Cool dude doing the burning man (bon diggity)
Silverwing013
Summary:
Get injured as a ghost? Switch to human.
Get sick as a ghost?
Prompt:
Danny contracts a "ghost childhood illness" (like chickenpox but for dead kids) despite being way too old for it, because he skipped his ghost childhood and went straight to the teen years.
Moaning, Danny's hand flopped outward and reached down. Searching almost blindly in the limited light of moon and streetlight through his window. A little further. Where was it?
Found.
Exhaling in blessed relief at finding the cool metal, Danny stilled. For a short moment. Then made himself move again.
Well, not moved. Dragged.
He dragged himself toward the edge of the bed, getting closer to the coolness and more of his burning skin sighing at the contact.
It didn't last long.
Too warm.
Too warm?
Too hot.
He was too hot. Everything hurt. It hurt to move too much. It hurt any part of himself to touch any other part. Because he was too hot. Too hot to even touch himself.
Danny wiggled more, hissing at the movement, trying to find a fresh and cooler section of the metal.
"Ah!"
Bones jarred in the fall, Danny could swear they were hot too. Clenching his jaw, he muffled as much as the pain and whimpering he could, shifting his body flat on the ground to spread out his limbs. The arm and side he landed on burned hotter, from being pressed in on itself.
Panting in the exertion of not screaming, Danny lay there. Staring upwards. A lopsided view of a star riddled ceiling and underside of his bed.
Was that metal even worth reaching up for? Whatever cool sanity it could provide was limited and fast fleeting.
The floor was cool.
Kind of.
And pressed on his hot skin, pooling up into tighter and hotter spots. Little bubbles of heat.
He hurt. Felt queasy. Was drained of energy.
Clearly he was sick.
But why was he so damn hot?
"Danny! What are you doing on the floor?"
Jazz. Trusty reliable Jazz. No way she wasn't going to make sure he had his butt up and moving to go to school. Knew she'd come and help him. Soon as she got up early for the day.
"Here comes the sun."
Hairbrush clattering on the floor beside him, which ow on two accounts in noise and vibration, Jazz hovered over him. Her face was alarmed. She was frantic. But Danny felt reassurance in her being there.
"What? Danny, are you delirious?"
"Sunshine."
He blinked, head groggily changing gears from the welcome morning daylight.
"Fell. In the night. Trying to get the cool metal."
Jazz's eyebrows drew close together and Danny could almost hear her gears click-click-clicking away.
"I'd imagine. You look really warm. I can feel the heat coming off of you. You're burning up. Especially from these spots..."
Trailing off, she went to the usual motion in these kinds of situations. Hand gently resting against his forehead. Danny let out a breath, eyes fluttering closed.
Her hand on his forehead felt nice.
Warm. But it wasn't like the too hot heat of him. Of his hand checking the same thing earlier in the dark. As if he needed the physical confirmation.
"Danny." Jazz breathed out. Danny groaned and shifted as her warm breath misted over his face. "Danny, this is way too hot. Inhumanly hot."
Inhumanly hot? Strong way to put burning up, but it made sense. Danny felt like it.
"Have you come across anything weird?"
"I am weird," Danny mumbled out. Peeked his eyes open hopefully. "Ice?"
"Good to know your humor is still intact. Focus Danny. Have you come across anything weird lately?"
Ugh. But it hurt to think. He was too hot and feeling like crap for thinking. Jazz was smart though. Helping. Okay. Think.
"Sam convinced Tucker to eat fake meat."
Jazz huffed. Flinching, Danny shifted his head away again. "Sorry. Not that kind of weird, Danny. This is too hot for a human. Anything weird you came in contact with?" Her eyes flickered away. Toward his door? Then back to him. "Ghostly."
Oh. That's why the door check. And oh. Oh!
Inhumanly hot. Duh.
"Think it's my ghost side?"
Jazz bit her lip, worrying at it. "Maybe." She hedged out. "It is the first time you've been sick since the accident. Maybe your body is overcompensating? No. Well. Kind of? Since you run a bit colder in your body temperature now. So you running a temp feels worse because it's a greater temperature jump?"
Huh?
"Uh, okay. Sure. Ice?"
"Have you come in contact with anything weird?"
Why did Jazz want him to make his brain work? She was supposed to be the one with the working brain. Danny was hot and tired and hurting and nauseous and-
"Danny. Focus for me please."
"Too hoooot." He whined. But Jazz was smart. He could do this. For her. To help him. How would this help him?
"Ghostly contact... Uh. Fights. Skulker. Box ghost. Youngblood. No sneezes. No snot. No liquids from them or the lab lately. Yaaaaay." He celebrated weakly.
He got a tight smile out of her.
"Cujo, I touched. Some other animals. When uh, wrangling. Heh. Wrangling. These little tiny hand sized ectopuses were friendly. Hung out on me. Easy to take care of. Kinda cute. You should have seen them Jazz. So cute."
Danny closed his eyes, spots swimming about beneath his eyelids. Pulsing with his brain. That he'd made work for Jazz. Yay, him.
"Them. That's it. That's what your spots look like. I knew they looked a little too big for chickenpox and you weren't itching them. But, you were a ghost at the time. Right?"
"Uh, yep. Ghostie ghostie. Wee little ghosties."
Jazz was mumbling to herself now. Shifting, Danny groaned at the shift of pressure. Of where the hotness collected and pressed. But the floor was slightly cooler here. For now.
"Danny. If its your ghost side that's sick, then you need to be a ghost now. It might make it better. Or at least your ghost side runs cooler."
"Huh, what? No. Hurt on one side, switch to the other is better. Ghost be worse. Oooh."
An idea, a very great idea permeated through Danny's foggy brain.
"Ice bath."
He heard Jazz sigh, but didn't feel it breeze onto him.
Smart Jazz.
"Okay. Fine. A bath. Let me help you up. It's going to be a lukewarm bath, Danny."
"Nooooo. Ice. I want ice."
"You can suck on ice. Lukewarm is better for fevers. I'll get you some cool compresses after. And some water. Plenty of liquids will help. Rest too. Maybe I should stay home with you."
Moaning, Danny rolled over to his stomach, batting away Jazz's hand. She gripped on to help him up. It made his arm under even worse. Trapping the heat and compressing it there.
"I can rest. Just lay in bed. Drink. Easy."
"Uh-huh."
Jazz didn't believe him, did she? Why? It was easy to take it easy. Except it was nice and reassuring to have Jazz there. She was smart. Her brain could work today. And nice hands.
"What?"
"I said, I will be staying home. Mom and Dad might try bringing you to the hospital. I can head them off if I'm here."
Huh. "Oh, uh. M'kay. You're so smart. So smart. But you sure about the bath?"
"Very."
Firm.
Okay. She was sure. Good. A bath sounded really nice. Wash up. He felt grosser standing up than lying down.
Grasping hold of his sleeve, Jazz tugged him out of his bedroom. Hand up and close. Hovering near.
"You're awesome, Jazz."
"Not annoying and overbearing?"
"Bears are awesome."
"Okay, okay. Let's get you to the bathroom and start getting your fever down."
"Okay dokie."
Jazz was mumbling again. Frantic. Worried. Stressing out.
He was still too hot.
But.
No sheets covered him on the bed. A lovely popsicle in his mouth. Water plenty nearby. Cool compresses in rotation every half hour. The television dragged up and on, playing noise in the background. Mom and Dad were working in the lab, knowing and trusting Jazz's big sister tendencies.
Pampered and taken care of.
"I'll be okay under your sunshine rays."
"That's very sweet, Danny, but the thermometer says too much heat."
"Sun is a star. Stars can't let us down. You direct the way."
"Uh, did you just compare me to the north star?"
"Polaris."
"Sorry. My bad. To Polaris."
"That's too far away to go to."
Danny spread his limbs out further, glad his bed was soft. Softer than the tub. Than the floor. Less pressure to have hotter spots. He closed his eyes, focusing on the cool compress and popsicle, attempting to force thinking of how hot he was out of his head. Thinking of it made it worse.
But it was so hot!
No.
Cool compress, cool forehead. Cold popsicle filling up his mouth with grape. The sounds of the television playing some talk show. People rambling on.
And caught what sounded like a muttered curse.
Coughing, Danny's hands flew up. Trying to catch it.
"Ow-ow-ow-owww." Sobbing, he choked, straining against the sudden pain. "Moving not worth it. Not worth it."
"Danny?!" Panicked, Jazz's voice was sharp and piercing. "I didn't grab a wrist ray or a thermos or oh no, oh no, oh no."
"Hey, what's up, Jazzy doll?"
Whap!
"Johnny."
Everything leaked out of Jazz in a huge and vocal exhale. Slumping in the chair beside Danny's bed, she pressed a hand to her forehead. Danny kept his chin lifted up, tilting his head back to see the surprise visitors at the window.
Then delayedly, Jazz sat back upright.
"Kitty, we've discussed this in previous sessions. About the jealously and violence."
Lecturing. Of course.
"Just a little violence." Kitty mumbled, correcting Jazz.
"Johnny is working through his predisposition in his language. Thank you for using my name, but I do prefer just 'Jazz'."
Wincing, Johnny leaned further from Danny's window and rubbed the back of his head. His unevenly cut hair stuck out some in bits and strands after. And gave a slightly strained smile. "I remember. Sorry. I had it in my head too, but it slipped. Feels weird. I'm just trying to be nice to girls!"
"And not all girls appreciate that. People all have things they prefer to be called. It's nice to try to respect that."
Danny allowed himself to slump back from tensing up, hissing as he did so. Session. Jazz would offer and give sessions of help to the guy who used her so she could be stuck in her own body. At least without issue of being unstable, that wasn't an issue.
This was a Jazz thing. She could handle this too. Apparently had. Sessions. How long had that been going on?
"Well, no trouble for me. Good director."
Jazz exhaled through her nose. "As much as I am warmed by you comparing me Polaris, you are still much too warm Danny."
"New popsicle?"
"If you promise not to try using it on your spots, yes."
"Whoa." Kitty's voice popped up and she came over in front of Danny. Floating. Danny blinked up at her.
Up. Ghost. Right. Maybe he could get her and Johnny to leave and come back. So his ghost sense could keep chilling him. He just shouldn't move was all.
"Aren't you a little old to get this? And you look awful. This only hits the fire type of cores this hard. Your human side is melting."
"I've taken 3 baths today, promise. Wait. Melting? Like a wicked Dani?"
"Just sweating, Danny." Jazz said. Reassuring him.
Johnny came over beside Kitty and hovered on close. Took a whiff. "Oh, but you're spicy, kid. What the hell. Kitty's right."
"Spicy?" Danny said with Jazz.
"Like fire flakes."
"Corn flakes on fire? Awesome. That cereal sucks."
Johnny grinned. "Sign me up for that bonfire kid,"
"Bon diggity."
Blinking down at Danny, Johnny's head flew back, letting loose barks of laughter. "I'm totally getting you high someday, kid! Bon diggity!"
"Ow! Oooh." Danny groaned, shoulders hunching up at Johnny's loudness. An action which condensed the heat and drawing his attention back to it. "Oh that hurts."
"Oops. Sorry kid. I'm used to non fire core kiddos having this. Forgot."
Jazz shook her head. "Okay, refocusing here. No session today. No...ghost recreational drugs. Of course that's a thing. You two know what this is? Most I could figure was it might have something to do with these ectopuses. Which seems more certain in the two of you knowing about it."
Kitty and Johnny shared a look. Johnny shrugged and looked away. Kitty drew herself upright.
"Right. This is technically a belief thing from a bigger sized interconnected region. Elemental types are...more pronounced there. I suppose that's one way to put it. Their belief stuff is on the higher side of things, so they've got some strange beings it's best not to mess with."
Kitty tipped her head to the side, her hands waving, giving emotion to her words.
"Most of us avoid it unless invited. They've got a whole mess of rules and proper etiquette and it changes between core types. They mostly stay contained to themselves anyway. Not sure how, but we know this pox comes from there. Weird ectopuses? Small with five arms? Yep. But you're an ice core if I remember right."
"I'm a cool dude doing the burning man."
Jazz sighed at Danny and motioned for Kitty to continue.
"It's common for only fire type children to get the pox. Some handsome looking leader guy with, get this, no core type, came out and explained it and apologized for it. Something about the belief type spirits really liked him. Even when he was alive."
"Handsome?"
"That's how he was described." Kitty waved Johnny off, but glanced to the side with a pleased smile.
"Anyway. Only fire type little kids get it from the ectopuses. Anyone else just has red marks from their suction cups. They're actually pretty friendly and love getting head pats. I've run into a few ghosts who've kept a few as pets. They run this really nice spa and bath with them. For healing baths."
"Huh. That's very-"
"Bath. Ice bath?" Danny attempted again.
"No."
He groaned.
Apparently though, Johnny felt sympathetic and laid his hands down onto Danny's chest.
"Oh my god, that feels awesome." Danny moaned.
"I hope that's fine..." Staring at Danny for a long moment, Jazz finally pulled her eyes away and back to Kitty. "So why is Danny getting it as a teenager, as an ice type, and as a human?"
Kitty shrugged.
"No idea. It's weird. But Kitty's right. Spots and physically pained in moving and touching? Fire types being tested on literally burning up? This is-"
"Literally burning up?! Danny could burn up from this?!"
Eyes going wide, Johnny and Kitty stared at each other, slamming their mouths shut.
"Oh my god, this is not happening. And you said he smelled like spicy fire flakes. He definitely has that since he ran into those ectopuses. And this is far too hot for a human. He's too hot! He's going to burn up from fever and die, then as a ghost and he'll be-"
"It likes warmth!" Danny shouted out. Immediately regretting his own volume. "Ow. Jazz, smart directing point of light, you were right. I am too hot. As a human. Going ghost!"
"Dan-"
"Yes!"
Bursting up from the change, Danny spun and twirled and laughed. "I'm not hot!" Paused, squinted his eyes. "Wait a minute."
"Danny. You're okay?"
He glanced to his dresser mirror, spotting familiar reddish purplish circles on his face. Looked to his arm and saw the raised marks under the hazmat suit. "Yeah, I'm not hot and don't look hot, but I feel fine."
"My gosh, this is great! You just have to stay in ghost form until the marks are gone. And stay away from those ectopuses, you hear me?"
"Can do! Uh, how long will I need to be like this?"
There were matching smiles on Kitty and Johnny.
"Stupid punk kid." Johnny threw his arm around Danny. Danny yelped. "Making us worried about you. Apologize to your amazing sister. Jazz."
"Danny? Jazz?"
Four sets of eyes widened.
"And that's our ghost hunting queue to skedaddle. See ya, kid! Let's go, baby!"
Arm quickly detatched, Johnny grabbed Kitty's hand and flew them through the window to his awaiting motorcycle.
"How long?!" Danny hissed as loudly as he dared.
But with a finger salute and a wave, Johnny and Kitty were gone.
"Jazz, honey. How is Danny doing?"
Panicked, Jazz and Danny both began frantically shouting anything that came to mind to stop the approaching footsteps of their concerned mother.
This time, Danny was sure of the swear spat under Jazz's breath.
He wanted to call her out on it, but then she turned to him and hissed. "Turn back!"
Oh shit no.
With his too high temperature, Danny and Jazz managed to convince their mom and dad to not bring him in the hospital. But they were now aware of it and took turns with him. Insisting Jazz could return to school.
The following week and a half sucked. At least there was the weekend. Jazz was home and shooed the parental figures away for him.
But too much time being human worked against Danny.
Also working against him?
A big stupid overbearing sister.
See: the video proof used against him the next time he waved off Jazz rambling helpful tidbits for him.
Polaris?!
He called her his north star in being able to direct him the right way?!
Okay, first of all...
Author's Notes:
And at a 12 for 12, my brain is fried. I was feeling it after 10. But we're stopping here on my prompt/story for everyday. I speed typed late at night and just slammed the post button close to midnight here. Yeah. Sorry daily posting. I went for a while, but I'm calling it.
Also. Owning up. Took inspiration a bit from another Nick show for the sickness. Not a crossover. But more just pulling ideas from.