I've loved all the positive feedback I've gotten! Thank you so much. To those of you who were wondering how Danny came to be cursed, here you go.
Victoria Bulloch: Yes I'll continue writing this! I really hope this is one of your favorites, and I'd be honored to give you a story you like so much! I'm so glad I was the one to introduce you to Mermaid Danny Fenton. It's one of my favorite AUs and I hope you like it too.
Dp-Marvel94: Thank you! And yes, this is a new take, and I'm very proud of it. I love how at home Danny feels in the water too!
Let The Chaos Ensue...
The Curse of Danny Fenton
The Fentons had the Mer in the net, struggling to get it in the boat. The neon green mer thrashed in the confines of her trap, doing her best to escape the hands of the merhunters.
The very pregnant woman shouted to her partner. "Jack! Help me get it in the boat, this is the proof we need."
"I know Mads, I'm going to shoot it with the tranq gun," the large man took aim and fired. His wife took notice too long after.
"Jack no!" She let go of the net, trying to stop her husband in vain.
The sound of the gun went off, the mer hit the water and held still, the water around her steadily turning red.
"That was the gun," Maddie stressed. "Not a tranq-gun. You moron! Now we've lost the only solid proof we've ever found."
"We still have the body," Jack said. "Let's get the net and haul it in."
"You will do no such thing!" A voice came from the side of the boat.
The Fentons looked, and found another mer, a male, holding the limp body of the much smaller mer in his arms. His hair and scales were white, though the color was obscured by the green mer's blood.
"You've taken my daughter's life," he narrowed his dark, near black eyes. "You'll be sorry for what you've done."
They stared over the side of their boat, glaring at a creature they thought to be nothing but pure evil. They hunted them under the false pretense that all mers were creatures to be feared, creatures with great power to curse and cause pain.
They were right about one thing, they did have great power. And this grieving father was not about to let his daughter die without repercussions. His eyes turned black, his iris' the same green as his daughters scales and his voice made the water around him tremble.
"The sins of the father, will be paid by your son. For the life lost, one must be gained.
"Mark my words," the mer said. "The child you bear will not be of land, but of sea. As he shares the spirit of my lost daughter. May he one day find his true home, or fall prey to your own hands"
Holding the smaller form of the green mer, he dove down and disappeared. Leaving the Fenton's wondering what he ment.
"Man, mer's sure are freaky." Jack said.
"I cannot believe, you shot it, with a GUN!" She said, slowly raising her voice. "Jack, that was the first one we've caught, and you shot it!"
Madi hunched forward her hand on her very round stomach, crying out in pain, Jack rushed to help her, but her outstretched hand told him to stop.
"I'm fine. Just get me to the hospital."
Quickly, he got to the steering wheel and started the engine, making the long trip back to shore from their place in the open waters.
…
The Fenton's son was born without complications, they brought him home the same day mother and child were healthy as could be.
The perfectly normal human baby grew healthy and stronger everyday. Right up until the day when his mother let her ten year old daughter take him to the beach.
His first time in the water at the age of 18 months, and he would be forever changed.
Jazz set her little brother in the ebb and flow of the ocean and watched with both horror and fascination as her kid brother transformed into what she previously thought to be her parents delusional fantasy. Now with white hair and a black tail, green eyes peered up at the redhead.
The boy drug himself closer to the water, only to be snatched up by his sister. She held him at arm's length and stared at him.
"This… is not good," she said to herself. "If mom and dad find out you're a mer… oh my goodness you're a mer! What am I going to do…" she stepped in place nervously, her brother still dangling in her grip.
She ran up to the beach shed and wrapped him from head to tail in a towel, running inside to the bathroom she placed Danny in the tub and ran the water. Her idea was that he needed to be able to swim where she could keep an eye on him, but found when she placed him in the freshwater (potable water), he turned human again.
Up until this point, she didn't believe in her parent's work. She thought they were honest to goodness crazy. Even as a little girl she didn't think Mers were real, but she did know her parents didn't like Mers, and that if they ever caught one. It would be really bad.
Like the time before Danny was born.
She wasn't supposed to come out of the cabin, but she peaked her head out when she heard the gunshot. And she heard what the other guy said. And it didn't make sense until now. She had to keep him safe from everyone and her parents. She had to make sure he was healthy.
After making sure Danny looked completely human, she returned him to their mother and waited till the next day to ask her questions at breakfast.
…
"Mom, Dad, what do Mers eat?"
Both ecstatic that their daughter was taking an interest they paid her very close attention, and answered her questions in the way they best knew how, to a 10-year-old.
"Mostly they eat raw fish, ones like salmon, halibut, bass, and cod," Jack answered.
"They also eat a lot of greens like seaweed, kelp, seagrass," Maddie added. "Though I'm sure it's not limited to just those. I'm sure they could digest different kinds of coral."
"And they can ingest other sea life too, like oysters, clams, crab or lobster if they wanted."
Jazz had a new notebook pulled out, and she was writing as fast as her little brain would let her, once she finished the first question she went on.
"What about baby mers? What do they eat?"
"Well," Maddie said. "I think they just drink their momma's milk, then as they get older will start with plant foods, then move on to the meat as they get older. But I'm actually not sure, Jack, make a note that we need to study the developmental portions of a mer's lifecycle."
He nodded and they began discussing what they knew and didn't know, and Jazz flipped to a new page in her note book and began a list.
Get secret notebook for Danny
Take pictures of Danny every 6 months in mer form
Gather seaweed for Danny
Figure out how Danny's transformation works
She tapped her pencil on the book while thinking. She knew she would have to keep Danny being a Mer a secret from her parents, but how…? She got an idea in her head and wrote one last thing.
Get psychology book from library
She smiled, satisfied with her list and stuffed the notebook in her backpack before heading to school.
…
Jazz placed the fifth picture of Danny in his Mer form in a secret lockbox with her leather bound notebook of all the information on mers she needed to take care of Danny with, shut the lid and locked it. She slid it under her bed, then hid the key in her sock drawer.
She headed back to the bathroom to get her brother out of the tub. Danny now at the age of four and a half, she was noticing things that would be a problem now, and in the future.
"I want to go back to the water!" Danny huffed, slamming his hands down in the tub, causing a large splash to hit his sister.
She sighed and grabbed a towel, drying herself then scooping her brother up out of the tub. "Shhh, I know." she said.
"No you don't," Danny huffed. "You're not a fish like me." He was bundled up in the fluffy green towel, his face squished against the fabric in such a cute way, Jazz could only laugh.
"You're not a fish, Danny. You're a merman," she said.
"Ohhh. okay." he settled down for a moment before squirming out of her arms. Buck naked, he ran through the house, stumbled down the back porch steps, and quickly tottered his way back to the ocean, his eyes gleaming the whole time.
For such a little guy, Jazz had to admit he was quick, he beat her there and before she could do anything about it. Danny had disappeared into the depths of the ocean.
She sat at the shore for hours, staring, waiting, watching, worried. There was no way for her to find him or bring him back. She had to hope that he would do so on his own.
At his age, she felt like Danny was like a dog who had run away, and her only hope was that he'd come home on his own.
As it was getting dark, and the stars started coming out. Jazz was wiping tears from her eyes as she slowly made her way back to the house without her brother. She didn't know what she was going to tell her mom or dad. She had a sick feeling in her stomach, until…
"Jas-a-mem," she heard a shout, coming from the water. With watering eyes she turned and found a little Danny, with a fish filling his mouth. "Jas-mem," he said again. "I caw a fif!" He shouted in delight.
She smiled and ran up to him. Picking the boy up from the water and spinning him around then holding him at arm's length. "You can't just run away like that Danny!" She scolded. "You had me worried sick!"
Danny spit the fish into his hands and frowned. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry," he said in a small weak voice, hugging his dead fish.
Jazz frowned and then hugged the boy again. "I'm not mad, I was just scared. You can't run into the water like that though."
"But Jazz," he said. "The water's my home." He stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. And the statement caught her off guard.
"What?"
"The water wants me, it doesn't like it when I'm gone. And I don't like it when I'm gone," he huffed, crossing his arms. His fish still in hand.
Jazz took a deep breath and carried her brother back, wrapped him in a towel and took him back for another bath. "What am I going to do with you?" She asked.
"I don't know what you're going to do," Danny said. "But I'm going to eat my fish!"
She watched in horror as he bit into the back of the fish, his still longer canines pulling at the tender light meat and his teeth crunched the delicate bones. The blood of the creature spilling into the tub as he ate didn't seem to bug him, but Jazz promptly lost her lunch in the toilet.
Later that night, she wrote in the leather journal.
Danny says the ocean calls to him. I don't really know what that means but I think it might be the cause for him wanting to be in the water all the time. He caught his first fish and ate it like a sandwich. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep him from swimming by himself. I need to figure out a way to be able to call him back when he's out swimming. I'm also worried about him while he's out there, he could get attacked by sharks or something. Or what if another Mer finds him and takes him.
She sighed and shut the book, thinking that if her parents weren't merhunters, she could share this with them and she wouldn't have to worry about him on her own.
…
Danny laid out on the beach, posing for his sister's silly pictures. She then used an old measuring tape from the garage to see how long he was, and wrote her numbers on the back of the photo that the camera printed. He didn't care for her notes and stuff, he just wanted to go swimming.
"Alrighty," Jazz said. "You're free to go."
He grinned his sharp smile and dragged himself to the water line before disappearing out into the water to swim with the fish on the reef.
Danny was five now. And he got to swim every week. But only until his sister called him back to the house with the loud noises.
Jazz used an underwater speaker to send out sonar pings that called Danny back to shore. It took her about six months, but after a while, she finally pavlov-ed her brother by giving him a fresh oyster every time he came back when she called. She really liked psychology, it was very useful.
Sure she shouldn't be using it on her parents to leave her and Danny alone whenever she needed. But she'd eventually pavlov-ed them into running to their lab every time they heard the sonar ping. That way Danny would be safe to exit the ocean without them seeing him as a mer.
…
The years went on and Jazz kept steady entries in her journal. Her observance skills getting better over the years, she learned new things as both her and Danny grew.
These are a few of the most important ones.
Danny needs to drink a lot more water, or else he gets dehydrated really easy.
Danny can now shift back to human form once out of water, and doesn't need shower to change back anymore.
Danny made a new friend, and I've had to explain that he can't tell them his secret.
Danny is now on a steady diet of fish, veggies, and what he eats while he's in the ocean.
I now let Danny go for a swim every day when he's done with his homework.
If Danny doesn't go for a swim at least once a week, he will get incredibly sick. (If I ever have to sneak a kid out of the hospital again!)
I've finally realized that only salt water makes Danny turn into a mer, but he can turn into a mer in other water if he chooses to.
Danny's made another friend, and is kinda upset that he can't tell his friends about himself. He feels like he's hiding a whole other part of his life from them, and he kinda is. But Benjamin Franklin said 'two can keep a secret if one of them is dead'. And right now, two is enough for me.
On Danny's first day of high school, he insisted on an early morning swim. I've set the sonar speaker up to a digital alarm clock. Now he can set the time it goes off so he can get to school on time, or I don't have to be here to call him out of the water.
Sure he was cursed, but it's not like he cared. If you asked Jazz, she'd tell you that Danny would prefer to have been born a full mer.
"Cursed my scaley ass," he once said to her. "I told god I wanted the best big sister, and I wanted to be a Mer. This was the only way I got both!" He'd said it with his white hair falling in his glowing green eyes, and his grin full of fangs. And Jazz wouldn't have it any other way.