’t really explored how much he could shapeshift. He hadn’t experimented.

First order of business. Did he really lose control every time he touched the ground? Did he turn into the same thing each time?

He climbed back down.

Danny’s ears became long and floppy, like a rabbit’s. Brown-black feathers poured from his shoulders, pricking their way down his arms, his clothing shifting to accommodate them. Things close to him became sharper, while things further away grew blurry.

He went back up, but only a little ways before touching the ground again.

His nails grew sharp, and his spine extended itself into a fluffy tail. It didn’t seem to match the character of a cat’s tail, but the scales growing over the backs of his hands were more alarming to him.

He went back up and wrestled his appearance back into behaving. Three for three seemed like certainty enough for now. He didn’t want to do that again any time soon.

But there were other things he had to try. He could be human on purpose. He had been a forest cat by instinct. Could he purposefully take the shape of other animals?

The answer, after a few hours of trial and error, seemed to be yes. He’d tested forest cats, house cats, leopards, lynxes, squirrels, chipmunks, rats, mice, polecats, ferrets, and any other mammal he thought could balance on a branch.

He could be them. He could be any of them.

Well. Almost. Lions seemed to be beyond him, as well as a few other creatures from the distant plains and deserts of the east and south. He was unsure if location had something to do with it, or if the limit was more because he’d never seen any of those things before, whereas he’d seen at least dead versions of all the animals he could become.

It was good to know. Not just because the experiments had distracted him from his ongoing crisis, but because he was much more confident about leaping from tree to tree as a forest cat than he was as a human. Staying in one tree forever, afraid of the ground, was unlikely to be good for his sanity, such as it was.

Danny had lots of time to push himself to his limits in other ways, though. For example, how fast could he shapeshift? How many times in a row could he change himself? Would he get tired? Were there sizes he couldn’t take? Could he change himself only partially, like he did reflexively on the ground?

It was fascinating.

It was terrifying.

It was so very, very lonely.

Tucker found him. More accurately, he found Tucker. The order didn’t really matter, though. What mattered was that he wasn't alone anymore.

Although, over the past week or so, he'd come to realize that, perhaps, he wasn’t as alone as he’d initially believed. The woods hummed and pulsed under his senses, alive and intelligent in ways Danny struggled to quantify. But… even if there were people in the woods, the woods was not, precisely, a person. He needed someone. He needed people. He needed friends.

No, Tucker couldn’t live full-time in the woods, even with whatever weird limbo his apprenticeship had been thrown into. Danny didn’t expect that from him. But he was there and he knew Danny was there.

And Sam was coming. Maybe. Somehow. At least, she wanted to come, but Danny couldn’t imagine how that would work. From the perspective of everyone but him and Tucker, last time she’d been in the woods, she’d disappeared, and she was a princess. If Danny were the king and queen, he wouldn’t let her go back any time soon.

But, Sam’s possible house arrest aside, she was sending letters with Tucker.

“How are you still meeting with her, anyway?” asked Danny, flexing his toes on the branch he was perched on. He was mostly human right now, but he thought he might be channelling something into his feet to make them grip better. “The pages have to be recovered by now. No one’s sick for that long unless they’re dying.”

Tucker shrugged. “It’s confusing to me, too. She’s renting me from the guilds, somehow. Something about me saving her life when we vanished, and now I’m like… I don’t know. She cited a lot of old law, but I don’t think there’s actually precedent for a common man being a princess’s boon companion, no matter how many times he saved her life.” He rubbed his hands on his pants. “I think a lot of people are really unhappy about it, actually.”

“Are you… safe?” asked Danny, concerned. “I know you said people were watching you and asking a lot of questions, last time, but they aren’t, like, threatening you, are they?” He’d heard the courts and high society could be cutthroat, although, to be honest, so could the guilds and the little communities that sprung up in churches and neighborhoods.

“No, no,” said Tucker. “I think Sam’s the most likely to commit murder out of anyone there.”

“Tucker, knights are literally professional killers. That’s what they do.”

“Haha. Yeah. But, seriously, I don’t think any of them would risk it. Sam can do histrionic really well, and they can’t kill her.”

“Mm,” hummed Danny. “Well, if you ever need to run away to the woods, I’m here.”

“Speaking of which, where are you,” Tucker hesitated, “living? Because I’m not an outdoors sort of person, most of the time, but I do know that the seasons can change fast.”

Danny didn’t need to eat, as far as he could tell, and so far exposure hadn’t hurt him, but he appreciated Tucker’s point. “Lucky for me,” he said, “I am an outdoors sort of person. At least, my parents wanted me to be.” He’d gotten a lot of ‘Ranger training’ from them, and it hadn’t all been about killing things.

He shuddered. He was one of those things, now, the awareness of that fact an acute ache somewhere under his heart. There was a reason he had not called out to them from where he hid in the trees, and possibly never would.

“I found some ruins that look… acceptable,” he continued. “I haven’t decided how I’m going to make them, um. Not awful. Roofs and doors chinking and all of that.”

Tucker raised an eyebrow. “Livable?”

“Yeah, that,” said Danny.

He’d been reluctant to touch the ground long enough to examine the place closely, at first. Or even to go into it. If the ground did so much to him, what would worked wood and stone do to him?

But he wanted to know, and the only way to find out was to experiment.

It felt different. Not like the trees, not like the ground. Still part of the woods, but in a different way. Not dead, not cut off, still humming with that something that everything that was even a little of the woods had, but… different. Waiting. Abandoned. Bereft. Orbate. But fulfilling a purpose nonetheless.

It was strange to feel so much and know so little.

Walking on a surface worked by human hands didn’t undo him quite so much as the forest floor had, but it didn’t support him like the trees did. The structure welcomed him - To shelter was its purpose. But it needed the labor of an intelligent mind to make it whole. It was easier to be human-like within it, but he still lacked control.

At least… Those were the conclusions he’d come to after thinking about it for a long time.

“Do you think you might be in the market for felt scraps?”

“Huh?”

“I’m technically still an apprentice, so I’ve got room and board at my master’s house. No one likes to waste things, but there’s always scraps from cutting, or wool that’s the wrong grade, or stuff that gets stuck in the fulling mill and torn up, or stuff that, um, doesn’t wash up properly, after scouring. You know. That kind of thing. No one guards the scrap pile.” He shrugged.

“Doesn’t scouring, uh,” started Danny.

“Involve a large amount of human pee? Yes. Yes, it does. Guess which part apprentices have to do, and you’ll know why so many of us jumped at substituting for the pages. I’ll try to pick those bits out, if you want.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. Alchemy has a lot of that kind of thing, too. I’ve smelled way worse things.” He paused. “Actually, so have you. Do you remember–”

“Don’t. Don’t remind me of the crimes your parents subjected my poor, innocent, baby nose to.”

“Ah,” said Danny, reminiscing, “I remember those powerful odors. The stinks strong enough to grow hair on your chest.”

“You’ve never had hair on your chest,” said Tucker.

Danny thought about that question for a moment, then smiled slyly. He pulled his shirt off, revealing a chest full of thick, curly fur.

“Well, at least I know you aren’t angsting about the shapeshifting part anymore,” said Tucker, who looked a little grossed out. “Hey, what would happen if I cut off part of that? Would it disappear if you changed back or would it stay? Would you be missing something when you turned back?”

“Good questions,” said Danny. “Wanna find out?”

“Sure,” said Tucker, pulling a pair of formidable scissors from his pocket. “Where can I cut it?”

Danny eyed the scissors. “And you made fun of me for my fertilizer.”

“I didn’t,” said Tucker. “Well… maybe a little. But if you get your sleeve caught in the machinery once… Or see it happen to someone.” He shuddered and shook his head. “Man, Nathan was lucky. He only lost a hand. And, you know, after everything that happened, I thought it might be good to carry some kind of defense.”

“That makes sense,” agreed Danny. Those scissors were almost dagger-like. “Let me come down to you.”

He jumped across a few branches and found a fallen log to balance on. It wasn’t the same as the trees, but at this stage of decay, it also wasn’t the same as the ground. He kept a grip on his shape.

“Alright,” said Tucker. “Can I just–?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” said Danny.

Tucker clipped off a long curl of black… wool? Was it wool, even though it came from Danny?

Danny jumped back into the tree, with only a bit of an assist from cat-like legs, and turned back. “Well?” he asked.

“It’s still here!” said Tucker. “How do you feel?”

Danny rubbed his hands over his chest. “Fine? There’s nothing missing.”

“Weird,” said Tucker.

“Yeah,” agreed Danny. “Where did it come from? Maybe… What do you think would happen if we cut off a whole lot?”

Tucker squinted up at him. “Do you want me to, like, shear you? That’s not a thing I usually do.”

“No,” said Danny. “Maybe. Would that be weird?”

“I’m holding a bit of wool that you grew. This is already weird.”

“Fair.”

“I’d like to have something I could put it all in, though.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I’d hate to waste it. This isn’t bad, whatever it is.”

Danny squinted back at Tucker. “Using it is a bit… I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“It’s not like I’d do anything bad with it. Maybe we could give some to Sam. She’s the one who wants to study magic and stuff.”

“Now that would be weird.”

“Yeah, you’re right… She is a girl.”

“Mhm.” Danny picked at the bark on the tree. There was an irritating worm crawling underneath it.

“You still want me to shave you, don’t you,” said Tucker, intonation a bit flat, as if he were holding back laughter. “What if– What if you turn into a sheep?”

Danny considered that proposal. “Yeah,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

“So,” said Tucker, sitting next to a pile of dark wool. “How do you feel?”

Danny thought about it. “Hungry,” he said, finally.

“Huh. Maybe all this came from your stomach.”

“I mean, technically it has to come from a sheep’s stomach, usually, right?”

“I guess, ultimately, yeah,” said Tucker. “That makes sense.”

“Do you have any food?”

“I do not.”

That was too bad. Danny let his head lay back against the tree. “I think I would like the felt scraps.”

“Cool,” said Tucker. “I’ll figure out how to bring them.”

Danny’s curiosity had overwhelmed his caution on at least one front at the end of the third week.

On occasion, when touching the ground, he got feathers and scales, which would seem to indicate he had the ability to shift into birds and lizards, or perhaps even fish. The idea of flying was tempting. The idea of falling out of the sky upon losing control of his form was less so. Furthermore, he’d stuck to mammals so far.

It was time to, heh, branch out.

He’d have to remember that one when Tucker came by next. He always made such faces at Danny’s jokes.

But, seriously, it was time. He wasn’t writing his findings down (for shame) but he was running out of things to try to shift into. If things kept up like this, he’d have to think about his Situation, and no one wanted that.

Small steps, though. One variable at a time. First, lizards didn’t fly, so…

When he was satisfied that he could be a whole variety of lizards, Danny moved on to the next problem. Birds. He could, it turned out, be them, too, any variety, size, or color he wanted, so long as it was a natural one.

Which left flying.

For this, Danny borrowed the form of a bat.

He’d been a bat only briefly while running through his mental catalog of mammals, and he hadn’t liked it. Some animals had senses that were too far off his baseline to be comfortable to him.

Actually, most of the birds and lizards were like that for him as well, at least a little. Mammals were just… closer, he supposed.

But, anyway, bats. He was a bat, now. Bats could fly. In theory. If he was a bat, he could fly. In theory.

He spread his wings and launched himself off the branch.

He immediately crashed.

Flying would take some practice.

A week later, Danny caught a glimpse of Tucker through the trees, followed by a hooded figure. Suspicious, he let himself shift smoothly into a small cat and followed them through the trees, watching, listening. They weren’t talking to one another, and Danny didn’t know if he should consider that to be a bad sign. Would Tucker be chatty with a kidnapper? Quiet with a friend?

And… was it just him, or did Tucker’s companion smell familiar? But who would smell familiar, except for…

Excited, he bounded ahead of Tucker and jumped down onto a still-living stump that was starting to send up shoots. “Tucker!” he exclaimed, turning human. “Sam!”

Sam pushed her hood back. “Gods above, it’s really you,” she said. “If it wasn’t for Tucker, I’d have thought for sure that you had been killed.”

“Wait, really?” said Danny, lowering his arms. “Why?”

Sam pursed her lips, her whole face going sour with them. “Because everyone seemed so intent on assuring me that the ‘monster’ who had ‘taken’ me was killed. I suspect they found some poor cat that bore a passing resemblance to you.” She shook her head. “But you’re fine?”

Danny nodded. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt or anything, at least.”

Sam’s shoulders slumped. “Well, that’s good. I can’t imagine it’s been easy, though.”

“It… hasn’t been hard.” Except emotionally. But he wasn’t going to say that out loud. “Mostly, I’ve just been hanging out and avoiding people.”

“I’m sorry,” said Sam.

Danny shrugged, uncomfortable. “I don’t blame you, or anything.” Sam still looked like she blamed herself, though, so he decided to change tactics. “Do you want to see my house?”

“Sure,” said Sam.

“Oh,” said Sam, her eyes glittering at the sight of Danny’s ruin. “How did you find this?” She began to trace her fingers over the individual stones.

“I don’t know. I just did.”

“The laying pattern…” She turned and walked a few feet away. “The courtyard placement and pattern suggests a connection to the ancient culture of Aragona. Did you recover any artifacts from the area? Pottery, beads, jewelry, books?”

“Uh,” said Danny, who was still sitting on a nearby branch. He briefly contemplated manifesting a tail so he could swish it in agitation. “No.”

“That’s too bad,” said Sam. “But maybe… Yes. Yes!” She ran back up to him and grabbed his wrist. “Let’s look for– Oh.”

She had pulled him off the branch, and, as always, he had changed as soon as he hit the ground. He reached up to touch his forehead. “It hasn’t given me horns before,” he said.

“Oh,” repeated Sam. “Tucker had told me, but I hadn’t…” She trailed off, fingers pressed to her lips. “Does it hurt?”

“No,” said Danny. “It’s just weird.”

“Can you,” started Sam, briefly reaching towards his face with her free hand. “Would you tell me what it’s like? How it works? Explain it?”

“Yes,” said Danny, “but could I go back up, first? The trees make it easier.”

“So,” said Sam, “you can change into any animal?”

“Almost any animal,” corrected Danny, fiddling with a pine cone. He wasn’t hungry at the moment, but picking out the seeds was something to do. “I tried a few that didn’t work. I think it’s because they’re either too big, or I haven’t seen them before. Maybe both? I don’t know yet.”

“What’s the biggest animal you’ve ever seen?” asked Sam.

“I don’t know,” said Danny. “A cow?”

“Then try turning into a cow.”

“I can’t,” said Danny, “not in a tree.”

“Oh, yeah. How about a bear?”

“I’ve never actually seen a bear.”

“How,” said Tucker, “have you never seen a bear? I’ve seen a bear. I’ve even seen a bear this month while coming to visit you! It was far away, sure, but still…”

“Well, try turning into one anyway,” suggested Sam. “A small one, maybe. A black bear. Maybe a cub.”

“Alright,” said Danny, trying to imagine what a black bear cub would look like. There was an image there, as if seen through the leaves, of a fuzzy, black animal that walked on all fours. Danny knew that this was the same bear Tucker had seen, although he couldn’t say how. It was followed by a smaller bear, and it was this that Danny focused on.

When he opened his eyes, he was a bear.

Being a bear was surprisingly similar to being a human, overall, but he didn’t hold the form for long. After all, bears couldn’t talk. “Huh,” he said. “That was weird.”

“Weirder than any other shapeshifting?” asked Tucker.

“I don’t know,” said Danny. “I think I’ll have to revise my theory. Maybe I can only change into things that live here?”

“I could get you a bestiary,” said Sam. “We can look through it for things you haven’t seen but live in the area.”

Danny nodded slowly. “That sounds nice,” he said.

“Good,” said Sam. “Now, how about plants?”

“What about them?”

“Have you tried to turn into them yet?”

“Uh,” said Danny, “no. It’s just animals.”

“And your clothes.”

“What?”

“Your shapeshifting seems to include your clothing, so it’s not just animals.”

“I… suppose? But a shirt disappearing is different from turning into a plant.”

“So, you haven’t tried it.”

“No,” said Danny.

“How do you know you can’t if you haven’t tried?”

“Uh,” said Tucker, “maybe you shouldn’t. We know what happened last time we poked around with weird magical stuff near a ruin.”

“That’s different.”

“It’s literally the same thing.”

“It’s fine, Tucker,” said Danny. “It’s… not actually a bad idea.”

“Well, if you get stuck as a tree, I’ll be able to say I told you so.”

“I’m not going to do my whole body all at once,” said Danny, offended. “It’s like flying. You have to go a little bit at a time.”

“Wait, back up, you can fly? Since when?”

“Since I can shapeshift into birds?”

“And you managed that by shapeshifting a little at a time?”

“No, I turned into a bat.”

Sam raised a finger to her lip, then pointed it at him. “I think you and I are having two very different conversations, but I can wait to sort that out. Can you do a carnivorous plant? Or maybe black roses?”

“Uh,” said Danny. “Can plants be carnivorous? I thought that was some myth my parents came across.”

“Yeah, let’s not have Danny turn into some legendary evil plant thing.”

“No,” said Sam. “I’ve seen them. There are a few types that grow near the southern border, and they’re fascinating.”

Danny knew exactly what she was talking about. Could almost visualize them, in the same way as the bear. He really would have to look into that.

“I bet. But I think I might start with something more… local.” He looked around and spotted a wildflower that had sprung up in one of his footprints. Not for the first time, he traced his walking path with some bemusement. It was a good thing he kept to the branches for the most part. He’d be very easy to track.

But that was neither here nor there. He leaned forward and plucked the flower. It wasn’t particularly happy about being picked, but the plant it came from wasn’t really upset about it, either. It had enough energy for more.

“I was thinking something like this.”

Sam reached out and touched the soft, white petals. “Alright,” she said. “I’m still trying to imagine what that will look like.”

“Me, too,” admitted Danny. “But I think I have some idea…” He trailed off, focusing. His skin started to turn green. It was still too pale and pink to match the flower’s stem, but it was a close thing. Then, from the green, grew small white ovals. They weren’t quite arranged like petals on his skin, but were spaced out more like hairs.

He stopped and put down the flower.

“Wow,” said Sam. “That’s… I didn’t expect that. Can I…?” She reached out towards him. Danny reached back, putting his palm flat against hers. A couple of leaves grew adventurously from his forearm. “Wow. That does not feel like I expected it to. Is this… comfortable for you? It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

“No,” said Danny, “I don’t know if I’d call it comfortable, though.” He could feel all the changes on his skin, of course, but there were also changes deeper down. Plants did not think like animals did, and even though there was a significant gap between human thought and animal thought, this one was… larger. Much larger.

“Welp!” said Tucker, loudly, “that’s sure a thing you can do! Can we skip the becoming a tree part?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Danny. “I don’t even know if I can do that. I’d have to touch the ground for it, and that doesn’t really… I can’t control it, when I do that.”

“Hm,” said Sam, “You could try becoming a moss, or a mistletoe? They’re both parasitic.”

“Yeah,” said Danny, “that’s a good idea.”

“Or we could not.”

“Where’s your spirit of adventure, Tucker?” asked Sam.

“I’ll have you know, I’ve strongly considered becoming an anchorite, so that should tell you something about my spirit of adventure.”

“Yes,” said Sam, “but you’re here with us, now, aren’t you?”

“I sure am,” said Tucker. “But at what cost?”

“Well,” said Danny, holding up a hand and starting to count off fingers, “your peace of mind, my humanity, your apprenticeship - but you didn’t really care about that–”

“Fine, fine,” said Tucker. “Just, again, note that I objected.”

Danny climbed up into the higher branches of the nearby tree. He usually saw mistletoe higher up, and if he did get stuck as mistletoe, he’d like to be relatively successful, healthy mistletoe, thank you very much.

He closed his eyes and thought mistletoe thoughts.

Alright. Being mistletoe was… calming? Sort of? He was certainly connected more intimately like this, but it was time to stop.

“Oh gods above,” said Sam, “I thought we had lost you.”

Danny blinked up at the sky.

“Is it… darker?” he asked.

“If that’s you asking if the sun is going down, then yes,” said Tucker. “You were a plant for a while there.”

“Oops,” said Danny, still blinking slowly. “I think… I shouldn’t do that again soon.”

“We were thinking about pulling you off and seeing if hitting the ground would help you, but…” Sam shrugged.

“Is that shrug because you guys can’t climb or because you were worried it would hurt me?” asked Danny.

“Mostly because we can’t climb,” admitted Tucker, scratching the side of his neck. “You’re pretty far up there.”

“Right,” said Danny, climbing down. “Sorry.”

“I actually need to go,” said Sam. “Our excuse isn’t going to hold up much longer.”

“If it even held up this long,” said Tucker.

“Right,” said Danny, just slightly more morosely.

“Don’t worry,” said Sam, “we’ll be back. I’ll find a way. Even if I have to make one.” Despite not containing all that much information, the last sentence contained sufficient violence for Danny to nod appreciatively.

“As long as her way doesn’t get me killed, I’ll be back, too.”

Danny smiled. “Thanks,” he said. And… next time, I’ll try to meet you at the edge of the woods. So you aren’t eaten by bears.”

“I see what you’re trying to do, but I think it’s much sadder that you hadn’t ever seen one until you turned yourself into one.”

“He’s right,” said Sam, “even I’ve seen a bear.”

Danny puffed out his cheeks. “Fine. I’m still coming to pick you up, next time.”

It was harder to hide in the trees with the leaves starting to fall. That didn’t stop Danny, though.

“Hey,” he whisper-hissed at Sam and Tucker. He was experimenting with fangs today, and flashed them when they jumped to turn and look at him. “What’s up? Other than me of course.”

“I think… we might need your help,” said Sam.

“Maybe,” said Tucker, “we don’t really know what happened, so…” He shrugged.

Danny blinked and lowered himself to the next branch down, the better to hear them. “I’ll do my best,” he said, “but I don’t know how much I can do stuck here in the woods.”

“It’s because you’re in the woods that you can help. Do you remember the grain tax reform last year?”

“Sure,” said Danny. “It was a big thing.” Lots of people had acted like it was the end of the world, but honestly, storing more of the harvest in case of famine was only wise. “The new royal granaries and all that. My parents actually took me to see the one near here.” There had been something about the land it had been built on.

“It’s been stolen,” said Sam.

“Like… someone’s been skimming? Taking the grain, then reselling it?”

Tucker shook his head. “No. I actually saw it, when Sam and the king went to inspect the Caspera City granary last week. It was full. But then, yesterday…”

“The whole building was gone,” said Sam. “Like it had been scooped out of the ground. And… And in the hole were trees, reaching up.”

“Like the woods,” said Danny.

“Exactly.” Sam walked closer to his tree, and he shifted so as to keep her at a reasonable angle. “We think something from in there might have taken it.”

“Something that we woke up,” said Danny.

“Maybe,” stressed Tucker. Danny waved him off.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Just look for it,” said Sam. “Keep an eye out. I’m not expecting you to bring it back or fight whatever took it. It’d have to be some kind of giant, or worse. But… look. And if you find it, let us know.” She sighed. “We’re keeping it quiet, for now, but it’s going to get out, and we don’t need people panicking and recreating the Great Famine while the crops are still coming in just fine. Mud pies should not be a literal term.”

“And keep an open mind!” cautioned Tucker. “If you see, I don’t know, a giant grain monster, maybe that grain is ours!”

“Giant grain monster?” repeated Danny.

“You don’t know, it could happen.”

“You’re right,” said Danny, crossing his arms and grinning at Tucker. “I don’t know.”

“A giant grain monster is on the same level of weirdness as a tiny flower boy, but you don’t see us complaining about that.”

“Touche. You didn’t have to call me short.”

“But you are.”

“You kind of are.”

“You two are horrible.”

#danny phantom #phic phight #phic phight 2023

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tinycoded360 · 4 months

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G/t Rec/favorite list from AO3 part 1

Bite-sized by bluprismwrites

Taken place during Act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3. Meet Ria, a 10 centimetre tall (4 inches) borrower who is trying her best to survive out in the wilderness of Faerûn without being crushed underfoot, squashed, or eaten. Astarion, weak with hunger, manages to catch a whiff of Ria's scent, and driven by his bloodlust he tracks her down with the intention of eating her. Of course, things get a little complicated when Gale becomes involved.

Nine- by ittybluebell

At four inches tall, Clover's used to danger. They never wanted eight giant strangers invading their life, but now Clover must quickly adapt to this new family and the threats that follow. The cluster will do anything to protect their smallest member. And Clover will do what they can.

Beast of mars by Raventroll80

After a Millennia asleep, the Doom Slayer awakens to a situation all too familiar. Hell has broken lose on Mars, and with demons around every corner, the Slayer must put a stop to the invasion before things get worse. Should be easy for a 15 foot troll right?

Only a couple days by pocket_lad

If Adelaide knew what dinosaurs were before this trip, she probably wouldn't have come, but after being discovered by a Human Bean named Ian Malcolm, she found herself on increasingly sporadic and dangerous adventures....and she kind of liked it. For the most part.

Basically Jurassic Park (1993) but if Ian Malcolm brought a three-inch tall borrower with him.

Aaron’s unscheduled stay by notabanishedprivateer

Aaron gets into a dire situation after being forced to venture outside the wall

Tiny terrors by cravesweets

A machine accident somehow shrunk and separated Danny into two, with one normal Danny Fenton and one wild gremblin Phantom, who decided to kidnap him to some creepy gothic mansion for no reason.

Borrower danny by DP_Marvel94

A teeny tiny Danny starts living in Wayne Manor

Finders keepers, losers weepers (but also please stop crying I’m new to this) By ShowrunnerIhardlyknowher

Working for a pest control company had its ups and downs, but for the most part the benefits were satisfactory. Good insurance, optional overtime, the chance to acquire a child who conveniently fit into a shirt pocket while you try to figure out what to do now.

Not quite sure there's a parenting handbook that covers the care and keeping of an abandoned borrower.

Meaning of freedom by deadheaded-stepchild (itsybitsykitsy)

It’s been roughly 30 years since borrowers had been discovered, their one and only safeguard, secrecy, compromised. And humanity has deemed it to do with them as they saw fit, regardless of how they feel about it.

Just an anthology of how borrowers now have to live their lives now that humans sees them as pests, pets and even test subjects. Sometimes worse. Stories may have happy endings, bad ones, bittersweet ones, or open-ended ones. Some have continuing overarching plots and some are one and done. Rating may change due to contents of certain stories and warnings will be posted beforehand.

House call by trumpetteacow

Dr. Ludwig, the Medic, responds to a house call from his old friend, Misha, the Heavy, complaining of a vague ailment. While he can't fix his illness, lacking in medical licensure, he does solve his borrower problem—unfortunately for Jeremy, the Scout.

#g/t community #g/t #giant/tiny #gtwac #rec list #g/t writing #g/t writers #g/t writing community

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emacrow · 21 days

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Alfred got a new exotic plant from the groceries store that was on sale.

Pretty lil blue exotic flower that look almost crystallized like that has yet to bloom with the softest delicate green leaves in a small purple pot plant with a clock like symbol. It would look beautiful in his garden.

Right between to the light and purple bluebells flowers in front of the kitchen window. Alfred admire the view before going back to his duty work.

Totally unawared of the little flower bloom slowly in the middle of the night, with a tiny little white fluff of hair poking out of the flower's petal. A very very tiny boy peek his head out. Light blue eyes, face and white hair covered in pollen.

Tiny borrower sized Danny phantom has successfully infiltrate the Wayne Manor to find a missing artifact hidden inside..

Pt 2 post here

#dp x dc crossover #dpxdc #dc x dp #danny phantom #dp x dc #dc x dp prompt #de aged danny #tiny danny #borrower danny phantom #he can shrink but he forgot how to resized himself later #clockwork sent him this way but didnt tell him how to unshrink himself #alfred pennyworth

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im-totally-not-an-alien-2 · 2 years

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Halloween prompts no. 17

Danny had to borrow Pandoras box to fight and seal away a giant evil space monster. After defeating it and sucking it up into the box, he takes the time to nerd out about fighting a space monster in space, not only that but another dimensions space! That opens up so many questions about other space anomalies such as wormholes and-

Unfortunately for him he failed to consider two crucial details.

1. The box does not judge what is good or what is evil. Thats the boxs users job.

2. The sun is close by.

All it took was Danny waving his wands around in his excitement from talking to himself for the boxs lid to open up just a crack.

Then the sun was gone.

Danny felt himself go pale. Knowing the people and creatures of Earth (and potential aliens from Mars) required the sun to not, ya know, freeze to death, he panicked hard and pulled all his power to teleport then entire solar system into the Infinite Realms.

Having such a sudden massive drain to his energy right after a taxing fight caused phantom to pass out from exhaustion and he was dragged into a hiding place by the little blob ghosts who were familiar with him and wanted to repay his kindness.

Meanwhile the people of Earth and Mars were wigging out like there's no tomorrow. Thier atmosphere was in tact but a odd green force field was around each of the celestial bodies, preventing anyone from leaving. Thankfully it kept most of the monsters from whereever this place was from entering either. Well, all but these tiny little blobs. But they seemed rather harmless and mostly just stuck to people seemingly at random.

Batman, however, wanted answers and started with inspecting the little blobs. He discovered that they tent to group in places where traumatic events happened and on people who have unresolved trauma or deeply negative emotions. Needless to say his family is swarmed constantly. Damian keeps feeding them snacks, Tim has taken to wearing a pseudo space helmet equipped with an automatic windshield wiper so he could see (he gets swarmed constantly and by far the worst), Jason had run from the swarms at first but has slowly come to except them. Then he found out a group of them had killed the Joker after the clown killed on of thier own and now Jason loves them, Dick somehow managed to convince them to hold little flowers and he made a flower crown using thier squishy moldable little bodies. Cute. Duke has to wear sunglasses all the time because these things make his eyes hurt, Cass surprisingly only has a small following, Steph has them in her hair all the time wether she wants to or not, Barbara has some playing on her wheelchair and and clinging to her arms and Bruce...well let's just say its hard to be intimidating when you're covered in tiny squishy balls of smiling creatures that squee happily at every movement. If he puts on his cowl some will race to the top of his head between the bat ears and claim it as thier nap spot before the others can. They're like children.

The Justice League come together to discuss this issue and how to solve it. They debate on either they should break through the force field to see what the outside is like, but that idea is quickly scrapped due to the giant monsters and the fact they don't know if the force field is whats keeping the atmosphere in tact or if it would be effected if it was broken.

No one on the JL or the JLD knew what this place was, how they got here, or how to get out, but normal people were suddenly able to see things like ghosts and demons which is leading to whole new crisises.

Superman really doesn't like how similar this world looks to the Phantom Zone and he needs to be careful since this place has no sun

Danny does eventually wake up over a week later and has GZ food and water basically shoved in his face by his little friends. The thing about blob ghosts was that they were basically the clean up crew of the place. They absorbed negativity and neutralized it before releasing it back into the area. Many ghosts kept them as pets due to making them feel better and helping them overcome trauma.

Danny really loved the little guys and was currently sticking some onto himself while trying to give himself a pep talk and go ask Pandora how to return the sun to its proper place so he can start figuring out how he was going to send an entire star system back to its home dimension. He doesn't even know how he brought it here in the first place!!!

All Clockwork would say is, "All is as it should be."

#fanfiction prompts #prompts #halloween prompts #dp x dc #danny phantom #danny fenton #everyone is losing thier crap #except tim who is losing his patience #danny is going to cry #pandora will lecture him again #batman wants answers and gets none #wouldnt it be hilarious if danny sends them home without actually interacting with anyone #they just poof back into thier own dimention with literally zero answers

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gtbutterfly · 5 months

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Jen and Gabby: chapter four

the fourth chapter of my GT story. Jen and Tim finally go to find Gabby. I hope you enjoy it! criticism is appreciated.

CW: dehumanization towards tinies, squeezing, a human is poked with a needle, and a borrower is kicked and knocked unconscious, (it was originally more violent, but I ended up changing it since I thought it wasn't good for the story,)

heres chapter 1

heres chapter 3

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It was a little after midday, and the sun which usually would have shined through the windows was blocked by the gray clouds outside. Gabby was on a dresser in Sara's room, looking outside one of these windows. She was thinking about Jen. She could still feel the presence of Sara looming massively behind her. Gabby didn’t know if Jen would approve of her getting help from Sara. Jen seemed never to need anyone's help, especially not a humans. Jen was so strong and brave, and there was nothing Gabby wanted other than to be as brave as her sister was, except to be with her again. Sara gently rubbed the tiny girl's back with her finger, causing her to flinch and turn around towards the giant human.

“Oh, uh, sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you with that,” Sara said,

“It’s ok,” Gabby said softly, “You can keep doing it,” Gabby turned back around to the window, staring out at the grass and dark clouds outside. Sara resumed gently rubbing the young tiny’s back to comfort her.

“So, you alright?” Sara asked. Gabby shrugged.

“I’m worried about Jen. what if I never see her again?” Gabby said, looking down.

“Oh, I’m sure you will.” Sara said softly, “I bet you’re sisters out looking for you right as we speak,”

“But what if something happens to her?” Gabby asked, “What if something happens to me before she finds me?”

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” Sara said. Gabby turned towards the human again.

“You promise?”

“Yes, I’ll take care of you until you see her again, I promise,” Sara said. Gabby softly smiled at the human, still afraid but hopeful.

“Thank you for not hurting me, Ms. Sara,” Gabby said.

“You’re welcome, and it's just Sara, by the way,” Sara smiled at her.

“Oh, sorry,” Gabby looked down, “so, um, where will you be keeping me?”

“I’ll have to find a place somewhere in this room, so no one else will find you, especially not Danny,” Sara said.

“um…Ms. Sara…sorry, I mean... Sara?” Gabby said, worried about the human getting mad at her for getting her name wrong.

“What is it?” Sara asked.

“um…I know you said not to worry about it, but um…why does Danny want to show me to your father?” Gabby asked sheepishly.

“Oh, it's nothing,” Sara said, trying to think of a way to sugarcoat the answer. “Our dad does science stuff with animals, and medicine and stuff. He probably wants him to study you or whatever,” Gabby didn’t understand most of those words. She tilted her head at Sara.

“Study? What do you mean?” Gabby asked.

“Don’t worry about it, you don’t have to be scared.” Sara said, not realizing Gabby's confusion. “There's no way Dad would do anything to hurt you, you're basically a tiny human, a kid no less.”

“Oh, ok,” Gabby said, still not quite understanding. She momentarily thought about Sara's words and asked, “What do you mean a tiny human?”

“Well, I mean, look at you,” Sara gestured to the tiny’s body. “You have hair on your head, and human-like skin, and you walk on two legs, and you talk, and show emotion, you’re practically the same species that I am, just three inches tall.”

“Well, Jen and the other adult borrowers say that we and humans are different species and that you would…hurt us,” Gabby said, a bit worried at Sara taking offense to that.

“I mean, I guess there are plenty of bad humans that would hurt people like you, just like there are plenty of bad humans that hurt each other,” Sara said, “but I’m sure it's not all of us, at least I know I wouldn’t hurt you, not intentionally.”

“Um…ok,” Gabby looked down. “Um, Sara?”

“What is it, Gabby?” Sara asked.

“...I miss Jen,” Gabby admitted. “She's so brave and I’m…not. Normally she could be brave for both of us, but… we’ve never been apart before.”

“Oh,” Sara looked at Gabby sympathetically. “It’s ok, you’ll see her again,”

“You promise?” Gabby asked, her eyes slightly wet. Sara gulped. She didn’t want Gabby to be disappointed if she ended up being wrong.

“I’m sure of it. And hey, maybe I can be your temporary sister until you two get back together if that’s ok with you. Is it?” Sara said, looking at Gabby kneeling to her eye level, her head resting on the dresser. Gabby looked down and thought for a second, before looking at the human and smiling.

“That would be great, thank you,” Gabby said, before hesitantly approaching Sara's head on the dresser. Before Sara could say anything, Gabby hugged her cheek. Sara smiled silently before picking her up and hugging her back.

Jen and Tim traversed the human house carefully and quickly, running from hiding spot to hiding spot. They had to be on high alert not to be caught. It seemed full of every human Jen saw in the portrait on the wall earlier. They saw the adult human in the living room while they hid under a couch. He was smoking and reading a newspaper while the television was turned on. They ran from under the couch down the hall to the dining room, where they hid under the table. Jen peered under the tablecloth to see when the coast would be clear. She saw the human with black hair with purple tips walk past in the distance holding something, it looked like a plate of strawberries, but Jen couldn’t tell from so far away. Still, the sight of strawberries only made Jen more determined to find her sister, knowing it was her favorite food.

“What is it?” Tim asked Jen.

“Shhh,” Jen shushed him before answering, “It's a teenage human girl, she's holding strawberries I think,”

“Do you think they’re for Gabby?” Tim asked.

“They’re holding her captive, why would they be feeding her her favorite food?” Jen said.

“Yeah, right,” Tim said, before peering out the cloth with Jen. When the coast was clear, the two borrowers ran from under the table and entered the kitchen. Jen looked at the other side of the kitchen and saw a human boy standing at the sink. Jen frantically looked around and hid behind a broomstick leaning on the wall. It was a risky hiding place, since if any human looked behind or moved the broomstick, they would find her, so Jen knew she had to move fast. Tim came into the kitchen after Jen. he managed to open a cabinet door and climb inside it just as another human entered the room, just barely missing him. Jen watched the human walk past the broomstick, holding her breath. It was an adult woman with blonde hair, probably the mother of the family. She opened the refrigerator and looked inside it before closing it and facing the human child standing at the sink.

“Do we not have any milk?” Jen heard the woman ask.

“Nah, we used it this morning on the cereal.” The human boy said.

“Ugh, I need milk to make my pudding for tonight.” The woman sighed, “I’m gonna go get some, you finish doing the dishes and then clean your room, ok Danny?”

“Why do I have to clean my room?” the boy asked.

“Because it's a mess,” the woman said,

“ugh, “ The child groaned, “Fine,”

“See you later honey, love you,” the woman said, before leaving the kitchen. Tim peered out of the cabinet and looked around, spotting Jen behind the bristles of the broom. He waved at her to come to him. Jen, after looking around to see if the coast was clear, sprinted across the kitchen floor and hid in the cabinet with Tim.

“Phew, that was close,” Jen said softly.

“Yeah, you almost got seen,” Tim whispered back.

“That kid, at the sink,” Jen said, “that's the brat that kidnapped Gabby. I bet he knows where she is.”

“No way, he is?” Tim asked, peering out the cabinet at the child.

“Yeah. the kid that woman called ‘Danny’. That's probably his name.” Jen whispered.

“So, what's the plan? Should we interrogate him?” Tim asked. “Good cop/Bad cop?”

“What?” Jen said, confused.

“Oh yeah, you don’t watch TV shows as I do,” said Tim, “y’know, you threaten him with your needle, and I’ll be nice to him,”

“That's the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Jen said. “He’s a human, we can’t just confront him. What has Rebecca done to you?”

“You know what, fair point.” Tim sighed. “What's your plan?”

“We follow him until we find Gabby,” Jen said. “He has to have her locked up somewhere in this house, we just have to wait until he leads us to her.”

“Alright, should we stay in here until he leaves the kitchen?” Tim asked.

“Yeah, Gabby’s probably in this brat’s room, we just have to wait until he goes there,” Jen said, looking out the crack in the cabinet door at the human child.

The two borrowers waited for the human to finish doing the dishes. Eventually, he left the sink and began walking out of the kitchen. Jen and Tim got out of the cabinet and exited the kitchen after him. The tinies stalked the human through the house, again ducking from hiding place to hiding place until the human went into his room and closed the door behind him. The gap under the massive door was just barely big enough for the borrowers to squeeze through. As Jen kept watch, Tim got on the ground and pulled himself under the closed door into the human's room, and afterward Jen did the same. The walls of the room were dark green, as were the child's bed sheets. There was trash and clothes scattered on the floor, which was lucky for the borrowers, since now they had more hiding places. The human boy didn’t notice them, he was on his knees, looking under his bed and shoving the clothes and trash around. Jen and Tim hid behind an empty shoe box as they watched him.

“It doesn’t look like he’s cleaning,” Tim whispered. “Sorta looks like he's looking for something,”

“Where's Gabby?” Jen wondered out loud to Tim. “Is she under the bed, and he's getting her?”

“He would’ve pulled her out by now, right?” said Tim. They watched as the boy gave a frustrated groan and pulled himself from under the bed. He started crawling around the room on his knees, still picking things up as if trying to find something.

“Come on, where are you?” the boy asked seemingly no one. “Come out already, I know you’re here,”

“Who's he talking to?” Tim asked softly, not trying to get the boys' attention, “he can’t know we’re here,”

“It must be Gabby, she got away,” Jen said, before smiling softly, almost pridefully. “Atta girl,”

“If she managed to escape, it wasn’t from anything you taught her,” Tim said before Jen punched him in the arm. “Ow, anyway,” he rubbed his shoulder, “if the kid doesn’t have her, then where is she?” Jen turned towards Tim.

“Probably hiding somewhere in the house,” she whispered, “Gabby wouldn’t go outside without someone with her, she's too afraid of getting lost or hurt by an animal.”

As the borrowers talked, the human boy kept getting more and more frustrated at not finding the tiny he had.

“Ugh, where are you?” he groaned, “if you don’t come out, I’ll pull your little head off!”

“Yeah, he’s definitely looking for Gabby,” Tim said, looking concerned.

“Let's go, I don’t think Gabby would’ve stayed in this room,” Jen said, standing up. The two borrowers peered behind the shoe box at the human, who was on the other side of the room, tearing through piles of clothes, toys, trash, and other objects on the floor. Jen looked at the door as the two began to make their way to it. Then, the human stood up and looked around the room, spotting the tiny borrowers on the floor.

“Hey!” the human yelled, causing Tim and Jen's hearts to drop. They began to run, Jen pulled her needle out from her belt. The human boy quickly moved to the other side of the room. Jen looked behind her at Tim, who was falling behind. The human reached down at him, grabbing Tim with his massive hand. Tim was restrained in the fingers of the human and lifted into the air before Jen. The boy reached down for Jen next but stopped when he saw her pointing the end of the needle at his hand defensively. The boy got on his knees, trying to get a closer look at the borrower.

“You?” the human said, squinting at Jen, “You're the one that stabbed my hand at Jake's house!” Jake was the name of the human who lived in the house Jen and Gabby used to live in. Jen looked at the human with anger.

“You’re the one who stole my sister!” she yelled, not thinking.

“You things can talk?” the boy asked,

“Where is she?!” Jen yelled sternly, her eyes widened in madness and anger. She was at a breaking point.

“So the one I had before was your sister?” The boy asked, “Heh, who's this one? Your boyfriend?” he held up Tim, who was being squeezed in his grip. Tim squirmed and tried to escape, only to be held tighter and more painfully.

“Put him down!” Jen commanded, yelling at the top of her lungs.

“Or what? I’m not scared of that little toothpick you have,” the human said. Jen scowled in anger.

“Can- can we all just calm down?” Tim said from the human hand, only to be squeezed tighter.

“Now that I have you two, I don’t need your sister anymore,” the human said. “Dad will be more impressed with two adults anyway,”

Jen had enough. When the boy reached her, she lunged forward with her needle in hand. The human quickly pulled his hand back upon being pricked, rubbing it in pain before hitting Jen with the back of his hand, knocking her over.

“Jen! No!” Tim exclaimed, still in the hand of the human boy, who gave him a slight squeeze.

“Fine. I only really need one anyway,” the human said, standing up, and kicking Jen when she stood up. The human, still holding a weakened Tim in his fist, walked out of the room. Jen was lying on the ground next to a wall. She felt pain coursing through her entire body. She slowly tried to get up but fell back to her knees. She didn’t have her needle anymore. It was lost somewhere in the desolate mess of the boys' room. She didn't know what to do. All she could think about was Gabby and how she failed her. And now, she’s failed Tim as well.

Gabby sat on a large human plate of strawberries that rested on Sara's bed. She was biting into one while Sara sat next to her with her legs crossed, towering over Gabby and the plate.

“You really like strawberries, kid,” Sara said, looking down at the tiny.

“Yeah! It's my favorite food in the world! I hardly get to have any, since it's so hard to get,” Gabby said, wiping some of the clear red juice off her face with her sleeve. “Why do you humans keep it in those giant cold metal boxes, fridges?”

“To keep them cold,” Sara said. “They’ll get bad and mushy otherwise.”

“Oh, ok,” Gabby said. “I wouldn’t want strawberries to be bad and mushy, but it still sucks that fridges are so hard to borrow from, that's what Jen says at least,”

“Hmm,” Sara thought, “well, maybe after Jen finds you, I can bring you strawberries. Maybe you could even stay nearby,”

“Really?” Gabby asked, “Well, Jen probably won’t trust you, she doesn’t like humans, like, at all.”

“She doesn’t?” Sara asked.

“No borrowers really ‘like’ humans,” Gabby said, “but Jen especially, she’s always talking about not being seen by them, and what they’ll do to us… she was kinda right,”

“You mean…Danny?” Sara asked.

“Yeah…but you're different from humans like that. You're nice to me, you gave me strawberries!” Gabby smiled, taking another bite out of her fruit.

“Well, I’m sure there are plenty of humans that would be nice, and plenty that are mean. Probably an equal amount.” Sara shrugged. “I guess you’d just gotta get to know them,”

“No way any other human would be as good as you,” Gabby said, “you’ve got to be the only good human I’ve ever heard of, nothing like the stories.”

“Huh, glad to hear that,” Sara said, “do you think Jen will think the same?”

“Hmm, I’ll tell her you’re nice and you gave me food and everything, but I wouldn’t count on it,” Gabby said, chewing.

“Does your sister have any reason to hate humans, or is it just like, species prejudice?” Sara asked, leaning down at Gabby. Gabby’s smile faded slightly, and she looked down.

“Well, our mom and dad…” she paused, “...they…uh…well,”

“Oh,” Sara said, filled with guilt for her question. “I’m so sorry.”

“Uh, it's fine, I don’t remember them much anyways,” Gabby said, trying to make Sara feel better. “I was around three or four when it happened, I think Jen was around my age.”

“So, they were…y’know, by a human?” Sara asked.

“Yeah, me and Jen have been by ourselves ever since” Gabby looked down, “we were really sad that they were gone, but, Jen said that as long as I was still here, part of them would still be alive.”

“Aww,” Sara melted at the sentiment Gabby was showing. “Your sister sounds like she cares so much about you,”

“yeah,” Gabby said, looking down, and taking another bite of a strawberry. Suddenly, there was a loud knocking sound at the door. Gabby dropped her strawberry and flinched.

“Sara, open up!” a voice came from out in the hall, it sounded like Danny.

“Shi- shoot,” Sara exclaimed under her breath, “it's Danny, you need to hide somewhere,” Sara put her hands out for Gabby to climb into, but she hesitated.

“Sara! Didn’t mom say not to lock our doors?” Danny said, still outside. Gabby crawled into Sara's large, soft hands, sitting on her palm and hugging herself. Sara looked around the room for a place to hide Gabby, an eventuary coming to a taller dresser, with various objects and figurines on top of it. Sara gently placed Gabby down next to a picture frame she could hide behind.

“Are you good here? You're not scared of being so high?” Sara asked,

“It's fine,” Gabby said, looking anxious.

“Ok, hide here, and don’t make a sound. I’ll come get you down from here when I’m done with Danny,”

“Ok,” Gabby said, backing behind the picture. She looked nervous. Sara looked back at her hiding place before opening the door for Danny.

“What?” Sara said, sounding annoyed at her brother.

“Stop playing dumb, Sara, I know you have it!” Danny said.

“Have what?” Sara asked, trying to seem unaware.

“The little human thing I found! You took it!” Danny accused.

“What are you talking about? ‘Little human thing?’ listen to yourself.” Sara rolled her eyes and tried to close her door, but Danny pushed it open and stepped into her room.

“Stop lying! You’re gonna give it back to me, now! Or else.” Danny threatened.

“Or else what?” Sara asked, “I don’t even know what you're talking about, like, an action figure or something?” Danny grew a devious, malicious smile, as he reached into his pocket.

“Well, if you don’t give it back, you won’t like what happens to this one.” Danny pulled something out of his pocket, or rather someone. Sara almost thought it was a toy at first, before realizing it was another tiny, just like Gabby. They looked older, with brown hair and pale skin. Gabby peered behind the picture she was hiding behind. Her eyes widened as she saw the familiar borrower in the human boy's fist. It looked like Tim.

“What…what is that?” Sara asked, still playing dumb about the situation. “Oh, shut up! You have one just like it, that you stole from me.” Danny said, squeezing the tiny person in his grip. Sara looked horrified at them. They looked like they were in pain, squirming in the tight fist of her brother.

“You're hurting him!” Sara yelled, “What's wrong with you?”

“I’m barely squeezing him,” Danny said, “just shows to show how weak these things are. I’m barely holding him tight and he looks terrible!”

“Danny, this isn’t funny, let him go,” Sara commanded.

“Give me the smaller one and maybe I will,” Danny said.

“What? No, I don’t even have her!” Sara said. “Danny, this is insane. You’re gonna crush him or something,”

“I never said the tiny I had before this one was a her,” Danny said with a disgusting smirk. Gabby gulped from atop the dresser. Her mind raced thinking of what to do and what would happen. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Danny, but she didn’t want Tim to be hurt instead. Even if it wasn’t Tim, she didn’t want some random borrower to die either. Gabby could only think one thing: what would Jen do? Jen was so brave and so strong. Jen cared so much about the other borrowers and about Gabby. Gabby wanted to be just like her, she wanted to be brave. But she wasn’t, she was hiding, and watching what could be one of her friends be squeezed by a human who was looking for her. Watching one of her friends be hurt because of her.

“Danny, this is serious,” Sara said, stern and angry. “Stop hurting him or else I’ll tell Mom.”

“If you tell Mom, I’ll tell Dad,” Danny said.

“Do you really think Dad will approve of this just because he’s a scientist?” Sara yelled.

“Dad does worse things to rats every day,” Danny said, squeezing Tim harder, causing him to grunt in pain. “But with these, he won’t need rats anymore.”

“You’re sick,” Sara said.

“Give me the other one, or this one is getting its ribs broken!” Danny threatened. Sara hesitated to speak. She couldn’t bear to have this being, this person, die at her brother's hands, but she could break the promise she gave Gabby just earlier that day. She couldn’t let any terrible thing happen to her, or cause her to never see her sister again. Tim, Meanwhile, shivered and tensed in Danny's hand. Everything below his shoulders was in pain, nothing seemed broken, but it was getting close to it. If the human squeezed even tighter, he had no doubt in his mind that he would be injured.

“Last chance,” Danny readjusted his fingers around the borrower. Tim closed his eyes and braced himself, when suddenly,

“I’m here!” a small voice yelped from on top of the dresser. Sara turned around, eyes filled with sock and dread. Danny loosened his grip and looked up at the three-inch tall girl he kidnapped the day before, now standing in front of a picture frame, speaking to him for the first time.

“I’m here, please don’t hurt him, I’ll let you take me,” Gabby said, tears swelling in her eyes, as she spoke in fear, trying to be brave.

“Heh, well, if that's what you want,” Danny said, stepping passed Sara to the dresser. Sara still gaped in shock at Gabby revealing herself,

“Gabby….no….” she said under her breath, as Gabby was grabbed by Danny's other hand.

“Sara and Danny,” another voice was heard approaching from the hall, it sounded like an older man. “What are you two arguing about?” the sibling's father stepped into the room.

“Dad, look at these things I found!” Danny ran up to his father, displaying Gabby and Tim like they were cool rocks he found in their backyard.

“They aren’t things, they’re people!” Sara yelled, as their father stared dumbfounded at the two tinies. “Danny kidnapped these two, and he’s been hurting them!”

“Shut up Sara,” Danny said.

“Danny, where did you find these?” their father asked, “do you know what these things are?”

“...no, not really,” Danny said, looking at the tinies in his fist.

“Get something, get a jar, no, a box, or something,” their father said, “are there any boxes in here?” he looked around Sara’s room and found a shoe box on a shelf. He took the shoes out and had Danny drop the two tinies into it, before closing the box, leaving Tim and Gabby in darkness.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Sara asked.

“Kids, these are lilliputians,” the father said, holding the box, “they are an extremely rare species to find, or catch. They’re extremely intelligent, and have DNA and anatomy almost identical to humans, apart from the size, obviously.”

“Exactly, they’re people,” Sara said,

“No, not exactly,” her father said.

“...what?” Sara said in disbelief.

“Legally, they’re barely recognized as animals. Most people don’t even know they exist, they’re practically a myth.” the father turned around. “I’ve always proposed that they should be used for testing instead of animals since they would bring much more accurate results, but they were always too hard to come across for that to be an option.” “...no…no, you can’t be serious,” Sara said. “You're going to experiment on what are basically tiny human beings?”

“Sara, I know you’re concerned about… ethics, but we’ll have to discuss this later,” the sibling's father turned to the doorway of the room, “I have to get these to my place of work,” he exited the room. Sara followed him out into the hall, continuing to protest.

“Day, you can’t do this!” Sara yelled.

“Not now, Sara,” her father said, opening the front door. “Oh, and thanks for bringing this to my attention, Danny.” he grabbed his keys and left the house, taking the two tinies with him. Sara gaped at the door, not believing what she’d just witnessed. Danny stood next to her and laughed under his breath. Sara turned towards him.

“Why would you do that?” Sara asked, “What the hell did you have to gain from doing this?”

“Uh, Dad’s happy, isn’t he?” Danny said, “That's good, right? You never make him happy.”

“You just sent two innocent people to be experimented on like animals,” Sara said,

“You heard Dad, they’re not-”

“Dad's wrong!” Sara interrupted her brother, “You’re wrong, neither of you even spoke to them, and now they’re gonna be bred and drugged and caged for no good reason.” Sara said furiously. They both stared at each other silently for a moment. Danny slowly processed what he had done, thinking about his sister's words. Sara walked back down the hall. “I hope you’re happy,” she said, before going back into her room.

Sara sat at her desk in her room, looking at the plate of strawberries she had earlier. There were leaves from fully eaten ones and an unfinished one that was likely to never be finished. Sara sighed and picked up an untouched one, eating it. There was a knock at her door. Sara knew neither of her parents were home yet, so it was clear who it was.

“Go away, Danny. I’m not in the mood.” Sara said. Danny entered the room. Sara turned to him angry and annoyed. He had something behind his back.

“Hey, so, I had something, and, I think you should have it,” Danny said, looking neutral.

“I don’t want your stupid apology, Danny, not after what you did.” Sara turned away from him.

“I’m not apologizing, I just don’t want this thing smelling up my room,” Danny said, annoyed. “You seem like you like these things, so here, you can do whatever you want with it.” he held something out to Sara. She turned around and looked at what was in his hands, before taking it immediately. It was another borrower, this one with her eyes closed.

“Where…” Sara started,

“It was with the boy one I found, I kicked it to the other side of my room,” Danny said, “pretty sure it's dead, so, do with it what you will.” Danny turned around and left the room. Sara rested the borrower's unconscious body on her desk. A first, she put her finger on the tinies wrist, before putting her ear to her chest. There was a heartbeat. She was still alive.

#borrowers #g/t #giant/tiny #gt community #constructive criticism welcome #g/t community #sfw g/t #g/t writing #giant tiny #gt writing #giant/tiny community #please comment #comments really appreciated

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