Work Text:
“This is a sympathique clock,” said Clockwork, pulling the rolling stool Danny was on closer. The clock on the worktable in front of them was table-sized, with a square base and rectangular front. There were glass windows on all four sides, and the edges and top and bottom were made of shiny, marbled wood with golden fittings. A pocket watch was attached to its top. “Have you ever heard of them before?”
Danny rubbed his eyes and shook his head. He was exhausted. It seemed like, lately, no matter how much he slept, he never felt rested. This lecture would probably go in one ear and out the other, no matter how hard he tried to pay attention. He would try, though. It’s just… Clockwork had to know how tired he was.
“In your world, they were first invented by a clockmaker named Breguet. The inventor only ever sold five of them in his lifetime, each one different.” Clockwork turned the clock around and opened the door in the back to wind it. “Each was sold to a prince or a king. They are still quite expensive today.”
“Mhm,” said Danny, to show he was still listening, still trying.
“Their most notable function,” continued Clockwork, “is that they each have a recess for a smaller watch to fit into.” He finished winding the clock and turned it around. “When the smaller watch is placed in the recess, the clock winds it, adjusts it, and resets it, all automatically. For the time, the late eighteenth century, they were quite marvelous feats of mechanical engineering and invention. They still are, to some degree.”
Danny felt his eyes flutter closed, then pulled them back open by sheer force of will just in time to see Clockwork remove the smaller timepiece. “Exquisite, are they not?” Clockwork placed the watch in Danny’s hands. It felt cool to the touch. The case was glass, letting Danny see all the tiny, delicate gears inside.
“It’s pretty,” agreed Danny.
“Precious, even?”
“Mhm,” said Danny. He let his head fall on Clockwork’s shoulder.
“It is yours,” said Clockwork, wrapping an arm around Danny’s shoulders.
“Huh? What– No. I couldn’t. You just said this is super expensive, and you know how often I get into fights. It’ll break before I even get home.”
“I do,” said Clockwork. “But this was not made by anyone living. I do not make anything so fragile. It will survive your lifestyle.”
Danny blinked sleepily down at the little watch, the burst of energy his surprise had given him already fading. “Okay,” he said, fingers curling around the watch. “If you say so.”
“I do,” said Clockwork, reaching over and adjusting the watch’s chain so that it wrapped securely around Danny’s wrist. “All you have to do is bring it back to be wound. This will tell you when it is time.” He tapped a little window on the face of the watch. “It will turn red.”
“Mhm,” said Danny.
“You’re quite tired, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“It is a good thing you are here, then.”
The next thing Danny knew, he was being lifted into Clockwork’s arms and carried.
Actually, come to think of it… Danny didn’t remember coming here. Or why he was here. He didn’t even remember coming into the Ghost Zone. Or Long Now, Clockwork’s lair. Or Clockwork’s workroom. The last thing he remembered was… Was… Starting to go to school? No. English class, maybe? He wasn’t sure. He must be really tired…
He was roused again by the sound of a door opening. He tilted his head up, just slightly, as Clockwork brought him into a… It almost looked like a bedroom. His bedroom, in particular. The layout was very similar. There was a desk, a chair, a closet, and bookshelves. Metal and glass murals of starscapes adorned the walls where Danny had posters. Glass panes showing the motion of Long Now’s clockwork replaced windows. But the bed…
The thing that replaced the bed reminded Danny an awful lot of the recess the little watch went into on the sympathique clock, only raised up, off the ground. Little chains hung from the ceiling in mimicry of a curtain.
“Mm?” said Danny, weakly.
“Shh,” said Clockwork, tone full of affection. “I know you are tired. You will be able to rest, now.”
“Mm,” replied Danny, soothed, but not quite willing to completely close his eyes.
Clockwork brushed away the chain curtain and lowered Danny into the not-bed. The surfaces within were hard, unyielding, and cold, and yet, Danny fit perfectly into them, as if he belonged there, as if he had been made for it, and it for him.
Long Now hummed around him, approvingly.
Clockwork picked up one of Danny’s arms and squeezed his wrist just so. A little panel slid away, easily, comfortably, revealing the inner workings of Danny’s arm. There was flesh and blood and ectoplasm in there, clearly enough. Bone and muscle were easy to see. There were also gears. Tiny little delicate things, each made from clear blue ice. Danny’s fingers twitched, and the gears turned this way and that.
Danny… was not alarmed. He did not have the energy to be alarmed. Further, he suspected that his rest here would give him the time and perspective to not be alarmed even when he did have the energy. It was very clever of Clockwork, and very kind, very thoughtful, to give Danny the time and space to think about this without getting upset.
From the curtain, Clockwork selected the thinnest of the chains and fed it into the slot in Danny’s arm. Like everything else here, it fit him perfectly, and Danny hummed as his gears worked to bring it deeper into himself. Clockwork then took the little pocket watch and picked up Danny’s other hand, and opened it in the same way, just in time for the chain to make its way out. Clockwork then took the end of the chain and put it somewhere Danny couldn’t see. It kept moving, running through him. It felt good, satisfying, passing through his torso, twining around his heart. The gears, then, must run deep, must exist throughout his body.
His core purred with this new understanding even as the knowledge pricked his mind with apprehension and anticipation.
“I did not mean for this to happen to you,” said Clockwork, “but I cannot regret that it has. There are consequences, you see, for phasing an artifact made of another ghost’s energy into your body.” He patted Danny’s cheek. “But do not worry, do not fear. I will make sure you are cared for, and that you may continue as you have been. Albeit with a few adjustments.”
He placed the little pocket watch on Danny's chest and pressed down firmly. The surfaces beneath Danny shifted, and he realized he was being clicked into place. Most of the surfaces went down , and the ones to either side of Danny went in, with the effect of fixing him snuggly into place. But some of the surfaces went up, connecting with Danny, linking him further to the mechanisms of Long Now.
The last sensation Danny was aware of was that of Clockwork pressing his cold lips to Danny’s forehead, kissing him goodnight.
.
Danny woke all at once to Clockwork removing him from his… not-bed. He squirmed away and patted himself down. He could not, despite expectations, detect any gears or clock parts anywhere on his body. Excepting, of course, the little pocket watch that swung from the chain wrapped around his wrist.
“How do you feel?” asked Clockwork.
“Awake,” said Danny. Awake, like he hadn’t been for days.
“Good,” said Clockwork. “No lingering discomfort?”
Danny shook his head.
“Good,” said Clockwork, more softly. “I am glad.”
Danny shifted, uncomfortably torn between thanking Clockwork and never wanting to talk about any of this ever again.
“I should go home,” he said.
Clockwork nodded, as if this was expected. “Remember, when that shows red, return.”
Danny nodded, more sharply, and scurried to the door of the room. Of his room. Then he stopped. “Clockwork?”
“Yes, Daniel?”
“Do you ever have to be wound like that?”
“Like that? No.” Clockwork paused for a long time, but Danny got the sense that he wasn’t done, so he stayed, waiting. “Like many ghosts, I am my lair. The process is somewhat more involved.”
Clockwork was Long Now. And Danny had just spent hours - exactly three hours - cradled in its mechanisms, like the pocket watch was cradled by the sympathique clock, like an infant might be cradled by an adult.
“Oh,” he said. Then, “Thank you.”
Clockwork inclined his head. “Any time, Daniel.”