Neutral (Danny Fenton/Phantom x Reader)

Chapter Two - Home

Clockwork had been prepared for my arrival long before I came here. I could tell because there were a stack of parenting and child care books on a bookshelf in my own bedroom. Speaking of bedroom, another way I knew was from the bed that was ready for me, big enough for me to grow into with time, clothes just the right size for my age, and extra clothes in various sizes ranging from 'It's a little big' to 'I'm never going to be that tall, you're kidding yourself' for when I got older. Almost all the shirts had long sleeves, say for a good armful of t-shirts and a couple tank tops.

At the time, I didn't know why, but I quickly figured out that it's extremely rare that the tower feels like it's at a comfortable temperature, it didn't take me long to understand why Clockwork wears a heavy cloak and gloves all the time. Ever since I got here, Clockwork told me to bundle up, always wear thick socks and a long sleeved anything over the outfit I was already wearing.

Never wear shorts or tank tops unless turning into a popsicle is your goal in life, and the fact that the tower is made of stone doesn't help the cold problem.

It also took me a while to get used to phasing through walls, there's a bit of a learning curve to it when you're as young as I was. I can't count how many times I almost fell through the floor, or phased through a wall out of the tower's safety by accident

Sure, it could've been a massive disaster if I had been kidnapped or something, but it never got that far out of hand.

However, the time I had my first run in with the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter, that was very close to what would have been filed under the massive disaster list.

It had probably been around two or three weeks after I was taken under Clockwork's wing when he had a meeting with the Observants. I've come to find that they bother him a lot, apparently, there's always something wrong in the world, something that they feel needs to be fixed.

So, Clockwork gave me some crayons, told me to stay put in the tower and to behave until he returned. I had nodded, saluting him and shouting, "Affirmative!"

I had sat still for what felt like hours, I drew a ghost face and put it on my head like a mask. I couldn't see out of it, but I stomped around in the tower making ghoulish noises and growls. At some point, I made myself float and phase through walls for a better experience playing pretend. Without realizing it though, I ended up phasing out of the tower and into the Ghost Zone. By the time I realized what I had done, I was at the point of no return.

Well, maybe not no return.

More like the point of 'It's going to be difficult getting back to the tower, I'm so small it's going to take forever, what have I done?!'.

I looked behind me.

The tower was so far, and I've never been this large of a distance away from home sweet home, let alone outside of the tower at all.

Clockwork said if I ever get lost, to stay where I am and he'll come find me.

And there I was, floating in the air with my legs crossed in a sitting position, with nothing to entertain me other than picking at the Velcro straps on my shoes.

Why is waiting so boring? How can adults put up with this?

It felt like I had been floating there for years, when it had probably been just three minutes, when I heard the whirring of jet packs. I turned around in confusion, just in time for a net to be thrown at my face and trap me. I had screamed when I saw what floated in front of me. A giant, metal ghost with flaming green hair, or what I assumed to be at least.

His hand picked up the net by its neck, where it was tied together by heavy balls on stings. The ghost untied it and pulled me out of it by the back of my shirt collar.

"A human?"

His other hand came up to my face, taking hold of my cheeks and turning my head from side to side.

"How curious. You must be a runt."

I swatted his hand away from my face and hissed through bared teeth, a few drops of spit landed on his dumb bucket head from the gap of where one of my front teeth finally fell out a few days ago.

"I'm four! Not a runt! Let me go, big dumb ugly head!"

His glowing eyes squinted at me, before roaring loudly in my face.

I squeezed my eyes shut as my hair flew around like his screaming was wind. When he was done with his attempt at making me scared, my foot flew up and knocked his head off his shoulders.

"That's rude!" I screeched at him, my eyes still closed, I could feel my face burning with irritation. When I opened them, I saw a small, no, tiny is a better word, green ghost staring back at me. His face reflected in both horror and anger, little green fists bunched up.

"I will destroy you, whelp."

I couldn't help but to laugh. I tried not to, honest, but it was just so funny. Here's this green twerp that's smaller than a four year old, six inches tall at the most, threatening to destroy me. But the funniest part that had made me audibly laugh was his voice. It went from dark and gruff to high and squeaky, like the guy sucked the helium out of birthday balloons.

"What?! Why are you laughing?!"

I smiled and shrugged, not wanting to hurt his feeling. Instead of continuing my giggle fit, I held out my finger to him.

"I'm (Y/N)!"

He glared, scrambling off the battle suit's neck and returned himself inside of his helmet before he reattached it to the rest of the body.

"I don't need to know your name, child!" His voice was deep again.

"That's okay. What's yours?"

He didn't answer, he grumbled instead and put me under his arm. "Runt or not, you'll still make a good addition to my collection."

I tilted my head and scratched my left cheek, they were still cold from his metal armor.

He stuck two chain bracelets on my wrists with his free hand, they began glowing green and connected themselves together like handcuffs.

Something behind him on his body made the whirring sound I heard earlier, but he didn't have a chance to take off with me, as he was interrupted by the voice of the best ghost in the whole Ghost Zone.

"I believe that's my child you're trying to kidnap, Skulker."

Skulker, I was assuming that was the metal ghost, turned around and looked at Clockwork with a puzzled expression, when he realized who it was, his eyes grew big and his mouth hung open a bit.

"This runt is your child?" Skulker asked in disbelief, and Clockwork simply nodded.

"Yes, and I would appreciate it if you would let her go."

Skulker easily complied, putting me down to float in the air. I flew to his side as fast as I could, spinning around to see Skulker's expression. He looked like he didn't know what was going on, but the ectoplasmic handcuffs disappeared off my wrists, allowing my hands to fall to my sides. I would've left them there, but my left hand reached for Clockwork's and I held it as tight as my small hand's grip could manage.

"I...I don't get it." He stated, still staring at us like we were aliens. It didn't need to be explained to me after that, that humans are foreign here. I was the first human to even enter the Ghost Zone.

"You don't need to. Don't do that ever again." Clockwork said sternly, pulling me with him as we floated back to the tower. I was afraid that Clockwork would be mad at me, but he knows everything, he knows it was an accident and I didn't have the intention of disobeying him.

Instead of a yelling fit that parents would normally do when their child didn't listen, Clockwork just sat with me on the floor for a while, telling me stories while I drew pictures for them to put in a little book that we would make ourselves.

One thing that has stuck with me since that day though, was that Clockwork called me his child.