Chapter Text
Tears stream down his face, burning as they run down his left cheek, swollen and red from his mother's handprint. He does his best to stifle the sobs and hiccups that shake his small, gangly body, curled up at the back of his half-empty closet.
His hands tremble as he holds close to his chest the interdimensional communicator that Jimmy Neutron had given them after their last adventure together several weeks ago. It could only make calls and was intended for emergencies of the 'something or someone wants to destroy the world or worse' level.
But now, Timmy Turner, his cheek burning, his vision blurred by tears, had no other choice. The fear he had tried to hide deep in his heart had come true, with his parents' cruel and dehumanizing words shouted just an hour ago, with the hand that rose and fell hard against his cheek when he tried to apologize between stutters, even though it hurt him to admit it, with the increasingly frustrated and accusatory comments that grew with each day they saw him and remembered that he wasn't the girl they'd wanted so much, every time he came home with a bad grade and every time he tried to explain that the words blurred together on the whiteboard and in his book, giving him a headache and sometimes making it impossible to understand even a single sentence, every time Timmy even showed his face at home.
He squeezed the spherical communicator tighter in his hands, the screen being the only thing illuminating the small space of old wood, Danny's contact with the call symbol under it, he just had to press it. He just had to call.
“Go ahead, dear. He'll help you.” A soft, warm, familiar voice whispered in his ear. Wanda.
“You're gonna be okay, sweetheart.” Another voice whispered, more masculine, with a paternal warmth and reassurance he rarely showed, close to his healthy cheek. Cosmo.
Tears welled up even more in his blue eyes, affection and pain mingling in his heart as he thought of his magical godparents, the only beings who had shown him unconditional love and support, who fed him in secret when his parents forgot about him or punished him for a bad grade, who accompanied him every day, through every bad decision, every mistake, who encouraged him when he struggled at school, who taught him good and evil, who scolded him without being cruel, who smiled at him sincerely, who made him laugh, who wiped away his tears and hugged him until he fell asleep, who brought light and warmth to his miserable life. Who, Timmy knew without a doubt, would adopt him if they could, if they weren't immortal magical beings unable to influence the fate of humans, only capable of bringing momentary joy to the children who needed it most.
He sniffed weakly, emboldened by the words of the two fairies flanking him, and quickly pressed the call button before lifting the communicator to his ear.
The tone rang twice before the call connected, and a second later, with a slight static, a voice said, "Timmy? Everything okay, buddy?”
Hearing Danny's voice filled him with an emotion and relief that almost made him dizzy. The words stuck in his throat, and all that came out was a wet sob.
Danny's voice, which had previously been curious with just a hint of concern behind it, turned stony when he spoke again. “I'm coming to you. Give me a minute.”
Timmy doesn't have time to even try to ask before the call cuts off. Confusion and surprise break through his erratic thoughts, tears and burning sensations receding into the background as he tries to understand what Danny was planning.
Even if Jimmy wasn't doing anything at the moment, he thinks it would take him more than a minute to even turn on his interdimensional portal, plus the double trip Danny would have to make to get to him, and even that wouldn't take him directly to Timmy but to an abandoned lot behind his school.
Even so, barely 20 seconds have passed since the call ended when a strange noise is heard in his room at the same time as a neon green light filters through the closed closet doors. Suddenly, Danny's voice comes through the wood. “Timmy? Are you here?”
Timmy's body moves unconsciously, he opens the closet doors and opens his teary eyes in amazement when he encounters the halfa, standing in the middle of his room with a portal (more like a tear, as if a giant cat had broken reality with its claws) projecting a supernatural green light behind him.
The almost fluorescent green eyes meet the almost dull blue ones in a second of silence.
A sob escapes Timmy once again at the sight of the one he sees as an older brother, and without thinking of the consequences, he throws himself at the half-elf, wrapping his small arms around him and burying his tear-stained face in his stomach. Danny doesn't hesitate and immediately wraps his arms around Timmy's shoulders, pulling him close to his cold body. He bends slightly over the small child crying in his suit, as if trying to cover Timmy with his own body.
He thinks of the fleeting glimpse of Timmy's swollen, reddened cheek, the flash of red on his nose, his bloodshot, tear-filled eyes, how broken, scared, and small Timmy's voice sounded, once full of joy and courage, through the communicator, and it is at that moment that something awakens in the halfa chest, something bristling and protective. He knows in that instant that he will destroy whatever it takes to protect Timmy.
“It's okay, Timmy,” he whispers in the stillness of the dusty, dark room with barely any furniture. “I've got you.”