Chapter Text
It was raining. Again.
He can’t remember if he liked the rain before its existence threatened his own wellbeing, but Ghostbur is pretty sure that he could write an entire page in his memory journal about his distaste for it now. At least the snow was easier to dodge, allowing him to dance between the delicate flakes without as much threat of melting.
How funny was that? Rain being more melty than snow? That didn’t make sense in the slightest, but somehow that was how it was! He let out a soft chuckle at the thought, imagining what Fundy would say to that. Almost tempted to pop in and tell him about it, the smile that had begun to curl at his lips died almost as soon as it appeared. Fundy, Fundy had seemed very busy nowadays, so much so that he hadn’t even bothered to come back to his house to sleep at night.
It was fine, Ghostbur kept the cobwebs at bay for him in the meantime, his little champion was probably just having too much fun with his friends and lost track of the time. Maybe he was building something? It would explain why most of his things were missing, and why the house remained untouched.
Nevermind that no one else had seen Fundy in L’manburg for weeks.
Back to the initial problem. It was still raining. Ghostbur was stuck inside, unless he wanted to spend hours waiting for himself to dry out and have a lecture from Phil on why going out in the rain was dangerous. Not to mention, when he went with Tommy on holiday (he wondered why Tommy had gone on holiday? And with Dream escorting them nonetheless?) the rain had nearly melted him altogether until they had finally reached the treeline.
But it was fun walking along with Tommy! No amount of rain would change that for him. Tommy had seemed to appreciate that Ghostbur was there, even if he was too stubborn to admit it at the time. He had filled up all the blue that was given to him, and that was quite a lot, especially for the usually bright-eyed teen, always so alight with chaos.
Maybe the rain would stop soon, and he could go visit Tommy? He was probably lonely, and it wasn’t like Ghostbur needed to worry about dying on the rickety trail of logs that had been created as a makeshift path to Logstedshire and his little brother. The lava tickled, sure, and it wasn’t especially delightful when he got knocked over, but hey! He always managed to bring a smile to Tommy’s face when he did visit!
If Ghostbur had been a little less focused on the rain, he wouldn’t’ve noticed the splash of blue that had seemed to appear across the landscape, bright against the dreary gray of the skies. What was that? It couldn’t have been Techno, even in his new clothing, Techno’s wasn’t such a dark blue, and he certainly wouldn’t be hanging outside in the rain by L’Manburg, he was on holiday too! Or, that’s what Ghostbur was told at least.
So then who was that? A new person? Maybe a visitor from one of the new countries? They must have been so cold out by themselves! That just wouldn’t do, especially not if they were a newcomer.
All thoughts of melting aside, he rushed out from the house he had been taking refuge in, in the pursuit of this strange new person. He had never been good at listening to Phil anyways, and what harm could it do to greet a potential new friend?
Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to like that very much. Considering that once they had seen him, they immediately began running away. Huh. Not what was planned, but maybe they knew he couldn’t handle the rain, and just wanted to lead him to the treeline? How thoughtful of them!
Floating seemed to not work when his feet were beginning to mix with the rain, so he took the next best option and chased after this strange person. Branches flashed by him as they darted between the trees, and if he was still alive, Ghostbur was sure that he would be out of breath and panting by now. The perks of not needing to breathe he supposed.
Despite not needing to breathe, he would have liked to not get lost in the forest, so either he had to catch up to this mysterious stranger quickly, or, stop and head back.
Luckily, he didn’t have to decide, because as he was pondering it over, the figure stopped, and instead, turned around just as the two crashed into each other, into a tangled pile of limbs.
“Holy fuck! First you chase me and then you knock me over? What kind’ve-”
Did he know that voice?
“Wait. Wilbur?”
He absolutely did not!
With the chase finally ending, he was able to catch a better look at this new guy. His sweater first off, was the bright blue thing that he had seen out the window earlier, oversized and decorated with a little broken heart on his chest. The second thing he noticed was the curling horns on either side of his head, ram’s horns, like the sheep that sometimes wandered close to L’Manburg when it was nice out, if they weren’t scared away by whatever chaos was happening that day.
“Hi! I can understand your confusion, but I have to say, I’m not Wilbur, I’m actually Ghostbur! It’s a very common mistake, as Wilbur was alive, and I seem to be, well, dead.” This guy seemed to know him from when he was Alivebur, and he really didn’t want this new person to be disappointed by the news that he wasn’t him anymore. Might as well get the disappointment out of the way from the get-go, it saved more time that way.
The ram man (heh, that rhymed) continued to stare up at him in shock, before pushing himself up off the grass.
“Great. So one of the few people I remember is also dead. I can’t remember my own name, but I remember the guy that led to my death.”
“I did?” Oh. That wasn’t good. That was in fact, very sad, and very not good, Alivebur was worse than he thought if he killed someone, this was why he had to stay a ghost! So that no one else would die, and no one else would feel the pain-
“Whoa whoa, you okay there Loverboy?”
“What do you mean? I’m fine? Also, who are you?”
Who was this new person again? He swore that he had said something before about who he was, but Ghostbur couldn’t remember. It was fine though, it was probably just his memory on the fritz again.
“Wow, your memory seems to be more fucked than mine is, if you spaced out so hard you forgot already. I don’t seem to have a name honestly, or if I did I don’t remember it.” His ram ears flicked, as a bitter look crossed his new friend’s face. “All I do remember is a lot of bad things happening, and then me waking up here.”
“Would you like some blue?”
“The fuck?”
Ghostbur dug around in his pockets for a moment, until he pulled out a handful of blue. “It takes your sadness away! Though, I suppose you might already have your own blue, considering your sweater.”
“My, oh yeah, I have no idea how I have this anyways. I suppose there are worse things to be wearing in your afterlife.” With surprising gentleness, he took the powdery substance from Ghostbur, the transparency almost immediately turning into the signature navy. That was...concerning?
“We almost match in a way! With my yellow and your blue.”
“Well, I can’t say I carry around weird dyes like you do, but you do have a point. So, Ghostbur. I’m curious. If I can only remember the bad stuff, what do you remember? And uh, could you possibly get off of me? I’m starting to feel a little claustrophobic.”
Ghostbur gasped, immediately tumbling off of him before floating up to stand back on his feet. “Well, I remember good things! Like my son, and the smell of bread, and being stabbed to death with a sword!”
“Uh...that last one...that’s a good thing?”
“My alive self wasn’t an especially good person it seems.”
His friend pulled himself up, dusting off the dirt as best he could from his jeans. “You seem to be in the same boat as me in that regard Loverboy.”
“That’s the second time you’ve used that nickname for me!” Ghostbur’s eyes lit up, staring directly at him. “Can I give you one too? You said you don’t have a name right?”
“Uh, sure?”
“Then I’m going to call you Friend!”
The corner’s of his mouth began to curl ever so slightly at the nickname, as Friend tossed his arm over Ghostbur’s shoulder. “Sure. Why not?”
His grin stretched wider at the friendly response, and he knocked his head playfully with Friend’s. “I’ll show you around Friend! You can see L’Manburg with me!” And before Friend could reply, Ghostbur dragged him off, the rain pelting down on both their ghost bodies all the while.