AN: Hallo!~ Me with another chapter!~ This one actually made it on time! Absolutely cannot guarantee the same for the next chapter. There is some action coming up if you guys will bear with me through all the angst, but, hey, I DID label is an angst fic. XD I will apologize ahead of time for this chapter being a lot shorter than the others, though. Enjoy!~
*Third person- Danny just before when Jazz gets back home from getting Sam and Tucker*
Danny settles himself into the big squishy chair he would be using as a bed for however long he'd have to stay away from his parents. He is in the most perfect place he could ever think of. It's close enough for his extra sensitive hearing to be able to hear when the portal opens, able to fight at a moment's notice if anything were to happen, close to food and utilities, and far enough for his parents' weapons not to detect him with the main ghost radar attached to the portal being shut down and the FFGAV being out of commission from a wreck last week. It had always surprised him that Jazz hadn't figured out his hiding place in the months he's had it.
He sighs at the quiet and looks around the all-too-familiar Op Center interior. It's rare for anyone to come up here since the only current way besides phasing is climbing the ladder at the back of the house because of shaft problems with the lift his parents had yet to fix. Considering how lazy his father can be and how close to the house it is, he doubts anyone would bother looking up here for him unless he caused something big to disappear from the house or something. He hopes Jazz will get his school work.
"Maybe I could trust Lancer to not tell my parents if I get my lessons from him at night for a little while," he mutters to himself, wanting to break the silence. It hadn't even been an hour and he's already missing normality. Well, as close as his life ever is to normal. The past four months had been stressful, but good. He had finally achieved the balance between his lives, being able to join them into the same life with a much more stable routine. Tires squeal outside, letting him know of his sister's return. His parents were still working down in the lab, but he only knows this because they hadn't come upstairs. A thought comes to Danny then, and he jumps up from his comfortable place.
His sister is home meaning his parents would soon know he was gone! It doesn't trouble him that they might try looking. He has invisibility and intangibility after all. It does, however, trouble him that he would have to hear the reaction of his parents, sister, best friends, and girlfriend.
"Or, I could just fly away for a few hours?" he thinks to himself then nods and throws himself out of the Op center, though not getting away quickly enough to avoid hearing his sister's frantic pleading with their mom. He remains faded from any possible human detection (with the naked eye as ghost monitors could easily find him) and goes to the school, hoping to see if he could follow through with the plan for Mr. Lancer tutoring him. He makes sure the teacher is in his room then lands in the empty school hallway and morphs, not wanting to spook his teacher. He knocks on the door and tries to hold a chuckle when the Lancer jumps a mile out his chair from the small noise. He walks over and opens the door for Danny.
"Mr. Fenton, I wasn't expecting you here. Jasmine phoned and told me you were ill. She was supposed to stop tomorrow to collect your work for the next several days." Danny follows Lancer into the classroom while the elder male talks. "Of course, if you have a problem with a question you're welcome to ask me anytime. Is that what it is?" He sits at his desk and motions for Danny to sit across from him in his normal seat, but he remains standing in case he had to make a quick escape.
"Um, actually, Mr. Lancer... I do need your help, but not on school work." He rubs the back of his neck out of habit as the multi-subject teacher gives him a confused look.
"What is it, Daniel? You know you can trust me on anything." Danny gulps a bit, re-thinking this. Mr. Lancer has no reason not to tell his parents except for the trust Danny has in him. Would it be enough for this?
"Well, I sort of did something rash because I had to, and now I won't be able to go to school for a while. Can you possibly keep me up in my classes without telling anybody that you are? Especially not my parents. I don't want this to bring down my grades when they're finally up again."
"Though it would not be a problem to help you, Mr. Fenton, why ever do you need to me to not tell your parents?" Confusion and worry are prominent in his face while Danny's stomach is knotted in nervousness, fearing he wouldn't even be able to stay in town if he told, but Danny knows he has to tell someone.
"Because I.. sort of... ran away from home."
The explanation of everything takes a long time though there is not much convincing needed. Mr. Lancer is concerned for his student, of course, but knows Danny can take care of himself and swears not to tell anything or anyone.
"Thank you, Mr. Lancer. I'd better get back to my place now. I'm still not quite caught up on sleep from, well, the last three years."
"You're very welcome, Mr. Fenton. Stay safe and goodnight." Danny walks out of the room and up the hallway before morphing and checking back on his teacher invisibly. Guilt comes over him as the man rests back in his chair, hand on his head and looking stressed. Danny trusts him enough, though. He jumps straight up to fly through the roof but smacks into it instead. He holds back a gasp and turns intangible this time, flying slowly through the night. He's passing over an old building when he stops midair, still invisible as he has been the entire time, and dives straight down through he house to its basement. He wastes no extra time in changing to human form and begins punching the maroon sack hanging by chains from the ceiling.
About a month previously, Ember had thrown him into this old house. He caught sight of the old punching bag before he rejoined the fight and later got the idea to have it as his space. The building was owned by the city because nobody wanted it. If anybody new moved into town, they chose some of the newer houses which had been vacated after Danny's battle with Pariah Dark. It wasn't costing the city anything but a small portion of taxes while just sitting there and wasn't a health risk, so they didn't bother demolishing it. After checking with Tucker, Danny began using the old basement as a personal gym of sorts. He never practiced with his powers, but worked on becoming stronger and better at fighting in his human form in case that form was all he had at any point.
Over the month since finding it, he had only been able to visit it four times, but always got to stay a long time when he did go there. Right now, he pretends the bag is Vlad coming back and starts punching and kicking it in routines much smoother than they used to be. Though not much of his ghostly strength transfers to his human form, his stamina is the same as long as he eats and drinks enough which is why the second time he came, he stocked the basement with a decent amount of water bottles and things like crackers and Pop-tarts, all protected in layers of bags and hidden intangibly in the cement basement walls.
He remains in the basement for almost six hours, taking regular breaks and keeping himself hydrated properly. When he decides he's practiced enough for one night, he morphs to Phantom then turns invisible and intangible once again before flying back to the Op Center. Just as he's about to go back inside, he notices Jazz staring out her window at the sky behind him. She's curled tight on herself with Bearbert and looking worried.
His sensitive hearing picks up her saying "I'm trying. I love you, Little Brother. Stay safe wherever you are." Sadness fills him. He'd been putting off his emotions since he left, electing to distract himself instead, but now they begin to fill every crevice of his mind. Rather than going straight to the Op Center like planned, Danny dives silently into his own bedroom and to the closet. It takes him no time to find what he's getting, having always made sure it remained in its place despite not having used it since he was about ten. He floats back up and curls himself up on his chair, letting the hurt from his parents' rejections roll over him until he drifts off into a light, nightmare ridden sleep with his Neil Bearstrong stuffed bear held in a death grip against himself.
Soooo I wanted to make sure to remind everyone that, despite everything he's been through, Danny's still a kid. I mean, he can still see Youngblood! I made the bear part in figuring that, if Jazz has an old stuffed bear based off her hero, why wouldn't Danny have one as well? So I played off his dream of being an astronaut for it, even if Neil Armstrong might not have been his hero.
On another note, I will give a virtual cookie to anyone who can say honestly that they knew Danny wasn't very far from home~ Sorry again that it's short. Next chapter will probably be the longest, though. Sorry if it ends up late because of such XD Have a nice day!~ F,F, & R!