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the-sprog · 2 years ago

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Here's my holiday truce gift for @constellaj !!! I hope you like it :)

I worried a lot about the length XD it came out a lot longer than I expected!

Dash runs, ducking behind a big enough piece of rubble that got detached from the City Hall when the ghost threw Phantom at it.

He's breathing heavily, catching his breath and catching at his weapon. He takes a look over his hiding place. Red Huntress is physically holding the ghost to the ground –how she can do it and why the ghost isn't phasing through her or the ground itself he doesn't know– while Phantom is nowhere to be found.

The Fenton's aren't on the scene, and neither are the Guys In White luckily –for anyone but him. He's been looking for a functional specific piece of gun for a while now.

"What are you doing?" He hears someone say behind him. Dash turns around. He feels his cheeks heat up as he finds himself face to face with who he would probably consider his favorite person in the whole world.

Phantom stands there, floating a few inches off the ground, with his arms crossed and stern expression printed on his face. Dash had never noticed before now how short the boy-ghost truly is, since the only reason why their eyes are the same level is because of the floating.

"Phantom-!" His enthusiasm is cut short as the ghost in front of him doesn’t let him get another word in.

"Where did you get that weapon?" Phantom asks. His voice carries anger in it, Dash realizes. His brows are furrowed and his jaw seems slightly clenched. "Did you steal equipment from the Fentons?"

"What? No!"

"Where did you get that stuff, then?"

Dash pulls on the safety on the ecto-gun he held carefully in his hand. He usually wouldn't bother, seeing as ecto-based weapons were usually regarded as safe for humans —he tested that theory on himself before bringing the gun to school with him—, but he didn't want to risk hurting Phantom.

He nervously adjusts the baseball cap hiding his hair as well as the tight domino mask glued to his eyes —thank Paulina and her emergency make up pouch— before he decides to respond, "The -ehm- the GWI tend to leave stuff behind, especially of it gets busted by a ghost," he clears his throat before continuing, "so I've been picking them up and –well, turns out this shit is not as complicated as it seems."

For a small moment, Dash could swear Phantom seems impressed by his admission, but as quickly as it came, the look is gone from Phantom's face. "You've been doing that?"

Dash nods. "Yeah. My pop's always making me help him work on his cars so…" he trails off. "I know my way around soldering irons and cables and stuff."

Phantom hummed, but his expression didn’t change. "And you think that's good enough that you can put your life on the line like it's nothing? Like you know what you're doing?"

Dash crosses his arms and squirms under Phantom's scrutinizing gaze.

"As tempting as it is, you shouldn’t steal from the GIW." His eyes trail towards Dash’s ecto-gun. "And you definitely shouldn’t be fighting ghosts with a modified ecto-gun."

"I'm not the only one!"

Phantom sighs and his hands drop to his side. "Red has armor. Heck, even the Fentons have some kind of protection on them!" He takes a breath, calming himself after the involuntary outburst. His face changes, and for a moment Dash truly sees how tired, perhaps even a bit dejected, the other kid is. "I'm already dead, Dash." Their eyes don't meet. Any awe and wonder Dash may have felt when he was first approached were gone.

Dash's eyes widen upon hearing his name. "How did you...?" He doesn't even finish his question that Phantom scoffs.

"If you want to hide behind a cap and a mask, maybe don't wear your letterman jacket," Phantom tells him with a smirk and an eye roll.

Dash looks at his sleeves and curses under his breath. "I'll remember next time," he says.

That sentence seems to bring Phantom back to the core of the issue. "There won't be a 'next time'."

"What? But I can help!"

"You’re going to end up hurting someone, Dash." Panthom’s patience is starting to wear thin, Dash can tell. He’s fidgeting with his gloves and looking around, like he would rather be anywhere else than here talking to Dash.

"I just want to be a hero," Dash pauses and watches Phantom’s eyes widen. "Like you," Dash finishes, blushing slightly.

Phantom scoffs. "You? A hero?"

The color drains from Dash’s face. Unsure how to respond he lets out a weak, "What?"

"I hang around Casper every once in a while. You’re a bully, Dash, and nothing more than a bully." Phantom’s face hardens. "You torment kids weaker than you and for what? Feeling superior to them?" Dash stays quiet. He doesn’t know how to respond- doesn’t know if he even should respond. "I won’t say you’re just as bad as the ghost I fight. But, Dash, you sure as hell aren’t a good person, let alone a hero."

Dash swallows around a lump that has taken residence in his throat. Was this truly how his hero saw him? How can he defend himself? How can he explain that it isn’t as bad as Phantom’s making it sound?

…is it as bad as Phantom’s making it sound?

"I’ll be taking that ecto-gun now." Phantom stretches his hand towards him in silent demand, but Dash doesn’t move. If he gives the gun the conversation will be over and who knows when he’ll have a chance of redeeming himself!

Phantom sighs. "I’m asking as a courtesy. I could just phase it out of you, dude. Have your existential crisis later, please."

Dash lets go of a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding and silently reaches for his gun. He briefly entertains the thought of pointing it towards Phantom and making a run for it, but he pushes it away. That would make him just like one of the actual villains Phantom has to deal with, be it ghosts or overeager ghost hunters.

Phantom's words haunt him when he goes to school the following day. Dash can't stop thinking about what the ghost told him.

"So..." He gets pulled out of his musing by Kwan resting his elbow on his shoulder. "How did it go out there? I bet Phantom was hella impressed by your bravery and general hotness."

Dash doesn’t respond. He sighs, a dejected expression having long since taken residence on his face.

Kwan’s smile falls. "Hey, man. What’s up?"

Dash closes his locker and leans against it, looking directly at his friend’s face. "Phantom caught me with an ecto-gun and he was not happy about me going into danger with no protection. He took it from me."

"But that’s not what’s bothering you, is it?"

"He told me I can’t be a hero." Dash pauses. "Because I’m not even a good person in the first place."

Kwan’s eyes widen in surprise. "What? Why?"

Dash rubs his neck. He doesn’t know when the habit started, but he knows it’s something Phantom had also been caught doing numerous times. "He said he sees how I act in school and doesn’t like how I treat other students."

Kwan groans. "Who knew Phantom was a killjoy?"

"I don’t know, man." Dash tries not to look towards Daniel Fenton, but his eyes wonder as he thinks about Phantom’s words once again. "Maybe he has a point?" If Phantom had talked about one of his… victims –he thinks is probably the most appropriate name for his classmates– in particular, Fenton would have a medal for ‘Most Tormented Kid In Casper High’ so who knows what the ghost would’ve told him. "I did some thinking and –well what fun would he be ruining? The one we have at the expenses of other people?" He crosses his arms. "It wouldn’t make us much different from Youngblood."

Kwan rolls his eyes at Dash’s claims. "C’mon, man. You know it’s not the same! We don’t have superpowers."

"Yeah. But we sure as hell have more muscles than all the geek squad combined."

"Y-yeah, but… well-"

"It's harder to excuse when I put it like that, isn't it?" Kwan doesn't respond and this time Dash doesn't even try to stop himself from darting a look towards Danny. "Maybe it's time we grew up."

And thus begins Dash's However-many-steps-it-takes plan to… become a better person, he supposes.

He thinks about it for a long time, and ultimately decides to not include apologizing to the kids whose lives he made like hell to the list. If he were them, he wouldn't believe himself based on words alone. He'd assume it was all part of a prank or some sort of scheme. A change in attitude and behavior would actually show he wants to do better, and it would be more convincing than simply words.

So, he decides to start by working on his temper. Dash is aware of the fact he's quick to anger in a way that none of the other football players on his team are.

He considers asking Danny's sister for advice.

She's a psychology major in some big name college, right? Yeah, he thinks he remembers something like that. He should still have her number from when she used to tutor him, from before she moved to college.

Dash thinks about it during the rest of the day, writing in his phone’s note ideas on how to redeem himself in Phantom’s eyes. It makes him wonder if wanting to be better to win someone’s affection defeats the purpose of being a better person…

He adds that to the list.

A high-pitched shriek startles him out of thinking about it, almost making him drop his phone.

"You talked to my ghost boy?" Dash turns around and, sure enough, Paulina is uncomfortably close to him. "Did he talk about me? Why didn’t you say anything?! I’m sure he talked about how much he loves me, didn’t he?" she said.

"Uhm," Dash stutters and takes a few steps back. "Not really, no."

Someone next to them chuckles.

"What do you want, Manson?" Paulina crosses her arms and glares at the goth chick, one of Danny’s friends. He never really did pay attention to her, so her name escapes him. He knows her and Paulina used to be forced to hang out when they were kids, and that she used to be a possible A-Lister recruit.

"To know how someone can be so delusional." the girl- Manson, Paulina said– is evidently having a great time antagonizing his friend –ex-girlfriend?... Ex-beard?– with a smirk on her face and leaning on her locker. "There’s no way you still think you have a chance with him," she pauses, watching Paulina fume. "He probably doesn’t even know you exist."

"Sam-" her friends look as uncomfortable as Dash feels witnessing the exchange. Danny has a hand on her shoulder, trying to pull her away to go to their next class. At this pace it’s likely they’ll all be late.

Lancer won’t care, but still.

Tucker is looking towards Dash, never making eye contact for more than a millisecond, clearly waiting for his reaction.

"You’re one to talk, Marilyn Morose," suddenly, Paulina starts responding to the taunt, "making goo-goo eyes at Star whenever she’s close." She’s smiling, apparently satisfied with herself. Sam is bright red in her cheeks. Dash has eyes, so he knows it’s not Star that Sam is looking at, but he doesn’t say.

"Hey," he decides to intervene, deeming this a situation that fits with his goal. "Not cool, Polly."

"But she started it!" Came the response.

"Yes. And you’re not a child. Be the bigger person or whatever." He doesn’t wait to see anyone’s reaction. He just takes Paulina’s arm and pulls her towards their class, but she pulls away from his grip and starts yelling at him.

"What’s your deal?"

Dash sighs. "Just… Some things Phantom said. Put stuff into perspective, is all,"

Paulina plays with a strand of her hair. "He told you to do that?" She asks, contemplative.

"In a way."

She looks him up and down, face scrunched up, before it clears up and she hums, "Alright then. I forgive you."

And that was it? Damn that was easy.

As Dash turns around, he catched a glimpse of Danny’s eyes examining his face and looking at him up and down, but he tries to ignore the anger that comes from the other boy staring at him and judging him. He takes a big breath and clenches his fists and grits his teeth, and he follows after Paulina heading towards Lancer’s English class.

The morning’s encounter sets the example for the rest of the month.

Someone attacks –verbally or physically– another student;

Dash stands up for them;

Dash loses a few friends;

Paulina and Kwan back him up by saying Phantom agrees with Dash;

And then the cycle repeats.

Dash also continues going out with modified ecto-weapons –he understands the danger. He knows what he’s doing when he’s fixing them! Kinda– and a new costume. Over the month he learned more and more about what he needs. He’s pretty sure his dad has some suspicion about his ghost hunting activities, but as long as his dad doesn’t try to stop him that’s good enough for him.

Now the suit is more reminiscent of Red Huntress’, although it’s clearly more homemade. But it has more protection –his hands are wrapped with boxing ropes, he has knee guards, toe-steel boots, and he’s in the process of making an ecto-proof kevlar undershirt, but the materials for that are hard to come by and his sewing skills need some work.

"So you did get better at the secret identity thing."

Dash turns to the beginning of the ally he’s been sitting in to catch his breath. He’d been trying to catch the Box Ghost all evening, but he’s yet to come across a containment device and getting the ghost in a net is surprisingly hard.

Phantom stands –well, floats actually– next to him.

Dash feels his cheeks heat up. He hadn’t been planning on going face to face with Phantom any time soon, going as far as trying to patrol on hours when Phantom doesn’t. He’s unnecessarily nervous, but nervous nonetheless.

"How did you know this time?" Dash thought he did so well. He switched his jacket for a non-descriptive black hoodie with the hood glued to the baseball cap, his eyes are behind a domino mask, and his nose and mouth are covered by a homemade additional mask that Paulina helped him design. It is pastel pink, but so is his cap, so it matches.

Phantom scoffs. "You’re the only dumbass who goes around with old GIW weapons."

Dash looks at his arsenal, then back to Phantom, and a laugh escapes him. "Yeah, I guess you’re right." He pulls at his mask revealing the lower half of his face. "Are you here to take my stuff again?" He asks, as he holds out one of his ecto-weapons to him.

Phantom shakes his head. "No."

"Oh?"

"I’m here to make you an offer."

Dash waits, but Phantom doesn’t elaborate. "Go on?"

Phantom takes a breath. "I need you to promise I can trust you and you won’t say anything about this to anyone."

Dash eagerly nods. "Yes, of course." He gets up, getting on a more even level as the ghost.

Phantom takes a deep breath –a breath? How’s he breathing? Is it a reflex? A muscle memory of his life?– and holds out a hand.

"Want to be part of my team and help me fight ghosts officially?"

"Yes! Of course," Dash immediately responds, "you’re awesome, why would I not want to?" He takes the offered hand, and immediately feels the air kicked from his lungs.

"Sorry." Phantom doesn’t actually sound sorry. Dash thinks he seems sort of amused, actually, but based on previous conversations it’s a fair bit or revenge for how much of a jerk Dash has acted over the years. "Should’ve probably warned about holding your breath when turning intangible. I forget," he admits as he rubs the back of his neck.

Dash definitely got the habit from him, and the confirmation only makes him blush more.

"Reminds me to warn you about invisibility. Your eyes will mess up colors while you’re invisible."

Dash nods and readies himself for the change. It makes him feel slightly nauseous to see so many purples, blues, and greens in the familiar Amity Park scenery.

They don’t fly off, though Dash assumes Phantom is still floating, but they do pass through several buildings.

They don’t talk again –which makes the journey slightly awkward– until Phantom phases them through the ground and Dash makes a strangled cry. Phantom chuckles at that.

Once they’re in front of an underground door, Phantom lets go of both invisibility and intangibility, and then phases through the door on his own, leaving Dash to inspect the door, and then opening it from the inside.

"Ta-da!" Phantom says while doing jazz-hands.

Dash gets pulled inside the room by an additional set of hands that definitely didn’t belong to Phantom, phasing right through him, and finds himself pinned to the wall by a tiny figure.

"Sam," the ghost-boy admonishes, "Play nice."

"His reflexes are terrible," she comments, letting him go. "Are you sure about this?"

Phantom shrugs. "He’s the one that modified that ecto-gun I brought back a few weeks ago."

Sam turns quickly to stare down at him. "You said it was you- the Fentons who got to GIW garbage before us!"

"Yeah, well… I lied."

"You! Ugh!" She grunts and then storms off towards a staircase on the other side of the room. Dash is sure that if she had walked through a door, she would’ve slammed it closed. But the sound of her boots hitting the ground with each one of her steps does convey the same feeling as if she had done just that.

"Dude…" Tucker speaks up from wherever he appeared while Dash wasn’t paying attention. "Why?"

"This explains so much but also nothing at all." Dash’s exclamation gets ignored.

"Oh, heyyy… Dash is here." Well, sorta. There are still no explanations given, so Dash doesn’t think it counts. He slowly waves a hand at Tucker.

"We needed an engineer, Dash is a pretty decent one!" Phantom explains.

"I’m a pretty good engineer!"

"Tuck, you’re good with tech. You’re our tech guy. You don’t know how to fix the speeder and it’s been 3 months now since the last time we’ve been able to use it."

"That’s irrelevant." Tucker crosses his arms.

"No, it is not." Phantom lands on the ground and calls out to him "Dash Baxter," Phantom says, looking towards Dash, "Welcome to Team Phantom!" And he smiles, showing a bit of fangs that have no business making Dash’s cheeks color in red.

"Thank you, it’s an honor!"

"You should already be familiar with the other members of the Team." Phantom gestures to the staircase behind him, "You saw Sam earlier, that’s Tucker."

"Hi."

"Then there’s the Fenton kids." He counts on his fingers, "Red Huntress –leaving it up to her to reveal her identity to you or not–" Dash nods. "And then the ghosts: Frostbite, Specter, Pandora, Clockwork-"

"When it suits their fancy," Tucker interjects, not even looking up from whatever he’s doing on his PDA. Why does he even still have that? Can’t he get a smartphone, like a normal person?

"-right." Phantom nods, "We have some files you’ll need to look at about all the various ghosts and people, and their affiliation to us. Got it?"

"Absolutely, anything for you!" Good way to put your foot in your mouth, Dash. He blushes, as does Phantom, his pink cheeks getting even pinker and brighter coloured.

Tucker clears his throat. "Phantom’s going to teach you how to use the weapons you’re fixing, I’ll fill you in on a bunch of stuff, Sam will teach you to use the thermos, and if you need to talk to someone… go to Jazz."

"Tucker!"

"What? I’m not going to- psychoanalyze him! That’s Jazz’s job!"

"So…" Dash tries to prevent another argument. "The Fenton kids?"

"Where do you think we get all this stuff?"

"Yeah," Phantom says. "We really needed another way to get weapons. Danny is not great at sneaking around."

"Oh, this is great."

Dash turns to see the Red Huntress leaning against the wall next to the stairs, while Sam enters the room from behind her. She goes straight towards Phantoma and punches his arm.

"Red?" Phantom doesn’t phase her out, accepting the punch that Dash doesn’t believe could ever hurt the ghost. "What are you doing here? We were supposed to meet tomorrow," he says, as if nothing else was happening in the meantime.

"A little birdy told me about someone’s character development."

"Whose character development?"

"Yours, Dash."

"Oooh. Yeah, makes sense." Dash nods.

"Well, then," Sam interjects, "since you’re here earlier for no sensible reason, why don’t we go ahead and start Dash’s training right now?" She smirks, her hand resting on an ecto-gun left on the table in front of her.

It’s not the same that Phantom took from Dash in the past, it doesn’t look like a GIW weapon at all. It’s more gray than white, for starters, and there are green and blue accents in the design. There are soldering marks and paint splotches, the color in some of the details doesn’t even look very uniform.

"Heck yeah!" Dash pumps his fist in the air, excited to actually do something.

And also, possibly, maybe, to spend some time standing really close to Phantom, his body behind Dash, his hands over his and helping him hold the weapons correctly, his face so close he can feel his breath on his neck- Oh gosh, he’s definitely red in his cheeks again.

Tucker flips a switch and a section of the floor opens up, while something raises up from the opening.

Suddenly, there are training dummies in front of Dash. They’re scorched and cut and overall ruined. But still usable.

Except one that has a hole in its stomach. That one’s probably not that useful.

"We’ll start with the one of the guns you have with you," Phantom says and gestures with his hand towards his hip, "I like your outfit change, by the way," he adds, "Did you make it yourself?"

"You should see me without it?" Dash can’t help but try to show off, stretching one of his arms in front of him, making the fabric adhere more to his body and accentuating his muscles. He immediately cringes internally at his own attempt at flirting, but it’s too late for him to backtrack so he commits to it and smiles at Phantom’s direction.

Gosh he wants to steal Tucker’s PDA and look up ‘How to flirt like a normal person’. Maybe WikiHow has some advice he can look at. Anything would probably be better than whatever he’s trying to do at the moment.

"Uhm… I like the outfit. I’m a bit confused about the pastel pink, though," Phantom admits.

Dash shrugs and pulls out one of his weapons. "I like pink, and I think it looks good on me. Don’t you?"

"Sure…?"

"I know I love it on you, especially when it colors your cheeks." Dash tries to look smug, even as his own cheeks start gaining pigment.

There’s a beat of silence and then, "Are you flirting with me?" Phantom asks him, voice breaking in the second half of the question.

"Is it working?"

Phantom blushes again.

"See? You’re so cute when you blush," Dash can’t stop himself from saying, smiling smugly with the knowledge he was the one to fluster the hero.

"I- I have to- I’ll just-" Phantom points towards the staircase before flying towards it and disappearing at the top.

No one else in the room says anything for a while. Dash fidgets with the ecto-gun in his hands until the silence gets too unbearable for him and he clears his throat.

"Was I that bad?" He asks, a bit jokingly, just to break the tension that built up in the atmosphere.

"I’m sorry?" Tucker is the first one to respond to him. "I feel like my entire worldview just crumbled."

"What about Paulina?" Sam asks.

Dash shrugs. "She was my beard, I was her skirt. We broke up when we came out in…" he thinks about it for a second, "July after Freshman year, I believe?"

"That was so long ago, how did we not know?" Sam said, almost masking Tucker’s confused "What does that even mean? I’ll just google it."

"We don’t make a big deal out of it."

"Well, at least you and Danny can bond over something." Red walks in Dash’s direction and pulls out an ecto-gun of her own. "Well, since spooky bailed on you, I’ll help you work on your aim a bit."

"Sure." Dash grips his weapon in front of him and desperately attempts to ignore the fact that Sam and Tucker are going to wherever Phantom ran to.

They meet up three times each week, Dash's training sessions with Phantom don't get any less awkward, even though Dash does minimize the amount of flirting attempts. He doesn't stop altogether, he's not strong enough to resist the temptation completely –and Phantom’s just so cute when he blushes! Being able to fluster the town's resident superhero is one hell of a power trip.

"Your hands look heavy- want me to hold them?" Dash says one day.

"I guess you'll just have to kiss it better," he says the next.

And he continues like that until one day–

"I do like my men like I like my coffee. Very strong and able to keep me awake all night."

That… that was something Dash didn't prepare himself for, as is evident by the color that spreads up his ears and down his neck.

The smirk Phantom throws his way after saying it –while he hides his own red cheeks behind the ghost-themed mug he’s drinking from.

Dash does his best to ignore the confused looks Tucker and Sam send each other, too preoccupied by trying to regain his footing and not dropping his weapon.

From that day, Dash starts learning more and more about Phantom. It's like he passed an invisible barrier and now the ghost feels more comfortable letting him in.

He learns that Phantom loves video games, though he doesn't play often and mostly uses Danny's accounts and devices.

He learns that he loves food –hates toast, though. With a passion– and would give a limb for some good Nasty Burger fries drenched in sauce.

He learns he's a huge Astronomy nerd. Phantom Loves to stargaze.

He learns he used to dream of becoming an astronaut. Dash forces himself not to pay attention to the solitary tear that falls on Phantom's cheek and is quickly swept away.

He wishes he was the one to do it. But he's not sure any kind of comfort would be appreciated in such a situation.

Dash wants to kiss him.

It’s something he’s been thinking about increasingly often.

"They’re glaring at me again," Dash says bitterly, putting all his focus on fixing Tucker’s FentonPhone that got damaged during that day’s fight. He’s getting more frustrated as time goes on, between not being able to figure out which of the wires he’s crossing incorrectly and feeling Tucker and Sam’s eyes on the back of his head.

Red Huntress scoffs. "You’re not winning them over that easy."

"Dash shrugs. "Phantom seems to like me enough."

"That boy is both too trusting and too paranoid somehow. Don’t know how he does it."

"So…" he pauses what he’s doing to look her in the eyes –in the… visor mostly. "What do you suggest?"

"I’m not helping you pick up Phantom."

"What!"

"You don’t seem to need my help with that."

Dash blushes. "No, c’mon Red! I meant about the other two!"

She shrugs. "Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything you can do other than… Being nice. Just like you’ve been doing now."

Dash hums. "It doesn't seem to be working though."

"These things take time, Dash." Phantom’s voice comes from behind him. The ghost rests his arms on Dash’s head, even though Dash can tell he’s also floating. He would be too short otherwise.

Dash, despite himself, smiles when he hears Phantom’s echo-y voice.

"They’re just being difficult," says Red.

"Unlike someone else," was the barely audible retort from Tucker followed by hasty apologies.

"Hey." Phantom taps Dash’s shoulder, once again gaining his attention. "Want to patrol with me tonight?"

Dash’s eyes widen. "Really?"

He can feel Phantom nodding on his head. "Yeah. you’ve been doing well with learning about weapons. I can put you on thermos duty so you can practice without subjecting me to that thing."

"It’s going to be awesome!"

Phantom giggles at his enthusiasm, and Dash knows if he spares a look towards the previously mentioned two in the room he’ll see judgment in their eyes.

But he doesn’t let that spoil his mood. He starts packing his backpack, having quickly learned throughout his training that it was always a good idea to have one with him. It isn’t reinforced yet, they don’t have the materials to do it for all of them, but they’re working on it.

Phantom's waiting for him on the staircase. They're yet to let him come and go from what he refuses to call anything other than a hideout. He's always accompanied by the ghost boy and they never leave by foot. He doesn't know what the regular-person entrance of the place is.

As Dash expected, Phantom grabs his arm and shoots up towards the ceiling. During the course of his training Dash also learned to get used to the change of colors and the longing for air.

And patrol begins.

Dash has never patrolled before, getting into the midst of things only in defense, as a response to an attack. He's surprised to discover just how many ghosts get out and about, not even causing trouble, during the wee hours of the night.

But of course 'playfully-mischievous-at-worse' is not the only type of ghost lurking in the shadows.

Phantom appears to know pretty much everyone they come across, be it friend or foe.

There's the biker –who Dash thinks looks weirdly families, and not based on the files he was handed when he joined– and his girlfriend who not even Phantom seems to be sure where they stand.

"Relax, peepsqueak," Johnny says. Dash did study those files, he feels is important to point out. "Zone's a bit stuffy today. Not a lot of privacy."

"We're not causing trouble, so why don't you introduce us to your new recruit?" Kitty –the girlfriend– smiles towards Dash. "He's cute."

"Hey, watch it," both Phantom and Johnny say to her.

She shrugs. "I'm just saying."

Dash steps forward, tired of being passive in a conversation that concerns him. "I'm flattered, but I have eyes on someone else," he says, looking in Phantom's direction. As soon as they make eye contact Dash winks causing Phantom to giggle.

The ghost boy coughs and schools his expression again.

Kitty's eyes widen. "No way." She smiles. "Ember is never letting you live this down, kid."

"I told you two to stop gossiping about my life!"

"There's not much more to do in the Zone," Johnny adds.

Dash lets them bicker for a bit, ready to intervene if it devolved into a fight. Phantom doesn't have the chance to let go like this that often, and seeing the smile tugging at his lips that the ghost boy is not really that desperately trying to suppress… well, it creates butterflies in Dash's stomach.

They move on with a parting warning from the biker.

"Careful. We're not the only ones aware of blondie here."

They're on edge.

The Box Ghost makes himself known and Dash panics. He doesn't even let him finish his usual monologue that he has the thermos pointing in his direction and sucking him in.

"He's not so useless after all."

Both Dash and Phantom turn towards the new voice entering the alley.

"What are you doing here?" Phantom's eyes dart from Dash to Plasmius, never leaving one unchecked for more than a few seconds.

Plasmius smiles. "I just thought I'd come to greet the new kid, Daniel," he says. Phantom flinches at hearing his name. "We should get to know each other. After all, we're bound to meet again." Plasmius pulls out a gun, one that Dash has never seen before, with more purples and pinks in its design.

Why would a ghost need a gun?

Phantom starts charging his ecto-blasts.

Dash grips the thermos.

"Does he know? Or is he the only one in the dark?" Plasmius taunts. "Afraid he won't like you anymore?"

Plasmius shoots towards Dash with no hesitation.

Dash lifts his arms to shield his face from the upcoming blast.

Phantom cries out in pain.

Plasmius clicks his tongue. "So predictable." He starts floating towards Phantom, his eyes focused on the boy.

"It doesn't do you well to keep secrets, my boy."

Phantom grunts and a flicker of light starts emitting from his body at random intervals.

Dash doesn't let him get too close. He lifts the thermos and is fast enough to surprise the ghost, sucking him into the containment device.

Dash crouches next to Phantom. "Oh my God-"

"I can't-" Phantom groans again. There are tears streaming from his eyes. Dash is starting to panic, so before he succumbs to it, he forces himself to pull out a medikit from his bag.

"What- what do I-" he starts to say, but gets interrupted.

"This isn't- FUCK- this isn't how I wanted to tell you," Phantom says.

The light keeps pulsing until it forms a ring around his midsection.

The ring splits, traveling opposite sides –up and down Phantom's body.

Until Phantom is not who's laying in front of Dash anymore.

"What the fuck," he manages to say, once out of his stupor.

"I-" Danny gulps. "I'm sorry."

Dash sighs. "C'mon." He grabs his arms and starts pulling up. "Let's get you against the wall."

Danny hums in agreement.

Once situated, Dash plops down next to him.

"So," he says.

"So." Danny mirrors.

"Are you… hurt?"

Danny shakes his head. "No, mostly tired. A bit disoriented."

"Cool, cool."

They sit in silence for a bit.

"Are you going to ask?" Until Danny breaks it.

"Huh?"

"How it's possible. How- how I… died." Danny fidgets with his fingers, looking anywhere but towards Dash.

"Oh. Uhm… I don't really care."

"Oh."

"I mean- if you wanna talk about-"

"No, no. It's just… refreshing. People are usually curious."

"I'm- honestly I'm mostly confused."

Danny nods. "Yeah I don't… I don't fully understand it either."

"I really like Phantom," Dash admits. He's surprised by how quiet his voice is.

"Yeah- I-" Danny keeps avoiding making eye contact with him. "You must to be so disappointed to discover this-" he gestures to himself. "-is really who you were flirting with."

"I don't know."

"What?"

"Well, I realized- after these weeks. I don't… really know you. Any of you."

"Huh."

"And I really like Phantom."

"You said that, yeah. So?"

"So…" Dash trails off. "I'd like to get to know Fenton, too." Dash smiles and turns towards Danny. "But I doubt they're much different."

Danny doesn't seem reassured. "But what if you don't like Fenton?"

"Do you like me?"

Danny snorts, color spreading to his cheeks and ears. It's a little weird, Dash thinks, to see the familiar sight but feel like it's for the first time all over again. "I've been told I have a think for nice people that can deadlift me, and… well, you did become cool to hang out with lately."

Dash draps one arm across Danny's shoulders, bringing him closer to him, so much so that Danny's laying on Dash's side. "Then you're worrying too much. We'll cross that bridge if we get to it."

Danny snorts and Dash doesn't even have to look down to know the red has spread further on his face –not that Dash's own hasn't started to resemble a tomato. But his mask is doing a good job protecting his dignity, as well as his identity.

"I do have a question though."

"Mmh?"

"Can I kiss you?" Dash asks before he loses his cool.

"What?"

"I mean- you don't have to. I've just… been thinking about it a lot," Dash says, lamely, "so I'd really like to kiss-"

Danny pulls down his mask and kisses him.

His lips are soft. For some reason, Dash wasn't expecting that.

The kiss is chaste, quick, but it shuts him up for a good minute, making Danny laugh and making him blush even more.

"You were taking too long."

Dash gives him a friendly shove when Danny starts laughing again and gets another kiss for his efforts.

'Yeah,' he thinks, 'I don't think I'll find it hard to like Fenton, too.'

#danny phantom #teddy ghost #swagger bishie #danny/dash #holiday truce 2022 #holiday truce exchange #danny phantom fic