Work Text:
It had been… a long several months. Danny honestly forgot what day let alone month it was. Autumn? It should be autumn? Maybe? He and the other engineers had been banging their heads on perfecting several variations of the engines needed to, well, make the Hail Mary actually do its job. Non-stop testing and building and fixing and tinkering.
There were other projects to be done. Always something to be done. Always something to be fixed.
Was Danny having fun trying to solve the puzzle box that was converting astrophage to fuel? Yes and no. (Granted, that was more of the “Scientists’” problem than the “Engineers’” problem as they kept reminding him, ugh.) He sorta wished in his slow beating heart that they were having an ectoplasm problem instead of an astrophage problem. Granted, he’d been living and dying and living and dying ectoplasm his whole life and (technically) afterlife. Ectoplasm made sense to him.
If he had to explain his work or why he was tinkering with weird radioactive green goop instead of their current task weeeeeeeeeell…
He started to hide in the Specter Speeder 4.0. He or Jazz had to move it out of the jets’ way several times. They eventually finagled a decent out of the way spot. It didn’t matter, truly, one way or another if they had to make an emergency exit with it. He or Dani could just turn it invisible, phase through everything and be on their merry little way.
Ilyukhina usually found him first. She’d knock, ask how he was doing, if his arm was flaring up, poke and prod at his little projects. So, he was expecting her when he heard a knock on the side door.
“Um, knock knock?”
That… wasn’t the voice of Ilyukhina.
Danny quickly threw a blanket over his work and muttered several curses. It was cold in the Speeder. It’d been getting harder and harder to hide the ice or use his ice powers without someone watching. At least they were on course for the Antarctic…
He glanced around, feeling like he was forgetting something, and pressed the button to open the door. And of all the people it had to be… it was Grace standing outside about to knock again.
Grace’s glasses were, for once, resting correctly on his face. He was wearing a t-shirt with a large tabby cat sitting in the center of the Golden Gate Bridge underneath a light blue jacket. Well, at least Danny wasn’t underdressed in one of his old Dumpty Humpty t-shirts and jeans (with natural holes at the knees. One day he’ll sit down and patch them or maybe get Dani to embroider them… one day…).
Danny raised his left arm to lean against the Speeder’s doorframe. “Uh, hi?”
Grace’s eyes darted to Danny’s arm. He seemed to be at a loss for words, before he shook his head and snapped his fingers. “Your sister sent me down here.”
Danny’s eyes glanced at Grace’s wrists. He… wasn’t wearing the Specter Deflector… “Which one?” He asked, fully assuming it was Jazz.
“Doc.”
Yep. He called it. Danny sighed. “And she couldn’t do it becaaaause-?”
Grace scratched his head and there went the glasses, onto the top of his head. “She’s in the middle of several meetings? Clients?” He shrugged, “She pulled me away from work…” his lips thinned.
“Ah,” Danny nodded, “yup, welcome to the family. She’ll never admit it, but she gets really… weird when people get really absorbed in their work and don’t take breaks.” He sucked a breath through his teeth. Oooooh, shit, how long had he been in the Speeder? “What, uh, what time is it?”
Grace made a grand gesture of looking at his watch. “A little after 4.”
Danny winced. “Ah…” he only intended to pop in for 20 minutes and here he learned he nearly spent the whole day in the Speeder tinkering. “And uh… people weren’t uh… looking for me were they?”
Grace, ever so helpfully shrugged. “Couldn’t tell ya, was doing my own thing til your sister dragged me away from some samples.”
Danny snorted. “Right, right of course.” He sighed. Well, Ilyukhina usually knew to check the Speeder at least…
Grace’s glasses had somehow flipped around and were barely hanging on against the back of his neck while he studied the Specter Speeder. “How… is this hovering?”
Danny smirked. “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
Grace gave a ‘try me’ look.
“It’s the same thing that runs the Specter Deflector I made you.” Danny started, as he backed away from the door and beckoned Grace to enter.
Despite the clear reluctance, Grace took a tentative step inside. He immediately shuddered and rubbed his hands against his arms. “Is it normally supposed to feel like I’m a TV dinner in the freezer section?” He frowned at Danny, “How are you not cold?”
Danny mentally kicked himself. Okay, so maaaaaybe he should really let off some frost before he freezes everything he touches again. “Used to it.” He said, trying to sound as nonchalant as he did not feel.
Grace whistled as he looked around the interior. There wasn’t much to look at really, except for the fold out table Danny had been using for a ‘work bench’ (it was meant for testing samples from the Infinite Realms, but Danny had moved those supplies to one of the many hidden compartments) and the foldable stool where Danny’s green plaid shirt still remained where he had been perched on until the interruption. “You built this?”
“Nah,” Danny knocked on the metal above his head, “parents built this. It’s uh,” he cleared his throat, “the Specter Speeder 4.0. Nothing was wrong with the prior editions, though 3.0 did uh, blow up pretty unceremoniously.” At Grace’s startled face, Danny couldn’t help, but laugh. “You’d be surprised how often I have to deal with explosions.” He shrugged, “It wasn’t anything to do with how it was built so much as usual Amity Park nonsense.”
“Okay, unpacking that later.” Grace said as he used his index finger to ‘rewind’ the conversation. “Your parents… built this?”
“Yep,” Danny leaned against the front seat, “along with many, many, many other inventions.” He shrugged (do not say weapons for the mercy of the Ancients do not say weapons), “I… started to fix them in high school.” He glanced away from Grace to pick at the seam of the seat’s upholstery. “They never noticed of course, they always figured that their things just randomly worked sometimes…”
He shook his head. Nope, no, he wasn’t going to spill his guts to the first person who asked no matter how many times Jazz or his old therapist told him he should. He was going to do what he did best, lock the emotions deep inside and then one day he’ll be a full ghost and everyone that knew him can deal with those emotions then.
When he finally glanced back at Grace, Grace had his hand covering his mouth like he was thinking while his face did a journey Danny in no way was going to follow. Time to change tactics. “Think we can sneak into the kitchen and grab a bite before they notice?”
Grace squinted at Danny before moving his hand away from his mouth. “Aren’t you like… banned from the kitchen now?”
Danny groaned. “Who told you? It was one toaster!”
Grace sucked a breath through his teeth. “And something about leaving an unstable compound in the fridge?”
Unstable- oooooh. Danny face palmed and slowly dragged his hand down. “Ooooh, no I’m turning into my parents.” The ectoplasm incident. Right. He knew ectoplasm liked to reanimate meat! He knew! Jazz fought off the reanimated turkey for like a decade every holiday with a broom until their parents finally stopped getting a turkey. Not to mention the ongoing food fridge wars still occurring in his childhood home.
“Wait, back up, rewind.” Grace closed his eyes as made a circular motion with his index finger, “Did they seriously-“
“Put ecto samples in the fridge for decades and never learned their lesson?” Danny shrugged, “Is Pluto a planet?”
Grace huffed. “It was declassified as a major planet in 2006 and is considered a dwarf planet due to the three rules-“
“And Pluto shares space with the Kuiper belt, I am aware.” Danny grinned, “But in your heart of hearts, is Pluto still a planet.”
Grace clapped his hands together and took a slow deliberate breath in. “I want to say yes, however, saying yes would acknowledge something I super duper wish was not true. How. Dare. You.”
Danny’s grin widened. “I asked if in your heart of hearts—“ he cackled as Grace shoved him back. He didn’t have to move of course. Nobody could move Danny if he didn't want to. Still, the low, curved ceiling of the Speeder should’ve knocked some sense into him as Grace was suddenly in his face.
There was no anger or malice in Grace’s ocean blue eyes. It was… weird having someone nearly meet Danny’s height. Other than his father, few matched or were taller in height that weren’t well… professional sports players. Grace had to be a little over 6ft, which meant Danny had about 5inches on him when Danny had his feet on the ground.
“What, and I cannot over state this enough, the ever flying bushtit?”
Danny was forced to duck as he backed into the curve of the Speeder. “Heh, you can swear. I know the carrier isn’t cursed like my hometown was-er well still is.”
Grace pinched his brow as he took a slow, calming breath. “Fenton.”
“You know you can literally call me Danny. Everyone calling me Fenton is like I’m back in high school again, running from the school’s quarterback because he flunked a test and liked shoving me in lockers.” Danny deadpanned, pushing his right hand against the ceiling as his back pressed against the curve.
Whatever Grace was going to say was left to buffer as he just… stared at Danny, completely lost for words. Grace blinked a couple times as he rebooted. “Okay, so, that is a lot to unpack. First of all, are you okay? Secondly, I see your sister more than you so it is slightly weird for me to call you boy!Danny in my head.”
Danny hummed as he shrugged, glancing out of the front window of the Specter Speeder. “Eh, been through hell of a lot worse.” Like fighting his (alternate) future (technically now past) self, stopping Spectra from turning all his classmates into ghosts, that one time he had to eat Dash’s underwear cause he lost a bet. He shuddered, “It’s not cool, it’s a fallacy. It’s a cruel and unusual brutality.”
“You’re singing at me.” Grace stated. “Why are you singing at me?”
“And I can survive it for only so long.” Danny continued.
Grace placed his hand over Danny's mouth. “Are…are you singing the opening song from ‘Nerdy Prudes Must Die’ at me?”
So, his and Dani’s theory was correct. He slowly nodded, not bothering to try and dislodge Grace’s hand from his mouth. If he actually cared, Danny could just be extremely gross and lick Grace’s hand, but that’d be weird to do to someone he barely knew. Granted, he had no doubt in his mind that Dani had done that already.
Grace took a slow deliberate breath. “You’re extremely unmedicated like your sister aren’t you?”
That… wasn’t what he expected. Danny tilted his head in confusion. “Huh?” He tried to say, but was muffled by Grace’s hand still pressed against his mouth.
“I… don’t want to pry, but like, were you uh, ever diagnosed with anything or-?”
Danny shook as he tried to contain his laughter. Okay, yea, damn absolutely taken out by the knee caps. Grace backed away slowly as he removed his hand. Danny couldn’t help, but snort. “Damn, it’s that bad today?” He cackled, “Oh, geez, I’ve never had like… a formal diagnosis, because I didn’t fall under the stereotypical ‘too much energy’ poster child. Jazz, uh,” he shrugged, “thought she cracked it when we were in high school. Like she wasn’t too far off, but after she, uh, took a college class or two about the DSM-V well, she decided to add to her notes a few… very accurate readings.”
“Did you forget your meds today?” Grace asked and then winced, “I mean-“
Danny waved him off. “Nah, I, uh, well,” he frowned. What was the word? “Most medications don’t work on me. Nothing sticks around long enough to do its job, or the dosage would have to be strong enough to kill a guy.” He snorted at his own joke. “So, I just… usually use techniques I’ve learned over the years. But then there are days like, today, apparently.”
“That’s… rough.”
“Understatement of my afterlife.” Danny sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
Grace’s lips thinned. “Every conversation with you, I just… get more and more concerned.”
Danny glanced at the Speeder’s control panel to avoid Grace’s burning gaze. “Eh,” he shrugged as he finally dared to look at Grace’s face. Ilyukhina always laughed off whatever bullshit came out of his mouth. She took his casual, out of pocket remarks as that. Granted, she’s been dealing with his brand of bullshit since he set foot on the Stratt Vat. Did she question some of his bullshit? Yes, yes she did. But she picked and chose those battles. “You’ll get used to it.”
“That’s not…” And Grace, for his part, backed down as he physically took a couple steps back. “Nobody should be used to…” He shook his head. “Let’s just…get something to eat.”
Danny couldn’t place why it stung. Why did it sting? He sighed. “Yeah, I could eat.” He moved to the stool, now that he wasn’t basically backed into a corner and reached out with his bare left hand—.
He stared. The Lichtenburg scar that flowed from his palm, where he had pressed the portal button over half his life ago, all the way up his left arm and to his shoulder… was visible. His death scar… was visible. His hand started to shake.
Danny had removed his compression sleeve and glove not long after getting settled inside the Specter Speeder. He never… put them back on…
“Danny?”
He blinked as he was pulled out of his reverie. (Or was he disassociating?) Grace was standing on his right, touching his shoulder. Grounding him.
“Breathe with me.” Grace said and Danny focused. In for 5. Out for 8. In through the nose. Out through the mouth.
After what seemed like ages, Danny couldn’t help but laugh. It was hollow, void of his usual, real or fake, mirth. “I’d been… so careful.” He finally managed to grab his green and black plaid shirt from the stool and low and behold, underneath were his compression sleeve and glove. Because of course they were. The Fenton luck strikes again.
“I…” Grace’s voice faltered as he gently squeezed Danny’s good shoulder and took a step back, “promise I won’t breathe a word. I won’t—.” When Danny finally looked at Grace’s face, Grace’s glasses were barely hanging onto his right ear. “I won’t ask either… no matter how curious I am about the Lichtenburg figure because they typically last only 24 hours but…” Grace waved his hand in front of his face. “No, forget it. I’m putting my foot in my mouth. Let’s uh—”
“I was being a stupid teenager.” Danny said, as he held out the compression sleeve. “I can… do it, but I could, uh, use the help.”
Grace blinked at the peace offering. “Are you… sure?”
Danny gave a lazy half shrug. “Please, Grace?”
Grace stared at his face, searching for something that Danny wasn’t privy to before finally saying, “Okay.”
It was slow methodical work, and honestly, Danny had gotten the sleeve on much faster than this, but Grace was concentrating and being so gentle that… Danny for once was at a loss for words. He’s had Jazz and his friends, Tucker, and Sam, assist him in pulling it on during days when he couldn’t be bothered. When his apathy was at its peak, and before he figured out how to easily flick back and forth into his other (dead) half.
“Call me, Ryland.”
“Huh?” Did Danny hear that correctly? The compression sleeve’s comforting presence had returned. The low buzzing from his arm quieted.
“Ryland is my, uh, first name.” Grace said, holding up the compression glove to hand to Danny. “Seeing as I know yours… felt uh, fair?”
“Does my sister-?”
“Nah, I mean,” with the compression glove now in Danny’s hands, Ryland shrugged as he fiddled with his own fingers, “she might? But she’s gotten into the habit of calling me Candy Dispenser, Twizzlers, or Skittles, depending on whatever whim she’s feeling at the moment.”
Danny snorted. “Yep, that sounds like her.” Welcome to the family. The glove could never decide whether or not it was going to cooperate for Danny. Sometimes his fingers would jam in the same hole if he wasn’t paying the closest attention. Now though, by some mercy of the ancients, the glove was back to its home. “So… you think the kitchen will have mercy on me and have some burgers on tonight's menu or—”
“I dunno Patches,” Ryland said while following Danny out of the Speeder, “is Charon a moon?”
Danny paused at the door to turn and look at Ryland. “Patches? Really? We’re already at the nickname stage?”
“I’m pulling a page from your sister’s book.” He shrugged, as his glasses were finally properly worn on his face, “You said you liked Sour Patch Kids. And again, I don’t like referring to you as boy!Danny to remember your name. Gets…” he wiggled his hand. “Weird.”
“Okay, but if I can’t be called Danny, neither can she.”
Ryland chuckled as he squeezed past Danny, and hopped down onto the hanger’s floor. “If it makes you feel any better I’ve been calling her Peanut after she devoured a whole bag of Circus Peanuts last week during one meeting where she, and I quote, said ‘Why are the monkeys in suits trying to run a circus, when the Ring Leader is right there?’”
“Americans?” Danny guessed, reaching back into the Speeder to grab his plaid shirt and tied it around his waist.
“Yep,” Ryland grinned, “Stratt was dreading dealing with them, but I had them handled after they started talking over each other again.”
Danny raised a brow as he locked the door to the Speeder. “Oh?”
“I teach middle school, Patches.” Ryland laughed, “And us Americans have some deeply ingrained phrases.”
“Noooo, what? Di would’ve said something. No way.”
Ryland grinned as he shoved his hands in his jacket’s pockets as they kept walking. “One, two, three, eyes on me.”
“One, two, eyes on you.” Danny mumbled in response, glancing at Ryland then back to the floor before stopping in his tracks to slowly stare gobsmacked at Ryland’s shit-eating grin. “What, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck.”
“As I said,” Ryland chuckled as he walked around a fighter jet, “I teach middle school.”