"I gotcha!"

Dash stared up at his hero as he struggled to hold him up, dangling off of the monstrosity that sat on top of the Fenton's roof while he was the size of an ant. Phantom's eyes were squeezed shut as he held on tight to Dash's wrist.

Phantom's appearance had been changing ever so slightly as he lost his powers after being hit by a Fenton device, so when a bright white ring appeared around the ghost's waist, he hoped it would mean that his powers were returning.

But instead of giving back any of his ghostly abilities, the ring traveled up and down his body. Phantom's eyes shot open and he gasped, looking down at himself. White hair was replaced by raven black and the Phantom t-shirt turned into Danny Fenton's signature tee that he wore everyday.

His head lifted up and Danny Fenton's blue eyes met Dash's and he felt his stomach drop.

Thoughts started spiraling through his head.

What the fuck. The kid I wail on everyday is my hero who's trying so hard to make sure I don't die. Why is he doing this?

Rockets flew past Dash's back and into the metal above Danny's head. A determined look that was normally worn by Phantom appeared on his face.

"One, two, three!"

Danny heaved Dash up onto the windowsill.

Dash sucked in a couple deep breaths as he watched Danny run over and try to open the window next to them.

Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom.

QQQQQ

He still couldn't believe it.

Danny Phantom, Dash's hero, transformed into Danny Fenton right before his very eyes. Saved his life! He had millions of questions but ever since they unshrunk themselves and Danny flew him back to the sidewalk, he had the gall. The audacity. To not even talk to Dash.

What was even worse was that Danny sat right in front of him in their english class. He ignored everything Dash did to get his attention. Kicking the back of his seat. Tapping on his shoulder. Pulling on his hair.

Dash huffed and rested his chin in his hand. He didn't know why Fenton wouldn't talk to him.

He looks over to the side and sees two of his classmates exchanging notes. The girl who opened it blushed and scribbled something down before passing it back.

Brain blasting, Dash ripped off a piece of his notebook paper and scribbled a smiley face on it. He threw it over Danny's shoulder and onto his desk. Only a few seconds went by before he threw it back over his shoulder and into Dash's face. He frowned.

Dash aggressively scribbled four more smiley faces and threw all five pieces of paper over Danny's shoulder again.

Danny sighed and finally, finally turned around to face Dash, a scowl on his face.

"What do you want Dash?"

"I think you know what I want." Dash pointed a finger at Danny. "I wanna talk about the other day."

"Dash-" Danny started but he was interrupted.

"No. I know what you're going to say. But you can't just drop something on me like that, accidental or not, and just. Ignore it."

"I don't have to talk to you about anything. It's none of your business."

Dash groaned and laid his head against his desk. "But I'm so curious."

"Why? Why do you even care? I'm just the kid you beat up everyday."

"But you're apparently also my hero." Dash mumbled into his elbow.

He could just feel Danny staring into the top of his head.

"Okay."

"What?" Dash lifted his eyes up to look at Danny who was still staring.

"I'll talk to you about whatever it is that you want to talk about."

Dash bolted up in his seat, mouth forming an O shape before he started trying to shoot off a question. Before he could finish, Danny was waving a hand in his face.

"Not here! There's too many people around. If you meet me outside during lunch we can talk about it then."

Dash closed his mouth and nodded his head. After a moment he threw another smiley face at Danny.

QQQQQ

Dash walked outside the front doors of the school and looked around. After a bit, he saw Danny sitting on top of the picnic table surrounded by some trees. He walked over and cleared his throat.

"Hey."

Danny turned around to face Dash, an apple in his hand. He took a bite of it and started talking with his mouth full.

"Charming." Dash sat down on the bench of the picnic table.

"What can I say." Danny shrugged. After taking another bite of his apple, Danny looked down at Dash from where he sat on the table, an apprehensive expression on his face. "So, uh, what did you want to talk about?"

Dash fidgeted with his hands. "You've only been like this since freshman year? When Phantom first started showing up all over the place?"

"Yes."

"How did it happen?"

He saw Danny tense up out of the corner of his eye so he looked up at him. Danny was looking anywhere but at Dash and he brought a hand up to rub at the back of his neck.

"Uh, usually our deaths are a touchy subject for ghosts but." Danny lifted his shirt just high enough so Dash could see a trail of lichtenberg scars. "It was my accident I had before the school year started. Sam and Tucker were over and we were messing with the ghost portal because it didn't work and they convinced me to go inside. I tripped on something in the portal and my hand hit the power button and…"

"Oh my god." Dash paled. "That must've been terrible."

"Yeah. It was."

Silence settled over them again after that.

"Sam and Tucker were there. That must mean they know, right?" Dash asked softly.

"Yep." Danny started scratching something into the surface of the picnic table.

"Does anyone else know?"

"Just Jazz. And all the ghosts. But they never tell anyone so it's fine."

Dash gawked at him. "All the ghosts? All of your enemies know your secret identity?!"

"Yeah, but they're not snitches."

"Danny!" Dash shouted. "What if they told your parents? Or the other ghost hunters?"

Danny shrugged. "They haven't yet. I'm not sure why, but they never go that far."

Dash placed his head in his hands. "They have a weird sense of camaraderie then considering they're always trying to kill you."

Danny just shrugged again.

Slowly lifting his head back up, Dash looked at Danny. "Can I see?"

Danny's brows furrowed. "See what?"

"You change, your transformation, whatever you call it."

They stared at each other for a moment before Danny took a deep breath.

"Okay. But no recording it or anything. Your phone has to stay away."

"I wasn't even thinking of recording it!" Dash exclaimed.

Danny stood up and hopped off the picnic table. He walked a few steps away and turned to face Dash, his feet spread apart and his hands in fists at his side. He closed his eyes.

"I'm going ghost!"

Dash watched in awe as a white ring appeared around Danny's waist, illuminating his face and his hair as it traveled up and down his body. Soon it disappeared and all that was left was Phantom.

"Woah."

Danny did some jazz hands. "Tada. That's how I transform, but you already sort of knew that." He floated so that he was laying on his stomach in the air.

Dash was still too busy studying Danny in his ghost form. He never believed that Fenton and Phantom looked so alike before but now that he knew it was impossible not to see it. He was broken out of his thoughts by a hand waving in his face.

"Did you have any other questions?" Danny asked.

"Uh, maybe just one more." Dash said sheepishly. "Can you show me some of your powers? Oh! Like your ghostly wail?"

Danny scrunched his nose up. "That's for emergencies only. The ghostly wail would take out all these trees and the parking lot."

Dash's shoulders slumped.

"But." Danny continued. "I can show you this one."

Looking back up, Dash saw Danny cupping his hands together. A blue blow shined inside them and when Danny opened them back up an ice crystal was in his hand. He held it out to Dash and he took it.

Looking at it, Dash saw that the ice didn't melt at his touch even though it was cold. He looked up at Danny with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Ghost ice. It follows its own laws of chemistry."

Dash nodded even though that didn't give him any sort of answer. He tried to hand the crystal back to Danny. "Here."

Danny shook his head. "Nah, you can keep it. It shouldn't melt or anything."

Looking back down at the crystal, he stared at it for a moment before stuffing it safely in his pocket. He opened his mouth to say something but the bell rang.

"Well." Danny said, the rings appearing around his waist again and turning him back to normal. "Time to go back to class."

He started walking away and Dash watched him go. He took a deep breath before jogging to catch up with him.

"Hey! Let me walk with you. We have our next class together."

Danny smiled and together they entered the school.