emolotl

Danny was being shaken awake. He tried to ignore it. The shaking just got more intense. 

“C’mon… Mom… just five more min….”

“I am not your mother, Fenton, and thank fuck for that!” a voice hissed nearby. 

He grumbled, still half asleep. He tried to roll over on his side to get away from the person shaking him, but he realized that he couldn’t. He was restrained. His eyes flew open. 

The first thing that greeted him was the sight of the lab ceiling. The portal itself was out of sight, but he could still see its eerie glow casting a green filter over everything else—the various machines, beakers, extra hazmat suits, Wes Weston. 

Wait a minute. 

“Wes Weston?!”

A hand suddenly clamped over his mouth. “Shut up, Fenton! Or do you want us both to get caught?” Wes asked in a frantic whisper. 

Danny licked Wes’s palm. 

His reaction was immediate. “Eww!” He said, recoiling his hand from Danny’s face and scrunching up his face in utter disgust. “You’re gonna give me ghost rabies or…something. Is whatever you have contagious?”

Danny stared at him. “Did you just ask a ghost if being dead was contagious?”

Wes just rolled his eyes. “Well, I don't know exactly what you are, since half the time you look and act like a living, breathing person. You can't blame me if I try to take every precaution possible.” He proceeded to wipe his palm off on Danny’s pant leg. 

“Right. I'm real impressed with all your precautionary measures,” Danny drawled. “Now could you help me get out of these restraints? They're kinda ghost-proof.”

“Can’t you just turn back into Fenton, then?”

Danny leveled him with a look. “I’d still be tied down, genius.”

“I knew that,” Wes snapped. Still, he started undoing the straps holding Danny down. 

“What are you even doing in my house?” Danny asked.

“What are you doing strapped to what is clearly a dissection table—” Wes gestured around them to the various sharp and shiny tools made for the express purpose of cutting or poking or sawing specimens, “—in some sort of spooky murder basement?!”

“Currently? I'm lying down,” Danny joked, but he was seriously starting to get alarmed. Why was he down here, strapped to what actually was his parents' dissection table? Try as he might, he couldn’t remember anything past the start of lunch break at school today. That was today, right?

Wes, meanwhile, was starting to spiral. His hands were shaking slightly as he fiddled with Danny’s restraints, muttering to himself. He seemed genuinely freaked out, and Danny couldn’t blame him for that. Danny was also starting to freak out. 

“Hey,” Danny said, following the whisper-tone Wes had been using. “Seriously, why are you here?” 

At that point, Wes had freed Danny’s upper body, and he sat up to help the redhead with the last couple restraints around his legs. 

Wes dragged his hand down his face. “At the start of lunch break, I was chasing down some leads for evidence—to prove to everyone else that you’re Phantom, of course.” 

Danny made a show of looking down at himself, still in ghost form. “Of course I’m Phantom. Who else would I be?” he asked innocently. 

“Fenton! You are also Fenton—” Wes said as loudly as he dared, exasperation coloring his tone.

“Just call me ‘Danny’, dude; I don’t call you ‘Weston’,” Danny muttered.

“You know what, forget it,” Wes said, but continued anyway. “I followed you for a bit, until you started fighting against that bounty hunter ghost, uh, what was his name again…”

“Skulker,” Danny supplied. This story was starting to get familiar. He swung his legs over to the floor and stood up, stretching to get some feeling back in his limbs. 

“Yeah, him,” Wes replied dismissively. “You normally beat him pretty quickly—”

“—How do you know that?—”

“—but something must've been different with his equipment or tactics today, because you were having your ass handed to you. It was pretty pathetic, actually.”

“I could do without the side comments,” Danny remarked, but Wes’s words were actually corroborated by the soreness he was feeling in his body. He wouldn’t be surprised if he found a pattern of bruises decorating his skin later. 

“Do you want to know what happened, or not?”

Danny just stared at the taller boy, but remained silent. Wes continued, “Eventually, you did get him. I guess you were too tired or beat up to notice, but just as you were finished sucking up the ghost into your can, your freaking parents ambushed you from behind. I’m pretty sure they must have injected you with some kind of sedative, because you were out like a light.”

Danny got a sinking feeling in his stomach. He looked around the room, noting the usual tools and instruments his parents would use for the smaller specimens like blob ghosts whenever they wanted to… gain a more intimate understanding of how they worked. And today, it was supposed to be his turn on the dissection table. His own parents didn't know any better, but that didn’t mean…He shook his head. Now was not the time to dwell on this. 

He turned to Wes. “So how did you get inside my house?” 

“Well…” the redhead trailed off. “Your parents were so eager to finally have captured ‘Inviso-Bill’,” Wes added air quotes, “that they kinda just rushed into their house and didn’t close the front door. So, I went inside.” 

Danny didn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed that his parents were so careless. 

“They needed some other tools or something, so they strapped you down and went up to that… giant thing you have on top of your building.”

“The Ops Center.”

“Whatever.”

“With both of them gone, I just kinda slipped in here and tried to wake you up,” Wes said. “There, you're all caught up.”

Danny sighed. At least he hadn't de-transformed when he got kidnapped. Otherwise, he and Wes would be dealing with a much more complicated problem. “I’ve never been grateful to have a stalker before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

“Excuse me, I’m an investigative journalist, not a stalker—”

“Yeah, yeah, it still sounds like you followed me to my house and snuck in to watch me sleep.”

“Yeah, well, if I hadn’t ‘stalked’ you,” Wes used air quotes again, “then I wouldn’t be here to save you, now would I?”

“You have me there,” Danny admitted. He shuddered to think what would have happened if Wes hadn’t been there to wake him up and free him. “Thanks,” he said simply. 

Wes didn't seem sure what to do with himself. “Yeah, well, what do we do now?”

Danny shrugged. He started walking up the lab steps, sensing Wes fall into step behind him. “Walk out the front door? It’s literally my house, so as long as we leave before—”

Danny had barely opened the lab door a crack before he heard his dad’s heavy footsteps coming from their main staircase. “Finally,” he heard his dad say with glee, “we can put the Fenton Specter Slicer to use!” 

Danny immediately shut the lab door. He went back down the steps, pushing Wes along ahead of him.

“What gives?” 

“My parents are almost here.”

Wes’s eyes widened in alarm. “O-okay, then turn us both invisible and sneak us outta here!” he sputtered. 

Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “This is awkward,” he muttered under his breath. 

“What is that supposed to mean, Fent—Danny?” 

“It means,” Danny said, looking down at his gloved hands, “I don’t think my powers are working right now.” Wes blinked. “What?!”

“It must’ve been whatever they injected me with; it should wear off soon…hopefully.” 

“‘Hopefully’?! You didn’t think to mention this sooner?”

Danny shrugged casually, mostly to infuriate Wes some more. “Happens sometimes. I didn’t want to alarm yo—” Danny once again heard his dad’s footsteps, this time a lot closer than they were earlier. 

He suddenly shoved Wes away from the stairs. “Hide! They’re here!”

–

Wes was going to say something not PG-appropriate to Danny, but the sound of the lab door handle being turned lit a fire under his ass. He quickly crouched behind some machine on the opposite end of the room, closer to the glowing portal. Though, not too close to the portal to the death dimension, thank you very much.

From there, he peeked toward where the ghost boy was, but he was met with a bright flash of light. He blinked a few times to re-orient himself, and there was Danny Fenton, standing where Phantom had been just a moment ago. Wes stifled a groan. He almost saw exactly how Danny’s whole ghost-but-also-human thing worked! He tamped down on his frustration; Jack and Maddie Fenton were entering the room.

“I’m telling you, Maddie, the Fenton Specter Slicer’s never been more ready—Danny? Danny!” 

Wes couldn’t help but wince as he witnessed Danny basically get tackled by his own hulking father. Of course, Danny was used to it, and just wrapped his arms around his father. “Oof! Hey, Dad.”

“What are you doing here, my boy?” Mr. Fenton pulled back to ask. “Are you cutting class again?” There was a hint of reproach in his voice, but it was overshadowed by playfulness.

“Again, Danny?” Mrs. Fenton asked, with significantly more disappointedness. 

Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Hey, I’m not cutting! It’s technically still lunchbreak, and I totally forgot my, uh….my jacket! I thought I left it down here since it does get cold in the basement, so I did a quick run back here. I’ll make it back in time for fourth period, I swear!”

“You ran all the way back home in the cold for your jacket?” Mrs. Fenton asked, stepping closer to her son. Wes wanted to smack Danny—what kind of excuse was that? 

She put a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Look, Danny—” she cut herself off as something beyond Danny caught her eye. It must have been the dissection table, because she suddenly spoke with a lot more urgency. 

“Wait a minute,” she said, her red goggles flashing as she looked around wildly, “Where is Phantom?” 

“What?! How did he get away?” Mr. Fenton yelled, running over to the table and holding up the restraints, which Wes could just barely see. They were put back together, as though Phantom had disappeared without a trace. Danny must have rearranged them to make it seem that way. Then, the man in orange looked wildly around the room, and Wes ducked under his cover, his heart beating in his throat. 

“Does this mean I won’t get to use the Fenton Specter Splicer?” Mr Fenton asked sadly. 

“It doesn’t make sense,” Mrs. Fenton said, half to herself. “We dosed him with the new and improved version of the Ecto-Dejecto—for a ghost of his level, it should have locked away his powers for maybe about an hour. Maybe less.”

Wes blinked. How often did this happen for Danny to be so on the money with his guess about what they injected him with?

Mrs. Fenton’s head suddenly snapped toward her husband. “Jack, head up to the Ops Center—activate the ghost shield. I’ll stay here and start searching. The Fenton Specter Slicer might still see some action today.”

Mr. Fenton didn’t need to be told twice, and he was about to run out of the lab, if not for his son blocking the way up with his arms outstretched. 

“Wait!” Danny said, oddly desperate. “Can’t you guys help me look for my jacket first? Haha, or maybe we can finally have that family discussion on why I’m always missing class! The ghost shield can wait, right?”

“Wrong, Danny-boy! That’s a real important issue, but right now catching that ghost-boy is more important than you!” Mr. Fenton proceeded to push past his son and barrel up the stairs; Wes didn’t think a man that big could move so quickly. 

“Mom!” Danny said, appealing to her now. 

She just sighed. She pulled down her hazmat suit’s hood, her short auburn hair framing her face. It made her look so much softer.  “What Dad meant, Danny, is that your safety is the most important thing to us right now, and we can only ensure your safety by locating and capturing Phantom.”

“But—”

“We’ll talk more later, okay?”

“At least let me help,” he pleaded.

She ruffled her son’s hair. “Sorry, kiddo, but you're no good in a fight. Just stay here; Phantom’s least likely to return here for now.” She started going up the stairs. 

Wes felt like he was watching Danny deflate in real time. 

“Oh,” Mrs. Fenton said, turning around to toss Danny something. “Here, take the Fenton Wrist Rays; you might just need them.”

He mutely accepted the gadget as his mother left the room.

All of a sudden, the lights went out. An undignified yelp escaped Wes’s lips. Luckily, the noise was covered up by Mr. Fenton’s booming voice from above them. “Whoopsie! Hit the power switch and not the shield switch! We really need to label these better!” 

In the next few moments, there was a soft but persistent humming noise coming from all around the house, as if a giant bee ghost was overshadowing the building. Then, the power returned. 

When the lights came back on, Wes was greeted by the sight of Danny dragging his palms down his face. “Okay, Wes, they’re gone.”

“Your home life is crazy, dude,” Wes said, emerging from his hiding spot. The lab looked different for some reason. 

“You think?” Danny replied. He gestured to the dissection table, to which he had been strapped not even half an hour ago. He sighed, and started walking toward the stairs “C’mon, let’s sneak you out of here.”

“Finally,” Wes said, still looking around. “Wait, why just me?”

“You hear that humming? Ghost shield’s on,” Danny said, not looking back. “I can’t get out, but you still can.”

“So, what? I’m just going to abandon you? You can call me a stalker, but not a coward.”

Danny shot him a funny look. “I’ll figure something out, dude. It’s just my parents.”

“And your parents are insane!” he said, waving his hands around. Why on earth was this guy not more alarmed by this situation? 

“What if—” Wes started to say, but then something occurred to him. Danny hadn’t seen the odd way the green light of the ghost portal had reflected off of Mrs. Fenton’s red goggles as she’d sorted through their various dissecting equipment; he hadn’t seen the way Mr. Fenton had been dragging Phantom around like he was a piece of meat. Wes had seen it all, but was he about to tell Danny about how excited his parents had seemed to cut him into tiny pieces?

“What if you get ghost grounded or something,” he said instead, though he wasn’t really sure what he was saying. “And-and I won’t be able to collect evidence at all?”

“...What?”

Wes avoided eye contact, he knew he wasn’t making sense. At least the portal wasn’t emitting highlighter green light anymore, so looking around the room was a lot easier on the eyes in general. Wait—the portal!

“Why don’t we just hide in there?” Wes asked, pointing at the hole in the wall that used to be the Fenton Ghost Portal.

“The portal?” Danny frowned. “It’s going to turn back on in a bit, so—”

“Exactly! You know how to navigate the Ghost Zone, right? We can just kinda hide in there and spawncamp the portal, and escape through there as soon as it turns on.”

Danny let out a dry laugh. “Sure, man, get in there…if you wanna get ghost powers.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m messing with you,” Danny waved his hand dismissively. “Look, Wes, I cannot even begin to tell you how bad of an idea that is in the first place, since I can’t use my powers. There’s a lot in the Ghost Zone, and most of it is not friendly.”

“Well,” Wes said, feeling petulant. “What’s your idea, then? ‘Cause I’m not leaving if you’re not.”

“Are you—” Danny huffed. He started pacing the room, listing things off his fingers. “Okay, well, the only way I’m getting out of here is if either the ghost shield or the power is turned off. I can’t fly or go intangible, so someone else would have to sneak past my parents, get up into the Ops Center, hit either one of the buttons, and also escape somehow. All I’d have to do is wait near the border of the shield and step out of bounds as soon as the power is off.”

Danny looked Wes in the eye. “You sure you don’t just wanna go?”

“Look, just tell me what to do,” Wes said. He couldn’t believe what he was getting himself into…though, to be fair, he was the one who broke into the house initially, so there really was no one to blame for this but himself.

–

“Danny?” Maddie’s voice came from the kitchen.

Danny frantically pointed to his bedroom door, silently urging Wes to just book it. They were already near the top of the stairs, and Wes (with his tall-person stride) should be able to make it there before his mom came around. Thankfully, Wes took the hint. He was just out of sight by the time Maddie spotted Danny. 

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay in the lab.”

“Still looking for my jacket,” he said. “It wasn’t in the lab, so I was gonna check my room next.”

“While a dangerous ghost is lurking somewhere?”

“I’ve still got the Wrist Rays, Mom. Besides, Phantom isn’t dangerous, he—” “Turn around, Danny. Let me see your eyes.” 

Danny sighed, but complied. Maddie squinted at his irises for a few seconds, but he knew she wouldn’t find anything. It wasn’t like he could overshadow himself.

“Lunch break is almost over by now, Mom. If I can just grab my jacket and go, I can still make it in time—without cutting class.” 

It was her turn to sigh. “Fine, just hurry up.”

“And don’t disturb your dad upstairs,” she called after him. “He’s trying to fix up the Fenton Finder so we can end this search faster!”

Danny immediately resumed his path to his room and closed the door shut behind him. He had to get out of here before that damn gadget was fixed. 

He let out a long exhale, looking up to see Wes was staring at him, clearly having been eavesdropping. 

“What, not taking the time to go through my stuff to look for evidence?” Danny asked pointedly.

“No,” the taller boy said, looking away. At least he had the self-awareness to look a little guilty. “Hey, did you actually forget your jacket? It’s freezing today.”

Danny followed his line of sight to where his winter jacket lay forgotten on his desk chair. He shrugged. “I’m half-dead, and I’ve got ice powers. I don’t really feel the cold at this point.”

Wes gaped at him. “You are way too casual about that.”

Danny wrinkled his nose. “My sister would say you’re being judgmental of my coping mechanisms.”

“And what would you say?” the redhead asked. Danny walked over and picked up the jacket.

“I’d say I don’t care about what you think.”

“Don’t you care that you just dropped like, a huge bomb about yourself to someone who’s currently trying to expose your identity?”

Danny closed his eyes and pursed his lips, not really trying to hide his amusement. “No one ever believes you, dude, so what does it matter?”

Wes spluttered. “W-well, that’s just because everyone else is an idiot!”

Danny hummed. “Riiiight,” he drawled. Wes looked like he was about to burst a vein.

“Just give me that!” he said, snatching Dany’s jacket away. “Will this even work? I’m taller than you.”

Danny scoffed, offended. “Not by that much!” 

Wes slipped the jacket on and zipped it up. Meanwhile, Danny dug around under his bed for a hat—there! He stuck it onto Wes’s head, and gave the guy a once-over. He was actually tall enough that the jacket looked a little short, but the beanie covered up his ginger hair well. From behind, Wes could arguably pass for Danny. This might actually work.

“I look stupid,” Wes said, staring at himself in Danny’s mirror. He tugged at the sleeves, but they were too short to cover his wrists. 

“You’ll be fine,” Danny said, opening his bedroom window. He looked down at his backyard. He was pretty confident he could make it down there with minimal injuries, but he better go ghost just to enhance his durability and be sure. 

“Just don’t let them get too close a look, especially since your eyes are green,” Danny added. “They might think Phantom is overshadowing you and try to strap you down to a dissection table.”

Wes looked very pale. “That’s not funny.”

“It kinda is,” is all Danny said before jumping out the window. He transformed halfway down to increase his durability, and landed with a smooth roll in his backyard. He heard Wes’s frantic footsteps toward his window, accompanied by the flash of his phone camera.

He looked up at Wes. “Seriously?”

“Whatever,” Wes hissed, “It’s not like I caught anything useful, like, I don’t know…How the fuck did you just die on command?!”

Danny gave him a sharp-toothed grin. “Practice makes perfect,” he said enigmatically. He turned to go.

“W-wait!” Wes called. “How will I know if your dad’s not up in the Ops Center anymore?”

“Trust me,” Danny replied. “You’ll hear him coming down.”

–

Wes did, in fact, hear every single one of Mr. Fenton’s heavy footsteps as he rushed from the Ops Center to the backyard, answering his wife’s call to action upon seeing Phantom sneaking around in their bushes. 

Wes almost tripped over himself trying to get to the Ops Center, taking the steps two at a time. He was grateful he never skipped leg day for the basketball team, but would it hurt the Fentons to install an elevator? They clearly had the capability. 

Wes shook his head as he entered the Ops Center. He didn’t have time to think about that. He had no idea how long Danny could evade his parents without powers, but he didn’t want to find out. He rushed over to the main control panel in the center of the room. Among a myriad of blinking lights and mutli-colored buttons, there sat the two switches: one for the power and the other for the shield, right where Danny said they would be. 

He flicked them both off. Immediately, the lights went out, and the ever-present hum of the ghost shield that Wes had gotten used to at that point just disappeared. Now it was the silence that was uncanny. The emergency lights turned on, providing some low light, but Wes pulled turned on his phone flashlight just in case. 

He was about to leave the room when his flashlight reflected on some glass surface on the control panel. Curiosity killed the cat, he knew, but Wes wouldn’t be in this situation if he wasn’t a curious creature. 

He looked closer and found a framed photo depicting the Fenton family at some amusement park. Danny didn’t look that much different; it could only have been taken a few years ago, at most. Mr. Fenton had his son on his shoulders; Mrs. Fenton was holding tight to her son’s leg and her daughter’s shoulder next to her. They were all smiles. Wes was having a hard time reconciling the two sides of this family he’d seen today.

Suddenly, he heard a door slam from down below, accompanied by harried voices. He almost dropped the frame in surprise. He set it down gently, right where he had found it, before hightailing it out of the room. 

He’d just about made it to the second floor when he heard Mr. Fenton’s footsteps on the first floor landing. Crap! He quickly slipped into Danny’s room, not daring to close the door and make a noise. 

“He’s giving us the runaround, Maddie!” Mr. Fenton wheezed, sounding a bit worse for wear. 

Wes listened closely, trying to differentiate between the pounding of his heart and Mr. Fenton’s footfall. As soon as he heard the large man up on the Ops Center stairs, Wes booked it down the main staircase, not caring if he made any noise. The house was still dark, but Wes could see daylight through the front door, which had been left ajar, just like it had been when Wes had first snuck in. Wes had spent almost an hour in this house and that was one hour too many.

He had his hand on the door knob and freedom when—

“Danny?” came Mrs. Fenton’s voice from somewhere in the house behind him. Wes was going to kill Danny and then himself if he ever made it out of here.  Wes didn’t dare answer her—Danny warned him about showing his eyes, not about talking! 

He was internally debating whether or not he could make a convincing Danny impression when Mrs. Fenton spoke up again, sounding closer this time. “Danny, turn around.” 

Wes was this close to having a panic attack.

Wait, he could just remove this damn beanie and prove he wasn’t Danny, or overshadowed! They’d believe him, right? They hunted ghosts, not humans. He slowly started reaching up to pull it off, not wanting to startle the very scary woman behind him with any sudden movements. Just as he gripped the top of the hat, a bellowing voice echoed down the stairwell.

“Maddie! The Fenton Finder’s working again!”

A robotic voice accompanied him, saying, “You would have to be some sort of moron to think there’s a ghost in this house.”

All the tension seemed to leave the room at once. Behind him, Mrs. Fenton stomped her foot. “Drat, just when we had him!”

“I’ll go turn on the lights,” Mr. Fenton said defeatedly, his voice getting softer the farther away he got. Wes could hear him literally dragging his feet.

Mrs. Fenton sighed. “Sorry for all the fuss, Danny. You’d better get back to class now—oh! You found your jacket after all.” 

Wes just nodded, slowly opening the door. He just needed to leave before the lights came back on; that was his only advantage now.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you still upset about what Dad said earlier?” she asked, stepping closer. 

Wes vehemently shook his head. He started inching toward the outside world. 

“Then, what is it? Are you sick? Oh dear, did you catch a cold without your jacket?” Mrs. Fenton put a hand on Wes’s shoulder and he was freaking out—

Everything went black.

–

“Mom! I’m fine, seriously!” Danny said, shrugging his mom’s hand off his shoulder. “…But thanks—for looking out for me. Sorry about Phantom.”

“Oh, don’t worry about us, kiddo,” she said fondly. “Do you want a ride back to school?”

“No!” Danny said, his voice cracking. He winced and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “It’s fine! I just remembered that Mr. Lancer likes to give us free period on Thursdays sometimes to read ahead, so I’m actually not late at all.”

“Oh! Well, that’s good. See you—”

“Bye, Mom, see you later!!” Danny said, taking off into the street just as the lights in the house flickered back to life. 

Danny ran for about a block before he stopped to rest.  “Okay,” he said to himself, “we should be in the clear now.”  

He stepped out of Wes’s body.

–

“I’m not your son I don’t know where he is maybe Phantom took him don’t you wanna check i swear I'm not overshadowed please please let me go now I just want to leave please—” Wes shut up when he realized he was no longer inside Danny’s house. 

He blinked. He was standing on a sidewalk, with Danny standing in front of him. He quickly whipped around to see if Mrs. Fenton or even Mr. Fenton was there, but the street was empty. He couldn’t even see Fenton Works anymore, just the Ops Center in the distance.

“What the fuck just happened?!”

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “I…kind of overshadowed you for a second there—just to get away from my mom, promise!”

“You possessed me?!”

“It’s called ‘overshadowing’, and it was just for a second!” Danny defended himself. 

Wes hunched over, grasping his knees. He took deep breaths as his heart rate returned to normal. “...Thank you,” he said simply. 

“What else is a stalkee supposed to do for his stalker?” Danny replied sincerely.

Wes actually laughed.  

After being Phantom for a while and hiding his double life from, like, half the people in his life, Danny liked to think that he’d been getting used to the whole lying thing. He lied all the time: to his parents, to his sister, and even to Sam sometimes when she starts nagging about eating green (but he was doing that even before the accident). That wasn’t even mentioning all the normal amount of lying he just kinda does as, like, a normal-ish person. 

So why couldn’t he lie right now?

“Phantom, what the hell did you just say?”

“I said I’ll catch you later because I just had the Nasty Burger Surprise and I think the nasty surprise is what’s gonna greet me on the toilet.”

He’d seen Valerie make a wide range of expressions, from pure hatred to open affection. He’d never seen this combo of shock and disgust before, though. Honestly, he shared the sentiment. 

“I heard you the first time, ghost-boy. Are you messing with me?” She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion, raising her blaster for added effect.

“No, I swear! I just—okay, I have no idea why I said that. Twice. Sorry.” His stomach grumbled, loud enough that he saw Valerie heard it, too. She hesitated, and he took the chance to run his mouth.

“I really do need the little ghost’s room so could we put a pin in the usual chasing me angrily around town only to—” He quickly shut up at the sight of one, two, more of Valerie’s blasters appearing from her suit’s hammerspace and charging up. Admittedly, he let out a little fart in surprise. 

“Just… go,” she sighed, exasperation and disbelief coloring her tone.

He didn’t need to be told twice, bolstered by both her threats and his genuine need to go to the toilet. He hadn’t gotten very far when he started to hear laughter right in his ear. 

“I can’t believe you said that!” Sam wheezed out.

“You better believe it, ‘cause I’ve got audio proof!” Tucker replied, and Danny could practically see him waving his PDA around. He could actually see that if he wanted to, thanks to the trio’s platonic soulmate bond, but they tended to ask each other permission first before doing any peeking.

He sighed as he sped back to his house. “Come on you guys, I—Crud.” His stomach let out another worrying noise. He started taking off his Fenton Phone, “Tucker, that recording never sees the light of day or you can kiss your PDA goodbye.”

 “Ha! You can try, ghost-boy, you can tr—”

–

Danny sped through the halls, cursing Technus for making him late for an important physics test that he’d actually studied for. He pulled out his phone to check the time when he noticed someone heading straight toward him in his peripheral vision. He skidded to a stop, but still managed to bump into them.

“Oof!”

“I’m so sorry, but I’m literally so late to my test—”

“Danny?”

He looked up and met Valerie's eyes. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hi,” she said back with a small smile. Danny wasn’t really sure what to do with himself. They hadn’t really interacted much since she rejected him to protect him from himself (outside of ghost fights, but that was Phantom and Red Huntress, not Danny and Valerie). 

“I, uh, I’ve missed you.” He immediately regretted that, wow. His face felt hot. Why did he just drop that on her? “I mean, I literally ran into you so I guess I didn’t miss you…”

She giggled a bit, so he was gonna count that as a win. “I’ve missed you, too, Fenton. Well, maybe I didn’t miss literally running into you.” 

The two of them just smiled at each other. 

He opened his mouth to say something cheesy, but she cut him off. “Aren’t you, like, ‘literally so late to your test’?

He closed his eyes and bit his lip. “Crud. Sorry, Val, I’ve gotta go.”

She just nodded. “See ya.”

“See you!” he shouted as he sprinted past her.

–

Danny flew toward the firefight downtown just in time to see one of the regulars beam Red Huntress straight into the pavement. She started to get to her feet, but she winced and quickly sat back down. 

“Hey, you good?” he asked, offering her a hand. She waved him off, but didn’t try to stand again. 

“No, I think my ankle is sprained—” she cut herself off, shaking her head. He gaped a little. He was not used to her being willing to admit weakness, especially to him of all people. “Ugh, just, don’t try that hero baloney with me, ghost-boy,” she said, glaring at him. “Just finish ‘em off. I made it easy for you.”

He was pleasantly surprised that there was less threatening or overall violence involved in that interaction, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He quickly threw himself into the fight, and, sure enough, the fight ended pretty quickly. Another ghost in the Thermos. But he had to give it to her, Red Huntress had done most of the work. 

She had just about managed to haul herself onto her hoverboard by the time Danny returned to her, but trying to stand up on it was another matter. He saw her foot give out before she did. Fortunately for her, he caught her just in time. Unfortunately for him, Red Huntress did not consent to being carried bridal style by her nemesis. 

Her gut reaction was to sock him in the jaw. 

“Let me go, ghost freak!” She yelled, beginning to squirm in his arms. He nearly did as she wished, barely managing to get her on the hoverboard instead of back on the pavement.

“Ow,” he verbalized, massaging his chin. “I was just trying to help.”

“I don’t need a ghost’s help,” she sneered. Danny rolled his eyes.

“Okay, but like you said, your ankle’s sprained. Just let me ice it real quick. No tricks, I swear on my afterlife.” 

She glared at him. 

“Look,” he sighed, the humiliation of bringing this up would only be worth it if she let him help. “I still owe you for letting me go to the toilet last time, so just let me help.” 

She harrumphed (he could have sworn she was holding back a smile), but didn’t fly away. He took that as a yes. He kneeled down and wrapped his hands gently around her ankle, slowly channeling his ice powers and letting his hands become an ice pack. It was a wonder she was even letting him this close, much less use his powers on her. Ever since the whole thing with Dani, she’d mellowed out a bit. Not that Danny was ungrateful. 

Before he could ponder on that more, Red Huntress’s leg swung a little. Eye level with her shins, he suddenly felt fear. “And don’t get any ideas about kicking me in the face…please.”

“You’re the one giving them to me.”

“Ugh, just—” He let go of her ankle and stood up. “Here,” he said, handing her a little ice anklet. “It’ll melt in a little while, but you can wear it until you get home and get a real ice pack on it.”

She stared at him for a second before accepting the anklet. “Don’t think that this means we’re all buddy-buddy now. I’m just grateful you stuck around to help me after the fight even if you totally didn’t have to.” She covered her mouth.

He gaped at her for the second time that day. “I…you’re welcome?”

Glaring at him one more time, Red Huntress zipped away without a word.

–

It was really awkward the next time they saw each other. They’d teamed up again, sure, but Red Huntress hadn’t said a word to him the entire fight. Now, they stood together on one of the rooftops downtown, finishing off the ghost. 

As the Box Ghost got sucked up into the Fenton Thermos for the umpteenth time, Danny decided to try and break the silence. “So, how’s that ankle doing?”

He was greeted with more silence. Yay.

“What? I know you’re a ninth-degree degree black belt, not to mention a ghost hunter, so you gotta be used to these kinds of injuries, but is it really so bad if I ask—” his tangent was cut off by the Red Huntress flying right up in his face, her hoverboard pointed threateningly at his neck.

“How do you know I’m a ninth-degree black belt?”

“That,” he squeaked out, “is a great question. I plead the fifth.” 

She just raised her eyebrows at him. 

“This is where I make my exit,” was all he said in reply. He quickly turned intangible and invisible, dropping through the roof and down into the next floor. Then, he ‘went human,’ effectively disappearing from Red Huntress’s sensors.  

–

The only thing Red Huntress greeted Danny with the next time he saw her was a sincere, “Oh, good. You’re here.”

He was taken aback, to say the least. “That’s good?”

“What, you don't want it to be, ghost-boy?” she asked, but it lacked her usual venom. She seemed tired, but she still dodged one of the Box Ghost’s boxes.

“Phantom! Now you’re here to witness the true might of objects with four corners!” the Box Ghost wailed from down below them.

Danny ignored him. “Are you okay?”

“No.” She sluggishly dodged another box. Box Ghost was yelling something about being ignored, but neither Danny nor Red Huntress were paying any attention. “You deal with this,” she waved vaguely in Box Ghost’s direction. “I’m going home.”

“What?” Danny asked, as she began flying away. “Why?” 

“It’s shark week,” was the only thing she said before booking it away from the fight. 

“What the heck is that supposed to m—” Danny was interrupted by Box Ghost actually landing a hit. 

–

The next day was thankfully a Saturday, but ghosts wait for no one, and Valerie dragged herself out of bed to just do one round of patrol…just one round. That was when she found what looked a lot like a care package on one of the rooftops along her usual route. It held things like a warm compress, some chocolate, and a variety of sanitary products. There was a note attached which read:

I do know what ‘shark week’ is—I have a sister. It's just that she likes to call it the week of doom and despair. I know what works for her, but not for you, so I just kinda got everything I (and Google) could think of. Hope it helps. Get well soon.

P

Above the period at the end of the note, Valerie could clearly see where a question mark had been erased. The handwriting was kinda familiar, but that didn’t make sense. 

Wait, did ghosts still get periods? That sucked. 

–

Danny’s stomach was grumbling. Next to him, Tucker groaned. Danny nodded solemnly. The lines at Nasty Burger were unbearably long for a couple of teenage boys needing fast food. Finally, the two of them were in front of the cashier.

“I’ll have the Special Meat Lover’s Combo Meal, please,” Tucker said gleefully.

“That shit’s nasty!” came Sam’s voice from the other side of the restaurant, where she’d saved a table for them.

“Nasty’s just one letter away from tasty!” he yelled back.

Danny just rolled his eyes at his friends’ antics, trying to ignore all the other patrons staring at them. He opened his mouth to order his food (but not a Nasty Surprise, never again), “I’ll have the Nasty—”

“Don’t get the Nasty Surprise!”

“Valerie?!” Danny nearly jumped out of his skin. She was right behind him. “Of course, I’m not going to get it, the last time I—”

“Good. It’s just that someone I…know…ate it one time and he had his own nasty surprise on the toilet after.” She cringed at her own words; she looked like she would do anything to take them back.

Beside him, Tucker snickered as Danny turned red at the memory. Valerie, meanwhile, was just looking around the restaurant intently. “Thanks for the warning, I guess. Val, what are you doing?” 

“Making sure the manager didn’t hear me say that. Shoot, he’s coming over here. Bye Danny and Danny’s friend!” And with that, she just left. 

When Danny and Tucker finally made it back to their table, Sam smirked and gave a slow clap. “Thanks for the show, guys.”

–

Another day, another fight with that ghost hunter who liked to call himself Skulker. Normally, he wasn’t really an issue, except today he seemed to be eager to test a bunch of new toys. (Admittedly Valerie was a little jealous. She stopped getting weapon and suit upgrades ever since she stopped seeing Vlad Masters/Plasmius. The price she paid for going soft over a ghost, she guessed.)

She was fighting alongside Phantom again today. She would never admit it, but working with him wasn’t half bad. Case in point: 

“Red!” was all Phantom said as he tossed a number of deadly-looking grenade-bomb-things he’d just pilfered off of Skulker’s utility belt toward the sky. 

“I got it!” She maneuvered her board away from where Phantom and Skulker were brawling. She zoomed straight up as quickly as she possibly could, even after she felt Skulker’s weight on the end of a chain attached to her board. 

“What the—” was all the ghost said before he was dragged upwards by his belt. 

Valerie pushed harder and harder; this only worked if she got it done before Skulker could get over his surprise. She suddenly hit the brakes when she was about halfway to the bomb thingies, detaching the chain from her board and letting inertia carry Skulker the rest of the way. It was a good thing Phantom’s throw was inhumanly good. The explosion was glorious.

Phantom flew up to her just as she caught what remained of Skulker’s charred suit in her arms. He popped Skulker’s helmet open and Fenton Thermos’d the actual itty bitty Skulker away. 

Phantom gestured at Skulker’s suit. “He’s totally compensating for something, right?”

Valerie snorted. “You think?”

The threat dealt with, the two ghost hunters kinda just stood there. Valerie didn’t know what to do with herself and seemingly, neither did Phantom. 

“You, uh…you fight good,” he said, immediately wincing. Valerie closed her eyes and pursed her lips as she tried to hold in her amusement.

“Yeah, well, you’re not half bad, either,” she said. She wanted to smack herself. Didn’t she just say she would never admit that?

–

Valerie was losing her mind. Up was down lately with that ghost boy. Honestly, ever since she met Dani, things have been weird. They team up during ghost fights more and more now, and the other week she just let him go. Not to mention letting him ice her ankle that one time—no, she was not going to think about that.

She slumped down onto the curb, using the Nasty Nat costume as her seat cushion. She sighed and let the back of her head scrape the alley wall as she looked up at the evening sky, the sun setting quickly. What was wrong with her lately? Maybe she was just lonely, a thought that made her scoff. Her dad works extra shifts to keep them afloat now; she barely sees Star with all the extra shifts she’s picking up, too; and Danny…Danny was wishful thinking. As long as she kept up this ghost hunting gig, she’d only endanger him. Thinking about it, the only person that she really saw consistently these days was Phantom. But that didn’t count, right?

She was broken out of her thoughts when she heard the sound of a sneaker scraping against the pavement near the entrance of the alley. Her head snapped to its point of origin, her body tense and alert, only to relax when she saw it was Danny, framed by the setting sun. She squinted; for a moment the orange light from the sun sorta made his eyes look green. But when he looked up and noticed her, his eyes were as ice blue as ever. 

He looked surprised to see her there. Valerie quickly tucked the rest of the Nasty Nat costume behind her, and spread her skirt a bit to hide the costume’s head. If Danny noticed the thing, he didn’t say anything as he limped over, compensating for his bad right foot by putting more weight on his left. Forgetting the costume, she rushed to his right side to support him. 

“What happened?” she asked as she guided him to her makeshift seat. 

“There was a ghost fight.” 

“What?” she asked, the tension from earlier returning as she quickly scanned their surroundings for any paranormal activity. 

“No, don't worry!” Danny quickly added. “I…Phantom took care of it,” he said slowly, as if he was testing out his words. “My ankle got caught on a pole during the fight—I know, klutz,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck in his sheepish way, “but I managed to get away.”

“Well, at least you’re okay,” she said, digging around in her backpack. Having high-tech ghost hunting gear meant she had a lot of hammer space. She was supposed to use it for weapons or other stuff, but she also kinda just used it to bring anything convenient along. “That ghost boy could have hurt you.”

“You don’t believe that, do you?”

Her hand closed around what she was looking for, but she paused at his words. 

“Of course I don’t.” She nearly dropped what she’d been holding.

Danny looked as shocked as she felt. “Wait, really?”

“Yes,” she said too quickly. “No. I don’t know.” What was she even saying? She sighed. 

“Look, I’ve been having a weird time, don’t listen to me. It’s just that…” She didn’t know what to say. She had no clue what’s been wrong with her lately. “Here,” she said. “It’s an ice pack. Press it to your ankle so it gets better faster.”

“Oh, uh, thanks,” he said, accepting the pack and putting it against his left foot. “Uh, why do you just bring an ice pack around?”

“I also sprained my ankle last week,” she said, settling down next to Danny. She assumed the same position she’d been in before he’d entered the alley: back against the wall, staring up at the sky. She felt him follow her lead. “I bring my own ice around now because last time I had to rely on Phan—,” she coughed, “—tastic guy for ice.” She cringed, hoping he didn’t pick that up.

Danny just blinked. Then a lopsided smile made its way onto his face. “Don’t tell me you’re seeing other guys, Val! Fantastic guys!” He pressed a hand to his chest and ducked his face. “I’m hurt!”

Valerie immediately scoffed. Then, she giggled. “Right. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Danny, but I can see all the other guys I want—you’re not my boyfriend.” 

“But I could be,” he replied, and Valerie couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. It didn’t matter; she wasn’t going to be serious about this. She’s had too much serious lately. 

“Ugh, stop. You’re starting to sound like uh, your flirty friend.”

“...my flirty friend?”

“You know…the one that’s not goth.”

“Oh my God, Val, you have to know his name by now.”

“Well, he was annoying!”

“We’ve all been through so much stuff together! You know, the whole thing with that king ghost or whatever his name was?”

“I didn’t give him that much attention; there were bigger things at stake!” Valerie defended herself. “Anyways, I spent most of that time with Ph—Tucker! See! I remember his name!”

“Good for you. Guess you aren’t really an A-lister anymore, if you know us peasants’ names,” Danny drawled in reply. She could just about imagine the sarcastic look on his face. She glanced in his direction, meeting eyes with him at the same time. The two of them burst into laughter. She couldn’t help herself; this was the most relaxed and free she’d felt in a while. Danny had always had that effect on her. She’d missed being around him.

As the laughter died down, Danny gasped theatrically and put a hand over his face. “She said she spent most of that time with Tucker! Oh what was I to her then?” he whined. “She doth not treasure our time together as I do!”

Valerie rolled her eyes, some sorta retort ready on her lips. She paused. She missed that feeling of being free, but whose fault was that? 

“This silence—say it isn’t so!” he said when she stayed quiet. “Val?”

“I mean, I do like spending time with you, Danny.” Ugh, she didn’t mean to make this a serious conversation, but here they were. “It’s just that there’s something,” she started, then paused. “There’s something holding me back. And I know it’s not fair to you.” She shook her head. “Sorry, I’ve been so weird lately, I have, like, zero idea why I’m just dumping this all on you,” she finished lamely.

Danny was silent. He was rubbing the back of his neck. “I…totally get that, Val.” Then, under his breath, “More than you think.” She looked at him up and down; how could he possibly get it at all? She opened her mouth to say so, but then she noticed something weird. 

“Hey…why are you icing your left ankle?”

“I—what?”

“You came in limping on your injured right foot—I know ‘cause I had to support you from your right side.”

Danny looked down to his left hand, where he was indeed holding the ice pack up against his left ankle. His eyes went almost comically wide. “Oh,” he chuckled nervously, “Wow, that’s crazy, how could I forget which ankle hurt?” He quickly swapped the ice pack between his two hands so that it was pressing against the correct ankle. 

Valerie leveled him with a look. “What.”

Suddenly, Danny jumped to his feet in front of her, bouncing around on his heels like he hadn’t limped into the alley just a few minutes ago. “Wow, I’m feeling so much better already—what kind of ice pack is this?”

She just stared at him. Before she could even formulate a response, he took a deep breath, and his eyes darted to the entrance of the alley. Something in his expression changed, but it all happened so quickly, she didn’t know what to make of it. 

“Listen, Val. I gotta go gh—I gotta go. I…I’m always here, and I can take more than you think I can. Just, don’t be a stranger, okay?” “What?” “Bye!” Danny zoomed out of the alley faster than she’d ever seen him move before. Her shock meant he had a head start.

“Hey! Get back here, Fenton! You’ve still got my ice pack!” By the time she’d made it to the mouth of the alley, Danny was nowhere to be seen. 

“What the hell,” she murmured to herself. 

She couldn’t believe the night she was having. What drove her to suddenly get all sappy? Shark week’s come and gone, so she can’t blame it on hormones or anything. 

The sound of her ghost gear beeping from under her clothes interrupted her train of thought. Immediately, she pulled up a screen on her arm, showing her the nearby ectoplasm signatures. There were three sets: Phantom, the Box Ghost, and some pretty weak-looking ones. Since Phantom and the Box Ghost were close together, Valerie figured he was dealing with that problem. 

That was just fine by her. The Red Huntress could take out her stress and confusion on some blob ghosts. 

–

Danny wanted to throw himself into the powered down portal and get blasted again. Actually, no. That was the most excruciating pain he’s ever experienced, even after all he’s been through since becoming Phantom, and he would never willingly go through that ever again. Not even if the whole world was bullying him or something. 

He shook his head. He didn’t mean for that interaction to end so awkwardly. Seriously, he was so used to his super healing that he did not even think about which ankle he was pressing the ice pack to. But before that…the conversation was getting dangerously close to revealing-secrets territory. 

He flopped onto his bed, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars his dad had stuck on the ceiling years ago. Not too long ago, he’d been staring at the real sky with Valerie. He groaned. Did he want to reveal his secret to her? All he’d meant to do was have a conversation with her, test out some theories, and…see if he and Valerie were soulmates. 

He still couldn’t believe it.

–

“I can’t believe it.”

Sam looked at him like he was the one saying something crazy. She pointed a forkful of various greens at him accusingly. “You’re the one who said you both seem to be weirdly truthful around each other, despite actively keeping secrets from each other. There are soulmates who can’t lie to each other. Ergo, you two are soulmates.” She punctuated her argument by putting the fork in her mouth and munching smugly on her lunch.

“It can’t be that simple. Like, what if it’s a ghost thing—”

Tucker chimed in without looking up from his PDA, “You already checked in with, like, all of the Ghost Zone about this, dude. Even Frostbite and Clockwork! They pretty much said no spooky shenanigans afoot.”

“Gee, thanks, Tucker.” Danny groaned, remembering his interactions with the two older ghosts. “Ugh, and the two of them were smiling at me like I was clueless.”“You are clueless,” Sam and Tucker said in unison. 

“Wow. I’m really feeling the love, guys.”“What are soulmates for, Danny?” Sam asked innocently. 

Danny put his sandwich down and pointed at her. “Why are you so supportive of this whole soulmate theory?” he asked, stressing the word ‘theory’. “Aren’t you supposed to hate Valerie’s guts?” 

Sam waved her fork around dismissively. “That was back when she was being a bitch, and I had a crush on you. Now she’s less of a bitch, and I don’t have a crush on you. Instead, I found out I have a fricking platonic soul bond with the two of you, and now I gotta share a headspace with you two dorks sometimes.”

“Aww, you love us,” Tucker cooed, putting his PDA down and reaching out to hug Sam. She rolled her eyes and stopped Tucker from closing in by just jutting her hand in his face. Tucker ended up leaning on her hand and still trying to reach for her with his arms. 

Danny smiled watching the two of them. Soulmates were not uncommon. Not everyone had a soulmate, and not all soulmates got along. But he was happy to have these two. Aside from all the sappy stuff that comes with discovering that you’re soulmates with your best friends, their bond was genuinely useful because it came with a weak psychic connection—in a crisis, the three of them could coordinate their actions without even consciously thinking about it. And there were a lot of crises in Amity Park.

“I still don’t buy the whole soulmate theory. What if it’s just coincidence or awkwardness or, or something?”

“Shomeone’th in denial,” Tucker singsonged, his face still smushed against Sam’s palm. 

“Eww, Tuck, you got your meat spit on me!” Sam shoved him off her hand and wiped it on his beret. 

“Sam! You’re gonna cramp my style!” he exclaimed, clutching his beret to his chest.

“What style?” Sam asked, eyeing his outfit skeptically.

Tucker huffed, patting off his hat. “You just wouldn’t get it.” He turned to Danny. “Look, man, if you’re really so doubtful, why don’t you try lying to her?”

Danny blinked. “How is that going to help?”

“You keep calling it a ‘soulmate theory’, so go and test it! If you can lie to her—it doesn’t have to be a big lie—then, uh, problem solved?”

“If you wanna call having a baddie as your romantic soulmate a problem,” Sam muttered under her breath.

“But,” Tucker continued, “if you can’t lie and she really is your soulmate, then you might as well test the limits at the same time. See how much of a non-truth you can get away with.”

–

Danny had gone and tested the theory and even confirmed it. He couldn’t outright lie to Valerie, but he could tell half-truths like, ‘Phantom took care of the ghost,’ or whatever. Technically true. But that was only if he was really thinking about it, which probably explained why Valerie kept telling the truth—because she had no idea. But now he had one more question: what now?

He could just tell Valerie about the soulmates thing—maybe if she learned that the universe wanted them together, she would reconsider giving up ghost hunting for him. He rolled over on his side. No, there was no way he wanted her to give that up for him. She was damn good and was becoming a hero for Amity Park in her own right. Maybe he could tell her about Phantom…and get shot on sight for overshadowing Danny Fenton or something. He didn’t think she’d actually do that, right? He groaned, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes until he saw stars. It’s not that he didn’t trust her, it was just that he’d been sitting on this thing for so long, and that was mostly for his own safety. Would it really just be as simple as him telling her and then everything being fine? 

Maybe by making the two of them (AKA the two people with the most to hide from each other) truth-telling soulmates was the universe’s way of telling them that they had absolutely no chance and that they should just give up. 

Or maybe, the universe was telling him to come clean. Crud. 

–

The next time Danny saw Valerie was outside the Nasty Burger, in the alleyway again. She looked tired as she exited the back way, still wearing the Nasty Burger uniform. Her long hair was all gathered up in a loose bun at the top of her head, with a few loose strands defying neatness here and there. She somehow made that cheap uniform look good. She must have just finished her shift. He felt guilty; maybe he should just try again when she wasn’t all worn out from working minimum wage. Before he could chicken out, though, she spotted him.

“Danny?” She walked up to where he was standing at the entrance of the alleyway. “What are you doing here?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but she cut him off. “Whatever you’re holding behind your back better be my ice pack. Those things don’t come cheap, you know.”

“W-well,” his voice cracked, but he continued. “I do still have your ice pack, but before I give it back to you, there’s something similar I’d like to give you first.” 

Time to rip the bandaid off. He brought his hands to the front, showing Valerie whatever he had been hiding behind his back. She stared at it a moment, then gasped. She reached for it, and he let her take it from him. As she studied the ice anklet in her hands, she frowned, looking utterly confused. 

“Do you like it?” he asked, trying to muster some of his usual Phantom bravado. “It’s not as useful as a reusable ice pack, but I did add a little star charm here on the side.”

She looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “How do you have this? I—The last one melted.” 

He raised an eyebrow at her. She seemed so confused she hadn’t even realized that he shouldn’t know about it all. “The last one, Val?” he asked innocently.

Her eyes narrowed, and the air shifted. Danny felt like he was looking at the Red Huntress more than he was looking at Valerie. “Start talking,” she demanded, pointing the anklet at him like it was a deadly weapon. 

Danny raised his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I have something—okay, I have, like, four somethings to admit, so can you promise to save any and all violence until I’ve gone through all of them?”

“Fine,” she gritted out, still eyeing him suspiciously. 

“The first is that I know you hunt ghosts—they call you the Red Huntress, even.”

“How?!”

He raised his hands even higher. “It’ll come up, I swear! The next thing I know is that you broke up with me because you were worried about putting me in danger, like with the ghosts and stuff.”

“Plus, you’re a scaredy-cat around anything ghost,” she muttered. 

Side comment aside, this was going better than Danny expected. “Tell me, Val: if I told you that you didn’t have to worry about me at all when it comes to ghosts, would you rethink your decision?” 

“Danny…” she looked hurt. “I know it was sudden, and honestly I still have feelings for you—” She covered her mouth.“What am I saying?” she asked, horrified. 

“Wait, no, that’s exactly related to the fourth thing!” he said. 

“What are you saying?” she demanded, turning the question on him, instead. Her cheeks were red from being embarrassed now, on top of being confused.

“Third thing first! Or… third. Look, the third thing I have to admit kinda explains a lot.” He took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare to share the biggest secret he’s ever kept. But then that breath took a frigid turn—his ghost sense. Come on.

Somewhere on her person, Danny heard Valerie’s suit start beeping. She growled, and started sprinting down the alleyway. 

“Val, wait!”

“You stay right there, Danny. I mean it!” she shouted over her shoulder. As she ran, her suit suddenly started covering her body, until she threw out her hoverboard in front of her and hopped on seamlessly, taking off into the air.

He blinked. He’d never actually seen her transform before. That was freaking cool. 

Oh, right—the ghost. “I’m going gh—!” He stopped dead in his tracks. A big group was just exiting Nasty Burger, and a couple of them were giving him odd looks. “I’m going…in here!” he said, instead, running deeper into the alley.

–

“You’re late,” Red Huntress said to him in lieu of greeting. 

By the time Danny’d caught up with her, she’d already had the Box Ghost beaten down. He mostly just needed to show up with the thermos.

“Yeah, well, not all of us can transform as discreetly as you can,” he muttered. 

“What?” she asked. “You know what, nevermind. I have someone waiting on me.” She started turning around, back toward the alley.

“Wait!” He grabbed her wrist. She looked at him incredulously, but he didn’t let go. She didn’t fight back. They just stood there in the air, staring at each other for a moment. He was the first to break the silence.

“I, uh, have something for you,” he said, letting go of her arm and trusting her not to immediately bolt. He reached behind him and gave her something.

“My ice pack?” she asked softly, accepting it from him. “But I gave this to—” “To Danny. I know.” 

She just stared at him, eyes darting between him and the ice pack. Danny squirmed a little, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. 

“Oh, God.” Her eyes widened comically. “Dann–”

“Now why don’t we take this somewhere a bit more private,” he butted in quickly, pointing at the crowd that had gathered to watch the ghost fight from street level.

“Fine.”

Danny breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn’t shooting him on the spot. “C’mon, I know a spot.

– 

Danny dangled his feet off the edge of the Ops Center, right on top of Fenton Works. Red Huntress—well, Valerie—sat next to him, her helmet off. Her hair was even messier now, her long curls waving in the wind. In one hand, she held her ice pack; in the other, she held the half-melted ice anklet. 

“All this time?” she asked, her voice soft. “It really wasn’t your dog, was it?” He shook his head. 

“That time when you wrecked my suit!” she said accusingly.

“I knew you weren’t in it, obviously, since I literally saw you right there next to it.”

“Then with my dad back when Pariah Dark was attacking?”

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Ah, that. I had to stop you somehow! Sorry.” She just rolled her eyes. 

“Here,” he said, “look.” He transformed back into regular old Danny Fenton. Valerie gasped, nearly dropping the ice pack and the anklet. 

“Whoa!” he said, helping her keep a hold of the two things. He cupped the hand holding the anklet and channeled a little of his ice powers. When he removed his hand, the anklet had been made whole again. “Neat trick, right? I can do some ghost stuff like this, but not as much as I can as Phantom.”

She barely acknowledged what he did with the anklet. She was still just staring at him with wide eyes. “So…you’re like Dani, then.” It was a statement, not a question.

He sighed. “Technically, Dani’s like me. She’s my clone.” 

She finally broke eye contact, looking into the horizon. “This is insane.”

“I know,” he said. “Like I told you last time, Val, I get it. More than you know. And that’s not even including the fourth thing yet.”

“You’re not done,” she deadpanned.

“Nope!” he said, popping the ‘p.’ “Have you noticed how, like, both of us have been weirdly…truthful around each other lately?”

“Yeah…like, me with the ice pack or you with the nasty surprise.”

He frowned. “Don’t remind me.” She let out a tiny giggle. “But, yeah. Try lying to me right now, Val.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, but obeyed. “I want to kil—to ki…to threaten you without actually following through.” It was her turn to frown. “Whoa.”

He nodded. “I can’t lie either—well, technically, I can tell, like, half-truths.”

“Like that time in the alley, when you said Phantom fought the ghost.” “Exactly. It wasn’t false, but I had to kinda concentrate to not tell the whole truth there. So…” he trailed off, not sure how to bring this up. “I know this is gonna sound crazy, but the fourth thing is—”

“You’re going to tell me that we’re truth-telling soulmates,” she said without any fanfare. Danny blinked at her. 

“I…you accepted that pretty easily.”

She shrugged. “My parents were truth-telling soulmates, too. This whole thing between us sounds pretty similar. How did we not notice this sooner?”

“I’m thinking it’s ‘cause we never really had a reason to lie to each other, back when we were dating. I mean, Technus was pushing everything around us to set us up perfectly, so there was never a need to lie to each other—”

“Technus was what?!”

“Oh, yeah.” Danny began listing things off on his fingers. “The lights going out in the restaurant so they had to use the fancy candles for us, the kiss cam catching us sitting together at the arena, the ferris wheel stopping at just the right moment. There’s more, but I can’t think of the rest right now.”

“So, Technus is a creep,” she concluded, which sounded fair enough to Danny. 

He continued with his explanation. “And then we only spent more time together as Phantom and Red Huntress later on…which is exactly when we started being weird around each other.”

A silence followed that went on for a while. Danny didn’t mind; he knew it was a lot to process. Heck, he’d been sitting on it longer and still hadn’t fully processed it yet. He leaned back on his elbows and just watched Valerie digest everything. There was a stray strand of her hair flapping against her face in the wind. He was suddenly overcome by the urge to tuck it behind her ear. He shook his head.

Valerie looked back at him, having noticed his staring. Her gaze was not unkind, but it was still plenty confused. Nonetheless, she reached for his hand. The ice anklet sat cold between their palms. 

“So,” she said, “what now?”

–

“Hurry up, ghost-boy!” Red Huntress yelled, going top speed on her hoverboard. “We’re going to be late!”

He rolled his eyes. Easy for her to say; he was the one who had to stay behind and suck up the ghost into the thermos. “Coming!”

He caught up to her in an alleyway. “Come on, transform already,” she said impatiently. 

“No way,” he said. “I have an idea.” 

“What—whoa!” she said, as he grabbed her by the shoulders, and turned them both intangible and invisible. “This is weird.”

“Shh! This only works if you don’t make noise,” he said, carrying them both from the alleyway and into Casper High. He deposited her in the girls’ bathroom, then transformed in one of the boys’ bathroom’s cubicles. 

Valerie greeted him with a smirk when they met outside the bathrooms. “Well, that was convenient.”

Danny shrugged. “Being half-dead has its perks.” 

She gave him a half-horrified, half-disbelieving look. “I’m still getting used to that.”

He shrugged again and reached for her hand. She had a lot to come to terms with—like the fact that she had a chip on her shoulder about all she’d done to him before she began to mellow out. But they were figuring things out together. She accepted his hand, and they walked to class together.

Danny set his fork down carefully, grateful that tonight’s dinner wasn’t trying to kill him. He didn’t need that tonight, not when his plans were already going to be so stressful. 

“So,” he started, and immediately three pairs of eyes zeroed in on him. His parents were looking at him expectantly, like they’d just been waiting for him to speak up which was… not a good sign, but Jazz was giving him her encouraging-yet-I’ll-be-disappointed-if-you-don’t-do-it look, so he kinda had to follow through now. 

“You know how there were rumors a while ago that I had a girlfriend?” he asked, and, Ancients, did his voice have to crack on that last word? His parents were still waiting for him to get to the point.

“Yes, sweetie?” his mom prompted, her violet eyes shining with feigned nonchalance as she picked at her plate. At least she was pretending to be casual; his dad was openly staring at him again. He inwardly cringed, remembering the last time his dad thought he had a girlfriend.

He coughed and started rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh, well,” Why did it have to be so embarrassing to tell your parents about your love life! “There’s this girl, you know. And she’s super kickass and fiery but also determined and loyal and compassionate? Uh, sorry, you already know her–”

Suddenly his dad clapped him on the back with enough force, ghost-enhanced physique or not, to nearly make him faceplant into his mashed potatoes. “No need to be so embarrassed, Danny-boy! We already know that you’re dating the Red Huntress!” his dad bellowed.

What.

“Yes,” his mom said curtly, “we do.”

Danny sent a look Jazz’s way that was more a cry for help than anything else, but she was just as bewildered. Their mom sighed. 

“After ghost fights,” she said, “Jack and I still hang around the area just to collect extra samples or run a few numbers while the ectoplasm’s still fresh. But we also see you there, sweetie, talking with the Red Huntress or even riding around with her on her board going who-knows-where.”

Danny’s brain was short-circuiting. He was half tempted to check if dinner had been contaminated with ectoplasm, after all. 

The reason he was hanging around with Val after ghost fights was because he had fought alongside her during the fight. And somehow, instead of figuring out his identity, his parents… figured out his love life? Sort of? He wanted to think it was a stroke of good luck, or - more likely - another case of his bad luck to be added to the file. How was he supposed to explain that he’s dating Valerie Gray, who was definitely not a vigilante ghost hunter, without giving away that he was definitely not a half-ghost vigilante ghost hunter, too? He got a feeling that Clockwork was laughing at his pain.

“What?” he says a bit too cheerfully, “No -pfft- come on, I’m not dating some masked ghost hunter! I was just there after ghost fights because, uh…”

His dad guffawed before slapping him on the back again. “You’re a riot, son! Maddie and I once saw you exit a janitor’s closet in your school after a fight with ol’ Red, the both of you looking pretty flustered.” The big man was waggling his eyebrows at Danny. 

Danny wanted to phase through his chair and into the floor.

“Of course, we all know that proximity to ghosts and ghost fights is very dangerous,” his mom was all business. “If that girl is putting you at risk, sweetie, we’re going to need to have a very long talk with her. And you’ll need more combat lessons!” she added cheerfully. “I know you’re afraid of the ghosts, but if this relationship is turning your interests toward them, then…!”

And that was when Jazz intervened. “Mom, Dad! You’re embarrassing him, look!” She went on, “This is not the kind of conversation that is conducive to a healthy psyche, especially not when the subject is so touchy among boys his age. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to leave the scenario you’ve created.”

He so owed her. “Yep! I’ll be going now, bye.” And if he used a little of his ghostly speed to get out of the dining room and up the stairs faster, no one would know. Except for Clockwork. 

Clockwork was definitely laughing at him.

–

Danny started eavesdropping, invisible outside his parents’ door, in time to hear his dad sigh loudly with relief. 

“I told you he couldn’t be dating Valerie, Maddie! The girl’s way out of his league!”

Danny had to hold back a scoff. Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Dad. 

“And the Red Huntress isn’t?” his mom challenged. 

Danny pouted. Et tu, Mom? (Aha! A Shakespeare reference. He was so going to actually get higher than a passing grade this semester.) He was so tempted to barge in and loudly declare that he was, in fact, dating both of those girls. That girl. He sighed. There’s the problem. 

“Even if she is his age - and so help me if she’s older - we’ve seen them meet up before and after ghost fights!” He could hear his mom’s light footsteps as she paced the length of the room. “What happens when ‘before’ or ‘after’ becomes ‘during’? You’ve seen how aggressive she is sometimes! She puts him in danger!”

Danny heard the creaking of a bed as his dad flopped down onto it with a sigh. “She’s probably swept him off his feet, too.” Okay, so maybe Val has rescued him a few times, even carried him bridal style once, but he’s saved her, too!

His dad continued, regardless of Danny’s wounded pride, “I know how hard it is to resist a force of a woman.” 

Danny’s thoughts came to a halt. What was with that tone…

He heard the shuffling of sheets. “Speaking from experience, are we?” his mom asked with a chuckle. 

“You’d know it, you were there,” his dad replied - and nope! That was about enough for Danny. He was glad his parents had a happy marriage but he did not need to hear how happy it was. 

He retreated to his room, head buzzing with the mess he and Val had gotten themselves into. 

Crud.

–

Danny had been trying for a week. 

He’d flunked his English paper (the assignment wasn’t about Caesar, go figure), and he’d been dodging Valerie all week. A few months ago, he would’ve meant dodging her blasts and hits, but now he meant trying to get out of hanging out with her or - Ancients forbid - having her come to his house. It also meant that by virtue of not wanting to make Valerie feel like she was being excluded, he couldn’t have Sam or Tucker over, either. He was starting to lose his mind all alone in the house. And no, he was not going to Jazz for help about it.

Look, it was an embarrassing problem, okay? His parents disapproved of the relationship they thought he had with the ghost-fighting alter ego of his girlfriend because they thought it was reckless and put him in danger. And they knew about it because they’d basically walked in on their more… private moments. Letting them actually meet with Red and lecturing her on how to properly protect him and save him like the damsel in distress they thought he was for being so afraid of ghosts this whole time was a total no-go - he’d never hear the end of from Val!

He was trying to figure out why this whole situation felt so familiar when Jazz walked in on him pacing the length of his room. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. “Can it. I don’t wanna hear it, Jazz.”

She pouted a little at that, then huffed. “If you’re not going to listen to my advice about healthy communication in all relationships in your life, just let me say that our parents are stubborn to a fault. If they latch onto an idea, they need solid proof to discount it.” She shot him A Look. “You know that better than anyone.”

She turned on her heel with a little ‘harrumph!’ and disappeared from his doorway, her orange hair swinging as she went. 

Danny sighed, and tried to get back into brainstorming convincing arguments against his parents. He’d tried to completely deny that anything had happened between him and the Red Huntress, claiming that in this freaky town, it could’ve been ghosts! (You know, the ol’ reliable). He’d told them that at most, the Red Huntress was just a friend. Then his dad started to ask him why he blushed whenever they brought it up and started to tease him and… he lost that argument pretty soon after. He went for a partial denial after that one. He wasn’t dating the Red Huntress, they’d just made out a couple of times. Sort of like a fakeout-makeout, even. That one made his parents angry. “Son,”  his dad had said with a distinct tone of fatherly disappointment, “I did not raise you to play with people’s feelings. If you’re not dating the Huntress, then–” “Just kidding! Haha, I meant that we weren’t dating at the time! Wait. I mean, we’re not dating!” Danny resisted the urge to put his head in his hands. That went well. He’d even considered outright telling them that he was dating Valerie and showing them proof, but he shut that idea down. What if they thought he was a two-timer (ugh.). What if they put two and two together for once and figured out that she was the Red Huntress? And he didn’t want to drag Valerie as proof over just to have her watch him either be very awkward with his parents or argue with them. Valerie had too much on her plate for her to be wasting her time in his family drama.

Wait, what was it that Jazz had said about ‘proof’? That his parents were stubborn and needed it to be convinced of something. Well, duh. They were scientists. Sure, though they had definitely dropped the idea a while ago, they used to be extremely biased against ghosts. They held onto the idea that all ghosts were evil so stubbornly that Danny was legit afraid to be around them in the beginning. At least they’d warmed up to Phantom lately. 

But what proof did his parents need? They actually had too much proof on their side, evidence that Danny couldn’t refute. 

Something green glinted in his peripheral vision, His head whipped around to look at it, and he found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror. In his stress, his eyes had turned that otherworldly green, a shade that seemed so out of place with his regular complexion and black hair. 

Oh, right. There was something else that his parents were being stubborn about. 

(Maybe it was related? Jazz could look into their family’s seemingly genetic stubbornness, but – she probably already has several papers on it.) 

He sighed. He didn’t need to convince his family that he was dating Valerie, not the Red Huntress (because, hey, they were right for once. Sort of. And he didn’t want to ask Val to fake-date him or something, it’d just be too complicated). He needed proof to convince them that dating her was not putting him at risk.

He ran a hand across his face, and in the reflection he could see that his eyes had smoothly transitioned from green back to blue. He sighed. He was going to need to ask his sister for advice on this one.

–

Danny waited until the last second to dodge a glowing green ghostly cube of doom, stepping nonchalantly to the side in midair and watching the Box Ghost’s frustrated reaction with smug satisfaction. But he’s not ignoring the guy just to mess with him. He was just focused on someone else.

“Red!” he hissed. Normally, he’d love to just watch her during combat, because in the fruitloop’s words, she really was good at this, but he needed to talk to her. They were flying higher than some of the buildings around, but his parents were directly beneath them and for all he knew, they’d made a Ghost-Whisper-Detector-Inator or something. 

“Oh, so now you wanna talk!” she replied, the distortion from her helmet making her voice sound more metallic and making her angry tone all the more sharp and unsettling. She grunted as she hefted one of her heavier canons onto her shoulder before taking a shot at the Box Ghost. Danny winced as the projectile hit its mark directly and the poor guy got launched a couple blocks down the road. The two of them sped toward where he’d crashed into a wall and blocked his exits, one of them on either side of him. It was way overkill and the Red Huntress was clearly fuming, but Danny couldn’t resist saying, “Guess you could say we boxed him in.”

He couldn’t tell if the groan that came from the Box Ghost was a result of his injuries or Danny’s pun. 

Red came closer, pressing a finger to his chest. “I’m about ready to box your hide–” 

Danny’s voice cracked as he interrupted her, “Yep! So, can we have this little lovers’ spat over there,” he pointed at a nearby rooftop that was just tall enough to give them some privacy from people on the street, “you know, where my parents won’t see?” He put his hands in the air as he floated away slowly, toward that rooftop. Behind him, he heard Red huff before the telltale humming of her board followed him there. 

As soon as they alighted on the roof, the Red Huntress stored her board away and took off her helmet. Valerie’s long, brown curls billowed in the wind and Danny tried not to stare. The whole Technus-enhanced suit she used to have was cool and all, but it was a little creepy, especially since Technus had been so… involved in their first relationship. He much preferred this suit, made by Tucker and the rest of the team using both Vladco and Fenton Works tech. She crossed her arms. “Start talking, Ghost-boy.”

Danny blinked. That took him back to the good ol’ days of when she was trying to kill him - was he sure Clockwork wasn’t messing with the timestream or something? 

“Right,” he started, “So, sorry for ghosting you this past week.” His eyes widened in alarm. “Pun not intended, pun not intended!” 

She just scoffed and muttered under her breath, “Yeah, right.” But some of the tension left her shoulders, and he could tell that she was holding back a smile. He took it as a sign to continue. He’d been trying to figure out the best way to explain the whole thing, but in the end he just said, “My parents think you and I are dating.”

She cocked an eyebrow at that. “And is that the problem?”

“Sort of.” He reached for her helmet. “You see, they think you,” he gestured to the red helmet in his hands, “are dating me,” he quickly transformed and gestured to his human self. “They think you’re putting me in danger,” he sighed, handing the helmet back to her.

Valerie took the helmet back and his words in slowly. Then she burst into laughter. “They think that I,” she said in between chuckles, “am putting Danny ‘Protector of Amity Park’ and ‘Heir to the Ghost Throne’ Phantom in danger?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Danny groaned. He knew it. He was never going to hear the end of this. She was going to tell the rest of the gang using the groupchat that he was definitely not a part of. 

“So that’s why they’ve been chasing me down all week, too,” she added, calming down.

“They’ve been what?” Danny felt a sudden wave of guilt wash over him. He’d been so caught up with trying to keep Valerie free from the stress that his family was causing him that he hadn’t even bothered to check in with her.

She shrugged. “Guess their shouts of ‘Something something my son!’ and ‘Stay away!’ make a lot more sense now. For a moment there, I thought they were tryna run me outta town.” She looked him in the eye. “Is that what it was like for you, y’know,” she said quietly, “before?”

Danny stepped closer to her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorta.” He held her hands through her suit’s gloves and was happy to feel her give him a returning squeeze. “But that was before, and my parents have been harassing you all week. Are you okay?” “They’ve been harassing both of us all week and we just didn’t know it,” she chuckled. “What idiots. I just missed you, is all.”

He sighed. Jazz was right (Jazz was always right), if he’d just communicated with his relationships or something… “Sorry,” he said again. She just nodded. 

“So, what’s your plan?”

–

“You sure you’re okay with telling my parents?” “Oh, yeah, it’s totally fine.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not like you already revealed my secret identity to my dad and got me in a lot of trouble.”

“Hey!” he protested. “It was one time…” he added guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck.

She grinned and punched his arm playfully. “I know, I know. Not like I didn’t deserve it.” 

He frowned a little. That was true, but he still felt like the action had crossed a line. If anyone knew the importance of a secret identity, it would be him. He reached for her hand and she accepted the gesture, holding his hand as they walked to the edge of the roof. “True,” he said. “You used to be pretty morally Gray.”

“You are lucky I love you, Fenton.”

He stopped just short of being visible to those on the ground and gaped at her. She was shorter than him, but she stood tall with all her confidence and an expectant smirk. There was a challenge in her eyes, even if maybe the effect was kinda thrown off by the blush on her cheeks.

“I love you, too,” he said, and she rolled her eyes as if to say ‘duh.’ “And I love that you won’t whoop my ass in front of my parents? Unless, uh, you wanna show me all fifty shades–”

Valerie pressed a quick kiss to his lips before he could finish that sentence. “I love you, but that won’t help you if I hear the end of that sentence.” Helmet back on, she pulled him by the scruff of his shirt and yanked him onto her board before launching them both off the edge toward his parents. 

“There she is, Maddie! And Danny-boy’s here, too?”

“Red Huntress! Be careful with my son!”

Red guided the board smoothly over until they arrived in front of his parents. 

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” his mom greeted him as soon as he and Valerie stepped onto the street, “we already dealt with the Box Ghost that Phantom just left for us.”

“Now, Maddie,” his dad interjected. “The Box Ghost is small fry! Phantom trusts us with that kind of thing.” “I suppose you’re right,” she conceded with a sigh. And– Danny knew that this truce was the longest one that had ever lasted between Phantom and his parents, and he knew that Jazz had beaten the anti-ghost bias out of them a long time ago, but hearing the way they were so quick to defend and accept his alter ego now was still jarring. In all this time, even if he didn’t realize it, he was already a lot more relaxed about his identity, not caring if he let something suspicious slip or sometimes even being careless on purpose. It’s just that his parents were too stubborn to see it.

“Speaking of the Ghost-boy,” his dad continued, “where’d he go?”

“We’ll deal with that in a sec,” Danny dismissed easily. He gestured to the Huntress behind him. She stepped forward as confident as ever, her hand outstretched for a handshake. “Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, the Red Huntress.” He watched as his mom accepted the gesture easily, though somewhat stiffly, while his dad’s handshake threatened to pull Red off her feet. “But you also know her from somewhere else.”

On cue, his girlfriend took off her helmet, and Danny continued despite his parents’ shocked gasps, “Val, these are my parents.”

His dad was the first to speak up. “Damon’s girl?” He chuckled with delight. “I knew you were out of Danny’s league!”

“Hey!” he started, but Valerie spoke up for him instead. “If anything, Mr. Fenton, your son’s too good for me,” she said, looking back at him with big, green eyes. He shook his head at her, and put a hand on her shoulder. 

“You can call him, Jack, dear,” his mom said. She’d taken off her hood and goggles and she was smiling softly at the two of them. “And I’m Maddie. It’s nice to really meet you.”

Danny and Valerie smiled at each other. “It’s good that I can tie a face that I trust to your girlfriend, Danny,” his mom said. “But! That doesn’t mean that she can take you around with her to ghost fights if we don’t set some ground rules first.” The older woman turned to Valerie. “I know you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, but poor Danny’s been afraid of his own shadow since the ghost portal went up, you see.” Danny’s dad nodded. “Gotta make sure our boy is looked after!”

“Actually,” Danny butt in, “I can take care of myself.” His parents went quiet and looked at each other. His heart was pounding.

“It’s good to be confident, Danno! But–”

“No ‘buts’, Dad. I haven’t been completely honest with you guys, and it’s not fair to ask Val to reveal her identity when my reveal is way overdue.” He looked down at the street, missing  the way his mother’s hand traveled to her mouth and his dad’s jaw was set with knowing determination. Valerie’s hand found his and squeezed it reassuringly. He took a deep breath. 

The rings of his transformation glided smoothly over his form. When he opened his eyes to look at his parents, he tensed for just a moment as his vision was filled with the sight of the two of them barrelling toward him. But then they both crushed him in a hug, and all the tension left his shoulders. Even Val was squished in here with him and he laughed wetly. “I guess you guys finally caught the Ghost-boy, huh? Guess you weren’t ex-specter that one!” Then everyone groaned. 

After a while, they all pulled away. 

“Don’t think we won’t be having talks about all of,” his mom gestured vaguely to him, then to themselves, “this.”

“Oh, sonny, there’ll be a lot of talking to do.” The man looked to his wife. “And I’m going to have to edit the ‘birds and the bees’ spiel a bit, eh? We gotta take into account all your ghostly biology, after all!” 

“My ghostly…” Danny turned as green as ectoplasm. Val was as red as her suit.

“Dad!” he whined, making his parents chuckle. 

It wasn’t perfect, but, eh. They’d figure it out.

–

“So, how did you end up thinking that Danny was dating the Red Huntress?” Valerie asked, and Danny choked on his mom’s mac and cheese. He glared at Jazz from across the table, and she tried her best to stifle a laugh. 

“Well…” his mom started, looking at her husband with a knowing smirk on her face. 

“Mom!” he said, accidentally flashing his eyes green. 

“No ghost powers at the table, sweetie,” she replied without missing a beat. He huffed and sat back in his seat. He met Valerie’s eye and she had one eyebrow up in an expression that felt like she thought she should be amused, but she didn’t know why yet. Oh, she was going to regret that fast.

Danny set his fork down carefully, grateful that tonight’s dinner wasn’t trying to kill him. He didn’t need that tonight, not when his plans were already going to be so stressful.

“So,” he started, and immediately three pairs of eyes zeroed in on him. His parents were looking at him expectantly, like they’d just been waiting for him to speak up which was… not a good sign, but Jazz was giving him her encouraging-yet-I’ll-be-disappointed-if-you-don’t-do-it look, so he kinda had to follow through now.

“You know how there were rumors a while ago that I had a girlfriend?” he asked, and, Ancients, did his voice have to crack on that last word? His parents were still waiting for him to get to the point.

“Yes, sweetie?” his mom prompted, her violet eyes shining with feigned nonchalance as she picked at her plate. At least she was pretending to be casual; his dad was openly staring at him again. He inwardly cringed, remembering the last time his dad thought he had a girlfriend.

He coughed and started rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh, well,” Why did it have to be so embarrassing to tell your parents about your love life! “There’s this girl, you know. And she’s super kickass and fiery but also determined and loyal and compassionate? Uh, sorry, you already know her–”

Suddenly his dad clapped him on the back with enough force, ghost-enhanced physique or not, to nearly make him faceplant into his mashed potatoes. “No need to be so embarrassed, Danny-boy! We already know that you’re dating the Red Huntress!” his dad bellowed.

What.

“Yes,” his mom said curtly, “we do.”

Danny sent a look Jazz’s way that was more a cry for help than anything else, but she was just as bewildered. Their mom sighed.

“After ghost fights,” she said, “Jack and I still hang around the area just to collect extra samples or run a few numbers while the ectoplasm’s still fresh. But we also see you there, sweetie, talking with the Red Huntress or even riding around with her on her board going who-knows-where.”

Danny’s brain was short-circuiting. He was half tempted to check if dinner had been contaminated with ectoplasm, after all.

The reason he was hanging around with Val after ghost fights was because he had fought alongside her during the fight. And somehow, instead of figuring out his identity, his parents… figured out his love life? Sort of? He wanted to think it was a stroke of good luck, or - more likely - another case of his bad luck to be added to the file. How was he supposed to explain that he’s dating Valerie Gray, who was definitely not a vigilante ghost hunter, without giving away that he was definitely not a half-ghost vigilante ghost hunter, too? He got a feeling that Clockwork was laughing at his pain.

“What?” he says a bit too cheerfully, “No -pfft- come on, I’m not dating some masked ghost hunter! I was just there after ghost fights because, uh…”

His dad guffawed before slapping him on the back again. “You’re a riot, son! Maddie and I once saw you exit a janitor’s closet in your school after a fight with ol’ Red, the both of you looking pretty flustered.” The big man was waggling his eyebrows at Danny.

Danny wanted to phase through his chair and into the floor.

“Of course, we all know that proximity to ghosts and ghost fights is very dangerous,” his mom was all business. “If that girl is putting you at risk, sweetie, we’re going to need to have a very long talk with her. And you’ll need more combat lessons!” she added cheerfully. “I know you’re afraid of the ghosts, but if this relationship is turning your interests toward them, then…!”

And that was when Jazz intervened. “Mom, Dad! You’re embarrassing him, look!” She went on, “This is not the kind of conversation that is conducive to a healthy psyche, especially not when the subject is so touchy among boys his age. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to leave the scenario you’ve created.”

He so owed her. “Yep! I’ll be going now, bye.” And if he used a little of his ghostly speed to get out of the dining room and up the stairs faster, no one would know. Except for Clockwork.

Clockwork was definitely laughing at him.

–

Danny started eavesdropping, invisible outside his parents’ door, in time to hear his dad sigh loudly with relief.

“I told you he couldn’t be dating Valerie, Maddie! The girl’s way out of his league!”

Danny had to hold back a scoff. Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Dad.

“And the Red Huntress isn’t?” his mom challenged.

Danny pouted. Et tu, Mom? (Aha! A Shakespeare reference. He was so going to actually get higher than a passing grade this semester.) He was so tempted to barge in and loudly declare that he was, in fact, dating both of those girls. That girl. He sighed. There’s the problem.

“Even if she is his age - and so help me if she’s older - we’ve seen them meet up before and after ghost fights!” He could hear his mom’s light footsteps as she paced the length of the room. “What happens when ‘before’ or ‘after’ becomes ‘during’? You’ve seen how aggressive she is sometimes! She puts him in danger!”

Danny heard the creaking of a bed as his dad flopped down onto it with a sigh. “She’s probably swept him off his feet, too.” Okay, so maybe Val has rescued him a few times, even carried him bridal style once, but he’s saved her, too!

His dad continued, regardless of Danny’s wounded pride, “I know how hard it is to resist a force of a woman.”

Danny’s thoughts came to a halt. What was with that tone…

He heard the shuffling of sheets. “Speaking from experience, are we?” his mom asked with a chuckle.

“You’d know it, you were there,” his dad replied - and nope! That was about enough for Danny. He was glad his parents had a happy marriage but he did not need to hear how happy it was.

He retreated to his room, head buzzing with the mess he and Val had gotten themselves into.

Crud.

–

Danny had been trying for a week.

He’d flunked his English paper (the assignment wasn’t about Caesar, go figure), and he’d been dodging Valerie all week. A few months ago, he would’ve meant dodging her blasts and hits, but now he meant trying to get out of hanging out with her or - Ancients forbid - having her come to his house. It also meant that by virtue of not wanting to make Valerie feel like she was being excluded, he couldn’t have Sam or Tucker over, either. He was starting to lose his mind all alone in the house. And no, he was not going to Jazz for help about it.

Look, it was an embarrassing problem, okay? His parents disapproved of the relationship they thought he had with the ghost-fighting alter ego of his girlfriend because they thought it was reckless and put him in danger. And they knew about it because they’d basically walked in on their more… private moments. Letting them actually meet with Red and lecturing her on how to properly protect him and save him like the damsel in distress they thought he was for being so afraid of ghosts this whole time was a total no-go - he’d never hear the end of from Val!

He was trying to figure out why this whole situation felt so familiar when Jazz walked in on him pacing the length of his room. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. “Can it. I don’t wanna hear it, Jazz.”

She pouted a little at that, then huffed. “If you’re not going to listen to my advice about healthy communication in all relationships in your life, just let me say that our parents are stubborn to a fault. If they latch onto an idea, they need solid proof to discount it.” She shot him A Look. “You know that better than anyone.”

She turned on her heel with a little ‘harrumph!’ and disappeared from his doorway, her orange hair swinging as she went.

Danny sighed, and tried to get back into brainstorming convincing arguments against his parents. He’d tried to completely deny that anything had happened between him and the Red Huntress, claiming that in this freaky town, it could’ve been ghosts! (You know, the ol’ reliable). He’d told them that at most, the Red Huntress was just a friend. Then his dad started to ask him why he blushed whenever they brought it up and started to tease him and… he lost that argument pretty soon after. He went for a partial denial after that one. He wasn’t dating the Red Huntress, they’d just made out a couple of times. Sort of like a fakeout-makeout, even. That one made his parents angry. “Son,” his dad had said with a distinct tone of fatherly disappointment, “I did not raise you to play with people’s feelings. If you’re not dating the Huntress, then–” “Just kidding! Haha, I meant that we weren’t dating at the time! Wait. I mean, we’re not dating!” Danny resisted the urge to put his head in his hands. That went well. He’d even considered outright telling them that he was dating Valerie and showing them proof, but he shut that idea down. What if they thought he was a two-timer (ugh.). What if they put two and two together for once and figured out that she was the Red Huntress? And he didn’t want to drag Valerie as proof over just to have her watch him either be very awkward with his parents or argue with them. Valerie had too much on her plate for her to be wasting her time in his family drama.

Wait, what was it that Jazz had said about ‘proof’? That his parents were stubborn and needed it to be convinced of something. Well, duh. They were scientists. Sure, though they had definitely dropped the idea a while ago, they used to be extremely biased against ghosts. They held onto the idea that all ghosts were evil so stubbornly that Danny was legit afraid to be around them in the beginning. At least they’d warmed up to Phantom lately.

But what proof did his parents need? They actually had too much proof on their side, evidence that Danny couldn’t refute.

Something green glinted in his peripheral vision, His head whipped around to look at it, and he found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror. In his stress, his eyes had turned that otherworldly green, a shade that seemed so out of place with his regular complexion and black hair.

Oh, right. There was something else that his parents were being stubborn about.

(Maybe it was related? Jazz could look into their family’s seemingly genetic stubbornness, but – she probably already has several papers on it.)

He sighed. He didn’t need to convince his family that he was dating Valerie, not the Red Huntress (because, hey, they were right for once. Sort of. And he didn’t want to ask Val to fake-date him or something, it’d just be too complicated). He needed proof to convince them that dating her was not putting him at risk.

He ran a hand across his face, and in the reflection he could see that his eyes had smoothly transitioned from green back to blue. He sighed. He was going to need to ask his sister for advice on this one.

–

Danny waited until the last second to dodge a glowing green ghostly cube of doom, stepping nonchalantly to the side in midair and watching the Box Ghost’s frustrated reaction with smug satisfaction. But he’s not ignoring the guy just to mess with him. He was just focused on someone else.

“Red!” he hissed. Normally, he’d love to just watch her during combat, because in the fruitloop’s words, she really was good at this, but he needed to talk to her. They were flying higher than some of the buildings around, but his parents were directly beneath them and for all he knew, they’d made a Ghost-Whisper-Detector-Inator or something.

“Oh, so now you wanna talk!” she replied, the distortion from her helmet making her voice sound more metallic and making her angry tone all the more sharp and unsettling. She grunted as she hefted one of her heavier canons onto her shoulder before taking a shot at the Box Ghost. Danny winced as the projectile hit its mark directly and the poor guy got launched a couple blocks down the road. The two of them sped toward where he’d crashed into a wall and blocked his exits, one of them on either side of him. It was way overkill and the Red Huntress was clearly fuming, but Danny couldn’t resist saying, “Guess you could say we boxed him in.”

He couldn’t tell if the groan that came from the Box Ghost was a result of his injuries or Danny’s pun.

Red came closer, pressing a finger to his chest. “I’m about ready to box your hide–”

Danny’s voice cracked as he interrupted her, “Yep! So, can we have this little lovers’ spat over there,” he pointed at a nearby rooftop that was just tall enough to give them some privacy from people on the street, “you know, where my parents won’t see?” He put his hands in the air as he floated away slowly, toward that rooftop. Behind him, he heard Red huff before the telltale humming of her board followed him there.

As soon as they alighted on the roof, the Red Huntress stored her board away and took off her helmet. Valerie’s long, brown curls billowed in the wind and Danny tried not to stare. The whole Technus-enhanced suit she used to have was cool and all, but it was a little creepy, especially since Technus had been so… involved in their first relationship. He much preferred this suit, made by Tucker and the rest of the team using both Vladco and Fenton Works tech. She crossed her arms. “Start talking, Ghost-boy.”

Danny blinked. That took him back to the good ol’ days of when she was trying to kill him - was he sure Clockwork wasn’t messing with the timestream or something?

“Right,” he started, “So, sorry for ghosting you this past week.” His eyes widened in alarm. “Pun not intended, pun not intended!”

She just scoffed and muttered under her breath, “Yeah, right.” But some of the tension left her shoulders, and he could tell that she was holding back a smile. He took it as a sign to continue. He’d been trying to figure out the best way to explain the whole thing, but in the end he just said, “My parents think you and I are dating.”

She cocked an eyebrow at that. “And is that the problem?”

“Sort of.” He reached for her helmet. “You see, they think you,” he gestured to the red helmet in his hands, “are dating me,” he quickly transformed and gestured to his human self. “They think you’re putting me in danger,” he sighed, handing the helmet back to her.

Valerie took the helmet back and his words in slowly. Then she burst into laughter. “They think that I,” she said in between chuckles, “am putting Danny ‘Protector of Amity Park’ and ‘Heir to the Ghost Throne’ Phantom in danger?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Danny groaned. He knew it. He was never going to hear the end of this. She was going to tell the rest of the gang using the groupchat that he was definitely not a part of.

“So that’s why they’ve been chasing me down all week, too,” she added, calming down.

“They’ve been what?” Danny felt a sudden wave of guilt wash over him. He’d been so caught up with trying to keep Valerie free from the stress that his family was causing him that he hadn’t even bothered to check in with her.

She shrugged. “Guess their shouts of ‘Something something my son!’ and ‘Stay away!’ make a lot more sense now. For a moment there, I thought they were tryna run me outta town.” She looked him in the eye. “Is that what it was like for you, y’know,” she said quietly, “before?”

Danny stepped closer to her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorta.” He held her hands through her suit’s gloves and was happy to feel her give him a returning squeeze. “But that was before, and my parents have been harassing you all week. Are you okay?” “They’ve been harassing both of us all week and we just didn’t know it,” she chuckled. “What idiots. I just missed you, is all.”

He sighed. Jazz was right (Jazz was always right), if he’d just communicated with his relationships or something… “Sorry,” he said again. She just nodded.

“So, what’s your plan?”

–

“You sure you’re okay with telling my parents?” “Oh, yeah, it’s totally fine.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not like you already revealed my secret identity to my dad and got me in a lot of trouble.”

“Hey!” he protested. “It was one time…” he added guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck.

She grinned and punched his arm playfully. “I know, I know. Not like I didn’t deserve it.”

He frowned a little. That was true, but he still felt like the action had crossed a line. If anyone knew the importance of a secret identity, it would be him. He reached for her hand and she accepted the gesture, holding his hand as they walked to the edge of the roof. “True,” he said. “You used to be pretty morally Gray.”

“You are lucky I love you, Fenton.”

He stopped just short of being visible to those on the ground and gaped at her. She was shorter than him, but she stood tall with all her confidence and an expectant smirk. There was a challenge in her eyes, even if maybe the effect was kinda thrown off by the blush on her cheeks.

“I love you, too,” he said, and she rolled her eyes as if to say ‘duh.’ “And I love that you won’t whoop my ass in front of my parents? Unless, uh, you wanna show me all fifty shades–”

Valerie pressed a quick kiss to his lips before he could finish that sentence. “I love you, but that won’t help you if I hear the end of that sentence.” Helmet back on, she pulled him by the scruff of his shirt and yanked him onto her board before launching them both off the edge toward his parents.

“There she is, Maddie! And Danny-boy’s here, too?”

“Red Huntress! Be careful with my son!”

Red guided the board smoothly over until they arrived in front of his parents.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” his mom greeted him as soon as he and Valerie stepped onto the street, “we already dealt with the Box Ghost that Phantom just left for us.”

“Now, Maddie,” his dad interjected. “The Box Ghost is small fry! Phantom trusts us with that kind of thing.” “I suppose you’re right,” she conceded with a sigh. And– Danny knew that this truce was the longest one that had ever lasted between Phantom and his parents, and he knew that Jazz had beaten the anti-ghost bias out of them a long time ago, but hearing the way they were so quick to defend and accept his alter ego now was still jarring. In all this time, even if he didn’t realize it, he was already a lot more relaxed about his identity, not caring if he let something suspicious slip or sometimes even being careless on purpose. It’s just that his parents were too stubborn to see it.

“Speaking of the Ghost-boy,” his dad continued, “where’d he go?”

“We’ll deal with that in a sec,” Danny dismissed easily. He gestured to the Huntress behind him. She stepped forward as confident as ever, her hand outstretched for a handshake. “Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, the Red Huntress.” He watched as his mom accepted the gesture easily, though somewhat stiffly, while his dad’s handshake threatened to pull Red off her feet. “But you also know her from somewhere else.”

On cue, his girlfriend took off her helmet, and Danny continued despite his parents’ shocked gasps, “Val, these are my parents.”

His dad was the first to speak up. “Damon’s girl?” He chuckled with delight. “I knew you were out of Danny’s league!”

“Hey!” he started, but Valerie spoke up for him instead. “If anything, Mr. Fenton, your son’s too good for me,” she said, looking back at him with big, green eyes. He shook his head at her, and put a hand on her shoulder.

“You can call him, Jack, dear,” his mom said. She’d taken off her hood and goggles and she was smiling softly at the two of them. “And I’m Maddie. It’s nice to really meet you.”

Danny and Valerie smiled at each other. “It’s good that I can tie a face that I trust to your girlfriend, Danny,” his mom said. “But! That doesn’t mean that she can take you around with her to ghost fights if we don’t set some ground rules first.” The older woman turned to Valerie. “I know you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, but poor Danny’s been afraid of his own shadow since the ghost portal went up, you see.” Danny’s dad nodded. “Gotta make sure our boy is looked after!”

“Actually,” Danny butt in, “I can take care of myself.” His parents went quiet and looked at each other. His heart was pounding.

“It’s good to be confident, Danno! But–”

“No ‘buts’, Dad. I haven’t been completely honest with you guys, and it’s not fair to ask Val to reveal her identity when my reveal is way overdue.” He looked down at the street, missing  the way his mother’s hand traveled to her mouth and his dad’s jaw was set with knowing determination. Valerie’s hand found his and squeezed it reassuringly. He took a deep breath.

The rings of his transformation glided smoothly over his form. When he opened his eyes to look at his parents, he tensed for just a moment as his vision was filled with the sight of the two of them barrelling toward him. But then they both crushed him in a hug, and all the tension left his shoulders. Even Val was squished in here with him and he laughed wetly. “I guess you guys finally caught the Ghost-boy, huh? Guess you weren’t ex-specter that one!” Then everyone groaned.

After a while, they all pulled away.

“Don’t think we won’t be having talks about all of,” his mom gestured vaguely to him, then to themselves, “this.”

“Oh, sonny, there’ll be a lot of talking to do.” The man looked to his wife. “And I’m going to have to edit the ‘birds and the bees’ spiel a bit, eh? We gotta take into account all your ghostly biology, after all!”

“My ghostly…” Danny turned as green as ectoplasm. Val was as red as her suit.

“Dad!” he whined, making his parents chuckle.

It wasn’t perfect, but, eh. They’d figure it out.

–

“So, how did you end up thinking that Danny was dating the Red Huntress?” Valerie asked, and Danny choked on his mom’s mac and cheese. He glared at Jazz from across the table, and she tried her best to stifle a laugh.

“Well…” his mom started, looking at her husband with a knowing smirk on her face.

“Mom!” he said, accidentally flashing his eyes green.

“No ghost powers at the table, sweetie,” she replied without missing a beat. He huffed and sat back in his seat. He met Valerie’s eye and she had one eyebrow up in an expression that felt like she thought she should be amused, but she didn’t know why yet. Oh, she was going to regret that fast.