The Ghost Prince
Danny was groggy when he woke up. The blankets tucked around him were pleasantly cool, sliding against his skin as he sat up and rubbed at his eyes. He was in his bedroom in Long Now. He reached a hand back to rub at his wings, which were out and draped across his shoulders. The feathers were soft and fluffy under his fingers, and Danny vaguely remembered Clockwork rubbing ectoplasm into them as he fell asleep. That led Danny to look around for Clockwork, who was not in the room but was surely in Long Now somewhere. Begrudgingly, Danny wrapped his wings around him and drifted out of bed.
Clockwork was in his workshop unravelling a paradox when Danny found him. When Danny entered, he looked up and smiled at the picture. Danny’s white wings were wrapped around him like a blanket, the feathers shining softly in the lights. His hair was mussed from sleep. He was wearing the star-patterned pajama pants that Clockwork had helped him put on the night before, but his chest was bare under his wings. Green eyes followed Clockwork’s movements as he pulled a cover over the paradox he had been working on and flew over to Danny.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
Danny rubbed his eyes. “Kinda out of it, if I’m honest.”
Clockwork hummed noncommittally. “That is to be expected. Perhaps some milk and a cookie while you wake up?”
As per usual when Clockwork offered food, Danny shrugged and nodded quietly. So Clockwork wrapped an arm around Danny and led him into the kitchen, pulling a cookie out of the tin on the counter and pressing it into his hand. For a moment, Danny just held it and stared at it, as if he couldn’t quite remember what he was supposed to be doing. Then he took a tentative bite and closed his eyes as he chewed. Clockwork poured him a cup of milk and set it on the counter next to his elbow. Very slowly, Danny ate the cookie and drank the glass of milk. When he was finished, he turned to Clockwork, and his eyes looked a little clearer.
“So what’s on the agenda for the day?” he asked, absently running a hand over his wing.
“I would rather wait until your siblings arrive to explain,” Clockwork told him. Then, “Why don’t you go get dressed while we wait?”
“Okay,” Danny agreed warily, and drifted off towards his bedroom.
Clockwork felt it the moment the doors to Long Now opened, admitting Scarlett, Winter, Sebastian, Alexander, Jasmine, and Danielle. As soon as Danny came back down, they could begin.
Danny re-entered the kitchen anxiously, wings fluttering around him. He was wrapped in the deep purple robes Clockwork had gifted him at some point, the ones with slits for his wings because now that they were out he was unusually reluctant to tuck them away again. He wrapped them around his arms again, clutching the corners gently. His family smiled back at him from the kitchen. Jazz, Bash, Alex, Scarlett, Winter, and Ellie. They all had various facial expressions on, but none of them were…bad, per se.
“Hey,” Alex said, softly, and walked forward to wrap Danny up in his arms.
Danny relaxed and exhaled, having not realized until that moment how tense he was. Ellie, never one to be outdone, dramatically flew forward and wrapped her arms around the both of them.
“Group hug!” she exclaimed, delighted.
Everyone started laughing, and one by one they joined the huddle. It was…nice, surprisingly so. Danny had never gotten all these people together in one place before, but it felt right. After a moment, the hug broke up, but Alex stayed next to Danny, one arm slung over his shoulder.
“So, Clockwork, wanna tell us what we’re doing here?” Winter asked. “Not that I’m not digging the family reunion vibes, because I totally am, but this is a little weird, even for us.”
Danny turned to Clockwork expectantly, because Winter wasn’t wrong.
“This is a very important day,” Clockwork started, voice soft and solemn. “Ereshkigal has chosen Daniel to be the next Ghost King. Today, though, he is to be crowned Prince.”
“I’m what?!” Danny exclaimed.
Alex squeezed his shoulders. “Let him finish.”
So Danny waited.
“While this may be intimidating,” Clockwork continued, “this isn't actually much different than what Daniel has been doing this entire time anyway.”
“You’ve been solving problems in the Realms for how long now?” Scarlett chimed in, voice soothing. “This is just more of that.”
Clockwork smiled, showing teeth. “With some extra ceremony. The tradition of the crowning demands that you travel with your family to The Core, to be crowned by Ereshkigal herself.”
“So that’s what the family reunion, that’s not technically a reunion because we’ve never actually all been together before, is about!” Ellie exclaimed, pleased.
“Correct,” Clockwork said. “We should get going.”
“Grandfather,” Danny protested, weakly. “What if I’m not ready?”
In an instant, Clockwork was in front of Danny, hands firmly on his shoulders.
“Daniel,” he started, “I know this is scary. Truly, I do. And I cannot make you feel worthy if you do not feel it for yourself. But I can tell you with all the sincerity of all time that you will be the greatest king the Realms has ever seen, and it will all be because you are yourself. Do you understand?”
Clockwork’s voice was serious, but his eyes were gentle. Danny nodded, unable to summon words, and folded forward into Clockwork’s robes to hide himself there once again. After a moment, he pulled back.
“Okay,” he agreed. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Peter stared at the ceiling in his bedroom (the one in the apartment he shared with aunt May) and tried to sort out his thoughts. He had wanted to kiss Danny. Like, really kiss him. Like, in a romance way. And Danny had cuddled with him and told him personal things and called him Petey-pie in the most painfully fond tone Peter had ever heard. So why was it so hard for him to wrap his head around that?
“Pete?” May called, standing in the open doorway. “You okay?”
Peter groaned dramatically in answer.
“O-kay,” May said slowly, walking in and sitting on his bed, right by his feet. She rested her hand on his ankle.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Peter sighed. “There’s this boy,” he started, because he told May everything, or had at least started to after he told her about Spider-Man.
“You like him?” May asked, in a knowing voice.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. He’s- he’s cute and he’s really nice and he’s a science nerd and I feel like he gets me and he called me Petey-pie.”
“Hm,” May hummed, sympathetically, and drew circles on his ankle with her thumb. “So what’s the problem?”
“He’s a boy?”
“Is that a problem?”
“I- I mean, I don’t know. I always thought- I really liked MJ, and well, I don’t know. I guess I just thought I was straight. Not that there’s anything wrong with not being straight, of course, but I just- I didn’t think I liked boys like that,” Peter rambled.
“You’re overcomplicating it,” May told him. “Don’t worry about whether you like boys in general, worry about whether you like this boy.”
“But what if he doesn’t like me back?”
“So you do like him?”
Peter did a double-take. “I. I mean. I guess I do, yeah. But I don’t even know if he likes boys and that's not really something you ask and he’s older than me and ugh. Why does this have to be so complicated.”
“Oh honey,” May sighed. “How much older, exactly?”
“I think he’s eighteen?” Peter offered, hesitantly, because he actually wasn’t that sure.
May sighed in relief. “Pete, that’s not that much older. I know it might seem like it now, but your mom was five years older than your dad.”
“That’s not the part I’m worried about, May.”
“I know.”
“May?”
“Yes?”
“Can we get Thai food tonight?”
“Sure, Pete. We can get Thai food. And you can tell me all about your crush.”
“Maaaaaaa-aaay.”
May laughed.
“You must continue on your own from this point forward,” Clockwork told him.
Danny paused and looked around at his family. The ectoplasm here was thick and charged, and Danny could feel the power coursing through his veins. The Core loomed ahead, a green so bright he could barely stand to look at it. Okay. Okay. He could do this.
“I’ll see you later, I guess?” he offered, and his family members laughed.
“You got this!”
“Good luck!”
“I believe in you!”
“Have fun!”
“It’ll be okay!”
“Does this make me a princess?”
The last one was Ellie, voice teasing, and it made Danny laugh as he flew forward. He wasn’t sure how this was supposed to work, exactly, so he just drifted until the only thing he could hear was the hum of ectoplasm around him.
There was a charge in the air, one Danny had only a split-second to register, then everything changed.
Suddenly he was standing in a bustling village, with horse drawn carts and dirt roads and vendors calling out to try and sell him things. It reminded him of the streets of the smaller villages in Wakanda, the sights, the smells, and the sounds. He didn’t panic, because he could still feel the heavy weight of the ectoplasm pressing around him, could almost taste the energy on his tongue. Whatever this was, it hadn’t actually taken him to a different place.
A man pulling a horse along bumped him in the shoulder.
“Sorry about that, lad,” the man apologized.
“It’s alright,” Danny assured, then, “Um, I was actually hoping someone could help me?”
The man nodded encouragingly.
“My name is Phantom, and I’m looking for Ereshkigal.”
“Well of course ye are! You just want to head down the main road there-” the man pointed, “up the hill, take a left at Old Bess’s farm, then follow the path through the forest till ya get to the first clearing.”
Then the man was waving and walking away.
With a sigh, Danny started drifting along the main road. The directions were easy enough to follow, and he soon found himself drifting down the path in the forest. There was snow falling gently, and the trees were bare. The forest floor was already blanketed in snow. Danny took a moment to admire the icicles hanging off the tree branches before he continued on.
It took him a moment to spot her when he came to the clearing. She was young, looked more human than ghost, wearing a cloak that looked like it was made of winter itself and a crown of ice. When she saw him she smiled.
“Phantom,” she said softly, her voice like bells, “welcome.”
Danny knew then that he’d found Ereshkigal.
“Thank you,” he replied.
Ereshkigal tilted her head to the side, studying him, a bemused smile on her face. “There is no need for you to be wary of me. I have, after all, only what power you give me over you.”
“What does that mean?”
She laughed. “You are split between two Realms, Daniel Phantom. I have only as much reign over you as you allow. You are, after all, half-alive. You could live within that Realm, if you so chose.”
“I wouldn’t. Choose that, I mean.”
Ereshkigal studied him with a contemplative air this time. “I don’t suppose you would, would you?” she murmured, almost more to herself than to him.
“Phantom,” she started, “you are my chosen one. My champion, so to speak, for the hardships that are to come. Your task will not be easy. But it is your task, not another’s. Do you think, somehow, you could find it within you to become my Prince?”
Danny swallowed, took a deep breath, and nodded. A feeling of rightness settled over him, power he didn’t know he could possess sparking through him, the cold wind in the clearing picking up. He didn’t know when or how he had become so certain, but finally, he was being asked. And he knew what his answer was.
“Yes.”
And she smiled. “Daniel Phantom,” she intoned, in the voice of a thousand voices, “come forward.”
So he did, something not unlike instinct guiding him, and knelt before her. She took off her cloak, the one that looked like a piece of winter, and draped it over his shoulders. It settled with a soft sound, blanketing him in a feeling of cool safety. Then she took the crown of delicate icicles off her head and settled it on top of his own, brushing his bangs out of his face. She cupped his cheek then, with one petite hand, and smiled down at him.
“You possess the strength you need within you. Be brave, my Prince.”
Then suddenly the snow and the clearing were gone, and Danny was floating in that thick ectoplasm again, his family in front of him. He blinked once, hard. Then he reached up to feel the cloak clasped around his shoulders, the crown on his head. That was real.
“Danny?” Ellie called, the first one to spot him.
Then they were all flying towards him, wrapping their arms around him, patting him on the back and congratulating him. He leaned into them, letting the affection wash over him. He smiled.