Archive of Our Own ^beta

Mike, a believer. Chester, a skeptic. Together they’re ghost hunters.

But actually it's a lot more complicated than what the aforementioned statement would have you believe. Although Chester admitted he would’ve considered himself a skeptic had Mike told him he can see ghosts before he died. 

All bets were off now since, well, Chester was a ghost himself. For a long time now.

See Mike was part of a very rare set of people who have the ability to see and communicate with the dead. About 200,000 worldwide. Rare enough that it was better not to mention in polite society lest they be thought of as crazy and insane. Not worth the risk to blurt out as if it was another Tuesday and lose friends over it. 

The main reason why Mike never bothered to tell his secret in all of his years with Brad and the rest of the band.

Chester was pretty shocked Brad was apparently in the dark. They are longtime friends, he would’ve guessed it otherwise.

“...I’ve heard stories of people being institutionalized over this. They’d think they can trust their friends only to have them backstab them and turn them in,” Mike had explained with a dejected sigh.

“That majorly sucks,” Chester said, an appropriate response. A peaceful, albeit mildly heavy, silence passed between the two. His legs dangled over the edge of the stage just the same as Mike did, “Is it genetic?”

“Nowadays yeah. It was more randomized a few thousand years ago. Now only select family lines have the gene. The Shinodas are one of them.”

“No really? I wouldn't have guessed,” Chester teased and the two broke out in much needed laughter. A beat of silence followed before he asked, “Can Jason see ghosts too?”

Never too late to have your horizon broadened. Even from beyond the grave.

“No, just me and dad. But he knows, so does my mom.”

It had been an emotional day for Mike. First the tribute concert to his bandmate and husband. Then the crashing realization he had apparently forgotten about being able to see ghosts. The second part happened when he saw Chester by the side of the stage right as he about to get off. 

In hindsight Mike was glad it was at the end of the show and not the beginning. 

“If it's not too much trouble Chester,” Mike began as he shifted his gaze from the empty auditorium towards him. The silence was filled with poignant melancholy, “I think I would like space to process…I don’t know, everything.”

Mike punctuated the last part with a shrug. Chester nodded in understanding then looked at his watch. 

“I have to get back to the other side anyways,” Chester abruptly announced as he got up onto his feet, “Gotta get my paperwork in order before I can freely go back and forth.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it-” Mike flashed him a grateful smile. He had no doubt Chester would respect his boundaries but it was always nice to see. A reminder of how thoughtful and great of a person his was. 

A scant moment later however his expression turned into confusion as his brain fully registered the rest of what Chester said. His eyes grew wide.

“-Wait hold on, paperwork?!” 

Mike can see ghosts sure, but this doesn’t mean he knows how it works on the other side. Hence his, frankly dumbfounded, look of shock. 

“Oh yeah. Lots of fucking shit you need to do if you’re planning on living or even going back and forth between Earth and the afterlife. You have to get a passport, background check and everything.” 

“Why?” Mike was properly a mix of bewildered and curious.

“Because apparently there’s been spirits in the past who would possess people and wreak havoc and chaos among the living.”

The above conversation was years ago. 

Now it's been a decade later, Linkin Park was on hiatus and Chester now lived with Mike once more. 

Mike was currently in his studio. One might guess he was working on new music. Either that or the 4,542nd remix of Already Over. But in reality he was doing art. To be fair he did set out to make some random music but he was suddenly hit with a burst of inspiration. A piece of art that expressed the eternal love he and Chester have. 

Ok yes it sounded sappy and trite but it was true. Mike can’t help it if the sentiment was a theme that’s been done a million times over in various forms. The fact of the matter was Mike was gonna keep loving Chester for 6000 years and more.

And vice versa with Chester.

“Mike you probably want to take a nap,” Chester said out of the blue as he walked inside with a manila folder in his hand, “We got another ghost hunting gig.”

“Another one? We just finished a job a couple days ago,” Mike mildly complained as he swiveled his chair around towards the other man. 

“Yeah,” Chester let out an exasperated sigh. A few years back Chester took the job of a Guardian of the Veil. Specifically a spirit who was part of an afterlife police force tasked to protect the living from rogue and malevolent spirits. 

And a guardian like Chester was allowed to have someone with the ghost seeing gene as his partner. Naturally he chose Mike. 

Mike was handed the folder. For reasons he doesn’t quite understand, the gene also allowed him to touch anything brought over from the other side. Chester didn’t know how it all worked either. It was all chalked up to some kind of ghost magic. 

But both definitely agreed it was a helpful thing when it came to tracking down criminal ghosts. Made the job, and by proxy their life, that much damn easier. 

Mike opened the folder as Chester continued, “We were his last resort, the other teams were preoccupied.”

It didn’t take long for Mike to understand the context. Their target was Alex Morin, a spirit notorious for possessing people and making their lives a chaotic mess in more ways than one. He must’ve escaped his confinement in the afterlife for another round of quote unquote fun. 

The last sighting, according to the file, was an abandoned mall in the Los Angeles area.

“He said that?” Mike asked for clarification as he lifted his head up.

“Yeah, essentially. The other two teams have a personal connection with the guy but they were in the middle of a job already.” 

Mike groaned, annoyance seeped notably into his voice. He and Chester really hoped it would be at least a week before they were handed another assignment. They had plans for fuck sakes. But Mike knew his priorities. Better to just do the job then to find out later you could've prevented a spirit from taking control of someone and committing mass murder.

But sadly this wasn’t anything new. Being shoved in the face with what felt like an avalanche of assignments to the point of madness. Despite only having seven years worth of experience, the duo were considered one of the best Guardians in their area. They can track down and neutralize the threat, aka the criminal ghost, with minimal collateral damage. And in no time flat too.

So it made sense in terms of logistics.

“If it's any consolation, the boss said there’s a strong chance of having a good break before anything new comes our way,” Chester said and Mike looked at him with hopeful optimism, “And he’s gonna give us a good week seven days off.”

“You’re not bullshitting me?” Mike said. It was a stupid question to ask because he knew Chester would never do that intentionally. 

But there were a couple times in the beginning Chester would speak too soon about a promised few days off. The boss would say they deserved the next three or four days off, Chester would relay the information, only to have the boss renege on his promise. But ultimately Chester and Mike’s morals and desire to protect the innocent always won over.

And it was to be expected in the long run anyways. They were part of the afterlife police force so it was obviously the nature of the job. Crime doesn't stop, even with the dead. Only it was more higher stakes when you consider some of these wayward souls are poltergeists. In other words they can move objects with nothing but the power of their mind.

Unfortunately their target was a poltergeist. However, and this was a silver lining, this Alex guy wasn’t a particular strong one. So all in all this should be a one night gig. 

In theory anyhow. There was a damn good chance the universe would come down in a heartbeat and prove them horribly wrong. Like it's done on numerous occasions over the years. More often than not really.

Such as life when one was alive, a guardian has to just roll with the punches.

“Hopefully not. He wants to give this rookie team a test to see if their cut out for the job,” Chester explained, “That’s why he wants to give us a week off.”

Like Mike, Chester hoped this time would be the time their boss would give them their much deserved break. Summer was almost over and Mike wanted to go on a camping trip at least once this year. Frankly so did Chester. 

As it turned out, in hindsight the universe did come down to kick their collective rockstar asses. 

Hadn’t even been 20 minutes since Mike and Chester arrived at the long abandoned mall and already there was a hitch in their plans. A very Joe Hahn shaped hitch.

Which begged the question, what the hell was Joe doing at an abandoned mall at night?

“Get the fuck out of him right now!” Mike demanded as he clutched the iron crowbar in his hand tighter. 

Several feet away was Joe, or well his body as Alex was currently in the driver’s seat. 

It was times like this Mike was very glad yet again Chester has gained the power of telekinesis. Albeit only for a few years so far but still nonetheless, it made shit like this way more easier to deal with in comparison. 

“And put a stop to the show early? Fuck no,” Alex yelled by way of Joe. It was eerie hearing your friend’s voice and actions being governed out of his control, “Besides I have the upper hand.”

“What makes you think that? Because you can move shit around?” Mike yelled back. There have been plenty of times their targets have underestimated their chances of getting apprehended.

“Precisely. You’re still alive which means you and your stupid weapon can’t do shit against me-” Alex taunted. Of course there would be an annoying attempt at a villainous laugh.  

Mike rolled his eyes, why do most these types tend to try too hard to be menacing? In actuality they just came off cocky assholes who think they are the cleverest in the world. 

Because the body in question belonged to Joe, Chester and Mike made an unspoken decision to relegate any attacks to use as a last resort. This included both physical and telekinetic.

“-You’re still human! Which means,” Alex raised Joe’s hands up into the air. Simultaneously an assortment of knives and metal chopsticks rose to a menacing position above his head, “You can’t do jackshit against this.”

Alex shifted menacing eyes towards Chester, “And you’re nothing but a common powerless ghost.”

“You might want to reconsider that,” Mike refuted coolly. He somehow, by grace of god, managed to somehow not let any nerves show though. His body posture was still straight and his resolve still intact despite the nerves buzzing like an agitated swarm of bees.

Chester took this exact moment to take the cue to enact a 360 spinning front kick. In combination with his relatively newfound powers, an invisible force immediately slammed into Alex. Unfortunately this meant Mike had to watch who was physically their beloved bandmate, fly right into the wall near an empty clothing store. 

So fast it might’ve as well been a blink and you miss it moment. But it did the trick, all the weapons Alex had a hold on in the air unceremoniously dropped to the ground. The resulting noise was starkly clear in the otherwise very dead quiet mall. 

However the end result was an unconscious Joe.

“Joe!” Mike blurted out impulsively as he tensed up with great worry.

“Holy fuck I didn’t mean to go that hard,” Chester exclaimed almost in unison with sincere guilt. He covered his mouth with his hands in horror.

Stuff like this was an unfortunate catch 22, it was part of the deal. Mike and Chester knew that. It was a necessary maneuver, if the latter hadn’t done so then the former could’ve been in way worse shape. 

Still it didn’t mean it pained them any less to see someone they cared about knocked out.

Mike and Chester only froze for half a second before they snapped out of it. Everything began to move like if they all rehearsed this. Of course they didn’t but they had plenty of experience with highly stressed situations. They can handle this. So with clarity and a shot of adrenaline, Mike rummaged through the backpack they brought along. 

Chester kept a watchful eye in the meantime, moments like this were always so critical. Anything can happen. Chester hoped and prayed to any potential deity behind the universe that Alex wouldn't wake up. Please please just stay knocked out. 

Which yes it was a fucked up thing to hope for considering it would be Joe that would be feeling all of that. An innocent person who didn’t deserve all this. But there was a difference between a lowkey job versus a complicated job that would end up lasting a month before it was finally, and blessedly, over. 

Yes. Yes that happened in case you were wondering. Mike and Chester took on a job back in spring of 2020 tracking down the ghost of a murderer from the 17th century. They stupidly thought it would be a no-brainer since the ghost, unlike Alex, couldn't interact with tangible objects. 

But nope. Long story short it was not the case and they had to request backup to catch the elusive motherfucker.

It's a good thing Chester kept a vigilant eye on Joe, or rather Alex technically speaking. Mike had his back turned when ‘Joe’ woke up and stood up on slightly shaky legs. Alex groaned under his breath before he spoke. 

“So you’re a poltergeist now, huh? Oh what a gosh darn surprise,” Alex sarcastically said as rolled his eyes. He then shot Chester a death glare, “Whatever, I bet I died before you which means clearly I’m the more powerful one in the room.”

In the meantime Mike grabbed the small bag of salt and quickly stood back up.

Chester raised his eyebrow in curiosity, “What the fuck makes you think I died before you?”

Alex shrugged, “I don’t know, something about you screams familiar to me. Were you part of a rock band?”

“Well I mean yes, I am part of a rock band,” Chester replied with confidence as he walked a couple of paces in front of Mike, “But that doesn’t mean I automatically would lose.” 

Mike felt his heart swell up three sizes with a mixture of warmth and love upon hearing yet another verbal confirmation Chester considered himself still a member of Linkin Park. Even though this was no new information, Mike allowed himself a private little smile before he returned to a much more serious demeanor.

“Yes it does, are you an idiot? I died in 1964 therefore I had way more time to train. More time to get stronger. Therefore you automatically lose.”

Chester stood his ground as he crossed his arms. He kept up the nonchalant yet confident tone, “Not really, a half a century doesn’t mean much. There’s a lot more factors than just sheer telekinetic strength.”

If Chester spoke as if he was a wise sage on the top of a mountain, well it was because it was from experience. He had to learn the outcome of a battle between two poltergeists wasn’t set in stone just because of an imbalance of powers. That it wasn’t all black and white. 

And what a damn good lesson to learn because Chester can have hope he and Mike can still come out on top. Even if they were going up against a poltergeist with 200 centuries worth of training.

“Also the person you’re illegally taking control of is also a member of my band. So I’d suggest one more time you get the hell out of Joe.”

“And what if I still refuse?” Alex spat out with a maniacal smile. Then suddenly he shot out both his hands so fast everything after was a blur. 

One second Chester stood protectively in front of Mike. The next he was violently thrown back into Mike by an invisible force right into the glass window behind them.

They both crashed into what used to be a makeup store. And the flooring was hardwood and not carpet at all mind you. But this wasn’t their first rodeo. Thankfully Mike and Chester weren’t knocked out and there doesn’t seem to be anything worse than bruising and small scratches that can be easily fixed up. 

“Holy shit Mike are you alright?” Chester showed great concern as he helped Mike up. And subsequently checked Mike over to make sure he didn’t have to go to the hospital.

Being a ghost also meant Chester didn’t have to worry about getting hurt by any conventional human means. 

“I’m fine Chester, nothing I haven’t been through before,” Mike flashed him a sweet reassured smile.

“I know but you’re…you’re still alive. You can still get severely hurt,” Chester protested with sincere worry in his words.

Alex’s obnoxious laugh broke the heartfelt moment a mere second later. Both Mike and Chester swiftly turned their heads towards back out the window only to see Alex waving gleefully at them. 

“See you losers! I’m gonna have so much fun with your buddy here.”

Then he dashed off like a bat out of hell.

Fuck this wasn’t good. 

The world was growing pear shaped by the second now and time was really of the essence. They had to put a stop to Alex before there were headlines about Joe Hahn of Linkin Park committing a robbery or some other heinous act of crime. 

“Do you consent?” Chester suddenly asked as he held out his hand. Mike was jostled out of his panic-induced stupor.

“What?”

“Do you consent? You know it’d be fucking faster to catch up to him if I possessed you,” Chester repeated with an added explanation. Even though this wasn’t the first time they’ve done this move, this wasn’t done very often. It was something they only did as a last resort.

Mike nodded as soon as his brain finally caught up and registered what Chester asked of him. He was right and as much as he would like to, there was really no time to adequately discuss their next best move.

“I consent,” Mike said with conviction as he grabbed Chester’s hand. 

A few short seconds later Chester, now inside of Mike, burst out of the empty store and ran towards the front entrance. He didn’t stop until he was right outside the clear doors.

“Where the fucking hell is he?” Chester muttered out loud as he glanced around the parking lot.

A split second later Chester ran off towards his left. Something down in his gut told him Alex was this way. 

His intuition was proven right a minute. Chester spotted him on the driver’s side of their car. But Chester wasn’t too worried about it

“You’re too fucking late,” Came Alex’s announcement as soon as Chester spotted him. Alex then proceeded to pull on the door’s handle. But it failed to open so Alex gave it a few more tries.

Of course it won’t work. Alex was missing a major element related to the car. 

“Contrary to popular belief you’re gonna need this to properly steal a car,” Chester snarked with amusement as he held up the keys in his hands. 

Or rather more like Mike’s hand technically speaking.

It was funny not gonna lie to see the ‘oh fuck’ look on their target’s face.

“Shit,” Alex cursed, then took off once more.

This time Chester was able to keep Alex in his sight as he pursued hot on his trail. Right now the plan was for him to use his powers to immobilize Alex. Then Chester would get out of Mike so the latter can use the salt to force Alex out of Joe. 

On paper this will work with 100 percent certainty. 

In actuality who the hell knows, but hopefully it’ll work. 

Chester ended up pouring all of his energy to run as fast as he could while inside of Mike. He can run with superhuman speed otherwise, there were some limitations when it came to possessions. In this case he and Alex were evenly matched. And because Mike was taller than Joe, Chester was able to slow but surely catch up in a New York minute. 

Or maybe half of one. In any case eventually, with a burst of power, Chester propelled himself. He tackled Alex down to the ground. Hard. Once he got Joe’s waist caged in between his legs, Chester relinquished control back over to Mike.

A ribbon of blue light suddenly flowed out Mike’s back into a magnificent display of color. Then the ball of light morphed and Chester was beside Mike once more. 

Alex tried to fight but Mike held onto him tight. 

“Chester hold him,” Mike instructed after he managed to pull Alex to his feet without losing control. 

Chester nodded and instantly got behind Joe. In conjecture he emitted a force surrounding Joe. Reason he was behind him was so Chester could catch Joe once Alex was forced out of him. 

Once their friend was securely held in place, Mike let go and poured a good amount of salt into his hand. Then he looked into Joe’s face and let out an apologetic sigh.

“Sorry about this Joe,” Mike shoved the pile of salt directly into Joe’s mouth. At the same time Chester wrapped his arms about his chest.

It was a good thing they were in a secluded area. What came out was a cacophonous unholy screech as Joe’s eyes flowed a neon shade of blue. The same blue light Chester was just moments prior before he resumed his human form. 

As soon as Mike pulled his hand away, a cloud of blue smoke suddenly erupted straight up into the air. Mike took advantage of this to use the rest of the salt to form a broken circle. A fully completed one would trap a ghost and Mike did not want to trap Chester inside with their Enemy of the Week so to speak.

Once the ball was completed several inches above Joe and his eyes returned to their natural dark brown, Chester instantly moved several paces back to just right outside of the salt boundary. Mike then swooped in to complete the circle before Alex was able to change back to his fully human form.

Now all that was left to do was to send Alex back to the afterlife.

_________________________________

Joe groaned once he blinked the world into existence. There was a lingering bout of a sharp migraine from the back of his head. As if he’d been drinking to an unhealthy degree. It didn’t help at all when he heard the door open then close. 

At least it dissipated the more he became awake.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Mike spoke softly as he sat on the bed next to Joe.

Joe groaned as he sat up, “Like I got a hangover. What the fuck happened last night? I know for a fact I didn’t drink last night.”

“I know,” Mike said as he deeply exhaled. He knew he was gonna have to let the cat out of the bag on this one. All he has is hope that Joe won’t take the whole seeing ghost things badly.

On the other hand with Joe being Joe, he might not take it badly as much as the anxiety was telling Mike. 

Joe continued as the memories of last night came roaring to the forefront of his mind, “And what were you doing at the mall anyways? And don’t deny it Mike. I know what I saw. I mean I can’t….explain it but I know I saw you.”

“I can ask you the same thing,” Mike pointed out, not unkindly. 

A beat then Joe balked once he got the implication, “I ain’t telling. That’s private information.”

“Joe,” Mike groaned as he gave him a frustrated look. One that would denote Mike was not in the mood for any kind of bullshit.

“The world isn’t ready Mike. Don’t you have your secret little projects? Well so do I,” Joe argued as he pointed a finger his way. 

The world wasn’t quite ready yet for a Joe Hahn directorial comeback.

Mike stared at him then admitted, “Fair enough. But don’t you want to know why you’re in my spare bedroom instead of yours at your house?”

A beat then Joe’s stubborn demeanor faltered, “Well yeah but what does that have to do with anything.”

“Unfortunately it does,” Mike said, plain and simple as he locked a mutual steely gaze with Joe.

The amount of firmness made Joe realize Mike was serious. Thus a scant several seconds later until finally his demeanor cracked. His posture visibly deflated.  

“Fine,” Joe eventually conceded as he crossed his arms petulantly, “I was there for a classified reason.” 

Mike let out another slight frustrated groan as Joe explained alongside hand movements to emphasize certain points.

“So there I was, scouting a location for a possible setting for my brilliant redacted information idea that came to me earlier in the day. An idea that would move millions of people worldwide and sweep every award at the redacted information. And not just that but every award at the redacted information as well!”

“Redacted information? You mean a movie?” Mike stared at him incredulously. He wasn’t at all surprised Joe would do this. The whole self censorship thing. But he really wasn’t in the mood for any sort of ridiculousness. Not right now.

“Whatever, let's move on,” Mike quickly dismissed it before Joe got a chance to respond, “You were there for some…secretive reason.”

“Right yeah. So everything was fine for the first hour or so. I was deliberating taking my time so I can fully assess the location for my redacted information. But then all of a fucking sudden I heard this noise, it sounded like a crash. So I went to investigate and it was a row of mannequins that fell down. And I swore it was standing because I just passed it!”

Ok,” Mike paid attention to every word Joe was saying. He nodded to give him the signal to continue.

“I wasn’t sure if there was anyone else there. It could’ve been a squatter, a scrapper, a graffiti artist or one of those urbex exploration guys from Youtube. But the weird thing was I didn’t see evidence of either of those four options. So after my little investigation I decided to go back to what I was there for. But then five minutes later, there was another crash. It was louder than before. Then another one right after that one, then another and another. It was a string of them and all of them louder then the last Michael. I was starting to get real fucking freaked out.”

“I would too,” Mike honestly replied.

“No shit Sherlock, anyone would. Then the weirdest thing happened. I mean let me preface this, I believe in ghosts and I always have. Always keep an open mind is what I say. But-but its just fucking surreal and unnerving to actually experience a sudden drop in temperature in real fucking time! It was so cold I thought I was in Siberia.”

A pause then Mike patiently encouraged him with a question, “Is that around the time when you got possessed?”

“If you mean right before I had an out of body experience then yeah. I mean I don’t know how to explain it accurately but out of body seems the best way. I think you and Chester came shortly after that.”

“Wait, you saw Chester?!” Mike asked with eyes blown wide open in astonishment. His voice rose half an octave.

“Yeah, it was weird. I definitely saw him…’ A pause then Joe jabbed an accusatory finger Mike’s way with the over the top flair, “And I definitely fucking saw you interacting with him so don’t try and deny it Michael Kenji Shinoda.”

Mike rolled eyes at Joe’s dramatic reaction. He could make several strong arguments for the theory where Chester’s theatre side has rubbed off onto Joe.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Mike took a deep breath from the temporary spike of irritation, “Ok have you ever heard of people that can see ghosts. Like see them out and about as if they’re actual living human beings.”

To Mike the stretch of silence felt like an eternity as his nerves grew and grew in anticipation. 

However it was only a second before Joe shot up into a seated position. His face greatly lit up like a kid in a candy store, “Oh did I ever! Mike dude that’s the one thing I will always be jealous of until the day I die. I wished I was able to see ghosts like that!”

Time for another groan. While Mike was happy Joe wasn’t the judgy type, he apparently was the romanticizing type. Both options are annoying in very different ways. But Mike would always rather deal with the latter option.

“It would’ve been so fucking cool. I could got and explore creepy abandoned places and learn so many cool stories -”

“Joe, I can see the dead. It’s not what it’s cracked up to be.” 

“Whoa…holy shit you can see ghosts Mike?” Joe’s eyes grew even bigger then thought possible, “That fucking awesome!”

“Joseph Hahn-”

“I bet you have amazing stories from people centuries ago. Do you Mike? Or even from thousands of years ago. Oh my god do you have any ghost friends? I’m so jealous right now. See that’s one of the reasons why I wish I was born with the gene. I want to be able to make lots of cool ghost friends. Oh oh do you have any friends from the Joseon period-”

“Joseph Seokjin Hahn,” Mike raised the volume of his voice in order to shut Joe up right then and there. 

It did the trick. Joe immediately quieted down as Mike gave him a parental look. The kind everyone knew as the signal they were in trouble as a kid. A moment later the door opened and Chester peeked his head in.

“I heard Joe’s full name being used, everything ok?”

Mike faced Chester, which to Joe the door just moved by itself.

“Uhh, yeah I told Joe about me being able to see ghosts. He got a little too excited,” Mike said as Chester pushed the door open and entered the room.

“Fucking sue me, I just think its a cool ability to have,” Joe protested half heartedly. He felt bad for getting carried away like that. In his defense,  this was the first he knew of someone with the ability.

“It can be,” Mike began as Chester sat down next to him, “But sometimes it can feel like a curse.”

Joe was calmer now as the words were fully sunk into his brain, “Oh, like a blessing and a curse kind of deal.”

“Yes exactly,” Mike confirmed, happy Joe easily got the memo. His voice now back to a gentler tone, “Let me put it this way. One annoying aspect is sometimes the world can feel more congested than it actually is.”

“You can’t turn the, um, sight off?”

Mike shook his head, “Nope. I can sense if someone is a ghost or not but I can’t turn it off. The vision is always on.”

Mike felt quiet as the words sunk into Joe’s mind. He never thought of it that way, Eventually he spoke, “I never knew that. I never read about it when I was researching it out of my own curiosity.”

“There’s sadly not a lot of stuff about it.“

“The congested part sounds overwhelming the more I think about it,” Joe mentioned and Mike nodded in agreement.

“It is. Can overstimulate you fast if you don’t learn to tune it out early on when it starts getting bad,” Mike said as he shifted his gaze from a random spot on the floor towards Joe, “If you don't then you’d feel like you’re constantly being suffocated everywhere. Both outside and inside.”

“Holy god damn that sucks,” Joe said as the revelation hit smack dab in the face.

“Not to mention the whole taboo aspect. There is a reason why there isn’t a whole lot of information outside of fringe communities and Reddit on the internet. As much as the world progressed in the last 20 years, society has sadly been slow to catch up on the whole seeing ghosts deal.”

There was a pause of silence before Mike hastily added, “Which is why I don’t want you to tell anyone about this. Not even the rest of the band. Or your family or closest friends. Nobody. Got it? Tell it to your stuffed plushie if you have to get it out of our system.”

“Loud and clear sir,” Joe said without any hesitation. 

As much as Joe would spread the gossip among the Linkin Park members over the years, Mike could trust him to keep this one a secret. The simple fact being Joe knew what kind of secrets to keep in the metaphorical vault. A secret that could bring ruin to Mike social relationships wise was one of them. 

“I’ll tell Mr. Froggie and that’s it,” Joe said with a short definitive nod. The serious manner caused Mike and Chester to let out an easygoing smile. 

“So back to the topic,” Joe said after a minute passed in comfortable silence, “Who was possessing me?”

“Oh an idiot named Alex Morin,” Mike answered.

“His last name is one letter off from being the perfect description of him,” Joe said and all three shared a moment of casual laughter. 

“Yeah you’re right it is,” Mike replied. Then he explained the rest of last night’s events and the gist of why he and Chester were there. It didn’t take too long and the topic smoothly switched to how Mike met his husband for the first time after July of 2017. How it was also the time Chester finally learned of his secret.

“...then he had to go back to the other side of the veil. It wasn’t until early 2018 he got approved and he was able to move back in with me. He moved in on my birthday that year,” Mike was momentarily stuck in lovestruck nostalgia, “It was the best birthday surprise I’ve ever gotten.”

“Aww that sounds so sweet,” Joe said sincerely.

Although Joe didn’t see it, Chester beamed and gave Mike a warm kiss on the cheek. This caused Mike to smile even bigger and this Joe did take notice of.

The love was palpable in the air. There was a reason why Joe pegged Mike and Chester most likely to get married to one another years ago. Back in the early days of the band. 

“Yeah it was,” Mike said. A blanket of tranquility fell over them, “Do you have any more questions?”

A pensive silence followed as Joe gave it a good thought. He shrugged, “Not really. But your job sounds really cool, you two are like actual Ghostbusters!”

Joe perked up with a bright excited smile, “Hunting down ghosts and bringing them to justice. The bad ones I mean.”

“Err not exactly we’re-” Mike began as he slightly stammered on his words due to awkwardness. 

“Holy shit I didn’t think of it like that before…I fucking love it,” Chester enthusiastically declared as Mike stared at him in confusion.

“But-but that doesn’t make any sense Chester,” Mike argued to his left. 

From the previous conversation Joe knew Chester was right besides Mike. But to him it appeared as if Mike was talking to nothing but air. Frankly speaking this rekindled the jealousy he felt of those who can see ghosts in a solid visible form. 

Now don’t get him wrong, Joe was definitely gonna remember what Mike said. He was right. He should not romanticize it. There were pros and cons to his sixth sense thing just like with a lot of other things in life. The special gene Mike got wasn’t all sunshine, roses and cute cuddly kittens.

On a surface level Joe was hit with a weird irrational sense of being left out. Like he was shut out on the privilege of seeing one of his best friends in the physical form more than he actually got in life. Like come on he knew Chester too, his partner in crime, he was the only one in the band that would go along with his shenanigans. The Chaotic Duo as they were so lovingly called by their fans. 

So not fucking fair Mike can see Chester in a physical form. And interact with him too, let’s not forget about that. 

Joe now has a great urge to curse the universe forevermore for not giving him the sight. The gene that would grant him a lifelong view into a much bigger world. He was also tempted to curse his parents for not having said gene to pass along to him. But he loved his parents, he’d feel bad even if he wasn’t being serious about it.

“Yes it does,” Chester protested with confidence, “You and I, we literally track down ghosts so Joe is pretty much fucking right. We are Ghostbusters! Oh man I’m gonna start calling us Ghostbusters from now on,” Chester laughed happily while Mike groaned under his breath without any real bite.

Truth be told this chaotic little moment was reminiscent of similar ones back from their early days. Whether it was a conversation such as this or some dumb prank born out of boredom. A sense of nostalgia fell over Mike as he recalled memories of Chester and Joe causing mischief in one way or another. Or how he, and the rest of Linkin Park, would be subjected to all sort of weird topics brought on by either of those two, 

“Just think about it Mikey,” Chester said as he continued to go down this train of thought, “We have weapons and we hunt down ghosts on a regular enough basis.”

“Yes but we don’t wear uniforms and we’re not running a business,” Mike pointed out before he suddenly stopped. He mulled it over and the more the thought about it, the more he realized Chester was right.

They were kinda more like the Ghostbusters weren’t they? Mike first thought they were closer to Sam and Dean Winchester but for one thing no otherworldly beings exist in this world. Just ghosts. So on that alone he and Chester were more akin to the characters in the movie then the ones in Supernatural. 

And plus the fact they were handed the assignments from a higher up instead of having people call in. So there was a little bit more evidence to prove Chester’s analogy then his.

“Holy shit we’re Ghostbusters,” Mike eventually said in a state of epiphany. 

“I take it Chester agrees with me?” Joe grinned, giving off a playfully smug vibe.  

Mike sighed before he nodded, “Yeah.”

“Hell yeah,” Joe triumphantly shouted with a boisterous laugh as he pumped both fists up in the air.

___________________________

“So you remember what I told you?” Mike asked while they all stood at the front door. 

Mike wanted to double check before Joe left even though on a deeper level he knew he can trust Joe to not blab this one secret out.

“Yes,” Joe began listing them off with his fingers, “Don’t tell Dave, Rob or Brad, only blab it out to my stuffed animals, and be extra careful when going to abandoned places alone at night.”

Mike smiled with approval, “Exactly. Also tell you what, there is a discord server I mod that's geared for people like me and those like you who are open minded about ghosts and the afterlife.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I can text you the link if you want,” Mike offered and Joe readily took it.

“Yes please. Thank you Mike, and also I promise to not get carried away about this,” Joe added before he let out a happy squeal as he hugged Mike.

“You’re welcome,” Mike said. The two hugged and a second or two later broke apart, “One more thing…”

“Yeah?...”

“You’re probably gonna want to keep the whole Linkin Park thing on the downlow. It’s the internet and I have the ‘can see ghosts’ role. I’m too worried that if someone figured out who I am then they’d out me on Twitter or Reddit without thinking.”

“Gotcha,” 

“Also probably a good idea for your sake too,” Mike added as soon as the thought came to his mind, “I’m sure you don’t want people getting too crazy over you being a Linkin Park member in the chatroom.”

Joe agreed before sharing another brief hug with Mike.

He left and the house fell into a comfortable silence. Natural light from the sunny weather outside casted the house in a warm cozy glow. 

“I’m glad that went well,” Mike finally commented as he turned around to Chester.

“Same. I figured if there was anyone else in the band that would take your secret well, it’d be Joe,” Chester said with full certainty. Another stretch of silence passed before he spoke again, “So what do you want to do? We don’t have anything going on for the rest of the day.”

“Well…..” Mike lightly drawled. Then a lightbulb went on inside his head, “Oh I know, we can create a new remix for Already Over! We can add your vocals to it and it can be titled ‘Already Over’ and in parentheses ‘The Ghost Remix’. It’ll be great!”

Mike beamed just right before he ran towards the second floor where the studio was located. 

“What Mike no you already have enough remixes of that song as it is. The world does not need another remix,” Chester said as he followed Mike up the stairs, “I swear I’ll haunt your ass Shinoda if you make another remix.”

“You already kinda do,” Mike called out with an easygoing laugh down the hallway.