Phantom wasn't actively looking for Johnny. He wasn't.

He was just flying around aimlessly, as he often did. All his friends were at school, afterall, and even when they weren't in school that didn't mean he'd get to hang out with them.

And it wasn't his fault ghosts stuck out like sore thumbs. He noticed their glow, even if he was so high up that the people of Amity Park looked like ants. Phantom knew when he was looking at a ghost.

Johnny was on a date with Kitty, it seemed. So Phantom stayed invisible.

That's just common courtesy isn't it? He didn't want to interrupt.

Shadow punched him in the gut for his troubles.

"Jeez, kid," Johnny sighed. "The hell are you doing sneaking up on us like that?"

Shadow was holding him up by the front of his jumpsuit. Phantom allowed himself to dangle there and didn't even flinch when Shadow snickered and reared his inky fist back for another smack.

"That's enough Shadow," Johnny said. "You can put him down."

Reluctantly, Shadow did so. Kitty cooed over him. "Aw, no fight in you today? What's wrong, sweetie?"

Phantom frowned at her. "Nothing's wrong."

"Don't be like that, baby," Kitty said. "You're saggy as a wilting flower. Like a love sick puppy. Girls giving you trouble?"

He glared at her.

"Don't flirt with the kid," Johnny growled.

Kitty pouted at him. "I wasn't flirting!"

Then her eyes brightened, glowing ominously, "And so what if I was? You flirt with human bitches all the time, but I can't play around with the baby ghost?"

Phantom blinked at that. Baby ghost? Is that how the others saw him?

Johnny groaned. "For the last time-"

"Nuh uh," Kitty said. "Stop right there, I'm not listening to-"

"Babe-"

"Johnny-"

"Guys!" Phantom said. "Look, I just wanted to uh…"

They looked at him expectantly.

"Can you guys have sex?" he blurted out.

He immediately regretted it when Johnny groaned and Kitty clapped her hands together in delight. "Do you mean with each other or with humans?" Kitty said. "Little ghost! You are love sick!"

"Well, I was just wondering if, uh, if it works," Phantom stammered. "Um, down there. F-for…"

Kitty smirked, looking between the two of them. "If what works?"

"I'm just wondering-"

Johnny gave him a withering look. "You can't ask that in front of my girl."

"So he can ask you later?" Kitty giggled. "Is this what you guys talk about when I'm not around?"

"Oh yeah," Johnny said. "Don't you think he'd know by now that his dick works-"

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Phantom said. "Shouldn't have asked, shouldn't have interrupted your date-"

Kitty suddenly grabbed Phantom in a hug, pulling him into the sky with her and twirling around. "Sweetie, you should ask more often! This is great!"

Johnny floated after them with a scowling Shadow behind him.

"In fact, Johnny was just saying that our relationship is too boring," Kitty said. "He wants to spice things up. Invite more people in."

Johnny groaned. "I meant girls."

"How is that fair, huh?" Kitty said. "You get all the human girls you want and what do I get?"

"You seriously want this kid?" Johnny pointed at Phantom and Kitty held him tighter.

Phantom tried wriggling out of her hold.

"He's adorable," Kitty said. "Lemme keep him. C'mon. It's fair."

Her arms were iron around him. When Phantom tried going intangible her glow brightened.

Huh, he couldn't just phase through like usual.

What a distressing development.

Their bickering faded into the background as his vision focused in on her arms around him, on the way her aura had trapped his, like she'd dampened his powers with hers.

Like he'd been engulfed.

She'd eat him, drain him… keep him?

No, no, no.

Phantom didn't want to be kept.

Before he could work himself up into a panic, Tucker's voice was in his ear. "... not wearing the Fenton Phones today? Hello?"

"Tucker," Phantom said. "Wh-what's up?"

Kitty and Johnny stopped arguing to blink at him.

"We're on our way to Sam's house," Tucker said. "Need your help with something. You, uh, got time?"

"Yeah dude!" Phantom said. "I'll be right there."

Johnny raised an eyebrow and Phantom tapped at his ears, indicating the little green buds.

"This has been fun guys," Phantom said. "But I gotta go. My friends need my help."

Kitty gave him a squeeze that would have knocked the air out of his lungs if he were human.

"But I wanted to have some fun," she murmured, lips right up against his ear. She nuzzled her cheek against his hair.

"R-raincheck?" he said. He gave Johnny a look. Something that he hoped would easily be understood as: save me!

"C'mon babe let the kid go," Johnny said. "He's got things to do."

She abruptly released him.

"Fine," Kitty said. "Whatever."

Then she disappeared.

Johnny chuckled. "Don't take her too seriously," he said. "She's just playing around."

Phantom didn't respond. He knew Kitty was likely still floating right here. And he didn't want to say something that would piss her off.

She was scary enough when he was supposedly on her good side.

Johnny ruffled his hair. "Didn't realize I had to give you the birds and the bees along with everything else."

Phantom directed his gaze downward, trying to re-orient himself. They'd floated far from the starting point.

"Hey kid, c'mon," Johnny said. "Why the silent treatment?"

Phantom shrugged.

Johnny rolled his eyes. "Alright, fly away now baby ghost."

"I'm not a baby," Phantom said.

"To us you are," Johnny said.

Before Phantom could retort Johnny gave him a smirk and a wink.

Then he disappeared too.

oOo

They were all in Sam's room when he got there. Arguing about Dash.

"What did he do this time?" Phantom said.

They all kind of jolted, like the little flinch from an audience at a horror movie's jump scare.

"Sorry, shouldn't just pop in like that," Phantom said. "Uh, maybe next time I'll knock on the door? Float politely outside?"

"You do that," Sam said. "Or knock and then walk in through the door. Gives us a heads up without making me get up."

"Deal," Phantom said.

And he assumed his usual Zen pose in mid-air, purely out of habit. "So what did Dash do?"

"He's possessed," Fenton said. "By this like… nerd ghost?"

"Definitely a nerd," Tucker said. "From the 50s, from the way he talks."

"Whoa," Phantom said. "Karmic justice."

Fenton laughed. "See? We should just leave Dash to rot, he agrees with me."

"That wasn't him agreeing," Sam said.

"Leave Dash to rot?" Phantom said. "Yeah, I agree. Let's play some video games."

"Okay seriously," Tucker said. "Ignoring the victim in question what if this is just the start? Part one of body snatchers invading the town?"

"Most ghosts hate possessing people," Phantom said. "With good reason, feels icky."

"Really?" Fenton said. "Who have you possessed besides dad?"

Phantom fiddled with his fingers, glancing around the room as their eyes widened. "Uh, not really anyone else…"

"He's definitely lying," Sam said. "Wait, when did you posses Mr. Fenton?"

"That was a very short possession!" Phantom said. "It freaked Fenton out, he made me get out-"

"Who else did you possess?" Tucker said.

Phantom sighed. "Random people. Like at the mall and stuff. When I first discovered I could do it. And I was bored. I never stayed long. Like I said: feels icky."

"Wow," Sam said. "Any other experiments we should know about?"

Ghosts can't blush, Phantom thought. Ghosts can't blush.

"Um, no," he said.

Sam looked at him and snorted. "You should see your own face," she said. "You're guilty of something."

Is it his fault if a female ghost grabs him and won't let go?

"I'm not guilty of anything," Phantom said. But he glanced at Fenton and thought, well…

The thing with Paulina had been his fault. And not paying enough attention to the dragon amulet. And-

"Anyway, do you know how to exorcise a ghost?" Tucker said.

"Oh, that's easy," Phantom said. "I can just grab the ghost and pull it out."

"You've done that?" Fenton said. "When are you doing all this stuff?"

Phantom rolled his eyes and let himself float upside down. "I have a lot of free time, Fenton."

Especially now that you don't want to hang out with me anymore, Phantom thought.

Tucker clapped his hands together, "Then let's just grab the ghost now! I bet we'll find Dash at the Nasty Burger."

"What makes you say that?" Fenton said.

"They've got the best milkshakes," Tucker said. "Duh."

Milkshakes?

Tucker pointed at Phantom. "Follow us invisibly and then just pull the ghost out."

He pointed at Fenton. "You still have that ghost vacuum cup thing?"

"You mean the Fenton Thermos?"

"Yeah, that. Bring it so we can trap the ghost."

"We don't have to trap it," Phantom said. "Unless it's hostile."

"Wow, I have to agree with Phantom," Sam said. "Let's be humane."

Tucker groaned. "Whatever let's just-" He blinked. Gagged. "Save. Dash. Ugh."

Fenton made a face. "I still say we don't have to."

"We can't condone body snatching!" Tucker said. "There's a line, Danny. That line shan't be crossed. Have you not been paying attention at the movies?"

Fenton threw his hands in the air. "I need to re- watch the stupid movies, Tuck! I don't remember them!"

There was an awkward pause.

"Danny-" Sam started.

"Don't," Fenton said. "Look, I'm sorry-"

"Nah man, I'm sorry," Tucker said. "I keep forgetting-"

Phantom glanced at his hands to make sure they were still visible.

"Let's just go, okay?" Fenton said. "Phantom?"

He was still visible. "Yeah?"

"Can I go with you? Invisibly and everything?"

Another awkward pause.

Fenton was looking directly at him. Phantom's eyes widened as he processed the request.

He was taking too long to answer. Fenton was frowning. He opened his mouth, maybe to take it back.

"Y-yeah!" Phantom said. "We'll just follow them. Yeah, you can come with me. Yeah."

I'll have to carry him, Phantom thought. But Fenton knows that. We've done this before…

"So we'll meet you guys there," Fenton said. "Alright?"

"Alright," Tucker said. "And the thermos?"

Fenton pulled it out of his backpack. "I always have it with me these days."

Tucker nodded.

Then Phantom put a tentative hand on Fenton's shoulder. He made them both invisible.

Fenton shivered.

"S-see you in a bit," Fenton said.

Then Phantom was pulling them both through the ceiling, holding Fenton firmly against his chest and grinning into his hair.

It had been too long.

oOo

They were sort of floating against the ceiling while they waited for Sam and Tucker to show up.

Danny frowned at the way Phantom was cuddling him, but there was very little he could do and nothing he could say.

He didn't want to be overheard or anything.

Tucker had been right about Dash. Or, about the ghost in his body. He was at the Nasty Burger.

And he was buying milkshakes for everybody.

"That's a much better name for it," Dash was saying. "And they taste better too. Maybe there's more milk in the shake now!"

"Uh huh," Star said. "When was the last time you had one?"

"I couldn't tell ya."

Wait a minute. Why were they waiting on Tucker and Sam? Why not just grab the ghost right now?

Or was Tucker going to try and get Dash out of people's view? Ask him to step outside?

They should have gone over the plan in more detail.

Phantom gave him a particularly tight squeeze and Danny huffed. "Knock it off!" he whispered.

He glared at the heads under them, daring someone to hear him.

No one reacted.

"Sorry," Phantom whispered. "I missed you."

"Sure you did."

"Fenton-"

Dash glanced up, a puzzled frown on his face.

"Shh!"

Dash's eyes were glowing. He was looking right at them.

"Can he see us?" Danny whispered.

Dash stood and looked pointedly from them to the door.

"Sorry, friends," Dash said. "Gotta split."

They all said their goodbyes and Dash grinned at them. "Catch ya on the flip side!" he said.

Then he looked right at Danny. And made a motion with his hands. Like "Follow me."

"B-but I can't see other ghosts when they're invisible," Phantom whispered.

"Have you ever tried?"

"Well, no but-"

They followed Dash outside and hovered over him as he strolled behind a dumpster.

"Alright-y," Dash said. "Unhand that boy, you filthy poltergeist!"

Fenton could feel his skin warm up as Phantom dropped their invisibility. He pulled a hand in front of his face to double check though.

Yep, wiggling fingers all accounted for.

"Who are you calling a poltergeist, puppet master?" Phantom retorted. "You get out of that human and I'll let this one go, sound fair?"

"Hey!" Danny said. "Get closer to the ground if you're gonna drop me!"

"This human was a bully," Not-Dash said. "He's getting his just desserts."

"I cannot argue that," Phantom sighed.

"But that one is an innocent nerd," the ghost continued. "You should let him go."

"Hey! Who said I was a nerd?" Danny said.

"The entire football team?" Phantom said.

"Ugh," Danny said. "Just put me down and grab the ghost."

"Yessir, Fenton sir," Phantom said. "I live to please."

Danny stood with his hand ready on the Fenton Thermos lid, just in case Dash's ghost came flying at him.

Phantom flew at Dash and there was a flash of light before he bounced back and hit the ground.

Danny squinted at them. Was the ghost still inside Dash?

"You're holding pretty tight," Phantom said. "How are you doing that?"

"It's easy to hold onto a body when the human isn't here," the ghost said, grinning wide with Dash's perfect teeth.

"Wh-what do you mean he isn't there?" Danny said.

Dash sighed. "I didn't want you to know," he said. "I thought I could pass for human."

"Well, he knows," Phantom said. "Where's the human?"

"Why should I tell you, you rotten bully?" The ghost glared at Phantom and put his fists up. "I'll fight you, this human has guns for miles. I'm not afraid!"

Phantom blinked. He shared a look with Danny. "He really is a nerd."

"Um, Phantom wasn't bullying me," Danny said. "Uh, so I don't need to be rescued…"

Not-Dash flinched. "Phantom?" He said. "As in The Phantom? The dragon tamer?"

He scrutinized Phantom. "Black and white jumpsuit, white hair… but I thought you'd be bigger…"

"Excuse me?" Phantom said. "What are you talking about?"

"You're the Phantom," the ghost said. "Word spreads in the ghost zone. Of the baby ghost, not even a year dead, who protects Amity from dragons and wayward ghosts who might harm the citizens!"

Danny laughed. "Wow, you make him sound like a superhero."

"He is a hero," the ghost said.

Then he was kneeling reverently.

"I have immense respect for you Mr. Phantom," he said. "I'm sorry for stepping through your territory."

Phantom scratched his head. "Um, thanks. What's your name?"

"Sidney Pointdexter, at your service," the ghost said. "I've been haunting Casper High for years and years."

"Nice to finally know your name," Danny said.

Sidney grinned at him. "Shucks," he said. "I've never met a human so friendly to ghosts."

Phantom put an arm around Danny's shoulder. "Oh, he's the friendliest."

Danny shrugged him off. "Could you not?"

Phantom clasped his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels, directing his attention back towards Sidney/Dash. "So where's the human bully? If he's not in the body where is he?"

"He's in the mirror, sir," Sidney said. "Living through the worst years of my life."

Danny whistled. "Literal karmic justice."

"Would you mind, uh, letting him out of the mirror?" Phantom said.

Sidney tilted his head. "I don't think that's possible."

"Why not?"

"I just don't know how to do it?" Sidney looked apologetic. "It's never occured to me, you see. Why would I let a bully go?"

"Right, right," Phantom said.

His head tilted. He nodded. "Already found Dash. We're outside. Behind the dumpster."

He was talking into the Fenton Phones.

Danny had left his pair at home. He hadn't been wearing them lately.

"Some of my friends are going to join us, that okay Sidney?" Phantom said.

"Sounds swell," Sidney said. "More the merrier!"

And he grinned when he saw Tucker. "Of course the Phantom would know the best people," Sidney said. "It's great to see you again!"

Tucker was puzzled. "Great to see you too, Dash…"

"He knows we know," Danny said. "His name is Sidney."

"So plan A was a bust then?" Sam said.

"Yep."

"Dash is trapped in a mirror," Phantom said. "Sidney is very sorry for doing it, but Dash deserved it. That right?"

"Oh yes sir!" Sidney said. "You should have seen what that scoundrel was up to!"

Danny cringed, remembering the way his arms and legs had started to grow numb in the cramped locker.

"What kind of mirror are we talking about?" Tucker said. "A cursed mirror? Is it full length or, like, compact? Wait, not the bathroom mirrors?! Bloody Mary style?!"

Sidney laughed. "I'll show you," he said. "It's in my old locker."

And just like that Dash's body was glowing. He floated. "Who am I carrying?" He said.

"You can still use your powers?!" Phantom said. "I couldn't use them at all when I was possessing people."

"Everything takes practice," Sidney said. "You really haven't been dead a full year yet?"

Phantom scratched his head. "Almost a year…"

"More on that later," Tucker said. "I've always wanted to fly!"

"C'mon pal," Sidney said. "I got you!"

Tucker allowed Dash to pick him up. It was the weirdest thing Danny had ever seen. Dash and Tucker, smiling at each other…

Just creepy.

"I'll get there the human way, thank you very much," Sam said. "Meet you all there."

Danny watched her walk away and wondered: Should he go with her?

But Phantom had his arms around him in a flash. "Race you there!" he said.

"Off the line!" Sidney said.

And then they were in the air, wind rushing by so fast Danny could hear it whistling.

And he wondered if Phantom could hear how fast his heart was beating.

It really was amazing, being able to fly. Even if he was just baggage being carried along for the ride. Danny loved it.

But he wouldn't tell Phantom that. Or that he'd missed him too.

What would be the point?

"I like your personality too," Phantom whispered.

"What?"

"Your personality," Phantom repeated. "Not just the… you being me, thing. Cause you aren't me. You're your own person. A new person."

Danny closed his eyes. The wind was too cold, he decided. His eyes were stinging.

"You're just saying what you think I want to hear," Danny said.

"No I mean it!" Phantom said. "I'm sorry if you misunderstood me, that time-"

"I didn't misunderstand," Danny said.

He opened his eyes.

They were hovering outside Casper High. "Did they already go inside?"

"Looks like I lost the race," Phantom said.

"Get in there," Danny said.

"I just wanted to say-"

"We can talk about this later."

"Fenton-"

"Later," he repeated.

Phantom sighed. "Later. Fine."

And they flew inside.

Cause they had to save Dash. Ugh.