This one was the result of lots of procrastination on work I should have done weeks ago and two hours straight of writing. Enjoy!

Danny liked coffee. Coffee was the reason he got up in the morning. Coffee was pretty much the only reason he was alive at this point.

They didn't have any coffee.

"Sam!" he called, trying not to make his voice too whiney, and completely failing.

"What?" his girlfriend shouted. "I'm sleeping!"

"We're out of coffee."

He heard stomps and thumps, followed by the unmistakable sound of Sam's combat boots in the hallway. She was still half asleep and she looked terrifying.

She marched right up to him and glared, looking very intimidating despite the fact that he was at least a foot taller than her.

"I am trying to sleep." She growled. "You're the one who went shopping last, you're the one who didn't buy coffee and you're the one who has that stupidly early class on a Saturday morning. You can get your own damn coffee."

He smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"I guess I could go to Starbucks on the way to class."

"And could you not have figured that out without waking me up?"

"Yeah I guess."

"God." She sighed. "I need coffee."

Danny chuckled, picking up his keys to their shared apartment and grabbing his bag. "Same. Love you."

"Love you too. But you're an idiot."

"Oh I know." He replied smiling. "See you later."

He walked along the street about as happily as he could without the caffeine in his system. When he spotted the Starbucks on the street corner, he accelerated and soon he had a mediocre black coffee with an extra caffeine shot. He inhaled the bitter smell with relief.

It wasn't that he regretted taking the course on astrophysics that would hopefully give him a better chance of getting into NASA's astronaut programme. It was just that he hated waking up early on the weekend, and the class started at seven in the morning. That and the fact that Sam's shift at the local vegan café took up at least half the day, and the other half by her environmental studies class. Oh, shit, and he had a shift at the bar this evening. That would interfere with his 'spending time with Sam' time.

He was also helping out with ectobiology classes, acting as an assistant/ professor when the actual professor got out of her depth.

He passed a couple of kids on the street who stared at him and giggled. He sighed and went back to take a selfie with them. It was nice having his identity out in the open, but fans could be annoying.

He made it to his class with a couple of seconds to spare and sat down near the back of the lecture hall where he could hopefully go unnoticed. Obviously this didn't work, but he got less attention than he would have otherwise.

He was walking back along the street to go and do the grocery shopping and get a bag of coffee for the apartment when a huge portal opened in the middle of the street.

Danny blinked for a second, then carried on walking.

He supposed that it probably should have fazed him more than it did, but at this point, barely anything fazed him. It was the screams that made him think that he should probably go and check it out, but even then he hesitated, just wanting to go to the store and then go home and sleep.

He deliberated for a little before his hero complex took over and he trudged back to the portal.

It was pretty average as portals go – green and whirling and generally mystical. He had seen better. He had seen better in his parent's basement.

He was quite happily pulling frozen people out of the way and working up to closing the damn thing when he got pulled in, which was inconvenient to say the least.

It was then he realised what a strange portal it was, because instead of going straight through to whatever was on the other side – the ghost zone, he presumed – he fell. It was like a tunnel, but a really nauseating one that made you feel dizzy. Danny, who didn't get dizzy easily, was confused.

He was deposited in a lump on a bit of pavement somewhere that definitely wasn't the high street he was on.

This was fine.

He looked around him and blanched, recognising the turrets of Casper high school and the surrounding houses.

Why the hell was he back in Amity Park?

Confused and aching, he got up and glanced at the school. It looked different. All the ghost shields and other safety measures that had been put in place after the disasteriod were gone and the old football field was still there. That field had been destroyed in a ghost attack years ago and they'd used it as an excuse to spend all the school's funding on a new and better one on the other side of the school.

This was all wrong.

God, Danny needed more coffee.

He jumped slightly as the bell rang and gulped as the students started filing out of the school. Even though it was like eleven in the morning. What the hell?

He checked his watch. The watch had stopped, the glaring numbers from a couple of minutes earlier flashing on the screen.

Maybe he should have gone with analogue as Sam suggested.

Danny was confused, but at least he was still sane. At least he hadn't completely lost his mind.

He thought that until he saw three kids come out of the school, chattering and a thermos in hand.

"I'm hallucinating." He muttered to himself. "I've got to be." Because right there in front of his eyes, was himself, Sam and Tucker.

Not that Sam and Tucker weren't a normal thing to see. He and Sam lived together, and they tried to meet up with Tucker at least once every month. It was just, they looked young. Like scrawny and all legs and chubby cheeks young. And he was there with them, which made no sense because he was the one seeing them.

Danny would have fainted there and then if he hadn't been so used to confusing time shit. He was a battle-hardened warrior, he didn't faint. Instead, he simply called Clockwork as many creative names as his brain could think of.

If only he could punch the guy.

He had by now deduced that there was probably some confusing time shit going on, and he decided that the best course of action was to find the three kids and talk to them. Hopefully they would be able to help him get home, or at least into the ghost zone so he could get to frostbite and the infimap.

Of course, he didn't want to look like some creepy stalker, so he followed them at a distance, ensuring that he kept out of sight. He completely forgot about his own ghost sense.

The younger Danny started, and that little blue wisp came out of his mouth. Danny cursed.

"Who's there?" the kid shouted. "Skulker?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders and sighed, figuring he had no choice but to reveal himself. He stepped out into the light. "Uh, hi." He said, waving his hand and hoping the bags under his eyes weren't too prominent – the joys of being a college student.

Sam's narrowed eyes widened, and Tucker clutched onto her shoulder.

"Who are you?" mini Danny asked, firing up two ectoblasts. They danced there for a few seconds then flickered out. "Damn it." He muttered.

Danny watched the scene and tried to stop himself from giggling.

"Isn't it obvious?" he said, gesturing to himself, NASA t shirt, frayed jeans and all.

"Well, yeah." The younger him admitted, "But also kind of impossible, so who are you?"

"Well let's see." Said Danny, who was getting rather annoyed with his younger self's idiocy. "I'm not Vlad, I'm not Skulker, I'm not… what's his name? that shapeshifter…"

"Uh…"

"Amorpho! I'm not that guy.'

"Who?"

"Oh my god, how far back am I? have you guys even met Skulker yet?"

Sam piped up, "Is he that mechanical guy with the suit?"

"That's him."

"We fought him the other day." Tucker said. "I programmed my PDA to…"

"Yeah, I know. Gorilla and all that. God, you guys are just babies aren't you. Haven't even met Desiree. You haven't even had an apocalypse yet!"

"Excuse me, what?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nope. No apocalypses here. Nothing at all life threatening or world ending. All pure wholesome fun and Uncle Vlad being a completely normal and sane human being."

"Uh… who are you?"

Danny stared at him. "I thought I explained that. I'm you. Well sort of. I'm you in about… what, eight, nine years? I don't know exactly."

"So this is time travel?" Sam asked, her scepticism showing in her raised eyebrow. "That seems kind of hard to believe."

"Oh my god! What do I have to do to prove it to you people? It's never this hard in comics!"

"How about we go back home and interrogate you!" Tucker said. "I've always wanted to interrogate someone from the future."

"Of course you have." Sam said with an eye roll. "Ok then. Danny?"

The younger Danny looked up from where he was examining a particularly interesting bit of pavement and blinked. "Sure."

Fenton works was just as loud and bright as the last time he visited, but instead of the parent barrier that had been there to welcome him and Jazz home from college, Maddie and Jack simply shouted a quick hello up from the lab. Young Danny yelled something down to them and led the others up the stairs. Danny himself realised it had been so long since he had walked up stairs that he just automatically phased up, which drew some strange looks from the younger kids.

They sat him down on his former bed, and while they whispered to one another, he took in the sights of his old room. The glow in the dark stars were now on the ceiling of he and Sam's bedroom – he'd insisted when they moved in and she'd happily agreed. He'd actually missed his shelf of comics, and he hadn't seen that PS3 since Technus had destroyed it when he was sixteen. The nostalgia flooded in.

His reminiscing was interrupted by Sam's combat boots stamping in front of him and her glaring face.

"Ok. You're going to answer my questions."

"Ok?"

She gulped. "Yes. Right."

"Right what?" he asked, smirking.

"God, you're so annoying! Question one."

"What's your name?" Tucker blurted.

"Danny." Said Danny. "Danny Fenton."

"Right. Ok. Question two. How old are you?"

"Twenty three."

"Jeez. Alright then. Uh, What do you do?"

"Like for a job, or what do I do with my time or what?"

"Job you idiot." Sam growled.

"I work at a bar in the evenings, and I help out with classes sometimes. And take them. I'm studying astrophysics at college."

"Really?" the younger him suddenly perked up. "Does that mean?"

"Astronaut? NASA? Yep. I applied to their training programme for after I finish my course, and hopefully I'll get in, even if it's just as a scientist for studying the ecto matter out in space. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'll pass the physical tests, and they've already approached me about the whole ghost thing, and…"

"Wait a sec. People know? About Phantom?"

"Uh, yeah. Duh. The whole Disasteroid thing?"

"The what?"

"Oh god, you guys are so behind everything. This sucks. I bet I'm not even allowed to talk about all the future stuff. Thanks a lot, Clockwork!"

The questioning went on for a while longer, and the three kids began to question his sanity instead of him. Honestly, he wasn't surprised. He was very confused, and when he was confused and out of his depth, he tended to use humour as a coping mechanism, leading to many people thinking h was insane, which may or may not be the case. He personally thought he was just in need of more coffee.

Talking of, "Do you guys have any coffee?" he asked suddenly. "It's just, my last cup was this morning and it was from Starbucks so it was terrible, and I need more."

"I mean, I think we have some. I don't know how to work the coffee machine though. Or even if its working. It's probably ectocontaminated."

"Oh that's fine. When I visit mom and dad, everything in the house has ectoplasm on it somewhere. And anyway, drinking ectoplasms good too. Sometimes I use it as a substitute for coffee, but only the really concentrated stuff. Nothing can beat good old caffeine."

"You drink ectoplasm?" the kid looked a little sick.

"Yeah, it's good for you. Maybe you should start."

"I think I'll pass, thanks."

"So not that this hasn't been fun, but do you think you could help me to get home at some point?"

"That's what you want? I thought you just wanted coffee."

"Well yeah. I always want coffee - it makes Sam pissed in the morning, but I also want to go home. I promised Sam I'd cook tonight and she'll have finished her shift by now and she'll be worrying."

"You live with Sam?"

"Yeah? We're dating, and we figured it would be cheaper to share an apartment."

The younger Sam and Danny glanced at each other, blushed and looked away. Older Danny watched the exchange with wide and knowing eyes. "Ooh." He said. "You're at that stage. Well, it probably won't be long until you confess your undying love for each other as I'm about to go off to save the earth. Don't worry, Tuck. You won't have to watch."

"Oh thank god." Tucker sighed in relief. "But at least you two finally admit it. I swear, it's like watching one of those chick flicks where the…"

"And that's your cue to shut up." Younger Danny said. "Come on, I'll take you down to the lab and we can –"

"What is it?" Sam asked. She got her answer in the form of two identical steams of blue from the dannys.

"Ghost!" they said together.

"Tell you what." Older Danny decided. "I'll go take care of this ghost, and you go and tell your parents that there's an older version of you that came from the future in a totally non ghost related accident and who needs to get home. Sound good? Good. Bye!"

And he transformed.

He wasn't so different, the kids supposed. The suit had been jazzed up a little, and he was obviously taller. The biggest difference was probably the logo on his chest – a stylised D – that Sam really liked the look of, and the utility belt around his hips. Seeing their questioning glances, he explained. "Dad thought I should have an easier way of accessing equipment, so he made me the belt. Anyway, got to go. See you in ten minutes, I guess. God, I really deserve coffee after this."
He zoomed off out of the window, at a speed that young Danny knew he could never reach.

The three kids found Danny's parents watching the news in interest. They sat for a bit too, watching how the older Danny easily finished off Skulker in one go and then caught some female ghost with bright blue hair and a guitar too. He was laughing his head off as he bantered with them.

"The ghost boy looks different." Maddie observed, squinting at the screen.

"Yes. And he's much better at fighting." Jack added. Danny scowled. He just hadn't had enough practice! He was great at fighting usually.

"Uh, mom, dad." He said instead.

"Oh, hey kids." Maddie smiled.

"Mom, hypothetically, if time travel were possible,"

"Yes?" she asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Where are you going with this. Danny?"

"Well, hypothetically, if there was a future version of me in this time and he needed to get home, would you help. It's all hypothetical, of course."

"And hypothetically," Sam added, "If he really liked coffee, would you hypothetically be able to get him a few mugs of coffee too?"

Maddie frowned. "Hypothetically, yes. But you kids do know that time travel doesn't exist, right?"

"But hypothetically, if it did?"

"So where would this hypothetical future version of you be right now?" she asked, deciding to play along.

"Well he could be hypothetically out on a convenient trip to the ah… nearest ghost fight, so I could tell you about him?"

"Right." Maddie said. "Jack, do we have anything for kids who have gone crazy?"

"I'm not crazy I swear, mom!"

"Look, Danny. Time travel doesn't exist. There is no possible way, hypothetical or otherwise, for a future version of you to come back to this point in time. It just can't happen. Even if this future you walked through our door right now –"

"Danny, I'm back."

The Fentons all turned to the door, where the older Danny had come in.

"Oh my god."

The guy shrugged and smiled that sheepish smile of his. "Hey, mom. Do you have any coffee?"

In the end, they managed to get him back by giving him a crap ton of coffee – Maddie and Jack were worried by the amount of coffee their future son could consume – and letting him into the ghost portal, which the elder Fentons were not at all happy about, and they still didn't understand why he needed to.

He had waved goodbye cheerfully with the hand not occupied by his coffee mug and jumped backwards into the portal as if it was a totally normal thing to do. Honestly, they didn't even know if he had got back to his own time, and the missing mug from the kitchen was the only evidence to suggest that they hadn't completely imagined the encounter.

Danny himself was deposited on the street by the infimap, and he quickly checked his watch which was going again. He laughed in relief, before he looked at the watch again and swore. He was at least an hour late for meeting Sam, and if he wasn't careful, he was going to be late for work too. Crap.

"You better have an explanation, Danny." Was all Sam said when he crept into their apartment. He had tried to be quiet, but he'd dropped the keys at the door.

"Well," he said, "Hypothetically, if I was taken back in time, what would you say?"

This ended up being a lot longer than I intended, which tends to happen when I write time travel stuff. Never mind. Hope you liked it.