Neutral (Danny Fenton/Phantom x Reader)

Chapter Four - Celebration

(A short, but cute, birthday themed chapter on the author's birthday? Yes. -Laney)

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Birthdays growing up weren't as bad as you may have expected them to be. Most children have a part or a get together of some sort, with friends and family, balloons and entertainment, cake, presents, maybe even a bouncy castle if you get lucky. While a traditional party like that would be nice, I would be lying if I said I would prefer that type of celebration over what I have in the ghost zone.

Here, ghosts organize my party, a different ghost each year. I wish the picking a ghost part was more civilized than just picking an age out of a hat, but I digress. Whether the ghost is friend or foe, they always take the liberty of giving the party their own personal spin and making it fun regardless of if they like me or not. And on top of that, my birthday is a different day each year depending on what day the party planning ghost finds most convenient and most fitting to my personality. It turns out that Skulker takes zodiacs very personally.

On my fifth birthday, it was a nice party at Clockwork's tower, quiet and simple yet fun.

After the tradition of randomizing my party planner and birthday came into play after that year, it began to get more interesting and dangerous.

Trust me, when a ghost plans your birthday party, something deadly or hazardous will be involved at some point during the day so Clockwork always takes precautions during these 'parties', as sometimes it can be an actual fight of life or death.

Don't even get me started on the time that time that Skulker insisted he teach me how to survive in the wild by throwing me to the wolves, quite literally, on his jungle island, that was also the first day I got tranquilized in the butt. Yes, there was more than one occasion.

On my eighth birthday, Technus decided to teach me about the wonders of the internet and memes.

That was a weird day.

For my tenth birthday, I was taken to my first concert, performed by Ember Mclaine herself. It was loud, so loud I couldn't hear myself speak, the music was good, Ember's voice was awesome, and at the end of the performance, confetti and balloons were exploded everywhere.

And on my twelfth, I was arrested by Walker's goons and spent the rest of the day running from the Ghost Zone fuz.

The food is, and always was, provided by the Lunch Lady. She nicknamed me Pumpkin when I was found on the floor with a pie tin on my head, while my hands, clothes and face were covered in the orange gooey pumpkin pie that I ripped out of the tin with my hands. I was six, and I have yet to live that down to this very day.

Birthday presents are always interesting as well...the birthday presents are received without knowledge of who gave me them, another perk of my birthday parties, where I get to guess who gave it to me based on what the present was. Some are more obvious than others.

But the best present I ever was given was on my fifth birthday, the one I spent with just Clockwork. He gave me stacks upon stacks of books for me to read, a new quilt for my bed, much heavier than my old one, and a golden pocket watch. The best one was the gift he saved for last, which was a deep green hooded cloak like his own, a gear shaped pin holding it closed. It was way too big for me, and he said I would wear it when the time was right.

He spent that day braiding my hair and reading some of the books to me until I fell asleep at night. He tucked me in my bed with my newly gifted quilt over me and gently pushed Patch under my right arm, pat my head and left the bedroom with the door cracked so I could see the green light of the view screen from the main room.

I remember I drowsily called after him, asking him to finish the last story he was reading, but he didn't come back to. It was my bedtime and there wasn't any sense in keeping me awake longer. And I'm sure my words were too incoherent to be decoded into any real words rather than sleepy babblings of a small child. I reached out my hand in the door's direction limply, like I was trying to pull him back.

But after a second, I gave up and let my fingers curl into the quilt, nuzzling my nose underneath it. The heat of my breath made it even warmer under it, and it felt nice considering how cold the tower can be.

When I woke up, there was a cupcake on my nightstand. I'm not sure who put it there, but I had my suspicions.

But, I surely didn't mind having a cupcake for breakfast!

I mean really, would anyone?

Needless to say, Clockwork wasn't pleased about finding me with frosting all over my hands, cheeks, nose and mouth.