Chapter Text
It was a Friday.
A plain, dismal, grey (with taints of green) Friday as typical as it could be in Amity Park.
Danny was pretty used to his typical day having a severe lack of the word compared to the rest of the world, as he had two whole years to get used to it since the accident.
He had completely entirley come to terms with it; his secret remained safe in school; his friends had supported him endlessly; his family had all discovered and accepted his ghostliness. Even Vlad seemed to have a lack of taste in making Danny his son and murdering Jack more recently.
Groggy from his late night of ghost fighting, sixteen year old Danny Fenton slammed his hand on the alarm reminding him to go to school, having ignored and slept through the last seven, knowing this was the last one.
He was slightly bothered that he was more tired than usual, his eyelids dipping in and out of lifelessness as he crawled his way out from under the sheets. Danny rubbed his eyes dramatically with the sides of his curled fists, brushing his fatigue off as a humanly consequence of one-too-many late nights. Moving his mouth to blow his raven hair out of his face, he mentally remarked at the stiffness of his jaw, so instead opted to use his hand instead. He threw on some fresh clothes and stumbled out to the bathroom, still slipping in and out of weariness. Luckily for him the bathroom was opposite his bedroom and an easy walk for a tired guy.
Locking the door behind him, he followed his usual morning bathroom routine, like any other Friday, only at a much slower pace than usual.
Eventually he reached the monotonous action of brushing his teeth; and facing himself in the mirror, brush lined with toothpaste, teeth bared... he noticed a being staring back at him that was nearly irrecognisable.
Eyes suddenly forced awake with shock, he dropped the toothbrush into the sink, letting the high-pitched clatter ring out through the room. Then jolted his fingers up to his mouth, running them over the surface of the foreign shape which now sat there. Feeling their sharp surface against the smooth texture of his skin, he jolted backwards, his legs hitting on the rim of the toilet, sending him hurtling to the floor.
A deep series of thumps beat through the house as he hit the tiles, alerting everyone in the kitchen downstairs to his clumsiness. Danny quickly scrambled to his feet, and stood, arms pressed against the kitchen sink.
"Whath vuh thuck." he swore, unable to contemplate the reality of what he now had.
Their pointed white shape taunted him, glinting in the flickering bathroom light, like they were smirking at his inability to smile within their presence.
"I canth ethen thucking thalk!" he cried out in annoyance and complete realisation of how utterly fucked his situation now was. ‘Fangs. Fangs!’ How was he supposed to explain fangs to the unsuspecting citizens of Amity Park?
Danny Fenton was already weird enough to his town, now, he would be a freak. And to top it all off, he couldn't even speak well enough to excuse them.
"sthit! sthit! sthit!" he ran his hands through his hair more frantically now, pulling at the greasy obsidian strands. He poked the strangers in his mouth, two crooked crystal white icicles, among his off-white, now slightly pointed, teeth. The tips of each fang were sharp, and while they didn't stick out from his mouth, they hung in a way which interrupted his natural way of speech, protruding too far into the way of his tongue.
Danny groaned, and closed his eyes, blinking a few times before opening them fully again. He was internally forcing them away, much like how he did to transform back from Phantom.
It didn't work.
The fangs remained grinning back at him smugly through the mirror's reflection.
A knock on the door broke him out of his thoughts, making him jump slightly, his finger slipping from the edge of his teeth to the tip of the fang. He let out a small yelp, quickly sapping the blood from his finger.
"Danny? Are you okay in there? We heard a bang and a shout." Jazz called, her voice slightly muffled by the door.
Danny racked through his mind to find a response if he could even find one. "uhh, hyeeah thazz I'm thine!" he said, literally lying through his teeth.
He didn't want to worry her or have to listen to her verbalise that he was becoming more like Dan - not that she would insinuate that he could be a homicidal maniac.
He didn't want to tell her about his new fanged glory.
He didn't even know how.
'oh hey Jazz! Don't worry but I actually now have two daggers in my mouth, along with a shit-ton of serrated teeth, which I can't even make disappear, or talk properly with. It also makes me look twenty times more like my murderous future self. But it's okay really! I can totally act like I'm not a total freak still!' Danny decided he'd rather not have that explanation until he had figured out how to at least talk with the little beasts.
"You don't sound fine." Jazz stated observingly. She sounded concerned.
'Great!' he thought, but said quickly, "I'm thine." sounding incredibly suspicious.
"Danny, what in the zone is up with your voice?"
Danny shot his hand to the bathroom door to check it was locked and paused, anxiety dripping in the form of sweat from his forehead.
“Isth, vuh thoor! Isth muthling evrythin’!” He attempted to blurt excuses pathetically.
“Danny I’m concerned. Open up the door.”
Danny glanced down to his finger, already healed, then turned his gaze to face the lock, currently being rattled by Jazz.
“I’m nathked!” He cried desperately, as the door shook a little bit heavier.
“Don’t even try that with me. I can tell when you’re lying, Danny.”
“Thuck!” He shouts in frustration, then accidentally slicing open his tongue when talking, he quickly shuts his mouth to sap the blood out the wound. The radioactive taste leaked into his mouth, setting fire to his tastebuds. Ever since the accident his blood had a fiery taste to it which accompanied the normal metallic scent.
“Danny. I’m not joking. Tell me what’s up. Is it- is it ghostly? I can help you know…” Danny resisted the urge to bite his tongue to stop himself from talking, and instead just forced himself to remain silent. He pushed aside his pride and worries and decided to just open the door, making sure to keep his mouth shut as he pushed past his big sister. “Danny. What-" She stammered at his sudden burst from the room, stumbling a little before following him into his room. “What is up with you?” She asked, raw with concern and care for her little brother very clear in her voice.
“Nothinth.” Danny muttered, facing away from Jazz and trying to disguise his current lisp as a tired murmur.
“Danny. Danny!” She called after him, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to face her, “What is wrong with you? Did something happen? That noise? Are you going to talk to me?” Danny tried his best to look annoyed at her, feeling bad, and stared at the ground bitterly, his mouth firmly shut. He avoided meeting her eyes, knowing she would instantly be able to tell something was up. “I swear to god Danny- wait- you’ve never been this quiet in your life. Do you have something in your mouth?”
‘Shit.’ Danny thought angrily, ‘why does she have to be so observant?’ he shook his head.
“Oh my zone you do! Don’t you?” She cried, "open your mouth. What are you hiding?" Danny shook his head, turning in away from her and trying to escape. “Danny I swear on the Zone if you are lying to me… You promised you would tell me things.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him back into the room, but he phased through her arm, leaving her grappling with cold air. “Danny! That’s not fair!”
He shrugs walking away. Jazz runs past him, blocking him from leaving the room. “Don’t you dare turn intangible on me or I will be getting mom and dad!” She threatened. Danny just hung up his hands in defeat and sighed, only letting his lips part slightly. “What is it? Spit it out… literally.”
Danny shook his head, “mhm nhm!”.
Jazz sighed. A small smirk crept up her face. “Fine. I guess we’ll do this the hard way.” Jazz launched herself at her younger brother, tackling him to his bedroom floor, so his arms went out to catch him, leaving him defensless to Jazz’s hand pinching down on his nose and stopping him breathing. “You’ll have to open your mouth to breathe eventually.” She said smugly, clearly proud of trying to suffocate her sibling in the name of truth.
Danny, seemingly unbothered by the lack of oxygen to his lungs, didn’t try to struggle away from Jazz, and rolled his eyes. A green glow appeared around the notepad and pen on his desk, barely used from his slack on homework. Telekinetically dragging it across his room to hover next to him and Jazz. She raised an eyebrow at him curiously, as he tilted his head towards the notepad as if to say: ‘read it.’ The pen scrawled upon the pad, Danny squinting in concentration. It was rare he used his telekinetic abilities. It required too much focus which he couldn’t normally gather. Jazz watched carefully, fingers still pinched on Danny’s nose.
Messy black letters eventually formulated words:
‘I don’t need to breathe for hours you dumbass.'
Jazz looked at him then, annoyance seething across her face, “I can wait.” She said defiantly. Danny pointed at the clock, noting that they had twenty minutes to be at school. It was Jazz’s senior year and final few months before exams. There was no way she would ever be late.
The pen moved again, new letters appearing:
‘I doubt you can wait THAT long.'
Danny smirked, careful not to open his mouth and reveal his teeth. “Okay.” Jazz released his nose, leaving a faint greenish-red mark where her fingers had been pressed against it. “I will find out.” Danny gave Jazz a half smile, not doubting that she would sooner or later. "I know you little brother. If there's one thing you can't do it's keep your mouth shut." Danny didn't even try to argue that with the floating notepad, getting up to gather his things for school.
Suddenly, he felt his mouth freeze with an icy chill, compelling him to open it. He quickly turned away from his sister's view, allowing the icy mist to escape from between his lips, dispersing out into the air. Jazz seemed to notice the faint icy cloud around him and knew what it meant. Ghost. Before she could even think, Danny had dropped his schoolbag and was flying through the wall as Phantom, leaving her alone in his room.
"What are you hiding from me Danny?" she asked the air pensively. Walking to the window to check what the commotion was today, she watched Danny hurtling into battle against Skulker, seemingly not quipping and poking fun at the robotic hunter as he usually would. Jazz had seen Danny fighting many times, always finding a way to enjoy the moment or shoot a joke at his enemy alongside ecto-blasts was his signature style. Whatever had happened this morning had rattled that out of him; no smiles were to be seen, no terrible (really terrible) puns were being made; warped determination was clear across his face.
She figured he would be a bit late to school, likely launching himself into fight after fight all morning, so left him a note next to his bag:
'I won't tell Mom and Dad if you clue me in. I promise -Jazz x'
She giggled a little at how different her hand writing was to his, then made her way downstairs to grab breakfast. It was healthy for the brain and she knew she would need all the help she could get if she was going to effectively help Danny with whatever was bothering him.
Entering the kitchen she thought about all the possible reasons Danny might be so indignant to opening his mouth or speaking in front of her. 'maybe is voice dropped and he's embarrassed? But, no. He was having trouble speaking I think, that can't be it! Maybe he had bad breath? No. I would have smelt that when his ghost sense went off, plus... he wouldn't be embarrassed about that, he'd probably purposefully breathe on me to annoy me.' Having no luck coming to a conclusion, she decided it was best to keep the whole fiasco away from her parents knowledge until Danny said something.
"Jazz honey, did you find out what that bang was Danny made?" Maddie asked when she saw Jazz.
"Danny was there as Phantom. It was just a ghost but he's dealing with it."
Maddie's face dropped a little bit at that, frowning slightly, "A ghost? In our house? I thought we stopped most entities from coming in this house to give him a break? It wasn't a powerful one, was it?" Jazz didn't want to disappoint her parents further by telling them that the last time an invention of theirs worked that actually benefited the safety of Danny, it was a boomerang that was on a mission to give her brother a concussion every time it was thrown. Even that didn't help him with zero downsides. The ghost shield they had invented to help Danny was always fluctuating in power, and sometimes hurt him while he was home. Danny had switched it off months ago.
She became a little lost in her thoughts at that, not realising that she had been silent for at least a minute until Maddie slammed an ecto-gun down on the kitchen table, and put on her hazmat hood, "Jack, get your weapons. Danny needs our help!"
Jazz was snapped out of her own head, and rushed towards her parents, waving her hands dramatically, "What! No! Mom! Dad! We can't go help him. You have... things to do..."
Ever since their parents had discovered Danny's secret alter ego- oh zone that was one dramatic family dinner! - they had been insistant at helping him every chance they got. Danny didn't have the heart to tell them that them going in, ecto-guns blazing while he was in the middle of a fast-paced battle with a ghost, hurt him more than his enemy. His dad tended to have bad aim, and would often accidentally hit Danny instead of the ghost. Luckily, he was yet to try out one of the really dangerous ecto-weapons when his son was in the firing line. His mom got too invested in the fight, charging at the ghost with full power, and little regard for suroudning citizens. Considering the lives of others during his fights was something Danny had mastered, keeping the people of Amity safe throught all his battles, but something his parents were yet to understand fully. Maddie being there made his job more difficult.
"Don't go help him. He has it handled. It's just Skulker."
Jack gasped, his voice a little too loud to be indoors as per usual, "Skulker? Isn't that that darn spook that's always trying to hunt Danny-boy!?"
Jazz grimaced, "Yes- but it's not a big deal, Danny had handled him thousands of times before! He's not even that powerful." At that moment Danny tumbled through the wall intangibly, then skidded across the kitchen floor, head hitting on the fridge.
He was crying inside at the amount of jokes he had but was unable to say. 'Did you really have to freeze me out like that Skulky? That was a cold move! Why’d you throw me in a kitchen? Go cook yourself!’ The possibilities were endless.
Danny jumped up from where he was curled on the floor, facing his family who all looked equally as stunned, except two were armed with ecto-destroying guns. He knew he had nothing to worry about, his parents wouldn’t deliberately hurt him. But somehow their presence was anything but comforting, and so, he launched himself through the air towards skulker, choosing to ignore their staring, and the firing around him from their guns. “Th’I’ll Thee you lather!” He shouted, hurtling his way back out of the kitchen and into battle.
Okay, he definitely is struggling to speak.’ Jazz confirmed mentally. She looked to her parents but they seemed completely oblivious to Danny’s new lisp, ignoring it entirely. “I need to head to school, I’ll see you guys later.” Jazz said, hurrying out the door. “Also, don’t try help Danny please! You know how he is, he dosen’t like to think you’re babying him!” And she slammed the door behind her, running to her car and trying to ignore the firing match in the sky as both hunters try to capture eachother.
“I left your bag in your room.” She shouts before closing the car door. She noticed Danny give her a slight thumbs up, inbetween finger gunning skulker charged with ecto-energy. ‘At least he’s not lost all his quippy flair.’ She thought to herself, driving off, also thanking the fact that their street was practically vacant besides them, meaning she could shout anything she needed to her brother while he was flying in the skies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LATER~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Danny arrived back to the comfort of his room, exactly thirty minutes after the beginning of school.
His inability to make quick quips really put him off his game, making the skulker battle last a little longer than usual. Not to mention the box ghost appearing three times through the battle, trying to steal Danny’s attention with his Not-scary Scary Box of Doom. It was loaded with fake spiders and white foam packaging pieces which he claimed was chunks of cocaine trapping you in a cycle of addiction. Danny was really not sure where in the zone he got that idea from but didn’t want the torment of asking and finding an answer he really wished he never heard. The process of asking the question probably would have taken way longer than he would have liked too, considering the fact he didn’t really know how to speak with his new fangs.
He couldn’t hear his parents downstairs so no doubt they were all the way in the basement lab, tinkering at some new invention. He was glad that this left him alone to really face himself in the mirror and check out his new set of teeth.
Pulling at his gums in the reflective glass he prodded at the elongated state of his canines, trying to push their fang-ness back and out of view.
No such luck came, so he practiced smiling with the teeth, their knive-like edges giving his grin an unsettling quality to it, like he was some gremlin who lives under a bridge. “Thuck.” He swore, punching the sink rim, so a little crack appeared on the basin. His eyes flared an acidic green through his anger, shedding an eerie green glow on to the fangs, only highlighting the creepiness of it all, “I canth go thoo sthool lithe this!”.
He couldn’t go anywhere. He looked like a complete menace to society. A monster. A pathetic monster who couldn’t even talk. Tears bit at his eyes, the green becoming brighter and brighter every thought that passed through his head. He stormed out the bathroom and back into his room, face-planting the bed. ‘My folks were fine with me being phantom, because when I’m with them I’m their son still… but this- it’s so ghostly.’ Hating being a half-living pity party, he forced himself up from the comfort of the mattress into doing something productive. ‘Maybe if I practice talking, it won’t be so bad. Then I don’t have to go through the humiliation of telling my parents like this.’
Danny thought his trouble speaking would make him seem weak; if he couldn’t talk then how could he even fight ghosts? He didn’t want these ‘powers’ to be a hinderance to his personality, and he was a talkative guy. If he was going to move on like he tried to do with everything else in life, he would need the confidence to talk. And to get that, he needed practice. Rummaging around his room for something to do while he was practicing his speech, he noticed his school bag. ‘Ughh I’ll have to skip school again and catch up some other time.’ He thought, but then noticed the note next to it. Reading it over in his head he smiled softly, his fangs poking the inside of his lip,
'I won't tell Mom and Dad if you clue me in. I promise -Jazz x'
He was greatful she was always looking out for him, even if she did become the typical pushy older sister sometimes.
He folded and put the note in his pocket, reminding himself to talk to her about everything later. It was only fair that he showed her, and asked for her help, she always had the best intentions. So, he set to work, tidying his room, talking to himself about everything he was doing. His tongue got stabbed and sliced a fair few times, but he quickly healed, and continued talking, trying to get rid of his terminal mess and newfound speech issues all in one go.