#baxter writes fanfiction

[q-gorgeous]

Grave Green

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 4074

There's a shallow grave in the woods. The only marker is a stone with the name "Danny" scratched into it. Judging by the fresh-turned soil, it hasn't been empty for long. @kinglazrus

hehehehe

Dash wasn’t lost.

No way no how. There was no way he was lost. He was just going on his nightly run and he made a wrong turn and now it was the middle of the night and he couldn't see anything. But he wasn’t lost. He’d be able to find his way back still. 

But the trees blocked the moonlight and he had to move slowly. But moving slowly didn’t help him when he tried to step on empty air and he fell, landing in a patch of turned dirt. 

That was weird. Turned dirt? All the way out here in the middle of the woods?

He sat up and looked around him. Dash’s heart stopped and his eyes widened.

There at the other end of the turned dirt was a headstone with the name Danny on it. He could barely make the name out but he was sure it said Danny.

This couldn’t be Fenton’s grave, could it? Sure, Fenton went missing a month ago but everyone thought he just ran away. He couldn’t have been murdered and buried here, right?

But why was the grave dug out? How long has it been empty?

He heard the sound of a twig breaking behind him and he whipped his head around. 

“Danny?” Dash whispered, horrified.

There he was, covered in dirt and looking at his hands like they weren’t his own. He raised his head to look up at Dash and tears were swimming in his eyes. 

“Dash?” He asked shakily. “What are you doing out here?”

Dash just stared at Danny, at the absurd question. “What am I doing out here? What are you doing out here? You’re covered in dirt and I just fell into your grave!” 

Danny slowly looked back down at his hands. 

“There was an accident. I remember coming out here with my mom.” Danny whispered. “She said we were just going for a walk. That it would help me walk off the shock I got when their portal activated.”

Dash stared at him in horror. 

“I don’t know how she did it, but when we got here there was already an empty grave. She pushed me in and started burying me alive.” His gaze traveled over to stare at dirt he crawled out of. “The headstone is new though.”

“Your mom… Buried you alive?” Dash asked, shaking his hands back and forth.

Danny nodded, still staring at the grave. 

“It’s been a month since you went missing, though. How are you still alive?”

Danny’s gaze made its way back to Dash. “I don’t know. The accident must’ve changed me. Something seemed to scare my mom after I walked out of the portal but she wouldn’t tell me what it was. We came here afterwards.” 

“Your parents are into ghosts right?” Dash asked. “Did their portal kill you? Are you dead?”

Danny went back to studying his hands. “I don’t feel dead. I’m kinda hungry.” 

Dash slowly walked up to him. He hovered a foot away for a moment before he raised a hand up.

“If you’ve got a pulse, you’d still be alive right? Can I see…?”

Danny nodded and Dash put two fingers on Danny’s neck under his jaw. He held his breath and waited for the tell tale thump of a heart beat. He let it out and closed his eyes when he felt it.

“You still have a pulse. Somehow.” Dash pulled away. 

Danny nodded. He seemed tired and he couldn’t stop staring at his hands. Dash sighed.

“Come on. Let’s get you back to my place. We can get you cleaned up and find something to eat.”

Danny nodded again and Dash grabbed one of his hands and pulled it out of his line of sight. Tugging on it, Dash pulled Danny behind him as they started walking. 

“Did your dad know about any of this?” Dash asked softly. He tripped on a rock in the ground and turned to guide Danny around it.

Danny shook his head. “No. It was just me and my mom in the lab when the accident happened. She told me to put my jumpsuit on because we were going to try and fix the portal as a surprise for my dad.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how she thought I was supposed to help if my genius father couldn’t help her figure it out. She sent me inside the portal to take a look but I tripped.” 

Goosebumps rose along Dash’s arms. She sent him into the portal?

“When I braced myself against the wall, I must’ve pressed a button. The portal came to life around me and then I was screaming. When the pain was finally gone, I stumbled out of the portal and my mom had a horrified look on her face. I didn’t know what she saw but a bright light flashed in the lab and then she walked over to me.”

Dash guided them past another tree and finally saw what looked like a path. He started following it. 

“She told me to take my jumpsuit off and that we were going to go for a walk. She said it would help me walk off the shock. But the longer we kept walking, the worse the feeling in my gut got. Before I realized I should run, we were already standing over the grave. And then she pushed me in.” 

“Shit.” Dash whispered.

“Yeah.” Danny’s hand tightened around his. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Let’s just start with getting cleaned up and eating. Then we can talk to my dad.”

Danny’s head shot up and he looked at him. “Your dad? What if he just brings me back to my mom?”

Dash shook his head. “If we tell my dad what happened he’ll probably arrest her for premeditated homicide.”

“Premeditated homicide?” Danny exclaimed. “Why do you think any of that would’ve been premeditated?” 

“Hello? She already had a grave dug out for you? She sent you into the portal?” Dash finally saw the park entrance that he had come in through. He turned back to look at Danny who was staring at his free hand again. Dash could see all the dirt and mud stuck to Danny much clearer now. 

“But…” Danny trailed off. 

Dash sighed and pulled him closer so he wasn’t trailing so far behind him. “Sorry. Let’s get you back to my place.” 

The rest of the walk was short and quiet. Dash could feel Danny’s dazed and disassociating look as he walked beside him. He couldn’t imagine being in Danny’s position. No matter how shitty his own mother was, at least she just left them instead of trying to kill him. 

They finally turned onto the street his house was on. Dash started pulling his keys out of his pocket. He inwardly cringed when he saw the lights in his living room still on. No doubt his dad was still up waiting for him. 

They walked up the stairs to his front door and put his key into the lock and opened the door. 

“Where have you been, young-”

His dad stopped when Dash pulled Danny into the house. He stood there for a few moments studying Danny and the dirt all over him. 

“Where did you find him?” His dad whispered. 

“I got lost on my run.” Dash said, guiding Danny in behind him while he closed the door. “I tripped on the grave he crawled out of while I was trying to find my way back.”

His dad blanched at him. “I’m sorry, what?” 

“I can explain everything to you but can we get him figured out first?” Dash gestured at Danny. “And I don’t think he needs to hear the story he told me again.”

His dad nodded. “Yeah, right. Take him upstairs and find him a change of clothes and get him cleaned up. I’ll make us up some soup.” 

Dash nodded back at him and pulled Danny up the stairs behind him. 

“I’m gonna find some clothes for you to wear first and then we’re gonna head to the bathroom.” Dash said over his shoulder. Danny didn’t respond.

Dash headed to his room and opened his door. He let go of Danny’s hand.

“I’ll be right back.” 

Dash headed to his closet and looked through his t-shirts. They would all be pretty big on Danny but that would be fine. He grabbed the one Nasa shirt he had and headed to his dresser. He struggled to find some sweat pants that would fit Danny but finally found an old pair of his buried at the bottom of one of his drawers. 

He walked back to where Danny stood in the hallway. He was staring at where Pookie sat on the floor, staring back up at him. 

“That’s Pookie.” Dash said. 

Danny nodded. “I remember. I’ve always wanted a puppy.”

Dash smiled. “I’m sure he’ll be able to fill all your puppy needs while you’re here tonight.”

Danny smiled sadly at Pookie but turned to follow Dash to the bathroom. 

“You can sit down on the toilet.” Dash set the new change of clothes on the counter while he rummaged through the cabinet for the first aid kit and a washcloth. He set the first aid kit on the counter and turned the water on. He waited for it to get warm before he soaked the washcloth in water. Sudding it up with soap, he turned to face Danny.

“Are you okay with me cleaning your face and arms off?” Dash asked him. 

Danny looked up at Dash, his expression blank for a moment before he nodded. 

Dash sat down on the edge of the bathtub and started with wiping down Danny’s arms. There was so much dirt and grime. As he washed it off he also found some cuts and scrapes. Danny’s hands were the worst but Dash supposed that’s what happened when you dug your way out of your own grave. 

“I’m just gonna have you wash your hands in the sink when we’re done. That might just be easier than me trying to do it with a washcloth.” He stood up and grabbed a clean washcloth for Danny’s face.

He sat back down and brushed Danny’s hair out of his face. Danny’s blank eyes focused on him. 

Dash held Danny’s head in place by placing a hand on his left cheek. He started by cleaning around Danny’s eyes. Dash moved to his forehead but his eyes stayed closed as Dash cleaned the rest of his face and made his way down his neck. 

“Don’t forget behind the ears.” Danny whispered.

Dash snorted but obliged him.

He threw the second washcloth into the sink and studied Danny’s hair as he opened his eyes back up.

“Wash your hands and take your shirt off. I think we should rinse the dirt out of your hair, even if we don’t actually wash it.”

Danny headed over to the sink and washed his hands while Dash turned the water for the shower on. He tested the water and adjusted it until it felt like a comfortable temperature. Danny finished washing his hands and then took his shirt off and changed into the sweatpants, tossing the soiled clothes on the floor. 

“Lean over the edge of the tub and I’ll rinse your hair out.” Dash said. 

Danny did as he was asked, propping himself up by resting his arms on the tub. Dash rinsed and pulled as much dirt out of his hair as he could before he shut the water off. He grabbed a towel out of one of the cabinets and handed it to Danny.

“Here.” 

Danny slowly dried his hair as Dash opened up the first aid kit. He pulled out the hydrogen peroxide and neosporin. He grabbed yet another washcloth and doused it in hydrogen peroxide. 

Dash turned back to Danny just in time to see him pull the towel off of his head. 

“This will sting a bit.” Dash warned as he started working on cleaning the scrapes on Danny’s hands and arms. He moved up to Danny’s face and cleaned the one scratch that ran across his cheek. 

Dash went to grab the neosporin and started applying that when Danny looked up at him.

“Thank you for doing this. You didn’t have to.”

Dash shrugged. “Even if I didn’t want to, my dad would’ve made me. But I wouldn’t want to leave you all covered in dirt. You don’t deserve that.”

Danny hummed and Dash finally finished cleaning him up and putting bandages on. 

“You can take the spare bedroom. I can bring your food upstairs for you.” 

“Okay.” Danny nodded, pulling his shirt on. He looked down at the floor as Pookie started following them.

Dash opened the door for the spare bedroom and turned on the light. 

“Here you go. Home sweet home for the night. You can get settled in while I go see where the soup is at.” 

Danny nodded again and sat down at the edge of the bed. Pookie jumped up by him and curled up at his side. 

Dash headed back downstairs and found his dad still stirring the soup in the kitchen. He looked up when Dash sat down in a chair at the counter.

“How’s he feeling?” His dad asked.

“He’s pretty out of it. Has been since I suggested that his mom did this to him on purpose.”

Dash’s dad turned to look at him. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’ve got to stop explaining things like this. Can you start from the beginning?”

“He said his mom asked him to help her fix some portal they built that didn’t work. That she wanted it to be a surprise for his dad. But she asked him to suit up and sent him inside the thing. He tripped and hit a button and it turned on from the inside.” Dash looked away from his dad. “He got hurt and when he walked out of the portal he thought something scared his mom. She took him on a walk and at the end of it she pushed him into a grave she had ready and waiting and buried him alive.”

His dad’s eyes widened. “She buried him alive? Wasn’t that a month ago that he went missing? How is he here?”

Dash shrugged. “They’re ghost hunters. It’s probably some weird ghost thing. But she even marked the grave with a rock that had Danny’s name on it. He literally dug himself out of his own grave.”

“Goddamn.” His dad whispered. “I can’t decide if this kid has the best or worst luck in the world.”

“Maybe a little bit of both.” Dash joked. His smile fell and he looked at his dad. “Is this enough to arrest her? Or will Danny just have to go home to her?”

His dad shook his head. “I think it would be enough. We just need to find the evidence to prove it. But we can arrest and detain her for questioning. If we believe her to be dangerous we can keep her without bail as well.”

“Okay. When will that happen?” Dash asked.

His dad looked up towards the stairs. “Let’s talk to Danny and get the evidence we need. I think your and Danny’s statements will be enough to arrest her while we search for other evidence down in that lab of theirs.” 

Dash nodded. “Okay. We’ll keep him safe though?”

Dash’s dad looked back at him. “Yeah. We’ll keep him safe.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the portal failed, Maddie knew what was missing. 

It was a portal to the land of the dead. When every calculation they’ve checked, double checked, and triple checked was correct, there was only one thing left that she thought could be the answer.

Opening a portal to the land of the dead required a human sacrifice. 

So one day when Jack and Jazz went to the fudge museum, she asked Danny to help her tackle the problem with the portal. She told him she wanted it to be a surprise for Jack. That she wanted to fix it before he came home so that he’d be greeted with a happy sight.

She made sure to hide her notes and hypothesis somewhere Danny wouldn’t stumble upon them. She asked him to get suited up under the guise of lab safety and she sent him into the portal. 

It happened more naturally than she could’ve ever hoped. As he was walking inside, he tripped over one of the wires that ran across the floor of the portal and fell against the portal wall. He pushed the on button that was on that wall and the portal hummed to life. 

She took in the last image of her son, trying to commit him to memory. 

His screams seared her mind and she tried to block them out. This was for science. This was necessary to further their studies. 

But when the screaming subsided, something she wasn’t expecting happened.

A ghost stepped out of the portal. He looked just like her son except for the fact that all of his colors had inverted. 

And his eyes.

His eyes opened. They were acid green and full of fear and pain. He made eye contact with her. A bright light appeared around his waist and when it traveled over his body and disappeared, her human son was left standing there.

“Mom?” He said. He held his hand close to his chest.

“Danny, come here.” She gestured him towards her. “Let’s get your suit off. Let’s take a look.”

She unzipped his jumpsuit and pulled his arms out of the top and helped him step out of it. A lichtenberg scar ran from his hand that hit the button up his arm. 

He didn’t seem to realize what happened. He didn’t realize he had died. That he was some kind of abomination. 

“Let’s go on a walk, Danny. Let’s walk that shock off.”

“A walk?” He asked groggily, confused. “Shouldn’t we-”

She shook her head. “No. Let’s go on a walk. You seem okay. Let’s just stretch your muscles out.” 

This wasn’t how she planned for this part to go. She expected him to just be a body on the floor that she’d have to take care of. She didn’t expect him to survive that. If you can consider it that. 

As they walked further away from the house and into the park, she could feel Danny getting uneasy behind her. She could tell he didn’t understand why they were just going on a walk. It got worse when they walked into the woods and she walked off the path. 

“Mom? Where are we going?” He asked nervously. 

There it was. Right behind him. The grave. He hasn’t noticed it yet.

She pushed him and a cry pulled itself out of his mouth. He fell into the grave and his back collided with the ground.

“Mom!” He cried. “What are you doing?” 

She tried not to listen to his cries and pleas. He was a monster. He wasn’t really her son anymore. Not the abomination he turned into. 

She pulled a pop out Fenton shovel out of her tool belt and started shoveling dirt into the grave. He tried to sit up so she started aiming for his face and dumping more dirt in faster so he couldn’t sit up anymore. 

Soon he was completely covered and he had stopped struggling against the force of the dirt on him. She found a large stone and placed it at the head of the grave so she could recognize it when she came back.

She cleaned her shovel and folded it back up, storing it in her belt. She brushed the dirt off of her jumpsuit and composed herself before she started making her way back out of the forest. 

Nobody could know what Maddie did. She was protecting them. All of them. She did what had to be done. She couldn’t let a monster like that walk around. 

Jack and Jazz just thought Danny was missing. They thought he ran away or maybe that somebody picked him off the side of the road one day. They didn’t know that he died in their basement when the portal turned on. That she had orchestrated the whole accident. They would never know. 

But when she caught sight of the monster wearing her son’s face, her heart stopped. 

There he was, sat in the middle of their living room, Jazz and Jack doting on him. But standing between her and them was Officer Baxter and his son.

“Mrs. Fenton.” Officer Baxter said as he stepped forward. 

“Oh.. You’ve- you’ve found my son.” She said with a weak smile. “Where has he been all this time?” 

Dash stepped closer in front of Danny. Jazz placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Mrs. Fenton, I need you to turn around.” He pulled a pair of handcuffs off his belt. 

She stared at them before her eyes darted back up to his face. “What- what are those for?”

“You are being arrested for attempted premeditated homicide.”

“I- I don’t- Why would you think I would do that?” She tried to feign shock, but he kept walking towards her. 

“We already have a warrant out for your arrest and another to search your lab for evidence.”

She looked at the monster on her couch and pulled a blaster out of her utility belt. “I don’t know how you survived, ghost scum, but I won’t let you walk around pretending to be my son!” 

She went to take a shot but Jack jumped up and knocked the gun out of her hand. 

“This is our son, Maddie!” He shouted at her. 

“He’s not my son anymore!” She screamed as Officer Baxter knocked her to the ground and forced her into handcuffs. “He’s ghost scum parading around with his face! My son is dead!” 

“You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney-”

“Let go of me!” Maddie screamed as she struggled against the handcuffs. He pulled her off the ground roughly and started walking her to the door. “My son died! He’s dead! That is not my son!” 

That monster looked at her with wide eyes she swore she saw turn green. A single tear streamed down his face. 

“That is not my son!” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dash watched as his dad carted Maddie to his car. She was still thrashing against him, screaming in the street. 

“What happened, Danno?” He heard Jack whisper behind him. 

“She did something to me.” Danny whispered. 

Dash turned and saw Jazz and Jack exchange a look between the two of them. Danny was still staring at the front door where his mom had been taken away. 

“What did she do to you?” Jazz asked.

Danny shook his head. “If- if I told you… Would you still love me?”

A sad look crossed onto both Jack and Jazz’s faces. “Of course we would.”

“Mom didn’t.”

“What did she do, Danny?” Jack asked him again.

Danny’s gaze finally lifted and landed on Dash. Dash started a little bit at the expression Danny was giving him.

“You want me to tell them?” Dash asked quietly. Danny nodded. 

Dash took a deep breath. “He told me that Maddie asked him to help with the ghost portal. That he went in and pressed a button and when he came back out she looked horrified. Then she led him out to the woods where she had a grave already dug out.” 

Jazz covered her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. Jack looked horrified. Danny’s eyes were vacant again. 

“I got lost in the woods yesterday and tripped over his empty grave.” Dash looked away from them and at the floor. “He somehow lasted a whole month buried out there. He had just crawled out of the grave not too long before I got there.” 

Danny had started shaking and Jack shushed him. Jazz wrapped her arms around him in a hug. 

“It’s okay.” Jack said. “You’re safe now. You’re back home.” Jack turned to look back up at Dash. 

“Thank you. Thank you for bringing him home to us.” 

Dash nodded. He was about to turn away when something caught his eye. 

Dash saw Danny’s eyes flash an unsettling green. 

What if his mom had been right?

#gorgi writes #danny phantom #dash baxter #danny fenton #maddie fenton #phic phight 2024 #angst #buried alive #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #phic

[hannahmanderr]

DannyMay Day 5 - 10 min vs. 1 hour

Words (10 min): 259

Words (1 hour): 1613 (FFN)

Summary: They say your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. Dash discovers that his brain has other ideas - namely, focusing on his bisexual awakening (post-reveal Danny/Dash)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~10 min.~

Dash thought dying would involve more reminiscing of his life. All those golden memories that flash before your eyes, like in the movies. His first touchdown, his first kiss, that sort of thing.

And yet as he plummeted towards the ground and time seemed to move in slow motion, he found himself annoyed. Of course he wouldn’t get to relive his life’s greatest hits.

Of course he’d be forced to think about the one person he didn’t want to think about, the person who was supposed to be saving him right now.

He hated the thrill that ran down his spine when he thought about that person swooping down, sweeping him up, and flying off with him into the sunset.

Stupid Fenton. Stupid wind-swept dark hair. Stupid endless blue eyes. 

Stupid bisexual awakening moments before death.

Dash closed his eyes. If he was going to die, he might as well just suck it up and face the music. At least then he could die knowing he wasn’t such a coward that he couldn’t finish what he’d started.

Alright Fenton, he thought to himself. You got me.

The ground was getting closer and closer now. He tried to ignore it.

Then, just seconds before impact, he was jolted to the side and he started falling sideways. No, wait. Not falling sideways.

Being carried.

“You’re an idiot, you know that, right Baxter?” Danny’s voice came through the rushing wind.

Dash could only nod mutely and wonder if his racing heart was because of the near-death experience or because of the rescue.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~1 hour~

Look, no matter what anyone tries to claim, I wasn’t trying to fall off the building, alright? 

I mean it wasn’t even my idea to have the junior prom on the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Amity Park. I was only on the roof ‘cause that’s where prom was, end of story.

No, I wasn’t sloshed. And I wasn’t high either. I’m not an idiot; I’m not gonna do something that’s gonna get me kicked off the team. People just sometimes fall off of buildings, especially in cities that are literally haunted by ghosts.

God, I swear none of the teachers at Casper have a clue how to handle themselves and all of us around ghosts. Like come on, us students have been involved in way more ghost stuff. We saved all the adults that one time!

Ugh, whatever. Not important. The point is, I didn’t fall off the building on purpose. The ghost that came and crashed the prom just happened to fly right towards me. As I was just standing there, doing nothing. 

… near the edge of the roof.

It caught me by surprise, alright? Like it wouldn’t happen to anyone else. I’m the most athletic kid in school, if a ghost can knock me off my feet, it can happen to anyone.

So yeah, I was basically falling twenty-six stories at breakneck speed. 

Heh. Breakneck. You know, ‘cause landing on the ground would break my - you know what, forget it.

But yeah. Whoop-de-doo, this was how the King of Casper High goes, apparently. Being knocked off the building in a random ghost attack. During junior prom of all things.

Aw man, everyone was watching me, weren’t they? 

I saw a flash of light from back on top of the roof. Thank God, Fenton was finally getting up off his -

-

Nope. Nuh-uh. We aren’t going there, Baxter.

… oh, who was I kidding. If I was gonna die, I was gonna face it like a man. Face everything head on, you know? Especially ‘cause my life was definitely not flashing before my eyes. Which sucked. There would’ve been some memories I would’ve liked to revisit. Like when I scored my first ever touchdown. That was sweet! Or when I got my car and drove it for the first time. Or my first kiss - 

- argh, no! No, I was not gonna think about kissing, or think about Fenton, or think about his dark hair and how shiny it is, or think about that little face he makes when he’s excited about something, that one is so cu-

- 

- I hate everything.

I hate this. I hated the fact that I was falling towards my certain death. I hated that I had been dumb enough to walk off and hang out towards the edge. I hated the fact that I was even at this lame prom in the first place. I hated that I hadn’t been able to come with the person I really wanted to come with.

I hated that the person I wanted to take to prom was freaking Danny Fenton.

There, alright? I admitted it. I could die happy. 

Except I wasn’t happy. It’s like whenever I think of him, my stomach does all these crazy flips and stuff like I see him doing in the sky all the time, and I can’t tell if it’s ‘cause I hate him or ‘cause I… ugh, don’t hate him. I’m not going any farther than that, nope.

It doesn’t help that it’s not easy to avoid thinking about him. He’s in the majority of my classes, and beyond that, his stupid face is plastered all over the city. Heck, I walk out my front door and there’s a huge billboard with, like, “HOME OF DANNY PHANTOM” written on it, right next to his picture.

It definitely doesn’t help that it’s a really good picture.

You know, shouldn’t he have been helping me? It wasn’t like him to just abandon a civvie like me to the wolves. The wolves in this case being the concrete that was approaching way too quickly for my liking.

It’s whatever. He’s gotta keep everyone else from falling off the roof too, I guess.

Didn’t keep my stomach from doing a freaking trapeze act when I thought about him swooping down and rescuing me. And then he’d look at me with those pretty green eyes and tell me I’m an idiot and I’d sit there and let him because he wouldn’t be wrong.

Yeah. Whatever at this point, right? Not like I’d be alive long enough to live it down, anyway.

I was the idiot in love with Fenton.

Does anyone else know? God, no. I have a rep to maintain, you know! It’s not easy being me. Like I could ever be seen crushing on a loser, whether that loser was a superhero or not.

I mean don’t get me wrong, they guys on the team are like, super chill. It’s not like I’m necessarily worried about them beating me up for liking a guy or anything, but come on. Hundreds of other guys at Casper High and I had to pick on the one guy that was the worst for me to crush on?

And to be honest, I didn’t really feel like trying to justify the fact that I’d gone out with a bunch of girls before. Again, most of the guys on the team aren’t homophobic or anything, but that doesn’t mean they understand everything, like the fact that bi people exist. Honestly, I bet most people think I don’t understand the fact that bi people exist.

Look, I might, ah, help loser-types understand their place, but I have standards. I’m not gonna be a weird bigot about it.

(Also that concrete was definitely getting closer, where the heck was Fenton?)

Except for some reason, even though I was admitting this to myself, I could hear Kwan’s voice in my head, telling me that I wasn’t being totally honest. Kwan, who would definitely be the last person I would think would suspect my secret.

Which probably meant the voice was right.

Okay, so I might, emphasis on might, be the teeniest bit nervous about approaching Fenton. Not scared! Dash Baxter doesn’t do scared. Just, uhh, a little antsy. Like how I get right before a game.

Argh, fine, a lot antsy.

It’s double stupid ‘cause I have no reason to be. He and Manson broke up like, only a couple months after the whole asteroid thing, and it somehow leaked that he swung both ways a little bit after that. He hasn’t gone out with anyone since, which is kind of surprising, really. I would’ve thought a superhero like him would’ve been snatched up right away. 

Especially with how I’ve heard other kids at Casper fawning over him. He’d have the lion’s share of potential partners.

… Oh my God, do not tell me this whole thing was some sort of inferiority complex on my part. I mean sure, I did beat up on him for the better part of middle school and our freshman year, but I stopped, and, again: I’m the King of Casper High. Who wouldn’t want to go out with me?

Apparently my subconscious has decided the one person who wouldn’t want to go out with me is the one person I want to go out with. 

Well, no sense in worrying about it. The ground was getting closer and closer, and really, I was kind of surprised that time felt like it’d slowed down as much as it had. And of course, Fenton and that pretty white hair of his were nowhere in sight. 

Just my luck. 

I closed my eyes. Might as well make my last few moments count, right?

And so I started imagining how things would’ve turned out differently if, let’s say, I’d been able to take Fenton as my date to prom. We would’ve had a blast laughing about Brady, who had definitely been the one to spike the punch and then proceed to chug it. And we would’ve just hung out and talked about sports and space and the stars and anything else he wanted. Then a slow song would’ve come on, and I would’ve taken him out onto the floor and danced with him, hand in hand just like a real couple. His gorgeous blue eyes would’ve had that little mischievous twinkle they get all the time when I inevitably tripped over my own feet while dancing ‘cause I’d be so nervous.

And then he’d laugh and wrap his arms around me, and I would’ve pulled him closer, and we would’ve leaned in all quiet and excited, and his lips would be right there and -

“GAHHH!!”

Okay, I’ve taken some nasty hits during games, but whatever had just plowed into my ribs hurt like crazy. Was it the ground? Was I still alive?

A quick scan told me that yes, somehow I was still alive? 

And it wasn’t the ground that I’d crashed into. Or, more accurately in this case, crashed into me.

White hair stung my cheeks as it whipped around in the wind. 

“Jeez, Baxter, what were you thinking?” came Fenton’s voice. He set me down on the ground and fixed me with a look that sent my heart racing. “Why on earth were you that close to the edge?”

I couldn’t help it. I closed the gap between us. 

His lips were cold and chapped. Totally different than any girl I’d ever kissed.

I broke it off. He stared back at me with his wide eyes. I just grinned and asked, “Wanna go to prom with me?”

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay2023 #dannymay 2023 #dash baxter #danny x dash #swagger bishie #hannah writes #romance #fanfic #danny phantom fanfiction #look i just love flustered baby gay dash lol

[bongo-clash]

I Want To Break Free

Ectober week prompt: Six Feet

'When three members of Casper High’s football team make one mistake too many, they’ve got no choice other than to bury the evidence. But, both fortunately and unfortunately for them, dead doesn’t mean gone, and they’ve been living in a ghost town for years.'

(Content warnings in tags || fic under cut!!)

-

For all that Amity Park is the poster child for widescale property damage, the crime rate is practically nonexistent. There’s something about finding a common enemy in the violent ghosts ravaging their town that wards off that willingness to go against another human being’s interests like that; murder, in particular, has been shoved off the table since the moment the victims started coming back to haunt them. It’s common knowledge that if you kill someone in Amity Park, everyone is going to find out.

This is exactly why three A-listers are shitting themselves right about now. 

Look, they hadn’t meant for it to go this far. It’d been such a harmless thing in theory- or, well, maybe not harmless, but it shouldn’t have gone any further than humiliation and maybe a bruise or two. They should’ve known it only takes a bad fall. They’re footballers- they should’ve known. But it’d been thoughtless, a split second decision made in the incredibly brief time the opportunity had been presented to them. All Dale had said was ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if you tripped him?’.

And it had been funny, until he hadn’t gotten up again. Now Danny Fenton is dead on the shower room floors, and every single one of them is guilty. 

There’s a long time where none of them know what to do. God, they’ve just killed someone, is this second-degree or manslaughter? There certainly wasn’t any express malice, but they’d definitely thought about swiping his feet out from under him without considering that he might hit his head; that could definitely been seen as implied malice. But they hadn’t meant to! They’d never wanted to, it was never supposed to go this far, and it was especially never supposed to go this far here. 

‘Here’, as in some place at the end of the school day, when the buses were about to leave and the teachers weren’t waiting up for them, having let them lock up before and having been willing to do it again. ‘Here’, as in Casper High in the first place, that had already seen tragedy in a fire taking almost the entire student body in the fifties, and had now witnessed a murder in its reconstructed halls. ‘Here’, as in Amity Park, the ghost town, where there’s a non-zero chance of this literally coming back to get them. 

The silence charged with the smell of deodorant and a wet body already beginning to self-digest is broken, finally, by Dash- the one to trip him, and the first one to back away when he’d felt Fenton’s limp hand for a pulse and found nothing. 

“What the Hell do we do?” He whispers, voice barely reaching anyone else in the room, but you could hear a pin drop beneath the still-running showerheads, and everyone was straining to hear it, desperate to divert their attention. My dad’s a lawyer, he thinks, is there any chance he could save us from this?

As if reading his mind, and said like the instigator that knows they’ll be thrown under the bus for suggesting this in the first place, Dale interrupts the train of thought with a sturdy “We can’t go to the police.”

“Dude, are you insane?” Kwan splutters, barely able to keep his gaze from flitting back to the crime scene. And holy shit, this really is a crime scene. “Dale, we can’t just try and bury this, that’s so much worse.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re a witness!” Dale snaps, looking overwhelmed but outsourcing it to aggression, eyes wide and afraid but brow furrowed. “You’re really gonna let us take the fall like that? We’re your friends.”

Kwan, to his merit, is standing his ground, despite looking incredibly green around the edges. In fairness, all three of them probably look that way. “I’d rather be a witness than an accomplice! I can’t- we can’t-!”

“We’re the only people here.” Dash interrupts numbly, and this is probably the second most awful thing he’s ever done apart from actual murder, but all that’s running through his head right now is I can’t go to jail. His life can’t be over with one dumb mistake even if Danny’s is. “Who’s to say it wasn’t you who did it? All the teachers have seen how we act around the school; we work as a group, always. They’re not gonna believe it was just one of us. They’re gonna believe it was all of us.”

This is his best friend, and he’s convincing him to help hide a body by threatening him, because Dash accidentally committed murder and this does not in the slightest feel like something that’s actually happening to him right now. The whole world feels like a smudged trail against the lens of a window pane. There are tears in Kwan’s eyes.

“I’m never fucking talking to any of you again.” Kwan spits, voice damp with distress. “You- You’re monsters for this. It stops being an accident the moment you start trying to cover shit up, I just- this is horrible.”

The realisation that he’s never heard his friend swear before is a thousand miles away, back in some world where Dash’s biggest problem was getting detention for making Mikey late to class on Tuesday. It would’ve been funny if it wasn’t sad. “But you’re gonna help us.”

His expression is the picture of helplessness, but he doesn’t say a word in retort. Silently, the agreement is made that no one is going to know. 

Figuring out what they’re supposed to do with the body is a completely different ball game, though. Kwan had enough of an interest in forensic science (wrenched from him completely two minutes ago, but he can’t erase what facts he already has) to know that dead bodies are apparently heavy as Hell, and the woods is too far to carry one towards. It’d be a terrible idea to bury the body under or near the football field- the disturbed soil would be way too noticeable- but to get to any other place with easily accessible ground, they’d have to transport the body through town and none of them could drive. That doesn’t leave them with a lot of options.

“Behind the bike shed.” Dale exclaims suddenly. “The gap between the shed and the hedge is so tiny no one even goes there to make out- no one’ll even notice the difference.” 

“But won’t people look around the school if someone got murdered here?” 

Dale looks to the showers nobody bothered to turn off, and down at the body with glazed eyes. “They won’t know it was here if all the blood’s down the drain.”

There’s not much to argue with there. Dale has the forethought to go outside and make sure the coast is clear while grabbing a sheet of tarp from the equipment shed, bringing it back into the room with lips pursed into a hardset line. 

Kwan keels over and spills his guts into the shower drains the moment Dash lifts the body, blood and water congealing at the back of Fenton’s head and spilling onto the floor, but no one says a word about it, they just wait until he’s finished. They wrap the body in the tarp until only the ends of his hair and the tips of his shoes are visible, and Dale directs the showerhead to wash away the gore. He tries not to squirm at the knowledge of what he’s holding in his hands right now, because if there’s any time to freak out it’s not now. Not when there’s still stuff left to do. 

When they’ve gotten to the spot behind the shed, there’s already three shovels leaning against the back. Dash puts the body down underneath the hedge, and grabs a handle. 

“Six feet.” He says. “And no one’ll have to know.”

-

It’s probably the most stupid thing he’s ever done other than trip Danny Fenton in the showers, but that same night, he goes back to the place they buried the body. 

He doesn’t know why he thought it was a good idea. He hadn’t, most likely, but still, a piece of him felt like he needed to go back, that dumb part of his brain where all the morbid curiosity comes from and all his meanest ideas go. Regardless of the cause, though, at two in the morning not eight hours after they’d tried to flatten the soil, Dash is back at the grave. 

His heart still aches with everything Kwan had said, begging them to just go to the police and come clean, because no matter how much he doesn’t want his life ruined he knows it already is. There’s not going to be any coming back from this- whether anyone finds the body and discovers their part in it or not, this is going to follow him for the rest of his life. That soil disturbed amongst the grass from upturning, wedged between the bike shed and the hedge, the ground shaking with motion. 

…The dirt. The dirt’s moving. Why’s the dirt moving?

All at once, he jumps back about five paces and freezes stock still, gaze transfixed towards the soil rumbling like the epicentre of a personal earthquake. His mind is terrifyingly blank as he watches, hearing more and more coming from beneath as the time passes somewhere between a good few minutes and an eternity, something like muttering or moans permeating the earth. 

A hand grasps for purchase as it breaks through the top layer of the soil- pale, grimy, and fuzzing at the edges with translucence. The palm finds flat ground some centimetres away, and with a sound like a grunt or a cry, the corpse pulls itself out of the ground. 

Danny Fenton stands in full form before him, brown blood smudged across his temple from the back of his head and dirt caking every other inch of him. The tarp is sticking out from the ground like a tongue. “Hey Dash,” Fenton sighs, like he hadn’t just crawled out of his own unmarked grave alive. “What are you doing here? It’s… oh man, it’s totally past curfew. My parents are gonna kill me for sure.”

It’s that comment in particular that snaps him out of his stupor, catching the weird look in the other boy’s eyes. “Fenton, what the fuck?” His voice is half-wheezing with disbelief, surprised he’s able to breathe between it at all. This is impossible, shouldn’t be happening, but, this is Amity. The dead come back to haunt them all the time. 

“What?” He asks blithely, before tilting his head to look back at the mound in the dirt, the hole that had been filled to hide him. “Oh, that? Don’t worry about it. No one comes back here anyway, and it’s not like they’ll care if they do.”

He can’t for the life of him process the calm in Danny’s voice. “You were dead.” He says. “I killed you. We buried you.”

“But you didn’t report it to the police, huh?” Not knowing how else to respond, Dash shakes his head. “Yeah, makes sense, they never do. Still, guess that gives me less issues to deal with in the long run, and I can’t really complain about that even if the morality of the whole thing bugs me. You really should tell people about these kinds of things before they find out on their own, y’know? Oh, but Dash?”

Fenton has his back turned by now, having stretched his limbs out and began to walk off during his talk, but he turns his head just a little, then. Just enough that Dash can see the glint of sharp teeth underneath his lips. Just enough for his eyes to catch green under a light that doesn’t exist. 

“No one’s gonna believe you.”

…

(When Kwan and Dale come to school with him the next day like nothing’s wrong, and they spot Danny Fenton talking with his friends by his locker like any other stupid day, they don’t say a word. They don’t make fun of him when he falls asleep in class after claiming to have had a ‘long night’, and they don’t tell their friends why they weren’t at Star’s house by eight, and they don’t ask Kwan to talk about it when they go to bathroom together at lunch and he has a panic attack over the sinks. Because Danny Fenton being alive is not possible, but if the dead won’t tell their secrets, then neither will they.)

(Neither will they.)

#tw death #tw murder #tw corpse #tw injury #Yes the title's from the Queen song I thought it'd be funny #ectoberweek2022 #day26 #dp fic #dp fanfic #danny phantom fic #danny phantom fanfiction #danny phantom #danny fenton #dash baxter #kwan dp #Bongo's Writing!!!

[whisperthelocalcrypticbastard]

Mad Dogs Cuddle Pile

mess in the kitchen (3100 words) by Whisper Chapters: 1/2 Fandom: Mad Dogs (UK TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Quinn Paterson & Lloyd Baxter & Chris "Woody" Wood & Rick Heston Characters: Quinn Paterson, Lloyd Baxter, Chris "Woody" Wood, Rick Heston Additional Tags: Sharing a Bed, Literal Sleeping Together, Angst, Trauma, the boys have issues, Season 1, Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Repressed, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Psychological Trauma, Murder Summary: It's been tough on all of them. That's all.

#fanfiction #whispers writing #hurt/comfort #cuddles #mad dogs (uk) #mad dogs #Quinn Paterson #Lloyd Baxter #Chris “Woody” Wood #Rick Heston #they choose to do the “but theres only one bed” scenario #they love each other okay

[lollipcp]

I can't believe there aren't more fics about Mr. Fischoeder like holy shit have you guys seen how much story potential this man has??? The little nuggets of backstory he just nonchalantly drops every now and then????

His missing eye??? The fact Felix was apparently the cause of that?? He was married for about a week but then gave up?? He completely suppressed the entire year of 1996 because he was too drunk the whole time to retain any memory of it???? His and Felix's father????? Their cousin Baxter who apparently is WORSE than Grover even whilst being dead??? His numerous substance abuse issues??? His relationships with Felix, Grover, his other relatives, his tenants, etc.

I would love to see other people's interpretations of all of this SO BAD

#mr. fischoeder #mr fischoeder #calvin fischoeder #felix fischoeder #grover fischoeder #baxter fischoeder #fischoeder #bob’s burgers #bobs burgers #fanfiction #fanfic #backstory #pls i am begging someone write more about calvin #i'm this close to writing some myself tbh

[sailor-toni]

I Think My Neighbor’s Dead Son is Trying to Talk to Me?

You can also read this on A03, FF.net, or Wattpad

Summary:

Wes Weston has just moved into Amity Park but there is something seriously wrong with the destroyed house next door to him. Espically at night when the wind passed through the rusted Fenton Works sign. (AU Full Ghost Danny) (Phicc Phight prompt fill for kalyke/aggressivelyclueless)

The cold summer’s air blasted itself at the nape of his neck, chilling him to the bone. It was a threat, or a command from above to stop, but Wes saw something in the old Fenton Works, and he had to know whose eyes he saw in the brief flashes of lighting.

It started last week, his father had gotten a news anchor job in a medium size city called Amity Park, which according to the aged and weathered sign, was a great place to live. Was it really that great if they had to both underline and italicize the word? To Wes the strangeness of the sign was a single for the dull dread that was to come from life in Amity Park. 

It rained almost everyday in Amity Park, and when the sun decided to show itself the harsh winds kept everyone in jackets well past winter. The buildings were a mash up of white colonial paint with tall white columns, pointed Victorian roofs, and décor that looked like it belonged in the height of the eighties. All together it created a visual disaster of a town that seemed both lost in time and missing whatever soul it had once had. In short, Wes hated it here. He wanted to go back to Oklahoma where the sunset wasn’t obstructed by something every day, and back to where his friends were. 

Worst of all was the house next to them. It was a three story townhouse with a second metal house (It was a large metal circular structure with satellite dishes and antennas on top,  and random metal poles connecting it to the house below) on top, and a dead neon sign on the side that read Fenton Works. The whole building was abandoned and dilapidated with half the windows broken and the other half bored up. 

And Wes didn’t believe in ghost, he thought the idea was stupid. The dead can’t come back and anyone who told you otherwise was trying to sell you something. But one day at school he heard some of the other students talking. 

“So, Kwan are you in?” Dash, school bully, high school football star, and future used car salesman said.

“No way dude! I’m not about to spend my free night looking for Fenton’s Ghost,” Kwan, the only one on the football team who  had enough smarts go to college, said. 

“Aw, are you scared? Is the Kwan-ster scared of an old house?” 

“I’m not scared. We just don’t know what those people were doing there. What if they left a science experiment out and it gives us all cancer?” 

“You’re being ridiculous man, they probably took everything when they left.”

“You never know dude. I mean… their own son died because of what they were hiding in the basement. They probably didn’t want to carry that reminder with them when they left.”

“But doesn't that make you more curious to check it out? My Mom’s co-worker’s second cousin’s boyfriend said she saw strange lights in the house last halloween. Maybe the Fenton kid is still there as a ghost!” 

“Well, you and the girls can go deal with that. I will be home with fresh food, a warm blanket, and the new COD game.” 

  Wes tuned the rest of their conversation out. Instead writing down what he had hearn in his notebook. He didn’t know someone had died there. He assumed it was some business that lost all their money or something. But that would explain why every night as he looked out his window he swore he felt someone staring back. 

That night as the rainstorm turned nightmarish, he pushed his chair to the window in his room overlooking the old Fenton Works. If someone lived there he could have seen right into their bedroom. What kind of person lived there? He thought. Were they cool? Did they also like video editing and video games? Or were they like Dash and took sick pleasure in shoving peoples heads into the mystery meat specials. Wes was sure he could still smell it. 

BOOM! Lighting passed between the houses, staining everything a blinding white. He ducked his head and shielded his eyes, but in the bright light there was someone across the alleyway, with neon green eyes watching him. No, observing him. No, they looked like they were trying to say something. 

“Who…” The question sat on the tip of his tongue as the eyes faded into the clap of thunder. 

A week later, Wes stood outside the Fenton Works on a gray cloudy evening, Dash and Kwan standing beside him. The muted tones of the sky turned the world around them into shades of muted gray and blues, except the sign on the front door. The orange No Trespassing sign stood out like a neon flame. 

“Are you sure they are coming?” Kwan said. He looked nervous. 

“Yes! Paulina and Star just passed the Nasty Burger, they should be here soon,” Dash said. “Hey Kid.” 

“It’s Wes.” 

“Yeah, whatever, are you sure you saw something here?” 

“Yes, it was as clear as day, there was someone watching me with these neon green flashlight eyes,” Wes began. 

“Well you better be right. If we don’t see anything I’ll pummel your ass to timbuktu and back. Got it?” 

“Got it,” Wes said. He had only mentioned it to them because he didn’t want to go alone. 

“Hey guys!” Paulina yelled. Her and Star ran up to meet them with a bag of goodies. 

“What do you got babe?” Kwan said. 

“My Mom used to go ghost hunting all the time with friends back in New York, so she let me borrow some of her stuff. We have an EVP, flashlights, motion dictators, and this radio the ghost can speak through,” Star said. 

“A ghost is going to talk to us through that little thing?” Dask asked.

“Well, kind of, the ghost will flip through the radio stations and use whatever words are being broadcasted to speak to us. According to my Mom it can be a bit buggy at times.” 

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Wes said. 

“Thanks dude! I think it's amazing. I didn’t know she had all this stuff,” Star said. 

“And what did you bring Paulina?” Kwan asked. 

“My Mom made me bring a cross, a bottle of holy water, and a knife, just in case. God, she is so annoying,” Paulina pulled out a nine inch hunting knife as she said this. 

“Holy Shit! Paulina’s packing!”

“Don’t shout it Kwan! Do you want to get the cops called on us?” Paulina shoved the knife back into her low rise jeans. 

“Sorry.” 

“On that note let’s get in there, Wes you go first,” Dash said. 

“Me? Why me?”

“Cuz’, you saw the ghost first, now go before it tries to rain on us.” Dash pushed Wes forward. 

The inside of the Fenton works was worse than the outside. A pipe had burst some time ago and the carpet smelled of sour mold. There were some lights from the windows but the rest of the home was dark. Their shoes squished on the carpet, and the standing water threatened to fill their shoes. Through the groans of disgust and fake puking the teenager found their way to the staircase. The downstairs had nothing in it besides a broken stove and a fridge that had been locked shut. Dash and Kwan tried to pull on it but the lock hadn’t rusted through yet. 

The upstairs was picked clean as well. The fading sunlight showed spots on the wallpaper where pictures once hung proudly on display, but now there were brightly colored spots along the fading wall. Dash kicked open a door that was stuck and yelled for the rest. This room had everything, a bed, computer, desk, faded space posters, and action figures along the wall. 

“Woah! Do you think this is his room?” Paulina asked. 

“Whose room?” Star said. 

“The Fenton’s son, I think his name was Danny? According to the news he was messing around in his parents lab and suffered a fatal accident,” Kwan said. 

“And his parents left everything behind?” Wes said. He noticed a large window that looked directly into the building next door. 

“Maybe it was too hard. I hear some parents won’t touch anything that belonged to their kids after they pass,” Paulina brushed the dust off the computer monitor. 

“That is… understandable, but they didn’t even take his clothes with them. Apparently the kid wore briefs,” Dash was rummaging through the drawers. 

“That’s fucked up, Danny didn’t deserve this,” Kwan said. 

“Did you know him?” Wes said. 

“Yeah, we were in the third grade together. I wasn’t really friends with him, he was friends with Tucker, the nerd kid. But he was nice. I remember he did his whole show and tell about space and what it took to become an astronaut,” Kwan said. “We didn’t share a fourth grade teacher, but the school had an assembly when he died.”

“That’s rough buddy,” Dash patted his friend on the back. 

“It’s okay. I didn’t really know him too well, but I felt bad for his sister. She was in sixth grade and during the assembly all she did was cry.” 

“I would too. That’s a lot for a kid to go through,” Star said. “But maybe you can talk to Danny one more time with the radio.” The radio turned on with a loud static noise, with garbled speech mixed in as the dial moved back and forth. “DANNY IF YOU ARE HERE PLEASE LET US KNOW!” 

“Do you have to yell?” Paulina said. Wes could only hear her because he was standing next to her. 

“WHAT DID YOU SAY PAULINA?” 

“NOTHING!”

“OKAY!” 

“DANNY IF YOU ARE STILL HERE, MAKE THE RADIO SAY YES!” Star yelled. 

The radio flickered between a few channels “...zzzz…Now…Yes sir!...Home…” 

“KWAN DID YOU HEAR THAT! DANNY IS HERE!” 

“STAR THE RADIO IS TOO LOUD!”” Kwan yelled 

“WHAT!” 

“OH MY FUCKING GOD STAR!” Kwan grabbed the radio and turned down the volume. “Does it have to be that loud?” 

“Yes, we have to make sure the ghost can hear it.” 

“Star the ghost is dead, not deaf,” Dash said. “Here Wes grab the radio and let’s do it again.” 

“Why me?”

“Because you saw the ghost, maybe it left some ghost trace on you that will make the radio work better.” 

“I don’t think that’s how it works but whatever,” Wes took the radio from Kwan. “Hey Danny, are you here?” 

The radio flickered, “zzz…YES sir you are getting …. Yes … hello…zzz” 

“Omg did you hear it! He said yes! Quick, someone ask him another question!” Star began to jump with joy. 

“Danny, how old are you?” Paulina asked. 

“zzz…Now for the low price of nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine…zzz”

“Danny, how did you die?” Dash asked. 

“zzz… Supernatural … GHOST! … Home … Man … zzz” 

“What does that mean?” Dash said. 

“I don’t know. Danny, can you try again, we don’t understand?” Paulina said. 

“Zzz… Ghostly ghouls .. you are now entering … ghost! … Twilight Zone …” 

“Did you guys understand that? Paulina said. 

“Nope.” 

“No.” 

“Something about ghosts?” 

“Nah. Try something else, like where did he die?” Wes said. 

“Danny, where did you die?” Paulina asked the box once more. 

“Zzz… deep down below … Dad’s workshop … she opened the basement door … AHHH! ..zzz” 

“It sounds like it was in the basement?’ Wes said. 

“I don’t wanna walk through that carpet again, it’s so gross.” Star said. 

“You don't have much of a choice Star,” Dash said. 

“Here Babe, I’ll carry you,” Kwan scooped her sup in his arms. 

“Awww! Thank you Babe!” 

Paulina looked to Dash. “What?” Dash said. 

“Nothing,” Paulina rolled her eyes. 

The basement smelled of rot and decay, and like Danny’s room it was filled with stuff. Parts of the room had a strange green glow to it. It wasn't bright enough to illuminate anything, but when Wes moved his flashlight he could see it was emitting some light. 

“Okay Danny, what happened here?” Wes asked. 

“Zzz.. Zone … just turn it on and … bright lights of the city … hole deep below…zzz”

“Did you turn one of your parents' experiments on?” Star asked, her arms wrapped around Kwan’s neck. 

“Zzz.. yes.. Pain.. lights … AHHH!...zzz” 

“Omg! Kwan did you hear that?” 

“Yeah, poor Danny.” 

“Danny, why haven’t you left yet?” Wes asked the box. 

“Zzz … Mommy … Daddy … Jazz ha- … alone … zzz” 

“Oh Danny,” Paulina sounded like she was about to start crying soon. 

“Danny, your parents left. Why don’t you follow them?” Wes asked. 

“Wes! You can’t just ask a ghost that?” Star said. 

“Why not?”

“Ghosts are stuck where they die, Danny can’t leave.” 

The radio box sprung to life once again, “zzz… no! … he’s stuck in quicksand … Mommy! …zzz”

“Well can we do anything?” Wes asked Star. 

“We can help him pass on, usually you just have to find out what killed them or tell a relative some dark secret or something. My Mom was telling me that ghosts only stay behind when they have unfinished business.” 

“Okay kid, what do you want?” Dash asked. 

“Zzz… Mommy and Daddy … Jazz hands … Okay! Okay! Okay! … Love you! … zzz” 

“Uhhh kid, we don't know where your parents are, can we do something else?” Dash said. 

“Dash! Don’t be so mean,” Paulina shouted. 

“What, it’s the truth, nobody knows where the Fentons moved to. Plus I heard that the Dad was thrown in prison for child endangerment anyways. We can’t bust him out of prison,” 

The radio box flew out of Wes’s hands, the volume rising as the box did. 

“zzz… Mommy! DADDY! MOMMY! DADDY! … zzz” Junk started flying around them, slamming against the walls and trying to slam against them. 

“Oh shit! Run!” Dash shoved Wes out of the way and b-lined it to the door. Paulina grabbed Wes and they followed Kwan up the stairs. The floor rocking as they ran through the water and mold. Wes slammed the door shut behind them and kept running with the others into the night. He looked behind once to see a pair of eyes watching them.

#Full dead AU #dead child #Dead Danny #child Danny #Danny Phantom #Phic Phight 2022 #Fanfiction #fanfic #writing #Wes Weston #A listers #Dash Baxter #Kwan #Paulina #Star

[magicallysapphic]

“O’Brien?” Cora asks, voice straining in the process.

“Yes, Milady?” She replies, eagerly searching her Lady’s face for any sign of discomfort, ready to move in an instant for anything she may need, knowing she’d bring her the sun itself if that’s what she wants.

But Cora’s face simply softens, as she lets out an almost contented sigh, eyes closing once more, voice soft as she repeats more surely this time, “O’Brien.”

-

i'm rewatching the show and these two just grabbed hold of me okay i mean the lesbian yearning of it all

#downton abbey #cora crawley #sarah o’brien #fanfiction #sapphic #fic #if i start writing cora/baxter fic when raquel shows up mind your business!!!!

[spectacled-renegade-writes]

An Early Start - Chapter 14 - Danny Phantom

Ao3: Here | Masterpost: Here

Ao3 Description: The accident that turns Danny half-ghost happens when he is four years old and leaves him trapped in the Ghost Zone. Clockwork finds him and takes him in to raise. But what happens when Clockwork sends Danny back to the human-world ten years later when a permanent portal appears?

Chapter 14:

Sometimes, Danny didn’t understand why humans do the things they do. Like Dash for instance. For the life of him, Danny could not figure out why he hurt innocent people. In the Ghost Zone, if a ghost hurt another ghost, they always had some kind of reason for it, even if that reason only made sense to them. But Dash, he was another anomaly of the human world, and he confused Danny to no end. More and more frequently, he would show up right behind Danny to knock books from his hands and shove him in a locker. If Sam and Tucker made the human world easier, then Dash balanced it out with how difficult he made it, and a racing heartbeat was becoming yet another awful feeling Danny was becoming more and more acquainted with.

One day, that awful feeling became too much, and despite telling himself he would follow the human’s stupid stringent rules, after yet another incident with Dash, he'd had enough. Trapped inside his tiny locker with only his racing thoughts, the hallway too crowded to simply faze out of it, he’d reached his limit, and decided to skip class. So, Danny fazed through the ceiling and out of the school, up into the sky high, high away from any closed quarters. Up here, he could breathe. Up here, he was free.

As Danny glided through the air, feeling the wind on his face, and basking in the open sky, he was oblivious to the incident happening down below. But he'd soon find out after school.

-

The first thing Sam and Tucker said when they saw him again was, “Where were you?!”

Danny stumbled back.

“There was this stupid Box Ghost and you weren’t here to stop him," Sam yelled. "So he completely ruined my speech on alternatives to dissecting live frogs! Which, by the way, you promised to help out with. You were here earlier, where’d you go?”

Right. Danny had completely forgotten about that promise. He'd made it the other day while they hung out at the Nasty Burger, but when he was in his locker, that awful feeling of confinement had been so strong that everything else in his mind fizzled into static. Guilt weighed heavily on his shoulders and it added to the remaining feelings of confinement he had. He took another step back and didn’t notice how his hand shook as he raised it to say, “I’m sorry.”

Sam noticed at least, and her anger seemed to drain away. “Hey, are you okay?” She reached forward but Danny took yet another step back. He truly hadn’t meant to, but all he wanted right now was space. He craved it. Sam pulled her hand back. “Hey, I’m sorry for yelling. That wasn’t cool of me.”

It only seemed to make the guilt weigh heavier on Danny and he didn’t know what to do. Of course he’s been upset in his life, and scared, but what he felt now was something completely foreign to him and he didn’t know how to handle it, nor how to stop it. But, he had to let Sam know this wasn’t her fault. So, despite the crawling in his skin, he took two steps forward. “It’s… not you. I don’t…” Danny felt nauseous. “I don’t know what I’m feeling right now?”

Sam and Tucker exchanged concerned glances before looking back at Danny. “I think you’re having a panic attack, man.” Tucker said.

A panic attack? Danny has never heard of that before. What did that mean? Is this another human thing he didn’t know about? He lifted his hood over his head. He wanted to be alone. He missed the sky. He missed the Ghost Zone. He wanted to go home.

“Hey,” Sam said gently. “Let’s go outside. It’s too stuffy in here, anyway.”

So, Danny let his friends lead him outside. Their hands hovered behind his back as they lead him, but they didn’t touch him. The three of them made their way through the football field and to the empty bleachers, and Sam and Tucker sat on either side of Danny as he tried to get ahold of himself. He… really didn’t know how, and he hated that he could feel his heart and lungs. He never had to worry about that before as a ghost. Next to him, Sam spoke up. “Try to take slow, deep breaths, okay Danny?”

Slow, deep breaths? But that only made it worse. Slow, deep breaths meant he could feel every part of his constricting lungs. He pulled his sleeves over his hands and shook his head.

“Sam’s right,” said Tucker. “Slow, deep breaths will help you calm down and make your breathing go back to normal, which will make you feel better.”

It’s been a couple of weeks now since they found out his secret and they still haven’t told anyone, so Danny trusted them implicitly. So, he tried, and began to breathe as instructed. It did not help at first, and in fact made him feel worse, but as he kept going, it turns out they were right, and he began to feel better. Once again Danny felt baffled at human function. After a few minutes of silence, Sam slowly leaned over into his field of vision and asked, “Better?”

Danny nodded.

“You wanna talk about it?” Tucker asked. Danny shrugged. “Well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but we’re here if you do.”

Danny took a moment to himself and scanned the big, empty football field. He found himself wanting to lay in the middle of it and stare up at the sky. So, he did. His friends watched him get up from the bleachers, walk across the field, and do exactly that, stretching out his arms at his sides as his back hit the ground. Moments later, they followed suit. They spread their arms out like Danny did, giving him half a foot of space between their hands and cloud gazed, basking in the peaceful silence that followed. It was nice.

Later that night, on the roof of his house, with snacks and homework spread out around them, Danny told them why he disappeared earlier that day, and in return his friends explained what a panic attack was and how they worked. Danny told them that as a ghost he didn’t have a heartbeat and didn’t need to breathe, so that’s probably why he’s never experienced one before, even during rare moments of extreme distress.

“Well, you’re human now,” Sam said gently. “So if you ever start to feel like that again, you come to us.”

“Yeah,” Tucker said. “We’ve got your back.”

Danny smiled softly. “Even though Jazz was always kind to me, I didn’t know other humans could be so nice too."

“Well,” Tucker chirped. “You’re stuck with us, so get used to it.”

-

The next day Mr. Lancer caught Danny at the entrance of the school. “Mr. Fenton,” he said. “Since you were inexplicably absent yesterday, I was unable to inform you that you have been assigned a new locker.” Mr. Lancer handed Danny a slip of paper with a new locker number and combination. “An isolated incident resulted in the destruction of your old one. I hope to see you in class today.” With that, he walked off. Danny turned to look at his friends, who appeared next to him.

“That’s rough, buddy.” Tucker said. “What’s your new locker?”

Danny looked down at the paper, which read ‘Locker 724’, and showed it to his friends. They both paled.

“No. Way.” Tucker said. “Dude, that locker’s like, totally cursed!”

Danny raised an eyebrow.

“He’s right!” Sam agreed, crossing her arms and nodding. “You’ve never heard the legend, have you?”

When Danny shrugged, Tucker began to explain. “That locker used to belong to a Sidney Poindexter back in the fifties. Poindexter was the victim of more cruel pranks than anyone in the history of Casper High School! Apparently picking on him was a graduation requirement. He got stuffed into his locker so many times, it’s believed his spirit still inhabits it to this very day.” For effect, Tucker ended his explanation with an ominous tone.

Danny looked down at the paper, back at his friends, processed it for a moment, and couldn’t believe his luck! With excitement in his eyes, he strode right in to the school. Sam and Tucker chased after him. “Danny, wait up!”

When they caught up with him, Tucker said, “You heard the part about curse, right?”

“Or the part about haunted?” Sam added.

Danny only smiled and nodded at the both of them as he kept going, and didn’t stop until he found his new locker. When Danny went to put in the combination, Sam grabbed his wrist to stop him and asked, “Danny, are you crazy?”

Danny merely turned his arm intangible to escape and explained, “You don’t understand, Sidney is my friend.” He couldn't help the way he smiled.

“What?!” They both exclaimed.

Danny nodded. “I’ll explain later but it’s been a while since I’ve seen him, so if his spirit really is attached to this locker, it’ll be nice to catch up.”

“You, Danny Fenton, have the craziest life I’ve ever heard.” Tucker said.

Danny could only smile more as he turned and opened the locker. The moment the door swung open, a cold mist of air hit the three of them. The outside of the locker was completely rusted over and the inside turned out to be just the same. Its only contents were cobwebs and a single, old mirror hanging in the back. Before Danny could explore any further though, Dash showed up and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “Hey, Eggs Fenedict, looks like you’re my new locker neighbor. Consider this a welcome wagon!” And, once again, Dash stuffed Danny into his locker and slammed the door. Sam was quick to unlock it and let him out.

“Man,” Tucker said. “Imagine if he was the first human you ever met. You’d never leave the Ghost Zone.”

“How does a human know about the Ghost Zone?”

Tucker and Sam startled but Danny smiled. His friends got to hear, for the second time, Danny speak the language he referred to as 'Ghost Speak' as he said, "I told them." Despite hearing it, his friends didn’t have a shadow of a chance at understanding. Sidney though, spoke English, so they understood him.

“Danny, my buddy-o-pal!” Sidney exclaimed. “I heard you left the Ghost Zone! This is where you’ve been all this time?”

Danny nodded. “A permanent portal opened,” he explained. “So Clockwork sent me to protect the humans.” He chewed his lip. “…It’s definitely been an… enlightening experience.”

Sidney nodded solemnly. “But one only a halfa can do.”

“Yeah…”

The bell rang and Danny turned to his human friends. “Get to class,” Sidney said. “We’ll catch up later.”

-

Later apparently meant after school because Danny did not see Sidney again the next time he went to his locker. When after school did roll around, Danny told his friends he’d see them later, then flew to the roof of the school where Sidney was already waiting, standing at the edge and watching the students file out. “I watched you guys today,” Sidney said. “Your friends seem nice. I didn’t know humans could be that way.”

Danny glided over to stand next to Sidney and watched the students filing out too. It felt nice, normal, hanging out with Sidney again. Not to mention getting to be Phantom was always a welcome shift. “I kind of knew it,” Danny said. “But I didn’t know strangers could be like that too, which is what they were at first. Sam invited me to lunch with Tucker on my first day and it all blossomed from there. They’re… definitely odd humans.”

Poindexter smirked. “Like you.”

“Not quite like me but… yeah.” Danny agreed.

A companionable silence fell between them as they watched the people below live their lives. It struck Danny that this was the first time since he’s arrived that he’s felt dead again rather than alive. He wondered if it was okay to prefer this. But he couldn't help it, being dead was peaceful. However, he already knew he'd never tell his friends that, and especially not Jazz.

“I saw a lot of bullies today.” Sidney spoke up. “I put a stop to it when I could.”

Danny hummed. “That’s fine, I think. As long as you don’t hurt them.”

“But what if they hurt someone first?” Sidney argued, but he hadn’t raised his voice.

“Then…” Danny mulled that over. “I’ll take care of it, or there are other ways besides hurting someone to show them the consequences of their actions."

“I guess so…” Sidney relented.

Danny glanced down at the pocket watch hanging from his belt, a Christmas gift from Clockwork when he was eight, and thought of his mission. “Just, promise you won’t let it get out of hand. Okay?” Danny could see the conflict in Sidney’s eyes as he struggled to digest this information. “If you don’t know what too far is, I’ll let you know if it happens. Deal?”

Sidney seemed satisfied with that. “Deal.”

-

“So the school is just going to be haunted by a vengeful ghost now?” Tucker asked later that day at the Nasty Burger.

“He’s not vengeful,” Danny replied. “Not all ghosts are evil.”

“All the ones we’ve met besides you have been,” Tucker grumbled.

Sam softly hit him upside the head. “The actions of a few don’t reflect the intentions of the many. If Danny says he cool, then he’s cool.”

“Fine, fine.” Tucker pushed her away. “What can you tell us about him?”

“A lot actually,” Danny answered. “I’ve told you about the annual Christmas truce, right?” Sam and Tucker shook their heads. “It’s a tradition all ghosts uphold. It’s where I met Sidney a few years ago.” So, Danny explained the Christmas truce to his friends, much to their fascination, then told them the story of how he and Sidney became friends. “It was the first Christmas I’ve ever enjoyed." Danny explained. “I guess you could say it put the H-O-L-L-Y in H-O-L-L-Y J-O-L-L-Y."

Sam snorted at that. “You’re such a dork.”

“Takes one to know one.” Tucker countered.

Danny smiled as he watched them proceed to have friendly yet passionate argument about who's the bigger dork. He sat back and sipped his milkshake.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ao3 Notes: Sorry for the late chapter! Also sorry that the quality of this chapter isn't up to par. I really tried my best.

I've been pretty burnt out from editing so this will be the last chapter for the weekend and possibly Monday, since I'll be visiting my sister.

Thank you so much for your support and patience, and I hope you have a lovely day/night! <3

#an early start au #danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #danny phantom fanfic #mute!danny fenton #disabled danny fenton #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #anxiety #claustrophobia #panic attack #anxiety attack #sidney poindexter #dash baxter #mr. lancer #lost time #christmas truce #renegade writes

[jaeger-soul]

happy 7th birthday to the story that has completely consumed my life since i was 21

after all this time, i thought it was high time i give it a proper cover image. definitely spent way too long messing around with the title to give it the right feel for this story

i get sappy every year and of course this year is no different. to the people who have read the fic and continue reading it and keeping up with my sporadic updates, thank you. you've made me the writer i am today. because of your unwavering feedback, support, and encouragement, i finally feel ready enough to chase after the ever elusive publishing dream

your love for this fic allowed me to create original characters, insert their storylines alongside dash and danny's, and try out creating non-canon characters that you ended up loving or vehemently hating

thank you for all the support. here's to another year of our favorite abused quarterback. i say this every year but the end is in sight and i can't wait to bring it to you all. you more than deserve it <3

#stay #danny phantom #dash baxter #swagger bishie #teddy ghost #fanfiction #fanfic writing

[q-gorgeous]

Wing-Bully

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 5267

No one knows au except dash baxter @xscarletsakurax

this is a rework of something that was gonna go write some other writing i did but then i split them into two different fics because the halves didnt vibe with each other kjhgvcf

hidey hey

“Dash, you’re here so we can work on our project for Lancer’s class. We’re not supposed to be down here.” 

“Come on, ghosts aren’t even real. How dangerous can it be down here?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Dangerous enough that we should really be wearing jumpsuits to protect us from ecto-contamination.”

He walked over to the closet that was down there and pulled out his jumpsuit while Dash laughed at him. 

“Matching outfits with your parents? Lame.”

“Don’t complain to me if you get ectoplasm poisoning then.” 

Danny pulled on his jumpsuit and groaned at the sticker on his chest. He pulled it off and tossed it away. 

“What’s this?” Dash pointed at the deep hole in the wall. Danny walked over to him.

“That’s my parent’s ghost portal. It didn’t end up working though.” 

Dash pushed him towards the portal. “Why don’t you go check it out?”

Danny frowned at him and tried to catch his footing. “No. I don’t know what’s wrong with it. I can’t-” 

“Haha, go in.”

“Dash, stopping pushing me-”

Danny tripped backwards over the threshold of the portal. He tried to catch himself on something on the wall but all he ended up doing was pressing a button that for some godforsaken reason was on the inside of the portal. It hummed around him and after a few moments everything went green. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Glad to see you’re not dead, nerd.” 

Danny looked up to see Dash. It was too early in the morning to deal with him after yesterday. 

“You already knew I wasn’t dead.” 

“A man can dream.” Danny rolled his eyes at Dash’s comment.

“I remember someone crying a lot of tears yesterday when they thought I was dead.” 

A blush rose on Dash’s cheeks. “My adrenaline was running like crazy! It’s not my fault your screams triggered some kind of primal response in my brain!”

“Crying is a primal response now?”

Dash rolled his eyes back at him and crossed his arms. “Have you figured out your whole ghost thing yet?”

“It’s literally been one day.” Danny stared at him. “How could I have figured anything out yet?”

Dash leaned in close to Danny and he glanced at Dash’s lips for a moment before his gaze darted back to Dash’s. “Maybe your parents have some sort of cure. Or maybe it was a one time thing. I don’t know.” 

“Why do you care so much? It’s literally your fault this is happening.”

Dash raised a hand and looked like he was reaching to place it on Danny’s shoulder. “I just-”

Dash was interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind them. They turned around and were met with Sam and Tucker. She was glaring at Dash with her arms crossed. 

“What are you friends with him now?” Sam asked, angrily gesturing at Dash.

“Woah, so what if he wants to be friends with me?” He asked, stepping towards her.

She barked out a laugh. “Come on! You’ve been bullying him the entire time I’ve known both of you. Why would he want to be friends with you? You must be blackmailing him or something.”

“Sam, he’s not blackmailing me.”

“How can we trust that? You could be lying because he’s blackmailing you.” Tucker frowned at him and reached out a hand, placing it on Danny’s shoulder. “I don't want what happened in elementary school to happen again.”

Danny shrugged it off. “That’s not what’s going on. Why can’t you just trust me on this?”

“Because this isn’t smart.” Sam said. “Why do you guys need to be friends?”

Danny threw his hands into the air. “Why are you getting so defensive about this? You’ve literally only seen us have this one conversation and you’re already mad at me. For all you know we could have been assigned a project together or he’s asking about his tutoring sessions with Jazz. Maybe he had to reschedule and wanted me to tell Jazz.”

Tucker shuffled where he stood but Sam still stared at him with crossed arms. 

“Yeah but are you going to tell us the real reason?”

“Does it matter, Sam?” 

Out of the corner of his eye Dash saw Danny start slowly sinking. He panickingly grabbed Danny’s arm to prevent him from sinking any further into the ground. Danny tried to keep his expression neutral but Dash could tell he was shaken. 

“Oh. Is that what’s happening?” Sam looked between the two of them. 

“Is what happening?” Danny asked, frowning at her. 

“What kind of enemies to lovers bullshit is this?” Dash’s eyes widened at her outburst. What was she talking about? What did she think was happening?

His gaze landed on where his hand was still wrapped around Danny’s upper arm and he pulled it back like he’d been burned. Sam scoffed. 

“Sam-” Tucker started but she interrupted him.

“Do you even realize how toxic that kind of relationship can be? He’s just going to hurt you.”

Danny recoiled at her words. “What are you even talking about?”

“The fact that you two seem to be getting real cozy with each other? Are you dating or something?” 

Dash stepped in front of Danny. “How shallow do you have to assume the only reason I’d be talking to him now is if we’re dating? For your information, we used to be friends as kids.” Dash frowned at her and watched as she backed up. “Just because you’re self conscious about your major crush on Fenton doesn’t mean you have to take it out on us because we’re having a simple conversation.”

A blush appeared on Sam’s cheeks before she angrily stormed away. 

“Sorry.” Tucker said as he looked between them again before he followed after her.

Danny watched them as they walked into the school. He was quiet for a few moments before he turned his gaze back to Dash.

“Sam has a crush on me?”

Dash groaned. “That is what you’re focused on?” He started walking towards the school.

Danny followed next to him. “But I didn’t know that! How did you know that?”

“You’re just about the only person who didn’t know, Fenton.”

Dash pushed through the front doors of the school. Danny had a dazed look on his face. 

“Is that why everyone calls me clueless?” He whispered. 

“Clueless strikes again.”

Danny frowned up at him. “Oh what, you’re so observant, are you?”

Dash pushed open the front door of the school. It swung closed behind them. “More than you. I’m not even friends with Manson and I could see the blackened heart eyes she was giving you.” 

Danny shuffled his backpack on his shoulders as they walked down the hall. “I’ve just never seen her that way. I don’t like her like that.”

Dash’s brows shot up on his forehead. “You don’t?”

Danny shook his head. He veered off to the right and Dash followed him to his locker. “She's just a friend to me.” 

Dash leaned against the lockers while Danny tried to open his but his hand just ended up passing through the dial lock. He groaned.

“Maybe you should tell her that, then. Get it over with so she doesn’t try to kill anyone that even thinks to get close to you.”

Danny rolled his eyes. He finally got his locker open. “She wouldn’t kill anyone for getting close to me.”

“I don’t know.” Dash drawled. “She looked like she was gonna claw my eyes out back there. Like a creepy bat girl.”

Danny slammed his locker shut and turned to look at Dash. “You know, if we’re going to be doing whatever this is, I would appreciate you not making comments about my friends like that.” 

“But she can talk to me like that?”

Danny frowned. “No. I literally told her there was no reason for her to be talking to you like that for having a simple conversation with me.”

“But she’s allowed to not like me?”

“That’s your own fault.” Danny rolled his eyes. “She has every right not to like you.”

Dash huffed. He was about to say something but then Danny started sinking into the floor again. Danny panickingly grabbed Dash’s forearm to prevent himself from sinking any further in. Dash pulled him up and when he set him back down, his feet were solid again. Dash looked around them and miraculously no one else in the hall saw what happened. 

“I’m already over this.” Danny mumbled as he let go of Dash. 

“Do you think you’ll get control over it eventually?” Dash asked him. 

“Hopefully. Otherwise I’ll probably have no choice but to ask my parents for help. I really don’t want to do that though.” 

“Maybe we could do some training? Or practice? You won’t get used to your powers if you just try to ignore them. If you try to do it, then maybe you’ll understand how to not do it.”

Danny nodded. “That makes sense. I guess that’s what we’ll have to do.” 

They came to a split in the hallway. Danny looked up at him.

“Well, I’m going this way.” Danny hooked a thumb over his shoulder as he turned to face Dash.”

Dash nodded. “See you later. Hopefully you don’t drop anything today.”

“Hopefully. We’ll see.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Thirty four beakers. 

Danny was finally getting ahold of his powers and all it took was thirty four dropped beakers and a lifetime ban from handling anything fragile while he was at school. 

Aside from the frequent ghost sighting, things were starting to look up.

“Manson!” 

If only Dash could learn to keep his thoughts to himself when it came to his friends. 

“What is this garbage?” 

He stomped up to where the three of them were sitting at their table in the cafeteria. Sam frowned at him. 

“It’s not garbage! It’s recyclable organic matter.”

“It’s garbage.” Danny and Tucker said together. 

Danny gasped out a breath of cold air. He looked around him. He saw a lunch lady ghost behind the food counter. 

Dash followed his gaze to where the ghost was. He saw it just as she walked behind the wall. 

Dash looked back at Sam and held up his plate of mud, pushing himself between Danny and his friends. “When I asked for a mud pie, I thought I was gonna get a mud pie. Not a literal mud pie!” 

“Actually, it’s topsoil.” 

“Whatever. Are you going to actually eat this garbage?”

Danny slipped away while Dash argued with his friends. Maybe Dash arguing with his friends could actually be useful for something for once. 

He found somewhere to hide and transformed. He flew invisibly back to the cafeteria to the room the lunch ladies worked in. She was floating there looking around and the food and the lunch trays. She kind of looked like Tucker’s grandma. 

She caught sight of him. Danny was ready to bolt as she floated up to him, but she wasn’t making any moves to attack him.

“Hello.” She said sweetly. “Can you help me? Today’s lunch should be meatloaf, but there’s not any here. Did someone change the menu?”

“Oh. Uh, yeah. They’re trying something new this week.” 

Danny jumped back as her hair suddenly flamed up with her anger.

“The menu has been the same for fifty years!” She shouted at him. 

“Wait-”

She levitated some plates and shot them at him. Danny dodged and caught them, avoiding getting hit. What was up with this lady? Why was the menu so important? 

“The menu is sacred! Lunch is sacred!” She spoke in her sickly sweet voice again. “Would you like some cake?”

Danny looked at her, confused. “If you’re offering-”

“No one gets cake until the menu is changed back!” 

She held her arms up and meat started flying towards her from every direction. It engulfed her and turned her into a meat monster.

“Meat is the most important food group! Without meat, you’ll remain puny and muscle-less!” 

“I’m not arguing with you there.” Danny mumbled. He geared up for a kick but she grabbed his ankle and sent him flying across the room. 

“I will restore the sanctity of the lunch menu! As soon as I find out who changed it!”

She disappeared in a tornado of meat.

The ghost was gone for now. Danny flew through the wall of the school and collapsed onto the ground. He transformed back and tried to push himself up. He was so tired. He’d never used his powers like that before. He groaned. 

“Hey.”

Danny opened his eyes and looked up. Dash was standing there with his hand outstretched to Danny. He looked at it for a second before he reached up and grabbed it, pulling himself up with Dash’s help. 

“Thanks. That ghost wiped me out.”

“No problem. I wanted to make sure that ghost didn’t kill you. I was trying to find you when I saw you fly through the wall and hit the ground out here.”

Danny nodded. “Yeah that wasn’t fun.” He looked down and saw that he was still holding onto Dash’s hand. He pulled it away and coughed. He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “I should go check on Sam and Tucker though. I want to make sure they’re okay.”

“The ghost attack was pretty contained.” Dash said. “I’m sure they’re fine.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Ah.” Dash said. “That’s fair. Sorry about dragging out that argument with her.”

Danny shrugged and started walking away. “It distracted them long enough to let me slip away for a bit so. No harm done. At least not to me.”

“Good luck. Hopefully she doesn’t chew your head off.” 

Danny pulled the door Dash had walked out open and stepped back inside the school, shaking the hand that had been holding Dash’s. He made his way through the hallways to find Sam and Tucker. 

Sam slammed open the cafeteria doors as Danny stumbled down the hallway. 

“I still can’t believe you’re talking to that meathead.” She shot at him with no preamble. “He literally antagonizes all of us. And then you ditch us to go meet up with him? I saw you two outside.”

“Sam-” 

“What can you say to defend him?” She turned to look at him. “He beats you up all the time.”

“Not anymore.” Danny said.

“What?” Sam stopped walking.

“He doesn’t beat me up anymore.”

She didn’t say anything to that for a few moments. She shook her head. “I still don’t trust him. I don’t get how you could forgive him so easily.”

“I-” He stopped. Had he forgiven Dash?

Sam shook his head. “Let’s just get to class.”

Danny looked around them. “Where’s Tucker?”

She rolled her eyes. “He said he smelt meat so he went to track it down through the hallways. I don’t know if he’s found it yet.” 

Danny scrunched up his nose. He knew exactly what meat Tucker was smelling. “He’s just gonna go eat whatever random mystery meat he finds?”

“Apparently.”

Danny didn’t respond after her last stilted reply. He followed behind her to their next class. When they walked in she went straight to her seat but he looked up and made eye contact with Dash. Dash gave him a questioning look and Danny just shrugged at him before sitting back down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dash walked into the Nasty Burger. Football had just ended and he was hungry. 

As he was walking to the counter he saw Danny sitting at a table with his friends. Dash smirked and walked over to them.

“Hey, nerds.” He placed a hand on the table and leaned his weight into it. 

Sam rolled her eyes. “What do you want?” 

“I just came to say hi to my favorite nerds. Is there a problem with that?” 

“If we’re your favorite does that mean you’ll stop making fun of us?” Tucker asked thoughtfully. “Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, Sam.”

“He’s not going to stop making fun of us, Tucker. The two of them are over there ‘trying to be friends.’” She said with air quotes. “And he still picks on us all the time.” 

“I’ve tried talking to him about it, Sam, but he has a hard time with it.” 

She shot Danny a look. “So why be friends with him? Why give him a chance? What do you see in him?”

“Just because he doesn’t like you-”

Sam scoffed. “Maybe you’re too insecure about your own crush on Danny.” 

Danny whipped his head to look at her. 

“What?” Dash laughed it off. “What are you talking about, Manson?” 

“Yeah, Sam, what are you talking about?” Danny stared at her. 

“Isn’t that what’s been happening this whole time?” She shot back at them. “He’s got some kind of weird feelings for you, he’s trying to get into your pants. Get on your good side. The pulling the girl’s pigtails because you like her bullshit? Don’t you see how weird his sudden change in actions towards you is?” 

“What about your sudden change in actions?” Danny shot at her. “Do you realize how much of an asshole you’ve been lately?”

“Well, maybe if you weren’t friends with-”

Danny threw his hands up in the air. “God forbid if I make new friends! Or try to get along with someone instead of fighting! Or even make decisions for myself.” 

“Danny-”

He cut her off and stood up. “No I’m-” He gasped and Dash saw his ghost sense fog out of his mouth. He frowned. “I’m going home. I need some time alone.” He turned and started walking towards the door. 

“Danny!” Dash followed behind Danny out of the Nasty Burger. 

The ghost was flying above the parking lot shooting ecto-blasts every which way. 

The door slammed behind Dash and Danny turned his head to look at him. 

“I need some time to think. Please just go back inside.” 

He called on his transformation rings. Once they passed across his body he jumped up and flew into the air towards the ghost. 

He watched Danny fight the ghost. He could tell he was angry. He was sloppy today. 

Danny missed a dodge and got hit through the air by the ghost. He ended up turned facing the opposite direction so he didn’t see it start to charge at him. 

Dash’s heart raced as he watched the ghost fly up to Danny. His heart stirred with feelings he wanted to push down. He didn’t need to put himself in danger for Danny. He didn’t feel that way. Danny didn’t feel that way about him.

But as the ghost got closer, Dash couldn’t help as the anxiety skyrocketed. His resolve broke and he picked up a big piece of asphalt off the ground and chucked it at the ghost. It turned to look at him. 

Dash froze when the ghost’s eyes landed on him. What was he doing? Was Danny really that important to him now?

The ghost’s mouth filled up with ectoplasm and shot it towards.

He wouldn’t be able to move in-

Danny knocked Dash out of the way of the ecto-blast just in time. His arms wrapped around Dash’s chest and he flew back. The blast hit the ground where he’d been standing just a moment before. 

Dash wrapped his arms around Danny as they slammed into the ground. He groaned as his back slid across the pavement and Danny looked down at him. He started feeling the back of Dash’s head, running his fingers through his hair. 

Dash opened his eyes and looked up at Danny. He looked panicked. Like something was wrong, but he literally just prevented anything from being wrong.

“Dash, are you okay?”

He nodded. “Back hurts. Head’s fine.”

Danny leaned down and lay his head on Dash’s chest. Dash’s hands slid down Danny’s back and rested at his side and he closed his eyes again. He really didn’t like this whole ghost hunting thing. 

The ghost roared behind them and Dash felt Danny’s head shoot back up. 

“Shit! How did I forget about the ghost?”

Dash waved his hand above him. “Go. I’m fine. I’m just gonna get my bearings on the ground here.” 

Dash listened as Danny finished fighting the ghost. It ended quickly and he could hear Danny’s footsteps as he walked to stand over Dash. Dash opened his eyes and his heart jumped at the way the sun shone on Danny’s white hair. 

Danny held his hand out to Dash and he slowly reached up and grabbed it. Danny pulled him to his feet and looked at their hands. He let go a moment later. 

“I think we need a new rule. No interfering with ghost attacks.”

“What?” Dash frowned at him. “That thing was about to gobble you.” 

Danny crossed his arms. “Yeah, but if I didn’t get to you on time you could've gotten very badly hurt. I thought I knocked your head on the ground when I knocked you out of the way.” 

Dash shrugged. “But you didn’t.” 

“We can’t rely on that.” Danny looked away from him. “Just promise you won’t interfere like that again?”

Dash wasn’t sure if that was something he could actually do. But one look at the expression on Danny’s face told Dash he should at least try. 

“Yeah. I promise.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny was nodding off in the middle of class. They were given time to work on their homework today but all Danny wanted to do was sleep. Having to fight all these ghosts all the time was making his life way too stressful. He wasn’t to sleep or get his homework done or even get to class on time. It was starting to get to him. 

He yawned. While his eyes were shut he heard someone sit down next to him. He opened his eyes and saw Dash in the next seat over. 

“You look tired.”

“Thanks, captain obvious. I didn’t realize.” 

Dash shrugged. He slouched back in his seat. “Your friends are whispering about you back there.” 

Danny turned and looked over his shoulder at where Sam and Tucker sat at the table in the back of the classroom. When they saw him looking Sam turned back around. Tucker just waved at him awkwardly. 

Danny waved back at him. “I wish they’d just sit over here with me.” 

Dash waved them off. “Who needs ‘em if they’re going to be treating you like that.” 

Sam snorted behind them. Dash turned to look at her. “You got something to say Manson?”

“As if we could treat him any worse than anything you’ve ever done to him.” 

Dash shrugged as he faced back towards the front of the classroom. “Hey, at least my character arc is positive. I’ve made amends.” 

“You’ve hardly even done anything. What kind of character arc have you actually had?”

“I-” Dash started but then he stopped. His brows dropped down and he looked at Danny. 

It hit Danny then that the only thing that really changed with Dash’s behavior was how he treated Danny. He didn’t pick on him anymore and he had cared about him, but he immediately resumed the same habits with both of Danny’s friends. Any time that Dash covered for Danny’s whereabouts during ghost fights, the only thing he could think to do was antagonize Sam and Tucker. He could never think up any actual excuses that wouldn’t cause more problems. 

Danny missed part of the conversation. By the time he tuned back in, Sam was glaring at Dash from across the room. 

“Just because he’d rather spend time with me than you-”

Danny’s ghost sense picked that moment to go off and he couldn’t think of a more convenient time for it to have happened. He stood up sharply and made his way out of the classroom quickly. The door slammed behind him as it closed and he was a couple steps down the hallway when the door opened behind him again.

“Danny, wait-” 

“Why do you do that?” Danny turned and frowned at him. 

“What?” Dash’s brows furrowed.

“Why do you dig at them like that? Make them feel bad about what’s going on?”

“Manson-” Dash started but Danny interrupted him. 

“No. Sam and Tucker are mad at me because of you. They think I’m always ditching them to go hang out with you instead.” 

“That’s not my fault!” Dash shouted back at him. “That’s the ghost’s fault!” 

“But they don’t know that!” Danny stared at him. “All they know is that I’m on good terms with you now and I disappear all the time. They know something is up.” 

Dash shuffled where he stood. He knew he was causing a rift between Danny and his friends. No matter how much he liked to antagonize them, he wasn’t proud of it. He wasn’t trying to put distance between them. 

Danny sighed. “She keeps making jabs about us being together like it would be crazy. Like it would be the worst thing in the world.” Danny looked up at Dash. “I would like it if it wasn’t the craziest thing in the world. If it could actually be true. But with the way you treat my friends-” He shook his head. 

Everything around Dash stopped. What? 

“Danny-”

A blue mist came out of Danny’s mouth again. He shook his head.

“I gotta go.”

“Wait-”

Danny ran around the corner away from Dash.

“What did you do to him?” 

Dash looked down the hallway to see Sam glaring at him. Tucker stood next to her. 

“What?” He asked. 

“He just ran away from you? What did you do to him?” She stomped her way over to him.

“Nothing!” Dash held his hands up in a surrendering motion. “We were just talking and he had to go-”

“We’re in the middle of class. What else would he need to be doing right now?”

“Yeah. Why would he be leaving?” Tucker asked. 

“He, uh, went to-”

Sam ran past him and around the corner Danny went down, Tucker close on her heels. Dash followed behind them knowing Danny would already be gone but they didn’t stop there. They ran down the hallway and out the door leading outside. 

“Danny?” She shouted. “Where are you?”

Dash was the only one that noticed Danny floating in the sky. He was fighting an animal type ghost.

“Uh, guys, I think we should probably go back inside.” 

He pointed up at the sky and Sam and Tucker followed his finger. Sam’s eyes widened and she looked around the front of the school again. 

“Danny!” 

Phantom must’ve heard that one because he turned his head to look down at them. The ghost took that moment to hit Phantom, sending him flying through the air. Now he was much closer to them. 

This ghost looked horrifying. It was animalistic but it looked uncannily like a person. Stringy, hair looking fur and teeth curved into a creepy smile. 

“Get to safety! Now!” Phantom shouted down at them. He shot another ectoblast at the ghost. 

“We have to find Danny first!” Sam shouted in a panic. 

“He’s not out here.” Dash turned to go back inside the school. “Let’s just listen to Phantom and get somewhere safe.”

“That hallway doesn’t lead anywhere except outside! Where else could he be?” Sam asked, still turning around looking for Danny. 

“He didn’t-” 

“Danny!” Tucker shouted. 

Dash growled. Why didn’t they just listen to him? 

The ghost let out a shriek and Dash squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears. 

“Go inside, now!” 

Dash’s eyes opened at Phantom’s shout. He looked back up into the air. 

Dash stared at the ghost that was hovering in the air in front of them. It was cackling, its head thrown back into the air. It looked back at the ground directly at Sam and promptly shot an ectoblast out of its mouth. Dash saw Sam’s mouth open the slightest bit and everything slowed down. Danny turned, following the path of the blast but when he tried to fly towards her the ghost grabbed onto him, trapping him. 

This was one of Danny’s best friends. She might hate Dash’s guts but Danny cared for her more than she hated him. 

Without another thought, he pushed himself into a run and sprinted his way across the grass. He put himself between her and the ghost and grabbed her just as the blast hit him in the back.

He could hear Sam scream as they fell to the ground. Tucker was shouting from somewhere else but Dash couldn’t make much out past the ringing in his ears. He could hear scuffling in the air above him but it was muffled. The pain in his back radiated out and he could feel it in every jostle as someone shook his body. 

Everything started fading away and Dash hoped he wasn’t dying. Distantly, he wondered if this is how Danny felt when he died in the portal. 

The voices fell away and so did Dash.

~~~~~~~~~~

Slowly, the world came back to him. The first thing he noticed was the steady beeping nearby. The second thing was how bright the lights were against his eyelids. 

He groaned and he heard some shuffling to his left. Someone placed a hand on his arm. 

“Dash?”

His heart skipped a beat and he slowly pried his eyes open. He was laying in a bed in the hospital and Danny was standing to his left. 

“Danny?” Dash croaked out. He tried to sit up but Danny pushed him back down against his pillows. 

“You shouldn’t move too much. You got hit pretty bad.” 

“You got the ghost though?” Dash asked. 

“Yeah, he got the ghost.”

Sam and Tucker walked into the room and stood next to Danny. 

“Uh, no I asked if Phantom got the-” Dash fumbled, trying to cover it up.

“It’s okay, Dash.” Danny said. “I told them. I thought it might be better if they knew.”

Dash looked at Danny’s two friends. They didn’t look like they were mad at him anymore. Or like they hated him. It was relieving that they knew. Danny didn’t have to keep avoiding them or keep secrets anymore. 

“If we’d known in the first place we could’ve helped, you know.” Sam said, shooting both of them a look. 

“Yeah. A team always needs a tech guy.” Tucker crossed his arms in mock frustration.

“But we do understand why you guys have been acting weird for the past couple months.” Sam turned to look at Dash. “Thank you for helping him even though you didn’t have to.”

Dash nodded, dumbfounded.

She stared at him a moment longer and pulled her gaze away. “And thank you for knocking me out of the way of that hit. Sorry it landed you here.”

Dash shook his head. “You’re Danny’s friends. You’re important to him. I didn’t want you to get hurt because of all this ghost stuff.” 

“That’s a nice thought, but you should also try not to get yourself hurt.” Sam said. 

“Yeah.” Danny frowned. “You promised.” 

Dash shrugged. “We can call it karma.” 

Tucker stepped forward. “We need a name.”

“A name?” Danny looked up at Tucker.

“Yeah, like a cool ghost hunting team name.” He waved his hands in the air. “What about Team Phantom?”

Sam snorted. “That sounds dumb.”

Tucker planted his hands on his hips. “Well, do you have any better ideas then?”

Danny’s hand slowly made his way down from his arm to his hand as they talked. He entwined his fingers with Dash’s and gave him a squeeze. Dash squeezed his hand back. 

Everything would be okay. Everything was okay. 

#gorgi writes #danny phantom #danny fenton #dash baxter #sam manson #tucker foley #swagger bishie #kinda #phic phight 2024 #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #phic

[flower-seeks-the-moon]

Your Move (VI. Ritardando: Backwards Pawn)

fandom: our life: beginnings and always

relationships: main character/baxter ward

characters: main character, baxter ward, side characters appearing

words: 6111

Read on AO3 (must be logged in) or below this cut.

“In the solitude, I felt the liberty you speak of. But I also felt your absence.”

- Celine Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

“You are a devious one, Wisteria,” he hisses to himself as his rook is captured, a fair price to pay in defense of his king. 

“Hoh?” She is in excellent form today: all glimmering eyes and a subtle, ambiguous upward curve of her lips. With a satisfied hum, she tucks away the white rook among the ranks of her prisoners. A look of mourning is all he could afford to spare his king’s subjects, those poor casualties in this war between black and white. “I ceded the advantage of first move to you, so do be careful who you’re calling devious .” Her retort comes just as fast as he agonizes over the next move. 

Baxter lists his head sideways, watching her through a lidded stare. Truthfully, he’s far more interested in watching her like this: a ruler in her court of black and white squares, imperious yet with a lurking playfulness. With her head tipped into her palm, elbow against her other hand, she makes even the blessedly cool floor of her room feel like a throne.

The air-conditioning being put on full-blast within the Blancs’ residence, however, isn’t enough on this fine day. They’re both heatsick; had she not invited him to hang out today, he’d be elsewhere. Likely, it’d be some café. 

Yet he’s here, feeling the prickle of sweat on his skin. She isn’t much better, but the thrill of the game seems to be doing her a favor.

He’s not even half-ashamed to admit that if it weren’t for inciting her ire, he’d allow himself to be distracted and taken down in the next few turns.

But now is not the time to be weak. Back to the board, his attention goes, working the best of the rudimentary skills he learned at his father’s hip. It wouldn’t be remiss to say that he only knows enough due to his parents’ particular brand of elitism. If there is one thing to thank his dear mother for, it’d be her support of his preference for music and dance. 

Had his father gotten his way, Baxter would be playing polo, or something else just as patently ‘appropriate’ for a man. Ballroom dance is only acceptable because of its advantages in networking with their acquaintances, but the pride that his mother shows in him is genuine enough.

It is yet another reason for the cold silences between Mr. and Mrs. Ward, though they will surely deny such a disagreement affecting their marriage.

Yet it is that same disharmony that gives him enough luck to meet and remain an interesting opponent to his summer fling. That is a victory, isn’t it?

The match decidedly does not end in triumph for him a little while later, but what they get is a good time. That’s enough. 

She tips her head back against the edge of her bed, once they have cleaned up and tucked the board away. “Thanks for playing. You used the Dunst Opening, huh.”

“I must admit, I do know a limited amount of openings due to this being one of my father’s hobbies.” He leans back on his palms, legs stretched out before him. “And I had wanted to surprise you, so beginning with an e4 would have been counterproductive. Is it fair to assume that I have succeeded to some degree?”

Wisteria hums, neither confirming nor denying it. “I had fun. So, what was that text about being gone for a week’s trip?”

“Ah.” A muscle in his jaw tightens for a split-second. “Yes, that.” Baxter breathes in deeply, holding it for a long moment. “I believe I told you about my parents’ reasoning in sending me to Sunset Bird.”

Do everything as an adult would, yet receive all the respect that an infant does.

The unnameable quality in her gaze deepens. “My bad boy of a summer suitor is making plans, isn’t he? You sure looked like you had a number of them, when you got out of that taxi.”

This startles a laugh out of him. She remembers the look on his face, before he even caught sight of her? “He does indeed. An old classmate of mine is vacationing along with a few others in our year at one of his lovely summer residences. Thus far, he has promised a few nights of leisure by a poolside and refreshments.” A few Bellinis would be an excellent incentive, and Edmond knows this about him (and little else).

The biggest incentive, however, is the freedom from prying parents. 

“Sounds like fun,” Wisteria murmurs, tipping her head back down to look him properly in the eye. “I might find myself missing you, however.”

It’s funny how this little statement — unintentional, from the way her brow creases — could make him feel elation and dread both. “It will merely be a short week. Truthfully, it is the temporary liberty from my parents’ decisions that I strive for in doing this.”

“Does Sunset Bird not give you that?”

The smile on his face is humorless, but reflexive. “Not quite.”

They watch each other. The idle summer afternoon doesn’t feel so idle anymore.

Why did you say that?

But it’s all overwhelming — her, and everything she gives him. The feelings she incites. His stomach flipping, the way he feels hearing that he will be missed. Her direct statements, lacking his finesse, like a sledgehammer to a wall he needs to reinforce. The fireworks reflected in her irises, her mouth sweet and warm. And his button-up shirt, yet to be returned since she promised to wash it for him.

There is another reason why he needs to take this weeklong trip.

He had overstepped, hadn’t he? 

A look into her face as she watches her two friends smiling at each other, and Baxter is a goner. Projecting his own heartache on her, when she had handled her situation with far more grace than he. Beyond that, her friendships are different. She is still here, after all, and intends to stay: he has countless unspoken questions from his childhood friends, each left unanswered. 

And yet he has the gall to play his hand at kindness, when he’s the one leeching all the warmth he could from her.

A small break in a familiar environment, where he knows the direction the show will go, would do him good. It would also do her a favor, give her more time to spend among her true companions.

He is only ever her summer fling. A pleasant experience, an accessory at her side to admire. 

Making a soft noise in her throat, she lowers her gaze to the floor. “Mhm. Wanna get a drink downstairs? Feeling a little parched after that match.”

Come the evening, he appears at her family’s doorstep once again. 

The tension from earlier this afternoon is gone. She tilts her head backward, leaning against the doorframe. Freshly showered, in a loose t-shirt and shorts, stray droplets still visible on her neck; it’s all he could do not to follow their path downwards. “All packed and ready?”

“The roads will be much less congested past seven in the evening, so I believe an overnight drive will not be so bad. I am quite accustomed to working throughout the night.”

She raises a brow. “I see. Well, I’ve got something for you. Come on in?”

“I will be going soon after this. Best for me to remain here, instead of imposing.”

Wisteria leaves him staring after her as she vanishes back inside. He stays there, smiling, cool and undisturbed, as he hears the laughter coming from their living room. His hands burrow deeper into his pockets as he waits, her family’s voices growing loud enough for him to overhear.

“Rice and adobo in a box, for your fancy boy? Oh, little sis.”

His girlfriend’s voice follows, punctuated with what he imagines to be a mild glower. “It’s what we do for our trips, and it works. The hell am I supposed to do?”

“Now, now. You’re doing wonderful, sweetie, looking out for him. The disposable container is a good idea.”

“Noelani’s right; your boy’s possibly in over his head. A drive all the way to the other end of California, all by himself? He’ll be driven to exhaustion without a stopover and a bite to eat halfway.”

It doesn’t take long, despite the things he overhears. She appears back in front of him, an eco bag hanging from her grip. When she thrusts it up towards his chest, Baxter grabs her wrist instead and gently lowers it between them. It still has the same effect as when he first tried it, that brief catch in her breath which makes his lip twitch. Though his hold is loose, she doesn’t pull away. Cocking his head, he asks her, “What have you got for me, my dear?”

She takes a moment to respond under his stare. “I - We made some adobo for tonight. It keeps well with rice, for road trips.” 

His cheeks feel hot. There is no way he’d miss that slipup, his heart beating in quickstep against his ribcage once again. “I see,” he echoes her earlier words, keeping the same coy tone. “How thoughtful of you.” With his other hand, he tugs the bag free from her fingers. 

“It’s not much. You could probably stop somewhere nicer along the way, and get-”

This is unlike her. Baxter bites back a rebuke towards himself for making her doubt.

“If you’d allow me to say something, Ria?” No, he’s not having any of that uncertain rambling from her. He droops down, forehead coming in contact with her shoulder. “I swear… A personally packed lunch is a first for me, Wisteria. You do have quite the propensity for giving me a number of those, don’t you?” He has never been more pathetic within the past years than he is around her. Voice hoarse, he forces back the lonesome child within his chest to give way for a smooth grin. It’s more for himself than for her, since she couldn’t see it like this. “Nothing more would please me than partaking in something that you made with your own hands.” 

“I’m not as good as my ma.” She warns, as if Baxter hasn’t been the repeat victim of his roommates’ attempts with a microwave for the past year. Even so, he would stomach anything like a damned fool if it came from her kitchen.

“I give you my word.” He utters against her skin. “On my return, I shall tell you of my arrival in person, at your doorstep.”

A hand settles on his back, tugging him close, accepting the silent truce for what it is. Gentle as she cards her fingers through his hair, Wisteria sighs. 

“I hope that you will find the liberty you yearn for, Baxter.”

Pamela Blanc had been right on the money: he had overestimated how daunting it would be to drive from the south to the north of the country’s third-largest state. Though Baxter had counted on the hours well past seven to give the least amount of traffic for him to navigate, a ten-hour drive is still a ten-hour drive. This does not factor in the stopover he would need to make. The freeway is mercifully sparse for the first stretch, his only company being the soft punk rock coming out of the car stereo and the quiet purr of the engine; ahead of him stretches a long, well-lit expanse only shared with his fellow nighttime drivers.

It’s thirty past eleven when he finds himself stopping, pulling his car over beside a starkly-lit convenience store. It glows like a beacon against the darkness surrounding it, beckoning travelers like him toward the only place to seek refuge for miles. The parking lot is empty when he stops his engine, hands tightening on the wheel as he braces himself with a lungful of air.

Far away from Sunset Bird, he wonders why he feels none of the weight lifting off of his shoulders. 

This is what you’re driving for.

He has managed to finagle his way out of the cage of his parents’ own making, if only for one week. This should be considered a triumph, one among the others he’s been eking out ever since he chose to study in Virginia. 

Leaning his head back against the headrest, he breathes in and out. Slowly, like you taught yourself. There’s no one to watch him, but guilt still weighs heavy in his chest. He shouldn’t be like this, shouldn’t feel like an aimless piece of driftwood tossed about by the merciless waves. Every mouthful of air feels hardly enough to calm the shaking of his fingertips, but he’s long become a master at wrangling his own body into compliance. It doesn’t take long before his grip loosens around the wheel and his jaw unclenches.

The motions of smiling are instinctive, even when he’s alone. There is still an audience of one to appease: himself.

His forehead is cold with sweat when he brings his hand up through his fringe, making him wince.

When his phone screen flickers to life on the dashboard, it’s a welcome distraction from the turn his thoughts have taken. His dull stare lands on the lockscreen, a glimmer returning when he spots the notifications.

Wisteria across street! Just now i couldn't sleep. guessing you’ll probably take a break soon 3 more messages from Wisteria across street! Edmond Cartier 3h ago [image attachment]

He pays no attention to the second notification, immediately tapping on the first. It takes a swipe to scroll back up to her first message, the timestamp telling him it was sent about an hour after he set off.

Wisteria across street!: so i think you’re going to learn real fast how it’s no joke to drive across the state Wisteria across street!: and that’s why i thought of sending you off with food Wisteria across street!: you should eat. i don’t want you to fall asleep at the wheel due to fatigue. 

The words on the screen don’t register until the smile on his face begins to feel less like a mask spread too thin; now, it feels more like the person he finds himself becoming, as the summer days stretch for longer in a certain seaside neighborhood. He reaches for the bag he had set aside on the passenger seat, taking out a clear container. The plastic glimmers dimly from the lamps outside until he flicks on the interior lighting. Underneath the clear case, the food she made herself is spread out: dark brown chunks of pork with a light sauce atop a bed of white rice.

He recognizes this dish. Sometimes, she would bring him food that he’s never had the chance to try before. This is one of those dishes.

“This? Every Filipino home has its own version, ma told me. It’s like chicken soup here. The way your mother makes it will always be better than anyone else’s version. Ma learned from her mother, Lola Lorna, whose own mother moved to Hawaii for work, where she met her husband.”

She made this for him. 

The tightness in his chest isn’t borne out of the knife he often turns inwards on himself, this time. 

Though he’s still mindful of keeping the car neat, Baxter decides that it’s fine to be improper tonight. He eats dinner in the passenger seat, feeling a bit like a mischievous, rebellious child. What my dear friend doesn’t know won’t hurt them, and I’ll leave these seats spotless. The tangy-sweet taste of the soy sauce and vinegar-based glaze does seem to be on the sweeter side; he chuckles under his breath, recognizing Wisteria’s sweet tooth at work. With every bite, he feels less adrift, even as he sits in here all alone inside his rented vehicle.

After his short break, and a quick purchase of the store’s strongest canned black coffee - a travesty against the art, really, but a must - Baxter continues on his journey with a full heart and a full stomach. 

Twinkletoes: you are a wonderful cook, ria. thank you for dinner. i find myself looking forward to coming back, even as my trip is underway. Wisteria across street!: now look here. i wasn’t the only one who made it, ma helped me Wisteria across street!: ok fine i did it myself. i Wisteria across street!: i’m glad you liked it

He makes it to his old classmate’s summer residence in good time, though it’s dawn by the time his car pulls into the long driveway.

It’s quiet, in these early hours, with only the residential staff to receive Baxter once he steps out. He declines the offer of taking his suitcase with a shake of his head; there’s not a lot to carry, and he can do this himself. As they guide him towards his room, he’s duly informed that his old acquaintances — ‘friends’, in these circles, perhaps — are still fast asleep after the previous night’s activities. He laughs, polite and crisp, and informs them that he would also be sleeping in as soon as he can. Typical of them, this is just one endless idle summer full of shallow partying.

Baxter would be lying if he claims he’s never done similar. It’s frightfully easy to lose track of time in places where the liquor flows like water from bottles and taps, where the music is louder than your own thoughts, and where the tight press of bodies is so designed to make you forget yourself. These are people who wouldn’t give a damn if the world ended outside their gates, a modern-day Prince Prospero and his merry retinue.

It’s been a long while since the varnish has worn off of this lifestyle’s gilded edges for him, to see the cage for what it is.

You would exchange one prison for another if it meant insisting on your own ‘rebellion’ against your mother and father.

The inside of his temporary abode is a room right by the pool, floor-length sliding door leading right outside. Shut closed, the gauzy curtains are drawn across the exit to keep the sunlight out. Baxter spares the shimmering blue water one glance, and nothing more. 

Briefly, he sees the ocean’s unequaled hues, all reflected in a girl’s clear grey eyes. 

“Pools aren’t so interesting once you’ve seen the ocean,” he says to the empty room with a rueful twist of his mouth. “They are… Much less threatening, however.”

Showering, brushing his teeth, washing his face. All good, quickly done away with. Drying his hair with the blow dryer. Also done with. Rummaging through his suitcase for his sleepwear makes him grumble to himself, but it is manageable.

He falls into a deep, dreamless sleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

“What have you been up to since graduation, Baxter? It’s been a while since we last got a moment to kick back like this.”

Baxter affixes his stare to the stem of his wine glass, watching the golden liquid swish within. He allows himself to smile as the sound system blares out the most unpleasant tunes he’s ever had the displeasure of hearing; Edmond’s music tastes haven’t changed, but who is he to judge with his interest in alternative rock? He replies, nonchalant, “I have been quite well. Virginia is a most pleasant place for me to study, I have grown accustomed to life within a dormitory.” A smooth non-answer, as is usual for discussions like this. He turns his attention to his highschool acquaintance. “And you, Edmond? It does seem that European campus life has been treating you marvelously.”

“It’s been great, alright. The food, the architecture, the view — I knew I made a good choice.” 

Except he didn’t make the choice, as your father informed you over dinner once. His grandmother wanted him to study in Marseille, where his grandfather and father are alumni.

“Is that so? I’m glad to hear it,” he says, taking a long sip of his drink afterward. Odd how the white peaches don’t taste as sweet tonight.

“The best part though? The people. There’s so many hot people at campus, like you wouldn’t believe— I haven’t introduced my girlfriend yet, have I? Aimee, this is Baxter Ward. We were quite good friends back in high school. And Baxter, this is Aimee Joubert.”

He fucked you for two months before you called it off. Because you both certainly didn’t want ‘feelings’ to sprout, and your father would have jeopardized your families’ business connections if he knew that his business partner’s son also embraces men. Two months was the longest you could go without being found out.

Studying in Virginia is freeing in more ways than one, not that he’s ever stopped feeling like a caged bird. 

His old dalliance’s new paramour smiles at him, all genteel and pretty. Her hair is dark as ebony, her skin a flawless porcelain, and her pearlescent smile effortless. Exactly as Edmond likes in his flings, and just what drew him to Baxter once upon a time. “Pleasure to meet you, Baxter.” Baxter wonders if Aimee is aware of Edmond’s upcoming engagement to another family friend of theirs. It’s none of his business, however.

Nodding, he greets back, “The pleasure is all mine, Aimee. I do hope that you and Edmond are having a wonderful summer here.”

The conversation carries on, but he eventually lets himself fade into the background. He watches his old classmates as they dance, flirt, and laugh; hale and hearthy, glowing golden with youth and long days spent tanning under the Californian sun. Beautiful and carefree. If he cocks his head just so, he could almost convince himself that these young adults are not so different from the new friends he made in Sunset Bird.

Two of them are set up to be in a loveless arranged marriage, but the profits that it will bring her father’s company overshadow her own prospective happiness. That guy — Arthur, was it? — is going to run his grandfather’s company down into the ground if he doesn’t stop gambling ludicrous amounts. And you? What are you doing here, Baxter Ward?

But he doesn’t belong with those people.

He belongs here.

Baxter is exactly like these hollow, beautiful people in their unending, laborious bouts of ennui and rapture. They seek the warmth of others from anything they could get their hands on: the warmth you get from the alcohol running rampant in your blood. The rush you attain from moving your body to the music, holding someone else flush against you. Anything that could substitute for real, human connection, but without the inconvenience of being weakened by it. Or working for it.

One or two people come to proposition him; Aimee had mentioned him to her friends as Edmond’s friend with the unique fashion-sense. He’s not daft to the knowledge that it’s code for weird fashion choices. She’s offered him up as a spectacle to point and laugh at, if not actually fuck.

This is his cue to excuse himself and turn in for the night. He may be as equally shallow as these people in most respects, but Baxter is trying his damnedest to hold on to some standards. And he’s quite certain that all he yearns for is the touch of the young woman he left behind in Sunset Bird.

But he wouldn’t drag her into his mess, not in that manner. 

Coming here just reminds him of that; it fills him with leaden determination to not burden her. If she sees him now, would she still want to take him into her arms?

Wisteria across street! Just now psst. you awake? 2 more messages from Wisteria across street!

A picture of three beaming girls, looking far too pleased with themselves, stares back at him from his screen. 

Wisteria’s face is pressed against a dark shoulder, her cheeks flushed red from laughter caught in a still frame. Her smile is subtler than the rest of her friends’, but the brightness in her eyes more than makes up for it. Arm slung around her shoulders, Terri appears to be holding the phone with her longer reach. And tucked under her chin, Miranda peers into the camera with the widest grin of them all. They’re all dressed in pajamas, red, yellow, and pink respectively; their hair done up with ribbons. 

The timestamp tells him that this was three hours ago, at ten pm.

Sleepover with the besties, the attached message says.

It’s now 1 past midnight, after he had cleaned up to retire to bed. And yet her most recent message is mere seconds ago, when he had settled down underneath the covers. Choosing to browse his phone had been mere coincidence.

Twinkletoes: Is it truly a sleepover if you are not yet deep in slumber at your friend’s home, Ria? Wisteria across street!: too many thoughts in my head Wisteria across street!: didn’t want to bother terri and randy Twinkletoes: And yet you consider me a fitting outlet? That is quite a fascinating thought process, though I am pleased to be of use to you. Wisteria across street!: i had a hunch you’d be awake

He huffs to himself, amused, and turns over to lay flat on his stomach. The cacophony of noise outside — the party will continue for as long as his host damn well pleases — fades into the background as he considers what to tell her. 

Honestly, she drives him mad. 

She’s so adorable with her bobbed hair bedecked in red ribbon, far more unruly than he’s ever seen her. The red fabric droops over her head, reminiscent of a rabbit’s long, flopped ears. Any of the usual serenity from her argent eyes has given way to girlish joy, her lopsided smirk far too giddy to be smooth. It’s so shameless of her to send this to him when he’s so far away. He can’t even tug on that ribbon, lean down, and make her blush until the red creeps down her neck and even lower still. 

Baxter wants to call her, he realizes. He’s barely spent two days away from Sunset Bird and he wants to hear her voice.

Twinkletoes: Are you by any chance amenable to a voice call from me? I understand if this is an inconvenience. You don’t have to accept it. Wisteria across street!: i’m in randy’s living room. it’s fine, call me. Twinkletoes: Then it’s settled. Let’s have a late-night chat, just the two of us night owls, shall we?

It doesn’t take but a few seconds for her to accept his call. Baxter rests his chin on his fist, lowering his gaze in thought. He knows it’s odd to let the call hang without any conversation between them, but faced with the opportunity to hear her now, he finds himself reticent. What does she think of the chatter and music that the phone will inevitably pick up, as clamorous as the area outside his room is?

“I’m here.” Her voice is muffled when it comes from his speaker. “It’s… whoa, it’s noisy over there. What’s up?”

When he replies, he tries to make his voice clear above the din, frowning at the sliding door. “My acquaintances are having a party, and as you can hear, it extends rather late. I have retired to the guest room, but I must admit that sleep will elude me for a while yet.”

“Oh… That’s unfortunate.” A rustling noise, as if she’s moving. “I made some hot chocolate, Randy has a ton of those packets lying around in the kitchen for some reason. She told me I could have some earlier.”

He laughs, shaking his head. “Perhaps it’s because she’s aware that one of her dear friends likes them.”

“Maybe. So, are you enjoying yourself there?”

“My old classmate’s residence is as nice as can be anticipated,” he murmurs. “Though I must confess that the pool is rather less of a view than a poppy-dotted hill within walking distance of your house.” That hill is in her literal backyard. He’s seen it before, sitting with her in the living room. An idyllic field of verdant green, white flowers blooming all across it like stars in the sky.

Part of him has been interested in setting foot there, but one thing always holds him back. Wisteria hasn’t invited him to see it with her. 

You want her to ask you.

“Oh. I should take you there stargazing, at some point, now that you bring it up. Have you ever tried that before?”

“Stargazing? Hmm. There are some appropriate locations for it, back in my hometown; it’s a mountainous area, I recall telling you before.” He represses the memories of hiking through a mountain path, of a dark-haired youth immersing himself in the laughter and chatter of old friends.

“Well, the view on our hill is good. Let’s make it a date sometime, then.”

“I look forward to it.” 

They talk until his eyelids grow heavy under their own weight, and he hears a yawn from the other end of the call. By the time they’re finished, the music has dwindled outside. And by the time he allows himself to sink into the warm embrace of sleep, the sky outside is beginning to lighten with the arrival of dawn.

“Is that your current girl?” Edmond raises his brows, leaning over his shoulder. “Small and cute, isn’t she? And on the unique side, she has a fashion statement just as you do. All that red. You know what they say about girls who wear lots of that color, right?”

He has to smother a growl at the invasion of his privacy, has to ignore the implications about his girlfriend, has to smooth it all away with a sharp smile. Baxter stares demurely at his brunch, locking his phone screen and picking up his knife and fork. “She’s been a darling to me since I started summering in this state. And she does have a name, I would appreciate it if you would refer to her properly. Wisteria Blanc.”

The gears turn behind his old flame’s eyes. He knows the process: this man will try to match the name to a face. Is Baxter’s current fling from someone within their circles? A heiress, perhaps? “Blanc? Hm, I think Dad knows someone… Hold on. My younger cousin, Elanor? She has a classmate called Leandra Blanc. Does that ring a bell to you?”

Oddly enough, it does. 

But he can’t place where he’s heard it, at the moment. “No, it doesn’t. She is not acquainted with any of our circle in Oregon, as far as I am aware.”

“Someone your parents didn’t vet for you?” A moment later, he gets a heavy pat on his shoulders. “Ooh, she’s been real good, I see.” The grin on Edmond’s face is lecherous, hiding nothing of his opinion. Baxter’s blood boils in his veins; now, he can’t recall why he ever allowed this man into his bed, with his lack of respect towards women. Loneliness, of course, though he will insist that it’s only to slake a physical need. The man snickers once again, oblivious to his uncharitable thoughts. “Enjoy yourself, my friend. Asians are incredible when it comes to having fun.”

Loosen your grip around your knife. It’s unsightly.

This week cannot end soon enough.

His lesson learned, Baxter begrudgingly sets off early on his drive back towards Sunset Bird. It passes by in a blur for him, trying as he might to appreciate the view of the coastline from the highway. By the time he sees the Welcome to Sunset Bird sign drawing closer in the distance, he musters together the mask he’s reinforced with his time among his social class. It remains snug on his face. 

Good. That laborious trip served its purpose, by the end.

Remembering his promise to her, he has scarcely settled his suitcase by the entryway of his condo when he decides to see her.

The Blanc residence’s doorstep is well-lit, even with the late hour. He knocks; once, twice, thrice. It takes but a few seconds until the door swings open, and Wisteria eyes him. 

She raises her brows, pulling the door further open.

“Good evening, Wisteria. I’ve returned from my journey, whole and unscathed as you requested,” he murmurs, low and warm. “I feel I’ve been away for an age.” It truly feels like that, though she will never know the extent of the truth. He lowers his face, obliging the hand that comes up to tug him down by the collar.

Wisteria squints at him, trailing her fingers across his cheek. 

Seeing as she’s yet to say anything, Baxter continues, basking in her touch after one lengthy week. “That arrangement had seemed like a stroke of brilliance.” And it had been, even if he felt like he just swallowed a sour lemon at some parts of it. “It certainly added more adventure to my stay within the state, and assured me that I’d see friendly faces at least once in the season.”

Friendly, you say?

Her hand lowers as he finishes, “Yet, truthfully, I wouldn’t have promised such a lengthy trip away from town if I had known that my neighbor was going to be you.” But he would certainly take on the promise, if it means reinforcing his own flimsy morals for her sake. He chases after her hand, bringing it back up to his face. “As pleasant as they were, it simply doesn’t compare to what I have here.”

She stares up at him, and at the hand cupping hers to his cheek. “I missed you.”

As straightforward and no-nonsense as always, when it came to these matters. He had considered himself prepared. But facing her, he once again finds himself surprised — the part of himself that expects her regard for him to simmer down after a week of being apart, it flinches at her honesty. 

Baxter masks this with a coy grin. “I missed you as well.” Giving one more nuzzle into her hand, he lets her go. 

“Okay, come on, let’s talk inside.”

He follows her inside. The family living room is half-dimmed; only the lights above the seating area are lit up. His attention is drawn to the stacks of books scattered across the coffee table. Who spends their summer reading books on economics or precalculus? He’s momentarily stumped at the sight of the graphing paper, and the calculator he just now notices. He cocks his head, filing away this detail about her for later.

“I was studying ahead,” she mutters once she follows his look. “Couldn’t be too prepared, even if we haven’t gotten the acceptance letters yet.”

What has she been doing in the past week? Staying at home, studying, aside from that one sleepover?

“It’s surprising. Ria usually doesn’t go out much, but this summer seems to be all about experiencing as much as she could before she goes to college. And you are part of why she doesn’t stay holed up inside.” 

Elizabeth’s words echo in his head, and further cements for him that his girlfriend may be more introverted than she allows herself to appear. For her to put herself out there, so much, to strive to be bolder — and all for a person like him. It makes him want to hold her tight, to tell her she doesn’t have to go so far just for a summer tourist soon to leave. A larger part of him wants to be selfish, and hoard this little realization to himself.

In for a penny, in for a pound. 

As they settle down on the couch, he risks a glance at her. “Now, I hope I’m not being too forward.”

“You? Perish the thought,” Wisteria mutters, batting her lashes at him when he sharpens his gaze. Brat. “Anyway, don’t worry about that.”

“I would like to spend more time with you,” Baxter says, watching her. “In fact, I was wondering if I might take you on a date. I did speak so boldly of that desire before, and I believe it’s long overdue. If that’s what you want, of course.”

Wisteria raises her brow, as if she has waited for this all along. “You know my answer. I’ve been waiting for this.”

The morning date that follows is a disaster of epic proportions; at least it seemed so, within a nineteen-year-old’s reckoning. Baxter doesn’t learn to look fondly upon it until he’s gained a modicum of humility and self-awareness, five years later, when it’s far too late for him to appreciate.

Author's Comment: …. i'm so sorry. why is this chapter 6k words;; will need to revise it to trim down any fluff when i've got the time.

writing 'fuck you' rich people is kinda tough, though i LOL'ed when i included the word 'summering' within this chapter. because baxter would totally be the sort of guy to have 'summered' somewhere, i grant him that

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#our life: beginnings & always #our life #olba #baxter ward #baxter ward x mc #fanfiction #luna's fics #writing #i forgot to upload this yesterday

[bitletsanddrabbles]

Random Prompt List

Five days before the end of NANOWRIMO I decided to start a random prompt list. I figured if I did ten a day, I would have fifty when I was done and I could post them for people to use as they saw fit - inspiration, challenges to friends, text on memes....whatever.

I was 100% successful except for the part where I forgot to post then when I was finished. Oops. Rectifying that now! Now, clearly these are rather Downton Abbey themed, but most of them are vague enough to apply to any fandom you like and even where there are names, those can be swapped out, so if you feel something you like for, say, Star Trek or something, don’t feel like it’s off limits. Go for it. If people are having fun, success has been had.

-

1. "If Mrs. Patmore murders you, I'm telling the jury it was suicide."

2. "Let the numbers be off! I'm not sitting at the same table as that man!"

3. "Oh bother."

4. "Downton's been a convalescence home and a movie studio. Why not this?"

5. "Where are we going to get a spare butler at this time of night?"

6. "There's not enough wine in the wine cellar for this."

7. "For the last time, put that back where you found it."

8. "Just don't tell the police. Or Carson."

9. "There is a God!"

10. "Help me with this and you can keep your job."

11. "I'd bet a year's wages it was Lady Mary."

12. "Don't you dare try to blame this on the dog!"

13. "Just think, we're getting paid to do this."

14. "Well, this situation calls for tea. And possibly a bludgeoning instrument of some sort."

15. "That's a grand idea. Why don't we simply teach the dog to carry a tray?"

16. "Did she give in gracefully, or do you need help burying the body?"

17. "Just imagine if we were American and buying nine Worth dresses per season."

18. "It could be worse, just don't ask me how."

19. "Are you certain this is a good idea?"

20. "How many bets Mrs. Patmore quits over this one?"

21. "What sort of mad suggestion are you going to make next? We get a cat?"

22. "Reading? Heavens, don't hurt yourself."

23. "You've not touched your food. Are you dying?"

24. "Try the blue one instead."

25. "That's hideous. Buy it."

26. "I hate arm garters. Why can't they just make shirts that fit?"

27. "Knife? Oh no, I slipped and cut myself on a collar."

28. "I'm not shaving in the dark, I'd be lucky if I slit my throat!"

29. "Oh, well, thank you Sweeny Todd."

30. "As if you'd survive reading anything less than Milton. A penny dreadful would finish you off!"

31. "You weren't a son either, so we're both failures."

32. "Oh dear, my actions had consequences. Blub blub."

33. "What's it like to have parents who care about you?"

34. "You want it so badly? Here. Enjoy."

35. "What do you mean she's run away to join the circus?"

36. "Well the surprise worked..."

37. "You're lucky I love you."

38. "That is not where that goes!"

39. "Dare I ask what happened to your dress?"

40. "Oh don't do that, it would make a mess of the roses."

41. "Dukes don't just vanish, unfortunately."

42. "I'm not paid enough to care about that."

43. "Now that the wireless is catching on, you should try and do something in that field. You have the face for it."

44. "Are you going to sell me into slavery if I ask for more?"

45. "If you want me to love you more then stop screaming when I have a headache."

46. "Oh don't do that! You'll hurt yourself."

47. "Oh go for it, I won't tattle."

48. "I was just committing the unholy sin of enjoying life for a few seconds."

49. "Would it kill you to smile? Wait, never mind, of course it would."

50. "Does anyone in this house happen to have some spare sanity?"

#downton abbey #downton abbey fanfiction #downton abbey writing prompts #downton abbey prompt challenge #john bates #daisy parker #thomas barrow #mrs. hughes #mr. carson #mrs. patmore #anna bates #robert crawley #cora crawley #mary crawley #edith crawley #joseph molesley #sarah o'brien #phyllis baxter #have at!

[angelswing236]

"Yes. No. I don't know."

Fictober 22 challenge

Fandom: Downton Abbey fanfiction

Warning: Suicide aftermath

Thomas glanced sideways at Phyllis, uncertain how to begin. Just say it, laddie, he heard Mrs Hughes' Scottish burr in his head.

“Mrs Hughes said you were the one who found me. You and Andy,” he said, finally.

She bit her lip, her mind flashing back to that dreadful moment, that terrible sight. “Yes.”

Silence swelled.

“I don’t know whether to thank you or curse you,” he confessed, unable to bear the silence any longer.

Phyllis looked at him, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. “Were things truly so bad? Did you really want to die?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Thomas had thought long and hard about this and he still didn’t have a definitive answer.

“Nothing can be that bad, surely? All things pass.”

Thomas shook his head, feeling tears welling. “Not for me. Nothing passes. It just goes on and on, relentlessly.”

“What does?”

Thomas looked away, saying nothing.

“Please, Thomas. Talk to me. I want to help.”

“The… the loneliness. And the pain of knowing I’ll never have what I want.”

“What do you want?” Phyllis asked, gently.

“Someone to love me.”

He dropped his head, tears spilling.

“Oh, Thomas.” Phyllis clasped him tightly to her.

#fictober22 #downton abbey #thomas barrow #phyllis baxter #fanfiction #writing challenge

[pikolswonderland]

FELLAS, COMPUTERBUG FANFIC IS REAL NOW

I SPENT SO LONG ON THIS AND IM SO GLAD TO FINALLY HAVE IT PUT OUT YAYYYY!! Warning that this thing gets ANGSTY, like seriously GET BAXTER A THERAPIST OH MY GOD

Also this fanfic does NOT take place in the 1987 TMNT Iteration, this takes place in an original iteration I’ve been working on called Urban Conspiracy! I’m planning on posting more about the iteration in the future, so just take this for now!

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt iteration #TMNT: Urban Conspiracy #baxter stockman #z #pandimensional space computer #computerbug #zaxter #fanfic #pik’s writing #pik’s fanfiction #gay ships #help me

[earthphoenixstories]

Let’s talk Every Season After, Depression, and Not Writing

I’m forever grateful for my writing buddies. Anytime they feel some kinda way about their abilities, or the craft in general I always want to lift them up and support them and in doing so, I unlock my own issues and why they’re happening. Giving advice is always easier than taking your own I guess.

As anyone who reads my blog may know by now, November is a rough month for me. On top of the Big Sadness there’s birthdays (mine and an aunt I was close to who has sadly passed) and then it’s the usual Christmas rush. Maybe starting an upload schedule in November was a bad idea.

I still have a good 30k words written for the fic, but there in lies the problem. While I was writing I kept pushing away a question. “Is this alright to do? Retelling the main story like this?”

The answer, I think, it’s yes. Obviously it’s ok. No one is going to turn up and tell me to stop. But still, the doubt lingered and then while working on the ‘Baxter chapters’ I came to a grinding halt. Writing was difficult. Playing the game for inspiration wasn’t helping.

And then the excuses to not write started and now it’s the middle of January and I’ve written less than 500 words all month.

That is wildly off my normal pace. Even though I told myself I wasn’t going to focus on the word count as much this year, I still find myself worrying about it. I haven’t made much progress in my original writing either. Lots of ideas and backstories but nothing of substance.

I have a half written, mildly alright opening chapter. That’s not all that impressive for a little over 2 weeks work.

Taking a break hasn’t helped. Instead of writing I’ve been playing Stardew Valley. Yes, it’s fun, but I could also spend that time being productive.

Whatever this current mindset is, it’s time to snap the fuck out if it and start writing. Properly.

Writing is haaard man.

#writing with depression #original writing #writing #writerslife #writing is hard #writing is my therapy #our life baxter #our life beginnings and always #baxter ward #fanfiction #our life beginnings & always #ao3

[angstyandromanticwriting]

Jim Baxter X Fem!Reader Cute Prompt with light, and brief angst

“I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you,” you admitted, snuggling closer to him.

Jim smiled, hooking an arm around you as you rested your head against his shoulder. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to bed, you look tired to me,” he stated, glancing down at you.

You shook your head, not wanting to move. “So what if I’m whipped? I’m happy,” you whispered, closing your eyes.

-

You sat down on the sofa, groaning. Jim entered the room when he heard you, concerned. “What’s wrong?” Jim asked, sitting next to you. “Do you feel sick?” Jim asked, but you wouldn’t let him check your temperature, feeling completely fine. “Can I get you anything, baby?” Jim continued to bomb you with questions, until you decided to speak up.

“My mom wants to know when we’re having kids,” you muttered, rubbing your forehead. “She keeps asking and it’s so annoying,” you stated, too embarrassed to meet his concerned eyes. Jim fell quiet beside you, not knowing what to say himself. “We obviously can’t do that yet, we aren’t even married,” you continued, wishing your elderly mother wouldn’t be so infuriating all the time.

Jim then turned to face you, placing his hand on your’s. “I think we should get married, then. It’s about time,” he suggested, hopeful that you would agree. You glanced at him, worried. “Y/N - We’ve been together for six years now,” he reminded you, tilting his head partially.

You sighed, nodding. “I know, I just - I’m scared-”

“Scared of what?” Jim inquired, beginning to think you were having doubts about him, which wasn’t the case at all.

“I’m scared that after we get married, one day you’ll get bored of me,” you let slip, your voice briefly shaking.

Jim would be shocked, shaking his head. Jim pulled you closer to him, hugging you to comfort you. “I promise you that would never happen,” he assured, “I love you too much to do that to you.” You decided to believe him, though you were worried that he was just saying it to make you feel better. “Y’know what - Let’s just-.. Do this a different way, okay? I want you to move in with me,” he requested, and you met his greyish blue eyes.

“R-Really?” You asked, surprised.

Jim scoffed, lifting an eyebrow. “Yes, really, Y/N,” he clarified, holding your hand.

You smiled, your eyes lighting up. “I’d love to, Jimmy,” you beamed, and hugged him tightly. Jim would be relieved, his smile reflecting your’s as he hugged you back. “You’ve got my heart, just please don’t break it,” you whispered, burying your face into the crook of his neck.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he responded, fondling your hair gently as he knew you liked it. “I never thought I’d find a love like this,” he mused, “I think I just wrote a song about you.” You giggled, and he grinned. “I honestly think that you’re my soulmate,” he stated, placing his hand on your cheek, which you automatically leaned into.

“I think you’re my soulmate too, Jimmy,” you confessed, your voice close to a whisper.

Jim smiled warmly, before he pulled you closer gently, his lips connecting with your’s in a soft kiss. “I’ll always love you, remember that, okay?” You nodded, before pulling him in for another kiss.

~~~~~

Hope you enjoyed this prompt! ❤️

#rami malek #ramimalek #rami malek character #ramisaidmalek #the little things fanfiction #the little things #the little things jim baxter x reader #the little things jim baxter x y/n #the little things jim baxter x you #the little things jim baxter #the little things jim baxter x fem!reader #the little things jim baxter x female reader #writing prompts #fanfiction #love story #writing prompt #x y/n #x you #x reader #x fem!reader #x female reader #cute prompts #cute #light angst #angsty prompts #angsty #angst with comfort #angst with a happy ending #angst warning #whump tropes