Whoo! Kay. This chapter was written at three last night, so please excuse any extra crappiness you find.
I spent over an hour trying to write this as a poem, and then I was like, 'Screw you!'
Disclaimer would like to apologize again for his strangeness a few chapters ago. Danny Phantom does not belong to Sajoli.
Creak, went the door.
There was tense silence.
Creak, the door whined again, opening far enough for a 'Goth' red-head to check the surrounding areas for adults. "I can't see anybody," she whispered to someone behind the door. There was a brief pause as the other person replied. "No. Nobody. Now can we go? Danny's heavy."
The young woman backed into the drawing room of the Fenton household, holding the top half of one unconscious Danny Fenton. His bottom half was secured by an African American teen.
"C'mon," he grunted urgently, "let's get him upstairs before his parents--"
"His parents what, exactly, Tucker and Samantha?"
They nearly dropped their friend in surprise at hearing the voice of Maddie Fenton. They turned guiltily to look at her. She tapped a foot impatiently, the massive girth that was Jack Fenton looming ominously behind her.
"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, what a school day! Poor Danny nodded off," Sam smoothly lied.
"We figured we'd just carry him all the way home and tuck him into bed--" Tucker continued.
"--without any parental interaction whatsoever," Sam finished, leading Tucker up the stairs.
"Don't get up! We know where to go. Bye!" Tucker flashed a nervous grin at his best friend's parents and continued up the stairs. Said parents frowned in worry, then returned to the drawing room.
"That was a bit too close for liking," Sam admonished as Tucker lay Danny on his bed.
"Cheer up, Sam; it's probably nothing too horrible. I mean, worst case scenario, Danny's genetics are falling apart and he's going mad to make up for his lack of--" Tucker broke off. "I'm not helping, am I."
"Let me phrase it this way," Sam hissed, and she motioned as though to whisper something to the teen. He had to bend down to hear her. "NOOO!" she hollered, straight into his ear.
Tucker collapsed on the floor in anguish.
"…Ohhh no," she groaned. "I just killed off the only other person who could go to the Goth Jamboree with me."
(SC)
The first thing Danny noticed was that the sky was orange. And I'm not talking 'Sunset Orange' or 'Light Pollution Orange,' but real, vibrant orange. Kind of like a super-juicy tangerine, in the form of the sky. The clouds looked suspiciously like pink cotton-candy, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't think they were.
Pulling himself into a sitting position, Danny took in the rest of his surroundings.
The grass he sat on was a vibrant purple, black daisies growing everywhere. A smooth wind played across his face, wind chimes invisibly clanging together; occasionally a note would ring sharp, and the wind would stop blowing for a moment, as if to get its bearings again, and then continue rustling through the soft grasses. A crystalline lake shot prisms of beautiful colors out of its stunningly quiet surface, as though it could not decide what color to be and instead chose to be all of them. Raising his line of site a little bit higher, Danny could see no boundaries except a tarrish, oily forest that stood what seemed like miles away. It seemed ominous, looming over the rest of the valley in its dark hatred.
Danny stood up. Someone had changed his clothes. And his size.
Dashing over to the shining lake with legs that his brain reminded him were WAY too short, he gazed into the reflection.
A young white-haired boy stared back at him, green eyes dim compared to the lake. An oddly familiar top hat slid slightly to one side; Danny pushed it back up with practiced ease. His clothes were not much of a surprise, either: a black sweatshirt, dark green cargos, black boots, a magic wand in one hand. He thoughtfully tossed the wand into the lake. He turned around to spy the very same wand he'd thrown away right before his feet, perfectly dry. He tucked it in his kangaroo pouch.
So. He was trapped in a color-blind valley and was half the age he normally was, maybe less.
"Hiiiiiiiiiiii!"
And there was something that was cutting off his air supply by hugging him around the neck.
Calmly detaching himself from whoever it was, he sucked in a deep calming breath and spun around to see who.
"Zachary Daniels, I presume?" he said professionally, barely wincing at his high-pitched voice.
The child grinned proudly. "That's me! Of course, you would know that, wouldn't you? It's your joOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOb." He stretched out 'job,' as though that was the funniest word in his limited dictionary. He skipped away cheerily, down to the banks. "This is the first time you've visited in one and a half years," he said suddenly.
"What?" Well, of course, it was natural to be confused. Especially since he was, as stated before, trapped, younger, and having a bit of trouble trying not to freak out and start blowing things up.
"Well," Zachary Daniels turned an accusing eye on him, "I've been in a comma--"
"Coma," Danny corrected.
"--a comma, as I was saying, for almost two years now. I've been trapped here for that long. And you didn't come to visit once." He pulled at a blue cattail growing out of the shallows. "I was really bored, you know?"
"I'm sorry," Danny apologized blankly. "I really have no idea what you're talking abou--"
Thwapp!
"Did you just-- did you just whack me on the head?!" Danny snarled, grasping at the slipping top hat.
"Yep," Zachary said proudly. He sauntered back down the banks, grinning as though he was the Supreme Ruler of All Things Color Blind and Idiotic. "I forgive you now."
Danny stared in shock at the little boy for a few moments, at a loss of what to say to that. Then he shoved him into the lake and started cracking up.
Zachary disappeared under the surface for a few seconds. Seconds grew longer. Danny stopped laughing.
"Hey, kid…?" he approached the water, trying to see into its bright and shiny depths. It was like looking into the sun. "You okay in the-AAUUGHHHHHHHH!"
A hand reached out of the pool, snagged his boot, and dragged him down with it.
There was a moment of silence in the meadow, a moment of peace, and then both boys came shooting out of the water, choking and laughing they crawled onto dry land and kept laughing. They trailed off and stared at the cotton-candy clouds in companionable silence. They turned to each other, caught each other's eye, and started cracking up again.
Both boys, still wet from their male bonding (I don't get it either, man), stood up and shook hands.
"Call me Zach, like you used to," the human said, cheerfully pumping his new friend's hand up and down.
"Doesn't matter what you call me," Danny said equally cheerfully, "this is just a dream that I'm gonna wake up from soon."
Zach slowed his energetic handshaking, a frown spreading across his outrageously pale face. "Dream?" he asked quizzically. "You think this is a dream?"
"Well, yeah, what else could it be?" Danny merrily skipped along, ignoring the boy he'd just passed. He hummed a little tune. "It's not like anything like this would happen in real life."
Danny was oblivious to the perplexed expression on his 'imaginary' friend's face. "But what's that make me?"
"A figment of my imagination, of course!" Danny did a back hand-spring.
Zach giggled. "Oh, I get it. That's funny, cause it's the opposite."
"Hmm?" Danny was rolling on the grass lazily. He loved dreams, even really strange ones like this one. He could just let go and be as weird and nonsensical as he wanted.
"Because I made you up, not the other way around, silly!" Danny tried doing a little ballet, but Zach tripped him. He rolled over, so that he was facing up.
"Made me up? What are you talking about?"
Zach grinned, gleefully unaware of Danny's confusion. "Well, you're my imaginary friend, so DUH! What do you think?"
At that time, Danny heard his alarm clock ringing.
"Uh, I gotta go," he said, backing up a bit.
"If you don't visit again soon, I'll hunt you down!" Zach called. Then he snapped his fingers, as if remembering something important. "Wait! Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings, right?"
"I dunno. Sounds like something a starving poet would say if he needed some cash."
"Don't you remember? We pinkie promised! You said that you'd help me get to heaven if I let you have your angel wings back when I woke up. And you kept me alive, so that's even better!" Zach beamed. "I need to keep my promise! One set of wings coming right up!"
"Wait -- what?" Danny managed to fluster before the surroundings started swimming into blackness and he woke up.
There was a sickening crack, and Danny Fenton shot up in bed like a rocket. "Gyahh!" he screamed, whipping his hands to his back, the area of pain.
That was the day Danny Fenton grew wings.