A/N: Oh, Tsukiko K….What would the point be in balancing his human and ghost form then? Besides, he has a 'tail' in his ghost form already.

FYI: This jumps all over the place, so I might edit it better. Any advice or criticism? Oh, and bolded words mean more than one person speaking at the same time.

Please, Enjoy. *Snicker*

This is Unbetaed

He made sure that she had laid down properly and that the position she was in was comfortable before activating his brace and leaving her room quietly. A loud knocking was heard from downstairs.

"I'VE GOT IT!" A loud bang signified that his dad was now seeing who had decided to say hi. He had a pretty good guess on who it was.

"DANNY BOY! YOUR FRIEND TUCKER IS HERE."

"Coming Dad!" He called down as he started to make his way down the stairs. When he made the last step, there was his friend smiling at the bottom. He gave a little salute to Danny.

"I'm back." He grinned although their was some worry in his eyes. "What's this about needing to tell me and Sam something?"

Danny gave him a wry grin. "Welcome back, Tuck. No 'how-are-you-doings?' No, How-was-your-summers?'' He got slapped on the back.

"Yeah, yeah, How was your summer?" Tucker grinned. "And seriously what happened?" Danny shook his head.

"I told you before, not until Sam comes back. It'll be easier to tell you both at the same time." He looked away and mumbled, "and I'll be able to catch you both when you fall."

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

They started walking back to the front door. "Wanna get some Nasty burger?" Danny asked. Tucker's stomach growled in response. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Hey, I haven't got to eat anything worthy of Nasty burger in ages!" Tucker protested. "You don't exactly find a burger growing in a forest!" The conversation paused as Danny went to write a note telling both his parents that he was going out with Tucker. The both of them had gone back down to the lab. He stuck the note on the fridge where anyone or Jazz was able to see.

And then they left.

"Anyways," Tucker turned to look at the Halfa. They were on their way to the Nasty burger as promised. The day was sunny, matching to Danny's mood at the fact that at least one of his friends was back.

"Are you sure you can't tell me now?" Danny shook his head for the fourth time since being asked.

"No, sorry Tuck. At the very least you should know that it isn't bad." Tucker frowned but relaxed a fraction.

"I'll take your word for it." Danny glanced slightly at his best friend since forever.

"Thanks Tucker."

His tail swung to hover behind Tucker in a faux hug, taking care the metal part didn't touch him. (It was the only thing that stayed tangible, but invisible. Didn't make sense but, well you have what you can get.) He sniggered. Tucker gave him a weird look but let it slide. It was hard to control but he was getting there. Sure sometimes he knocked a few things over but that could easily be explained away with his clumsiness. The geek shivered, rubbing where Danny's tail was.

"Is it me or is it cold?" Danny's smile fell along with the tail. Oh. Looks like humans can feel it in a way. Gotta keep that in mind. (When would things ever be that easy?) He shook his head.

"Ghost core, remember? I can't feel the cold that easily." The techno gave him a halfhearted glare.

"Lucky."

"Daniel?" A voice from above had them looking up. There floated Ghostwriter. ("So that's why it's cold.") The reality writer had a few thin books in hand and seemed like he was heading towards the portal. (Are those kids books?) The ghost's eyes flickered to his tail before looking back at him.

"Hello."

"Oh, hi An-" It was almost like he had teleported in front of him, and with a slap, his mouth was covered before he could finish the sentence.

"Shhhh!" GW almost looked frantic with the look in his eyes. "X-nay on ame-nay in public!" Danny blinked.

"So-?"

"It's considered rude to call someone by their true name." Danny's eyes widened.

"Oh. I'm sorry." GW shook his head.

"It's alright."

"Danny?" They both started, having forgotten that they weren't alone. The Halfa turned to Tucker.

"Hey uh, Tucker, do you remember him?" The geek shook his head. "Well, Tucker meet Ghostwriter. GW, Tucker."

Awkward silence. Danny ignored it in favor of asking GW a question. "Whatcha doin' here G?" The ghost in question pointed behind him to the library. Silently Ghostwriter floated down until his feet touched the ground. Were it not for the slight glow he would have looked human.

"I was at the library reading to the local children. As you can see." He gestured to the kids that were inside waving goodbye to him. Danny nodded.

"That's cool." Tucker gaped. Seeing that face reminded him that he didn't tell them what had gone on in the summer.

"Tucker, me and the ghosts-"

"The ghosts and I-" GW interrupted. Danny continued without a beat.

"-Had come up with a sort of truce. They're allowed to roam the town so long as they don't harass or terrorise anyone, and I won't chase them away." He rubbed his head, careful of the injury he got from before D-day. "Of course some of them just want to fight me." Tucker's mouth closed with a snap. He continued to stare at them before shaking his head and closing his eyes.

"Alright then." Danny nodded, happy that his friend since forever had accepted what happened. He turned to the reality-bending ghost.

"Wanna come with? We were heading to the Nasty burger to get some food. " He tilted his head considering. Danny facepalmed.

"Oh, wait. Ghost. Right. You can't eat, can you?" He peeked through his fingers. GW shook his head.

"We may not need food but we can most certainly enjoy it."

"Oh."

"..."

Andrew shrugged.

"Why not? I'll come."

And so, they arrived at the Nasty burger with a plus-one.

The next day Danny woke up to his computer ringing with emails from both Tucker and Sam. (Who should have gotten home today.)

TechLover8: [Morning Sleeping Beaut!]

VegGoth646:[Dude, wake up!]

TechLover8: [Sam's been pestering me about what you want to tell us all morning!]

VegGoth646: [I'm Baaaaack.]

TechLover8: [UP!]

VegGoth646: [GET UP!]

SpaceBoi92=TechLover987+VegGoth646:

[I'm up, I'm up you're gonna wake the whole house with the spamming you're giving me.]

VegGoth646: [Good.]

TechLover8: [Good.]

SpaceBoi92=TechLover987+VegGoth646:

[Meet up at The Garden?]

VegGoth646: [Sure. I'll bring food.]

TechLover8: [Alright. I'm bringing food, knowing Sam, she will too but it won't be to my palette.]

SpaceBoi92= TechLover8+VegGoth646: [See ya then.]

With a smile, he shut the computer close and went to take a bath.

It was currently 11 o'clock in the morning and everyone had either gone out (Jazz to her part-time job.) or were down in the lab working. (Parents. As usual.) Danny didn't bother to eat considering his friends were mother hens and they were going to bring the food they mentioned. A lot of food. (He knew by experience.) He wondered if he could feed some to the others?

With a small breath, he checked to have both the Brace activated and bracelet worn. Then he transformed into Phantom and took off through the wall of his bedroom. (He made sure to leave a note that he would be with his friends on the kitchen table.)

He flew through the streets, occasionally waving to the walking humans. A loud rumbling of a motor had him swerving a little to the right, barely dodging the motorcycle. Grinning he put a hand to his mouth yelling,

"Johnny, watch how fast you're going! I don't want you to crash into buildings!" He knew full well that they could turn intangible. Kitty, who was riding with them at the time waved back as they drove on, while Johnny simply saluted. They weren't the only ghosts to be out in the living world.

Now that they had the freedom to do so, several ghosts had come out of the portal, simply to explore or play or walk around. As was seen yesterday GW had gone to the local library. He also remembered seeing the box ghost helping an elderly lady carry her groceries while occasionally yelling a "Beware!" And once he thought he saw a signing convention of Ember's albums. (sans mind control.) And sure, there was still a few malevolent ghosts that tried to take over but many other ghosts actually stopped them before he could lift a finger. He even once saw Princess Dorathea (Who had come for lessons on modern life.) chase off Penelope Spectra and Bertrand back into the portal.

It made things a lot easier for him. In fact, if this were to keep up he might even do better for next year school! Of course, he always did his best to be ready, just in case things went FUBAR or the current ghosts in the area couldn't handle the bad ghost.

Closing his eyes he relished in the wind that came and made his hair more of a mess then it is. A passing local bird squawked at him in a casual greeting.

Small friendly ectopuses twirled around his ghostly tail as he continued onwards to the Garden beyond the outskirts of town.

He came to a stop once he reached the forest edge. Sam and Tucker wouldn't be able to get in as quickly and he preferred to get this over with. The both of them weren't here yet. Landing softly on the earth he looked around. Searching.

Where were they...?

A soft mew had him looking towards the trees. He smiled.

"There you guys are!"

Right in the shadows was a couple dozen glowing eyes staring at him from within the forest. Ghosts.

Well, more specifically, ghost animals that had died in a forest fire a long time ago. Squirrels, deer, an owl and a house cat that had chased a mouse into the forest and got trapped. He had stumbled on the group by pure accident when exploring the area next to the Garden. All he did was acknowledge that they were there, treated them nicely, and kinda befriended them, a month later. Somehow. Chuckling, he continued to speak.

"It's been a while. Sorry about that."

A rustle. A small hoot.

"I know, I know, but it was near my Death Day."

Silence.

Chitters of a squirrel. He shook his head, frowning.

"It's okay. You all didn't know," looking up he asked:

"How are all of you by the way?" He walked forward, intending to hear them better.

"Hey, Danny!" The eyes vanished.

Turning around he saw both of his friends struggling with a small cooler each and waving to him. He smiled again. Turning his head slightly towards the forest he spoke.

"I'll talk to all of you later, kay?"

A mew answered him. He chuckled.

Footsteps had him looking forward again. There in front of him was a huffing Tucker who collapsed on the ground alongside his container. Sam simply grunted as she slowly dropped her cooler on the ground with a thud. He raised an eyebrow.

"What did you guys bring?"

"Food."

"For the entire Spanish Inquisition?"

A pair of glares answered him. He raised his hands in surrender.

"Sorry, sorry, was just asking. Heh." Sam sighed.

"Anyways, are we going? I wanna hear about what you want to show us." Tucker grinned cheekily.

"She really has been pestering me all morning."

"Tucker, quiet," she slapped him on the arm. "Or I'll punch you."

"You already punched me!"

"That was a slap!"

"Same thing!"

"Oh, yeah!? Well, I-!"

And it slowly turned into bickering. He would have stopped them, but. The both of them were smiling. It was all in good fun. He chuckled, stopping their argument, which had somehow dissolved into politics of all things, and looked at him with confusion.

"What?"

And he dissolved into full belly laughter. Sam looked at the Danny on the ground and shook her head, smiling. Tucker just looked on in bewilderment, a smile still on his mouth. It had been a full month of not seeing each other. They were all happy to see each other.

And it would take a good five minutes before he stopped.

Words: 2033

A/N: Fun fact: there's something special about the #s in |SpaceBoi92|.

Think: Space.

Oh, and the poll is closed. Thanks for voting!