Chapter Text
Part One: Fissure
Jasmine Fenton loved her little brother. She considered “Danny's big sister” a fundamental part of her identity. In fact, she held this fragment of herself so close to her heart that it was impossible that she could exist as herself, Jazz Fenton, without the part of her that was her brother's sister. She was tied to him, inseparable. Intrinsic, unshakable, and so, so loving were the strings that bound her to him. She could not imagine herself without Danny because she never knew herself before he was born. She was too young, she thought, mind still malleable, still barely formed enough to recognize her mother didn't cease to exist when she left the room. Jazz’s first identifiable memory was of her brother. She wasn't dependent on him to define her, of course, and she understood herself as an individual outside of her role as an older sister. She knew what was healthy sibling attachment and what wasn't, and she knew their family didn't cross that line, even if it edged it every time Jazz found herself playing the roles of sister, mother, and therapist all at once.
It didn't matter, though.
None of her dissection of her and Danny's dynamic changed the fact that she was losing Danny, that somehow, something had changed, and since then she had been desperately reaching across a crack in her very world for a brother who didn't care if she let them both fall off the edge. She knew logically that that's how it was , how it was supposed to be. Danny was a teenager. She was nearly graduated, and ready to leave Amity Park and start a new life. It still didn't make her feel any less like the further away Danny drifted, the more she lost herself with him.
***
“Okay, Jazzy, you have to be very careful, alright? Danny is just a little baby.”
Jazz smiled brightly. She knew careful, she knew what her mother was saying, and she loved her new brother.
“Be soft!” she squealed.
Jack laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the room, and gently rested one big hand on Jazz's small shoulder. There was a quiet whine from the bundle in Maddie's arms.
“Shh, Daddy! Shh!” Jazz exclaimed, pushing a finger against her lips and putting a hand on a hip. Jack nodded very seriously and placed a finger against his own lips before laughing again, a soft chuckle this time.
“Danny!” Jazz said, holding out her hands. She was small, very small. She didn't have all the tools she needed to articulate her request, but her parents understood her, and smiled. Her dad fumbled with the lens cap on the camera while her mom gently guided Jazz to the couch. Jazz climbed up and wiggled her way across the squishy cushions until the back of the couch stopped her. She sat very still, her little legs sticking straight out in front of her and her arms held open on her lap. She felt warm and sunny and sugary.
“Very gentle, okay, Jazz?”
“Mhmm!”
Maddie slowly held the little bundle that was Jazz's baby brother out in front of her before carefully resting him in Jazz's arms. The blanket he was wrapped in was pale blue and very, very soft. Jazz looked down at him, forgetting for a moment this was supposed to be picture time. He stared back at her, blinking his big blue eyes sleepily. His tiny face was haloed by the blanket. When Jazz grinned, he reflected her expression, small mouth twitching gently. Jazz looked up at her parents, excitedly wondering if they saw how he smiled at her, and the camera flashed.
Danny started crying, and he was swept up away from her.
***
Jazz eyed her brother as he wolfed down another spoonful of cereal. They were running late, and they both knew it. Jazz was ready; Danny wasn't.
“Y'know, Danny, setting your alarm earlier-”
“-Doesn't stop me from sleeping through it,” he finished, dropping the now-empty bowl into the sink and shouldering his backpack. He didn't look like he'd slept an extra thirty minutes. In fact, he didn't look like he'd slept at all. Jazz felt a familiar, protective worry pressing against her stomach as she took in the undeniable signs of exhaustion written across Danny's features. His dark hair was unbrushed and sticking up in multiple different directions. The dark circles stamped beneath his eyes were almost purple enough to resemble twin bruises.
He was wearing the same rumpled clothes he had worn yesterday, minus his sneakers, as he started towards the door.
“Danny-”
“I know, I know, we're running late, and it's my fault, and hitting snooze is a sign of whatever and whatever. You can tell me all about it while we're hightailing it to school, but let's just go before Dad decides he needs to drive us.”
“Danny, your shoes?”
Danny froze, eyes dropping to his feet. They were bare other than his simple white socks.
“Oh.” He scrambled to put his sneakers on.
“Danny, are you-”
“I stayed up late playing Doomed with Tucker and Sam, okay?”
Jazz pretended not to notice the way his eyes cut away from hers. She wanted to believe him, wanted to believe her little brother trusted her enough not to lie about why he wasn't sleeping. She told herself he wasn't lying.
“Danny, you know you need at least-”
“Let's just go. I'm too tired to survive the RV.”
“Okay. Sure. Just don't let Dad hear you call it the RV instead of Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle again, I'm pretty sure it'll make him cry.”
The sound of Jack's heavy footprints shut her up and she shuffled herself and Danny out the door before they could be bombarded by their father. When they were out the door, Danny shoved his hands in his pockets and sped up until he was a few paces ahead of Jazz. Jazz watched the deliberate distance put between them. For a moment, she considered closing the gap. It wouldn't be difficult, only a few quicker steps.
She didn't.
She didn't want to hover. This was how it was supposed to be. It was normal for Danny to distance himself. He was sixteen.
It still felt like losing a friend.
“Danny?” Jazz prompted after they had been walking for what she felt was an appropriate amount of time. They were only a few blocks from the school, and she didn't want them to be spent in silence.
“What, Jazz?” Danny responded. Jazz tried not to let the bite in his voice dig too deep into her heart. She took him slowing his pace to match hers as a win.
“Finals are next week.”
Danny tensed. “Yeah. I know.”
“How's studying going?”
Jazz lost sight of Danny's face, but he was gripping his backpack straps tightly.
“You know, I can always help you study. I took the same classes as you-”
“Yeah. I know.” Danny's voice wasn't short, necessarily, but there was something bleeding into it, a dangerous contradiction of nonchalance and warning. It made Jazz hesitate to respond. They were almost to school, anyway. Jazz didn't want to start the day with an argument, her and Danny both had high enough stress levels as it was.
“Sorry,” she said finally. She wasn't sure exactly if she needed to apologize, but it felt right, and she suspected it would soothe Danny. Instead, he glanced over at her and cocked his head. He seemed to be looking for something. Whether he found it or not, he eventually relaxed, melting back into a casual walk, face softening into an almost smile.
“But just remember-”
“Jazz!”
“Right.”
Despite his quickly cutting her off, Danny was finally smiling, and it was infectious. Their interaction didn't feel easy necessarily- there was a bit of a careful balance Jazz felt she was tripping across- but there was a familiarity to the bickering, and it curled up warmly against Jazz's heart.
Casper High came into view. Danny shivered, his smile dropping. He looked at Jazz, at the school, away from both of them. His grip on his backpack tightened. He opened his mouth to speak, then clamped it shut and stalked away, completely silent. Jazz froze, stricken, and watched him vanish from her sight line. Her stomach felt cold and there was a weight on her chest.
Danny didn't want to be seen walking to school with his sister. Was it cooler if they didn't get along? Some vile tendril of anger twisted in Jazz's gut. She took a breath, pushing it down. She had no right to be upset. Danny was her little brother, not her child, and so what if he was embarrassed by walking to school with her? She couldn't be more embarrassing than their parents. He was distancing them. She knew that he didn't like to be associated with her, didn't like how the teachers saw him as a failure when comparing him to her. He was protecting himself. He was growing up.
Jazz swallowed, held her messenger bag tighter, and walked into school.
When the ghost alarm went off and then almost immediately quieted, she assumed it was a drill. When she found out it wasn't, that a ghost had slipped onto school grounds and had to be chased off by Phantom, she wished even more Danny hadn't left her side.