I don't know why I like AU's where no one found out about Danny's secret— of course, Sam, Tucker, and jazz do. Also in this one, Valarie does. Also as far ss timeline this timeline, its late November ish, so they're closer to seventeen, but still late sixteen. Thanks for reading and please review!

"So."

The voice startled Sam, making her jolt in her spot as she slammed her locker shut, the clatter ringing throughout the deserted halls. Where her locker door had hung from its hinges—blocking her line of vision just prior— Danny now stood, taking its place.

His hands were tangled in his raven black hair for a moment before quickly moved his hand to the back of his neck, giving it a short rub. Same old Danny.

Before she could scold him for nearly giving her a heart attack, he continued, "I was thinking, so, you know about the dance...uh..."

However, the words were drowned out as she couldn't help but focus on him. The way his lips moved so carefully, so softly — even after all these years — still mesmerized her. The timid smile on his lips threatened to melt the Goth's guarded heart, making it spring and tumble in her chest. Her heart begged to be set free from its cell.

No.

While she would always love Danny Fenton, it was time to move on. It had been time for a while. At sixteen years old, and with no hopes of him returning her feelings, she knew it was useless.

He never did get over being clueless.

It was easier than hoping for something that wouldn't become anything.

With letting go of Danny, she had started dating a while back. She wasn't in a relationship at the moment, but she had been with someone for a couple months, but that ended as she realized that the spark just wasn't there. Tragic in a way; he was a really nice guy, but it didn't feel right, and why lie to herself?

Tucker would sometimes make snide comments on how it was reversed now; how Danny finally realized his feelings for her while Sam had just given up hope and decided that all they would ever be were just best friends. It was a stupid idea, if anything was going to happen between them, it already would've.

They both had changed after so many years of friendship, with Danny's hair growing just long enough to be pulled back into a ponytail. He mostly wore a red hoodie now, along with the same old blue jeans. His frame started to fill out more with the help of ghost fighting. His voice grew into a deep gravel with a smoothing edge to it that made most girls at Casper meat-hungry wolves.

She herself had kept things simple, just switching her top for a baggie purple hoodie that kept her warm for whenever they had ghost hunting, or even those small insignificant nights where Danny needed a three A.M. chat and she needed to keep warm from the coolness that his ghost form provided. She traded her plaid skirt for some ripped black jeans. The only other change after that was that her hair had a half-shaved style to it and the rest laid on her left shoulder.

One thing stayed the same, however: their relationship, or friendship being the better term.

Yeah, friendship.

Bringing herself at least somewhat back to the present, Sam finally took notice of something around her: the air. It was charged with so much with his apprehensiveness that she was beginning to worry herself.

It was so out of character for him to be so nervous— around her at least— that was, unless he was around a girl he had caught feeling for. Or someone caught him being suspiciously ghostly. Or if he was just plain being clumsy.

Okay, maybe it wasn't such out of character for him.

But still, one look around the halls, and not a soul in sight littered the close quarters, which caused Sam to go over in her head as to what trouble he could've gotten into without anyone near.

There weren't any ghosts, that was for sure. If there had been, Danny would've signaled for Tucker and Valarie to meet them. But with no techno geek or huntress near them as well, Sam's worry for her friend only worsened. Maybe he was sick?

She leaned back against the cool metal lockers, letting it support most of her weight as she heaved a long sigh that ruffled her bangs and loosened the unknown strain that had crept into her shoulders. She knew this was all in her head.

He was probably okay, and had been out late last night ghost fighting, even though he knew he should've called her and Tucker if it had become too much.

Stupid hero complex.

Wait. What was he saying again?

"-Sam!"

She blinked a few times and then saw Danny waving his hand in front of her face, trying to regain her attention.

Fear festered in his brilliant blue eyes with specks of forest green sprinkled throughout his eyes. The green had always been hidden to the naked eye, but stand close enough, and one could be memorized by the color. It hadn't always been there. There was a time where his eyes only held endless waves of blue, but ever since his accident, the green grew into his iris.

It was something, his eyes.

While she loved his eyes, no matter what they were, the ones that she had been looking into the past few years held something more. Something secretive, but in a way not. It was the surface of his secret out, staring everyone in the eye, one way that he could show who he was, without having to worry about being found out. It was hidden in plain sight.

Sam focused her attention on Danny, whose stare was locked on her face, waiting for her to respond to his question and probably to stop scaring him half to death.

Heh.

Half to death.

'I need help. I've been hanging around Tucker too much.'

Pushing off herself locker, Sam hastily answered with, "Huh. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Got lost in thought." She paused to rid her mind of the intrusive thoughts. "Anyway, what'd you need?"

Reopening the locker door, she quickly scanned her shelves for the intended item that she came to her locker in the first place for, figuring that since they were already late to class, she should grab the rest of her textbooks as to not have to run back and get them.

"A-Are you going to-to the dance tomorrow?" he tried again, his voice light and filled with unconditional hope. Halting the motions of rubbing his neck, he instead placed them in his jeans pocket to keep them still.

A pause.

Confusion clouded her gaze as the words sunk in. Sam's eyes blinked in rapid succession.

Then, after finding the volume to her voice, she replied slowly with, "Yeah..."

Sam couldn't help herself as her hand touched his forehead, teasingly checking for a fever, ignoring the sparks that ignited. She let her hand fall as almost quickly as she felt the electricity radiating throughout. It was not happening. She wouldn't let it.

Sam resumed, carefully gauging his reaction. "We literally just talked to Tucker and Valerie about meeting up there and the four of us going."

Now, his whole face was flushed in beating crimson red. His crystal blue eyes kept shifting from side to side, up and down, any place but straightforward at her.

He coughed a few times, clearing some unknown congestion in his throat. "I know. I was just thinking you and I could...I dunno…..."

Oh. Now she got it. Why she couldn't see it before was beyond her. "I understand."

His face lit up, as more hope and a hint of agitation stirred deep within his irises. His knees began to tremble in little ripples, unnoticeable to anyone that didn't know Danny well. "You do?"

She offered a soft smile while she gave a short nod, ignoring the sudden elated mood change that took over the moment she told him she understood. "Yeah. You wanna carpool."

His seems face dropped at her affirmation for some reason. She rolled her amethyst eyes. He was so transparent. Why did he like her car so much? Sure, it was a 2005 BMW, but to her, it was nothing special.

"Ac-"

She cut him off, slinging her backpack securely onto her shoulders as she closed her locker door for the last time. "I don't get it, though. You can fly. Why not just pick me up and we can easily get there without the use of my gas-guzzling car."

While her car wasn't the worst car out there for mileage, her parents insisted on her getting it, despite her many protests. She had to compromise on what to get due to her mother's stubborn rich ways. She doesn't drive it often though, preferring to fly invisibly through the sky with Danny.

Her eyes caught the clock mounted on the wall and realized that they were becoming extremely late for class. While she never felt guilty for ghost hunting-related reasons— even though they get in trouble still, seeing as no one knew about Danny's secret except Tucker, herself, Valerie, and Jazz— she felt differently when they were just plain tardy. Because, the better the grades, the better the chances of going to the college that she Danny, and Tucker had applied for out of state, away from her parents.

He took a sharp breath in through his nose, regaining her attention as he spoke. "Sam, I really wanted to ask-"

She sighed as she interrupted. Again. "No, Valarie and I will not be the designated driver while you two drink the special 'punch' that the jocks will fix up. I don't mind carpooling, but you guys gotta be responsible."

What she hadn't expected was the nervousness to completely drain from his body, agitation taking its place. Maybe it was a ghost thing and she should run him to Clockwork as fast as her feet would allow, to see if it was a weird sickness or something.

His eyes were now piercing her own, for a second, his teeth are clawing at his lips, as if to keep himself from blurting out some unknown words. A deep breath was inhaled through his nose, and exhaled through his lips.

He tried. Just once more. "M'not gonna drink, Sam. I was wanting to know if we could-"

Her eyes lit up as she finished his question in her head before she blurted it out loud. "Oh, you wanna swing by Nasty Burger on the way home! Maybe we could sit down and ea-"

"No! I just wanna go with you and me as a date. Romantically!"

That stunned any and all words from Sam's mouth, making them fly overboard from her lips. She knew she looked like a fish out of water as she looked for a way to get the words out, but they wouldn't come. She stood there, looking like an idiot in front of her best friend, who had apparently hidden his feelings for her pretty well until now.

Maybe she was the clueless one now.

Danny scratched on a non-particular spot on his arm, moving his eyes from side to side until he gathered the courage to lock his gaze once more onto hers.

Amethyst melted into blue and mixed within the sea of color that just two eyes could somehow make. It was a connection. That was what they'd always had. It wasn't going away any time soon; something both teenagers were very happy about.

Danny coughed, as he found the courage to speak once more. "So, would that be cool? I-I mean going as a date to- to the dance?"

She nodded, words were a mystery to her at this point.

Without being prompted, she shuffled forward, grasping his hand into hers as she pulled him to their next class, the silence now laid comfortably around them as they made their way.

They were only steps away from the classroom when something of a mixture of confusion, irony, and humor flashed through Danny's eyes.

"Since when did we switch roles?"

Thank you to RavenBloom for beta reading this!