Chapter 25

Danny rested his chin on Dash's chest as he stared up at the man. "Just so you know, I don't usually just hop into bed with people." He turned his gaze away, embarrassment adding to his awkwardness. Back in high school, he never imagined that he would actually end up in bed with Dash, and this time without clothes on.

Dash laughed as his hand ran down Danny's backside, making the half ghost squirm against him. "I wasn't even thinking something like that." He rolled his eyes at Danny's embarrassment. "Besides, you're a grown man. You can make decisions like that on your own."

"Well, I just don't want you think that I'm-"

"You're definitely not a man slut." Dash grinned at the red coloring Danny's face. "Though I have to admit this wasn't how I thought the night would go."

Danny sat up, the hand slipping away from his body. "How was the night supposed to go then?" A sudden nervous feeling coiled inside him, worrying that he wouldn't like the answer that was to come.

"Well," Dash sat up, a hand running through his hair, "the whole confession part wasn't in the plan." He smirked at Danny. "Don't regret it."

"So you did get jealous when Darren pretended to be interested in me?" Danny grinned playfully while Dash scowled.

"I don't know that he was just playing," Dash muttered. "But no, there was something else I wanted to talk about. I never expected you to suddenly kiss me like that."

"Not my finest moment." Danny's shoulders slumped a little at the memory of the rough kiss that somehow led to the bed. It certainly wasn't the most romantic kiss in history. "So what did you want to talk about then?"

Dash fell silent for a while, seeming to debate the topic of their next discussion. The silence bothered Danny, and he drew up his knees, hoping this wouldn't be some relationship ending conversation before they even really started a relationship. Then Dash sighed and turned his gaze back to Danny. "How do you turn evil?"

It was like Dash punched him in the chest with that one question. For a moment, Danny couldn't breathe. "What?" The question came out in a gasp as he tried to get over his shock. Why would Dash ask something like that? How would Dash even know that he turned evil in one future?

"I met him." Dash raked a hand through his unkempt blond hair. Tension wound its way through his body, and he seemed to be restraining himself. His voice was tight with suppressed anger. "Apparently this evil version of you has been 'guarding' Kwan. He wouldn't say what happened, but he did say it had nothing to do with the Guys in White." His gaze settled on the half ghost's chest where he could barely see the start of the scar before Danny's knees hid the rest from sight. Remembering that conversation still provoked anger in him.

"Dan, that idiot." Danny banged his head on his knees a few times. Leave it to Dan to spill the beans! He thought Dan would at least be smart enough to keep himself hidden. He should have known that Dan couldn't keep quiet. "So much for him being discreet about protecting Kwan."

A frown pursed Dash's lips as an eyebrow twitched. "You knew your crazy evil future self was hanging around Kwan? And you were just going to keep quiet about it?"

"You didn't know about me then! You really think I was just going come to you and say: hey, Dash! My evil future self, which is a ghost, is going to be watching over Kwan. Oh, and by the way, I'm half ghost." Danny glared right back at Dash, not backing down from the anger the blond man displayed. "Dan isn't going to hurt Kwan. I know that sounds crazy since he's evil and all, but Dan wouldn't risk complete erasure. Hurting Kwan would likely land him a one way ticket to non existence. And right now, I don't think Dan is the ghost you need to worry about hurting Kwan." Danny rubbed at his forehead. This wasn't a conversation that he expected to have with Dash. "If he hasn't done anything to Kwan yet, I doubt he's going to. He's acting under orders from Clockwork."

"Apparently he doesn't know how to shut up." Dash still looked annoyed by the whole situation. "I still want to know how you turn evil. I couldn't really try asking more with Kwan there."

Danny sighed tiredly. Dash wore that look that said he wouldn't drop it. "It happened way before the thing with the Guys in White and it started with a stupid mistake." He leaned his head back as he dove into the whole story about how Dan came to be with a few edits. Dash would probably keep the secret, but Danny wasn't the type to go around exposing someone else's secret identity. "So in the end, I beat him, and now he works for Clockwork as part of his getting to stay in existence. And since that day, I promised I would never turn out like him." His eyes were closed, not wanting to imagine the expression on Dash's face. Who would ever think that cheating on some stupid test would result in him becoming one of the worst villains in history?

For a time, they both remained silent, and Danny's nervousness increased with each passing second. Then Dash released one breathy statement. "You're so strong."

Danny laughed, unable to stop himself. Did Dash really just say that? He thought for sure he must be imagining it. "I'm not really that strong." He held up his arms to show off how much scrawnier they looked compared to Dash's buff arms. Over the years of fighting ghosts, he developed a fairly lean muscled body, but his size was dwarfed next to Dash. Without his ghost powers, Danny wouldn't be able to stand against Dash in a contest of brute strength.

Dash shook his head and pushed down Danny's arms. "I don't mean physical strength. You've fought your evil self, and you won." Amazement shone in his dark blue eyes that made Danny blush. "You've been through hell. If the Guys in White did that to me, cut me open like a dead body, I would probably be out for revenge. After you told me what happened, I wanted to go kick their asses." He sighed, some of the tension relaxing from his shoulders. "But you've managed to hold back that anger, rise above it, all to keep that promise of not turning evil. That makes you strong. It would have been so easy for you to give in to hate and anger and let that control you, but you made that hard choice. Not everyone has that kind of strength."

Danny shifted uncomfortably. Dash praising him was just as weird as Dash comforting him or liking him. "I just don't want to disappoint my family and friends," he mumbled. He really didn't know how to react to Dash saying such things to him. It still surprised him when Dash leaned over to kiss him, but it sent a warm, happy feeling through him.

"I'm still not sure I like Dan bothering Kwan though," Dash mumbled against Danny's lips.

"Please don't talk about my future evil self when we're kissing." Danny didn't like the image of Dan popping into his mind when he was trying to enjoy the moment.

A grin curved only Dash's face, and he laughed. "Sorry." He pulled away and leaned back against the wall. "It still seems a little weird that there's an evil you out there. Even weirder that he's hanging around Kwan."

"Well, it's been helpful since I can't keep a constant watch on the two of you." Danny frowned suddenly as he looked Dash over. "You know, it seems like that ghost is way more interested in attacking Kwan than you. I just assumed that it was after both of you since it attacked you both the morning of that first movie night."

"But why Kwan? He's, like, the nicest guy in the world." Dash's brow furrowed with confusion. "Why would any ghost hold a grudge against Kwan?"

Danny slowly pushed away from the wall. A thought was wiggling into his mind, fighting through the jumbled mess of thoughts. "Wait!" He jumped out of the body and scrambled into the other room. After some searching, he returned to the bedroom with some files.

"Well, there's a site I can get used to seeing." Dash folded his arms behind his head as he grinned widely.

Danny blinked then glanced down to see what the man meant. A dark flush returned when he remembered his nude state. "Dash," he growled but was secretly pleased with Dash appreciating his body. He hurried back over to the bed, throwing the covers over himself. With Dash staring so obviously at him, he wouldn't be able to concentrate.

"What's all this?" Dash waved at the files that Danny laid out over the bed.

"They're from that last case I was working on." Danny spread out the various files for the victims. "You just reminded me of something. That ghost I fought before that team of Guys in White showed up and you had to save me, that was Lucas."

"Uh, what? But he's not dead."

Danny wasn't surprised by the confusion. He still didn't understand what was happening. "Yes, I'm very much aware of that. But, Dash, Lucas wasn't the only ghost I've encountered lately that isn't actually dead. And all of them were victims of that mystery drug that left them in a coma." He waved a hand over the files. "And you made me think. There's no logical reason for any of the ghosts I know to attack Kwan. But what if the ghost is someone who isn't actually dead yet? What if it's one of these victims? Do any of them look familiar? Would any of them have reason to hurt Kwan?"

"I'm telling you," Dash sighed, "no ghost would have a reason to go after Kwan. You know him! He's super friendly. Even in high school, he only did the bully thing because of me."

"I know. But will you just look?"

Dash rolled his eyes, clearly thinking this was a waste of time. He leaned over and gave each of the files a good look over before moving to the next. At the fifth file, he paused, and the color drained from his face.

Danny glanced at the file then to Dash. "What is it?" He picked up the one that caused the reaction in the other man. "Calvin Williams? Who is that?"

"My former best friend." Dash reached up and rubbed his hands over his face. Then one hand ran through his blond hair, taming some of the wildness. "Before Kwan moved here, Calvin and I were joined at the hip. The terror of our neighborhood."

"So what happened?"

"Kwan." It was a simple answer, and a glance at Danny told Dash more of an explanation was needed. "I've always been a bit of jerk, but I wasn't nearly half as bad as Calvin. When Kwan moved to town, Calvin jumped at the opportunity to torment the new kid in town." Guilt clouded his eyes, and Dash lowered his head. "Other kids would cry and run away, beg Calvin to stop hurting them, but Kwan would just stand there and take it like this was normal for him. It started to bug me. Here's this kid, new to town, and he's getting wailed on by the biggest jerk in Amity Park, and it's just nothing to him. I snapped. I punched Calvin so hard in the face that I broke his nose. Kwan was pretty shocked by that. Calvin was really pissed. But I didn't care. After that, I stuck to Kwan, and if Calvin so much as looked at Kwan wrong, I'd run him off."

Danny stared at Dash the whole time he told the story. "I never knew about that," he mumbled, not even realizing that Dash and Kwan might not have been immediate friends from the start. "So Calvin hates Kwan because he stole you away?"

"Kind of." Dash shrugged. "Calvin also expected to be king of the school when we hit high school. But I was more popular and a better football player. That only made him angrier because with me as king, Kwan was pretty much second. That first day of high school, Kwan saw Calvin heading for you and your friends. We both knew what would happen if he got there first, so I jumped in and started harassing you."

"So," Danny said slowly, working through what Dash said. "You bullied me to save me from a bully?"

"Yes. Basically, I did the same thing I did with Kwan. I marked you as mine that first day, and Calvin knew that he couldn't touch you without having to deal with me. But you know, the whole reputation thing in high school was pretty important. Freshmen year, especially, seemed like it was life or death if I wasn't popular. So I couldn't make friends with you and bullied you instead. Bullied everyone really so that Calvin knew to back off."

"Gee I feel special," Danny mumbled sarcastically.

Dash sighed in exasperation. "You're not getting it! Danny, you think I was bad as a bully, but Calvin was worse. He would have left you in a broken, bloody mess and not care if you ended up in the hospital, or worse the morgue. And he would be laughing the whole time. If you want this rated on a scale of one to ten, I was about a four and Calvin was about a twenty. He was bad news, but I never realized it until Kwan showed up. If not for Kwan, your life in high school would have been about a thousand times worse."

"I guess I should thank Kwan sometime." Danny shifted, drawing up his knees. He didn't like the sound of this Calvin person. The fact that he now had ghost powers made him sound a little more frightening. Well, he doesn't have a lot of control yet, he thought, deciding that was one good point. "Calvin sounds like a real jerk."

"Yeah, he tried to get the popular crowd to turn against me several times. But like I said, I was more popular, and among our crowd, I was well liked. There were only two or three other dicks on the team that would support him." Dash reached over and grabbed Danny's arm, pulling the half ghost over to him. His arms wrapped around Danny's waist, holding the man against his chest. "Kwan was like my conscience really. Without him, I probably never would have made it out of high school. I probably would have ended up getting kicked out at some point for hurting other students. I probably would have ended up on the other side of the law. And I definitely never would have admitted to having feelings for another guy. Calvin got kicked out of school toward the end of junior year. Last I heard, he was front running some gang and had already been to jail a number of times. Apparently, he got into drugs if he ended up as one of the victims in your cases. I could have ended up right there alongside him if not for Kwan."

"Who would have imagined that one meeting could change your life so much for the better?" Danny pressed his forehead to Dash's, even more grateful to Kwan for coming into Dash's life. "And I promise I'm not going to let this ass hurt Kwan."

"Don't forget. I have ghost hunting equipment." Dash grinned. "I'm helping."

Danny opened his mouth to argue when Dash silenced him with a kiss. He gave into the kiss, deciding his argument was pointless. Having Dash's to watch his back may not be that bad of an idea. Dash was a great help the last time they worked together to escape the Guys in White. Danny may need Dash to save him again if the agents caught him by surprised.