Special thanks to my beta reader for this fic LK2!

"This is ghost speak."

"This is regular speak."

This is thoughts.

Chapter 3: Birds of a feather

The door to Danny's room creaked softly as it was pushed open, but thankfully did not wake up the sleeping Halfa. Sam and Tucker tiptoed their way towards Danny's bed, Tucker with a marker in his hand and Sam with a bottle of whipped cream. The two mischief makers to be had let themselves into the house to meet up with their friend for a day of video games and movie marathons, but knowing how heavily Danny slept (with the exception of ghost attacks) they decided to take a little detour and change their plans a little.

Thus they found themselves sneaking around the snoring ghost boy's room. However, before they could enact their devious plan, Sam noticed something strange. There was an odd lump under the covers next to Danny with a little bandaged beak poking out. Danny has subconsciously curled protectively around the peculiar lump in his sleep.

Sam nudged Tucker's side, pointing at the strange lump. Tucker sent Sam a questioning look, not having recognized what the lump was. Sam mimed bird at Tucker, whose face lit up with recognition. Sam rolled her eyes at Tucker.

"Hang on I gotta get some pics." Tucker whispered, inching closer to Danny. Unfortunately for him, he somehow managed to catch his foot on some laundry Danny had left on the floor, tumbling right into Danny.

The covers were dramatically thrown aside as the crow revealed itself, wide awake and alert, and headed straight for the unknown assailant. Danny struggled to get out from the tangled mess of sheets and tumbled off the bed onto the floor.

"AAAAAA get it off! Make it stop!" Tucker cried, pulling his beret down to protect his face while Inky latched onto his backpack with its talons and pulled at his hair with its beak.

"Inky no!" Danny yelled, scrambling to pluck the bird off of Tucker and clutching it to his chest until it decided to stop struggling.

"You have a bird? When did that happen?" Sam asked while Tucker ducked and cowered under Danny's desk in anticipation of another attack.

"Last night after a ghost fight actually. And Inky's isn't my bird I'm just watching over him while it's beak heals then it's free to go." Danny retorted.

"You named it Inky? Seriously?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Uh yeah, I was thinking about it last night. Inky kinda stuck I guess..." Danny scratched the back of his neck. "It doesn't matter Inky's only here temporarily."

"Oh poor, poor Danny."

"It's too late for you Danny. Once you've named it it's practically impossible to let it go."

"It's not like my mom would let me keep it anyways."

"As if she'd ever notice it was here. Your parents spend all their time in the lab."

"Ok tru dat, but Inky is a wild bird. I can't just keep it."

"Okay but can we talk about how you named it Inky of all things"

"Yeah, first Patches and now Inky. What's next? Spooky?" Tucker joked. A sharp caw and the bird equivalent of a glare later prompted Tucker to yank Danny's desk chair towards him, squishing himself under the table with the extra layer of protection. Sam snorted.

"Alright geez I'm not the best at naming things let's just leave it at that." Danny let out a defeated huff, stroking Inky's feathers

"Well I for one am glad that your Disney Princess powers have activated again." Sam teased, earning a pout from Danny. She slowly approached Inky so as not to startle the bird. "Can I pet it him?"

"Uh sure, just be careful." Danny gently laid a hand on Inky's back in case he decided Sam was an enemy too. Inky looked at Sam curiously as she reached her hand out, and leaned into her gentle touch.

"Aww he likes you!" Danny cheered.

The trio then started playing some competitive fighting game, Danny careful to not accidentally smash his controller again. Danny and Sam sat in front of Danny's bed, leaning against the bed frame with Inky comfortable snuggled between them. Tucker sat as far away from Inky as humanly possible, shuddering in fear everytime Inky turned around to stare at him.

Inky soon grew bored of watching the screen without being able to participate and decided that it needed attention.

"Ow! Hey! Inky no! Bad bird!" Danny yelped as Inky started biting at his hands, curiously checking out the remote. Sam gleefully took Danny's distraction to his advantage and brutally pummeled his character off the stage before he had a chance to react. Without Danny's help double teaming Sam, she rapidly mashed at the buttons and knocked Tucker's character out.

"Hey no fair!" Danny complained, only now noticing what Sam had done. "Ow! Inky no don't peck my remote!" He yelped, lifting his remote high above his head with one hand while trying to hold Inky back with the other. "Don't make me put you back in the box! I'm not even supposed to let you out!" Danny threatened.

Inky wilted at Danny's angry tone and gave the saddest crow faces it possibly could. Danny couldn't stay mad at the bird. He sighed.

"I think Inky's hungry. Let's go look for something to feed him. Come on Inky." Inky excitedly hopped on Danny's head as he got up.

"Fine but I'll be taking this with me." Tucker said, holding Danny's pillow up like a shield. Sam snorted at Tucker's antics and followed after Danny.

They found some fruit in the fridge which Inky gladly gobbled up. Then Danny's ghost sense went off. Uh-oh. Wait no actually it's just the annoying box ghost again, Danny mentally groaned. Danny briefly glanced around to see if his parents were home before shifting into Phantom, Inky taking that as a sign that they were going on a flight and zipped onto Danny's shoulder.

"Inky, no stay here." He tried to pry the bird off him, only for Inky to struggle out of his grasp and latch onto his other shoulder.

"Inky let go." Danny said more sternly, reaching the bird once more, only for Inky to waddle down his arm and hop down onto his boot. Danny floated up and lifted up his foot, only for the bird to flip over and hang upside-down from his pant leg, staring at Sam with his wings spread in a proud and goofy expression.

Sam held out her phone and began to film the spectacle. Danny caught sight of her camera and pouted.

"Saaaaaaaam help me!" Danny whined in frustration. Sam only laughed evilly and shook her head. "The box ghost can wait this is comedy gold here. Too bad I can't post this online." She snickered.

After several attempts of trying to get the mischievous bird to let go, Danny finally remembered he had ghost powers and turned intangible, and shrugged the bird off, only to hit his head on the floor as he dove to catch the startled bird. Danny flipped the right way up mid air, holding the bird with his hands wrapped around its wings and body. Inky's little talons kicked weakly as Danny flew over to Sam and dumped it in her hands.

"Your turn gotta go bye." He said rapidly before zipping through the roof.

Danny returned to his room after the quick fight (not really a fight, it was the box ghost after all) to see Inky huddling close to Sam, thoroughly enjoying the petting she was giving it. Inky gave Danny a smug glance as it snuggled closer to Sam

"Gasp! Traitor! I thought you were my friend Inky!" Danny dramatically held his hand to his head and pretended to faint in betrayal and flop slowly to the floor, shifting back into Fenton as soon as he landed on the floor. Inky stood up in alarm and did the funny bird run towards Danny's fallen form, nudging at his arm with its head. Danny continued to play dead, not reacting when Inky decided to hop on his chest. Inky leaned towards his face and-

"SQUAK!" Inky let out a loud cry startling Danny into sitting up quickly and reaching up to cover his ears. "Gah! Ow, I deserved that." Danny grumbled, frowning at the bird which stood too proudly by his side, preening as though it was mocking him. Sam and Tucker laughed at his misfortune.

Over the next few hours Inky proceeded to explore Danny's room while the trio did some updating on their ghost files on Danny's computer and made a (sad) attempt at completing the endless list of homework. It started pecking at random gross flavoured potato chips that had somehow fallen into unreachable spots, trying to make a nest out of his stationary and startling Danny into activating his telekinesis to catch a fallen model rocket before it could smash to pieces. The bird at least had the decently to look somewhat sheepish at the last one.

Tucker connected his laptop to Danny's monitor and started up the first of the horror movies that they were planning to watch that day, and the trio lounged on Danny's bed to watch. Inky settled down on Danny's back and stared curiously at the screen.

The closed curtains blocked out most of the light from Danny's window, helping to set the atmosphere. The creatures in the movies gave off unearthly growls and screeches, making the poor Inky nervous. Then came the jumpscare scene, frightening the bird who cried out in terror and dove under the bed.

"Tucker pause the movie!" Danny shouted in alarm, hopping off the bed to coax Inky from the land of dust bunnies. "Inky come out please. It's dusty and dirty down there I don't want your wound to get an infection." Danny said, his night vision allowing him to see the quivering feathered form huddled between an old shoebox of abysmal exam results and a jacket that hadn't been washed for weeks. Inky however, did not respond to Danny's calls, simply tucking its head under it's wing.

Danny reached intangibly through the mess and carefully nudged the bird out from its hiding place and cradled it in his arms. The bird pressed its head against Danny's chest over where his core would be in his ghost form and quickly calmed down. The trio decided to postpone their movie marathon for now, not wanting to scare the poor bird any more than it already was.

Later that evening as his friends left to head home, Danny decided to bring Inky out for a flight as a sort of apology for what had happened earlier that day.

Danny glided high above the town with his arms spread like wings, a serene smile on his face. Inky did happy little loops around him as he flew. Danny decided to do a short patrol over town to check if anything was up. Danny did a big loop around the town before flying towards the park once he was done. He flew leisurely over the park, watching a few people play fetch with their dogs. Danny landed in a secluded area and pulled out his sketchbook, making a few doodles of the adorable puppers. He would have done studies of Inky but the bird was resolutely stuck to his head.

Soon the sun began to set and Danny put away his sketchbook and headed home as a slow, relaxed pace. Unknown to him, he had gained quite a following. A large flock of crows had been tailing him from a distance, curious about why Inky had been following him. He only noticed them when he made to land on the roof of Fenton works, only to be surrounded by the entire murder.

"Ooookaaaay…" Danny said unsure as to why so many birds were on his roof. He stood still for a moment, watching the crows carefully as the curiously watched him. Inky sat on top of his head in silence. Wanting to get out of the slightly awkward yet ominous situation, Danny turned intangible and phased into his room, happy to get some rest after a long day with thankfully few ghost fights.

Words: 2021

Part: 3.1

A/N: Hello! I just wanna thank everyone who fav, followed or even reviewed this fic for your support! I still got a few chapters in the works I hope you'll enjoy. Also special thanks to LK2 on ffn for offering to beta read the story! I really appreciate the help!

Prompt: Animals have always had keener senses than humans, especially when it comes to the supernatural. Although, some species seem to like Danny more than others.

From: Burning-clutch / Kimcat / Kimcat