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When Danny gets the call from Professor Utonium on October 30th, it's after another long day. With Halloween coming up fast, humans have been messing with the afterlife more, and it's somehow Danny's job to fix the problems they cause. A middleman between the living and dead, whether he wants to be or not.
So it's been a long day. He's ready to crawl into bed despite the time when his dad yells up the stairs about a phone call. It could be one of his classmates and tentative friends calling him for homework help or something, but it's just as likely to be his out-of-town second family. Either way, he trudges down the stairs and takes the phone.
"Hey, this is Danny." He takes the stairs back up two at a time, not wanting his parents to hear the conversation no matter who it ends up being. It's not that he doesn't love them, but he doesn't really trust them. Not when their life's work involves tearing creatures like him apart molecule by molecule.
"Hello Danny!" The kind, chipper voice is enough to melt some of the tension from Danny's shoulders as he disappears into his room. Figuratively, not literally. He knows to be careful about using his powers where people can see. "Do you have a few minutes to talk? I have a favor to ask of you."
"Yeah, of course." Sleep has already waited this long, it can wait a few more minutes.
"I've been called into an emergency meeting at the Research Center tomorrow evening." The professor sighs, static sizzling in the microphone. "Why they chose to hold it on Halloween of all nights, I'll never understand, but it's mandatory. The girls have been so excited, and I would hate to ruin their fun, so I was wondering if you might be available to take them trick-or-treating."
Professor Utonium and his three daughters are practically family for Danny. He loves his parents so much, and they love him back, but they just don't have much time for him these days. Most days he only gets to see them in passing, and it's a treat, but he misses them. Spending time with the Professor and the girls even over the phone helps fill that aching little gap in his chest.
"Sure, I can head over after school. Should I go straight to your place?"
Amity Park can survive without him for one night. Even a night that's gearing up to be the busiest of the year. He didn't sign up for this job, and he sure as hell isn't being paid for it, so nobody can give him trouble for playing hooky. They're have to deal with their own problems for once.
"You're a lifesaver, Danny! Yes, we can meet here and pick the girls up from school together. That will give us time to go over ground rules ahead of time." Professor Utonium chuckles. "I know I have little reason to worry, but I can't help it. Anyway, I'll be seeing you tomorrow, and thank you again Danny! Have a nice night."
"You too. Bye." Danny ends the call and, energy restored by the prospect of a fun evening instead of a grueling one, he throws himself out of bed and down the stairs. He has a Halloween costume to buy.
✿✿✿✿✿
Danny can't remember the last time he was so excited.
To anyone else, that might sound dumb. What's so exciting about babysitting? But most people haven't babysat kids like these.
"No flying while trick-or-treating. It wouldn't be fair to the other kids if you superspeed your way through the entire neighborhood in minutes. And they shouldn't eat too much of their candy early on because I'll be bringing pizza home with me after my meeting."
Danny listens along, nodding his head. He lets himself relax and put his guard down for once without any ghost problems to worry about. "Of course. The last thing we need is a super-powered stomach ache."
"Exactly." The professor pats his shoulder, making him flinch. It's been a while since his dad did that and he's not really used to it anymore. The hand falls away. "Thank you again, Danny. The girls would have been so disappointed if I had to cancel completely."
He shrugs. "It's no big deal. I'd much rather be here than in Amity anyway."
It's a truth that Danny tries not to think about too much. The town doesn't want him, but it needs him and he loves it, and he's not bitter enough yet to leave it to rot. One day he might be.
"You always have a place here with us," Professor Utonium promises. "No matter what."
Danny wishes he could believe him. It's another thing on his "one day maybe" list.
Thankfully, the subject drops and moves back to rules for trick-or-treating. The kids might be superheroes, but they're still only eight. That means Danny, as their babysitter, has to be vigilant, diligent, but also as fun as possible.
"I'm sure you'll do a great job, Danny. The girls love you."
He's not so sure about that,` but before Danny gets to say anything about it, students start rushing from the school's doors.
The girls are easy to tell apart from the crowd because they're floating, hovering inches above the ground to glide along. Bubbles is floating backwards while they chat so she's last to see the professor and Danny, but the other two freeze. She turns around to join the staring.
And shoots off, nearly barreling Danny over.
He chuckles, heart warmed by her enthusiasm. Bubbles' heart is so full of love for everyone. It may mean that he isn't special, because he's part of the rule instead of an exception, but that doesn't dull how bright her affection glows. The airy sweetness of cotton candy. She greets him with the same degree of joy every time and he can't help feeling loved.
Buttercup approaches next, not far behind her. Most people would expect Buttercup to be the opposite of Bubbles with her gruff attitude and outer demeanor. It's something Danny himself has adapted and can relate to.
That doesn't mean anything about who she is on the inside. Under the crunchy candy coating she's milk chocolate. She acts cool and collected but it's obvious from how she lights up around him that she likes Danny.
One time, Danny was over late to help with a villain keeping them up past bedtime. He flew the sleepy kids home after the battle was done, and an exhausted Buttercup said that he was the best big brother. That's the moment he thinks about the most when he's struggling through a dark patch in Amity Park.
"Hey Ghost Boy," she greets, an air of cool around her. "What're you doing in Townsville?"
He waits until the last of them catches up. Blossom follows at a measured pace, acting the mature one even though she's obviously just as excited.
She stops front and center to take up his attention. Danny's still not sure whether it's because she's jealous he's getting all the attention from her sisters or if she's jealous of them for getting Danny's attention. Either way, she's kind in her greeting, bubt she makes a show of it. "Hi, Danny!"
If he had to compare her to a candy, she would be a jawbreaker. Sweet on the outside but with so many layers and something secret at the center.
He gives them all a little wave.
"Danny here is going to take you trick or treating this afternoon!" Professor Utonium explains as he leads them away from the school.
Bubbles insists on holding both Danny's and the professor's hands, swinging between them. Buttercup latches onto Danny's other hand and Blossom pouts before taking the professor's open hand.
The five of them create a barrier on the sidewalk that everyone they pass needs to carefully skirt around, but nobody complains. They all smile and wave and greet them like a normal family walking home from school.
It's bittersweet.
✿✿✿✿✿
The girls are off getting changed into their costumes while Danny sits in the living room getting their candy baskets ready. His costume was an easy one, thrown on over his clothes so he can run around Townsville comfortably all night, so he's ready first.
He may not really be their older brother, but he does care about them and want them to have a fun Halloween. They were looking forward to spending time with their father and he's just a stand-in, he knows, but he's trying.
In this moment, that means stuffing the bottoms of their baskets with the candy he brought hidden in his bag. So the girls could start off the night on a high note and end it with a good haul no matter what. A nice pillow of wrapped candies to build the night up on.
Once that's settled, baskets set out neatly in a row on the coffee table, he settles in with a book for his English class. Was he supposed to be spending the evening catching up on reading for a quiz tomorrow? Yes, but this is much more fun, and he can do it later after he heads home anyway. It's not like the eight year olds can stay up very late.
"Danny!" Bubbles shoots into the room, a blur of colors. Except it's not the bright colors he's expecting. "Look at my costume! Isn't it cute?"
Danny has no idea what or who she's even supposed to be. "You look great! Who are you dressed up as?"
"I'm Mojo Jojo!" She says it with a scowl and as low a voice she can manage, which isn't very low. It sounds really silly, actually, not that he'll say that aloud. "We have to fight him sometimes, but he's actually really cool and smart! Sometimes I see him at the grocery store or going to the park and he doesn't even try to fight me!"
Okay, so he's a villain from their rogue gallery, albeit not a very threatening one if he casually walks around town without inciting panic.
Blossom comes out while Bubbles is still explaining her costume. Her costume is everything Danny had expected from Bubbles': pink and colorful and bright. There are kneepads and elbow pads and this little neon visor. He's not sure what the costume is, but it suits her.
When Bubbles pauses for breath in her ramble, Blossom cuts in. "I'm Barbie!" she announces proudly, hands propped on her hips .
Danny knows approximately nothing about Barbie. "Cool! It's a really fun outfit; I love the colors."
She only has a moment to to revel in the compliment before Buttercup flies in, literally, and does a mid-air spin to show off her costume. This one Danny does recognize, the outfit distinctive.
"Rogue from X-Men. Nice!"
Buttercup beams under the positive attention and Danny wonders how often she gets it from anyone other than her dad.
There's plenty of gossip around his school about heroes and vigilantes, which are the coolest and which are lame. The Powerpuff Girls are no exception and he heard about them from his peers long before actually meeting them. According to the rumor mill, Blossom was the know-it-all, Bubbles was the ditz, and Buttercup was the difficult one. Dangerous. A problem child. Nobody ever had something good to say about her.
None of them knew her, or the other girls. They're just kids and they're doing the best they can. They're doing important work that nobody else is bothering to, things that shouldn't even be their jobs as kids. The Powerpuff Girls are people, not some fictional cartoon or comic book characters.
Danny knows he's projecting, people have said some pretty shitty things about Phantom where they didn't think the vigilante could hear, but he also knows that he's right.
"You're all wearing great costumes. You're going to be the coolest kids out there. Are you ready to go?"
Bubbles pulls an absurdly tall hat out from behind the couch, Buttercups digs a belt out from under the coffee table, and Blossom waits patiently by the door all ready to go.
He's grabbing the pumpkin baskets for them when he remembers his mask, left there on the couch.
"What's your costume, Danny?"
There's no easy way to explain it, especially for kids, but he does his best. "I'm dressed as Ghostface. They're the villain from the Scream horror films. Instead of being one person, it's more like a mantle that gets picked up instead of passed down, usually held by two people at a time."
It was an easy choose at the costume shop. The fact that Ghostface is a human outside the costume seemed like a funny choice for the half-human half-ghost. Ghostface usually being held by two people worked well with that. It was an inside joke that nobody else would really get but made him laugh.
The girls watch as he talks, getting more confused as he goes on. By the end, he thinks he's explained it well enough, but they don't seem to understand.
"Why are you dressed like like a bad guy when you're a good guy?"
The question makes him put the mask back down after he's started picking it up. He looks at Bubbles in her Mojo Jojo costume, the villain she insists isn't truly horrible. Thinks about his own gallery of rogues. In his experience, evil in fiction tends to be a lot more black-and-white than it is in real life.
Danny has heard the local gossip about Phantom, as well as the girls. Bubbles, in her Mojo Jojo costume, thinks of him as good. Not many people share that opinion.
He pulls on the mask. "Sometimes a scary costume is just a scary costume. And it fits easily over my clothes so I get to be comfortable. It doesn't have to have a deeper reason." Even though it does.
"Oh."
"You said it's from a movie," Buttercup chimes in. "Can we watch it?"
"Absolutely not." The kid deflates, and Danny can't leave it at that. "Maybe we can watch Halloweentown or something when we get back instead."
That must be good enough because they all perk up and insist they're ready to leave. He's just glad that he didn't ruin everyone's night before it's even started.
✿✿✿✿✿
The trick-or-treating is nice.
It's not something Danny's done in recent years. His parents used to take him as a kid and every year he dressed up as a Ghostbuster so they could all match. The night would always start out fun and hopeful, but it ended in disaster every time. His parents would mistake someone or something as a real ghost and make a mess of things. He never made it through the night with his candy basket in tact.
Eventually, he told them he was too old for trick-or-treating. His dad constantly drops change in the couch, so Danny's new tradition became collecting it in the weeks leading up to the holiday then buying himself a bag of discounted candy the day after. This year, he splurged on a bag to pad the girls' baskets with instead.
It's peaceful in a charged way. Everyone is happy and energetic and having fun. There are decorations on the streets and at the houses, turning the town into a creepy wonderland. Ghosts and ghouls walk the streets, and Danny doesn't even have to deal with them!
He thinks about Amity Park, if it's doing alright without him. Then he shoves the thought away because Amity Park has already taken so much from him. It's not going to take this.
As they keep walking, Danny starts to notice a change. Toilet paper thrown like streamers over houses, carefully crafter jack-o-lanterns with smashed in faces, the kind of small things that aren't dangerous but also aren't very nice.
"Oh no!" Blossom shouts when she notices an entire cluster of pulverized pumpkins. She looks at them, then at the trail of chaos behind them. "Someone is trying to ruin Halloween!"
Danny wouldn't go that far. It's probably just some kids playing a prank, not some elaborate ploy to destroy the holiday Grinch style. The girls are obviously upset though, and it's his job to keep them happy, so he promises to help them find the culprits.
It's not hard to do. The group isn't even trying to hide what they're doing, kicking in more pumpkins a few blocks away.
"Of course it's the Gangreen Gang," Buttercup growls once they're in sight.
Danny has no idea who they are. They're green, for some reason, but not in a way that feels ghostly at all. Other than that, they just seem like normal teenage bullies. And Danny has never really done much to stand up to his own bullies.
He's willing to stand up to theirs, though.
"Hey!" he yells, causing the whole group of them to pause and look up. "Cut it out. Just get some candy and go home like everyone else. No need to go around breaking stuff."
"We aint got to listen to you." Their leader steps forward, trying to look so cool with his sunglasses and vest. Lame. None of them are even wearing costumes.
Danny smirks, not that anyone can see it. There's a perk to wearing a costume with a mask: he can transform and nobody will ever know who was behind the facade. "Are you sure about that?"
While they're bullies, they're still just kids, so Danny doesn't go all out on them. A little scare won't hurt, though.
He transforms into Phantom and lets ectoplasmic blasts form in his palms. One knocks off the leader's sunglasses, and another bully loses their hat. He's floating, more blasts already forming, and he knows that he gives off an eerie glow in the dark. From the looks on their faces, Danny can tell that his little intimidation tactic is working.
"Who are you?" one of them asks. He doesn't bother learning their names to differentiate them when they're almost done here.
"Me?" Danny grins, showing off teeth that are slightly too sharp to be human. "I'm the babysitter."
It seems like they finally notice the girls behind him. Even in costume they're pretty recognizable.
The boys fall into a battle stance, and Danny's not having any of that.
He widens his stance in front of them and scowls. "You're not dealing with them tonight, you're dealing with me. And ghosts aren't known for pulling their punches."
That must be the final straw for them because they backtrack fast.
"Fine! We was heading out anyways." The leader turns on his heel and walks away, not waiting to see if the others are following him. They do, and the whole group is gone faster than Danny's detransformation sequence.
"That was so cool!" Buttercup flies up in front of him and reenacts the fight. Well, fight is a pretty generous term for it, but she flails her arms around like they're powered with green. "They ran away like cowards, and you didn't even have to fight them!"
Danny checks on the other girls. Bubbles seems fine, picking away at the candy from her basket, but Blossom won't look at him. "You okay, Blossom?"
She still doesn't turn her face away from the collapsed pumpkin on the sidewalk. "We could have handled that ourselves."
Oh. Of course they're not used to others fighting their battles; he'd probably feel the same way if some other hero came out of nowhere and set him aside to fight his enemies. Except he's not some random hero.
"You could have," he admits with a shrug. "You shouldn't always have to, though, and it's my job tonight to make sure you get a break."
Being the Powerpuff Girls must be exhausting, he thinks. Danny gets the privilege of a secret identity, something he can hide away into. Sure, it doesn't work against the other ghosts since his identity is the worst kept secret of the Infinite Realms, but he doesn't have to be On all the time for anyone else. The Powerpuff Girls are public figures; they don't get a break from the attention, and it's not always positive. There isn't any separation and it's something they've gotten used to.
Danny could never do that.
"It's your night off," he offers, hoping it will help sway her. "No monsters, no villains, no cats stuck in trees. Enjoy a night of being a normal kid and hanging out with your sisters."
There's a pause where he's sure he's failed. Then Blossom finally looks at him. "Not even one cat?"
He chuckles. "Not even one. If we find any, I'll handle it so fast that you won't even have to stop walking."
Finally, she cracks a smile. "Okay. We should go if we want to visit a few more houses before going home."
Danny's shoulders sag in relief, unnoticeable under the cloak of his costume.
Over the rest of their trek across town, there are no more issues. Even cats don't want to cause trouble tonight and it's a perfect end to their outing. The girls have candy baskets filled to the brim and even Danny has a few treats stuffed in his pockets. Other than the one blip with the Gangreen Gang, it's been a perfect Halloween and they haven't even gotten to the pizza part yet.
Danny's really excited for the pizza part.
Bubbles stops them right as they're about to head back. One more stop, she asks, bringing out the giant puppy dog eyes on full blast. He couldn't say no to that.
So. One last stop.
✿✿✿✿✿
"Um, why are we going to an observatory?"
It's ridiculously tall and he can't understand how someone could live there without flying powers. Even with flight, he's not sure he'd be willing to make that trek constantly.
"That's where Mojo Jojo lives!" Bubbles explains as she leads him by the hand, more like drags him, up to the door. She knocks before he gets the chance to question that they're trick-or-treating at a villain's house. "Trick or treat!" she calls through the door.
Blossom and Buttercup are standing back, but neither make an attempt at stopping her. He looks at them in question but they just shrug.
There's some banging and clattering on the other side of the door with a constant stream of mumbling along with it. It takes a while for the door to open, and when it does, Danny doesn't know what he'd expected but it definitely wasn't this.
Are all of their villains green? And is he a monkey? A surprisingly well-dressed monkey, actually. Now Danny understands the Halloween costume, the outfit is kind of iconic.
"The Powerpuff Girls! What do you want? And why have you stolen my outfit? This is an outrage!" He scowls, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Trick or treat!" Bubbles shouts again now that he can actually hear.
He freezes for a second, definitely not expecting that. Then he looks around as if trying to find something he's not sure exists. He scowls down at her and takes a step back. "One moment."
Then he slams the door in their faces.
Danny scrunches his face up in annoyance. "Well that was rude."
Bubbles pokes his side. "Just wait."
The door opens again a minute later, Mojo Jojo's arms full of...something.
"Here, take these and leave. Do not return or I will be forced to destroy you." He shoves something into each of the girls' baskets -an apple, some piece of technology that Danny has no guess about the use for, and a vase with a flower in it- and slams the door again.
Bubbles looks at the flower sticking up from her basket with a wide grin. "Yay!"
Danny's not even going to start questioning that interaction. If he yelled "trick or treat" in the face of any of his rogues, they would probably just attack him.
✿✿✿✿✿
The sun has long past set and it's getting late, so they head back to the Utonium household. There's no more trouble on the way back, for which they're thankful, and the girls seem happy to call it a night. The most delicious part of Halloween is the part where you can eat your candy, after all.
Everyone is quick to pick apart their costumes and decompress. Blossom and Bubbles both lose their hats. Buttercup peels off her gloves. Danny himself ditches the mask and throws it next to him on the couch.
"Your dad should be back with pizza soon, so we can just hang out until he gets here, if you want to sort your candy or something."
Danny takes his eyes off them for a minute to find the remote and set up Halloweentown for them, and when he turns back they're sitting at the coffee table with their candy baskets and some bowls. At first he thinks they're just sorting, because a bunch of a specific kind of candy end up in the larger bowl, but then other candy is thrown in.
"What's that bowl for?"
Blossom answers, not taking her eyes of the task. "The Professor! He didn't get to come with us, so we're sharing our candy!"
They start adding candy to the second, smaller bowl.
"And what about that bowl?"
"It's for you, silly!" Bubbles chimes in.
Buttercup throws a grin over her shoulder at him. "It's not like you got a ton of candy, either."
"You did get some, though," Blossom adds, "so you get a smaller bowl."
That's absurdly sweet and Danny has no idea what to do with the rush of affection flooding his chest. "Oh. Thank you."
Unsure what else to do, he joins them on the floor and asks about everyone's favorite candies. That conversation doesn't last long once the girls realize there's a movie playing, but it's enough for Danny to know what everyone likes. He stores that information in his brain and hopes he'll get an opportunity to use it.
They're spread around the living room watching the television when Professor Utonium gets home. Danny and Buttercup are next to each other on the couch so she can whisper commentary to him throughout the movie. Bubbles is on the other side of the couch carefully sorting her candy on the coffee table. Blossom is doing the same from the floor, facing away from the television as if she's not watching the movie, except she keeps glancing over her shoulder at it. Another peaceful moment, something that is slowly becoming less rare in Danny's life.
"Hello everyone! I brought pizza. How did trick-or-treating go?"
The girls scramble to all tell the story of their night. Danny sits back and leaves them to it, not wanting to get in the way of their bonding.
After a few minutes, once the girls have all finished their recounts of the night and each picked up a slice of pizza, the Professor turns to Danny. There's a mug in his hand and a smile on his face. "What about you, son? How was your night?"
Danny knows it might not mean anything. But the way he says it, how he reminds Danny every time they talk that the teen has a place here, makes Danny think maybe it does. He may not actually be Professor Utonium's son, but he can't deny that the man has made his affection for Danny clear. It leaves a warmth in his chest that battles the ice core nestled inside there.
"Peaceful," Danny admits with a smile on his face. "The most fun I've had in a long time."
Everyone smiles at that, and Danny feels more like part of a family than he ever has.