Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. Whether or not that goal can be reached, we'll see... This is The 365 Project, 12 February.

Disclaimer: "Danny Phantom" and all associated characters and situations are created by Butch Hartman and used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

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"The Ears"
By; J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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If he were human, he would've been panting from exhaustion. He wasn't human at the moment, so he was just feeling a little drained of ecto-energy. It was supposed to be a simple surprise visit to his clone/cousin/little sister - it occurred to Danny Phantom at that moment that one of these days he really should figure out just how to discribe his relationship to Dani - at her Ghost Zone realm to give her the present he had brought back for her from the latest Fenton Family Summer Vacation. Unfortunately, 'simple surprise visit' went out the roof when he was spotted by the Box Ghost who managed to get a look inside the bag containing Dani's present and who then further escalated the situation by shouting where everyone could hear...

"It's the ears! ...Beware!"

Since then, he'd been chased halfway across the Ghost Zone by Skulker, who wanted to hang Dani's present on his wall as 'His Greatest Trophy'; Kitty and Johnny, along with Johnny's Shadow had been after him because Kitty wanted the present for herself; not to mention Youngblood was also after the present, something that Danny wasn't sure if it surprised him or not, he'd have expected the young pirate ghost to be angry at that one ride. Danny shook his head; who would have thought that the most sought-after item in the Ghost Zone was a set of souvenir headgear from a theme park?

So distracted was he by his recent trials that Danny didn't notice the approach of another denizen of the Ghost Zone until they had managed to slip Dani's present out of the bag.

"For me? I didn't know you cared, Dipstick!" Ember teased from behind him.

"Ember!" Danny would claim he didn't, but he whined as he turned to face her, "Give those back! They're for Dani!"

Instead, Ember put the present on and looked at her reflection on the back of her guitar; somehow, Ember managed to make her rocker chick look work with the Mickey Mouse Ears that Danny had brought his 'cousin' back from Walt Disney World.

"Nice color," Ember remarked before taking the ears off and handing them back to Danny, "But I don't think I'd make a good Mouseketeer - they're too goody-goody for my tastes. Anyway, I'm a Warner Brothers girl - Bugs Bunny forever!"

Ember punched the air to emphasis that last statement, causing Danny to blink in a state of cognitive dissonance, leaving him to say the traditional greeting of all those in such a state...

"What?"

"Look, Baby-pop," Ember sighed, "Pop-ette heard you had something for her and were being chased - don't ask me how - so she asked me to come teleport you to her, got it?"

"How do I know this isn't a trap?" Danny countered with suspicion in his voice, "You could be waiting for me to let my guard down and then you'll steal Dani's ears."

"I had them and I gave them back, Dipstick! Geez, how can I always lose to someone this dense?" Ember rolled her eyes and suddenly grabbed Danny's shirt, "Know what? She can deal with you herself..."

Before Danny could make a move to get away, Ember had teleported them someplace and dropped him to the ground when they arrived. It was a good thing that Danny was on his hands and knees on the floor, because if he hadn't been he would've been knocked down by the impact of an IPSH...

Interdimensional Present-Seeking Halfa.

"You went to Disney and didn't take me? That was so mean! You brought me something, didn't ya? What'd you bring me? Was it a set of Ears like I've heard?" Dani asked at better than a mile-a minute speed of talking with her arms around her 'cousin's' neck.

"If you'll get off me, you'll get your present faster," Danny told her, causing her to let go of his neck and move back so he could stand up so fast that for a moment he was left to wonder if she had somehow gotten Ember's teleportation power. That reminded him of something, so he turned to the other teenage ghost in the room, "How much sugar has she had lately?"

Ember shrugged with a smirk, "None of my business, dipstick, she's not my sister."

Mentally, Danny winced as he held out the bag to Dani containing her present, "Here you go, 'Pop-ette'."

Dani took the bag, but turned to Ember with a frowning pout, "You told him that name? I can't believe you told him about that nickname, Kissy!"

Danny looked at Ember in disbelief, biting his lower lip to keep from laughing, "'Kissy'?"

Ember folded her arms and glowered at the two Phantoms, "I like KISS, okay, dipstick?"

"Don't you mean 'Baby-pop', Kissy?" Dani teased the other ghost girl mercilessly, smirking as she swung her present's bag against her leg, "Have you ever told him what you mean by that? What was it you said? Something about my brother being so hot that if he wasn't a goody-goody, you'd-"

"Little Dipper," Ember said loudly to cut Dani off before Danny could hear any more, "Why don't you shut up and try on your present?"

Fortunately for the ghost rocker, as soon as his de facto little sister had said the words 'so hot' in relation to him, despite it just being to pass along what Ember had said, Danny's mind had shut down and tuned out the rest for the sake of his sanity.

"You know what?" Danny jumped in, "I better go - before Dad's distraction with his new collection of Disney figurines wears off and he and Mom start wondering where I went, you know how it is. Enjoy the ears, Dani."

Before anyone could say or do a thing to stop him, Danny had gone human so that he could pass through the wall before going ghost again as he took off.

Ember turned to glare at Dani, "Thanks a lot, Pop-ette, you scared him off."

"My brother's an idiot who can't see a girl hitting on him from three inches away," Dani retorted, smirking at Ember while wearing her new Mickey Mouse Ears, "Someone's got to protect his innocence."

Ember stared at the younger ghost girl in disbelief, "By telling him I said he was hot?"

"You're already a ghost," Dani answered sensibly, "If you did anything to break his heart, I wouldn't have to hold back on you like I would Sam."

Shaking her head, Ember sighed, "You've been hanging around me way too much, Little Dipper."