Phic Phight 2019, Team Human: derederewrites prompt: "Danny wasn't ever really expecting fans when he became a superhero, but after a civilian gives him a drawing they did of him, he finds out that he's more of a celebrity than he thought."
Danny dusted his hands off once he finally touched the ground. Ember was much more reluctant to go into the thermos than usual and put up quite a fight.
"Got the thermos, Tuck?"
"Yep! It's right here." Tucker waved it around in the air.
"Good," Danny looked over at his friends, "now give it to Sam so you don't accidentally release the ghosts...again."
"Hey!" Tucker objected as Sam giggled softly, "that was like, one time...three tops!"
Sam shook her head. "No, it's been at least seven. Danny and I have a bet going." Tucker narrowed his eyes at her.
"Guys, can we not argue right now? Please? I just want to go home and crash." Danny yawned. "This hero thing is exhausting. And no one cares! What would happen if Phantom just went on a little vacation or something…"
Sam raised an eyebrow, "then your parents would be in charge of catching ghosts, and we all know how that turns out."
"Yeah, man. You're doing great!" Tucker rested a reassuring hand on Danny's shoulder.
"I care...Tucker and I care. You're doing a great thing here. We're proud of you." Sam smiled.
"And it's really cool to have a superhero for a best friend!"
"Tucker, I wouldn't exactly call myself a superhero." Danny made air quotes with his fingers around the word 'super'. "Superheroes have fan bases. I just get a few weird news stories here and there and they don't even get my name right."
"It's not about fame and recognition, Danny. This town would have been destroyed multiple times if it weren't for you. That definitely counts for something. Plus, I think you have a little fan over there." Sam pointed across the street to a young boy standing with his mother. Sam grabbed Tucker's arm and stepped back a bit when they started approaching Danny.
The boy couldn't have been older than 6 or 7. His mother nudged him towards Danny as Danny turned around to face them. "H-hi Mr. Phantom." The boy looked up at him in wonder, and Danny was looking down at him in curiosity.
"He's a big fan of yours, he's just a little shy," the mother explained to Danny.
Danny smiled and bent down to reach the boy's level. "Hi there. What's your name?"
"Adam. You're really cool! My friends and I pretend to fight like you all the time when we play at recess." He smiled at Danny, clutching a piece of paper to his chest.
"Ask him, honey. Now's your chance." The mother nudged her son again.
Adam nodded, "I-I'm having a Danny Phantom birthday party next month, and it would be really cool if you could come." He cowered into his mother a bit.
Danny raised his eyebrows. A Danny Phantom birthday party? How did that even work? He was blown away by the boy's comments. He never expected that level of recognition before. Sure, he wished news articles started painting him in a better light and that they would stop using Inviso-Bill to refer to him. But he especially never expected little kids to know who he was, and to be that admired by them had Danny a little speechless.
Danny looked back at Sam and Tucker. Sam gave him a warm smile and a thumbs up, while Tucker was distracted putting something into his phone. Danny faced the boy again and smiled at him, "Yeah, Adam. That would be cool. I'd love to come."
"Show him your drawing, Adam." The mother looked over at Danny. "He's been carrying it around for weeks hoping he would run into you so he could give it to you."
Danny held his hand out, "can I see it?" The boy nodded and handed the paper over to Danny. Danny flipped the paper over and saw a loopy drawing of him as Phantom, shooting ectoplasm out of his hands and aiming for a ghost that looked like the Box Ghost with a sheet over his head, pretending to be one of those cartoon-like ghosts. Danny had to admit, the kid was pretty talented considering how young he looked. "Wow." Danny stared at the page in disbelief. It reminded him of pictures he drew of Spiderman when he was younger. He idolized Spiderman. And now this kid was idolizing Danny Phantom. "I really don't know what to say. No one has ever drawn me before." Danny blinked a few times and looked back up at the boy, who looked a little nervous. "This is incredible. I love it."
"You can keep it. My mom wrote my birthday party invitation on the back for you."
Danny smiled widely, "Thank you. This is really cool. I'll see you around, okay? And I'll see you at your birthday party on…" Danny flipped the page over, "June 3rd." Danny's smile grew as he saw the boy's face light up.
"Thank you, Mr. Phantom." The mother smiled at Danny, "let's get going, Adam. He's probably very busy."
Danny rose to his full height again and waved to the boy, who gave him a small wave. Sam and Tucker walked up beside him as the boy and his mom turned the corner and disappeared out of sight.
"Wow." Danny looked at the drawing again before showing his friends, both of them breathing down his neck on opposite shoulders.
"That's pretty cool, dude! You have a fan!" Tucker shouted in Danny's ear. Danny pulled back immediately, nearly headbutting Sam in the process.
"Yeah. Apparently his friends are too. He's having a Danny Phantom birthday party and asked me to come." Danny chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. He had been complaining about not getting enough recognition all but five minutes ago, and now that he actually received some, he didn't know how to react.
"You should go. Meet the rest of your fan base." Sam smiled.
"The rest?" Danny raised an eyebrow at her.
"Well, yeah. There's bound to be more beyond just Tucker and I. We are your number one fans, after all." Sam smirked and knocked her hip against Danny's.
Danny blushed slightly, his cheeks glowing a light green.
"Hell yeah, dude! When they start making Danny Phantom t-shirts, I'll be first in line!" Tucker said excitedly, "Best friends of the superhero should get first dibs!"
"I still wouldn't really call myself a superhero…" Danny looked at the drawing again.
"Yeah, and Tucker's not a techno geek." Sam rolled her eyes. "Give yourself some credit, Danny. You're pretty super to me." She smiled warmly at Danny again. It was something rare to see Sam smile like that, and it was always contagious enough to spread to Danny.
Danny grinned and looked at the drawing once more. "Yeah. Pretty super."