Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Danny lets out a long groan as he enters his apartment.

He’s dead tired— hehe, ‘dead’ tired— due to an exhausting schoolday and having been unable to fall back asleep last night after what happened.

So sure, he might have started having a panic attack when he got back to his apartment when what he had just done had finally fully sunken in.

And he might have spiraled even more, even going as far as to try and trap himself in a Fenton thermos, thinking he was back on the path to becoming Dan.

Luckily for him, a green sticky note, left by his favorite unnecessarily cryptic mentor, appeared.

It let him know that he is no more on the path to becoming Dan than prior to the incident and that the actions he had taken that night, while vexatious, were necessary for the betterment of the timeline.

Whatever that means.

By the time he had come to terms with his actions enough to stop spiraling and remember that he has school soon. He checked the time, noticing that he only had a few minutes left until his next class started.

Which meant he had to sprint to his classes and start the day off already tired and emotionally drained. He hadn’t even been able to at least get a coffee beforehand. And so he spent the rest of the day fighting to stay awake during his lessons, sporting eye bags big enough to carry the weight of his sins.

Danny glances at the space-themed clock on the wall that Jazz had gotten him as a housewarming gift. 6 pm. He should probably get started on dinner.

Deciding to go with something simple, as he simply does not have the energy for anything fancy right now, Danny opens the cupboard and grabs the first thing he sees: a box of mac n cheese. Danny rubs his eyes and squints at the box, trying to read the instructions when he gets interrupted by a knock.

…

On his window.

…

Danny turns around to see Red Hood at his window, outside of his 3rd-floor apartment. He pauses before shrugging it off. Stranger things have happened. He sets the box down and makes his way over to the window. He opens the window once he reaches it, only to come face to face with a bouquet of sweet peas, the colors ranging from white and pink to lavender.

Oh, those are his favorite.

He gingerly takes the flowers before looking over the top of the bouquet at the person who handed them to him. Ah, yes. The crime lord. Who had seen him commit murder.

Danny stares at him, debating on whether he should ask him what he’s doing here or thank him for the flowers. Red Hood speaks up before Danny can make a decision.

“So about that dinner… ” He trails off, tone laced with hope and a slight nervousness.

“Right.” Danny nods with understanding, despite not having a clue what Red Hood was talking about, his joke the night before having slipped from his mind.

“I’ve got the entire night planned out for us. First, we’ll have dinner at Pete’s. They recently rebuilt and they have this amazing cannoli, you have to try it sometime.

“And then after dinner, we’ll go to the Gotham Observatory—“

Danny, not even questioning how the crime lord found out where he lives and that he loves space, cuts him off in excitement.

“Wait! Isn’t that the one with the crystal-powered telescope?”

Red Hood nods and holds out a hand to him expectantly.

Danny stares at the hand for a moment before shrugging, setting the flowers down on a table, and taking the offered hand. He lets Red Hood lead him out of his own window.

Once Red Hood has helped him down to the ground and led him to his motorcycle, it dawns on Danny he’s going on a date(?) with a known crime lord— or wasn’t it former crime lord now?

Well, who was Danny to refuse a trip to the observatory and some good cannoli?

Who knows, he might even get a new boyfriend out of it.

 
Red Hood takes his helmet off and sets it down on the table between them so he can eat.

Danny tries not to stare too much but damn, he’s handsome, even if he’s still wearing the mask.

Danny takes a bite of his food to try and distract himself, idly noting that ohhh, this is some good spaghetti. He'll have to try the cannoli if it's as good as their pasta.

Red Hood is the one to start the conversation.

“Hey, so, since we didn’t get to talk more last night, I still wanted to thank you for your service to the city”

“My what?”

“I’ve been wanting to kill that insane clown for years now.” Red Hood continues.

“And while I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to end his miserable existence myself, I’m so glad he’s finally gone. So, thank you” he says, looking Danny right in the eye with an earnest expression.

Feeling a mix of flustered at the heavy gaze that’s on him, and confused by the other’s words, Danny stammers out a bewildered “You’re… welcome?”

Red Hood nods at him before continuing.

“And you don’t have to worry about others finding out if you don’t want them to. I ain’t a snitch, and I’ll try to keep the Bats off your back the best I can.”

Danny gives him a nod in gratitude.

“Though honestly, I’d doubt you’d have to deal with much trouble even if people did know it was you who got rid of him.

“The Joker has done a lot of horrid shit and caused a lot of grief for Gotham over the years. He’s had it coming for a long time now, so don’t even feel too bad about it. It might even become a local holiday when his death comes out!”

However, something Red Hood had said stood out to Danny. He stiffens before blurting something out in a tone that sounded even more panicked than when he accidentally killed the clown.

“THAT CLOWN I PUNCHED WAS THE JOKER?!”

Chapter Text

Something’s wrong with the Pit.

It takes Jason way too long to notice it.

The Pit’s never really been silent, just a haze of anger that’s always simmering in the back of his mind. And while it’s still not entirely gone, Jason already being convinced that it will never truly go away, something is still… off about it.

Instead of the usual all-consuming rage the Pit makes him feel, mainly directed at the Joker, it feels… calmer. More at peace. Almost…

Content.

While the rage itself is still there, it’s more muted. Like it’s being drowned out by something else. Something that feels like… praise? reverence? admiration?

Jason is unsure what exactly it is that the Pit is making him experience. But he does know who it’s aimed at: the mysterious twink whose murder he still has to cover up.

And that brings Jason back to the corpse in front of him.

If the slightly pointed ears and small fangs the guy possessed hadn’t already pointed towards his hero the dude being a meta of some kind, then the decimation of the Joker with a single punch certainly did it.

And damn, that punch was kinda hot.

Jason shakes his head. If he wants to help the meta dude keep people off his back about the murder, however accidental it might have been and despite the corpse’s identity, then he’s gonna have to get rid of the body first.

And he should probably do something about any cam footage there might be of the incident.

With any luck, the Joker’s escape hasn’t been noticed and announced yet. That should make it easier to cover everything up. Before he does anything though, Jason pauses as he realizes the opportunity he has.

He takes off his helmet, takes out his phone, and crouches down by the corpse.

He takes a selfie.

Jason looks at the picture he took, noting that while he’s not really a keepsakes kinda guy, this one’s definitely gonna be framed, before putting his phone away again. Right, it’s time for him to clean up a clown corpse.

After that, he has to find out who his knight in dirty NASA shirt was.

If not for the promised date, that he is so taking the guy on, then at least to figure out what’s happening with the Pit.

After getting rid of the body, Jason’s next point on the agenda is research.

All he has on the guy so far is a physical description, a possible meta status, and the information that he has a scholarship at Gotham University.

Jason starts with hacking into the cams in the street where the incident took place. To his surprise, all the cam footage in that area around the time of the incident is corrupted. The visual files are overtaken by static and the audio files aren’t any better.

Huh, convenient.

Well, this is just some more proof for Jason’s meta theory. Though it does mean he can’t use the files to run any facial recognition. Oh, well. He’ll just have to hack into Gotham U’s systems then.

Even though the files are pretty useless, Jason makes sure to wipe them all anyway. Just to be safe.

He also makes sure to wipe his helmet’s footage. Despite how corrupted it is, it’s better to be safe than sorry with the Bats. He’s already lucky Babs hadn’t yet decided to hack into his helmet cam yet that night.

Next, he hacks his way into the Gotham U. systems. He manages to limit his search by only looking for first-year scholarship students and after a while Jason’s pretty sure he found the right guy, judging by the school picture.

Mystery twink’s name is Daniel Fenton. 20 years old, uses he/him pronouns. No registered meta status. His address was recently updated to Gotham City, the old address being a city named Amity Park in Illinois.

He took a gap year after high school and recently won a scholarship at Gotham U. He’s majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in both astronomy and astrophysics.

Holy shit, he’s a fucking space nerd.

…

Has the Gotham Observatory reopened yet? That might be a good place to take him to while on their date after they’ve had dinner.

Interestingly enough, his ICE contact isn’t a parent or guardian but instead, it’s his older sister. One Jasmine Fenton, who has recently gained a doctorate in psychology, he finds after looking her up as well.

A quick search on Amity Park doesn’t gain him much. Though, after some digging he manages to run into a firewall. A pretty big firewall. That’s protecting anything but the barest of mentions of the city.

Nope, he’s not gonna be dealing with that shit.

Despite not being able to get more on Amity Park itself, Jason does manage to find some social media accounts of some of the city’s residents. One of them being Daniel’s.

But when he tries to take a look at any of the posts, all he gets are errors and endless loading screens. The firewall that’s protecting Amity Park also seems to be protecting all of its residents. Even former residents.

Right. That’s enough of that for today.

One thing Jason does note is that the twink’s preferred name is probably Danny, judging by the account bio.

At this point, Jason’s stuck on whether or not he should try his luck by going to Babs or Tim to see if they can find out more about Danny.

While they might be able to get through his hometown’s firewall, it would be hard to convince either of them to keep any information they find from the Bats if they knew why exactly Jason had taken an interest in the guy in the first place.

Whether that reason was because of the clown murder, the weird happenings with the Pit, or because Jason really wants to take the cute twink out on a date.

Though he could potentially try to bribe Replacement to do it for him, no questions asked, if he brought him some of that ‘Deathwish’ coffee for his services…

But, knowing him, the nosy fucker would probably ask questions anyway, stick his nose into Jason’s business, where it really doesn’t belong, and then proceed to tell the Bats regardless of any threats Jason would have sent his way.

However, on the other hand, Jason’s pretty sure Replacement still owes him a favor.

Hmmm… He’ll keep it in mind as a plan B.

He already managed to gather enough information to take Danny out on that date anyway.

While in the line to get some flowers for Danny, Jason decides to text the Bats group chat a vague message on how he won’t be patrolling Crime Alley tonight.

He’d rather not be dealing with panicked Bats crashing his date because they thought something was wrong because he hadn’t been seen patrolling, nor checked in with any of them. Or worse, nosy Bats stalking him and his date to see if he’s ‘worthy’ or some shit.

And if Jason texted them right after the announcement of the Joker being gone from Arkham was finally made?

Well, then that’s their problem, Jason resolutely decides, already reveling in the chaos as he mutes the chat and turns his phone off for good measure.

After paying for the flowers, and trying not to intimidate the shopkeeper because he’s in his Red Hood gear, Jason makes his way back to his motorcycle outside. After double-checking Danny’s address, he takes off.

Time to take the twink out on a date.

Chapter Text

“THAT CLOWN I PUNCHED WAS THE JOKER?!”

The frenzied question stuns Jason for a moment.

Oh. He realizes. He’s stupid.

…

Fuck , he wants to kiss him so bad.

Slightly incredulous, he manages to get out a question of his own in response.

“Just how many insane clowns do you think we have wandering around Gotham?”

“I don’t know, man! I’ve only been here for less than a week. And it’s Gotham, there’s a new rogue like every other week!”

Jason considers his point for a moment before conceding.

“… You know what? That’s fair.”

Danny slumps in his chair with a groan, his cheeks slightly dusted pink due to embarrassment. He puts his forehead on the table. Slightly worried, Jason speaks up.

“Are you alright?”

“Just peachy. Not even a week in a new city and I already managed to dispose of one of the city’s most infamous rogues, and I wasn’t even aware of it. Ugh, my sister’s gonna kill me. Fully this time.”

Right. Jason’s not gonna touch upon that last statement with a ten-foot pole.

Instead, he suggests “Well, you could try to keep it from her but, knowing how siblings can be, she’ll probably find out anyway. Better rip off the metaphorical band-aid and tell her yourself first so she’ll be less mad about you keeping it from her.”

Danny seems to think it over for a moment before nodding.

“Yeah, if I tell her beforehand she might be merciful enough to make it painless.”

Jason lets out a snort. He then considers something before speaking up.

“I could… show you around sometime if you’d like? Explain some standard protocols, show you which places to avoid, which places to visit… So something like this doesn’t happen again…?”

“I’d… like that” Danny days, looking up at him with a small smile.

“So…” Jason decides to switch topics “Tell me some more about yourself, you’re studying aerospace engineering, right?”

Danny decides it’s better not to ask how Red Hood found out all this information about him. If he were in any danger from the other, he probably wouldn’t have gotten flowers or been taken out to dinner anyway.

“Oh, yeah! When I was little I actually wanted to be an astronaut, but due to health reasons, that’s unfortunately not possible anymore. So instead, I decided to combine my mechanical engineering knowledge with my love for space. This way, I might still be able to land a job at NASA.”

Jason ponders over the possibility of sneaking Danny onto the watchtower.

They get interrupted by a waiter approaching their table, nervously asking if they’d like to order dessert.

“Oh, I’ll have some cannoli please!” Danny says.

Ah, a man after his own heart.

When they get to the observatory, Jason already notices Danny’s excitement growing the closer they get.

He managed to rent the place out for tonight, not having been in the mood for a tour or something. Besides, if he really wanted to know more about the stars, he’s pretty sure his date Danny’s got that covered for him.

“Over there you can see Ursa Major and Ursa Minor! They’re also known as The Big and Little Dipper, and are some of the easiest constellations to spot, mainly due to their pan shape. Though, the Big Dipper isn't the entire constellation, but actually only a part of Ursa Major, just the tail.”

Danny had started to tell him about the different constellations they should be able to see at this time of the year, using the telescope to navigate towards them and then letting Jason take a look while he tells him all about what they’re looking at.

“Oh! And there’s Hydra! While some parts of the constellation are visible for about half of the year, around this time of year the full constellation should be visible! It is both the largest and longest constellation.”

Danny seems to be practically glowing.

Wait, scratch that. Danny is glowing.

Jason takes a good look at Danny while he’s rambling. Not only does he seem to be emitting a soft glow, but his hair is also slowly starting to float as if he’s underwater. It looks like his meta powers are probably acting up.

Moreover, his freckles, which were very faint before, are now glowing a bright and familiar Lazarus green, which Jason finds mildly concerning. But also… kinda cute…

He tenses a little, keeping a wary eye on Danny, before slowly relaxing as he notices Danny is still excitedly going on about the Hydra constellation.

“Did you know Hydra is also often referred to as The Water Snake? The naming is based on the myth where a crow served Apollo a cup of water with a hydra snake in it. Apollo then caught the crow and was so enraged that he threw the cup and the snake into the sky.”

Yeah, no matter the connection Danny might have to the Lazarus Pits. There’s no need to worry about this fucking nerd, Jason notes with a small hint of fondness.

At the end of their little observatory tour, the glow around Danny starts to dim and his hair stops floating. The glowing of his freckles has also started to disappear, though he is still beaming.

Well, he’d call that a successful first date.

After their date, Jason brings Danny back to his apartment on his motorcycle. Once they’ve arrived and Danny is about to leave, Jason blurts something out.

“Oh wait! Before you go…”

Danny looks at him questioningly.

“Can I have your number?” he quickly asks, glad that his helmet is obscuring his reddened face.

He watches the way Danny lights up, his cheeks dusted light pink.

“Ah, uh. Sure!” the space nerd stammers.

Jason takes out a pen that he totally hadn’t taken with him just for this occasion and hands it over. Danny takes the pen and pauses, looking Jason in his Red Hood outfit over, before taking a gentle hold of Jason’s hand.

He glances up at Jason with a questioning glance, asking if he’s okay with this. Jason gives him a nod, that he really hopes doesn’t come over as too eager, in return.

Either way, it seems to be enough for Danny, who then proceeds to move down Jason’s glove a bit and write down his number on Jason’s hand.

Once he’s done, he puts the glove back in place and hands the pen back. Danny’s face is red and he’s grinning. Cute… Jason stays silent, not trusting his voice, and nods in thanks.

“So, I’ll uh see you… next time?” He asks, hope lacing his voice.

Again, Jason just nods in response.

“Great! Cool cool cool. Uh, yeah, uh Toodaloo Kangaroo?” He ends his statement with an awkward grin and finger guns, stumbling when he tries to walk backward.

Fuck me.

He watches as Danny rubs the back of his neck sheepishly before waving him goodbye and turning around, making his way into the apartment complex.

Jason keeps his eyes on Danny as he watches him disappear into the building before tugging off his glove and lowering his gaze to the phone number scrawled on his hand.

He swallows as he realizes that oh, he’s in deep.

Chapter Text

As soon as Danny enters his apartment, face bright red, he takes his head into his hands and lets out a silent scream.

He could have said anything, and he panicked and went with Toodealoo Kangaroo???

At this rate, he’ll never get a partner.

As Danny stands there in misery, his phone starts buzzing with messages. Curious, he checks his phone to see what going on.

Uh oh.

Team Phantom 👻😎

Chaos: Guys check this out

Chaos: *link*

Chaos: The Joker escaped from Arkham again, but no one’s heard anything of him since, nor have they been able to find him

TooFine: @Daniel 👀

TooFine: ok the @ had been a joke but the fact that he has read it and not replied is concerning

Sharpshooter: @Daniel, what did you do?

Sharpshooter: @Daniel

Sharpshooter: I can see that you’re reading this, don’t ignore me.

TooFine: ohhhh someones in troubleee 👀

Sharpshooter: Tucker.

TooFine: 🤐

Danny takes a deep breath.

Well, it’s now or never. Let’s hope Jazz is feeling merciful.

Private chat

Bill: ok so you know how you said you would still love me if I was a worm?

Pants: I have no clue how this ties into the previous conversation, but yes. Why?

Bill: hypothetically

Bill: would you also still love me if I

Bill: hypothetically

Bill: accidentally

Bill: vibe checked someone that tried to uh

Bill: hypothetically

Bill: kidnap and or kill me??

Bill: 🥺🥺🙏

Pants: Danny, did you accidentally kill the Joker?

Bill: yes or no Jazz??!? 😩🥺

Pants: Yes, Danny. I would still love you if you, hypothetically, accidentally killed the Joker.

Bill: this is why you’re my favorite sister 🥹🥰😘

Bill: don’t tell Ellie 😳🫣

Pants: Danny, what happened?

Danny lets out a sigh of relief before proceeding to tell Jazz what happened.

Pants: Oh Danny.

Bill: are you mad at me?

Pants: I’m not mad at you, I just want you to stay safe.

Pants: While I don’t condone murder, I understand that it was self-defense and an accident. I‘m just glad that you’re alright.

Bill: 🥰💞😘

With a small smile on his face, Danny goes back to the groupchat.

Team Phantom 👻😎  

Daniel: you know

Daniel: if I had a nickel for every time I’ve had to fight off an insane clown that attacked me 🤡

Daniel: I’d have two nickels

Daniel: which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice, right? 🤔

Chaos: Damnit Danny, we leave you alone in a new city for a week and you already manage to get into a fight with one of Gotham City’s most infamous rogues

TooFine: actually its been 6 days 10 hours and 17 minutes

TooFine: so not even a full week yet

Chaos: Did you at least get a good few punches in?

Chaos: Danny?

TooFine: @Daniel ???

TooFine: if i had a nickel for every time danny said something concerning and then didnt provide context id be richer than vlad

Daniel: anyway, for completely unrelated reasons, @TooFine I need you to wipe some cams for me 😃

TooFine: danny im not wiping the cams again so no one will have proof of you tripping backward and falling ass-first into a trashcan

Chaos: Speaking of, Tucker do you still have that footage and can you send it to me?

TooFine: already done

Daniel: noo it’s nothing like that this time 😫

Daniel: pleaseeee 🥺🙏🙏

Daniel: I’ll get you an autograph from Tim Drake-Wayne?

TooFine: deal.

Daniel: 🥳🎉

Daniel: ok so the footage from somewhere around 3 am last night

Daniel: around some place named park row??

Daniel: I think it’s called?? 🤔

Daniel: though I’m pretty sure I’ve also heard some people refer to it as crime alley

Daniel: not sure why tho 🤷

TooTine: aye aye captain o7

Chaos: Danny, in an alley getting attacked by the fucking Joker: I wonder why this place is called crime alley

Daniel: stop bullying me 😠

Chaos: No

TooFine: hey danny r u sure thats right? i checked the cams n stuff but theres no available footage from the area n time u described

TooFine: its like someones already wiped it all

Daniel: oh!

Daniel: that’s so sweet of him 😊

Chaos: Wait who is this ‘him’?

TooFine: the joker????

Daniel: oh no not the Joker

Daniel: just some cute guy I met last night  

Daniel: he witnessed me killing the Joker 🫣

Daniel: and didn’t call the cops on me afterward 🥰💞

TooFine: def green flag

Chaos: Oh hell yeah, he’s a keeper

Chaos: Wait you killed the Joker?! I thought you just fought him off!

Daniel: it was an accident!! 😭😭

Daniel: he crept up on me and tried to grab me 😓

Daniel: so I got startled and because all I saw was a clown

Daniel: I just kinda punched his face in with my ghost strength… 😰

TooFine: f

Chaos: f

Sharpshooter: Have you gotten rid of the body yet? Did you leave behind DNA at the crime scene? Will I need to start saving up bail money or getting ready to enact the Fenton Break Out plan?

Chaos: Jazz asking the important questions here

Daniel: well, considering the footage was wiped

Daniel: and also the fact that no one’s found him yet

Daniel: I think it’s safe to assume it’s all taken care of

Daniel: that’s honestly really sweet of him though 🥰😊

TooFine: oohhhhh ur mystery boo??

Daniel: yeah, this random guy saw me vibe-checking the Joker

Daniel: and let me go home without any trouble

Daniel: pretty sure he’s the one who wiped the cams 🤔

Daniel: and then today he showed up at my apartment with flowers 🥺

Daniel: they were sweat peas!!!! 🥰🤩

Chaos: Was that to thank you for the murder orrrr?

Sharpshooter: Oh those are your favorite, was that on purpose?

Daniel: well I didn’t tell him

Daniel: so I’m not sure if he knew or if it was a coincidence 🤷

Daniel: but yeah then he took me out to this restaurant called Pete’s for dinner

Daniel: they had some amazing cannoli

Daniel: you should try it sometime if you get the chance

Daniel: and then after dinner he took me to the observatory!!!!!!! 🤩🥰

Sharpshooter: Gotham observatory?

Sharpshooter: Isn’t that the one with the special telescope, I think you mentioned it before

Daniel: yeah, the crystal-powered telescope!! 😍💞✨🤩❤️

Daniel: and at the end, he brought me home

Daniel: and he asked for my number!!!

TooFine: nice dude!

Chaos: The guy really went all-out and planned your dream date hu? So, what’s this mystery hunk’s name?

Daniel: oh I’m not sure, I didn’t ask 🙃🤭

Sharpshooter: Danny…

Daniel: yes?

Sharpshooter: Did you go on a date with a complete stranger who witnessed you commit a murder?

Chaos: How do you not even know his name?

Daniel: two words Jazz: Johnny 13

Daniel: and he’s not a stranger!! 😠

Sharpshooter: But you don’t know his name?

Chaos: We just can’t leave him alone, can we? Less than a week on his own and he already murdered one of Gotham’s most infamous rogues and then completely forgets the concept of Stranger Danger

Daniel: I mean he probably just found it when he tried to do some research on me or something

Daniel: probably got it from the school’s system now that I think of it 🤔

TooFine: dude who the hell is this guy??

Chaos: Who the fuck did you go on a date with?

Daniel: do you really think it was a date? 🥺😳

Daniel: I wasn’t sure

Daniel: cause he mainly took me out for dinner to thank me for the night before

Daniel: but then again

Daniel: he did get me flowers and ask for my number after he brought me back to my apartment 🤔

Daniel: like I wasn’t sure if I was reading the signals right…..

Daniel: but do you think that was a date? 🫣

Sharpshooter: Danny, for the love of the Ancients.

Sharpshooter: Who was it?

Daniel: oh, it was Red Hood 🥰

TooFine: damn dannys got that vigilante rizz

Sharpshooter: Red Hood? The crime lord?!

TooFine: former, actually

Daniel: what he said ^^

Chaos: Danny, you really have a type huh? Vigilantes with a Red theme. Who’s next? Red Robin?

Daniel: stop bullying me

TooFine: never

Chaos: Never

Daniel: on a different note, who changed my name in the chat again?

Sharpshooter: Ellie did.

Chaos: Ellie

TooFine: @TheCoolerDaniel

TheCoolerDaniel: 😎

TheCoolerDaniel: wait i just read back, danny’s dating a crime lord?? :0 👀

Chapter Text

Miss Harleen Quinzel had been having a relaxing evening on the couch with Bud and Lou when she gets a message on her phone. Seeing it’s from Red Hood, who barely texts… well anyone, she quickly opens it.

All he sent her is an image. There’s no text accompanying it and Red Hood already went offline. Harley looks at the selfie Red Hood sent her.

It doesn’t seem like anything special until she sees the body on the floor next to him in the picture.

She freezes.

A big grin stretches across her face and she starts laughing. Not a giggle or a cackle, just a full-blown belly laughter full of happiness and relief and with tears gathering in her eyes.

From another room, her girlfriend’s voice sounds.

“Harls? Are you alright?”

An announcement had just been made of the Joker having escaped Arkham once again. And just when Tim thought tonight couldn’t have gotten any worse, Jason sent a message in the groupchat.

28 days without the Joker breaking out of Arkham

OGnerd: Due to personal reasons I won’t be patrolling Crime Alley tonight

OGnerd: Don’t follow me.

And, Jason being Jason, immediately turned his phone off after sending the messages.

So of course, Tim immediately went to follow him. After updating the groupchat name…

Fortunately for Tim, and unfortunately for Jason, Jason has not been informed of Tim’s stalker tendencies yet. Jason knows he’s nosy, but is unaware of the actual following people around and spying on them aspect.

It was child’s play for Tim to follow the tracker in Jason’s helmet to see him visit… a flower shop?

Tim’s first thought is that he might be following a lead of some kind seeing as he’s in his Red Hood outfit and all. But that thought evaporates the moment Jason walks out of the flower shop with a bouquet of… are those sweet peas?

Slightly bewildered, Tim continues to stalk follow Jason from a safe distance as he steps onto his motorcycle and leaves the flower shop.

He follows him to an apartment complex, where he sees Jason proceed to knock on someone’s window, flowers in hand, rather than just breaking in.

Tim watches as someone opens the window and after a while gets led outside by Jason and eventually down onto the ground and to the motorcycle.

Perplexed at how gentle Jason seems to be with the random dude, Tim barely remembers to move after them when they leave again on the motorcycle.

Tim could hear the yelled question from outside.

“THAT CLOWN I PUNCHED WAS THE JOKER?!”

That sentence leaves Tim with so many questions.

Not only has Jason’s friend— date? — interacted with the Joker. But he has also punched him, and all that without even knowing that it was, in fact, the Joker.

Watching as the guy put his head on the table in embarrassment, even making Jason concerned for the guy, Tim can only think that damn, Jason really knows how to pick them, huh.

Tim decides to leave them alone. It seems likely that Jason and his mystery boo had something to do with the Joker still not having made an appearance, but he’ll interrogate Jason about it later. He’d rather not be found out and killed for stalking Jason on his date, thank you very much.

While he’s moving further away from them, his coms crack to life with B’s voice.

“Everyone. Meeting at the clock tower in 10. Don’t be late.”

Tim swallows as he changes course to head to the clock tower.

Now, how to keep everyone off Jason’s back so he doesn’t commit familicide?...

Once everyone minus Jason was at the clock tower, they got the debrief.

The Joker had escaped Arkham two days ago, and no one has heard anything from him since. Not only that, but they didn’t even know he was gone until a day later.

It was an all-hands-on-deck situation, even Dick came from Bludhaven to help out on the search.

After the debrief is done and they’re about to start the search, B suddenly speaks up again.

“Where’s Red Hood?”

His response is silence as no one speaks up, just awkwardly glancing around. Dick almost started whistling but got elbowed in the gut by Damian. Steph, does, start whistling quietly.

B wasn’t deterred, however. With a sigh, he talks into the coms.

“Oracle—”

“Already on it. I’m currently trying to trace the tracker in his helmet and remotely turn on the cam and audio footage.”

There’s a pause in her speech.

“It looks like there’s some strange interference. The cam footage is being corrupted, and so the is audio.”

B’s expression stays stoic as always.

“The tracker?”

“Glitching. It almost looks like it’s teleporting around the map. It won’t give me one specific location and even disappears entirely every few seconds.”

B lets out a grunt before Babs continues.

“Though it looks like the places the tracker appears are all quite close to each other, so I might be able to interpolate the coordinates of the teleporting tracker and determine a general area for his location.”

“You know,” Tim speaks up foolishly, “in my personal opinion, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. We should probably just leave him alone for the night“

Tim sweats as he can feel B’s gaze on him as he replies to Oracle. “Keep us updated”

They had split up and searched for two hours so far, stopping some minor crime on the way, but they hadn’t been able to find any clue as to where the Joker might be.

Oracle has managed to find the moment of his escape on the cameras, but after a while the files start to glitch and the rest of them are completely missing. Someone wiped the files.

They decided to regroup at the clock tower to discuss some more strategies.

“Oracle, report on Red Hood’s location.”

“I tried to get the general location of the tracker and I traced it all the way back to a restaurant, but I’m almost certain it just started moving. I’m currently tracing its path to try and extrapolate the new location.”

“Good. Keep us updated.”

Tim tries to speak up when Oracle starts talking again.

“Oracle here. I think the tracker is moving towards… the Gotham Observatory?”

“What the hell is Jason doing at the observatory?” Duke wonders.

Going on a date with a mysterious twink who’s definitely not a native Gothamite and seems to randomly punch clowns?

At first, Tim couldn’t believe Jason going on a date with someone seemingly so oblivious/naïve.

But when he puts it like that… yeah, ‘mysterious twink that punches the Joker without knowing it’ sounds like it would be Jason’s type…

“No real names.” Is B’s response, evoking some eye-rolls.

“Nightwing, go check on Red Hood at the observatory. Observation only, but step in if necessary. Report back”

B probably sent Nightwing cause he’s the least likely to get maimed by a pissed-off Red Hood.

Before Dick is able to take off, Tim nervously speaks up “You know guys, I think we should just leave him be for tonight and focus on finding the Joker”

The silence on the roof and across the coms speaks volumes.

B is the first one to speak up.

“Why are you covering for him?”

“I’m not covering for him!” is Tim’s immediate response.

He is, but if he revealed anything he has found out, Jason would murder him when (not if) he finds out.

B raises an eyebrow at him.

“Ohhh, Timbo’s been keeping secrets~— Ow!” Steph is heard saying, before being elbowed by Cass.

The others stay silent as they watch the exchange.

Damnit , why did Alfred have to teach B that eyebrow raise?

Tim caves.

“Alright, I am covering for him. But I can’t tell you what for. He’ll kill me”

Damian scoffs “Todd probably bribed Drake to keep his mouth shut. Don’t worry, I can make him talk”

Damian tries to step forward, katana raised, but gets held back by the scruff of his Robin costume by Dick.

“Richard, let me go!—”

“Nope, Little D. Let’s not commit fratricide today”

B doesn’t pay them any mind.

“Red Robin, if you have information on Red Hood and the Joker—“

“It has nothing to do with the Joker, I swear!” Tim tries. “Jason is just… having a relaxation day! He’s taking a uh, small break.”

Well, it probably has something to do with the Joker, but Tim has plausible deniability.

“So we shouldn’t bother him today, uh, at all. He really needs this, uh, self-care day. I mean have you seen the amount of grey hairs he’s been getting from the stress lately?”

The sound of Damian’s struggling against Dick’s hold is the only thing he hears.

B is just silently glaring at him.

“He’s on a date!” Tim bursts out.

…

Fuck.

The only sounds that break the silence are the small ‘oompf’ from Damian as he is dropped by Dick and Dick’s excited squeak of “Little Wing is on a date?!”

Uh oh.

Somewhere far away, in another realm, a manic cackle echoes across an expanse of green.

Chapter Text

Clockwork watches as the scenes unfold from the screen in front of him, a fond smile on his face.

He chuckles at the awkward farewell young Danny leaves one of Gotham’s Knights with.

However, as his gaze turns to one of the other screens, his expression switches from amused fondness to one of contemplation.

As he watches the recently deceased manic clown cackle his head off at the revelation of his newly ghostly existence, Clockwork can do no more than let out a weary sigh.

As much as he would like to interfere so young Danny would not have to deal with this endeavor, alas, he is not allowed.

Regardless, he muses, Danny will be able to handle it quite well on his own. Clockwork has complete confidence in him, as he gazes at the many timelines that may yet come to pass.

It will all work out in the end...

After taking some deep breaths to calm himself somewhat, Jason puts his glove back on before getting back on his motorcycle and leaving the apartment building behind.

He should probably use the rest of the night to sleep, as it’s already quite late.

However, not too long after he leaves he starts feeling eyes on him. He's being watched, and he has a pretty good guess of just who it could be...

And that guess is confirmed when he sees the shadows moving across the rooftops.

Of course , they followed the tracker to find out what he's up to even after he told them not to follow

He lets out an irritated sigh as he revs the engine and makes his motorcycle pick up more speed. At this point he’s most likely going way over the speed limit but, it’s Gotham, so no one’s gonna care.

At least they only just found him and started following him, rather than when he was still with Danny. Small mercies…

Though, he notes with mild curiosity, interestingly enough Replacement doesn’t seem to be with them.

Jason decides not to jinx his luck by questioning it, for now. Tim’s probably just overworking himself on a case again while doped up on so much of his awful Red Bull, Monster, and coffee mixture monstrosity that he should’ve had a caffeine overdose by now 3 times over.

Either way, Jason’s so not in the mood for their questions

Jason wants to keep his family as far away from Danny as possible, for as long as he can. And not just because of their not date, but he wants to help Danny keep people off his back about the murder of the Joker.

While, as he has mentioned to Danny before, most people will probably celebrate his death more than anything, he wants to spare Danny from B’s disappointment and his 5 hour long morals speech at the very least.

At that point, Jason decides to try to throw his stalkers off by making some unexpected, sharp turns and using a lot of alleys. He avoids the cameras and makes a point to also disable the cam and tracker the Bats ‘sneakily’ left in his helmet, again.

…

After spelling out ‘Fuck off’ with the tracker’s path on the map.

Luckily for him, Jason has just made it to Crime Alley, which is his turf. He knows his way around better than the furry brigade that's still following him does and he’ll gladly use this to his advantage.

With a small grumble that's muffled due to his helmet, he decides to try another more blunt method to try and dissuade them from following him.

Or, at the very least, distract them so that he has an easier time getting away.

0 days without the Joker breaking out of Arkham

OGnerd: Stop stalking me.

BatDad: Don’t text and drive.

OGnerd: It's speech to text. Dumbass.

Discowing: Jason!! 😃 What’s up, Little Wing? 🐦 Sooo, why didn’t you patrol tonight?? 👀

OGnerd: That's none of your business dick wad. Fuck off.

OGnerd: What part of don’t follow me did you not understand.

Discowing: I just wanted to catch up with my little brother!! 😁 Is that too much to ask? 🥺

BloodSon: Todd. Who are you courting?

Discowing: Dami!! 😠 I wanted to ease him into it before bombarding him with questions 😩

TheHotOne: no damian id rite

TheHotOne: we ned a more direct aproch >:)

TheHotOne: so jayyyyyyy, whos ur mystery boo ;)

TheHotOne:  dont worry u can tell m privtely ^-^

TheHotOne: i wnt tell, scuts honor o7

TheCuteOne: scuts

Omnipotent: scuts

Discowing: Scuts

Flashlight: scuts

Flashlight: Wait, you were a scout??

TheHotOne: no <3

OGnerd: I was just following up on a lead on a case I’ve been working on.

OGnerd: Besides, shouldn’t you all be focusing on finding that clown freak instead of stalking me after I explicitly said not to.

Omnipotent: Do you buy flowers for all of your ‘leads’ or are those just for the cute ones? 🤨

Discowing: Oh!!!! 😲 He got them flowers?? 🌼 That’s so cute! 🥰 I didn’t take you for such a romantic, Jay 😉

BloodSon: Considering Todd’s reading material it should not have come as much of a surprise, Richard.

BatDad: Red Hood, what do you know about the disappearance of the Joker?

BatDad: Is the person you were meeting with involved?

OGnerd: Nothing and no. Now leave me alone.

OGnerd: Middle finger emoji.

~ OGnerd changed the name of BatDad to WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl ~

~ OGnerd locked the name of WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl ~

WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl: Red Hood, this is extremely immature.

WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl: Change my name back and come to the cave for a meeting, now.

WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl: That was a misunderstanding and you know it.

Jason turns his phone back off and mutes the chat once again. He managed to throw them off of his trail a bit ago and just now reached his apartment.

They know where he lives, yes, but it seems that they had finally noticed how not in the mood he was and decided to make the smart decision to give up and leave him the hell alone. For now at least…

Jason wouldn’t be surprised if they showed up at his apartment tomorrow anyway. But the metal baseball bat by the door and the gun in his holster should help.

After getting inside he changes out of his clothes and takes his time taking a shower. After getting out, drying off,  and putting on something comfortable he practically collapses onto the couch.

His eyes fall onto the faded number sequence still scribbled on his hand. With a small smile on his face, while thinking of the person who wrote it, he takes his phone back out again and makes a new contact.

While he’d love to call it some sappy shit like ‘Danny <3’, he knows his family and it has enough hackers in it that he’d rather make the contact name a bit less obviously stand out.

It takes a while, but after thinking back on Danny’s space rambles earlier that evening in the observatory, Jason settles on a contact name.

He names it Nova, after a supernova.

He doesn’t know how right he is.

Chapter Text

Tim doesn’t take his eyes off of the monitor in front of him as he takes another sip of his Dark Roast MonsterBull, AKA his beautiful homemade concoction of dark roast coffee, Monster, and Red Bull.

The taste truly isn’t that bad, and easy to ignore. The caffeine is the main benefit of it anyway. Though he’s contemplating experimenting with it again by adding some Mountain Dew sometime to give it some more… kick.

After Tim maybe not so accidentally spilled the beans on Jason, he decided to leave the Bats to chasing him around while Tim got the hell out of dodge before Jason found out who discovered his date and snitched on him to the rest.

It’s Tim’s fault for telling them, yes, but he’d still prefer to live, thank you very much.

And so Tim had made his way back to the cave, claiming to be exhausted and that he was ‘trying to be responsible by going to bed at a decent time, for once’.

Besides, he’d clearly need to be well-rested to be able to help out in the case and find the Joker.

…

Yeah, he saw the looks he got and he wouldn’t have believed himself either.

But hey, it worked.

Once he’d gotten back, Tim wasted no time in making himself his Dark Roast MonsterBull before getting behind the monitor of the bat computer and starting his research on the guy Jason took on a date.

After briefly updating his will real quick, you know, just in case. Which is not ‘wasting time’

However, what Tim hadn’t been expecting was the challenge it actually took to find anything useful on the guy.

He started by going through the cams of the apartment building, restaurant, observatory, and their surroundings in an attempt to get a clean shot of the guy, which he had unfortunately forgotten to take with a picture camera earlier when he was still following Jason.

But when he went through the footage, everything was corrupted.

Every single audio and video file of the cameras in the vicinity of Jason and his date was overcome by static and distortion up until the moment when they were fully offscreen and a few hundred meters away, at which point the files went back to normal and were completely fine.

Either one of them has some kind of really good signal jammer on them, or the dude is great at hacking and covering the tracks of having tempered with the files, or the dude’s a meta with some awfully convenient powers.

Tim tried fixing the footage for a while before giving up on it. Since the footage was clearly a bust, he had made the decision to go about getting more information another way.

He knew where the guy lived, as he’d seen where Jason had led him out of the window, and he had a vague description of his appearance from having seen him from afar. Besides that, apartment buildings usually register their residents.

And so Tim hacked into the apartment’s system with ease and pulled up the residents’ information. After filtering through the data by only looking at residents who live on the correct floor and who loosely match the guy’s description, Tim managed to find something.

His name is Daniel Fenton. He’s 20 years old and he has no registered meta status. His previous residence was in some obscure city named Amity Park which is located in Illinois. He moved into his apartment just about a week ago.

He is currently unemployed and has a scholarship at Gotham University. Rent is paid through autopayment from a bank account in his name, though the account is also linked to one… Vlad Masters?

After noting down that interesting piece of information, Tim moves on to Daniel’s school records, which don’t seem to be all that interesting. He majors in aerospace engineering and minors in both astronomy and astrophysics, which might be why Jason took him to the observatory.

So Jason has either known the guy for a while, or he also did his research on Daniel like Tim is doing. Or both, which is just as likely.

Besides that, Daniel uses he/him pronouns and his ICE contact is his sister, Jasmine Fenton, who has recently gained her doctorate in psychology, becoming Dr. Jasmine Fenton.

She recently moved to Gotham City as well, though she lives in a different apartment building, and has applied for a position in Arkham Asylum as one of the psychologists there.

After reading that, Tim had wished her a mental good luck as if she was a soldier getting sent off to war.

After going through the school records, Tim started searching around for some of their social media accounts.

However, he did not end up getting anything due to any and all pictures and video Daniel or any of his old city’s residents sending out error messages and ending up being endless loading screens.

Seeing that he wasn’t getting anywhere through social media, Tim instead decided to just go for the obvious and look up the city of Amity Park in itself. However, that’s the moment Tim ran into a huge firewall.

Which is what he’s currently still inspecting.

Not one to back down from a challenge, and actually intrigued by the firewall, Tim tries to break through. It seems to be pretty easy at first.

Thinking like that is his first mistake, he notes as he hits a wall.

The second mistake he made is apparently not accounting for self-writing code that will learn from hacking attempts and proceed to patch up and reinforce any discovered gaps along the way.

Undiscouraged, Tim tries again.

And again.

And… again.

He’s stumped…

It’s almost like the code is… for a lack of better word, living…

Tim startles out of his reverie when hands slam down on the desk in front of him and another pair takes his Dark Roast MonsterBull from his hands. He looks up and makes eye contact with none other than Dick, who is still in his Nightwing costume.

Looking behind him, he notices Steph holding his mug and smiling sweetly. She unsubtly tries to take a sip from it only to end up on the floor, gagging and practically coughing her lungs out.

Tim, unconcerned, turns away at her strained “Oh my God, this is horrible! How are you still alive?”

She’ll be fine, he decides.

He looks around to see everyone back in the cave, most likely having just arrived back from the patrol. Most don’t pay him any mind, discussing something amongst themselves. Duke notices and gives him a small wave though, which Tim returns.

He looks back at Dick when he starts speaking again and oh, the does not like what that smile implies.

“So Timmy, I need you to tell me everything. Pretty please?”

Oh boy.

Chapter Text

The next day, Jason wakes up with a yawn. He stretches, letting out a relieved exhale. That was one of the best nights of sleep he’s had in a long time.

Usually, the Pit’s bothering him, combined with hours of patrolling and fighting crime, usually getting injured as well, he usually wakes up sore and almost just as exhausted as he goes to sleep.

But now…

It was calm. He felt calm.

He didn’t quite dream, though that was fine, as he hadn’t had any nightmares either.

It was… refreshing.

Though, all of it is also kind of… unnerving…

All these good things happening?

The Joker finally dying, meeting a cute guy who doesn’t seem intimidated by him as Red Hood and taking him out on a date, the Pit barely bothering him, sleeping better than he had in years…

With all of that happening, Jason can’t help but wonder…

When is the other shoe gonna drop?

His good mood slightly dampened with disconcertion, Jason gets out of bed with a small grunt. He doesn’t bother to get changed yet, instead moving along to the kitchen to start on breakfast.

After taking in the groceries he has left, Jason starts making some simple bacon and eggs. He catches himself humming while cooking and abruptly stops, continuing his cooking with a small frown on his face.

Why is he feeling this… this… good?

Just what is happening with the Pit?

He’s not enchanted or drugged or anything, is he?

It’s all the unknowns that are making Jason slightly worried.

Are his emotions still his own?

He feels like most of his worries have been stripped from his body. He feels way more comfortable in his skin. He feels happy, content, tranquil…

He just feels so much.

…

But still no rage.

He eats his breakfast while he ponders over his newfound emotional state. It’s as he eats that his eyes land on his phone.

The Bats have probably blown up his phone with calls and messages in the meantime.

And the fact that he doesn’t feel as irritated or mad as he should about it is another point of slight concern.

Either way. Ugh, Jason still doesn’t really want to deal with it.

However …

After he has put his plate away, he picks up his phone anyway and turns it back on. Sure enough, he has too many missed calls and unread messages. And it seems that with his ‘online’ status, some are encouraged again and start sending him more texts.

Jason ignores it all in favor of doing what he had planned to do when turning his phone back on anyway, messaging Danny.

Just so that he has Jason’s number as well

…

And perhaps to plan another date meetup, he thinks with an involuntary soft smile on his face.

Private chat

RedHood: Hey, it's Red Hood. Just checking in and making sure you also have my number.

RedHood: In case of emergency, of course.

Danny: hi!! 👋😊

Danny: it’s Danny!! 😁                                     

Danny: which you already knew..

Danny: obviously 😅 😅

RedHood: I do now.

RedHood: Who knows, you could’ve given me the wrong number.

RedHood: It’s good to have the confirmation that it’s you :)

Danny: ahh yes!

Danny: good point 👉

RedHood: So, I was wondering if you had the time to meet again sometime this week?

RedHood: I can show you around the city, y’know? Like I mentioned yesterday? :)

Danny: !!!

Danny: yes!! 😁

Danny: that sounds like fun! ☺️ 🙃

Danny: and very useful 🤔

Danny: it’s good to know where not to go 😌

Danny: so I don’t kill another clown 🤡

Danny: haha

Danny: not that I’m like planning on killing another clown! 😰

Danny: no sir, there is no murder on this agenda!! 🙅 🙅

Danny: clowns or otherwise

RedHood: Haha, I didn’t think so.

RedHood: It was pretty clear to me it was self-defense anyway, don’t worry :)

RedHood: Even if it wasn’t, it was the Joker. So who, other than the Bat, cares?

RedHood: And it’s not like I can judge.

Danny: ah, good good

Danny: didn’t want my first impression to be being a murderer 😅 😅

Danny: that’d be bad 😓

RedHood: You don’t need to worry.

RedHood: You made a pretty good first impression in my opinion :)

RedHood: So, when are you free? For the meetup?

RedHood: I can come pick you up at your apartment again, if you want?

Danny: oh yeah that’d be nice!! 😊

Danny: and uhh, lemme check my school schedule real quick brb

Danny: alright, so I have classes till like 12.30 today

Danny: but I’m free from then on 🙃

Danny: minus like, time I need to eat lunch and stuff 😅 😅  

Danny: does that work for you?

Danny: I mean else I could probably do like thursday or something 🤔

Danny: if that works better??

RedHood: Today works just fine. And we can pick up some lunch on the way if need be. My treat :)

RedHood: I’ll come pick you up around 1 pm then?

Danny: it’s a date!! 😁

Danny: I mean sure, totally! it’s not a date!! 🙅 🙅

Danny: unless you want it to be a date?.. 👀

Danny: I mean did you mean for it to be a date?

Danny: is it a date? 🤔 🤔

Danny: I mean I don’t wanna assume 😅

Danny: and like

Danny: I wouldn’t mind if it was a date.. 👀

Danny: or if it wasn’t a date!!

Danny: wouldn’t mind that either, of course 😅  

Danny: I just wasn’t quite sure where we stood 😓 🥺

Danny: and what the context of the meetup was

Danny: ..?

Danny: Red Hood??

RedHood: It’s a date.

RedHood: ;)

Jason goes offline and turns his phone back off, still pointedly ignoring all the unread messages and missed calls from the Bats. He slides it onto and across the table in front of him and proceeds to put his arms down in front of him, resting his face on them.

Soft smile still on his face and cheeks colored faintly pink, Jason closes his eyes.

It’s a date…

Chapter Text

Danny rubs his eyes and stares at the laptop in front of him as he’s trying to focus. He’s currently at a table he claimed in his school’s library, and he’s been staring at his screen for a solid 25 minutes by now.

He currently has a free period, just before his last class of the day, so he decided to try and get some homework done now since he has less time after school today.

Because of his date.

He’s going on a date!

Due to the excitement, Danny can’t quite stop himself from grinning like a loon. To be perfectly honest, he hasn’t been able to stop grinning and blushing even since Red Hood had sent that last message.

It’s a date.

Red Hood had confirmed it’s a date!

The buzzing of his phone as he receives a message draws his attention away from his schoolwork even though it wasn’t on that anyway but on a certain kind and handsome vigilante.

Danny picks the device up and takes a look. Seeing Ellie had messaged him, he raises an eyebrow. Assuming it to be another one picture of her standing on some monument in human form in spaces humans without powers shouldn’t be able to get to, like a horse on a roof, he opens the chat.

Though…

That’s not a selfie on top of El Ángel de la Independencia in Mexico, he muses as he reads the text with a slightly confused frown.

Private chat

~ ImBaby changed their name to SirEllieOfTheInfiniteRealms ~

~ SirEllieOfTheInfiniteRealms changed the name of MiddleChild to HisMajesty ~

SirEllieOfTheInfiniteRealms: once nightfall has cometh upon us, and the world has been plunged into darkness, though blood may be shed, be assured brother o mine, thine honor shall be guarded. i have formulated various challenges most onerous to confirmeth whether the helmed knight in red is righteous enough to court thee. for now, i will have to wish thee adieu, brother mine, as I will need to maketh some preparations for these mentioned challenges before I can enact them. as for the outcome of the trials i have set, i shall visit thee within the following fortnight bearing the news. until such time, i giveth thou farewell. ancients be with ye.  o7

HisMajesty: ???

HisMajesty: have you swallowed an encyclopedia again? 🤨

HisMajesty: didn’t know it would actually work with teaching you new words 🤔

HisMajesty: would’ve been good to know when I still had Lancer’s English classes 😔😔

HisMajesty: what does even this mean? 🤔🤔

HisMajesty: what are you planning??

HisMajesty: Ellie?

HisMajesty: no seriously, like

HisMajesty: have you been hanging out with CW lately?? 👀👀

HisMajesty: cause this is exactly the sort of cryptic shit I’d expect coming from him 😕😒

HisMajesty: not you

HisMajesty: …usually 😔

HisMajesty: unless he told you to tell me this??? 🤨 🤨

HisMajesty: but then again, he prefers to use his sticky notes to leave me cryptic messages..

HisMajesty: Ellie? 😟

HisMajesty: what are you doing????

HisMajesty: where even are you right now?? 🤔

HisMajesty: last I heard you were in Mexico 🇲🇽

HisMajesty: are you still there?

HisMajesty: Ellie

HisMajesty: please answer me 🙏🙏

HisMajesty: Ellieeeeee ☹️

HisMajesty: Elle

HisMajesty: Els

HisMajesty: Ella

HisMajesty: Elski

HisMajesty: Elleroonie

HisMajesty: Ellexandro

HisMajesty: Eljamin

HisMajesty: Ellodore

HisMajesty: 🥺

Danny stops messaging her when he realizes she’s not going to read any of his texts any time soon. He lets out a weary sigh.

What has she gotten herself into this time?

Red Hood came to pick Danny up at his apartment at 12.50. He rang the doorbell this time. Before Danny can do so much as greet him, Red Hood hands him a box. Danny looks at it confused before moving his gaze onto Red Hood with the same expression.

“Here, for you” He grunts.

Danny looks back down at the box and under the stare of the helmed vigilante, that Danny can’t quite see due to the helmet. Danny takes it and opens it gingerly. Inside are what seem to be some kind of chocolate squares.

“It’s chocolate fudge. Homemade. Wasn’t quite sure what you would like…” Red Hood explains.

Danny looks back up and beams at him, cheeks turning slightly pink.

“Oh no, this is great! Thanks!”

He tries one out, under the watchful eye of Red Hood and Oh Ancients, they are delicious. Which Danny then also proceeds to verbalize.

“Oh my Ancients, these are amazing. Thank you so much!”

Danny gives him a quick hug, even lifting him slightly off the ground which does things to Red Hood (not that Danny noticed), as Red Hood lets out a soft “No problem” before letting go as he remembers something

“Oh wait! Before we go, I also have something for you as well!” Danny blurts out, quickly darting back into his apartment to get something, putting the box of chocolate fudge down on his counter.

He guesses Red Hood hadn’t quite expected that, as he was still frozen into place when Danny came back with his own gift for his date.

Danny hands over a small inconspicuous white box. Red Hood takes it and opens it before carefully taking out the sleek silver watch and turning it over.

As he’s looking it over, Danny starts talking again.

“Okay, okay, so I’ll explain what it does in a minute. First off though, put it on!” He says, jittery from nerves and excitement

He really hopes Red Hood will like it.

Red Hood silently does as he says and puts on the watch.

“Now turn to the wall and press that button right there!” Danny continues, pointing out a small button on the side of the watch.

What Jason had expected to happen when he pressed the button on the watch, was for it to light up or turn on or something, maybe play a little tune or a nice message.

What Jason hadn’t expected to happen, was for a toxic green laser to shoot out of the watch and blast the wall in front of him, leaving behind a black scorch mark.

Stunned, Jason drops his gaze back onto the, now slightly smoking, ‘watch’ before turning his wide-eyed gaze back onto Danny. Danny, who seems to be practically vibrating in excitement and is eagerly awaiting his reaction.

“Do you like it? It’s the Fenton Watch Ray! I modeled it after the Fenton Wrist Ray, but I decided to make the design more sleek and inconspicuous. When pressing the button, it’ll release a highly pressurized ectoplasmic energy blast.

“You see, it takes in ambient ectoplasm from the surrounding area as fuel! So it won’t run out of energy and you don’t need to charge it! The ectoplasm it’s infused with also makes it more resistant, so it’s harder to break and you’ll be able to take it out on patrol with you if you need it!

“Don’t worry though! While it may look a little dangerous, it’s actually quite harmless to living humans! The most it’ll do is knock them down, or even out on some occasions. And there’s no lasting after-effects!

“Oh! And this button,” Danny pauses as he points out a button on the other side of the watch, “shows you the time!”

Danny pushes the button and, sure enough, the screen of the ‘watch’ lights up, showing it is currently 12.56 pm.

During the entire rant, Jason just stares at Danny through his helmet in stunned silence. He didn’t quite understand everything that was just word-vomited at him, but he got the general gist of it.

‘Marry me,’ is what he wants to say.

“Thank you” is what he says instead, in the softest tone known to man with blushing cheeks and a lovesick smile on his face.

Chapter Text

Their first stop was a small café near Robinson Park; Alysia's Boba Bar & Café. After each of them had placed their order, with Jason paying, saying it was ‘his treat’ and that ‘he had promised he’d be the one paying earlier’, they took their food outside.

They did get some stares from the customers and employees, mainly aimed at Jason who’s wearing his Red Hood gear, but they just ignored them minus some intimidation from Jason from afar.

Though, Jason wasn’t quite sure if Danny actually ignored them or just blatantly didn’t even notice them.

Either way, they were currently sitting on a bench in the park. Jason had taken his helmet off and put it next to him so that he could eat, still wearing his domino mask anyway. He’s also still wearing the watch Danny had gifted him.

And he’s never taking that off, holy shit he loves it so much.

Danny is sipping on the leftovers of his boba, having already scarfed down his sandwich. Jason starts his tour, telling him about Robinson Park and pointing out Gotham Zoo right next to it.

After they’re both done with their food, Jason puts his helmet back on and they get back onto his motorcycle so he can point out important landmarks while driving around.

Jason and Danny proceed to chat a bit during the ride as well, just some basic stuff to get to know one another; favorite color, favorite food, how they would disarm someone with a gun and de-escalate the situation, opinions on otters and how they hold onto each other so they don’t drift away, favorite movies, etc.

And Jason is desperately trying to focus on driving instead of Danny’s arms wrapped around his waist from behind.

"Over there is the Iceberg lounge."

Danny’s gaze follows where Jason is pointing, falling on a big two-story building with a sign on the outside reading ‘Iceberg Lounge’.

"It's a nightclub owned by the Penguin, one of Batman’s rogues. It’s mainly just a front for his criminal activities, but the nightclub itself is actually pretty good to be fair. Bit posh though"

"See that big tower in the middle there? That's Wayne Tower. It's basically the office building of Wayne Enterprises, the company owned by Gotham’s very own multi-millionaire Bruce Wayne." Red Hood says, sarcasm dripping off of his words at the end.

Danny lets out a small non-committal hum.

“You don’t sound too fond of him” Danny inquiries curiously.

“I’m not“ Red Hood states, not elaborating in the slightest.

Danny tries to lighten the mood a little “Well, as long as he doesn’t try to adopt me I guess he’s still better than another millionaire I know.”

Danny smiles as he hears Red Hood laugh.

"Over there’s Gotham City Public Library. It’s one of my favorite places in the city. I tend to go there at least once a week. They’ve got a ton of books and are willing to order any they don’t have at request. There’s also some computers there that are free for public use."

"You like reading?" Danny asks curiously.

"Mhmm. I'm mainly in the classics like Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, etc."

“Oh, nice. I don’t usually read much. English was basically my worst subject at school, but the teacher was pretty good. Kind of ended up being one of the only ones in my corner and he really tried his best, y’know?”

“He sounds pretty nice. Is there a reason you haven’t read much, like lack of interest or…?” Jason trails off questioningly.

Danny shrugs “I guess I never really had the time as a teenager, with an added lack of motivation on top. And now… I guess I don’t really know what kind of books I’d like or where I should start.”

“I could recommend you some? If you want me to?”

“Sure, that’d be nice”

"The large building over there is Arkham Asylum. It's basically a psychiatric hospital. Batman dumps all of his rogues here, though they keep breaking out."

"Oh yeah, I’ve heard of this place. My older sister applied to work here"

"Dr. Jasmine Fenton?" Jason questions, even if he was already pretty sure who Danny was referring to.

"Mhmm,” Danny nods, “she recently gained her doctorate and wants to be a psychiatrist at Arkham"

"... I wish her good luck" Is the response Jason decides on.

"I’m sure she can do it" Danny proclaims, somehow embodying the :D smiley face.

Jason considers the possibility of her having similar meta powers to her brother and decides that if she does she'll probably be fine.

Not to mention she has Danny in her corner… And Red Hood now as well.

"What's that building over there?" Danny asks as they're driving on one of the roads on the outskirts of the main part of the city.

Jason looks at where he's pointing, spotting the manor.

"That's Wayne Manor. Do you remember that millionaire I mentioned earlier? The one that owns Wayne Tower and WE? That's where he lives."

Danny sounds a little surprised as he asks "He lives in that huge building? All by himself?"

"Well, not really. He has some kids, most of whom are adopted though you wouldn’t believe the field day the press had when it was found out he had a biological son. Besides them, he also has a butler that lives at the manor”

Once again, it seems Danny has noticed Jason’s standoffish attitude at Wayne, as he tries to lighten the mood a little.

"That manor is still way too big for all of them. Like what are they doing with all of that space? Are they hiding something? I bet they have a huge secret basement underneath the manor with some kind of laboratory and some shit. Millionaires seem to love those."

Jason lets out a surprised laugh at how on-the-nose Danny is, making Danny grin at his successful attempt to lighten the mood a little. Though it makes him question for a little bit…

He doesn’t know, right? Or does he…

"You know, I think the manor is actually missing something" Danny speaks up again.

"Oh? And what’s that?" Jason asks with humor in his tone.

"It would look way better TPed" Danny states confidently, bearing a mischievous grin.

Jason barks out a laugh, a sharp grin on his face.

"Let's save that for the next date, Doll"

Danny lets out a slightly giddy laugh, his cheeks red and heart beating just a little faster at both the 'next date‘ part and the unexpected, but not unwelcome, nickname.

“And this,” Jason says, as he gestures proudly towards the streets around them, “is Crime Alley, which is my turf in this city. I’m the one protecting this place.”

Jason had brought Danny to Crime Alley as the last stop on their date.

“Oh yeah!” Danny speaks up. “I was wondering about that!”

Jason turns to him questioningly and Danny takes it as a sign to continue.

“Yeah so, why is it called crime alley?” he asks curiously with a tilt of his head.

Say what now?

Jason takes a deep breath.

“Are you serious?” Jason asks genuinely curious, gesturing at the drug deal taking place behind them, the mugger that’s running past, and towards the right where gunshots can clearly be heard.

To his credit, Danny doesn’t falter at all, giving Jason a smile and continuing.

“Yeah, I thought it was called Park Row or something like that. Did it get renamed?”

Jason closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose before letting out a strained “Something like that…”

He takes another deep breath before looking back at Danny, who’s still looking at him with a bright smile.

“Is there really no reason you can think of why this place would get nicknamed crime alley? Not one reason at all? None?”

A small explosion sounds and some metal shrapnel falls in little pieces around them. A car tire rolls past. Danny and Jason don’t look away from one another.

Danny ‘grew up with mad scientist parents, an OSHA-violating lab in the basement, fighting ghosts, causing property damage, evading ghost police, fighting a king, is pretty certain his parents have been committing some kind of tax evasion for their research funding, etc., etc. though none of that was really an excuse as his friends and sister didn’t turn out quite as blind to danger as him.’ Fenton thinks about it for barely a second before shrugging.

“No, not really. Why?”

“This is where the Joker attacked you.” Jason tries pointing out, causing Danny to take a good look around them.

“Oh, that’s right! I was wondering why this place looked so familiar! I gotta say, it looks different in the daylight. But I mean, that attack could’ve happened anywhere, couldn’t it? What’s so special about this place?”

God, how can he be so smart yet so stupid?

Now is really not the time to kiss him, Jason.

“It’s… just a nickname, given to the district by the Gothamites. Poverty runs rampant and the crime rates here are… above average, let’s say, when compared to the rest of Gotham. Only old rich folks still call it Park Row” Is what Jason decides to say.

“So yeah, it’s probably best if you try to avoid this place, especially at night. Though God knows you can handle yourself, considering the way you went at the Joker” Danny snorts at the innuendo.

“It’s still better to be safe than sorry and keep away from this place, unless you’re with me. The people around here know better than to mess with me and the people I’m with, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Hmmm, are you sure the crime rates are higher here?”

On their left, a guy dressed in a gray hoodie with suspicious dark red stains on it runs at a car, gets in, and drives off as fast as he can with the car alarm still going off.

“Yes.”

“Oh, okay! I’ll try to keep that in mind then”

God have mercy.

Red Hood had driven them back to Danny’s apartment after their date in order to drop him off. Meanwhile, Danny is still not quite over the fact that he can actually call it a date!

After they both get off of the motorcycle, Red Hood walks him the few feet to the front door of his apartment building, and it’s time for them to say goodbye again.

Do they kiss now? Or should he wait till the next date?

Danny really wants to kiss him right now.

But he’s wearing his helmet so it would be awkward as fuck.

Especially if he had to ask Red Hood to take it off.

No, Danny can’t do that. Just no, he’d have his second death, this time of embarrassment instead of electricity. It’s some variation at least?

“See you later, —”

Danny cuts himself off with a not-so-subtle fake cough, cheeks heating up in embarrassment at what he was about to say. He had almost let out another cringy animal-themed goodbye, just like last time.

Great going , Fenton. Despite not going for the kiss, he still managed to almost fuck it up.

It’s like he’s digging himself a bigger hole by the minute.

Red Hood stops walking and pauses. Seeing this, Danny lowers his head to stare at the ground, his body stiff.

Jason can’t quite believe he’s doing this, and if any of the bats heard him, he’d never hear the end of it. But… to put Danny at ease…

“Take Care, Polar Bear”

The sentence makes Danny snap his head back up immediately. His mouth is slightly open, as though he’s trying to come up with something to say and failing.

Not waiting for Danny to answer him, Jason starts moving towards his motorcycle again.

Danny, with his cheeks still slightly red, stares at the leaving figure of Red Hood. His gaze is full of adoration, as he just falls a little deeper for the helmed vigilante.

Jason is thankful the helmet obscures Danny’s view of his blushing face as he gets on his motorcycle. He gives one last wave to Danny before revving the engine and leaving for his apartment.

Chapter Text

Somewhere else, in a seemingly abandoned building on the outskirts of the city, a figure shrouded in darkness and wearing a dark cloak plots.

In front of them is a whiteboard. It’s covered in pictures, sticky notes, and illegible texts. Some of the notes thrown about that are legible are ‘fight…’, ‘draw blood.’, and ‘DEATH!!!’.

There’s a crude stick figure drawn in the corner of the board, it’s impaled. Other small doodles can also be found all around the board.

Most of the information and pictures are connected by red strings, like you see in movies.

In the middle is a picture of 2 people sitting on a motorcycle, the arms of the person sitting in the back are around the waist of the person sitting in the front. The picture has some arrows pointing towards it and the people in the picture are very obviously circled.

Though the face of the person driving the motorcycle is obscured by their helmet, the other person seems to be heavily blushing and grinning broadly.

“Yes… yes! That’s it! I know what to do…” They seem to be speaking to themselves.

Quickly, the person scribbles down a barely legible ‘sacrifice!!‘.

They start cackling.

“Mwuahaha!”

It’s an evil laugh they’ve been working on for quite a while now, and they’re pretty proud of it.

However, the effect is slightly ruined when a fly enters their mouth, cutting off their cackling with choking as they gasp for air, grasping at their throat.

A few good thumps against their chest, with some coughing out their lungs, helps them dislodge the fly from their throat and they spit it out on the ground. They take a few deep breaths before straightening up again.

“Curse you” the person exclaims, angrily waving their fist at the fly as it flies away.

Bruce’s face gives off nothing as he stares at the streets down below. He’s dressed as Batman, crouched at the edge of a building with Damian by his side as Robin. Spoiler, Black Bat, Nightwing, and Red Robin are further back on the rooftop.

They watch in silence as another group of the Joker’s goons passes by. They’ve been all over the city, wandering around, not doing anything obviously illegal.

They don’t stay in one place and they don’t seem to have much of a purpose. No attacks… No stealing… No smuggling or transport of goods… No, instead they’re inspecting every single inch of the city.

They don’t seem to have any weapons on them. All they’re carrying on them are some flashlights. While most don’t give anything away with their body language or expressions, some seem to give off a bit of anxious energy.

Spoiler claimed she even saw some of them climb down into the sewers earlier and then climbing out again sometime later somewhere else, but this time ‘dejected and stinky’.

One thing seems clear to the Bats.

They’re searching for something… or someone.

“This basically confirms that not even the Joker’s henchmen know where he is. He’s missing.”

“I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing”

“Good… thing?”

“It’s… something. That’s for sure.”

“We don’t know if he’s really missing. For all we know it could be a trap. What if the Joker is hiding, pretending to be missing to have us bring our guard down? Besides, how could he be missing? He’s the Joker. No one’s just gonna kidnap him”

“For all we know he could be lying dead in a ditch somewhere”

“I highly doubt that”

“Everyone, focus” Bruce speaks up, having them draw their attention to him.

“It’s unclear whether the Joker is simply hiding away or missing. Instead of focusing on the why, we need to focus on the where. Missing or not, we need to find him and get him back to Arkham. Oracle, have you managed to find out anything from the footage yet?”

“Nope, still nothing. All the files from the moment he enters Crime Alley are wiped and any attempt at recovering them only brings back corrupted files.”

 “We need Red Hood. Where is he?” Bruce asks.

“He still has his phone on silent and he has removed the trackers and cams. We haven’t placed any new ones on him yet”

“Let’s visit him on his turf then. And keep an eye out for anything suspicious in the meantime. Oracle, try recovering the missing files. If that doesn’t work, go back to the breakout footage. Perhaps he left some kind of clues about his plans or whereabouts behind there.” Bruce states.

“Roger that.”

Red Hood has his arms by his sides as he gazes down upon the street below from the rooftop of a random apartment building in Crime Alley.

He’s lucky to have avoided the Bats so far. But he doubts his luck will last for long.

Red Hood stiffens as he suddenly feels something clamp down on his arm. As a reflex, his other hand has already drawn his gun.

He slowly raises the arm he felt something clamp down on and looks at it, only to make eye contact with a girl with black hair and blue eyes who has sunk her teeth into his arm and is now hanging off of it.

The teeth are sharp, as the girl seems to have some small fangs. They’ve gone through his jacket and sunken into his skin.

It doesn’t really hurt all that badly though, probably hasn’t even drawn much blood, and that’s one of the only reasons Jason hasn’t flung the kid off of him yet. Another reason is the fact that it’s a kid.

They both stare at each other for several seconds.

As Jason takes her appearance in, he notices that she seems rather familiar. In fact, she looks like a more feminine version of Danny, or if Danny had a twin.

The person hanging off of his arm looks younger than Danny though, probably a teenager around 13 or 14, if he had to make a guess.

Slowly, he puts his gun away and takes out his phone with his other hand, watching the random girl’s eyes follow his movements. He raises it level with her face and snaps a picture, quickly sending it to Danny and ignoring the girl’s curious gaze while she’s still hanging onto his arm by her fucking teeth.

Meanwhile, Danny checks his phone to see Red Hood sent him a message. He opens it and is greeted by a picture of Ellie in human form biting down on Red Hood’s arm with the caption ‘this yours???’

Chapter Text

Private chat

RedHood: *picture*

RedHood: this yours???

Seeing the picture of Ellie clamped onto Red Hood’s arm Danny lets out a sigh while rubbing his forehead. He takes a few seconds to look at the picture while deciding on how to reply.

Private chat

Danny: you don’t happen to be in Mexico right now by any chance, do you?

RedHood: No.

RedHood: I was out patrolling when I was suddenly bitten by her.

RedHood: Thought it might have been a criminal or stray cat or something like that at first.

RedHood: I was not expecting a feral teenager, but I can’t say this is the first time it’s happened.

Danny: damn, she was supposed to be in Mexico 😕😥

Danny: I guess this is what she was trying to tell me with that cryptic message she sent me huh

Danny: and the stray cat analogy isn’t too far off to be perfectly honest 🤔

RedHood: So you know her?

RedHood: Can you help me get her off? I’ve tried prying but she’s got some sick ass jaw strength.

RedHood: Which would have been pretty cool any other time, but it’s currently not really working in my favor.

Danny: I’m so sorry about her 😓 😓

Danny: we’ve been trying to teach her to ask for consent first

Danny: but it’s still a work in progress 😅

Danny: of course I'll help you get her off!! 😊🙃

RedHood: Great! You’re at your apartment, right?

RedHood: I’ll be there in two shakes.

Danny: please don’t shake the cat 😰

Danny: she’ll get grumpy and might latch on even tighter

Danny: I’ll come to you instead 🙃

Danny: you said you were patrolling, so crime alley, right? 🤔🤔

RedHood: Well, yes, but I doubt you’ll be able to get up where I am right now.

RedHood: Let me at least come down to the ground first and I’ll tell you how to get here.

RedHood: Danny?

Jason looks down at his unread messages with a slight frown. He puts his phone away and looks back at the teenager on his arm.

He gives his arm a small shake, causing her to growl at him which immediately makes him stop.

Right… No shaking the cat.

Jason lets out a weary sigh before looking down over the edge of the building to the ground below. He’s trying to think of the best way to get down with only one functional arm when a voice breaks him out of his reverie.

“Hey, Hood. I’m here!”

He turns around, slightly alarmed that there’s a second person who managed to sneak up on him tonight.

Damn, he’s getting rusty

Though from anyone whom he had been expecting to see, he had not been expecting to see the guy he messaged a minute ago standing behind him on the roof.

“How did you get here so quickly? And for that matter, how did you even get up here?” Jason asks confused.

“Oh, I flew” is Danny’s casual response, which gives Jason more questions than have been answered. But before he can decide whether he should bother asking for clarification Danny already moves on to the next topic.

“Anyway, let’s see what we can do about this,” he says, approaching Jason’s arm and the girl that’s hanging off of it.

“Good luck,” Jason says, holding out his arm a little better and watching bemused as Danny and the teen have a stare-down.

“Ellie, what did we say about biting others?”

The teen, Ellie, narrows her eyes and growls at him. Danny just crosses his arms and gives her an unimpressed stare.

“Nah-ah, you have to let him go. We ask before we bite someone. It’s called consent. Don’t make me get Jazz to give you another lecture”

It’s clear to Jason that Danny’s attempt at talking to her isn’t working when the teen proceeds to glance at Jason calculatingly before giving Danny a challenging look and biting down harder.

Apparently, it’s clear to Danny as well, as the next thing he does is let out a put-upon sigh before declaring “Well, I gave you a chance. Guess we’ll have to do this the hard way”

Danny then grabs a hold of her and tries pulling her off of him.

What is his life? Jason thinks as he’s standing there while Danny tries to physically pull the teenage girl, who decided his arm looked like a nice snack, off of him.

Though luckily for him, it seems to work as not a few seconds later Danny has pulled her off of his arm and is now holding the teenage girl with a bloody mouth up by her armpits.

Danny sets her down with a sigh but before he can speak up, the teen crosses her arms and levels Jason with a sharp look that makes him straighten up.

“Thou winneth this round, Red-Helmed Knight of the Night. Though thou should be prepareth, as the upcoming trials will be even more toilsome” Ellie declares while pointing at him, uncaring of the blood on her face.

“And I,” She points a finger back at herself for emphasis, ”Sir Ellie of the Infinite Realms, will—” she gets cut off when a fly enters her mouth.

Danny moves to help her but she holds up a hand to stop him, using her other hand to thump on her chest a few times.

She spits the dislodged fly out onto the floor and glares at it.

“Curse you! Foiling my monologuing once again!” she yells after the fly as it flies off.

Right…

Jason turns to Danny.

“So is she your sister?” he asks curiously. And totally not trying to fish for more information about Danny and his family.

Instead of Danny answering the question though, Ellie cuts him off.

“I’m his love child with the mayor of our town.”

Danny gives her a disgusted look.

“Ellie—”

She looks back at Danny with a shit-eating grin on her face.

Yeah, definitely siblings.

“I love my dads!” she says proudly, her eyes still on Danny.

Danny gives her a deadpan look in response before it changes to a more mischievous one.

“Oh, I’m sure Vlad would love to hear all about how you reclaimed him as a father figure—”

“Oh Ancients, no. Don’t even joke about that” She fake gags at him before turning back to Jason.

“Can I change my answer? I’m his bodyguard” She says, pointing her thumb at Danny.

That makes both Danny and Jason raise an eyebrow at her, though Jason’s can’t be seen through the helmet. They speak up at the same time.

“A bodyguard, huh?”

“No, you’re not, that’s Frighty”

Danny’s statement makes Jason pause and turn to look at him.

He’s got a bodyguard?

Ellie shakes her head happily.

“Nope! I took over the position. My knightly title isn’t just for show, y’know? I earned it fair and square!”

“When did this even happen? And why was I not told?” Danny asks, bewilderment covering his face.

Jason stays silent as he tries to make sense of the conversation.

“About…” Ellie takes a moment to think about it “3 months ago? I think it was when you were dealing with some time chores. And I thought it’d be a nice surprise, so… Surprise!” she exclaims, doing some jazz hands at the end of the sentence.

“What did you even do?”

“I snuck up on him and threw a Fenton Wii remote at his head which knocked him out cold. It counted as a win so I earned the position by right of conquest and gained my knighthood” She says with a shrug.

“Huh… think that would’ve worked for Pariah Dark as well? Would’ve made things so much easier…”

Ellie gives another careless shrug as Danny lets out a small reminiscent sigh. Meanwhile, Jason stands awkwardly to the side.

“Well, either way, I’m proud of you. Do you have a video?”

“Tucker filmed it for me, yeah”

“Nice”

They high-five with grins on their faces. At this point, Jason lets out a small cough which has the Fenton siblings turn around startled and proceed to then give him identical sheepish smiles.

They really look like they could be twins…

“Ah, sorry Red Hood. And again, I’m sorry for Ellie.” Danny says, rubbing the back of his neck with a small blush on his face.

“I’ll take her back home. And uhh… see you next time?”

Jason gives him a smile from under his helmet.

“Sure, if you’re still up for that next date?” Jason trails off with some hope.

His words make Danny’s blush darken.

“Ah uh, yeah! Yeah, of course! The next date! Uhmm, I’ll text you! Or you can text me. That’s fine too!”

Next to him, Ellie rolls her eyes and makes some fake gagging motions. She then grabs Danny by his arm and starts dragging him away.

“Come on, Loverboy. You can and your paramour can flirt later. When I’m not there… and after he’s passed my trials” she says, muttering the latter part low enough that Jason can’t hear. But, judging by the way Danny’s head snaps back to her and how his brows furrow, he did hear.

Just as Jason goes to reply, giving them a thank you and a goodbye of his own, perhaps even an offering to help them get down from the roof, he picks up on movement behind him.

Quickly turning around has him regretting not leaving the rooftop earlier, as he watches the Bats (and birds) land.

Fuck.

Chapter Text

When Jason glances at where Danny and Ellie were, he sees nothing. He’s too relieved to really care much about how they got out of here so quickly.

He’ll ask Danny about it later.

Probably…

“Red Hood.”

“Bitch.” Is his response.

Jason is slightly disappointed, but entirely unsurprised, by the lack of reaction he gets.

“Who were they?”

“What were those civilians doing on the roof?”

“Where did they even go?”

“Just some informants for a case I’ve been working on.” Jason says, not giving anything about them away.

“Which case?”

“Did they attack you?”

“Yeah, who took a bite out of your arm? And more importantly, how did you taste?”

“Steph, I don’t think now’s the time—”

‘Medical assistance?’

Jason follows the Bats’ gazes towards his injured arm. He resists the urge to hide it and instead crosses his arms, trying to play it off.

“No, this is from… a cat.”

“A cat?”

“Yes. A stray cat. Bit me.”

“Tch. It’s obvious Todd is incompetent when it comes to caring for animals. For it to attack you like that you must have done quite poorly. What did you do to it?” Damien glares at him in an accusatory way.

“I didn’t do shit, Demon Brat. I was just scanning the street when it bit me outta nowhere.”

“Well, excuse me if I don’t believe you, Todd. You clearly must have cornered, threatened, or hurt it in some way for it to react—"

“Yeah, yeah.” Jason cuts him off and rolls his eyes, even though none of them can see it through the helmet. The energy is there.

“Animals hate me, and I can’t take care of them for shit. Now, can we move on to why you’re all here on my turf?” Jason stares them all down.

Before anyone else can speak up, Dick starts talking.

“Can’t an elder brother just visit his younger sibling every once in a while?” Dick asks with a totally innocent grin.

“No.”

Dick shrugs. “Worth a shot.”

“While we originally came here to interrogate you about your involvement in the disappearance of the Joker, these imbeciles wanted to use the encounter as a way to simultaneously confront you about your new… beloved” Damian says, gesturing towards the others sounding completely done and unimpressed.

‘Got them flowers?’

“So how was the dinner? And the observatory? Do they like the stars? What’s their name? Hobbies? Age? Appearance? Interests?”

“Are they hot?”

“Seeing as you picked up a bouquet of sweet peas in costume, and didn’t take a detour to your apartment or safehouse before your location started glitching, I have to ask. Are you dating a civilian as Red Hood?” Babs speaks up over the comms.

Tim stays suspiciously silent, not asking any questions. Jason cuts them all off.

“Where the hell did you even get this information from?”

“Tim snitched.”

“Drake mentioned it.”

“Tim.”

“Timmy told us.”

“Red Robin informed us about your outing.”

“I hacked some cams to see you pick up the flowers, but Tim was the one to say you were on a date at the time.”

Tim raises his finger and opens his mouth as if he’s about to speak up and defend himself. He then stops, seemingly considering something before dropping his hand back down and just shrugging.

“If you didn’t want anyone to know you shouldn’t have gone out as Red Hood when getting the flowers and taking them out to dinner.

“Besides, I tried to respect your privacy and redirect everyone somewhere else to keep them off your back. But they interrogated me, and I’m sorry.” He says, not sounding sorry at all. “It just… slipped out.”

“You didn’t try that hard—"

Tim shushes Steph and cuts her off.

“Besides! Babs also stalked you! Through the cameras! And, I didn’t say that much. I just told them you were on a date.”

Jason glares at them all through the visor of his helmet. Meanwhile, Dick crosses his arms and pouts.

“Yeah, Timbers—” “No real names.” “— wouldn’t tell us anything! He used his lack of sleep against us.”

“So Timmy, I need you to tell me everything. Pretty please?”

Tim raises his finger and opens his mouth as if he’s about to speak up. Then his eyes roll into the back of his head and he starts falling backward.

Dick yelps and manages to catch him before he falls onto the ground and hits his head.

“Damn it, Tim!” He whines. “Passing out like that should not have been the power move that it is.”

“He can fall asleep after this?!” Steph's incredulous voice pipes up.

Dick’s gaze moves from Tim over to where Steph was previously half-dying due to Tim’s monstrosity of a drink. She’s standing by now, clutching the mug in a death grip. She’s twitching every now and again, her foot tapping the floor rapidly.

“Ehm, Steph? You okay?”

“Mhmm, think I’m having a stroke”

“Oh, that’s not good—”

Dick cuts himself off as Steph starts to stumble. He moves closer to catch her in case she falls as well, but luckily she manages to save herself from falling, clumsily moving to sit down on the floor instead.

Once seated, she lets her back hit the floor. She also lets go of the mug, letting it spill onto and roll around the floor of the cave.

“Y’know, I think I’m just gonna stay here for a bit. Maybe do some stalactite gazing. It’s riveting stuff, I tell you!”

Dick lets out a small sigh and nods a little.

“You do you, boo”

He gets a thumbs-up in response.

“Why are you actually here?” He cuts them off, already done with their bullshit. “Don’t start the bullshit about the ‘date’ again. Either talk business or leave.”

He privately notes the lack of green in his vision.

They all glance at each other before Batman steps forward and speaks up.

“What is your involvement in the disappearance of the Joker.”

“I don’t have anything to do with the Joker’s disappearance” Jason vehemently denies, arms still crossed.

“Are you sure about that?” Babs' voice pipes up over the comms.

A hologram forms above Batman’s gauntlet computer. The hologram shows a picture of Jason in his Red Hood costume without his helmet grinning at the camera. He’s holding up the camera selfie style and seems to be in one of the alleys of Crime Alley.

The most intriguing part of the picture is the figure next to Jason on the ground. There, in clear view, lies the dead body of the Joker. His head seems to be caved in in a way that shows he most likely died on impact, hit by something that had a lot of force.

Jason pauses at the sight of one of his most precious keepsakes.

“Of course you hacked my phone” He scoffs, clearly unhappy.

Jason turns back to look at the Bats and watches their reactions to the revelation the Joker is most certainly dead. Dick seems to have some sort of weight lifted off of his shoulders. Cass doesn’t give anything away.

Damian is unimpressed, scoffing at the hologram and likely already mentally criticizing the technique. Steph seems to be more relaxed, “Damn, Jason, this totally looks like that one Grant Gustin next to the grave meme,” while Tim seems to be having some kind of world-shattering epiphany.

He then eyes Batman’s tense posture. Jason shifts slightly, getting ready to fight if it comes to it.

“Red Hood. Did you kill the Joker?” Batman grinds out slowly, pinning Jason with a soul-piercing stare. Jason carefully eyes Batman’s tightened fists before locking eyes with him again.

“No,” Jason answers honestly.

Jason and Batman are locked in a stare-down, neither speaking another word. The tense silence goes on for a few seconds before it’s broken by Dick casually putting his arm around Jason’s shoulders in a friendly gesture.

“Welp. Seems like he didn’t do it, B. If he says he didn’t, I believe him.” Dick speaks up.

Jason and Batman both untense a little, the moment broken. Jason lets out a small grumble and shrugs Dick’s arm off his shoulders. Dick lets him with a smile.

“Wait, so you just found his body dead in a ditch somewhere? I called it!” Steph pipes up.

She holds her hand up for a high-five. Cass gives her one.

Jason shrugs nonchalantly “You could say that.”

“You may not have killed him, but it’s clear you’re covering for the actual murderer. Who is it and why are you protecting them?” Batman asks, not letting it go.

“You may not believe me, B, but it was just a freak accident as far as I could tell.”

If you call a meta one-punching the Joker in self-defense a ‘freak accident’.

It’s not like Danny meant to do it. Ergo: accident.

“Nothing more, nothing less. I found him like that. All I did was get rid of the body and wipe some cams. Not that those would have been much helpful if let unwiped anyway.” He shrugs, unconcerned.

“Do you know what caused the files to become corrupted this way? I’ve seen corrupted files before, but this is something else…” Babs says over the comms, tone curious.

“Nah, they were like that even before I wiped them. Might have something to do with whatever took the fucker out. Don’t know though, and I don’t care. I’m just glad the city’s finally rid of that bastard.”

“Amen to that!”

Batman’s glare moves over from Jason to Tim, who meets his gaze headfirst and just gives him an unimpressed stare in return.

“You gotta be honest, B. There’s not really anyone gonna be missing him…”

“Now, if that’s all. I gotta go. I’ve got some work to do, cases to solve, groceries to buy. Y’know, not everyone has the freedom to walk around dressed as furries beating up bad guys 24/7. Some of us have a life.” Jason cuts in.

“And since when are you the one to have a life outside of being a vigilante?”

“Oh, you know, since somewhere around the time my gruesome murder was finally avenged,” Jason says sarcastically.

“Who knew that that would be something that would make it feel like a weight is lifted off of your shoulders and that it would finally bring some peace into your life?

“Let me know if you find the guy who did it, okay? Feel like this was a great service to the community and it deserves a nice reward. Might bake ‘em a cake or something. Maybe some cookies… ” Jason pretends to think.

“Where’s the body?” Batman asks, ignoring Jason’s sarcasm.

“And when are you going to introduce us to your new partner?” Dick chimes in as well.

“Not telling you, and never if I can help it. Now, goodbye.” Jason grinds out before leaving.

Jason turns and runs to the edge of the building, making his way over to the next building and leaving the Bats behind on the roof. As he gets farther away from the other vigilantes, the last thing he hears is Steph speaking up.

“Is it just me or did that conversation involve a lot less… green-eyed rage than I expected?”

Now, it’s time to plan that next date…

Chapter Text

Danny and Ellie are both on their way to Danny’s apartment. Both flying invisibly while in ghost form with Danny holding onto Ellie’s hand to lead the way to his apartment without losing her.

As they’re flying, the silence gets broken by Ellie. She smacks her lips a few times and lets out a thoughtful hum.

“Mmmm… it’s spicy”

“What? What’s spicy?”

“Red Hood”

“Red Hood?”

“Yeah, his blood. It’s got some twang to it… not too bad to be fair, could use some more kick though” Ellie says with a shrug.

At this point, they’ve reached Danny’s apartment. They enter through the wall, both becoming visible and transforming back, landing on the floor.

Danny levels Ellie with an eyebrow raise he learned from Jazz, though hers is still better.

“Right…” He shakes his head, deciding not to ask. He asks her another couple of questions instead.

“So, care to tell me what you’re doing here in Gotham chewing on the local vigilantes? You know to only bite people in self-defense, when they’re assholes, or with consent, so what made you bite Red Hood?

“What are you even doing in Gotham for that matter? I thought the plan was to stay in Mexico for another week before moving onto Peru?”

He looks at her, eyebrow still raised and arms crossed. The look on his face is neither mad nor annoyed, just curious.

“Would you believe me if I told you I just came to give a surprise visit to my darling involuntary DNA donor?” She asks, putting her hands together in a pleading gesture and batting her eyes with a pout.

“… Well, not if you say it like that…” Danny says with a slight frown.

Ellie pouts before shrugging. “Worth a shot.”

She looks at Danny, seeing he’s still leveling her with a look, and lets out a long dramatic sigh. While sighing, she slinks down onto the floor dramatically.

“Fineeeeee” She draws out, lying flat on the floor.

“But, if you’d had a wider vocabulary you’d know I already told you about what I’m doing here!” She says in an accusatory tone, finger pointing at Danny for good measure.

She then crosses her arms and closes her eyes.

“It’s not my fault you didn’t understand me.”

Danny uncrosses his arms and rolls his eyes.

“Not everyone has followed Clockworks ‘Cryptic messaging 101’ course.” He says.

“They should, it was really informative.”

Ellie sits upright with another sigh.

“All I’m doing is testing if he’s good enough for you.” She says.

“If who is good enough for me?”

“If that vigilante boyfriend of yours deserves to date my mold. “ She pauses. “My stencil? Framework? Blueprint?” Ellie trails off, finger on her chin.

“Just call me brother, that’s easier” Danny cuts in.

Ellie waves him off, unconcerned.

“Anyway, he needs to prove himself, his worth, and for that, I’m setting up multiple challenges. If he succeeds them all, he’s got my blessings and is free to date you, if both of you so wish.

“But if he fails…” Ellie trails off. She puts her hands together, a feral grin on her face.

Danny doesn’t bat an eye.

“So what, you came back from Mexico earlier than planned to haze the guy I’m dating?”

“Mhmm!” Ellie nods enthusiastically in response, feral look from before gone as if it was never there.

“And biting him was just another one of these challenges?” He continues.

“Yup! He passed, by the way, flying colors” Ellie says.

“Do I get to know what exactly you scored him on and what you were testing him for in that moment?”

“Do you want to know?”

Danny pauses.

“You know what… Nah, I’m good.”

Ellie nods along, “A wise decision.”

“Well, since your plans were kinda last-minute, do you need a place to stay?” Danny asks.

“I don’t really have a guest bedroom, apartments too small for that, but the couch is very comfy. 8/10 sleeping spot. Some points get docked 'cause it still smells like the marinara sauce I spilled on there when I first moved in.” He shrugs.

Ellie shakes her head in response. She stands up, dusting off her pants as she does so, as she replies.

“Nah, no need to worry about me. I’ve got it handled, already found a place to crash for the foreseeable future.” She pauses.

“Though I will raid your ice cream stash. As payment.” Ellie says as she turns around and moves towards Danny’s kitchen where she immediately starts rooting through his freezer.

“Payment? For what? Being a feral little shit and biting my boy— I mean my uh, partner-friend?” Danny asks, not really making any move to stop her from taking his food.

Ellie pretends to not have noticed the slip-up.

“No.” She rolls her eyes. “Payment for being an awesome Fright Knight for His Majesty,” She says, giving him a mocking bow while clutching a tub of ice cream to her chest with one arm.

Danny rolls his eyes right back at her.

“I’m not even king yet.” He denies “Just the Crown Prince. Still have to wait till I’m an elder in ghost years before they can force me on the throne, luckily.”

He then raises an eyebrow at her again.

“And I’m pretty sure the position of Fright Knight is not a paid position”

Ellie gasps dramatically.

“Are you saying you don’t pay your workers, My Liege? Blasphemy!” She sticks the spoon she grabbed from his drawer in the air, still clutching the ice cream tub with her other arm.

“Next you’re gonna tell me we don’t have dental” She scoffs.

Danny thinks for a second.

“Well, uh…”

This elicits another dramatic gasp from Ellie.

“No! I can’t believe it! My very own template, a tyrant! The very thing he destroyed to get where he currently is in the first place” She pretends to almost faint, swaying for a few steps with the hand that’s holding the spoon dramatically on her forehead.

She closes her eyes with a fake sorrowful expression on her face.

“Well, you know what they say. You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.”

She sadly shakes her head.

 “Wait till I tell Sam about your authoritarian leadership,” She says, looking at Danny with narrowed eyes.

“I’m pretty sure you used the word authoritarian wrong, but I don’t know enough about English to dispute you” Danny shrugs.

Ellie sticks out her tongue at him. Danny just rolls his eyes.

“Just take the ice cream as payment then, Fright Ellie? Ellie Knight?” Danny pauses.

“It’s Sir Ellie the Frightful or Sir Ellie of the Infinite Realms,” Ellie says helpfully.

“Right.” Danny nods along. “And I’ll ask Clockwork and Frostbite about the dental stuff, alright?”

Ellie cheers and starts floating. She begins stuffing her face with the ice cream. In between bites she speaks up again.

“If I don’t hear back about dental within a month, I’m gonna assume you’ve gone full-on tyrant and I’ll start a revolution to dethrone you.” She says with a self-assured nod.

“Not like you’ll have to do a lot of effort for your recruiting, most of them already like you more than me anyway,” Danny replies.

Ellie cackles, by now floating upside down with the ice cream. Once she’s done she speaks up again.

“Hah! Heh… Well, anyway, I’ve got some challenges to prepare. See ya, Mr. Polar Bear!”

Danny’s cheeks flush a little.

“You were there?!”

All he gets in response is another round of cackles as Ellie flies full-speed through the wall of his apartment with the ice cream and spoon, turning invisible once outside.

It’s the next day when Danny unlocks his phone to a message from the private chat group with Red Hood.

Private chat

~ RedHood changed the name of Danny to Kangaroo ~

RedHood: There, that’s better.

Kangaroo: hey!! 😲

Kangaroo: I’m not the kangaroo here 😠😠

Kangaroo: like, I was the one who said it!!!

Kangaroo: I said it to you 🫵

Kangaroo: so you’re the kangaroo here 😤

Kangaroo: if anything, I’m the polar bear 😌

Kangaroo: cause of like

Kangaroo: y’know

Kangaroo: yesterday? 🙃

Kangaroo: y’know seeing you reading my messages without replying is kinda nerve racking 😅😓

Kangaroo: not gonna lie

Kangaroo: Red Hood?... 😟

~ RedHood changed the name of Kangaroo to PolarBear ~

~ RedHood changed their name to Kangaroo ~

Kangaroo: This better, Mister ‘I’m the polar bear’?

Danny smiles down at his phone for a second before replying. His cheeks are slightly pink.

He really likes Hood…

PolarBear: perfect 😊

Kangaroo: Good.

Kangaroo: Now, I actually messaged you because I wanted to discuss the next date :)

Kangaroo: If you’d still like to go.

PolarBear: yes!

PolarBear: of course I still want to go 😊

PolarBear: does this Saturday afternoon work for you?

Kangaroo: Yep, that works.

PolarBear: great!

PolarBear: but!! ☝️

PolarBear: this time I get to plan the date 😤😌

PolarBear: like, the second part of the date

PolarBear: after tp-ing that manor 😁😇

PolarBear: cause you planned the last date

PolarBear: so I wanna plan this one 🙃

PolarBear: if that’s cool with you too?

Kangaroo: That’s fine by me, Love :)

Kangaroo: How about I pick you up around 3pm this Saturday, I’ll bring us to Wayne Manor, and then for the second part of the date I’ll drive us there with you giving me directions.

PolarBear: sounds good to me!

Kangaroo: Great, see you then :)

PolarBear: see ya! 👋

PolarBear: oh!!

PolarBear: also

PolarBear: feel like I should warn you that you might be seeing Ellie some more in the near future 😅

PolarBear: apparently she’s trying to see if you’re gonna ‘treat me right’ and all that 🤔 🤔

PolarBear: and so she has some challenges or something prepared to make you prove your worth???

PolarBear: the biting thing was a part of that apparently 🤷

PolarBear: but you passed that challenge with flying colors btw 😊👍

PolarBear: anyway

PolarBear: good luck! and I’ll see you on Saturday 👋🙃

Danny turned off his phone with a smile.

Now, let’s plan that date.

Chapter Text

Danny has been searching online for a while now for the perfect place to take Red Hood to, for the second part of their date. He already has in mind what he wants to do, he just hopes Red Hood will like his plan.

He’ll need to make sure to get the needed materials either today or tomorrow.

Midway through his planning, his phone buzzes with a message. Danny picks his phone up, checking who sent it. He raises an eyebrow at seeing a message from Tucker in their private chat.

He opens his phone to read the text, putting his date-planning on hold for now.

Private chat

Fryer: so wheres my tim drake-wayne autograph danny? when am i gonna get it huh?

Dann-O: wait what? 😦

Dann-O: I still need to get it for you?? 😥😥

Dann-O: but you didn’t even end up wiping the cams ☹️

Dann-O: they were already wiped!!

Fryer: ye but I still wouldve wiped them if they werent already its all abt the intent danny

Fryer: u promised me the autograph now u gotta follow thru with it u cant just go back on ur word >:(

Dann-O: fine I’ll try and get it for you

Dann-O: I did promise 😓

Dann-O: but be prepared that it might take a while 😬😬

Fryer: great! thnx my dude knew u would come thru for me ur the best love ya danman 😘

Dann-O: yeah yeah I know 🙄😒

With a small sigh, Danny closes the chat between him and Tucker. He’s unsure how to go about getting that autograph.

He can’t just stalk the guy and nag him into giving the autograph, then he’d probably end up with a restraining order instead.

He could try looking online for one, but those will probably be very expensive. Though, he might be able to trick the guy into signing something? Or perhaps steal one when he’s at the manor this Saturday anyway?

However… Perhaps he can get some help with this… Danny considers.

He looks back at his phone and opens another chat.

Private chat

PolarBear: hey, so uh, random question ☝️

PolarBear: you wouldn’t happen to have a Tim Drake-Wayne autograph 🤔

PolarBear: or maybe know a way of getting one

PolarBear: would you?? 😅😅

Kangaroo: Why do you want one?

PolarBear: it’s not for me

PolarBear: but I kinda promised my friend I’d get one for him 😅😓

Kangaroo: Ah, okay. I’ll see what I can do.

PolarBear: really? 😲

PolarBear: thanks!! 🥰💕

PolarBear: but it’s fine if you can’t

PolarBear: like don’t feel obligated to help or something

PolarBear: if need be I’ll probably just trick him into signing something for me 🙃

PolarBear: or I could just sneak in once we’re TPing the place anyway

PolarBear: and just get one of his documents or something 👀👀

Kangaroo: Hell yeah, sign me up. This will be fun :)

In another realm, a bright toxic green smoke hits an unsuspecting victim, a crazed giggle following behind coming from the origin of the strange smoke.

The victim, instead of fleeing, stops right in their tracks, collapsing into themselves. Not a moment later their laughter joins in with the giggling from before.

The smoke fades away and reveals a man with bright purple hair and glowing red eyes. He’s wearing a green suit with a red vest and a purple dress shirt underneath.

In his breast pocket on the outside of his suit is a glowing red flower with purplish-black leaves that looks like a rosebud of some sort.

His face is stark white with a greenish undertone and his lips are bright red and pulled back into a deranged grin.

This insane clown who's hellbent on dragging the people of Gotham into his madness is a fairly new resident of the Infinite Realms. He’s a specter. A wraith.

A ghost.

The Joker moves closer towards the other ghost. The other ghost keeps laughing, not reacting to the Joker’s approach.

However, once the Joker is within a few meters of them, the ghost starts choking. While the ghost is unable to stop the mix of laughing and coughing, a glowing green liquid starts flowing out of their mouth.

Ectoplasm.

While they’re involuntarily laughing, their eyes are full of distress. The Joker just moves closer, humming a little tune.

Once close enough, the Joker bends down, getting right in the other ghost’s face. Ignoring the other ghost’s attempt at flinching away, the Joker drags a finger across the ghost’s face, wiping up some of the glowing green liquid.

The Joker takes a close look at it, the grin on his face becoming impossibly, inhumanely, wider.

“Oh, this! This is going to be a right laugh!” He exclaims, cackling a little. He straightens back up before continuing.

“It’ll be the show of a lifetime,” He turns around, “Don’t you agree, my friend?”

The person who has been watching the entire display from the sidelines doesn’t respond verbally, their own deranged grin forming on their face, no outside influence needed.

Chapter Text

Danny opens the door to see Red Hood on the other side. They smile and greet each other before Danny steps outside.

“What’s with the bags?” Red Hood asks, gesturing towards the bags Danny has with him.

“Well, this one,” He starts, holding one of the bags up, “is filled with the tp for the manor. While this one,” he holds up the other bag, “has to do with the second part of the date.”

“It’s a surprise for later, so no peeking!” Danny says, wagging his finger.

Red Hood holds up his arms in surrender and nods in response.

“Alright, I won’t peek.”

“Good.” Danny nods, satisfied with the answer.

“Though, would you like me to carry one of those?” Red Hood asks, pointing towards the bags.

Danny opens his mouth to respond but pauses, giving Red Hood a suspicious look.

“This isn’t some ploy to look inside the date bag, is it?”

Red Hood shakes his head in response.

“Nope. Just a genuine question on whether you want me to carry one of those bags or not. No ulterior motives.” He says, not sounding all too convincing.

Danny, who has his eyes still narrowed, gives in.

“Alright. But you carry this one.” He says, handing over the bag with the tp in it.

Red Hood takes it with a nod. They then start walking towards the entrance of the building. Once outside they head over to where Red Hood parked his motorcycle.

“Here, you can put the bags in the saddle bag,” Red Hood says, opening said saddle bag and putting the bag he was carrying inside it before gesturing for Danny to put the one he was carrying in.

After everything is secured and ready, they take off towards the manor.

Instead of going to the front of the manor with the gate, Red Hood takes a different route. They stop somewhere around the back of the manor, beside the stone wall surrounding the property.

Danny takes the bag with the tp with him, leaving the other at the motorcycle.

After looking over the wall to see that none of the manor’s residents are near, they go over it. Luckily for them, the wall isn’t too high and they climb and get down from it with ease.

They go over to the manor and once close enough they stop. Danny holds out the bag he brought between them and opens it up. He takes out some tp rolls and hands one over to Red Hood. They grin at each other.

“Let’s give this manor a little make-over”

“Hell yeah”

Those are the last words spoken between them before they start throwing the rolls at the manor.

Danny has another roll of toilet paper in his hand, preparing his next throw. Red Hood is next to him, helmet under his arm, having taken it off a while ago.

They’re both grinning at each other, Red Hood giving Danny a thumbs up in encouragement.

Both grins are quickly wiped off their faces when they hear a pointed ‘ahem’ from behind. Danny turns around startled, the toilet paper roll he was holding falling into the grass when he drops it.

Red Hood, who hadn’t jumped like Danny had, turns around curiously to look at who was interrupting their fun.

Behind them stands an older man with gray hair and a mustache. He’s dressed in an impeccable three-piece suit. He looks at them with a kind and open expression, as if they aren’t trespassers currently defiling the place he works/lives at.

“Good afternoon, Red Hood and guest. Would either of you care for some refreshments? The cookies are just about done.” The newcomer says.

Danny and Red Hood turn to look at each other. Danny gives him a questioning look. Red Hood just shrugs in response. They both turn back to the man in front of them and Danny speaks up.

“Hell yeah, we would love some cookies. If you don’t mind, sir…?”

“Alfred Pennyworth, I’m the Wayne family butler. And your name is?” Mr. Penny inquires as he starts leading them inside the manor and towards the kitchen.

“Danny Fenton at your service, Mr. Pennyworth,” Danny says, doing a silly little bow and almost tripping before he manages to right himself again with a sheepish grin.

“Please, call me Alfred, Mr. Fenton.”

“Only if you call me Danny.”

“Alright. Now, Mr. Danny, Red Hood, would either of you care for a cup of tea?”

Jason is looking at Danny and Alfred from a small distance as they are chatting over some cookies and tea. He has his arms crossed and a soft smile across his face.

He doesn’t jump when a voice coming from his right speaks up.

“New Brother?”

He turns to look beside him to see Cass curiously looking over in Danny’s direction. Jason gives her a slight scoff.

“That’s in-law, for you,” he pauses, the next word coming out a lot softer as he turns back to look at Danny who seems to be laughing at something, “hopefully…”

Cass nods in response.

“You’re happy?” She asks with a tilted head.

Jason nods seriously.

Cass smiles.

“Good. Then I’m happy.” She says before disappearing, leaving them be.

Behind Danny’s back, Jason catches Alfred’s eye and signs to him.

“I just remembered, the laundry should be done now. Please, excuse me.” Alfred says before leaving the room.

Once Alfred is out of sight Danny turns towards Jason, shoving the last bits of the cookie he was eating inside his mouth.

“So, you ready to get that autograph?” Jason asks him, holding out his hand towards Danny.

Danny glances over at the door Alfred just left through before looking back over at Jason and smiling at him.

“Hell yeah.” He says before taking Jason’s hand and using it to get up from his seat.

Without letting go of his hand, Jason starts leading Danny through the manor.

There’s no way they’d have been able to avoid all cameras in the manor, especially since they went inside with Alfred, so Jason doesn’t bother trying to be sneaky.

They already know of Danny anyway…

While they’re walking towards where Jason knows Tim’s room is, Danny looks curiously around the place.

“Say, how do you know your way around here so well?” He asks Jason.

“I’ve been around here a few times.” He replies casually.  “You don’t wanna know how many of their gala’s have been attacked or the amount of times the Wayne’s have been held hostage” He rolls his eyes. Jason stops walking.

“Alright, I’m pretty sure this is Mr. Drake-Wayne’s room,” Jason says, opening the door of one of the various rooms in the manor and stepping inside.

“Do I want to know how you’d know which rooms belong to which residents?”

“Probably not.”

“Alright, then I won’t ask,” Danny replies with an unconcerned shrug.

Danny looks around the room, inspecting it while taking care not to touch anything.

“Hmmm, do you think he’ll have any documents with his signature here? Or does he keep them all at that Wayne Tower thingy?

“Might’ve been a smarter idea to have gone there for something of use…” Danny says, muttering the last part more to himself than to Jason.

Jason shrugs in response, walking towards the desk.

“He probably has something lying around we could snatch. But if need be, I wouldn’t say no to breaking into the tower and getting the signature from there.”

“More breaking and entering, huh? Would that be another date?” Danny says before fake swooning. “How romantic” Danny grins, trying to ignore how warm his face feels.

Jason snorts at the bit. He then starts looking through the papers lying on the desk,  picking up one of the pieces of paper. He scans it, finding it to be some sort of agreement contract between Wayne Enterprises and some other tech company.

It didn’t seem too important and, knowing Tim, if it were he’d probably already have multiple copies and back-ups at another location.

Now that Jason’s thinking about it, this paper is most likely already a copy and not the original. So he feels no remorse handing it over to Danny.

“Here, check this out.” Jason points to the bottom of the document where Tim’s signature is located.

Danny takes the document from him, glancing over the signature with a smile.

“Alright! This is perfect, thanks Red!” He looks up from the document and beams at Jason, who makes a ‘don’t worry about it’ gesture.

Danny then puts the paper into his bag for safekeeping before speaking up again.

“Soooo… Wanna finish our tp project before ditching this place for the second part of the date?”

“Hell yeah,” Jason responds with a grin.

Chapter Text

After throwing the last of the tp onto the manor they hop back over the wall, wandering back to where Jason parked his motorcycle earlier.

Honestly, Jason knows that it felt like it was too easy.

And it was.

The only reason they were able to freely “break into” the manor is because Jason was with Danny, showing he wasn’t a threat. He’s certain Babs has already noticed the loop he had put the cameras on. She probably hasn’t interrupted them yet out of politeness, or so that she can gather more blackmail.

It’s likely both…

Jason conspicuously checks his phone while walking when he notices he has a new message.

Private Chat

Gramps: I presume you will be coming back later today to clean up the manor. Won’t you, Master Jason?

Jason, knowing he’s already lucky enough that Alfred isn’t upset with either him or Danny, lets out a relieved breath. He quickly answers Alfred, apologizing for the tp-ing despite absolutely not regretting it in the slightest and replying to the implied question in the positive.

It’s also a bonus Alfred approves. He supposes as he reads Alfred’s next text.

Private Chat

Gramps: And do bring over young Danny for dinner sometime.

Steph stares in shock at the manor, completely covered in tp, in front of her. She drops the bag she’s holding onto the ground.

How dare they…

“Damn it!”

Out of the dropped bag rolls a roll of toilet paper.

“Who got here before me?!?” She exclaims, feeling oh so deeply betrayed. “And why wasn’t I included?!”

She quickly takes out her phone, a displeased frown on her face, paired with a pout. She opens the group chat and takes a pic of the manor. As she’s typing, she vows to herself…

She’s going to get to the bottom of this.

Danny checks his phone for directions to the location he had in mind.

Earlier that week he had scouted the city in his ghost form in order to find a place for the date. After finding the perfect spot, he marked the location down on his phone so he would easily be able to find it again.

After double-checking his phone, Danny puts it away and they both get on Red Hood’s motorcycle again. Danny gives him the directions as they drive, the sky slowly beginning to darken.

The location he chose wasn’t too far off from the manor, and in no time they arrived at the top of a hill looking out over Gotham City.

They get off of the motorcycle and Danny gets his bags out of the saddle bags as Red Hood, who had already taken off his helmet and is currently holding it under his arm, seems to be looking around.

“So, what’s the big plan, Polaris?” he asks.

Danny raises a curious eyebrow at the nickname.

“Polaris?”

Red Hood nods.

“You’ve mentioned before, while you were telling me about Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, how Ursa Minor is also known as the Little Bear constellation and how it contains the North Star, which is also referred to as the Pole Star or Polaris.

“Besides that, I felt like Polar Bear was a bit too long for a nickname, and Polar-is, which again is in the Little Bear constellation, just seemed to fit perfectly.” Red Hood says, a cheeky grin on his face.

Danny pauses, his cheeks flushing a little.

“You know what? That’s pretty creative, I’ll give you that.” Danny says, nodding.

“Though, to answer your question, I thought this would be a nice place to have a picnic dinner,” He says with a smile as he takes out a picnic blanket and some food and drinks he had brought along as well.

Red Hood smiles back at him.

“You know what? That sounds great. Here, lemme help you put it down” He says, reaching out for the blanket.

A little while later, they’re sitting on a blanket, looking up at the stars. They’re taking their time enjoying the food and looking out over the city and the night sky.

 Jason has his helmet set down next to him, mask still on his face, of course. He’s almost fully lying down, leaning back on his elbows. Danny sits cross-legged next to him.

“So, Mr. Aerospace Engineer, what can you tell me about what we’re seeing here?” Jason asks, gesturing at the night sky.

He glances over at Danny. Danny, who had been looking up at the sky in awe, meets his gaze. Danny takes a moment to respond, looking back at the sky and then looking Jason over before meeting his gaze once again.

“Why don’t you tell me more about yourself?” He asks instead, tilting his head.

“You’ve told me before how you love English literature, especially the classics. But what’s your favorite book?”

Jason’s face lights up with a smile as he starts telling Danny about Sense and Sensibility from Jane Austen.

There’s a lull in conversation when Jason looks over at Danny, studying his peaceful expression. While taking in the beauty of the man next to him, Jason makes a decision.

To hell with it.

Jason takes off his mask. The action causes Danny, who had just turned to look at him, to immediately avert his gaze, cheeks slightly red. Danny opens his mouth to say something but Jason interrupts him before he can.

“No, no, it’s alright. If we’re actually doing this, if we’re actually dating… perhaps becoming more… then at the very least you deserve to know who you’re dating”

Danny hesitantly looks back up at Jason, making eye contact. Jason smiles at him, Danny giving a small smile back in response. He holds out his hand. Danny glances at it before giving him a questioning look.

“I’m Jason, Jason Todd.”

Danny’s smile transforms into a small grin. He grasps Jason’s hand, shaking it.

“Hi, Jason… I’m Danny, Danny Fenton.”

They shake hands and let go. The short silence afterward gets broken by Danny in no time.

“Jason?”

He makes a questioning noise in response.

“Can I kiss you?”

The question brings Jason’s thoughts to a stop and he sucks in a breath. Danny watches him, face filled with nervousness. Letting out a breath, Jason replies with a small teasing smile.

“Well, since we’ve already been to dinner I suppose I’m still owed one…”

After a few seconds, realization crosses over Danny’s face.

“I totally forgot I actually said that, oh the Ancients.” He takes a deep breath, running his hands over his face before dropping them back into his lap.

“Wait, so that’s why you came over to my apartment that first time with flowers and took me out to dinner?”

Jason sits up fully, turning so he’s facing Danny better. His gaze is filled with fondness and exasperation as he responds.

“You mean to tell me you forgot we agreed to go out to dinner first after I asked you if I could kiss you? Did you think I was just taking you out without asking then?

“Why did you even let me lead you out the window? Did you have any idea what I was talking about when I told you of the plans I had made that evening?”

Danny’s cheeks flush. Embarrassment fills his voice as he speaks.

“I mean, I don’t know, I thought you were just taking me out to dinner to thank me? For the— uh, murder?” He whispers the last word.

“I was, but I was mainly taking you out on a date. You do know that, right? I had considered that our first date, the tour being the second one.”

“Well, I did wonder later on if the dinner and observatory might have been a date but I figured it might have been some form of false hope, and I didn’t wanna have to ask. Especially if it wasn’t actually meant as a date....” Danny says.

Danny is rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, looking down at the blanket. His cheeks are still flushed. Jason lets out a sigh as he shakes his head a little.

“Well, it’s not entirely your fault. I guess I also could have been clearer. But… You don’t mind that having been our first date?” Jason asks, keeping his gaze on Danny’s face to study his reaction. “Even if you didn’t quite realize it was meant to be a date at the time?”

Danny shakes his head, smiling at him.

“No, no… I don’t mind.”

They’re both gazing softly at each other. Danny moves a bit closer and raises his hand, gently placing it on Jason’s cheek. When he speaks, his tone is a soft whisper.

“Well, since we got a liiiiittle bit off-topic I suppose I’ll ask again. Jason Todd, can I kiss you?”

“I’d like nothing more”

Now, having verbal consent, Danny places his other hand on Jason’s other cheek. Jason places his hands on Danny’s arms. They both lean in, closing their eyes.

They kiss.

It’s only a short moment after when they both suddenly jerk away from each other.

Two pairs of toxic green glowing eyes meet.

One gaze filled with shock, realization, and a small twinge of excitement. The other filled with pain, comprehension, and horror.

They both speak at once.

One voice filled with amazement. The other filled with devastation.

“You’ve died?”

Chapter Text

“Good evening, Gotham City. Breaking news!

“The Gotham City Police Department has had a shocking breakthrough in the case of the mysterious disappearance of the notorious criminal mastermind, the Joker, after his escape from Arkham Asylum.

“The GCPD has gotten a tip, provided by an anonymous source, that confirms the Joker is… dead. You heard that right, folks. The Joker is dead!

“The photo on screen right now was anonymously sent out to the GCPD. It appears to be a zoomed-in picture of the Joker’s lifeless body, with another person whose identity is currently unknown being cut off.

“Now we can’t show you the entire image due to its graphic nature, but I assure you, the details are unmistakable. It’s him.

“After years of terrorizing our city, it seems we might finally be rid of this menace for good. It’s a moment many in Gotham never thought they'd ever see. Already, some are calling it a cause for celebration, a long-overdue end to the madness.

“One can only hope his reign of terror over the citizens of Gotham is finally gone for good. This could be the dawn of a new era for Gotham.

“Though the identity of the other person in the picture and the cause of death are still unknown, the people at the GCPD are working their hardest to uncover these mysteries. Stay tuned for more updates as we learn more about this shocking development.

“Until then, stay safe, Gotham. We may just have something to celebrate tonight!”

The camera cuts away, the headline “Joker Confirmed Dead” scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

5 days since the Joker DIED

TheHotOne: *picture*

TheHotOne: who did it??!!

TheHotOne: tim, ws it oyu?

TheHotOne: dick?! >:(

TheHotOne: babs???

TheHotOne: whoevre it wad bettr fess up!!!

TheHotOne: tping the manr….

TheHotOne: without me????!!!!

TheHotOne: this is betrayel og the highrdt irder

Discowing: Wasn’t me, Steph! 🥺 I swear 🙆‍♂️

TheHotOne: u swer on ur discowing suit? >:((

Discowing: Yes 😟

Sherlock: wasn’t me

TheHotOne: hmmmm, fair

TheHotOne: u probaby wuldve taken the credit for it if it were u >:/

Omnipotent: Why don’t you ask Cass and Alfred, Steph? I’m sure they would be of much more use to you when figuring out this mystery ☺️

TheHotOne: !!!!

TheHotOne: cass?! (:0

TheHotOne: was it you?!?!?!?!?

TheHotOne: how cud yu?!?!?!?!?  /(;o;)/

TheCuteOne: Not me.

TheCuteOne: Jason and brother-in-law.

TheHotOne: brother-in-law??!? o.O

Discowing: Brother-in-law?! 😱

TheCuteOne: What Jason said to call him.

BloodSon: Todd and his beloved are moving too quickly. This is extremely suspicious. We should not rule out the possibility of mind control or other enchantments.

BloodSon: It would hardly be surprising if Todd’s mind has been overtaken. I don’t suppose it would be too difficult. After all, Todd is rather simple-minded.

Flashlight: Despite the insults, I feel like Damian might have a point

Flashlight: This all seems to go pretty fast, are we sure Jason isn’t being mind-controlled or being taken advantage of somehow??

WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl: That is a very likely possibility we should not rule out. Oracle, how are the investigations into the suspect going?

WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl: And can my name be changed back now?

Omnipotent: I’ve gotten some basic information that I’ve already compiled into a new file and sent to the bat computer, but nothing of note yet. Most of it seems to be hidden behind a firewall that I’ve been trying to break through but it’s been slow going so far

Omnipotent: And for the chat name to be unlocked and changed you will have to get Jason to no longer be pissed off at you 🫤

Omnipotent: So I would get used to the name if I were you, B

WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl: And the investigation into the Joker’s murder and who leaked the picture?

Omnipotent: More dead-ends, though the edited picture seems to have been spread around from Harley Quinn, who got it from Jason, to some of her associates. However, it is unclear who exactly shared it with the GCPD

Omnipotent: Jason seems to be the key component to all of this, so you’ll have to get him to spill the beans if we want to get any more info on the case

Sherlock: *link*

Flashlight: What is that?

Sherlock: petition to make the day we were freed of the joker into a regional holiday

WhyDoesClarkCallYouBabyGirl: Red Robin, take that down. We will not celebrate the death of a person.

TheHotOne: signed

Flashlight: Signed

TheCuteOne: 👍

Discowing: Signed 😊

“I never thought I’d find another halfa!” Danny beams at Jason.

“I thought there were only 4 of us, y’know? And Clockwork never mentioned or implied anything on the contrary. I never thought there’d be another one of us, especially not seeing as you’re not from Amity, nor do you have any connection with my parents as far as I’m aware.

“How’d it even happen? I didn’t think there were any more artificial portals around other than ours and Vlad’s. Was it a natural portal? Or are there more ectobiologists out there trying to create a rift into the Realms?

“Wait, no, sorry, you don’t have to answer that. Stupid Danny. Forget I asked that. It’s too early for us to exchange death stories.

“Though, are you a halfa? You do feel a bit different. The ecto in you is more muted. And it’s strange that I didn’t sense it before, now that I think about it. But we can discuss that later. I’m so glad we’re the same, this is great news! It makes everything so much easier!

“I thought I was gonna have to keep my undeadness a secret from you for a little while before trying to gently break it to you and hoping you wouldn’t run away screaming, or have me sent to a psychiatrist again.

“Last time was so not fun and I can still remember Jazz’s unimpressed eyebrow raise as she saw I was her new patient clearly. But hey, th—"

“What is happening to me?” Jason’s trembling voice cuts off Danny’s excited rambling.

Danny immediately stops talking and looks back over at Jason. His eyes are still glowing ecto-green, the glow seemingly stuttering like he’s at war with himself over something. Jason is looking right back at Danny as well, his face stony though he almost seems like he’s trying to hold back tears.

But what stills Danny completely is the slightly shaking gun pointed right at his head.

Chapter Text

The moment their lips touch, the feeling of the Pit washes over Jason, drowning out everything around him. They jerk away from each other. Two pairs of toxic green glowing eyes meet.

Jason feels as if he's disassociating as he speaks.

“You’ve died?”

It’s too much.

Everything is too much.

After a week of not feeling much from the Pit except for calmness and contentment, the sudden spike is jarring. All he can think about is how it’s back. He let his guard down, and now the Pit is acting out at full capacity again. Overwhelming his senses. Overwhelming him.

Though it's not rage.

It’s something else…

Joy? Exhilaration? Recognition? Reverence?

He can’t tell. And it doesn’t matter.

It’s back. It’s in control. He can’t help it. He can’t stop it.

But he also can’t let it hurt someone. Not again. He can’t let himself hurt someone. He can’t let himself hurt Danny.

Jason has a gun in his hand.

He hadn’t been aware he had pulled it out. But now he is acutely aware of the gun he has pointed at himself.

His hands are trembling.

 “—How'd it even happen? I didn’t think—“

Danny is rambling on about something. Jason doesn’t listen. He can’t listen. He’s dazed from the Pit madness— Though it’s not really madness at this point, is it?

Insanity? Lunacy? Craziness? Hysteria?

Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. He can’t see anything but green.

“—so glad we’re the same, this is great news! It makes everything so much easier!—“   

Danny keeps speaking to him.

As he thinks about Danny again, the Pit hones in on him.

Danny.

It all started with him.

The change in the Pit… The change in his feelings…  

The change in him…

Somehow, someway Danny is the focus point. He’s at the center of it all. He knows something. He’s the one that started this— this—

Madness.

Jason wrenches back control over his arm and redirects what he’s aiming at.

He points the gun at Danny.

“—she saw I was her new patient clearly. But hey, th—”

His hands are still shaking.

His vision as green at the Pit.

"What is happening to me?"

Well fuck.

Danny thinks to himself

Danny is completely still as he gazes in Jason’s direction. He eyes the gun for a second before dismissing it and locking eyes. It’s not like it can seriously hurt him, and it seems to be a comfort for whatever is going on with Jason.

Speaking of…

“Jason—”

Danny gets cut off by a bullet to the leg. He instinctively turns intangible, the bullet getting embedded in the ground underneath him.

It’s silent as they both stare at the spot in the ground the bullet hit.

Danny opens his mouth to speak again but gets cut off but another bullet shot, quite literally, through his leg.

“Jason—“

Jason isn’t listening. Instead, he has pulled out a second gun and shoots that one at Danny as well, getting the same result. He lets out a frustrated sound before dumping both guns on the ground as he grabs another weapon.

“Ja—”

A Batarang through the head shuts Danny back up again. Danny lets out a small breath before just deciding to wait it out.

Jason seems to be considering his weapons before his eyes land on his watch.

“Don’t worry though! While it may look a little dangerous, it’s actually quite harmless to living humans!”

He glances between the watch and Danny a few times. Danny notices this and comes to the same realization. He tenses, and that’s all the confirmation Jason needs.

He aims the watch at Danny.

Danny does not move.

It’s silent for a few tense moments.

“Well? Start talking.” Jason’s voice cuts through the silence.

Danny says nothing for a few seconds, considering where he should start.

“Well, ever since I was born, my parents—” He cuts himself off with a yelp as he quickly moves his legs. The toxic green laser shot from the watch just barely missing his leg and instead singeing the ground between his legs.

“Dude—”

“Get to the point.”

“I’ll have you know this is all very important background information!" Danny pouts for a second before quickly getting back on track when Jason shoots him a look.

“So, my parents are self-proclaimed ecto-biologists. Have been my entire life—”

“The hell is an ecto-biologist?”

“I’m getting to that! You know, interrupting me constantly won’t—”

Another laser shot, this one doesn’t miss and hits Danny’s shin. He lets out a small his of pain. It’s not too bad, but it still burns.

“Alright, alright! So uhh, ecto-biologists. Yeah, so my parents are basically scientists specializing in the field of the supernatural, and in particular, ghosts, also known as ectoplasmic beings.

“An ectoplasmic being is called as such because they are made, either entirely or partially, of ectoplasm.

“Wait, do you even know about ectoplasm? You should probably know about ectoplasm. You know, toxic, green, glowing—“

At the description Jason tenses, but does not fire.

“Right, okay so you do know—”

“What do you know about the Lazarus pits?”

Danny, who has never heard of the Lazarus Pits before, gets unnecessarily defensive.

“What do you know about the Lazarus pits?” he asks in an accusatory tone with narrowed eyes. He crosses his arms and points a finger at Jason for good measure, forgetting about the watch ray still pointed at him.

Naturally, he gets shot.

“Ouch! Ah fuck, okay, okay. I’ll talk. Damn. That thing hurts, you know!”

“That’s the whole point.”

“Anyway, I have never heard of these Lazarus Pits before. I’m referring to ectoplasm. It’s the stuff we— ghosts are made of. My parents have always been fascinated by ghosts. They wanted to study them.

“The problem being that they had never even actually seen a ghost before, and so they have been trying to build a portal into the Ghost Zone—”

“The fucking ‘Ghost Zone’?” Jason cuts in incredulously.

“Ghost Zone, Infinite Realms, the In-Between, Purgatory, whatever you want to call it. It’s the in-between of every single universe and dimension, the glue between realities, yada yada yada.

“It just so happens to be the place where ecto-beings, ghosts, reside. And my parents wanted in. Their portal was their life work, and when they finally finished it and plugged it in it… didn’t work…”

“Right…” Jason’s tone is dry, his expression full of suspicion and doubt about the story Danny is telling.

Danny resolutely pushes on.

“So, being dumb teens, me and my friends went to check it out…” Danny takes a breath to steady himself, hugging his knees and gaze turning to the ground.

“I— my friend dared me to go inside. It would be a cool picture, you know? And it didn’t work. My parents’ inventions never worked— So yeah, I uh, I stepped inside…

“The inside was awfully roomy and awfully dark… So I went in further and I— I happened to trip on a cable.”

Danny doesn’t notice himself trembling slightly. Doesn’t notice his breath quickening. Doesn’t notice Jason’s frown.

“Naturally, I tried to catch myself. I tried to steady myself using the wall but…” He lets out a small laugh. “Should’ve known there was an on button on the inside…”

“D—” Jason tries to speak up but Danny doesn’t hear him, staring at nothing as he continues.

“And then my vision filled with green.”

The green in Jason’s vision has dimmed.

Jason frowns as he watches Danny stare into the distance, his eyes glowing green. He’s trembling, and Jason wants nothing more than to go over there and hug him, to comfort him, but…

He takes a deep breath and keeps the watch ray steadily pointed at Danny.

He can’t.

Not right now.

First , he needs to hear him out.

“Danny” Jason calls out to him.

Danny blinks. He looks around for a moment before taking a steadying breath.

“Right, right. You wanted the story. Right, so… While my parents had plugged the portal in, they had built the on button on the inside of the portal and then promptly forgotten it was there…

“So the portal turned on with me inside. Thousands of volts of electricity ran through my body. Green as far as I could see, as far as I could feel, as far as I could touch…

“I don’t know how long I was in there for. Screaming, as an interdimensional portal opened right on top of me... As my DNA was stripped from my body and rewritten into something other… As I died and got revived over and over and over again…”

Danny takes another few deep breaths, pausing in his speech. He runs a hand through his hair. He feels tired… heavy… mourning…

Two strong arms wrap around his body in a hug.

Danny leans his head against Jason’s shoulder.

He doesn’t cry. But neither speaks as they sit there, while the trembling in Danny’s form diminishes. Once it’s gone, Danny speaks up again.

“And then it stopped.”

“Danny—”

Danny shakes his head in response.

“No, no. It’s better to just… get it all out in the open now…”

Jason, while clearly disagreeing, keeps his mouth shut. Letting Danny choose whether or not to continue.

“So yeah. When it stopped, I fell out of the portal, different. I was a ghost, but also… not. I had died, but not quite all the way.

“I was a ghost, and human. Both dead and alive. Shrödinger’s boy, if you will. A halfa is what they me—call us— Half-alive… Half-dead…”

“And then… then they came through… Other ghosts…

“Now that the portal was open, they could reliably enter our world. Driven by Obsession, they would do anything they could to get what they wanted, often harming the living in the process. And that’s where I came back into the picture…

“No one could do anything to stop the ghosts. Yes, my parents were ghost hunters, but they weren’t all that… good at it… So I had to do something. I couldn’t let people get hurt when I was able to help, to do something.”

Danny pauses in his speech. After a while of sitting there in the embrace. Jason speaks up, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

“When I was 15, I died.”

 Danny listens, turning to look at Jason’s face. “I was trying to find my biological mom, and followed a lead to Ethiopia, but…

“It was a trap.”

Green tinges the corners of his vision but Jason pushes on.

“She was being blackmailed by the Joker and lured me there to— She— She handed me over to him…”

A deep, calming, breath.

“He beat me… over and over and over again, with a crowbar. And that wasn’t the icing on the cake, no!” Jason lets out a laugh “He blew the place up once he was done with me…”

Danny puts his hand on one of the tensed arms still holding him. Jason pauses, forcing himself to relax some before proceeding.

“Six months later, I crawled out of my own grave… I think I  wandered around aimlessly for a while, I don’t know. My mind wasn’t quite… there…

“Then, someone found me and put me in a Lazarus Pit… They’re these glowing green bubbling pits in the ground. They heal the sick and dying but kill the healthy.

“I don’t remember much from what happened back then.” He admits. “Everything was a green haze. The Pit, it— it took over my mind, my emotions, my control…

“Eventually, I made my way back here, to Gotham. I became the Red Hood, stealing one of the Joker’s old aliases as a big ol’ ‘Fuck you’ to him.

“I tried to get revenge… I failed… Became a crime lord, grudgingly reconnected with my family, etc., etc., all while trying to deal with the Pit.

“While I was in there, in the Lazarus Pits, it didn’t just bring back my mind, it— it changed me…

“Now, I can easily get irrationally angry over the smallest things. It’s like the Pit… latches onto my feelings, and increases the anger tenfold, I—

“I remember it all…” He takes a deep breath. “Whenever the Pit madness is in effect, whatever it makes me do while it has me under its control. When I’m lost in a raging green haze…”

“I remember…”

Danny moves up a bit in Jason’s hold. Putting his arms around Jason’s head and gently pulling him against his shoulder.

They hold each other.

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

Chapter Text

They sit there in the dark for a while, in embrace. After a moment, Danny leans back, shifting to lay his head on Jason’s shoulder. The tears on their faces slowly dry as they are ignored.

Neither knows how long they sat there in quietude before Jason breaks the silence.

“Let’s… try this again…” He takes a deep breath before speaking up next. “I told you about the Pit, how it… how when I’m under its effects, I lose control.” He runs a trembling hand through his hair.

Danny doesn’t speak, letting Jason talk.

“It’s just that, whenever I feel the Pit, it’s usually accompanied by anger and rage but… Ever since you killed the Joker, ever since we met, it’s changed.

“Instead of anger, the Pit feels calm. Instead of throwing things and beating people up, I made chocolate fudge.

“And don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss the madness. But something made it change, and I’m not sure if I can trust that change… and I think that something… has to do with you.” He ends, looking at Danny.

“Well…” Danny puts his hand to his chin as he thinks “Ghosts are beings of emotion. It’s part of how we’re formed, it’s part of our language, and it’s part of our being. While your ecto has only ever been projecting rage to you before, I think I can at least theorize the reason behind the change.” He starts.

“I think a large part of why you came back in the first place was revenge, which initially made you a revenant. But that was before you were thrown into what I can only assume is some sort of pit with corrupted ectoplasm, which is what turned you or, well, tried to turn you, from revenant to halfa.

“The ecto stitched your undead body and soul together, brought back your mind, and tried to form a core within you, but the corruption prevented it from doing so. So it was only able to give you the beginnings of a proto-core, which is what made it difficult for me to sense you until we were close enough when we kissed.

“And this is currently keeping you in a constant state of being on the verge of core formation.” Danny takes a breath before continuing to hypothesise.

“You mentioned it was the Joker that killed you, and that the change in emotions happened after he died. To me, it seems like one of the reasons, if not the reason, you crawled out of that grave in the first place was to avenge your death and kill the Joker.

“As ectoplasm is largely emotion-based, the contaminated ectoplasm you gained from that pit probably latched onto this anger and want for revenge and held on to it. The contamination is what likely increases your feelings and what makes them able to overtake your actions, as it were.

“After he died, the major driving force behind you being undead, and behind the rage, was gone. As a revenant you should have gotten peace and gone back to being fully dead, your soul finally able to move on.

“But the ectoplasm within you that was left behind must’ve fused your soul back into your body again, not letting it escape as the revenant rage left you. This, paired with the beginnings of you becoming a halfa, is probably why you stayed.

“With the revenant rage gone, the pit likely can’t hold onto that specific emotional range any longer. So instead, it latches onto any emotion you currently feel in the moment, which again, since he died, is probably more peacefulness and happiness due to being avenged. So now the corruption will amplify those feelings instead.

“The amplified feelings might also lean more towards the happier side because of me being around. Either because I was the one to avenge you, or because your ecto could have recognised me as the same as you and been calmer because of it. Though…” Danny trails off for a bit.

“I have also heard from other ghosts, I sometimes just have that effect on people as crown prince” Danny says, rubbing the back of his neck a little sheepishly.

Jason had been vaguely following along until the last comment stunned him. “You’re a fucking prince?!”

Danny waves him off unconcerned. “That is something I’ll explain later. There is a lot of other context you’ll probably need before I’ll be able to explain any of… that…”

Jason lets out a breath and runs a hand through his hair once again. “Right, yeah, sure. We’ll come back to that.” As he’s trying to make sense of what he’s been told, Jason decides to get into some of the other concerning stuff Danny mentioned before.

“So… your parents… built an artificial Lazarus Pit?” He tries instead.

“Well, I guess? It’s more of a portal. It doesn’t exactly heal or harm anyone going inside, it just brings them into the Ghost Zone.”

“Right… Where’d they even put it that their children could easily access it?”

“Their lab in the basement of the house.”

“Their lab in the basement?!—”

“Yeah… Looking back on it, I guess the house was practically one big OSHA violation, huh…”

“There was more than just the lab basement?”

“Well, yeah, and I guess the dungeon and the Emergency Ops Center that can turn into the Fenton Blimp on top of the house are another big part of it”

Jason gives him an appalled look.

“A lab and a dungeon?! Why do your parents have a dungeon in their house? I thought parents were some kind of scientists, or like … ghost biologists?! ”

“Mhmm” Danny nods in confirmation. “Technically they’re ecto-biologists, but they also just call themselves ghost hunters.”

“And you’re a ghost?”

“Half ghost. And you are too. That’s what halfa stands for”

“Right, yes. We’ll come back to that in a bit. But first, did your parents know about… “

“About me being dead? Nah, they didn’t. Well, they do now, but not back then.”

“Have they ever hurt you?”

Danny turns his gaze to the side uncomfortably as he considers the question.

“Well…”

“Danny—”

“I guess, not really? I mean yeah, they’d chase after me with guns yelling about how they were going to rip me apart molecule by molecule—”

“They what—”

“But dad’s aim is shit and after a while I began getting better at dodging mom’s shots—”

“They shot at you?!” This seems to give Jason some kind of revelation “Don’t tell me that’s why—“

“But they’re really not that bad. They’ve never actually intentionally hurt me while knowing it was me, their son. But, they’re totally fine now! 

“Like yeah, before they knew they gave me a tough time sometimes, but to be fair they really didn’t know I wasn’t some evil ghost there to hurt and destroy.

“And at least they weren’t like the GIW, you know?”

“No, Danny. I don’t know. But please tell me you know this wasn’t okay?” Jason throws him a troubled look.

Danny frowns, shifting to sit up straighter. “They didn’t know—”

“Maybe not,” Jason cuts in, “But that doesn’t mean it was right or that it didn’t hurt you anyway. The fact that they didn’t know doesn’t make it any better.”

“They never hurt me seriously enough that I couldn’t recover—” He tries to protest.

“You shouldn’t have gotten hurt by them at all! Not physically, and not emotionally,”  Jason states, giving Danny a pointed look. “You shouldn’t have had to recover.”

Danny shifts his gaze towards the ground with a frown, picking at the grass a bit with one of his hands.

“You sound like Jazz,” He responds with a small grumble.

“This Jazz sounds like a wise individual to whom you should probably listen more often.”

“She is” Danny admits with a sigh. “And you’re right, I should…”

A beat, and then “I’m sorry for shooting you”

“It’s fine! It didn’t hurt me and it’s not like I haven’t been shot at before—” Danny tries to reassure, but Jason shakes his head.

“No, Danny. It is not fine. I shouldn’t have done it. And you shouldn’t be used to it.” He says decisively.

“But—”

“Nuh-uh, nope. It is not fine. I should not have done it. Period.”

“You likely had a good reason—”

“I did it because I wasn’t sure I could trust you,” Jason replies.

“I mean, you appeared out of nowhere, basically avenged my death, affected the Pit and made it act in ways it never has before, and then finding out you might have connections to the League?

“I just, it—It scared me” Jason confesses. “And I couldn’t deal with that fear.”

“So, I used my good old Red Hood interrogation techniques to try and get answers. You know? Shoot ‘em in the calf or thigh so it’ll be painful for them without being lethal and make it harder for them to get away.

“But while those are explanations for what I did, none of that is an excuse. There is no excuse.”

“That’s not true.” Danny tries to interject with a shake of the head.

“I’m a terrible person who has done terrible things.” Jason interrupts.

“Not just to you, but others as well. I’m dangerous. I’ve hurt innocent people. I’ve hurt my family. I’ve almost killed some of them— and not all of those times were because of the Pit, either!” Tears have formed in the corners of Jason’s eyes.

“Hey, I’ve killed someone too,” Danny objects, “The Joker counts, and I don’t have a Pit.” He tries.

“Danny, you did it on accident, and if anything the Joker definitely deserv—”

“Well, then I guess I must be a terrible person too” Danny cuts in. “For liking you despite all of that”

“Danny…”

Danny ignores Jason and grabs his hands in his own before looking him back in the eye.

“Maybe you’re not good for me. Maybe I’m not good for you. Perhaps we’re not good for each other, not good together. Terrible together“ Jason opens his mouth to say something but Danny quickly continues, not letting Jason get a word in “But I’d still like to give this a try. To give us a try.”

“Maybe it’ll end in disaster. Maybe it won’t, but… I’d be willing to take that chance… together… If you’d still have me?”

“Danny, I interrogated and shot you. Not just with bullets that didn’t hurt you, but also with a ray gun that you gave me that did hurt you. If anything, I should be asking you if you’d still have me despite all of that.” Jason says, clearly distressed, a few stray tears now rolling over his cheeks.

“And I doubt you’ll pull anything like that again, will you?” Danny asks with an eyebrow raise he learnt from the countless amount of times Jazz threw it at him.

“God no—”

“Then I don’t see the problem.”

“Danny—”

“We can go to couples therapy,” Danny states resolutely.

“Danny—”

“We can each go to normal therapy as well.” He adds on.

“Danny—”

“Jason Todd.” Danny interrupts. Jason stills. “Will you be my boyfriend?”

After a beat of silence, Danny adds on “On the condition we keep up clear communication between the two of us, and perhaps look into getting some form of therapy, of course”

Jason lets out a slightly exasperated huff and wipes the tears away, before giving Danny a soft look.

“You’re too trusting.”

Danny lets out a hum.

“And you don’t trust enough. But I’ve heard opposites attract, so…” Danny pauses. “What do you say?”

Jason gives him a small smile.

“If you’d still have me?”

The response is immediate.

“I do.”

Danny places his hand on Jason’s cheek.

“May I?”

Jason nods.

They both lean in, and they kiss.

Jason feels the Pit stir and resolutely ignores it and whatever feeling it brings with, keeping his eyes closed and gently pulling Danny in closer.

You’re not gonna ruin this for me.

Chapter Text

They separate after a moment. Once again, two pairs of glowing green eyes meet. They let silence wash over them once again as they gaze at one another, locked in embrace.

After a while, Danny breaks the silence with a small sigh.

“I guess I might as well explain some more, if you still have some questions? I haven’t quite explained everything you should know yet, I suppose,” He offers.

Jason gives a small nod.

“Yeah, I… I’d like to know more, if you don’t mind…” At Danny’s nod he continues. “You keep mentioning ectoplasm, which I think is what I have previously always known as Lazarus water. Could you tell me more about it?”

Danny smiles at him.

“This is ectoplasm,” Danny says, putting his open palm between them and letting ectoplasm pool on top of it.

Jason flinches and leans back a bit, eyeing the ectoplasm apprehensively.

“Yeah, looks like Lazarus water to me, apart from the lack of bubbling” He replies stiffly. “And you’re – we’re—made of this stuff?”

“Essentially? Yes. Though we are only partially. But that doesn't matter right now”

“It sounds like something that should matter right now”

“Nah, right now the important part is that your ecto,” Danny emphasizes by pointing at Jason, letting the ecto disappear in the meantime, “is not healthy.”

“Something's wrong with the Pit? Pfft, I could’ve told ya that” Jason huffs sarcastically.

“Well, this Pit you keep referring to seems to be some kind of corrupted or contaminated version of the standard ectoplasm. And this Lazarus water you mentioned? Well, ectoplasm is not supposed to be bubbling, so…”

Danny lets out a small hum as he thinks.

“Like I’ve said before, from what I can guess, this corruption might be partially responsible for the madness you’ve referred to. And it’s probably the thing that has stunted your core growth.”

“My what growth?”

“Your core. Each ghost has a core. It’s the entire culmination of their being. Their vital organs, heart, brain, soul, etc. No matter how damaged a ghost’s physical body gets as long as their core doesn’t get damaged they can recover.

“You can think of it a little like the gems in Steven Universe,” Danny adds on, slightly unhelpfully for Jason as he has never heard of Steven Universe before, but he just nods along.

“If the core gets damaged, or even worse, destroyed, then the ghost is ended. They fade away, their entire existence getting erased in the process. It’s a fate worse than death…” Danny trails off before shaking his head a bit to clear it.

“Anyway, each ghost core also has an element or theme it is inclined to. We call it a core-type. For example, I have an ice core, making it so that I don’t get cold easily, and it gives me some ice powers as well.

“But I also know someone with a shadow core, someone with an electrical core, a fire core, etc., etc. Baby ghosts haven’t quite grown into the core-type yet, so you have nothing to worry about for now.” Danny says reassuringly.

Jason pulls a face at being referred to as a ‘baby ghost.’ 

“Right, and I’m supposed to have one of these cores but, what, the ‘contamination’ in the Pit stopped it from appearing?”

Danny shrugs. “Yeah, pretty much.”

He then gives Jason a contemplative look.

“I might be able to get rid of the corruption myself, as ghosts have a built-in filter so shit like the Pit madness doesn’t happen.

“But seeing as I’m not a full ghost and I haven’t really seen contamination like this before, I’m not entirely sure it’s healthy for me…” He trails off before giving a small shake of his head. “And I’m no doctor, either. So, you’d probably have to see Frostbite for an official diagnosis and treatment plan.”

“Frostbite?” Jason inquires.

“He’s my ghost doctor” Danny explains. “I can talk to him about it beforehand, see if he knows more about this corrupted ecto situation. Though he might ask you to come by for a checkup either way.” He shrugs.

Jason agrees before bringing up another question. “So, whenever someone dies, they just,” he makes a vague gesture, “Go to the Ghost Zone and become a ghost? Why haven’t we really come across any ghosts like that before?”

“Not everyone that dies becomes a ghost,” Danny shakes his head slightly, “And not even every ectoplasmic entity, or ecto-being, is someone that has died.

“Ecto-beings can be people who died, if they died a traumatic enough death with enough raw emotion and enough ambient ectoplasm in the area for them to form a core.

“But that certainly doesn’t happen often. And not every ecto-being is like us either. Yes, you have those with a physical body, but then there’s also shades.

“Shades are formed when there’s enough ambient ectoplasm in the area they died to kickstart their core formation, but not enough to sustain the entire process.

“They have a core, but due to the lack of ecto during its formation they can’t use a lot of ecto at once and it takes longer for them to replenish. This also makes them unable to be tangible or visible for long periods of time.

“Besides the consciousness of dead people being ghosts, there’s also the neverborn. True to their name, the neverborn were never actually born in the traditional sense.

“They could be sentience given shape by enough raw emotion occurring in an area saturated with ambient ectoplasm, like most blob ghosts.

“Or then there’s also the ones who are more forces of nature and/or abstract concepts taken physical form. These are the Ancients, and they embody concepts like Time, Space, Weather, or Dreams, for example.” Danny explains.

“There’s the personifications of places or beliefs taken shape, and then there are also the neverborn formed through ghost procreation.”

Jason raises an eyebrow.

“Ghosts can give birth?”

Danny makes a so-so gesture with his hand.

 “Yes and no? It’s not exactly comparable to human conception, but two ghosts can come together and combine parts of their core to create? spawn? form? a child together?” He shrugs “I don’t know the exact workings or details, you’d have to ask Frostbite for more information.”

“Huh..” Is all Jason can say in response.

“Then you have the liminals, zombies, demons, and other dead-adjacent beings that I won’t get into right now.” Danny dismisses before pausing thoughtfully. “Though, I’ll clarify revenants a bit as that was what you were initially.”

He continues at Jason’s nod.

“A revenant is, in simplest terms, someone who died in an area without much ambient ecto, and with an immense need for revenge. A need so strong in fact that, despite the lack of ecto necessary to form a core in order to become a shade or full ghost, their potent emotions remain after death.

“And these emotions are what tie the remains of the person’s soul to their body, which together are able to take control of the corpse in order to enact that revenge, despite the mind of the person being long gone.

“Now, as soon as they have been avenged, they usually go back to their grave, if they have one, and well, die again, I suppose... The emotions fading and letting go of their hold on the soul…” Danny rubs the back of his neck before moving on.

“Well, last but not least, there’s us, the halfas. There’s only about four—well, five—of us in existence currently.

“Like I’ve said before, halfas are half-dead and half-alive. We have a living human body, and a ghost form we can transform into that is completely made out of ectoplasm, like the average physical-bodied ghost.

“We also have all the basic ghost powers, like flight, invisibility, intangibility, overshadowing, ecto-rays,” as Danny starts listing the basic ghost powers, he ignores Jason’s interjection of “I’m supposed to have ghost powers?!”

“But each ghost, depending on their power level, can also have some powers exclusive to only them. I know of a ghost with musical mind controlling powers, a ghost with wish granting powers, there’s my ghostly wail, and more.”

“So… If I get cleansed of this uh, corrupted ectoplasm, I’m gonna have ghost powers?” Jason asks again, a strange and thoughtful expression on his face.

“Yeah, probably. Though we won’t know which individual powers you’ll get till you get them.” Danny shrugs. “I’m also not quite sure how fast your core development will be and how fast your powers will appear once the corrupted stuff is gone.” He admits.

“While the stunted growth could have slowed the entire process down permanently, there’s also the chance that, once your proto-core has the freedom to grow, with some healthy ecto as a boost, your core might grow instantaneously because it’ll finally have the space to do so after being repressed for so long.” He looks at Jason’s chest, deep in thought, before shrugging again.

“But like I mentioned before, I’m no doctor. So, we’d need to consult with Frostbite first to be sure. And as for not being aware of ghosts before and not having met any, that’s just mainly due to the lack of reliable portals around.” He explains.

“There are only two semi-permanent portals that I know of, both of those artificial, and one of those is in my parents’ basement. Natural portals do occur, but ghosts rarely use them if they happen to come across one.

“It’s because the locations and duration the portals stay open are random. Besides, whatever time period they open in is also unpredictable. If you’re not careful, you could end up in ancient Rome.” Danny pulls a face before shaking his head a bit to clear his mind.

“Lastly there’s ghosts who have the power to open temporary portals themselves, but it’s quite rare amongst ghosts, so most just rely on the artificial ones to enter this dimension.”

Jason throws him a questioning glance. “Why do ghosts wanna enter this dimension anyway, if their home is in this Ghost Zone, I’m assuming? Is unfinished business like an actual thing, or?”

Danny pauses, thinking over his answer.

“Well, each ghost has their reasons for coming to this dimension. Some wanna view this dimension like tourists, others might come through the portal to visit for a quick brawl—”

“They come here just to fight?”

Danny nods.

“It’s very socially stimulating and healthy for ghosts to throw down every once in a while. It’s basically the ghost equivalent of puppies playfighting or friends checking in on each other and asking how you’ve been, you know?

“It helps them feel more, well, alive. We, as halfas, don’t really have the urge to fight other ghosts as much due to still being half alive, obviously. But some still visit me sometimes just for a quick fight.

“Though I do have to remind them sometimes that I’m more squishy than them, as the attacks they use sometimes would be fine for a full ghost, but for a human...” Danny winces before quickly moving on.

“But anyways, another reason for them leaving the Zone could be cause it’s just easier to manage their Obsession in this dimension than in the Ghost Zone.”

At Jason’s interjecting question of “What’s an obsession?” Danny elaborates. “Each ghost has an Obsession, capital O, and it’s what keeps them mostly sane and keeps them from fading.”

“For example, my Obsession is space, though we thought it was something else at first. But then you have other ghosts, who might be Obsessed about things like boxes, being remembered, technology, etc.

“Ghosts can also have multiple Obsessions, but it depends. It all varies from ghost to ghost, but that’s the basic gist of it. And for a lot of ghosts, it could be more difficult to fulfil these Obsessions in the Ghost Zone, instead of here, where they might have more access to their Obsession.

“Though, either way, for us halfas it’s a bit different. Because we’re still partly human and alive, we’re not as bound by our Obsessions as other ghosts might be.”

Jason nods a little, taking it all in. At the small lull in conversation, Jason brings up a slight change of topic, having enough information he still needs to digest for now.

“So, ghosts, huh?” He starts. ”And here I thought you were some kind of vampire meta”

Danny sputters after hearing Jason’s admission.

“A vampire meta?! What gave you that idea?”

Danny looks at Jason incredulously. Jason gives him a considering look before starting to list his ‘evidence.’

“Well, let's start with the fangs and pointed ears—”

“That doesn't have to mean anything!”

“—Next off, you’re cold to the touch, impossibly strong, impossibly fast, as you appeared in no time after I texted you about your sister— “

“But I have an ice core! And that was— “

“Not to mention the fact that when I asked how you got there onto the roof that fast, you told me you flew, which, you could do if you were, oh, I don’t know, a bat—”

“I wasn’t a bat though! I’m not that good at shapeshifting yet—”

“And besides all of that, I’m around 90% sure your sister drank some of my blood when biting me. And family members with the meta gene having similar powers isn’t uncommon—” 

“That’s just how Ellie is! I think she got that from Vlad more than anything,” Danny protests.

Jason raises an eyebrow before putting on a fake serious tone of voice.

“I know what you are…”

Danny blinks and pauses before pushing him gently with a laugh. “Jason—”

“So, you’re telling me you don’t sparkle in the sun?” Jason asks with a grin.

“Dude, you’ve seen me outside during the day before!” He smiles.

“It’s Gotham! The sun doesn’t shine here, which is obviously why you moved here. So, you wouldn’t easily be found out by going outside,” Jason argues teasingly.

Danny falls still for a moment, giving Jason a pondering look before grinning.

“You wanted to be like Bella Swan, with your own dramatic romance novel moment, didn’t you?”

Danny’s grin widens as Jason stills.

“That’s it, isn’t it?!”

“No. No, no, no—” Jason starts vehemently denying it as Danny pushes on.

“You want to be a main character in a YA romance novel—”

“I do not—”

“It’s alright, Jason. For you, I’ll be the Edward Cullen to your Bella Swan” Danny tells him reassuringly, patting his back lightly as Jason just sighs and hides his face in his hands.

“You’re gonna be the death of me” He groans.

“Well, fortunately for you, ‘till death do us part’ doesn’t really apply to us, Ghost Boy.” Danny jokes.

It does the job, and Jason gains a small smile on his face as he shakes his head at Danny with a huff. He then moves his gaze from Danny back to the side, onto Gotham. Danny follows his gaze.

They stay seated in each other's hold, enjoying the other’s company and presence. It was getting quite late.

“Shall we go back?”

They gaze out over the city from their spot, city lights reflected in their eyes.

“Yeah… let’s…”