Title: Ten Years
Characters: Danny, Tucker, Sam
Alternate Universe: Ten years after canon
Rating: K+
Word Count: 1, 557
Genre: Friendship
Tucker had said he'd be over by 5pm. It wasn't until 6:15 and three straight-to-voicemail calls that Danny and Sam finally heard the knock on the door. The "secret knock" Tucker had decided they needed after they had exited Casino Royale, one of the few times they'd actually been able to sit all the way through a movie together without a ghost attack pulling them out. Sam flipped the TV off and got off Danny's lap as they both went to go answer the door.
"You're late, Foley," Sam chided with a smile. Their best friend was standing at the threshold of their apartment, three white boxes piled up in his arms. Tucker unloaded the packages into Danny's arms to free them up for a hug with Sam. It had been a good month or so since they'd seen him thanks to his job one town over. His hair was a little fuller than they knew he liked to keep it nowadays, so he must've been busy.
"Oh yeah? Do you know how hard it is to find a "vegan cake", Sam?" he replied with a faux stern glare over his glasses. "Three bakeries. I had to go to three bakeries to find it."
"If you'd have asked I could've told you exactly where to find one," she snapped back. Danny, arms still full of bulky white boxes, settled for a gentle kick to the side of Tucker's leg as a greeting.
"If you actually spent money on vegan food then something big has to be going on," Danny said. He and Sam shared a look over Tucker's shoulder as their friend passed them by, plopping heavily on the couch.
"As if you don't know," he drawled out, enunciating each word precisely and smirking at them.
Danny put the two cold boxes – undoubtedly the vegan and non-vegan cakes – down together on the coffee table and settled down beside Tucker on the couch, the last white box on his lap.
Sam dropped down to Danny's left. "I don't see how you managed to find out already, though?" she asked Tucker, unconsciously taking Danny's hand.
"Please!" Tucker scoffed, taking the box from Danny and popping the lid off. "Like I'd forget. I know we normally get together at the Nasty Burger but I figured since it's been ten years-"
"Wait," Sam interrupted. Tucker paused halfway through the action of pulling the present out of its box. "Ten years? What was this celebration about?"
"The anniversary of when you convinced this idiot to fry himself into a new species?" Tucker offered, gesturing with his head towards a befuddled Danny.
Danny and Sam both stared at Tucker before blanching and staring at each other, eyes wide. "Oh. Right!" Danny exclaimed, rubbing his neck in the way he always did when a situation started turning. "Oh man, we were so… we didn't even realize-"
"Well, it's okay. Luckily I got us covered," Tucker said, pulling the black album all the way out of the box. "Here, Danny, you hold this since you're in the middle."
Danny obediently moved the white box off his lap and put the album on it instead, opening it up to the first page. Sam let out a little breathless gasp and reached out to touch the pictures taped to the page. They were old Polaroid pictures at first, from a time when Polaroid even released the film for Sam's old camera. The first page was full of the shots Sam had taken when the trio had first gone into the lab that fateful day. Danny posing with the suit. The three of them in front of the silent portal. "Oh my God, Tucker!" she laughed. "No way! My old pictures! Is this why you asked for them?"
"Sure is! Look, look…" He turned to the next page and the three of them let out little triumphant yells. There were all the photos of them at fourteen, Danny as a newly created Phantom, facing off against ghosts for the first time. There were all the pictures they could never show anyone else – the bloody sleepovers spent bandaging each other up, the action shots, most of them a little blurry, of Phantom squaring off against Skulker or Technus or the Box Ghost, the aerial shots of the city. Danny and Tucker curled up together at the zoo. Pictures from the dance that Sam had very nearly ruined by turning into a dragon.
Freshman year. Then sophomore. There were shots of the Far Frozen, from the first real "Christmas" party they had thrown there. Danny was grumpy as ever and the same height as Tucker now. A few rare pictures of a young Danielle, who had spent most of those years travelling the world. Most of them were photos she had taken herself and sent back to Danny of her on the top of the Eiffel Tower, the top of a pyramid, Big Ben, the usual tourist destinations. Danny, Sam, and Tucker chattered and reminisced over each photo and took turns eagerly turning the page.
Junior year, where Danny had finally shot up. There were plenty of photos of Danny resting his arms on a disgruntled Tucker's head. The dreads Tuck had worn through college were just beginning to peek out from under the beret he'd stubbornly held onto. More pictures of bruises. A few of Danny and Sam on their occasional dates, most of them ending with ghost fights.
Senior year, more with Valerie after she finally had simmered down and accepted Danny for what he was. More of Danielle as well who had come back to Amity more often. Shots of the Red Huntress and Phantom, the former no longer trying to kill the latter. Prom, Danny and Sam in black and purple, Tucker with a girl that they all barely knew, including Tucker. It had been a nice night, regardless. Candid shots of Valerie with Danielle, who had snuck in to crash the party.
Graduation. Scans of college acceptance letters. Photos of study sessions, moving Danny and Sam into their apartment, late night movies, ghost fights, post-ghost fights, bar hopping. Normal, everyday pieces of their lives mixed in with the bizarre, ghost-centered one they all led. One – and only one – picture of Clockwork, somewhere between his adult and elderly self. Skulker holding Danny by the throat who was comically playing dead, tongue sticking out of his mouth. Box Lunch. Danny and Sam's wedding.
The last few pages were blank. "I figured I'd leave some of it empty," Tucker admitted as he flipped the last full page over, "since I know we're gonna get into a lot more stuff over the next ten years."
"Ten years," Danny repeated, before looking down at the book somberly. "Wow. Ten years. That means…"
"Means that you won't turn evil and destroy the world?" Tucker offered with a grin. "Yeah. That's kinda why I made this. It means you really did it. You really beat him."
"Aw, Tuck," Sam gushed, reaching over Danny to ruffle his head.
"Yeah, c'mere you idiot." Danny grabbed Tucker's head in a choke-hold of a hug. Tucker scrabbled at Danny's back for air until the man released him.
"We should eat the cake before it gets warm. And please tell me you have champagne still," Tucker rambled, getting up from the couch and grabbing the cake boxes. "I don't have anywhere to be tomorrow so I'm cool to drink 'till I pass out on the couch. Oh, but…" He stopped on his way to the kitchen and turned to the couple on the couch, pouring over the scrapbook a second time. "If you guys didn't know what today was, what did you think this was about? You said I wasn't supposed to know about something already?" He cocked an eyebrow at them. "Of all the people to be keeping secrets from-"
Sam looked from Tucker to Danny and back, running her hands through her hair. "Oh, alright, I guess it's fair to tell you early," she muttered, getting up and pulling open one of her craft drawers. She ripped a few pieces of double-sided tape off a dispenser and went back to the album, pulling a small black photo from her pocket. Tucker hovered over her shoulder, still holding the cake boxes.
"Wait, is- is that- no way!" Tucker nearly dropped the non-vegan cake on the floor, putting the boxes hurriedly on the couch cushions before grabbing up the album for a better look. A grainy gray and black fan shape in the photo displayed the tiny bean-shaped form of a baby, with Fenton, Samantha in the left corner and that day's date on the right. "A baby?! You losers?!"
Danny was rubbing his neck but Tucker had never seen him smile so big, not since his wedding anyway. "Yeah. We just got the first official ultrasound today. Sam wanted to announce it with a photo set-"
"It involves a tiny jumpsuit," she admitted, laughing self-consciously.
Tucker grabbed his friends around the neck now, all three of them laughing. "This is amazing! Oh my God! Now we definitely need to celebrate," he declared, grabbing up the cakes. Danny and Sam put the album down on the coffee table to follow him to the kitchen. "But I'm not going out to get another vegan cake. Once was enough."