"So, you wish to learn esperanto, young one?" Clockwork asked Danny as they toured his tower. Danny had already seen most of the rooms, and had been watching Wulf and Clockwork conversate in front of him for a while instead of gaping at all of the various rooms of the tower.

And so Danny had asked Clockwork if he could learn esperanto, which made Wulf smile so wide Clockwork thought his lower jaw would fall off.

After the crying incident on the couch, it had taken forever to wake Wulf up, so long in fact that Clockwork and Danny had almost decided to just leave him there. Wulf woke up as they were leaving the room however; apparently he had heard Clockwork offer Danny a tour of his lair and Wulf wanted to go too, having not seen most of it himself yet.

Clockwork's smile drifted off his face as he thought of what happened on that couch. Danny had used him for comfort, and reassurance. Him. Clockwork.

It was almost unbelievable.

Clockwork had been in shock for a moment, and then a warm feeling rose up in his chest, saddeningly unfamiliar, but still recognized. So happy, Clockwork had been.

He almost felt loved.

He wanted Daniel to always feel loved like this, and the fact that Daniel was denied this feeling for so long by his own parents made Clockwork furious.

He shook off the flashback, and turned to Daniel, smiling again. The trio had stopped in the middle if a particularly long hallway, Wulf's impossible smile sticking to his muzzle at young Daniel's question.

"Yeah, I wanna learn eserano so I can talk to Wulf, too!"

"Esperanto, young one. And yes, Wulf and I can teach you."

Daniel whooped in joy and scurried off to another room down the hall. "Let's learn it in here!!"

"He wants to learn already?" Wulf asked, surprised but gleeful. Clockwork shook his head fondly. "Human children have little patience, Wulf. We should humor him. And with that Clockwork followed Danny, elegantly floating down the same hall that Danny had previously just clumsily tripped all over.

Wulf grumbled as he trudged behind Clockwork. "Ghost children are the same way..." He muttered humorously, making Clockwork chuckle.

Clockwork guessed it had been long enough that Wulf could joke about them now.

Children.

Wulf used to have his own. Three cute little pups, two black-and-grey, like their father, one, the only male, a tannish color, inherited by their late mother.

They were great kids. Clockwork had met them a few times.

They had been destroyed by humans.

Danny's parents, to be exact. Way back, the wolf children had been their first ghost sighting (the children had found a rare natural portal leading from the ghost zone to the human world) and the sighting (and accidental eradication) of them had concreted Daniel's parents' belief in ghosts for many years after.

Clockwork had seen a time in the future where Danny would feel obscenely guilty about this, brooding over it for months before wisely coming to realize, (with Wulf's help, of course) that his parents' ignorant actions had nothing to do with him.

"C'mon Clocky! And Wulf! Ya gotta teach me!" Danny's high-pitched but also highly adorable voice wafted out into the hallway, jolting Clockwork from his depressing thoughts. He looked up just in time to see Wulf bounding down the stereotypically creepy hallway, paws following the boy's voice.

Clockwork trotted after him, the situation's surreal atmosphere still not quite fading from his mind yet. Especially since he had apparently had been given the nickname Clocky by Daniel.

Honestly, there were some things he really couldn't foresee.

He had a human child in his lair. An overly trusting, adorable, kind, neglected child with a fate ahead of him so fierce and great that he would end up actually taking Clockwork's place one day.
Clockwork chuckled incredulously, his red eyes widening as he put a hand over his face. He was actually looking forward to the next time the Observants would visit, for once.

He wondered just what the hell they would have to say about this.

£-£

The esaran-esperanto lesson went well, Danny had thought. He could now say basic things, like hello, and goodbye, how are you, I'm fine, the socks are grey, etc. He wanted to learn it quicker, but found that learning a whole new language was harder than he thought.

He eventually got tired of the lesson because it all this learning was frustrating him. So, with a throaty chuckle, Wulf had led him to the kitchen, where they had a quick snack while Clockwork stayed upstairs. Mentioned snack, however, did contain only ghost food. Danny, ever the curious one, tried it.

Turns out ghost food is pretty good, but it doesn't fill you up much.

Wulf and Danny had fun practicing speaking esperanto to each other while they snacked.

Once they were done, Wulf plopped Danny on his muscular back and off they went, to find Clocky, Danny presumed. Danny yawned, stomach still hungry, but he was getting too tired to care. The rocking motion of Wulf taking him to Clocky, the pitter-patter of ghost paws, and Wolf's soft green hoodie with the cushioning of his fur underneath it eventually lulled Danny into a deep sleep before they even got to wherever Clockwork was. Danny hadn't felt this content in a long time.

Plus, he had a long, exiting day anyway.

When Danny woke up, he was tucked into his own bed, in his own room, much to his horrified surprise. He would have leapt out of bed if he wasn't tucked in so tight and nice.

...was that all a dream? Danny thought hesitantly. He didn't want to believe it. He thought of his only two friends never have been existing in the first place and was about to cry when he heard a soft tick-tock, tick-tock noise next to him. The ticking was soothing, it reminded him of Clockwork's tower. He turned his head to see a rather pretty silver pocketwatch laying open on the desk next to his bed. A note lay on top of it. It read:

Happy birthday Daniel,
From Clocky
Fine, and Wulf too.

Danny giggled breathlessly in happiness and relief. What a silly thing to think, that all of that was a dream.

There was no one here to tuck him in besides those two, after all.
____________________________________

Authooorsss noteeee

Yeah, clockwork doesn't change forms from child to old man to middle-age, etc. It's hard to keep track of and even harder to write... for me, that is lol. Lets just say he looks middle age all de timez. Sry if ur bothered by this, and SO SORRY FOR LATE UPDATE BUT IF YOU READ THE LAST AUTHORS NOTE THAT I WILL DELETE AFTER I UPLOAD THIS CHAPTER THAN U SHOULD KNOW WHY BYEEEE

Also, cover art, chapter art, and Danny phantom don't belong to meh
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