Chapter One

Half-Truths

Panic. It sets in with a wild rage. A string of, How dare he, how could he, why would he. All went in a row of chained thoughts on a record. Repeating again and again as he phased back into his room, hands shaking, eyes flaring toxic green. Danny couldn't think, and the chill that fell over the room, it was all his own fault. Not that he would deny it to anyone, save his parents, who may ask. Maybe he should look for Jazz... No.

He needed air. Fresh air. Away from the sudden hush that had descended across Fentonworks. So he left. He didn't want, couldn't bare, to see how his parents would look at him. How his mom had frozen, the sudden, severely antagonized offensive nature took up by his dad. Danny swallowed.

There was more than Vlad's scheming going about, even with rage clouding his thoughts, he at least could see that much. Danny willed his eyes blue, stay blue. He went down the stairs, a smile plastered across his face, not quite reaching the hybrid's eyes. He almost wished that he had just taken the easy way out, went Phantom and left. It would be better than this.

They were arguing. Like most arguments, they were too caught up in what the other was saying to notice who all was there. They were talking in hushed, angered tones, and even with his own frozen core, there was fire and ice in the air. They were locked in the kitchen, going back and forth, repeating themselves, angry, loud and quiet. Blaming and antagonizing over past hurt.

A hard swallow.

"Maddie, what did Vlad mean." This had to have been repeated at least five times now if Danny were to guess by the tight line formed at his mother's mouth.

"Jack, you know what he meant, back when-" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Back when we had Jazz, Jack!" The sudden burst of anger, had him clinging to the stair guard, trying to make himself as invisible as possible. Not literally, however, they did still need to see him go. But he couldn't help but curl up, small, pressed to the guard with so much force it started to bend under the pressure he was putting it under.

"Mads, what do you mean when we had Jazz." There's utter confusion, dancing in his dad's eyes. If Danny looked, they weren't exactly the same shade of blue as his. That note only served to make this all the more real. He shouldn't have tried to look for similarity in eye color. He never shared the same blue, though they were the same color as-

No.

That would be all the information that Danny would get from eavesdropping apparently. His mom's eyes, violet, finally took notice of him, and her hands covered her mouth with such a horrific hurt that Danny wanted to just say he only just came down.

But, Mom had always had a knack for knowing when he was lying.

"Danny-"

"Hi Mom!, Hi Dad! I uh, didn't mean to interrupt or nothing, was just heading out actually-"

"How much did you hear?" That voice, soft, vulnerable. Danny couldn't take it.

"Gotta go bye!"

Not yet. He wouldn't face it. Bolting from the stairs, away from the silence that suddenly swallowed up his parents. The door slammed shut behind him, and he continued to run, worn out sneakers thudding against the concrete. His legs didn't ache, yet, he ran for a long time. Long enough that he had since passed Tucker's and Sam's houses.

Where Vlad went he didn't even know. But he didn't want to know either, if he did, he might just end up attacking the older Hybrid out of spite.

Finally, he ended up just collapsing at a park's center, breathing hard. His blood burned in his skin, and he took severely moments to try and calm himself down, standing and pacing in circles until the moon was rising in the night sky. Normally such a view was calming.

Now, Danny could hardly care less. Ignoring the phone, repeatedly going off in his pocket. Ignoring the lights that now lit the park.

He ignored it all until Tucker came into view, eyes focused on his P.D.A, as though tracking something.

The phone is fished out of his pockets.

Tucker and Sam's names flashed on the screen, with quite a few missed calls and texts. A wince. They wouldn't be able to help him. Not with this. Yet, he couldn't exactly flee from Tuck in good conscious, not when his friend was all but in front of him, eyes narrowed.

"Dude! Where were you man, we've been trying to get ahold of you for the last three hours!"

Danny didn't bother pretending not to flinch, and in truth, he really wasn't in the mood to be interrogated by his two best friends right now. Yet, he couldn't keep wandering around, running away from anything vaguely human either. He knew he couldn't, and shouldn't do everything on his own. Tucker waved a hand in front of his face.

"Dude, Hellooo, are you in there?" This prompted an annoyed groan out of Danny, shoving away the hand with a huff.

"Just fine tuck. Look, I'll explain everything, just, not here alright? And, you said you and Sam, where is she?"

"Looking somewhere on the other side of the park, just in case you ditched your phone." A shrug and Tucker pointed behind him with his thumb. "Come on dude, you look ready to pass out, or shoot something. I really don't want to find out which by myself." Danny nodded, hands shoved into his pockets. Not that he didn't want to listen to Tucker talk about any and everything he could think of to keep Danny on the upswing. There really wasn't anything that could change what he had heard. What he had seen.

Though, Sam spooking Tucker did make up for it, just a little bit.

Authoress: So, I'm going to go on and continue~ This was just supposed to be a drabble, as I and my partner do still write back and forth. But, this should be interesting to do now and then! So for now, we get a little more details on what happened in the past. I want to try and show what happened without falling back onto the idea of using Clockwork, so we'll see how this goes!