Houdini

Just one day, Danny would like to be woken up by a chorus chirping birds, like the ones out of Disney. Or the sound of a flute, or maybe even to the smell of breakfast that wasn't a bowl of cereal and milk.

But today is not that one day, he knows, because it's 6 am (at least it was until his alarm clock exploded by his face) and he's opened his eyes to see another stream of bright green ecto energy streak over his head and slam into the wall, where it promptly blasted a whole in the plaster, leaving a faint trail of smoke.

That ectobeam could belong to only one creature, and it was the only creature his parents tolerated, actually, to live in their house. Erh, not live, as it were. Technically he was haunting the place, and technically he was haunting Danny but that was another story for another time because right now all Hell was breaking loose, and it was only 6 in the morning.

Danny bolted up and out of the way as several more shots flew over his head in precise directions. Phantom never missed a shot, he never got out of control, and for the most part he knew never to wake Danny before 10 unless the house was like, burning down or something. (Which to be fair it had almost done about a month ago, but Phantom's response was to carry Danny out in his pjs and blanket and all, so that the teen woke up in the middle of the street in Phantom's arms surrounded by firemen and confused as all get out. Also another story for another time.)

"PHANTOM, what the hell!" Danny cried, staring at the holes scattered along his wall and table and the one in his lamp. He liked that lamp. He felt no cold, no crawling sensation up his spine, and most importantly, Danny didn't breathe any colder than normal air.

No ghosts. Except the one currently blasting holes in his wall in quick succession.

"Daniel don't!" Phantom hissed in answer, snatching him off the ground and setting him on his desk like he weighed nothing.

Danny stood there for a beat.

"…Phantom I swear to God—"

Shk shk shk came a noise, faint but audible now that there was tense silence from Phantom and Danny was awake. Phantom twisted and fired a shot in the direction; Danny's bedside table lost a leg and fell over like some mortally wounded animal.

"….dude…"

Shk shk shk went the walls again.

Phantom growled in exasperation and shot up toward the ceiling, like he did in a battle with a ghost to get a higher vantage point.

"….Phantom."

"I'll find you, you little—"

"Phantom!"

"What!" The ghost swung round at him, eyes wide and fists at the ready. Despite looking on the offensive Danny couldn't help but wonder if the slightly helpless look in his ghost's eyes was his imagination or…

"….come down here." Danny pointed down with a finger for emphasis, trying to look firm. Those green eyes flicked this way and that anxiously but the ghost lowered slowly.

Because when Danny spoke, Phantom listened.

"…thank you."

Phantom's tailed flicked like an agitated cats' and he wouldn't look Danny in the eyes. He was sulking, and Danny right now didn't care.

"It is too damn early—do you see the calendar? It is Sunday, Sunday dude, my one day to sleep in without anyone harping me!" The teen cried in exasperation, still standing on his desk, moving his keyboard out of his way with his toe. He knew he could give Phantom a verbal licking but he also knew that if he tried to get down from the 'safe place' his ghost stuck him then all bets would be off. Phantom took Danny's safety above all else, and as nice and cute as that was, sometimes he let it cloud his judgment.

"…yes, I know Daniel." The ghost answered, looking for all the world a scolded child, tail lashing wildly in agitation and uneasiness. Danny knew those signs—this was a ghost that wanted out of its current environment and somewhere safer. Phantom wasn't fleeing for..some reason. Danny wondered vaguely if he was the reason.

"Okay, so why the hell did I wake up to you brutally murdering my alarm clock? What's sooo important that—"

Shk shk shk—FWOOM! Phantom pulled his palm back from where he'd stuck it straight out and shot an attack, eyeing the smoking wall closely.

Then Danny heard a squeak of probably terror and saw a pink tail flash out of sight. Phantom darted to the left too and paused in mid air.

"…a mouse."

Phantom didn't move from his position, so still and alert Kujo would have been proud.

"…a mouse." Danny mumbled again, a mixture of shock and disbelief.

"More than one! It's been going on all night—I cannot see them or phase through the walls and get solid because I don't fit! Danny they're driving me crazy! That scuttling and chewing—it's, it's insane!...why are you laughing?" Phantom looked wounded and floated over to him.

"…seriously, a mouse. Wait, wait are they like…ghost mice or something?"

"…I don't think so. I'd thought your ghost sense would have told me, but you slept through the whole night and, and all they did was chew and move around and…" The Phantom shuddered and made a face, tail starting to lash again. Danny sighed and stepped onto his chair.

"Daniel! Don't get down what if they—"

"What if they what?" Danny stood on the carpet. "They're mice, not dragons Phantom. Don't worry. Perfectly harmless."

"The noises they were making last night didn't sound so harmless." Phantom mumbled, hovering anxiously after him. The ghost wasn't a natural flight over fight creature—this kind of worried Danny.

"Well, I'm sure the noises we make sometimes at night aren't so harmless either." Danny joked, hoping to calm down his ghost before he put a hole in the wall that was bigger than a couple inches in diameter. As he spoke he walked round the room quietly, and paused, finally finding what he needed.

"Uh le'see…here we go." He tore a bit of paper off his last history report and wandered over to the biggest hole, sticking his hand in and standing still, much to Phantom's horror.

"Daniel! What in Pariah's name are you doing!?"

"To quote you that one time at the zoo, calling a friend." Suddenly the human pulled his hand out, and on top of the paper chewing away happily was a small mouse, that took no notice of its bigger surroundings but continued padding around Danny's palm and going at the paper like it had found jewels.

Now it was Phantom's turn to stare.

"….you know…it?"

"Yeah, well, he was an old lab mouse Mom and Dad got from a friend. The guy…experimented… on them and Mom hates that kinda stuff so they 'saved' them and put them in the basement. I think I was about…nine or ten…" Danny rubbed a finger over a little back. The mouse was healthy and content looking, and didn't seem to mind the petting. Phantom seemed to mind it though, and floated nervously in place.

"Jazz and I took care of him and his buddies for a while, but one day I guess they got free, or rather Houdini here lead a revolution and unlocked their cage, right buddy?" He grinned at the mouse who was now fearlessly knawing lovingly on Danny's fingernail, paper forgotten.

"….Houdini? So this one…never left." Seeing less and less reason to be wary, Phantom was starting to relax.

"Far as I know not all of them did. Houdini's the only one who always comes to you if you have a piece of white paper though; he likes to charge it like a little bull." Danny grinned faintly and sat on his bed, watching Houdini clean his whiskers. "Mom and Dad and Jazz thought they were long gone, but he ran up my leg one day trying to get at my book and I kinda let him stay, as you can see. After all those ghostly shrieks and terrors…it was kind of nice having something normal go bump in the walls."

"…I see."

"…you wanna hold him?"

"Not really, Daniel." Houdini squeaked loudly up at Danny, and Phantom winced.

"Kay." Danny laughed, setting the mouse down on his bed. Houdini grabbed the paper in his teeth and shot off, little mouse butt scooting into a hole so kindly left by Phantom.

"…clever, isn't he." The ghost muttered, now moving closer to Danny.

Danny just grinned. "Hence the namesake, Phantom."

The ghost just made a noise, and Danny let him stare at the hole for a while. He figured he'd leave Phantom to his thoughts for another minute before reminding him they were going to have to explain this mess somehow.

Ghost attack sounded better than 'Phantom was afraid of some mice in the walls so he flipped his shit,' in Danny's opinion.

That'd work.