Honestly I'm spoiling you people too much, giving you all these words put together, tsk tsk. I'm a horrible person and honestly I should take a hiatus after this chapter.
It was Wednesday at last and Dash could hardly sit still from his look out chair. Kwan was supposed to be coming back this morning and as soon as he was done at the pool he was going over to see his friend for the first time since school had let out. It would be nice to have his old friend back, he enjoyed having Danny around and all, but Kwan was his oldest and best friend and he could go to Kwan for anything. Especially now as he could really use some advice that he obviously couldn't go to Danny for.
During dinner with his family, Danny had proven just how charming he could be. He talked with Dash's mother and took an interest in everything she said, laughing at some of the more disgusting tales she had as a nurse and being perfectly respectful towards her. His father was a bit harder to get on the good side of, but once the raven haired guy started on about engines the man fell into his charm and they all enjoyed talking about their random interests and subjects during the course of their meal.
That night was when things started to get a bit too much for Dash. When they got home, his parents had kept upstairs and watched TV, and Danny and him went downstairs to play more video games until it was late and they needed to get some sleep. Dash got out some spare pillows and blankets and let Danny take his place on the couch while he slept in the chair. He didn't mind sleeping there as much as he had fallen asleep at his desk several times before and the recliner was much more comfortable than that. For Danny it didn't take long to be claimed by dreams, but for Dash sleep did not come as easy.
He sat there watching the gentle rise and fall of Danny's chest for over half an hour before he got up and went to his room to grab a pad and pencil. With only a small amount of light he started to draw what he saw before him: the lines of Danny's face, the sharp point of his nose, the gentle features of his hair and closed eyes. Dash spent over half an hour just watching the raven haired teen sleep before him. Soon enough though, he started to grow tired and after putting his pad away he fell asleep for the night.
They both woke up around the same time and after Danny grabbed his stuff and they ate some breakfast they were off to the pool. When Dash asked what Danny had in store for the day he received some very vague stories about having to cut his swim time short today so that he could help out a cousin of his. Either way Dash had sat and watched the teen swim for about an hour before he packed up and said goodbye saying he'd call him if he had some free time to hang out later.
Even though it didn't happen, he was sort of glad afterwards that he had had the afternoon to himself. Dash spent some of his time after his shift was over downstairs in the basement area where he worked out and practiced his boxing some. Then after a nice lunch he went upstairs to try and draw some more. He wanted to work on his comic again but he found himself sketching out Danny all over a few pages.
'I have to stop thinking like this,' Dash sighed at one point and closed his notebook, 'This stupid little infatuation I have with him isn't going to do me a lick of good so you just need to stop it, Dash, and bury these feelings into the dark corners of your mind.'
The next day was much like the day before. Danny showed up and Dash said hello to him but the raven haired teen seemed a bit down. Dash didn't say much on it, but noticed that Danny wasn't swimming as fast as he had been. At times it seemed like he would just float in the water like a corpse before he'd turn onto his back and kick around like he was lost in thought. After he got out of the pool, Dash asked him if everything was alright, but the swimmer just said he was just going through some things at the moment but was fine. After that he said goodbye to Dash and told him he'd see him tomorrow, knowing that Kwan was due back today.
Dash suggested that maybe they could all grab some pizza tomorrow if Danny was free and he agreed. He knew Dash would want to hang out with his friend today and Kwan wouldn't likely want visitors after just getting back. So after agreeing to make plans for the next day Danny left Dash by himself. It wasn't nice to have to sit on that life guard's chair by himself with only a few older folks to watch swim but Dash knew he had to do it. He sat there and constantly looked at the clock trying to count down when his shift would end and he'd be free for the day. It had been so long since he had seen his friend that the time just seemed to drag by at a snail's pace.
As soon as the clock struck noon and Dash's replacement was there he left. He didn't even bother to go home to get changed out of his trunks; he was just too excited to see his friend again. As he pulled up into the Long's driveway he spotted Kwan swaying gently in a hammock they had set up in their back yard. Kwan had once told him that he liked the gentle rocking motion as he found it peaceful and that it wasn't a bad place to nap either.
"Hey!" Dash chuckled as he walked into the backyard.
"Hey yourself, Dash!" Kwan got out of his hammock and met his friend in a tight hug. They squeezed each other hard before they pat each other on the back and pulled away, "Man, it's great to see you again, and great to be home."
"Yeah it's great to have you back too; I missed getting into trouble with my best friend." Dash grinned unable to contain the joy he was feeling, "How was Cali?"
"It was pretty nice, weather was a bit dry but it wasn't really that hot where we were at. We went to San Francisco for a few days, and let me tell you… we may have ghosts, monsters attacking, and a teenage ghost superhero flying around on a near daily basis but that doesn't hold a candle to some of the freaky things I saw when I was walking around by myself one evening."
"Ehh you're just saying that because ghost attacks have become the norm for our crazy little town, but what all did you see?"
"Oh you have to see it," Kwan pulled out his cell phone and after a few moments of fiddling with it turned it around to show a buff biker guy dressed in a leather vest, jeans with leather chaps, and a bandana around his head tugging a leash attached to another buff guy who was only wearing a collar and jeans.
Dash could only stare for a moment and then looked at his friend in shock, "Where the hell did you go at night to see this?"
"Man, this sort of thing was everywhere. It was crazy. It's not my thing mind you, I'm still very much into the ladies, but I took this picture and thought you might like it," the Asian teen gave his friend a sly wink and Dash just shoved him away as his face reddened.
"It's not my thing either! I'm not into that sort of stuff."
"The leather, the collar and leash, or the gay stuff?" Kwan raised his eyebrow and Dash started to seriously debate if he should punch his friend or let his body sink into the ground.
"J-Just shut up." He turned away and tried to force down the blush that he knew was covering his face.
"Hey," a firm hand gripped onto his shoulder, "I'm just teasing you. You know I don't mean anything by it, even though you know I'm fine if you like guys. Just don't think I'm going to 'experiment' with you and I'm ok with it."
"Kwan," he sighed and shook his head, "Okay, maybe I do like guys and all, and yes you're hot and all but I'm not into you like that so enough with the jokes."
"It's all cool, man; just glad you're finally accepting things instead of just pushing them away."
"I wish I could keep pushing things away," the blond sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "You want to come over to my place? I need to change out of these shorts and then maybe we can talk about what's been going on with each other."
"Sure, let me just go tell my folks I'm leaving and I'll see ya in the car." Kwan smiled that ever present grin he always seemed to have and ran off into his house while Dash made his way back to his car. Dash couldn't stop thinking about things when Kwan talked to him no matter how much he wanted to. He wanted to take all these thoughts he had and lock them up to never see the light of day. He was starting to come to accept that he might really have leanings towards other guys, but he still hated to think of himself that way. After all the years of bullying others the thought about being different and thus, in turn, picked on and bullied because of it scared him.
He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't even realize Kwan was in the car with him until he was shaken. Kwan had a concerned look on his face as Dash looked back at him.
"You ok, Dash? I've never seen you look like that before?"
"What do you mean? How did I look?" He shook off his thoughts as he cranked up his car and pulled out of the driveway.
"You looked scared, man."
"So? We live in a town that is constantly attacked by ghosts, ghouls, and has something exploding almost weekly. You've seen me scared before, like when we were at camp and got chased by those mutant animals." He shuddered remembering that small adventure again.
"No, this was different, Dash, you looked like you were terrified to your core."
"Can we talk about this when we get to my place?" Dash sighed and let the conversation drop as he drove along the streets back to his house. Once there they were there they walked up to Dash's room where Kwan quickly made himself at home by throwing himself on his friend's bed.
"So you going to tell me what's on your mind now?" Kwan asked as he grabbed one of the sketch books that Dash had set out to see what he had been drawing lately.
"Just been thinking about what we used to do to kids that were different. If I really am… that way… well…" Dash rubbed at his shoulder unable to voice the thoughts that were going around in his head.
"Dash… man, are you actually saying you're scared of being bullied by people in school?"
"Well you've seen stories about how bad people get bullied about that stuff!"
Kwan actually rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Man… You are just about stupid. First of all, you're the biggest guy in school, second if you really do think you're that way, like I've said countless times now, you'll always have me by your side, man." He smirked and Dash gave him a slight smile.
"Maybe you're right…"
"Dash, you know I'm right! Now come on enough of this dark talk. How's things with you and Fenton going? And you been checking out any hot guys at the pool?"
"We're getting along actually, he spent the night the other night and he was actually really charming with my mom and after he brought up his bike my dad started to like him more as well, and no Kwan I haven't been checking out any hot guys at the pool," he rolled his eyes and felt exhausted at his friend's teasing, "The only hot guy that even goes to the pool that early is Danny and-"
"'Danny' now?" Kwan smiled from ear to ear and Dash wondered if his face would catch fire from the heat radiating from it, "And you do realize you just called him hot right?"
"Damn it, Kwan!" Dash turned away as Kwan laughed, "I didn't mean it that way!"
"Chill, man, I just thought I'd point it out. Guy was always a bit cute and I always thought you might have had a thing for him considering how much you picked on him."
"Was it that obvious?"
"For me it was," the Asian man shrugged, "I figured you were so totally in denial about it yourself that the only way you could express your feelings for him was through acts of violence and bullying."
"Geeze…I really have to get him out of my head, I mean I have zero chance with him."
Kwan sat back on the bed and flipped through a new notebook with a shrug, "Maybe, maybe not, but it seems like your little fanboy nature of Phantom is starting to get to you too. I mean drawing him sleeping on a couch? What's that about?"
"What are you talking about?" Kwan turned the page he was looking at to Dash who rolled his eyes and grabbed it.
"That's not Phantom, its Danny. I couldn't sleep well when he was over here and so I drew him when he was sleeping until I started to doze off."
"Oh, sorry, just looked a lot like Phantom is all, I guess you should work on differentiating faces a bit more otherwise you might confuse people with your characters."
Dash just grunted and looked at the pictures again. He hadn't done much but sketch out the shapes and everything so Danny's hair was white on the page but when he thought about it he did see how Kwan could mistake Danny for Phantom. Even if his art wasn't that great the way he'd drawn them both was very similar. After thinking a bit harder on the subject though, Dash's eyes grew wide, he had seen Phantom and drew him from what he had seen, and he had also drawn Danny from what he had seen of him. When he put the two images side by side in his mind it wasn't his lack of skill that made him draw the two faces so similar, it was because they both looked so similar.
'But how can Danny and Phantom look so much alike…? Could it have something to do with his parents' crazy experiments? Did they do something or make a ghost that looked like Danny? But why?'
Dash shook the thought from his mind and turned back to his friend who was looking at some of the drawings he had done for Danny's bike and was complimenting him. He didn't pay much attention though to what he was saying. He was too lost in his thoughts about the raven haired boy, the white haired ghost, and his apparent attraction towards the former that seemed to be growing with each passing day.
"So… uh… You want to go grab something to eat?" Kwan asked after watching his friend get lost in thought for a few moments.
"Yeah, sure, we can catch up more over some pizza at that new place." After Kwan agreed to the suggestion Dash put his sketch books up before they headed out again. Only Dash had a myriad of questions floating around his mind that he'd be sure to ask Danny the next time he saw him.
But if I did take a hiatus that would be beyond cruel of me, especially at this point. To all of you who didn't figure out certain things this here chapter shows just why I made Dash an artist, just like why I made Danny a swimmer for the earlier chapters to work. Anyway for those who are loving this enjoy it while it lasts. There are 23 chapters to this story so we're reaching the end pretty fast here.