Chapter Text
“You can’t escape from me, Ghost Boy!” Skulker yelled. Lifting his arm, he sent blast after blast careening toward Danny, who was just barely able to dodge out of the way. On the streets below, people screamed and ran for cover, doing their best to protect themselves from the chaos.
There’s too many people here, Danny thought. I need to get somewhere safer, less crowded. Turning, he shot off in the direction of the warehouse district, Skulker close behind.
It was late at night, meaning the warehouses were closed and the wide alleys in between them deserted. Danny flew lower until he was within their confines, making random turns through the maze of buildings in an attempt to lose Skulker. It seemed to be working, the bounty hunter slowly falling farther behind, unable to make turns as quickly with his large bulk, until Danny turned a corner and slammed into someone big and hard, the force of his momentum knocking both of them to the ground.
Sitting up with a groan, Danny turned to apologize to the person he’d collide with, but froze when he recognized the familiar blonde hair and red and white football jacket. “Dash?”
“Come out, Ghost Boy!” Skulker called. “Hiding will only prolong the inevitable.” His voice was getting closer, and any moment he would round the corner, finding the two of them sprawled on the ground.
Jumping up, Danny grabbed Dash, forcing their bodies to become invisible and intangible, then dragged him through the warehouse wall and into the building, not stopping until they were behind a large stack of crates, hidden from the warehouse windows. As soon as they were concealed, Danny dropped Dash and collapsed to the floor, both of them back to their normal states. It was hard enough to control his powers to the point of allowing himself to do these things, it was even more so to include someone else in it, especially someone as large as Dash.
“Hey, you’re that ghost kid!” Dash yelled. “What the hell is going on?”
Danny pressed a finger to his lips, shushing Dash. “There’s a bounty hunter after me.”
“Why would a bounty hunter be after you?”
“Believe it or not, there’s a lot of people who want to see me dead.”
“Aren’t you already dead?”
“Um…” Danny didn’t want to answer that question, so instead he asked, “Hey, what’s a guy like you doing in a place like this? It’s the middle of the night.”
“So what? Is it illegal to take a walk now?” Dash snapped.
“No, I just wouldn’t expect to see a football star wandering around the warehouse district at one am.”
Dash narrowed his eyes. “How do you know I play football?”
“Uh, your jacket?” Danny said. He knew he and Dash technically weren’t supposed to know each other, at least Dash didn’t know who he was in this form, but he didn’t think Dash could really be this stupid.
Glancing down at himself, Dash said, “Oh. Yeah. I guess.” Pulling his knees up to his chest, he continued with, “I usually take walks when I can’t sleep.”
“Why can’t you sleep?”
Dash shrugged. “Bad day,” he mumbled.
“What happened?” Danny asked, then blinked at himself. Did he really care why Dash had a bad day? Any time Dash seemed to be in a bad mood–or a good one–he took it out on Danny, so why did it matter? Besides, it would probably be about something silly, knowing him.
“You don’t care,” Dash said.
“Yes, I do,” Danny replied. He didn’t, but how often did he get a chance like this, to see past the curtain into Dash’s silly, vapid life? Besides, as soon as he found out whatever dumb thing was upsetting Dash, he could tell Sam and Tucker about it, and they could all laugh about how Dash hadn’t made Quarterback or Captain or whatever it was jocks worried about.
When Dash stayed silent, Danny said, “Look, we’re probably going to be here for a bit, knowing Skulker. The only thing we’ve really got to do is talk.”
“You’re not going to tell anyone?”
“Who can I tell? I’m a ghost,” Danny lied.
Dash pursed his lips, then said, “Fine. There’s this guy at my school. His name’s Danny, and he’s the biggest dork I know. Everything he does pisses me off.”
Danny had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Of course he had done something to piss Dash off. It always seemed like his mere presence upset Dash.
“He always acts like he’s some big hotshot when he’s not. Like, today in English class, we got our Hamlet essays back, and I overheard him complaining to his friends that he only got a B on it. Can you imagine? How much of a douche do you have to be to complain about getting a B? Meanwhile, I worked my ass off on mine and barely managed to get a C. If this keeps up, I’m going to get kicked off the team, and if that happens, my dad’ll kill me.” Dash ran a hand through his hair and chewed on his bottom lip, his eyebrows knitting with worry.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Danny said, surprising himself by putting a hand on Dash’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll do better on the next one. Shakespeare is hard.”
“I doubt it. I got that thing that makes it hard to read, dyslexia or whatever it’s called. Or, at least, I think I do. I never got tested for it.”
“So tell your teachers and get accommodations. There’s all sorts of stuff they can do for that nowadays.”
“No way!” said Dash, knocking Danny’s hand away. “I can’t! What if other people found out? They’ll think I’m stupid.” He paused, then said softer, “Besides, I tried asking my dad about it when I was younger.”
“What’d he say?”
Dash hesitated, then said, “He slapped me across the mouth and said he wasn’t going to have no retard for a son.” He didn’t look at Danny, just folded his arms on top of his bent knees.
Danny stared at Dash, not sure what to say. “I-I’m sorry,” he finally stammered out.
“Yeah, whatever,” Dash said, pushing himself up and starting to pace the warehouse floor. “But, that’s why I fucking hate that twerp. He’s got everything he could ever want and all he does is complain about it. A loving family, good grades, best friends, and all he does is bitch.”
“I’m sure you have friends.”
“No,” Dash snapped. “At least, not really. There’s plenty of people I hang out with, but they don’t know anything about me, and if they did, they wouldn’t want to spend time with me. Who wants to be friends with someone who’s so stupid they can’t even read? Or–” Dash stopped.
“Or what?”
“Or nothing.” Dash went back to pacing. “Just, ever since third grade, I’ve had to spend every day teaching that dweeb his place.”
“What happened in third grade?” Danny asked, searching his memory. He couldn’t think of anything in specific. It felt as though since the moment he met Dash, he had made it his life’s mission to make Danny miserable.
“He knows what he did,” Dash growled.
“He might, but I don’t,” Danny said.
Dash sighed, then said, “It was when the science fair happened. The school made everyone set up their projects in the gym, and of course, I got stuck next to the dork. He brings in some laser thing, which his parents obviously made for him because they’re both scientists, and of course he wins first place with it, which he didn’t deserve at all because he clearly cheated, while I’m standing there with my board that has everything misspelled on it and my lame volcano that barely even works because the baking soda and vinegar I brought from home is expired. And all day I have to stand there and listen to his parents talk about how proud they are of him, and how much they love him, while my family is nowhere to be seen because my mom is dead and my dad is too busy working shifts at the factory. And you know what this asshole ends up doing?”
Danny shook his head, even though he did. It had all come back to him, the hours spent working with his parents on his project, standing at the front of the gym as the science fair judges awarded him first prize, the way his mom embarrassingly hugged him and covered him in kisses for the rest of the day. And what happened after.
“This dickwad turns to me and, with the biggest, shit eating grin I’ve ever seen, says, ‘So, where’s your family?’” Dash put on a mocking falsetto for this last part. “So, of course, I punched him.”
Except, it had been more than a punch. Dash had tackled him to the ground and wailed on him over and over while parents screamed and did their best to pull Dash off of him, finally dragging Dash off to the principal’s office while he was still kicking and screaming. And, back then, Danny hadn’t understood why. He didn’t know that Dash’s mom was dead or that his dad was too overworked to show up. He had simply been asking a question, what felt like a normal question. Now, he could see how much that question hurt, why it caused Dash to hate him for the next seven years.
“That sounds terrible,” Danny said softly.
“What? That I punched him?”
“No, that the existence of one person seems to make you hate yourself so much.”
Dash stiffened. “I don’t… hate myself,” he said. “It’s just that Fen-turd reminds me of everything that’s wrong with me.”
“But there’s nothing wrong with you, Dash!” Danny burst out. “So what if you have a hard time reading or your dad is shitty? That doesn’t make you wrong.”
“Then why do I fucking feel this way?!” Dash yelled back. “Why does everyone in my life always tell me I’m not good enough? Why do they always tell me that if I even start to show who I really am, they’ll mock me, or hurt me, or get rid of me for it?”
There was a crash outside, then the sound of Skulker yelling. Grabbing Dash’s hand, Danny pulled him back down behind the boxes again.
“What if…” Danny said softly. “What if I didn’t? What if I was the one person you could be yourself around, the one person who you knew didn’t care about who you really are?”
Dash reeled back slightly. “What? No way,” he sneered.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know you. I can’t trust you like that.”
“Well, maybe you can learn to. What do you have to lose, right? I don’t go to your school, I don’t know any of your friends. If you don’t like it, you can just…stop. You’d never have to see me again.” Danny knew he was lying, more than most of the lies he told, but for some reason, this suddenly felt important to him. He had wanted a glimpse behind Dash’s curtain, and now that he had gotten it, he couldn’t turn away. He had always thought that Dash was just some giant, pompous loser that had everything he wanted–he was a football star, talked to Paulina daily, and everyone seemed to like him–but now that he knew Dash looked at him with the same anger and longing, he couldn’t just let this go. He’d grown up thinking that he and Dash lived in two completely different worlds, but now he was starting to realize their worlds sat side by side.
“I’m not sure,” said Dash hesitantly. “I don’t know how to be myself. I mean, not really. I’ve never done it before.”
“That’s okay,” Danny said. “I don’t really know what being myself looks like either. I just…I just want you to have someone who you can talk to about the things you can’t really tell anyone else.” His eyes drifted down, settling on their hands, fingers still intertwined.
Noticing what Danny was looking at, Dash snatched his hand back as though Danny was suddenly too hot to touch. Danny also took his hand back, but more slowly, rubbing his thumbs against each other. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t want Dash to turn him down with this. If a week, a day, hell, even an hour ago, someone had asked him whether he cared if Dash had someone who supported him in his life, Danny would have laughed and said no way. But now, something felt…different. For some reason, Dash looked different than the boy Danny knew him to be.
“I guess I can try,” Dash mumbled.
“Really?” Danny said, a smile blooming on his lips. “Great!”
“You better not make me regret this, or that bounty hunter will be the least of your worries,” Dash said, glaring at Danny, which only made him smile bigger. That was the Dash he knew, but now the threats felt slightly endearing instead of terrifying.
There was the sound of another crash outside, then a woman’s scream.
“Come out of hiding, you coward!” Skulker yelled somewhere in the distance. “I’ve captured one of those humans you seem to love so much! Face me or she dies!”
“Uh oh,” Danny said, standing. “I should go. Wait a little while before leaving. I’ll make sure to lure Skulker away so you don’t get caught up in all this any more than you have.” Danny started to rise toward the ceiling, but paused when Dash called, “Wait!” He turned back.
“How will I find you?” Dash asked.
“Don’t worry. I’m always around. I’ll find you,” Danny said. “Right now, just worry about getting home safe and getting a good night’s sleep, okay?”
“Okay.”
Danny started floating upward again, eyes fixed on Dash, until he’d gone through the ceiling and was out of the warehouse, back out in open air, still staring down at where Dash had been, his chest feeling funny now that he had gone. What was happening to him?
Another scream cut through the air. Shaking his head, Danny shot toward it. Now was not the time to think about whatever had just happened back there with Dash.