I don't even know anymore. Recently, I came up with the bright idea to take the leftover odds and ends I couldn't work into my Timeline Theory and create what's more or less an AU of an AU. And I ended up with a lot of feelings about Clockwork being agender. So naturally, I asked for writing prompts about them and got the amazing amount of one.

Anywho, I do really like it, so congratulations! This is one of the few prompted fics I'll ever crosspost from tumblr. And as anyone who's ever looked through my 'things I write' tumblr tag can tell you, there's quite a lot of those.

My Gender is Time

It was Tucker who brought the topic up. "Dude, I've been meaning to ask you something. How'd you cure the Ecto Acne thing?"

Danny waved a hand, "It was nothing, really." He turned up the volume. He really didn't want to think about the world where his mom had married Vlad.

Sam snatched the remote from him, and muted the TV. "Spill," she pointed the remote at him, "You're not keeping secrets from us."

"What if I don't want to tell you?"

"Then we'll tell Jazz." Tucker smirked as Danny's eyes widened, knowing he'd won. "She gave me her number. I have her on speed dial."

"Yeah, in case I'm dying or something." Danny sighed, "Look, fine, I went to Clockwork okay?"

"The time guy?" Tucker asked.

"No Tucker, the bread guy."

"The toast ghost has nothing to do with this," Sam said. "Danny, we're your best friends. Whatever happened, however bad it was, you can tell us."

"Fine," Danny ran a hand over his face and hair before resting it on the back of his neck. "I went to Clockwork and asked if he would let me go back in time and make it so Vlad never got his ghost powers."

"Please tell me he said no," Tucker said, "That's gotta be against the laws of time travel."

"He didn't want to, but I convinced him." Danny grinned, "'I'm the ghost of time, not the ghost of miracle cures' sure Clockwork, whatever you say."

"Whoa, dude," Tucker's eyes widened, "That was a scary good impression."

"Thanks!" Danny leaned back, "I've been practicing."

"You nerd," Sam muttered before raising her voice. "Danny, keep going."

"Right. So anyway, I went back to my parents college days. They were just getting ready to start up the proto-portal, and my dad for some reason poured diet cola into it instead of what he was supposed to. I tackled Vlad out of the way when it screwed up, and Clockwork brought me back to the future."

"I didn't know he was in a movie," Tucker said, and Sam threw the remote at him. He ducked out of the way with a squeak.

"Keep going, Danny." She said, "We're listening."

"Okay, so, I tried to go home. The first clue something was wrong was that we didn't have our sign. I just thought maybe I'd made my parents a little more normal, because I still had my ghost powers and everything but I was wrong." His hand slid off of his neck and gripped the cushion he sat on. "I don't know exactly what happened, but I kind of gave my dad ghost powers." He paused, waiting for a reaction. "Tucker, if you're going to say something, just say it."

Tucker held up his hands, "I've got nothing. Like I said, against the rules of time travel."

"Trust me, it gets worse." Danny licked his lips, "My parents weren't married or anything. They hadn't seen each other in years, and my mom married Vlad."

Tucker made a face, and Sam frowned. "That really sucks, Danny." She said. "Is that why you didn't want to talk about it?"

"Yeah, but it still gets worse. I had to get back into the Ghost Zone, and since my dad had no portal I had to go find mom. Apparently I can't fly from here to there non-stop without passing out. But yeah, anyway, I lied to my mom and said I couldn't remember what had happened to my parents and convinced them to let me stay with them- well, she offered, but's that not the point." He took a breath. "So yeah, Vlad had banned my mom from ghost hunting. So my mom made a secret soundproof underground lab, which I found, and after a bit of a fight my mom helped me find Clockwork and I went off to go find him."

"No, back up," Sam said, "What happened in this fight?"

"I, well," Danny swallowed, "I convinced my mom I was her son, and my dad showed up. My mom had files, and she had one on Clockwork. But then… Vlad found us. And I think he killed my dad. I- I don't know. I didn't stick around to find out."

"Oh." Was the only reply his friends had to offer.

"Yeah," Danny said, "See why I didn't want to talk about it now? It's just- it's over, Clockwork reversed it. And he showed me how to fix it. I don't know what I would've done if he hadn't helped." Danny stopped, looking at his unblinking friends and slowly grabbed the medallion around his neck. "Did you like my story, Clockwork?" He looked over his shoulder grinning at the ghost of time.

"Hmm, not quite." Clockwork replied, passing their staff from hand to hand.

"What? Are you mad I left out how frowny you were being? Or about my impression? 'Cause I think it was pretty good."

"No, just… annoyed." The Time Master took a moment before continuing, and Danny raised an eyebrow. "Danny, I'm an ancient being with control over the very fabric of time. Please, explain to me exactly why you think I would ever use the human gender binary."

Danny blinked twice. "Um, what? Clockwork, you aren't making any sense."

The Master of Time sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose for a moment. "I do realize you're rather thick in certain situations-"

"Hey!"

"But I would assume you would know about something as simple as the gender binary."

"It sounds familiar," Danny admitted, "But I'm still really, really confused. That's like transgender and stuff, right? I think I've heard Sam rant about it before. What does that have to do with anything?"

Still obviously annoyed, Clockwork floated around the couch so that Danny didn't have to strain his neck any longer. "I'm not a male, Danny. And I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't refer to me as one."

"Oh," Danny resisted the urge to say that Clockwork sounded like a guy. That would probably be offensive. "So uh, what gender are you?"

A smile twitched at the corner of Clockwork's mouth. "Time."

"Hilarious. I didn't know you knew what a joke was." He frowned, "Seriously, uh… pronouns! Yeah, that's the word! Is that the word?" Clockwork gave a slow nod, "Good! So what are yours if they aren't like, guy ones?"

"They and them," Clockwork replied. "Thank you for understanding. One of my portals focused on your story and I don't think I can put into words how hard it was to resist correcting you the first time you made the mistake."

"You should've, I swear I wasn't doing it on purpose. I mean, you know me, I'm a superhero. I'm the good guy. And getting your gender wrong is like, villain stuff. I'm probably going to screw up, but I swear that I really will try to get them right-"

"Danny?"

"Yes?"

"I appreciate it, but please stop."

"Right, sorry," He rubbed the back of his neck, "So do you just come bug everyone who thinks you're a dude or am I just special?"

"The majority of the Ghost Zone thinks I'm a myth thanks to the meddling of a certain time traveler," Clockwork said. "Many of the stories I've heard do not mention my lack of a gender."

"Lack of a gender…?" Danny trailed off, trying not to seem as utterly confused as he was.

"The human term is agender; a lack of association with any gender." They motioned to Sam and Tucker, "Your friends should be able to answer your other questions. Tucker has made numerous queer online friends, and taught himself more about the variety of identities in order to be a better ally."

"Oh, okay." Danny didn't ask why Sam had educated herself. Clockwork wouldn't tell him and it probably wasn't any of his business. "Sorry, Clockwork. I honestly didn't know."

"So you've said," Clockwork's voice had no emotion. "Do try to educate yourself in the near future. Oh, and do yourself a small favor. When you go home, enter through the back door."

Danny blinked, and Clockwork was gone along with the medallion he'd been wearing.

"Danny," Tucker said, snapping his fingers in front of Danny's face. "Hello? Respond or I'll draw on you."

"Sorry," Danny pushed his hand away, "Clockwork just told me to stop using the wrong pronouns for him- them." Darn it.

"Them?" Tucker said, "Oh wait, I know what to do!" He dove off the couch, and Danny turned to Sam.

"They're non-binary?" She asked.

"Agender."

"Oh, okay."

"I'm back!" Tucker called, holding up a spray bottle filled with ice and water. "Behold, the Stop-Danny-From-Misgendering-Anyone-inator 9000! Patent pending."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "What's a spray bottle going to do- ah!" He cut off as Tucker sprayed him in the face. "Tucker! It's in my eyes!"

"Misgender anyone and you get sprayed," Tucker grinned, "Purposefully misgender anyone and I feed you ghost peppers. And also probably disown you."

"Oooh," Sam smirked, "I like that plan."

"Guuuuuys," Danny groaned, "I'm not going to do that."

"I'm not taking any risks dude," Tucker grabbed the remote and plopped back down on the couch. "Now, let's go back to watching aliens murder each other. Sam, how do you work your remote?"

You tried Danny. Gold star. A for effort. And to be fair, I'd totally do the same thing as Tucker.

For anyone curious, the AU of my Timeline Theory I created has a fic that this Clockwork is a main character in along with Nocturne, Aragon, and Pariah. It is however OC (Infinite Hour and Stopwatch) focused, which is why it isn't posted on here. There's a link to my blog on my profile, and you can just search up 'AU of an AU' in the search bar if you want to read it.

Now, enough of that! Are you guys interested in seeing more agender Clockwork? Because if so, you should probably send me prompts for what you want to see. But until then, thoughts?