Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Moonlight was shining through the trees, illuminating the still damp grass. No sounds could be heard except for the faint sound of footsteps stalking around the trees. Two figures were quietly making their way through the forest, keeping their steps quiet as not to alert any possible prey of their arrival. The biggest figure, that appeared to be a man, looked around with yellow eyes, sniffing the air. The smaller figure, a woman, was doing the same in a different area.

Both kept moving forward towards their usual hunting spot, making sure that the wind was not behind them so no prey would smell them before the two of them smelled the prey. The man stopped for a moment, the wind changed direction and was now coming from their left. He turned his head and took a deep breath. The woman also stopped, nose twitching as she looked at her partner in anticipation. She saw him perk up and nod in her direction. Amanda grinned, her mouth widening showing sharp teeth and elongated fangs. She already knew what it meant.

Tom had caught the scent of a deer further into the forest. Having been together for many years, no words had to be exchanged between the two. They already knew the roles they had to play. Tom followed the scent directly, while Amanda went around so she could intercept the deer when it would run away from the approaching Tom.

Making sure not to lose the scent as she made her way around, Amanda got in position, waiting for Tom to drive the deer towards her. She didn’t have to wait long. A flurry of sound was making its way towards her. She could see two shadows darting through the trees.

They were nearly there when the sound of something crashing into the ground and a young male voice cursing up a storm distracted them from their prey, causing it to change direction and disappear into the bushes. Tom was especially disgruntled, swearing under his breath.

“Now what in god’s name made such a ruckus?”

Amanda shrugged and started scenting the air. Because of their strong sense of smell, rivalling that of Blutbads, Amanda immediately picked up the scent of a young male with a strong stench of death. She shared a look with Tom, who had also caught onto the smell, giving him a nod and both of them took off following that foreboding scent, hoping they weren't too late.

They darted through the trees and bushes, following the scent until they could see a figure between the trees. The figure was short and clearly agitated, pacing around with their hands on their head. The scent of death Amanda had picked up was somewhat overwhelming this close by. It took them a little bit to get used to it. Observing the figure, it became clear that this was a child. A scared, possibly very ill or injured child, alone in a dark forest in the middle of the night. Amanda made a decision and before Tom could stop her, she stepped towards the boy, making her movements big and loud so that the child would know someone was approaching.

“Hello? Do you need help?”

The boy visibly flinched and got in a defensive position. His head whipped towards her and Tom, revealing two glowing green orbs that should be his eyes. A low growl escaped the boy’s lips as he took a step back.

“No, no! You don’t have to worry! We won’t hurt you. We only want to help. Are you injured?”

Tom wisely let Amanda take the lead as she had a more gentle nature. Tom had never really known how to talk to kids without making them scared of him. The growling stopped and the boy tilted his head to the side, observing them. Luckily for them, it was a full moon tonight and the dark clouds that had hidden it from view decided to leave at that moment, giving them a clear view of the boy. This, of course, also meant that he got a clear view of them.

Maybe he had heard the sincerity in her voice or maybe the fact that he could properly see them now made him lower his protective stance. Amanda could now see that the boy was not visibly injured, which was a relief. His clothes were dirty however. Probably from his apparent fall onto the forest floor, if the sound he had made was anything to go off of. Aside from the glowing eyes, she also noted sharp claws and fangs along with pointed ears. He was a wesen.

“Where are your parents, little one?”

This made the boy look to the side, not answering them. He transformed back to his human appearance. His eyes stopped glowing and the fangs and claws retracted. Amanda looked at Tom, a plea clear in her eyes. Tom signed and waved his hand at her, signalling for her to do what she wanted, reluctant as it was.

“My name is Amanda and this is Tom, we are Fuchsbaus. You are?”

The boy looked confused for a second before quietly answering her.

“Danny.”

“Danny, do you have a place to stay?”

He slightly shook his head, making her heart ache from the way Danny’s shoulders had sagged at the question.

“Come, you can stay with us if you like? Or we can take you to the police if you would rather go there now?”

Danny sharply shook his head.

“No! No! Uhem. I mean- sure if you are okay with me staying?”

Taken aback by the outburst, Amanda took a second longer to reply.

“Of course you can stay with us! We wouldn’t have offered otherwise. Now come, come. Let’s get you cleaned up and somewhere warm.”

Tom nodded his assent and turned around to start walking back. She gestured for Danny to follow her and Tom back to their little cabin. Hunting could wait for a bit. They had a cub to take care of.

Chapter Text

The boy was skittish, always looking around for exits. He never left his back turned towards them, keeping his guard up. In a way, Tom wanted to praise him for his vigilance. They were essentially two strangers who lived in a remote cabin in the woods. It put him more at ease to know that the boy wasn’t that quick to trust. If he had been overly friendly, Tom would have immediately suspected him of trying to trick them. Amanda had done a good job in letting the child settle in. She had given Danny some of his old clothes. Sure, they were too big on the boy, but it was better than the dirty and ripped clothes he had been wearing. Danny had also taken a shower, coming out looking more refreshed and calmer. If he had noticeably red and puffy eyes, nobody commented on it.

Amanda had ushered him to their couch where he had been given a steaming cup of tea and a blanket. He had taken a few seconds just smelling the tea, before taking a small sip. He had then waited for a full minute before he continued drinking. Tom wasn’t offended, he knew Danny had just been checking to make sure it wasn’t drugged, making him nod in approval. None of them said anything. Both Tom and Amanda recognized that they wouldn’t be getting much out of the boy at this time. He was clearly too upset and guarded to give them honest answers. Not long after Danny had drank his tea, his head started to bob. Amanda was the first to notice, taking the cup from his hands and providing the boy with a pillow, helping him lay down. His breathing slowed down almost immediately. He must have been really tired to fall asleep so fast in a strange environment.

Tom made eye contact with Amanda and gestured with his head towards the kitchen. They sat themselves at the kitchen table with a cup of tea in their hands. From his position at the head of the table, Tom had a clear view of the couch, making sure the boy was still in his sight at all times.

Amanda was the first one to break the silence.

“The scent…”

“Mhm, it’s very faint now.”

“You don’t think…?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“His heart.”

She looked at Tom with that heartbroken look of hers. The same one she had used when they had watched the Titanic together and Rose was trying to convince Jack to go on the piece of wood.

“I know. It is very slow, but steady.”

Tom took Amanda’s hand and gave it a little squeeze in reassurance.

“We will ask him about it.”

Amanda turned to look in the direction of the couch.

“What could have happened to the poor boy? You saw his reaction when I brought up his parents.”

“I don’t know. Maybe he is a runaway, if his reaction to the police is anything to go off of.”

“Poor thing.”

“Did you notice his confusion?”

“When I said we were Fuchsbau? Yes, he looked like he had never heard of it. Could it be…?”

“It could. Maybe he only recently woged and lost control of his instincts?”

“Maybe. When we found him he was only partially woged.”

They sat for a bit in contemplative silence. Tom sighed and made to stand up.

“Well, no use sitting here and speculating.”

“Right.”

“Go get some sleep, I will keep an eye out.”

Amanda shook her head with a fond smile. She also stood up and gave him a light kiss before moving towards the bedroom.

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

With that she disappeared around the corner. Tom grabbed the cups and placed them in the sink. He would wash them tomorrow. Moving back to the living area, he grabbed a newspaper and sat himself down on the armchair opposite the couch. There were only a few hours left until dawn, so staying up the rest of the night was not really a problem for him. He was still a bit disgruntled that their hunt had been disturbed, but he couldn’t really stay mad at a kid.

The boy would have a lot of answering to do, however. Especially regarding his health and woge. Tom turned a page of the newspaper. Oh look, there is a discount on vacuums. They needed to get a new one a while ago, but had kept postponing it. He will show it to Amanda in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~

The first rays of sunshine shining through the window signaled the start of a new day. Tom put down his crossword puzzle that he had started after finishing the newspaper when he heard movement from the bedroom. He looked at Danny who was still sleeping like the dead. The boy hadn’t really moved, except for turning around once in a while. Tom got up and went to the kitchen to start making breakfast, putting on the kettle to have some nice tea ready for when Amanda emerged from the bathroom.

It didn’t take long for her to walk into the kitchen and drape herself over his back, giving him a kiss on the neck. Tom gave her a low hum.

“Morning.”

“Morning, love.”

Not taking his eyes from the pan he was cooking eggs in, he slightly turned his head towards the living room. Amanda got the message and made her way over to wake the boy. He could hear some soft murmuring and the sound of blankets being thrown aside, making him smile a little. Amanda walked back into the kitchen with a very tired looking Danny shuffling his way after her.

“The eggs will be ready soon.”

Amanda hummed and grabbed the cups out of the cupboard, pouring the heated water into them and adding the tea, making sure to do all that in the view of the boy. Not that it really mattered, as Danny was too busy yawning to really pay attention to much around him. Not a morning person, noted. They ate and drank in comfortable silence. Tom and Amanda had shared a look when Danny first started stabbing his plate of eggs before starting to eat. Probably his hunting instincts kicking in for a moment.

When they were all done eating, they started cleaning the table. Danny also started grabbing his plate and moving to the sink. Amanda gently stopped him and took the plate from him. He started protesting, but a single look from Amanda made him shut his mouth and silently sit back at the table. Since Tom had cooked, Amanda was in charge of cleaning the dishes. Tom continued drinking his tea while looking at the boy who was getting increasingly antsy.

“Go help dry the dishes.”

Danny looked up at him, confused. Tom gestured with his head towards the sink and Amanda. That made him quickly get up to go help. Amanda handed him a towel. The only sounds were the sound of water and dishes clinking together and Danny’s quiet inquiries of where the dishes needed to be stored.

After the dishes were done, they all sat at the table again. Danny, who had calmed down a little bit doing the dishes, was visibly getting nervous again. Tom cleared his throat, but let Amanda do the talking. She had always been better with kids. Their nephews and nieces adored her, after all.

Chapter Text

Danny was tired. As he stared at the middle-aged couple in front of him, he just wanted to crawl into a hole. He knew that they had a lot of questions. Who wouldn’t? They had let him be for the rest of the night and he was grateful for that, but it was clear that now they wanted answers. Honestly, it had been an exhausting 24 hours.

It had been a normal day like any other. Danny had gone to school, fought Boxy, was too late for English, fought Boxy again, got put in a locker by Dash and went home with Tucker and Sam complaining about math homework. When he had gotten home, mom had asked him to help them clean the attic. Reluctant to do so, but having no viable excuse to deny them, he went up with his parents and Jazz to the attic. There were a lot of old boxes and layers of dust. The most eventful thing that had happened was Jazz screaming her head off because a spider got in her hair. That was until Danny opened up a box and found some old documents. He was just going to put them away when he caught sight of his name.

Looking at it, the papers were adoption papers. He was adopted. Danny had confronted his parents about it and they were nothing but apologetic about not telling him. According to them, his biological parents had died in a house fire. Danny had survived because they had covered him in a wet towel and had managed to pass him to one of the neighbors through the window. The couple themselves had been unable to do the same as the fire had spread too quickly, blocking the window. The fire brigade had come too late to save them. The couple didn’t have any other relatives who could take in the one year old Danny, so he got put up for adoption. Maddy had at that time discovered that she could not have another child because of too much exposure to ecto-radiation. So she and Jack had started looking to adopt and after meeting Danny, it had been love at first sight.

Danny had cried. It had been a lot to process. He was adopted, his parents had died saving him. His birth name was Daniel Francis Nightengale. After a lot of crying, from everyone involved, and hugging, he had reassured them that no matter what, they were still his mom and dad and Jazz was still his annoying older sister. Nothing could change that. He just needed some time alone. Jazz had backed him up, saying some stuff about him needing time to compartmentalize. They had let him go back down. At first he wanted to immediately go to Sam and Tucker, but changed his mind while walking down the stairs. Right now he needed some time to think on his own, so he checked to make sure nobody was following him and made his way down to the basement, turned ghost and flew into the Ghost Zone. He was just floating around, not paying much attention to his surroundings when a green sticky note came into existence on his forehead, causing him to be blinded for a second. The next thing he knew, he was falling through a portal into a dark forest, the shock causing him to detransform.

When he was done cursing Clockwork, Danny looked at the sticky note.

“Have fun.”

He crumbled it and furiously threw it into the bushes. He tried calling Tucker or Sam, but the Fenton Phone didn’t work. He angrily started pacing, losing a bit of control over his ghost side. Not long after that, Tom and Amanda had found him. When he first saw them, Danny knew they were not entirely human. He couldn't pinpoint how he knew that, they just felt different.

What had made it clear that he was in another dimension was the fact that they had not questioned or reacted to his less than human features. He had followed them, because well, he had nowhere else to go and he didn’t sense any malice from them. He could just go ghost and leave if that was to change. They had made him tea, given him the softest blanket and if he was honest, that couch had been the most comfortable couch he had ever slept on. Breakfast had been a quiet affair with Tom making breakfast and Amanda doing the dishes with Danny drying them. Now they were all sitting at the kitchen table and Danny was waiting for the interrogation. Tom and Amanda glanced at each other before Amanda turned her full attention on Danny, giving him a small smile.

“Danny, can you tell us what happened last night?”

Danny looked down at his hands, fidgeting with his fingers. What was he supposed to say? ‘Hey, I just found out I’m adopted and to clear my head I went through a portal to another dimension only to be pranked by the literal god of time into going to yet again another dimension.’

Yeah, no. That would not go over well. He had to keep it simple and believable.

“Um, I just- I got lost.”

Good job, you idiot.

“You got lost?”

“Yeah, I- okay, so I just-huuh.”

“Take your time, sweety.”

Danny knew he had to give up something and frankly he needed someone to talk to.

“I just found out I’m adopted.”

“Oh you poor thing.”

Danny shrugged.

“It’s okay. I just wanted to go somewhere to clear my thoughts and I got lost in the forest.”

“Do you need us to call your parents?”

“No, it’s- they don’t have phones. It’s fine, they are giving me some time alone and they are probably busy hunting so…”

“Your parents are hunters?”

“Um, yeah?”

Tom and Amanda shared a concerned look, Tom took over the conversation.

“Kid, do they know what you are? That you are wesen?”

“What’s a wesen?”

Danny was confused. He had never heard of the term wesen before.

“Wesen are people like us. We, for example, are Fuchsbau.”

Seeing that Danny was still confused, Amanda held up a finger.

“Here, let us show you.”

He looked at them with uncertainty, but nodded regardless. Then something strange happened. They made a movement with their faces and their appearance changed. They gained orange fur, Tom had black patches and Amanda had white patches, like a fox. Their ears grew pointier and they also gained sharp canine teeth, their pupils turned into slits with the white of their eyes turning yellow and their nose turned black and fox-like. In response to the transformation, Danny’s ghost side instinctively showed a little. His eyes flashed a faint green and his teeth grew sharper. He quickly suppressed the changes and looked at Tom and Amanda with caution.

“It’s okay. We understand. It must not have been a long time since you first woged, right?”

“Woged?”

“Yes, changed.”

“Sure, but I’m not a wesen.”

They both looked at him with pity and understanding.

“Do your parents know?”

“No! No- um, they don’t.”

“It will be fine. Don’t worry. We will teach you everything you need to know.”

“Yes, you can stay for as long as you need to.”

Danny didn’t really want to stay here for much longer. These people were obviously making the wrong conclusions about him, but he didn’t think telling them he was a half-ghost would clear those up. They would probably not believe him and think it was a joke. Besides, it was not like he could get home either way, unless some natural portal decided to open up right next to him. It was already good that they didn’t really question his refusal to go home or contact his parents. He really didn’t want to have to go to the police and explain why he basically did not exist. He gave them a small nod.

Amanda clapped her hands together.

“Great! The first thing we need to do is get you some new clothes. We can’t have you walking around in those old things.”

She turned towards Tom.

“We could clean up that storage room.”

Tom nodded and stood up from the table.

“Good, you two can go and do some shopping for clothes and other essentials. I will go and get the boy a bed.”

“You really don’t have to. The couch is-”

“Not a place for a growing, young man to sleep on.”

Amanda reprimanded him and even wagged a finger in his face. Well, how could he ever speak back to the finger. Tom and Amanda started going through the house, gathering their things, before heading towards the front door. Danny could do nothing but helplessly follow along.

Chapter Text

Amanda watched as Danny perused the aisles in search of some clothes. It had taken a lot of persuading for him to grab more than the cheapest shirt and pants. When he had kept refusing, she had started loading his arms with more and more ridiculous outfits, threatening him that she would buy those for him if he didn’t want to choose something for himself. Danny had taken one look at the bright yellow shirt and fluorescent pink disco pants, before immediately folding and begging for mercy.

Now she was holding some standard jeans and a white T-shirt and a black jacket. Still nothing fancy, but it was at least not the cheapest stuff in the store. She looked as Danny stopped and hesitantly looked at her. Amanda gave him an encouraging smile, which gave Danny the incentive to grab the shirt he had been staring at and showing it to her.

“Is this okay?”

She looked at the plain T-shirt with the Nasa logo printed on the front.

“Of course. I told you, didn’t I? You can pick whatever you want.”

Danny rubbed the back of his neck while mumbling a quiet thank you. He then moved on to the next pile of clothes. In the end they left the store with a few shirts, two pairs of pants, some socks and underwear and some pajamas.

The only thing on their list now were some toiletries. On their way to the store neither of them spoke much. Amanda had at first been introducing him to all the buildings and stores in the small town before seeing that Danny had not really been paying attention and was mostly staring off into the distance. She understood, so she left him to his thoughts. Only now, she was left with her own.

That poor boy. Having two Grimm for parents while being a wesen. No wonder the boy had run away and was in denial. His parents had clearly not told him what exactly they were hunting as the boy had been completely confused about what he was and the terms surrounding it. Danny had probably never fully woged before. He also had no apparent control over when he woged. When she and Tom had woged in front of him, some characteristics did show up, such as the green eyes and fangs. Danny had seemed conscious of the change and had managed to suppress it fairly quickly. Which suggested that even if it was recent, it had been going on for a while and he had managed to hide it from his parents up to a certain point.

It did make her wonder, though, about what his relation with his parents was exactly. Clearly they are not concerned about their son being gone for more than a day and had minimal interaction with him as they didn’t know about his nature. Amanda knew that if they had looked at him properly they would have seen he was wesen and maybe they had. Maybe they knew, but never dared to tell him. And wouldn’t that be sad. Two Grimms, unknowingly raising a wesen child, only finding out when they had already grown attached and had started to see that child as their own. Unwilling to face reality, they minimize contact and never tell the child the truth, only for the child to find out on his own when he inevitably woged and found himself not as human as he thought he was. Causing him to find out he was adopted and in the end running away in fear of rejection.

What a tragedy.

Amanda had made a resolve regarding Danny and she knew Tom would not object. He could stay as long as he needed to and in the meantime they could teach him all he has to know about wesen, their culture and Grimms. The only difficult part was finding out just what kind of wesen he was. They couldn’t rely on smell, as the faint scent of death obscured everything else. They were going to talk about that at some point, no doubt. If the boy had some kind of illness, they needed to know so they could provide him with the proper care. That was a conversation for another day, however. First, they were going to clean that storage room and install his bed, so that Danny didn’t need to sleep on the couch again.

Anyway, the only clues they had were the green eyes, pointed ears, fangs and claws. He also had some particular mannerisms that could provide them with clues. Amanda had noticed that he would stare at random things, barely blinking. When he had been sleeping on the couch, he had practically curled up into a ball, swallowed in the blankets. It had looked a bit like a nest if you had squinted your eyes. Danny would tilt his head sometimes as if listening for something, suggesting above average hearing. When he walked, you almost couldn't hear him. If she wasn’t a Fuchsbau with great hearing, she would have to check if he was still walking next to her. All of that made her think of felines.

He could be a Balam, a panther-like wesen, only his eyes were green instead of yellow even if they both glowed. He also had a very shy demeanor while Balams were usually aggressive and bold. More reckless in her opinion, but that was besides the point. He could also be a Pflichttreue, a white panther-like wesen. Their eye color could be a glowing green and they were more calm than a Balam. The last kind was a Löwen, a lion-like wesen as they were renowned for their stealth, only they were even more aggressive than Balams. They were known for their bad temper, after all.

If she had to guess, Amanda would say he was likely to be a Pflichttreue. They would have to wait for him to fully woge, however, before being completely sure of what exactly Danny was. Well, they would figure it all out in due time. Tom had sent her a text letting her know he was done buying the bed, mattress and blankets and was going to wait for them in the car. Amanda hoped he hadn’t bought too big a bed. The storage room wasn’t that big, after all. She could worry about that later. For now, she needed to find the right aisle for the toothpaste.

Chapter Text

Tom was waiting outside in the parking lot, leaning against his pickup truck. He had managed to put the bed and other stuff in the cargo bed and was now just waiting for Amanda and Danny to finish their shopping. He didn’t have to wait particularly long before the both of them came walking out of the building towards him, both carrying a variety of bags. Danny was in proper clothes, a plain white T-shirt and jeans. When they got closer Tom did notice a faint scar along Danny’s arm, but decided against mentioning it.

The scent of death was still faintly hanging around him, but the boy didn’t particularly look sick. Sure, he was pale and had dark bags under his eyes, but that could be from not going outside and improper sleeping schedules. In Tom’s eyes he looked like your typical teenager, if it wasn’t for that scent.

“Finally decided to stop spending money?”

“Well someone has to spend it.”

Amanda gave him a coy smile and a kiss on the cheek while walking past him to put the bags in the back. Danny looked a bit embarrassed and apologetic.

“Sorry mister.”

“Don’t you ‘sorry’ me. It’s just some clothes and other essentials. Nothing much. Oh, and call me Tom, kid. Mister makes me feel old.”

Danny hesitantly nodded before also putting the bags he had been carrying in the back.

“Okay, let’s go back home and clear out that storage room, shall we?”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Amanda enthusiastically hopped in the car with Danny following in a more subdued manner. Tom made his way to the drivers side, stepped in and started driving out of the parking lot. Amanda started talking about this new herb tea she had found in one of the shops.

“-it really smells quite good. The herbs used are also supposed to help with digestion.”

“That reminds me, how is Rosalee doing?”

“Oh, right. It has been a long time since we last went to visit her, isn’t it?”

“We could go bring her some of that herb tea. See if she likes it.”

“Perfect! I’m sure she would love it. Ah, silly me! You have not the faintest clue who we are talking about, do you Danny?”

“Um.”

“Rosalee is an old friend of ours. She is also a Fuchsbau. She runs an apothecary in Portland. Last I heard she had started dating a Blutbad.”

“Rosalee dating a Blutbad? Has she lost it?”

“Tom! According to her, he is a Wieder.”

“A Blutbad giving up meat? Well, seeing is believing.”

“Um, what is a Blutbad?”

Right, the boy didn’t know anything about wesen. Tom guessed that his first lesson would be on different kinds of wesen and what to look out for. Amanda was the one to answer Danny.

“Blutbaden are wolf-like wesen. You can mostly recognize them by their blood red eyes. They are incredibly strong, fast and agile.”

“Very durable too.”

“Yes, very durable. They also have a very strong sense of smell. Almost as good as ours.”

“You have to watch out when meeting one. They are incredibly vicious, it is not unusual for them to kill humans or wesens and eat them. Blutbaden also tend to look down on us as we are pretty similar yet slightly weaker physically.”

When Tom glanced at Danny, his face was positively ashen. Amanda had noticed too and immediately tried to reassure him.

“Don’t worry, we won’t let anything happen to you. Blutbaden are known to be pretty solitary and we would be able to smell one approaching a mile away!”

Danny just nodded, not really saying anything in response. They would have to work on that. Sure, Blutbaden were pretty dangerous, but they were far from the most dangerous amongst wesen. He was sure they still had some children's books lying around that would explain different kinds of wesen in a more, well, child friendly way. They would have to look for them, but he thinks they might actually be in the storage room. Well, if they were in there they would probably find them while cleaning the room.

The drive to the cabin from town was a bit over twenty minutes. Amanda had filled the rest of the ride with chatter about what she had seen in the shops to what they would have for lunch. It didn’t take long at all for them to reach the cabin.

“Here we are.”

Tom pulled up and parked the car in front of the cabin. They all got out of the car and Tom pulled down the tailgate so he could take out the bed. He instructed Danny to take the mattress while Amanda took the shopping bags. Once inside the cabin, Amanda placed all the bags on the kitchen table and helped Danny place the mattress against a wall. Tom put the bed down and made his way over to the storage room. It was a small room next to the stairs leading to the basement.

He took a look inside and sighed. The room was filled with dusty boxes, old fitness equipment and other bobs and bolts. While they were cleaning the room they could sparse through the stuff to see what they should keep and what they should throw away. This was probably going to take all morning. After cleaning it up they also had to assemble the bed. Luckily the room was big enough for the bed he had bought to be placed at one end and still have room for a closet. There was unfortunately no window. Tom hoped the boy was alright with that. Well, it was not like they had any other room available for him to stay in. There was his and Amanda’s bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen and living room, this little storage room and the basement where they stored all the game and other food they had.

They did have a shed around back, but that was used to treat and bleed the animals they had hunted. Obviously they were not going to let Danny sleep in the basement or in the shed. He could stay on the couch, but giving him the storage room was, in his opinion, better. Tom was sure the boy needed a place he could claim as his own for however long he was staying with them. They had needed to clean the storage room anyway.

Tom thought back to the text he had gotten from Amanda when she and Danny had been shopping.

’He might need to stay for longer than we first thought.’

He hadn’t questioned it at the moment. Tom was sure Amanda would take him aside at some point and give an explanation. Danny had probably said something for her to get that thought. For now he should call Danny so he could help with sorting through all the stuff.

Chapter Text

Wesen that ate each other and humans? They ate humans? Did Amanda and Tom eat humans? Danny didn’t know, nothing about them seemed to point to them being cannibals. But then again would he recognise one if he met them? He hadn’t smelled any human blood in or around the cabin. He had smelled some blood from the shed behind the cabin, but he was about eighty percent sure that it was from animals. Eating humans in this area would be difficult. They were in the middle of nowhere and the nearby town was the kind where everyone knew everyone. Well, it was a little late to worry about that now. Danny also didn’t really think that they were bad people.

He would have to know more about those Blutbaden they had been talking about. He needed to be prepared if he ever met one. He moved to the back of the truck and took out the mattress. He walked inside and looked for a place to put it down. Amanda waved at him and told him to put it somewhere against a wall out of the way. After putting down the mattress, Danny made his way over to Tom, who had called for him. He was standing in front of a room that was probably the storage room. When he peeked inside, Danny found many old boxes and training equipment.

“I think it is best to start with getting those machines out of the way, no?”

He looked at Danny, waiting for a response. Danny was slightly startled, not expecting to really have a say in any of this. Still, he hesitantly nodded his head, mumbling a quiet agreement.

“Good, we’re not using any of these anyway. We can put them in the back of the truck to take to town later. Oh, if you see anything you like, don’t hesitate to let me know.”

Tom patted him on the shoulder and moved into the storage room. Danny stood in the doorway, not really knowing how to proceed. That indecision was quickly taken care of by Tom, who handed him a box full of weights.

“Take these to the car will you?”

“...Sure.”

He passed by the kitchen, seeing Amanda, who was busy sorting through the shopping bags, putting away the cleaning supplies they had bought in between shopping for Danny’s clothes and looking for the toothpaste. She gave him an encouraging smile, which he answered with a small one of his own. Danny made his way outside and placed the box in the cargo bed of the truck. Then he stood there for a second. Processing exactly what he was doing now. He was cleaning up a room so he could stay with a random couple in the middle of the woods in another dimension.

He was shocked to find how quickly he had gotten at ease with Tom and Amanda. Somewhere between sleeping on their couch and shopping together, he had let his guard down. Not completely, mind you, but enough for him to not be afraid to turn his back to them or closely watch every move they made. Sure, he still watched them, mentally taking notes of where the both of them were at all times, but Danny did it more out of habit than out of pure wariness or mistrust. Danny sighed. It will be fine, as far as he could tell, they had no bad intentions. He was also sure that Clockwork would not have told him to ‘have fun’ if they were bad people. Surely, he had already seen that Tom and Amanda would have been the first people he would have been in contact with.

Danny looked down at his hands. At some point during the morning Danny had found that he couldn’t turn intangible. He had wanted to phase out of his clothes, but couldn’t. He had tried to turn invisible, intangible, float. He even tried to shoot a small ectoblast from his finger, but to no avail. Nothing had worked. The only things he could do was make his ears pointy, grow fangs and sharp claws and have his eyes turn toxic green. His strength had somewhat diminished, but luckily his stealth had gone untouched. In a way he was more animal than ghost now. Danny was sure Clockwork had something to do with it. He had probably done something. What that was and why he had no idea and it wasn’t as if he could ask him about it either. The ghost hasn’t responded to any of his calls so far.

Thinking back now with that information in mind, it could have gone horribly wrong for him. He had just gone along with these strangers to their house that was a cabin in the woods and the only thing he would have been able to do was growl at them like an agitated kitten. They could have been serial killers for Ancients seek!

With a small huff, Danny straightened his back and walked back into the house. In the time he had been standing outside contemplating his life, Tom had placed a few more boxes and training equipment outside the storage room. When Tom saw Danny walking up to him, he gave him a nod and pointed to another corner of the room where Tom had already placed a dusty old box.

“You can place anything you want to keep over there. All the rest can go in the truck.”

Danny nodded and bent down to grab another box. This one was filled with jump ropes, dumbbells and something that had two handles and an elastic band between them. Danny had honestly no idea what that was. With the box in hand he made another trip to the truck. When he got back inside, Amanda was also helping with sorting through all the boxes. She opened one of them and started softly cackling to herself. She stuck her hand inside and pulled out some sort of vest. It looked a bit like a bulletproof vest. The straps on it were broken and there was a big stain on the front of some kind of brown liquid.

“Tom! Tom! Remember this?”

She called out to Tom with laughter in her voice. Tom poked his head out of the storage room and, upon seeing the vest Amanda was holding up, started laughing himself.

“Holy! I thought we had thrown that away ages ago.”

Danny was slightly confused. What was so funny about a vest? Amanda turned to Danny still giggling.

“Oh Danny, you are going to love this story!”

“Amanda, no! He will never have any respect for me if you tell him.”

Amanda just gave Tom a grin that reminded him of Sam when she was about to break the rules or defy her family. Now he was curious.

“It all started when we were merely young teenagers. Tom over here wanted to impress me. He was really into fitness at the time, hence all the equipment.”

She gestured to the storage room. Tom was leaning against the doorframe, with his arms crossed and a fond smile on his face.

“He acted all tough, showing me his weights and rope jumping skills. Evidently he wanted to show off some more and put on this weighted vest and started doing some rope jumping tricks. Only he lost his balance, tripped over the rope, and fell forward. While falling forward the vest got stuck on one of his hometrainers, which caused the whole thing to come falling down with him.”

Amanda started laughing again, clearly seeing it all happening in front of her again. Seeing that she would not be able to continue the story, Tom took over.

“Amanda almost got crushed by the thing. Out of panic she jumped back and tossed her hands around. Now, that would not have been a problem, if only she hadn’t been holding a coffee at the time. In her panic the coffee flew out of her hands and spilled all over me while I was laying on the ground like a dead fish.”

Amanda snorted.

“You should have seen him! Completely drenched in coffee, tangled up in a jump rope, lying on the floor like his life was over.”

She smiled at Tom fondly.

“That was the moment I knew I wanted him in my life.”

Danny looked at the couple who were giving each other loving looks. Amanda looked down at the vest in her hands.

“We can keep it, you know.”

Amanda looked back up at Tom with what could only be described as puppy eyes. Tom laughed heartily.

“How could I say no to my loving wife.”

Amanda lit up and moved to place the vest in the corner with the other box of things they were going to keep. After that they continued cleaning up the rest of the storage room, occasionally telling Danny stories about some of the things that were in there.

Yeah, they were good people. Danny let himself relax, laughing with them while they were making lighthearted jokes about stupid things they had done when they had been younger.

Chapter Text

With the truck loaded up, they all climbed in and drove off back to town. Luckily for them, everything had fit, so they would have to only make this one trip. The first stop would be the electronics store. Most of the time they could get a good penny for anything still functioning or for parts that were still in good condition. After that they would go to the recycling centre that was only a street away from the electronics store. Amanda figured that after they had taken care of all that it would be close to noon and they could grab some lunch from the diner in the town square.

When they arrived back in town, Tom parked the truck along the street in front of the electronics store. It looked a bit rundown, with an old fashioned sign reading ‘Eric Electronics’ on the front, but it was a very reliable store, which sold everything at fair prices and if you had anything that could be salvaged, Eric, the owner, would gladly buy it from you. Before walking inside Tom turned towards Danny.

“Danny, the owner of this store is also a wesen. A Mauzhertz. They will do you no harm, Mauzhertz are generally very shy and timid, so it is best not to act aggressive. We will show you how we greet each other.”

Danny looked slightly uncertain, but nodded nonetheless. Amanda gave him an encouraging smile and placed a hand on his upper back while they made their way inside. A bell rang as they opened the door and a man of around fifty came out of the back to greet them.

“Oh! If it isn’t mister and missus Sarle. Has been a while since I've seen you two!”

“Eric! My good man. How have you been?”

Tom made a display of getting close to the man and shaking his hand. Amanda noted with slight amusement the confusion on the man's face. The way of greeting they were going to display was mostly done if you wanted to get more acquainted with another wesen and since they had already known each other for more than twenty years, such a greeting seemed out of place. They had known each other from when Tom and Amanda had been kids, after all. When Eric directed his confused gaze towards her, she glanced down at Danny who was standing awkwardly by her side. Realisation dawned on his face and he quickly continued the greeting with Tom. The both of them woged and gently rubbed both sides of their faces against each other. While doing so Amanda started explaining to Danny, who looked very confused at the moment.

“This form of greeting is called Vertrautheiten. It is a way for wesen, like Fuchbaus and Blutbaden, to get to know each other and to start a form of trust with the other. Getting so close to each other is so we can memorise their scent.”

Danny looked unsure, but Amanda knew that he would have no problem performing the greeting. The only thing she worried about was whether he would be able to woge properly. She knew not to get her hopes up. Woging for the first time is a unique process that differs from person to person. It was already good that he had shown some characteristics. He would get there eventually.

After Tom and Eric were done with their greeting, Eric moved on to Amanda. They hugged and performed the rest of the greeting.

“And who is this little lad? Didn't know you two had any kids.”

“Oh, Eric dear. No, Danny here is a guest staying with us for a few days. He is a bit new to the wesen community so do go easy on him.”

Eric raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment otherwise. Instead he moved in front of Danny and held his hand out.

“Pleasure to meet you Danny.”

Danny cautiously grabbed his hand while glancing over at Amanda. She gave him a smile and an encouraging nod. Eric woged and waited for Danny to follow. The only things that changed however were Danny’s eyes, which turned toxic green with a faint glow and his ears that grew pointier. Eric leaned in and gently put his face against Danny's face. Danny pulled a face, but complied. Amanda could see visible relief when the greeting was over and Eric had moved away.

Amanda could see slight concern when she locked eyes with Eric. She subtly shook her head and mouthed ‘later’. He gave her a small nod and moved back towards the counter.

“So, what can I do for you wonderful people?”

Amanda was glad he had taken her hint and had moved on. Eric had always been a very thoughtful person to begin with. For a Mauzhertz, he was very cheerful. Most of the time, they would be very timid, not really daring to raise their voices too much and preferred to stay in the background. While Eric is certainly no casanova, he did have a decent amount of charisma. If he didn’t know you, he would act more in line with a typical Mauzhertz, but when you got to know him, he became this little ball of sunshine. She was glad to see he didn’t retreat into himself because of Danny. The least she wanted was for him to feel unwelcomed and rejected from the wesen community.

This little town had a lot of wesen. The population was split thirty-seventy into wesen and human. So it was a good sign that Eric seemed to like Danny, as they would definitely have more interactions with other wesens if they were going to go around town. It was already slightly baffling that they hadn’t encountered any wesen on their shopping trip this morning. All in all, Eric was a good starting point regardless.

Tom had moved along with Eric and was explaining the purpose of their visit.

“Of course, bring it all in! Let me take a look.”

Tom nodded and gestured for Danny to follow him back outside to help unload the truck. Amanda stayed inside together with Eric.

“So…the kid?”

“A runaway. Hasn’t fully woged yet and knows nothing about wesen or his own origin.”

Eric made a sympathetic noise and shook his head in resignation.

“He smelled of death. Is he…?”

He trailed off, not wanting to voice those thoughts.

“We don’t know. Thank you for playing along earlier.”

“Of course! Always glad to help, aren't I?”

“That you are.”

“So what are you planning on doing with him?”

Amanda sighed and slightly shook her head.

“Take care of him for as long as he needs it. We will try to teach him about wesen and help him with his woge. Still, there is only so much we can do.”

“No problem. If you need any help at all, you can always come knocking. The kids would love to make a new friend.”

“Don’t mind if I take you up on that. How are they doing?”

“Oh, Shelly is complaining about the heater again. The blasted thing stops working more often than the year switches months. The kids are fine. Tracy and Hurbert are getting to that age, you know, where they think they know better.”

“Ah, teenagers. A gift for parents.”

“A punishment more like.”

Both of them laughed and continued the small talk. Tom and Danny had started bringing in the boxes and other appliances and had placed them in a corner of the shop. Eric excused himself and started inspecting the goods, humming and nodding to himself.

Chapter Text

After getting the money from Eric for selling the equipment that could be sold, they made their way back to the truck. Danny still looked a little unsettled from the greeting. Tom was sure he would get used to it in a bit. They were going to meet more wesen, so he would have to perform Vertrautheiten with others soon. There was a Jägerbar working at the recycling centre. They were slightly acquainted with him. The man was a very stoic but kind individual who loved physical contact such as hugs, so performing Vertrautheiten would not be unusual to do in this case.

It didn’t even take a minute for them to pull up to the entrance of the recycling centre, as it was just down the street from Eric Electronics. At this time there were only a couple of people driving around in the centre. Tom pulled into the entrance and greeted the man manning the security booth. He was tall and broad with a clean shaved head, looking like an intimidating bodyguard if not for the vest with a smiley sticker on it.

“How’s it going Ansel?”

“Tom, going good.”

They stepped out of the truck and greeted each other with a hug and performed Vertrautheiten. Amanda followed with Danny in tow. Ansel raised an eyebrow at Danny but moved to greet him.

“Ansel.”

“Um- Danny.”

They shook hands and rubbed faces together. Because of the height difference, Ansel had to lean all the way forward and bend his knees so they were face to face. When Ansel straightened back up he had a big frown on his face.

“Are you dying?”

Danny looked caught off guard. Not that he and Amanda did any better. They truly should have expected Ansel to not beat around the bush with something so sensitive.

“What?”

“You smell of death. Are you dying?”

“I-I’m fine.”

Tom and Amanda both turned to look at him. Now that the question had been asked they too hoped for an answer. This made Danny wave his hands in front of himself.

“Really, it’s just a small medical condition. Nothing much.”

Ansel snorted, but let it go, turning to Tom and giving him the go ahead to enter the recycling centre. Tom nodded, they all climbed back into the truck and drove further into the recycling centre. A small medical condition. How can that be when he smells like death? They would have to question him about it more back home, but they would leave it for now. If the boy didn’t want to say it here, then there was no use in pressing him further at the moment. Amanda kept glancing at Danny with a worried expression, so Tom took her hand and gave it a small squeeze. She looked at him and the worry slowly left. She gave him a smile before turning to Danny and starting to explain what kind of wesen Ansel was.

“Ansel is what we call a Jägerbar. Nowadays they are very civil and non-hostile. So when you encounter one, you should not be worried.”

“Nowadays?”

“Yes, back in ancient times they were very brutal. You don’t have to worry though. They have reformed and adjusted to the modern era quite well.”

“Take Ansel for example. He may not look like it, but he is a big softy.”

“Right! Back in the day we used to call him teddy bear, because he liked giving people hugs all the time.”

Danny snorted. Tom was sure he heard him mumble ‘teddy bear’ under his breath in amusement. Good, Amanda had managed to distract the boy from their earlier conversation. Now he didn’t look like he was about to open the car door and run away anymore. Tom nodded approvingly. He turned a corner and parked the truck next to a container.

“Plastic goes in here, cardboard goes in the one next to it.”

Having given his instructions, the three of them started grabbing boxes out of the cargo bed and throwing them into the containers. It didn’t take long as most of the stuff had already been sold to Eric. When the truck was completely emptied they stepped back in and drove to the exit.

“Wow, all that moving around has made me quite hungry.”

Amanda sighed dramatically while rubbing her stomach. Tom laughed and started driving to the town square.

“Don’t worry young maiden, I will make sure your demands are met.”

Amanda let out a giggle before turning up her nose and replying in a haughty tone.

“Take us onwards to Sally’s Diner, post haste.”

“But of course.”

Tom complied and in two minutes they were parked at the town square where Sally’s Diner was located. Tom and Amanda were regulars at this diner. They would go at least once a week to enjoy their pancakes and coffee. When they entered they were thus warmly greeted by the waiters and chef. They returned the greetings and went to sit in their usual spot next to the windows, giving them a nice view of the fountain in the middle of the town square. A young girl bounced up to their table with a notebook in hand.

“Heya, Tom, Amanda! The usual?”

“Yes, thank you, Kate. Danny, what would you like?”

Tom noticed that Danny had tucked himself in the corner of the seat, making himself small. Kate had apparently not even noticed him until Amanda had pointed him out. As soon as she saw him, she started cooing.

“Oh my goodness! What a cutie you are! What can I get for you, darling?”

Danny shifted uncomfortably and looked at the menu that was standing on the table.

“Um- maybe some pancakes and a vanilla shake?”

He looked at Tom hesitantly, as if expecting him to deny him his order. Tom just nodded and turned his attention back to Kate.

“Aw, of course! It will only be a minute.”

She gave them a wide smile and bounced back to the counter to give the order to the chef.

“You won’t regret picking the pancakes, Danny. Sally’s makes the best pancakes in town. Don’t they, Tom?”

“That they do.”

“We come here at least once a week. Sort of like a cheat day.”

She winked at Danny who gave her a small smile back. At that moment Kate returned with a pot of coffee and some cups, filling them as she started talking about the latest gossip in town.

“Did you hear that Gill is going to marry Thomas? I never thought I would see the day! Marie is going with her to go dress shopping in the big city, you know, Portland. Told her to go visit Rosalee when they had time. She still has that thing with her foot, you know.”

Amanda listened attentively to Kate's ramblings and gossip, and made noises and inquiries at all the right times. At some point she was called back to the counter to get their order. When she left he could hear Danny breath a small sigh of relief. It only took a second for Kate to return to their table with their food and drinks.

“Well, here you go folks.”

Kate put down their plates and placed the shake in front of Danny.

“Enjoy your food!”

She gave them a wink before bouncing off to another table, greeting them just as enthusiastically. Tom noted once again that Danny took his time eating. Stabbing the pancakes first before cutting into them. Once he took a bite, his eyes widened and he quickly went for a second bite. Amanda laughed and tried to get him to slow down. Danny smiled sheepishly at her attempts.

“Told you they were the best.”

Danny nodded and hummed his agreement with a mouth full of pancake. Tom turned his own attention to his pancakes and let the conversation between Amanda and Danny wash over him, content to just sit there listening to them talk or, well, listening to Amanda talk and Danny humming and sometimes trying to say something with his mouth full of pancake.

Chapter Text

The pancakes had been divine. No complaints there. After eating their fill, they paid, said goodbye to Kate and the other workers and left the diner. Everything would have been fine. The morning had been fun even. The greetings had been weird, but overall the people had been nice. If only that Ansel guy hadn’t mentioned his smell. Danny hadn’t even known he had smelled like death. What did that even smell like? The problem was that if he had smelled it, then there was no way Tom and Amanda hadn’t. He was sure that they wouldn’t let it drop so easily. They were sure to bring it up again. Danny really hoped that they didn’t.

He told them it was just a medical condition. What else was he supposed to say? Being dead was technically a medical condition, right? Should he tell them about his ghostly half? No, probably not. They wouldn’t believe him anyway. They thought he was a wesen like them and with his ghost powers out of commission he had no way to even show them. He almost groaned in frustration, but managed to hold it in as they were still in the car together.

They were supposed to go back to the cabin, so they could continue cleaning the storage room and install the bed. He figured they would hold the interrogation somewhere after finishing up with the room, so probably before dinner or maybe after. He didn’t really know, but Danny was sure they would question him about it today. He just had to figure out what to tell them.

He didn’t get a lot of time to think as they drove onto the driveway the next second. He followed the couple inside towards the storage room. While everything had been cleared out, it was still very dusty and needed a good cleaning before he even thought of spending the night in there. Tom and Amanda seemed to share his thoughts, as they went to the kitchen and came back a little bit later with a vacuum, a mop and a bucket of water with cleaning solution. Amanda gave Danny the mop and Tom received the vacuum.

“Tom is going to vacuum the room first and then you can give it a good mopping. I will clean the walls.”

With everyone having been assigned a task, they got to work. Tom started vacuuming while Danny and Amanda watched from the doorway. Talking wasn’t really possible as the vacuum was very loud and they would have had to shout to make themselves heard, so they stood quietly watching, with Amanda swaying a little to a tone only she knew and Danny fidgeting and shuffling with his feet. Since the room wasn’t very big, it didn’t take long at all to vacuum the floor. Soon it was Danny’s turn to go in and mop the floor. Amanda handed him the bucket and he dipped the mop into it before dropping it on the ground and started cleaning.

The ground was dirty and it wasn’t long before he had to return to the bucket to clean the mop and make it wet again. The repetitive work of moving the mop from one side to another, made some of the tension and stress he had been feeling go away. Tom and Amanda didn’t talk to him. They chose to have a quiet conversation among themselves. If they did it on purpose because they had noticed he needed some time to himself, Danny wouldn’t complain. He just let his thoughts go and focused on the movement of the mop and the dirt on the floor. At some point Amanda had also entered the room together with Tom, both holding sponges. They started cleaning the walls, making sure not to get in Danny’s way while he was still working on the floor.

The room was not that big, it could hold a single bed, nightstand and cabinet, with just enough space to walk between it all. Still, cleaning the floor of a room that hadn’t seen a broom in a couple of years took some time, with Danny having to go over certain spots multiple times to clean whatever dirt had made its home there. At this rate he was sure Tom and Amanda would be done cleaning the walls before he was done with half the room. Okay, maybe that was a little bit exaggerated, but that was just how it felt like at the moment.

It took him ten more minutes to finish cleaning the floor. When he was done, Amanda had sent him to the kitchen to get them something to drink. Glad to have a break from cleaning he hurried along and took his time filling three glasses with water. If they asked what took him so long, he would just say that he couldn't find the glasses. Leaning against the counter, he could vaguely hear Tom and Amanda talking. Turning to look out the window, he wondered how long he would stay here. Not that it wasn’t nice, Tom and Amanda were very nice. The cabin was cozy and the town was fun to go to, but it wasn’t Amity. The pancakes had been delicious, but it wasn’t a nasty burger. Even the cleaning they were doing now, he should be doing with his parents and Jazz. He should be home, helping clean the attic.

The only thing that made him feel slightly better was the note he had gotten from Clockwork when he first had crash landed in the forest.

Have fun.

The message was short and vague as always, but clear nonetheless. Don’t worry about it and enjoy yourself. Everything is fine, don’t worry about Amity or your friends and family. Easy to say, difficult to do. Having stood in the kitchen for long enough, Danny grabbed the glasses and walked back to the storage room. He handed them their glass of water. They thanked him and took a moment to drink, before picking their sponges back up, also handing Danny one when he was done drinking. Setting his glass down on the coffee table next to the others, he wet the sponge and started scrubbing at the wall. It took the three of them about an hour to clean all the walls. Tom had taken it upon himself to go over everything with a clean cloth to dry everything off. In the meantime Danny and Amanda grabbed the box containing the bed and dragged it to the storage room.

The rest of the afternoon was spent going over the manual, being confused over what screw should go where and when the bed was made, having an extra screw with no idea where it should go, putting it out of their minds and hoping it wasn’t some crucial part of the bed frame. They placed the mattress on top and added the bedding. A box was placed next to it to function as a temporary nightstand and a chair as an honorary cabinet.

While looking at the finished room, Danny’s stomach decided that moment to make itself known. Amanda let out a soft laugh.

“Come on, it is time for dinner anyway. After all that work we all deserve a good hearty meal, no?”

They all moved to the kitchen, with Danny blushing up a storm. He was pretty hungry.

Chapter Text

While making dinner, Amanda made sure to keep Danny busy. Having him set the table and after that help her with cutting vegetables. Tom had sat himself at the table with the newspaper open on the sports section. She knew that if Danny had to sit at the table, he would be bouncing off the walls in a minute because of boredom or stress. After the trip to town, they had been giving him space. It hadn’t taken a genius to notice that the boy was stressing about something, lost in his own thoughts. They would try to have a conversation with him after dinner in hopes of figuring out more about his situation and his health. She was truly worried for the boy and she had to know for sure that he would be safe if he were to go home or if he should stay with them. Amanda knew that Tom wouldn’t mind, he was pretty taken with the boy already. The only one they would have to convince if it came to that would be Danny himself.

When the food was ready, Tom got up from the table and helped transfer the food from the stove to the table. They all sat down and started plating up. Once again, Danny stabbed his sausage, before eating it even though he had seen it being cooked.

“Why do you always stab your food like that Danny?”

Danny looked up with a confused face before realisation dawned on it and he started blushing and ducked his head down.

“Sorry.”

“No, no! You did nothing wrong. I was just curious, that's all.”

“Um, well, just making sure it's not alive anymore.”

“You saw Amanda cook it, did you not?”

“Doesn’t mean it's dead. We all thought the turkey was dead before it started attacking everyone.”

“Turkey?”

“Yeah, for Thanksgiving. It had taken a while before we managed to catch it when it started running around again.”

He looked them dead in the eye with a serious expression.

“You can never be too sure.”

They decided to leave it at that. If it made Danny more comfortable to stab his food every time to make sure it was dead, then who were they to stop him from doing so? He wasn’t harming anyone with it and all in all it wasn’t that bad of a habit to have. Making sure your prey is dead is good practice after all.

They ate in comfortable silence. When everyone was done, Tom took the dishes and moved to wash them. Danny quickly followed to help dry them. It didn’t take long for all the dishes to be washed and dried. Soon they all sat back at the table, nursing a cup of tea. Danny looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, but Amanda knew that this conversation needed to be had.

“Danny.”

She saw him flinch a little when she called out to him.

“Danny, can you tell us more about this medical condition?”

Amanda tried to make her voice soft and soothing.

“Um- I, well…”

“We just want to make sure you are okay. If you have some kind of condition, we want to know so that we can be prepared if something were to happen.”

This seemed to get Danny thinking. He had calmed down a little, staring into his cup like it held all the answers.

“I…had an accident about a year ago. Touched some stuff I wasn’t supposed to. Got myself electrocuted.”

He let out a humorless laugh. Tom and Amanda didn’t say anything, not wanting to interrupt.

“So I- I died, for a bit. Like my heart stopped for a minute.”

Amanda let out a small gasp, Tom reaching out to grab her hand.

“It’s not a big deal, really. My heart started beating again, just slower than usual…”

He trailed off at the end, rubbing the back of his neck, still not looking at them.

“Danny, that is not nothing.”

“Really-”

“No, you died Danny. That is big.”

This made him look at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

“That must have been awful. I can’t even imagine how much pain you had to go through. You poor child.”

Danny looked like he wanted to say something, his mouth moving, but no sound coming out. His nose started scrunching up and his shoulders started shaking. Amanda quickly got up and walked over to him, grabbing Danny and pulling him in a hug. She felt him shake as he brought up his hands and grabbed her back, holding on for dear life as quiet sobs started leaking out. This poor boy, having experienced something so traumatic and clearly never having truly spoken about it or properly processed it, only saying that it was nothing. Amanda kept rubbing his head, whispering quiet reassurances while Danny cried in her arms. Tom had gotten up and was making a cup of hot chocolate for Danny. He even put in the little marshmallows that he usually guarded with his life.

When Danny calmed down and moved away from the hug, Amanda let him go and sat back on her chair, handing him a tissue. He gave her a quiet thank you and cleaned his face. Tom put the hot chocolate in front of him and Danny grabbed it gratefully, still sniffing a little bit. They waited for a bit longer, before Amanda addressed Danny again.

“Do you need any medication?”

“Mh?”

“After the accident, do you need any medication for it?”

Danny shook his head.

“Um, no. Everything is fine. The only thing I have is sometimes some pain in my left arm, but other than that, no.”

He looked down at his left hand where a faint scar could be seen traveling up the rest of his arm that Tom had pointed out for her when Danny had gone outside to place equipment from the storage room in the truck. A scar he probably got from the electrocution. No wonder that arm hurt. His nerves were probably damaged.

“Good, that’s good.”

“Let us know when your arm hurts.”

Danny nodded while looking at the little marshmallows that were floating around in the cup. Amanda softly clapped her hands.

“Right, I guess this is a good point to stop. Why don’t we go to the couch to relax for a bit?”

Tom nodded in agreement and Danny slowly stood up with the two of them while nursing the hot chocolate in his hands. The rest of the evening was filled with quiet conversation, mostly between Amanda and Tom, while they listened to the radio. Maybe she should give Rosalee a call and see if she had anything that could help Danny with the pain in his arm.

Chapter Text

The evening had been draining and Tom was glad to be laying in bed. Amanda was equally drained, crawling in his arms and silently crying for the boy. He held her, rubbing her arm in comfort.

“What do we do, Tom?”

“We give him his space and try talking about his family tomorrow.”

Amanda gave a quiet hum and settled in the bed, ready to sleep. Just when they were both drifting off, they heard the sound of a door opening. Immediately they were on the alert. They heard movement inside the house, then the sound of the front door opening and closing. Tom moved out of the bed with Amanda quietly following. They carefully listened for any other sounds. Tom moved to the window and saw a figure walking outside. His first thought was an intruder, but after looking closer, he recognised Danny. They still had to get used to the fact that the boy was staying with them. At some point the boy stopped walking and sat himself on the ground, staring up at the sky. Tom relaxed and reassured Amanda that it was only Danny.

“Should we go outside?”

“No, he probably needs to be alone for a minute. It doesn’t look like he will run off into the forest, so I don’t think we need to worry.”

Amanda still looked worried and Tom gave her a fond look.

“I can stay up to make sure nothing happens to him?”

“Please.”

He softly kissed her forehead.

“Of course. Go back to bed.”

Amanda nodded and climbed back into the bed. Tom continued standing in front of the window, making sure Danny was safe. The boy didn’t move, sitting on the ground just staring at the night sky, still as a statue. At some point during the night, slightly after midnight, Danny moved and walked back inside. Tom only moved to the bed after he heard him close the front door and walk back into his room. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep after that.

The next morning Tom and Amanda woke up at their usual time, around seven o'clock. They decided to let Danny sleep in. At ten o'clock, Amanda went and woke Danny up by gently knocking on his door. Tom could hear a quiet grumble coming from Danny’s room and smiled faintly. Amanda walked back into the kitchen with a tired looking Danny, his sleeping clothes rumpled and hair sticking up in every way possible. He stretched his arms over his head and yawned.

He looked around the room before stopping on Tom, giving him a very slow blink. Danny kept staring at him until he returned the slow blink. Only then did he move away and sat himself down at the table. Another point towards feline-like wesen. Amanda, having caught the interaction, gave him a little triumphant smirk and moved to the kitchen counter to start baking some eggs for the boy. She had been the one to suggest he might be a Pflichttreue and Tom was somewhat inclined to agree. The boy moved in a very cat-like manner and his behavior, like the slow blink just now, was one of many in favor of it. Tom grabbed the newspaper and started working on a crossword puzzle. Danny thanked Amanda when she placed the eggs in front of him and after stabbing it, began eating in slow movements.

Today they were going to give Danny a little crash course on wesen. They thought it best to start with Fuchsbaus and then move on to the other wesens he had met the day before. The more he knew about them, the more at ease he would be around them. They hoped so at least.

When everyone was done with breakfast they moved to the living area and settled down on the couch.

“Danny, today we are going to give you some lessons on wesens. As you know, we are Fuchsbaus.”

Danny straightened his back and looked at Tom attentively, nodding at his words.

“We thought it best to start with Fuchsbaus and other wesens you met yesterday, so you could have a clearer understanding of what a wesen is. As you saw when we woged, Fuchsbaus grow orange fur, usually with white or black patches all over our bodies. We gain features similar to that of a fox.”

Amanda woged, so that Danny could have a visual during the explanation.

“Our strength is relatively the same as a human except for our jaw strength and sense of smell. Our jaw muscles are very strong and our teeth are also very sharp.”

Amanda jumped in with a reminiscent tone.

“As a child, if you had little control over your woge it was very easy to bite into your tongue. That happened to me a few times when I woged for the first few times.”

Tom nodded.

“It happened to the best of us. As for smell, Fuchsbaus are considered superior in that regard. Now, just because we don’t hunt and eat humans and are on the nice side of society, does not mean that all Fuchsbaus are like us. Many of our kind are shady to say the least. Not on the good side of the law, but we are very protective of our friends and family. We are usually not confrontational unless it is to protect our loved ones. It is best to not get too involved with other Fuchsbaus, unless we know them.”

“So, what do you eat?”

“Usually we go out hunting for wildlife in the forest, like deer or boars.”

Amanda pointed to the back of the cabin.

“We have a shed around back where we do the bloodletting and skinning.”

Danny nodded with a look of understanding.

“So that’s why it smells like blood.”

Tom was slightly surprised Danny had been able to smell that as he was sure Danny had not had the opportunity to go near the shed. The boy had at least a decent nose on him.

“Right, we can show you another time. We have to go hunting soon anyway. Our diet consists of a lot of meat and other animal products, other than that we try to keep it balanced by adding vegetables and other things like that.”

“You will notice that a lot of wesen usually have a carnivorous diet. Sure there are plenty of wesen who don’t eat meat by nature or are wieder wesen.”

Danny tilted his head.

“You said that before, ‘wieder’, what does that mean?”

“A wieder wesen is a reformed wesen. A good example would be a wesen who used to eat human meat stopping and becoming a vegetarian.”

Danny nodded at Amanda’s explanation.

“Now some history. When wesen first appeared, they were regarded as gods. Think of Egypt who had characters such as Anubis and Bastet.”

“They were wesens?”

“They were, it was a tragic time really. Thousands of slaves were tortured in the search for Anubis and some of them had even been mummified fully woged.”

Danny pulled a face at that by scrunching up his nose, much to Amanda’s amusement.

“But if they were woged would humans not know of the existence of wesen if they found the mummies?”

The boy raised some good questions. Tom was glad he was taking the lesson seriously.

“Of course, that’s why around the 17th century a group of wesen we call the Beati Paoli was founded. They are wesen dedicated to preserving wesen culture and go after things like museums and antique auction houses.”

“We don’t fully support them. While we also think that our culture should not be on display for people to see, such as the mummies, we find that stealing antiques or artifacts is going a step too far.”

“We don’t condone their actions.”

This sentiment had to be repeated. They didn’t want Danny going and joining that group. Danny nodded his understanding which at that point was enough to appease them.

“Listen Danny, this is very important, so I need you to really pay attention to this.”

Danny turned to face Tom with an alert look on his face. Once Tom was sure he was really paying close attention, he continued.

“Wesen have something we call the Gesetzbuch Ehrenkodex or the Code of Honor. This rule states that wesen cannot expose themself woged in public or kill Kersheite.”

Before Danny could voice his confusion on the term, Amanda started explaining.

“Kersheite are humans.”

Seeing that Danny still had some questions, Tom gestured for him to speak up.

“Yesterday you said that Blutbaden eat humans, how is that allowed when you have a code of honor?”

“Oh Danny, eating humans is not legal. It is a crime.”

“Yes, a long time ago it was unchecked and many vicious wesen ate humans, but with the establishment of the Gesetzbuch Ehrenkodex, the killing and eating of humans is heavily punished if discovered, by wesens and humans alike.”

Danny seemed relieved by that explanation. It seemed that he had been worried about this since that car ride.

The rest of the morning was spent teaching Danny about the other rules, the wesen council and some other wesen such as Mauzhertzs and Jägerbars to get Danny more acquainted with the kind of wesen Eric and Ansel were.

Chapter Text

Danny was exhausted. Talking about his accident the day before had been very draining. He didn’t even know how to feel at the moment. Ever since the accident, he had never really thought about it. Sure, sometimes he would wonder, when he couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night, what exactly he was. Was he alive or dead? A bit of both? Stuck in limbo? Would he be like this forever, never growing old? Or would he age like everyone else and when his human half died become a full ghost? Or would he stop to exist entirely? Usually he would get a headache and stop thinking about it.

It wasn’t a big deal, he would find out when the time came.

…

Except it was a big deal.

Talking with Tom and Amanda made him realise how much he had needed that affirmation. How much he needed someone to tell him that it wasn’t okay, that it was horrible for a fourteen year old to die and come back to life wrong. Because it was horrible. The pain of being electrocuted like that, the feeling of his body being torn apart and put together again, over and over, for what felt like hours, was the worst feeling he had ever experienced. How Sam and Tucker had looked at him in horror. Not immediately recognising him as Danny. It had hurt, to not have someone come to his aid immediately and ask if he was okay. He didn’t even go to a hospital. He just got back up, dusted himself off and went about his day.

He was embarrassed for the way he had cried in Amanda’s arms, but he didn’t regret telling them. Granted, he didn’t tell them the whole truth, but just that little bit had been like a boulder being lifted off his shoulders. Looking at the stars afterwards had also helped calm him down, it had helped him regain his balance somewhat.

Danny had been relieved that they didn’t push the topic, the morning had been filled with comforting silence. They had then moved to the couch to give him some lessons about wesens.

Learning more about wesens and their culture was interesting. Knowing that they didn’t eat humans was another thing that put him more at ease. They even had a code of honor. They did warn him about certain wesen that did still go around and kill humans and other wesens, but in a way it was the same as humans going around and killing other humans. Some people will do that, but that doesn’t make it okay or legal for that matter. They even had a whole council who enforced those rules.

Learning that the names of wesen were actually German words was also interesting to know. He had noticed that terms they used were in a foreign language, but he hadn’t been able to put a country on it. It made it easier to understand what kind of wesens people were and what he could expect them to look like when they woged. Tom and Amanda were Fuchsbaus, which literally translated to ‘fox hole’ or ‘burrow’ and they did look like foxes when they woged. For other wesens they had pulled out an old children's book with illustrations that had been in the storage room so that he could have a better understanding of what they were describing. Eric was a Mauzhertz or ‘mouse heart’, so he looked like a mouse and Ansel was a Jägerbar or ‘hunter bear’, so he would look like a bear. Pretty straightforward all things considered.

While going through the children’s book he came upon a page that was different from the others. For one, the person on the page was not a wesen, but not a human either or at least that’s what Danny felt like while looking at the drawing. It had the figure of a man and if that was all it would have just been the drawing of a normal person, but its eyes were pitch black holes making it seem inhuman.

Noticing that Danny was staring at the drawing, Tom gave an explanation.

“That is a Grimm, like your parents.”

“A Grimm?”

“They are humans who are able to see wesens. A Grimm is in a sense a hunter of wesens.”

Danny could hear the hesitance in Tom's voice while he tried to explain what a Grimm was. Saying they are a kind of hunter makes sense that they would think of his parents. They were also a kind of hunter. Danny hummed in agreement. Amanda put her hand on his arm, making him look at her.

“Not all Grimms are bad. Our friend Rosalee is friends with a Grimm. He is even a policeman and he only goes after wesen who break the law. If you go to Portland and encounter a Grimm with the name Nick Burkhardt, then you don’t have to be afraid, he won’t hurt you.”

“I see.”

It was a bit amusing they still thought he was a wesen, but considering his own not so human nature, it probably wouldn't hurt to be cautious when encountering a Grimm. It wouldn’t do good for them to mistake him for a wesen and decide he would also make a nice trophee to hang on the wall. One hunter going after his pelt is more than enough, thank you very much.

“Danny? What do you mean?”

“Huh?”

“Who is going after your ‘pelt’?”

Damn, he had said that last part aloud, didn’t he? He really needed to learn to pay more attention to what he says.

“It’s nothing really.”

“Danny.”

At Tom’s stern look, Danny winched a little. He knew he needed to give them something.

“It really is nothing. There is just this guy who proclaims himself the best hunter and wants to add me to his collection. Really, it’s fine. He hasn’t managed to catch me yet.”

He tried smiling, but it quickly faded away at the serious looks Amanda and Tom were giving him.

“Really…”

Danny trailed off with a pout. Honestly, it really was nothing. Skulker was at most just a pain in the ass. Fighting with him was sometimes fun even. Every time he would come up with some new plan and new or improved gadgets or traps and Danny would have to outwit him and try to use those traps in his favor. Besides, after every fight, Danny would give him some advice and it felt good every time he saw that Skulker had actually listened to him and made some improvements using his advice. Skulker did the same for him regarding his fighting. Sure, both of them always did it in a sarcastic and condescending way, but ultimately they helped each other improve. If only his parents would put aside their hostility for once, they could see that there was much to learn from ghosts.

“Danny.”

He looked up at Tom.

“No matter what, you shouldn’t have to go through that. You should not have to fight for your life or be hunted by that Grimm or by your parents for that matter.”

Danny wanted to protest, but something in him couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. He knew logically he shouldn’t have to fight for his life or that his parents shouldn’t hurt him, even if they didn’t know it was him they were shooting at. Still he couldn’t deny that while he was fighting, he would get excited, that he would look forward to having another brawl. Would he prefer for the ghosts to only attack during the day after school hours? Sure. Would he be happy not having his parents shoot at him and shout for his demise every hour of the day? Absolutely. That was unfortunately only a pipedream, with how obsessed they were with hunting ghosts. Danny didn’t think they would stop or change. He knew they loved him, but would they still love him if they found out about his ghost half? Danny wasn’t sure and that uncertainty hurt more than any words his parents had said about ghosts.

Probably sensing his declining mood, they dropped the topic and Amanda suggested he get a tour of the shed and the surrounding forest.

“We are going to hunt this evening, so it is best for you to familiarise yourself with your surroundings. We wouldn’t want you getting lost now, would we?”

“We?”

“Well, of course! Don’t worry, we will show you how it is done.”

Danny looked a bit unsure at the idea of hunting an animal. If Sam knew, she would blow a gasket.

“If you really don’t want to, we will not force you.”

Seeing Amanda’s slightly disappointed face, Danny started feeling bad. What’s the harm? If he was honest, he was kind of curious how they hunted. He hadn’t seen any hunting gear in the cabin. Maybe it was stored in the shed?

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll help.”

Seeing the smile that appeared on Amanda’s face after he agreed was worth the little discomfort he felt at the idea. It was just hunting some deer. How bad could that be?

Chapter Text

Watching Danny try and justify being hunted for sport made her heart ache. Just what kind of life has he been living up to this point? From what she had been hearing, it wasn’t looking good. When he first came with them to the cabin, Danny had been on guard, checking his surroundings, looking for exits, never letting them out of his sight. The way he was suppressing his woge and denying his nature made her almost cry on the spot.

Amanda was to a degree scared for Danny. Normally children woge in their adolescence, so he should experience it soon enough. The problem was that he had already partially woged and she feared that he would not be able to fully woge because of psychological issues. Woging for the first time wasn’t painless, after all, neither was partially woging. Maybe the pain of partially woging was deterring Danny from letting himself fully woge. Not only that, but the way Danny had talked about his parents suggested that he knew they were Grimms to a certain degree, otherwise he wouldn’t have run away when he partially woged. It showed that his parents did not hide their occupation and Danny feared for his safety if discovered.

Unlike what she thought before, she didn’t think Danny’s parents were aware of his nature. Wesen usually didn’t know what they were until they woged for the first time. Amanda had only known she was a Fuchsbau when she woged for the first time at twelve. She had been confused and scared until her parents had explained everything to her. Danny’s parents couldn’t have known about him being a wesen, Grimm or not. So it was likely that Danny partially woged, freaked out about it and, with the implications of his parents knowing what he was, ran away. It bothered her greatly that Danny had so little trust in his parents regarding his nature. Sure they were Grimms that usually hunt down wesens, but he was their child. For him to place so little trust in them was worrying.

This wasn’t even all. Not only were his parents Grimms, but a third Grimm was in the same area as Danny and had found out about him being a wesen and was actively hunting him. This would make Danny even more fearful of revealing himself to his parents. This Grimm hunting him was probably the main factor for him running away. How unlucky could Danny be?

Having successfully distracted Danny from the previous conversation, Amanda put away the children’s books and moved to the kitchen. Since it was close to noon, they decided to have a picnic in the forest for lunch. They packed away some sandwiches, drinks and a big blanket, before leaving the house. First they were going to show Danny the shed. It’s not like there was much to see in it, but it is better for him to have some idea of where everything was for when they returned from the hunting trip. Better have him accustomed to the sight and smell of blood, before letting him help with the bloodletting.

They moved to the back of the cabin towards the shed. The smell of blood became sharper and Amanda noticed Danny slightly hesitating before stepping closer. Right, he did say he could smell it from a distance. His sense was not as strong as theirs, but that was not surprising considering Fuchsbaus had one of the strongest senses of smell amongst wesens. It was impressive nonetheless as he wasn’t even woged. Tom moved a little bit ahead and opened the shed door.

The smell of blood rushed out into the open. Amanda noted the way Danny moved his head away and covered his nose with his hand, a frown on his face. She gently placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to be startled and turn his head towards her sharply before relaxing at the realisation that it was just Amanda. She gave him an encouraging smile and guided him further to the entrance of the shed. Tom entered first with Danny following. He was still holding his hand in front of his nose, but he was looking around curiously. He started stalking around the room, leaning forward slightly while cocking his head this or that way.

Amanda put the bag and blankets down outside the shed before also walking inside and watched Danny with amusement, catching Tom trying to hide a laugh at Danny’s behaviour. She was glad that his hesitation was gone and replaced with curiosity. The shed wasn’t big. To the right was a table in front of a window where they would lay the animals to skin and butcher them. In the back, several gambrels were hanging from the ceiling with a couple of buckets standing beneath them. That is where they would hang the animals for the bloodletting. Lastly, to the left, were a few pelt curing racks where they would hang the pelts to dry. Usually if the weather was good they would put them outside so they could dry in the sun. The walls were decorated with various butcher knives and other equipment.

After a few minutes, Danny removed his hand from his nose and stood still infront of some of the knives hanging on the left wall. Tom took it upon himself to introduce the different kinds of knives and what they were used for. Danny looked a bit disturbed, but mostly fascinated. Amanda leaned against the table and watched them with a small smile. Danny had only been here for a day, but she could get used to this. Even though she knew that they couldn't just keep him here. They would have to go to the authorities eventually. She wondered if Danny’s parents had noticed that he was missing. Had they already contacted the police? Were they already looking for him? Putting up posters, going door to door in search of their son?

She was brought out of her thoughts by a delighted laugh from Danny as Tom handed him one of the butcher’s knives. This one was long and had a curved blade, used for cutting large pieces of meat. Danny looked at it every which way with a small smile on his face. She could worry about his situation later. For now they were going on a nice picnic and teach the boy how to hunt.

Chapter Text

Watching Danny stalk around the shed like a predator in search of prey was highly amusing and Tom had to make an effort not to laugh at how he was cocking his head while still having a hand in front of his nose. Luckily it didn’t take long for him to get used to the strong smell of blood. When he stopped in front of the left wall and stared at the knives, Tom saw his chance to explain the different kinds of tools one needed for skinning and butchering animals.

He grabbed one of the knives and handed it over to Danny. Danny let out a startled laugh and handled the knife carefully, looking at it with curiosity.

“This is a skinning knife, we use this one a lot to skin the animals.”

While watching Danny to make sure he didn’t cut himself, Tom moved further down the wall towards a saw. He pointed at it and continued explaining once he had Danny’s attention again.

“This is a bone saw. I think the name says it all.”

Danny let out an amused puff of air. He moved and put the knife back on the wall and followed behind Tom as he walked towards the back.

“This is where we hang the animals for bloodletting and after they have been skinned. Those weird hooks here are called gambrels. You use them by hooking the hindlegs on each of the ends to suspend it in the air.”

Tom demonstrated with his hands where the legs would be hung. He looked at Danny who was watching with interest. Good, Tom was relieved he was showing that much interest. It would make the whole process once they were going to handle a real animal easier. He was startled out of his thoughts by Danny who decided to jump up, grab one of the gambrels and dangle from it. Tom made a movement to catch him, but stood back down once it was clear the metal rod the gambrels were hanging from wasn’t about to break from Danny’s sudden movement. He could hear Amanda chuckling from the other side of the shed. Danny let himself hang for a few seconds before dropping down with a sheepish smile and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. No harm done.”

Danny let out a small nervous chuckle before turning his attention to another part of the wall.

“Ooh, what is this?”

Tom shook his head in amusement at the boy's poor attempt at changing the topic. He let it happen though. He moved to stand next to him.

“These are pelt curing racks. We use these to treat and dry the pelts.”

“What do you do with them?”

Tom crossed his arms while answering.

“We usually take them to town. We have a friend there who sells them for us.”

Amanda moved a little closer and joined the conversation.

“They usually fetch a pretty penny.”

Danny nodded and glanced around the shed. Seeing as they had seen everything in the shed, Tom put a hand on Danny’s upper back and guided him back outside. Amanda clapped her hands together and made a little bounce as she went outside.

“Enough of the shed! Let’s go to the forest!”

Danny gave a little laugh at her antics and followed along as Amanda made her way to the treeline. Tom sighed in fondness and grabbed all the bags that they had left in front of the shed. Danny looked behind him and made some hesitant movement as if he wanted to help him with the bags, but Tom waved him off. He hesitated for a second before nodding and walking a little faster to catch up with Amanda who at that point had made it to the treeline and was already waiting for them.

The forest they were in was gigantic. If you didn’t know your way you would get lost very easily, and getting out without assistance would be near impossible. Danny had been lucky in that regard. When they had found him in the forest, he had been relatively close to the cabin. If he had been in another part of the forest, there was a big chance they would not have heard him or picked up his scent. He could have been stuck in that forest for a very long time without anyone knowing. The thought made Tom frown a little. He smoothened out his face when Amanda gave him a questioning look and gave her a small smile.

Amanda turned her attention back to Danny. “It is important you stay close to us, okay? It is very easy to get lost in there. This forest is very big and if you don’t know the way, it is very difficult to get out of.”

Danny listened attentively and nodded to show he understood. Amanda gave him a smile and they started walking into the forest. For the moment traversing this part of the forest wasn’t difficult since they usually took this route to get to their hunting grounds. A small path had been formed from them walking the same way for a couple of years. They were planning on going to a particular clearing further up ahead of the trail that is halfway to a river where they usually went to pick up scents to follow during their hunts.

Danny was walking along, looking around with wide eyes, turning his head every which way. Tom was sure that if he had a tail, it would be wagging right now. It’s good he didn’t show any aversion for the forest, since he had been in a lot of distress when he was here last time. Not only that but it had also been dark and it had seemed that he didn’t really register where he was when he followed them to the cabin. He was relieved that Danny was so happy just from walking around in a forest. Tom looked forward to seeing him when they were going to start hunting. He had probably been suppressing his instincts for a while now. It would do Danny good to let go and start to embrace his nature.

Tom looked at Danny fondly who at that time decided to trip over a branch. Well, maybe they should teach him how to maneuver through the forest first.

Chapter Text

The murder shed had been an experience, to say the least. The smell of blood had been overwhelming, making his instincts flare. He had to do his best not to gag when they had opened the door. Once he was inside for a bit Danny did get used to the smell. It still soured his nose and the hairs on his arms didn’t go down, but it was bearable. All the knives and other tools on the walls had been cool to look at. The gambrels had been a temptation he couldn’t resist. The way they had been hanging there made him think of some sort of advanced monkey bar. Come on, who wouldn’t want to swing on it at least once?

He had been relieved when they had left the shed and made their way to the forest. He could breathe properly again and the sense of danger faded. He put the shed to the back of his mind and focussed on the forest instead.

It had been a long time since Danny had been able to just take a walk and relax. In Amity he had to constantly be alert as a ghost could pop up anytime, but here there were no ghosts as far as he was aware. He didn’t have to watch his back or check over his shoulder every five seconds. He also had Tom and Amanda with him. It hasn’t been long, but he already knew they would never harm him. So he let his guard down. Not completely, something in him just wasn’t comfortable letting go like that, but he was the most relaxed since he crash landed in this dimension.

Danny didn’t know what got him so excited. It was just a forest. Just a lot of trees, bushes, and birds who you could hear but never spot for some reason. Maybe it was the fact they were going on a picnic? It had been forever since he went on a picnic, let alone in a forest. Going outside in Amity usually resulted in one of three endings for him. A ghost shows up and he has to fight them as Phantom, ruining any plans he may have had. He runs into Dash or any other of the A-listers which means a lot of name calling and/or running away, once again ruining his plans. Or everything is normal but his parents decide to make an appearance for some unknown reason and make a fool of themselves and by extension of him, resulting in Danny going home anyway. Don't get him wrong. He loved his parents, but sometimes – a lot of the time – they could be a bit much.

The thought of just going outside, no ghost attacks, no bullies, no parents embarrassing him, made him want to smile. Just Danny, some nice people and sandwiches. He was really looking forward to it. While those feelings of anticipation started building up, guilt decided to raise its ugly head. He knew Clockwork essentially told him not to worry, but a part of him was still worried. He was out here, about to have a nice picnic, while his friends and family could be out there fighting some overpowered ghost and they needed his help, but he wasn’t there. How could he be happy while they might be in danger? Why wasn’t he trying to get back home as soon as possible?

A small frown formed on his face, shoulders drooping slightly. As he was about to start wallowing in guilt, Amanda called out to him.

“Oh! Danny! Look over there!”

Danny looked towards Amanda, who was pointing towards something in the air. He shifted his gaze up and tried to see what Amanda wanted him to see.

“There, between the branches!”

He looked a little closer and finally saw something move in the trees. A small red animal was making its way along one of the branches of the tall trees. It was a squirrel. It was cute, with its fluffy tail and little paws. It was moving quickly through the trees and soon disappeared between the leaves.

“Wasn’t that just the cutest squirrel you have ever seen?”

Amanda was gushing over the small animal and Danny found himself smiling and nodding along.

“Just our luck we managed to see one!”

After Amanda stopped praising their luck, they started moving again. Tom, who was walking next to him, turned his head slightly to address him.

“We are almost there. It will take at most another twenty minutes at the pace we are going.”

Danny smirked, making his eyes squint a little.

“Probably longer if Amanda sees another squirrel.”

Amanda made an offended sound and placed a hand over her heart in an overly dramatic manner.

“Hey! I heard that!”

Tom and Danny both started laughing, lightening the mood. The sour thoughts had not entirely disappeared, but they had definitely taken a backseat at the moment and Danny was content with letting them stay there. It was no use worrying about Amity. If he was absolutely needed, Clockwork would come and get him. They could handle themselves for a few days, right? Sam and Tucker knew most of the ghosts and their weaknesses. They also had the thermos to capture the ghosts in. Danny was sure Jazz would have given it to them. It had still been in his backpack from when he got back from school. They would be fine.

They didn’t need him.

Did they need him?

The thought stung. Bad thought. Back in the box with you.

He concentrated on the path, trying not to trip again like he had in the beginning because he had been looking around too much and not paying attention to where he was going. He thought he was about to die a second time from embarrassment as Amanda had openly laughed at him. Not maliciously, it was all in good fun. Tom had also cracked a smile at his stumble. Yeah, let's not do that again.

They kept walking with Amanda pointing out certain landmarks in case he got separated from them. He tried his best to remember them. A big rock that looked like a face. A tree that split in the middle. A bush with red flowers. He kept repeating them in his head.

“Oh! We made it!”

Danny looked in the direction Amanda was pointing at and saw a clearing between the trees a little bit off to the right of the path. They made their way over and Tom and Amanda started placing the blankets on the ground. Danny was looking around at the open space. It was beautiful. Between the grass all sorts of flowers were growing in all colors imaginable. Bees and butterflies were flying between them, going from flower to flower. The grass was a vibrant green. The trees at the edges of the clearing were bathed in the sunlight with their branches gently swaying in the wind. It was peaceful and quiet with the only sounds being the birds, the leaves rustling in the wind and Tom and Amanda’s quiet conversation as they discussed where to place the blankets.

“Danny.”

He moved back to Tom and Amanda at the call. They had put the blankets on a patch of grass with the least amount of flowers and had already put out the food and drinks. Amanda was enthusiastically patting an empty spot on the blanket, signalling for him to sit there. Danny smiled and let himself drop on the blanket. Tom started handing him some sandwiches and a bottle of juice. He quickly inspected the sandwich to make sure it hadn’t gained any sentience before taking a big bite. It was just a normal sandwich, but somehow eating it here made it a bit more special.

Chapter Text

It had been a while since Amanda had that much fun walking around in the forest. Don’t get her wrong, Tom was perfect company, but there was just something extra fun about having Danny with them. The way he looked around as if he had never seen a forest before. His curiosity and enthusiasm was contagious. Since it was his first time properly visiting the forest, she had the opportunity to show him all the plants and animals. It had been fun showing him different birds and flowers. They also made sure to show him some landmarks in case he got separated from them for some reason. Tom had made sure to tell him that if he ever got lost here and couldn't find any landmarks, to just stay put and they would find him. Danny had looked very cute nodding his head with wide eyes and a serious expression.

When they had finally reached the clearing and settled down with the sandwiches, she had to hold in a snort as she saw Danny checking over the sandwich to make sure it was dead. Truly, no matter what kind of food it was, he never failed to stab it a few times ‘just to be sure’. It was very endearing.

“Oh, right. Tom, Eric called and asked if we wanted to tag along to Portland with him and his family.”

“Portland?”

“Yeah, the kids wanted to go visit a new art exhibition there so he is taking them and Shelly. He wondered if maybe Danny would also want to go.”

She looked at Danny who stopped mid bite when she did so.

“Huh?”

“Would you like to go see an art exhibition? Eric will be taking his kids, we can all go together.”

Danny looked a little unsure, looking down at his half eaten sandwich with a contemplative frown on his face. Amanda waited patiently for him to form his thoughts and make up his mind. Eventually Danny looked back up and gave her a small nod.

“Sure, why not?”

It still sounded like a question, but Amanda took it as a resounding yes.

“Great! They will be going the day after tomorrow. While we are there we can also make a visit to Rosalee.”

“Right, it has been a while since we went to visit.”

“She can finally introduce us to this Blutbad she has been dating.”

Tom gave her an exasperated look.

“I trust you to behave, darling.”

Amanda let out a snort and gave him a full toothed grin.

“But of course love. I promise not to bite.”

She stealthily crossed her fingers while making the promise and winked at Danny who, from his side, could see them. He tried to hide his smile while Tom let out an exaggerated sigh, shaking his head at her antics.

With future plans made, they finished their lunch and started packing up the blankets. Tom took the lead this time and started explaining what they were going to do.

“A bit further ahead is a river where a lot of animals go to drink. Your first lesson in hunting will be to try to pick up a scent and follow it.”

“Why not just wait for an animal to come to the river and take them out there?”

“If we did that, other animals would not regard that spot as a safe place anymore. They would begin to avoid it and we would have more trouble finding them.”

Danny let out a small sound of understanding.

“Ah.”

Amanda tapped on Danny’s shoulder to get his attention.

“While stalking an animal it is important to be quiet. So knowing how to move quietly in a forest is an important skill to have.”

Danny nodded and Amanda continued her explanation.

“You are already very stealthy, but since you are not used to this environment, you don’t know what to avoid or how to avoid it. The best days to hunt are when it has just rained and the ground is still wet.”

She pointed to the trees.

“When it is autumn or winter, the leaves would fall on the ground and walking on them makes a lot of noise, no?”

“Mhm.”

“So when they are wet, they actually make minimal noise. You are able to walk around without having to worry too much about making a lot of noise.”

“Then what do you do if the leaves are dry?”

“Good question. You cannot walk around on dry leaves without making noise.”

“Then?”

“You just have to make it sound like you are another animal.”

Danny’s eyes widened in realistation. Amanda gave him a small smile.

“There are two techniques we like to use. The deer walk or the squirrel shuffle.”

She proceeded to slow down and walk forward on her toes, stopping every three or four steps.

“This is the deer walk. See how I’m not hurrying along. Walking, look around, walking, sniff the grass, walking.”

She did it a few more times and gestured for Danny to try as well. He started to imitate her and moved along with her through the grass.

“Good! See Tom, he is a natural.”

Tom had stopped walking ahead and was waiting for them a little bit away. He had a smile on his face as he watched his wife and Danny walk around imitating a deer. After walking like that for a little bit longer, Amanda changed the way she walked. She took a big step and shuffled aggressively across the grass.

“This is the squirrel shuffle. Squirrels always make a lot of noise while they move around. So, you take a big step, shuffle a little bit and then take another big step. Sometimes you change it up with just twisting your foot on the leaves as if the squirrel is stopping for a second to root through the leaves.”

She continued demonstrating while Danny followed along. Now the two of them were shuffling towards Tom, who had a proud look on his face. When they got to his spot, Danny looked up triumphantly, but immediately ducked his head as he saw Tom’s expression. Tom smiled and gave him an extra tip.

“Great job. Another thing you can use as cover is the wind.”

Danny looked back up attentively, his embarrassment momentarily forgotten.

“The wind also causes noise, so you can cover up your own by moving whenever the wind is blowing.”

Danny nodded and took a moment to listen to the sound of the leaves as the wind passed through them. Amanda stepped up next to Tom.

“When we manage to get a hold of a scent we will try to use some of these techniques, okay.”

“Okay.”

Danny looked excited at the prospect of trying it out, so they started walking again towards the river.

Chapter Text

“Okay, Danny, what do you smell?”

Tom watched as Danny moved along the river partially woged, nose twitching with his mouth slightly open in search of prey.

“Umh, I smell the grass and this earthy scent.”

He took another step and frowned a little.

“I guess I smell flowers, but I don’t really- huugh.”

Danny sighed as he shook his head, clearly frustrated at the inability to find a trail. Amanda tried to cheer him up.

“Don’t worry Danny! It’s your first time, you’ll get it!”

Danny gave her a small smile and took a deep breath. He squared his shoulders and closed his eyes, nose once again twitching. A gust of wind blew by and Danny whipped his head in that direction. Good, he finally caught the scent.

“I think I have something!”

“Good, what do you think it is?”

“Well, it smells kind of musky? Um, and there is also this sharpness to it. I don’t really know what that is.”

“That is a buck.”

“Yay! Good job!”

Amanda was jumping up and down while clapping. Danny smiled and his cheeks slightly flushed in embarrassment. He rubbed his neck while mumbling that it was nothing.

“Good job, Danny. Now where is the scent coming from?”

“That way.”

He pointed to the south.

“Upstream huh?”

“Yes.”

“Lead the way.”

Danny looked at him a little unsure, but with a firm pat on the back, determination appeared in his eyes and he gave Tom a sharp nod. He started walking in the direction the scent had been coming from and tried to follow it. They moved south for a bit, following the river upstream. Danny stopped for a little bit and then veered away from the river, going more towards the east. They did this for a few more minutes, before Danny stopped again and let out a frustrated huff as he spun a little circle trying to catch the scent again.

“I lost it.”

He said it in a mumble, shoulders bunched up to his ears and wringing his hands together. Tom walked up to him and raised his hand. Danny flinched a little and closed his eyes. Tom only hesitated for a second before petting his head.

“That’s okay.”

He watched as Danny opened his eyes in bewilderment.

“It happens to the best of us. All you have to do is go back to where you last had the scent and try again or go back to the river and try to find another trail.”

“You’re not mad.”

He said it in such a small voice that Tom got a little angry at the people who made it so Danny would think he would be mad at him for not succeeding on the first try.

“Of course not. It was your very first try. It is already amazing you managed to follow the scent all the way here.”

Danny looked at him with his eyes wide open, nervously glancing towards Amanda who had come to stand next to Tom.

“You did really well, Danny. We are proud of you.”

When she said that Danny’s eyes widened even further and his bottom lip wobbled a little.

“Really?”

"Absolutely! Come here.”

Amanda opened her arms and Danny quickly accepted the invitation. She patted his head and rubbed his back. Danny let out a small sniffle and let go of Amanda after a few seconds. When they stopped hugging, he sniffed again and wiped at his eyes.

“Are you ready to try again?”

Danny took a deep breath and straightened his back.

“Yeah.”

Tom nodded and they started walking back the way they came towards the river. They were moving slowly so that Danny had the chance to pick up the scent of the buck again. It took Danny a few more tries to find the scent again, but when he did, he got this excited glimmer in his eyes and did his best to not lose it a second time. During the search they made sure to show him how to not only track the animal by smell, but also by things such as broken branches or marks on the ground. Danny paid close attention to everything they were saying.

When Danny lost the scent for a bit and didn’t really know how to continue, Tom would help him along by making him retrace his steps and make him look for any signs that the buck would have passed through the area.

After half an hour of following the scent and Danny trying to trace the buck, the scent was becoming stronger the closer they got and at some point, Tom stopped Danny and reminded him to be careful as they were nearing the animal.

“Do you remember how to do the deer walk?”

Danny nodded and started slowly walking towards the area where the buck was supposed to be using the technique Amanda had shown him to walk around imitating a deer. They proceeded like that for a minute or two before hearing the sound of something moving. Tom held up his hand to signal that they should stop. Looking ahead confirmed that the buck was in the area in front of them. He nodded at Amanda who nodded back and she moved away from them in order to circle around the animal. He made sure to talk as quietly as possible to Danny.

“Danny, I need you to stay with me, okay? Amanda will cut it off on the other side. Our job is to guide it towards her so we can corner it.”

Danny looked nervous but nodded in determination. Tom could see that he was getting excited. He would need to make sure that the adrenaline didn’t go to his head and make him act recklessly. After waiting a bit to make sure Amanda was in position, Tom woged and readied himself.

Let the hunt begin.

Chapter Text

Danny was excited. In his kind of ghost form – he didn’t really know what to call it at this point – all his senses were enhanced. Smells were stronger, sounds were louder and the urge to do something was higher than ever. He sat crouched next to Tom, waiting for his signal, keeping an eye on the buck as it grazed between the trees. Tom made a gesture with his hand indicating for Danny to go right while he would go left. He then held up his hand showing three fingers. Danny watched intently as he started counting down.

Three, two, one!

They both jump to action, sprinting forward towards the buck, who startled at their charge and quickly ran away. Tom flanking it from the left and Danny from the right. His senses zeroed in on the rapidly moving buck as it swerved between the trees to get away from them. A grin appeared on his face as excited laughter threatened to make its way out of his mouth. Was this what Skulker felt every time he went out hunting? Because if so, Danny could understand the obsession. It was honestly electrifying.

They were moving fast, trying to guide the animal towards Amanda. Danny, still not used to sprinting in a forest, stumbled a little, falling forward and catching himself with his hands, managing to propel himself back up and forward to continue running. The buck however, saw this gap in their pursuit and took it, swerving to the right, away from Amanda. Biting back a curse, he shouted an apology as they also changed course. Tom roared into Amanda’s general direction and was quickly answered with another roar.

“Don’t mind it! Just keep running! We can corner it this way too!”

He shouted at Danny while they tried to keep the buck in their sights. Because of the sudden change in direction, the buck had gained some distance and Danny was berating himself for letting that happen. Of all the times to trip!

“Danny! Go right!”

He looked over at Tom and gave him a nod, moving more to the right, forcing the buck to change directions again to the left. Danny was starting to get tired. He wasn’t used to sprinting like that for so long. Had he not been in this weird half ghost form he would not even have made it this far in the chase. If only he could fly, he would have caught that buck in five seconds flat. Grunting in frustration and exhaustion, Danny pushed himself to run faster in order to catch up to the buck. Adrenaline kept him focussed on the hunt. Everything else started to fade away until the only thing he saw was the buck that was swerving through the trees.

A roar rang out ahead of them, causing the buck to panic and stumble in its haste to once again change course, leading it right into Tom. He jumped up, tackling the buck to the ground and sinking his teeth into its neck. The buck flailed and cried out, eventually growing quieter and quieter until it stopped moving. Only then did Tom let go of its neck. Danny had stumbled to a stop watching the display with a mix of excitement and dread. They had caught it. He let himself drop to the ground in exhaustion. That had been… awesome.

Danny looked to his right as Amanda made her appearance, cheering when she saw the buck. She skipped towards Danny, who had managed to somewhat catch his breath at that point.

“You did it! Your first hunt and such a good catch!”

She ruffled his hair as he gave her a tired smile.

“I didn’t really do anything. Tom was the one who caught it.”

He averted his gaze, staring at the ground.

“If it wasn’t for me tripping we would have caught it sooner.”

“Hey now! None of that now, young man! You did really well for your first hunt!”

“She is right.”

Danny looked over at Tom who was making his way over to them, wiping away blood from his mouth with a handkerchief.

“This was your first hunt, in an unfamiliar environment. Not to mention that a buck is a formidable animal that is not that easy to catch. You did good.”

The smile on Danny’s face became more genuine. The reassurance and praise helped him lift his spirits. Amanda clapped her hands together, gaining their attention.

“Well, time to bring it back to the shed! Let’s go!”

She bounced towards the buck and gestured for Tom and Danny to join her. Tom let out a fond chuckle and extended his hand out for Danny to grab. He only hesitated for a second before grabbing it and letting himself be pulled to his feet.

“Amanda and I will carry the buck, you can carry our bags.”

Danny wanted to protest, but one look from Tom made him nod his head. He watched as Tom looked around for a bit before grabbing a big branch off the ground, while Amanda pulled some rope out of her back pockets. Together they started tying the legs of the buck to the branch. Once done they hoisted it over their shoulders. They started walking back towards the river, where they had left their bags, the buck gently swaying between them as it hung from the branch, the antlers sometimes catching on the ground. Blood was slowly dripping down from the wound Tom had made on its neck, leaving behind a trail of dark red on the grass.

Danny walked at the front, following Tom's directions to get back to the river. If he had to walk back on his own, Danny would have never made it. He hadn’t had time to focus on where he was going, so after running around like that, he was hopelessly lost. They managed to make it back to the river after about fifteen minutes of walking. Danny jogged towards their bags and grabbed all of them. Once they were secure over his shoulders, they started moving again, back towards the cabin, where they would go to treat the animal in the shed.

He was oddly looking forward to it. The idea of hunting for your food and making it yourself was very appealing to him. He wondered how the buck was going to taste. Tucker would have loved this, it was kind of sad Danny wouldn’t be able to share this with him. Maybe he could take some with him when he went back home? Well, it would be something to brag about regardless. He would have to make sure not to say anything about it to Sam though or it would be him on the chopping block. He let out a small chuckle at the thought.

Chapter Text

Amanda felt a little sorry for Danny. When he went to pick up the bags, Tom had filled her in on why the buck had changed course so suddenly and she knew that would be quite the blow to someone's self esteem. Luckily, it seemed that he had gotten over it rather quickly as he seemed rather happy, walking with a barely noticeable bounce in his step. Tom called out to him as he was stepping back to them.

“Let’s see how well you remember the way back from here. Take the lead.”

“Really?”

Danny looked rather unsure so Amanda gave him an encouraging smile.

“Of course! Don’t worry, if you go the wrong way, we will tell you. No harm, no foul.”

“...Okay.”

He still looked a little unsure, but had a determined set to his shoulders now, as he adjusted the bags and started walking back down the path towards the cabin. Danny managed to lead them back to the cabin without too much trouble. He had slightly hesitated when they had come across the open area where they had the picnic, but other than that he did just fine. When she told him so, he hadn’t been able to hide a blush. Aah, why was this child so adorable? Amanda couldn’t help but lament that this wasn’t her son. Maybe she could suggest co-parenting to his parents? If he ever went back to them that is. She still hadn’t fully figured out how to go about that particular issue.

When talking about his parents, Danny didn’t seem fearful, rather he seemed sad. She supposed that when the time came, she and Tom could be a third party in the conversation, supporting him from behind, making sure nothing happened to him. She nodded firmly in her mind, nobody was going to harm her cub.

They moved towards the shed with the buck, while Danny went and put the bags at the backdoor of the cabin. After placing the buck on the table, Tom started removing the branch from its legs. Amanda took the ropes he handed her and put them back in their spot. Danny came into the shed just as Amanda handed Tom one of the knives, so they could start skinning the animal. He frowned a little, still not used to the strong stench of blood, but not having as big of a reaction as the first time he entered the shed. Danny stepped closer and curiously looked at buck laying on the table.

“Doesn’t it need to be bled?”

Tom answered him while checking the knife.

“No, not this time.”

He pointed at the neck of the buck that had a large bite wound, the surrounding fur coated in blood.

“See this? When I bit it, I managed to bite through a major artery. Most of the blood has already been drained while we were carrying it back to the shed.”

Danny nodded while he inspected the wound. Amanda moved to stand beside him.

“We will now start with skinning and butchering. You will be responsible for putting away the meat.”

“Me?”

“Of course! Don’t worry, I will help keep the bags open.”

She gave him a playful wink while holding up some plastic bags she had grabbed.

“Okay. So, we are going to butcher it right now?”

“Yep! Since it doesn’t need to be bled, we can just cut it up and put it in the freezer.”

“We can eat it in a day or two at the earliest.”

“Right, so we won’t be eating it tonight unfortunately, buuuut…”

She continued quickly after seeing the disappointment begin to form on Danny’s face.

“We will be having it for tomorrow evening!”

“Something to look forward to.”

Amanda gave Tom a quick smile as she saw the disappointment turn into excitement. Danny even licked his lips as if he couldn't wait to get a taste.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom gave Danny some gloves to grab the meat with and it was time to start. Danny watched attentively as Tom made a cut along the spine of the buck, nodding along as Tom narrated everything he did.

“It is best to start from the back. This way you can get cleaner cuts and avoid accidentally cutting through any intestines. The spine is easy to follow.”

He made a second cut starting from the cut made on the spine, along the sides about the height of the midline. He then started cutting between the flesh and the hide, separating them towards the backside of the buck.

“Cutting it here gives you enough room to work with to start peeling the hide back. See how easy it is to separate?”

Danny hummed and nodded, staring wide eyed at Tom cutting away at the buck with precision. Tom moved on to the rear legs, making a circular cut just above the joint and cut straight up along the front side of the leg, meeting the cut he had made previously.

“Like this you get to the hind quarter. After peeling away the hide on this side you do the same at the front. Cutting along the backside of the front leg and then going diagonally to our first cut.”

He peeled back the hide and moved up to the neck. Once that was done, he started cutting through the meat. Till now Danny’s gaze had been locked onto Tom's hands from the moment he started. Amanda felt relieved he was so interested in it. She had been scared for a moment that it would be too much for the young boy, but his inner wesen was rearing its head. This was good.

Tom made more cuts along the meat, making sure to cut along the spine and to the ribs, cutting out a slab of meat. He handed it to Danny who looked at it with amazement. Amanda held open one of the bags, shaking it a little in front of him to get his attention. He smiled sheepishly at her as he put the piece of meat in the bag.

They worked like this the rest of the time. Tom cut pieces of meat from the buck, handed them to Danny, who put them in the bags Amanda held up for him. About an hour later the entire buck had been butchered.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Come Danny, you and I will put these bags in the freezer in the basement.”

Tom gestured for Danny to pick up some bags and follow him. Danny quickly discarded his gloves and scrambled to grab some bags and follow Tom into the cabin. Amanda stayed behind in the shed to take care of the pelt and clean the tools they had used. They would later take care of the carcass. Taking it to town to give to Ansel, he and his family had always been fond of bones and liked to make things with the rest of the leftover meat and intestines. Amanda smiled, already imagining their excitement at receiving such a big buck.

Chapter Text

Watching Danny walking behind him like a little duckling as they went to and fro the shed and the basement made him smile the entire time. Every time they entered the shed, they stopped for a bit to watch what Amanda was doing. That resulted in Danny hovering around her like he had done when Tom was butchering the buck. He had to keep himself in check or he was going to start sounding like Amanda, demanding to adopt the little cub and keep him for themselves.

Amanda was dealing with the hide at the moment, cleaning it so that no more meat was stuck to it. Danny watched for a little, before moving back to the bags of meat. Tom gave Amanda a quick kiss on the cheek and followed after Danny with his own bag slung over his shoulder. Once inside the cabin they moved to the back and into the door right next to Danny’s room. Moving down the stairs, they got to the bottom in the basement where several freezers and shelves were located. Together, they put the meat in one of the freezers and walked back up the stairs and back to the shed.

By the time they were done, Amanda was also almost done with the hide. Tom gestured to the buck carcass.

“While Amanda is working on the hide, we will take care of this.”

“What do we do with it?”

Danny curiously poked at one of the exposed ribs.

“We cut it in pieces, put it in some bags and then we give them to Ansel.”

“Ansel?”

“Yeah, Jägerbars fancy the bones and never say no to the intestines.”

“They always love it when we bring them some and this way we can get rid of the carcass without too much hassle. They will be quite happy with such a big buck.”

Amanda chimed in from her spot near the curing racks. Danny nodded and looked expectantly at Tom. He went to one of the walls and grabbed two bonesaws, handing one to Danny, who held it in front of him experimentally.

“Come, I will show you where to cut.”

Danny quickly went to stand next to Tom, holding the bonesaw at the ready. Tom pointed him towards certain areas of where to cut to split the legs, putting those in the same bag. They then moved to the ribcage and cut it in more manageable pieces and also put those in some bags. The process didn’t take long at all and once they were done, they moved the bags to the back of the truck to bring to Ansel the next day. They were going to go buy a new vacuum cleaner with the coupon from the newspaper he had read yesterday, so they could bring it to him on the way.

Amanda came out of the shed right as they put the last bag in the truck.

“Good, work boys.”

She held up her hands, demanding high fives. Tom gave in to her command and gave her a double high five. She turned to Danny who had to jump up to reach her hands. Both of them laughed as they followed Tom back into the cabin. All of them went to sit at the kitchen table where Amanda made them some tea. The sky had already turned dark as they sat peacefully drinking their cups of tea after a day hunting.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day started out slow. Amanda woke Danny up at seven o’clock and they ate a light breakfast consisting of eggs and toast. Though Danny had refused the toast flat out, calling it evil, so he had just a normal slice of bread. The plan for the day was first some more lessons on wesens and their culture and norms and maybe even help Danny get over his fear of fully woging, then a simple lunch. After which they would go to town to give Ansel the buck carcass and buy that vacuum cleaner at Eric’s. At the end of the day, they would take out some of that buck meat. Tom was sure that would make Danny happy.

He nodded to himself as he went over the plans one more time in his mind. He finished his coffee and put aside the newspaper he had been reading. Together, the three of them moved to the couch to start their lesson.

“So Danny, last time we taught you about different kinds of wesens, our position in society and some of our customs and norms.”

Danny nodded, looking eager to know what they would teach him next.

“Today we will be telling you more about grimms.”

Seeing that he didn’t look any less excited, Tom started the lesson.

“Grimms are gifted humans who are able to see a wesen’s true form even if they don’t want them to. They have taken it upon themselves to police and hunt the wesen population to protect normal humans. They are fierce hunters and thus feared among wesens. We don’t know how the first grimm came to be, we don’t have any records about it and if there were any, we don’t have access to them. What we do know is that the first known grimms were called the Dēcapitāre, that’s latin for ‘one who decapitates’. They were active in the first century AD.”

Amanda continued while Tom took a sip of water.

“During the fourth crusade, that was around the twelfth century, there were several knights who were grimms. They are the ancestors of what we have come to know as grimms. Did you know that the term grimm came from The Brothers Grimm?”

“You mean the ones from the fairytales?”

“Yes, exactly! Funnily enough they themselves weren’t grimms.”

She looked back over to Tom, signaling for him to take over.

“Normally the role of a grimm is to hunt down ‘the bad ones’, meaning the aggressive and malicious wesens who harm humans and other wesens alike. Unfortunately because of this, a lot of grimms see all wesen as ‘bad ones’.”

At this Danny looked away uncomfortable, having a faint grimace on his face. He was likely thinking of his parents.

“So, all wesens have a fear of grimms.”

“Don’t worry Danny, not all grimms are like that! There are plenty who only want to protect innocent people.”

He seemed to cheer up a little bit after that, still the atmosphere was quite somber. Amanda clapped her hands.

“Why don’t we do something else now?”

Danny tilted his head at her, clear confusion and curiosity shining in his eyes. Thank god for his wife. Tom had absolutely no idea how to brighten the room like she did.

“Danny, I know it is scary, but you don’t need to suppress what you are around us. You are among your own kind now. So, why don’t we try to woge?”

“Huh?”

He let out a confused noise and looked between Tom and Amanda, making it look like he was watching a tennis match.

“You already know how to partially woge. So, why not try to go all the way?”

Danny looked extremely unsure and apprehensive, but gave them a nod of agreement after a few seconds.

“Good! Don’t worry. We are here every step of the way.”

He didn’t look any less unsure, but the apprehension had somewhat faded.

Truly, what would he do without Amanda?

Chapter Text

Tom and Amanda were looking at him expectantly, while Danny sat awkwardly opposite them in the grass. They had decided to take the lesson outside in the fresh air to help Danny relax and connect more with his wesen side. Danny didn’t know how being outside would be any help for something he couldn’t do, but here he was. It had been sort of fun at first to not correct their assumption that he was a wesen, pretending to be one of them. But now, he was struggling. Maybe if he just pretended for a bit longer that he just couldn’t woge fully, they would leave it alone?

“Okay, Danny, we will start with seeing how much control you have over your partial woge.”

He looked at Amanda slightly puzzled. Seeing his gaze, she gently chuckled and explained in more detail.

“When you partially woge, you grow fangs, sharp claws, pointed ears and your eyes change color from blue to glowing green. First, we will start with focussing on those changes and trying to limit the woge to one particular trait.”

Ah, so he had to try to only change one thing instead of his whole appearance? Sure, he could do that. It was kind of like using his intangibility. Sometimes he only wanted his arm to be intangible, so it should be easy, no?

He nodded his head and awaited further instructions.

“Good. Let’s start with the eyes. When you think of woging, focus on your eyes. Imagine them and only them changing color. Close your eyes”

Danny followed the instruction and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths and visualising his eyes changing into their toxic green. When he opened his eyes, he was met with a gently smiling Tom and an enthusiastically clapping Amanda.

“You did it!”

“I did?”

“Yes!”

She searched for something in her jacket and pulled out a little hand mirror, holding it up in front of him. Danny looked at his reflection. He did it. Everything was the same except for his eyes, which were glowing toxic green. A broad grin made its way on his face.

“Cool.”

“Let's try something else. How about the ears now?”

Danny nodded in excitement. They continued doing those exercises for a while longer. At some point Amanda suggested taking a break. She and Tom went back inside for a bit while Danny decided to stay outside. It was fun, but slightly draining as well. Having to concentrate like that took more out of him than he would have thought. The more he did it though, the easier it got. Being able to change his appearance like that was also awesome. When he got back home, he would have to see if he would still be able to do that. His powers worked differently here after all. Not being able to use all his powers had been an adjustment for sure. The urge to just phase through a cabinet to grab something was strong and he had hit stuff more than once, forgetting he couldn’t go through it.

He kind of missed his ghost half. Denying gravity and flying around, going invisible and not having to worry about anyone seeing him. He missed his friends. He missed Jazz. He wanted his mom and dad. He quickly shook his head. No use thinking about it. He would get back home, Clockwork would take him back. He had to look at it in a different way. He wasn’t stuck here, he was…he was at a camp! Yeah, a summer camp! A summer camp for non-humans where he got to learn how to hunt and use his powers in different ways and meet new people.

Danny looked around for a bit, before his gaze settled on a big tree. It stood about halfway between the treeline for the forest and the cabin. He walked closer until he was standing right next to it. It was a big tree, standing higher than the trees from the forest. He wants to climb it. Before he could think of anything else, he sharpened his hands, turning them into claws, and sunk them into the bark of the tree. Making his way up was easier than he thought it would be, so he kept going. Higher and higher until he had to stop as the branches wouldn’t be able to hold his weight. Looking down he realised he was very high up. Very high up. If he had to guess he was about 13 feet up in the air, sitting way above the cabin.

He couldn’t get down.

He was stuck.

Stuck in a tree, like an idiot.

He sat there for a moment, rethinking his life decisions while looking out at the forest. It was a nice view though. He was able to see the top of the other trees that stretched out for miles on end. No wonder they warned him not to wander into the forest. He would get lost in seconds without them to guide him.

“Danny!”

His head snapped down, looking at Tom and Amanda as they walked around calling his name.

“Where are you?”

“Here!”

They both looked up to see him sitting at the top of the tree, sheepishly waving at them.

“What are you doing there?”

“We are going to continue, so come down, okay?”

“I can’t!”

“What?”

“I can’t! I’m stuck!”

He could see Amanda trying to hold back her laughter and failing miserably, while Tom shook his head.

“Wait for a minute, I will get the ladder!”

“Okay!”

Tom went to the side of the cabin and came back with a ladder balanced on his shoulder. He gave Amanda a little slap on the arm as she was still laughing at his expense. Together they placed the ladder against the tree and Tom started climbing up. When he was high enough, the both of them were silent for a second, just staring at each other.

“Hey…”

“Hey. Let’s get you down.”

“Please.”

Tom helped Danny off the branch and onto the ladder. Once they were down, Danny didn’t know where to look, face flushed from embarrassment.

“Sorry.”

“Hahaha! Don’t worry about it! We were all kids once. Did you get a good view?”

He looked at Amanda a little flustered, still he nodded his head with a little smile when he recalled the view of the treetops spanning for miles.

“Good.”

Luckily for him, they didn’t dwell on his little adventure and just called him to sit with them on the back porch to continue their lesson.

Chapter Text

Seeing Danny stuck in a tree was the funniest thing she had witnessed in a while. Amanda had really tried not to, but she couldn’t hold in her laughter after he shouted he couldn’t get down. If she wasn’t convinced he was some kind of feline wesen before, then she was absolutely certain of it now. Only a cat would have the urge to climb a tree and somehow be unable to get back down.

Once Tom had managed to help Danny down from the tree, they sat themselves on the back porch of the cabin in the shade. Danny had been doing amazing and Amanda couldn’t have been more proud. It was wonderful that he managed to control his partial woge so quickly. It gave her hope that he would be able to fully woge soon, they just had to keep working on it.

They continued to focus for a bit longer on his control of individual traits and then moved on to trying a full woge. Danny looked very unsure, hunching in on himself and looking away from them.

“Hey, it’s going to be just fine. We can just try and if it doesn’t work, we will try again another time.”

He looked up at her through his fringe that was covering his eyes.

“What if I can’t?”

“That is okay too. As long as you try.”

He still looked unsure and slightly… guilty? Why would he feel guilty?

“Let’s start.”

Danny nodded and closed his eyes and tried to woge. Nothing happened and he started to frown. He took a deep breath and tried again. This time he partially woged, but nothing else changed besides that. He looked down at his hands, shoulders hunched in defeat. Amanda suddenly got an idea.

“Hey, maybe it would be easier if you had a visual to work towards?”

Danny looked at her confused as she stood up and speed walked into the cabin, yelling a quick ‘wait a moment’ as she disappeared inside. She walked to the living area and grabbed one of the picture books from the coffee table.

“Aha, found you!”

She quickly made her way back outside and presented the book to Danny.

“We have a few theories about what kind of wesen you could be.”

She opened the picturebook and pointed to a drawing of a panther-like wesen.

“This is the first option, a Balam. They are known to be aggressive and bold. In my opinion not the best fit, but physically it could work.”

Danny nodded as he examined the drawing. Amanda flipped through the pages again, this time stopping on a page with the drawing of a lion-like wesen.

“This is a Löwen, a lion-like wesen. They are known for their stealth, which you are a master in, but they are again very aggressive. They are, besides stealth, also known for their bad temper.”

Danny frowned a little.

“I know, I also don’t think personality wise you would fit. So that leaves us with…”

She flipped the pages again and stopped on a drawing of another panther-like wesen.

“...a Pflichttreue. They are white panther-like wesens. They are not necessarily known to be strong, but they are very quick and stealthy, able to appear and disappear like a ghost. They are smart, fearless and extremely loyal. Also in terms of appearance I would think this one would fit you the most.”

Danny seemed to agree with her as he asked for the book with his hands, making a little ‘gimme’ motion. She smiled and handed it over to him. They sat in silence for a bit as Danny looked at the drawing and read the text on the page next to it. He then nodded, put the book on the side and closed his eyes again.

They tried a few more times, but as it seemed that it wasn’t going to happen and with Danny’s expression getting darker and more sullen, they decided to call it a day. It was still about two hours until lunch, so they could go to town since that wouldn’t take too long. A change of pace would also do Danny some good.

“Don’t worry Danny. You did really well!”

The way he looked at her made it clear he didn’t believe her one bit.

“Why don’t we go to town?”

Danny seemed to think about it, but ultimately shook his head.

“I feel a bit tired. Is it okay if I stay here?”

Amanda shared a glance with Tom. He gave her a nod.

“That’s okay. We will only be gone for two hours max. Think you will be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“Okay then.”

She was still a little unsure about leaving him alone while he was feeling so down, but Tom gave her a squeeze on the shoulder and a reassuring smile.

“He just needs some time alone.”

“I know.”

That didn’t mean she liked it. Reluctantly she entered the truck together with Tom and waved back at Danny, who stood in the doorway waving them goodbye. She let out a dramatic sigh when they were out of view from the cabin.

“He will be fine.”

“Did you see his face? He looked so disappointed. Oh, Tom, what are we going to do?”

Tom gave her a small chuckle.

“It will be fine. Didn’t you say so yourself? Even if he is unable to fully woge, it won’t change anything. All we can do is try and see where that leads us. Besides, it was only the first try. Things like that take time.”

Amanda let out a huff, but a small smile had made its way on her face.

“Let’s get that buck carcass to Ansel and buy us that vacuum cleaner.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She snorted, giving him a light tap on the arm for his sarcasm.

“Ansel should be at work right now.”

“We will talk with him to get the key so we can place the carcass in his freezers.”

“Right, would he have that spare key still under that rock?”

“Don’t know, he puts it somewhere else from time to time.”

They continued chatting all the way to town while Amanda tried not to worry too hard about Danny. He would be fine.

Chapter Text

Tom felt for Amanda, he did, but he also felt that she was rushing it a bit. With the trauma Danny had about wesens in general, it was already commendable that he was able to partially woge on command. He wasn’t going to be able to fully woge in a few hours. It would take time.

It was understandable for Danny to want to be alone for a bit after something like that. He hadn’t really been left alone since he got here. He was once a young teenage boy too, after all. They needed their space. Tom listened to Amanda chattering away as they drove into town. First stop, the recycling centre.

They pulled up to the security booth and Ansel, having seen them coming, was already standing outside waiting for them.

“Heya Ansel! We got you something good.”

Amanda greeted him immediately with enthusiasm, even wiggling her eyebrows at him. Ansel remained his stoic self and only raised an eyebrow at her. Seeing that there was no one else around and that Ansel had some time, Tom stepped out and moved to the cargo bed. Ansel followed him around and his eyes widened as he started smelling the buck.

He opened up the back and pulled out the bag that held the head, showing it to Ansel.

“We went hunting yesterday. Danny’s first catch.”

“Hooh, a good fetch for the first time.”

“As usual the bones and leftover intestines and such are for you and your family.”

“Thanks, the cubs will love this. The key is under the yellow flower pot on the right.”

“Gotcha.”

Ansel gave him a strong hug and waved at Amanda, who was still in the car. They drove away towards Ansel's house that was luckily not that far away. They lived on the edge of the town, in a big house. Ansel lived there with his parents, grandparents, his brothers, partner and his kids. The whole family lived together essentially.

When they got there, Tom got out first, with Amanda following behind. He went to open the back and started pulling out some bags and carried them to the front door. Amanda had at that point already opened the door and had gone inside to open the door to the basement.

Nobody was in the house at the moment. They were either out in town, at their job or in school, so they had the whole place to themselves at the moment. Tom went down first while Amanda went back out to also grab some bags. The basement was just as big as the house. It needed to be, with so many people living there, all of them big eaters with big appetites. Truly, Ansel's family was welcome at any restaurant.

He located the freezers for carcasses at the far end of the basement. He opened one of them and placed the bags inside. On his way back up he crossed Amanda carrying her own pair of bags. They worked like that until all the bags were placed in the freezers. They made sure the doors were locked again and put the key back under the yellow flower pot.

“Let’s go to Eric.”

Tom gave a hum of agreement and started the truck. The drive to the electric store was short, taking about ten minutes.

“Ah, my favorite customers! How are you?”

“Doing just fine, Eric.”

Amanda walked up to Eric and gave him a hug. Tom gave him a handshake when his wife deemed the hug to be sufficiently long.

“Where’s the little one?”

“Oh, he was feeling tired so he stayed home.”

“Nothing serious I hope?”

“No, no. Not at all.”

Amanda immediately denied the worry.

“Good, good. So what can I do for you fine folk?”

“Ah ha!”

Amanda opened her purse and pulled out the coupon for the vacuum cleaner, holding it in front of Eric like a kid showing a drawing to their parents.

“The vacuum, I see. A good one too. I’ll get it for you right away.”

“Thank you, Eric.”

Eric vanished to the back and returned a few minutes later with a big box.

“There you go!”

Tom took the offered box with a nod and started carrying it to the truck. Once he got back inside, Amanda had already paid and was making some more small talk with Eric.

“-she would be more than happy.”

“I bet!”

“Oh, Tom! Eric and I were just talking about the trip to Portland.”

“Don’t let me stop you.”

She gave him a smile and turned back to Eric, who continued.

“The kids will be fine together. They have been to that area of Portland many times before.”

“I don’t know, Eric. I’m sure your kids are very responsible, but I just worry about Danny.”

“Don’t worry. Besides, I can say with certainty that they would be ecstatic with some time to themselves while the adults get some time away from the kids.”

Seeing that Amanda still wasn’t convinced, Eric pushed on.

“We will still be with them in the museum and they will only be walking around the block. There is even a police station nearby.”

That seemed to pacify Amanda a little bit, enough for her to agree to whatever Eric had suggested.

“Great!”

He turned to Tom to fill him in on the plans for tomorrow.

“We will leave at around eight, the exhibition opens at around ten. After that, we will eat some lunch. Then a stop by Rosalee and while we are there, the kids can go off on their own around the block to show Danny around for a bit.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They gave each other another handshake and off they were back to the cabin with a new vacuum cleaner. Another twenty minutes later and they arrived back at the cabin. Amanda immediately exited the car and hurried to the front door, anxious to see Danny. Tom shook his head with a chuckle and went to grab the vacuum cleaner from the back. He was halfway to the door when Amanda burst outside fully woged and panic clear on her face.

“I can’t find him!”

“What?”

He dropped the vacuum cleaner on the ground and sprinted inside, also woging in hopes of getting a clean trail in order to find Danny. He could smell him alright, the scent was strong inside the house, but just like Amanda said, he was unable to spot him anywhere.

Chapter Text

Danny was tired. Trying to change like they wanted him to was honestly exhausting. He had no idea on how to do it. He wasn’t a wesen after all. How was he supposed to change into another species all of a sudden? Hearing their theories about what kind of wesen he could be and showing him some drawings of them gave him at least an idea on what to pretend to be. In their eyes he would just be a wesen who was unable to fully woge.

Out of all of them he, for some reason, felt most connected with the white panther wesen. What was it called? Pflich-something? Pfature? Ah, Pflichttreue! Right. They looked cool and how they had described them spoke to Danny. If only he could change into something as cool as that. He envisioned himself with white fur and black spots, cat-like ears and a cat-like nose. A ferocious panther, prowling the streets. Yeah, that would be cool.

He unfortunately wasn’t a shapeshifter. At least he thought so. He did change from human to ghost, so was he a shapeshifter on a technicality? Ugh, his head started to hurt. He truly needed to take a nap. His neck still slightly hurt from whipping it around in a poor imitation of the movement Tom and Amanda did when woging.

Danny didn’t really know how to behave during those moments. They had looked at him with so much expectation, especially Amanda. The whole time she had been wearing a smile, encouraging him at every new attempt and every time he was unable to do what they wanted him to do. And Danny felt awful for betraying that expectation, for being the cause of Amanda’s smile diminishing. But he really couldn’t do it.

He looked back up at the tree Tom had rescued him out of. He felt like climbing it again. Resisting the urge since no one would be here to rescue him again, Danny turned his back on the tree and decided to just go inside. Feeling thirsty, he made his way to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water from the sink. Being alone in the cabin was a bit strange. He was already used to the sounds of Tom’s heavy footsteps and grunts, and Amanda’s excited chatters.

Taking a look around the cabin wouldn’t hurt, would it? What else was there to do? Danny drank the last of his water and put away the glass in the sink. He would clean that later. Walking around the living room, he started perusing the shelves. They were stuffed with trinkets, books and puzzlebooks. He picked up a little statue of two foxes playing on a small patch of grass, fiddling with it for a bit. Losing interest in the shelves he moved to the basement. Danny had only been there for a little bit to put away the meat in some freezers.

He turned on the lights and descended the stairs. The basement itself wasn’t that big, it was enough for five big freezers and some shelves. He took a quick peak into the freezers to check on the meat. Yep, it’s still meat. He then checked out the shelves. What immediately stood out were the rows of deer antlers and jars with unknown liquids. Danny recognised the antlers of the buck they had hunted the other day, proudly displayed among the others. A rush of pride welled up in his chest. He had hunted that. His first ever hunt and he managed to catch such a big buck.

He wanted to do it again. Maybe when he got back home he could come to some sort of agreement with Skulker? They could go hunting together. Danny let out a laugh. Wouldn't that be a sight. Him and Skulker, hanging out, laying next to each other in the bushes waiting for some unexpecting prey to fall in their trap. Ghost child and bonehead, hunter buddies. Ridiculous, but maybe… it could be fun. If they could set aside their grievances for a bit.

Moving on to the jars, Danny had honestly no clue what in the world was in them. They all had vastly different colours, ranging from yellow to red. There was even one that was this weird shimmery purple. None of them were labeled and he badly wanted to open them up. The only reason he didn’t was that he was honestly a little scared of what exactly those jars contained. He swore he saw a bubble come up in one of them. Yeah, nope. He already had enough of sentient food, he wasn’t about to add sentient liquids to his list. Slowly moving away from the shelves, making sure to keep them in his sight, he walked to the other side of the basement to where some boxes were stacked.

Most of them were the boxes of stuff they had kept from when they had cleaned out the storage room. He opened one of the other boxes and found it full of hats. Why they would put them all away in a box, Danny had no clue. When he pulled a few out, however, he completely understood why they had been banished to the basement. They were absolutely, without a doubt, the ugliest hats Danny had ever witnessed. Not even Paulina would have been able to save any of these hats and her fashion sense was top notch, or so he had been told.

The other boxes didn’t hold anything interesting, just some tableware and tea sets. Finding nothing else of interest in the basement, Danny made his way back upstairs. Not planning on going inside Tom and Amanda’s bedroom, as that would just be plain rude, Danny was at a loss of what to do. He had explored everywhere else in the cabin. He also didn’t feel like going to the shed or exploring the forest. Especially the forest. He was dumb, but not that dumb.

There was not much else he could do anyway, now that Tom and Amanda were gone, so why not take a short rest? After looking around for a bit, he spotted the perfect spot for a nap. Danny grinned. Yeah, that would do nicely.

Chapter Text

Amanda was panicking. She didn’t know what to do. When they got back home, she had expected Danny to be laying around on the couch or in his room, maybe even outside on the porch. She didn’t see him out back, he wasn’t in his room and she couldn’t find him anywhere else in the cabin. Panicked, she woged and started searching for his scent. It was stronger inside than outside, which at least suggested he was still somewhere in the cabin. Still not finding him, she ran outside and yelled for Tom. He dropped everything and joined the search.

Her breathing started to pick up. His scent said he was in the seating area, but she couldn’t make out where exactly. They kept calling out his name in the hopes of a response. What if something had happened and he was somewhere unconscious? What if he had been attacked and the attacker was trying to throw them off by masking Danny’s scent?

Tears started coming to her eyes. Tom was immediately by her side, hugging her tight.

“It’s going to be alright. We will find him.”

She let out a hiccup.

“Let’s check around the house one more time, okay?”

Amanda nodded against his shoulder as she sniffled. Still panicking, they went around each room, checking under furniture and in closets. They searched the basement and the direct perimeter of the cabin and the shed. Tom even got the ladder again to check if he had somehow gotten stuck in the tree again. Nothing.

They moved back inside and Amanda burst into tears on the couch. Tom was sitting next to her and turned his head up to stare at the ceiling. That was when he suddenly stiffened.

“Amanda?”

She looked up at him, wondering what he was going to say. When she looked at him, she noticed his posture and that he was focussed on the ceiling.

The ceiling?

Her eyes widened in realisation and her head snapped up, her eyes searching between the high beams running across the ceiling. There! She saw movement. Danny had somehow managed to squeeze his way between the ceiling and high beams. He was laying across them in what had to be the most uncomfortable position she had ever seen. Her tears started anew, this time from relief.

“Oh my god. He’s here.”

“Right.”

Tom stood up and went to the kitchen while Amanda called out to Danny again. He didn’t respond, only slightly shifting in his spot. Tom came back with a broom in hand. He looked at her with a deadpan expression and she gave him a firm nod, her relief turning into annoyance and slight anger. That boy almost gave her a heart attack. Her head had been filled with all these awful images and scenarios he could have gotten into.

Tom turned the broom around and pointed the brush toward the ceiling. He aimed and thrusted upward, hitting Danny, who let out a high pitched screech and fell from the high beams he had been curled up on. Tom did catch him before he could hit his head on the ground and injure himself.

So there they were, Tom holding Danny in a princess carry while he clung to him fiercely, looking around with panic and confusion. When he had calmed down a little bit and became aware of the situation, Tom let him down and he looked at them with a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You’re back.”

Amanda crossed her arms.

“We are.”

When Danny looked at her, his eyes widened and panic once more crossed his face.

“I’m sorry! I- I didn’t…”

He started flailing his arms, not really knowing what to do.

“You sleep like the dead, did you know that?”

The statement made Danny let out a snort.

“I have been told that, yes.”

Amanda let out a sigh. Tom placed a hand on her shoulder and leveled Danny with a look.

“Next time you want to take a nap, please go sleep in your bed.”

Danny avoided his gaze by lowering his head, fideling with his hands.

“Yes, sir.”

“As long as you understand. You really scared us.”

“Sorry.”

Seeing that he understood the gravity of the situation, she shared a glance with Tom and gestured towards the basement.

“Now, I imagine you would be hungry seeing that it is already one o’clock.”

He gave her a hesitant nod and Tom made his way to the basement door.

“Why don’t you help Tom bring up some meat from that buck you caught the other day?”

“Already?”

She could understand his hesitation, however, lifting the mood was her first priority. Yelling at Danny would do no good anyway, as he hopefully understood what he did. They had told him they were going to eat the meat for dinner. But considering the events of the day, she felt that now was the right time and it would also help cheer Danny up from the failures of trying to woge.

“Eh, I feel like eating it now.”

She gave him a cheeky wink and a small smile appeared on Danny’s face. Amanda turned him around and gave him a small push towards Tom, who was waiting for him by the basement entrance. Danny quickly ran up to him and together they descended the stairs.

A little bit later Amanda was at the stove baking some meat from the buck’s shoulder. Danny was next to her, cutting some vegetables, while Tom was sitting at the table making a crossword puzzle. Danny would from time to time glance over at the meat as it sizzled away in the pan, the smell already wafting around the kitchen.

Half an hour later, the table was fully made and the trio was enjoying a plate of game meat, potatoes and vegetables. Danny, as per usual, first stabbed his food before eating it like he hadn’t eaten in days. Amanda had to slightly reprimand him so he wouldn’t choke.

Amanda started thinking about what they would be doing for the rest of the day. She felt that doing more exercises to help Danny with his woge would be the wrong thing to do. Maybe they could go into the forest again and teach him how to recognise certain plants? Yeah, that would be good.

Chapter Text

After lunch Amanda had suggested another trip into the forest. Tom had wholeheartedly agreed. After the panic and confusion of thinking the worst had happened to Danny, they all needed to get some fresh air. The lunch had already calmed everyone down, but he could see that Danny was feeling awful; even if he was trying to hide it. It hadn’t really been his fault. He had just taken a nap in an unexpected place.

He was not at fault and Tom had to make sure he knew that. So, he would have a little talk about it with him at some point today. Amanda still looked a little upset. She wasn’t angry with Danny, that much he knew. She was more so angry with herself for not being able to find him in her panic. He would have to reassure her as well.

Since Amanda had made the food, it was Tom’s turn to do the dishes. Danny took it upon himself to help. Tom didn’t stop him. He just handed him the towel so he could dry them off and put them away in the cabinets. They worked in silence while Amanda had commandeered his crossword puzzle at the table, finishing it while they did the dishes. Once that was done, they packed a small bag with some water bottles and snacks.

They also packed away some small plastic bags for if they found something in the forest that they wanted to take back with them. They left the cabin and moved towards the treeline. While Danny was still somewhat subdued, he looked excited again. He was staying close to them, but was walking with a small bounce in his step. The hesitant cheerfulness of Danny seemed to help out with Amanda’s mood, making her more cheerful herself. While it looked like Tom wouldn’t have to talk to her immediately, he couldn’t postpone it for too long. Maybe he could talk to her while Danny was out of earshot. Tom was sure that she would cling to him like a koala when they would go to bed tonight. Not that he minded it.

They took the same trail they had used to get to the river the other day. The further they went, the more confident Danny seemed to get. The bounce became more pronounced and he stopped sticking so close to them. That was something Tom had noticed about Danny. Whenever he was feeling down, he would be back to his normal curious self after a bit. He was quite resilient. Somehow, that concerned him a bit. As if he was forcing himself a little bit to be happy when he wasn’t. At least it seemed that he was genuinely feeling better.

Instead of going further up towards the river, they took a turn to the right. No path had been made yet so they had to track through longer grass and bushes. Luckily this side of the forest had more open spaces and they didn’t have to move around like in those jungle movies, where they had to hack their way through overgrown vines.

Danny had decided to make a game out of it together with Amanda. Both of them were moving around the trees as if they were predators searching for prey. Walking slightly hunched with knees bent and arms spread. If they had walked sideways, they would have looked like crabs. They ran around like that for a bit, play-attacking each other whenever they managed to get in the others blindspot.

Tom walked behind them, keeping somewhat of a lookout in case something were to happen and just enjoying the sight of his wife and cub playing together. At some point Danny had even targeted Tom. He had managed to get behind him and jumped on his back. Tom pretended to be caught and let himself fall to the ground in a dramatic fashion.

“Aah, oh no! I have been caught!”

Danny laughed and let go of him, climbing off his back and skipping up to Amanda, giving her a high five as she was laughing her ass off. He gave her an amused grin as he stood back up and dusted the dirt off his pants. They took a little break to drink some water and eat something. Amanda then clapped her hands to gain Danny’s attention.

“Alright Danny, I will be entrusting you with a very important mission.”

He looked at her with a serious expression and nodded his head.

“I want you to look for Oregon grapes!”

Danny tilted his head, clearly he did not know what that was.

“Oregon grape is a shrub that has these little blue berries. It can grow to about ten feet tall and five feet wide. They typically have leaves that are leathery, with a glossy, dark green upper surface and a lighter underside. I entrust this mission to you to find us this shrub so we can collect the berries.”

She pointed a finger up to the sky with her other arm behind her back.

“Can you handle it?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Danny saluted her and started looking around.

“Don’t worry about where you’re going. We will be following behind, so have fun.”

He shot them a smile and went back to searching. Tom watched Danny running around with amusement. Amanda had come to walk next to him and together they kept a leisurely pace while keeping an eye on Danny.

“He will be fine.”

Amanda gave him a look.

“I still should have found him.”

“Maybe, but you were distraught. As was I. I should have found him too.”

“Tom-”

“It’s true. Both of us dropped the ball on that one. Now we just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Amanda looked at him fondly.

“At least now we know to look at the ceiling.”

Tom snorted.

“How did he even fit in there?”

“I have no clue. Thinking back on it, my neck would be hurting from sleeping in that position.”

“Your neck? My back would be in a knot.”

Both started laughing and looked back at Danny who was looking between some bushes, leaned too far forward and fell right into them.

“How is it that he can move around so quietly and lightfooted, yet be so clumsy at the same time?”

“A mystery never to be solved.”

Amanda let out a snort and hit him lightly on the arm. Danny popped back up, shouting an ‘I’m okay’ as he ran towards another bush, making the both of them laugh.

Chapter Text

Danny was having fun searching around the forest for berries. It was like going on a scavenger hunt. He also didn’t have to worry about getting lost as Tom and Amanda were nearby and they knew the forest like the back of their hands. He could almost forget the blunder he had made back at the cabin.

Almost.

He knew Amanda had given him this task to distract him from what happened. When he had made his way on top of those beams and fell asleep he had thought nothing of it. Then he had seen the distress on Amanda’s and Tom’s faces. The way her face had been red with tear streaks on her cheeks. How Tom had looked closed off, not angry, but unreadable. It had scared him. He didn’t know they cared that much. Why would they? They had only known each other for three days and yet, somehow, they got this panicked over not finding him immediately.

Danny didn’t know how to feel about that. Sure, he cared about them as well. They had been nothing but nice. They had given him a place to sleep, food to eat and were teaching him about their culture and way of life. Even if the reason for doing so was because they thought he was also a wesen, they still took care of him. It made him feel… guilty. Yeah, guilty. For lying to them about what he is, for taking advantage of their kindness. For eventually having to leave them behind, because this was only temporary.

He didn’t know how long he would stay in this dimension. Clockwork hadn’t given him any timeline to go off of, but he did know that it couldn’t be that long. He hoped so at least. Or did he?

‘Ugh, this is so confusing.’

Danny shook his head in hopes that it would clear things up a bit. He wanted to leave. To go back to his family, his friends. Yet he also wanted to stay. To play games with Tom and Amanda, to go on walks in the forest and go hunting together, to go on rides to town and eat pancakes at Sally’s while the waitress, Kate, was gossiping with Amanda about the latest happenings in town.

He wanted this peaceful, normal life. Was that wrong?

Wanting to get a full night's sleep instead of having to patrol the streets in case of a ghost attack. Getting up in the morning fully rested, having breakfast with everyone present at the table. No fear of food coming back to life or weapons cluttering the table, uncertain if they would go off and accidentally shoot at him. No talk about catching and ripping ghosts apart. Not having to worry that his day would get disturbed by a ghost attack. Not having to be on guard all the time in case Vlad decided to try plotting against him again.

Just him going to school, goofing around with his friends, avoiding Dash and the A-listers, doing his homework and actually submitting it. Getting his grades up and not being looked at like a failure. Like he could actually achieve something in his life.

He wanted to be… normal.

If he went back home, none of that would ever happen. Here at least, he could forget about it and pretend that he was normal, that he was one of them. So, why not stay for a little bit longer? Just a little bit.

Lost in thought he leaned too far forward and fell into the bushes he had been inspecting. Face burning he quickly scrambled out of it. He looked over at Tom and Amanda who were already laughing at him.

“I’m okay!”

After that he held his head down so they couldn’t see his blushing face and ran to another bush.

‘Come on, Danny. Focus!’

It took him another twenty minutes before he found the so-called Oregon grape. Together with Amanda he started picking the ripe berries from the shrub and put them in a little tupperware box that Tom had provided. Once the box was filled they made their way back to the cabin.

“How about we make ourselves a berry pie?”

Amanda looked at them expectantly, a wide grin on her face. Tom turned to Danny and gave him a little nudge.

“What do you think Danny?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Yes! Don’t worry Danny, it will be the best berry pie you have ever eaten!”

“More like the first ever berry pie I have eaten.”

Amanda gasped dramatically.

“You have never eaten a berry pie before?”

“Um, no?”

“This is a great tragedy that needs to be rectified right this instance!”

She quickly ushered them into the kitchen and assigned them all tasks. Danny had gotten the responsibility of weighing the ingredients. Tom got the task of making the dough and Amanda made the filling with the berries they had just picked.

Danny had his face scrunched up in concentration as he carefully put flour in a bowl, only for the bag to slip out of his hands, falling on the edge of the bowl causing it to fly up in the air, scattering flour all over the counter and all over Danny. He stood frozen covered in flour, not really knowing what to do.

“Bwahahaha!”

“Aw, baby, look at you! Hahaha!”

Instead of the reprimand he had been expecting both Tom and Amanda were laughing their heads off. Amanda was leaning against Tom, occasionally slapping his arm as she wiped away a tear from her eye. Tom was holding his stomach trying and failing to rein in his laughter. Danny pouted and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up.”

“Sorry, Danny. But you should see your face!”

Amanda gestured to his appearance and started laughing again. This time Danny couldn’t hold it in either and burst out laughing together with them. When they were done laughing, they cleaned up the kitchen and Danny was sent to the bathroom to clean himself up.

Once he was free of flour, Danny got back to the kitchen and they finished making the berry pie. Since they had eaten the meat for lunch, Tom made them some waffles with whipped cream and some leftover berries. They ate in relative silence, until Amanda started going over what they needed for the trip to Portland. Since it was only going to be a day trip, they didn’t need to bring a lot of stuff. They just had to take some snacks and water with them for the ride over and not forget their wallets.

When it was getting dark, Amanda ushered Danny to bed so he would be rested for the next day. Just as he was about to lay in bed, a knock sounded from the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Tom stepped in.

“Can we talk?”

Confused, Danny nodded. He made some room on the bed by scooting over so Tom could sit next to him.

“We need to talk about what happened today.”

Of course they did. Danny started fiddling with his hands waiting for the shoe to drop.

“First of all, I want you to know we are not mad at you.”

Danny’s had snapped up, not fully comprehending.

“You saw a good spot to nap and you took the opportunity. You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t break anything, you didn’t run off into the forest and you didn’t plunder the fridge as I expected you to do.”

At the last one Tom gave him a smirk, before turning serious again.

“The only thing we want from you is, that if you decide to do that again, you let us know or at least leave a note that says where you are, so we don’t think something bad happened to you. Okay?”

It was difficult to maintain eye contact with Tom as he looked at him full of sincerity.

“... Okay.”

“The second thing I want to talk to you about is that you don’t have to pretend that everything is fine.”

“Huh?”

“You’re not that good of an actor. You don’t have to force yourself to smile and laugh when you don’t feel like it. You don’t have to force yourself to be happy when you are not. It’s okay to not be okay.”

Danny wanted to protest and say to Tom that he didn’t do that. That he was happy. But he hadn’t really been, had he? He had been upset and had put on a smile so they would not feel bad. Danny looked over at Tom. He was sitting there, seemingly waiting for an answer. He couldn’t form the words. His throat closed up, mouth opening and closing like a fish, so he gave up speaking and just nodded. This was apparently good enough for Tom as he nodded back and went to get off the bed.

“Good. Now go to sleep. We have a busy day ahead of us.”

He walked to the door as Danny made himself comfortable in his bed.

“Goodnight, Danny.”

“Goodnight.”

Chapter Text

“Everybody ready?”

“Just a second Tom, I’m almost done packing the pie!”

She quickly put the pieces of berry pie in separate boxes. One for the three of them and the other for Eric and his family.

“Done!”

She speedwalked out of the kitchen, boxes in hand, and placed them in the bag Tom was holding open for her as he waited by the door with Danny. Aside from the pie, the bag contained some light snacks, bottles of water, a pack of cards, and some puzzlebooks like sudoku and crosswords. All you could need for a road trip. Danny himself didn’t have anything personal to bring with him, so he would have to make do with what was in the bag. Maybe they could buy something for him in Portland?

She had noticed he liked looking at the stars and that he knew a lot about constellations and space in general. If she saw a store with something space related, she would have to go check it out and see if there would be anything Danny liked.

“Keys?”

“Check!”

“Wallet?”

“Check!”

“Phone?”

“Che- coffee table!”

Amanda quickly ran back to the seating area and grabbed her phone that she had almost forgotten from the coffee table.

“Phone, check!”

Tom shook his head at her with a small smile and walked out of the cabin towards the truck. Amanda ushered Danny outside to follow after Tom. They placed the bag in between Danny’s and her legs on the ground as Tom started the truck and drove off the driveway onto the road. On the way to town they put on the radio and she immediately started singing along with the songs. Tom followed along in a more subdued manner and she eventually got Danny to join in too.

Seeing him exaggeratingly belt out the lyrics of Abba’s Dancing Queen made her heart warm. It seemed that the talk Tom had with him the night before had worked. He seemed more relaxed, like some weight had been lifted. In the short time he had been with them, she had noticed that he never really fully let his guard down. He was always in some way or another tense, as if he expected something to happen. Every time he entered a building or went outside he would do a quick scan of his surroundings. Almost unnoticeable if you weren’t looking for it. On its own that wasn’t that big of a deal, rather it was a good habit to be aware of your surroundings, but it was the fact that he was still a kid. A child shouldn’t have to worry that much about where all the exits in a building were. It truly looked like he expected to be ambushed at any given moment.

Amanda pushed her concerns aside. Now was not the time to sour the mood with such heavy thoughts. They were going on a road trip, this was supposed to be a fun time devoid of worries. Besides, when they got to Portland, they would visit Rosalee, who could maybe help Danny with the condition of his arm. She had noticed that his hand would sometimes twitch on its own or it would slightly shake while carrying something. She would help him with that at least, even if she couldn’t help him with anything else.

They kept singing songs until they arrived in town and parked in front of Eric Electronics. While they would be traveling in two separate cars, they were going to set off together. It had been a while since Amanda had last seen Shelly and the kids. It would do her good to catch up with them.

When they stepped out of the truck, the door to the shop opened and a small figure raced up to them, bumping into Tom at full speed.

“Uncle Tom!”

The small figure was Eric’s son Hurbert. He was clinging onto Tom, holding him in a death grip. Tom heartily laughed and patted the kid’s head.

“Hello to you too Hurbert.”

“Hello Uncle Tom, Aunt Amanda.”

“Heya Tracy.”

Amanda smiled at the little girl that was peeking out from behind the doorframe.

“Come here so I can give you a hug!”

She held her arms wide open and Tracy nodded shyly and shuffled over to her to give her a quick hug. Amanda didn’t let her go that easily though. She grabbed her, lifting her up from the ground and swung her around in a circle before letting her back down. Tracy let out a delighted squeak and smiled up at Amanda as she was put down.

“Me too! Me too!”

Hurbert quickly let go of Tom and flew into her arms as she held them open for him. She picked him up and also swung him around.

“Kids, go grab your backpacks!”

Amanda looked over at the shop entrance where at some point Eric had stood watching them greet each other. The kids, while reluctant, went back inside to grab their stuff.

“These kids, I swear.”

“Aw, don’t be like that Eric. Everyone loves a good hug.”

“True that.”

They shared a hug of their own and Tom gave Eric a firm handshake.

“Oh, hang on a second!”

Amanda hurried to the truck and fished out the box with berry pie out of the bag. She went back to Eric and handed it to him.

“We made some berry pie. There was enough to go around so here you go.”

“Don’t go around eating it all yourself.”

“Tom!”

Tom smirked at Eric’s whine. Amanda looked around and saw Shelly, Eric’s wife, step out the shop with the kids in tow.

“Shelly!”

“Amanda, dear. How have you been?”

Shelly gave her a reserved smile and polite greeting. Tracy was holding onto a part of Shelly’s dress, hiding slightly behind her while Hurbert had no such reservations and was staring intensely at her right.

“Who is he?”

“Oh!”

Amanda turned and put a hand on Danny’s back, pushing him forward a little.

“This is Danny. He is staying with us for a bit.”

“Hi.”

Danny gave them an awkward smile and wave. Hurbert moved closer, before suddenly frowning and blocking his nose with his hand.

“Ugh, you stink.”

“Hurbert!”

Shelly looked horrified as she quickly apologised for his behaviour.

“I’m so sorry. Hurbert, apologise!”

“What? It’s true!”

Eric came up to them and took Hurbert by the ear.

“Ow, ow, ow!”

“Apologise.”

“Okay, okay!”

Eric let go of his ear and looked at him expectantly. Hurbert nursed his ear and grumbled an ‘I’m sorry’ while looking to the side.

“Really, it’s okay.”

Danny waved his hands as he tried to deny the apology.

“That kid, honestly.”

Eric went to stand next to Amanda with his arms crossed, shaking his head.

“Don’t worry, just explain Danny’s condition to him on the way.”

“Sure.”

While she was talking to Eric, Tom had gone up to Shelly and Tracy, and Hurbert had gone over to Danny again and was animatedly talking about something. Danny seemed slightly awkward, but at least it seemed that there were no hard feelings for what Hurbert had said. Good, it would do Danny some good to have friends his own age. She was sure the two of them would get along fine. Amanda also knew that Danny would get along with Tracy as well. While she was more reserved and shy like her mother, Danny’s calm demeanor would put her at ease, of that she had no doubt. Besides, Danny’s enthusiasm was infectious.

“Alright! Are we ready to leave?”

Eric called out to everyone, to which Shelly gave him a nod and the kids chimed out an agreement.

“Come on then!”

He herded his kids to their car that was also parked in front of the shop, gave Shelly the berry pie so she could put it with the other food, and climbed in the driver's seat.

“We’ll be right behind you!”

Amanda called out as she, Tom, and Danny also moved back to the truck. Eric gave them a thumbs up with his arm out of the car window and started his car. Once the three of them were seated in the truck, Tom started the engine and followed behind Eric as they left for Portland.

Chapter Text

The ride to Portland was fairly uneventful. Amanda kept Danny occupied with simple games like I spy, making words out of number plate letters or counting specific colored cars and punching each other on the arm yelling ‘yellow car!’. Halfway through their two hour journey, Amanda pulled out the berry pie which she fed to Tom so he didn’t have to remove his hands from the steering wheel, while Danny took his piece, stabbed it once with a fork Amanda had packed for him, and only then started eating it.

“Oh! We’re here!”

Amanda excitedly pointed to a road sign that read ‘Welcome to Portland Oregon’. Good. While two hours wasn’t that long of a drive, his foot still ached a little from pressing the gas paddle and he needed to stretch his back. They drove a little longer until they entered the city and half an hour later, all of them were standing in front of the museum.

Tom was glad to see Danny chatting with Hurbert and Tracy, their first encounter seemingly forgiven and forgotten. Well, that’s just how kids were. Almost all of them had the attention span of a dog. He was sure that Eric had given his kids some kind of explanation for Danny’s smell and they seemed to take it well, not shying away from the boy.

The exhibition was already open, as it was already eleven o’clock. Tracy was already impatiently glancing at them as she waited for the go ahead, too shy to speak up. Not shy enough, however, to push her brother in the back towards them so he could do the talking.

“Okay, okay! Here are your tickets, don’t lose them! You are to stay inside the museum at all times. You can walk around, but stick together or let us know where you are going.”

Shelly gave the kids a stern look while handing out the tickets to which all of them nodded before running off towards the entrance. Eric quickly yelled after them.

“No running inside the museum!”

A chorus of hastily yelled agreement came from the distance as the three of them disappeared inside the museum. Amanda patted Eric on the back while Shelly was already making her way after the kids. She looked over her shoulder and gestured for them to follow.

“Come on, let’s also get inside before they break something.”

Tom gave her a hearty laugh in response and they all made their way inside the building.

“Never thought I would see kids excited to go to a museum.”

Tom gave Amanda a look with one of his eyebrows raised.

“It is an interactive art exhibition about animals, any kid would be excited to go. It’s basically a fancy playground.”

“Ha, true.”

Once they had all entered the building and showed the receptionist their tickets, they moved to the exhibition wing and tried to spot the kids. It took a little bit to find them, as they weren’t the only ones present. The place was packed with parents and their kids. The noise had reached new levels and reminded Tom of a daycare. Hurbert, Tracy and Danny were standing in front of some big painting that had a console in front of it. Shelly was the first one to spot them and was already standing next to them. When Tom made it close enough to see what was on the console, Tracy was pressing one of the buttons with Hurbert’s encouragement. The console let out a short melody before speaking.

“You have chosen the mouse! The mouse is a very small animal that likes to live in houses and barns. They love eating all sorts of plants…”

Tom listened to the explanation about the mouse as he looked over the painting. The painting depicted all manner of animals in their natural habitats, starting from birds up high in the sky, to moles deep in the ground. The console had buttons with a cartoon drawing of the animals. It seemed that when one pressed the button, an explanation of that animal would play.

While it was interesting, it didn’t keep the children's attention for long. Once the explanation of the mouse was done, they moved on to some of the other installations. Tom and Amanda kept close to the kids while Eric and Shelly went to walk around. They had made that agreement before going inside, as two adults were enough to watch over three kids. They were already old enough to be left to their own devices in a place like this, but none of them had felt comfortable enough not to keep an eye on them. Amanda had been especially adamant on keeping an eye on Danny. She was still feeling anxious about not finding him in their own house. Tom didn’t blame her, he also felt a little uncomfortable with the idea of letting him out of his sight.

Still, Danny was fourteen, as was Hurbert, with Tracy being twelve. While fourteen wasn’t that young anymore, he was still a kid and kids did stupid things, as he had demonstrated plenty of times already in the past three days. That is also the reason why he had felt a bit apprehensive about letting them run around outside on their own later as Eric had suggested. It was true that his kids knew that area and where to go, but it wouldn’t be the first time a kid wandered off too far from where they were supposed to go or did something they weren’t supposed to. He had been a kid himself, so he knew how teenage boys acted.

He also knew, however, that while young, Hurbert was very responsible, especially regarding his younger sister. For as long as he had known him, Hurbert had always looked out for her and protected her. He wouldn’t do anything stupid while his sister was around. And as Eric had said, the police station was close-by in that area. Tom had decided to trust Eric and that demeanor helped calm Amanda down too, as she had also been debating the decision.

It would be fine. They were old enough to know not to follow any strangers. Right? Tom frowned a little as a thought popped into his head. Wait, Danny did follow them without question. Still, that was a different situation. He had been lost in the woods and needed help getting out. But what if something happened and someone forced him to follow them, giving him no choice? What if someone threatened them and the only way out was to do as they were told?

His thoughts started spiralling, his frown deepening.

What if they got lost and someone offered to help them and they lured them away from where they were supposed to be and they hurt them or kidnapped them or-!

A soft touch on his arm brought him back to the present as the worried face of his wife came into view. The sight calmed him down and he gave her a small smile and a light shake of the head. Amanda didn’t look entirely convinced, but let it go for the moment, looking back at the kids as they were messing around with another exhibit that allowed them to draw on the wall.

Who knew taking care of a child was so anxiety inducing. He owed Eric a drink for all the times he had laughed at his complaints.

Chapter Text

On the way to the museum, Hurbert had come to walk next to him. Danny didn’t really feel like talking with the boy. Why should he? Hurbert was the one who insulted him first and he didn’t even properly apologise. Maybe that was a little petty, but Danny was not going to be the one who broke first, not this time. So at first none of them said a word, that was until Tracy also joined them and poked Hurbert on the arm. He shot her a glare, but there was clearly no heat behind it.

“Ehum.”

He cleared his throat and turned to Danny.

“Sorry about what I said.”

“It’s okay.”

Now that he properly apologised that is.

“Dad says you’re really ill, is that true? Is that why you have that smell?”

Ah, so they had discussed his condition on the way here. That explains why he would apologise for his comment even though he hadn’t wanted to in the beginning.

“Well, I’m not really ill.”

“But dad says that you smell of death, so are you dying?”

“It’s just a medical condition. Nothing serious.”

“Sure.”

Hurbert looked at him with squinted eyes, clearly not believing him. After a few seconds he let it go, however, and started talking about the arts exhibit they were going to go see.

“It’s all about animals and it’s interactive!”

“Interactive?”

“Yeah, like you can play with the installations they have set up! It’s really cool!”

“You have done it before?”

“Sure we have. Every year, right Tracy?”

Tracy, who had been silently following, nodded her head with a shy smile on her face. The three of them continued like that until they reached the museum.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That was fun.”

“Told you you would like it.”

They were on their way towards a restaurant so they could have lunch. Granted it was already one o’clock, so Danny was rather famished. The museum was fun. It had been the first time he had been allowed to draw on the walls and be praised for it instead of scolded. He should look if they had anything like that back home too. He was sure Sam and Tucker would love it.

“Here we are!”

Danny looked up as Eric exclaimed, enthusiastically showing off the pasta restaurant as if he was the owner. Amused, they made their way inside where a waiter brought them to a round table next to the window facing the street. He made sure to sit where he had a proper view of the exits. Hurbert went to sit on his right while Tracy sat on his left next to her mother. Amanda sat next to Hurbert followed by Tom and then Eric, completing the circle.

It didn’t take long for the waiter to come back with their drinks after they had placed their orders. Danny had tried to be discreet when he ordered the cheapest plate of pasta on the menu, but Amanda had given him this look that made him pick something else on the spot. He had heaved a quiet sigh when she nodded approvingly and ordered her own pasta dish. She had looked like Jazz when she disapproved of something he did. A look that said: ‘I know what you are doing, you are better than this.’

Not wanting to see that look again, he quietly sipped at his coke as conversation started to pick up around the table.

“So I have been hearing that Rose has gotten herself an amour.”

Eric wiggled his eyebrows at Tom when he said ‘amour’, making Tom laugh and punch Eric in the arm. Amanda giggled as she smirked at Eric.

“Kate told you, didn’t she?”

“Of course she did. That girl couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it.”

Kate? Oh, the girl from the diner with those perfect pancakes. Yeah, Danny had gotten that impression when she had started exposing half the town’s secrets on their first meeting. Shelly joined the conversation.

“Well, I’m glad she has gotten herself someone. God knows that girl needs someone she can rely on.”

“A Blutbad though?”

Eric looked a little doubtful. Granted, from what Danny had heard about Blutbaden he would also be very apprehensive if one of his friends suddenly started dating one. Amanda sighed a little as she reprimanded Eric.

“Oh, come on Eric. The guy is, according to Rose, a Wieder.”

“Still don’t believe that.”

“Tom!”

“What? He could be eating meat when no one is looking?”

“You really think Rose wouldn’t be able to smell that?”

Tom opened his mouth to retort, but closed it when he couldn’t think of a counter argument.

“Touché.”

“Her relationship isn’t the only interesting piece of news though.”

“Right. A friendly grimm?”

“Never thought it possible really.”

“Apparently he is a policeman.”

Danny let the gossip wash over him as he drank his coke, eyes wandering across the table and restaurant. Tracy was paying full attention to the conversation, holding onto her mothers sleeve with one of her hands while drinking from her sprite. Hurbert looked a bit bored, playing around with one of the ice cubes in his glass. The rest of the restaurant was fairly noisy. Most of the tables were filled with other customers. The sound was starting to grate at his sensitive senses.

“Hey.”

A quiet whisper came from his right. Danny shifted his attention to Hurbert who had called out for his attention. He looked at Danny with a small frown.

“You okay?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Really?”

Hurbert drew out the word, emphasising his disbelief.

“Yeah, it’s just a little loud, is all.”

“Ah.”

Realisation dawned on his face as he looked around the restaurant. He turned back to Danny.

“Don’t worry. That happened to me too when I first woged. You get used to it.”

He gave Danny a playful smile, which Danny found himself replicating. The rest of the lunch was spent with Hurbert telling Danny all about his butterfly collection with Tracy quietly listening in and the adults talking about happenings in town and catching up in general.

“-one is called a Papilio Demetrius. It’s a black butterfly with soft white stripes on the wings and orange eyespots on the hindwing. They are from Japan and you can see them the most in July. I managed to get one last summer for my birthday.”

Danny looked at the picture Hurbert was showing him. Shelly had only allowed him to take out his phone when they were all done eating, much to Hubert's annoyance. The pinned up butterfly was indeed very pretty.

He was honestly a bit surprised by Hurberts straightforwardness. According to Tom and Amanda Mauzhertzs were very cowardly wesens. They were supposed to be timid and scared of their own shadows. Yet both Eric and Hurbert were very outgoing people. Hurbert probably got his easygoing personality from Eric. Tracy fit the description more in that she was very shy and timid, taking more after her mother, but even she had shown a somewhat willful spirit when interacting with her brother.

Maybe they were the exceptions to the rule, but it did make him wonder just how much wesens were stuck in these stereotypes taught to them from a young age through children's books and fairy tales.

Before Hurbert could show Danny anymore of his collection, Eric declared they were leaving the restaurant. While they had been talking, Eric and Tom had apparently paid for the food. Hurbert let out an annoyed sigh, but got up from his seat, putting away his phone in his backpocket. Danny was honestly kind of relieved to be leaving as a faint headache was already starting to develop from all the noise.

Danny quickly got up and moved to follow the rest out of the restaurant. It was time to meet this infamous Rosalee and her Blutbad boyfriend.

Chapter Text

The first thing that happened when Amanda opened the door to the apothecary was the breaking of a glass jar. She looked towards the sound in bewilderment as the rest filtered in behind her. A woman with brown hair reaching just past her shoulder, average height and kind face stood shocked in front of a shelf that was filled with herbs and jars. Before Amanda could greet Rosalee, she sprinted to the door while woging, pulling Danny from behind her. She quickly grabbed the boy's head, turning it left and right, before moving on to the torso, lifting his arms and patting him down.

“Were are you injured?”

“Rose.”

“I don’t smell any blood so where?”

“Rose.”

“Nothing on the sides, legs maybe?”

“Rosalee!”

Rosalee stops short by the yell and looks up seeing Amanda and Tom looking at her with amused expressions. Before she could say anything, the door behind the counter burst open. A tall and lean man with brown wavy hair and beard, rushed into the room.

“Who is- uahg!”

And immediately slipped on the contents that had been in the jar that Rosalee had dropped on the ground.

“Who is dying?”

He quickly stood back up with a groan, eyes blown wide with panic. He advanced rapidly towards Danny, hands hovering in the air as if not sure if it was okay to touch him or not. Like he was going to hurt him if he did. The man's scent had hit Amanda directly. A Blutbad. Ah, this must be the Wieder boyfriend. Amanda touched Tom’s arm to stop him from advancing. Tom had partially woged when the Blutbad had appeared, nearly growling when he got close to Danny.

He gave her a questioning look. She nodded to Rosalee and mouthed ‘lover’. Realisation appeared on his face and he stopped woging, relaxing as he watched the couple fret over Danny who was looking more overwhelmed by the second.

“I’m fine.”

Danny spoke in a quiet voice, looking at them nervously. Deciding to save Danny, Amanda stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder and standing slightly in front of him.

“Rose, don’t you think you should introduce us?”

“Ah! Of course!”

Rosalee quickly got up from her crouched position and while still shooting worried glances towards Danny, gestured towards the Blutbad that was now also sheepishly looking at the rest of them.

“This is Monroe. Monroe, these are the guests I was telling you about. Amanda, Tom, Eric, Shelly. Eric and Shelly’s kids, Hurbert and Tracy.”

She pointed to each person as she called out the names, before settling on Danny.

“And this must be Danny?”

Rosalee gave Amanda a brief look to confirm. Amanda nodded with a small smile as she gave Danny a reassuring squeeze as he had started shifting from side to side in unease.

“Nice to meet you.”

Monroe partially woged and held out his hand for them to shake. Everyone followed suit and performed Vertrautheiten. When it was Danny’s turn, Monroe hesitated for a second, before trying to smile reassuringly at him, with partial success. The smile looked more awkward than anything really. Danny glanced at Amanda and Tom before partially woging himself. His eyes started glowing and turned toxic green while his ears elongated and became pointy. The smell of death grew stronger, becoming more pronounced and oppressing.

Having already gotten used to it during their woge training, Amanda and Tom didn’t have any reaction to the amplified smell. That could not be said of Rosalee and Monroe. Both of their faces paled, eyes widening. Rosalee put a hand in front of her mouth to hide a small gasp and Monroe was clearly struggling with keeping a straight face.

Seeing this Danny shrunk back, but the firm hold Amanda still had on his shoulder kept him from completely hiding behind her. She gave him a gentle push and a small nod. Dannys still looked unsure, but stepped forward again and finished greeting Rosalee and Monroe.

“Why don’t we all have a seat? Would you like some tea?”

Rosalee tried to elevate the tension. She gestured to the side where a small table and some plush chairs were. While everyone was getting seated, Hurbert was pleadingly looking at Eric. Eric shared a look with Shelly, who nodded, and sighed.

“Fine, off you go. You know the rules.”

“Yeah, yeah. Come on Danny! Let’s go!”

Hurbert dragged Danny out of the shop with Tracy following close behind.

“Hurbert and Tracy are used to the area and wanted to show Danny around. Don’t worry, they’ll be fine.”

Eric pacified Monroe who had looked like he had wanted to protest the leaving of the children.

“It’s fine Mon, Tracy will keep Hurbert in check.”

Rosalee called out from behind the counter where she was grabbing some herbs to make the tea with. She grinned at Eric and Shelly who returned the gesture, before going to the back area of the shop. When the door had fully closed, Amanda turned her full attention to Monroe.

“So, Monroe. I heard you are a Wieder.”

“Ah, yes.”

Monroe shifted uneasily in his seat, now having to endure the gazes of four people without Rosalee as a buffer.

“Never thought I would see the day of a Wieder Blutbad.”

Shelly commented while sitting in her chair with the poise of a noble lady, hands neatly folded on her lap. Monroe looked like he didn’t really know how to respond. Good, let him sweat. She and Shelly took turns speaking, with Eric and Tom watching the shovel talk unfold without interfering.

“You know, Rosalee is a very sweet girl, isn’t she?”

“Of course! She is amazing!”

“Then you must realise what a great loss it would be if she left.”

“I, um.”

“Listen, Monroe. You seem like a decent person.”

“Thank y-”

“But hurt her and I will rip your throat out.”

“And I will dispose of the body. I know quite a few hiding places.”

Amanda and Shelly gave him both a sweet disarming smile, contrasting the sharp and threatening words leaving their mouths. Monroe gulped before straightening his posture.

“Rose is the best thing that has ever happened to me. She saw something in me that even I hadn’t seen. She makes me a better person. I will protect her with my life. No matter what.”

“Well, then.”

“Welcome to the family.”

Tom and Eric finally moved and once again shook Monroe’s hand. It was highly amusing to see the bewilderment and relief on the man's face. At that moment the back door opened and Rosalee appeared with a tray in her hands.

“Sorry for taking so long. I couldn’t find the cookies.”

She gave them a knowing look as she set the tray with tea and cookies on the table. She sat herself next to Monroe after giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

“So, what were you talking about?”

A corner of Shelly’s mouth quickly quirked up, betraying her amusement with Rosalee's act. She had known exactly what was happening. No way a Fuchsbau would be unable to find some cookies. Amanda knew as a Fuchsbau herself that she would have been able to find them had they been hidden under the floorboards. That sly woman.

Chapter Text

After welcoming Monroe to the family, they all enjoyed a cup of tea with some cookies. Rosalee had been pleased with Amanda’s tea gift when she had belatedly remembered she had bought something for her. At first the conversation was pretty lighthearted, with Rosalee regaling how she and Monroe met, but as the story continued, Rosalee and Monroe started looking more and more serious.

“It has been very hectic the last few days.”

“How so?”

Rosalee sighed. Monroe patted her on the shoulder and took over.

“There had been a toxin going around infecting wesen.”

“What, like a cold or something?”

Monroe gave Eric a weary look. Clearly it was far more serious than some common cold.

“It’s called the Cracher-Mortel toxin, they turn wesen in ‘zombies’ for a lack of a better term.”

Shelly gasped, holding a hand in front of her mouth. She leaned forward and asked in almost a whisper, eyes blown wide open.

“Zombies?”

“Undead.”

Eric put a hand on Shelly’s leg to sooth her as she let out another gasp. Tom shared a panicked look with Amanda. Monroe gave them a grave look and warning.

“You have to watch out for these infected individuals. They are aggressive and will attack on sight.”

Rosalee quickly swooped in with reassurances after seeing the rising panic among them.

“We have found a cure. We are currently working together with Nick to track down those infected and inject them with the cure.”

“Nick?”

“The grimm?”

“Yes, I told you over the phone, didn’t I? He is a friendly grimm. He is nice to wesen and only goes after those causing harm to others, like a grimm is supposed to do.”

“Hmm.”

“Didn’t you also say he’s a policeman?”

“Yes! He is quite the stickler for the rules.”

“Sure, unless he has to break it of course.”

“Monroe!”

“What? It’s true, isn’t it?”

“Urgh, not helpful Monnie.”

“Sorry.”

“If you need help, Nick is your best bet.”

“Got it. Now back to this toxin, should we call back the kids?”

They had to make sure it was safe for the kids to be walking around all on their own. Surely, Rosalee wouldn’t have said it was alright if it wasn’t safe, right? Rosalee shook her head, making a pacifying gesture.

“No, it’s fine. This area should be clear by now. We only have to round up a few straggles and the problem is solved.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. The kids will be fine.”

Eric, still soothing Shelly, let out a sigh of relief.

“If you say so.”

Feeling more at ease, but still somewhat antsy, Tom took another sip of his tea to calm himself down. The kids are fine. Nothing was going to happen. Sure, Danny seemed to be a bit of a chaos creator, but there was no way something would go wrong with Hurbert and Tracy with him, right? Rosalee shook him out of his thoughts with a hesitantly asked question, changing the topic of conversation to something less panic inducing.

“How… how is Danny? You said he had problems with his arm?”

Amanda nodded and put aside her empty cup.

“Yes, he says that sometimes his arm hurts and feels numb.”

“I see, I might have something that should ease the pain a bit, but this has probably something to do with the nerves in his arm.”

“I figured.”

Monroe, looking like he wasn’t sure he could participate in this topic, asked a question of his own.

“I’m sorry, but what about the, um, smell?”

Amanda glanced at Tom, who gave her a reassuring smile. Nodding, she answered carefully. This was a sensitive topic, after all.

“Did you notice how it got worse when he woged? He had an… accident when he was younger. It caused his heart to stop beating for a minute, before he was resuscitated. It was probably the catalyst for the smell and the inability to fully woge.”

“Well, we still don’t know what kind of wesen he is. We have some guesses, Amanda is fully convinced he is a Pflichttreue.”

“What? It fits!”

Rosalee let out a small laugh and brought them back to the topic at hand.

“Has he not fully woged yet?”

“No, he is only able to partially woge at the moment. We are working on it.”

Rosalee looked at Monroe.

“Maybe we can ask Nick to look into it?”

“I don’t know, he is still kind of new to this.”

“It has been two years.”

"Exactly, he is still green behind the ears.”

“But he does have resources he could take a look at.”

Monroe didn’t seem all that happy, but under Rosalee's persuasion, assented to the proposal. Now both of them were looking at them.

“Sure, if this friendly grimm of yours can figure something out, why not?”

Amanda nodded alongside him.

“Great! Then we will give him a call. How long were you staying again?”

“Ah, we are staying till morning.”

Right, they were supposed to stay in a small hotel for the night and leave for home in the morning.

“Good, we will call him in a bit.”

With that out of the way, they were able to relax a bit more. With Rosalee to help and this supposedly friendly grimm, they would figure out what Danny was in no time. Tom did kind of hope it wasn’t a Pflichttreue, so that he could hold it over Amanda’s head, but it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if he was one either. Sure, Amanda would not let him forget that she got it right, but considering the nature of Pflichttreues, Danny being one would be preferable actually.

Rosalee went and made some tea with the leaves Amanda had bought for her while Eric started regaling a story of when Hurbert decided that he was too cool for broccoli, forcing Shelly to come up with more and more creative ways to still make him eat it. At least Tracy didn’t seem to have any such tendencies. It would have been a nightmare trying to convince two children to eat something, instead of just one.

During this, Tom let his thoughts wander. He kept thinking back to Danny. Please, let nothing happen.

Chapter Text

“Let's go this way!”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Come on Tracy, have some spirit! You wanted to go back, this is a shortcut.”

Danny was standing in front of the alley opening, while Hurbert and Tracy were arguing behind him. The alleyway seemed fine to Danny. A bit dirty, sure, but there wasn’t really anything wrong with it. He started walking and yelled at the two bickering siblings over his shoulder.

“What are you waiting for? By the time you have decided which way to go we could have been back already!”

“Danny!”

“Wait for us!”

Hurbert quickly caught up with a grumbling Tracy following close behind. He felt a little bad for Tracy, but it would be fine. Tracy had grabbed Hubert's arm and was clinging to it while Danny led the way. There was only enough room for two people to walk next to each other. The walls were dirty and covered in some kind of grime. At times they had to maneuver around trash cans, much to Tracy’s dismay. Maybe they should have gone the normal way, Danny didn’t want Tracy’s dress to get dirty.

He turned up his nose, a foul smell had just entered it. It was very faint, yet very distinct. It smelled like a dead rat. Maybe one died a bit further up ahead?

Hurbert called out from behind him.

“We should almost be there.”

“Okay.”

Just as Danny skirted past another trash can, the sound of running could be heard from up ahead.

Great, another person. This was gonna be a tight squeeze.

Dreading the thought of having to press himself against the dirty alley wall, Danny looked up and saw a fully grown man running towards them. He furrowed his brows. The guy smelled weird. He kind of smelled like the dead rat he had smelled earlier? A weird feeling came over Danny, as if this guy was somehow familiar, yet not. He felt something coming up his throat, just like when a trail of mist would come out when meeting a ghost, but it somehow got stuck in the back of his throat.

Before Danny could think about it any further, the man had already reached them. Up close, Danny saw that the man looked sick. Deadly pale skin, sunken eyes and instead of properly running, the man was stumbling around more. Was he drunk?

The man stopped a few feet away, swaying slightly on his feet.

“Hey, man? Could you let us pass?”

The man didn’t react to Danny, instead he looked past him, as if he didn’t exist. The man started growling and with a minute twitch of the face woged in front of them. His face didn’t really change all that much, but his ears elongated and his nose changed to be more animal-like. If Danny had to compare it to anything, he would say the man looked a bit like a rat. He still wasn’t looking at Danny, but behind him, at Hurbert and Tracy.

Danny recognised the signs and subtly blocked the man's view. Carefully, Danny made a gesture behind him.

“Run.”

“Danny…”

“Don’t worry, run. Get help.”

They didn’t need to be told twice. The siblings booked it back down the alley. The rat-man, stimulated by them running away, made a move towards them, but Danny started growling. A warning for the man to not come any closer. He let himself go ghost as much as possible.

The man stopped moving, but continued to snarl. Hurbert and Tracy were already out of sight. This seemed to pacify the man somewhat as his posture turned less aggressive. For some reason, he still wasn’t really paying any attention to Danny.

Danny was still eyeing the rat-man, ready in case he decided he was going to go after his friends after all, when he saw movement from behind the rat-man. Another man was sneaking up on them and before Danny could process what the guy was going to do, the new arrival tackled the guy from behind. Danny looked at the man in bewilderment, still in his semi-ghost form. The man stabbed the rat-man with something, causing him to fall unconscious. When he looked back at Danny, Danny slightly flinched from the intensity.

“Are you okay?”

Danny dumbly nodded his head, he then realised he was showing his ghost form to a random person and quickly changed back. The man chuckled as he put handcuffs on the rat-man.

“You are a brave one, aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t run or scream after seeing me, that takes a lot of guts.”

Danny raised an eyebrow.

“...Okay?”

“The name’s Nick, what’s yours?”

Wait, why did that ring a bell? A guy who fought a wesen, handcuffs, Nick? Danny’s eyes widened in realisation. This must be the grimm Amanda and Tom had told him about. So, this guy should be cool, right? Nick started looking at him with concern. Seems he had been quiet for too long. Better answer his question.

“Um, Danny?”

“You sure?”

Danny crossed his arms at the sarcasm, ignoring the smirk Nick was shooting his way.

“Yes, quite sure.”

“Okay then, Danny. Let’s take this guy to the station.”

“Sure.”

He watched as Nick hoisted the guy over his shoulder and carried him out of the alley. Danny followed along at a bit of a distance. It didn’t take long for them to get to the police station where Nick handed the guy over to someone else and gave the person a short explanation, before turning back to him.

Now that the rat-man was gone, Danny noticed that this Nick-guy kind of had the same smell hanging around him. Maybe the scent rubbed off on him from carrying the guy for so long? Yeah, that must be it.

“So, Danny. Do you have your parents number?”

“Oh, um. No?”

Nick frowned at him.

“Do you know where they are?”

“Yes, that I do know.”

“Care to enlighten me?”

“I don’t know, do I?”

“Well, unless you want to spend the rest of the night in the police station while we go out to find them…”

“First, they aren’t my parents. I’m just staying with them for a few days. Second, they are at Rosalee’s apothecary.”

“Rosalee?”

“Yeah, you are Nick - the policeman - grimm, right?”

“Pfft, yeah, that’s me.”

“Then you should know where that is.”

“That I do. Wait here, I’mma make a quick call.”

Nick ruffled his hair as he walked away, calling out to one of the other policemen in the station.

“Hey, Hank! Can you watch the kid for a bit?”

‘Hank’ looked like he wanted to do anything but. He sighed, glanced at Danny. Sighed again. Hey, he wasn’t that much of a hassle. Eventually, Hank walked up to him and guided him to his desk, gesturing for Danny to sit on the extra chair next to it. This was going to be a long wait.

Chapter Text

Amanda was having a good time. Seeing Rosalee smile like she doesn’t have a care in the world filled her with joy. She had almost lost her to drugs, not having heard from her for years, when suddenly, three years ago, Rosalee called her in hopes of reconnecting. Amanda had never been so happy to get a call.

Now sitting here, gossiping away with her old friends, a smile never left her face. Still, a small voice in the back of her mind couldn’t stop whispering – Danny was outside, without an adult. Something could happen to him, and they wouldn’t be there to help.

Amanda tried to shake off her unease by grabbing herself another cookie when the door to the shop burst open. They all quickly turned around, expecting to see someone in dire need of care, only to see Hurbert and Tracy, both out of breath and deathly pale. Panic was writing over their entire body. Eric and Shelly immediately ran towards them, searching them for injuries.

“Where’s Danny?”

She glanced at Tom and realized with a start that Danny was indeed not with Hurbert and Tracy. Still trying to catch his breath, Hurbert, on the verge of tears, shook his head. Eric gently took his face in his hands and murmured calming words to the distraught boy. Shelly had already picked Tracy up in her arms and was softly humming to the crying girl.

Once they had calmed down enough, Eric made Hurbert look him in the eyes and asked again.

“Hurbert, where is Danny?”

“He-he - sniff - the man, and wouldn’t move - sniff - so Danny…”

“Hey, hey. Deep breaths, that’s right, just like that.”

Eric took deep breaths and Hurbert followed along. Amanda and Tom were waiting with bated breath for them to continue. If it weren't for Rosalee holding her back, she would have already run out the door. Tracy wasn’t even paying attention to anything else but her mother, clinging to her like a koala, and Amanda couldn’t blame the girl. Whatever had happened had scared them so badly that they had sprinted all the way back to the apothecary.

Knowing Danny, he would have confronted whatever it was that caused the kids that much distress and told them to run. She really hoped he was alright, but if that is really what happened, Amanda couldn’t help but fear the worst. What if they had indeed been attacked by an infected wesen? Danny wasn’t strong enough to fight off a zombie. He was still a kid. What if he got seriously injured or infected himself? He was already sick; what would happen to him then? Would the cure even work at that point?

Amanda was taken out of her spiraling thoughts by Hurbert who had calmed down enough to try giving them an explanation again.

“We were taking a shortcut - sniff - through an alley. And there was this guy who wouldn’t let us pass. Hic - he woged and wanted to attack us… Danny held him off and told us - hic - to run.”

Hurbert started crying while recounting what had happened. Eric quickly hugged the boy while sharing a distraught look with Amanda and Tom. Just when they were going to ask where they had been, a phone started ringing. Rosalee quickly fumbled to grab the phone out of her pocket.

“It’s Nick.”

“Can’t he wait?”

Rosalee gave Monroe a look and answered the call.

“Nick?”

“Hey, Rose. Sorry for calling so suddenly, but I got myself a brave little wesen waiting to be picked up.”

“Little wesen?”

“Yeah, called himself Danny. Cat-like wesen.”

“Danny?”

Amanda, already attuned to the call at the words little wesen, couldn’t hold herself back anymore and grabbed the phone from Rosalee.

“Is he safe? What happened? Where is he? Tell me he’s okay!”

“Woah, yes, he is safe. He is with me at the police station. Some Reinigen tried to stir up some trouble, but don’t worry. I got there in time to apprehend the guy before he could hurt anyone.”

Amanda closed her eyes in relief. Tom placed his hand on her back and gave her some soothing rubs, calming her further down. She thanked Nick and told him they would be there as soon as possible. After ending the call, she sheepishly handed the phone back to Rosalee, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I would have reacted the same.”

When she noticed that the room had gone completely silent, she looked towards the others and saw that Hurbert and Tracy were staring at her with wide eyes. They had stopped crying when they had heard ‘Danny’ and were now fixated on her and Rosalee. Hurbert opened and closed his mouth, trying to say something but not getting the words out. Tracy’s lower lip wobbled as she asked in his stead, in a quiet, fearful tone.

“Is… Danny okay?”

“Oh, sweetie. Yes, he is fine. We are going to him right now, in fact.”

Relief flooded the children and made them start crying again. Monroe had gone ahead and was giving them some tissues, which Eric and Shelly gave him grateful looks for.

“Right, let’s go. Danny should be worried about Hurbert and Tracy as well, no?”

Amanda nodded at Tom’s assessment and grabbed her coat and waited impatiently for Rosalee to lead them to the police station.

“I’m coming. We should be there in a few minutes. It isn’t far from here.”

Rosalee also grabbed her jacket, followed by Eric and Shelly, both still holding the kids, who had calmed down again. Tom was next, and lastly Monroe stepped out and locked the door. After everyone was outside, Rosalee took the lead and guided them towards the police station.

Amanda tried not to think of the worst. Nick had said Danny wasn’t injured, but knowing Danny, he would have probably faked it and hidden his injuries. He could be bleeding out this very minute. The image of Danny slumped on the ground with blood pooling all around him made her heart skip a beat. She quickly shook her head to get rid of the image. While speed walking down the street, she vowed to never let him out of her sight again. He was not going to get hurt on her watch.

Nobody hurts her cub.

Chapter Text

Tom had never walked as fast as he was now. He knew that if it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t know the way to the police station, he would be going there in a full on sprint. Why did he have to jinx it? Nothing would happen, right? The kids would be fine, right? They were safe on their own, right? Right his ass! He should have gone with them!

He knew something would happen. Why didn’t he listen to his gut! That’s it, from today onwards he was going to buy the boy a leash. One of those harnesses that some parents put on their kids to not lose them in a crowd. He would pick the fluorescent pink one. The stupider it looked, the better.

While they were going as fast as they could, they had to slow down somewhat because Hurbert and Tracy were both exhausted. Even though Tom and Amanda would have liked to do a death sprint to the police station, they held themselves back. The kids were as eager to see Danny as they were. They needed the most reassurance right now.

This was driving him crazy. Was this really what a parent had to go through? No, this was Danny specific. Any other kid would have just wandered around the city and maybe gotten lost at most. But no, Danny had to wander through alleyways and come across a Cracher-Mortel toxin infected wesen. Of course he would try to hold the person back and let others escape. While he doesn’t want to condemn him for his bravery, by god, does he want to grab him by the scruff and shake some sense in the boy.

Thank the stars this Nick-person had interfered. True to Rosalee’s words, the grimm was a decent enough guy. If the phone call was anything to go by, he had injected the infected wesen with the cure, taken him into custody and dragged Danny with him to the police station, after which he had called Rosalee. Maybe they should get Danny a phone? They would have had no way to know where Danny was if the grimm hadn’t known Rosalee. They hadn’t even given Danny their phone numbers. Tom wanted to facepalm at the oversight.

He knew, in hindsight, that Danny would have been able to protect himself. Tom had seen him hunt after all. The boy was silent, quick on his feet, and exceptional in finding an enemy's weakness. But that was when he was doing the hunting, not the other way around. This had been a fight head-on. There had been nowhere to hide, nothing to use as a distraction and no space to maneuver in.

Danny must have been absolutely frightened. Add to that the appearance of a grimm and it was already a miracle that he hadn’t run away the second he got the chance. Personally, Tom had never encountered a grimm before and if he could, he had wanted to keep it that way. The stories surrounding them were already scary enough. Just look at how they have been illustrated in books.

Considering Danny’s home situation, Tom was really grateful the boy didn’t go into a full blown panic. His first encounter with grimms didn't go so well, after all. Sure, having grown up with them could have somewhat desensitized him in regards to grimms, but that was before he fanged out and discovered his heritage as a wesen. At first they would have just been occult hunters, then unfortunately they became his natural enemies as soon as he woged.

Maybe Danny had been so scared he had not dared to run away from the grimm. What if he was now panicking, scared and alone in a place with nobody he knew and a grimm standing right next to him? He probably thought he would be killed any second now. Subconsciously, Tom started walking faster.

The only thing keeping him somewhat pacified was Amanda by his side and the fact that Rosalee was friends with the grimm. They had each other's phone numbers and if her stories were to be believed, they spent a lot of time together.

This was taking too long. Why didn’t they get the cars and park them by the apothecary? They could have been at the police station already. Gritting his teeth, Tom tried to stay calm. He looked back at Eric and Shelly, who were both helping along the kids. He saw the exhaustion on their faces.

Maybe they should slow down some more. Danny wasn’t in danger anymore. He was probably in the safest place in the city at the moment. These kids had been walking around all day and then ran for their lives after being attacked. Immediately after, they went off again to the police station without getting some proper rest.

They were exhausted, frightened, and mentally drained. Tom gave Amanda a tap on the shoulder. When she looked at him with a stiff expression, worry etched on her face, he nodded to the kids. Her eyes widened when she saw how tired they looked and called out to Rosalee.

Eric noticed them slowing down and gave Tom a grateful nod. The police station wasn’t that far away anymore. It would take them three more minutes at most, so walking faster wouldn’t really make that much of a difference anymore.

“So what can we expect at the station?”

Rosalee glanced at Amanda with a little confusion.

“In what way?”

“Is he the only one who knows about wesen or are there other Kehrseite, or wesen even?”

“Ah, well, the only Kehrseite is a colleague of Nick named Hank. Other than that, the police captain is a wesen.”

“Really?”

“Yes, so you really don’t have to worry so much. Danny is in good hands.”

The knowledge that another wesen was also working on the police force and had a higher status than the grimm did ease some of the worries Tom had. Still, he wanted to get to his boy as soon as possible. The conversation, at least, served as a small distraction from the whirlwind of thoughts going through his mind.

And finally, the police station came into view.

Chapter Text

“Hey, kid.”

Danny looked up at the call and saw Nick walking up to him and Hank.

“I called Rose and they are on their way. Should be here in about ten minutes.”

“Great.”

“So, sorry to do this to you, but I need to take your statement.”

“Statement?”

“What the kid do, Nick?”

“Not so much what he did, but what he saw.”

“Gotcha.”

Nick grabbed a chair and sat himself on the other side of the desk opposite Hank.

“Really, here?”

“Do you have something better to do?”

Hank grumbled a little, but didn’t object further, even seeming a little curious about what Danny had to say.

“Right, Danny?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s your full name, kid?”

It wouldn’t matter if he told them his full name, right? He was in a different dimension, after all. Wait, he was in a different dimension. He technically didn’t exist here. After a second of internal debate, Danny decided to just say it. If he didn’t exist, then it didn’t matter what name he gave.

“Um, Danny Fenton.”

Nick briefly looked up at him from his little notebook. Damn, he definitely noticed the hesitation.

“Danny Fenton. Birthdate?”

What year was it here, again? Ah, 2013! He was fifteen, so…

“12 February 1998.”

He was born in 1989, this was only switching the last two numbers, making it easy to remember.

“1998, so you’re fifteen?”

“Yes.”

“Right. Now, Danny. Can you tell me what happened?”

“Um, sure.”

He now had the full attention of both adults. Fidgeting slightly with his hands, Danny started recounting what happened.

...

“...the guy wouldn’t move, so I blocked him and told Hurbert and Tracy to run. Then you came and knocked the guy out.”

Hank was looking at him impressed, before turning to Nick and asking almost in a whisper.

“You don’t think that guy…”

“Oh, yeah. Don’t worry, it’s taken care of.”

Nick waved him off and gave him the look that meant ‘we’ll talk later’ that Danny knew from Sam. Now Danny was curious. Should he ask?

“Um, sir?”

“Call me Nick, kid.”

“Do you know what was wrong with him?”

“Ah, we don’t know for sure. We have to wait for the toxin report to come in.”

“He smelled weird.”

“Weird?”

Well, now was the time to either make sense or become labeled as the weird kid.

“Yeah, like death. You also smell a little bit like it.”

“Hah!”

Hank let out a laugh and lightly smacked the desk.

“Hank.”

“Maybe take a shower, Nick?”

Nick sent him a glare before looking back at Danny.

“A good nose you got there. I’m afraid to say I haven’t come across your kind before.”

Danny could hear the question in his statement, but he himself didn’t have an answer either. He wasn’t a wesen. But this did tell him that Hank knew about wesen. What did they call them? Kehrseite? Or maybe he was a wesen?

“Ah, wait. You’re one of those, what was it? Wesen?”

Danny just looked at him. Not a wesen, noted. This guy must be a normal human who knew about wesen. Through Nick, if Danny had to guess. Hank nodded as if he had gotten his answer.

“Right.”

Sensing that Danny wasn’t going to talk about it, Nick decided to move on.

“You said you were staying with some folks for a few days?”

“Yes, Tom and Amanda.”

“Ah, so I had the pleasure of speaking with Amanda on the phone.”

Danny slightly shifted in his seat, feeling a bit uncomfortable as the topic started going somewhere more private. Having noticed his unease, Nick once again changed the subject.

“You said the guy smelled like death. Anything else you noticed?”

Danny thought about it and he did remember another strange thing about the guy.

“He didn’t react to me much.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, when he looked at Hurbert or Tracy, he was really aggressive, growling and everything. But when he looked at me, he acted as if I didn’t really exist? Which, rude, but also weird?”

“That is… weird, yeah.”

Nick got a contemplative look and shared a glance with Hank. Danny had no idea what it was about and frankly he didn’t really want to know. Nick coughed in his hand when he saw Danny wringing his hands and looking anywhere but him and Hank.

“You didn’t react like most wesen would when you saw me. That was impressive.”

“Not really. You're not the first hunter I came across.”

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and avoided eye contact. Of all hunters he had met, Nick was the nicest so far.

“Really?”

“Yeah, a lot of hunters come to my town.”

“So you have met quite a lot of grimms, huh?”

“Sure, I mean, my parents are hunters.”

As soon as he said it, Danny wanted to bang his head against the wall. Why? Why did he go and say that?

“Oh, they are?”

Nick looked at him with surprise and some badly concealed worry. Hank just looked confused.

“Yup, way less subtle than you however.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, when they come riding down the street you can expect a few lights getting knocked over and maybe a wall or two that gets destroyed.”

“How even…?”

“Armored car.”

“I… don’t think I wanna know.”

“Trust me, it’s better that way.”

Really, Danny? Just stop talking. They don’t need to know that his parents cause a lot of property damage. What was he even doing? Outing his parents like that. What if they- stop, wait. Different dimensions. It didn’t really matter if they knew or not. Danny truly wanted to roll his eyes at himself for the unnecessary inner panic.

“Wait, I thought that grimms weren’t wesen?”

Hank interjected and looked at Nick with furrowed brows.

“Right, they aren’t…”

Both of them looked at Danny waiting for him to elaborate.

“...Adopted.”

“Aah.”

Both of them nodded as if that explained everything. And sure, for them it would make sense. To them, Danny was a wesen and his parents were grimms. According to the definitions they weren’t even that far off. Danny was a creature that was not quite human and his parents were people who hunt those creatures. So Danny would let the misunderstanding continue, just as he was doing with Tom and Amanda.

At that moment another police officer walked up to them.

“What’s going on here?”

“Ah, Wu.”

“Whose the kid?”

“Wu, meet Danny. The kid who stood up against a guy high on drugs.”

Danny gave the other officer a little wave.

“A brave one, huh? Nice to meet you, kid.”

He extended a hand for Danny to shake, which he awkwardly took.

“So, the druggie?”

“Yeah, one of the stragglers who had gotten away. Nick already booked him. Just getting the kids' statement.”

“Good, that’s one less running around. The kids' parents on their way?”

“His guardians, but yeah.”

“Should be here any minute now.”

“They were with Rosalee and Monroe.”

“Ah, that’s close by, isn’t it?”

Danny awkwardly sat between the police officers, listening to their small talk. Could Amanda and Tom please hurry up and get here already?

As if his prayers had been heard, the doors to the police station swung open and a group of people swarmed in.

“Danny!”

He quickly perked up and saw Amanda rushing over to him, her face tight with worry.

Finally, he could go home.