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fangirlwriting-stories · 1 month

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Growing Closer to Revelations

Summary: Everyone Knows AU, Danny navigates the easiest problem he's had in a while.

Author's Note: You know what's super helpful when you already don't have a lot of time to write? Getting sick!

Also though check the tags for this one there's potentially triggering stuff near the end

...

Danny has a problem. He has several problems, actually. And most of them have something to do with Valerie.

The two of them have taken to eating lunch together in a classroom that Valerie says is almost always empty at this time. And Danny tries to feel bad about bailing on Sam and Tucker. Theoretically, he wants to hang out with them. And they’re still his best friends, in a very non-theoretical sense. But it’s hard to want to see them when Valerie is actually someone he likes spending time with, and when she’s not constantly telling him how terrible he is to his face— even if she wouldn’t know that’s what she’s doing either.

Thankfully, she hadn’t seemed to have heard anything that they were saying the first time she dragged Danny away from the lunch table, because Danny wasn’t sure if he’d be able to avoid a Phantom rant from her if she had. Valerie had dealt with a lot as a result of him. She had the right to be angry. But so far she hadn’t mentioned Phantom once, and it was a more than appreciated reprieve.

But the fact that she hadn’t heard what they were talking about meant she really had just noticed him looking miserable and dragged him away to make him feel better, which was leading to… the problems.

The first of which being that he’s really starting to enjoy spending time with her, more than he has with Sam and Tucker in a while. He’s pretty sure Valerie’s picking up on that too, which has to be the reason she keeps asking him to hang out after school any days they both have free.

Sometimes Danny has to bail or arrive late because of a ghost fight, but amazingly, she never seems to mind. In fact, more often then not, she says that something happened to come up for her too and she would have to cancel anyway. So apparently they’re both very busy people constantly being pulled in a hundred different directions, which weirdly enough makes them work for each other. It’s so relieving, he feels himself waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never does. There’s an ease to all of it that makes the idea of hanging out with Sam and Tucker instead just feel even more exhausting.

That’s the second problem, though. Sam and Tucker notice. Because of course they do. The three of them are very used to spending time only with each other, of course they’re going to notice when Danny stops doing that. He spots them a couple times in the hallways, and he still has class with them and he’s talked with them before school once or twice, but they’ve never mentioned Valerie. At this point, he kind of wants them to. It’d be better than all of them never acknowledging it and him waiting anxiously for them to say something.

The third problem is similar— Jazz notices. There’s been an awkwardness between the two of them for a while that Danny doesn’t know how to breach, but he can tell she’s noticed. Mostly because she smiles at him whenever she does ask how his day went and he tells her that he spent most of it with Valerie. Danny doesn’t like the feelings that come with Jazz being proud of him for ditching Sam and Tucker. He already feels guilty about it, the fact that Jazz thinks it’s the right thing to do just adds another layer of that guilt as well as irritation at her (which also makes him feel guilty, because really, he knows she’s just trying to look out for him).

Danny spends most of the time, however, dealing with the simplest of the problems, because even though it’s really not simple at all, it’s completely disconnected from Jazz-Sam-Tucker-Phantom bullshit, which is such a nice difference that weirdly enough, it’s a problem he’s enjoying having.

That being he’s pretty sure he’s developing the lamest crush of all time on Valerie.

Not lame because Valerie’s lame, mind you. Lame because he’s lame.

Valerie started as, and probably still is, significantly more popular than him. Even though she’s lost quite a few friends because of losing her money (which was because of him), she’s still nowhere near the bottom of the totem pole Danny’s dangling at. She could probably still ask someone to beat him up if she wanted to, not that he thinks she wants to anymore.

But while hanging out with a total loser is one thing, dating him would be a total other thing.

…Not that he thinks she wants to date him. He’s not still not a hundred percent sure why she’s doing the first one.

But that means his last and simplest problem can be summed up as “I like a girl who’s out of my league.”

Which is nice. It’s so nice. What he wouldn’t give for this to be his biggest problem. Heck, he’s used to this problem. He’s had this problem since he noticed Paulina, which was way before Phantom stumbled onto the scene.

So, rather than complaining to anyone about how his love life is doomed, or how unfair it is or how she’d like him if she got to know him, like he did to Sam and Tucker about Paulina, he finds himself just enjoying time in Valerie’s company. Because even if the idea of actually dating her is doomed, she’s a nice person to like. Spending time together proves that to him well enough.

“Okay no way, now you have to tell me the story!”

“Sure, as soon as you get done trying to deny that you’ll use it as blackmail material for Dash later,” Valerie says, smirking at him.

“Hey, that is not true,” Danny says, crossing his arms. “Why would I bother trying to deny it?”

Valerie snorts. “Believe it or not, I do actually still like some of the people I’ve been friends with my whole life. Even if I know they’re not perfect.”

Danny huffs a laugh. “Oh, don’t worry, I believe it.”

Valerie winces. “Right. Sorry.”

Danny grins at her. “Know how you can make it up to me?”

“I am not telling you the fourth grade vomit story!”

Danny groans overdramatically and leans back against the desk he’s sitting at. “Why do I even bother with you? Clearly you do not care enough about me to give me the things I need in life.”

“Yeah, because that’s my job,” Valerie says with a roll of her eyes.

Danny sits up, considering. “Tell you what,” he says. “If you tell me the fourth grade vomit story, I’ll tell you about the time Sam tricked Tucker into eating a vegetable and the disastrous consequences.”

He sees Valerie perk up, and knows he has her.

Unfortunately, before Valerie can say anything, the bell rings overhead, signaling the end of lunch.

Danny sighs, defeated. “That’s not even fair.”

“Sorry, guess you’ll have to bring your bargaining skills next time,” Valerie says.

“Yeah, yeah,” Danny says as they stand up to gather their stuff. Valerie, unfortunately, had the foresight to stuff her lunchbox in her bag when she finished, meaning she stands up already ready to go.

“Hey, uh, wait!” Danny calls, stopping her at the door. “You wanna… walk to class together?”

Valerie smiles. “Sure. Long as you don’t mind carrying my bag.”

Danny smiles back as he stands. “You got a deal,” he says, and takes Valerie’s bag from her as he reaches the doorway.

“Don’t think this means I’m telling you the story on the way, though,” Valerie says as she pushes the door open.

“Dang it!”

…

“Look, I’m just saying, if I could fly, I’d get places much faster,” Danny says as they round the corner of the park trail and start back towards the entrance.

“I mean, I guess I can’t deny a statement that vague. How fast are we talking?” Valerie asks.

Danny thinks back. “Across the country in a couple hours.”

“No way.”

“Planes do it!”

“Planes fly hundreds of miles an hour!”

“Who’s to say I can’t?”

“You’d have to actually be able to fly, first,” Valerie says, giving him a look.

“That’s not the point! This is all hypotheticals anyway!”

“Well if it’s all hypotheticals how about you just give yourself the ability to teleport places? Then there’d be no travel time.”

Danny snorts. “Man, I wish.”

“Look, being able to fly fast doesn’t mean you should,” Valerie says. “There could be buildings in the way, or people.”

“Well…” Danny hesitates, unsure how far he should go. “Then I’ll just turn intangible like a ghost,” he says, keeping his voice light and casual and ‘this is all a hypothetical, Valerie!’ in tone.

“See, and then I would turn back to ‘just give yourself the ability to teleport’ if you’re adding whatever you want to this hypothetical,” Valerie says. “Look, I wasn’t disagreeing with your first statement. Yeah, you could probably get places faster if you fly there. I just don’t think it would be that fast.”

“Oh, because of your in-depth experience with flying places,” Danny says, crossing his arms.

“And your in depth experience with turning intangible like a ghost?” Valerie asks, crossing her arms right back.

Danny sticks his tongue out, and Valerie does the same a second later.

There’s a moment of silence while they’re both thinking, and then Valerie says: “Now, the sunsets on the other hand…”

“Oh my god, the stargazing.”

…

“Dang, you weren’t kidding about picking things up quickly,” Danny says, from his spot on the chair he’d dragged down to the lab. His parents had been more than a little surprised when he told them who he’d invited over, but he wasn’t grounded anymore, and he isn’t in any kind of current trouble for once, so they didn’t object.

“I have a natural talent for kicking butt,” Valerie says with a grin, without looking away from the computer screen.

“No kidding. Try not to beat my high score, would you?”

Valerie knocks out another Doomed enemy without breaking a sweat. “No promises.”

A chime rings, and Danny glances down to the corner of the screen to see that Sam has signed on.

“Who’s Chaos?” Valerie asks, peering at it.

“No one, don’t worry about it,” Danny says, hoping Valerie won’t ask.

She looks at him for a minute, and he can tell she’s guessed something, but after a second she shrugs, and goes right back to destroying all of the enemies Danny struggles with in this game. Now he just has to hope Sam doesn’t talk to him either.

But while he sees her Avatar show up on their level after a while (he and Tucker had found out she was Chaos a while ago and they’ve been begging her to teach them her tricks ever since), she doesn’t talk to him, which is weird, because Valerie’s playing with his Avatar.

He’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though, and instead just watches as Valerie attacks without knowing who’s on the other side of the screen.

He’s not surprised when she starts struggling a bit. Sam is better than him and Tucker combined, and while Valerie is good, it is her first go around with the game.

“Man, this guy is good,” Valerie says, leaning into the screen.

“Yeah, I don’t know anyone who’s ever been able to beat Chaos one on one,” Danny says with a shrug. “I can’t do it either.”

For some reason, however, right as Sam is about to finish Valerie off, she instead stops and leaves.

Danny blinks, confused.

“Wait, why’d they leave?” Valerie asks. “Is that a strategy or something?”

“Not one I’ve seen her use before,” Danny says. “We’ve allied a couple times, maybe she just wanted to spar without actually killing me.”

“I guess so,” Valerie says. She turns the avatar around looking for Chaos a couple more times, but nothing is there.

Though that doesn’t sound like Sam either. She’s definitely toyed with him by beating him up in game a couple times, but she usually finishes him off for lighthearted gloating rights. He doesn’t know what’s so different this time.

They don’t see her again, though, and eventually Valerie gets back to kicking enemies’ butts and gets her health back up.

She beats the level she’s on just in time for there to be a knock on his door and Jazz to stick her head in.

“Sorry to bug you,” she says, as they both glance over. “But is Valerie staying for dinner?”

“No,” Danny says immediately at the same time Valerie says “Sure.”

Danny winces, and glances over at Valerie, who’s looking at him confused and slightly hurt. “What, you don’t want me here?”

“No no,” Danny says, waving his hands. “That’s not it at all. My parents’ food just has a tendency to… come to life, partway through the meal. It’s not exactly their best foot forward.”

Valerie’s look shifts, and she gives him a smile. “Aww, you want me to like your parents?”

“I don’t know if ‘like’ is the appropriate word,” Danny mutters, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was thinking more along the lines of ‘view as normal.’”

Valerie laughs a little. “I already know you’re not normal, Fenton,” she says, nudging him in the side. “That’s what I like about you.”

“Yeah?” Danny asks, smiling at her. “Really?”

Jazz clears her throat. “Hey, still here. So is she staying for dinner or not?”

“Uh,” Danny glances at Valerie. “Sure.” He looks back at Jazz. “But tell Mom and Dad to use the meat that doesn’t have eyes yet.”

Jazz huffs a laugh. “I’ll do my best,” she says, and ducks back out of the room again.

“Seriously,” Danny says, turning to Valerie. “If you really want to stay, prepare yourself for it to have eyes.”

Valerie hesitates. “Is it harmful to eat?”

Danny pauses. He wouldn’t really know. Jazz seems fine. “I don’t think so?”

Valerie nods. “I’ll take that.”

Danny smiles a little, caught off guard. “Maybe I should stop thinking about you as normal.”

“Maybe you should,” Valerie says, smirking right back.

Thankfully, when they’re called downstairs later, the food looks relatively normal, apart from the chicken being slightly burnt. Danny glances over at Jazz as they all sit down, but she gives him a nod. So it really is normal then. Maybe they do want to put their best foot forward, with Valerie here.

But they might not have needed to bother. Because for Valerie’s part, she digs right in as soon as they all start eating, not seeming at all phased by the potential for the meat coming to life in the middle of the meal (though this stuff is probably less likely to).

“So,” Dad says, grinning at Valerie. “Danny hasn’t brought you around before. How long have you two known each other?”

“Oh yes, did you meet recently?” Mom asks, thankfully giving Valerie a moment to swallow her bite of chicken. “Danny doesn’t really have a lot of friends.”

“Mom,” Danny hisses, narrowing his eyes at her.

“We met pretty recently, yeah,” Valerie says, seeming unbothered. “We were uh—” she glances at Danny, and they both realize simultaneously they probably shouldn’t say how they actually met. “Hiding in the same spot during a ghost fight,” Valerie finishes, breezing smoothly past the pause. “It was a long one, so we just started talking.”

“A ghost fight you say?” Dad asks, leaning forward.

“You kids weren’t doing any of the fighting, right?” Mom asks before Dad can continue. “If a ghost attacks, you should make sure you’re safe and let the professionals handle it.”

“Oh, no of course not,” Valerie says, waving her hands dismissively. “That’s what I meant. You know, ghost fight, ghost attack, same thing really.”

“Right, right,” Dad says, leaning forward again. “Now back to the ghost part. Do you have opinions on them?”

Valerie glances to the side, seeming a little uncomfortable. “Uh, I should hope so? I mean, that Phantom prick kind of ruined my life,” she says, and Danny goes still.

“Oh, well you don’t need to talk about that if you don’t want to,” Jazz jumps in immediately. “We understand if that’s personal. Ghosts are just kind of a topic around here, but we don’t have to talk about them.”

“Of course not,” Mom says, and Dad nods in agreement, even if he looks slightly disappointed. “Just know plenty of people have been in your position,” she says to Valerie with a sympathetic smile. “Phantom is one of the larger menaces we have to deal with.”

“Hey, I’ve got an idea!” Jazz calls, leaning towards the center of the table. “Let’s talk about anything else! Valerie, what’s your favorite subject in school?”

Danny laughs a little, partly to make it seem like he’s unbothered by what just happened and partly because that’s such a Jazz thing to say. “Of course you jump right to school,” he says.

“It’s something we can all be sure we have in common!” Jazz protests, sounding a little intentionally overdramatic with a glance at both their parents and Valerie.

“No that’s fine,” Valerie says. “Uh, I don’t know. Does gym class count?”

Jazz wrinkles her nose, and Danny can’t help but laugh. “Not to her,” he says with a grin at Valerie.

“I like being active!” Valerie says, holding her hands up in defense.

“Ugh, you would,” Danny says with a smile, making sure Valerie can tell he’s joking.

“And what’s your favorite subject, lunch?” Valerie asks, her tone just as teasing.

“Well, I mean, they took away recess years ago, what else is there to compare it to?” Danny says with a casual shrug, and Valerie laughs.

Plus Valerie’s there during lunch, and he doesn’t sit next to her in any classes, making it a definite plus, but he’s not going to say that aloud.

He glances over at Jazz to try and include her in the conversation again, only to find her looking very uncertainly right at him. He blinks at her. “What?”

He turns to look at his parents, and finds them both smiling. “What?”

“Nothing, sweetie,” Mom says. “Just thinking about dessert. I’m afraid we don’t have anything fancy, would you be okay with some ice cream, Valerie?”

Danny glances at Valerie to see if she knows why everyone’s being weird, but she just shrugs and says, “Sure,” in response to Mom’s question.

Mom brings in ice cream, chocolate sauce, and sprinkles, and they all talk a bit more as they eat, but Danny can feel the energy of the night wrapping up, and he’s not surprised when afterwards, Valerie says she needs to start heading home.

“Do you need a ride, sweetie?” Mom asks her as they start for the living room. “We could drop you off.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Valerie says. “I can take the bus.”

“Absolutely not, young lady, we can’t just leave our guest to take the bus home,” Mom says. “Hang on, I’ll go grab the keys to the Ghost Assault Vehicle.”

“Uh, thanks?”

“It’s just a souped up RV,” Danny explains as soon as Mom’s out of earshot. “And if Mom’s driving, we’ll be fine.”

“Aww, are you driving me home, Danny?” Valerie says. “I didn’t realize I needed two escorts.”

“No, he’s not,” comes a sudden voice before Danny can say anything back. They both turn in surprise to find Jazz standing there with her arms crossed.

“We need to talk, Danny,” she says.

“What? Why?”

“About your homework,” Jazz says with a subtle glance at Valerie. “Do you have any idea how much you’ve missed this week?”

Danny groans. “As a matter of fact, I do, Jazz,” he says. “You say it like I don’t have the knowledge constantly looming over my head.”

“Well, I’m going to help you come up with a plan to get it done,” Valerie says. “You definitely don’t have a half hour to waste to drive Valerie home.”

“So I’m just going to let Mom drive home the friend that I invited over? That’s kind of rude, Jazz,” Danny says.

“Too bad,” Jazz says. She grabs Danny’s arm and starts pulling him for the stairs.

“What? Jazz!”

But Jazz is insistent, and Danny only has enough time to look back and mouth ‘Sorry,’ to Valerie before they reach the stairs.

Valerie waves him off, thankfully seeming unbothered, before Jazz drags him up the stairs and out of sight.

It’s only once Jazz pulls them both inside of her room that she lets go of him. Danny starts talking before she can turn around, though.

“Okay, seriously, what is with you?” he says, raising his hands up in exasperation. “I wasn’t kidding about that being rude. And why are you suddenly being a stickler about homework, you haven’t done that since you learned… you know.”

“How long have you known that Valerie hates Phantom?” Jazz asks quietly, crossing her arms and completely ignoring his question.

“Uh, I don’t know, I always kind of figured after that whole ‘ruined her life’ thing? Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”

“Because I’m tired of seeing you hanging out with people who bad mouth you right to your face.”

“Hey,” Danny says, narrowing his eyes to a glare. “First of all, Valerie doesn’t know that’s what she’s doing, so it’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Second,” he continues, “since when is that any of your business? It’s not like I don’t have a lot of experience with that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, and that’s a problem,” Jazz says.

“It’s hardly my biggest problem. It’s not one I can’t deal with. And Valerie never brings up Phantom unprompted anyway. It’s okay.”

“Danny, it’s not—” Jazz takes a deep breath and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Just because she doesn’t talk about it doesn’t mean you won’t know,” she says.

“Like how I know Mom and Dad would rip me apart molecule by molecule if they found out? It’s really not a big deal. I can handle it okay? I promise.”

“It’s not about whether or not you can handle it.”

“Well, what’s it about, then?”

Jazz opens her mouth to respond, but is interrupted by Mom calling “Danny!” from downstairs.

“Where are you, we’re driving Valerie home!”

“See, Mom knows it’s rude too,” Danny says, gesturing back at the door. “I’ll be going now.”

“Fine, but we’re going to talk about this when you get back, right?” Jazz calls after him.

“I don’t know,” Danny says, sending one last glare over his shoulder. “Probably not.”

He walks off before Jazz can reply.

…

“Okay so uh, here’s the thing,” Valerie says as the three of them climb into the GAV. “I don’t exactly live in the greatest apartment.”

“That’s okay,” Danny says. “We’re not going to judge you.”

“No, I just mean, you guys live in a house with a bunch of fancy lab equipment and have an entire Ghost Assault Vehicle with gadgets on it as your car. Don’t… expect that.”

“Don’t worry about it sweetie,” Mom says from the front seat as she pulls away. “I know Jack and I might be a little out of touch from time to time, but we certainly don’t expect everyone to be rich.”

Except she used to be just that, hisses a voice in Danny’s head. He tries his best to shake it away.

Valerie gives a slightly bitter chuckle. “Just a bunch of leftover ghost problems really,” she mutters, and Danny winces, looking away as he fidgets with his hands.

“We’ve certainly had our fair share of those,” Mom says. “Danny’s right, we’re not going to judge you.”

Well, judging is one thing. He’s definitely not judging. But a lack of judgment doesn’t stop Danny’s stomach from curling up in guilt when they pull to a stop in front of Valerie’s clearly falling apart apartment building. He makes sure it doesn’t show on his face, lest Valerie take it as something else, but when she climbs out and waves at him, he still feels very small as he waves back.

“See you tomorrow?” Valerie asks, clearly still nervous.

Danny shoves the guilt down and smiles at her. “Definitely.”

Apparently he’s hidden his feelings well enough, because Valerie’s smile turns a little more confident. “Next time, we’re hanging out at my place.”

“Deal,” Danny says with a nod.

Valerie grins at him and heads off towards the front door, waving as she goes.

Danny climbs up to the front seat as soon as she heads inside, and then Mom turns to him before she pulls away.

“Well then,” she says, and she has a knowing tone in her voice that makes Danny realize he’s in for something embarrassing. “She’s a cutie, isn’t she?”

“Oh, my god, Mom,” Danny groans.

“I’m just saying, teenage crushes can be very sweet!” Mom says, turning to pull away.

“Mom!”

“You have my full support if you want to go for it, sweetheart.”

Danny buries his head in his hands. “I’m getting out and walking home.”

“Just make sure you’re both comfortable with whatever you want to try!”

“Kill me twice.”

…

The inside of Valerie’s apartment isn’t much nicer than the outside, but Danny can see effort to make it more of a home. There’s Christmas lights hung up in the living room, though that could also be because there’s no overhead light built in. Either way, the lights look nice, and there’s a couple of posters hung up on the walls, though most of them seem to be referencing something called Scalpels and Secrets, which according to the posters looks like it’s exactly as good as it sounds.

They aren’t there for long before Valerie and him both end up in the kitchen, helping Mr Gray make potatoes. He washes them and passes them to Valerie, who cuts them up and slides them to the other side of the cutting board, and Danny puts them on a tray and shakes some spices over them, and the tray will go into the oven as soon as they’re all there.

“Do you guys make dinner like this together a lot?” Danny asks, picking up another handful from Valerie’s cutting board.

“Yeah. We both tend to get home pretty late, so it just makes it go faster,” Valerie says.

“It’s nice,” Danny admits. He smirks a little bit. “And none of it’s glowing.”

“I’m sorry?” Mr Gray asks, looking over at him in bafflement and slight concern.

“My parents’ food has a tendency to glow green and attack you,” Danny says. “That’s kind of just what happens when you live in the same house as an interdimensional portal.”

Mr Gray stares at him for a moment, then seems to shake himself. “Well, I can assure you none of these potatoes will try to attack you,” he says, passing the last one to Valerie.

“We’re already off to a great start then,” Danny says, and Valerie laughs a little.

“Your parents’ food wasn’t that bad,” she says.

“I’ll be sure to tell them you said that,” Danny says. Valerie laughs again.

“You two seem to get along well,” Mr Gray says with a smile at them. “How did you meet?”

“We got stuck together during a ghost attack,” Valerie says, likely for consistency’s sake so they can tell both sets of their parents the same story. “It went long, so we just started talking.”

“Sometimes life happens that way,” Mr Gray says with a smile and a nod. “I’m glad you two met. Valerie seems happier since she’s started spending time with you.”

“Dad,” Valerie grumbles, looking away. Danny does the same, feeling his cheeks warm.

“What, am I not supposed to take note of someone who makes my daughter happy?” Mr Gray asks. “I don’t know if you know this Valerie, but I like it when you’re happy.”

“Dad.”

Mr Gray chuckles a little, and Danny takes a moment to be glad that Valerie wasn’t in the car last night when Mom was teasing him.

He turns and notices he’s picking up the last of Valerie’s potatoes, so he adds the spices to them and does one more shake over all of the potatoes, and then passes them off to Valerie, who carries them over to the oven, which Mr Gray has pulled open.

“That’s gonna be delicious,” Valerie says as Mr Gray shuts it. He sets a timer for half an hour, and then turns to face them both.

“Well Danny, since Valerie seems to have gotten a crash course in dinners at your house, you should know that we have a tradition when we eat dinner here.”

“Oh?” Danny asks.

“I hope you’re ready for cheesy medical dramas,” Valerie says with a grin. “We’re watching Scalpels and Secrets.”

…

They manage to get part of an episode in before the potatoes are done, and when Mr Gray heads into the other room to get them, Valerie pauses the show and turns to him.

“Thoughts?”

“Oh, uh,” Danny says. “It’s, um…”

“We like it because it’s bad, Danny.”

“Then it’s really bad,” Danny says in relief.

Valerie laughs. “That’s the fun part,” she says. “I’m almost never having more fun than when I get to sit here and make fun of Kelly for being an idiot and Stacy for being a bitch.”

“Valerie!” is heard from the kitchen,

“For being a jerk,” Valerie amends without missing a beat. Then she mouths to Danny ‘She’s a bitch,’ and Danny muffles his laughter.

Mr Gray comes back in with three plates of potatoes that look smothered in butter, and sets a bag of shredded cheese and salt and pepper on the ground in front of them. He hands Danny, then Valerie their plates, and takes his seat again in the armchair. Valerie immediately goes for the cheese, so Danny picks up the salt and pepper and shakes some onto his potatoes, then trades with Valerie when he’s done. They both pass what they’re holding up to Mr Gray afterwards, and he takes them and starts on his plate as Valerie plays the show again.

They eat the potatoes as they finish the episode, which ends on the most ridiculous cliffhanger of all time (Kevin is trying to decide whether or not he’ll tell Kelly he’s cheated for what is, according to Valerie, the fourth time).

“We can watch the next one tomorrow night,” Mr Gray says as it finishes. “I have some work to do. But I can do the dishes if you two want to head up to Valerie’s room to talk.”

“Uh,” Valerie says, leaping up. “Give me a minute first! It’s… really messy.”

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Danny says. “You should see the state my room is in most of the time.”

“No, I just need to put some— things— away! Won’t take two seconds!”

And with that she all but runs off down the hallway next to the kitchen, leaving Danny alone with Mr Gray.

Before it can start feeling awkward, however, Mr Gray chuckles and turns to face him. “Don’t worry about it,” he says. “She gets like this when she wants to impress someone.”

“Impress someone?” Danny asks, surprised.

Mr Gray smiles knowingly at him and doesn’t say anything.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. Just know typical shovel rules apply, and you better not hurt my daughter.”

“Wait,” Danny says, holding up his hands. “I don’t— she’s not— I mean we’re not—”

“Okay!” comes Valerie’s voice, and she appears at the entrance to the kitchen. “You can come back now.”

“Keep the door open,” Mr Gray calls, as Danny heads after her into the kitchen.

“Dad!”

Danny looks down to hide his face, which he’s sure is bright red. He keeps his gaze firmly fixed on the floor until they reach Valerie’s bedroom.

“Sorry about him,” Valerie says.

“That’s okay,” Danny says, finally looking up. “You’re lucky my parents didn’t—” he stops.

He has no idea what Valerie was putting away during the tidying of her room, but she left up the countless newspaper clippings and photographs and drawn up targets of Phantom. There are conspiracy articles, like ones about who Phantom is dating, and ones that are closer to accurate, like pieces about public opinion on him shifting. There are also tons of photos pinned and taped to the wall, some of which he doesn’t have the slightest clue how she could have gotten.

If this is everything she feels comfortable with him seeing, what did she feel the need to hide?

Danny feels a little sick to his stomach. He tries to shake the feeling off, but after a second of him not saying anything, Valerie notices.

“Oh god,” she says, turning to follow his gaze. “Okay I uh, I understand how this looks, but I swear I’m not creepy and obsessive. I figured you wouldn’t mind because your parents are ghost hunters, I just… please ignore these. I swear I don’t spend all of my free time thinking about Phantom.”

“That’s okay,” Danny says, trying to force as much of a casual tone into his voice as he can manage. Even his parents don’t have a hate shrine to him.

Then again, he didn’t completely ruin his parents’ lives. Maybe it does make some sense.

“I just…” Valerie sighs, sitting down on her bed. “I’ve been meaning to take some of these down too. I mean, Phantom’s not this much of a thing with me anymore. Like, he’s still a dangerous ghost and I— someone needs to stop him, obviously, but… just, especially after everything first happened, I was pissed at him. I still am pissed, I’m just not as lonely as I was.” She looks up at Danny, and then jolts upright and looks away. “I mean uh, because my old friends aren’t being quite as huge of jerks anymore. Obviously.”

“Yeah,” Danny mutters, looking down at the floor, as the only place he can put his gaze and not be met with a picture of Phantom.

After a second, however, Valerie sighs again. “And you too,” she admits in a mumble.

Danny looks up. “What?”

Valerie shrugs, looking embarrassed. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I like hanging out with you, Danny,” she says. “It’s nice to have a friend I can just spend time and do normal stuff with,” she says.

Danny keeps her gaze and smiles a little. “I like that too,” he says quietly.

Valerie smiles back at him, and neither of them say anything for a moment.

Finally, Valerie clears her throat. “So uh, ignoring all of the Phantom stuff that I’m taking down anyway… sorry about my dad. My life is way too complicated right now to date someone anyway. I don’t think he gets that.”

“Huh, that’s different,” Danny says before he thinks it through.

Valerie blinks at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, my life is crazy complicated right now too,” Danny says. “That’s why I want to date someone.”

Valerie gives him an intrigued look. “Okay, again, what do you mean,” she says.

“I mean, I have so much going on,” Danny says. After a second, he moves forward and sits down on the bed next to Valerie, and Valerie easily shifts aside to let him.

“It sounds nice to have a break from all of that, I guess is what I mean. Not in the long term committed partner way, just in the going on dates to have fun kind of way? I don’t know.” He shrugs. “It’s not like it matters anyway, my options are pretty limited in that department.”

“What makes you say that?” Valerie asks, tipping her head.

Danny stares at her. “Uh, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Valerie, but I’m not exactly as popular as your old friends.”

Valerie blinks, like the thought hadn’t even occurred to her. “I mean, that’s not what I—” she stops, and they both look at each other for a moment. Danny can’t tell if she wants him to ask or not.

Then after a second, he sees her look away, and he knows that answer is “not.”

So instead, he shifts his position to dispel the awkwardness and says “Like, can you imagine me walking up to Paulina and asking her out?”

Valerie snorts and covers her mouth, meaning he’s succeeded in moving the conversation on. “Okay, no, I can’t,” she says. “She’d definitely laugh at you.”

“See, that’s what I mean,” Danny says with a grin. “I have to make my choices on more of a ‘who’s low enough on the totem pole to be a real option,’ basis.”

“Well, you sure know how to charm a girl,” Valerie says. “I’m astounded they’re not all falling at your feet already.”

“I know right?” Danny says. “With all of the loserness and unreliability of scheduled activities to offer?”

Valerie narrows her eyes slightly. “That’s not all you have to offer.”

“It is to someone like Paulina,” Danny says.

Valerie rolls her eyes. “Because Paulina’s too shallow to pay attention to anything else,” she says, and Danny… doesn’t know what to say to that.

Thankfully, Valerie keeps going. “I mean honestly, even before she kicked me to the curb the second I had any hardships in life, she wasn’t exactly my best friend. She just… isn’t exactly the most supportive person.”

“I don’t imagine any of them would be,” Danny admitted. “But I can relate. Not having supportive friends can really suck.”

“Yeah, I guess you’d know too, huh?” Valerie says.

Danny doesn’t agree, but doesn’t deny it either.

“Well, whoever it is you’re talking about,” Valerie says. “And of course I don’t have the slightest clue who it could be. I think they’re crazy to not be treating you well. You deserve it.”

“Uh, thanks,” Danny says, though what goes through his head is She wouldn’t be saying that if she knew.

He glances up at her wall. She really wouldn’t.

He shakes it off and turns back to her. “You too, by the way,” he says. “Everyone who treated you like that is a jerk. I just uh, thought that before too.”

“Thanks, Danny,” Valerie says with a smile. “I like to think I’ve upgraded a little.”

Danny smiles back at her. “Me too,” he says. He tries not to feel guilty about the fact that he means it.

…

Mom comes to get him not long after that, and Danny spends the drive home trying to work out his thoughts.

It’s definitely nothing new, caring about someone who hates Phantom. He knew Valerie had an issue with him before. The only thing that’s changed is now he’s aware of the intensity.

When he thinks about it, he can’t blame her. When she says he ruined her life as Phantom, he can tell she means it, and he can tell why. It’s just another of the increasing list of screwups he doesn’t know how to make up for. Losing Valerie’s father his job, apparently dropping Sam from a highwire during his time with Freakshow, blasting Tucker into a wall and giving him a concussion. If any of them want to hate him, well, they definitely all have their reasons. He could be doing better as a hero.

And honestly, if he can deal with his parents talking loudly about wanting to rip him apart molecule by molecule, he can deal with Valerie hating him enough to decorate her room with that hatred.

At least she’s never tried to kill him.

…

He’s out late on patrol, partly because he gets back home late and partly because he doesn’t want to ask Jazz for help and keep them both up, which means he’s out even later. But as a result, despite all her best efforts Jazz can’t get him up in time to drive them both to school. Instead, he runs out the door with toast in his hand, yelling back to his parents that he’d run to make the bus.

A ghost sense throws a wrench into that plan. He sighs, ducks down a side street, and transforms, then takes to the sky, casting his gaze around.

After a second, he spots an octopus ghost a street over, diving towards a car parked on the side of the road. There’s a mother and daughter cowering inside it.

Danny heads quickly for the ghost, but the octopus soars straight through the car, pulling the girl along with it. Likely by accident, judging by the way the octopus starts shaking its tail.

Shifting gears, Danny ignores the ghost and heads for the space right under the child.

“I’ve got you!” he calls. “You can let go!”

The girl stops screaming just long enough to look down at him, and the second she spots him, her face brightens. She lets go of the octopus and lands safely in his grip, and Danny lowers them both to the ground. The octopus heads towards the sky, meaning it’s probably not going to cause too much trouble, so he lets it go for now.

Danny feels a sudden jolt from the girl in his arms, and looks down just in time for her to throw her arms around his neck.

“Hey, easy there,” Danny says, shifting his grip. “I don’t want to drop you. You’re alright.”

He turns back towards the car to see the girl’s mother running up the sidewalk.

“Daisy!” she calls as soon as she spots them both. “Oh, thank you, thank you!”

“Mama, he flies!” Daisy calls. She turns to grin up at Danny. “Can you do it again?”

Danny laughs a little. “I don’t know if your Mom has another one of those in her,” he says, passing Daisy back to her mother.

“Oh thank you so much,” the woman says, hugging Daisy close to her chest. Daisy hugs her mother just as tightly as she hugged Danny. Hugs are a thing for her, it seems.

“No trouble,” Danny says, giving the woman a smile. “I should probably go grab that ghost now.”

“Thank you so much,” the woman says again. She sets Daisy down on the ground, and grips her hand tightly.

Daisy waves back at him as the two of them start towards their car. “Bye Mr Invis-o-Bill!” she calls.

Danny holds back a groan and manages to smile back at her. He watches the two of them for another second with a small smile, then turns and takes to the air again, heading after that octopus.

Before he can get very far, however, he hears “Hey, ghost scum!”

He spins around to see the Red Huntress raising a blaster at him. This time he doesn’t bother to hold back a groan.

“Look, I’m busy, can we do this another time?” he says. “I do actually have somewhere I need to be.”

“Yeah, me too, but you don’t see me complaining,” Red Huntress snaps, and she raises her blaster again.

“I wasn’t even— I’m kind of dealing with a different ghost,” Danny says, turning intangible as the blast shoots through him and up into the sky. He stays intangible and turns to look after the octopus ghost that’s definitely long gone.

“Only ghost I see here is you,” Red Huntress says, and Danny sighs and turns to face her again, dropping his intangibility. She doesn’t try to fire her blaster again, but she doesn’t lower it either.

“That’s because you have amazingly terrible timing,” Danny says. “Where are your new sidekicks, did you drop them?”

“It’s not like they follow me everywhere,” Red Huntress snaps.

“Heck of a team, you three,” Danny says. “Look, seriously. I’m tired, and I have places to be. Can we just skip this for today?”

“Not on your afterlife,” Red Huntress says, and fires her blaster.

Danny sighs again. “Yeah, I figured,” he mutters. He dives out of the way just in time to avoid it and darts back the way he came, though he stays clear from his house. The last thing he needs is his parents to notice the fight and join in.

He hears Red Huntress chasing him, but there’s too many people around for him to feel comfortable using intangibility, lest the blast go through him and hit someone else. So instead, he turns so his back is facing the ground and flies backwards, keeping his gaze on the Huntress as she chases. What he really needs to do is to get away long enough to change back and just start heading back to school, but Huntress is right on his tail. He’ll just have to get to a less populated area first.

He starts flying for the end of the street, trying to keep an eye on Huntress while also avoiding slamming into any buildings. Just as he reaches the turn, Huntress fires a blast at him. Danny gives a quick glance down only to see people looking up at him, so he groans, braces himself, and takes the hit in the chest.

Thankfully he manages to hit the ground next to the people instead of landing on top of them, which would have defeated the purpose. It does, however, give him a chance to go intangible and sink below ground.

He can’t see anything underground, so he doesn’t fly too far before heading back up, this time just staying intangible.

The Huntress is looking around, but makes no sign of having seen him or knowing where he went, so Danny lets out a small breath and heads down a side alleyway. He ducks behind a dumpster and changes back. A peek out from behind reveals no one in the alley.

Danny sighs. He’s definitely going to be late for school.

Right as he’s about to step out, however, the Red Huntress lands in the alley with a loud sigh. She looks back out towards the street, and it must be satisfyingly empty, because she hits a button on her suit, and her armor retracts back into a backpack.

And then Valerie Gray looks up and locks eyes with him.

Valerie’s eyes immediately snap wide open, and her hands go to her mouth.

“Oh god,” she says faintly. “You— you didn’t see that! I’m not here!”

Danny stares at her.

Valerie groans and drops her head into her hands. “No no no,” she says. “That’s not— ugh, what are you doing here?”

“I was hiding from an octopus ghost,” Danny says weakly.

“No,” Valerie groans again. “Okay, okay, look, you—” she stops, and moves quickly across the alleyway, then pulls them both behind the dumpster. “I can explain.”

“That you’re the Red Huntress?” Danny says. He grabs the straps of his own backpack to hopefully keep it from being obvious that his hands are shaking.

“Kind of?” Valerie says weakly. “Look, I… back when Phantom first destroyed my life, I got the suit in the mail from… an anonymous benefactor. It started out as a way to get revenge, but then I saw how many people were getting hurt by all ghosts, not just him. I— I had to do something. No one was supposed to find out.”

Danny’s pretty sure the backpack plan isn’t going to work out. He shoves his hands in his pockets instead.

So, nothing new. He’s used to people hating him. He was just wrong about the intensity. Again. It’s fine. This is so fine.

“Danny?” Valerie says, and Danny looks up to see abject terror on her face. “Please, I— I wasn’t trying to lie to you. Please don’t tell anyone.”

Danny definitely can’t breathe right, but Valerie’s scared, so he tries to tap into that to force the feeling away from himself for as long as he can. He clenches his hands into fists until he can feel his nails digging into his hands, and focuses on that to ground himself.

“Hey, of course I’m not going to tell anyone,” he says, proud of how steady his voice comes out. “Val, that’s— that’s amazing.”

And it is kind of amazing, to hear his own motivations echoed so plainly back to him. He hadn’t realized the Red Huntress had any motivation apart from destroying him.

Apart from… oh god.

Valerie looks up at him, a nervous hope on her face, and Danny shoves his own feelings down again.

“You… it doesn’t change how you see me?” Valerie asks.

Danny opens his mouth to say no, but can’t get it out, so he switches gears instead.

“Of course it changes how I see you,” he says, and rushes on before Valerie’s expression can change. “It makes you that much more amazing. I mean you… you don’t have to do this, no one’s making you, and you don’t owe it to anyone. And it’s dangerous, but… but you do it anyway.”

Yeah, he can focus on that. That’s a good part to focus on.

That, and how terrified he’s going to be to be fighting the Red Huntress from now on, because he knows he’s fighting a human and more than that he’s fighting Valerie—

No no, that’s not a good part to focus on right now.

“And that’s amazing,” he says turning back to Valerie. “Sorry I— I feel like I’m just repeating myself but—”

He’s cut off by Valerie wrapping her arms around him and kissing him. It’s barely a second before she stops and pulls back though, looking startled at what she just did.

“Oh shit I shouldn’t have done that without asking,” she says. “I’m so sorry.”

Danny swallows. “It… it’s okay,” he says, giving a smile that comes out much more confident than he feels. “I mean, Val, I would have thought my feelings are pretty obvious by now.”

Valerie laughs. “Yeah,” she says, rubbing the back of her neck. “Neither of us just ever said them out loud.” She smiles widely up at him, looking a mix of grateful and ecstatic.

“You’re amazing too, you know?” she says. “You just— wow, you just rolled with that.”

“Yeah,” Danny says weakly. “I’m a little amazed with that myself.”

Valerie laughs and takes a step closer. “Can I kiss you again?” she asks.

Danny takes a deep breath and shoves this realization far, far down so he can process it later, and instead smiles back at Valerie. “Yes.”

#danny phantom #danny fenton #valerie gray #jazz fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #uh what do i put a tw for #tw slight non con?#like Danny's not in a good place when the kissing happens #that kind of situation #everyone knows au #my fic

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