Originally posted 6/21/23
Hi guys!
So, I'll explain that posted thing at the end. For now reviews.
InvaderJohnny: Chapter 9 - Funny thing about that first part. I vividly remember typing that. I didn't realize it wasn't there until you said that. Embarrassing TT
I think thats all for now.
Let's get to the chapter
Chapter X:
Reunited
Danny stared up at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes. Saying nothing as he processed the new information he received. He noticed Valerie had briefly left the room, leaving him alone to lay back down feeling exhausted.
Two weeks.
Was he that tired? Or that injured? He supposed either would make sense. He hasn't slept much during the past year. Much less been in an actual bed. Proper sleep would've snuck up on him either way.
But two weeks? It was ridiculous.
Danny huffed as he closed his eyes once more. He could hear clanking from outside the room along with whatever noises that were happening outside the window. The mixture of noises was calming in a strange way. He found himself relaxing, forgetting his thoughts. Just for a moment.
.
. .
. . .
'Beds are traps.' That was the conclusion Danny came up with after opening his eyes. He didn't expect to doze off, and he was fully prepared to blame his surroundings on his newfound drowsiness. Until he realized the sounds that were outside of the room changed. No longer hearing the clanking. Instead, he heard voices. Danny tensed the moment he heard them. Voices were a bad sign.
Danny carefully got out of the bed to try not make any noise (and to not stumble when he was on his feet). Finding his balance, he started to make his war to the bedroom door. Only to pause and look at the chair Valerie had left. There were clothes on it. His clothes?
Danny picked up a black hoodie, turning it to see the front. On it we're the words "Satte-lite the night" in bold white with tiny pictures of stars and planets surrounding the sentence. Yep. They were his. His lips twitched at the pun. A change in clothes sounded nice. With that in mind he placed the hoodie down and started to take off the one he had on, replacing it with the cleaner one. Wincing from trying to put it on as quickly as possible. Once it was on, he placed the other on the chair and once again made his way to the door. Until he paused in front of a mirror.
He was definitely human again. …Barely. He was paler than he remembered. There were dark bags under his eyes. His hair grew out, going down the back of his neck. Though his focus was on the scars on his face. There was a faint scar that ran across his forehead and a smaller one under his left eye. Both made him cringe. He didn't think those experiments would leave any scars. Luckily they could barely be seen. Then there was the webbing that seemed to stay on the right side of his cheek from up his neck. Normally, it wouldn't be seen like this. He wondered if the shocks from the collar brought it back. Then wondered how long it would take for it to disappear again. Speaking of the collar, there was a dark red mark that was left from it.
The look at the scars made him unconsciously tug at the sleeves of his hoodie. He always found it extremely lucky that his normal clothes remained unharmed when he's a ghost. Now he felt… thankful. He was lucky that he didn't change in front of the mirror. Or realize it was there. If the scars on his face can be seen, what about the bigger ones?
Not wanting to think about it, Danny promptly turned from the mirror. Now that he was closer to the door, he could confirm that there were other voices outside the room. Filled with a newfound curiosity, he opened the door and exited the room.
It took two steps for Danny to realize he hasn't been in this apartment much. Not outside of Valerie's room. Whichever he didn't do often. It was a lot nicer than the last one, he noted to himself.
The voices got louder as he walked closer to the living room. When he entered the open living room, he was shocked to see his sister sitting along with Valerie and Ellie. He sighed in relief. It was just them. The three of them deep in their conversation that they didn't notice Danny walking towards them.
The halfa shrugged and walked to the kitchen, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. That and he had the perfect opportunity to snoop around. Just to see if it was actually safe, of course. It wasn't until he snagged a bag of chips in the kitchen, that Danny realized everything got quiet. He turned his head back to the living room to see three pairs of wide eyes staring at him. He was silent for a moment. Blinking at them as he opened the bag of chips. "You guys look like you've seen a ghost." He said, waving a chip at them before popping it in his mouth. And wow. Were chips always this good? They tasted heavenly.
Valerie was the first to get out of her stupor with a groan that made him smirk just a bit.
Jazz was the next. "How.. How long have you been up?" She asked.
He shrugged. "A while." Danny made his way out of the kitchen and walked to living room. "You girls were talking and I got hungry—"
Before anything else was said, Danny was startled by a green blur seemingly throwing itself at him. Danny caught whatever it was and was met with an embrace around his neck. Pushing away the panic (and the pain from the impact), he looked down and froze. In his hands was Dani, her face hidden in the crook of his neck. He immediately softened in the presence of the younger. "Hey Ellie," he said to her in calm tone. He got a muffed 'Hi' back, her head never moving away from his neck. There was a flash of concern in Danny's eyes as he felt her grip get tighter. It wasn't painful by any means but-
Danny wrapped his arms protectively around her. Wanting to calm down the girl's trembling. He glanced to the side and noticed his sister's staring. The words on her face practically screaming at him. Inwardly rolling his eyes, he nodded his head at her and soon his vision was blocked with red hair as she joined the embrace. Danny doesn't consider himself a hugger by any means, yet he found himself giving into the warmth that surrounded him. It was.. nice. So much so that he could've bursted into tears then and there. Instead, he leaned further into the embrace.
Then he was hit with a nauseating amount of guilt. He didn't deserve this. He made them worry so much. He made those empty promises that couldn't be kept. Who knows how much they've been hurt from this. And for what? Him? He was a freak.
A monster.
Danny tensed. Where did that come from? A monster? No, that's not him. He wasn- isn't a monster.
But… He was the reason they came for him and he gave up. Even worse, they saw him give up. Yet they're still here? They could've moved on without him. But they didn't. They didn't need to take him back here. But they did.
"Are you okay, baby brother?"
Danny met Jazz's cyan eyes. It was filled with that familiar sisterly worry. And it made his stomach tighten. Despite this, he nodded. "I'm okay," he managed to get the words out with a tiny smile. It seemed to briefly subside her worries, but not her analyzing stare. He tried not to shiver at the realization of how Jazz looked a lot like Maddie. He forced his eyes down back in Dani.
"I'm okay.."
—
Danny stayed in the living room, sitting on the couch with the now sleeping Ellie in lap, her head on his chest. After a few minutes of trial and error, Jazz and Valerie stopped trying to get him to explain what exactly was going on in the base of the Guys in White. Eventually settling for his first and last day there. Jazz was appalled at how her parents were to her little brother, while Valerie-
("No."
"Just a bit?"
"How can you kill someone 'just a bit?'"
"Depends. How can you be half dead?"
Danny let out a very embarrassing noise that he didn't think was possible. "Okay. You got me there, but the answer is still no. You can not kill Tucker and Sam."
Valerie let out a dramatic sigh. "What about making their school life miserable by accident?"
"…wh- how would that—?" Danny put his hand up once she opened her mouth. "Don't answer that. Fine. Whatever. Just don't kill them." He shivered at how her face lit up. He'll bring that back up when he wasn't feeling drained.)
She was Valerie.
Thankfully, after that, they noticed his more reserved mood and started to tell small stories of what they've been up to when he was gone. Their way of cheering him up. Which was more than fine. He was already done with the former topic before it even started. Plus he was interested in learning about how the two became friends. It was easy to tell that they were being careful by not mentioning his former friends and his parents. Or trying anyways. One would slip up and get elbowed and hushed by the other. Eventually, he found himself not listening. Simply just watching them mutely talk.
Part of him was angry at the fact that he was practically ripped a whole year from his life. But he tried not to show what he was feeling. The last thing he needed from Valerie and Jazz was them feeling guilty because he was jealous. 'What a great repayment.' Danny mentally rolled his eyes and sighed. His eyes falling back to the twelve year old in his lap.
The boy looked up to see the two girls staring at him. "Is something wrong?"
Danny raised an eyebrow in confusion before he shook his head. "No. I was just," his eyes darted wrong the room before landing on the window. "..thinking."
He didn't have to turn around to know they were staring at him.
There was a tense silence between the two. Jazz was the one to break it. "Danny.."
He hummed as a response.
"Do you," she hesitated. "Do you really not remember how you're…"
Danny turned to her with an eyebrow raised as her voice trailed off. "Alive?" He finished for her. Jazz nodded her head and Danny shook his own head afterwards. "No clue. I only remember hearing my name, everything went dark, then I woke up in Valerie's room."
The answer made Jazz frown. It seemed like she wanted to know as much as he did. But she was quicker in hiding her reaction with a neutral look. "We'll try to figure it out later. For now, we need to know what to do now."
That caught his attention. "What to do now?" He repeated before thinking. What could I do now? Did I plan this far ahead at the base? "I don't know." He admitted. "I don't think I can go back home and act like the past year ever happened. Not with them there. I can't really stay here with Val, either. I don't want to be a burden or anything." He gave Valerie a weak smile only to receive a frown back.
"You wouldn't be a burden." She told him. "But you are right. This is only a two bedroom apartment and I seriously doubt my dad would let you stay in mine."
"Can't we get our own apartment?" Ellie spoke up, with a yawn. The new voice shocked the three. None of them realized she had woken up mid conversation.
Danny seemed to think then shook his head. It was an interesting idea, but.. "I don't have the money for our own apartment, El."
Ellie seemed to pout, but smiled when Danny thanked her for the idea.
Danny gave Ellie a grin.
"Maybe it would be better if you didn't stay in Amity."
Silence.
Danny looked up at Jazz in surprise. "Why not?"
"Well," He kept his eyes on his sister as she spoke. "If we thought you were dead, then they definitely think so too."
He raised an eyebrow. Out of the corner of his eye he seen Valerie mouth 'they?' visibly confused on whatever Jazz was talking about. And he was sure he was the same way. They?
They..
There was an audible click.
Danny's eyes widened in realization. "You mean," he didn't continue. Instead he kept his eyes on Jazz, waiting for an answer. When he got a nod, he let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. Okay, good. We need to keep it that way."
"So," Valerie spoke up, after she caught on. "You want them to think you're actually dead?"
Danny nodded. "It would be better that way." And safer. "But I don't know if I can actually go out of Amity. Especially with whatever lie they told everyone."
Jazz looked at between the two and nodded with a smile. "I think I have an idea for that."
So, first thing's first before anyone asked about the "originally posted" thing. I am planning on editing the last two chapters. Mostly because I'm not 100% proud of it. I wrote those with my eyelids winning our nightly battle and I feel like they could be better. So, look out for that. I'll notify when I do eventually edit them.
Going to the actual chapter. I'm not sure if the whole "freak" section was sudden or not. If it was, good. I'm working on a little side story, about what exactly happened at the GIW base, that will have a little more angst into it than this one. Think of it as this is a hurt/comfort while the side story is hurt/no comfort. Exciting, right? 3 It's been draining to write so far.
I also have a tumblr page (joy-starry-arts) if you want to see me mindlessly talk about thought process when writing this, sketches of how I see the characters in this particular story, or little spoilers of later chapters/one shots that will be eventually up to share. I also might do a few polls if my beta "reader" is as indecisive as i am.
That's all for my shameless plugging.
I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and continue to enjoy the story so far. Dont be a to leave a review saying if you loved it, liked it, or hated it. im not opposed to constructive criticism.
Remember to hydrate yourselves and eat! Have a wonderful day/night.
(Also if there are any warnings I should put in this chapter notes, let me know.)
Next up: Danny contemplates the plan; Valerie and Danny properly talk?