Apricity

the warmth of the sun in winter

(Prompts from Laora, for Tucker Appreciation Week)

681. Angular

After just a few short years for puberty to work its magic and incessant ghost hunting to chisel his features, all of the girls he graduated high school with wondered why they'd ever said no when Tucker asked them out on a date.

682. Strain

They'd had their ups and downs over the years- Tucker jealous of Danny's power, Danny envious of his normality, both of them frustrated at their general lack of sleep and girlfriends- but at the end of the day they were still always best of friends.

683. Straight

The first time someone asked whether Tucker would consider swinging the other way since every single girl in school had turned him down, Tucker sputtered with incoherent outrage until Danny wasn't sure that he'd ever be able to form a sentence again.

684. Smooth

Tucker grinned and Danny slapped him on the back encouragingly as they both thought they'd made a great impression on the freshmen girls; Sam face palmed and wondered, not for the first time, why she was friends with such clueless, hormone driven teenage boys.

685. Average

"But that's all I am, Danny, and I'll never really amount to anything important," he confesses to his superhero best friend, voicing fears that have multiplied with a vengeance the more he misses classes and a full night's sleep, "and I know that most people don't but... I still..."

686. Derive (erin au)

"You got all this from that thirty second clip?" Danny asked incredulously as he flipped through Tucker's thorough analysis of Vlad's latest promotional video, broadcast across the only viable channel left on the Amity Park airwaves; everyone had seen it but Tucker had garnered more useful information from it than all of the old news commentators and council members combined.

687. Lapse (erin au)

Danny watched his friend out of the corner of his eye as they both worked, as if any expression he made while splicing together pro-Phantom propaganda would let slip that he regretted throwing in his lot with him and losing what Danny knew had to be any number of incredibly promising careers.

*688. Scanner

"Level two, non-cognizant but malicious," Tucker guessed as Sam snorted beside him, arguing that it was a green-eyed level one; the look on her face when Danny hesitantly confirmed Tucker's theory almost made him want to keep the upgrade on his new and improved Fenton tech goggles a secret for another couple weeks.

689. Area

He'd never given off the "Do Not Enter" vibe to his parents, but thankfully they accepted that a teenage boy needed his own space; he had no clue how he would be able to successfully hide or explain away any of the ghost files and weapons stashed in his closet, behind the computer monitors, and under his mattress if they tried to keep constant tabs on him.

690. Experimental (erin au)

Despite Danny's well founded worry about experimenting with ghostly technology, Tucker loved tinkering around with whatever scraps of wire and twisted, glowing metal they were able to scrounge for him, tongue sticking out in concentration as sparks flew from his little jury-rigged soldering iron and grinning through every contained explosion that was still large enough to blacken his face as he turned them into things they could actually use.

691. Normalized ("Phantom Planet")

One part of him was happy for Danny, that he'd finally gotten his wish to live the normal boring life he'd always wanted, and another part of him was perversely pleased that he wasn't any more special than he was now, but underlying it all was a deep sense of betrayal of everything they'd done and sacrificed and fought for over the years.

692. Deviation ("What You Want")

He'd always been Bad Luck Tuck, the freaky techno geek outcast, the third wheel for the loser lovebirds, but now it was time to change all that; one simple wish and he would be the ghost kid that everyone in town would know to respect and fear.

693. Original

The robot duplicates were pretty cool, he had to admit, but nothing could replace the real things.

694. Part

Danny sits cross legged on the floor beside him, shoulder to shoulder, and whispers back haltingly that he would never have made it this far without Tucker, that even if it's a thankless secret job that will never get the recognition it deserves while they yet lived, it was more important than most people ever had the right to claim about their own comfortable lives.

695. Figure (erin au)

"How long do you think you'll last?" Danny asked softly; Tucker didn't meet his eyes but shrugged one shoulder, uncomfortable talking about the fact that any day could easily be his last.

696. Print (footballer's wife au)

The time of the printed page had come and gone; Tucker knew where the true power of the press lay.

697. Pressure (erin au)

Danny violated Tucker's standoff as often as he dared, invisibly flying in through the wall (even though the only person they needed to hide from could also turn invisible at will) but risking discovery of their continued one-sided contact was worth the few moments of unadulterated pride and peace when he saw Tucker living and breathing and doing the things he couldn't dare to do anymore.

698. Mark ("What You Want")

Tucker was offended when Danny implied that he had hacked into the school's database simply to change his grade in sewing— he already had an A plus in that class, thank you very much.

699. Pi

Danny and Sam were always surprised at what esoteric holidays Tucker held absolutely sacred, but Pi Day, which could just as easily be known to their friend as Pie Day, was one that they could both get behind wholeheartedly.

700. Modulate

Given that they tried to keep Tucker away from a microphone at all costs, it should have surprised them more that he had an excellent ear for mixing and DJ-ing; apparently it was just his vocal cords that wouldn't function to his liking.

*688. Scanner: inspired by icyblueghostsense's Technology day post in the tumblr "lovetucker2k15" tag