Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Danny was fuming by the time he left the dining room, all of the tempered frustration and disgust finally released in a sharp, elongated grunt as he stepped into the semi-privacy of his room, arms out in front of him like he wanted to either punch something or rip his hair out. But more than frustration, he felt stupid to think that Vlad wouldn't leverage their deal like that. After all of the negotiating, the careful way Danny had chosen his words to prevent exactly this, Vlad had found a way to get Danny to push his mom closer to him anyway.

And now he'd have to spend more time with him this afternoon. He couldn't imagine what Vlad wanted to do with that "quality time", but as he considered his brief window of freedom, his eyes suddenly shot toward his phone, still sitting on his desk charging. 

He frowned to himself. He couldn't check it right now; not with Vlad's "company" looming over him. So instead, he unplugged the phone and put everything away. He didn't need to hide it, necessarily. Vlad assumed his phone was useless and never confiscated it from him. 

That done, he debated how he wanted Vlad to find him. He could be petty and read his fiction novel instead of doing the homework Vlad wanted him to do...

His eyes flicked over to his closet and he felt his abdomen twist with the phantom stabbing of metal prongs.

No. It wouldn't do him any good to get locked up for hours again. He needed to have the evening free to look at that password and sneak into Vlad's office, but would it be too suspicious if he wasn't rebelling in some way? Vlad royally screwed him over with his "deal", and under normal circumstances, Danny would want to do something petty...

What's Vlad expecting him to do? 

Sighing heavily to himself, he plopped down into his computer desk chair, transformed into his ghost half, and waited. 

Once again, there was no knock, no announcement that he was coming in. Danny didn't even hear him walking up the hall. Vlad just helped himself into the room.

Danny waited a half second, making sure his mom wasn't trailing behind the older hybrid for any reason, before firing a small ectoblast at him. 

To his surprise, Vlad didn't see it coming, eyes widening and jolting back in surprise, but not fully out of the way. More to Danny's surprise, the shot got him right in the bolo tie. 

It wasn't a massive blast. Danny didn't want to draw his mom's attention; he just wanted to piss the Fruitloop off, and if the wide-eyed look of utter bafflement on Vlad's face was any indication, he'd succeeded.

"Daniel, what in the blazes--"

Danny fired off another small blast, this time getting him in the shoulder and knocking him back a step into the bedroom door. 

"What? I thought you wanted to bond, Vlad? How about a little catch!"

He fired again, but naturally, Vlad was prepared this time, snatching the ectoblast out of the air in his palm and either dissolving it or absorbing it, Danny wasn't really sure how he was doing it. Either way, Vlad glowered at him as he assessed the damage to his bolo tie (which was about half of what it used to be) before rolling back his shoulders.

Danny tensed, for a second wondering if he'd baited Vlad into all-out fighting him, but instead, Vlad released a terse breath through his nose before smiling stiffly. 

"A bit risky to be throwing your powers around with your mother present, don't you think?"

"Didn't stop you," Danny countered flatly, transforming back into his human half and sulking into his seat. There wasn't really a point in continuing his petty assault. He didn't want to risk truly ticking off the other hybrid for one thing, but more importantly, he was fairly confident he'd achieved his real goal--meeting Vlad's expectations. 

Vlad tilted his head curiously. "Whatever do you mean?"

"In the theater. That's how you knew what my text was, right? You don't get to lecture me when you're using your powers right over mom's shoulder."

Vlad stared at him for a beat before the smile turned genuinely amused. "I'm quite capable of subtlety. You, on the hand... you have a lot to learn."

Danny scoffed a laugh, swiveling in his desk chair idly. "If you think I'm gonna keep training with you after you went back on our deal today, you've got--"

"I did no such thing," Vlad cut in smugly. 

"Yes, you did," Danny retorted hotly. "I told you I wouldn't bet on getting mom to spend any time with you and--"

"Did I make you encourage her to join me for the massage? Hm? Did I force you to demand she spend that time with me?"

Danny glared at him, jaw working with frustration, but technically, Vlad was right. He hadn't lied. That's how Vlad worked. And anyway, there was no point arguing with him. So instead, he heaved out a scoff and threw his arms up in exasperation, swiveling away from him to glare at the floor. 

Vlad chuckled. "Believe me, Daniel, if you'd agreed to those terms, you and I wouldn't be having this argument right now." 

Danny rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter, Vlad. I'm not going to train with you. I'm not agreeing to anything anymore."

"That wouldn't be very wise," Vlad replied, gliding fully into the room and surveying it with a calm scrutiny.

Danny watched him from under his brow, tensing slightly with nervousness, but it confirmed a suspicion he had from the start and he decided to test the theory.

"If you're looking for something, why don't you check your cameras?"

Vlad stopped and quirked brow. "Hm?"

Danny circled a finger at the air. "Or your ghost cronies or whatever you're using to keep tabs on me."

Vlad stared at him for a second, sharp eyes evaluating him before smiling again. "Keep tabs on you? And why would I need to do that? The worst you can do is refuse to do your homework, and I think we both know you've learned your lesson on that front."

Danny snorted, sitting up straighter in his seat and pointing out, "I can also ruin all of your bolos."

Vlad glanced down at the ruined accessory, then broke a small amused smile. "I suppose so. And I really ought to punish you for breaking our deal with your little outburst."

Danny stared at him, ignoring the threat entirely and instead accusing steadily. "It's mom, isn't it."

Vlad met his gaze, unresponsive to the accusation, but Danny pressed on anyway.

"If she weren't here, you'd have surveillance on me. You'd probably be doing a lot differently if she weren't here," Danny continued, then leaned back lazily in his seat and smirked. "Not so easy having a ghost hunter living in the same house as you, huh?"

Vlad was silent for a moment, simply staring at him, before his expression finally shifted into a slow, wide smirk. "It's worth accounting for, but it hardly affects me... but for you, Daniel... it's a matter of survival, isn't it?"

Danny's eyes trailed him as Vlad settled on the edge of his bed, crossing his legs and leaning back relaxed as he continued, "I understand you still have...mm...accidents, occasionally, don't you? Sporadic loss of control of your powers? I imagine that's put you in some truly harrowing situations. Has your mother ever caught you in the house as Phantom? Has she ever hurt you?"

"I don't have accidents anymore," Danny lied vehemently and was about to refute Vlad's other accusation as well before he caught himself. Shaking his head, he glared at the elder hybrid. "If this is all you wanted to do, how about we just skip it and I tell mom we had some real quality bonding time if she asks, because I'm not feeling all that chatty."

Vlad sighed, leaning forward slightly to pull something out of his pocket.

Danny immediately tensed, eyes flicking towards the closet, then back to Vlad, but instead of the Plasmius Maximus, Vlad pulled out a small, sleek box. He examined it before standing from the bed and coming over to stand over Danny.

"It's true, I do need to be more cautious with your mother in the house, but not for the reason you think," Vlad began, opening the box and removing a sleek watch.

Danny remained stiff in his seat, eyeing the watch suspiciously before returning his gaze to Vlad.

"She's cunning and clever enough to eventually notice surveillance equipment, so of course, to keep her at ease, I've elected not to use them, but that's not because I'm concerned about my safety. No, knowing your mother..."

Vlad extended his hand towards Danny's right arm, making a beckoning motion.

Danny didn't move, staring at his hand, eyes flicking between Vlad's, his hand, and the watch, as he weighed his suspicion with getting into a fight right now.

His mind wandered briefly to his desk drawer, where the phone with his plan was waiting for him.

With a tense breath, he lifted his hand to Vlad, who promptly took it and started affixing the watch to it.

"Her opinion of me might change, certainly, but worse, her scientific curiosity would outweigh anything else. You and I may be hybrids, but your mother battles her own dual nature." Vlad continued as he locked the watch to Danny's wrist. "The scientist in her would inevitably overrule the rest of her, and as you can imagine, that would set me back slightly. I'd have to resort to methods I'd rather not to get her to move on from it."

Once the watch was secured, Vlad released Danny's wrist back to him. Instantly, Danny pulled it close, looked at Vlad suspiciously, before turning his attention to the watch.

It was nice. It had a sleek, digital face with the time zones for Wisconsin and Indiana, weather, a bunch of information Danny didn't really need. On the back, the latch mechanism had all but vanished into itself, and Danny wondered how Vlad had gotten it on and, more importantly, how he was supposed to take it off.

"But it's nothing I couldn't overcome. But if she found out about you, Daniel... it would be dangerous."

Vlad straightened, staring at Danny with an intensity Danny normally didn't see in him unless he was about to fight.

"She already sees Phantom as a specimen, but if she were to find out it was you? That a ghost had been living in her home, lying to her, masquerading as her son, tearing her family apart..."

Vlad leaned forward, getting close enough to draw Danny's attention away from the watch as the older hybrid bore down on him as he asked, "Do you have any idea how much danger you've been in up until now?"

Danny swallowed, but maintained the eye contact, eyes hardened with stubbornness more than any actual feeling of conviction. His shoulder pulsed and ached, but he resisted the urge to acknowledge it, instead rolling his eyes like Vlad was being dramatic. "And what? I'm so much better off here with you?"

Vlad's eye twitched, but he masked it immediately with a smile. "Oh, absolutely. Think about it. You're finally getting enough sleep and full meals. You're getting a real education. You haven't had to do battle or clean up any of your idiot father's messes, there are no gadgets your parents left out for you to stumble upon and injury yourself, you've not been neglected or ignored or forgotten. And now, you have a teacher with decades of experience to help you navigate your new, volatile powers. Daniel... you're more cared for here than you've ever been..."

Danny's lip curled with disgust, unconsciously rolling his aching shoulder, and he had to take a second to resist clocking the older hybrid in the face, but instead, he just huffed a breathy, incredulous laugh and shook his head. "Is your delusional speech over with now or were you gonna keep on rambling at me?"

Vlad chuckled, patting Danny's hand before straightening. "I suppose that's all for now. Would you like to know what your new watch is for?"

"I can take a guess," Danny replied dully, tensing again in preparation.

Vlad smiled. "Ah, good, that should speed this along. This is the new and improved Plasmius Maximus. Starting this weekend, you'll wear this twenty-four seven."

Danny's brow pinched. "This weekend? Why not now?"

"I need an occasion to offer this to you that won't make your mother suspicious," Vlad replied. "You'll be receiving this from me as a birthday present."

"Oh, wow, and I get a sneak peek?" Danny asked dryly, immediately going to try to pry it off, more on principle than any expectation that he would actually be able to. "Why not keep it a surprise?"

"You have a tendency to respond to my surprises with attitude. That won't do. You're going to be gracious and happy for receiving this, and you'll put it on immediately. I don't want your mother giving that watch a second thought."

Danny glared at him, glanced at the watch, then looked back at him. "Or what?"

Vlad seemed taken aback, brows rising incredulously before shifting into a bemused smirk. "Do you really need another example of why it's in your best interest to behave?"

Danny kept his gaze locked on Vlad challengingly, but didn't respond. They both knew he was just making an empty bluff.

With a deceptively warm smile, apparently accepting his silence as surrender, Vlad raised his own wrist with an identical watch and pressed a button.

The air rushed from his lungs and all of his muscles seized at once as electricity ripped through him, his vision whiting out briefly before the current died, leaving him gasping and trembling in his seat.

Vlad stared dispassionately, waiting for him to regain his composure before explaining, "That's the first setting. It only lasts for an hour, but it can go up to eight. Consider yourself disciplined for your outburst."

With shivering breaths, Danny straightened up in his seat and leveled a simmering glare at Vlad, but when he saw the older hybrid reaching for the button on his watch again, he couldn't stop the wince, bracing for another volt.

Instead, it released the hidden clasp on Danny's watch.

Danny opened his eyes when he heard the click, glancing down at it and letting out a relieved breath.

Vlad smirked, taking it off Danny's wrist. "Now, since you decided we should spend some quality time together, I think it would be best used doing some schoolwork," he said, putting the watch back in its box and settling on his bed. "I'm quite aware you haven't started yet, so consider me your personal tutor for the next two hours."

Danny groaned to himself, stretching his now sore and aching muscles. He didn't see any point in arguing. Vlad won this one.

But the phone in his desk drawer assured him, there were still plenty of battles up for grabs.

Two hours was about two hours more of time with Vlad than he could handle, and the senior hybrid seemed to confuse tutoring with patronizing taunting or condescending mockery. He revelled when Danny didn't understand the subject matter and Danny had to pull teeth to get the man to either leave him alone or give him some actual information.

For someone who kept touting how important Danny's education was, he sure seemed to like it when Danny got answers wrong, but after the agonizingly endless allotted time had passed, Vlad finally let Danny be, though not before assuring him that he'd be back in the evening to grade his work.

Danny waited a minute after Vlad had left before rushing over to his drawer and reconnecting his cellphone, pleading with any higher power that might listen that his plan had worked.

He wasted no time uploading the video from his phone to his computer, knee bouncing with anxious impatience as it transferred over, but finally, he had the video up, a perfect view of Vlad's office and the screen and keyboard of his open laptop.

It took him a bit, scrubbing through the eight hours of footage, but finally, he stopped fast forwarding when Vlad showed up, relieved that, as he sat, Danny had managed to angle it so that Vlad's back didn't obscure the keyboard.

He watched with bated breath, as Vlad's started typing.

“Yes!” he nearly shouted, standing sharply from his chair in triumph as Vlad clearly, visibly, entered the laptop password. 

He may not have been tech savvy like Tucker or as intellectual as Sam, but he was feeling pretty damn clever in that moment. He dropped back into the seat and leaned in closer, slowing the video down so he could carefully log each keystroke. He didn’t dare write it down anywhere; he couldn't risk Vlad finding it. It was risky enough having the videos. Instead, he committed the password to memory, which was much harder than he thought it would be. It wasn’t anything cliche like he was hoping for. He had been banking on it being something gross like maddiexvlad4ever , but it was just a jumble of numbers and letters that made it that more difficult to memorize.

While he worked, he kept his peripherals focused on the door. If Vlad decided to come pester him again unannounced, with the video open on his computer, he was screwed.

He had already deleted the video from his phone, and once he was confident that he had memorized it, he deleted it from his computer as well. 

Tucker had told him that deleting something on the computer didn’t mean it couldn't still be recovered, but he didn’t know how to delete a file more than that, and he had to hope Vlad didn’t, either. 

With a sigh of relief that seemed to take with it the weight of the day, Danny finally relaxed, collapsing in his chair and taking a moment to bask in his victory.

He'd have to figure out a time to access Vlad's laptop. That was going to be tricky, but thanks to his mom's astute attention to detail keeping Vlad from putting surveillance up around the mansion, it wouldn't be impossible.

In the meantime... he had some time to kill.

He hadn’t been out flying since the first day they had arrived, much less just for the relaxation of it. It hadn’t been how he had expected he would be spending his time. He had arrived on the rooftop and waited near the chimney for nearly an hour, delaying his celebration in lieu of expected company. 

She didn’t show up.

He felt a pang of disappointment that surprised him, and it briefly chipped the edges of his victory, but he quickly brushed it off. Probably better that he didn't talk to her again as Phantom. Besides, things were looking up, and it was worth indulging in.

After he was confident she wouldn’t be coming, he stood up from his usual waiting spot, gotten in a good, satisfying stretch, and took off as fast as he could. 

He switched back and forth between racing through trees to see how fast he could go and how close to obstacles he could get, to leisurely twirling and looping through brunches just for the fun of it. At some point, he started pushing with his legs off of one tree, doing different flips, twisting in the air, and pushing off the next tree like he was in a pool.

He loved flying. It was the one thing about ghost powers that he considered a net positive, and the one thing that never felt alien to him. Coasting over the ground, weightless and unencumbered, he could simply be.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been flying or what exactly drew his attention, but as he floated with his back to the ground, arms holding up his head as though drifting down a river, he glanced back towards the rooftop. 

Maddie’s distant silhouette sat near the chimney, almost exactly in his favorite spot, and although there was some distance between them, he thought he could see her head following his trajectory, watching him.

A new swell of energy ran through him and he rolled midair into an upright position, tail morphing and separating into legs unconsciously as he started flying towards her. 

She had definitely seen him and watched him fly up. There seemed to be an odd tenseness in the way she was sitting, legs bent and feet planted in what seemed to be a bad attempt to sit casually and she didn’t seem to know where she wanted her arms to be, but Danny brushed it off. He doubted their new arrangement was easy for her and something about the attempt only fanned the embers of his still comfortably burning good mood. 

He approached with some caution, hovering in front of her and making a point to show that he was relaxed and comfortable, hoping it might rub off on her.

“I didn’t think you were going to show,” he said.

She glanced downwards fleetingly before looking back at him, deciding her arms should be beside her instead of in her lap. “I did say I would be back,” she said, although it seemed like she was saying it more for her own benefit. “You look like you’re in a good mood, Phantom.”

He flipped around to float horizontally on his back and shrugged a shoulder and the corner of his mouth. “It was a good day.”

“Oh?” she pressed.

He knew she wouldn’t be happy with the lack of details, but he had to share something. 

He raised his hands in a preemptively placating gesture, “I can’t go into details but… I took some big risks and they’re paying off.” 

She nodded, her violet eyes staring into and through him as she nodded absently. “Sometimes you have to take risks.”

Danny’s smile dipped a little and he shifted away from her gaze, noticing for the first time the bag leaned up in the shadow of the chimney. He felt a small blip in his pulse, but ignored it, addressing the item casually.

“What'cha got there?” he asked lightly, pointing his chin at it.

The question seemed to return the huntress to the present, the glaze in her eyes dissipating. 

“I brought some things to show you,” she answered, reaching up and pulling the bag closer.

“Oh yeah?” Danny asked, the response drawn out with uncertainty. 

Before she opened the bag, she looked up at him and smiled. “I thought we could play a game.”

Danny returned the expression, though a little more tensely. “Like a game game? A game two truce…trucies might play?” 

Maddie blew a laugh out of her nose. “A truce-compliant game, yes.” 

He pulled his legs into a cross-legged sit and floated a little closer. He knew his mom liked games and it didn’t seem unbelievable to him that she might bring one or two with her when they came, but the idea of her wanting to play a game with Phantom felt almost as ridiculous as… well, agreeing to a truce with him.  

She opened the bag and pulled out a white bundle that almost made him gasp. He had to clench his jaw to keep from reacting as she unfolded it and held out the familiar item for him to get a good look at.

Her sharp eyes bore into him, watching his reaction closely, but said nothing.

Danny stared at it, trying to decide if or how he should respond. She wasn’t reacting to him, and she was just quietly waiting for him to say or do something.

“Isn’t that your son’s shirt?” he decided to ask and internally breathed a sigh of relief at how uninterested he sounded. 

She quirked a brow. “You recognize it.”

“Well, yeah. He wears it almost every day and it’s got a big red target on the front,” he pointed out, as proud of his lie as he was irritated at the clean self-burn. 

She stared at him, looking slightly disappointed. 

“I don’t get the game here,” Danny continued, bolstered by the successful deflection. “Are we gonna play keep away with your kid’s only shirt?” 

“He has two,” she muttered defensively. 

“Not anymore,” Danny teased. 

“You’re telling me this doesn’t mean anything to you?” she pressed.

Danny stared at her for a second blankly. “You mean emotionally? Or– ha!– do you mean spiritually?” 

She looked somewhat exasperated with his aloofness, but he only laughed.

“Sorry, I’m in a good mood and I’m not taking your game seriously. Sorry,” he repeated, adorning a more serious expression. “I’ll let you explain the game.”  

“You said you would be honest when you could?” Maddie asked him.

He suppressed a wince. “Yeah.”

"You're haunting one of my son's things."

He blanched and couldn't stop the expression before she'd noticed.

"What are you haunting?" she demanded.

A jolt of panic hit him and he found himself unable to fly anymore, landing on weak knees. "I... I-I can't-..."

She looked frustrated, but also almost as desperate as he was, as she asked, "Why won't you tell me?"

He licked his suddenly dry lips, unable to hold her gaze for a longer than a second or two before his eyes darted this way and that, anywhere but at her, as if searching for an escape. Anything but continue this risky conversation.

Maddie's brows raised at the response and her whole tone shifted, raising a hand gently. "You can't... can you?"

Danny swallowed, then slowly nodded. It was the truth, really.

“What if I were to guess? Could you tell me then?"

His mischievousness truly made its exit. 

Should he? Could she even guess? In all honesty, if she hadn’t by this point, she either was so stuck in her ways that it was basically impossible for her to see Phantom as anything other than a ghost, or she just truly, deeply, didn’t want to know.

“If you can guess right... I can tell you.”

“Then is this it?” she asked, raising the shirt to him again.

He looked at her, then at the shirt, pausing momentarily as he grappled with the absurdity of the situation. If she thought he was haunting his own shirt, then there really was no way she'd ever guess right.

With the relief of that knowledge, he pressed his brows together, lips pressed in sympathetic, barely suppressed amusement. “Why would you think I was haunting your son’s t-shirt?”

“You’re dodging,” she accused.

“I'm not! It’s not,” he answered quickly, eager to return the question, “I’m just way more interested in why you’d pick the shirt.”

She frowned at the quick response, dropping the article of clothing and carefully folding it in her lap. “Well for one thing, it has the highest reading of your ecto signature.”

Danny buried the panic that sentence gave him. It was bad enough she had invaded his privacy and gone through all of his things, but now he had to worry about her picking up more than his signature. If she were to get a hold of Plasmius’s ecto signature and see it all over the mansion…

“But I also thought it would explain…”

Her sudden change of tone recaptured his attention and he looked at her earnestly. When she continued to hesitate, he gently pressed, “What?”

She shrugged. “It’s his favorite shirt. He’s barely worn anything else since he got it.”

Danny’s face pinched a little. Now that it was being pointed out to him, he couldn’t recall why exactly that shirt was always his go-to; it just was and had been for so long that he couldn’t trace the reason back.

Before he had given it much thought, Maddie filled in the silence. “We were um… we were trying to make shirts with the Fenton Works logo. We had just started our research in Amity and it was the first time Danny and J… and Jack had shared an interest. Ghosts and ghost hunting helped them bond in a way they hadn’t in a long time…”

“But… it doesn’t have a logo,” Danny pointed out.

She laughed a little. “No… Jack was trying to include Danny in the process, so he put him in charge of ordering the shirts, except something went wrong with the order and instead of the logo, they just sent us these white t-shirts with empty backgrounds. Danny was so upset, but Jack, he…”

The memory tickled the back of Danny’s mind; this had been years ago, when they had just moved to the area. He had been maybe ten years old, so it wasn’t so surprising that he had forgotten; what really struck him was that she hadn’t. He always knew that shirt was special to him, but he had never realized it might have been special for anyone else. 

“Jack gave Danny all of the shirts and told him they would just be his logo instead. It made Danny feel so important… they were way too big but it didn’t matter,” she said, smoothing out a crease in the fabric before gently placing it back into her bag. "And even though most of them don't fit anymore...he still wears the ones he can."

A heaviness pulled on her shoulders and she suddenly looked like she hadn’t slept in a while. 

Danny looked away, mouth twitching with a question he didn’t want to ask.

“Where… is he?” 

Maddie’s eyes un-glossed and she looked at him confusedly. 

“Jack…”

She tensed, eyes going big like the question scared her.

He winced, quickly sputtering, “I’m sorry, I just–” 

“No, I just wasn’t… the question surprised me,” she admitted. 

He swallowed nervously, guilt threatening to eat away at him again and he quickly tried to dismiss his own question. “You don’t have to…”

“I left him.” 

He drew back at the expression on her face and absently ran a hand over his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have asked… I’m sorry.”

She seemed surprised, although at what, Danny wasn’t entirely sure, but the embers behind her violet eyes faded and she shook her head. 

“Like I said, it just surprised me.”

Danny grimaced, but couldn’t seem to help himself, asking, “Do you… regret it?” 

Maddie’s eyes bore into the tiles in front of her, a scowl warping her features. “If I could go back… I would do more than just leave.”

Danny rested his head in his hand, wrestling the guilt he had needlessly inflicted on himself back into an already overcrowded corner of his mind. He wasn’t sure what exactly had compelled him to press at the mental bruise, but as much as it was painful, there was also a disturbing sense of satisfaction; like it was better to know for sure how bad of a person he really was. 

Vlad would be so proud.

He heaved a breath, banishing the thoughts to the farthest reaches of his mind and gestured at her bag. “What else you got in there, Mary Poppins?” 

The change of tone seemed to jolt her from her daze, but she seemed eager to change the subject as well. 

She reached inside and Danny suddenly worried that she would have nothing but his clothes.

To his relief, she removed his smaller telescope instead. He wasn’t too surprised with this one; while it wasn’t very powerful, it was easy to store in his backpack and use anytime he was out and about and both his human and ghost halves got plenty of use out of it. 

“How about this?” she asked. 

“As cool as being the Telescope Ghost, Master of All Things Near and Far would be, that’s not it.” 

To his delight, she actually gave his silly joke a good-natured smile and immediately accepted his answer, putting the telescope away without much further thought. 

The next item she pulled out had his cheeks flush with embarrassment.

Maddie’s eyes got big. “Is it this?” she pressed, excited and yet at the same, sounding oddly nervous.

“Uhm… no,” he said as convincingly as he could as he tried to remind himself that she was not talking to Danny right now. “I was just… I don’t think that’s your son’s…”

She looked at the green scrunchie in her hand. “It’s his friend’s… but it did have your ecto signature on it and it was in his room…”  

He once again tried to shove down the embarrassment. It was his most shameful possession; not even Sam knew he had it. When he had first moved to Amity, they had been assigned a science project together and she had offered up her ponytail as a bonding agent. And maybe he liked carrying it around sometimes, but only because he kept meaning to give it back, just... hadn't found the right time.

Maddie sighed resignedly and tucked the ponytail away, reached back into the bag, and produced another memento.

She was even more careful with the model rocket than she had been with the previous items, much to his relief. While he had bought and received plenty of model rockets, this was the only one that was an exact replica, with lots of adjustable pieces, scaled to size and while he did mess with it sometimes… he was glad to see his mother was showing it more courtesy. 

“And this one?”

“That’s pretty cool, but not enough to call it home, you know?” he joked.

She looked puzzled as she put it away and grabbed another item. This one made him laugh.

“A pillowcase? Aren’t ghosts known for wearing sheets?”  

Her mouth pursed into a barely suppressed, amused smile. “Well I can’t imagine how else so much of your signature ended up on it unless you were wearing it constantly.”

He shrugged. “Hey, you know, nobody can resist a good nap.” 

“You nap?”

“I wish. I barely sleep,” he joked with feigned longing. 

Her eyes wandered downwards thoughtfully before rolling back up towards him, curiosity sharpening her gaze. “So you do sleep?”

Danny winced and bobbed his head. There was that napping ghost. That one seemed to sleep...maybe...it wouldn't be weird for him to say he slept, right?

"Yeah."

"Do you dream?"

Danny inhaled slowly as he debated. Would that be weird for a ghost to dream? Does she already know the answer and she's just testing him?

"Y-yeah, sometimes..."

"Do you ever dream about when you were alive? Do you remember anything about your life before?"  

His eyes boggled at the question. “U-u-h-h… I-I… I mean… you know…” he stammered as his brain scrambled. Did other ghosts remember being alive? He had no idea. He had never thought to ask any of them, and even if he had, it wasn’t something he really wanted to know.

She didn’t relent, continuing to stare and wait for him to say something, although the longer he stalled, the more impatient she seemed to get it.

He sighed resignedly. “I… yeah, some...some things.” 

“That’s very unusual,” she commented.

He winced. “How unusual?”

“Exclusively,” she said, but her tone was light again and she regarded him contemplatively. “That seems to surprise you.”

“It does… I don't know what's normal for...uh... other ghosts. I mean, I deal with ghosts a lot but it’s usually...you know…” he raised his fists in front of himself miming a fist fight, “Politely asking them to leave town.” 

The response had the charming effect he was hoping for; she smiled again. 

“I’ve run into plenty of aggressive ghosts, but I don’t think I’ve seen one as territorial as you are. Does it have anything to do with what you’re haunting? Do you even know why you do it or is it a compulsion? All ghosts I’ve studied behaved on compulsion, but–” she chuckled to herself, “the amount of times I’ve found you to be an outlier in nearly every category… it’s maddening! I have to admit, I wish I had the opportunity to hunt you. I haven’t in a while…”

Danny winced; didn’t bother to try to hide it. 

“Oh, but it must be the same for you?” she said, her tone shifting to something almost like the comraderie between rivals. “You haven’t wreaked havoc in a while.”

“I don’t do that.” 

“Then why do you fight?”

Danny took a deep breath. “Do you remember about a month ago that snake ghost that was at the park?” 

Maddie’s brows furrowed, unable to bring it to mind.

“That ghost, the snake, he’d pick a kid to follow around and then spent two days just terrorizing them. He thought it was hilarious. He did it to a few kids before I finally found him at the park.” 

“And what’d you do to this ghost?” 

"Sent him back to the Ghost Zone.”

She looked surprised. 

“If I could’ve sent him to the end of the Ghost Zone, I would’ve… but I don’t know how to do that. I don’t actually know where exactly they go when I send them back.”

“You can banish other ghosts?” 

Danny blinked at her confusedly, then it suddenly dawned on him that of course she didn’t know he had been using the portal. He had been trying very hard to make sure she didn’t. So how was he supposed to explain… 

“Yeah,” he decided. Vague was a good option, and technically true enough.

She looked slightly disappointed, but didn’t press. “So you got rid of the ghost because... he was being a bully?” 

“Yeah. Most of them are, so I get rid of them, but I don’t just attack every other ghost I see.” 

“Most of them? What about the rest?” 

“Some of them are just kind of… pests? Like, they don’t mean any real harm, they’re just kind of harmful on accident,” he explained, then added. “A few of them are actually friendly, though.” 

"I find that hard to believe," she mumbled to herself.

"Hey, look who you're talking to," he rebutted, flashing her a friendly smirk. "Some of them are friendly. And I think some of them maybe just...don't know what to do with themselves, you know?"

She stared at him contemplatively. "Do you give other ghosts a lot of thought like this?"

He shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. No... Yeah... Sometimes. It's just... I met a good one a while back and it just kinda...got me thinking."

"Is that your obsession?"

Danny looked over at her. "What?" 

"Something like justice or...the opinion of others? It's a little nuanced than what I've typically run into for ghosts, but... is that why you care so much what I think of you? And what other ghosts are doing?"

He stared at her for a minute, briefly baffled that she was once again condensing him down to what she knew already about ghosts, but then he glanced at the bag of his belongings, then back at her with a rueful shake of his head, chuckling humorlessly to himself.

She pinched her brows at him confusedly. "What?"

“Nothing," he dismissed, chuckling to himself one last, breathy laugh before turning to her and remarking, "It’s just… you’d make a great ghost.”

She looked confused by that, staring at him with bewilderment, which only further cemented his bitter relief.

She was never going to see it.

He shook his head again, waving off his own comment. "Forget it." He gestured at her bag again. "Come on, what else you got in there?"

She stared, sharp eyes boring into him with that laser-focus that she used when she was working, but seemed to not find what she was looking for, breathing out a small sigh before turning back to the bag.

It turned out she had a lot more to show him, although most of it was mundane items he used every day; she even brought out his toothbrush. He teased and joked about each new item, and felt a little excited each time he could get her to smile despite herself.

It was...weird.

It was weirder when he left. He thought he'd feel relieved not to be getting grilled by her anymore, but if he was being honest with himself...he'd been having fun.

But he couldn't stay on the roof forever. He needed to get back to his room before Vlad came back to "grade" his work. So, when he had the chance, he stood, stretched his arms and declared, "This was fun, but I gotta pretend to sleep, so..."

Before he could finish his sentence, she butted in, "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

He looked down at her, surprised.

She gestured at the bag, "These were the things with the strongest signature, but there were more I can bring up tomorrow...assuming you weren't lying to me."

He braced himself, at first assuming she was back to accusing him, but her tone was light, almost playful. If he didn't know any better, he almost thought it was a joke.

He gave her a mischievous smirk. "Oh, didn't you know? Ghosts can't cheat on games. It's a whole thing."

She rolled her eyes, but there a little quirk at the corner of her lips that assured him that she had taken it well. "Good," she said, gathering up the bag and its contents. "I'll bring more tomorrow night, then."

He repressed a frown, electing to ignore the fact that she planned to go through more of his stuff. Instead, he nodded amiably and gave her a little, awkward wave. "Until round 2."

When he returned to his room and begrudgingly turned his attention to the required homework, he once again found it difficult to concentrate. Not only was he a bundle of nervous energy, he also kept thinking about what Vlad said about his mom. On one hand, it should have been a relief that his mom was so good at compartmentalizing that she would never see him as anything but a ghost, but...she had agreed to the truce, right? Sure, she was still doing her usual thing, but it wasn't like she was hunting him down anymore. They were talking. She was joking with him.

Maybe she'd never seen him as anything but a ghost, but...maybe her opinion of ghosts could change.

He did his best past the distraction to get some work done, but he already knew well before Vlad returned to check his progress that he'd be spending a good chunk of the night in the closet.

The 'C' Vlad gave him earned him another shock from the Plasmius Maximus and a solid four hours in the closet, but this time, Vlad decided he'd check his work in the morning. So instead of sulking like he normally would, he decided to take advantage of the time, determined not to spend tomorrow morning back in there, too.

He wasn't less distracted than he was before, but there were less distractions in the barren closet to draw his attention elsewhere.

Whether he had managed to get an 'A' or not, though, as soon as he felt access to his ghostly half return to him, he abandoned the homework entirely and grabbed his phone from the drawer he'd stuffed it in. He wasn't sure when was going to be the best time to go, but he just had to give it his best guess. At a quarter to 2:00AM, he ventured to his door, peeking out into the darkened hallway. He let a little energy creep into his eyes, turning them green and allowing him to see a little more clearly. When no sounds or movement greeted him, he stepped into the hall and made his way to the staircase. 

He crept down the steps, grateful for the architecture that seemed impervious to surprise creaking floorboards. He didn’t necessarily need to sneak; if Vlad was still awake, there would be no hiding from him. Better to give an excuse or lie. He wondered if Vlad would believe he was going for a late-night snack.  

Crossing along the edge of the entryway, he reached Vlad’s office door and paused at the entrance, listening for a moment to see if he could hear Vlad mulling around inside. 

If Vlad was there, it wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility that the older hybrid already knew he was there. Danny had purposefully remained human in the hopes that Vlad’s ability to inexplicably find him was related to his ghost half and that maybe the same didn’t apply if he wasn’t transformed. 

Long after it had remained quiet on the other side of the door, Danny swallowed nervously and gripped the handle, opening the door slowly to peek inside. The lights were off, but it didn’t comfort him; it just made him more aware of how little of the inside of the room he could see. Widening his view, he pushed the door open further and eased inside, wide eyes checking the dark corners and flicking repeatedly to the fireplace. 

More or less confident that if Vlad was going to jump scare him, he would’ve done it by now, he quickly raced to the desk and opened up the laptop. He mouthed off the password to himself as he typed it in, careful not to mistakenly enter a typo in case Vlad was paranoid enough that one false entry might lock the laptop or, at the very worst, alert Vlad somehow.

Double checking it, he took a deep breath and pressed enter. 

The light from the screen shifted as it granted him access and he pumped both fists triumphantly. 

Now the only question was how to reach out to Tucker and Sam. He couldn’t install anything; that was too time-consuming and too risky. 

He opened up the web browser and browsed Vlad’s recent searches. He didn’t recognize most of the sites he visited; most of them seemed business related. Nothing social, like he was hoping. He'd have to go onto a site Vlad didn't use.

Risky, but he was already being risky. What difference would it make now?

He opened up a private tab and opened up Instagram, logging in with his own credentials. He didn't really use it except to follow Sam, but she scrolled it often enough that he figured she'd probably have notifications turned on. He opened up messenger and started typing faster than he ever had before, ignoring the typos as long as it was legible. 

Danny: I don’t know how long I have Im on vlad’a laptop you guys have to he.p my dad. Vlad’s possessing him and he’ll kill him if I don’t do what he says. I dont remember what you have with you Sam but if you have any of my parents stuff that might help, find a way to get vlad out of my dad and I can take care of vlad

 

He hit send after a cursory look over the message and sat back, watching the screen tensely. He gasped aloud when he saw bubbles show up in the group chat. 

Sam: Thank god! So relieved to hear from you! Are you okay? 

Tucker: dude thank god! how much time do u have? 

Danny leaned forward to start typing, but stopped as more messages poured in. 

 

Sam: I’ve got a box of your parents’ stuff.. I know I’ve got one of those lipstick ecto guns

Sam: I’ll check what else 

Sam: Did you know Jazz is helping too??

Danny blinked in surprise, a swell of conflicting feelings making his cheeks feel hot. 

Tucker: yeah shes been talking to lawyers and paranormal experts

Danny winced, chewing on his lip anxiously. If Sam and Tucker knew what she was up to, what if Vlad knew, too? What would he do? Maybe he wasn’t worried about it, but it didn’t seem like Vlad would just brush off a risk like that, no matter how small it looked. 

Danny: How do you guys know?

Sam: She’s been texting us. She’s been asking us for the truth. Do we tell her?

Tucker: we’re helping her as much as we can

Tucker: we didn’t know what to say when she asked

Tucker: we think she knows

Sam: It could help if she knew everything

Danny: she’ll end up om Vldas radar if she knows everything

Sam: I think she’s going to put herself on his radar anyway

Tucker: u know her

Tucker: she’s like your mom

Danny rubbed his hands over his face in frustration. She was like his mom; when she got a scent, it was hard to derail her. He had hoped their last conversation had done it, but she was like a bloodhound. 

Danny: keep her out of trouble ok vlad’s not kidding

Sam: We’ll keep an eye on her, don’t worry. We won't say anything

Sam: What else do you need?

Danny: I need a way to track vlad. I took some big risks getting this far

Tucker: you’re on his computer right now?

Danny: Yeah

Tucker: 1 sec

Danny waited, gaze re-engaging his surroundings as the silence pressed in on him.

Tucker: i need the IP

Tucker walked him through several screens until he had located the information and passed it off to his friend.

Tucker: 1 sec

Danny waited again, glancing at the clock to see how long he had been here. Not quite fifteen minutes, it felt like this was getting riskier and riskier the more time went by. 

Tucker: click accept when u get the popup

A popup showed up asking to give access to another computer. Danny clicked accept.

Tucker: nice

Tucker: i can access his laptop from here

Tucker: if he has other cameras connected to his laptop ill have access to those 2

Tucker: ill get u a schedule

Danny wanted to fly; he was so ecstatic. 

Danny: TThanks guys I'll log back int tomorrow

Tucker: don’t risk it. well get it 2 u

Danny’s brow popped up in surprise. What did that mean? 

 

Tucker: we got u dude

Sam: Be safe.

 

He swallowed, nodding at the screen as though they could hear.

Danny: thanks guys talk soon

With a heavy sigh, he exited out of the tab, deleted the history, and closed out of the laptop. He wanted to stay longer, just to ask them more and talk to them, but every second he was in here was a risk.

And he needed this to work. He needed this win.

Carefully stepping out of the room, making sure to leave everything exactly the way he'd found it, he crept back upstairs and got to work on his homework again. He didn't need more time locked in the closet, and plus, he was once again a bundle of anxious energy, and he needed somewhere to channel it.

At least until tomorrow. If Vlad came in tomorrow and was his usual smug self...

Then he got away with it.