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Maddie worries her lip some, Danny worried her a little. He used to be such a happy, loud, silly, carefree child. Even as a preteen it wasn’t often you could actually get him to shut up, stop cracking jokes, or grinning. After the accident that had changed a lot, which while expected, she had also expected him to bounce back. Fenton’s were strong people after all.
And he had. For a while at least. In fact, his love for puns had become drastically worse to the point of being painful for everyone else. Even if the heightened paranoia, laziness, poor grades, and secrecy, had never gotten better. Some permanent affects were understandable.
But lately the grins fallen off his face again. Even Jack, a truly oblivious but lovable man, has noticed it. In fact, it almost seems as if Danny’s developed some kind of self-conscious issue about his mouth. Covering yawns, not eating around anyone, he was actually stifling laughs when she could tell he really did want to laugh his butt off. That wasn’t something he did. The fact that he was near never smiling was honestly more worrying though.
Like that little part inside him that loves to laugh and smile and joke was suffering or dying a slow death. She didn’t exactly know what to do about it, making jokes at him or getting him more involved in the lab weren’t doing any good, but apparently Jack had a far better idea.
Jack smacks the table, making the drink glasses shake slightly, “oh I know! We take him out to get so much excitement that his joy centres can’t help but kick back into full gear!”, then smacking his fist on his palm, “and then! Fudge!”. Making Maddie crinkle her eyes and laugh, her husband was ever the food-focused typed.
Maddie leans back in her chair and taps at her chin, “but take him out to do what? The amusement park or water park is honestly too tame compared to the excitement of living in Amity. He goes to the movies and out to eat all the time, even Vlad takes him out to eat at fancy diners. And we certainly can’t just take him ghost hunting, and camping’s definitely out”. Jack jumps in again, “but maybe that’s it! Excitement! But comfortable excitement!”, nodding to himself, “something easy and won’t make him all edgy”, sticking up a finger, “a picnic! With frisbee!”.
Maddie can’t really help laughing, “I don’t think Danny would exactly enjoy you firing the Frisbee gun at him, Jack dear”. He rapidly shakes his head, “no! No! Actual regular frisbee!”.
Maddie blinks at him, Jack is the last person she’d ever expect to request for ‘normal’ versions of things. But maybe that would work, the last time they had tried ‘being a normal family doing normal family things’ Danny was so strung out that they thought he was having a mental breakdown. Which, to be fair, they hadn’t exactly handled well. And Jack’s fishing trip turned into swamp monsters and her bonding getaway turned into wilderness survival. Just picnicking in the park with a regular soft blanket, old homey smelling basket, frisbee, and card games; surely that wouldn’t go wrong? And they did have a family rule that any and all foul language was allowed during card games -she’s no fool, she knows her son has a foul mouth for some reason- so that might be a winner there. And yes, it gives her an excuse to make Jack fudge and cookies. Hmmmm, maybe she could actually bring ingredients with her and make some no-bake brownies with Danny... Nodding to herself, “yeah that could work, and I know there’s some safe non-contaminated coconut around I could use for no-bake brownies”, eyeing Jack, “and I can bring some fudge brittle, Jack”. He beams at that. She also might bring a little something extra for the brownies.
Jack jumps up, “I’ll go get the basket!”, and runs off. Maddie shaking her head a little; hopefully, it wouldn’t be just her husband enjoying himself.
Danny rolls off his bed and faceplants onto the floor when his mom knocks on the door. Him groaning into the floor while she talks, “you up to anything today, sweetie? Because me and your dad were thinking we could have a little picnic in the park”.
Danny blinks into the carpet, speaking loud enough to be heard, “like, a regular picnic?”, what the Hell?
She laughs, because of course she laughs over him being confused by his parents doing normal parent things. “Yes, a normal family picnic with games and brownies”, her sighing a little, “and fudge”. Which fine, Danny snickers a bit at.
Pushing himself up off the floor, “I mean, I guess? I don’t have any kind of plans”, unless of course some ghost decides to interrupt his day like usual. Though he’s seriously wondering if this is just another one of his parents attempted bonding things or if they’ve actually got some kind of motive going on.
He can easily hear her hum through the door, “good then, think you can be ready in twenty?”. Danny shuffles over to his closet while giving a, “yeah sure”. If this actually is just family bonding shit then maybe he can just relax for a while, and if it’s some suspicious shit then he’ll deal with it.
Maddie hums to herself, smiling faintly as she closes up the wicker basket. It still smells faintly like bbq smoke. Turning her head as her son comes down with obvious suspicious paranoia in his eyes. Yes the fact that family time together equaled something to be cautious and suspicious over is a little saddening, but also understandable. ‘Normal’ family outings were not the norm for Fenton’s. Regardless, all it takes to get Danny out and settled in the GAV is Jack over-enthusiastically shouting from it.
Danny speaking up from him spot lounging across the back seats, “so... are we really just going to the park? No ghost hunting? No checking for ecto-radiations? No target practice?”. Maddie smiles to herself before looking back to him and nodding, “yes, it’s good to get away from that every now and again”, eyeing Jack, “right Jack”; who immediately looks sheepish and rubs his neck.
Danny blinks, “okay... who are you and what have you done with my folks”. Maddie looks back to Danny and gives him the stink eye for using that old line; Danny purses his lips in that way he does when he wants to give a clearly shit-eating grin but is refusing to... for whatever reason. Maddie rolls her eyes and looks back forward as Jack swerves the GAV around a corner a little too fast.
The weird thing was, it wasn’t like Danny seemed to want to smile any less, he just refused to. If she didn’t know him better she’d almost worry he’d developed some sort of twisted mindset that smiling wasn’t manly or was weak; but well, neither Sam nor Valerie would let that fly. Sure Sam was a master of the unaffected scowl and apathetic grimace but the girl still grinned a lot. Similar could be said for Valerie, except she usually smiled maliciously or smirked. Tucker, well, when was that boy not smiling? So it’s not like Danny’s picked this up from his friends. Definitely didn’t get it from his family either, that’s for sure; even Jazz smiles softly fairly often. Heck, she couldn’t even blame Vlad, who’s grin tended to make her spine crawl or just in general feel oddly paranoid, but the man still smiled. She’s still not sure what to think over her son becoming close with her occasionally creepy old college friend.
There’s really no where he could have picked this up from. And not smiling certainly wasn’t some new kind of trend or statement. But watching the park sign go by, maybe she’ll get a hint or answer today; or at least rectify the issue slightly. Her hopping out, basket in arm, as soon as Jack gets the GAV parked. Looking back to Danny, “you feel like getting the blanket, sweetie? There’s some ingredients wrapped up inside, so it’s not the lightest thing in the world”. To say Danny got his father’s strength would be something of an understatement; he caught the backend of the GAV from falling on her foot once when he was still only a five-foot-four little gremlin!
Danny chuckle-coughing off to the side facing away from them, “oh yeah wouldn’t want to be crushed under the weight of the soon-to-be munchies”. Her giggling to herself some over that while Jack leads the way to wherever he decides is a good spot.
Predictably, Jack manages to pick out the biggest tree in probably the entire park as their spot. Danny snorts, “go big or go home, I guess. Betcha so many squirrels love it, really fits this squirrely family perfectly”. Jack laughs, “squirrels are adorable little buggers”.
“Yeah adorable little devils”, Danny stares off into the distance and shakes out the blanket like it’s personally offended him. Maddie can’t help giggling at his expense a little, that’s right, he did get bit by a squirrel once when he was little. He had pouted, whimpered, and crosses his arms when that happened; had refused to cry though because he had been in that ‘boy’s don’t cry’ phase. Jazz giving tiny him an earful about how that wasn’t healthy and wrong was the first time Maddie had really seen the psychologist in Jazz; hadn’t made little Danny pout any less though.
Maddie laughs lightly at Danny laying down spread out on the blanket and staring up at the sky filled with slow-moving clouds, it’s like he was debating what happened in his life to get him to this point. She’s tempted to ask him what he’s thinking about but she knows she’ll either get a distracting joke or ‘oh nothing’ in response. He tended to keep any thoughts or feelings that were ‘serious’ to himself... or his friends. She worried about that too sometimes, children were supposed to confide in their parents but Danny never did. Never even tried to.
Regardless, she opens up the basket and starts grabbing out the snacks and drinks, practically throwing a pop at Jack while just setting Danny’s near his head. Jack looks more than a little hopeful, “so... fudge brittle?”. Danny snorts from the ground. Maddie rolls her eyes at the man, “first you can put those snack eating hands to snack making use”. Jack actually pouts at her but does take one of the mugs for the brownies and some of the pre-put-together mixture. Her shoving one into Danny’s hand as well, “here, you get to mixing too”.
Danny sighs dramatically like this is just so much effort and hoists himself up, him eyeing the mixture Ziploc with a quirked eyebrow, “uh, is this even still good”. Maddie rolls her eyes, “I know what expired product looks and smells like, Danny”. Making him quirk his eyebrow further before sniffing at it, “you sure? Smells kinda strange”. Maddie just waves him off, “that’s because it’s not store-bought, it’s homemade”, tilting her head, “well home-put-together at least”. Him snorting at that but seemingly taking her word for it. It was like he was transitioning to using snorting in place of actually laughing or smiling. Doesn’t stop him from making faces at the cup while he mixes up his brownie.
Sometimes Maddie wondered if Danny’s contamination let him smell things regular human beings could not. Ghosts senses were generally heightened, after all, so the possibility of his being heightened as well wasn’t off the board. It was also something she could test subtly; she’ll have to make a note of that for later. For now, picnics and brownies... and yes eventually fudge and frisbee. The kids had loved frisbee when they were younger so she gets why Jack went with that, though little Danny would usually go out of his way to have to jump onto the ground or into trees. Frisbee usually meant having to clean up a very dirty Danny and pull twigs out of his hair. Jazz was more reasonable and calculating before she got to that age where she decided she’d rather read a book. It’s too bad she was away at university or maybe Maddie could have coxed her into joining in today.
Danny stares down at his mixture-filled mug slowly turning into a brownie mug, crinkling his nose, “I say it still smells funny”. Jack chuckles and sniffs his own before shrugging exaggeratedly, “smells good to me! But you’re young! So I hope you have better smell than your old man!”, and laughs loudly again. Danny just eyes his cup with suspicion, glancing at Maddie, “you didn’t, like, put any ecto stuff in it, did you?”. Which makes Maddie blink and wonder if maybe he just had more of a nose for ectoplasmic things than better smell in general.
Maddie hums, “well I did throw in some ectoplasmic herbs, but they’re perfectly safe”, giving Danny a Look, “yes I checked, including against your samples”, she knows that’s something they always had to do with anything ectoplasmic, since his contamination so often reacted to things. Regardless of her reassurances Danny still eyes the mug warily and waits for Jack to eat a scoop of his -suffering no ill reaction- before even moving to take a scoop of his own. Maddie does understand the paranoia slightly, since foods with ectoplasmic ingredients or contamination had a bit of a tendency to come to life on top of the possibility of Danny having some form of a reaction.
Jack hums, “huh, kinda woodsy!”, and looks perfectly pleased with that, while Danny takes the plunge and actually tries some instead of just awkwardly hovering his brownie-filled spoon in the air. Danny munching on it almost thoughtfully while Jack continues, “I like it! What one of those herbs we discovered did you use?!?”.
Maddie chuckles, “plasannis sativa, I believe”, nodding to herself, “since all the tests showed it was really healthy, good for digestion, and a better mood-lifter than even chocolate; I figured it would go great with brownies and be healthy”, and glares at Jack, who really should start eating better one of these days. The man just looks around almost awkwardly and rubs at his neck.
Danny, meanwhile, hums and looks a little surprised when she glances to him, “oh that’s actually pretty good. Not sure if that’s supposed to taste kinda liquidy on the tongue though”, and shrugs while taking another bite. Maddie has some of hers though and seriously wonders if maybe her conclusion that he wouldn’t have some kind of reaction might have been a little premature... At least he liked it? Jack clearly thinks nothing of it as he grabs out the cards, and while Danny rolls his eyes a little he doesn’t object to a few rounds of flip uno with jump in rules.
After said few rounds though, Maddie is just slightly more concerned since Danny kept squinting and moving the cards like the cards appeared to be moving and he was trying to focus on them; Jack was snickering over it though. Jack also seemingly blames the sun even though they’re mostly in the shade, him looking up at the sky, “sun sure can make cards hard to see huh!?!”. Danny glances to him looking seriously suspicious and giving a very noncommittal and disbelieving, “yeah....”, before snorting and chuckling with a hand over his mouth at Jack getting skipped for the third time in a row. Guess their plan to get him to have some fun might actually still work regardless of the possibly bad idea brownies.
After about another half hour though, Danny’s seemingly finding everything funny to the point where even Maddie’s having a hard time not laughing at or with him seeing as he’s still attempting at the mouth covering thing or just straight up sticking out his tongue to keep from openly laughing. It’s very obvious to Maddie that Jack's made it his mission to get Danny to stop doing that since he’s started randomly poking Danny, taking Danny’s weirdly good mood in stride. Maybe Maddie just underestimated the effectiveness of a good homemade brownie? No he’s probably being affected by the ecto-ingredients to some degree.
When Jack winds up having to pick up twenty cards due to stacking that’s apparently just too much for Danny, who flops backwards on the blanket damn near cackling at the sky; Maddie chooses to ignore the slight echo to it, since that happened sometimes with him. What she doesn’t ignore though, and what she drops her jaw at slightly, is the situation going on with his mouth. Watching him grinning his butt off -like his cheeks probably hurt from it- with the tips of tiny little fangs sticking out over his lips. Jack has also clearly noticed, going slightly wide-eyed before apparently deciding to just roll with it as Danny cackles loudly more, Jack joining in heartily.
Danny smacks a hand on his face, mumbles into it, and rubs his hand down his face; sticking out and poking at his tongue. Maddie’s absolutely blaming that on the brownies but that’s not really the matter right now since him doing that just shows off that he absolutely had these little tiny fangs in his mouth. Was this why he wasn’t smiling and laughing and smirking and cackling anymore??? But why??? Her clueing it that he was probably trying to hide it from them puts a damper on her good mood some but her putting down yet another plus five on Jack and making Danny damn near shriek a cackle like a banshee and wheeze from the ground, makes it really hard not to laugh herself.
She’s also fairly sure what’s up with Danny’s behaviour too, he was high. Which didn’t exactly make her feel like the best mother but at least it got him laughing and having a good time.
Danny rolling onto his face on the blanket, chuckling into it before pushing himself back up and staggering just slightly while getting himself to sit back down with a thump; at least he doesn’t try to play a card he can’t actually play. Him rubbing his face and blinking weirdly, almost sounding whiny, “mooom, I think you got me high”. Maddie doesn’t mean to seem mocking when she giggles, clearing her throat when he pouts at her, “sorry sweetie, I promise it wasn’t intentional. Are you alright though?”. She might not be the best mother but she was still a mother.
Danny flushes and mumbles, “I’m fine”; which she gives him a disbelieving look at. Danny cringing, rubbing his neck slightly uncoordinated, “well ah, I’m kinda dizzy and things are kinda pulsing-lookin’ but I’m ‘ine”, and gives a weak grin, the... fangs popping out over his lips again... which after a few seconds, and Maddie glancing to his lips, he seems to notice; him going wide-eyed and damn near smacking himself in the face to cover his mouth. He gives a physically awkward feeling chuckle, “ah, heh”.
Jack gives him a hard pat on the back, making Danny cough, startled. “Oh don’t worry about it kiddo!”. Danny messes up his face in a way that, again, feels physically awkward, “um. Okay?”, and leaves his mouth hanging open slightly in a way that Maddie’s knows that he knows that she can see the... situation with his teeth, but it also isn’t super obvious. Like he was trying to figure out if either of them actually noticed, which with Jack was a reasonable possibility.
Which leaves her with two options really, either she can ask and try to figure out what the heck happened with his teeth, or she can pretend to be really that oblivious. The second option would likely make Danny less freaked and avoid one awakened conversation. While the first option would maybe figure out what’s going on and would probably make Danny stop apparently hiding his mouth... and wasn’t trying to get him to start smiling and laughing openly again the entire point? Plus... she could just chalk the fangs up to his contamination? Right? Ghosts had those so maybe it was reasonable for ectoplasm in general to have some kind of coding for fangs. Choice decided, Maddie nods, “so long as you’re not feeling sick, Danny, and so long as your teeth are fine”, making a damn point to smile softly at him and ignore him suddenly looking extremely nervous and like he might just jump right out of his skin, “you don’t need to be covering up your teeth though, you not smiling or anything was kind of worrying us actually”.
Danny blinks harshly and actually jerks from Jack laughing, snapping his head towards the man as Jack speaks up, “yeah! Just ain’t right you not laughing!”, pushing Danny’s shoulder slightly and probably not noticing how stiff Danny was looking, “don’t let nothin’ stop you from a good laugh! Or a proper smile! Not even yourself”, and nods curtly.
Danny cringes painfully hard and almost looks like he’s gonna cry, which was not the point... being high -okay yeah she feels a bit bad about that- was probably making him more emotional. Danny swallows harshly, “um I, uh, thanks?”, opening his mouth and very jerkily prods his teeth with a finger a few times before actually prodding at one of the fangs, “so, uh, teeth huh?”, and chuckles for some reason. Before he actually starts genuinely laughing, puts his head in his hands, and wheezes, “this is the goddamn stupidest fucking way for, Ancients fucking Christ. Fuck me. An’ I was so fucking careful. Ancients”. Which yeah Maddie can’t help laughing at a little, because yeah this was not how she’d ever imagined finding out something about her son's teeth; that was supposed to be his dentists job!
Jack chuckles, having absolutely heard Danny, “well you did a good job of it, son!”, shaking his head, “not that you needed to!”, and pokes Danny’s cheek; Danny puffing out his cheeks in response and pouting.
Maddie decides that making this seem less like some kind of big deal would be a good idea so she continues with the game, playing a blue five. While the game continues Danny curls up and grumbles, “well ‘s weird and not exactly human...”. Jack just laughs at that, “weird sounds like any proper Fenton!”; making Maddie grin at the man. Danny actually chuckles, “true”; Maddie just grins some more purely because Danny didn’t cover his mouth up that time.
Maddie decides now’s a good a time as any for the fudge brittle, take some pressure off Danny, and pulls out the definitely unhealthy snack. Jack beams like a kid in a candy store, cheering loudly, “yes!”. She smacks his hand away, glares, and moves the plate to let Danny take some -which he does- before basically giving Jack the plate.
Danny bites into it, Maddie trying not to stare at how one of the fangs absolutely punctures the brittle, probably making it way easier to break apart. Now she knows exactly why he was either eating in his room or covering up his mouth all the time; the fangs were rather noticeable, him moving his mouth weirdly wasn’t exactly helping though.
Maddie ruffles up Danny’s hair, him somewhat eyeballing her hand grumpily, “moooom, come on, cut it out”. Her giggling at him swaying out of her easy reach.
Jack chuckling himself as he uses a repeat card to go out without ever having to even say uno, “ha!”. Danny grumbling not so quietly, “fuck”, since he absolutely had a lot of points due to not exactly playing very well. Jack nudges him good-naturedly, “I win! Which means! Frisbee!”. Maddie smiles at him softly, “Jack dear, I think we might want to skip out on that one today”, eyeballing Danny, “I’m not sure Danny exactly has the coordination for that”.
Danny jerks up, “what no, I’m ‘ine”, him standing up before immediately face-planting onto the grass says otherwise though. Both parents chuckling at his expense. Jack rubbing his neck and laughing a little more, “I think you might have a point there, Mad’s”. While Danny pushes himself up, grumbling incoherently all the while. Then watching him make a disgusted face before shoving a finger in his mouth and seemingly scraping behind his right fang. Maddie’s going to guess he got dirt behind it, which yeah wouldn’t exactly taste the greatest.
Danny actively pouts as Jack pats him to sit back down, Jack chuckling, “how ‘bout we play a few rounds of blackjack instead?”. Danny snorts but does attempt at shuffling the deck of cards, “blackjack for the Jack”, and snickers to himself. Maddie sighs because Danny literally always makes that joke. Jack chuckles though and ignores Danny kinda boxing the cards, “yup! Do you need a toothbrush for your fang though?”, snickering, “since it got kind of dirty”; Maddie absolutely scowls at her husband for that, Danny’s punning should never be encouraged. Danny grins stupidly though, so Maddie’s going to let Jack’s punning slide for once.
“It’s fine”, Danny shrugs awkwardly, “‘ere’s just this kinda groovy part on the back tha’ shit gets stuck in”. Maddie nods acceptingly, while Jack laughs some more, “must be a real pain to brush that!”. Danny nods but wiggles his mouth around, “yeah...”, quirking an eyebrow, “‘m surprised ya so okay wit’ it”.
Maddie shrugs as relaxed as she possibly can, “they’re just teeth, sweetie. Little different yes, but that’s it”, tilting her head a little, “might be a good idea to get a dentist to check them over though”. Danny winces, like he always did when doctors, nurses, or anyone of the sort was mentioned, “don’ wanna. I’m fine”. Maddie gives him a look for that but sighs, she did kind of understand since his contamination did mess with a lot of his baseline stats amongst other things.
Jack, as usual lacking sensitivity, presses the issue, “can we at least get a good scan?”. Danny blushing and grumbling incoherently a bit before responding properly, “‘ine I guess”. Maddie makes a point to smile at him, “thanks, sweetie. You know it’s just because we care, right?”.
Danny moves to rub his neck at that but winds up smacking himself in the cheek with his cards, “yeah yeah”. Jack nudging him, “and they’re small! So I doubt they really cause any issues. Which is good!”, tilting his head while Danny blushes some more, “though I’m pretty sure bigger ones are seen as better by the spookies”, and taps his chin. Danny’s blush only gets worse, “dad oh my Ancients”. Maddie absolutely giggles at his expense a little, something tells her he was aware of that and slightly self-conscious about that fact.
Danny glances around and mumbles down at the cards, “anyway... I think you gave me ghost weed”; that was a deflection if Maddie’s ever heard one before. Jack taps his chin, “huh, you know, plasannis does sound kinda like cannabis”. Danny gives him a serious ‘you-don’t-say’ look at that. Maddie just blinks at her son, “... and how do you know that, Danny”. And Danny suddenly looks like a deer caught in headlights. Him waving his hands around and nearly smacking himself again, “oh no, ‘s not me! Jus’ that Johnny ghost uses it and he ain’t exactly, ya know, uncommon around Amity”, and rubs his neck.
Maddie only gives him a stern expression for a few seconds before shaking her head and laughing faintly, “good”. She honestly had no idea ghost drugs were a thing, but now that she knows she’s going to keep an eye out for that. She was not going to accidentally cause her son to become a druggie, especially not for ghost drugs. “And again, sorry for accidentally drugging you, sweetie”. Danny shrugs very awkwardly, “um, not yer fault?”; making her smile at him, and he returns it back with a slightly nervous shaky-looking smile; fangs poking out slightly.
Yeah she made the right decision, fanged smiles were still smiles after all.
End.