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dykesville · 10 months ago

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bechdel test failed (aka your only friend is your enemy)

happy truce @renvy-art!! of course i’m that bitch about valerie so of course of course i had to go with prompt 3: “sam and valerie talk after valerie finds out about danny.” so here it is, and i hope you enjoy it!!

six hours in a robot fursuit would be enough to stoke the homicidal tendencies in anyone, but valerie gray ran hot to begin with. even so, she hadn’t meant to do this to danny. well. not to this danny.

[cross-posted to ao3]

she’d got him fucking good, for what it was worth. he wasn’t dead, any more than was apparently his usual, but his breathing skipped and stuttered like a scraped-up cd. his heartbeat was uneven, and he dripped thick and blackening blood across the mercifully vacant pavement.

the trip across town gave her time to look at danny, at the gentle and boyish look his pale face held when he wasn’t at school shrinking away from bullies or in the streets punning at ghosts. it gave her time to wish she hadn’t beamed him with a sniper blast in the open wound. or that she’d recognized that zigzag path as his lurching escape from the aftermath of a battle that he – heroically – had resolved. or that she’d gotten closer before she hit him – or that she’d talked to him before she targeted him – or that she’d looked into those green eyes and recognized how the curve of phantom’s lids belonged to the same boy who’d been her ill-received crush in chemistry class a year ago…

the trip across town gave her time to realize, truly and acutely in the depth of her soul, that there was no world in which this would have ended any differently.

fucking fenton.

valeries’s fists slammed against the panes of manson’s window. she was setting up some macabre display in veneration of the dead, which seemed to valerie like overki – like a stupid thing to do in a town where literal ghosts made merry in the streets. heavy metal blared all the way to the neighbors’, a good distance since the mansons’ property was immense. valerie extended her metallic suit over her elbow and smacked it against the glass – wham wham wham wham wham until sam looked up.

to her credit, it took only a second of widening eyes for sam to jump up, cursing in pantomime, and throw the window open. “pass him in.” valerie slid her hoverboard, danny dangling across it, through the window and climbed in herself.

she was prepared for cacophony, but she realized immediately that sam’s public disturbance speakers were focused outward, not just soundproofing the room from sam’s parents but providing an alibi. valerie could hear every syllable sam muttered under her breath as she whipped the tablecloth off her desk, her goth trinkets wrapped inside it.

it turned out sam’s desk doubled as an operating table, and beneath that desk were six first-aid kits labeled in ghost script. while valerie manhandled danny onto the table and cut his shirt off him, sam laid the six containers out on a side table and clicked opened each in succession. a stethoscope. trauma shears. a set of awkward asymmetrical needles, no two identical, and thread that looked like fishing line. bandages whose dyed-black tint didn’t mask their glow. a defibrilator. each tool was so acid green they almost triggered valerie’s automatic gun mechanism. and in the penultimate case, jar upon jar of differing viscosities of glittering ectoplasm.

sam snapped on latex gloves and valerie let herself be jostled out of the way so doctor manson could take a look. sam prodded gently at the leaking wound, opening it wider while antiseptic light beamed from a carefully disguised desk lamp.

valerie felt like her body was grounded in place. she could not take her eyes off this wound. penetrative trauma on his right side, twelve centimeters deep, piercing straight through his liver. to top it off, third-degree burns in a radius of six centimeters wide and some four centimeters deep at the same point of incision; his entire side was charred and exposed and sloughing sooty viscera. she’d done that, that last part. that one was from her. sam prodded it at the injuries with her gloved fingers and a silvery tongue depressor and valerie stayed out of her light.

a moment later, sam sighed. she tossed her head to throw her fringe out of her eyes. “oh, danny,” she muttered to herself, tracing one press-on nail over her first-aid kits and selecting items with crisp precision. “this was not what i meant when i said you should get a stick-and-poke.”

valerie’s eyes slid to the girl at her left, incredulous.

sam didn’t seem to notice her simmering, humming along with her music and inspecting danny’s wound. she snorted.

“geez, valerie. couldn’t you have shot him somewhere other than where skulker got his hooks in?”

“sam, don’t fucking start with me.”

fuck. fuck, okay. she hadn’t meant to go there, right, not while danny was losing his guts on manson’s worktop. but also fuck it. valerie’s subconscious knew her better than she did, and it knew that there was shit that needed to be aired out. if danny was going to be okay, and sam’s demeanor communicated that he was, then why hold onto ‘till tomorrow what you could blow the lid off today.

sam seemed to be of the same mind. she huffed an irritated breath and threw a look in valerie’s direction. “and what is that supposed to mean?”

valerie pointed to the ashen boy on the table. “it means that this boy let me chase him up and down the city for who remember how long. and he never ain’t told me he was human? and somebody i know? someone i thought i was friends with – ”

“oh, so you’re mad at danny when you’re the one who just tried to kill him. when he is bleeding out on my desk – ”

“how’s i supposed to know i could have killed him when he ain’t never told me he was alive?”

“how was he supposed to tell you when you’re constantly trying to kill him?”

“he’s a ghost! – ” valerie strangled her own voice and dug her nails into her palm. “he’s a ghost. i’m a ghost hunter. what else did he think he was gone get?”

“oh, sure,” sam scoffed, rolling her eyes so hard her whole head rolled with them. “it’s always ‘shoot first, ask questions later.’”

zero to one hundred on a gas-burning stove. valerie stalked toward sam’s open closet. “hey, what are you – ”

valerie had clocked the awkwardly-stashed pastel givenchy as a hiding place for something the moment she’d stepped in the room, and soon as she’d shoved it to the side, sure enough, a false wall revealed itself. she yanked on the panel and out spilled a veritable trove of ectoweapons, bright and bold and garish in fentonworks green. sam’s protests died on her lips as valerie fixed her with a pointed stare, lips pursed hard enough to bruise.

sam’s expression morphed from startled, to ever-so-briefly shamed, to sardonic. “point taken, valerie,” she drawled. “now could you please put my stuff back.”

valerie returned the ectoweapons to the crawl space. hand-blasters and net-slingers and things she couldn’t quite parse that she set aside to take back home with her. these were models from some years ago, made well out of date in a relatively sort time. these must have been stolen from the fentons – who wouldn’t think twice about something being there one day and gone the next – one at a time over the course of years.

sam had kept at her steady work putting danny back together, even while she and valerie had thrown those few jibes. she’d wiped his torso with a damp towel first, then several antiseptic wipes; now she cleaned it out with what was probably distilled water, if it wasn’t some sort of ghost zone ghost water or something the like. with the last of the blood washed away, the chunk taken out of danny’s torso was charred and vivid and exposed. valerie cringed.

sam appeared unbothered, squinting at the wound with intention, but numb to the gore of it. how many times had she stitched him up like this? valerie could picture it easily – the two of them phasing into sam’s room through the wall, danny easing onto her desk, making some dumb joke to cover up a wince. now that it had been exposed to her, it was all too easy to imagine danny’s jokes in phantom’s voice, deployed as a way to distance himself from the pain he was in. to play the hero. how many times had it been one of her blasts that had sent him here?

sam replaced her gloves, tossing the old ones into a biohazard bucket by her feet. she extracted a jar of ectoplasm from first aid kit number four; with the lid unscrewed, the green glow lit her face from the chin. she applied it thickly onto danny’s injury and there was a chilling suck as the ectoplasm moved on its own, burrowing deep inside that gaping hole within him. excess fluid leaked away from the site, turned a watery and rancid pickle color. sam dabbed it away and valerie glimpsed the pink flesh of one of danny’s inner organs, wholly restored. sam trickled water into danny’s mouth and waited while he reflexively swallowed it.

“y’all could have told me,” valerie said quietly. “danny’s my friend. and y’all made me the villain of the week.”

sam paused, for the first time. she remarked valerie with a look that contained some measure of shame beneath its frosty surface. “for what it’s worth,” she said in a low voice, “he doesn’t tell anybody. if tucker and i hadn’t been there during the accident, i doubt he’d have even told us.”

“so it’s just y’all two that know?”

“and jazz,” sam said, “and one other person.” sam’s tone was guarded, and valerie acquiesced. she’d poke at it someday, but for now it didn’t matter. probably. as sam spread a lotiony ectoplasm over danny, she added, “both of them found out by accident, too.”

“so he just let me beat up on him for months. i could have killed that idiot.” she had the feeling she was repeating herself, and she had the feeling it wouldn’t be the last time.

“val, join the club,” sam said, unimpressed. “every ghost and every ghost hunter in the world beats up on danny. and you hate phantom more than any of them. if danny was going to reveal his identity to anyone, he definitely wouldn’t start with you.”

“fuck you,” valerie said quietly. sam’s head snapped up so quick you could hear the ice in her veins crackle.

“wh – fuck me?” sam asked, aghast.

why did valerie always lash out when she felt hurt? and then, despite a moment’s shame – that was, a moment’s regret, why was it so easy to justify herself to herself and to settle into righteous anger like a second skin?

“fuck you,” sam was sputtering. “what gives you the right to be self-righteous when you’re the reason he’s in this condition in the first – ”

valerie shook her head. “no. no, if i’m the reason, you’s the reason. you think ‘phantom’ saves this town – ”

“danny.” sam was rigid, and holding that wonky ghost needle in her hand. valerie grimaced; she’d heard the reflexive derision in her own voice at the ghost boy’s name but fuck the details for now because she knew what she was about. something had become clear to her in an instant, and as the notion dropped into her mind, fully formed as though whispered into her ear, she voiced it. she stepped up to sam, stopping just shy of getting in her face.

“i save this town.” sam scowled down her nose, disgust and distaste wrinkling her skin. “i’m the reason amity park ain’t a smoking crater. i clean this shit up by myself, but danny brings his ass around to every fight ‘cause he’s got a hero complex and he thinks he’s responsible for every ghost that come through here. and you,” and valerie clenched her hand into a fist to keep from smacking it against the center of sam’s chest. “you like that you’re the only one he trust with his secrets. because it makes you special.”

“oh, fuck you, valerie,” sam intoned, rolling her eyes and shoulders and body. but valerie didn’t need to see her cheeks color to know that sam knew that valerie knew the truth behind her words.

“you could have told me who he really was. but you, you, sam manson, you’d rather let me hunt him down like he’s just another ghost ‘cause you like the drama. you said it’s my fault danny got hurt today. right? but now that i know who he is, you think we gonna fight tomorrow? and if you’d told me the truth last year, you think we’d still be fighting today? of course not. so what’s what with that? whose fault is it we in this situation?”

sam’s expression was almost wonderingly disgusted. she scoffed, building up some dismissal, seconds away from claiming that she didn’t even know what valerie was talking about. but valerie’s life was making sense for the first time in a long time. truths were uncovering more truths. everything was slotting into place. she could feel her rage at the world, so long unchecked, coalescing into heat like a forge. where the fire wasn’t the weapon but the thing you used to cast the weapons. and sam’s frost was cracking melting under it.

“you fucked up, manson,” valerie hissed. “how the fuck does it help danny for y’all to leave me in the dark? so i have to watch him fall a hundred feet out the sky to know that he could even die? to know he’s a human and that he’s my friend?”

“get the fuck over yourself,” sam breathed. “you don’t know what ‘helps danny.’ you were trying to kill him.”

“manson, i was trying to kill him,” valerie repeated and gripped sam by the hands, startling her with her ferocity. “y’all three is playing with his luck. i – just imagine if i’d actually – ”

valerie flinched so hard it rocked her entire body, and sam’s, too, held in her grip. her suit, even dormant, automatically tried to check her vitals and she cursed it. that moment when she’d hit him – it had been a triumph that felt so cruel now painted over by the snap of horror from when he’d dropped and kept dropping. that flash of light she’d never seen before but that she knew was bad, bad, bad, and she was rocketing toward his lifeless body before she knew what she was doing. she had just managed to catch him before he’d collided with the ground. it had been so fucking close to being so much worse than bad.

grief hit her like a shock, and she staggered toward table and the boy laying across it. reflexively, sam steadied her.

stretched out, pale, skinny, and barely shakily breathing, danny looked so fragile. so fragile. valerie loved this boy, whatever that meant, and she had caused him so. much. pain. by the way that she had lived and the malice she’d held in her heart. the circumstances had been what they had been. and she had made the choices she had made.

“why didn’t y’all tell me? any of y’all?” valerie didn’t let go of sam’s hands.

“there was never a good time,” sam whispered. she didn’t pull away. “ghost attacks every day – i mean, you know what it’s like. and with school on top of it, and then there’s the way his family acts about ghosts, and – it felt like telling one person meant telling everyone, and…”

rambling and unclear and yet crystalline – it was all so familiar. to think that she and they had been walking on opposite sides of the same road for over a year, and that in that time all they’d managed to do was hurt each other from across that road.

“we didn’t know how you’d take it.” sam extricated one hand from valerie’s to rub the back of her neck. their expressions were complementary bitterness as sam admitted, “we didn’t know whether you could be reasoned with.”

so there it was. danny and his friends had thought, or at least they had worried – enough to let the cat-and-mouse game go on for eighteen months – that valerie hated phantom more than she cared for danny. that she hated ghosts more than she could honor another human being.

“sorry,” sam mumbled. valerie, stiff, nodded once.

“yeah. i’m sorry too.”

inadequate. all that needed to be said.

valerie surveyed the table. manson was a piles-on-the-floor type of girl, but she’d kept each item in its place here, a tidy, careful hospital in the center of chaos and gore. danny in the center of it, cared for, a simple pillow behind his head.

sam came up behind her and nodded toward the modifications to the table. “tucker designed those little caddies, and we built them in the fentons’ lab. but tuck is useless when it comes to actual medicine, so it always falls to me and jazz.”

and danny had been relying on half-complete half-human medicine administered by teenagers ever since his – accident. valerie knew the feeling.

valerie pulled on a pair of gloves. she held out her hand for the needle and thread; sam handed them to her automatically, compelled by the force of valerie’s will. though in truth, valerie hadn’t always been great around medicine herself, and to her surprise she found it harder to swallow her nerves in the face of someone else’s wounds than for her own.

“doin’ okay?” sam asked gently. valerie’s temper flashed – of course she was doing okay, and of course she wasn’t – but she quelled it.

“i’m fine. what’s a little blood between ghost hunters.” she mopped up a little of said blood with the sponge, and caught the glistening of ectoplasm in the fluids. this was real. this was danny.

she’d done her own first aid, right, stitches and bandages and serums mr. masters had delivered her that she didn’t have the energy to be skeptical of. but danny was different. he had ghostly attributes, ghostly needs that valerie’s experience didn’t equip her to accommodate – she had no idea where those other jars of ectoplasm came into the medical care, for instance.

she shifted her weight. exhaled her frustration. inhaled the acceptance that this was not going to just be the rest of her night, but the rest of her time in amity park. the rest of her time as a ghost hunter. collaborating with sam, and tucker, and jazz, and danny phantom, and with all the ghosts who’d become phantom’s allies whom valerie had pushed away. since she’d become a ghost hunter, she’d cultivated an animosity – her choices – that would take incredible work and attention to overcome. she would have to trust the others, and everything that they knew that she didn’t.

and in exchange, she’d get to share the load. she’d get to lay her grudges to rest, once danny woke up and the two of them hashed it out. she and danny could work together at school, coordinate it so that one of them could relax from time to time. they would get trust. neither of them would be alone anymore with the fate of the city. in exchange for her humility, valerie too might have sam manson’s careful hands to stitch her wounds.

“alright, manson. show me what to do.”

#danny phantom #holiday truce 2023 #valerie gray #sam manson #dp #my writing

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tiny-cloud-of-flowers · 9 months ago

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Part of me was considering redesigning Adriana (my Pokémon Reborn self-insert)’s outfit fairly recently, but I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go with the redesign. Then today’s Pokémon Presents happened, and - since Adri is supposed to have started her journey in Kalos - suffice it to say I was very excited, and also inspired to change it once again! But, I’m still at a bit of a crossroads about whether or not I actually want to go through with doing it since I don’t have any super concrete ideas, so.. maybe we shall see?

#heart of the void #selfshipping #sort of #self-inserts #that’s more like it #self‑insert: soul‑touched (adriana)#of a city reborn (pokémon reborn)#part of the hesitancy is the fact that I’d have to remake her sprites and everything all over again #and also the fact the current outfit has a bit of lore to it - it was something made by valerie for her to model when she went to reborn #and it was designed to be themed around her shiny pumpkaboo (which was her first ever pokémon)#if I did update her outfit then I could probably keep the current one as one she wears when performing in contests alongside her pumpkaboo #(since she does that when she goes to visit hoenn some time after reborn’s postgame ends - it’s a needed holiday for her and Luna)#but then that would mean she wasn’t wearing it during reborn’s events like I’ve portrayed her with many times in the past haha #I was talking about this in a server but then Clara inspired me to also make a post about it so sorry to anyone seeing this twice #even if.. things have certainly been happening that I am not in agreement with on tumblr #but that’s a topic for another post #friend: fashion and fairy-types (valerie)#of leagues and trainers (pokémon)#since I did sort of mention her!#platonic F/Os

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bubblegumbeech · 2 years ago

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Don’t Try Again

Happy Truce @greatbigolhampuckjustforme

Here’s your fic, I hope you like it! AO3

“Give me your hand.”

She reached towards him. At the same time—no, faster than the others but only by just a moment.

It was long enough.

Once he took her hand he was pulled, firmly, securely, into her arms. It felt comforting, safe.

She had been his enemy, she had been his friend. She had almost been more.

Now, in this moment, she was his protector.

It had started fine. A normal day. Red Huntress was chasing him down after he dealt with Cujo’s weekly ‘walk’. (The one where he destroyed half the town because he had the zoomies.)

He hadn’t expected to fly face first into a ghost shield.

Then again, he had never been particularly observant.

The shield had been different from what he was used to—sticky and malleable as opposed to solid with a slight buzzy feeling. It also burned, not anything excessive, or that he couldn’t handle, but uncomfortable and corrosive nonetheless.

He couldn’t get it off. Like a mosquito trapped in amber, the more he struggled the more it started to incase him. Even Red Huntress had stopped, watching in dark fascination as Phantom became trapped.

His parents had jumped out from around a corner, claiming victory and monologing about their new invention.

His parents were still celebrating when the GIW found them, and started writing tickets and trying to claim government jurisdiction over his capture.

Danny didn’t bother rolling his eyes, but he did groan as he felt the substance start to turn hard and sharp around him. It made every move to escape both more difficult and more painful, the still soft and moldable parts eating away at his ectoplasm with the jagged bits digging into fresh wounds and making themselves at home.

He really wasn’t claustrophobic, especially not with the amount of times he got trapped in the thermos. Something about being completely unable to move without his physical form being dismissed though…Every movement punished…

It was shrinking.

The trap-burning goo-stuff that hurt.

It was getting smaller and burning through him. His ectoplasm. Was this how Dani felt? When she started fizzling away?

There was a moment were he just froze, the realization taking hold. He knew, of course, that his parents as hunters weren’t particularly worried about how safe their weapons and traps were to use on ghosts. They had no qualms about… well, anything, in the name of their research and vendetta.

He just kind of hoped that, like most of their inventions had been so far, their future inventions would turn out to be mostly useless.

His eyes met Red Huntress. She, unlike the other hunters, was not celebrating. She was watching though. Her nails tapped in an erratic rhythm against the weapon clipped to her belt and she looked on edge. Like she was half a second away from doing… something.

Danny didn’t know what that something might be.

Wasn’t really sure he wanted to either. His faith in humanity was starting to be at risk. At least Skulker’s traps were only ever uncomfortable or shorted out his powers. He’d never had one slowly start to dissolve him.

But he knew what he had to do. It wasn’t worth Ending over. And he could always do something to fix it if it went badly. As long as he survived. As long as whatever this was didn’t reach his core.

He transformed.

It hurt.

The crystallized goo splintered apart, cutting and tearing even deeper into Danny’s skin. But it didn’t burn anymore. At least whatever this was wouldn’t work on both forms. No worries about it being a modern Blood Blossom.

His parents’ eyes went wide behind their goggles, there was a gasp from Red Huntress and the GIW moved for their weapons.

Maddie was the fastest.

She hit him—hard.

The Fenton Anti-Creep Stick cracked against the side of his head and Danny staggered back down to his knees, crashing them into some of the thin splinters of the sharpened goo.

What? Why did she….?

He shook his head but that sent the whole world spinning and didn’t help him decipher any of the things being screamed over him.

The only thing he saw as the edges of his sight went blurry was Red Huntress reaching out, and the only thing he could do was take her hand before he collapsed entirely.

Danny woke up in a familiar room. It wasn’t his though, and he couldn’t remember—

“Owww,” he groaned, hand lifting to his head. Everything was still spinning, despite his accelerated healing. Luckily the rest of the wounds, cuts and general abrasions had disappeared during his impromptu nap. Only his knees were really still chewed up and someone had cleaned them up at least.

Right now he kind of wished his brain had disappeared too.

Two warm hands pressed gently at his shoulders. “Lie back down lover boy,” a warm voice said from beside him. “You’re hurt.”

“Val?” he asked, his vision still blurry. “What did you…?”

“I took you home to get you bandaged. You transformed in front of damn near every ghost hunter in town.”

He let himself fall back into the plush pillow, biting at his lip to try and ground the pain. “So you knew.”

There was a snort, and Danny closed his eyes. Figured. He was bad at lying.

“I didn’t know,” she said, to Danny’s surprise. “But I know your… cousin. So when you transformed I put two and two together. Unlike other, less talented hunters, I know you are who you say you are.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Her grip on his shoulders tightened, just a bit, before letting go and smoothing the wrinkles out of his shirt.

“Your parents are on a man hunt. They think the worst. You remember that Amorpho guy?”

“Couldn’t forget him if I tried.” A useful ally, but a horrible enemy to have. Especially if you didn’t know his tells.

“Yeah, well, they think you're something like a cross between him and Spectra.” She looked uncomfortable. “They think you… stole your own body.”

Danny sighed. “Of course they do. I need to talk to them, set this right.”

But Val was still holding him down.

“You’re not going anywhere to get yourself killed until you’re fully healed. Understand?”

Danny nodded slowly, careful not to move too much and set off the spinning again.

“Good.” She smiled, brushed a bit of hair from his forehead , then leaned down and kissed him gently on the corner of his eye. “Go back to sleep. I’ll run interference.”

He was fairly certain that sleeping after a concussion was probably a big no, but he was already half dead and a little brain damage was nothing compared to some of the other stuff he’d dealt with. So Danny let himself fall asleep, two warm and delicate hands carding through his hair and carefully avoiding the bandage there.

When he woke up it was to the smell of food. Real food, without that zesty sting of ectoplasm he’d grown used to. It smelled delicious, even if Danny’s head was still spinning as bad as it was last night he still probably wouldn’t have been able to resist seeking it out.

He was pretty much healed by now though, even with the sting of whatever it was that had gotten him trapped in the first place.

Walking slowly into the kitchen, he saw Val at the table, two plates and two cups of coffee still just barely steaming.

“You’re lucky,” she said. “The food was going to get cold if you took any longer waking up.”

“Thanks.” He sat down across from her and took a bite out of the toast before diving after the coffee.

Valerie was looking at him. It was the same gaze she’d always reserved for Danny Fenton ever since their almost-not-relationship. Warm, bemused, soft.

For some reason he had expected it to change when she found out. To turn sour, or dark, or bitter, or betrayed—

“Stop thinking so much,” she said, tossing a piece of toast at him.

He caught it and immediately licked the jam off in a small petty act of retribution.

Her laugh was still the same. And despite every warning Sam and Tucker had ever given, it still turned his core to goo just hearing it.

“You’re not mad?” He set the toast down, fiddling with his hands and avoiding eye contact. He knew what the answer likely was. Even so, he still really needed to hear it out loud. Something. A certainty worth holding onto even if it was likely to break his heart.

“Should I be?” she said softly, dropping her chin onto the back of her hand. “I mean, I tried to End you quite a bit before we started getting along better. And you knew who I was. That I was the one hunting you.

“Honestly if you had told me I would have thought you were trying to trick me or something but…”

“But?”

She caught his gaze for a bit, searching. Eventually she gave up, pushed back from the table and sighed. “I saw your expression when your mom hit you.”

What expression did he have? Scared? Desperate? Was it too human to not believe?

Val gathered the empty dishes and walked them to the sink. Danny rushed to follow, offering to dry as she cleaned them.

“… You looked like you were expecting it.”

Ah.

She turned to him, her hand resting warm and still a bit wet over his own on the counter.

“Will you be okay Danny?”

That was the question wasn’t it?

“I don’t think that’s really up to me anymore,” he chuckled, rubbing at the back of his neck with his free hand.

Val frowned. Her grip tightened.

“Val?”

She stepped even closer, not letting him pull back, crowding him against the counter and wow.

Danny knew she was strong– all sturdy muscles and a solid frame so vastly unlike his own lanky moldable-even-when-he-was-human form, but it was different entirely to have the full force of that muscle pressed against him.

He fought a blush. They’d decided, the two of them, that their fight was more important. Danny needed to protect Amity Park. So did Val.

They’d tried protecting it from each other. Then with each other. Then adjacent to each other.

It was better not to get too involved with all those… secrets.

“Danny,” she said, catching his eyes. “No more secret identities right?”

He nodded.

She nodded too and lifted a hand slowly to his cheek, as if asking for permission. He didn’t stop her.

Even as she leaned in. Even as she kissed him.

He tried to stop her when she pulled away though.

They stayed like that for some time. Touch, taste, warmth, the only things Danny bothered to think about. Living (for once) in the moment.

But there was only so long a single moment could last, and eventually they pulled apart.

“If you need help—“

Danny chuckled. “I already come to you when I need help, Val.”

She blushed, her skin just a touch darker around her ears and cheeks. “Shut up,” she said. “This time I won’t try and run you off, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Let’s get to school.” She walked back to her room to grab her bag, and Danny remembered he was still wearing the same gross clothes from yesterday. They were torn in very unflattering ways with splatters of unknown goo, ectoplasm, and blood.

They also smelled bad.

“Uh… lemme call Jazz first.”

Jazz was able to bring his clothes so he could shower in the locker room. Other than that, school was pretty normal. He warned Sam and Tucker that his secret was probably out so they should be prepared in case anyone went after them.

The trouble was, he didn’t really know what to do now. Should he go home? Ask to stay at someone’s place? Hide out in the Zone for a bit? What would help get his parents to trust him? What would keep him safe?

Was there even a good answer to that?

Why was he so scared? There were plenty of times they found out and accepted him… before he reset time or reality or their memories—

He could always do that again. Ask Clockwork for a favor, rewind time a day. Just one. He was usually pretty accommodating with those kinds of requests.

But the memory of a warm kiss after breakfast stopped him.

Would they have that if he didn’t let this go?

Was one of these things worth the cost of the other?

Why was he so scared? Still?

Val found him after the last class ended. There weren’t any ghost attacks all day. Danny didn’t know if it was because the day itself was just a bit boring, or if his parents' new traps had done more damage than he’d like to think about, but he still couldn’t concentrate in class.

Because of course not. His day off was for worry and confusion and over thinking. Relaxation? That was for the — well clearly not for the dead, huh?

“You’re sure you feel alright?” she asked.

“Right as rain!” Danny forced an easy going grin. “Real rain, not the ecto-mix we get here in Amity Park.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re half ghost. I think the Ecto-mix is actually a better metaphor.”

Exaggerating a pout, Danny trailed a fake tear down the side of his cheek. “You wound me.”

“I’ll try to avoid that in the future.” She ruffled his hair, gently, and then she was gone. With the speed she left, she probably had work right after school.

He watched her go, lost in thoughts once more. What were they now? What could they be if he just let this go? Let whatever was happening, happen.

What would happen if he didn’t?

“Danny?” Jazz tapped him on the shoulder. Startling him.

It took a second of Danny holding a hand over his heart and glaring at his sister before he calmed back down to his usual– probably unhealthy– levels of anxiety.

He shook his head and started walking. “Sorry, thinking about homework. What were you saying?”

She didn’t look convinced. She shouldn’t, he was a bad liar. But he was trying. “Are you sure you want to come home tonight? Val told me—“

“Yeah,” he shrugged, forcing his smile to look more relaxed than he felt. “The longer I put it off the worse it’ll be, you know?”

Jazz shook her head. “It’s your choice little brother.”

No, not really. If he had a choice…

Would he tell them anything at all? Would he have told anyone?

Wouldn’t he have kept it from Jazz too?

“Mom?” Danny knocked on the door of the lab, Jazz next to him just in case. “Dad? Can I talk to you for a second?”

It was silent. Danny called out again.

This… wasn’t a good sign.

He stepped back.

A voice, sickly sweet. “Where are you going, sweety?”

“I… uh…”

His mom and dad stepped up from the bottom of the basement, the shadows hiding most of their expressions.

“I needed to explain—“

He heard it before he saw it. But it didn’t matter either way. Jazz was pushing him aside and shouting.

“Get out of here for now!”

So he did.

He disappeared and watched his sister argue with his parents about how human he was and—

“We won’t hurt him! We just want to make sure—“

Was the last thing he heard before he made it outside.

To make sure.

Of what? How? What was that thing they shot at him? A new invention? Already?

His stamina had never been very good so the short sprint from home was very short and soon Danny was just walking in the opposite direction of his house. Aimless.

It wasn’t like he had to worry about curfew right then, not with the much bigger threat looming over him.

He was just outside the Nasty burger and about a third of the way to Tucker’s place when he heard it.

“Get run out?”

“Taking a walk,” Danny smiled up at Red Huntress as she hovered above him. “Walking’s for nerds. Come take a flight with me instead.”

So he did that too.

Easier to go with the flow than to try and think on his own.

He transformed, not bothering to look if anyone saw him. The ones that mattered knew now anyways.

“Can you even keep up on that thing?” He nodded towards Val’s hoverboard even as she revved it. “Or should I go easy on you?”

“Hah!” She shifted her weight back, zooming forward past Danny. “If anything, I should be the one with a handicap.”

He smirked, watching her silhouette as it got smaller, then flew after her. It was more fun to catch up than to stay ahead.

They ran across Skulker. Because of course they did. Turned out the reason today was so quiet was because he’d been planning some kind of ambush and scaring other ghosts away.

Too bad for him.

“Ah,” he said, looking up from the trap he was setting as Danny and Val both slowed to a stop above him. “You’re here a bit… early.”

“Sorry about that,” Danny said, “I’d have taken another lap around town before stopping but I didn’t want to embarrass anyone.”

“Ha,” Red Huntress rested her large ecto-weapon on her shoulder. “You’re lucky I was going easy on you then. Otherwise the one embarrassed would be Phantom.”

“You’re just saying that cause I won~”

“In your dreams.”

“That’s weird, the last dream I had you were definitely—“

She coughed, loudly. “J-just help me catch this creep!”

Success. Danny would love to see if she was blushing under her helmet, but for now just getting her flustered was reward enough.

Skulker had tried to run off while the two of them were distracted, so Danny threw a wall of ice in front of him, forcing him to turn around. He shot a net out in retaliation, and Danny (in his usual fashion) couldn’t decide whether to phase through it or dodge and got tangled up in it.

“Shit—“

“Ha! I see your dodging hasn’t improved.” Red Huntress zoomed past, aiming her ectoweapon and firing three shots successively. Each one missed as Skulker dodged and burned a hole through Danny’s ice shield.

“I see your aim hasn’t improved,” he sneered, finally cutting away the last of the net with a sharpened piece of Ecto-ice.

An ecto-blast whistled right past his ear and Danny glanced up, affronted.

“Whoops~,” Red Huntress sang before following after it. “Try to keep up this time, would ya?”

Danny let himself smile as he kicked away the last of the net. Maybe he should let her win this one.

They had defeated Skulker and Danny let Red Huntress trap him in her cube to send him back to the Ghost Zone. He didn’t really know when he’d be able to use his parents’ portal again after all.

She released her suit, and he undid his transformation, and the two of them walked, hand in hand for a bit, before deciding to get some food at the Nasty Burger.

He hadn’t even taken a bite of the fries before everything started to weigh on him again.

“I just… don’t get it,” he mumbled, unable to even taste the salty mush now in his mouth. “You handled it so well.”

Val sat back. “I told you, I met your cousin. I already knew about—“

“Everyone always handles it so well… why can’t they?”

He didn’t mean to interrupt. Didn’t really mean to say any of it out loud either. But she leaned in before he could apologize.

“What do you mean Danny?” Her hand reached for his.

“Everytime…” he thought back to the different times and different situations where his secret got out. Desiree, Freakshow, some of the others… “Dash and Paulina and Lancer always handle it well when they find out even though they hate me—“

“I don’t think Mr. Lancer hates you.”

“And Jazz handled it so well too! Why isn’t there one��one timeline where they handled it with grace?”

“Danny,” her hand grabbed his shoulder. “Timeline?”

He didn’t answer.

She let go reluctantly and it showed on her face. In the pinch of her brow and the confusion of her eyes.

“Danny, can you do something for me?”

Her voice was light and Danny found himself nodding without even thinking. Of course he would. He would do anything he could to help her.

It took a moment. Them gazing into each others eyes, trying to read what the other was thinking, before she smiled and pat his hand.

“Good. Promise me you won’t reset this timeline. You won’t try to change their reactions—“

“But—“

She held a hand to his mouth. “No. Give them a chance to grow, to get used to it. And don’t take this,” she squeezed his shoulder, gesturing to the two of them, “away from me.”

“Okay,” he said, “okay.”

They shared another small kiss, short and sweet, before she punched him on the shoulder and told him to man up.

“I’ll go with you,” she said. “Let’s set this straight.”

And maybe this time they would.

#Danny Phantom #grey ghost #danny x valerie #reveal fic #christmas truce #2022 holiday truce #bee’s writing

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going-dead · 2 years ago

Text

Not Quite Human

My Holiday truce gift @wingedflight

Read on A03: here

I used the main prompt of Grey ghost identity reveal, with a bit of the outsider POV of danny being strange mixed in there.

Valerie did her best to suppress a scowl as she tracked Paulina in the mirror as the other girl walked into the bathroom. Her hopes of Paulina just having to use the bathroom or fix her appearance were quickly dashed as she saddled up next to Valerie. Maybe she could just pretend she didn’t notice her. She kept her gaze down and turned off the sink before turning towards the door to leave. It was the end of the day, she wouldn’t have a chance to stop Valerie again at least until Monday.

“Don’t leave just yet Val.” Paulina instructed. She didn’t even give Valerie the dignity of looking at her as she talked. Instead, she kept her eyes to her reflection, adjusting her hair.

Valerie stopped mid-step, it was better to just get whatever she wanted to talk about over with. Otherwise, it would become a common occurrence until she complied. “Don’t call me Val, only my friends get to do that. What do you want Paulina, I thought you couldn’t be seen with a ‘loser’ like me?”

“That’s why we’re in the bathroom, it doesn’t count. And I’m here to talk to you as your friend.” Paulina’s reflection smiled. “You need to drop the Fenton creep.”

That caused Valerie to turn fully towards Paulina. “Excuse me? What gives you any right to judge who I hang out around? Let alone talk about him like that.”

“I heard your dad might be getting his job back.” Her eyes flicked towards Valerie.

“What?” It was the first time Valerie was hearing anything about that. She doubted her dad would keep something like that from her.

“Well, my dad heard it and he told me at least. But if he does end up getting that job back you need to start regrouping your image sooner than later if you want back into our group. Which leads us back to you dropping the creep.” Paulina explained.

Valerie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What makes you think I even want to be friends with you after you all threw me out like last year's fashion line? And Danny’s not a creep. Unlike you, he doesn’t pretend to be nice.”

Paulina laughed. “I know they say love is blind but, really? Wow. You can’t say you don’t see it. He’s just…wrong. Our town is routinely attacked by ghosts and somehow he is the one who acts the least like an actual person.”

Valerie didn't grace her with an answer. She finished drying her hands and stormed out the bathroom. She walked down the halls before stopping and taking a deep breath before rounding the corner where Danny and his friends would be waiting. The three of them were standing around Danny’s locker as he put his textbooks away. They had yet to notice her as she approached them.

“No I literally can’t find any lead on the group trying to do it. At this point I’m going to have to scour the Realms and hope I stumble across them. All I know is that she’s like volcanic related or something.” Danny slammed his locker.

“Guess you have your weekend plans then, need any help?” Tucker asked.

Danny shook his head. “No. Me and Val already have weekend plans, and I am not cancelling them again. It can wait two days.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Valerie asked as she leaned against Danny’s back. He always ran so cold, she once joked corpses were warmer than he was. She only told the joke once however, it put him in a weird mood the rest of the day. But it was a familiar comfort, especially after the conversation she had with Paulina.

Danny jumped, apparently just realizing she was there. “Oh, hey Val. Nothing, important.”

“Aw come on, Sam?” ValIerie asked turning to Sam.

Sam just shook her head with a sigh. “There’s a new Doomed event starting this weekend. The main boss is hidden though so players have to find it.”

“Oh I see.” Valerie didn’t know the first thing about those video games to be honest. Danny had tried multiple times to show her but she felt like she understood even less than when the explanation started. But he enjoyed them so she’d listen to him talk about them even if she didn’t understand a single thing about them. But she appreciated him putting off what seemed like a big thing in the game to spend time with her.

“We are still on for this weekend though, right?” Danny asked with wide eyes aimed towards Valerie.

She couldn’t say no to those eyes even if she wanted to. Not that she wanted to of course. They’d been trying to plan spending a weekend together for months now. It didn’t help that she kept having to make excuses to go and take care of a ghost attack. But she was determined for this weekend to work out. She’d even let go of her grudge, temporarily of course, and let the ghost boy deal with any ghosts that appeared.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Valerie told him giving him a quick kiss.

“Way to rub it in our single faces.” Tucker pouted.

“Speak for yourself, I don’t want to see it in general. Teenage hormones, bleh.” Sam shook her head.

“Not all of can be ethereal romanticless goths Sam. Some of us are human.” Tucker elbowed her.

“Well at least one of us is, and you should try it sometimes it’s neat.” Sam smiled.

“Haha very funny you two.” Danny deadpanned. “See you tomorrow Val!”

“Why don’t I walk you home?” Valerie offered.

“Are you sure? It’s pretty icy out and you live pretty far away to walk.”

Valerie waved him off. “I have work. I’d rather walk you home safely than just sit in the break room until my shift starts.” Not to mention she’d also be patrolling late due to not doing it at all that coming weekend.

“My hero, walking me home.” Danny placed a hand to his chest as the two of them made their way outside.

“You know it.” Valerie shivered as a blast of cold air hit her.

As they walked Danny kept having to slow down to give Valerie time to catch up. She had no clue how he was walking at a normal pace without slipping on the ice, if she didn’t know any better she would say it was like he was gliding across the ice as he walked.

Now that she thought about it more Danny’s motor skills seemed to fluctuate quite a bit. At times, he’d trip over his own feet and was being banned from the science lab for the third time that month. Other times, he moved so fluidly, like when he was weaving in and out of the crowded halls, that she’d swear it was somehow choreographed. She was reading too much into things. That talk with Paulina was messing with her head. No way was she letting some stupid comments effect this weekend.

Thankfully the rest of the day went by quietly. She went straight from her shift at the Nasty Burger, to patrol, then straight home. She only caught glimpses of the ghost boy, seemed like he finally wisened up and learned to stay away from her. About time.

“Dad, I’m home!” She called out into the apartment as she kicked her shoes off.

“Oh, good! How was work?” Her dad poked his head out of his bedroom.

Valerie shrugged. “It was work. People feeling entitled as if they’re getting food from a five-star restaurant and not a crapy fast food joint.”

Her dad made his way to the living room and took a seat on the couch, he patted the spot next to him. “On the topic of work, there’s something I would like to tell you.” Valerie hesitantly sat down next to him. Last time he had to talk to her about work was when he had to tell her he was demoted and they’d have to move out of their house. “What’s going on? I can pick up more hours at work if I need to.”

Her dad shook his head. “No that’s not needed. Not mention you work so much as is.”

That made her feel guilty, a lot of the hours he thought she was working was just a cover for ghost hunting. “Then what did you want to talk about?” “Well, the head of the security team and I have been working on this for a while now and we were able to finally pitch it to the boss. I didn’t want to tell you until I knew for sure because I didn’t want to get your hopes up just to disappoint you. But Axion Labs has now officially partnered up with Fenton Works to create security systems, effective against both humans and ghosts. Which includes me getting my old job back, as well as an increase of pay from what I was being paid before. But you can’t tell anyone yet, it hasn’t been announced yet.” He explained.

So Paulina was right after all. It was good news, great news even but Valerie couldn’t help but frown. She should have known better than to doubt Paulina in that regard. She had always somehow known things before anyone else, and tended to be correct in her assumptions in what was going on around the school. That didn’t mean she was right about Danny though. She probably just thought it made her look bad by proximity because she used to be friends with Valerie, or something.

“Is everything alright?” Her dad asked.

Valerie realized she forgot to respond to him and had just been sitting in silence. “No! I mean yes! Everything’s fine, that’s great news dad!”

“You should be able to quit that job of yours.” He smiled.

“Oh, I’m not sure. I think it’s a good way for me to… practice responsibility. I wouldn’t want to quit just yet.” Valerie didn’t want to lose her cover for ghost hunting. Even if it did mean she had to continue working at the Nasty Burger.

“That’s good to hear that you think so. It’s late though, so I won't hold you from sleep any longer. Goodnight, I love you.” He hugged her.

“I love you too dad.” She hugged him back before heading to her room.

“Your coffee.” Danny handed her a cup of coffee that had steam coming out of the lid. He slid the seat opposing her own. They were starting off their weekend together with a coffee date. It was a nice cozy coffee shop that had just opened up a week ago. Or well it re-opened a week ago after the building was demolished in a ghost attack a few months back.

“I still can’t understand how you can drink ice coffee in this weather.” Valerie shook her head.

“It’s good, freezing temperature be damned. Plus we’re inside, the weather is outside.” Danny pointed out as he took a drink of his coffee.

“I suppose so-Ah hot!” Valerie quickly put her own cup down and put a hand to her mouth. She was pretty sure she’d just burned her tongue.

“Here let me see.” Danny grabbed her coffee and took a small sip .of it before shrugging and handing it back. “Feels fine to me.”

Valerie looked at the offending drink with caution before taking it back and hesitantly taking a sip of it. “It’s cooled down? How?”

“Like you said it’s cold out. Probably just cooled it down a bit.”

Valerie had trouble believing that. Especially from the person who had just pointed out that the weather was not affecting them inside the shop. But it wasn’t like she had any other logical explanation. “Yeah, probably…”

Danny didn’t seem to notice her uncertainty. No matter how much she loved him, she could admit he could be oblivious at times. It was one of the things that made him endearing. It made her glad he didn’t take after his parents when it came to ghost hunting. With his lack of athleticism and obliviousness he would end up a ghost himself. But he had her, so he’d never have to worry about things like that.

“Are you doing okay by the way Danny? You’ve seemed pretty tired lately.” She would have brought it up sooner, but she was so busy herself with school, work, and ghost hunting, that she would have sounded pretty hypocritical if she had said it when her eye bags matched his. Thankfully she got enough sleep the night prior.

“Don’t worry about it, just haven't been getting enough sleep lately.” Danny smiled.

“Oh? Why not? Anything I can help with?” She swore if it was Dash causing him problems again she’d throw the jock into next week.

Danny honestly looked like he was considering it before shaking his head. “Just a research project.”

“I don’t remember anything being assigned?” If she missed another big project she was doomed. Hopefully she had enough time to pull something together.

“No, nothing for school. Just a personal one so to speak. I’ve just come to a dead end at the moment.”

“That sounds fun, what’s it about?”

“Ghost cults.”

“Oh. Well if you can think of anyway I can help let me know, yeah?”

“Of course.”

Danny grabbed them both a second cup of coffee to go before they left. He even took a sip of hers to make sure this one was cool enough to drink. As they stepped outside Valarie was glad the coffee was cooled down enough as the cold hit her face.

They were heading to Danny’s house next to binge-watch a bunch of cheesy rom-com’s. Though getting there seemed like it was going to be a problem. The road and sidewalk on the quickest route to his house were blocked by a bunch of rubble scattered around. It was clear by the splatters of ectoplasm on the rubble that it was from a ghost attack.

She didn’t remember the road blockage when she walked Danny home the day prior so it had to have happened after that. She also didn’t remember fighting a ghost in this part of the city so it must have been one of Phantom’s fights.

Not surprising with how much property damage there was. “Why didn’t you say the road was blocked?”

“I totally forgot.” Danny facepalmed.

“You walked to the coffee shop this way didn’t you?” Valerie didn’t see how he could have missed it.

“Walked this way? Yeah, totally, I was just distracted I guess. We can just climb over it, it’s fine. You shouldn’t be out in the cold longer than needed and back tracking will add another fifteen minutes outside.” Danny had already started heading towards the rubble strewn street.

“Danny wait up, that’s so unsafe for you! Especially with the ice.” Valerie called after him. He was determined apparently and didn’t listen to her warning, meaning she had no choice but to follow.

Climbing around rubble wasn’t easy on a good day, let alone when it was covered in ice and snow. By the time they reached the other side Valerie was out of breath. Danny surely would need to stop to take a moment to catch his breath if Valerie was having so much trouble. She looked over at him only to find him looking perfectly fine. The rise and fall of his chest was basically unnoticeable.

In fact, it was completely unnoticeable, almost as if he wasn’t breathing. She couldn’t even see his breath fog in the cold. Which was impossible, if the trek made Valerie short of breath Danny should have been struggling at least a bit.

Danny seemed to notice her staring. “What?”

Valerie took one more breath before speaking. “How are you not out of breath?”

Then Danny took a deep breath, as if he was remembering he was supposed to be breathing. “I’ve been doing cardio with my mom.”

Valerie decided to drop it. The rest of the walk and day was uneventful. It was dark by the time Valerie declared she should get going home.

“We’re still planning on tomorrow too right?” Danny asked.

“Of course we are. You better not try to get out of it.” Valerie joked, jabbing his chest.

Danny opened his front door with a laugh as they stepped out into the cold together. “Never. I’ll meet you at your apartment.” Danny went to turn back into the house before pausing. “Oh, and tell your dad congrats on the promotion for me.”

“How’d you know about that?” Valerie stopped. She had only learned about it the night prior, and even if Paulina was spreading the information around, Danny’s social circle would have been the last to find out from her.

“Axion is partnering with my parents.” Danny reminded her, pointing up at the giant glowing Fenton Works sign.

“Oh yeah.” Valerie felt bad. It felt like ever since that conversation with Paulina she kept doubting things about Danny. She shouldn't let Paulina’s words get into her head, but the seed of doubt was certainly planted. And a lot of the things Danny did that day only watered it more. There was no actual reason for her to doubt Danny. “See you tomorrow, love you!”

“Love you too!” Danny waved her off. Valerie knew she must have been seeing things at that point. Because she could have sworn his eyes were reflecting in the dark of the night, almost glowing.

She was just out of it today, tomorrow everything would go back to normal. But in the meantime she needed to do at least a short patrol before heading back home. She hadn’t heard of a ghost attack all day or so far into the night and it was strange. Not even just a smaller ghost.

Her good mood from her date was quickly soured as Phantom appeared in her sights just minutes after she started patrolling. Even worse he seemed to be in a good mood. “I thought we agreed to patrol separate areas.”

Phantom looked down at the ground below them before looking back up at her. “Oh hey? But yeah,this is the area I patrol?”

Valerie wouldn’t call it a truce what they had. More of a tentative agreement not to attack each other as long as they left each other alone. It started around the time she and Danny had started dating, it did end up giving her more time for school and other things. Which was the only reason she agreed to it. He was unfortunately right though. They were currently above the area they agreed he’d have patrol in. Why he wanted to be so close to Fenton Works was anyone's guess, maybe because that was where the ghost portal was. “So it is. I was just passing through.”

Phantom shrugged like he didn’t care. “No problem, as long as you don’t shoot me.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “Wasn’t a suggestion. You seem to be in a worse mood than normal around me, something happen?”

“Nothing you’d understand. Or that I’d even want to tell you.” She didn’t need to talk to a ghost of all things about her dating worries.

“Well if I don’t understand it I’d be the perfect person to tell it to.” He had a point. Sadly enough. She couldn’t talk to Danny about it, and the closest other people she could call friends were Sam and Tucker and they were Danny’s friends first and foremost. “Just relationship problems. But I’m pretty sure I’m just overexaggerating things.”

If Valerie didn’t know any better she would have said Phantom looked worried. “Oh? What sort of problems?”

Valerie shook her head. Maybe she was just losing it, all the things about Danny probably had a perfectly rational explanation but she was too far gone to think of any. She couldn’t even think of an irrational explanation was the problem. Nothing seemed to add up.

How could he struggle in gym class just the day prior and then climb over a bunch of rubble with no issue. Not even with no issue but seemingly not needing to breathe? How could he practically glide across ice as he walked, not even looking down to make sure he didn’t slip. How was he able to somehow cool down her coffee enough to make it drinkable when only seconds prior it burnt her. Was there anything else she just failed to notice? What about his cold skin, and his discomfort every time she brought it up. His constantly fluctuating agility. What about the fact she could have sworn he had bruises but the next day they were gone.

Every time she brought anything up he seemed to just brush it off. Surely it couldn’t be all in her head. But what else could it even be?

“Red? Valerie? Hey, you okay? Val!” Phantom was yelling at her.

She snapped out of her thoughts. “What did you just call me?

“Red?”

“No, after that?” ‘Valerie?” Phantom looked her up and down. “Do you want me to fly you home? Are you getting enough sleep, you seem out of it.”

“Well whose fault is that? I have a life and job outside of ghost hunting you know. Not that you’d know about that.” Valerie frowned.

Phantom blinked, opened his mouth before shutting it again. “You won’t have to worry about the job soon enough though at least. With your dad’s new job and all.”

Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “How did you know about that?”

“Shi-I mean I overheard it, while I was leaving the Ghost Zone.” Phantom nodded abruptly. “Well I better get going, see ya later.”

“I hope not.” Valerie grumbled. He was right about one thing though, she probably just needed some sleep. She’d give in this time and head home.

Unfortunately the morning didn’t bring peace of mind. In fact, it did the opposite. Danny never showed up to pick her up from her apartment. She had waited two hours past the time he said he’d be there before deciding to figure up what was going on herself. He wasn’t even responding to her texts.

She was going to get answers. For everything. Before she was just planning on just letting it be, but he didn’t even have the courtesy to text her to let her know he wasn’t going to show up.

It took a few good minutes of rapping on the door of Fenton Works for someone to answer, and it wasn’t the person she was looking for. “Hi Valerie, did you need something?” Jazz Fenton asked.

“I need your brother. He didn’t show up for our date, and didn’t even bother to text. Where is he?” Valerie crossed her arms.

Jazzed looked around with a sigh. “Have you tried Tucker’s?”

“No, I assumed he’d be at his house first.”

Jazz just shrugged. “I don’t know where he is either.” “Thanks anyway.” Valerie turned around and headed towards Tucker’s house.

“No clue where he is, is he at his house?” Tucker said.

“No he’s not, that’s why I’m here!” Valerie felt her eye twitch.

“Sam’s maybe?” Tucker offered but Valerie was already walking away towards Sam’s house.

Valerie didn’t have anything against Sam, but she couldn’t help but feel like she had something against Valerie. A feeling that was reaffirmed when she was facing Sam in her doorway.

“Have you seen Danny anywhere today?” Valerie asked.

Sam shook her head. “Nope. Have you looked at Tucker’s or his house?”

“Clearly I looked there first, and yes I checked Tucker’s!” Valerie threw up her arms.

“Don’t know what to tell you then.” Sam went to close the door, but Valerie put her foot in front of it before she could.

“Do you have something against me?”

“No, not really.”

“Really because it feels like you do. Are you jealous or something?” Valerie challenged.

Sam laughed before stopping. “Oh you’re serious. No, I’m not jealous of you dating him. I couldn’t care less who he chooses to date. As long as they aren’t hurting him.”

“I’m not hurting him, why would I want to do that?” Hurting him was the last thing she’d ever want to do.

“Look, I told you I don’t know where he is. If he doesn’t want to be found he won’t be found. He’s good at disappearing.” Sam laughed like she said something funny.

It took everything within Valerie not to storm off and walk away normally. If no one was going to tell her where Danny was, she’d find him herself. She was very glad the Fenton’s gave her a boo-merang last time she showed interest in their work. It was still faulty, for some reason locking onto Danny more often than ghosts. But that was exactly what she wanted now.

Getting into her ghost hunting gear she took to the sky following where the boo-merang lead. She was more and more unsure as she went, it took her over the forest outside of Amity. Why would Danny be all the way out here? Especially in the middle of winter.

Her anger quickly morphed into fear however as she saw giant plumes of smoke floating into the air in the middle of the forest. Right where the boo-merange was heading. She dove into the newly made clearing. There was ash everywhere, she was glad her helmet had a filtering system otherwise she doubted she’d have been able to breath with how thick the smog was. It didn’t help much with the heat, however.

“You seem sorta hotheaded, why don’t you cool off?” She heard before two ghosts flew past. Phantom and a ghost she hadn’t encountered before.

The ghost looked pretty feminine, her clothes seemed to be made of pure smoke, and her skin looked like cracked rock. Where there should have been hair on her head there was flowing magma. Or was it lava? She didn’t pay enough attention in science class to remember.

Whatever it was and whoever the ghost was she was clearly dangerous just by the amount of damage done to the surrounding forest. If the attack was in the city the damage would be unfeasible.

She watched as the two ghosts fought for a minute, not even sure how she’d attack without staying far enough away not to get burnt. She had a feeling her ecto-guns would only do so much. It didn’t help her peace of mind that Danny was still nowhere to be seen. Not only that but Phantom seemed to be treating this fight like it was a game. Cracking jokes and one-liners as he fought the flaming ghost with a smile. Staying just of reach of the other ghosts attacks, ducking away just in time to avoid a giant ball of fire or a swipe of her arms. Almost like he was taunting her.

Valerie had landed fully at that point. More focused on finding where ever Danny could be than the fight that Phantom, for the most part, seemed to have handled. No matter how much the idea of leaving a fight to him was, getting Danny out of here was more important. It didn’t help that she kept on having to dodge projectiles from the volcanic ghost that missed Phantom. In a strange twist of fate it wasn’t the ghost herself that caught Valerie off guard but a tree that the flames surrounding the area must have cause to fall. She heard a loud creaking sound and looked up just in time to see a tree coming towards her, but not enough time to dodge out of the way.

She must have lost consciousness for a second because the next thing she knew was that she was pinned to the ground her head screaming at her in pain. Or maybe that was her screaming in pain, because it brought on the attention of the two ghosts causing them to both pause and look at her.

She couldn’t hear it, but Phantom mouthed something that almost looked like her name. She watched helplessly as the other ghost started to make her way towards her.

Was this really how she died? In the middle of the forest where no one would know to look. She hoped Phantom had enough humanity left to at least let her dad know what happened to her.

Though looking at him, Phantom had a look on his face Valerie had never seen on him before. Pure rage.

Which didn’t make sense. Valerie would admit she had done and said some awful things to the ghost boy, and seen even worse done. But nothing that made that look of rage appear on his face. It didn’t make sense that he was mad, let alone mad over her of all people getting hurt.

The ghost didn’t get the chance to reach Valarie before Phantom slammed into her causing both of them to crash into the ground. Still within sight of Valerie.

Valerie had fought and seen Phantom fight many times. He always tended to fight differently than other ghosts. But now he seemed human in the way he was attacking. No ecto-blasts or the occasional ice attack in sight. It was all just punches and kicks, he wasn’t even flying anymore as he fought. None of his jokes to be found.

Calling it a fight was almost too generous. What was occurring before Valerie had arrived was a fight. An at least somewhat equal trading of blows. Or even just an attempt of countering. Phantom didn’t give the other ghost a chance one punch after the other over and over not giving her any time to recover before the next hit. It was the last thing Valerie saw before she lost consciousness once more.

As she came to there was a face hovering over her own. Blue eyes and dark messy black hair, with the remnants of the flames behind it almost seemed like he was glowing. “Danny?”

Danny choked out a laugh, or maybe he just inhaled too much smoke. It was more of a laugh of shock. “Yeah, it’s me Val.”

“Wha’are you doing here? Not safe.” Her head hurt. She was no longer pinned down by the tree, apparently. She brought her hand up to her head to be met with Danny’s own hand. She tried to push it away. “Your hand’s cold. Really cold.”

Danny if anything pressed his hand more firmly to her temple. “Yeah, you hit your head pretty bad there. I’m just trying to make it feel a bit better before we get you to a hospital. Sorry for missing our date by the way.”

“It’s fine.” Valerie squinted at him, something about him seemed off but she couldn’t place what it was. She reached up towards his face, it was covered in ash. She tried to brush it away but it sort of just smeared, his hair had some in it too, harder to notice since his hair was dark too. She moved her hand to the top of his head and ruffled his hair to get some of it out.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“You’re dirty.” Valerie pointed out still trying to brush the soot out. Weirdly enough his hair seemed to be getting lighter. She grabbed at a smaller section of hair and brushed it off with her fingers. Much to Danny’s protests of her needing to stay still.

Except, it wasn’t Danny. She was right his hair was getting lighter. He didn’t look like he was glowing, he was glowing. Looking at his clothes revealed a black and white jumpsuit, still recognizable despite being covered in ash.

Valerie jerked away from Danny’s, or was it Phantom’s, touch. Trying to scramble away from him as best as she could with her injuries. “Val, you need to stay still.” Phantom, Danny, stressed.

“Don’t call that!” Valerie felt dizzy. “I don’t- I don’t understand. Who-what-are you?”

“Fine, I won't call you that. I promise I’ll explain everything. But first we need to get you to the hospital, you’re concussed at best.” He said, reaching towards her.

She just noticed his hand was glowing blue, frost emanating off of it. “What were you doing to me? Were you trying to kill me?”

“What? No!” He shook his hand like he was trying to shoo the frost away, his eyes faded into Phantom’s green color. “Like I said, you hit your head, and probably were overheated. I was trying to cool you down and ice your head.”

“How can I trust you? I don’t even know who you are.”

“Because if you don’t, you won’t make it back to Amity by yourself and I’m not going to be the one to break the news to your dad.”

He was right she didn’t have a choice no matter how she felt about it. She let him pick her up and only panicked slightly when they took to the air. True to his word once he was sure she was in a hospital room safely he left her alone after the hospital staff notified her dad as to where she was.

She had time to think in the hospital, too much time to think with too many questions. Danny had ended up texting her the explanation, whether it was because he knew she would want answers sooner than later or because he was too scared to do it in person she wasn’t sure. But she deleted the text after she read through it a second time, no matter how she felt about him after all of this she wouldn’t put him in danger of someone else finding out on accident because of her.

She did text him back that she understood what he was telling her, but she would need time to think things over. Think everything over. One of the people she arguably hated the most turned out to be loved the most outside of family. It was a concept that took adjusting to, to say the least

At least it saved her from a total freak out for a different reason. All the weirder things she had started to notice about Danny made a lot more sense now. Her internal conundrum wasn’t helped by the fact that he was clearly trying to help her a lot of the time she noticed the ‘strange’ behaviors. She had at least until she was discharged to figure out her thoughts at least.

Once she was released from the hospital, and a bit longer after that she met up with Phantom, or well Danny in his ghost form she supposed, while he was doing a patrol. He kept looking down at her ecto-gun like she was going to pull it on him at any moment. Which was a fair worry she supposed, even if it made her sad to think about.

“I’m not going to shoot you Danny. We’re here to talk right?” Valerie asked.

Danny nodded. “Yeah, we are. If that’s what you want to do that is.”

“I’m the one who asked to meet up.” Valerie reminded him. “I have a few questions before we start talking about the big things.” Danny motioned for her to go on. “Who was that ghost in the forest?”

“Oh, that’s actually an easy question. Cool. It was Vesuvia, Ancient of volcanos, apparently. Some doomsday cultists or something along those lines summoned her here to kick-start the apocalypse. I thought they were ghosts not humans so I was looking in all the wrong spots until it was too late and you got hurt.” Danny frowned. Clearly he was upset about her injuries still despite her being fully healed.

“What happened to the cultists then? Do they go to ghost court or since they’re humans is there like a GIW unit for that?”

Danny snorted. “Ha, no. They died. Burnt to ash, not even bones left. If they do end up as ghosts in the Infinite Realms they’ll probably answer to the Observents but I doubt they will.”

“...Oh.” Valerie supposed his nonchalant attitude towards death made sense. He was a ghost and interacted with other dead people on a constant basis. But it was, unnerving.

“Is that all you wanted to ask about?” Danny asked.

Valerie nodded her head. It wasn’t, but after that answer she was okay with waiting. “I wanted to let you know, that I won’t tell anyone your secret. I also am not planning on breaking up.” She held a finger up at Danny’s hopeful look. “But that doesn’t mean things aren’t going to be different from now on. This is going to take me a while to fully get my head around and after finding out something this big it’s going to take a while for things to feel normal again. I’m not even sure if things will work out between us in the end, but I am willing to try if you are.”

“Of course I am!” Danny all but shouted. “I mean, yes I understand. I’m also willing to try and make it work.” Valerie smiled. “I’m glad. Do you know what this means though?”

Danny tilted his head to the side, something so very Danny Fenton, it was weird to see on Danny Phantom. “What?”

“We can actually patrol together from now on.” Valerie laughed. Danny lit up after she said that. “First one to defeat five ghosts wins!” She called out before taking off.

“Oh you’re on!” He called after her.

Things certainly would be different. But Valerie didn’t think that was a bad thing.

#danny phantom #grey ghost #dead writes #my fic #danny fenton #valerie gray #phandom holiday truce #phandomholidaytruce

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lisagrantttttt · 7 months ago

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#norma jeane mortenson #lana del rey #lana is god #lana del ray aka lizzy grant #lanadelreymyreligion #sparkle jump rope queen #lizzy grant #ocean blvd #billie holiday #marilyn monroe #60s #50s #70s #valerie

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elliefenton · 2 years ago

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Holiday Truce 2022: Puppy Therapy

This is my Holiday Truce fic for @spookberry this year! I decided to use the prompt 'Valerie befriends Cujo' and came up with this! Let me know if you like it and Happy Holiday!

(Also, sorry I didn't do this until last minute but I write better when I procrastinate.)

@phandomholidaytruce

Summary: Valerie decides today's the day she's finally gonna catch the ghost that ruined her life, but instead, she catches some crises.

She was so close! She just had to go a little faster! Almost there, almost there… Dang it!

The giant glowing green dog managed to evade the Red Huntress once again by diving through the wall of an alley intangibly. Red’s new suit may have been advanced, but it wasn’t advanced enough to phase through things.

The Red Huntress immediately pulled up her ghost tracker and followed after the dog. It was staying in buildings for the most part, only leaving long enough to dive out and into the next building, but it would stop eventually, or hit a gap big enough for her to get to it, and it would finally be over. She catch the big stupid dog who ruined her life once and for all, and she didn’t plan on just letting it go in the Ghost Zone as she knew Phantom did.

She saw the dot on her tracker begin to slow down and started to enter the next gap between buildings in preparation for the dog to likely stop in that alley thinking it lost her. It never showed up, however, and she decided to check her tracker again.

Turns out the ghost had actually stopped inside the building and was moving around inside it. She watched as the dot darted around in what almost seemed to be a frantic or excited way before finally halting. It seemed she would have to go inside the building to catch it, and she hoped it wasn’t a home she was about to have to invade.

She got to the front of the building and almost face-palmed at the irony. Of course it was a pet shop. She could just imagine the stupid look on the Phantom’s face as it made an annoying pun. She just knew it couldn’t resist making a joke about something like this.

Red decided to start looking around for an entrance to the building as it was after closing hours and already pretty dark outside. The streets of Amity Park were practically deserted at this point and she was glad she didn’t have an audience. After checking the front doors to make sure they weren’t unlocked, though she knew they wouldn’t be, she circled around the building checking every window and door she came across. As she finished her circle and rounded the corner back to the front, she resigned herself to having to break into the store.

She went around the back where she had seen a door that she knew wasn’t visible from the streets and checked for cameras. She wasn’t gonna get caught for breaking and entering if she could help it, and she didn’t want people to know that her hunter persona was technically about to be a criminal. Seeing no camera, she quickly shot her quietest gun at the lock on the door and entered the building when the lock broke off and fell to the ground.

She noticed quickly that she had entered a back store room and searched for the giant glowing green ghost, but she knew if she hadn’t seen it yet she probably wouldn’t. It was so big and bright there was no way she wouldn’t have seen it already in this dark room, so she headed for a door she assumed led out to the shopping area and looked through the window to see if she could get a look at it before her element of surprise wore off.

All she could see from behind the door was a slight green glow that came from the left, as well as a bunch of dog, cat, and various other animal toys scattered around the room. The shelves actually looked like they’d been crashed into, which wouldn’t surprise her considering her own personal history with the ghost and how often it managed to crash into stuff.

She quietly eased through the door, walking low as she got closer to the end of the aisle the door opened out into. She peeked around the corner to see the ghost and…

Wait…

What?

The glow from around the corner was not coming from a giant green dog but instead from a small green puppy. She’s sure the dog she saw earlier did not look like the one in front of her now. This one was not causing a ruckus and just generally ruining lives and was instead innocently chewing on a toy it must’ve found on a shelf.

Valerie went to step closer but accidentally kicked a ball near her feet and it went rolling in front of the green puppy. The moment it entered the ghost’s line of vision it immediately jumped up and turned around to face her, snarling when it saw her standing a few feet.

And then it grew.

Now standing in front of her was the giant dog she was used to seeing running around carelessly. She immediately went to raise her gun against the ghost but stopped when it growled louder and looked ready to pounce at her next move. She lowered the gun and it seemed to relax a little, though was still wary of her.

It was jarring to see it like this, like it was actually scared of her instead of trying to destroy whatever was around it. She decided to see if she could get it to calm back down completely and turn back into the puppy.

She started by putting away the gun in her hand, slowly so as not to startle it. It relaxed a lot more now that she wasn’t being actively hostile, but still not enough for him to revert back to its smaller form. She had an idea to relax him even more, but was hesitant to actually try it. It would leave her much more vulnerable to attack should it choose to take advantage of the opportunity. Her intuition, however, told her that her idea would work and that it was at least worth a try. She let her suit fade away and sink back into her skin, and watched the ghost for its reaction.

It tilted its head at seeing her without her suit and the rest of its wariness seemed to fade away at its curiosity. It shrunk to the size of the puppy she saw before and slowly got closer to her, sniffing the ground by her feet before deciding she was no longer a threat and going back to its chew toy.

It seemed the shift seemed to be triggered by negative emotions then, and otherwise, it stayed in its puppy form. Which brought on a lot of questions she didn’t know the answers to. She had read all of the Fenton’s research, and it said that ghosts had no ability to feel emotions at all. But then what could’ve triggered the ghost’s transformation? She couldn’t find another explanation for what she had seen, and as she realized this her whole worldview tilted off its axis.

If the Fentons were wrong about this fact that she noticed after observing a ghost dog for only a few minutes, what else could they be wrong about? They always said ghosts couldn’t feel emotions or pain, that they couldn’t even think for themselves, but what if they were wrong about all of it? And if they were wrong about everything, did that mean she had been hunting, hurting, sentient creatures?

Valerie started having trouble breathing, getting dizzy and stumbling over her own feet. The puppy turned around and started looking agitated again, not knowing why she was acting erratically and wondering whether or not she was a threat after all. She needed to calm down before she caused him to grow into his bigger form again and became the threat she had always thought he was, and she had an idea that she thought might calm both of them down.

She kneeled down and beckoned him over to her, and he started to approach her cautiously, but ultimately decided she could be trusted and trotted over to her arms. She started petting him and stroking her, which was surprisingly soft considering he was a ghost, but it helped to calm the both of them down.

She felt something rougher against her hand and remembered that she had seen a collar on him before. She glanced at the tag and snorted suddenly when she saw the name on it, convinced Phantom must’ve named the dog himself with how punny the name was.

“Well Cujo, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

#dp #danny phantom #holiday truce 2022 #valerie gray #my writing

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paenling · 2 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Phantom Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Damon Gray & Valerie Gray, Danny Fenton & Valerie Gray, Danny Fenton/Valerie Gray Characters: Valerie Gray, Damon Gray, Danny Fenton Additional Tags: Holiday Truce 2022, Gift Giving, Sleep Deprivation, Ice Skating, Fluff, Past Danny Fenton/Valerie Gray, Valerie Gray-centric, Post-Break Up, exes to idiots to maybe lovers again, Father-Daughter Relationship, Christmas Fluff, Miscommunication, Secret Identity Summary:

Nothing ever goes right. Not for anyone in Amity Park, but especially not for her. Things go wrong with such regularity, in fact, that for anything else to happen might as well be an air raid siren. And now? Anyone with common sense could tell her something’s off.

Nobody told Valerie about the winter truce.

My last-minute Holiday Truce gift for @summerssixecho! I hope you like it :)

#phandom holiday truce #holiday truce 2022 #danny phantom #valerie gray #danny fenton #damon gray #fic #milo writes

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timelessdp · 2 years ago

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Holiday Truce

This year I was @tidehopper gifter

I liked your prompts and I put together the Cujo and the Vlad showed up in dinner. I hope you will like it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43867041

A black and white blurred figure flew in the night sky at Amity Park.

—I can't believe you Cujo! This is a the seventh times in this week to came to the real world, and it's still Tuesday. What could I do with you?-Phantom rolled his eyes.

—Woof Woof! -answered the miniature dog.

—Hey Phantom!- his dad shouted after him. —Can I help you?

—Oh hi Jack! What are you doing outside this time of the day? It is almost midnight.

—You know I always loved the filed trips. And now that we have a truce we can finally work together!

—Sure. But I actually finished for today. Although...

He flew closer to the ground, and stopped in front of the other Hunter.

—I know you don't keep animals. But I think Cujo would be a nice exception. He is a ghost, so he just need some ectoplasm to live peacefully. I would be grateful if I don't need to chase after him every day.

—So do you want me to watch out for your dog?

—Argh... Why do everybody believe that he is my dog?!

—Isn't he yours?

—No, he isn't. So would you like to know him better?

Jack nodded.

Phantom handed Cujo over to his dad.

The ghost licked the man face.

—Be good! -the ghost boy smiled and left alone them.

Danny lied down to his bed as he would be a sack of flour. He immediately felt asleep.

He woke up for somebody licking his face.

—Stooop. I am still not awake -he rubbed his eyes, then he noticed the ghost dog. —I have never thought in my dreams, that you will be the one who wakes me up.

—Woof!- he was wagging his tail.

—Could you go out until I dress up?

—Yip...-whimpered.

—Okay. Okay... At the least stay beside my bed.

Danny finished the morning rutin quickly. Then he went downstairs. Cujo followed him.

—I see you two already like each other -his father said.

—He is very sweet if you know him. I mean Phantom intruduced him to me.

Daniel took his cereal, and started to eat at the kitchen table.

Cujo hopped onto his lap and spilled the milk everywhere.

—Cujo! Bad dog! -Danny put up and put him to the ground. —Stay there- the boy sighed and looked at the clock on the wall. —OMG I will be late- he picked up a toast which had been made by his father. —See ya!

—Bye Danny!

The boy had the luck with the ghost shield on around the Fenton Works.

He had an ordinary school day.

—Danny we should start our History project- Valarie started —Who knows when I will have enough free time again.

—You are right Valarie. Do you want to come over? I think I have never introduced you properly to my parents.

—Maybe because everybody know your parents.

—That is true, but they don't know about you. And I have some books for the project.

—Well I am in.

—Yes! We should order food too. Because I don't want to poison you.

—It takes more than a little ectoplasm. I think most of the population of Amity Park resistant against it.

—Believe me, when I say it isn't a little bit. Last time a ham attacked us.

They reached the Fenton Works very soon. Danny opened the front door just to face with the huge Cujo.

The boy stood as a surprised Pikachu, frozen. Somehow he forgot about him.

Valerei raised her hand with a gun.

—What are this monster doing here?!

—Err... -Danny shook his head. —Phantom left him to us to avoid your kind of problems. It just completely came out of my mind. Cujo be small!

The animal shrinked to a size of a puppy and jumped into Danny's arm.

—He doesn't bite.

—So that means Phantom left his dog to your family.

—He had never been Phantom's dog.

—Woof!-Cujo agreed.

—Do you promise that he won't cause any more difficultness?

—Until the shield is on, Amity is safe from him.

They heard tramples. Cujo jumped down. Danny's mom was that.

—Come inside.

—Alright- the youths agreed.

—Mom I don't know if you have ever met Valerie in the proper way yet.

—You are the Red Huntress. Danny told about you so much. Thank you for your help.

Now it was Valerie, who froze.

—How do you know?

—You have her gun in your hand. And the heigh is the same. Also you just given away yourself.

Danny made a facepalm. As a secret identity would be this easy to tell.

—I should be more careful...

—Do you wanna see our newest arsenal?

—Technically I came to learn with Danny...

—No worries, I will get the books until you get the tour. Be careful.

—It would be fun. Finally somebody who can appreciate our work. My children hate ghost hunting.

Danny just rolled his eyes.

—Ten minute and I will join-he went forwards.

—Can I ask what was the reason to start hunting?

—This little monster -Valarie pointed to Cujo.

—Woof!-the dog stepped onto the girl's leg.

—Leave me alone!-she swung his weapon.

Cujo became a big and growled at her.

—There is no need to attack. Please put your gun down.

She listened to Maddie, and in that moment the dog transformed into a puppy again.

—Long story for short. My dad worked for the axion lab as security. But he wasn't ready for ghost attacks, and this beast ruined his work. We lost everything. I started to work at the Nasty Burger. And one day I got a packet from Vlad Masters and there was a suit. That is how I started hunting. But I don't really care about the engineering.

—But you need to know how to works to use it safely.

—Not really. Since Technus boosted my suit, every piece is like a second skin to me.

—Hmmm... I am curios how high is your ectocontamination. We should check it up in the lab.

— Won't it hurt?

—It isn't dangerous to humans.

—I am not convinced. In regard of everybody in Amity have a higher level, than an average human has.

—That is true.

When they arrived to the lab, Valarie's bracelet started to beeping.

—I gotta go. Tell Danny, I am sorry.

—What is that?-Maddie asked.

—It is a ghost detector.

—Interesting ours haven't shown anything.

—Maybe because it is off? Let me see it. Hi Mr. Fenton!- she greeted the man, who was tinkering something.

—Hi! Maddie give me the torch!

—Right away sugar cube!

The barcalet became quiet.

—It seams like Phantom finished already.

As a soon as she said out loud, the ghost boy showed up.

—Hi Val! What's up Mr. and Mrs. Fenton?

—I am working on the Fenton ghost detector. I don't want to register Cujo as a treat.

—Cool! I caught some ectopus- he stepped beside the portal and flushed the thermos's content. —Have a nice day -Phantom waved then flew up.

—So... Where is the ectocontamination measuring device?

—At the back off the room. Come with me.

The walked beside computers, huge weapons, tubes with colorful substances, weird household utensils.

—There are lots of weird thing.

—It happens when you are an inventor. Oh I found it.

The device looked like a modern thermometer.

Maddie raised up the tool into Valarie's forehead, but before she could start the process Danny appeared and push away her hand.

—Sorry Mom, but you had said if the identity reach rate three in the danger scale the gun part is activating. And It would be a bad idea to use it on Val, before you uninstall that function.

—Ups. You are right. We could check it latter. I am going to repair it. Have fun kids -Maddie left them.

—The last time when she wanted to use it, Jazz was the one who saved me. I shouldn't left you with them.

—I knew the danger of this place...

Danny lowered his voice. He didn't want to his father hear it.

—I ordered Pizza. I know what is your favorite. It is already in the kitchen.

—Then what are we waiting for? I haven't eaten since morning, because of the Lunch Lady.

—Yeah I know.

They went upstairs. Just to find Cujo eating one of the Pizza from the box.

—Bad dog! Why do you want to eat my food? It isn't for you! -He picked up the dog and put down on the floor.

But Cujo didn't listen to him and flew up to the table.

—You don't want the thermos, do you?

Cujo looked at Danny and continued to eat.

—Argh... At the least Val yours is safe- he held out the clear box.

The girl wasn't as soft-hearted as the boy, and she put the dog onto her own thermos.

—You are very thin already. I don't want to you to starve.

—I am not starving. But thanks.

—So where are we should start the project?

—Hmmm... Well we have to stay in the middle ages. And we had got Japan for the project. I don't know. Maybe the Shintoism? I mean our books are highlighting the religions.

—I always loved the Samurais. They are very strong and brave warriors, who are commitment for a case and doesn't stop until they reached it.

—Just like you Red -Danny said moonily.

—It is weird to hear from your mouth. Phantom the only one who call me Red.

—It slipped out my mouth...- he scratched his head.

Valarie leant close to Danny's face.

—You are sus.

—Me why? I didn't do anything!

—And now you are panicking -she rolled her eyes.

—I am not!

Valarie give Danny a peck.

—What a nice couple- Vlad stepped inside the kitchen.

—Vlad what are you doing here?

—This day is the anniversary of the ghost hunting club, and Maddie invited me.

—I didn't know what is missing.

The girl grasped the boy's hand.

—Danny, can we continue this conversation upstairs?

—All right! Vlad I don't want to hear anything about you.

—You won't.

Valarie suddenly opened her thermos.

—Ups my hand is a bit slippy.

Cujo showed up.

—Please pay attention to Vlad- Danny asked from the dog.

—We are playing open cards, Daniel? You are not afraid that our little secret accidentally came into light?

—Vlad Masters. I know your secret. And I think the Fentons would listen to me if I reveal that their "friend" truly a ghost!

—Ghost?! Where?- Jack's voice came from the basement.

—As you have a chance against me, mademoiselle. I know where you live.

—She have my protection. As well Cujo's -Danny showed the scary eyes.—So behave, or leave.

—Hmmm... I see I am not welcomed here. Maybe next time- he disappeared in his pink fog.

—That wasn't a wise move.

—Then it is true - Valerie looked at Danny's eye.

—I didn't want to know this- he looked away. —Plasmius and I have an agreement. Because the knowledge about halfas put in a great risk. The government, the ghost zone. I have too many enemies.

—But you knew my secret all along. It isn't fair.

—My life never was. Sorry to rope into this mess.

—Yowl... Yowl...

—Cujo regrets too.

—Those puppy eyes. I can't believe he is able to do that. We are not friends yet.

—Yowl...

—Sign... So I guess the goth girl and the geek guy, know about this.

—Yes, they are. And my sister Jazz.

—You need to tell your parents too.

—I am not ready.

—Have you ever told somebody?

—No. Everybody figured out themselves.

—Then understandable. Maybe some clue would help and your mother will figure out.

—Nope. Their equipment targeting me since I became a ghost. And they couldn't put the pieces together.

—Before we start to studying let's to collate our timetable, which time is available for us patrolling the city.

—You are a genius!- Danny give a pick onto Val's cheek. —This way we both have enough time to sleep.

—That's the plan.

Jack came up.

—As if I heard Vlad in a moment ago.

—Actually he was here. Just got a call for an urgent conference.

—That is sad. We would have celebrating. Anyway, the ghost detector is finished.

—You are great Dad!

—I check on your mother how the ectomeasuring works.

—Okay.

—So the timetable...

—Oh yes... I almost forgot about it...

#Cujo #danny phantom #Fenton family #valerie gray #2022 holiday truce

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