Danny woke up in a cold sweat with a sharp gasp, breathing heavily as he looked around his surroundings to find himself in his bedroom, 'Another nightmare' he thought to himself. The ghost-boy calmed down a little as he gazed at the room around him, it was almost identical to his room back in the human world.
Finally, the boy sat up and floated out of bed, groggily making his way to the closet and opening it. A feeling of pain ran through his gut as he came face to face with the tattered HAZMAT suit, a constant reminder of his failure.
He could easily get rid of the suit, destroy it, or even just move it to the back of the closet and forget about it. But he couldn't, he didn't want to forget how he failed to stop Vlad from taking over the world, how the whole world turned on him because of his failure, or how he was brutally defeated and forced to live in the Ghost Zone. So there it stayed, the first thing he'd see every morning, a daily reminder of the life he'd lost and the world that turned its back on him. He had to remember.
'And speaking of remembering.' he thought to himself as he pulled out a black T-shirt with the phrase 'You will remember my name!' on the back and a giant flaming blue letter E on the front. Danny smiled as he put it on before grabbing his jeans and leather jacket, throwing them on as well.
The ghost-boy exited his bedroom and entered the main living area of his apartment-like realm to find a certain blue-haired ghost-rocker sitting on his couch watching TV, her hair freed from its normal ponytail to hang naturally over her shoulders, Ember turned to face the boy with a grin, "Look who's finally awake."
Danny went to his kitchen and opened the fridge, "When did you get here?" he asked as he pulled out a bottle of juice, pouring himself a glass
"Never left" the rocker chick answered simply, eliciting a laugh from the boy
"You know, if you keep spending nights here, people are gonna start talking." he pointed out as he floated over to join her on the couch, taking a sip of his juice as he sat down
The ghost-rocker gave him a devious smirk, "Oh yeah? Good, I'll take any free publicity I can get." she stated as she took the glass from Danny's hand, looking him right in the eye as she took a drink, "This juice sucks by the way."
The boy rolled his eyes with a smile, "You really don't care if everyone thinks you're dating the accursed ghost-boy?" he asked
Ember laughed in response, "Oh yeah, because I totally care what those idiots think of my sex-life." she said sarcastically, "Besides, you're not exactly Ghost Zone enemy number one anymore, that honor goes to that douche with the stupid cape. What's his name, Victor?"
"Vlad." Danny corrected, "Did you seriously forget the name of the guy that rules the Earth?"
The girl shrugged, "What can I say, I've got better things on my mind." she said, "But yeah, he's the one on top of everyone's shit-list now. Sorry dipstick but you're yesterday's news."
"Remind me to send back my trophy" the boy joked as he idly played with Ember's fiery hair, it didn't burn him like he'd once expected it to, instead it was just warm to the touch, soft too, "You should wear your hair down more often, it looks good this way."
"Are you implying there's a way for me to wear it that doesn't look good?" she asked with a smirk
"Of course I'm not, you know I suck at lying." he answered with a smirk of his own
The ghost-rocker laughed, "You're not so bad yourself, babypop. Especially when you're wearing my merchandise." she said, gesturing to the boy's choice of attire
"What can I say, it's my favorite shirt. Besides, I can't exactly go around wearing that ripped up superhero costume anymore."
Ember groaned, "God, I could kill that guy for what he did to your suit. That cute… skin-tight… suit…" she said, droning off into a daze
It was when she started drooling that Danny snapped his fingers in front of her face "Em? Stay with me now."
"Oh, I'll stay with you alright." The ghost-rocker absentmindedly said before shaking her head, snapping out of it a moment later, "Sorry, I got a little distracted there. What were we talking about?"
The ghost-boy laughed, "Now who's the dipstick?" he joked
"Still you, dipstick." Ember said with a grin as she playfully shoved the boy, knocking him back on the couch's armrest
Danny then grabbed the ghost-rocker by the arm and pulled her back to land on top of him, they both started laughing as she laid her head on the boy's chest, the laughter died down until they were just laying there in silence. "I had another nightmare last night." the ghost-boy said after a moment
"The same one as usual?"
The ghost-boy nodded, "Yeah."
Ember sighed "Sorry to hear that, I know it sucks, I still have dreams about the fire. It gets easier after a while."
"Sometimes I wonder… if I should go back and try to stop him." Danny lamented
Ember glared at the boy, "Don't even think about it!"
"I'm just saying-"
"NO! You already lost your life trying to save the Earth, I am not letting you risk your afterlife! And for what? A world full of ungrateful dipshits that turned on you the second you couldn't help them? Let 'em suffer, they deserve everything they got."
"Maybe…"
"There's no freaking maybe about it! You're safe in the Zone, you have friends here… I'm here."
Danny smiled at the girl, "Yeah, I guess you're right." he said as he hugged her to his chest. Ember really was the best thing to happen to him after… the incident, she was the first ghost he came across after he died, she helped him through that time more than anything, even giving him something to wear after his suit was destroyed. She was just what he needed.
She gave him hope, a reason to keep going, she was all he had after all his friends and family were… "You okay?" she asked, "You're getting that look again."
Danny shook his head, "Yeah, sorry, just thinking."
"You think too much, dipstick. You wanna go do something? Maybe get your mind off of everything?" the ghost-rocker suggested
"Hmm, I don't know. I'm pretty comfortable right now." he said with a grin
Ember smirked at him, "Well if you don't want to get up, I can think of a few… other fun things we can do on a couch." she teased in a seductive voice
"Are you suggesting we… spend the day sitting around watching horror movies?" Danny asked with a smirk of his own
"That is exactly what I'm suggesting, babypop." she answered as she floated to her feet, "You pick out something to watch, I'm gonna go take a piss."
"That's… a bit more information than I needed" he said as the ghost-rocker walked off to the bathroom, Danny laughed as he got up to grab some DVDs. It was amazing really, if anyone told him a year prior that he'd be having a movie marathon with Ember McLain of all people, he would've called them a liar or insane, 'Love really is a strange thing' he thought to himself, his eyes widening when the thought processed through his head, "Love? Where the hell did that come from?!" he wondered, thankfully he wasn't given much time to think about it as Ember came back a few minutes later
"Find anything good?" she asked
"Not yet, sorry."
Ember jokingly rolled her eyes, "You had one job." she said before reaching into the DVD case, pulling one out and handing it to Danny "There, Dracula with Bela Lugosi, best horror film ever made."
The ghost-boy smiled as he popped out the disk and put it into the player before floating back to his previous position on the couch as Ember did the same. The movie started but Danny was only half-watching the screen, his attention constantly drifting to the ghost-girl resting on his chest, was his earlier intrusive thought right? Did he really love this girl who he'd considered an enemy not even ten months prior?… "I do." he admitted under his breath
"Huh? What'd you say?"
"I said it's true, this really is a great movie."
"Told ya so."
A/N: A wise man once said "If you want to make out with your girlfriend, take her to see Dracula.", keep that quote in mind when you imagine what happens next.
Look at me, writing ANOTHER Danny/Ember fic, just call me Captain RedSnake of the ship Phantom Rocker.
Anyway, let me know what you think of this little one-shot. Did you like it? Did you hate it? Let me know with a review.