Chapter Text
Secrets are hard you can spend ages crafting a lie and one mistake, one miscalculation and it all falls down. The bigger the secret the harder it is to hide. In the beginning Danny had fought hard to keep Phantom a secret.
It wasn’t easy, it seemed like even his own body was doing everything it could to out him but he managed and he was proud that he'd managed. It did get easier as he gained control. Going from being a nightmare to something he'd grown to love (most of the time) especially the flying.
He really loved the flying.
As time went on, He got complacent, he didn't pay as much attention and Jazz found out but she was ok with it.
She didn't freak out.
She didn't hate him. It was nice.
The idea of telling his parents didn't seem so impossible any more but he just couldn't bring himself to say it but he did let more slip and then he waited for them to come to him to ask what was wrong.
They never did. They didn't notice. And it hurt. It hurt more than he could say. How could they just not notice?
The pride he had once felt disappeared. Clearly it had never mattered how well he hid after all.
He tried to ignore the pain focus on those who did care enough to notice.
But God it sucked when Lancer noticed something was wrong before his parents did.
Jazz's mothering became more of a comfort than an annoyance. H still ducked every time he saw a thermos in her had he still had some self-preservation after all.
He dealt with it. He had no choice but to deal with. He'd be lying if he said it didn't affect how he interacted with them. He knew he grew more distant. They barely notice that either. They only seemed to care when he missed curfew and honestly in a town with constant ghost attacks, you'd think arriving home late covered in bruises would be self-explanatory.
Vlad's taunts had taken on a whole different meaning now but he had to keep reminding himself of where that path led. Dan’s timeline never really stopped haunting him and he refused to ever let it become his reality.
He wasn't bitter.
He wasn't but maybe it had affected his decision to erase their memories with the Reality Gantlet. That was a choice he went back and forth about for a long time.
And so, things had continued as they always had till that fatefully day in the Arctic. The truth was out. No more lies. No more Secrets. They understood now and he forgave them.
He had.
Really, he had.
Right?