Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

On the Halloween night of 2015, Leon was trick-or-treating with Sandy and Jessie (mostly tricking) until one moment, he spotted an rusted, abandoned train near a graveyard.

“Oo!! Look at that!” the hooded boy pointed, “Maybe we should check it out!!!

“I dunno Leon, this is giving me the heebie-jeebies..” Jessie hesitates.

“More of a reason to explore! Hehehe..” And they rushed in with Sandy grabbing on to Leon’s hand. It was dark and eerie, some bones left the coffins.

OoOoOoO ringed in his ear the second they came close to the train.

“Pfft, nice try trying to scare me away, but this little lizard doesn’t give up that easily!”

“You know, on second thought, maybe I should be on the lookout..” Jessie inched carefully as Leon blew a raspberry.

“Okay well, I’ll stay with him for safety.” Sandy says with yawns between.

“Alright Jessie, make sure no one suspects us, I'm pretty sure this place is forbidden hehe.” Just as Leon says this, a ball was thrown out of the locomotive and a balloon dog came chasing after it with a ghostly aura. “Spooky, fetch!!”

“Ok, this is getting weird..” Sandy sighed as Leon dragged him into the train. In the train there was… nothing. Besides rusted metal, worn out seats and a.. spike figurine? At least… that's what he thought. When someone tapped on his shoulder.

“Hm? What do you need, Sandy?”

“Umm, that wasn’t me…”

“It was me!!!” A glowing ghost boy yelled. Leon jumped by the sound of him. “Who are you??” “I don’t really know…”

“How?” Sandy asked. Then the mysterious figure looks at a rusty luggage bag with his name on it.

“Oh, Gus! My name’s Gus!” He beamed. Spooky came back to give the ball back to him with added ghastly drool. “Wanna play?”

Since that fateful day, Leon and Gus (and Spooky) have been inseparable. Not even a single day between them was boring at all. They would go on playdates in the abandoned train and sometimes a special sleepy sandman would join.

But today, Gus was really worried about something. Worried that his best friend won’t see him again in a week. As soon as Leon turns 14, he will never see him again. He was scared about being lonely again, but he wanted to make the most of this week by doing a big favor his hooded friend would never forget…

But what? Gus paces in the graveyard train thinking about that crucial question.

“Cursed curses! Spooky, what do you think about this??” Having the lack of vocal cords and intelligence to speak, Spooky just sits there, wagging its tail slowly.

“Oh, wait! Maybe I can just ask him!...”

“Noo, I want this to be a surprise!” Spooky then jumps out of the worn out seat and runs out the door. “Spooky, wait!” As the ghost boy runs behind him. The yellow balloon dog then points its squeaky snout to Leon and Sandy on a bench near Bull’s Diner. And then it hit him.

Everytime Leon is around Sandy in a close proximity, Leon always acts weird, but it wasn’t in a bad way…

“Why does Leon almost always show red in his cheeks when he’s around him? He never does that with me.. Is he scared?” The two thought for a while until finally, it seems like an idea dawned on Spooky. They run in the train and drop a dusty book from the conductor’s shelf. Spooky almost immediately turns into a beige brown with the abundance of dust from it. Gus gasped. “The Long and Convoluted Locomotive Track of Madame Losier? What does this have to do with anything?”

Spooks flips a bunch of pages hoping it would be what Gus is looking for. ‘Madame blushed like a bouquet of roses on her cheeks when she saw the royal butler.’

“Bouquet of roses… To my knowledge… I think roses are red? What does this have to do with why Leon is ‘blushing’?” He soon figured out the answer on the next page.
‘The fine diva was always romantically interested in the butler, but this type of relationship was controversial so she kept her love a secret.’

“Romantically interested?” “Hmmm…” Gus’s knowledge of romance only comes from books like these and the occasional reading of Colette's fanfiction in secret so he may or may not have a lot of studying to do. “Sooo, Leon likes likes Sandy? Interesting…”

“Spooky, I know what we’re going to do today!”

Chapter Text

Gus had a natural talent for helping people, so naturally, he had to help his best buddy to overcome his “romance issue.” But then again, you can’t really help people if you don’t know what the problem is. So he skipped to the local escape library! He phased through walls and riddles to eventually find the book he wanted, but there was a problem.

Because of his little ghost fingers, it only takes a few seconds before the book drops from the phantom’s grasp. Since this guy is of supernatural order, things seep into his hand before they drop. “Well, I finally got it! The book… of romance!”

Several failed attempts and drops later, he heads to his abandoned train to gleefully read the book. He blows to the first page and kick his legs while reading the book to aid his hooded friend’s troubles. Some pages in and suddenly he hears a ‘knock knock’ on the door. He quickly hid the book then went to see who this guest was. No one was ever willing to go to this graveyard unless they were…

“Leon!!”

“Hey ya little train roamer!” As Leon roughly ruffles his hair. “So are you coming to my birthday party??” “Of course I wi-” Oh. Gus’s expression shifted from a beaming grin to a worrying frown when he soon realized his circumstances.

“What’s wrong?” Suddenly, a million thoughts are swirling in his mind and his heart feels like it’s below the ground. He tries forming words in his mouth but nothing seeps out. After a lingering silence, he cools down enough to speak. “So.. um..”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Leon reassured, patting his left shoulder. “Well, in that case, I'll tell you later..” Gus returned with a soft smile. They both exchange soft hugs before they let go. Gus then changes his answer to an uncertain, “I’ll see if I have time.”
“Alright nice! I’ll try and see you there! Hehe~” Leon came out as quickly as he came in and it seemed like he was in a rush? Maybe to invite more people? Who knows, as long as the phantom’s plans are kept secret. He sighed heavily as he grabbed the book and hugged it as Spooky floated closer to his lap.
“What am I going to do? I have to tell him soon!” Spooky gave a comforting nudge on his neck. This rubber of sunshine may not speak but somehow Gus figured out exactly what he meant. “You’re right Spooks… I'll find out soon…”
The beanie wearing phantom goes out on a walk to take a break from this stress, yet a lingering thought told him to keep planning.

“Hey!!!” an energetic pink haired girl waved with a gleaming smile.

“What are you even looking at Bonnie? There’s nothing there!” said her sister.

“B-but there was!!”

“Clearly, this sugar rush has you imagining things. Let’s get you home now…”

That thought kept taunting him even more since that interaction. It’s like fate itself was pushing him to continue forth with his plan. He chose to ignore it for now and go to the local ice cream shop there. Since most of the people there can’t see him and can phase through walls for easy access to the kitchen, this was one of his favorite places besides the graveyard. But this place, however, has a treasure trove full of ideas, so no matter what he does, he simply can’t avoid the gold ahead of him.

He was searching for an idea, any idea to pop up in his somewhat existing brain and then there it is! Rico and Piper enjoying a nice banana split all lovey-dovey like. Gus stared at them curiously before breaking the gaze and heading out.

“What do ya think, Spooks? My first plan of action!” As he points to a drawing of Leon and Sandy eating icecream on the walls of the train. The balloon dog wags of approval at first, then it slowly turns into a tilted head. “Huh? What are you confused abou- Ooooh.”

“You’re wondering about how we get to that part, right?” Spooks nods. Although, he was stuck on that one too. Maybe the book of romance might help? He grabs it again from underneath a seat, and flips as many pages as they can and finds a helpful chapter, ‘Silent Confessions.’
The chapter has a bunch of ways to tell someone you like them in secret, but there was something in particular that held Gus’ interest. “gasp! That's it! A love letter!” He almost slips and slides floating/running to the train exit.

“But first, we have to make it believable! Let’s go Spooks!”
The duo first phase through Sandy’s abode in the Mystic Mountains to look for any of his handwriting. Within the search, nothing has been found, not even a signature of his… Maybe he’s too sleep-deprived for any of that? But Gus needs to keep the ball rolling, it’s not like he has all the time in the world to do this. And conveniently, Sandy was on his bed, sleeping peacefully as usual. Gus slides a sticky note to a nearby table. He hesitantly floats over to him while whispering “I’m really sorry about this…” before possessing him only to write the letter.

Someone knocks quickly before entering, not even giving him a chance to respond. Gus panics and quickly fleets away from the sandman’s body, leaving him to collapse on the ground as he’s still in a sleepy daze.