Danny swung his legs back and forth, zoning out as he sat on the kitchen counter listening to his parents prattle on about that convention thingy they had come back from a couple of days ago.

"They thought we were crazy, as usual." he vaguely heard his mom say from the living room.

Danny sipped his chocolate milk idly.

"Awe, c'mon Mads," Danny's dad consoled. "As long as we still have our theories and know-how, we got this! We'll just have to do it alone."

"But that's the thing, Jack! We need them to believe us! We need their help! Without them funding us, we can't build the portal! And its not like we can give them real proof until we build the portal, and we can't build the portal WITHOUT THEIR FUNDS!!" Danny jumped at his mother's suddenly raised voice and almost split his milk all over the counter.

"Jeez, Mads, I don't know what to say...let's just keep going as we have and hope we can run into another random ghost to document like those little wolf ghosts we ran into long ago..." Danny tuned out his father's voice, getting bored of the conversation.

He hopped off the counter, spilling chocolate milk on the floor. He started trudging across the tile, resigned to camping out in his room for a couple of hours until Wulf would come for him. Today was Tuesday. Wulf brought him to the ghost zone on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.

They had a system now, which Danny liked. He would hang out with Clockwork and Wulf and even some of his new friends he had made in the ghost zone.
Danny especially had a good time with a certain ghost kid named Youngblood.

He still remembered when he had first met him. Which had happened, of course, only because Danny had broken the rules.

"Your dad told you that you couldn't leave the tower?" The small ghost that Danny had just met asked. "Yeah," Danny replied. "He said it was too dangerous in the ghost zone for humans. And Clockwork's not my dad." Danny's thoughts momentarily halted at that. Did he think of Clockwork as his dad? He took care of him more than his own daddy...

"Oh yeah, 'cause you're human. Duh." The small ghost said in his slightly annoying voice. He then grinned wide, showing off his buckteeth. "But since this Clockwork guy said the zone was too dangerous for pathetic humans like you, no need to worry. I'll protect you." he said teasingly, chuckling.

Danny frowned at the annoying little ghost. "Oh, shut up. I can take care of myself. That's why I broke the rules. Also, what was your name again?" Danny asked, a little embarrassed that he had forgotten again.

"It's Youngblood," Youngblood muttered for the fourth time, rolling his eyes and popping a marine hat on Danny's head.

Danny ignored the eye roll and adjusted his new hat. "Didn't you say you had a talking pet that could turn into different things?" He asked.

"Yeah," Youngblood chirped arrogantly. "But he's not my pet. He's my Assistant, and my friend. My only friend actually, before you came along. And he's currently at Prince Argon's castle stealing food so we can have some snacks."

"Prince...Aragon?" Danny asked, puzzled. He thought that kind of stuff only existed in fairy tales. But before Youngblood could enlighten him on the manner, Danny thought of something else.

"Wait, you think of me as a friend?" Danny asked, feeling a strange sort of joy welling up inside him.

"Well, yeah." Youngblood answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I saw you lost in the middle of the ghost zone, you came to my lair, told me about your stupid parents while I told you about my dead ones, and agreed to play pirates and marines with me. Ahoy!!" He yelled suddenly, thrusting his toy sword in the air, his large pirate hat falling over his face. Danny laughed hard, the joy he now recognized as the happiness of finding a friend his own age finally bursting out.

"You scurvy pirate!" Danny shouted, raising his fake gun at Youngblood, pretending to shoot while Youngblood gleefully scurried out of the way, pretending to weave around the bullets.

Meanwhile, two ghosts floated in the purple doorway, the two children inside not noticing them.

"Huh," a skeletal parrot squawked. "Finally, after all of these years of being Youngblood's only friend, he finally found someone his own age to play with."

The other figure, a large, esperanto-speaking wolf ghost swiped a ghostly fillet mignon from the parrot's talons and popped it in his mouth, chewing worriedly. He ignored the parrot's glare and spoke anyway. "Clockwork sent me to find Danny..." Wulf mumbled. "That boy is so dead."

Danny frowned for a moment, setting what was left of his chocolate milk on his bedstand. He had gotten in a lot of trouble with Clockwork after that. He had gotten a lecture about how some ghosts would not hesitate to kill a human that they found in the zone (which had kinda scared Danny), and then he had to wipe down Clockwork's...future-y...mirror-things for three hours! It was exhausting, but Clockwork had given him some ghost cookies afterwards.

He had then fallen asleep right on Clockwork's lap, glowing cookie crumbs all over his face, completely unaware to Clockwork baffled expression while Wulf laughed at him, or Wulf gently taking him home and tucking him in bed, leaving a ghost cookie on his bedstand.

The night had ultimately ended well, as it usually did when Danny hung outwit his ghostly family.

Danny's smile faltered. He had called them his family...

...were they his family? He didn't really know what a family acted like. Well, technically he did, but did his undead friends really want to be his family? His parents sure didn't...maybe there was something wrong with him...

He would ask Clockwork about it once Wulf picked him up.
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Sorry for the short chapter!
I hate it. Blame the writers block.
And yeh, Danny will be half ghost eventually. (;
Please vote if you enjoyed! It means so much!
Chapter art and Danny Phantom do not belong to me...