Ghostbusters In Love

1. After Gozer Goes Away

Author's Note: Let's pretend the firehouse is damaged but still habitable after Peck released the ghosts from the containment unit. Ghosts don't have bodies, so many of them must have just phased through the structure without damaging it too much. There would be high PKE residue, a hole in the roof that needs to be patched and a mess to clean up, but for the purposes of this story, they can still go back to the firehouse after the 1984 Gozer battle, also known as The Manhattan Cross Rip.

(Originally completed 12-21-2023, published first on AO3 @RaysOccultBoobs, my work)

* New York City 1984, after the events of the first Ghostbusters movie*

Egon has never felt so happy nor so frightened, especially not all in one day. As a person who doesn't normally meddle with emotions, it's been an overwhelming 48 hours.

Yesterday there was that neck massage incident with Ray at his desk. Last night, Zuul crashed Venkman's date with Dana and the police dropped a possessed Louis at their door. Then at dawn, that jerk Peck released the ghosts, blew a hole in their roof, the Ghostbusters got arrested and the mayor of New York City called them into his office. Then, just a few hours ago, they'd fought a ruthless, powermad demigod/goddess from another dimension. Now, against all reason, and some of the laws of physics, they've won. The three kooky scientists, their brave colleague Winston Zeddemore and scrappy secretary Janine Melnitz have done it. They saved Dana and Louis, saved New York and possibly the world, from a ghost invasion.

In the crush of triumphant New Yorkers afterwards, the grinning and gooey Ghostbusters posed for photos, signed autographs, and endured many hugs. Venkman proved excellent at charming the reporters, improvising witty soundbites while remembering to plug the business and insert their phone number into every interview. Winston was a big hit with the newspeople, too, an adventurous yet humble Everyman. However, the press quickly grasped that Ray and Egon's answers tended to be long, monotone and full of dense mathematical info, so reporters stopped asking them questions.

It was a relief to stop talking. What were they supposed to say, really? "Ghosts are real and we finally have proof and everyone will have to take us seriously now"? "We almost died and the fact that we didn't was mostly luck"? "Please don't sue us for marshmallow damage"? "Two of us are falling in love and don't know what to do about it"?

The chaotic aftermath turned into Venkman schmoozing, Ray smiling and waving, Winston throwing his arm around their shoulders. Egon mostly stood next to them, blinking owlishly in the bright camera lights. After a while, spotlight happy Venkman stayed to finish up with the reporters, letting the other three Ghostbusters slip away.

Now, the battle with Gozer is over and the emergency responders are at work putting it all back like it never was. Venkman will follow Dana's ambulance to the hospital where she is to be treated for minor wounds (and low key observed for further signs of demonic possession). Their proton packs and most of the ghost traps were confiscated by the police. However, city officials were feeling generous towards the boys in gray- being saved from a psychopathic demi deity will do that to even the most coldhearted bureaucrat- and so they've let the Ghostbusters keep Ecto 1 to get home.

Driving back to headquarters now, in the almost dawn hours, Winston is behind the wheel. Ray and Egon are next to each other on the rear-facing bench seat. Exhaustion overtakes them. Smokey Robinson croons quietly on the radio and Winston hums along to stay awake. No one speaks. Their ears are ringing, their eyes stinging with afterimages from the phosphorous bright proton beams, their nervous systems are awash with adrenaline hangovers. They're all talked and touched out. And very very sticky.

Egon knows he should be eager to record the team's observations about what they witnessed tonight. There is so much more to do. Dana Barrett and Louis Tully require intensive study. Samples will need to be taken. Overheated equipment needs repair or replacement. Marshmallow must be scrubbed off of everything. Worst of all, there will be phone calls, paperwork and meetings, Egon's least favorite things. It feels like it will be a long time until everyone leaves them alone and lets them get back to work. The city may or may not press charges against Egon for building unregistered nuclear devices. There will definitely be a shit ton of government red tape before they can get their stuff back. It is highly unlikely they'll get paid. Perhaps Venkman will charm a pardon from the Governor and it will all go away. Those are problems for tomorrow.

For now, Egon only thinks about scrubbing off the ectoplasmic slime residue and the now cooling and horribly stiff marshmallow fluff. He will never smell this burnt vanilla campfire scent again without thinking of tonight and Gozer the Gozarian. He can't believe Ray's boyishly sweet and innocent imagination unleashing the Stay Pufft Marshmallow Man on Manhattan. Egon silently thanks a god he swears he doesn't believe in that Gozer didn't pick up any images from Egon's own brain to personify.

Egon has been thinking a lot about Ray these days. Not just friendly thoughts about his brilliant brain and his sense of humor, either. Definitely not sweet and innocent thoughts. Egon has been thinking about Ray's heterochromic eyes, one brown and one green, huge behind his magnifying goggles. About Ray at work on Ecto 1, white undershirt stretched across his wonderfully padded chest and shoulders. About Ray's ass, plump and inviting, when bent over his workbench. Ray in his jumpsuit. Ray's strong belly. Ray's lovely thighs.

Recently, Egon has been longing to be a cigarette, to be clenched between Ray's lips, to be drawn into Ray's lungs. Ridiculously, he's grown jealous of the fire pole, pressed and sliding between Ray's thick legs and forearms. Unlike Ray who never gets dizzy, Egon likes to take the stairs. With Egon's poor vestibular sense, he gets motion sickness every time his feet leave the ground. But he's begun taking the fire pole after Ray does, just so he can put his body where Raymond's has just been. It's either romantic or deeply embarrassing, Egon can't decide which.

What would have happened if Egon's thoughts had been blown 100 feet high and marched through Manhattan for all the world to see? Would Gozer have taken the form of a cigarette or a fire pole? Or a giant Ray Stantz, stomping down Wall Street, clad only in a jockstrap the size of a school bus? What would Ray have done, upon seeing how Egon secretly, frequently thinks of him? Egon blushes hard, filled with relief and arousal. Trust his adorable friend Ray to picture a pillowy, sweet, childhood icon and not his handsome lab partner, on his knees, naked but for an open lab coat, as Egon is doing now. Shaking off the lustful mental images which are surely a bi-product of their recent near death experience, surely just a natural biological response to the excitement of it all, and not an indication of how deeply Egon has fallen in love with his colleague, Egon comes back into the present moment and turns to look at Ray.

Ray is already looking up at him, not smiling for once, a serious expression on his face, an unlit cigarette tucked into the corner of his mouth. Has Ray noticed his blushing, heated face?

"We did it, buddy," Ray says, grabbing Egon's hand off the seat between them in a congratulatory squeeze. Egon smiles proudly and nods.

Ray releases his pressure on Egon's hand but doesn't let go. And Egon doesn't pull his hand away.

Their hands are the only clean parts of their bodies, the only parts they could wash back at the scene. Ray's hand is warm and dry. Egon's hands are slightly chilly because they always are. Egon's long slender fingers are slotted between each of Ray's thicker, square fingers. After a probably-too-long-to-pass-off-as-platonic beat, Ray swallows audibly and releases his gentle grip on Egon's hand, only for the other physicist to squeeze a little and draw Ray's palm back down into contact with his palm again. The nonverbal communication zings up Ray's arm and his heart responds with a clench. Egon wants to hold hands. With him.

And so, the two Ghostbusters ride home, side by side, letting the potholes rock their bodies gently into each other, not speaking, watching the night lights of the city pass through Ecto 1's big rectangular back window, holding hands and feeling the other man's body heat and breath beside them. Both inwardly rejoicing that they made it through the entire terrifying ordeal- alive, unharmed and together.