Chapter Text
Pencil skritches on paper, faint scrapes and ticks that repeat in an endless rhythm. It blends into the background noise, a layer above the constant drumming of raindrops on the window.
Valerie drags her hand and eyes across the worksheet in front of her. She’s not even entirely comprehending the words as she writes them. The answers to the worksheet are all memorized correctly; all that’s left is the monotonous task of putting them down to paper.
She drops her head into her free hand before deciding that takes too much effort, instead letting her forehead lightly thump onto her desk. The grip around her pencil loosens considerably.
It’s barely been an hour and she’s already exhausted from doing homework. This semester has been killer, especially with all the extra work she has to do now that she’s hunting ghosts in her free time. Combined with working a part-time job at the Nasty Burger to help her dad out, it’s almost more than she can handle. She desperately wants to take a break but doing so means she’ll have to come back to this again, and if Valerie is sick of it now there’s no way she’ll have the motivation to do it later.
She lets out a muffled groan into the surface of the table. The rain drones on as she briefly closes her eyes. Just a few more questions and then you can take a break. You can do it, girl. With a sigh, Valerie lifts herself back into a sitting position.
And accidentally knocks half her papers to the floor in the process.
She stares at the offending papers for a good minute before finally giving up.
“Screw it,” she mutters.
She stands up, grabs her warmest coat and a large red umbrella from her closet, then writes a quick note to her dad and sticks it on her bedroom door where he can see it.
Jacket zipped up tight and umbrella in hand, Valerie strides outside to face the world.
-----
The town of Elmerton is okay, but it still doesn't feel like home. So, Valerie takes a bus down to Amity instead.
It’s not that late, maybe two hours since school let out, but time doesn't seem to have much meaning anyway with this endless gray sky. A handful of middle schoolers pass by on their bicycles, laughing and swerving in the middle of the street. They're the only people outside in this weather, aside from her.
Valerie heads for the border of the town's park, hoping that Mother Nature's magic will calm her down. Dim streetlights give way to tall trees, the yellow light fading away as Valerie wanders down the side paths. The trees creak ominously in the wind. Rain runs down their leaves to drip onto her head.
She had been using her umbrella, but after walking for a while she changed her mind, deciding to close it up and fling it over her shoulder instead. Her orange headband has long since been stuffed into her pocket. Hair sticks to her face and the occasional droplet of rain lands in her eye, but she doesn’t mind getting drenched like this. It’s oddly refreshing. The water is cool, especially against the lingering warm air, and every rivulet that tracks down her face seems to take a little bit of her stress away with it. Not all of it, but enough that her mind can rest for a bit.
It’s darker over here, underneath the swaying branches. The well-worn dirt paths of the park have been churned into mud. Valerie grimaces as her heeled boot gets sucked into the sludge at a weird angle, making her stumble. Stupid Paulina and her fashion fads, she grouses. Couldn’t she have chosen something a bit more practical? She glowers further at the reminder of her old friends. Ever since her dad’s job got ruined by that damn ghost boy and his stupid dog they’ve been avoiding her as if she’s something contagious, like they’re afraid that all of her bad luck will rub off on them.
For now, the only ones who have been willing to even glance in her direction are those three losers. Tucker, the poor boy, has some sort of puppy-love crush on her. He keeps trying to drag her over to their lunch table.
As if, she scoffs, yanking her boot out of the muck. Tucker is sweet and all, but he’s not Val’s kind of guy. Not to mention that Sam looks as if she’s planning to murder Valerie with a cafeteria knife every time she sits down for lunch with them. Valerie can handle her, of course, but that doesn’t mean she relishes the idea of being glared at for a half hour straight. Danny Fenton doesn’t seem too impressed with her, either, although he at least acts nice enough. They've been forced to do one too many school projects together and have built up a sort of respect for each other as a result. He doesn’t really talk to her, but he doesn’t chase her away either.
The kid’s just plain weird though. Seriously, there’s something up with that guy. Every time she learns something new about him he becomes more of an enigma. Like, what kind of person has ghost hunters for parents?
Okay, maybe that’s a bit hypocritical of her considering her new part-time job, but she at least has a good reason for wiping all those spooks off the face of the Earth. Far as she can tell, the Fentons only do it because they’re crazy. It almost makes her feel sorry for Danny. Almost.
The rain picks up for a moment with a gust of wind, whipping strands of Valerie’s soaked hair into her eyes. Over the gentle howling she hears a faint rustling sound. Freezing, she tries to strain her hearing to listen for the noise, but she can’t hear anything over the constant rainfall. Her breathing grows faster, adrenaline pumping through her system, and she’s terrifyingly aware that she didn’t bring her ghost suit with her. Idiot! she berates herself, eyes flicking from bush to bush.
She doesn’t dare to move an inch. It feels like forever before there's a crack breaking the silence. Her nerves are instantly on high alert, posed to fight or flee at any moment.
The shadows seem sharper in her panic. She tries frantically to see through her stubborn bangs, cursing her earlier decision to remove her headband but too frozen to push her hair away. A dark shape slinks through the smattering of undergrowth and comes straight towards her. She’s just about to scream at it to leave or else when –
“Oh, hey Valerie.” She blinks. Speak of the Devil. It’s Danny. He looks surprised to see her too, but only for a moment. He starts brushing sticks and leaves off his sleeve with a casual air, as if there’s nothing peculiar about tramping around in the bushes this late in the evening. He’s wearing a plain black rain jacket and black gloves, and she can see a dark turtleneck sweater peeking out from the jacket’s collar.
She huffs out a breath through her nose, an unimpressed frown on her face. Great, just what she needed. A random run-in with the school freak. Danny’s eyes dart to her at the faint sound of moving air. For a split second Valerie swears that his eyes glint with an unnatural sheen, blue eyes faintly reflective like the wet leaves draped on the trees. The effect vanishes before she can take another look. A flicker of nervousness rises up in her at the strange occurrence, but she squashes it down quick. Just a trick of the light, that’s all, she reassures herself. Never mind that there’s barely any light in these woods to begin with.
He must notice her displeasure at his interruption, because his nonchalant air quickly turns awkward. He stuffs his hands into his jacket's pockets, trying at a smile, but the corners of his mouth turn up wrong. Valerie is too tired to do the courtesy of trying to smile back. The two of them stand in the mud staring at each other, Danny visibly getting increasingly uncomfortable with the situation.
Right when it looks like he’s about to bolt from the anxiety, there’s a rushing sound from down the path. Valerie squints in its direction. She thinks she sees a person . . . Are they on a bike? What's one of those middle schoolers doing all the way out here?
Her eyes widen as the bike comes closer with no sign of slowing down. It’s on them in a second, gliding over the mud with ferocious speed and creating a large wake of water. “Woah!” she yelps, shutting her eyes and throwing her arms up to block the spray.
“Sorry!” the driver yells out, their voice fading away as they escape down the path.
Wait, Valerie realizes, blinking her eyes open. Why didn’t I get splashed? She may be holding an umbrella but it’s not much of a shield when it’s closed.
The grumbling in front of her answers the question. Danny is in right front of her, arms spread out and dripping sheets of water. She’s facing his back, but he looks positively drenched, from his hair to his hiking boots.
“Figures,” he mutters under his breath with clear annoyance. “The one kid in town crazy enough to be biking right now and he runs into us.”
The tone of his voice makes him sound so absolutely done with life that Valerie can’t help bursting out a laugh. Because honestly? That’s so relatable to how she feels about her own life lately that it crosses right over the line from depressing to funny.
Danny turns around to look at her, looking more than a little put out at her mirth. “Hey, don’t laugh! If it weren’t for me being so chivalrous you’d be the one soaked right now, you know.”
He’s practically pouting, oh my god. She has to slap a hand over her mouth to keep from bursting out again, more out of personal pride than any real guilt. No way is she going to admit that the school loser is actually funny.
In an effort to distract from her accidental enjoyment, she fires back at him. “How do you even know what chivalrous means? I’ve seen your grades.”
. . . Maybe that was a little too mean. Danny doesn’t seem to care though, letting the potential insult roll off of him like the water on his jacket. “Well, you know how creative Mr. Lancer’s swears can get,” he says with a nonchalant shrug.
It’s such an absurd answer that it makes her bark out a laugh again, much to her chagrin. Again, she tries to push her smile down. It’s quickly becoming a losing battle, but Valerie has never been one for defeat. “Well, it’s not my fault that you decided to get soaked,” she shrugs, trying for a bored expression. She thinks that she succeeds. “That’s what you get for standing in the way of a giant wall of water.” Completely ignoring the fact that if it weren’t for him being chivalrous, as he said, she would be the one complaining right now. And isn’t that a strange thought, geek Daniel Fenton being a gentleman? She wouldn’t have guessed he had it in him.
The look he gives her is so unimpressed that she’s almost jealous of how perfectly it’s done. He could even give Star a run for her money with that level of skill. He starts to turn away again. “I guess you’re right about that," he says, voice light and airy. “After all,” in a flash, he’s twisting around again, using his already soaked foot to send a large splash of water her way. She lets out a scream, pride forgotten, throwing up her hands again uselessly. She can feel the water seeping through her pants and running down the sleeves of her jacket, cold against her skin. When she looks at him again, he has the smuggest grin on his face that she’s ever seen. “. . . It’s not like I couldn’t have just stepped out of the way or something.”
Valerie’s stunned shock immediately turns into a self-righteous need to wipe that infuriating look off his face. “Oh yeah? I’d like to see you dodge this then.” Sacrificing her still dry feet for revenge, she kicks her own wave of water towards him. The yelp he lets out is so satisfying that she doesn’t even care about her now wet socks.
“Hey! I’m already soaked!” he protests. Valerie doesn’t hear his pleas, because she suddenly gets a wonderful idea. She reaches down for her umbrella, shifting her grip until she's holding it like a baseball bat. Quickly, she swipes it through the muddy puddle to send a truly impressive rush of water towards him.
Much to her glee, the wave even reaches up to his face, causing him to sputter as he takes a few steps back. He tries to brush his soaked bangs out of his face, and upon seeing the dangerous gleam in her eye instantly gets nervous. “H-hey now Valerie, I think you’ve made your point . . .” he tries to reason with a strained smile. When all she does is raise the umbrella for a swing, he swallows a nervous gulp and starts to back away.
“Oh no, I’m not letting you get away that easily,” she warns him, bringing down the umbrella for another swipe.
“Aaah!” he yells, jumping away from the new wave. Valerie grins in triumph and starts stalking towards him, prompting him to run away into the trees. She, of course, chases after him.
This is crazy, she thinks. What are we even doing? Laughter bubbles up out of her throat, joyful and breathless. She hears Danny start to laugh too, turning his head around for a brief second to smile back at her. Branches scrape at her face and hands but she barely even feels it. Both of them are stumbling through the woods, rain pouring down on top of them and mud making them trip with every step.
They’re running through the park like little kids, laughing hysterically, playing some sort of silly little game and it’s so stupid, but it’s the best Valerie’s felt in weeks.
Danny is surprisingly good at keeping his footing, leaping off of rocks and using low-hanging branches to swing over puddles. It’s pretty darn impressive for a guy who sucks at gym class. Actually, it’d be impressive even if he was good at it. He must be way more acrobatic than she realized. Ghost hunting has given Valerie a lot of practice though, and she keeps up with him every step of the way, albeit not as smoothly.
Apparently, his display of athletic prowess couldn’t last forever, though. In a show that’s ridiculously anticlimactic, his foot slips out from under him and he falls backwards, splaying out his arms like a cartoon character with a shout to match, right before slamming into the wet grass.
Valerie is practically howling with laughter, only broken up by her gasps for air. When she catches up to him his pained groans only make her laugh harder. Eventually, she reaches out a hand to help him up. “You okay?” she asks, panting from their impromptu sprint through the woods. She can’t wipe the smile off her face.
“Yeah,” he breathes back, also gasping for air. He stretches out his own hand to take her offer, before yanking her down with surprising strength. She screeches, crashing down into the grass next to him. He’s laughing again, mischievous and light-hearted, and it sounds so innocent that she can’t even bring herself to be mad as she tries to wipe the strands of wet grass off of her face.
It’s a futile endeavor and she gives up before long, shifting over to lay back next to him, both of them giggling and panting for breath. The adrenaline buzz has left her limbs feeling weak but alive, like she just went on a roller coaster ride. All the laughing and running has given her a cramp in her side, and she’s been smiling for so long that it hurts, but her heart feels so light that she thinks it doesn’t even matter.
Their laughter fades away eventually, but the giddy happiness remains, almost a palpable feeling in the air around them. They lay still in the wet grass, together, panting as they stare up at the clouds peeking through the tree branches.
The rain plays a musical rhythm all around them, wind brushing leaves together to make a soft percussion. It’s not really silent, but Valerie is still loath to break the peace, so she whispers when she speaks. “This is so ridiculous.”
“What? Having fun?” Danny replies, just as quiet as her. She can hear the joking smirk in his voice even as she closes her eyes.
She runs a hand over her forehead to brush her hair away for the millionth time. “I don’t know,” she huffs, still grinning. “This is just . . . so unbelievable. Like, who does this?” she inquires rhetorically, lazily throwing her hand out to the side. “Laying in the middle of puddles. Isn’t that a little insane?”
“Eh, I’ve done weirder,” he answers. She hears him drag a shoulder along the grass in a small shrug. He does that a lot, she notes.
“Somehow, I don’t doubt that,” she mutters back. He chuckles in response, small and deep.
It makes Valerie remember just how strange this is, aside from the whole running through the woods part. She barely even talks to Danny, yet here they are holding a conversation like old friends. She had always assumed that he was just another geek like Tucker, or another outcast like Sam. He still is, she supposes, but it seems like there’s so much more to him now. Psycho parents aside, he’s genuinely an interesting dude. He has surprising guts for a guy that spends his time in between classes running away from Dash, and his silly jokes are way more hilarious than they have any right to be. Unless laughing so hard has just made Valerie lightheaded and delirious.
“I’m gonna have so much homework to do later,” she suddenly reflects. Danny bursts into laughter again at that and Valerie feels a small spark of pride at being the one to make him laugh instead, turning her head to beam at him.
So what if it’s weird for them to be talking. If there’s one thing she’s learned from crashing down the social ladder, it’s that people from two different worlds can have a whole lot more in common than you expect.
“You know what, Danny?” she says to him.
“Yeah?” he hums.
“You’re pretty cool for a freak.”
When he turns his own head to meet her gaze it’s with an awkward smile. “Is that a compliment?” he asks with slight confusion.
Her smile doesn’t go away. “Yeah. It is.”
He looks genuinely surprised at that, even more so than he did when he ran into her earlier, as if he wasn’t expecting her to actually say it.
The shock melts away into a gentle happiness. “Thanks.” His expression is so soft and he sounds so truly grateful that it makes Valerie’s heart stutter for a second. He turns to face the sky again, eyes closed, without noticing her own slight startle.
This close, she can see the raindrops gathering on his eyelashes in delicate droplets. Water is running down his cheeks, into the fabric of his turtleneck and the grass cushioning his head. His hair is a wild mess, jet black strands sticking out in every direction, plastered to his face. His breathing is slow, and the soft smile remains on his lips.
He looks so blissful. Peaceful.
When was the last time she ever saw him this happy? Has she ever? Whenever they’re at school he’s either stressed, exhausted or annoyed. She can see the dark eye bags on his pale skin, a testament to his unhappy lifestyle.
And yet, he looks so at peace right now. And he joked with her so easily, despite only tolerating her last time she joined him at the lunch table. How can someone so stressed be so worry free? Why is a bullied outcast so forgiving?
Valerie came out here to get away from life. Why was he here?
She mentally shakes herself out of her thoughts. She has a foolish feeling that, if she asked, he would answer, but it hardly feels like her place. That’s something for Sam or Tucker to figure out.
Besides, she can’t bring herself to ruin this. Oddly enough, this has quickly become one of the best days of her life. If they both came to this park for an escape, then they may as well enjoy it a little while longer. She turns to the sky once again.
-----
Raindrops are still landing on their faces, dripping from the sky and leaves above them. The grass blades threaded between her fingers feel comforting, and the rustling leaves are almost enough to send her to sleep.
Unfortunately, the water is as cool as it is refreshing. An involuntary shiver goes through her. She has no idea how long they’ve spent here, time losing a sense of meaning long beforehand, but it’s certainly been a while. Long enough that the water has finally seeped through her jacket and she can’t quite ignore it anymore.
She really doesn’t want to get up. Honestly, she would enjoy this moment until the sun rose if she could, but Valerie’s logical brain is aware of how unrealistic that is.
Mentally sighing, she reluctantly puts the thought into the world. “We should probably get up now. As nice as this is, the cold’s starting to get to me.” As if to reinforce her words, another shiver racks her body.
“Oh, I’ve been freezing for a while now,” Danny remarks lightly.
“What?” Valerie sits up, bringing a hand to touch some exposed skin between his glove and his sweater sleeve. The moment her skin touches his she jolts back. “Danny, you’re frigid! Why didn’t you say anything?!” she implores him.
He gives another shrug against the grass, eyes still closed. “Didn’t see much point, I guess, seeing how I was already chilly beforehand.”
“Wh – Danny!” she exclaims, shocked by his uncaring attitude. “We’ve been out in these woods for like, almost an hour! What if you got hypothermia or something?” Does he have no sense of self-preservation?
“I’m pretty sure that’s not something I have to worry about,” he murmurs to himself. Before Valerie can even begin to figure out what the heck that means, he continues. “Besides, you’re one to talk.” He finally sits up to look her in the eyes, one eyebrow raised. “You haven’t used your umbrella once, except to splash me,” he finishes below his breath.
“At least I have an umbrella! Where’s yours?”
“I tried to grab one. It was . . . broken.” Something about that pause makes her think there’s more to that story than he’s letting on. Or he’s just plain lying, but after the night they’ve had she doubts that he would do that now. Bonding through the rain, or something. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve actually got more layers on than you do.” It’s true, he is wearing a lot more than she is. Still, there’s no way that Valerie is letting him freeze to death. Not on her watch.
“Whatever, we’re still leaving. Come on, get up,” she orders, standing up herself and holding out a hand. “And you’d better not pull me down again.”
“I won’t, I won’t,” Danny promises with a playful smirk, taking her hand and letting her pull him up. He’s lighter than she expected. He tilts his head to the side slightly, sending his hair draping down like a black curtain. “You gotta admit though, that was pretty funny.”
“No, it wasn’t,” she lies, once again trying to save her pride. Judging by the small chuckle he lets out, she’s not very successful. Surprisingly, she doesn’t mind as much as she usually would.
Hand still gripping his, she pulls him through the park, rain cascading down all the while.
-----
Valerie will never admit how embarrassingly long it took her to find their way out of the small park and back to the streetlamps, or how long she spent holding Danny’s hand before realizing that was exactly what she was doing. She will definitely never admit to anyone, including herself, how she missed the feeling for a second after letting his hand go, despite how freezing his skin was. Clearly she’s been missing her old friends a little more than she thought. Thankfully, Danny didn’t say anything either.
The Fenton household is impossible to miss between the huge glowing Fenton Works sign and the metal abomination attached to the roof that’s somehow bigger than the whole house. No wonder he hates to talk about his parents, she thinks with a pang of sympathy. They’re total wackos.
They find themselves standing at the front doorway. The rain has lessened, but it still hasn’t stopped.
“Well, here we are,” she states awkwardly.
“Yep.”
“. . .”
“Shouldn’t I be the one walking you home? Chivalry, and all that.”
She snorts. “I’m not the one in danger of turning into a human popsicle.” That gets a light laugh out of him, giving Valerie another little dose of pride in the process. She allows herself to revel in the feeling.
He turns to her, a lop-sided, easy going smile on his face. “Well, thanks for walking me home, then,” he concedes. A part of her is surprised he accepted that so easily. Dash or Kwan would have been indignant at the implication that they weren’t being treated like a man. Maybe it’s because of Sam’s influence; she certainly doesn’t seem like the type to put up with that.
“Sure, no problem,” she responds. For some reason she can’t quite bring herself to say goodbye.
“See you at school, Val,” he says with a small wave as he walks up the front steps. Valerie waves back. She can’t bring herself to say goodbye, but she can muster up a genuine smile to match his own.
He closes the door softly behind him, and despite walking in silence almost the whole way here, the world suddenly feels a little quieter.
She stands there for a short while, before the rain starts to slow down even more and she thinks she better start getting home before her dad worries too much.
It’s quieter now, but something tells her that school tomorrow won’t be quite so bad, even if she still has to deal with all of that homework.