#gothmoth

Paulina has always considered herself to be a scholar of three subjects: good lip gloss, hallway politics, and gossip. The first two come naturally to her, while the third requires a little bit more discipline. You have to know when to look bored while listening. And to master the slow blink that said I am absolutely not paying attention while your ears vacuumed up every word in a ten-foot area. Then, of course, you have to understand that if you carry three shopping bags and a pink iced drink, people assume nothing is going on behind your ears and eyes. People underestimate Paulina constantly, and that's exactly the way she likes it.

So when she was browsing earrings at Amity Mall on a thursday afternoon and heard the phrase ‘half a’ said like it was one word and about a person, she nearly dropped a rhinestone hoop into a potted ficus. 'Half a' what?

The voice came from the service corridor beside the food court. Low, urgent, male, “…I’m telling you, if the town finds out Phantom's is half human, a... what was it? A 'halfa' as the ghosts call it, there’ll be panic".

And Paulina had frozen behind a kiosk selling scented phone cases. Phantom? Her darling, wonderful Phantom? Defender of Amity Park? Her glowing-eyed ghost prince? Subject of at least six fan edits Paulina had saved for 'research purposes'?

Half human?

Another voice hisses back, "keep your voice down, you fool. We know he has genetic relations to someone here, someone human, but that's all we know”, scoffing, "since this messed up town's hospital won't let us access any further files".

'Genetic relations to someone'... To someone 'from here'. Someone from Amity. Someone human. Paulina slowly lowers her sunglasses despite being indoors.

No.

No no no.

This was not gossip. This was god-grade gossip. Ancient treasure gossip. Nuclear gossip.

She peeks around the corner. There's two men in white suits -G.I.W. agents, clearly, ugh- standing near a door marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. One's holding a metallic briefcase, and the other has the haunted expression of someone trying to figure out how to trap someone untouchable.

Briefcase Guy huffs, “…the human genetics must be how the creature can stay in our world for so long, especially without losing any power".

“I know that", responds Haunted Guy, “I’m worried whether or not finding this genetic relation will help us and our cause, or hinder it".

Briefcase Guy waves the other off, "of course it will help us, what person would want to be related to some half-ghost abomination? All we have to do is find them and threaten to tell the press what monstrosity they helped create. Besides, who cares if we upset the feelings of some freak that decided to bang an ectoplasmic manifestation".

Paulina gasps softly, those awful men were planning to try and hurt her wonderful Phantom again! She obviously can't and won't stand for that! But how? Telling him, speaking to her lovely man, would obviously be an option... but how much good what that even do? No, she needs to know the very thing these jerky G.I.W. agents want to, she needs to know Phantom's human parent. Oh mi god, she can barely believe he has human family! So cool! She bets they're really cute or beautiful or handsome -gender depending- Oh, but that's not the point right now, she has to figure this out. Both because she has to get ahead of the gossip, but also to protect her man.

The men turn, and she snaps upright and pretends to inspect a keychain rack with the intensity of a fashion designer. After a tense moment, the door shuts behind them, and Paulina relaxes a fraction. She stands motionless for three full seconds, then she spins on her heel and speed-walks to the bathroom.

Wait! If Phantom is half-human, and has a human parent, then that means she totally could have babies with him! Oh, this is the best mall trip evar.

By four pm, Paulina has convened an emergency summit at Glamour Bean Café with her two best friends, Star and Lindsey. After all, she needed reinforcements for gossip this juicy, especially if she's gonna protect her man!

Star starts fanning herself, shrieking, “he’s WHAT?".

Paulina grins meanly to herself, enjoying the shock she's causing, “half human", leaning back dramatically, "meaning somewhere in this city there is either an unknowing ghosts lover or the weirdest PTA parent alive".

Lindsey stares, “how do you know this isn’t fake?”.

“Because when do those G.I.W. men ever actually whisper secretively about anything? They only whisper like that for three reasons", counting on her manicured fingers, “affairs, the Fenton's getting on over on them, or ghost stuff they need to keep quiet”.

Lindsey hums and nods, “that’s… weirdly solid logic".

Star grabs Paulina's wrist, “do you think he went to high school here?”.

Paulian's eyes widen, “oh mi God".

The table goes entirely silent, then all three scream at once. They! They might be going to the same school that Phantom went to or currently goes to!

The next morning, Paulina arrives at school wearing determination and heels with no practical purpose but just the right amount of sparkle to not clash with her skirt. She surveys the student body, looking for anyone who might seem even slightly ghostly. Slightly like Phantom.

If Phantom was half human, then maybe he had relatives. Maybe he had lived here. Maybe he was younger than people thought. Maybe he was someone in town.

Maybe…

A student.

She marches to the yearbook archives. The librarian eyeing her, “need help?”.

Paulina nodding quickly, “Yes, I need records of every transfer student who seemed emotionally unavailable and constantly dead tired”.

The man blinks at her, “that is… not a searchable category”.

“Then we do this manually”.

By lunch, Paulina’s suspect list included:

Erik, a pale boy who always wore hoodies in summer

The Rowan twins who never blinked enough

Jessie the soccer captain with suspicious cheekbones

Jeremy Pell, because no one could naturally have that jawline

Her chemistry partner Noah Mercer, who once crushed a calculator by accident

Danny, the school freak

She pauses, Danny Fenton… quiet yet very witty (witty like Phantom maybe), weirdly strong (ghost strength?), kinda glowy in fluorescent light (very ghostly), sleeps in lots of classes (sleep deprived from ghost fights?), and Dash has claimed to have seen his eyes flash green before (extremely ghostly)… Danny also had once said ‘your living snacks are mediocre’ after trying some soya fried rice (implying eating dead/ghost food).

Paulina slowly lowers her fork, now that she thinks about it… didn’t she see him literally walk through a trash can!??

No.

No way.

Scanning the room and finding that messy mop of black hair… ink black, yeah definitely too dark to be normal, right? Right. And across the cafeteria, Danny looks up; like he knows someone’s staring specifically at him.

Their eyes meet and he immediately looks very concerned. Interesting… yes it could be purely that she’s the one staring at him, rather than the other way around.

After school, Paulina corners him near the bike racks. “Hiya, Danny”, tone sweet as can be.

Danny blinks and rears back, “Paulina?”.

Paulina tilts her head, “so, quick question”.

He narrows his eyes and leans even further back away from her, “…why are you smiling like that?”.

“Are you half ghost by any chance?”. Sometimes it really was best to be blunt and straightforward, to give people as little wiggle room as possible.

He drops his backpack, stands in silence for a while, then sputtering a little, “I- what, um, I’m sorry?”.

“Don’t play coy with me, Danny. You once caught a falling vending machine”.

“It was tilting”.

“You know three dead languages”.

“My parents literally study all things dead, languages included”.

“You don’t ever seem to sweat”.

“I moisturize”.

Paulina leans in, she’d have a hard time believing Danny wore matching socks, nonetheless actually moisturized… “you called the anti-gravity park a return to normalcy”.

Danny’s face manages to drain of colour, becoming even paler than he always is, “I like a good joke?”.

She quirks an eyebrow at him, “I’ve seen you walk through a trash can”.

For one heartbeat, something flickers behind his pupils, spooky green light. Sure it could be written off as just the ectoplasm that’s in him from the contamination but… she’s betting that it’s ectoplasm from him being half ghost, not some contamination. Heck! That contamination story was probably just a cover up.

He screws his face up, glances around, mutters, “fuck I thought no one saw that shit”, shakes his head and looks back to her, “can we talk somewhere private?”.

Oh she absolutely has caught him. She smirks at him, putting her hands on her hips, “I knew it”.

He rubs his forehead and sighs very loudly, “after all these years, damnit, fuck my life”. She only giggles at him in response as she grabs his wrist and begins dragging the dumb boy off. Next question, is he related to Phantom or is he Phantom.

They sit down on the bleachers, the sky slowly turning a shade of violet. Danny stares out at the field for a long time, “so what do you think you’ve figured out?”.

She smirks a daintily a little, “that you’re half ghost”. When all he does is quirks an eyebrow at her, she rolls her eyes and adds on, “so either you’re Phantom. Or you’re, like, Phantom’s sibling or cousin or something but more human-looking”.

He scrunches his eyebrows, “and why do you think Phantom’s involved either way?”.

She flips her hair and huffs, “because he’s half human, and ‘related’ to someone in town. Add in that you’re definitely half human, either you’re him or related to him and the Fenton’s only adopted you because you look human and he doesn’t”.

“… I’m not adopted”.

She shrugs, he could just not know, it’s not like Danny looked anything like the rest of the Fenton’s, “you look nothing like them. But say you’re not, then one of them fucked a ghost, probably unknowingly. Absolutely scandalous”. That actually makes him choke and start laughing. She taps her chin and looks up to the sky, “and maybe they’re so against Phantom because they’re ashamed of the twins they created, especially the one that looks like a ghost”. He bends over wheezing even more. Is she trying to get him to slip and say something he wouldn’t normally? Yes, yes she is.

He wheezes some more, wiping a tear from his eyes, “Ancients, I could never even imagine them with anyone other than each other, Jesus fucking Chris-”, then blinks very harshly, snaps up straight enough to make her jump a little, and stares at her flat and serious, “why do you think Phantom’s half human”.

That… feels almost like he’s threatening her, which she can understand. The G.I.W. make it super obvious that any info about Phantom that isn’t already public becoming public could be, like, super dangerous. And normally she might hold something juicy over someone’s head, she wouldn’t risk Phantom’s safety like that. Whether Danny’s Phantom or just a sibling. Twirling her hair a little awkwardly, pouting, “over heard some of those G.I.W. jerks saying he was”, tilting her head and making a point to seem less sure, “something something halfa? And related to someone it town?”, huffing and sticking her nose up in the air, “they don’t know who so obviously I had to figure that out first. Get ahead of the drama, you know”, smiling and looking down at her hands, shifting a little, “and… I’d rather them not know, since they’re so mean to him”. One thing about gossip, if you’re in the know and you’re good, you can manipulate the truth. Hide certain parts, make other parts worse, fudge the truth.

Danny… actually growls at her making her jump a little again, before he flops backwards, back smacking into the bleacher seats behind them, and thunking his head down on it, “ugh. This day just keeps getting worse. Fuck me”.

She blushes a little, gotta shoot her shot right? “I mean, if you are Phantom, I wouldn’t be opposed”; and at least she gets him to start laughing again. Him being freaky and serious isn’t super useful to her.

He rubs a hand down his face, sighing loudly, “well… at least they don’t know the who, I guess”, pushing himself to sit back up. Putting his elbows on his knees, watching the empty field, “… Phantom doesn’t have any siblings”.

Paulina absolutely squeals immediately, she knew it! He totally is Phantom! They all go to school with Phantom! He even thinks she’s cute! Phantom thinks she’s cute! Lunging at him, throwing her arms around his neck, and squealing a little more, “I knew it!”, knocking them both sideways. He just lays there glaring at her so she puts her elbows on either side of his chest, and places her chin in her palms. Grinning down at him, “so, you’re Phantom”.

“Yeah”.

“You’re Fenton”.

“Yup”.

Her smirking at him, “you failed gym twice”.

He blinks and huffs a little laugh, “…that did happen, twice”.

She snorts cutely and sits back up, “that is the most shocking part”. Really how does someone that can pick up a bus fail gym??

Danny blushing a little, still laying on the bleachers, “I don’t like sports, and I don’t care enough about gym to put in any actual effort”.

She shakes her head at him, “ridiculous”, fiddling with her hair again, “so…”.

He sighs and pushes himself up onto his hands, leaning back, “the answer’s no, Paulina. I’m really not interested nowadays”, frowning, “and as much as I’m not a fan of someone I’m not even friends with finding out, the G.I.W. is more of a concern”.

She shrugs a little, damn, well, she did rather expect that. Can’t blame a girl for trying. “Well, we could be, friends that is”.

He rolls his eyes, “yeah I’m not super into a ‘friendship’ based on your weird crush on half of me or hero worship”, pointing at her, “and for your information, neither of my parents ‘fucked a ghost’, hilarious mental image though”, looking back out to the field, “though, I suppose I don’t really have to worry about the G.I.W. since I’ve made sure they’ll never suspect Danny Fenton”, frowning slightly, “still though”, shaking his head and eyeing her, “and I guess you’ve gotten questions and if I don’t let you ask them you’re just gonna pester me, so?”.

Huh, sounds like he’s already got the G.I.W. handled, weird to see competence from Danny Fenton of all people. And she can so totally see Phantom in him now. The jawline, muscles hidden under loose clothing, the hairstyle obviously. “Why do you protect everyone? It’s not like anyone treated you well at first”, huffing, “even if I always loved it. So cool”; so hot.

He blinks, “not what I expected but, because I could? Because Amity’s my home?”, rubbing his neck and look back to the field, “because it’s instinctual, to fight”.

Paulina would never stick her neck out for a bunch of ungrateful jerks, hmpf. Crossing her arms, “well if you ask me, none of these dumb people deserved help”.

He rolls his eyes mutter, “self absorbed as ever, I see”.

She shakes her head, really, this town so did not deserve him. She did for sure! The rest of these losers? Definitely not. “At least being territorial, or the instinct whatever, makes more sense. I hate it when people step on my turf too”; like when Dale gets a little too into how the cheerleaders were doing their choreography, or when Delhia snagged a rarer fashion drop than her. Absolutely awful and unacceptable. Frowning a little, because that will have a better affect than seeming vapid, “and if the town knew about this ‘half’ thing, someone would try to stop you or hurt you, and you’d get pestered so much”.

He snorts, “oh like how you’re pestering me now?”. She only rolls her eyes at that, there was no way she wasn’t going to chase a good story. Not a chance. Rolling his eyes, “those men… my parents, they aren’t kidding about the things they want to do to me. I’m not stupid enough to take genuinely dumb chances”, smirking a little, “unless it would be really really funny”.

Paulina’s more than aware that those agents and the Fenton’s wanted to do a bunch of really nasty gross painful things to Phantom… to Danny she supposes. Stupid jerks. No parent would hurt their own kid though, nope not a chance. Parents love and protect their darling kids; way have kids otherwise. So silly. Even if Danny’s were kinda crazy. The G.I.W. though… yeah no, acab. “Well”, smiling slightly, “your secret is safe with me”. He quirks an eyebrow at her so she rolls her eyes, “just because I have the gossip, doesn’t mean I’m gonna go spreading it”, her smiling even more and putting a finger up to her lips, “some secrets are more useful kept close to the chest”.

He blinks, “really?”, shaking his head, “I mean, I’m not too surprised, but still”.

“Obviously”. She absolutely notices him seems to relax slightly, her adding on, “in exchange, you owe me so many details”.

“…Details?”.

Pointing at his face, “ghost gossip, ghost boy”, ticking off on her fingers, “suit fabric. Hair routine. Can you survive in space? Are there hot single ghosts? Why do you always do flying poses; is that instinctive or rehearsed? What are ghost royals like? Can you get drunk? Do ghosts think you’re cute too? Does the Box Ghost really have a kid? Is Plasmius dating the mayor?”.

Danny screws up his face before bursting out into laughter, bending forwards and holding his stomach. “You’re are unbelievable. Vlad!-”.

She rolls her eyes, “I prefer iconic”; going basically entirely ignored.

Danny wheezing, “-Vlad! Dating- Ancients!”, wiping tears from his eyes, muttering, “he would so be self absorbed enough to do that, oh my Ancients”.

Paulina stills and turns her head slowly to stare at him. ‘self absorbed enough’ to date Plasmius? That doesn’t… oh! Oh mi god! Danny and Vlad have an obvious rivalry, and so does Phantom and Vlad! Did the man know about Danny/Phantom? Definitely seems highly likely. And Phantom also clearly has a more personal rivalry with Plasmius too! Would that mean that… if you ignore the echo they do sound similar. Oh mi god. Is Vlad a half ghost too! Is he Plasmius?!?!? And he’s Danny’s uncle right? Does this just run in the family? “Oh mi god just how many half ghosts are in your family!”.

Danny coughs extremely hard, choking a little, “I- what?”, then going a little wide eyed, “fuck”, putting his head in his hands, “he’s so gonna try to beat my ass and I’m gonna feel obligated to let him, I’m a moron”, rubbing his hands down his face and looking at her, “forget I said anything weird about Vlad? Who is not actually related to me, by the way?”.

She blinks at him disbelievingly, “so it’s just by chance you’re both half ghosts? I’m not that stupid, Danny”, and rolls her eyes.

Danny blinks very harshly, “please don’t tell him you know? Or how you do? I don’t want to deal with that?”, dropping his head down and groaning, before looking back to her, “my… parents are not very, uh, safe, with their tech”.

Paulina tilts her head, “I don’t really get it?”.

He glares a bit, “half ghost means half dead, and my parents aren’t very careful with their very dangerous and very temperamental tech. Figure that out yourself”.

She absolutely cringes at that, even she knew not to ask ghosts about the whole ‘how’ crap; and as much as she loves some good gossip, that kind of gossip was super not the fun kind or the kind she’d go spreading around. Talk about a way to make so many enemies. Looking away from him and twirling her hair some, “yeah no, I’m so not gonna push on that one, your parents are, like, super duper reckless”. It was obvious anyways that what he’s saying is that both he and Vlad had some kind of accident with Fenton tech… ouch.

He huffs very bitterly, “tell me about it”.

She just nods, not really sure what else to say now. Also, though, not a chance is she going to confront the mayor or try to get something out of him for her secrecy. She could tell from a mile away that man was dangerous. Even if all of Danny’s spats with him makes the guy seem like more of a joke. Looking up at the sky… the first stars were starting to appear. One of them even winks, or maybe that was just Paulina deciding the universe has excellent taste in drama. “It’s going to be a beautiful night out”.

Danny hums curiously before looking up too, “yeah, yeah it is. Mercury is supposed to be visible tonight”. What a nerd. “And the answer is yes, yes I can breathe on space”.

She absolutely smirks at that, “sweet”.

“Yup”.

End.