Summary: Kwan has difficulty get to sleep.
Characters: Dash x Danny x Kwan

Afterward 02

Kwan laid on his side, staring at the wall. It was barely past one in the morning, but despite his best attempts, he couldn't fall asleep. It was silly, really. Things were going well with them. They had some arguments, but that was normal. A few arguments ended with them spending some time apart to clear their heads before they came back together and resolved whatever set off the fighting.

One argument started after their first time running into a violent ghost while on patrol. Danny kept trying to push them out of the way and protect them like they were still the pair of scared fourteen-year-olds that ran screaming when they saw a ghost. Dash was furious about it. He was the kind of man that wanted to prove himself capable, and he certainly didn't want to be seen as weak, especially to those for whom he cared. It took Dash a few days to cool off and realize Danny only protected them because he didn't want to see them get hurt.

Kwan rolled over onto his back. His eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to make out his boyfriends in the bed with him. Dash took up most of the middle of the bed, sprawled out on his back. He still had a scar from where Bryce stabbed him. Kwan was certain the scar was a reminder to Danny of his failure to protect Dash. It felt that way to Kwan, too. When he saw the scar, he sometimes hated himself for not reaching his friend sooner.

Sighing, Kwan tried to shoo away those thoughts. Even though they bought the bigger bed two weeks ago, this was only their fourth time sharing it together. They were trying to ease Dash into everything, and he seemed to be more encouraged about being intimate with them. They still needed some time to learn each other's sleeping habits. Dash seemed to like pushing them nearly off the bed, and he may have succeeded on a smaller bed.

Danny slept curled up on the other side of Dash. Kwan sat up a little to see him better then frowned. At first, he thought Danny was simply sleeping. But Danny's body was shaking, and he curled up so tight he looked tiny on the big bed. Kwan practically leapt up when he heard a quiet whimper. He scrambled over Dash then over to Danny's other side.

"What's going on?" Dash murmured, half awake as he rubbed at his eyes.

"Danny?" Kwan placed a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him. His heart felt like it was beating in his throat. Danny always held himself with such confidence and joked about his various encounters with ghosts and other supernatural beings that it never occurred to Kwan that Danny might suffer nightmares from some of the truly terrifying encounters. Danny probably downplayed those ones just to keep his boyfriends from worrying too much.

"No," Danny whined in his sleep. His hand curled around the bed sheet.

Dash was awake instantly, sitting up with a curse under his breath. "Is it a nightmare?" He must have come to the same conclusion as Kwan.

"Stop!" Danny shouted.

Kwan and Dash both grabbed his hands as Danny lashed out, but thankfully he didn't shoot off any ectoblasts in his sleep. Danny fought against them, and a few times, he slipped through their hold when he went intangible. After several minutes, the three of them lay on the bed in a tangle of limbs and each one breathing heavily.

"Were we doing something and I fell asleep during it?" Danny asked warily.

"You were having a nightmare." Dash managed to untangle himself then laid on his side facing his boyfriends.

"We tried to wake you but couldn't." Kwan frowned.

"Oh." Danny scratched his head, falling silent.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kwan prodded but tried not to sound too pushy.

"And don't say it was nothing," Dash added firmly. "You know Kwan won't drop it."

"I've been trying not to act too much like a mother hen," Kwan argued.

"It's-" Danny sighed. "No, you're right. I shouldn't just shove this to the side and act like it's nothing." He sat up, folding his legs, but despite the relaxed posture, he seemed tense. "Back in high school, I got a glimpse of a possible future. And," his breath was shaky, "I turned into this really evil jerk after my family and friends were killed." He rubbed at his arm, his head bowed. "That version of me did some pretty bad stuff. I've always been scared that something will set me off down that path, even now despite that I'm older than I was in that possible future."

"You could never turn evil," Dash said in complete disbelief. "You're way too good a person for that."

"But with the right trigger," Kwan glanced at Danny, "anyone could turn evil." He took Danny's hand and squeezed it. "We won't let that happen to you."

The corner of his mouth curled up in a small smile. "Thanks." Danny reached up with his other hand and rubbed at his eye. "I try not to think too much about it now. Logically, I know I'm not going to become him. But it creeps into my dreams sometimes, and I feel like I'm right back there battling against him and terrified of the future he represents."

"I still can't imagine you turning evil." Dash shook his head, but he reached out and took hold of Danny's other hand. "But we'll do whatever we can to stop it if we see any hints that you might be turning evil."

They sat there on the bed, silently holding Danny's hands, and it reminded Kwan of how they held his hands on both the plane ride to Amity Park and the one back home. It seemed the gestured helped to calm Danny too. The tension eased out of his body, and hopefully the details of the nightmare faded with his tension so he could sleep peacefully for the rest of the night.

"Thanks," Danny said softly. "It really means a lot to me."

"You're," Dash said hesitantly, "not the only one that fears becoming something bad. And I'm not trying to steal your moment or anything here. But," he scratched his head, "I still have nightmares of turning out like my dad."

Danny shook his head. "Did you think I'd get mad?" His voice was light and teasing, which was a relief. If Danny was able to joke around, Kwan knew things were all right. "But," Danny added, this time in a harder tone, "don't think for a second that I'm just going to ignore this. You mentioned something at the airport, and now you talk about nightmares about your dad. I'm not going to pressure you into telling me, but if we're going to work as a couple, we should be able to talk about these things eventually."

Dash made a frustrated noise as he raked a hand through his hair. "That's why I feel like I'm hijacking this conversation. We're supposed to be helping you with your nightmare."

"I get nightmares all the time." Danny shrugged. Then he seemed to realize what he said, and his head twisted toward Kwan. "You really don't need to get all worried about it. And I swear I'm not trying to be tough or anything. Jazz realized pretty quickly that I got nightmares from ghost fighting and stuff, and she taught me some ways to deal with it. I guess having her be so interested in psychology wasn't always such a bad thing."

Kwan's mouth pursed slightly, and his eyes narrowed. "I suppose I can't go too overboard with worry if Jazz already talked to you about it." Jazz was a very intelligent woman, and from what Kwan understood, she was a great psychologist. She would know far better than he did how to help Danny deal with reoccurring nightmares.

"Trust me. Jazz wouldn't let up about it, and what she taught me actually helped." Danny turned his head back toward Dash. "And you don't need to feel bad about hijacking a conversation if there's something you want to discuss. Whatever you need to talk about is just as important. There's still so much I don't know about the both of you, and I want to learn everything I can." Danny squeezed his hand, and Kwan assumed he was also squeezing Dash's hand.

Dash took a deep breath, the shaky kind that rattled nervously in his chest. "My family wasn't perfect. Far from it. My dad was pretty much every kind of -ist you can think of. Every day, there was some new lecture about how homosexuality was ruining the country and how people who didn't define themselves as their assigned gender were just seeking attention and how people of basically any skin color but pure white should go back to their own country. Like we didn't invade this country and steal the land from Native Americans." Dash's voice turned hard and cold.

Kwan shifted so they sat in more of a circle than a line. He took Dash's free hand and held it tightly. "You can just imagine how much Dash's dad liked that his best friend was Asian."

"Don't forget that Paulina is Hispanic and Valerie is black."

"He's probably rolling over in his grave right now."

"Good. He deserves to suffer." Dash sighed. "But that's getting off topic. My dad had anger issues, drinking issues, and when he was in a certain mood, the words went away and the fists came out. It took me a long time to realize I was taking out my anger at my dad on everyone else. And since I thought you're family was so perfect, I ended up picking on you the most. I see now that you were dealing with a whole lot of shit yourself."

"You didn't know any better about mine than I did about your family life." Danny shrugged. "But I'm sorry you had to deal with that. It had to be tough."

"I hated it, but I had Kwan to keep me sane. Despite any rifts it caused with my mom and sister, I'm just glad all of his abuse was aimed at me rather than them."

"Well, if he became a ghost, you can bet I'll give him a few hits for you." Danny freed his hand and held up a fist, casting an eerie green glow around the bedroom.

Dash snorted, his mouth curling slightly. "Appreciate it, but I really hope that bastard just died and didn't turn into a ghost."

"I'm still mad that he wouldn't let me tell anyone about it," Kwan grumbled, shooting a glare at Dash. "I kept trying to get him to talk to someone, like Lancer, but he wouldn't hear it. I hated seeing the bruises your dad left on you."

"I probably should have listened to you, but I was an idiot back then."

"I think we were all a little idiotic back then in some fashion." Kwan rubbed a sweaty hand on his leg. "Since we're all talking about things that give us nightmares," he swallowed nervously, "sometimes, I wake up scared that this is all just a dream. For a brief moment when I wake up, I think I'm in some shitty apartment, alone, barely managing to pay rent while looking for yet another job because I was fired from my previous one. I know that doesn't compare to either of your fears, but the idea that this is a dream terrifies me."

"It's not a contest about whose fear is more important than the others." Dash squeezed his hand tightly. "We all have our own issues, and they're all important and valid."

Kwan smiled. Hearing Dash say things like that made Kwan realize just how much his friend had grown since high school.

"I guess that whole thing with the guidance counselor really got to you though," Dash added with a frown.

"As odd as it is, making me believe I'd become homeless in the future really did wake me up and get me to start thinking about my future." Kwan bowed his head, feeling a little embarrassed. "Because of that, I focused on becoming a teacher, even if my parents completely hate that decision. She was terrible as a counselor, but maybe I would have actually become what she said I would if she hadn't scared me with that comment."

"I guess she wasn't all bad," Danny said, but the frown on his face said he was still angry about something, "and I'm glad that because of that, we all ended up here. But I'm still bitter about the fact that she tried to kill Jazz."

"Wait. What?" Dash shouted. Then he winced, hunching up his shoulders. "That was pretty loud, wasn't it?"

"I think you're okay." Danny chuckled, patting Dash on the shoulder. "And yeah, you see, that counselor Spectra, she fed on teen angst to make her look young. What better way to get a giant fix than to kill off the most cheerful student, my sister, in front of the whole student body?" He frowned, his fist squeezing tighter as the glow brightened. "That's not something I just forgive and forget. We may have a truce now, but I'm not forgiving her for that."

Kwan placed his hand on Danny's fist. Despite the fiery glow, it was actually cool to the touch. "I don't blame you for that. I would probably feel the same if she tried the same to someone I cared about."

"You managed to stop Spectra and save Jazz in the end," Dash said. "Wow, that came out soundly rather blasé. I just mean that things turned out well. Argh!" He scratched at his head in the way he did when he was frustrated. "That's not coming out right, is it?"

"It's okay." The flickering fire around Danny's fist faded to a soft, gentle glow. "It's in the past now. And Jazz saved me that day too, so I wasn't the only hero." A big yawn stopped him from saying anything else.

"I guess it's pretty late," Kwan said, wincing, "and we do have work tomorrow."

"Yeah," Danny agreed tiredly, "but I'm glad we did this. Talk about this stuff. It was good for us."

Kwan nodded, feeling like they grew closer after sharing their fears with each other. "Let's have our next talk sometime when we don't have to worry about falling asleep during classes the next day." After agreements and rounds of goodnight, the three of them lay back down, drawing the covers over themselves. Somehow, Kwan ended up in the middle this time. Resting his head on the pillow, he smiled as Dash pressed up behind him and Danny curled up in front of him, sandwiching Kwan comfortably between them.

YumiStar: Yay! 8D Here's some more! XD

It's Like I'm Not Even There: What kind of situations with Phantom? =)

Gahikingboy: Thanks! =D Some ideas still have so much more that can be explored even after the end of the story. I do really enjoy writing! =) And thanks!

vampygurl402: Thanks. Hope you liked the new chapter.

Kimera20: Thanks! X3 And yay Paulina!

alex6235: Thanks! I didn't want it to end either. XD

RedHeadsRock1010: Thanks! =D

Trickster True: XD Sorry to keep you waiting! But I hope it was worth it!

xXRainbowCleoXx: Gotta love dorky Dash. XD Aw, thanks! I'm glad you like how I write Paulina! =)

Casper97: Isn't he just so cute when he's all flustered? XD