Chapter Text
He was sick
He was undoubtedly sick, he thought as another cough tore from his throat.
Danny Fenton has been sick before, tons of times. getting sick is what happens to normal people all the time. Danny phantom, however, has never been sick. Because Danny Phantom is a ghost and why would a ghost get sick? how would a ghost get sick?
But there’s no use dwelling on ifs or hows when this might actually be serious. This isn’t a normal cold, no way.
Earlier, in Mr lancers class he had coughed. It hadn’t been too out of the ordinary except for the fact it was loud. like really, really loud. AND Danny swore he could hear the desk creak at the impact. Everyone had looked at him, and Danny chose to keep his head down.
Eventually, people got back to the test. The test which was very important, if Danny doesn’t pass this test Mr. Lancer had said, then it would be the end for him. What kind of end, Danny hadn’t asked. But he assumed it wasn’t something he wanted to find out.
He had actually studied for real this time, There was only one ghost attack this week thankfully, giving him much needed time to make sure he didn’t ruin his life by flunking out of high school.
He hadn’t thought much about the lack of attacks, just grateful to a break for once. but he should’ve known better, nothing ever goes right for him.
the ghost wasn’t anyone Danny had seen before, it was just drifting around Amity. Since the ghost wasn’t hurting anyone Danny was going to leave it alone, until his parents had shown up.
They fired a couple blasts at the ghost, and it blinked into awareness. Looking slightly pained, it scrunches its face up and sneezed? The snot covered Danny and his parents head to toe in ectoplasm. The ghost had looked slightly guilty, sending Danny a sheepish smile before it turned and sped way.
Danny’s parents had immediately started shooting him, so he had fled too. The ectoplasm was more snot, and the snot was normal looking, except that it was far brighter green than usual. It faintly reminded him of ectoplasm.
It wasn’t normal, it wouldn’t phase off of Danny, so he hadn’t gone after the ghost and instead booked it home and took a long shower.
Danny had been trying to answer the questions on the test, and to be fair he was doing pretty good thanks to actually having time to study, When a tickling feeling began in the back of his throat. Recognizing another cough, Danny covered his mouth with his hands.
If this cough is anything like the last one he might destroy the desk or something. He tried holding back the cough, holding his breath. His eyes began to water and he felt the pressure build up in his throat. The feeling got worse, the cough threatening to escape. He rested his elbows on the desk and shut his eyes. But he couldn’t do it, this was agony. It was even worse than that one time he had be crashed into tree with sharp thorns, very sharp thorns.
The cough burst out of his mouth. This time, the force of it blew his test off the desk and he heard it crack ominously .The scratching of pencils abruptly stopped, and while trying not to choke and breathe at the same time, Danny saw Mr. Lancer glaring at him. If looks could kill, Danny would be dead for real.
“something wrong, Mr. Fenton?” he asked. Exasperated.
Danny winced. “NO, Mr. Lancer. just something in my throat.”
Danny got up from his seat, the sound grating on his ears in the silence. He picked up his test and sat back down. His classmates subtly staring at him.
But with a sharp glare from Mr. Lancer, they turned back to the test. The scratching of pencils continuing and the typing of Mr. Lancer’s computer filling the silence.
Danny ducked his head, and focused back on the next question. He was so close, 5 unanswered questions filling the remaining space on the page. he penciled in the next one when he felt an itchy sensation in his nose. He wrinkled his face and willed it to go away. But alas, nothing leaves him alone.
“ACHOO!!” He bellowed, the force of the sneeze knocking his head back and covering his page in a sizable amount of goo. The goo, aka snot, that looked a bit too green for his liking. The pencils had stopped again, and Danny heard Mr. Lancer’s chair skidding against the linoleum floor as he stood. Footsteps, slow and deliberate, approached Danny’s desk, each one echoing in the silence, practically signing Danny’s death certificate.
Hah, Death certificate. As if he would ever have one of those.
Danny groaned inwardly, trying to school his expression, but probably failing judging by the impassive expression on Mr lancers face when he met his gaze. He moved his arm to cover the snot on the page, and wiped his nose with the other hand, wincing.
“This better not be your attempt on getting out of this test.” He leaned in, narrowing his eyes, practically spitting out his words. “You are not leaving this classroom until I say you can.”
Danny gulped. He grimaced and tried to think of a response before another, less violent sneeze shook through him. His fast reflexes succeeded in covering his other arm in snot instead of his teacher. They also seemed to make Lancer reconsider the situation.
“Mr. Fenton Do you need to see the nurse?” He asked, voice a calculated calm. Like the calm before the storm.
That was practically an invitation to leave, Mr. Lancer was giving him an excuse, and If Danny wasn’t in such a dire situation in regards to his chances at graduating this year without being held back, he might have taken it. Might have, if Mr. Lancer had sounded more sincere.
“No, no, Mr. Lancer. I think i can finish the test…?” He trailed off unsure as he coughed into his elbow, each cough racking through his body, shaking.
“If you insist.”
Mr. Lancer handed him his eraser that was knocked off his desk earlier and walked away. Sending his infamous glare to the other students who were finding the small interaction much more entertaining than the test.
Danny wiped the snot on his jeans and picked up his pencil. He sped through the remaining questions, his answers no doubt riddled with multiple misspellings and barely comprehensible.
He sighed and rested his forehead on his desk, relief flooding him and making the prospect of taking a nap much more inviting. Too late he realizes that was a horrible idea, as another ominous creak sounds from the desk. All he can manage to do is pick up his head before the desk crumbles in on itself, swallowing his pencil and test.
“Great Gatsby!” Mr. Lancer gasps.
Mr. Lancer’s chair moves but Danny is quicker, practically jumping up from his seat, fishing his test out from the splintered wood. Ignoring his classmates who are no longer bothering to hide their stares, he sprints past Mr. Lancer, shoving his test into his chest and bursting out of the classroom.
He rushes to the bathroom, suppressing a flurry of sneezes and coughing fits. Ducking into a stall, -why he even bothers to hide is lost to him as he transforms- white light driving away the shadows, marking his alter ego’s presence.
He flies through the roof of the school, making it to his parents lab in record time. He rushes through the ghost zone, occasionally destroying a few floating islands from his coughing and sneezing.
Its when he’s stopped, unable to do anything but wait as his lungs try their hardest to make his life miserable, that he runs into Skulker. Because of course today of all days he would run into Skulker.
“Ah! Ghost-child, I’ve been hunting for you. I still want your pelt as a trophy. I think it would look quite nice next to my other-”
Danny holds up a hand to stop him. “Not in the mood right now Skulker. I have an… issue” he sneezes, snot splattering on Skulker’s armor. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Skulker looks at him in disgust, then confusion. “An issue? What are you talkin-” a more violent sneeze erupts from Danny, causing him to fly back a few feet, a snot rocket flying past skulker, missing him by inches and leaving behind mini shockwave’s.
Disgusted at first, Skulker’s face lights up in understanding.
“I get it now.” He smiles deviously. “You’re sick, Ghost-child.”
Danny rubs at his nose, glaring at Skulker, he succeeds at only causing the larger ghost to laugh.
Danny crosses his arms and floats sitting crisscross-applesauce.
“I thought ghosts don’t really get sick? You guys are dead.” He points out, confused.
“Of course we get sick! How little do you know ghost-child.” He says the nickname like it’s a slur, sneering. “What do you think happens to the germs killed by humans??”
wait what. Germs? Ghost germs?
“Woah, woah, hold up big guy” he waves his arms. “You’re saying that ghosts get sick because of… ghost germs? Isn’t that a little silly? A tad bit far fetched?”
“that’s what I just said, yeah. It’s not very common though, you have to encounter a lot of ghost germs either all at once or being around a sick ghost for a while.” With that, he glances at the snot on his armor, wiping it off he takes a couple steps- floating- back away from Danny.
“but ghosts whole stick is that they’re fueled by obsessions, they need a consciousness to become a ghost in the first place!” He narrows his eyes at Skulker skeptically.
“what, germs can’t have a conscience because you humans say they don’t?”
He had a point there, Danny supposes. The ghost hunters that are supposedly the leading experts, his parents, know next to nothing true about ghosts.
But admitting that feels like letting Skulker win, so he stays silent. that also opens up a whole can of worms that Danny is not awake enough to dive into at the moment, so he’ll deal with it the ol’ reliable way. Ignoring it until it becomes too hard to ignore.
that reminds him, “There was this ghost that absolutely covered me in ectoplasm, errr uh, snot the other night…” he trails off, a realization stopping him.
“can humans get sick from ghost germs?!” He closes the distance Skulker put between them.
Skulker puts up his hands and shoves Danny away, he goes down easily, coughing at his outburst.
“I don’t know! I’m not the expert.” Skulker grumbles.
“What’s gonna happen to me-?”
Skulked cuts him off. “Shut up Ghost-child. I’ve answered enough of your questions.” He raises his preferred weapon threateningly at Danny. “There’s an unspoken rule in the infinite realms to leave a ghost alone when they are suffering an ailment. I don’t really care for that much, but your too weak to hunt right now, makes you boring.” He sighs, And with that, he turns and flies off, leaving Danny with his questions.
if anyone would know more, it would probably be frostbite. And with that thought in mind, Danny flies off.
Frostbite gives him a pitying look when he arrives and wordlessly hands him a bottle of glowing pink liquid.
“for your ghost half.” The yeti supplies.
“what will it do?”
“the ghost germs goal, purpose, is to destabilize the ghost.” Danny sneezes into his elbow, and Frostbite motions to his snot. “A strong ghost can easily overpower one ghost germ, but since they travel in groups they tend to be harder to get rid of. This medicine strengthens your ectoplasm and drives out the germs.” He hands Danny a tissue and Danny gratefully blows his nose.
“how much do I drink?”
“the whole bottle.”
Danny opens his mouth to ask another question but Frostbite puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Rest up, I can’t answer more questions, great one.”
he waves Danny away and Danny obeys, albeit disappointed.
He manages to make it home with minimal property damage, a feat with how often he sends ectoplasm snot projectiles into the ghost zone.
Hes sitting in his room, debating on what he’s going to tell his parents, that is if they even notice, when his door is swung open, Jazz stepping in.
she raises a brow at him, imposing, and he doesn’t need to ask. She already knows.
“Skipping class again? There wasn’t a ghost attack today.”
“I finished my test first.” He defends, weakly raising his arms. He suppresses coughing fit, squeezing his eyes shut.
“Sam and Tucker are here, they’re pretty worried you know. You usually message them unless it’s something serious.”
She walks up and puts a hand on his shoulder, it’s cool compared to how warm he feels. That’s not very good.
He groans, standing up. “I know, I just wasn’t thinking-” his legs wobble and he falls to the floor, Jazz supporting him and he coughs into his elbow.
“Danny?” Jazz kneels next to him. Danny takes a deep breath, and breaks into another coughing fit, the carpet under him enduring his abuse.
Footsteps thunder up the stairs and Danny doesn’t have to turn his head to know it’s Sam and Tucker.
“I swear, Danny I am going to have an early death because of you one day!” Sam’s voice, sharp and accusing cuts through the silence as he takes deep breaths.
“you should’ve seen her dude, she was fuming. I thought smoke was going to start coming out of her ears at one point.” Tucker shuts the door behind them. “Also why are you on the floor?”
Danny sits back against his bed, sighing. “I didn’t intentionally leave school.” A look from Jazz. “Well, technically it was intentional, maybe you could say I was forced? Coerced? Those don’t really fit do they..?”
“what happened.” Sam crosses her arms and stares at him.
“come on, siiiit. Are you gonna make me stare up at you the whole time?” He groans again. He pats around the floor with his hand, not looking, searching for the tissue box that always ends up somewhere around the room instead of his nightstand.
Jazz hands him the box, must’ve been on her side. He accepts it and blows his nose into the tissue, Sam and Tucker sit, exchanging glances.
" I don’t think I’ve seen you sick since you got your ice powers, but that doesn’t really count.” Tucker remarks.
“Yeah, I’ve always been jealous, you never got sick even during flu season when I was stuck in the house.” Sam shivers as if reliving the memory.
“Ughh I thought I couldn’t get sick anymore since ghosts don’t get sick right? Guess I was wrong.” He rolls his eyes. “I lost one of my advantages, being a halfa is looking to be more of a con than a pro.”
“start from the beginning.” Jazz elbows him.
“ok, fine. So I was in school yeah? Doing the stupid test for Mr.Lancers class.” Danny grumbles.
“That test suuuucked” Tucker laments. “I was stuck on the last page for like 10 minutes.”
“What happened? Mr. Lancer looked pretty worried.” Sam frowns.
“yeah yeah, so I was taking the test and all of the sudden I’m coughing and sneezing like I have the plague or something.” Danny cringes, pausing to unload a cough into his arm. “Anyway, I finish my test really quickly, and I end up destroying my desk.”
Sam and Jazz sit up straighter, but Tucker erupts into giggles.
“Of….Of…” he gasps for breath. “Of course you would break a desk..!” He clutches at his stomach.
“it’s not funny Tucker” Sam hits his arm. “But I guess destroying school property isn’t new for you.”
“hey! We promised to never speak of that!” Tucker yells. “I was going through a phase.”
“Guys!!” Jazz holds out her hands. “Let’s get back on track. Continue Danny.”
“you sound just like a teacher when you do that Jazz.” Danny giggles. He rests his head on her arm, sighing. He’s so hot.
“so I rush out of the classroom, I turn in the test though, And then I rush to the ghost zone.”
“that’s why Mr.Lancer looked so shocked. Dash said you were as white as a ghost.” Tucker starts giggling again. “Get it- white as a ghost?”
“yes we get it Tucker.” Sam sighs. “Seriously though, you look awful Danny.”
“like you just got out of a huge ghost fight.” Jazz puts an arm around his shoulders.
“like a small Victorian child dying of smallpox.”
Tucker lays on the floor, hands in a prayer position. “Mother, take me out to the garden one last time.” He quotes.
“shut up Tuck.” Danny snickers.
“no but like, your literally green man” Tucker sits up, pointing to his cheeks. “Y’know when someone gets sick and their face is all red? Yours is green.”
“good to know” Danny snarks. “anyway, so in the ghost zone I run into Skulker-” everyone winces. “Yeah, him. Anyway he tells me that I’m sick because of ghost germs.”
“ghost germs.”Sam repeats, deadpan.
“that’s a thing?” Jazz asks.
“Idk, Skulker said it’s a thing, I don’t really trust him but Frostbite didn’t seem surprised so…”
“so those ads about hand sanitizer killing 99.9% of germs are credible then?” Tucker pipes up.
“that’s what’s on your mind right now?” Sam asks incredulously.
“yeah?”
“ugh! This is probably serious! I mean just look at Danny!” She points at him. “He looks like he’s about to keel over and die fully!”
Danny winces at her volume and raises a hand to his suddenly pounding head. He feels uncomfortably warm, like wearing a snowsuit in a heated car.
“What are we supposed to do if a ghost attacks?” Sam continues. “Danny is in no shape for a ghost fight-”
“Hopefully we won’t have to worry about ghost attacks.” Danny raises a hand to stop her. “Skulker said something about some… truce…” he yawns.
“Like the truce at Christmas?”
“yeah.” He lays his head of Jazz’s lap, eyes slipping closed.
Hes out like a light immediately, snuggling up to Jazz, who practically melts, snapping a picture.
“he’s so lucky it’s Friday.” Tucker whispers.
“will you guys help me put him in bed?” Jazz asks.
“ugh yeah.” Sam grabs his legs and Jazz grabs his arms.
With Tuckers help they maneuver him under his comforter and turn the lights off.
In Jazz’s room, the three huddle together in the middle of the room.
“is this really necessary?” Sam asks.
“of course it’s necessary!” Jazz tightens her grip.
“first order of business Team Phantom!-” “I told you to stop calling it that!” “Help Danny get better.”
“Do we even need to be having this meeting?” Tucker tries to leave the huddle, but Jazz tightens her hold and pulls him closer.
“of course we do!”
“seriously, we don’t. Just give Danny some Tylenol and call it a day, or a night” Sam says glancing at the darkening sky out the window. “Tucker you asked already right?”
Jazz frowns but lets go of the two. The huddle is quickly broken. “What?”
“yup, just gotta set up the sleeping bags.” Tucker types away at his PDA.
“Right.” Sam opens the door. “wait,” Jazz stops her. “What are you guys talking about?”
“we’re staying over, obviously” Tucker responds, entering the hallway. Sam follows, shutting the door behind her.
“Is this a common occurrence?” Jazz asks the air. Staring at the closed door.