#ectober19

Inktober/ Ectober 2019

He had snow white hair and glowing green eyes.

Ectober Day 10: Exorcism

I was thinking something along the lines of 'Danny's parents try to perform an exorcism because they think Phantom is possessing their son'

My first ever fic for anything before. Not perfect, but it was a lot of fun to write! Also it’s 22 minutes late shhh don’t tell anybody.

Prompt: Fangs/Shatter

Sam’s fangs were really starting to bother her.

They poked at the inside of her bottom lip, and if she wasn’t careful, she found herself sticking them into her tongue or the soft gums behind her bottom row of teeth. She wondered how on earth some of the ghosts Danny fought back to the Ghost Zone could stand having such deadly teeth. All the time. Her fake ones were about to drive her crazy.

Just a few more hours, Manson, she told herself. She took a drink of punch, wishing it was spiked, to soothe the sores forming along her lip and the bristly, nervous anger that had lodged itself in the back of her throat. Gothika, Vampire Queen, doesn’t take her fangs out. Not even for boring parties.

She had come with Tucker and Danny, had actually come at their insistence. Tucker begged her the moment he found an invitation to Paulina’s party in his locker. She’d declined and declined, in varying shades of no, until Danny asked her one day after class. He’d held his invitation in his hands like a secret the two of them could share and looked at her shyly.

“Be more fun with you there,” he said.

Those eyes. Bluer than springtime. That little half-smile that, had she not known him since grade school, she wouldn’t have noticed. Would have thought was sadness. The slight quiver in his voice, like he wasn’t sure he should be saying anything. Afraid he might mess it up. Afraid she might say no. But how could she say no to that? To him?

She realized now she probably should have.

***

Danny had decided to dress up as Phantom for Halloween, saying that it was the only time during the year he could be himself and no one would be suspicious of it. “People love Phantom,” he told her when he announced his plan. “Maybe I can use tonight to get people to like Fenton, too.”

“Dude,” Tucker said, scrolling on his PDA for lists of popular Halloween costume ideas, “Phantom’s public enemy number one. They don’t love you.”

“Yeah, well, they love the idea of me.”

Sam knew how much it hurt Danny that the world feared Phantom as much as they hated Fenton. She’d been so certain that using his ghostly half to save the city from other ghosts would work. Would make him a hero. Would make him realize people loved him. She never suspected Amity Park would turn on him. And judging by how Danny’s face fell every time he saw Phantom on the news, every time Tucker reminded him that Amity Park wanted him dead for real, every time his parents invented another doomsday device, Sam got the feeling that Danny never suspected the hate, either.

***

She sipped some more punch, eyeing her black lipstick stain on the cup. She’d have to reapply soon. Maybe go and find Tucker, trying to pick up girls with his sexy professor costume. Sam tried to tell him that sexy professor was not the costume he thought it was, but his heart was set. He’d come in tight pants that highlighted his (admittedly) nice calves and a shirt he only buttoned up halfway.

Just as Sam figured they would, most of the popular kids assumed he was trying to be a sexy Mr. Lancer. Sam would have felt bad if she didn’t think Tucker needed to learn his lesson.

Still. She could use a dance.

Sam set down her empty cup and adjusted her black gloves where they had slid down her arms. She was going to go and find Tucker when she saw a flash of green from across the courtyard.

Paulina’s Most Perfect Halloween Party was held at the country club, like all her other parties, and the outdoor garden and courtyard had been decorated in purple streamers and smiling Jack-o’lanterns. Candles with artificial flames had been rigged on wires, suspended above their heads. It cast everything into a warm haze, everyone’s costumes cloaked and flickering between shadow and light.

Everyone’s except Danny’s.

He lit up like a star, a star with its own gravity, pulling everyone at the party to him. It was that natural magnetism Sam noticed he had while he was Phantom. Smiling, making jokes, puffing his chest out boldly. Confident. In control. With that smile, and that mop of silvery white hair, it wasn’t difficult to see why people were drawn to him. Why they feared him.

“Oooh, Ghost Boy,” said Paulina. She grabbed his arm. “How do you make your eyes light up like that?”

“Ghost Boy?” Dash said. Sam noticed him lurking behind the two of them, his face painted green like Frakenstein’s monster. Big, hulking, mindless mistake, Sam thought. Fitting.

“If that’s really the Ghost Boy,” said Kwan, appearing next to Dash as if summoned, “then we gotta report him.”

“It- it’s not Ghost Boy,” Danny said, and Sam heard the panic in his voice. “It’s just me. Danny Fenton.”

“Yeah right,” Kwan said. “Don’t lie.”

“Why would Ghost Boy lie about being Fentwerp?” Dash’s voice carried across the courtyard as if he was standing next to Sam at the punch bowl, making conversation. “He wouldn’t stoop that low.”

“Yeah,” Paulina said. Sam noticed her back away from Danny. She tried not to notice Danny’s face as it fell. “Ghost Boy wouldn’t lie about being a loser. No offense.”

“Yeah…” Danny said. “I guess not.”

“But still…” Paulina said, “You do have a pretty sweet costume, Danny. How does it glow like that?”

“My parents’ ghost hunting tech,” Danny said. His voice, which had lost a significant portion of its confidence, strengthened a little.

He and Tucker had rehearsed answers on the walk from Sam’s house. She’d tried to pretend to be focused on gluing her fangs over her real canines, but really she was trying not to turn around and stick the fake teeth through Tucker’s cheek. Asking questions like If Paulina wants to dance with you, what do you say? and If she wants you to turn invisible, will you? and Yo, man, I never thought. Can you turn just clothes invisible?

Sam stopped listening after that.

***

She only came tonight because Danny wanted her to. “Be more fun with you there,” he’d told her. But he hadn’t been with her the entire evening. She’d stood, her back to the garden wall, following his spectral glow around the party, trying not to think about the way he smiled when someone said his name. The way he fidgeted with his hands, more than likely trying to fight the urge to show off too much.

“You can’t shoot ectoblasts, you know,” Tucker told him. “Unless you lie and say you rigged one of your parents’ guns into your suit.”

They were in Sam’s room, waiting on her to finish applying her makeup. She’d decided on a darker, more dramatic look than the one she usually wore, replacing her purple eyeshadow for gray, opting for fake eyelashes over her natural.

Danny hovered behind her, watching her glue her eyelashes on. She felt his t-shirt brush against her shoulder. Caught the smell of laundry detergent and winter air and electricity—something he’d had since the accident. A permanent, static chill where there should have been body heat. Even while alive, he carried the chill of the dead.

“Why are you covering up your lashes?” he asked, watching her in the mirror.

She turned and batted them at him, laughing at the expression on his face. “For dramatic effect.”

“I’d say it worked,” Tucker said, sitting on Sam’s bed to tie his sexy loafers. “Earth to Danny? You in there?”

A second too late, Danny turned away, and Sam noticed the flush along his pale cheeks.

***

“Remember,” Tucker said. “You’re not Danny Phantom tonight. You’re Danny Fenton dressed up as Danny Phantom.”

“I know.” Danny watched Tucker unbutton and rebutton his dress shirt, making what he probably thought were sexy faces in the mirror. “I want them to like me. They already like Phantom.”

“And possibly want to kill him.”

Danny blanched. “Yeah. That too.”

After Sam finished her makeup, she encouraged Danny to sit down so she could cover his face with some powder, too.

Danny was sporting a black eye, only just starting to fade, from his most recent run-in with Dash’s fists. He’d been in worse shape from other fights, but Sam didn’t want Danny to be embarrassed by the bruise. She knew, too, that he carried marks far worse than the black eye, but it was the least she could do for the party.

Though neither of them would say so, Sam had seen the scars. She hadn’t meant to. It had been an accident, walking into his room without knocking. He’d been quick, but she’d seen his side where Valerie shot him. The long burned scar along his ribs. She couldn’t imagine it didn’t hurt, even now nearly a month later. She’d seen the smaller scars along his back, random collections from his fights over the last year and a half. The wings of a purpling bruise along his shoulders—more than likely from his fight with Skulker that ended with Danny’s back buried in ten inches of brick.

And it was all her fault. Because she couldn’t say no. She couldn’t say No, don’t go into the portal. She couldn’t say No, it’s okay. You don’t have to prove anything to me. No, she’d taken one look at those big blue eyes, that mess of black hair, the suit he’d slipped on, highlighting his narrow waist and lean arms. The curve of his back. Of course she wouldn’t tell him no.

And he’d died because of it.

He died a little more every day because of it.

It had taken Sam a few moments of convincing, but she managed to seat Danny at her vanity and powder his face to cover the worst of the bruising.

He fluttered his eyes shut so she didn’t get any powder stuck in them, and she occupied herself with blending over the purple and black blossom around his eye. She tried not to think of his hair, tickling her cheek, or of his cold breath on her hand. Just a brush and powder and a fresh bruise that, if she pressed too quickly, caused him to wince with phantom pain.

***

She didn’t notice she’d been lingering next to the punch table, her cup empty in her hand, her eyes focused on a spot just next to the DJ’s table on the dance floor.

“Sam?”

She looked up to see Danny standing next to her, his eyes glowing like will-o-the-wisps waiting to lure her away. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said.

His eyes searched her face. Sam wondered what he found there. Anger? Sadness? That oh-so carefully practiced apathy?

“Paulina and the others are actually talking to me. Me,” he said. “Not Phantom. Fenton.”

Sam tried to appear happy at the news, but she’d known that would be what happened. She chewed her bottom lip, no longer caring about the sharp fangs still glued in her mouth.

“I mean, all they want to talk about is my parents’ gear and my costume, but still.” When he stepped closer, a chill fell over Sam and she shivered. It was as if she had decided to step into a bucket of ice water. “They actually seem interested.”

The way his voice swooped up with hope. It was enough to make Sam regret coming, regret hearing that joy in Danny’s voice and know it wasn’t because of her. Sure, she was happy for him. Being accepted is all he ever wanted, Phantom and Fenton. He was obsessed with saving people, protecting people. Being loved.

She wondered if he knew.

“I know,” he said.

Sam froze. About how she felt? She wasn’t sure she knew how she felt. She just knew that guilt that followed her wherever she went, that feeling of walking on ice every time she felt Danny near her. The way the chill traveled up her spine and froze the bones under her skin. And when he touched her...a wayward brush, an intentional hold on her wrist, a thoughtless clasp of her hand...it shattered her. Broke her into a million pieces inside. Thin ice under a heavy weight—gone.

And yet, in amongst those pieces lay a stronger, scarier feeling. The feeling of the life she’d nearly destroyed, the life fighting through the death, the patient blue of his eyes. The slight pout lingering behind every smile. His spidery fingers. His birdlike bone structure.

She had been the death of him.

She wished he’d return the favor.

“I know they’re only going to like me for tonight.”

Oh.

Oh.

Right. Of course. The popular kids. The costumes. The party.

“Well you know you’ve always got me,” she said. After a moment, she added, “And Tuck.”

There it was. That sad, shy smile. “I know.”

“I know you do.”

“The fangs,” he said, glancing toward her mouth. “When did you put those in?”

“Put them in? I’ve always had them.” She tried to lift her voice, dangle it on a thread of humor. She failed.

“I mean,” Danny said, “I guess Gothika, Vampire Queen, wouldn’t be a very good vampire without fangs.”

“You remember Gothika?” She hadn’t talked about her in weeks, and she never believed Danny had really been listening to her.

“I remember,” he said. He looked up at the popular kids, who were clustered on the dance floor, not dancing, just talking. Taking selfies. Checking their friends’ profiles. Even Tucker was out there, Sam noticed, trying to talk to a very harassed-looking Valerie.

“I invited you tonight,” he said.

“Yeah?” Sam knew she was the only person at Casper High to not get an invite from Paulina. It stopped bothering her well over a year ago.

Danny turned and looked at her mouth again. “Stop chewing on your lips,” he said. “You’re going to put a hole through them.”

She tucked her fangs inside her mouth, licking her teeth along them, tasting the sour glue holding them in place. “Nervous habit.”

They shared a silence for a moment, Danny’s eyes flicking away from her face, looking up to the candles above their heads. Sam watched the light bounce around his features, casting his eyes and the hollows of his cheeks into shadow. Be more fun with you there.

She forced her eyes away before he caught her staring.

“I’d love to dance,” he said, answering her unasked question. He turned and gave her his sad half-smile.

“With me?”

“With you.”

[[MORE]]

When Danny had nightmares nearly every night about his secret identity coming to light, none of them went like this

He had been so wrapped up in everything with Vlad and his parents that he hadn’t taken the time to really even think about any of the kids at school. Dash had been bullying him like usual — asshole — and Danny, instead of taking it, or whatever it was he normally did, he had hissed at Dash. Like a freak. Or like a ghost. Dash had dropped him instantly and backed up a step.

Of course, at the time, Danny hadn’t thought about it for more than a second before he was scrambling off and out of his arms’ length. It was only when Sam and Tucker had said later how ‘cool’ it was that Danny even realized what had happened. He freaked out, naturally, but Sam and Tucker both reassured him that it had been fine and it wasn’t like anyone was gonna catch on to his secret from that.

Except maybe they were wrong. It seemed like every which way Danny turned, the popular kids were all staring at him and whispering. Including Valerie. That was the part that really had him on his toes. That Valerie had apparently been accepted back into the fold of the A-Listers. Paulina over the past couple years had gotten a lot more smart than she used to be. Or maybe she had always been smart and Danny had never noticed? He wasn’t sure. They all knew that Star was practically like a secret genius, but it was like Paulina had that same knowing look in her eye. Even Dash had stopped bullying him. Something had to be-

Danny’s thought process was interrupted when he bumped into something or someone in the hallway, and he was forced to take a step back to regain his balance and assess the situation. “Hey, Fenton, sorry about that.” Wait. Hang on. Dash was apologizing to him?

“No problem,” Danny said slowly as Dash picked him up and set him on his feet properly, brushing his shoulders off with a nervous smile before he was turning around and walking away.

Tucker was at his side, staring after him. “Dude. What did you do to Dash?”

“Nothing!” he quickly defended himself, turning to his friend and glancing in Dash’s direction. “At least… Nothing I remember. Sam?”

“Beats me,” she said with a shrug, watching Dash make his way back to Kwan. “Maybe he just finally realized how stupid this whole clique system is and how in five to ten years, you’re going to be the one signing his paychecks.”

Right. Sam was never much help when she got into her anti-capitalistic-society moods. He was… still kind of friends with Valerie. “Maybe I can ask Valerie.”

“If you’re sure, dude. Valerie’s been acting… different, lately,” Tucker told him, pointing to where she was at her locker with her Red Huntress gadgets out in the open, talking to Paulina and Star.

Danny grimaced at that thought. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right. I don’t know… It’s really weird. I don’t think I like it.” Tucker jabbed him in the side, causing Danny to wince. “Dude, what was that for?”

“Danny, your ghost fangs are out. I saw them just now when you made that weird face.”

That immediately had Danny put a hand up to his mouth, gently feeling his teeth and realizing that Tucker was right. “What the hell?” He used the same hand to cover his mouth. “How long have they been-”

“I don’t know, man,” Tucker told him, shaking his head as he and Sam helped rush Danny to the bathroom so he could see for himself in private. “I just noticed it just now.”

Danny cursed as he stormed into the bathroom, scaring Mikey into running out. First Dash was scared of him, now Mikey?! He peered into the mirror- Yikes. That- Yeah, he could see why that might scare someone. His fangs were out and proud for anyone to see, and his eyes that used to be so blue… They were starting to turn green, even in his human form. This was not good. He didn’t feel any of his ghost powers active, so why were any of his ghost powers bleeding through?!

“Shit,” Danny said aloud, running a hand through his hair and realizing that strands of his hair were turning white. “Shit, this is not good,” he murmured. He knew that his ghost form had grown fangs recently, and he knew that after the accident, it was like he was finally hitting puberty, but how the hell did that manifest itself into his ghost form bleeding over into his human form?!

He just… He just needed to be really careful. Play up more of the weak, nerdy Fenton, and maybe they wouldn’t really figure anything out. They were just a little freaked by the fangs. That was it. It wasn’t like they knew that he was turning into Phantom, but…

Looking back in the mirror, it was like he didn’t see Daniel Fenton or Danny Phantom. He couldn’t tell who was staring back. His eyes glowed a bright green for a moment, the color completely overtaking-

Also in AO3 or FF

Fangs: When Danny got his fangs a year after the accident it was a mess, he had to lose his two upper canine and let the fangs grow normally which was painful. There were a lot of times when he hurt his lips by biting them luckily, he can heal fast. It was difficult to hide his new fangs because they showed even in his human form, “puberty” was the more common excuse.

After they were all grow Danny had to buy a lot of toothbrushes it was very easy to break them. The only good things Danny found about his fangs was that they are good for eating meat, great for Halloween costumes and to freak people out in his human form when grinning and showing all his teeth.

Lancer clutched at his coffee cup, fingers tapping against its side in a restless frustration, as he waited out the storm.

He had long since abandoned his attempts to mark some papers, and he knew from experience reading was a lost cause; He slowed his breaths in an attempt to sooth his nerves and ignore the noise around him.

He heard a boom of thunder from the window, a flash of light accompanying it that Lancer caught from the corner of his eye. The excited squeals of children rang from down the halls. Lancer sighed.

Behind his relief, he almost missed the stormy nights when he watched his neighbours' kids and they were scared. Of course, either way nobody in the apartment was sleeping, but now he could barely even think with the racket they were making. The disquiet brought by the gales and thunder would have been just as loud either way, with Phantom out there, it brought eagerness and sightseeing from kids that understood the event no more than their parents did.

Lancer glanced out the window when another streak of lightening lit the sky, bringing with it sounds of an almost manic glee. The storm was much more discomforting that Lucy and Felix, even if they made his ears ring and gave him a headache with every visit. Children were much less unsettling... unless Phantom counted as a child.

Another flash of lightening, a howl in the wind, bellows and heaving chortles echoing over the deafening thunder.

Lancer heard the second eruption of noise from the guest bedroom and he could practically see the siblings in front of the window, grinning, and pointing, and shouting as the ghost boy was struck by lightening.

Lancer didn't understand why the hero flung himself around the sky, acting as a lightening rod every time there was even a suggestion of a storm, but the sight of such a child-like creature getting electrocuted-happily at that-was disturbing to say the least.

Another explosion of light in the border of his vision; Lancer took a long sip of coffee in a vain attempt to ignore the laughter.

.

.

.

Storms were Danny's favourite weather phenomenon-lightening storms specifically. He never missed one.

Danny flew, and flew, and flew, and flew. He swam through the raging gusts and gales until he moves in cinque with them. He'd go as high as he could, boosted by the frozen air, letting his core thrum in his ears, and his heart boom with the thunder. He'd be lost in it until...

A flash of lightening came down, slashing through the sky, but never reaching its destination. Danny's world, a moment ago, all wind and rain and freezing cold, turned to light and heat in an instant. Suddenly, he was back in the lab, back in the portal, flung into deepest part of his core.

Suddenly, he was dying.

He was getting torn apart and put back together again. He was getting burned to his bones, feeling his body go numb; his limbs turned to jelly, then turned to ash. But most importantly, he could feel every prickling jolt of static as electricity ran up his being. He could feel the sparks dancing through his molecules and setting his instincts alight.

But, here in the sky, when he felt that crackle, that burn, there was no pain. Death couldn't touch him here. He was wasn't in the portal and he wasn't in the past; he was in the sky. Thus, there was only the sizzle of his skin, the trill of his core, and the light in his eyes.

His core was overloaded with energy that jumped and swirled within him, and he laughed. He pulled the plasma in, lighting up the sky around him like a star. He held the moment as though it was worth hours, all energy, and joy, and burning need, as his ectoplasm sucked the light out of the sky.