::
"Aren't you supposed to be grading test papers and fending off horny teenagers?" Completely ignoring Randy's words, Andrew instead poked at the man's cheek, narrowing his eyes. There had to be a logical explanation as to why Randy had more power than even Danny sometimes- Well, actually, thinking on it, Danny demonstrated way more raw power. Randy, though, had twenty years experience in using his powers. "Andy, what are you doing?"
Perhaps it was a combination of that raw power and experience? Andrew was quite powerful himself, being able to control and rewrite reality, but there were limits. Plus, Andrew had never really worked to further his ghost powers. He had always relied on what he had gained as the Priest of Death, he never really thought about what he gained as a ghost. "Andy? You're officially starting to worry me here."
Randy had told him of his meeting with Clockwork, or at least what he deemed important, and it seemed as if Danny was destined to be a part of this world from the beginning. As his mate, shouldn't Andrew know more about himself as a ghost? Oh, sure, he knew the history well enough, but he didn't- "Ow." Blinking, Andrew gave a small frown from where Randy had pinned him to the couch. "What was that for?"
"Knocked you out of your thoughts, didn't it?" Randy settled down to sit on top of him, still pinning his wrists as he gave an adorable tilt of his head. Like a puppy sometimes, honestly. "You've been studying me for the past ten minutes. What's wrong?"
"We should do a sparring session with our ghost powers." Okay, he hadn't really thought that through before asking, but it was a good idea! "Danny's gone for the rest of the day so we have all night." Oh, hm, that had some meanings to it that- Right. "Fight. We have- Right, um, yes. We should spar."
"You hate sparring." Randy looked equal parts amused and worried, letting up on him a little. "Just what are you thinking about so heavily, hm?"
"I'm not allowed to want to spar with my sweet older brother-" Andrew couldn't even fully finish, already laughing even as he was shoved off the couch. "I'm serious about sparring, though! I feel… I feel like I should be able to use my ghost powers more than I do."
"You use them just fine from what I've seen. I don't want to be trapped in a poem, either. Danny says it's hell," Randy said, easily dragging Andrew back onto the couch. "What's this really about?"
"Well, I also want to study your own powers a bit more. I never get to see what you can really do." Question skillfully dodged, Andrew smiled up at Randy and channeled whatever sweetness and innocence was left inside of him. "S'il vous plaît, grand frère?"
"There is a special level of hell reserved just for you." Heh, too easy. "Don't think I didn't notice how you dodged my question, either."
"I never use my powers," Andrew shrugged, standing up and watching as Randy floated himself off the couch more than anything. "See? I don't use my invisibility, I hardly use intangibility, and I never fly if I can help it." It was unnerving to be in the air like that. "Even my reality controlling powers I use sparingly." The last time he used them had been on Danny and before that… God, who even knew.
"You never needed them," Randy shrugged, capturing Andrew by the chin and kissing his forehead. Andrew would have been lying if he said he hadn't blushed. "You've always been strong and unstoppable just the way you are."
"Leave the cheesy compliments to Danny, please." Focus. Don't let him win, Andrew. "I just think it'd be interesting to fight using my powers instead of relying on my knives." Interesting. Yes. That was a word.
"Mhm." Randy studied him for a second longer before laughing and grabbing his hand. A blink of the eye and they were in Liz's training room, Andrew having only a second to tense before he was suddenly kicked across the room. "Alright, then." Oh, god, what had he gotten himself into? "No weapons and ghost powers only."
It wasn't White Fang staring him down, but the persona Randy had crafted through twenty years running around a destroyed and foreign world with nothing but his wits and power that he couldn't control. It was the ghostly Mercenary that stared him down with a vicious grin and eyes that were turning into a glowing white.
"I don't think kicking me across the room like that was necessary." Shedding his coat, Andrew tossed it aside at the exact moment Randy was in front of him and oh. Right. Ghost powers. This wasn't going to be pleasant, was it?
He was proved right a second later when he was thrown against the wall again, Andrew just barely dodging the place where the wall should have been cracked with how much force Randy had used in the kick. "C'mon, Andy. You said this was a fight with ghost powers, didn't you?"
"You're forgetting that the most I use my powers for is to float some books around and to phase off clothes." Blushing at the memory those words invoked, Andrew wasn't prepared for the blast of pure ectoplasmic energy that hit him in his side and tore through his clothing. "Fuck- Randy!"
"Shield up." This was nothing like White Fang. Andrew, no, the Priest knew White Fang more than he ever had anyone else - even Danny. This wasn't White Fang, though, and Andrew was floundering. "Do you even know how to use those powers of yours?"
Another attack had him quickly backpedaling around, Andrew slipping to the ground and pushing himself up to quickly get to the other side of the room. Randy's foot collided with his back and sent him crashing down with far more force than was really necessary for a simple sparring match. "I think I mentioned how I never used my powers!"
"You can't afford to think like that anymore." So Randy felt it too, then. White Fang and the Priest weren't enough for this world. "You're not the Priest of Death!"
"I know that!" Andrew blocked a ferocious kick with his arm, gritting his teeth and eyes wide as he saw the white energy that was swirling around Randy. This was nothing like what he was used to. He- He wasn't Danny and Randy! He didn't get into ghost fights like this!
"Do you?!" A white bubble wrapped around Andrew, Randy slamming his arm forward. The bubble followed the motion at once, Andrew bracing himself as it disappeared and he hit the wall instead. "Stop thinking like a human, Andy. You are not human anymore."
Shaking as he climbed to his feet, Andrew panted and fell into a defensive stance. If he could just get one of his knives- A speeding ball of white energy came crashing towards him, Andrew throwing his arm up and flicking his fingers as a large purple shield sprung into existence. Shields, at least, were easy enough.
"There you go." Randy had shed his own coat and guns and was dressed in only his pants and an undershirt, energy still swirling around him. "You have more instincts to rely on than just the Priest's. Stop being the Priest and be the Ghostwriter." Ghostwriter…
No movement and Randy was suddenly in front of him with a fist coming down, Andrew quickly phasing through the attack and darting into the air and okay, okay, this was fine. He was flying. He was a ghost. That was what- Shit. Crossing both his arms, Andrew conjured another shield, cracks forming upon the surface as Randy's boot came down hard on top of it. He hadn't felt his helpless since he had first started learning how to fight.
"Stop fighting like an assassin, Andy." Randy flew back in the air, energy gathering around him again as he formed a bubble shield around the two of them. "If you can't do that then be more than that. You're not the Priest. You're better."
Powers. What did he have? Flight, teleportation, intangibility, invisibility, levitation- Levitation. Ghosts couldn't phase through each other's energy, although that didn't mean they couldn't shatter it. Staring down at the purple energy that gathered in his hands, Andrew took a shuddering breath.
He wasn't human anymore. Whatever was going to happen was going to change all of them - forever. He wasn't human and he needed to get over that if he was ever going to grow. He wasn't the Priest and he could no longer fight like that. He had to be better. He didn't have the raw power that most ghosts had - he never would. There were things that he could do, however.
"You want the Ghostwriter?" More. More energy. Gather everything he had. "Very well. You might end up regretting that." Randy's bubble shields were some the strongest Andrew had ever seen, but that didn't mean they couldn't be broken.
"Show me what you got, then." Bracing himself, Andrew fired every inch of gathered energy in his hands straight towards Randy. As expected, Randy dodged out of the way at once, face falling as he realized what Andrew had done.
"Not even your shields can stand up to everything." Darting through the shattered hole he had made, Andrew landed and skidded along the floor, throwing a shield up the same time he threw his energy towards the knives he had his coat that had been tossed aside. "You're wrong about something, though."
Looking up to Randy, Andrew pulled his hand into a fist, grinning as a dozen knives appeared in front of him. "Not everything I learned as the Priest was useless." A spin of his heel and Andrew was making a sharp throwing motion, grinning viciously as every knife he had gathered went flying straight towards Randy.
A flash of teleportation and Randy was suddenly behind him, Andrew turning on his heel once more and throwing up a shield a second before Randy's attack could hit him. He had never seen Randy look so proud. "Now we're getting somewhere!" The energy in the room spiked and gathered even more, the bubble shield widening and repairing to encase every bit of the room they were in. "You said you wanted to learn all of my powers, right?"
"I want to know what you can do." Andrew pulled his knives back to him, letting them encircle and fly around his head, one dropping into his hand. "Show me."
"As you wish." Randy raised a clenched fist, Andrew's eyes widening as dozens of guns of all types appeared everywhere in the air around them, all of them aimed straight at Andrew. "I think the no weapon rule has already been broken, oui?"
Dozens of guns and they were all aimed at him- What if they weren't? Andrew wasn't the Priest. He was the Ghostwriter. The Reality Keyboard had carried the brunt of his power and amplified it dozens of times over but there were still things he could do without it. "You said you wanted to see what I could do, too."
He had only done this once in the very beginning, but he could do it again. Throwing the knife he was holding up to float with the others, Andrew held his hand up and focused. A moment later and an ornate quill was in his hand and glowing with energy that resonated with his own, "You haven't seen all my tricks, yet."
"Well?" Randy was grinning wider than Andrew had seen him in ages, energy spiking and moving around them as it near drowned the room. "Let's see what you really got, Ghostwriter."
"After you, Mercenary." Stronger than the Priest of Death? Andrew had never dare thought of such a thing, but right now… He already was stronger. And he was going to keep proving it.
This story was his to control.
::
"You know, I think we're gonna have to show Danny what we can do one of these days." Randy was laughing and grinning even as he spread healing tonic over their wounds from where they had gotten carried away.
"I think it's going to be a while before I try something like this again." Andrew couldn't help his own bubbling laughter, though, leaning into each careful touch and sighing as the tonic started dulling the pain. "I didn't know you could summon guns like that."
"What about you! I know you had the keyboard, but I thought you couldn't do anything large scale like that without it. You near had me completely controlled at one point."
"Yes, well." Smiling, Andrew leaned into the touch on his cheek, breath leaving in a soft sigh. "I had a very good teacher."
"I think there's a joke here about the student becoming the teacher?" Taking a moment to process the words, Andrew scowled even as Randy started laughing.
"Keep that up and I'll make sure Danny knows some things about you that you might not want him to find out." For emphasis, Andrew gave a sharp tug to Randy's hair. The look torn between pleasure and pain had Andrew grinning as he shifted closer. "Oh? Still sensitive there?"
"Now, it can be said that we've both been a bit cruel today, so I think it's best if we-" Cutting the rest of the words off by knocking Randy onto his back, Andrew had laughter bubbling out of him again at the choked noise.
"Does this mean I win?" Before Randy could argue with him, Andrew was slipping a hand behind Randy's ear and rubbing small circles into the spot. Unlike with Danny, Randy didn't even try to stop the moan that slipped out of him. "You know, you're the one who's dragging his feet now."
"Maybe I'm-" Randy bit his lip, shuddering as Andrew pressed harder against the scalp. "Maybe I'm just waiting for the right moment?"
"Randy." Andrew slowly stopped, smiling down at the man and shaking his head. He really was too fond of this idiot. "There's no such thing as the 'right' moment. Danny told me he loved me when he was soaking wet and still crying from a thunderstorm. He then complained that the moment wasn't dramatic enough seconds after I admitted to feeling the same."
"Yeah, well, I'm a perfectionist." Humming, Andrew slipped a hand down to Randy's neck, gently massaging at the back of it before sharply dragging his nails straight across. He would later deny he did any such thing as to lick his lips- No, he would probably admit to that. "You're- You're being very cr-cruel."
"Mm, consider it payback on Danny's behalf, then." Lightly kissing at Randy's neck, Andrew patted his cheek before standing up and reaching for his shirt. "Now come on. I have homework to grade still and I want you to help me with it."
There was a groan from Randy, Andrew looking down to see the man's face was flushed even more than when they had been fighting at their strongest. "We're all going to be the end of each other."
"Mm. I don't think that has to be a bad thing." Helping Randy to his feet, Andrew pecked him on the cheek. Anymore than that and Andrew knew he wouldn't be leaving it at just a kiss. "Don't you want to laugh at these teenagers and their poor writing attempts? I'm grading French homework, too."
"Oh, well, if it's French." Rolling his eyes, Randy tugged Andrew in for a hug, tension bleeding out of him. "I'm eventually going to find out what it is that has you so ready to learn how to fight with your ghost powers suddenly."
"I guess…" Andrew knew he was the weakest of them when they went up against ghosts. He couldn't afford that if things kept going like they did. "I guess I realized I needed to be stronger than I was."
"You always were." Hard times were coming. Andrew knew where this story was going and he knew the kind of trouble they would be facing. Despite it all - or maybe because of it - Andrew wasn't going to be left behind this time.
This was their story and he was going to fight like hell to get them to the happy ending they all deserved.