sable

By the time the third locker vanished, everyone at Casper HighSchool had accepted that Danny Fenton was either cursed, chosen, or extremely committed to drama.

Danny, on the other hand, just kept saying he was, ‘theatrically burdened’ or that his parents had probably pissed off some ghost… which was sadly very possible given their profession.

Danny just thought that his body was being an ass. Maybe the world was getting back at him for the whole: high schooler with piss poor grades, suspiciously toned reflexes, and a talent for arriving late with leaves in his hair, by day, and the town’s least silent spooky protector a black-and-white ‘nuisance’ that fought crime while delivering one-liners no one had requested.

“Looks like your getaway car has been… repossessed”. That one had gotten some actually human robber to surrender mostly out of secondhand embarrassment. Danny was very proud of that one, very proud.

He was also a king of shitty nicknames, like ‘candypants’ and ‘boxy’ and ‘tinman’ and ‘grass stain’ and of course good ol’ ‘clocky’ (modified to ‘cocky’ when ClockWork was being a real know it all bastard).

Danny’s spooky boy powers used to be simple… well okay they were ‘numerous but simple’. He might have too many individual powers to count or remember or to even learn how to use properly, but a lot of them could just be combined into ecto-something. Ecto-manipulation: creating constructs, invisibility, intangibility, ectoblasts, ecto balls, ecto-kenisis ecto shields, his ecto field, ghostly wail, yada yada yada. Ecto-temperature kenisis: the fire and ice stuff, dropping room tempatures, being really fucking cold. Ecto-enhancements: strength, speed, agility, durability, heightened senses, yada yada yada. Gravity nullification was kinda just its own thing. See, simple. Not really, but really. He gave up a long ass time ago, trying to fully keep track of everything and thoroughly train everything. Total lost cause there.

Then, his folks went and shot him with another one of their experimental weapons, and something changed. For a second he’d been able to see the ghost zone without actually being there, very trippy, then right back to normal…. Well besides the smell of burnt pennies, which made him sneeze, and a glowing portal tore open in the air beside him. A startled pigeon flew through it and emerged three blocks away inside of a bakery.

That was the beginning of The Problem.

At first, the portals only happen when he was stressed. He’d be worrying over some test he absolutely didn’t not have nearly enough time to study for to have any hope of actually passing. Annnnnnnddddd Pop! A tiny green swirly opens under his math teacher’s coffee mug, and it drops neatly into the boys’ bathroom sink. The teacher cried a little when he got it back and saw that it wasn’t even chipped.

Another appeared in gym class when he missed a dodgeball, already tensing up for some mocking from Dash and co. The ball went through the portal and struck Principal Ishiyama in the back during the junior’s assembly.

One opened up in his bedroom while he was trying to sleep only to get rudely awoken by Technus screaming about his newest plan, the portal revealing a view of the ocean at midnight. Salt wind poured in and a crab entered without permission, walking right across Danny’s bed.

He named the crab Leonardo Da Pinchi.

He wound up taking an honestly ridiculous amount of impromptu portal related vacations to various parts of the world, including the moon one time. He even teleported not just himself, but his whole family to Cancun once. Jazz had been pissed and basically hissed at him about how this ‘wasn’t what she meant by vacation or getting out more’.

Then came ‘hero work’.

He’d been chasing down some new lock-themed ghost who was literally locking everyone’s cars and houses shut, trapping people in them. Danny shouting, “you’re about to be locked down!”, having every intent to tackle the ghost. Instead, a portal opens beneath his own feet right when the ghost throws a ton of lock picks as knives at him, so Danny shrugs and just drops through the portal to avoid the ‘weapons’; emerging from another portal in the middle of a yoga studio six blocks away.

Twenty women in matching leggings all staring at him. He’d even managed to land in downward dog, so all he had to say for himself was, “…Namast-ay out of crime?”.

Everyone started smacking him with their yoga mats and towels.

He accidentally kicked Skulker through portals three separate times. Once to a beach with a very pissed off lifeguard, because Skulker had shot off a taser weapon and basically electrified the entire beach. Another time to wedding, Skulker wound up getting tackled by three bridesmaids and someone’s uncle named Darren. And the third time, was just directly in front of a semi truck; Skulker left that time muttering about demanding a raise from Vlad.

He wound up redirecting one of Ember’s guitar rift lazer beams into a marble slab, made the perfect cut out of a crab. At least the city later installed it in a park. Danny took Leonardo Da Pinchi to see it, the crab raised its pinchers and did a little jig: Danny liked to think the crab was very pleased.

He even successfully unintentionally trapped a speeding Johnny in between two portals, driving through one and coming out the other over and over and over again. Danny eventually took pity on the guy and ecto-blasted the bike -and Johnny- the next time the ghost exited the one portal.

While rescuing a cat from a tree for publicity reasons, Danny got emotional because the cat resembled Leonardo Da Pinchi the crab somehow. So he accidentally portaled both the tree and the cat into the mayor’s office. Vlad was both pissed, because tree, and happy, because of the Danny-induced cat distribution system.

He even managed to link an active raging house fire to a bakery oven, shit smelled great but did nothing to actually help his situation. The fire fighters were very angry because the smell only reminded them that the call had interrupted their lunches, which were all slowly going cold at the fire house.

There was that one time the portal thing was actually working pretty well for him during a blackout, letting people pass flashlights and supplies and other necessary shit through them to get to other each other faster. Then one fucker had to start putting goddamn rubber chickens through them. Yes that was the kinda shit Danny would do, but it was very noisy and just made everyone mad at him. Since, again, it was something Phantom would do and everyone knew it; he couldn’t convince anyone that it wasn’t him.

The worst part is that the portals seemed to respond to emotions, but Danny was well known to have all the emotional stability of a soda can in a paint shaker. He was always too tired, a bit battered, stressed, over caffeinated, oh and the whole having the biology and physiology of two different species smashed together into one body. None of that shit was good for being stable in any sense of the word.

Nervous? Portal.

Excited? Portal!

Embarrassed? Three portals.

Crush smiles at him in chemistry class? Catastrophic portal event.

That happened with Valerie, because of course it did. They may not currently be a thing but goddamn does he still helplessly like her. That whole getting tied up and tased by her did things to his brain that he wouldn’t mind revisiting more consensually.

She’d leaned over his desk, “hey, do you have a pencil?”. And Danny’s only-slept-for-eight-minutes-and-twelve-seconds brain became a fireworks factory. A portal bursting open right between them, connected directly to the city aquarium. Aka one of the places they once went on a date to… talk about awkward, oh my Ancients. Really unfortunately, it connected to the inside of one of the aquarium tanks, not just the open viewing area where people could walk around, meaning that water surged out of the portal and all across the classroom floor instantly. A stingray flapped out onto Mr. Lancer’s desk, literal fish outta water moment right there. The teacher immediately rushing to get the thing in some water, while panicking a little bit about it dying on him. Though Danny thought the guy should be more concerned about the fact that the class was currently flooding, and that there had been a sudden portal, but Lancer was well known for being pretty unflappable in times of extreme stress and weirdness.

Valerie blinking, “…you okay?”.

Danny, soaked to the bone, holds up a pencil, wheezing and spitting out some water and seaweed, “number two?”.

She’d snags the pencil and mutters under her breath, “I hate this fucking town”.

Danny’d obviously tried training, that was the obvious course of action always. Heck, even meditation, which helped until he got annoyed at said meditation; Danny was not a sit down all calm and zen type.

He written a little journal titled Portal Thoughts & Oopses. Entries included such wonderful events, such as:

Angry: opened hole into sewer. Smelly, -2/10

Said “I could eat a horse.” Portal to petting zoo. Horse offended, 1/10

Sad: opened portal to rainy alley. Rude, 1/10. Sad playlist plus rainstorm opened portal to even rainier alley. Universe piling on, 0/10

Mild annoyance at homework opened portal that ate only page three. Teacher unconvinced, worth a retry, 2/10

Laughed too hard at own joke. Portal launched juice box into ceiling fan. Very messy, but also very funny. 4/10

Stubbed toe. Opened portal directly under self. Stubbed same toe again elsewhere. I actually broke my toe. -3/10

Hungry: opened portal into bakery again. Bought croissant, 8/10, croissant was very buttery. Hungry at 2 a.m. Portal to bakery again. Clerk now calls me “Doorboy”, 7/10

Sneezed twice. Opened two portals. One into other portal. Nearly created self-devouring geometry. Terrified math teacher, was hilarious 8/10

Startled: accidental moon glimpse?? Need follow-up, was awesome. 1000000000/10. Recreated when said phrase “need space”, zero regrets and new favourite phrase 100000000000000/10

Embarrassed blush event in chemistry. Portal projected donkey sounds for seven seconds. Extremely embarrassing, -6/10

Told Skulker to “take a hike”. Sent him onto mountain trail with map. Efficient and pissed off Skulker’s tinman ass, 9/10

Said phrase “this is going nowhere”: created hallway loop. Kwan kept running through it laughing, 6/10

Panicked during pop quiz created six tiny portals around pencil tip. Wrote in cursive at impossible speed. Finished 10 minutes early but still failed, 4/10

Angry shower singing opened portal to neighbor’s bathroom. We both screamed, -5/10

Tried keeping calm while lying. Portal emitted loud buzzer noise. Interesting moral stance, 2/10

Sleepy. Rolled over into portal. Woke up in hammock store, had good enough nap that Nocturne showed up to comment on it, 111/10

Startled by cat. Cat startled by portal. Both reached ceiling, 2/10

Accidentally said “what’s cooking?” near cafeteria. Portal to the set of Hell’s Kitchen. Gordon Ramsay furious, risotto excellent, 15/10

Whispered “drop dead” at video game boss. Controller fell through portal into antique shop. Tuck was pissed, -4/10

Frustrated with tangled earbuds. Portal untangled them by removing one earbud entirely. Missing still, 1/10

Overconfident mood. Attempted stylish hero landing via portal chain. Landed in recycling bin, -1/10

Had mild panic attack realizing I may never fully control this. Tiny portal popped out a neon yellow ecto-cake pop. Comforting yet sassy, 2/10

Jazz had opinions on the whole issue, of course she did, she always had opinions. Her pointing at him, “your power doesn’t lack control. You lack brakes”.

“That feels personal”.

“It was meant to”.

She told him to try meditating more, or journaling, or to stop focusing on a good pun over avoid a punch; massive fuck no to that last one. Never.

Then Leonardo Da Pinchi scared the bejeesus out of her by scuttling quickly across the living room floor, holding a knife in one of his pinchers. Her smacking Danny after he smirked and snickered at her, “now who’s the one that needs calming breaths”.

Then Vortex decided to be an ass and assault the town with unpleasant weather patterns again, basically holding the city hostage beneath a permanent thunderstorm.

“You will all kneel before my reign!”

Danny, crouching like a gargoyle, whispers to himself, “okay, okay, no panic. No jokes. Calm center. Steady mind”, pausing and adding, “though kneeling is rough on the knees”. A hint of a portal flickers, Danny glaring, “nope. Not today, Satan”; and zips off into spectral battle.

Lightning cracks across the skyline, Vortex cackling while little tornados rip around throwing cars and people, at least most folks are running away, and what cars aren’t already up into the air are trying to get away as fast as they can. Danny’s dodging lightning bolts and palm sized storm clouds, the occasional miniature sun. The streets goddamn chaos, some people are trapped on buses, a lot of children are crying, the ghost sirens are going off only to be swallowed by all the thunder.

Valerie, as the Red Huntress, is trying to redirect people, block lightning bolts and over aggressive hail, attempting to fire back at the ghost only for her blasts to get eaten up by tornadoes and spat back out at buildings or her; she’s clearly more than a little bit frustrated. “Phantom! Would you hurry up and deal with this asshole!”.

Fuck. “I’m trying!”.

Last time he basically only beat up this guy ‘cause he stole the dudes powers, weather powers he no longer has. So yeah, this is one of those moments where he gets a little bit scared. meaning… a bunch of fucking portals pop up, twenty to be exact. They erupt across the street like mirrors punched into reality. One swallows the next lightning blast and redirects it harmlessly into the harbour. Another opens up beneath some civilians, dropping them gently into a lobby at a nearby hotel. Another sends some mini storm clouds off to a pet adoption fair.

It’s pandemonium with a crap ton of paperwork for dear mayor Vladdie to do… meaning the guy is going to get back at Danny for all of this bullshit one way or another. Betcha that guy is really regretting ever bringing Vortex to this town so badly right now.

Danny floats in the center of the madness, breathless, and for once, he doesn’t fight the portals; he aims them. Not perfectly, not elegantly, but rather instinctively. Sometimes his powers just be like that; his intangibility, invisibility, and gravity nullification were the one’s most notably like that. He just… knew how to do it as long as he went along with his body, instead of trying to logic it out.

He flies in through one, out through another, rebounding off of a billboard, zips through a third, and lands feet-first on weather assholes back. Smirking at the small, “oof”, from the ghost. Danny grabbing onto the guys lightning bolt horn things, “forecast says…”, sending the shock of his ghost stinger, “…scattered unemployment”; throughly shocking the ghost to high hell.

The rain stops as the steaming ghost slumps over some, people start cheering before he even finishes getting the ghost into his thermos. He’s so totally going to have to have a word with the Observants about letting their little piece of shit storm god ghost out again.

Later on, in the school field under clearing skies, Valerie finds Danny in civilian clothes. He’s covered in debris and feeling way too sore to bother getting up. Her looking down at him and crossing her arms, “you disappeared during the attack”.

“Yup. I was… around”.

She smiles, “funny, that’s exactly what Phantom would say”.

Danny freezes, “uh”, and a tiny portal opens beside his head, revealing a llama in some distant field… the llama stares judgmentally.

Valerie snorts, chucking some food into the portal, the llama looks pleased. “Relax, Danny, you absolute shit kicked dumbass. You suck at fighting weather phenomenons”.

Danny groans, lifts his head up to bang it back down into the grass, ending up sticking his head down into a new portal instead that’s underwater. Jerking his now very wet hair back up, “fuck, goddamnit”, shaking his hair and eyeing her, still not moving from his spot on the grass, “how long have you known?”.

“You once returned a library book while hanging upside down, Star also watched you do it by the way. She also saw you screaming into a toilet, why you did that in the girls washroom I don’t know. And she saw you eat a ghost, which, why?”.

“Right”. WOW Danny really fucked up that secret keeping, goddamn.

She rolls her eyes, “subtle as a dead skunk”, shrugging a little, “your dumbass non-existent self-awareness got me my friendship back though, ain’t no point hiding my suit if she knows about your suit, so I guess thanks”.

He groans, and another portal opens up, raining flower petals from somewhere tropical.

Valerie shaking her head before stepping closer, kneeling down, and flopping over to lay on the grass next to him, “can you control those yet?”.

Danny looks at the pulsating green tear in reality, the impossible stars inside it, the chaos humming under his skin. “Control? No, fat goddamn chance”, he grins, “buuuuuut, I am getting the hang of making an entrance”.

Then he takes her hand, uses his feet to push his back upwards against the grass, dragging her along with him limply, and they fall through one of the portals in the grass.

They emerge on top of a table in a bakery three blocks away, Leonardo Da Pinchi the crab was waiting, clicking one claw and waving around an Oreo cookie. And, of course, Star’s there in a work uniform, trying to catch Leonardo Da Pinchi.

Danny scrabbling up off of the table and grabbing up the crab, holding him up above his head away from Star, “hey! You leave Leonardo Da Pinchi alone!”.

Valerie sitting up on the table slowly, “why does the crab have a name and how do you know it’s the same crab?”.

Star puts her hands on her hips and glares at Danny, “he or she keeps stealing all the Oreo cookies, either it goes in a boiling pot or take your weird crab home, get it out of here”, sighing, “it’s weirder that you named a normal crab, than the fact that you did that”.

Danny blinks and lowers his hands, holding Leonardo Da Pinchi to his chest. Then the fucking dick pinches his nipple, which of course startles him into making another portal… one that he immediately yeets Leonardo Da Pinchi through. Looking to the portal comically horrified, “what no! That was a claw-some throw but I was only trying to sidestep the drama, not relocate it!”, scrambling through the portal, shouting, “I’m gonna claw it a day! And- oh hey he’s good! Thanks for catching Leonardo Da Pinchi, Skulker!”.

The ghost can just barely be heard through the portal shouting, “just get this thing out of my suit! My poor wires and- ow! That’s my eye!”.

Star grumbling, “I didn’t mean to portal the poor thing literally inside of a ghost”.

Valerie and Star eye each other before the former gets off of the table and joins the other in walking towards the portal, grabbing Danny’s legs, and yanking him back into the bakery. At least the portal closes. Valerie points at him, “you can”, sighing heavily, “‘claw’ it a day here”.

Danny pouts, “but what about Leonardo Da Pinchi?”.

Star huffing, “you said he’s fine, he’s happier wherever he is and not at my job, that pays me quite nicely but probably won’t if I just let a crab run around free range”.

Danny sighs and slumps into a chair, “fine, I guess the aquarium is an okay place”.

Valerie patting him on the shoulder, “and you can even visit him whenever you want”. Star shakes her head, walks off into the back, and comes back out with some pastries on plates and sets them down in front of them.

Danny eyeing the food then Valerie, “is this a goddamn date now?”.

She smirks and rolls her eyes, “what do you think, ghost boy?”. A chair immediately falls down through a portal.

Star glares, “I will take back the food if you do that again, control yourself, oh my zone”, and walks off muttering about witting ‘chair disappeared due to ghost shenanigans’ report.

Danny very awkwardly takes a bite out of the iced bread thing, Valerie laughs very meanly at him.

End.

“So, sweetie, in the spirit of keeping you kids healthy with all this ecto-contamination around the house-” 

“I TOLD YOU!” His father’s voice boomed, his voice like a chisel to Danny’s poor freshly awoken brain, “they’re fine! We’ve been studying this ecto-gunk for years and nothing ever happened to us!” The fridge took that opportunity to shake with the wrath of last night’s casserole leftovers, “...but I can see why some preventative measures might be necessary...” Jack sulked. 

“As I was saying, you kids are exposed to ectoplasmic radiation as a side effect of living in a house of scientific breakthroughs, so your father and I have created what we’re calling-” 

“THE FENTON ECTO-UNMASKER CAPSULE!” Jack’s chest puffed, his face beaming with pride. 

“An ectopreventative pill,” Maddie calmly corrected, “we don’t want to scare the kids out of taking their medicine, do we, honey?” Jack once again shrunk with a dispirited frown.  

Jazz was the first to probe, “so what exactly does this do? I’d rather not put anything in my body that hasn’t been tried and tested in a controlled environment, and just think of what an unknown substance or vitamin could do to poor Danny’s puberty development! His hormone regulation!” Despite the validity of her question, Danny found himself rolling his eyes and cringing at the highlighting of his growth, but decided it was best to remain silent and wait for the answer. 

“Understandable, sweetie, your father and I have been taking these once a day for the past week to test its effectiveness and have experienced no negative side-effects. All it should do is gather any ecto-irradiated cells in your body and enable them to disperse naturally.” This caused Danny the concern he had been expecting. If all his cells were ‘ecto-irradiated’ would this, like, melt him? Worse? Him and Jazz shared an even more concerned look that went unnoticed as their mother took two pills from the bottle and pushed them towards them. 

“You don’t have to take them daily if you really don’t want to, but just take one today and we’ll monitor the effects when you get home from school.” Their mother’s pleading look tugged just enough at the heart strings, Jazz gulped, took the pill in her mouth and swallowed thickly. With that, every eye in the room turned to Danny who shifted uncomfortably on his feet.  

“Oh... I’m not good at swallowing pills, sorry,” Danny scrambled to think of a more convincing rejection but drew a series of blanks and turned to leave and get ready for school, a bullet dodged. 

“That’s okay sweetie! They’re dissolvable!” Maddie excitedly stood and drew a glass of water, popping the tablet inside which turned the liquid a troubling shade of murky green. She held the glass out to Danny with a patient smile and, out of options, he grabbed the glass, sniffing it with a crinkled nose, and downed it in one. Surely the prototype wouldn’t be so effective as to melt him on the spot, hopefully? He closed his eyes and waited to feel something, anything, but to his relief nothing came. Jazz similarly deflated in her seat in relief. 

“See? Easy as pie, Danno! Another Fenton masterpiece!” Jack’s pride returned to him and he stood to usher the kids upstairs to prepare for the day. Though there was nothing that could truly prepare Danny, as the medicine began to settle inside him and slowly seeped into his bloodstream, connecting itself to his ghostly cells like a misguided parasite. 

It was second period before Danny truly began to feel... off. It was like when he first got his powers all over again, he could feel ectoplasm pulsing through him and the urge to turn invisible or intangible was being beaten off by sheer willpower. As his feet began to tingle with that familiar feeling, he knew it couldn’t be avoided any longer and raised his hand. 

“Mr Lancer may I be excused?” He hadn’t meant for it to squeak out, his distress made obvious. Sam and Tucker turned to look at him with worry but all he could do was offer an awkward, tight-lipped smile. 

“Blood Meridian Mr Fenton, I suppose it must be an emergency,” Mr Lancer replied to a series of chuckled that made Danny blush, but he was already up and walking to the door before Lancer could finish his sentence, no-one but his friends noticing that the resulting trip and fall had been a consequence of one of his feet sinking briefly through the floor. 

As soon as the door behind him came to a close, Danny took off in a sprint to the bathrooms past wayward students who simply dismissed his panic as typical Fenton antics. Darting into the bathroom and locking the door behind him, Danny’s sigh of relief was interrupted by arcs of ectoplasm creeping across his entire body like static shock, his body flickered wildly between invisibility, intangibility, and a mixture of the two. It took all his energy to not sink into the floor entirely, and holding his hands up close to his face and seeing a green glow reflected, Danny knew his eyes must be a vibrant green. 

“Shit.” Danny’s body began to tremor and sweat as that buzzing feeling shifted from his feet upwards, “shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit-” he was interrupted as his panicked voice began to gain force, teetering on a ghostly wail, the bathroom door lightly tremored and he heard the hinges begin to vibrate and whine under the pressure. He felt his phone vibrate and took it out with shaking hands. 

TooFine: You good dude? You left in a hurry, need us to escape math? 

Ghastronaut: not good very not good powers going crazy took pill thismorning parentshelpcomenow 

It was all Danny could say before the tremor in his hands rendered it impossible to type anything even close to legible. Danny curled up in the corner of the bathroom stall, ignoring the suspiciously wet floor, and closed his eyes tightly, trying to control his breathing and quell his rising panic. In his focus Danny neglected to notice tendrils of ice creeping out from beneath him, slowly freezing the ground beneath him in a low chorus of cracking and rumbling. By the time Tucker burst into the bathroom with such speed the ice almost sent him careening right into the opposite mirror, Danny was close to despondent, all of his energy and willpower concentrated in controlling his power just enough to prevent some kind of catastrophe. 

“Dude? Hey! Can you open the door? What’s going on?” All Tucker heard in response was a quick series of mumbles ended by a low whine, no movement could be heard aside from the continued spread of ice across the floor and now trailing up the bottom of the walls, he pulled himself closer as the cold penetrated him and threw himself to the floor to peek under the stall and get a better idea of Danny’s situation. 

“Shit! Dude can you move? What do we do?” Tucker was frustrated with his helplessness, as he watched his friend tremor, fingers digging into his arms enough to turn his skin pure white, Danny stiffly shook his head to the negative and looked up, meeting Tucker’s eyes.  

Danny’s eyes were true, vibrant green. 

“We gotta get you outta here man, c’mon, second period’s gonna end soon we only got until then.” Tucker gathered all his strength, very grateful he’d worn boots instead of sneakers today, and threw all his weight into kicking open the door to the bathroom stall, barely maintaining his balance against the ice now coating the floor. He hesitated only briefly before trying to pull Danny up by his shoulders, hissing and drawing back at the deathly cold that met his fingers. 

“Sssssorry...” was all Danny could eke out before Tucker had drawn his sleeves over his hands and managed to pull Danny to his feet, guiding him carefully but quickly towards the door, briefly stopping to text Sam an update: 

TooFine: powers going wacko meet us at the spot asap 

AgriGoth: See you there. 

They navigated the corridors as cautiously as they could, stopping at every corner so Tucker could check for truants/would-be-witnesses. Barely getting out of the fire exit in the gymnasium before Danny reeled back, pushed Tucker as far as his trembling body could allow, and released a wave of ectoplasm in every direction. The floor fractured beneath him as the door nearly blew clean from its hinges, Tucker collected himself from the floor ten metres away, about to scramble back to help his friend. 

“N-no! Don’t come closer!” Danny squeezed out, head rising to meet Tucker, eyes still glowing but with a look of clear, pleading panic, sweat dripping from his brow but quickly freezing on his face, dropping to the floor like hail. Fate took its opportune moment as Danny’s ghost sense escaped his lips and his expression changed to one of desperation, instincts screaming to go, fight, save them. The choking pressure on his core becoming unbearable, the thrumming in his chest akin to that of a panic attack. 

“It’s okay!” Tucker yelled from across the courtyard, “someone else can take care of it! We need to get out of here!” It was no use as white rings began to flicker to life around Danny’s torso, instincts warring with reason as his ectoplasm surged, yearning for release. Danny opened his mouth to speak, but could barely whisper without a powerful wave of energy bursting outwards. He took off with a thunderous boom, the ground beneath him cracking further and leaving Tucker on the other side of the courtyard, looking up at the sky, marred by concern and worry. 

Technus had quickly seized control of the newly rebuilt electronics store, rebuilt from his previous seizing control of the newly rebuilt electronics store. The owner breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that he’d paid extra for better insurance premiums, and promptly ran away.  

“It is I, Technus! Master of all things beeping and pinging! Behold my awesome electronic power and despair as I take over the world!” He declared, to no-one in particular. Technus had barely taken a step in his new mechanical armour before a streak of pulsating green slammed into his side, sending him flying a block over. He flipped onto his back, shaking his head from the force of the impact, and looked up. 

Suspended in the sky was... the ghost child? His form was vibrating so aggressively he appeared to be a blur of black and white, sparks of ectoplasm and ice shooting out in destructive arcs as waves of pressure dissipated in every direction. His hair rose and fell with unreleased power like static before a lightning strike and his body moved spasmodically and awkwardly, forceful restraint clear in every fibre of his body.  

“Ghost child! Don’t think that a little power boost will stop the Great and Powerful-” the Ghost Child’s eyes snapped onto his and for the first time in his existence, Technus was rendered completely silent. Blazing portals of pristine green bore down on him as the ambient pressure that had enveloped him before grew in strength, forcing him fully to the floor, unable to speak, unable to move, barely able to even think, Technus was filled with a primal fear that spoke to his baser ectoplasmic instinct to survive. He twitched and convulsed, desperately willing himself to move as the ghost boy hung in the sky like a dark sun, his lack of action Technus’ only saving grace, releasing any and all technology he had attached himself to in the hopes that the dropped weight would enable him to wriggle away from the looming threat. 

Danny didn’t want to hurt anyone, ghostly or otherwise. He fought against the sheer unfathomable power that coursed through him, the internal battle setting every muscle in his body alight with a pain only akin to that of a portal opening inside your body, afraid to cry out in case a wail escaped that destroyed Technus and the surrounding buildings wholly. He fought against his core’s instincts to protect his people, to destroy the threat with full capability, as he felt exhaustion begin to worm its way from his mind to his entire body. The arcs of ice and ectoplasm became broader, slashing the road beneath him and decimating trash cans and post boxes as he willed them to remain within range, though the wayward strikes that cleaved windowsills and rooves petrified him. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. 

The relief was palpable as Technus slowly crawled away, but the urge his core projected outwards to squash the threat only became more unbearable, which is why as Sam and Tucker came sprinting up the street towards them had Danny experience reprieve and dread in equal measure. Sam managed to barely dodge the sweeping bursts of power, pulling her Fenton thermos from her hip and capturing Technus in his weakened state; the threat was removed, and along with it his core silenced and the tension in his body released. The swift drop in energy hit Danny like a truck, his ghost form dispersing as he fell to the ground, his fall only broken by Tucker’s haphazard attempt to catch him, creating a pile of limbs in the middle of the street. Sam ran back to meet them and her and Tucker struggled to catch their breath. 

“...Holy shit.” Was all she could say, and unable to gather any more context about the situation aside from the brief text Danny had sent about some mysterious medicine his parents had made, they called Jazz. 

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.