Stuck in the middle of a forest made of
Flesh and bones and they're all scared of
A lost little boy who has lost his heart
Fear's not enough, they have to
Tear him apart
—-------
There are two things Daniel Fenton knows that his family knows as well:
He’s adopted.
He can’t remember anything else before that.
‘Adoption’ is a loose term, implying that they went through the official legal processes and troubles of adopting a child into their home willingly, and with the full intention of doing so going into it. That is not what happened. What happened is that Jasmine Fenton found a half-dead child, in strange clothing, in the middle of the woods at her Aunt Alicia’s cabin, and then she went and got her parents.
What happened is that a twelve year old Danny woke up in the same cabin, wearing clothes much too big on him that didn’t belong to him, and with very little memory of before that moment. He wakes up like a spring being set loose, sitting up so fast he scares the daylights out of Jasmine Fenton sitting next to him. He wakes up, reaching for his sleeve for something that isn’t there, and when it isn’t his mind stutters, like he’s tripped at the top of a steep hill.
When they ask him for his name, he tells them, clearing muddled thoughts from his mind; Danny. He’s twelve.
(He thinks that’s his name, at least. It sounds right; it feels right. If he thinks really hard about it, he thinks he can remember someone calling him that, utter adoration in their voice. So it must be his name.)
The Jasmine girl convinces her parents to take him home with them, and they give him the spare guest room upstairs. He has nothing to fill it with.
It’s… a strange experience, to go to a ‘new’ home when he doesn’t even remember his old one.
The official adoption process… happens. He can’t say it’s easy, or difficult. He’s oblivious for the most of it, Jasmine intends on helping him settle in and Danny can’t say he enjoys the smothering. He learns that he is stubbornly self-independent, that’s one new thing he knows about himself.
His adoption papers say ‘Daniel J. Fenton’. Danny remembers staring at the name ‘Daniel’ for a long, long moment, something curdling sour in his sternum. His name is Danny, that he knows. But it’s not Daniel. But he doesn’t know any other way of saying it, so he keeps his complaints to himself.
(Jack Fenton boisterously claps his hand on Danny’s shoulder and jerks him around, grinning wide as he welcomes him into the Fenton Family. Danny’s mind blanches at the touch on his shoulder, an instinct snapping like the maw of a snake, telling him to cut off the man’s fingers for daring to touch him.)
(He keeps the thought to himself, tension rising up his shoulders the longer Jack Fenton’s heavy hand stays on him.)
They found Danny in the summer. It’s a perfect coincidence, Maddie Fenton says before she goes back into her lab with Jack Fenton. She says it’s enough time to allow Danny to adjust; that they’ll enroll him into the school year in the fall. Then she stuffs a canister of ectoplasm onto the top shelf, and disappears like the ghosts she studies back down the stairs.
(There’s something eerily familiar about the ectoplasm sitting in the fridge, something unsettlingly so. Danny knows what that stuff is, but he doesn’t know where. When the house is empty, he takes a can from the fridge and inspects it.)
Jazz wants him to leave the house. Danny doesn’t want to step foot outside of the FentonWorks building until he has something that quells the feeling of vulnerability he gets whenever he does. He tried to once, and he felt exposed. Unsafe.
He turned back around and went inside.
—-------
Where do we go
When the river's running slow
Where do we run
When the cats kill one by one
—------
One day, when the house is empty — or, as empty as it can be; the Fenton parents down in the lab, and jazz out with friends. Danny is making a sandwich, and he caves into the urge to flip the knife in his hands between his fingers. A childish impulse, but one he falls for nonetheless. It comes to him easily, like second nature, in fact. The slip of the blade between his fingers is seamless, flowing with an ease like water running down the wall.
He’s almost startled by it; his body holds memories that his mind does not. Muscles that know which way to move and twist, limbs that know how to hold and how to throw. He continues twirling it, fascinated, as if he were a scientist discovering a new species of animal.
It’s not for a handful of minutes when a new thought hits him; an impulsive thought that pops in the back of his mind like a firecracker; Danny moves without thinking.
He turns, and throws the knife. The pull of his shoulder, the flick of his elbow, is familiar like a hug. He knows when to let go, and the blade flies through the air in impressive speed, embedding itself into the wall with a hearty, loud thunk. Sinking into the drywall like butter.
Danny stares at it in shock, he feels relieved — about what? — before he feels the guilt. He scrambles across the kitchen to pull it out, heart racing in his chest at being caught, and prays no one notices the hole it left behind.
(He runs up the stairs before anyone can find him, food forgotten, and hides the knife beneath his mattress like a guilty murder weapon.)
After that, he leaves the house more. It’s more out of fear of being caught than the desire to leave. But Danny is quickly learning that among all things, he is someone who was dangerous, before he lost his memory. Even with his mind in fractures, he is still dangerous.
He’s not sure how to feel about that — he thinks he should be scared. He feels a little proud, instead.
—------
Hazel beneath our claws
While we wait for cerulean to cry
Unsettled ticks run through time
Enough for the hunt to go awry
—-----
There’s another thing he learns about himself. That he knows about since he woke up. He knows that he left someone behind. He doesn’t know who, but he knows they must have been close; he’s always looking down and finding himself surprised when the only shadow he sees is his own.
He thinks that he must have sung to them a lot; he finds himself humming familiar melodies when he’s lost in thought. Lullabies lingering at the tip of his tongue, an instinct to turn and sing them to someone beside him. He can’t remember the lyrics, but his mouth does, it tries to get him to say them when he’s not thinking. He can’t.
Danny’s found himself humming under his breath more times than he can count, trying to recall whatever it is his mind is trying to claw forward.
(“That’s a pretty song, Danny.” Jazz tells him at breakfast one day, Danny screws his mouth shut. He hadn’t realized he was humming. “What is it?”)
(Something mean and possessive rears its head on instinct, uncoiling like a snake from its ball. His shoulders hunch defensively, he bites his cheek to prevent himself from baring his teeth. He doesn’t know what song it is, but it’s not for her. “I don’t know.”)
He misses his person. Dearly. He knows, the longer he is without them, that they must have been close. Otherwise, he wouldn’t feel like he’s missing a chunk from himself. He wouldn’t be turning to someone who's not there; reaching for a hand that’s missing, birdsong on his tongue, a story to tell.
A dream haunts him one night. Warm and familiar, he’s holding onto someone smaller than him, they’re tucked into his side like a puzzle piece. He’s humming one of his songs that is always playing in the back of his mind, an unfinished tale of a harpy and a hare. Danny can’t remember their face, not all of it. He remembers green eyes, hair dark like his own, skin brown like his.
He loves them more than anything else in the world, a fact he knows down to his soul. He loves them so much it fills his heart with sunlight. Danny squeezes them tight, nuzzling into their hair; he makes them laugh. Then, he proudly boasts something. That when he takes something of their father’s, that his person — a sibling? That feels right — will be… the word fades from Danny’s mind before he can make sense of it.
His person hugs him tight, his… brother? And their mother — a woman whose face he can’t remember either, but who he loves like a limb nonetheless — appears, smiling. Her hands reach for them both, voice calling them, ‘her sons’. There’s ticking in the distance, it sounds like the fastening of chains.
Danny wakes up cold, tears streaming down his face. The details of the dream already fading from his mind like the cold pull of a corpse.
—-------
Harpy hare
Where have you buried all your children?
Tell me so I say
—-------
When school starts that Fall, Danny joins the sixth grade class, and quickly learns more things about himself. One of those things being that he’s smarter than the rest of his grade, whatever education he had before, it was better than the one he’s getting now.
Everyone knows he’s adopted right off the bat. He tells them when the teacher forces himself to introduce himself, but it’s not like they needed him to tell them for them to know; he never existed in their little world before now, and the Fentons are pale as they come. Danny is not.
He befriends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley; they ask him about the scars fading up and down his arms, they ask him about the scar carved diagonal across his face.
Danny, as politely as he can, tells them he doesn’t remember. He thought kindness would come second nature to him, his dream burned into his mind where he hugged his brother so sweetly. Apparently, his sweetness is only second nature to people he considers his own.
(It becomes even more apparent when Dash Baxter tries to bully him later that day, and Danny ruffles like an eagle threatened. His mind whispers, hissy and agitated, sinking like a shadow at his shoulder, several different ways Danny could kill him for talking to him like that, and fifteen more ways he could cripple him.)
(Danny ignores those thoughts, up until Dash Baxter tries to grab him. Then he breaks his nose on the wood of his desk. It’s easy how quickly the rest of his grade sinks him down to the status of social pariah.)
(At least Sam and Tucker still talk to him after that. When Danny goes to the principal’s office later, he wisely doesn’t mention the worse things he could’ve done than break Dash Baxter’s nose.)
—--------------
It clicks and it clatters in corners and borders
And they will never
Hear me here listen to croons and a calling
I'll tell them all the
Story, the sun, and the swallow, her sorrow
Singing me the tale of the Harpy and the Hare
—-------
More dreams come, of course they do. Each one halfway to forgotten whenever he wakes up, ticking faint in his ears. He is many different ages. He is young, shorter than a table. He is older, holding onto his little brother. He is singing in almost every single one. He is singing to his brother.
Danny can barely remember the lyrics, he’s begun leaving a journal by his bedside so that it’s the first thing he can write down when he wakes up. He’s a storyteller, he learns. He feels like a historian, trying to piece together a culture long dead and forgotten.
His most vivid dream-like memory is not a happy one, and for once he’s almost relieved he barely recalls it. He is somewhere that isn’t home, but his mother and brother are there. He is dressed in black, blades keen in his hands.
They are atop a moving train. They are fleeing something. His brother is struggling to keep up, he is small, and young. It’s beautifully sunny, they are somewhere green and lovely.
It is a fast dream.
His brother stumbles on something, and Danny, fast as a whip, snatches him by the back of his shirt and hoists him up to his feet before he can fall. “Watch your feet, habibi.” He murmurs low, a hand on his back. It’s hard to hear, there is wind in their ears.
His brother, face obscured in all but his eyes, which are green as emeralds, nods.
The dream blurs, but Danny falls behind. His foot catches on air — impossible, it should’ve been, at least. He never trips. — and he lands against the roof with a thud and a grunt. His mother and brother stop, and turn for him.
The train hits a turn before Danny can get up, and he shouldn’t have, something pulls on him, he swears, but he slips. He can’t find the purchase to pull himself up, cold fear hits him as his nails scrape against the metal.
His mother and brother’s horrified faces are the last thing he sees before he disappears off the side of the train.
(The ticking is at its loudest when he wakes up, pounding against his inner skull. He only manages to write down ‘train fall’ in his journal, before he’s flipping over to press his head into his pillow to get the pain to stop.)
—---
She can't keep them all safe
They will die and be afraid
Mother, tell me so I say
(Mother, tell me so I say)
—-------
When Danny is fourteen he is still humming songs he can’t remember, his mind still in a broken puzzle. But his room is now decorated with stars and plants in every corner. He has a guitar he keeps in the corner of his room, and he plays the lullabies in his head on the strings over and over again.
The ectoplasm in the fridge still unsettles him, still reminds him of a past he can’t recall. The knife beneath his mattress has returned to the kitchen — he doesn’t need it. He found a box in the attic last year, it had his name on it, and inside he found familiar, strange clothes, and more weapons than he thought was possible to carry on one person.
(Even without knowing that the Fentons prefer guns to blades, Danny knows, instinctively, that they were his weapons. He was — was? Is — a dangerous person. He takes the box down to his room to sort through. The weapons all fit into his callused hands almost perfectly — the grooves worn to fit his palm. They’re just a little small.)
(He tentatively takes a small blade with him to school one day, and feels much more comfortable with it sheathed beneath his shirt. He’s kept it on him ever since, like he’s reunited a lost limb to himself.)
Danny doesn’t have a name for his person, his little brother, nor does he have a name for his beloved mother. He’s haunted by dreams every few weeks, many of them repeating. He’s ingrained the words he can remember to memory, and the ones he doesn’t, he writes down in his journal. His little brother; Danny calls him a bird, he can’t figure out what kind. His little bird of some kind; when Danny takes something from their father — what, he can’t remember what — then his little brother will be a little bird.
(He doesn’t have a name for his brother, yet, but he’s calling his birdie in his head. It’s better than nothing.)
—------
Seeker, do you ever come to wonder
If what you're looking for is within where you hold
Will you leave a trail for them to follow a path
You'll soon forget
Home
—---------
When he’s fourteen, Danny dies. It does nothing to fix his fractured memories, much to his consternation. It just confirms something he already knows; that he was someone dangerous, and that he still is.
When the shock of death has worn off, Danny inspects his ghost in the metal reflection of the closest table. It’s blurry, hard to see, but shock green eyes pierce back at him, green like the portal. Lazarus, Danny’s mind whispers, and he blinks rapidly.
‘Lazarus,’ he mouths to himself. It’s familiar. Sam shows him with her phone what he looks like, joking that he looks like an assassin. Danny doesn’t think she’s that too far off.
He doesn’t tell her that. He tucks the thought away with the rest of his secrets, and fiddles with the hood gathering at his neck, attached to a cape with torn edges swinging down to his ankles. He pulls it over his shock white hair. It shadows over his face impossibly so, until all you can see are his green-green eyes peering out like a wolf hiding in the brush.
He ends up calling himself Phantom.
(Maybe now he can start putting lyrics to his lullabies; his memories may not have returned, locked away with the sound of a clock, but the dead can talk. One of them may just have answers.)
----------
Home is where we are
Home is where you are
Home is where I am
-----------------
Dedicated to @gascansposts for being the one who introduced me to the band Yaelokre, and thus being the whole reason I was inspired to write this in the first place >:] Those lyrics at the line breaks are all from their album Hayfields.
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What are each of the links relationships to their respective Zelda’s? Friends? Lovers? Strangers? Enemies? Family?
I hope you’re ready for an essay cuz that’s what you’re gonna get!
Sky: his Zelda is his lover! Idk how I’m gonna do their relationship… cuz the Sky arc that I’ve been working on is outdated and doesn’t match the new story of lbl so that’s super complicated lol. But he worries over her constantly and gets nervous when they’re apart. Separation anxiety am I right?? Groose is his best friend and they mean the world to me guys. They’re both himbos but groose is at least a smart himbo so he keeps Sky safe from doing super stupid things. He’s also really good friends with everyone in skyloft! Tho he had some rough patches with some of them after the events of skord for reasons, he’s doing fine now! And Sky is kinda awkward around strangers. He’s friendly and curious around them but compared to skyloft he’s never met them before so he says and does weird stuff, but he’s also chill so it doesn’t matter all that much. And Sky doesn’t have a family. Gaepora is an honorary father figure but overall his family is dead. So rip. His enemies are dead now but they were the only people he hated.
Minish: he and his Zelda are very very close! Best friends! Minish cares a lot about her and her well-being. Minish is good friends with all the Minish and with his Malon! Now… I’m kinda stuck on the lovers thing… cuz idk if it’s right to have Minish with someone? He’s the same size as an 8 year old and I’ve been trying to at least make his face look more 17ish, but I might make him a little bit more muscular since he’s a blacksmith and is very strong, but idk if I’d even be comfortable having him be a couple with someone else. Idk. I’ll see how you guys feel about it tho. Minish struggles with strangers, they think he’s kinda strange cuz he’s built like an 8 year old but is actually 17. He’s nice enough to them and he tries to be friendly but overall he keeps to himself. The major enemy that has affected him terribly was Vaati. He was 8 when he faced Vaati and he almost died (Hylia was the reason why he lived), and then he faced Vaati again during Four Swords (he was the first four swords guy, the one that takes place after MC). So Vaati is a bad subject for him.and then the only family that’s alive is his grandfather and while he is strict and scary, Minish loves his grandpa and they’re very close.
Time: his relationship with Zelda is complicated, cuz the Zelda in the adult timeline was someone he was super close with and was also in love with, however the Zelda in the child timeline is not the same person he loved. They barely know each other, and while the Zelda is nice, Time doesn’t know how to talk to her, plus when he told her about Ganondorf, he was more focused on finding Navi, so he didn’t stick around for that long. But he does care a lot about her, after all her influence helped him in Majoras Mask. Time doesn’t really have any friends, he never had the motivation to rekindle the friendships he had after what had happened. The only reason why he’s with Talon and Malon is cuz Talon was nice enough to take care of him when he was sick and alone. Aaaand cuz of that he fell in love with Malon and was able to accept that the timeline he is in is one he’s gonna be in for the rest of his life. He loves Malon a lot and he tells her everything, Talon doesn’t believe everything he says (but he will with my dumb crack au lol). Time is pretty intimidating around strangers but really he’s just as intimidated as they are. With enemies… the major one he’s looking out for is the FD, everyone else is either dead or suffering the consequences of their actions.
Legend: his relationship with Zelda is also pretty complicated. They are very close and have a lot in common, however, Tulip really loves Legend, but he doesn’t know how he feels since he hasn’t moved on from Marin. He’s confused around Tulip to say the least. I haven’t played enough of Legend’s games to think of anything for friends lol. Every enemy he has is dead, but he’s still upset about Ganondorf and Aghahim (idk how to spell his name bruh) since they killed his uncle. And last but not least, he has no family left, his uncle was murdered right in front of him
Hyrule: I’m taking a lot of creative liberties with him lol. He and Peony are super close and Peony has a HUGE crush on him. Hyrule respects Rose, and she is a lot older than him but she’s still a good friend to him. Hyrule is good friends with that secret Moblin, and he overall is a lovable himbo so a lot of people like him. The biggest enemies are the monsters trying to sacrifice him to Ganondorf, but luckily Ganon is dead so he doesn’t worry about him (or does he???) and he does have a living family! He just doesn’t know them or remember them! And he hasn’t met them in this au so he doesn’t know that exist! This is just a personal headcanon of mine so you can ask about his fam like… later or on my main blog.
Twilight: he and Zelda have a rooough relationship. They’re both so different from each other and Nebula comes off as cold and blunt which drives Twi crazy. They only really got along when they needed to and because Midna was a mutual friend, but overall they don’t like each other all that much. I’d say twilight has some good friendships, except he’s been isolating himself from everyone, but the resistance still talk to him and he’s still best buds with Fado, and Illia is still his best friend. For lovers, he still loves Midna and hasn’t really thought about anyone else. He kinda felt pressured to get with Illia so he doesn’t end up with her since she deserves someone who loves her the same way she loves him. Twi is pretty kind to strangers, all I can say. All his enemies are dead and the biggest enemy he’s facing rn is heartbreak. And family. Ah. I love his family more than life itself. His biological family is not alive but he was adopted by Rusl and Uli and they are such doting parents who try to help him feel better about what happened and stuff. And Colin adores him still and Rela (his new baby sister) is a baby and doesn’t know what’s going on but yeah. I love his family and Twi loves his family too. He’s just struggling with life rn so he hasn’t been with them a whole lot.
Four: ok, all the colors care a lot for Lily, Green has a crush on her however the others just see her as a really good friend. They grew up together since Four’s mom died when he was 3 months old, and the king was kind enough to let him be raised with Lily while his father was working, so they’re super close. Red has a BIG crush on Erune (from the manga), Blue is too focused on his teenage angst rn and Vio just does not care about love atm so it’s really only Green and Red with crushes lol. I suppose after lbl they’ll have their own friends except for Blue (who again is going through teenage angst rn) but ye. Green is polite and kind to strangers, Red is happy and joyful around strangers, Vio is rude but respectful enough towards strangers, and Blue is just pissed off all the time so strangers are scared of him. Their main enemy is gone now so they��re just kinda dealing with the affects of the four sword rn. And lastly family, their father. My absolute beloved. Their father is a very strict and serious man but he’s very worrisome and doting over his children (and Lily too. He kinda looked after her when he father died). They look up to him and want his approval, mostly Blue is struggling with the relationship tho (I just have a lotta thoughts on Blue ok??)
Windy: he wants to get maaaaaarrieeeeeddddd to tetra cuz he loves her so much and is such a loveable ray of sun shine around her while she looks pissed off all the time and I ADORE them. Telink is TOP tier. Windy is good friends with everyone since he’s just so sweet and mature but also very goofy and fun and strangers adore him cuz he’s polite around them. The biggest enemies rn are just dumb pirates and stuff, but Ganondorf really affected him negatively, so that’s a guy he hates. And family! I’m kinda basing his relationship with Aryll on my relationship with my older brother. Aryll looks up to him and Windy just looks out for her. His relationship with grandma is good and he adores her very much. Now for my favorite character friggin LINEBECK. He BASICALLY adopted Windy and Aryll, and Windy loves him very much cuz he’s a father figure who was able to stay, since his other father figures kept dying, but Linebeck is here to stay so he loves being around him. He’s also pretty anxious about his well-being cuz you know, father figures are always dying. Actually Windy is very happy on the surface but he’s EXTREMELY anxious about everyone’s wellbeing and feels responsible for them constantly. So oof
Spirit: he and phantom have such middle school crushes on each other and they’re very close and are best friends and they mean the world to me cuz they are so frigging cute and chaotic and yeah. I don’t think Spirit has too many friends except for Phantom, Niko and Alfonzo but they’re more like mentor figures than anything and Phantom is his Zelda but yeah. He’s kind and respectable around strangers except with his mutism it’s hard for him and others to communicate with him, and some rude people don’t have the patience for him to write everything down. He doesn’t have any major enemies and he doesn’t have any family so there’s that.
Age: he and Rune are good friends, tho they had an awkward moment since Rune had a one sided love for him, but now they’re close friends. Age is close with the champions and they’re all just vibing together, plus we can’t forget his friendship with Impa! They’re bffs! His lover is Mipha and they are engaaaaged and he loves her very much and it’s cute. Age is very proper and polite so strangers respect him enough. And then enemies are just random monsters or rogue yiga clan members and he’s mostly annoyed by them at this point. And he might have a living family, but Nintendo won’t explore him or his life so we’ll see when totk comes out with his family. If they still refuse to explore his life then I’ll just go with some headcanons. I do know that he def has a grandfather and a little sister, but it’s unknown if his father is alive, but I like to think he is.
Wild: Wild cares a lot for Poppy, it’s mostly just an instinct in him to care about and protect her even tho he doesn’t remember her all that well. Wild is kinda doing his own thing and vibing and he’s good friends with a lot people, like Beedle, Teba, Riju, Sidon, and Yunobo, so he’s not entirely friendless minus the champions that… you know… died. He doesn’t have any lovers, he would love Poppy but he can tell that there’s something there that’s keeping it from happening, that being him not being the same person he was 100 years ago, that guy being the person Poppy did Love, so he doesn’t dwell on it too much. He just vibes. Wild is fun with strangers cuz he’s sarcastic, punny, and weird and people like that fhdkdbjdbdkdb. Wild’s major enemies are yiga who are still trying to kill him and stuff, and tho they’re annoying they are still a threat to him. I’m not gonna go too much into it since totk needs to come out but yeah. And the family situation? Yeah they’re def dead by now. Kass is kind enough to invite him over for dinner from time to time tho so he greatly appreciates that.
Warriors: he and Queen Zelda are always pining after each other but they don’t actually do anything about it so they’re just super awkward and flirty and it drives everyone crazy like just KISS already. But Queen is really the only person he can comfortably open up to, and same thing with her. Around each other, they aren’t tied to any status or anything, they’re just people, friends hanging out, so they care deeply for each other. Warriors has a lot of good friends but he’s not super close with them, but he wants to be, he just doesn’t know how to. He actually used to have a stutter but with Proxi there to speak for him and with other help he’s able to talk normally, but he’s still very anxious around people. My warriors isn’t very smooth or confident he just looks pissed all the time but is socially anxious lol. He’s just like Time fr. He is good friends with Impa and Lana tho and he misses the people from different eras. His biggest enemies are dead however one major enemy that is still alive is Cia, who is really the only person he despises, but Cia doesn’t at all remember the details of what she did, so his hatred towards her is confusing for him cuz is it ok for him to hate her so much? She doesn’t remember anything and she’s good now so should he just move on? But yeaaah it’s a rough situation. And the only living family member is Linkle! His twin sister who he did not remember existing. They’re close enough, he gets annoyed with her sometimes but he still cares about her
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