Posted the last chapter just an hour ago, so you might want to hit that back button.

Based on a tumblr prompt.

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At Night

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Danny didn't actually enjoy fighting.

Okay, that was sort of half a lie. He liked fighting sometimes. It was sort of a release. Stress relief. An outlet for misplaced aggression. A time he could beat ghosts up and wreck things and take his anger out on stuff that wouldn't break and bleed and die.

But most of the time? Most of the time ghost fights, the whole superhero gig, were nothing but stress, pain, disappointed adults and friends, and missed sleep.

Most of the time, if a peaceful option presented itself, Danny would take it.

"So," said Danny, who was far too sleep deprived to deal with this, "you're saying that you'd only harvest, uh, dream energy," whatever that was, "from people who are already sleeping?"

"Yes, yes," said Nocturne. "No more little machines. This will be all natural."

"Yeah, and so is getting eaten by lions. Is this going to hurt anyone?"

"No. People shouldn't be able to tell the difference."

"It's not going to be, like, you're eating anyone's life energy, is it?"

"No, not at all. Everyone should be perfectly healthy. No difference to their normal lives."

"... Why didn't you do it like this last time?" asked Danny. "If you stayed away, I probably wouldn't have even cared. Or noticed."

"Aheh. Ha. Well, you know what it's like," said Nocturne.

"Not really." He was too tired to play twenty ghosts- twenty questions- with a maybe-former enemy.

"Wanting more of what you love," said Nocturne.

"I guess," said Danny. "What do you even want all that dream energy stuff for, anyway?"

"Oh, I eat it, and it is good for a surprisingly large number of things in the Ghost Zone."

"Nothing dangerous?"

"Not at all."

Danny blinked slowly at the ghost. "You know, if I find out you're lying, about any of this, I'm going to track you down and beat you up. You get that, right?"

"You more than have the right to do so, this is your haunt."

"Right," said Danny. He twitched, as if to shake off the weirdness of a ghost who was definitely more powerful than he was (even though Danny had managed to defeat him, it had been with a lot of help) asking him for permission to do... whatever. "Uh. If you're going to stay here, though, I'm going to need to like, check in with you. Regularly."

"You should be able to find me here at this time, most nights," said Nocturne, smiling beatifically.

"Great. Cool. I'm going to go now. Remember, mess with my people and I'll beat you up."

"Of course."

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Once Phantom left, Nocturne's smile changed. It did not shrink, but it became less gentle, more satisfied. Like that of a fox who had been allowed into a hen-house.

Well. Maybe not quite like that. Every thing he had said to Phantom was true, after all.

It was only that he had an entirely different goal in mind than collecting dream energy. It wasn't every day one came across another ghost who could travel through dreams.

Nocturne pulled a mask not unlike his own from the folds of his starry robe and ran a finger along its edge.

He had always wanted an apprentice.