Feelings™)
Danny released Bucky as soon as he was sure he was steady on his feet, but he wasn’t sure Bucky even noticed. He was staring at Steve, wide-eyed and startled, and standing frozen like a statue.
Steve was the real ghost from his past, Bucky thought, somewhat hysterically. Danny was the actual ghost from his past, but it wasn’t the same. He remembered Danny, but Danny didn’t remember him; this version of him, this broken, quiet, soft-spoken, skittish version of him was the one Danny had known first. It was this version of him, this survivor, this man that had been used and abused by HYDRA and come out broken and bleeding and was only barely remembering what it felt like to be human; this was the one that had earned the kindness, the loyalty, the respect that Danny had shown his past self. Danny saw him at his worst and offered him a hand up. And a literal hand in the form of his new arm that Danny liked to pretend he didn’t have as much input in as Bucky knew he did. Danny had afforded his young, brash, arrogant past self the same soft-spoken respect that Bucky had earned in his interactions with the boy. Danny was fucked up and broken and messy in his own ways, had his own scars, and had never hesitated to show Bucky that. To prove that as broken as Bucky might be, he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t the only one. Danny was the one who made him remember what it was like to laugh.
But Steve knew him before. Before he was tortured and brainwashed and fought back and got crushed over and over and over again. Before he was broken and battered and bruised. Before he had panic attacks every time he smelled cinnamon because one of the doctors that maintained his arm always chewed cinnamon gum and now he associated the scent with unbearable pain. Before he woke up screaming from nightmares and went to stand in front of the open freezer because when he was in cryo he never hurt so at least the cold was always safe. Steve knew him, loved him, when he was normal. When he was an excellent sniper and an excellent soldier and a good fighter and didn’t have a shit ton of trauma and didn’t-
A wave of cold washed over him, then Danny’s voice was there in his mind, washing over his senses.
“You’re spiraling. You need to breathe. Focus, Bucky.”
Bucky tried, he did, he really did. Tried to make his lungs draw in a breath, tried to ground himself, tried to focus.
“Can’t. Help,” he thought back, because thinking he could manage (talking not so much).
So Danny did it for him, made his lungs draw in one deep breath, then another, then another. Danny was already overshadowing him, but until Bucky had asked for it Danny hadn’t taken any physical control of his body, just spoken in his mind. And even now, all Danny did was breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, on a seemingly endless loop. Bucky’s heart slowed down (he hadn’t realised it was racing). His mind quieted, a little, with the stress on his body lessening.
“I’m okay,” he thought to Danny, carefully.
His body bled back into his control slowly, then the cold washed over him and was gone. Danny put a hand on his flesh arm, cold and grounding, and waited.
“Bucky?” Steve asked, softly, eyes wide. “Are you okay?”
Bucky didn’t know why, but he looked to Danny for reassurance. Danny nodded, encouragingly, and squeezed his arm.
“Not yet. Sort of. Not really, but also kind of? Um. I will be.”
And he knew it was true. He would be.
After Danny settled Bucky into the couch in the common room on Steve’s floor, he squeezed his shoulder one more time and walked into the elevator. He had his own person to find.
“Friday? Do you know where Spidey is?” he asked, once the elevator doors closed.
“Spider-Man is currently in his lab. Would you like me to take you there?” Friday said.
“Yes. Please.”
The elevator started moving. Danny hadn’t seen Peter for almost a week, since that day in his lab….
Danny flinched a little, and then grinned when he saw that Peter was smiling. Peter looked at Danny, head to toe, trying to reconcile that they were the same person. Phantom and Danny. Danny and Phantom. Danny Phantom?
“Yeah. Normally I only know people as either Phantom or Danny, not both. Easier to keep the secret that way,” Danny explained.
He walked forward to the bed Peter was sitting on. He hopped up next to Peter, legs dangling off the edge.
“You’re both,” Peter said, unnecessarily.
Danny scratched the back of his neck. “Yes.”
“You have a secret identity,” Peter repeated, grinning.
“I do,” Danny agreed.
“So do I,” Peter said. “But you already knew that.”
“Yeah,” Danny agreed.
Peter probably should have thought it out more. He didn’t. He just reached up and tugged his mask off with one hand. Danny watched with wide eyes.
“I’m Peter Parker.”
Danny grinned. “Nice to meet you, Peter Parker.”
They’d stared at each other for a moment, grinning like idiots.
“Does this mean we’re officially secret identity superhero vigilante buddies?” Peter had asked, smirking.
Danny laughed. “I thought we already were, but I guess it’s official now, huh?”
“As official as official can be,” Peter agreed, haughtily, and held his hand out expectantly.
Danny shook it, then they both broke down laughing. After they settled, Peter asked, “what now?”
“I don’t know,” Danny admitted, chewing his lower lip. “We get you home, I guess?”
Peter nodded like a bobblehead. “Yeah, um, right. Tony and Natasha are probably worried.”
“Probably,” Danny agreed.
They were both silent for a moment. Then light swept over Danny as he changed back into Phantom.
“That’s so cool,” Peter whispered.
Danny smirked. “I know. I’ll have Dawn bring Tony and Natasha back. You should be okay to leave now. Just, text me if you feel weird or anything, okay?”
“Right,” Peter agreed. Then, “When will I see you again?”
Danny sighed, shrugged, grinned sheepishly. “I’m supposed to be in Wakanda tomorrow morning, I’m bringing Bucky back to the Tower as soon as he’s ready. So soon, hopefully?”
Peter nodded again. “Soon.”
Dawn had shown up, then, with Tony and Natasha, and the moment had been over. They’d gone their separate ways, and Danny had been busy ever since. But no longer.
The elevator doors opened without preamble, revealing Peter Parker hunched over a lab table. His brown hair was a curly mess, he was wearing the spider suit but his mask was long since discarded. Actually- Danny squinted- his mask was what he was bent over poking with some sort of electric tool. Figures.
“Hey Spidey,” Danny greeted, loudly.
Peter fell backwards off his lab bench with a startled yelp. After a moment, his eyes landed on Danny and his suspicious squint turned into a broad smile.
“Phantom!” he called, excitedly, standing up and brushing himself off.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Danny apologized.
“Don’t worry about it,” Peter brushed off, flapping a hand dismissively, “I’m happy to see you.”
Danny smiled back, brightly. “I’m happy to see you, too.”
Then they stood there awkwardly for a moment.
“Do you want to sit down?” Peter offered, gesturing to a comfortable looking futon in the corner.
“Totally,” Danny agreed, relaxing.
They walked over to the futon and sat down, a few feet apart, bodies angled towards each other. Peter shivered once, nearly imperceptibly, and Danny internally cursed himself as he let the transformation rings wash over him. Peter blinked against the light, then smiled at him.
“I meant to ask,” he began, “can I ask you a few questions about that? The whole half ghost thing?”
“Ask away.”
“You said, before you told me you’re half ghost, that I’m almost as liminal as Danny. What does that mean, exactly?”
“Ah, right. A little less liminal than Jazz, would be the most accurate description I have. You probably have some sort of ghost power, if I had to guess. Maybe some access to Language. I’m surprised the Specter Deflector I gave you when we first met didn’t hurt you, but then again maybe that has something to do with your enhancement. It also means you can probably get away with more, self-care wise. Sleep less, eat less, things like that. For example, I’m half ghost and I don’t have to eat at all. Like, ever. Consequently, I do actually have to sleep, but not as much as a full human my age. With your enhancement, though, I’m not sure how it would interact.”
“Huh,” Peter said, “that explains a lot, actually. I’m stronger than Cap, but I don’t have to eat as much to feel full. I sleep less, too, but I’ve been told that’s a super soldier thing?”
“Bucky is the same way about sleeping, yeah. So that tracks.”
Peter was quiet for a moment. “Can I ask something personal?”
“I reserve the right not to answer, but sure.”
“You said your parents were ghost hunters, that they tried to kill you and your sister because you were liminal, but if you’re really half ghost, then…?”
Damn, Pete. What a way to start a conversation. Or continue a conversation. Same difference.
“Yeah. Um,” Danny took a deep breath, ran a hand through his hair. He locked eyes with Peter. “It’s not a fun story. Are you sure you want to hear it?”
“I’m sure,” Peter answered, jaw set in determination.
“What I said about them being ghost hunters and spending my childhood training me to hunt ghosts was all true. My sister Jazz really is the only reason I got through it. There was an accident with the portal, when my parents created it, it wouldn’t turn on so I unplugged it and went inside and…well, the on switch was on the inside and apparently unplugging it wasn’t enough to stop it from working. It punched a hole through reality through, well, through me. We don’t know why exactly I only half died, instead of all the way died, but it happened. I spent….I spent a long time hating myself. The ghost half of me, I mean. I’d been taught my whole life that ghosts were evil, soulless creatures…” Danny laughed without humor.
“I spiraled. I don’t remember a lot of it, actually. But Jazz, that’s my sister, she pulled me out of it somehow. Helped me accept my whole self, or whatever. I kept it hidden from our parents successfully for a long time. But one night I was out as Phantom, just flying, and they managed to catch me. I woke up strapped to a lab table with my chest cut open and my mother poking around my insides. I managed to transform back but….it didn’t matter. They didn’t care.
“Jazz knocked our parents out, saved me, and Scarlett showed up not even a minute later. She’d been on her way, Jazz was just closer. We went into the Realms, which gave me time to heal, physically if not mentally. What we said about legal custody was total bullshit. We got a magic ghost that warps reality by granting wishes to make it so in so far as the legal system and all but a select few were concerned, we’d always been Daniel and Jasmine Paris. The ghost made our parents forget we ever existed, or ghosts ever existed, or that they were ever ghost hunters. They teach high schoolers PE now. It’s…a lot, some days. But I’ve had a lot of time to move on. Jazz was with us for a few years, but I made her leave for Harvard eventually. She’s too smart to sit around protecting me all day, especially when I can protect myself.”
It was quiet for a moment. Then, “Thank you. For trusting me. And telling me the story. I’m sure that was hard. Can I give you a hug?”
Danny nodded and scooted across the futon into Peter’s outstretched arms. Peter wrapped him in a tight hug, Danny’s head pressed to his chest. Danny took the opportunity to wipe the tears on his face away and just breathe for a minute. He clung to Peter and listened to his heartbeat and remembered how to breathe. He’d never told anyone that story before. He’d never needed to; everyone that was important enough to need to know had been there. He had never honestly expected to find another person that important. He was glad he had. And he was even more glad that Peter Parker was that person.