Chapter Text
Amity Park was silent at 4:30 in the morning. Danny was exhausted. Over the past 7 years, he found fighting ghosts really messed up his sleep schedule. With all the classes he slept through, it was some sort of miracle he graduated high school. He yawned as he flew over the park in the center of town. He tightened his grip around the Fenton Thermos. He wasn't planning on letting the Box Ghost interrupt his sleep for a while, as long as he could help it. He heard the faint voice of the Box Ghost yelling from the his containment, spewing curse words and calling him names. Danny laughed to himself and shook his head. The Box Ghost was so much more trouble then his pudgy little figure would lead on.
Danny phased through the wall of his childhood home. His parents didn't leave the stairwell light on now that both he and Jazz were out of the house. Once in his family's kitchen, two ectro-rings enveloped his form, and he was back to being plain old Danny Fenton. He groaned and rubbed his eyes. Before he had the chance to walk towards Fenton Works Lab, he was surrounded by a deafening blare of the home alarm Jack had put together. It was installed to go off when it sensed a ghost in the house. Danny sighed. It wasn't a bust of an invention, he was technically a ghost, well, half ghost. Danny turned around to see if he could find the control panel. Trying to guide himself into the main hallway, Danny placed his hands on the wall, and walked towards the front door. He could decide if it was worth closing his eyes in an attempt to find the panel, the flashing lights causing him to see spots. Once he made it to the stairs, he was greeted by his parents. Danny wouldn't necessarily say he was feeling all that welcome. Both of his parents were holding an ecto-blaster, aimed towards the intruder. It took Maddie a few moments for her brain to wake up, and to realized the 'intruder' was their son. She lowered her blaster and gathered him in a hug.the alarm still blaring around them, Maddie had said something in the midst of the hug, but it was usually to try to understand what she had said over the noise filling the house. Once the world had been saved from the Disasteriod, his half-ghost secret identity was revealed. Danny was surprised how little it bothered the town ghost hunters that their son had been sneaking around risking his life to fight ghosts. Jack had been bursting with excitement to have Danny try his new inventions while fighting. Maddie, on the other hand, had spent hours lecturing her teenage son on the importance of being safe, and telling him countless times how much she loved him and she wouldn't know what to do with herself if he had ever been injured, or killed. A few days later, Jack had sit down with Danny to have the 'Birds and the Bees' talk after his entire family had seen him kiss Sam during his attempt to save the globe. Danny left the room before Jack could get much out.
Maddie pushed the blaster out of Jack's hands and yelled to him over the alarm blaring that Danny had set it off. Once Jack realized the situation, he rushed past his son to type in the passcode to turn off the security system.
"Dad, you should really give me the code, this happens every time I head to the portal." Danny laughed.
Jack took the thermos out of his hand and held it up to his ear, listening to the captive yell obscenities and threats towards Danny. "Box Ghost?" Jack asked, looking at Danny.
"Unfortunately." Danny huffed as he took the thermos, heading towards the door leading down the the Lab. As he travelled down the stairs, he recounted his brief and annoying fight with the Box Ghost to his eager father. Jack followed closely behind, asking too many questions for 5:00 am. Danny just wanted to head down to release the Box Ghost back into the Ghost Zone, and get back to his apartment. He wanted to sleep.
Once the Box Ghost was returned, he took the stairs two at a time, trying to hurry out of the house before going ghost. He really didn't want to wake the whole neighborhood, again.
Before heading out the door, his parents said their goodbyes. "Tell Sam we say hi!" Maddie called as she followed her husband toward the master bedroom. Danny had been told several times by his parents that his girlfriend was a keeper. Once, Maddie had even offered her grandmother's engagement ring during a family dinner, and Danny responded by choking on his meal.
Once outside, he quickly transformed into Danny Phantom. He flew towards the apartment building downtown where he lived. He passed Tucker's mansion. He shook his head. Who would have thought his best friend Tuck would be mayor, re-elected for two terms already. The first time had been a surprise, the second election was even more surprising. Electing Tucker Foley was the best thing to happen to Amity Park. Tuck set up an alert system for the town when a ghost was attacking, and even set up an app would cause Danny's phone to go off when he was needed. Tuck called it the 'Phantom Signal'.
It was nearly 5:30 in the morning by the time he had phased through the wall of his apartment. The dark living space was was filling with bright light when he transformed back into his blue eyed, black haired, human self. He groaned. After all these years, he still wasn't used to the blinding light that accompanied his transformations. He rubbed his eyes and opened the door to his bedroom. Danny tried to move as quietly as possible as he stepped through the dark room. He didn't want to wake the sleeping figure in his bed. He froze in his footsteps as he heard a groan come from his girlfriend's mouth.
"The Box Ghost? Again?" Sam mumbled.
Danny laughed, of course Sam knew. He watched as she set her phone down on the dresser next to his bed. Whenever he responded the Phantom Signal, Sam made sure she stayed up on the progress of the attack.
"I didn't mean to wake you when I left." Danny sighed as he closed the distance between himself and the bed.
"You didn't." Sam grumbled. She hated losing sleep as much as he did, "I can just tell when you're not here." She paused, "It's colder when you're not here." He could hear a slight tone of embarrassment when she spoke.
Danny smiled. He laid down on top of Sam. Putting most of his weight on her small frame. "How about this? Is this better?"
Sam laughed as she tried to wiggle free, "This is not what I meant, Danny!" Sam was able to push Danny off of her as she laughed. Danny let himself roll to Sam's side and gathered her in his arms.
Six years ago, Sam was roughly the same height as Danny. Now, at 22, Danny was taller, he had managed to gain more than a few inches on Sam. He grew into his large eyes and hands, his face rounded out, and he had gained muscle. His hair was still unruly, but he managed to keep it from sticking up too much. Sam was still perfect to Danny, she hadn't changed much since high school. she had grown her hair a few inches longer, and over the past few years, she ditched her old black and plaid combo for more mature looking wardrobe. Dark colors and shades of black still present, obviously. Danny wouldn't have it any other way, really.
Danny reached over and looked at the screen of his phone. 5:33, he could feel himself slowly falling asleep. He placed his phone next to Sam's. And readjusted himself, pulling already sleeping Sam towards him.
He smiled to himself and let out a deep sigh. It was Saturday, and he planned on sleeping in.