Hello readers! Thank you for clicking on my first Danny Phantom Fanfic. Hopefully you enjoy, hopefully you have constructive criticism for me. Let's get started!
Chapter 1
As the lunch bell rang loudly, hundreds of students flooded into the halls and began congregating towards the cafeteria. Many couldn't wait to be away from their classrooms and locate their friends or play away on their phones without any teachers threatening to confiscate them. A familiar trio of friends walked together down the hallway after retrieving their lunches from their lockers. Danny felt content as he walked between his two best friends, Sam and Tucker, and smiled as he listened to his beret-capped friend chattered away at the new upgrades he recently installed on his PDA. Tucker's tireless tech talks were something Danny found amusing, while he knew Sam put up with it since the two boys put up with her goth talks and vegetarian talks and animal activist talks and…well you get the picture. Putting up with Danny's space talks and Tucker's tech talks were small condolences amongst best friends. The trio entered the cafeteria and sat at their normal table, oblivious to the amount of space other people gave around them. Nothing had changed in this regard since Freshman year and they paid even less attention to it now that they were Juniors.
"Hey Danny, isn't your birthday in a couple weeks?" Tucker abruptly changed topics away from his beloved tech, "What are we gonna do for it?"
Danny shrugged, he hadn't paid too much attention to his own birthday, what with school starting up again and the frequent ghost attacks.
"Probably nothing much," he said as he dug through the paper sack holding his lunch and pulled out a sandwich. "A day without any ghost attacks would be nice."
"Knowing some of these ghosts that's probably too much to ask for," Sam added as she began eating her salad. Danny sighed and nodded, she was probably right. Danny nearly groaned as he shivered and a blue mist spilled out of his mouth, warning him of a ghostly presence. With him and his friends now on high alert, Danny looked all around the cafeteria.
"Aw man!" one of the students in the cafeteria line complained loudly, "Meatloaf again? I wish we had more exciting food here at school!"
A thick pink mist flooded the entire cafeteria with an ethereal voice calling out, "So you have wished it, so shall it be!"
The lunch ladies cried out as the food glowed an eerie green and suddenly sprang to life. The meatloaf grew eyes, limbs, and a mouth that screeched at the students who screamed back in terror. The lettuce in the salad bar began to float and then suddenly flap as it transformed into veggie bats that squeaked and flapped and clawed at numerous girls' hair as they shrieked and fled. Even the potato salad grew and formed into little potato monsters that jumped growling off the serving tables and began to chase the panicking students as they scattered about wailing in fear. Amidst this mealtime mayhem, the pink mist formulated into a very familiar harem ghost. Desiree appeared cackling in delight at the terror her monstrous food was causing while she lifted her arms and the wishing power activated even more and even more lunches began flying around the room attacking the students that would eat them.
"Dude, messing with my food is crossing a serious line!" Tucker cried out as the rack of ribs he brought for lunch began to glow and float in the air. Reacting quickly, Danny fired a discreet ghost ray from his pointer finger and blasted not only the ribs, but his sandwich and Sam's salad as well before they could do anything.
"Never a dull moment around here," he groaned as he dove under the cafeteria table and transformed into his ghost half. The bright white rings flashed quickly before Danny phased through the table and flew towards the tall wish-maker.
"Messing with people's lunches Desiree?" he called out as he floated in front of her ready for battle. "What would the Lunch Lady think if she knew you were taking her job away?"
"Foolish Phantom!" the villainess boomed at the young halfa, "Any wish I hear must be granted so my power may grow!" Sure enough, Desiree glowed brightly at the granted wish.
"Oh yeah!" Danny fired back, "Well I wish you'd—AHH!" he cried out as Desiree swatted him away with her hammer fist and interrupted his wish and he ended up crashing into the benches and tables across the cafeteria.
"Sorry Ghost Child," Desiree cooed, "I'm not quite done yet, I have many more desires to grant still today," she laughed before turning intangible and flying out of the lunch hall. Danny groaned and rubbed his bruised head before jumping into the air and chasing the green former harem girl outside. He flew high above the school and searched all about for her before spotting her long ghost tail disappearing into an alley between nearby buildings. He quickly gave chase and sped off after her, turning around the corner and suddenly coming face to face, or rather, face to fist as she smashed him again with her hammer fist. This time he flew back and crashed into a load of garbage cans. As Danny was plucking an old banana peel off his head, Desiree gazed down at him with a smug smirk on her beautiful face.
"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" she gloated. Danny glared back up at her in response but flushed at the insult.
"You know Desiree," Danny responded, "We've been doing this for a couple years now and has it ever worked out for you? We do this same routine every time. You grant a few wishes, I trick you and you get sucked inside the thermos and everybody goes home happy. So you wanna just save me the trouble and wish yourself into the thermos so I'm not late to class?"
Desiree's smirk immediately turned into a scowl, "If I could make wishes for myself you think I'd bother granting the insipid wishes of you greedy mortals? All the selfish desires I am forced to grant have not exactly been a picnic you know!" she crossed her arms and turned her head away, her long black hair covering one of her glowing red eyes. Danny was caught off guard at her response all he could do was blink. A moment of awkward silence passed between hem as Danny thought about how to respond.
"Well I do know that you have to grant any wish you hear," Danny began, "But why do you have to make a mess out of every wish? Can't you just grant the wish without making some sort of monster or causing problems?"
Desiree snapped her head back to glare at the halfa, whipping her hair out of the ways as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Why should anybody actually receive all they desire? Any wish should come with consequences. I never get what I wish for so why should anybody else?" she snapped angrily at him. Danny looked down in thought and couldn't argue the statement. After a moment he looked back up and met her still glaring eyes.
"Well…what would you wish for if you could?" he asked. Desiree's angry expression vanished, but then she looked confused. She unfolded her arms and continued to stare at him as if she didn't understand any of the words he just said. Danny took the opportunity to pull himself out of the garbage and dust himself off before looking again at the floating genie ghost. She seemed lost for words so he spoke first.
"If you could grant any wish for yourself, what would it be?" he asked and at this point he was genuinely curious. This time it was Desiree who looked away in contemplation. She seemed lost in her own world, but Danny remained patient and waited for her to sort through her thoughts. He honestly was happy to take a break from the fighting. This happened on occasion with some of his so-called villains, namely Ember, Kitty, and a few others. After awhile their world-dominating tendencies sort of fizzled out and they made more mischief than trouble and on occasion they would simply be out and about out of boredom. This led to more truces and even amiable conversations with some of them to the point that Danny would rarely need to suck them up into the Fenton thermos.
As if snapping back to reality, the wishing ghost whipped her gaze back to Danny and narrowed her ruby eyes at him. "What sort of trick are you trying to pull ghost boy?" she questioned suspicious. Danny immediately raised his open hands non-aggressively.
"No trick," he answered, "Just an honest question. I never actually thought about it before and wanted to ask." Danny slowly lowered his hands as Desiree's glare turned into surprised wide eyes. He repeated his question to her, "Honestly, if you could grant any wish for yourself, what would it be?"
Desiree then looked away with a distant look in her eyes while Danny marveled at how odd of a situation he was in with one of his rogues' gallery in a shaded alleyway. Desiree remained quiet for what seemed like a long while. Finally she muttered something inaudible and Danny blinked in confusion.
"I'm sorry," he started slowly, "What did you say I didn't hear—,"
"I wish to be free!" Desiree cried out hands clutching tightly to her ample bosom, "I don't want to be a slave any more, forced to answer countless desires from random strangers!" she seemed so desperate and on the verge of tears as she continued, "Days become weeks, weeks become years, years become decades, which then become centuries! All this time and I have nothing to show for it! I have granted countless desires and I tire of it! I don't want to do it anymore!" she buried her face into her hands and seemed about ready to sob.
Danny almost reached out to provide some sort of comfort, but then immediately remembered her "no-man-touching" rule and instead rubbed the back of his head. He was at a bit of a loss, this was the first time she had ever opened up to him like this; hell this was the first time they'd actually have a real conversation that wasn't battle banter. He looked back at her, but she still had her face buried.
"Well…what if I helped with that?"
How will Danny help her? What will happen as a result? Find out in the next chapter!
Notes: I've grown to really love the Danny/Desiree shipping, we'll see how far they go together. If you have any thoughts or comments please let me know! See you soon!