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fangirlwriting-stories · 3 months

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Game Night

Summary: Jazz decides to make things better in the best way she can think of.

...

So Danny fought Vlad without her, and Jazz is a little annoyed by it. Sure, things have been a little awkward between them lately, but she knows for a fact that she never gave the impression that she’s done helping her brother. She’ll never be done helping her brother. When did she have to start trying to prove that?

Well, whatever. Either way, she’s not letting Danny do this alone. And if he’s not letting her help with fights and he’s not letting her help with his friends who are being real jerks, that leaves one area left Jazz can reasonably put some effort into.

“Hey, Mom? Dad?”

Mom turns from the invention she’s tinkering with and gives Jazz a smile. “Hi, sweetie! Did you just get home? How was school?”

Jazz nods in response to her question, then says, “School was good. I was wondering if I could talk to you and Dad about something?”

“Sure Princess, what’s going on?” Dad says, moving over to stand next to Mom.

Jazz takes a breath, readying herself for how little Danny’s probably going to like this.

“Do you think we could start having a family game night?” she asks.

Both of her parents look surprised and a little caught off guard, and Jazz can’t blame them. Her request probably sounds like it comes out of nowhere. If Danny were here, he’d probably be staring at her like she’s crazy too.

“A family game night?” Mom asks, sounding confused but not against the idea, which is a good start.

“I’ve just noticed we’re all super busy most of the time,” Jazz says, keeping her tone casual. “You guys are ghost hunting or working here in the lab, Danny and I have school and homework, we just haven’t seen much of each other recently. I thought it would be nice to have something consistent we can all look forward to doing together.”

Mom brightens, and Jazz knows she’s succeeded.

“Oh sweetie, that’s a wonderful idea,” she says. “Did you have a night in mind?”

“I was thinking Fridays,” Jazz says. “That way Danny and I won’t have to worry about any homework right away, and it’ll be right before the weekend for you guys too.” And Danny can stay up as late as he needs to for ghost fighting and sleep in the next day, Jazz adds on in her head.

“That sounds like a great plan Jazzo,” Dad calls happily.

“Do you want to pick out some games tomorrow?” Mom asks. “I don’t know if we have many in the house.”

“I’ll pick some up after school,” Jazz says. “I have a few ideas.”

“Thanks sweetie, that would be lovely. I’m looking forward to it,” Mom says with a bright smile, and Jazz gives one back before heading back out of the lab and letting them get back to worth.

She glances at the oven clock in the kitchen as she passes and notes that she still has a couple hours before Danny comes home. He apparently missed Nasty Burger with his friends yesterday, so they’re making it up today. Jazz hasn’t had a chance to ask him what happened yet, but he seemed happier when he got home from school, so she can’t really object.

For now, she heads up to her room to do her homework as she runs over the plan again in her mind. It’s not a short one, and it’s probably not going to run totally smoothly. Especially if she doesn’t get a chance to talk to Danny about it first.

But she can do that either while they’re out patrolling tonight or in the car ride tomorrow, depending on how busy it is. Figuring out when to do it is the easy part. The hard part’s going to be convincing him.

…

“What? No way,” Danny says, predictably. He turns to look at her from his seat. “Are you crazy?”

“It can’t go that badly,” Jazz says, giving him a quick glance before refocusing her attention on the road.

“Jazz. Seriously. Did you decide to tempt the fates today? ‘It can’t go that badly?’ What are you talking about? Of course it can go badly!”

“That’s not what I meant,” Jazz says. “I mean there’s a limit to how bad it can go when we’re doing all the talking to them without you going ghost. Without bringing Phantom into it at all.”

“Oh, so instead of hearing them talk about how they want to dissect me specifically, I can hear them talk about how they want to dissect ghosts in general! That’s so much better!”

Jazz doesn’t say anything for a second. Danny seems to get that she’s not done, though, and after a second he turns to her. “What?”

“It’s not… fair,” Jazz says slowly. “But I think it’s pretty clear at this point that they’re not going to change their minds on their own. We’ve got to bring it up first. Even if it’s uncomfortable.”

“And we have to do this now, why?”

Jazz doesn’t say anything again. She’s pretty sure he’s not going to take “I want at least one part of your life to be not terrible” as an answer.

“You should really try it,” she says instead. “I’ll do most of the talking. Just give it a shot.”

She can feel Danny glare at her, even if she doesn’t look away from the road. “Well considering you pitched it as a family bonding activity, I doubt Mom’s going to let me get out of it on pain of death, so I’m going to have to, aren’t I?”

Jazz sighs. “I really think it’s a good idea,” she says.

“Oh, well, as long as you think so,” Danny says, turning to glare out the window. He goes on to not say anything to her for the rest of the drive, and gets out of the car and heads immediately for the school as soon as Jazz stops and pulls into a spot in the parking lot.

Jazz sighs and turns the car off, then climbs out to head into school.

…

Danny seems a little less irritated by the idea on the drive home that afternoon, but Jazz can’t tell if that’s because she hasn’t brought it up yet, and she’d rather not tempt fate. So instead, she asks if he has plans for the weekend now that he’s not grounded anymore. And this is when Danny throws her a curveball.

“Actually, yeah,” he says. “I’m going to the park with Valerie Gray.”

Jazz gives him a quick surprised glance before turning back to the road. “Valerie Gray?” she asks. The park part of that plan is more than a little confusing too, but less confusing than who he’s doing it with. She hadn’t thought the two of them were even the tiniest bit aware of each other, aside from that time Danny accidentally ruined Valerie’s life. (Which he still hasn’t let go of, to Jazz’s annoyance.)

“Yeah,” Danny says. “We ran into each other totally by accident yesterday after the fight with Vlad, and then we just kind of… hung out together, by accident mostly. But it was fun, so we’re doing it again.”

Jazz smiles. So that’s what he did instead of the park.

“That’s great,” she says, keeping her gaze on the road but making sure Danny can see her smile. “I didn’t realize that’s what you did instead of Nasty Burger.”

But then Danny goes quiet again, and Jazz knows she’s said the wrong thing.

“That’s not what I meant,” she says. “I just meant, I’m glad to see you’re having fun with someone.”

Danny sighs. “I know what you meant,” he mutters, and at least he doesn’t sound angry.

Jazz sighs and doesn’t say anything else.

Being this direct with Danny would definitely be a bad idea, but Sam and Tucker are pissing her off. They don’t have to like Phantom, that’s fine. (Mostly. Not at all. It’s not fine, but that’s not the point.) From what little Danny says about Sam and Tucker these days, it seems to be all they talk about now. And Jazz can tell it’s getting to her little brother.

Because of course it is. His closest friends spend all of their time together angrily ranting about how much Danny sucks, of course it’s getting to him.

If it wouldn’t just make things much worse, Jazz would give the two a giant sister-sized smack upside the head.

Danny doesn’t say anything else until they arrive at home, and Jazz doesn’t try and fill the silence. But for as much she doesn’t want him to constantly be thinking about Game Night, she doesn’t want him to forget it either. So as they both walk into the house and Danny starts for the stairs, Jazz weighs her options, then calls out, “Don’t forget we’re having our first game night after dinner!”

Danny shoots her a glare, but it’s a little less angry than the ones she got this morning, so Jazz counts it as a win and heads over to look through the board game selection she picked up yesterday.

She’ll save the chessboard for her and Mom, as she doesn’t imagine Danny or Dad would take to it as well as the two of them would. Danny and Dad would definitely like Battleships more than them, but it’s a two person game anyway, so she sets that aside too. The games she bought that would work for four people are Uno, Sorry, and Yahtzee, and out of the three, the last one sounds like the one it’ll be easiest to have a conversation over. So she sets the other two aside as backups and sets up Yahtzee on the coffee table.

Then she heads upstairs to finish her homework, knowing she has an hour or so before Mom will call her and Danny down for dinner.

She doesn’t need much time to finish her homework, but she’s already settled on a game plan, leaving her with not much to do for several hours. So, even though she definitely won’t need them tonight, she starts piling through the evidence she’s been collecting on the consciousness and psychology of ghosts.

It’s slow going, especially considering most ghosts aren’t exactly the type to stop and chat about how their brains work, but Jazz is getting somewhere. She’s seen enough from Danny to thoroughly discard the “ghosts are malicious monsters who somehow also have no consciousness and can’t feel pain” theories that her parents have been working under. But she doesn’t have much in regards to an alternative theory, especially in scientific ways. She’ll get laughed out of the room by her parents if she shows them what she has to disprove their theory with no idea what’s actually happening.

But she doesn’t want to start asking invasive questions to Danny about how his brain works. He has enough going on.

So, she’ll move slowly. Let her parents discover the flaws in the theory themselves.

Hopefully.

“Jazz, Danny, dinner’s ready!” Mom calls up the stairs, and Jazz drops her notebook, startled.

“Yep, be right there Mom!” she calls back. She pulls open her desk drawer, jimmies up the fake bottom, and slips her notebook inside it, then heads out and towards the steps.

Danny’s leaving his room the same time she is, and he gives Jazz one last glare but follows her down the stairs.

Mom is setting stove-grilled burgers out on the table, and miracle of miracles, none of them are glowing green this time. After that she goes back to get cups with ice water, and Dad is setting silverware by everyone’s place for the slightly burnt potatoes that were cooked with the burgers. It looks like a surprisingly appetizing dinner, and Jazz can tell Danny thinks so too as he sits down next to her.

“I thought I should make something a little fancy for tonight to celebrate our first game night!” Mom says in explanation as she sits down at her place with the last cup. “Thanks for the great idea, Jazz!”

Jazz gives a smile that hopefully doesn’t come off as nervous. She told Danny she’ll do most of the talking, and she will, but that doesn’t mean she’s not nervous about it.

“Thanks Mom,” she says. “It’ll be nice to have something to look forward to at the end of the week.”

“I think so too Jazzercise,” Dad says with a grin at her. “Though I still think a family ghost hunt would have been more fun.”

“No,” Jazz and Danny both say at the same time.

“The kids are right dear,” Mom says, patting him on the shoulder. “We shouldn’t bring work into fun times with them, even if work is fun.”

“Exactly, a good work life balance is very important,” Jazz says, gripping her hands together tightly under the table. “But actually, on the subject of ghosts—”

She ignores Danny’s not-so-subtle glare at her as both of her parents turn to her.

“You guys were in that fight downtown last night, right?” Jazz asks. “With that dog ghost?”

“That was us, sweetie, thanks for noticing!” Mom says. “But luckily it didn’t hurt anyone. Calmed right down once Phantom showed up. But we’ll have to keep an eye out, who knows what he’s planning on making it do—”

“Yeah that’s great Mom,” Jazz cuts her off, before she can start going off on a tangent about Phantom’s evil plans. “But why didn’t it hurt anyone, do you think?”

Jazz sees Danny roll his eyes in her peripheral, and ignores him again.

“Oh I haven’t the slightest idea sweetheart,” Mom says. “But ghosts don’t think logically like you and me. It could be anything really.”

“Yeah, as long as we manage to capture it, who cares what it’s thinking?” Dad says, taking off half of his burger with a bite.

Jazz sighs. “But don’t you think—” she starts, and is interrupted by Danny pushing back from the table and muttering something about suddenly not feeling well.

“Are you okay, sweetie?” Mom calls after him.

“Fine!” Danny snaps, which is when Jazz knows she shouldn’t follow him just yet.

Instead, she turns back to Mom and Dad as soon as he’s vanished up the stairs. “I think it wasn’t hurting people because it’s a dog,” she says plainly. “A well trained one. And it didn’t want to.”

“That’s a nice thought, Princess,” Dad says. “But it’s still a ghost. It’s dangerous.”

“So are normal dogs under the right circumstances,” Jazz says firmly. “And didn’t you say it calmed down once Phantom showed up? The same way a dog might if it saw its owner?”

“It’s still different from a human and a normal dog, sweetie,” Mom says. “But I can see why you’d think that.”

“Can you think about it then?” Jazz asks. “If you see where I’m coming from? Can you consider it?”

Mom sighs, seeming a mix of amused and exasperated. But then she says, “Alright sweetie, I’ll give it some thought. But I still think you’re looking at this wrong.”

Jazz nods anyway. Honestly, that’s probably about the best she could have expected. “Thank you,” she says.

The rest of dinner is more lighthearted, and they talk about more basic stuff. Jazz mentions the math test she aced last week, and Dad gives her a beaming smile and ruffles her hair just enough to be annoying. Mom mentions the new invention she’s working on, and Jazz listens to the science while also making mental notes of any way it could hurt Danny. The food is actually edible and surprisingly good for once, so Jazz can enjoy it.

But as the dinner starts to wrap up, Mom mentions that Danny still hasn’t come down, and stands up with a mention that she’ll go find him.

“I got him Mom!” Jazz calls. She hops up immediately and heads off towards the stairs before Mom can protest.

She knocks on Danny’s door and calls out his name so he’ll know it’s her. She waits a couple seconds, and Danny jerks the door open, though he doesn’t exactly look thrilled to see her.

He grabs her arm and pulls her inside, then slams the door shut behind them.

“Happy now?” he hisses, turning to face her. And for all that he’s keeping his voice down, it does nothing to hide how angry he is. “Are you satisfied? Do you get yet that no one’s ever going to change their mind?”

“They said they’d think about it,” Jazz points out.

Danny blinks, seeming surprised for a second, then narrows his eyes. “Because they see your point or because they’re humoring you?”

Jazz doesn’t say anything, and Danny rolls his eyes. “That’s what I thought.”

“Danny, they’re not going to start by immediately accepting that they’re wrong,” Jazz says. “That’s not how people change their minds. Especially with things they believe in as strongly as our parents believe this stuff about ghosts.”

“Oh well that’s great, because I totally have the time and energy to put towards changing their minds slowly!” Danny snaps, before pausing and lowering his voice again. “Let me just take a break from all the ghost fighting and homework I’m constantly drowning in and best friends who hate me and new Huntress sidekicks who want to kill me! I’m sure I’ve got plenty of time in between all that!”

Jazz blinks, caught off guard. “New Huntress sidekicks? When did that happen?”

“That’s not the point,” Danny snaps. “Look, Mom and Dad are so far down on my list of priorities right now it’s ridiculous. And I would love to not have to also deal with them bad mouthing Phantom even more than they already do! I get enough of that from Sam and Tucker!”

Jazz sighs. “Okay,” she agrees. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

Danny blinks. “Huh?”

“You’re right, it’s not fair for you to have to deal with it. I’ll talk to them on my own.”

Danny groans and drops his head into his hands. “Ugh, no! That’s not— I don’t want you to bother at all, Jazz! It could just as easily make things worse!”

“It could also make things better,” Jazz says. “I know what I’m doing, Danny. I know how to talk to Mom and Dad.”

Danny scoffs and glares away, muttering something that sounds like “Why do I even bother.”

“Come on, no more ghost talk tonight. Let’s go play a board game.”

Danny looks up at her incredulously. “You were serious about that?”

“Yes,” Jazz says. “It’s important for you to have some time where you can just relax and do things you enjoy.”

“Stop therapizing me,” Danny says.

“Good luck with that,” Jazz says plainly, and Danny groans.

“You gonna come play games with us?” Jazz asks. “I actually think Mom and Dad are looking forward to it. And I’m sure they’ll let you finish your dinner first.”

Danny glares at her, then mutters, “Fine. But no ghosts, I mean it.”

“No ghosts,” Jazz agrees, holding up her hand. “I swear.”

Danny sighs, sounding irritated and exhausted, but when Jazz heads out of the room a second later he follows her out, which is a start.

#danny phantom #jazz fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #danny fenton #everyone knows au #my fic

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