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creoastra · 2 months

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I wrote a fic for the @valentines-core-exchange event!

@nightwanderers12081 is who I made it for! They've got excellent taste in fics omg.

This fic is not beta read so I apologize for any bad pacing or grammar lolol

Past Curfew - A Phandoms Valentines Day event Danny/Valerie shipfic

That ghost- “Ah, sorry Dad, I zoned out.” That's what she gets for trying to trust a ghost. “I am studying at…”

“Danny Fenton’s house.”

“D-Danny’s house! Danny Fenton… We have a Biology project together.. I got caught up working on it so that's what I have been.. Doing….” She spun around to try and catch Phantom and question how he knew who Danny was, but she wasn’t able to catch anything because just like earlier, he was gone. She scowled into the night air, fist clenching and unclenching rapidly.

Floating invisible a few feet away from Valerie, Danny smiled to himself for being able to help her with her problem before the reality of the situation sank in. He nearly hit himself for how stupid he was for suggesting himself. She didn’t know that Danny is Phantom, and that could seriously blow his cover.

-----------------

‘Why do I even bother? There’s hardly ever any ghosts out at this time.’

Phantom groaned inwardly as he flew across Amity Park. The air was chilled with early autumn winds, but of course he still found himself out and about at night despite the cold. The stars blinked in understandment and pity. Orion bowed his head in apology as Danny raced past his school. Well, he didn’t actually bow to him, considering he was a cluster of stars after all, but Danny felt the sentiment within himself anyways.

Honestly, he had no idea why he still did this, patrolling the city. There were hardly any ghosts out at night since all of them fed on people’s attention and love and emotions. But he has happened upon a few in the past so he can’t let himself stop now. It’s also become part of his routine. He plugs in his earbuds to his shitty ipod, hums along to this playlist Sam made him, and scopes the city.

Amity Park was peaceful at night. Like he said, there were no ghosts and it was all just empty streets or the occasional cat roaming the streets. Lamp Posts were the only light to be seen, and it was rather serene. The air smelled less like car emissions and more like fall. Danny appreciated it, even though the act of being out this late directly cut into his sleep time.

Floating down onto the edge of the town’s radio tower, Danny leaned back and closed his eyes for a minute. He would often sit up here and watch the stars on more boring nights, but he was particularly tired tonight. A part of him wanted to retire early and head back home, but the core within him buzzed angrily at even the smallest thought of that. He couldn’t rest after making sure that Amity would be okay while he slept. He couldn’t let her down like that, even though his eyes begged to stay closed.

He could lay up here for a second longer though. Or at least that was what he thought until a sharp clang echoed from behind him.

Instantly he jumped up, clumsily ripping out his earbuds and shoving them into his jumpsuit’s sole pocket. Danny whipped around, shooting up into the sky to try and catch whatever made the racket, yet nothing was there.

What the hell?

With slight hesitance, he lowered himself down to the top of the radio tower again. Taking a few seconds to glance around, his hand automatically reached for his thermos. The radio tower was all steel bars from the top to the bottom, so he could see all the way through it. And now that he was closer, he could see a figure hiding down at the layer right beneath the one he stood at.

Without thinking, Danny became intangible, dropping through the bars and down to the layer below him. Instantly he was on top of the ghost that was stalking him. Pride erupted in his core as he launched both him and the ghost off of the tower. The scenery around him was practically glowing to illuminate their match of strengths. The ghost yelped and started grabbing at Danny as they fell quickly towards the ground.

A second before they crash landed, his opponent wrestled with him, easily flipping him to become underneath them with a growl. A second too late, Danny turned intangible, his back aching from the impact. He shakily pulled them both deep into the ground before soaring back up into the sky. The ghost grabbed onto Danny’s hair and ripped at it, while screaming at him.

“Phantom you horrid beast, let go of me this instant!!”

Gasping a pained breath of air, Danny took the opportunity while the ghost was focused on yanking out his hair- which really hurt by the way- to throw them against the ground. Unfortunately Danny got dragged with them, a factor he upsettingly didn’t consider, and they both went tumbling through a patch of dirt and grass.

Danny rolled through the dirt, clovers flying everywhere and his entire outfit becoming grass stained. His body skipped a few times along the ground like a rock thrown against a river before he finally came to a pained stop. His bones ached and his head got rattled around from the fall. Every fiber of him screamed at him to just lie there for a second before he hurt himself more, but there his core was, still loud as ever.

Now is your chance. Destroy that ghost for even raising a hand against you.

Power surged through him, and suddenly Danny was standing, stalking over to where his opponent- his prey- laid recovering. His nails turned claws bore outwards. They ached to carve into this feeble ghost who dared to challenge him with so little power. Just look at them laying there, glow already so weak, nearly nonexistent…

Nearly…?

“Valerie?”

At the mention of her name, Valerie, the Red Huntress, shot up and launched herself at Danny. Her mask was damaged in their fight, so her hair billowed out of the broken glass, eyes sharp and promising to stab literal daggers into her own opponent, Phantom.

Without warning, her fist collided directly with Danny’s nose, forcing him backwards with a loud yelp. Her leg then kicked outwards, intentionally tripping him back even further. Falling right onto his ass, Danny’s head hit the ground soon after with another loud collision. Pain instantly shot down his spine.

“Huntress wait-”

“How dare you attack me, Ghost! I knew you were nothing but evil, all of you.” Danny held his head in his hands, cradling it as Valerie threatened him. Most of him felt guilty for attacking a human, but the rational part of him said that it was just Valerie and she could take it, and barely counted as human at this point. Most humans aren’t half nano-bot robots or even full vigilante ghost hunters.

Danny finally opened his eyes to look up at her, just to see a Ghost blaster pointed directly at his face. With no more than a scowl, he rolled to the left, dodging her attack. Not even sparing a glance to the grass remnants that burned slightly from where she shot.

“I thought you were a ghost!” Danny shouted as he flew upwards, dodging another shot from Valerie. “You were literally stalking me earlier!”

A blast ricocheted off the radio tower in the background and barely missed Danny’s leg as it came shooting back.

“That's because you are up to no good, ghost!” Another shot was fired that promptly missed. Valerie scowled at the disadvantage she had from being on the ground. She quickly released her hoverboard and hopped onto it, now racing after Phantom. “I was trying to see what you were doing!”

“I was-” He quickly ducked under an ecto shot. “Just doing my patrols!” Danny’s legs merged together, becoming one ghost tail. He zipped past Valerie, circling around the tower climbing up in height at the same time. “I do this literally every day!”

“Therein lies the problem, Phantom.” She hissed his name with pure venom. Head shooting from side to side trying to find where he went, she stood still on the Hoverboard, flying in one spot. Blood thrummed in her ears, adrenaline and hatred pushing her to keep fighting. One hand on the trigger, she began to point it at every little movement she saw.

“You are not fit to be doing patrols. A ghost fighting other ghosts? No one knows your motives, and while you may have the rest of the town tricked, I will not believe that you are a fit ‘protector.’” She quickly whipped around, shooting right behind her, just for it to go through nothing. With a frown she lowered her blaster slightly. “It's all some act you are putting on for whatever it is that you are trying to do.”

Despite her attempt at trying to antagonize him, there came no response, just silence. A bird in a tree nearby, chirped to his children. A few grasshoppers could be heard singing together. Even her hoverboard was emitting a low hum. But no Phantom.

Now frustrated with the games he is obviously playing on her, Valerie shot angrily into the sky. Just aimlessly shooting. It helped release a bit of the anger that she held for the ghost. She was too busy destroying random clouds to notice that her hoverboard buckled slightly under the weight of another person.

A chill swept over her neck suddenly, making her hair stand on end.

The air turned stiff and sour as she finally felt the dry breath of a ghost behind her.

“V a l e r i e . . . “

Her heart raced as she found herself unable to move.

“Y o u r . . . ”

My…?

“Phone is ringing. You might want to answer that."

She was suddenly snapped out of her stupor. Spinning around, she pointed her blaster at Phantom who smiled innocently and simply pointed to her back pocket. Valerie glared at him, and with her free hand, she felt behind her just to find that her phone was indeed ringing. Now directing her glare at her phone, she nearly hit ignore until she caught the name of the caller ID.

Shit! It's her dad.

Fumbling with her phone, she clumsily dropped her blaster, which Phantom picked up to her dismay, and rushed to answer the call.

“Hey dad. Sorry I didn’t see your call sooner, I was..” Phantom caught a kick in the shin, which he inhaled sharply at. “..busy.”

See, Danny was above interrupting one of his classmates while they were on the phone with their parents. Unlucky for him, this specific classmate wanted his pelt on her wall. Still, manners come first, so he chose to float aimlessly and be vaguely distracting while she was on call.

He watched as she spoke in hushed voices to her phone. She kept shooting annoyed glares at him before worriedly turning back to her father.

“No, I know I am out past curfew- I am sorry, I-I just got caught up…”

Her voice trailed off, and Danny could tell she was being scolded by her father. She looked more defensive than he had ever seen her. It was kind of sad to watch actually. His heart panged for the girl.

“Oh- doing what? Uh- I was just…” Her words fumbled around in her mouth, unable to come up with an excuse off the top of her head. Valerie couldn’t help but look over at Phantom for any sort of help, but he was not there.

That ghost- “Ah, sorry Dad, I zoned out.” That's what she gets for trying to trust a ghost. “I am studying at…”

“Danny Fenton’s house.”

He rubbed his eyes in frustration before glancing back over at Valerie. While she seemed more confused than anything else, a bit of tension seemed to leave her shoulders. She was talking more fluidly to her dad, explaining the made up Biology project to him now that she had an idea to build off of.

Part of him wanted to stay to make sure she got everything covered with her dad. While he had no obligation to make sure she was okay, especially since her life was in danger, he still wanted to, as her friend.

Even though they weren’t friends. Not when he was like this.

“Yeah, uh.. You can pick me up at his house…”

Wait what??

Danny shot a panicked look at Valerie who was quickly powering back on her hoverboard, nodding along to the phone. “Yeah, you can come get me now, we just finished up.”

Goddamn it Valerie! He did not expect her to offer to be picked up. Doesn’t she walk home and stuff? He knows it’s late but it’s not like it’s midnight.. Yet…

He was hoping to get at least a final word in to her before he ran off, but she is already soaring up into the sky. No matter what, he can’t let her beat him home. And what is he supposed to tell Jazz?

How does he always get himself into these stupid situations?

With that final thought, he launched off ahead of her, racing back to his house.

—

How does she always get herself into these stupid situations?

That's the exact thought Valerie had as she found herself soaring through the sky above clouds heading directly to FentonWorks.

She has too many questions and she is beyond confused, but she doesn't really have the chance to answer any of them right now. She needed to get to Danny’s house before her dad got there.

While flying, she took a quick second to ponder why the hell Phantom suggested she show up to Danny’s house. Did he know Danny? Was he waiting there to surprise attack her? Or is this just an elaborate set up to get her laughed at by a cute boy from her class.

All were perfectly plausible to her and it infuriated her that she could pinpoint which reason it was. God forbid that he was trying to help her. That wasn’t how Phantom worked.

What a fool she was to trust him.

She quickly arrived at the large half-laboratory-half-house. Dropping onto the sidewalk and ducking into the alleyway closest to the building, she deactivated her Red Huntress outfit and shrunk away her hoverboard.

Working up the nerves, Valerie walked up to FentonWorks. She stared up at it before going to knock on the door before she hesitated, hand paused right before knocking.

A large part of her still screamed to run, but she knew she couldn’t afford to do that right now. She would just explain to Danny that she needed to use him as a cover, and he would understand. He skips class half of the time and she is sure he wouldn’t want his parents to know that.

A shiver washed over her and she quickly whipped around, expecting to find Phantom but there was nothing there but the night air.

God, she must be going crazy. First trusting a Ghost, now feeling things that aren't there. With a loud huff, Valerie finally knocked on the door.

The door instantaneously swung open to reveal Danny who seemed beyond out of breath.

“Ah, Danny!”

“Val-” He wheezed out, clutching his stomach. He held a hand up to ask for a second as he panted against the door frame. Valerie just watched with awkward helplessness as he caught his breath.

It took an embarrassingly long second for him to look back up to her, his face flushed. “Sorry- just uh.. Went on a run, then…. Ran down the stairs.. To…” He stared at her for a second with a vaguely confused look. “Answer the door… What are you doing here?”

“Im…. working on a group project with you apparently.” She put it bluntly, hoping he would catch on fast enough.

“But we don't have a project together?”

Of course this couldn’t have been that simple. “No, just- ugh.” Valerie nearly slapped herself in the forehead. Why was this so stupidly difficult? “Can I just come inside to explain it? My dad will be here soon.”

Danny slipped backwards into the house, holding the door open for her. Inside the house she was greeted with a living room littered with family pictures and random ghost hunting equipment tossed to the side. One photo caught her eye of who she assumed to be Danny from when he was in middle school.

He had longer hair then but seemed to be shrunk into himself. He donned a dark blue NASA hoodie and a crooked smile. The hoodie seemed too big, and the smile seemed too forced. Something about the photo shot a slight pang in Valerie’s chest. He just seemed unlike himself there.

“Ah, don't look at that one. I keep telling Mom to take it down but she insists on keeping it.”

Glancing up at Danny, she had to remark that he seemed to grow into himself over the years. She didn’t know him when he was younger, but he seemed happier now. Mostly. Right now he seemed embarrassed and a bit annoyed, but overall he didn’t seem to curl into himself as much.

It made Valerie happy that he was able to find himself.

“You had longer hair back then.” She offered with a teasing smile. He simply frowned back at her, though it didn’t seem to meet his eyes which shined brightly. “What? I like it!”

“Well you would agree with my parents then.” His hand moved to scratch the back of his neck somewhat awkwardly. There was a second of silence before he dropped his hand and turned to Valerie fully. “Soo, what is up?”

Right, back to why she was here. “You skip school a lot so I assumed you would understand that I needed a cover for my dad.” She explained, watching as he frowned again at her comment. “Don’t even pretend it’s not true. You run out of class every other period.”

“Yeah well…” He didn’t have an argument to that, but she didn’t have to point it out like that. “I have things I need to do…..”

“Oh yes, I am sure you do.” Valerie rolled her eyes. “Unlike whatever you ‘have to do’, I really was busy today. So please cover for me when my dad gets here. We were just working on a biology project together. I will do the talking so you don't have to worry about anything.”

She pushed past him and set her bag down on the couch, pulling out her phone checking to see if her dad texted her.

The room seemed to flicker slightly before another shudder washed over her. Her heart rate spiked as she quickly spun around to punch the ghost sneaking up behind her, just for her to make direct contact with Danny’s nose.

The force of the punch made Danny trip over his own feet, falling straight onto the floor with a loud yelp. Valerie gasped and quickly ran over to him.

“Danny! Oh my god I am so sorry-”

“Man, what is your problem?? I let you into my house, I cover for you, and then out of nowhere you punch me!!” He exclaimed while holding his nose in his hand. A bit of blood dripped past his fingers onto the floor.

“I really didn't mean to, I just thought you were a ghost.” She attempted to explain, but it just seemed to make him more upset.

“Oh and that justifies punching me??” He began to pull himself up off the floor, before Valerie leaned down to try and help him up but he just pushed her off of him. “Don't. We don’t need you thinking I'm a ghost again and jumping me.”

He shoved past her, heading into the kitchen. Valerie quickly followed after him, abandoning her bag on the couch. “Look, I said it was an accident. I have been on edge recently. I didn’t mean to attack you.

“On edge of what Val? What has got you so freaked out that you had to take it out on me?” The sink began running as Danny wet a napkin for his nose. The air was thick with tension on both ends. While she was trying to apologize, he just kept antagonizing her.

She really thought she liked him and now he just keeps getting on her nerves. She really didn’t mean to hurt him, but she would have sworn she felt the chill of a ghost behind her. That was something she had gotten really good at detecting recently. It is nearly never wrong so god forgive her for trusting it.

Before she could answer, Danny turned around to face her, shooting her another glare. He seemed beyond disheveled now that she was getting an even closer look at him. It all seems well hidden but he has a poorly hidden bruise on his cheek that must have been cleaned off with the napkin. It made even more guilt eat at her for hurting him when he already seemed off.

Right now he seemed to resemble the Danny she saw in the photo earlier. How did she mess it up with him that fast?

Hesitation raced through her before she pushed through it, walking up to Danny. He winced away from her, but she just took the napkin gently from his hands. As softly as she could, she leaned his head backwards a bit and held the napkin up to his nose. It was a bit of an awkward position, but she knew this helped keep the blood from spilling the best.

“I really am sorry Danny.. I took up….. Another job..” She stared down at the bloody napkin with a frown. “It has been stressful but I really wanted to help my dad however I could. He doesn't want me to so I have been having to hide it, but… it really isn't fun. It's stressful and has been wearing on me a lot and has left me paranoid I suppose.”

Danny watched her with a slight hesitation as she spoke. She was just glad he wasn’t pushing her away. “It is no excuse, but I just thought you would want to know.”

While it wasn’t the whole truth, it was the closest she has ever gotten to telling anyone. It lifted a bit of the anxiety that laid on her heart.

A moment passed between them before Danny spoke up. “I understand. I really do Val. I am sorry for lashing out at you as well.” He gently motioned her to step back as he took the napkin back. He pinched his nose for a minute before standing up straight again. His eyes softened from the glare he previously held. “It's not easy holding onto a secret that big and not being able to tell anyone, even your closest friends. I get it.”

Tossing the napkin out before grabbing another one, Danny sighed to himself quietly. Valerie just stood there as he took a second to think. “I know I am not the most ideal person to talk to, I bet. There's probably loads of people you would wanna talk to about your stuff before me, but I understand you, I really do, and I am here to listen if you ever want to talk.”

There weren’t many people Valerie would trust talking to about any of her struggles, but especially not Ghost hunting. Danny wasn’t on that list either, at least not until tonight. She has her doubts about how well he actually understands, but there was something so genuine in his eyes that she couldn’t help but trust him.

“...Okay.. Thank you Danny, I appreciate it.”

He shot her a slightly bloody thumbs up and a goofy lopsided grin. “Anytime Val.”

They held eye contact which made Valerie feel soft inside in a way she hasn’t felt in a long time. In perfect timing though, there was a knock on the door.

“Ah, I bet that was my dad, I should get going.” She explained, nodding towards the entranceway.

“Oh definitely.” Danny said, following her out back into the living room while she grabbed her bag. He beat her to the door and opened it for her. “It was nice having you over, to work on the project.” He quickly added as she left.

She just rolled her eyes with a small smile. “Of course. Thanks for having me.” Valerie waved goodbye to Danny as she walked down the steps to the street with her dad. She loaded her stuff into the front seat with her as her dad started the car.

Finally she could relax.

“What happened to his nose? It seemed busted up. Did you do that Valerie? I thought you stopped the whole ‘fighting your classmates’ thing.”

Nevermind apparently.

#Valentine's Core Exchange 2024 #danny phantom #danny fenton #valerie gray #fanfic #dp fanfic #dp fic #danny/valerie #not beta read #im not a writer so im sorry if this sucks lol #creoastra

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