Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ember knew what it was like to have stress and be stressed out. More-so when she was alive, but those sorts of things leave a lasting presence on the soul. She knew stress. And Danny? Danny was stressed. It was incredibly easy to see. 

From his rapidly strengthening (and getting uncontrollable as of now) powers to him still having to hide things from his friends and family; Baby-pop was certainly having a time of it. In human-form, bags hung heavy under his eyes, his hair limp, shoulders slumped. At least in ghost-form he didn't have the added weight of gravity on his shoulders. He was already carrying too much on them as it is. Ember tried to her best to help when she could. Who was once just a nuisance had very quickly became someone she saw as a younger brother (of sorts). She cared for him and wanted to see him happy. 

But she knew that from here on, things would only get harder for him.

In the beginning, Ember and the other ghosts had been wary of the portal that had all but blasted it's power across every end of the Ghost Zone. No other portal was like it, but it was obvious that was what it was. Across the Infinite Realms, portals were not unheard of. They were always opening and closing in mere seconds, giving way to different points in history or different universes and were reason enough to be wary of random glowing spaces that open up out of nowhere. This one, though? This one was permanent and stayed in one set time zone. It was unheard of to most ghosts that liked to hop portals into the human realms. 

It wasn't until Skulker went through and came back with tales of an aggressive ghost on the other side that had formed there (instead of in the Ghost Zone) and was exceedingly rare that Ember decided to brave the portal. 

She wasn't interested in the new ghost, far from it. What she was interested in, was grabbing her dream. The one she left behind but still clung to in the form of an Obsession. 

She wanted the world to know her name, as simple as that. 

That "aggressive ghost" came into her after-life anyways and made himself quite the nuisance. The most surprising part? He was half-human!!! A halfa!

There was only one halfa known to the Ghost Zone. One by the name of Vlad Plasmius. He'd made a name for himself quite quickly and was only contacted by the ghosts that sought someone to give them direction. He didn't give them direction, though, and instead commanded them. There were few that stood against him and said 'no.'

Now, there were two of them. Then two became three.

And by the sounds of it, three was once again about to become two. 

It was a bitter-sweet day in Ember's memory when she came across Danny alone in the Ghost Zone. He'd been floating in place, looking lost and sad, and so much like a kicked puppy who'd been left by itself as the side of the road that Ember couldn't help but fly over to see what was up. She would never come to regret that decision. 

Danny had been defensive, of course, but she'd quickly needled her way onto his good side. Still, even with the couple of laughs she'd been able to pull out of him, it was obvious that there was something enormous bothering him. Somehow, she'd gotten him to open up to her. It hadn't been at that first friendly meeting, of course. No-no. It'd been because of an offer of food. 

Ghosts don't need it, but she knew Danny did and she remembered that eating while sad was a comfort when she was alive. So, she snuck some money from the wallet of an asshole rich man (it was Vlad) and cajoled Danny into meeting her above the Nasty Burger. There, she'd plopped the bills into his hand and ordered him to grab a burger from inside and eat it up there with her as the sun set. He'd been surprised and tried to give the money back with protests that she absolutely was not having. It took her threatening to throw his ass into the burger joint herself and then just stealing the food for Danny to give her a long-suffering look and finally get some food into him. 

To her surprise, he'd come back up with a burger for Ember too. 

There, they'd sat on the roof above the Nasty Burger, idly chatting as they watched the sun go down and the lights across the city start to pop up. It was then that Danny had expressed interest in seeing the night sky in person. Ember had told him that all he had to do was look up. This seemed to be the big ice-breaker somehow and he started on a rant about how the light pollution from the city blocked out the stars. 

"Even without the light pollution, it's always cloudy here to the point we hardly ever even get to see the moon!" He'd all but shouted, pacing across the Nasty Burger roof, waving a burger in one hand and sticking a fry in his mouth with the other. Ember had watched on in amusement, glad to see that he had lit up with the topic rather than fall back into the slump he had been in before. 

So, Ember told him about her experiences. How she'd seen the stars absolutely blanket the sky only once when she was alive. 

Danny was surprised that she brought up her past so easily and painlessly. This was after Clockwork and Frostbite had started to coach the halfa in the culture of the Ghost Zone, though he had yet to pick up the nuances. 

"If we open up about the topic and talk about it ourselves, willingly, it's not so bad." Ember told him. She didn't meet his eyes as she said it. It still hurt to talk about. But it wasn't so bad. Instead, she looked across the expanse of the city. "It can be good for us to open up about things like that. What bothers us and what sticks with us." 

Ember had not meant for that to be a prompt for Danny to open up to her, but he met her offer of friendship half way. 

He told her everything. Well, mostly everything. She knew there were still things he was holding back, it was obvious in the way he held himself (protective, curled up), but obviously wasn't going to press. 

A few weeks before, Clockwork had reached out to him. (And wasn't that just astonishing!? THE Clockwork!? Someone she had thought was only legend within the Ghost Zone!? Of course Baby-pop would get mixed up with legends. It's just his luck after all.) There was something important the ghost had to speak with him about. When Danny met with him, Frostbite had been there as well, and Clockwork had informed him that Danny needed to start learning about the culture of ghosts and the Infinite Realms; things that came ingrained, instinct, to the full ghosts that formed in the Zone. There was no precursor, just boom-bam time to learn. 

At this point, Danny started to clam up. He'd curled in more on himself and frowned deeply. 

The topic of ghost royalty had come up, he explained. That Clockwork, Frostbite, Pandora, and a few others that didn't interest Ember as much as those first three, were currently the only "royalty" presiding over any parts of the Zone. But they weren't true royalty, apparently. 

Danny was. 

And wasn't that astonishing to find out?

"Clockwork said I was a Prince of the Infinite Realms." Danny looked close to tears when he told Ember. "I don't want to be! He-... He said that I was set in line to take the throne, the one that Pariah Dark was on. The one that I apparently won when I beat Pariah by the skin of my teeth." Then he told her how, if he were to become King, he would have to die. And he was going to. Eventually his ghost half will take over. 

And Danny didn't have a choice. 

Wasn't that just so damn sad?

He couldn't tell his friends or his family, yet. So, Ember decided right then and there that she was going to take the halfa under her wing and teach him what she knew as well. Like the best places in the Zone to have some fun. The kid really needed some plain old fun in his life. 

They met frequently over the course of two months. Always above the Nasty Burger and always after Ember managed to get him to eat.

She thinks it was a slip of the tongue, really, that got them to where the two were now. He'd mentioned he hadn't found his Obsession yet and had such an 'oops' look on his face after that Ember couldn't help but laugh.

"It's not such a taboo topic that we can't talk about 'em at all! You're fine Baby-pop!" And then the full implications of what he'd said hit her. She smacked him on the arm, stood up and screeched, "YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR OBSESSION YET?"

It was a miracle no one heard her. Or saw her. She may have lost control of her hair flames a moment. May have.

Danny had immediately gone to shush her, but Ember had started pacing, going into a rant about 'how the fuck are you so powerful?' and 'what the fuck Baby-pop?' and 'ooooh my fucking god, what the fuuuuuck?' and about how that 'wasn't fair' and that 'oh Ancients, you're a baby Baby-pop!' Very eloquent. She truly was a poet.

After Ember had calmed down, they sat again and had a small talk about it. That was the start. 

With Danny's agreement, it was decided that Ember would help Amity's resident halfa find his Obsession. Over time, in between his lessons with Clockwork or Frostbite and his free time between school, they talked about what his Obsession could be and they tried several different things. Then Danny started getting stuck in Ghost Speak. It wasn't a problem for Ember, being a ghost and could obviously understand him, but his other friends and family could not. They quickly became more worried about the way he was acting and it became harder and harder for him to get away to meet Ember. 

It was also, obviously, incredibly frustrating for him being unable to communicate with them. He was understandably terrified of never being able to talk to them again. There was a moment, there, that Ember knew he was holding something important back, and again did not press him. He would tell her when he felt comfortable doing so. 

Which brings her to her current situation. 

Danny was stressed, Ember knew stress, and the perfect remedy for some stress relief was a bit of fun. So she made plans. And scrapped them. And made more. And scrapped those. So, she decided on the simplest plan with the simplest fun. 

"Tag! You're it!"

Ember zipped off into the sky, turning on a dime the second her finger met Danny's shoulder, grinning madly. 

"No fair! You didn't give any warning!" She heard him shout behind her. Ember only cackled in response and shot forward. 

It was fun. Fun that Ember hadn't realized she herself needed as well. As the sun started to set, they swooped and spun in the air. Danny would get Ember with a brush of his fingers and Ember would screech in mock anger as he shouted "Tag!" and took off. They chased each other for hours. Both had more than enough energy to expend on the task. 

Enjoying the wind and the chase, Ember would still check in on Danny, watching him as they flew when she could. He had a grin on his face, as wide as hers, and had a life to his eyes she realized she hadn't seen in a while. It was good to see it back. Ember patted herself on the back for this. He needed it.

The game took them higher and higher into the sky. The longer it went, the more sure Ember was that she was going to protect this little halfa for the rest of her after-life if she could. And that was without the perk of him being future king. He needed someone in his circle and she would do her best to be a support. 

Ember cackled again and took a random sharp turn that surprised Danny and led them farther away from the city. It was then that she remembered his rant about the light pollution that blocked the stars and thought, "Why not?"

She led the game more purposefully to where she knew there were less lights. It took some doubling back to snag Danny when he managed to tag her and took off in the wrong direction, but she eventually led him up above the clouds and far enough away from the light pollution. Stars were already starting to dot the sky and she had to do quick dodges away from Danny to watch the moon gain height in the sky. Now, she only had to wait until he noticed. 

In her excitement at the thought, Ember shot straight up into the air. She went up, up, up. She could almost feel Danny gaining on her. She went up some more until they broke through the last ring of clouds.

Seeing the sky in its full glory struck her just the same as it did when she was alive. If she could breathe, the air would have been knocked out of her. Ember's eyes grew wide and she slowed her flying. Oh, how she remembered wishing she could reach her hand up and touch the sky. And now, she could do it. And Danny could too. With a smile, Ember realized there was no way Danny hadn't noticed the sky now. Wanting to drink in the sight of his face seeing the sky in full for the first time, Ember turned. 

She didn't even have a chance to catch even a glimpse of him before he was rocketing past her fast enough to almost leave her spinning. She gaped after him in surprise, wondering what in the world that was for, when she saw it. 

Danny was alight. 

His normal ghostly glow had been amped up to eleven and sparkling dots freckled his exposed skin. Ember had but a mere millisecond to realize that Danny was still speeding upwards, towards the moon, and that his skin was rapidly paling to a soft shade of blue. 

Shit. She knew those signs. 

"Danny!" Ember took off after him with a shout. 

What set him off? They were just playing tag! She didn't know what it could have been! How long had the Obsession Trance been setting in? How long it took for her to notice was entirely too quick. 

"Danny!" She called after him again. Danny made no notice of having heard her. Ember grit her teeth and increased her speed. If Danny was any stronger, she never would have been able to catch up. She was struggling as it was to keep on his tail. She pushed herself, yelling as she shot hot flames from her hands to give herself every bit of boost she needed to catch him. 

It took just a moment, but she managed to wrap a hand around one of the wrists at his side. He was fast and Ember almost lost her grip, but somehow was able to hang on. In a quick tug, Ember basically put on the air brakes and pulled backwards as hard as she could. "Danny!" She shouted, hoping it would grab his attention long enough for her to get a better hold on him. 

By the Ancients he was cold. It wasn't just that his ghostly glow was brighter, there was literal ice vapor drifting off of him and reflecting the natural glow he already had. The pale blue-green was starting to darken to a shade of green a little lighter and less saturated than ectoplasm and Ember prayed to the Ancients that it is not the color the skin of his ghost-form would settle into because Danny would absolutely hate it. 

Danny tugged harshly against her, still not seeming to have noticed she was there and only strained upwards. 

Shit, he was strong. It was a struggle just to drag him close enough to hold him to her. 

"Phantom!"

Ember had but a moment to let go as Danny whipped around and snapped bared teeth (holy shit, fangs) just a millimeter from her nose. The sharp clack of his teeth startled a gasp out of her. His eyes were glowing dangerously. Two bright pools of ectoplasm with the tiniest pin prick of a white pupil. He looked scary. Scarily strong. Scarily sharp. And scarily deep into an Obsession Trance. 

With her grip on him gone, Danny shot upwards again. Ember yelped and latched on again as quickly as she could, holding on and trying to wrap her arms around the chest of the struggling halfa. Her core throbbed in sympathy as Danny let out a heart-wrenching whine that was so incredibly in-human and so un-like him. She hated this. She didn't know what the cause of his Obsession Trance was yet and she knew it was agony to him to keep Danny in place. She felt it so strongly herself once before. The pain in her core had settled to an ever-lasting feeling that she knew she would never be able to complete. Her dream was a lost one. 

Danny snarled, wiggling against her arms as Ember pressed her cheek to his back, eyes tightly shut in the effort that it was to try and hold him still. A litany of angry, hurt, desperate noises escaped him and Ember couldn't help the sympathetic whine that bubbled from her throat. Danny lashed against her particularly hard and Ember almost lost her grip. 

"Fuck! Phantom! Danny, listen to me!" Ember readjusted and tried to get a stronger grip. "Shit! What set you off? Fuck!" 

Desperately, she glanced around. She tried to see if there was anything that she had missed, something that escaped her notice. Anything that could be the cause of Danny's sudden Trance. Anything to help because she could feel him slipping from her. He was too strong. She would not be able to hold him forever and he needed someone to be able to pull him back to reality.

Ember yelped as Danny managed to pull an arm free. She caught him again in time to keep him from getting away, but she was unable to recapture his arm. He let out a particularly long whine as he reached that arm upwards, hand out almost as if he were trying to reach for the sky above them. 

"The- the sky?" She tried to grasp what it was he wanted. Her mind was focused too much on what she could do to keep Danny still, she couldn't think. "But you see the sky every day!"

No, that couldn't be it. Think, think, Ember McLain. 

"Fuck, not the sky." By the Ancients, she was so stupid! "The stars? The moon?"

"Stars!" shouted Danny. It was all the confirmation Ember needed. "Stars, moon, stars!" It was as if Danny suddenly remembered that speech was a thing he could do, as once he started, he didn't seem to want to stop. 

"Asteroids! Asterism! Luna! Constellations! Meteors! Black holes! Satellites!" He all but chirped the words in stumbling, stilted Ghost Speak with an almost childlike jubilancy and desperation. All the while, Danny kept his escaped arm reaching, straining, upwards and his eyes firmly pointed towards the Milky Way that poured its stars across the sky the darker it got. 

With a sigh of relief that she knew what was going on now, she gave Danny an aborted pat on the chest. "Okay! Okay, baby-pop. Space ghost, gotcha." 

Of course it would be Danny. She should have known. 

"Space!"

Oh, he was really stuck in a Trance.

"Yep, uh-huh. Space." Ember mumbled in agreement. "Fuck. what do I do?"

She wracked her mind for what she could do in this situation. She knew what to do for ghosts with lesser Trances or ones where they could immediately have some sort of fulfillment or satisfaction enough to calm down enough to return to reality. But Danny's Obsession seemed to be space and it wasn't like Ember could let him just shoot off into the sky! If she let him and wasn't able to keep up with him, he could forever be stuck in an Obsession Trance. He would be lost to the literal stars until he burned any ectoplasm stored in his body. He needed access to the Ghost Zone and he had a human half he needed to feed! (On top of that, she wasn't even sure ghosts could go into space. None have tried to her knowledge and she certainly wasn't going to leave Earth willingly.)

Trying to calm Danny down and think, Ember forced a vibrating buzz through her core until it ramped up to a comforting purr. She wrapped her legs around his waist, hanging like a backpack for a moment, hoping he wouldn't notice that she'd actively stopped pulling against him and reached a hand up to start carding through his hair. 

"Um... uh..." She struggled to form a coherent sentence that may get through to Danny. She thought back to the terms he had chirped out moments ago, trying to figure out how to turn the familiar terms into something she could use to keep Danny grounded. "Rockets? Do you like rockets?" 

Danny froze. 

Ember glanced at him as quickly as she could. Fuck, his ears were starting to point. 

"NASA? Or just space?" Danny started to struggle again. Desperately, Ember shouted, "Danny, tell me when NASA was founded!"

The struggled stopped for just a moment, long enough for Danny to trill loudly and his core buzz strong enough that she could hear it. Holy shit. 

"1958! July 29th!" He all but sang. 

"Good! That's good!" Ember latched onto this topic. Distract him. She had to distract him. "That's so cool! Why- uh- why was NASA founded?"

"In response to Sputnik l! It's a satellite!" Danny started to babble facts about why Nasa was founded (ones that Ember later would admit she had not known herself). His ramblings then devolved rapidly. "Launch! Satellite! I can launch! Me! I want to go! I want! To! Go!"

His struggles renewed harshly and Ember had to almost hold onto Danny's hair to keep a grip. She winced internally, hoping he didn't feel that. Ember yelped as Danny twisted and his legs warped to a single ghostly tail with a growl, making her loose her hold with her own legs. 

"Danny! Danny, Danny listen! Sh, sh, it's okay! Uh-I... uh... shit." Ember reached desperately for any idea in her mind that may help. She remembered feeling similar with trying to find something to help Danny destress and have fun. She'd settled on a game before, maybe she could do it again. "Uuuuuh… oh! Uh, Danny, do you want to play game? Do you want to play a space game? It’s very, very important. There’s a star without any planets to circle around it.” 

She hoped that would get his attention and she waited as he paused. 

"Oh, that is very sad! But it will get a planet of it's own!" Danny stopped his struggles and started to mumble seemingly to himself. But he heard her. That was a start. "Oh! I can help it not be lonely! I could go visit!" 

He started to move again. Fuck! She didn't need him to try and fly off. "The star is right here!" Ember yelped. 

Danny stopped and he listened to her! Thank the Ancients!

Ember tentatively let go as Danny turned in her grip, eyes wide and searching in a child-like way. As if she were holding a rare piece of candy that he would get to enjoy. She then focused inwards, on her core and the power flowing through the ectoplasm in her veins. She coaxed the flames that served as her hair to cover her entire body, turned her in a person-shaped ball of flame. 

"See?" Ember encouraged his attention. "A bright and shiny, planet-less star! And the game is that you get to be the planet! But you have to orbit around it or you loose and don’t get to be a planet anymore!”

(She was basically pulling the idea out of her ass. If this works, she is going home and sleeping for weeks.)

Danny fidgeted in place. He whined and looked very indecisive. Slowly, almost testing, he flew forward and did a slow, lazy lap around Ember. 

With a grin, Ember turned in place to watch him. After the first lap, Danny seemed to decide that this was what he wanted to do. His face softened from the agony of Trance to a more contented look, Ember let herself slump in relief.

Holy shit. That was so much. She never wanted to do this again. She eyed Danny a moment. Knowing his luck he'd be one of those twice-tranced ghosts. She hoped not. She would be tired enough holding this position with him for however long it would take for him to snap out of the Obsession Trance without having to do it a second time.

As Danny circled and rotated around her, Ember finally allowed herself a chance to take a closer look at him. 

When ghosts first formed in the Zone, fresh after death, they tended to look more human. More like how they were when they were alive. Over time, they would loose those human qualities, but that is usually if they only stay in the Ghost Zone without pursuing their Obsessions and it can take years. Sometimes more than a human's lifetime. But those seeking their Obsessions or have found them are different. Finding one's Obsession would throw them into what is called an 'Obsession Trance' where the core of a ghost becomes so stuck and well, obsessed, with their dreams from life that it quickens the natural change ghosts go through. Ghosts that leave the Zone often, or stay outside of it, are encouraged to find their Obsession so they do not go into a Trance and cause issues in the human realm. Too many bad things have happened for ghosts and humans alike when that happens, which is why Ember knew she needed to be there for Danny. He was so strong already. If he went into a Trance around humans and they tried to keep him from leaving like Ember did? She shudders to think of the damage that could have been done.

The main point is: Obsession Trances basically cause Ghost Puberty Speed Edition. But rather than take years, it's supposed to take a couple of days! And it looks like Danny almost did a full change in minutes! His core is going to be so sore afterwards, Ember knows it. 

(And in the back of her mind, she wonders how much more dangerous this makes him.)

His hair so far has stayed white, but his skin had developed a green-blue pallor that still seemed to be decided which shade it wanted to be, darkening and lightening with each rotation around the 'sun.' Lights dotted his across his nose and cheeks like star-lit freckles. Ember was not sure what color his eyes may settle on, they were still stuck in the ectoplasm green color that all those in a Trance gain. She'd seen his teeth earlier and hoped that they, and the pointed ears, do not bother Danny too bad. She didn't know why, but the mention of him developing fangs once before sent him into a downward spiral that lasted a week. Ember hated to think what would happen if he actually kept them. 

All she could do was hope at this point. 

And be there for him when he needs it. 

Ember lost sense of time as she rotated in place with Danny, keeping him in her sights. He circled and rotated and circled, over and over again. Never ending, always moving, never stopping. Clouds parting for them when the wind blew them gently across the sky, wisps breaking and decondensing further away. After a while, each loop and circle seemed to draw Danny closer and closer towards her until, finally, Danny seemed to tire. 

A last rotation brought him almost flush against Ember and she allowed him to drape himself how he wanted on her. His core buzzing loudly was a comfort to her, the sound almost like a cat, as he settled, contented, around her waist with his ghostly tail twisted over her legs and cheek pressed to her hip. Ember stayed still and waited. Her mind whirled. 

He'd been stuck in a Trance for longer than she'd ever heard of. It had just become night when Danny's Trance had started, hadn't it? She's never really heard of them lasting for more than a couple of hours at most. But here Danny is, going through the night. It's such a him situation to be in.

It was a relief when Ember noticed the sky starting to lighten and Danny's slow blinks turning more normal and frequent (well, for him). He stared out dreamily and finally seemed to be coming out of it. 

Ember smiled tiredly down at him. She'd kept up her flames all night and was looking forward to being able to recharge later. "You with me, Space-cadet?"

Danny made no noise for a moment before giving a very slow hum. 

"Words, Danny. C'mon you can do it." She coaxed. 

"Mm..."

Ember sighed and patted his head. "Please don't make me drag you to FentonWorks and have Jazz put you in a thermos." As she said it, she knew she wouldn't actually do that but that didn't mean she didn't consider it. She stopped patting Danny's hair when he growled and continued when he made no other move except to give give his head a small shake. He blinked rapidly, frowned, then stared blearily up at Ember. 

She was so happy to see the bright green fading from his sclera. Ember grinned at him. 

"Well, Space-cadet. You found your Obsession."

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*Conveniently phone wallpaper sized