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Thankfully, the rest of the project went smoothly and they ended up with a B. Danny was just glad he hadn’t accidentally revealed anything else to Valerie.
Though, admittedly, it was strange that she’d been staying away from Phantom recently. She still went after other ghosts, but even that seemed less viscous.
Maybe she was starting to see that not all ghosts were evil. But Danny was still nervous. It didn’t help that even in school Val was giving him strange looks.
He elected to ignore her. That would be a problem for future him. Right now, he’d enjoy the respite of not having to flee from Val after a ghost fight.
—
It was the last hour of the day, when Danny started feeling nauseous. Thankfully, it was a study hall, so it wasn’t a problem to be excused from class to run to the bathroom.
After emptying the contents of his stomach, he spat into the toilet one more time, grimacing as he flushed it. He rinsed his mouth out, then closed his eyes, breathing deeply and trying to settle himself before heading back to class. He wished he could stay here, but he needed the study hall to try and finish his homework. His parents had been working on a new weapon and the house was a mess, with tools and parts scattered everywhere.
Finally, he breathed in deeply one more time, letting the breath out in sigh. He pushed the bathroom door open, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
Valerie was standing there, leaning against the wall.
Shoot.
He quickly looked away and saw his sleeve had ridden up, he pushed it down to hide the scars, but when he looked up he caught Val looking at his arm.
Double shoot
“Da–”
He ignored her and rushed to class.
—
He continued to ignore her the next day even though she started to approach him twice in school. Sam and Tuck gave him suspicious looks, but he shrugged them off.
Then, since he has the best luck in the world, his ghost sense went off.
He let his head bang against the lunch table as his friends gave him sympathetic looks.
He just hoped this would be quick so that he could get back to class on time. But he knew how likely that was.
It ended up being Johnny and Kitty. And since they were currently not causing trouble, supposedly on a date with Shadow back in the realms, he decided to let them be for now.
He started to fly back to school when he noticed the gleaming red suit in the corner of his vision.
He suppressed the sigh and stopped, turning toward Val.
“What do you need, Red?”
“You’re just going to leave them?”
He shrugged. “They’re not causing problems, I’ll go after them if they start.”
She hesitated, “Can we– can we talk?”
Danny wanted to flee, but she was just as stubborn as him and would keep going after him until they had a proper conversation. “Don’t you have school?” Sue him. He was a procrastinator.
A garbled hissing came out of the suit, which Danny assumed was a sigh.
“After school on top of the Nasty Burger?”
Danny nodded then promptly went invisible and flew back to school where he proceeded to try and not look at Valerie at all.
—
He made his way to the Nasty Burger after school. Red had beaten him there and he let his tail turn to legs as he sat down next to her.
They sat in silence for a while, neither sure how to start.
“After I found out about Danielle,” she paused and glanced at him, her helmet’s visor untinted, “I saw Vlad transform into Plasmius.”
“What!”
She looked away. “I didn’t tell anyone because I still didn't trust you. And… I wasn’t sure what to do besides try to avoid him.” She pulled her legs up to her chest. “But they’re not the only half ghosts, are they?”
Danny hesitated, he wanted to deny it. But he was tired and she had already put the pieces together. He wanted her to know. He’d wanted her to know for a while now, even when she’d been after his ghostly side. But still… it was hard to admit something he had kept secret for so long. He trusted her. He did. He just needed to brave up enough to say it.
He let the transformation rings wash over him. He ignored Valerie’s staring. “Yeah. There’s three of us.”
The silence stretched again.
“I’m sorry.”
He jerked around to face her, but she wasn’t looking at him.
“I shouldn’t have just started attacking you and the other ghosts. You tried to explain things, and Sam’s ranted enough about how ghosts aren't evil. But I was too stuck in my want for revenge, and I hurt you. I’m sorry.”
“Val…” Danny paused, unsure what exactly to say. “I don’t blame you. Your dad lost his job, your life was ruined! And it was partially my fault, I don’t blame you for being angry.”
“But that doesn’t excuse me attacking you, me not listening to you and buying into the bull the Fentons say about ghosts.” she froze. “I mean the bull Mr. and Mrs. Fenton say about ghosts.”
Danny chuckled. “It’s fine.” He smiled at her, but she was staring forward, her gaze unfocused.
“They don’t know, do they?”
Danny rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “No.”
“Danny…”
“It’s fine.”
“But–
“Not now, Val.” he stared down at his feet.
The silence built up again. Finally, Danny sighed. “Look, I’m glad you know. I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while, and I can explain more later. I know you must have a million questions,” her expression turned sheepish and he grinned, “but for now how about we get some ice cream and just hang out as Valerie and Danny.”
She grinned. “I’d like that.”