Work Text:
“Sir, are you aware that you’re dead?”
He’d clarified it the next day. That he was just tired, he forgot, he was hit over the head earlier, that he thought it’d be funny.
But there was no denying it. No hiding the pity in people’s eyes as they passed by him. No shielding the awkward stares or the innocent questions from kids.
“Are you aware that you’re dead?”
The discomfort was evident on Phantom’s face too that following week. He tried to cover it up by making ghost-related puns at every opportunity, but there was a tension now when he spoke, one that hadn’t been there before. An awkward aura following him whenever he flew.
Because he’d forgotten, in front of everyone, that he was deceased.
A ghost.
Dead.
“How could you just forget?” Paulina asked Dash one day on the bleachers. They’d both just finished their respective extracurriculars, and neither one felt like going home yet. “I mean, life as a ghost seems so different from life as a human.”
“I don’t know.” Dash leaned back in some vague attempt at acting cool.
But nothing could cover up the underlying issues that rose from that topic. The one where a teen, someone Dash and Paulina’s age, had died.
“It just seems strange,” Pauline continued. She pursed her lips. “Do you think…” Her eyes glanced over to Dash. “Do you think that’s his reason for staying? Why he never moved on?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…” Paulina paused, twirling her phone between her manicured fingertips. “All ghosts have a reason for staying, right? Do you think part of Phantom’s is that he thinks he’s a regular human? Do you think that’s why he always hangs around Amity instead of going to the Ghost Zone?”
Dash had to admit, he’d never thought of that. And part of it did make sense.
Too much sense.
But that theory also left a deeply uncomfortable feeling in Dash’s stomach. Because if that were true, then it would mean that Phantom wasn’t some comic book superhero. He wasn’t this perfect, flawless being.
It would mean he was just a lost soul. Nothing more than a confused, dead teen who was too caught up in delusion to move on.
“I don’t know.” Paulina cut into Dash’s musing. “It was just a thought. Forget about it, it was nothing.”
But it wasn’t nothing.
And Dash couldn’t forget about it.
No matter how hard he tried, all he could picture was himself, dying, transforming to a ghost, and then forgetting about his rotting corpse or his old family and friends or the fact that he could turn invisible or intangible or anything about himself.
The confusion. The distress. Was he human? Was he not? Why did he not blend with humans?
He couldn’t imagine what it felt like. To not see himself when he looked in a mirror. To be faced with the same existential crisis each waking day.
And the thought, the imagery, it circulated in the background of his mind like a leach, blending with his thoughts for the following days until one day Dash found himself face to face with the hero himself.
Danny Phantom. In the flesh.
Or, sort of.
He’s dead.
Dash could hardly remember the circumstances that brought him here. Something about a ghost crashing their Friday night party at Dale’s house, rampaging, seemingly sentencing them to a painful death for daring to do something so sinister as underage drinking. Phantom had shown up at some point to protect the teens. The fight was brief, ending with Phantom yelling something in a language Dash couldn’t understand before trapping the ghost in his thermos.
The inside of Dale’s house hadn’t been too damaged, all things considered. There was a broken side table, some spilled solo cups, but otherwise things were mostly untouched.
And so the party went on.
Which is how Dash found himself telling Phantom to, “Wait! Stay a minute,” as the ghost turned to leave.
Phantom froze in the air before slowly facing Dash with an expression of pure disbelief. “Huh? You want me to stay?”
“Why not? You’re already here, aren’t you?”
“But…” Phantom tilted his head in confusion. “But I’m a ghost.”
Dash raised his hand, offering a drink. “And? We have drinks.”
Phantom’s ghostly tail twitched, but otherwise he made no move to accept the drink. “I’ve never been to a high school party before.”
“All the more reason to stay.”
Confusion, anxiety, hesitance all flashed through Phantom’s green eyes. But beneath that, Dash could see longing shining through.
Just how many high school events had he missed out on? Playing hero? Just how many times did the ghost have to remind himself that he was different, that he wasn’t human, that he wasn’t allowed to be with the teens?
Because he was a ghost? Because he was dead?
Dash stepped forward, all but forcing the solo cup into Phantom’s hands. “Come on, there’s a fire pit outside.”
None of the other partygoers questioned why Phantom, a ghost, had followed Dash outside. Even when the ghost himself appeared meekly behind Dash, hiding from the other jocks like a toddler would hide behind their parents from a stranger, the other teens just gave him a wave followed by a slightly slurred, “Phantom! Hey, my man!” before going back to their previous conversations.
It wasn’t until later, after Dash was sure that the crisp spring air had been erased by the heat from the flames, did he realize that Phantom probably didn’t feel the warmth from the fire. Because even as Dash felt the warmth before him, to his side Phantom was still cold. But strangely, the ghost didn’t seem to mind.
Phantom settled next to the crew, listening intently, asking questions, and receiving numerous questions in return.
“What’s the weirdest ghost you’ve ever encountered?”
“Do you have friends in the Zone?”
“Do ghosts celebrate human holidays?”
“What’s your zodiac sign?”
Maybe it was the slight buzz he felt under his skin, or the fatigue from the night coming to a close, but eventually Dash looked up to realize that it was just him, Dale, and Phantom sitting by the dying embers. At some point, one of the jocks had thrust their Amity Park High hoodie on Phantom, all but forcing it over his head because Phantom was too cold, his suit was too thin, he was going to catch a cold in this weather.
Never mind the fact that Phantom was a ghost.
Dead people don’t get colds.
“I’m gonna go check on Star,” Dale said, standing up. “Paulina took her to the bathroom like twenty minutes ago. I wanna make sure she’s alright.”
“Okay,” Dash said, watching as Phantom ran his hands along the sleeves of the hoodie. “Sure, let me know if you need me to call them an Uber or anything.”
“Will do.”
And then it was just the two of them.
Human and ghost.
Phantom looked around, seemingly realizing that they were now alone too. “I should head home.”
Dash couldn’t help the burning curiosity from leaving his lips. “Where do you stay?”
Phantom’s head snapped up, and he blinked owlishly at Dash.
“You know, as a ghost? Where do you live now?”
“Oh!” Phantom rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “Yeah, I—I guess I don’t really have a home. Well, I—uh, I kind of do? It’s a long story. I just—I guess you wouldn’t really be interested. It’s not. It’s fine. You know?”
Dash shrugged and took another sip of his beer. “It’s fine if you can’t say. I get it, you don’t want to doxx yourself.”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
Dash tried to accept that answer, he tried to ignore the thoughts that swirled around his brain saying, did he forget he wasn’t human again? Does he think he’s a regular teen? Does this mean he remembers his human family? Has he shown up at their home before?
Do they recognize him?
Do they know who he is?
Is he hiding from them?
“It’s just a friend though,” Phantom said. “I stay with a friend. That's all. That’s the short answer.”
“Human friend?”
Phantom appeared taken aback by that question. “Yeah.”
“Oh…” Dash pressed his fingers into the beer can, denting the sides. “I guess I never thought about that. You knowing people here.”
“Well, I do hang around Amity Park a lot. It’d probably be weird if I hadn’t made a few friends here by now.”
“I guess.” Dash shot him a grin. “So what, you camp out in their guest room? Cook them breakfast in exchange for a bed?”
“Something like that. You know, I can make a killer omelette.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah!” Phantom brightened, hovering just a few inches above the ground. “It’s all about getting the ratios right. That cheese to egg to other stuff ratios, and then not overcooking the egg. Low heat and all. My sister taught me the low heat thing, it changed my life.”
Dash’s ears pricked up. “Sister?”
Phantom’s eyes widened, and he settled back on the ground, seemingly having said too much. The duo stared at each other for a moment, and Dash watched as Phantom began to shrink in on himself, looking just seconds from turning invisible and disappearing into the wind.
“It’s fine.” Dash set his drink down. “Listen, it’s fine. If you don’t want to talk about it, don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”
“No, it’s…” Phantom huffed, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I’ve been kinda out of it this week. Saying stupid things without thinking.”
Dash tried his luck. “From the interview, right?”
“I...yeah. Yeah, that was the worst of it.” He groaned, flopping back onto the dewy grass. “ ‘Are you aware that you’re dead?’ Like, what the hell kind of question was that? What am I supposed to say?”
“Seems like they set you up to fail.”
“Right?” Phantom threw his hand up. “Of course I’m dead! I’m a fucking ghost! But I just—I don’t know, I guess I never really thought about it before. Like the implication of it all. It’s not like you just wake up and you go on with your life the way it was before. Everything changes. Everything. You get a new body, new thoughts, a new core, new goals and wishes and responsibilities. A whole new life. A...a second chance, really.”
Dash sat there stunned into silence.
A new life.
Is that how it truly felt to be a ghost?
“And it’s not like I don’t care about who I was before. I’m not a monster, I do care about them all. And I know I’m lucky, they’re all close. I still can see them all the time. Not every ghost has that, you know. Most don’t, but I do. And I know how privileged that makes me. I get it. But it’s just like...I don’t know. I don’t even know why I’m telling you all this.”
“It’s fine,” Dash said. “It’s not like I have anywhere to be tonight.”
Phantom grunted in agreement.
“You know…” Dash drummed his fingers against his cheap plastic chair. “I bet it’s sort of confusing, right? To have the memories of who you were before, but in a new body?”
The ghost was silent for a moment. And just when the silence was breaching into awkward territory and Dash was about to open his big dumb mouth to apologize and change the subject, Phantom sighed. “No, you’re right. That’s it. And it sucks.”
“I bet.”
“Yeah, because when I was a human they actually cared about me, you know? But now as a ghost...I have no idea what they’d think if they knew it was me. I don’t think I could ever tell them. I don’t think I could handle it if they—” Phantom cut himself off.
The ghost sat up, crossing his legs and dropping his hands in his lap. His new hoodie dwarfed his lithe body, and the red sleeves fell over his white gloves. His green eyes locked onto Dash’s, staring at the jock with such raw vulnerability that Dash had never seen in Phantom before.
“It just hurts is all,” he said.