Mike beckoned Ember to follow him through the dense clump of trees ahead. He was moving very quickly, Ember knew that if she couldn't fly, she would have lost him by now. Earlier that day, Mike had told her he had something he wanted to show her, and so now here she was following him through a small forest.
"Okay," Mike said, his voice ringing with anticipation, "wait right here, I'll call you when I'm ready."
"Okay." Ember agreed, somewhat curious in spite of herself.
She watched Mike disappear through the thick vegetation and smiled to herself. Over the past two days, Ember and Mike had become even closer friends than they had been before. Ever since that night on the hill, just a few days ago, they had shared some sort of deeper bond, that went unspoken between the two of them, but was clearly there. There were just moments that they seemed to be such good friends, even though they'd only known each other for about five days now. Like now for example, Mike was going out of his way to surprise Ember with something, when she had done nothing for him. Ember's thoughts were jolted from her head when she heard Mike's voice coming from a short distance away.
"Ember, I'm ready, come on."
Ember took a moment to collect herself, and then hurried through the trees toward her friend.
Mike sat on a rock in the middle of a clearing, the sun was very faint in the sky and he shivered a bit as the wind twisted around him. He had been working for the past two days on a special surprise for Ember, something he knew she would love. Mike didn't know why, but he always felt so good whenever he saw Ember happy. The smile on her face was better than any joy he could experience himself. Not to mention the fact that whenever she was happy, she hugged him, that was definitely a plus. Mike adjusted the wait of the guitar, suspended from his left shoulder by a cloth strap. What Mike had been working on in all this time, was a song. A special song that he hoped would make Ember very happy.
"Ember," he called out, "I'm ready, come on."
He heard movement in the trees and got ready to play the guitar. He looked at the slowly rustling trees with anticipation, meanwhile positioning his fingers on the guitar's fret-board. The tangled vines slowly parted, and Ember stepped out into the clearing.
"Well," Mike said, playing a chord on the guitar, "here I go."
"What is this?" Ember asked.
"Oh you'll see." Mike said, and then he began to sing.
Darkness, darkness would hide me.
My heart, breaking in shame.
The flame, dying inside me.
My world lost till I heard your name.
Oh Ember, I will remember.
Ember, my spirit's flame.
Ember, my soul surrender...
I'll always remember your name.
Your love, your love has saved me,
the night within my mind.
In your soul, I see no evil...
Only compassion I find.
Oh Ember, I will remember.
Ember, my special flame.
Ember, your love will render...
Our two hearts are one and the same.
Ember gazed at Mike, shocked by his performance. Slowly the guitar playing died down, and Mike sat and looked at Ember anxiously. Ember didn't know what to say, how could she say anything that would sum up what she was feeling in that moment. He had written a song for her, and it was beautiful.
"Ember," Mike said, his voice now sounding very nervous, "are... are you okay."
He put down the guitar and walked over to where Ember stood, staring off into the distance. Ember didn't know why she wasn't speaking, something seemed to hold her back. She was overwhelmed by what her friend had done for her, but she needed to talk, to let him know how she felt. Mike was now standing directly in front of her, looking at her curiously.
"Ember," he asked, "are you okay?"
Suddenly Ember's senses came back to her. Her friend was standing right there, he had just done the nicest thing ever, and she was just standing there looking like an idiot.
"That was great," she said, pulling Mike into a tight embrace, "you rock."
Mike was relieved beyond reason, he had been afraid Ember wouldn't like the song. But now she was happy, and that made Mike happy. Yet there was still something he needed to talk to Ember about, something that might ruin the pleasure that both of them were feeling. Mike's parents would be coming back soon, the very next day as a matter of fact, and Ember would either have to come up with some great excuse to stay, or be forced to leave.
"Ember," Mike said, after their embrace had ended, "I have something I really need to talk with you about."
"Is something wrong?" She asked.
"Kind of," he replied, "or at least it presents a problem. My parents are coming home tomorrow, what are we going to do?"
"Oh is that it," Ember asked nonchalantly, "don't worry about that, I'm sure I'll think of something."
Mike relaxed quite a bit, he knew Ember was right. If there was one thing she was good at, it was convincing people that she was right. He knew that she would never leave him, not even his parents could make her go away. Yet there was still some sort of foreboding in his mind, some faint feeling of dread that wouldn't go away. Nothing was wrong, he knew that, and yet...
"Are you okay?" Ember asked, looking quizzically at Mike.
With a start, he realized he'd been drifting off into his own thoughts, that seemed to be happening a lot lately.
"Yeah I'm fine," Mike replied, "I was just thinking."
"About?"
"Oh nothing in particular."
"Okay," Ember responded, "so what do you want to do now?"
"I say we get inside somewhere," Mike said, shivering, "it's cold out here."
Ember took Mike by the hand and began to rise up into the air.
"Your wish is my command." She said, laughing at his expression of surprise.
No matter how many times she and Mike flew together, the initial process of lifting off the ground always seemed to startle him. Ember liked that fact, it was... interesting. They started flying out over the streets of Amity Park, looking for a nice place to hang out. They flew over a crowd of kids standing on a street corner, a couple of stern looking businessmen, and some little children playing jump-rope on the sidewalk. Ember looked down at the streets she had come to know as her home in this short time. So much more life and warmth existed here than in the Ghost Zone. Ember shuddered just to think about that cold brutal chaos that she used to think was a haven for her. Even if these people weren't idol-worshiping her, she still was receiving power from their presence, and the presence of her closest friend. She could feel the power coursing through her body, power enough to easily take control of this town, but she didn't want to. Ember had no desire to be a supreme ruler anymore, that part of her had died and she was glad for that. All she wanted was to be free and happy, to be with people who cared about her not because she forced them to, but because they were truly her friends.
"There's a good place, we could hang out at." Mike said, pointing down to a bookstore.
"Sounds good to me." Ember agreed as they descended slowly from the sky.
People saw them and naturally started freaking out. They ran in all directions in fear that these two flying figures had come to attack them, or some such nonsense.
"Well we sure our popular today." Ember laughed.
They landed gently on the sidewalk directly in front of the bookstore and went inside through the small set of doors. The place was quiet, very warm, and it smelled like a mixture of new books and coffee. It was a pleasant place, a place where one could gather their thoughts in the company of friends. Mike could already tell that he and Ember would come back here. Places like these were few and far between, but once you found one, you tended to spend a lot of time in it. They started walking around, just checking out the place to see a little more of it. They found a nice area to sit down and talk, it was a small circle of chairs, which surrounded a table. Ember made herself invisible and sat down in one of the chairs, better not to let all these people see the ghost who had tried to enslave them.
"So," Mike said, "what are we going to do when my parents get back?"
"Good question," Ember answered, "I'll think of something, but I'd appreciate a little help."
"Maybe," Mike thought aloud, "you could tell them that you were haunting our house and that you couldn't leave."
"Or," Ember mused, "that I am your spiritual familiar... and if I leave y..."
"It would upset the balance of the universe!" Mike finished for her.
"Yeah," Ember laughed, "that's a decent one, hopefully it will work."
"Yeah for your sake." A familiar voice said.
Ember turned her invisible head and saw three people standing between the rows of shelves. Three people she knew very well. Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley. Sam had been the one who had spoken, so Ember fixed her with a piercing glare, which fell short of its intended effect because Sam couldn't see Ember.
"Who are you?" Mike asked, of course he didn't know who the human Danny was.
"Uh..." Danny stammered, "we're... a ghost hunting squad. And either you're talking to yourself, or there's a ghost here."
Ember phased into visibility and stared angrily at Danny.
"He's Danny Phantom," she said shortly, "the ghost kid in his human form and these are his two nerdy friends."
"Hey," Sam objected, "I am not a nerd!"
"Ember," Danny gasped, "you just... you just gave away my identity."
"So what's your point," Ember asked, "Mike's a sweet kid, he'd never tall anyone."
"Yeah," Mike said, "as long as you aren't here to capture Ember, you're secret's safe with me."
Danny grumbled to himself for a few minutes, but finally consented to what had just happened. Ember smiled as if nothing at all had happened and waited for Danny to continue the conversation.
"So," Danny said, "if I heard right, your parents are coming home right Mike?"
"Yeah."
"So you need a plan," Danny continued, "and maybe we can help you."
The three friends took seats next to Mike and Ember and they began brainstorming ideas.
Within the next hour they came up with several random plans to help Ember live with Mike. Danny's ideas seemed kind of risky, Sam refused to contribute for the benefit of an "evil mind controlling spirit", and Tucker's only idea was to let Ember live with him instead. Just when Mike was losing all hope of ever coming up with an idea, Sam piped up.
"Hey, they can't kick Ember out if they don't see her."
"That's a great idea," Danny said, "if Ember stays invisible they won't be able to find her."
"And I'll look like an idiot talking to myself." Mike added.
"We'll work around that," Sam said, "but that seems like the best option we have."
"Hey," Tucker protested, "what about my idea. I bet Ember would love to stay in my room."
Ember looked somewhat disgusted by the idea, so Tucker stopped talking. Danny stood up, indicating that he was leaving.
"Where are you going?" Ember asked.
"Home," Danny said, "in case you haven't noticed, it's getting late."
"We better head back too," Mike said, turning to Ember, "I have to make sure the house is clean before my parents get back."
"Right," Ember agreed, grabbing his hand, "up, up, and away."
Mike felt the now familiar sensations of phasing straight through a solid object, in this case the roof of the bookstore, and then they were off into the cool night sky.
By the time they had reached Mike's house, the pair were both very tired. Ember looked sleepily out the window from where she sat on the couch. Mike sat next to her, changing the channels on the TV. After a few minutes of fruitless channel surfing, Mike clicked off the TV and set the remote down.
"I'm so tired," he yawned, "are you tired too?"
"Yeah," Ember responded, "I'm pretty sleepy."
Mike let out a loud yawn and Ember laughed. Gently, she took him by the shoulders and pulled him closer to her. He rested his head against her shoulder and breathed a sigh of contentment. Ember looked at him where he lay so comfortably and felt a surge of warmth well up in her heart. She put her arms around him and cradled his head against her chest. He looked up sleepily as his eyes steadily drifted shut. Ember lifted her hand slowly and brushed a strand of Mike's hair out of his eyes.
"Goodnight Mike," she whispered, felling yet another surge of power course through her body, "and don't worry, no matter what your parents say, there's nothing that could ever make me leave you."
AUTHOR's NOTE: So there's my next update, considerably shorter than the last one, but I hope you like it all the same. Please review this one like you did before, just tell me what parts you liked and disliked about it, and yes I know it was short. I'll do a longer one next time.