Summary: Lancer isn't happy when he receives a late night visitor.
Characters: Lancer and Dan
Written: October 2015
Note: This is set after chapter 70 of Spectacular Specter.

Chapter 70.5

"Don't they bother to know the time before banging on someone's door?" Lancer muttered, tying his robe closed as he walked down the stairs. It was nearly two in the morning, and he was not in the mood to deal with someone, especially if it was some prankster. As much as he enjoyed teaching and nurturing young minds, he had little tolerance for immature pranks played on him. His mouth thinned as he recalled the last time he received a late night visitor only to open the door to find a flaming bag on his doorstep. They weren't too smart if they thought he would fall for that trick after the number of years he spent as a teacher. He admitted he felt a small sense of satisfaction being able to give the student a week's worth of detention for the prank after catching him.

Preparing himself mentally for whatever juvenile prank a student might play this time, Lancer cracked open his front door and cautiously peeked out. It was no prank nor student. Lancer pulled the door all the way open, fully awake and alert when he saw the man standing on his doorstep.

"Dan?" Lancer shook the surprise away. "Come in." He stepped aside to let the man into his home.

Dan bobbed his head then entered. His face was hidden, the hood of his sweatshirt raised to cast shadows over his face. He seemed jittery, and Lancer didn't think that was a good thing. Dan always projected strength and cockiness in front of people. It was like that since he first encountered the mercenary when Dan was just a teenager, almost about to enter his twenties. At the time, Dan had a nasty stab to his stomach but refused Lancer's offer to take him to a hospital. Instead, Lancer brought him home and patched him up as best as possible in the downstairs bathroom. He wasn't an expert in medical care, but he knew a few things. They forged a friendship from there. But Lancer had never seen Dan like this.

"I don't usually entertain guests this late at night." Lancer closed the front door. "So you'll have to forgive me if I don't have any refreshments prepared."

"I don't plan to stay long." Dan shuffled his feet, his head turning to look everywhere else but at the man in front of him.

"Would you at least like to sit down?"

Dan shook his head. "Making this a short visit, remember?"

"Right." Lancer folded his arms and leaned back against the front door, blocking the exit. "Then by all means, start whenever you like." It was always better to let the person speak their mind in their own time, but Lancer couldn't help the touch of frostiness entering his voice. It was late, and he needed sleep before another long day at school.

Dan paced the front hall, gesturing with his hands like he was having a conversation inside his head. "He wasn't - I didn't expect - I mean, he tolerated me." He stopped and faced Lancer. "Sure. We got off to a rough start with him interrupting a job. But after that, things went okay. And I'd love to fight him again. Not the 'I'm gonna kill him' type fight, but just, you know, sparring. Because I actually enjoyed fighting against him."

Lancer nodded as he listened to the rambling. Sometimes, when he got going, Dan could go off on a tangent and make it difficult to always follow him. "I'm going to go out on a limb and assume by him you mean Phantom."

"Yes," Dan replied slowly, almost like he was expecting the teacher to yell at him. "And yes, I fell hard for him, and I may have flirted with him. But I never thought he would actually like me back." He paced again. "I've had relationships in the past, and you know how those all turned out. Though after-" He cut himself off with a shake of his head. "But you know Phantom. He's all justice and catching criminals and no killing allowed. And he really doesn't like that about me, but for some reason, he does like... me." He stopped to look at Lancer again. "How can he like me? Sure!" He threw his arms up in the air, continuing before Lancer could work up a response. "I dreamt about him liking me back, but I figured it was an impossible thing. He's too good for me. Too pure. I'd only taint him with all the terrible things about me."

"Dan, terrible things happened to you and you've done some terrible things, but that doesn't make you a terrible person. Some might argue that killing makes you a terrible person." His mouth pursed momentarily, the fact that Dan killed for a living leaving a bad taste in his mouth. "But I'm also well aware of the type of jobs you take on when killing is involved. They're horrible people who have done terrible things. Of course, I do know you're capable of doing good things. And I think Phantom sees that in you too."

Dan laughed, his shoulders shaking as he bowed his head with hand to his eyes. It wasn't the happy amused laugh. It had a broken quality to it. "The two of you should definitely meet sometime. You'd get along great." He sighed as he leaned back against the hall wall. "It's almost like a dream that he said he liked me." He shifted with hesitancy. "But it's not the only thing that has me freaking out."

Lancer arched an eyebrow, curious to know what else was on the mercenary's mind. Their last conversation had revolved mostly around Dan's feelings for the young hero. Did the rest of his fears involve Phantom? "I advise you to go slow with this relationship. I know you've had some rushed relationships in the past that led to messy breakups. And don't view him on a pedestal. Too pure? Everyone has a touch of darkness in them. He's just as flawed as anyone else."

"I - I know that!" Dan sputtered, flustered. "But that," he turned his head to the side, "wasn't it." He reached up a hand, hesitated, then pushed back his hood.

Lancer jerked, his eyes growing wide when the mercenary revealed his face. He had seen Dan's face in the past, but this wasn't the Dan he knew. His face was wrinkled with scars. His skin was an unusual shade of green. White flames danced from his head. Lancer could understand now why the mercenary had kept his face hidden during his last visit.

"I thought I had merely been turned into a monster," Dan explained, bitterness in his voice. "Who could love a monster that looked like this?" He waved a hand at his face.

"Dan, if Phantom-"

"He says I'm a ghost," Dan cut off the teacher, who snapped his mouth shut with a look of shock. "I thought they made me a monster, but their little experiment to heal my burn scars killed me." He put his hands to his head, the flames flickering between his fingers. "I'm dead. I'm dead!" His chest rose and fell in quick breaths as his red eyes grew wide and wild. "All this time, I've been going around thinking I was a monster. But the whole damn time-"

"Language," Lancer interrupted warningly.

"I was dead!" Dan stepped toward him, desperation in his eyes. "What does a ghost even do?"

Lancer placed his hands on the mercenary's shoulders. "First, just breathe." Did ghosts even need to breathe? It didn't matter. Dan took a deep breath and released it slowly, seeming to calm down a touch. "I'll admit this is a bit out of my wheelhouse. I don't usually have ghosts to counsel. But you continued acting the same as before until you learned about being a ghost, right?"

Dan shrugged. "Yeah, I didn't know any better. Though what I thought was a major healing factor seemed like an amazing side effect to what was done. It," he rubbed at his chin, "made my job easier in a way."

"Because you could be a lot more reckless without the fear of death?"

Dan winced at the glare Lancer shot him. "Maybe."

Lancer sighed, shaking his head. "I think it's safe if you simply continuing acting as before. Being a ghost doesn't seem to have had much affect on you." He patted the mercenary's shoulder. "I can't imagine what it was like to realize you're a ghost, and I don't know what words I could even offer you to console you. It's terrible what happened to you." He shook his head. "I'm sorry. It's still a little hard for me to fully grasp this. I'm used to when someone dies, they're gone. But you're - You're here. You're standing right here in front of me. Maybe your life is over, but you can still accomplish things after death."

Dan's brow knitted as he stood in deep consideration of what the teacher said. "Yeah," he mumbled. Then louder, "Yeah!" A grin spread over his face. "What was I getting all worked up about?" He laughed, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I need to work on figuring out these ghost powers. Once I can do that, I'll be able to keep watch over Walker. He'll slip up, and I'll be able to get evidence to prove Phantom's innocence."

Lancer schooled a smile. He was glad to see Dan's first thought in using his ghost powers was for a good cause rather than how much easier it would allow him to pull off jobs involving killing someone. "I'm sure Phantom will appreciate your help." He did smile seeing the slight coloring on Dan's cheeks as he looked away, clearly embarrassed.

YumiStar: Danny had to get those detective skills from somewhere! 8D

jessiejr21: If only we could have had it in canon~ D:

Tetractys: Always good for him to have more people helping him out. XD