Note: Late DannyMay entry. Prompt: Diner

ONE-EIGHTY

"So," the voice of Valerie Gray pulled the teen out of his half-awake state, reminding him of her presence. He turned his tired blue eyes in her direction, settling for a side glance as his muscles felt too sore to turn around to face her. Despite not being on the receiving end of most of Technus' latest attack, the girl didn't fare any better, if her second empty cup of coffee on the table was any indication. "Are you going to give me the full story or am I supposed to blast it out of you?"

Danny, who had been sitting with his feet up on the seat at his side of the booth, winced as he turned to fix his back against the cushioned faux leather. His mug had gone cold. As much as he enjoyed coffee in any other circumstance, he didn't want to stay awake all night with the over-caffeinated beverage meant for passing truck drivers. He wanted to get the hell out of whatever neighboring town this was and head straight home to rest. Not that he would be that lucky, since he was sure to face his parents' wrath after breaking his curfew for the umpteenth time this month. He still couldn't decide if he would rather face that as punishment or Valerie's fake-promised blast.

"What's to tell?" the raven-haired teen replied, his voice so raspy he almost forgot he had defeated his foe with a ghostly wail. Which was also the reason behind his current situation. "Long story short, I got zapped by my parents' portal, got freaky ghost powers, and tried to check the superhero gig off of my bucket list."

If anything, the huntress looked even more exasperated than earlier. "Can you please quit it with the whole role-playing thing?" she scolded. "It's hard enough without seeing your two sides clash."

This got his attention. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, despite having some ideas forming in his hazy mind.

Valerie sighed and gave him a stern look. "I mean you're still acting like Phantom. You can loosen the witty guy act."

Danny blinked slowly, trying to make sense of her words. "Uh, did I hit my head on our way here or something? Didn't we already establish I am Phantom, like, half an hour ago? With no overshadowing or manipulation or whatever involved?" Maybe Val was playing with his fuzzy head, trying to confuse him as some form of payback or something. He knew she wasn't dense, just... obstinate. He figured she would have a tough time trying to process everything without reverting to her grudge. Instead, he was surprised by how well she had taken the whole situation so far.

The girl muttered something intelligible in annoyance and signaled the waitress for another coffee refill. The diner they had chosen, to recover from the fight and talk about the shocking revelation, was just close to the highway connecting Amity Park and Godfrey. Or at least that was the name he thought he saw on the sign they passed. Wherever it was, Technus had led them there when he tried to take over some hidden servers the GIW had installed in a cottage by the river. Which was another can of worms they silently set aside for a different occasion. Both teens were just thankful for being able to recharge and tiptoed around the main topic until at least Valerie was sure no one would hear them. The few patrons at the small place chatted about some local gossip with the people behind the counter, so they wouldn't eavesdrop on the teenagers, and their only interruption came from the redheaded, middle-aged woman serving their coffee.

The waitress in question, who brought Valerie her third fill of the evening, gave the young customers a knowing smile. "Better make up soon or you're gonna make her jittery, kid," she teased the boy. Before either teen could protest in reply, the woman retreated to the counter to continue her conversation with her regulars.

Danny coughed and tried to hide his blush from an equally flustered Valerie. "I'm... uh... late for my curfew too, if that's what got you worried," he not-so-eloquently said, rubbing his neck with his right hand in a timid gesture.

Despite the whole situation, Valerie smirked at last. "Now that's the Danny I know," she replied, eliciting another confused look from her companion. "Just... talk honestly to me. I can handle it better if you're not trying to sound like some cheesy comic book character."

Danny wanted to scoff at her, but he at least got a better understanding of her current issue. Jazz had told him something similar before. About how he tended to make more jokes and puns as some sort of coping mechanism while he was saving the day. As much as that tended to be reserved to his Phantom persona, it transferred at times to his role as Fenton whenever his secret was at risk. Which, as his sister pointed out, would not help him protect his identity.

Talk honestly, he repeated in his head and tried to get his nerves in check. Since when was he nervous, anyway? "Okay, okay," he said at last. "I swear it's not on purpose. It's... how I cope with stress."

The girl in front of him frowned, saddened by the admission. "Why are you stressed by me finding out? If anything, you got less on your plate now. We both do." The ghostly teen stared at her as if she had just grown a second head, which in turn made Val uncomfortable. "What?"

Did she not have a clue of how much fear had run through Danny's system after he transformed in front of her? Was she unaware of his rising panic, almost scaling into a full-blown anxiety attack? Sure, it all got easier once she promised she wouldn't shoot, but that didn't mean she wasn't shocked by the reveal. If anything, whatever internal battle she was having, fueled by the strongest coffee he had tasted on this side of Illinois, only made her more unpredictable. Was she angry? Was she plotting her revenge? Was she disappointed and didn't want to speak to him after tonight? Would she tell everyone? Would they both have a nervous breakdown?

True, the whole thing with Danielle had helped them reach more neutral grounds when it came to ghost fighting. She was no longer active in chasing or attacking him first, and it was nice to have unspoken team-ups every now and then. Like today, when both had begun tracking Technus' path of odd static and malfunctioning screens during their respective patrols, and ended up reaching the same cottage. Still, that didn't translate into a truce or an alliance, much less the sort of friendship they had built as ordinary teenagers.

To see Valerie devoid of a suit or real threats, offering to talk over coffee, was... weird and didn't put him completely at ease. If anything, he was more exhausted than relaxed, which was the only explanation he could have for not freaking out more as he idly sat in an uncomfortable booth at a nondescript diner.

Instead of telling her everything that had been running through his head, he settled for a scoff. "Sure, nothing stressful about you finding out," Danny deadpanned, earning a blush from the girl.

The young huntress sighed and played with the napkin in her jittery hands. Her emerald eyes didn't dare to look at him as she spoke. "I know I haven't been..." she paused, tugging at the white serviette as if she could pull from it whatever words she needed to complete the idea, "...fair? I mean, I never even gave you a chance to explain, so why would you believe I'm willing to listen now, right?"

A snort got her attention, her gaze landing on Danny as he smiled. "Honestly?" he asked without expecting an answer. "I'm still waiting to wake up any moment now. Unless Nocturne is involved somehow," he muttered the last part, shaking his head to get back on topic. "It's just... I expected at least some cursing or yelling, you know?"

This isn't like you, he wanted to say, but the girl probably read between lines since his observation seemed to embarrass her. "I guess I deserve that," she begrudgingly admitted. "It's not like I gave you any reason to think otherwise."

While the admission was nice, this was one of the things Danny wanted to avoid in the thousand reveal scenarios he had already played in his head. As much as he hated being her constant target, more often than not they had worked well together and understood each other better than she realized. There were even rare occasions in which they were so in sync during a fight, they had been almost unbeatable. If Val ended up blaming herself, it could be even dangerous for her and those she protected. It could lead her to hesitate or even question herself in mid-battle.

Danny knew he had to get that out of her system somehow. As he glanced at the vinyl on the window, he saw a chance and rolled with it. He cocked his head to the side, a small smirk grazing the words on his lips. "Why the One-Eighty, anyway?"

The girl in the spotlight shrugged, her hands back to the napkin as if she were pouring her heart into it. "I just had my whole world flipped upside down when your cousin turned out to be both ghost and human. So, I tried paying more attention to my fights, my enemies, my so-called allies, and even those I hunted down relentlessly." She sighed and turned to lock her eyes with his. "Like you," she almost whispered. Danny could feel the guilt hidden behind the two little words before she continued avoiding direct eye contact. The tabletop seemed more deserving of her attention now. "I'm not a monster. I'm not a minion. I'm strong and competitive and whatever other adjectives you want to call me. But I'm not inhuman."

The boy showed a smile full of warmth, not expecting such raw honesty from Valerie but glad she had gotten that out of her system. And that she had taken the bait. "I meant the name of this place? The One-Eighty? But, you know... it's great to feel we can be so transparent with each other."

The girl rolled her eyes. "You're making me regret my change of heart."

Yep, there she was, just what Danny was looking for. Ok, he didn't want to piss her off, but he needed to get her off from that guilt train. "All kidding aside, I already knew you're not heartless. And we both screwed up in different ways. I mean, I should've told you sooner, but I didn't know how to do it. There was never a right time."

Valerie pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear, staring in silence at the last drops of coffee in her cup. "I kinda figured you were like this, you know?" she admitted in a lower voice. She closed her eyes and shook her head, as if the movement could erase some of the words spoken. "Half-ghost, I mean. Not... you, you. I never imagined Danny Fenton of all people."

The hybrid was taken aback by the revelation. Though unexplainable as it was, it helped put everything else in perspective. "What!? How? Was it the whole thing with Danielle?"

"Elle," Val was quick to supply. "She goes by Elle these days. She didn't want to make it weird by using your name. That should've been my first clue, huh?"

Putting aside how drained he felt after using his wail on top of already being hurt, his eyes were wide open and alert. "Hold on," he said while motioning for said pause with his hands. "You're still in touch with Da—err, I mean, Elle?"

The girl gave him an incredulous look as she raised her shoulders in a partial shrug. "Yeah? You thought I would leave a twelve-year-old, who was under my watch for a while, wandering around the world without knowing if she was doing okay? What kind of heartless jerk do you take me for?"

Danny could only flinch at his lack of hindsight, guilt coloring his face red. He had lost track of his clone twice already after she flew away dramatically or whatever, and the idea of setting up a way of reaching out to her never even crossed his mind. "No, no, it's not that," he backpedaled. "It's just... I don't have any way to contact her."

"She didn't have any, before," Val replied between the final sips of her coffee. "I agreed to buy her a cheap phone, you know? From my savings. Not like I could ask Vlad for anything after that..."

Danny's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, a sense of dread looming in the distance. "Vlad? Why not? Wasn't he mentoring you or whatever?"

The intense stare he received held a heavy meaning behind it. "You know why," she said, not even blinking as she spoke. The three words that followed only solidified his incipient worries. "I saw him."

It felt like a punch in the gut. "Shit," Danny cursed under his breath, and found himself regretting the absence of the highly caffeinated drink in his system. Maybe that would've helped him think beyond his secret for once. Just the mere notion of Vlad's identity being revealed to anyone sent him on edge. What if he found out she knew? What if he wanted to get revenge or try to keep her quiet? He was twisted enough to pull something like that.

And what if Valerie told someone else? Her dad worked for Vlad at Axion Labs. Mr. Grey knew Valerie's double-life. That right there was a recipe for disaster. And what about her contact with Elle? Would Vlad do something to her? Dozens of ideas, escape routes, and alibis crossed his head to find a way to help her out of the potential mess.

"Danny?" the huntress called his name for who knew how many times until she got his attention. Concerned green eyes met electric blue, the latter still filled with alarm and confusion. "He doesn't know, okay? My dad and I checked into my suit and I'm not being recorded or tracked or whatever. He doesn't even know how I got my upgrade. The psycho just trusts I'm doing his dirty work."

From all his experience as Vlad's primary target, he knew things with the older hybrid tended to be overly complicated sometimes, often involving unnecessary chess references. Danny wouldn't put it past him to have other ways of keeping close tabs on Val and her dad. "I'm not sure it's that simple."

Val chuckled without much humor, and he noticed for the first time a heavy weight on her shoulders. "I know it's not. My life's never simple. But that's not what I'm here for." She took a deep breath, bracing herself for something Danny still didn't understand. "There's other stuff I need to talk to you about."

Something else was gnawing at her. Something worse than Plasmius. He still felt the need to warn her about every possible danger he could think of; to fill her in on the kind of schemes Vlad had come up with in the past. But maybe she already knew most of it. What could be worse enough to freak her out like that? He settled for a small smile in response, meant to be comforting, but it didn't reach the worry still evident in his eyes. "And here I thought you wanted my whole half-life story."

She bit her lip, confirming there was a lot she wasn't saying. The dark interior of the mug in her hands became a black hole absorbing her stare. "I do, but... that's just me stalling," she softly admitted. Something closer to defeat escaped from her tense muscles as she began to slump.

"Stalling?" he repeated with a huge dose of incredulity. None of this conversation was going like he imagined in any mental version of the reveal. It was like she had already sorted out the bigger parts of the story and only wanted... closure? Validation? He wasn't sure. "Ok, I'm confused. So, you don't want to talk about the half-ghost thing?"

"Yeah, just... not the way you think."

The distant alarm bells he got from her initial hesitation now blared with full strength. He dropped his jokes and remarks, pushing past his previous fear and anxiety. "Val, what's going on?"

The girl leaned closer, prompting Danny to do the same. It struck him as strange, seeing how they had been comfortable talking about other sensitive topics before. This was important to her. Maybe even personal. "I don't even know where to start," she in a soft voice. "I've been thinking for a while about my options, you know? Like, what if I want to consult ghost-related things with someone? I can't ask Vlad anything if I want a reliable source. Or Elle, since she's just a kid-"

Danny couldn't help his light snort. "As opposed to us, grown-ups?" It felt weird knowing how much they had been through being barely sixteen.

Val rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean." Her momentary irritation disappeared as she got back into the original topic. "I thought about going to your folks, but there's the whole identity thing. Besides, I'm not so sure they're that good at what they do. No offense," she quickly added. The only response she got from the jab was a small frown from Danny. As much as the boy wanted to set the record straight and remind her of his parents' achievements, that wasn't the point in discussion. "And then I thought about you. Ghost you. But I wasn't so sure if I could fully trust you with this."

"Until you saw I was human, too," he completed the thought. It made sense now. Sort of... "And that's why you wanted to talk?"

"When life gives you lemons, right?"

"Just... before you tell me what this is all about, are you sure you're okay with me being half-ghost?" The last thing he needed was some horrible bias getting in the way.

She shifted in her seat, her hesitation placed somewhere else Danny couldn't figure out yet. "I... guess. I had some time to get used to the idea, you know?"

"And you're not going to chew me out for trying to go out with you as, well, human me?"

At this, she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh, my god... are you serious?" she exclaimed with a heavy dose of exasperation. "Do you think all girls revolve around dating or something?"

Danny's face reddened in embarrassment. "What? No! I mean... I-I-I just didn't want it to be weird between us."

"You're making it weird now," Val pointed out, with an eyebrow arched to accentuate her statement.

His hands rubbed his face in a poor attempt at dispelling his discomfort. This wasn't where he wanted to lead the conversation. "Ugh, I'm not at my best tonight, alright?" he admitted, uncovering his face to meet Valerie's unimpressed expression. "I meant I didn't want you to feel like I was plotting something or whatever that time."

This seemed to amuse Valerie, a minor win in terms of getting her to feel more at ease. "You? Plotting something? Please. If anything, I just realized what a huge dork you are. You have the worst excuses to cover your secret. Seriously makes me mad I didn't see it before."

That hurt his ego more than he was willing to admit out loud. True, he was not that careful with his double-life, but only a handful of people paid him any attention. Like his bullies, for example. Nobody was looking for a different identity for Phantom, who was supposed to be dead, and therefore wouldn't try to connect the dots somehow. They wouldn't know there were any dots to connect in the first place.

Not wanting to digress from the conversation, he tried to wrap up the topic. "So, we're good then?"

Val shot him a pointed glare. "We won't be if you keep pushing it."

Danny took the cue to avoid any of the issues lingering on the tip of his tongue. So, no mentions of a certain ghost dog or of ruining her life by accident were needed to continue. Got it. Instead, he tried to sit back and allow her to steer the direction of their exchange. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

She stalled some more as she took another sip of her drink. After a long sigh, Val turned her tormented gaze to her half-ghost companion. "I'm going out of my freaking mind and tonight just made things worse."

"Because of the reveal?"

"No. Because of Technus." Upon noticing the boy's confused expression, she continued. "You remember when I got my cool upgrade? How badass it was, even letting me go into space and all that?" Danny's response wasn't required, but he nodded anyway. How could he forget the whole ordeal when it changed so much in their dynamic? "I didn't question any of it at first. The gear was great and convenient. Being able to control it with my mind made me feel like I was back in the game and better than ever. Plus, it kept my dad from taking it away."

The longing smile on her lips turned sour after a moment. "But then I started noticing things. Small things that didn't bother me much at first. Like how sometimes it would react to my emotions. A horrible nightmare in the middle of the night? Woke up with my suit on. Tripped down some stairs? My sled appeared and broke the fall. So far it made sense, right? It was like the suit was responding to me subconsciously."

A small chill ran down his spine at the reminder of the earlier days with his newfound powers. How he tried to justify everything weird happening around him to some malfunction, a glitch in the matrix, or just a severe lack of sleep. At least until the first ghosts showed up. This drew such a similar vibe. But there was so much more to her suit than just a cool makeover, which he somehow always knew.

He remembered discussing it with his friends when it happened. Tucker warned him there could be security issues, maybe attempts to hack her weapons, or just shut her down for good. They never got around tracking anomalies since it would need her cooperation, and that part was next to impossible back then. Yet, that was just covering the tech part. They never considered the ghost part.

"That wasn't all, was it?" he asked instead, not wanting to jump into conclusions.

Val fidgeted with a small creamer in her hands, which she had no intention to use. "No," she admitted with a haunted tone in her voice. "It started getting creepy. Like... eyes glowing red kind of weird. Intrusive thoughts. Involuntary reactions. Weird buzzing. Tech malfunctioning around me." She shuddered as she finished the partial list of oddities surrounding her, no doubt feeling vulnerable just by saying it aloud.

Danny wanted to reach out and give her arm a comforting squeeze, but he still felt unsure about their new status. Where they still friends? Was this just a consult as colleagues? Frenemies? He felt best not to push it and gave her the space she seemed to need, prompting instead to continue the explanation. "You think it's... overshadowing you?"

The hopeless look in her eyes stabbed him in the heart. "I don't know what to think. I told my dad I wanted to check my suit for security reasons, seeing how it was all high tech. That's how we found out it wasn't sending out any signal or data. It also isn't running on any source of energy he could think of, like nanobots or anything like that." Danny was sure Mr. Gray would know, since Axion developed them and probably had some info available to confirm any suspicions. Which left what? Ectoplasm fueling her gear? And it all started to click into place. "I tried to downplay the whole thing with my dad, but he's two seconds away from calling your parents. And the idea scares the hell out of me, especially after that fight."

The gears turning at full speed in the boy's head came to a halt once he remembered there was more he was missing from the story. "Technus," he added in a low tone, anger and fear filling his senses at the possible implications.

Valerie seemed to find enough resolve to continue. "Remember I was still blasting his possessed drones while you went inside that server to catch him? I don't know what you did, but I got a lot of static in my scanners before you beat him. Then my sled lost power for a second before I got it back in control."

Another knot formed in his stomach, leaving his exhaustion long forgotten. "Are you sure the static didn't come from his drones?"

She shook her head. "I... I blacked out for a moment too. It was so terrifying."

Denial ran deep as a stubborn way to hope she wasn't in that much danger, so Danny clung to that remnant of optimism in the few facts he knew. "But no, he couldn't be controlling you or anything. You wouldn't have fought him if that were the case."

Against his prediction, Valerie didn't seem at all comforted, instead lowering her head. "There was a part of me telling me to attack you," she spoke softly. "Sure, I didn't. But at first I thought it was just my old ways. Like an earworm... an old song you can't get out of your head."

"But now you're not so sure," he supplied.

Her tearful eyes turned to stare at him, a silent plea for reassurance hidden behind them. "I'm not sure about anything, anymore," she whispered.

Screw the uncertain terms they were in. Danny moved to her side of the booth and held her firmly as she cried. He had never seen her so vulnerable, so scared. Of course she would be going out of her mind. She had to come to terms with being manipulated by a creep like Vlad. And now, she had to deal with some random ghost she barely even knew messing with her head in the most intrusive way possible. That was outright frightening. No wonder she wanted someone to talk to, even if it was with her previous thorn on the side.

Technus probably didn't know he was doing it. He would've taken that advantage much sooner. Still, that wouldn't make her feel less violated. The most immediate way to make her feel safe in her own skin would be to get her suit out of her system. He figured the Fenton Ghost Catcher was his best bet to solve the issue, if only for the physical link to the possessed suit. The trauma inflicted by the experience was a whole other matter, and it would require some heavy advice from Jazz to figure out where to start. And that wasn't even considering the possible end of her ghost-hunting career, which only added to the list of worries in this mess.

"I think you need a downgrade," he whispered.

Another humorless chuckle escaped between soft sobs. "Yeah, like I haven't tried taking it off and throwing it away."

He turned to stare into her eyes, now more confident in the reassuring smile on his lips. "There are other ways to get a ghost out of your system. Guaranteed. I swear my folks have many useful things in their lab."

Her response was almost as cold as it was unexpected. "Have you tried it? Getting out something you're afraid is now a part of you?"

Despite the sting brought by her words, he understood where she was coming from. He grew up with the firm belief that all ghosts were evil manifestations of post-human consciousness. Valerie, despite her shorter experience with anything related to ghost hunting, built her perception from that same notion. So how do you cope with the idea of becoming something that is meant to be wicked and terrifying; something you were meant to despise and destroy? And how do you stop it from messing you up?

But was it truly a part of her now? Maybe that's where they drew a fine difference, although he knew the experience would be too hard to explain. His powers were something that felt inherent to him, running within every fiber of his being with no one besides him knowing what it felt like. While it had come from such a foreign source, he was not influenced or controlled by it. Unlike what she was experiencing.

He sighed. "I don't think my condition counts since the half-ghost thing involves almost dying. If anything, think of it as being overshadowed by my own ghost. But yeah, I know a few methods. Even tried one myself that could work on you much better. I swear it's not dangerous, invasive, or violent."

She wiped a few stray tears from her apprehensive eyes. "Can you guarantee it won't mess me up?"

Danny nodded and squeezed her arm reassuringly. "Yeah. And I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe and help you in any way I can. You're not alone in this. I promise."

He would've given anything to know what was going on in her head. Despite having a glimpse of her inner turmoil, the moment left as fast as it had come. Just like he had at the start of their impromptu meeting, the hybrid was left imagining many different scenarios of what she would do next.

Valerie sat straight, her eyes still puffy but already beginning to recover her usual sharpness. "We don't have to tell your parents, right?"

At this reminder, he cringed. "Uh, no. But if you want to head there tonight, we should probably try after they chew me out for breaking my curfew."

"Damn..." she breathed in disbelief. "They really don't know, do they?" she asked with some incredulity. Her face then twisted into a mischievous grin. "You know... maybe I should pay back the favor from the reveal with my dad."

Danny stiffened and paled. "Please tell me you're joking."

"How would that be for a one-eighty?" she said between laughter, calming his lingering fears.

The half-ghost stared in fascination at the way she tried to sweep everything under the rug, including her tears, the looming anxiety, and the frightening revelations. Maybe the way they coped with the horrors residing deep inside them wasn't so different either. He only hoped both Val and the friendship they used to have could heal in a not-so-distant future. They sure had a long road ahead...

A red-headed waitress smiled fondly from the other side of the diner, preparing the check for the two smiling teens she mistook for a couple. Once they left the establishment, she would remain unaware of the turmoil still brewing inside them; a thousand times stronger than her over-caffeinated concoction, and only served away from their regular haunts.