#and maybe one day he'd have a conversation with danny

[shiptillyoudie]

It all started as hallucinations, actually.

The human brain can hallucinate for all sorts of reasons: pain, blood loss, drugs, or in Tim's case, severe lack of sleep.

He started to notice that missing one day was fine, two was usually okay. By the third day, sometimes he would start hearing whispers. Coffee would keep him awake, but it didn't do much about those. It was fine, though. After several months he got used to them, and could even tell the difference between a hallucination whisper and actual sounds.

Four days without sleep was when he would start seeing shadows out of the corner of his eye, only to turn and find nothing there. Usually it was just a flutter, or a nondescript shape. It creeped him out at first, but eventually he got used to those, too. He even learned not to go on patrol at that point- he started seeing too many shadows that weren't there, so he'd self-regulate himself to computer work only, until he got some shut-eye.

Somewhere in the fifth or sixth month of living like this, one of the shadows started taking on a more humanoid shape. It was just like all the other hallucinations- appearing just at his peripheral vision, then vanishing when he looked directly at it. But it started to seem...familiar. Like a repeating pattern. He decided it was just his brain desperately trying to cope with what he was doing to it, and honestly a humanoid shape wasn't nearly as terrifying as some of the other shapes he sometimes saw, so.

It took his sleep deprived brain a long time to notice, possibly several weeks, that the humanoid shape was moving out of his field of vision more...slowly.

That sometimes, he'd be able to turn his gaze quickly enough to look straight at it, before it vanished.

That sometimes it lingered.

That sometimes it seemed to be staring back at him.

And in his severely compromised mental state, he wasn't afraid of it. In fact, he'd come to sort of...like it. Like a familiar friend. "Oh hi, there you are, my four-days-with-no-sleep friend."

In fact maybe he liked looking at it a little too much.

Maybe he started missing sleep on purpose, in hopes he could see it again.

Maybe it wasn't just a shadow anymore. Maybe it had soft green eyes, that peered at him from within the black silhouette of a head, complete with ears and the shadow of hair that blew in the breeze.

Tim knew the breeze was real. He'd never hallucinated tactile things (thank God). So when it blew, and he saw the hair on the shadow move with it, he thought either his brain was incredibly creative, or...maybe this shadow was not a hallucination.

Maybe, it would let him stare at it all he wanted.

Maybe they sat together on the rooftops, Tim staring into those green eyes, confessing his deepest worries and newest fears to some kind of spirit that, for whatever reason, had become attached to him.

Maybe he was attached right back.

Maybe the whispers he heard weren't hallucinations at all.

Maybe they were confessions of attraction; soft come-hithers, wishes in the darkness for a spirit with no mortal body to be seen by a being of flesh who, for whatever reason, could see him.

The more Tim saw the spirit, the easier it became for him to see it, and hear it. It grew more solid to him. Sometimes he'd catch a glimpse of white when he looked up at his hair. Sometimes a flash of teeth as he thought he saw a smile.

Then he started to talk to him in his dreams.

That was when he was real. In dreams, when Tim could see his face, bright and young and vibrant and very human looking. In dreams, when he could hear his voice, and they could have actual conversations.

In dreams, when he learned his name was Danny.

DPxDC Prompt #20

Danny and Tim are married. (Sacrificial Bride, Meddling Ancients, Tax Benefits, etc.; exact details are dealer's choice.)

The Bats do not know Tim is married. They find because Tim gets grievously injured. High on pain, blood loss, and/or the good drugs; he turns to the nearest Bat and slurs out, "Don't tell my husband."

[finemealprompt]

DP x DC Prompt #88

Superman didn’t know how to handle having a clone. He was fighting the urge to get close to Kon, guide him in a way no one had been able to Clark, with feeling violated every time he saw the boy. He didn’t want to hate Kon, but he didn’t know how to balance his own emotions. 

When Clark admits this to Batman, he suggests someone who can help: Phantom. Dani Phantom.

[apatheticsunday]

Villainous Woes

AKA "Inspired by that one post where Danny is adopted by a B-rate villain (like Kite-Man) except it's Harley & Poison Ivy and they love their little Eldritch toddler" prompt! And the Batfam side-eyeing the hell out of the women because what was that??

There's just so much potential!!

Maybe Harley's collaborating with Batman and Nightwing to take down Joker, they're in the Batmobile while driving to his potential hideout. Harley's in the front with Batman because, surprise, they're both catty and Harley likes to rib Bruce for dropping out of med school. Meanwhile, he makes snarky comments about her becoming a 'reformed' criminal. And then her phone starts the muffled choir of the Barbie theme song. She's like, "Hi, baby!! Hi, sweetheart!!" Batman and Nightwing then hear, clear as day, this unholy screeching like eighteen kazoos in various pitches.

Harley just laughs and says fondly, "Oh, are you tired, baby?? Mommy will be home soon, honey. " There's more screeching until Harley makes kissy noises at the phone and hangs up. Batman's face is deadpan as ever but Nightwing's face is pale.

"Oh, Danny's just a little tired. He gets grumpy if I don't read him bedtime stories." She shrugs as if to say kids, amirite? and Batman offers a grunt while Nightwing laughs weakly in the back. Once they're back at the Batcave, Dick is like, Bruce, what the hell was that?? A demon baby??

Or the time Poison Ivy is fighting Red Robin and Spoiler!! She's got them tied up with vines, monologuing about that one CEO about to dump 80k gallons of toxic waste into the Gotham Harbor, when Eric Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1 rings out from her pocket. She excuses herself for a moment, but Red Robin and Spoiler can still hear her say softly, "Yes, my love? I see. Of course, sweet boy. I love you as well." Then Ivy hangs up. Turns back to the vigilantes and says, "I apologize. My son is feeling unwell, so we'll continue our conversation at a later time." Batman finds them two hours later talking amongst themselves, did you know Ivy has a son?? Is it Harley and Ivy's son??

And when Selina Kyle comes over for a girls' night, she's met with wine, charcuterie, and a shrieking writhing mass of bright green tentacles.

"Danny's just hangry," Harley assures her. She's got The Thing in her arms and disappears into the kitchen while Ivy's setting up a horror movie on the TV. Sure enough, the screaming petters off. When Harley comes back, there's an actual toddler in her arms - chubby arms and legs intact. Overall, it's an uneventful night. Danny turns into goop at one point but Ivy just scoops him up into a bucket-like cradle. Selina does, however, call Bruce on the way home saying, Harley and Ivy have a goop baby. Yes, Bruce, goop!

Fast-forward maybe 15-18 years and Danny (former Goop Baby) is now in college because both his moms have Doctorate degrees. They empathize the importance of getting a good education, of exploring his academic interests, without being part of the Gotham Rogue gallery. So, he never actually meets any of the Batfam.

But then Danny meets (Robin) Damian, who's attending Gotham-U as a pre-med major. They hit it off! Danny ends up attending a family dinner with Bruce, Selina, Dick, Tim, and Damian. (Maybe Jason, Duke, Steph, Cass, and Babs are busy doing other stuff.) So, Bruce is interrogating conversing with Danny and Danny's like, "Oh! My mom talks about you sometimes."

And Bruce is all cordial, smiling and prompting, "Oh?"

"Yeah, my moms are Dr. Harleen Quinzel and Dr. Pamela Isley."

Tim splutters into his drink as he chokes out, "Goop baby??" (he'd been stalking Bruce when Selina talked about her girl's night) while Dick simultaneously shouts, "Demon baby???" Danny's confused because he's literally never met any of these people? And they're calling him goop and a demon??

(Bruce just feels very, very old. The Goop Baby is all grown up and going to college with his baby? Jesus. Just the thought makes all his joints ache.)

[thevoidstaredback]

Part 1

Jazz was right. Jazz was always right, but he went against here at every turn because he didn't want her to be right. But she was, and he could do nothing to change that.

One month, he'd asked for, and one month he'd been given. In that time, he'd done his best to warn the other ghosts at every turn; yelling the news at them while they fought, opening conversations with it, even going so far as to leave messages at all of their lairs. Most of them didn't listen to him. But then the attacks started.

A week after the initial law had past had gone by as they all had, albeit a bit more tense on Danny's side. Ghosts came through the portal, did some damage, fought Phantom, were captured and taken back to the Ghost Zone, only to come back the next day.

The G.I.W and the Dr.s Fenton had taken no longer than a week to plan their attacks. Now that they could take specimens kicking and screaming to their labs, they spared no resources to do just that.

Danny watched, over the course of the month, helpless as the ghosts were captured and dragged to a place he couldn't help them.

Wouldn't help them. He is, above all else, a coward.

As ironic as it was, and he knew full well the irony, their screams and expressions as they reached- screamed for his help haunted him at night, kept him awake at night.

At the end of the month, Jazz found him under his bed.She was quiet, simply there to listen should he want to talk. And, god, he wanted, needed, to scream at the top of his lungs for the whole world to hear. It's unfair what's happening to his people, friends or not. It's unfair that he has to leave lest the same fate befall himself.

"I'm such a coward," he whispered to his wall.

"Self preservation isn't the same as cowardice."

"Then why didn't I help the others? My whole thing is helping people and I-" a sob floated up and out of his throat, cutting him off, "They screamed for me and I let them be taken away."

"And they're gonna hate you for that-" Danny flinched. "-but they would have done the exact same thing should the roles have been reversed. And you did warn them. It's their own fault for not listening."

He didn't have anything to say. Jazz would argue into submission of her point whether he liked it or not, and he didn't want that. Maybe one day, but he wanted to wallow for a bit, to acknowledge his failings.

"You were right," he whispered eventually. She hummed. "I have to go.

"I know."

"I don't want to."

"I know."

"It hurts."

"And it will for a really long time, Danny, and all the words in the world can't make that go away, despite what either of us want."

"Where would I go?"

"You could always join Dani?"

"And risk world domination?"

Jazz chuckled, drawing a huff of a laugh from Danny. "Yeah, maybe it's best you two don't stay together for a long time."

A minute passed.

"I don't want to leave you guys."

"You can always message us whenever you want. Leaving doesn't mean cutting contact."

"What'll we tell mom and dad?"

"Who says we have to tell them anything?"

"They'll notice eventually."

"Then I'll tell them some approximation of the truth."

"Like what? That I'm half dead and fled the continent to get away from them?"

"That you're traveling with a friend you meet through Vlad. That you were feeling copped up in this small town and you wanted to explore."

"How're you gonna get Vlad to agree to this?"

"He will."

He wasn't going to ask. Some things were better left alone. "What'll I tell Tucker and Sam? I can't leave them in the dark!"

"We'll tell them as much of the truth as you want them to know."

"They're my best friends-"

"That doesn't entitle them to knowing things you don't want them to."

Slowly, Danny crawled from under his bed and sat next to Jazz. "I guess you're right."

"We can get you out of town tonight, but that's as far as I'll be able to follow."

"...I know."

"I love you. You know that, right?"

"Yeah." A beat. "I love you, too."

She hugged him tightly, tears that he didn't mention wetting his hair.

Part 3

[aealzx]

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Prologue | AO3

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The excursion in the Batcave hadn't set Danny’s recovery back as much as he'd thought it would, which he was grateful for. He’d missed dinner that day, having slept through it after they had given him additional medication to keep his fever under control. But the next morning he'd still been able to join a few people for breakfast, even if it was a little later than most. It was also a little quieter than usual, with the heavy topic from the previous afternoon weighing on people’s minds.

“...Are you sure you’re still feeling better?” Jazz asked, noting how Danny was absently nibbling on the toast he had with a light cream cheese forgotten on the side.

“Hm?” Danny voiced, twitching his head to look at her before fully registering what she’d asked. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he assured, giving her a brief smile. She didn’t seem convinced though, so he gave her a little more. “I’m just lost in thought, Jazz. Yesterday was… a lot.”

“You mean the part about Raven saying you were probably murdered?” Jason asked, strangely having stayed at the manor that night and stuck around that morning. Cass had ended up starting a hushed conversation that he had adopted these kids as his responsibility since they had shown up closest to his usual patrol grounds, but he wouldn’t comment on it.

“Yeah… Yeah that’s probably the big thing,” Danny agreed with a grimace. Man this guy was blunt. But, also maybe the best one to be commenting about something like this. There were a lot less people around too, maybe it was safe for him to satiate his earlier curiosity. “...I guess out of everyone here you’d … probably understand the most?” Wait, Danielle had said Jason had died before, but she hadn’t said it was murder. “U’unless it was something else that…” Okay this was a lot more awkward than he thought it would be.

“...No, you’re right. I was… murdered,” Jason confirmed, toying with his own cereal for a moment. “But it wasn’t anything crazy magical like you. Just a crowbar and bomb. That and we all know the guy that did it. Piece of shit.”

“Oh…,” Danny responded quietly, thankful that Jazz was decidedly staying quiet and allowing them to converse. “I don’t… Hm… I’m not sure which one I’d prefer honestly,” he admitted with a weak chuckle. “I mean, electrocution is no fun, hurts like a bitch, but… But at least it wasn’t drawn out.”

“...That’s a fair point,” Jason agreed, “I imagine it’s not the part that’s got you so distracted though.”

“...... No… It’s not,” Danny confirmed, lowering his toast as his brows pressed together in smothered guilt. “I…” It was hard to say it aloud, but of anyone he felt like Jason wouldn’t judge him for his thoughts. “S’she said that someone who was there would’ve had to have had the desire to s’sacrifice me or whatever. A’and at the moment I was more angry that she would imply that Clockwork had lied to me, that I - that something had happened that took away my ability to choose. But also… I don’t like what it implies about…”

Jason was quiet as he listened patiently for Danny to voice his thoughts, the words confirming ideas he’d had as well as keying him in on what was bothering Danny. But when he fell quiet before being able to finish voicing his concern Jason filled in what he could guess the worry was. “About who was there with you…?” he half asked, half stated.

Danny flinched when that fact was put in the open, but now that it was it made it easier to add details. “...Sam and Tucker were the only ones there with me.”

“Oh!” Jazz suddenly burst, raising her hands in realization and reaching over to grab Danny, “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry, we forgot to tell you!”

“What? What!?” Danny sputtered, startled by his sister’s outburst.

“Sam asked Raven about that last night before they left. She was worried that her and Tucker being there could have been seen as them trying to murder you, but Raven said they couldn’t have just been present, they would have had to know about the sacrifice being a payment for the ritual kind of thing and clearly had the intention to kill you,” Jazz rambled quickly. “Sorry! I didn’t think that was what had you so distracted. We were going to tell you last night when you woke up, but you slept through the night.”

Danny had to stare at Jazz in silence while that whirlwind of facts got smashed into his brain. So they had already cleared up that Sam and Tucker hadn’t accidentally murdered him, but forgot to tell him? Well, it was only a few hours later, so maybe he shouldn’t be upset. At least it clarified for certain that his friends hadn’t secretly wanted to kill him. But then it brought him back to the major question that had yet to be answered. “Then who did?!”

That one Jazz didn’t have an answer to, and reluctantly let Danny go to helplessly raise her hands in a shrug. “I don’t know? Maybe no one did? I mean- Mom and Dad couldn’t possibly have accidentally done magic, right?” she attempted with a weak laugh, betraying her own discomfort with the idea that their parents had accidentally done something more dangerous than they’d ever thought.

“No, I think they did,” Danny countered easily, a little miffed.

Jason raised a brow after that, curious what else Danny had realized. “Care to elaborate?” he asked, half because he wanted the answer and half to give Jazz a chance to process what Danny had said.

Danny did not actually want to elaborate, he didn’t want to pull up memories of that afternoon again. But he did realize it was important, and therefore forced himself to answer. “The portal… After drawing that diagram out yesterday, and remembering some things, I realized Raven… might have some merit to what she’s saying,” he admitted, pouting a bit reluctantly since he’d been so ready to discredit her before. “The portal didn’t turn on when I went inside it. It was when I put my-... put my hand on the wall. There was a switch that I knocked, and I realized… it was located at one of the concentration points I drew on the diagram. So I probably completed the circuit by accident, and made it so the stupid ritual thing was complete,” he explained, absently raising his left hand as he recalled the memory.

“...Oh….,” Jason grunted, having not expected that. So this kid’s parents probably really had accidentally mixed science with magic, and Danny had ended up half killed because of it. But despite that, Jason was curious. “Okay… so maybe someone did want to kill you, maybe they actually didn’t. It really sounds like happenstance from what I’ve heard. Does it matter if someone wanted to kill you?” He already knew the answer, but he was curious if Danny would surprise him and actually admit it didn’t matter.

“Of course it matters!” Danny sputtered, bringing a fist to the table. “I want to punch them in the face for ruining my life for the past two years! Do you know how hard it is to get into NASA? I just wanted to be an astronaut and go to space - the literal coolest thing ever to exist - but now my grades are shit and I’m barely passing highschool because of all these ghosts and people think I’m stupid because of it!”

Jason couldn’t help it. After staring at Danny with slightly wide eyes in shock at the outburst, Jason couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. Though part of it was because Tim had just walked into the dining room and nearly dropped his plate of breakfast and cup of juice after also being startled at Danny’s outburst. Danny was about to get cross with Jason for laughing, but only spared him the lecture when he also noticed Tim there.

“Oh- Sorry- I didn’t mean to startle you,” Danny apologized quickly.

Tim just sighed, grateful only a little of the juice had spilled onto the floor. “It’s fine, just give me your napkin,” he directed, setting his breakfast on the table and reaching out for the requested object. Once he had it, wiping up the spilled juice was a quick task, and he was sinking into the chair next to Danny with another sigh. “You’re not stupid, by the way. If you really need the academic records for the job you want, just test out. I’m sure you’ll be fine, and get flying colors. I can get you a study packet if you want,” he commented casually, taking a large bite out of a sausage.

Not only was the comment unexpected, but it also sounded like a flat out lie from someone who had no idea what it was like to struggle at school. “...Yeah, sure. I’ll get right on that,” Danny scoffed sarcastically, going back to nibble on his toast.

“Danny…,” Jazz hushed gently, sympathetic and immediately ready to comfort him.

“I’m serious,” Tim enforced before she could say more. “Well, I dunno how you are with english or something like that, but you’ve got great math and science aptitude.”

Danny just stared at Tim incredulously, not buying it.

So Tim threw a hand in the air and rolled his eyes. “You just recreated a complex concept schematic from memory within a 90 to 95% accuracy range on the measurements and functions, while high on morphine and fever,” he pointed out. “Also, if you’re any good at being a vigilante like everyone has been implying, you’ve got to have great problem solving skills. And that’s hard to teach.”

Danny was now openly staring in surprise, because he hadn’t realized he’d done anything that Tim said. At least, not when phrased in that manner. It wasn’t like he could discredit Tim’s words either, they had all been there as he’d drawn the schematic. “I…” He should probably say something, but he couldn’t think of a single response other than to stare blankly in surprise at the table in front of him.

It caused Tim to sigh again, slumping into his hand and rubbing his brow. “Honestly, if there’s anything you’re dumb in it’s self awareness. I’d switch out a dozen of the interns in engineering for you in a heartbeat.”

Okay, so maybe Tim wasn’t actually pulling his leg, or trying to prank him. If Danny’s cheeks weren’t already red from illness they would definitely be from embarrassment as he shyly sank down in his chair.

Jason laughing that hard wasn’t helping either.

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Okay I'm gonna fully admit this chapter was unplanned and full of stuff I actually didn't think I'd get to include 'cause I just could not figure out how to naturally include them in conversation in the previous chapter or any future scenes I could think of at the moment. But then I started working on this next chapter and within the first paragraph was like '......oh..... oh it all fits rather nicely right here actually. |DDD'

So that was fun XD

And then this took awhile to actually post because I hyper fixated and wrote about 11,000 words for this fic of just scattered, disconnected scenes for future chapters all the way to about the end @ v @ I'm excited.

In other topics, I had a request/question if Conner Kent would show up, and I wouldn't mind giving him a cameo, but I am very confused about what his personality is like. 8'DD Can someone info dump on me about him and his relationship with other characters? There's one that had a black t shirt with the superman symbol and he's like this angsty angry guy that I honestly don't find all that interesting and would be hard to write. But then there's this flashy leather jacket flirty boy with a different flavor of angst and fun that I find a little more interesting. But I'm curious what the DPxDC fandom seems to favor more. Are Conner and Clark dad and son relationship? Does Conner get along with Jon? He's friends with Bart, Tim and Cassie yeah? Feel free to link me to google docs, or recommend movies or comics to me |D This boy is a little harder for me to figure out than the other characters.

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@bellathecatastrophe, @cj-ghostemoji-destielpie, @asexual-insomniac, @wolfeyedwitch, @tkiesai, 

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@op-sys-chaos, @kirasigncomics, @ehobep, @paranoid-ira

[starry-bi-sky]

the idea of the whole school of Casper high judging wes´s flirting skills and then being horrified that they still somehow kinda work is gold!!

also i feel like somewhere in the future someone in the batfam will ask baby dami how he got the "demon" name since hes a clone and hes just going to look the person in the eye and say "my brothers pet stalker gave it to me"

"MY BROTHER'S PET STALKER GAVE IT TO ME" that's now the only way Damian refers to Wes - that and 'Weston'. And just imagine Danny walking into that room in that moment as he says it, and then perking up and going "Oh are we talking about Wes?" and he walks over to ruffle Damian's hair and affectionately goes, "and he's not my pet, Dames." But he doesn't deny the stalker bit.

(And you know if Wes was there he'd be denying it up and down that he's a stalker - he's an investigator. A detective! Quit calling him that!) And the batfam present all exchange slightly concerned looks with one another and someone -- lets go Dick or Tim or Bruce, goes "Stalker?"

Danny just waves it off with a huff and goes "it's not that serious, don't worry i've got it handled" before changing the subject to something else. Or talking a little bit more about wes without bringing up that he thinks he's a vigilante (which he is).

and also yesss imagine the first time dany goes to bother wes during the middle of lunch and danny says something mildly tame compared to what he normlly does because wes is with a bunch of friends -- maybe he decides to do the "hey Weston, I heard you spreading rumors about me being Phantom?" thing, and he's wearing this bewildered smile

all of Wes' friends are giving Wes this LOOK like 'way to go genius, you got his attention, now what?' and instead of Wes stammering or backtracking, instead he doubles down on it. All of his friends are looking at him like Velvet from Trolls 3 when Veneer revealed that they were phonies. Just utter betrayal.

just. just this face. the entire table is making that face at Wes as he (to them) fumbles the bag so badly that he may as well have tossed it into a gutter. They all watch as Fenton is weirded out by Wes, and the two of them have this back-and-forth with Fenton poking holes at Wes about him being Phantom and Wes just keeps saying he is Phantom, and he should stop denying it.

When Fenton finally leaves, Wes' best friend turns and thwacks him hard in the shoulder and hisses at him what the hell did he just do? He didn't just miss the basket, he missed the entire damn court entirely! he threw the ball into the stands!

And Wes hisses back at him that he has no idea what he's talking about. Wes' friend calls him an idiot. A big dumb idiot. And then Fenton goes and bothers him in the hallway a few days later. And everyone else?? Flabbergasted.

And then it keeps. happening. Fenton keeps?? approaching Wes? And he sometimes he seems vaguely delighted by their conversations, like Wes is saying some of the funniest things in the world? -- and okay, maybe it is funny that he keeps getting accused of being a vigilante, its funny in a weird way. And Wes looks completely annoyed by his existence -- and you know what somehow this tracks because Fenton was dating Valerie for a time and she was completely annoyed by him when they first met. Maybe Fenton has a type???

Either way, nobody knows how to wrap their head around how Wes's cringefail "flirting" techniques are working. By all means, Fenton should be hating this guy because he keeps accusing him of being his parents' worst enemy (self-proclaimed by the Fenton parents), but instead he just appears bewildered but mildly entertained by Wes' antics.

[such-expensive-mistakes]

Superpham AU (part 5)

Masterpost

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This is more of an interlude, but I figured I would get it posted for WIP Wednesday. Enjoy!

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Ellie lost her phone somewhere between San Diego and Vancouver. Normally, that's not a big deal; she loses or breaks a phone every few months, and each time she just gets another of those cheap pay-as-you-go phones to replace it. She has Danny's number memorized, and that's the important one.

Except that Danny hasn't answered his phone for the past week.

For the first few days, she assumed he'd broken it in a ghost fight and Tucker hadn't got around to fixing it yet. But it's day six and Danny still hasn't answered. At first, Ellie planned to go to Amity Park, but before she's halfway there she thinks better of it. Danny's stronger than her, and if something bad happened to him, she wants to be prepared.

So instead, she's invisibly flying around the campus of UPenn, looking for Jazz and kicking herself for not memorizing which dorm the older girl is living in. There are a lot of people, and a surprising amount of them are tall redheads.

Eventually, she spots Jazz leaving one of the lecture halls. There are dark circles under the other girl's eyes, and she seems to be ignoring all the people around her.

Ellie slips around a corner to a spot no one is watching and lands, turning visible. Then she runs to catch up.

"Jazz!" she calls.

Jazz whirls around, eyes wide. "Ellie? What are you doing here?"

Ellie is taken aback at her sharp tone. "Just leaving, I guess."

"No, wait!" Jazz grabs her wrist before Ellie can slip away. And sure, she can always go intangible to escape, but she doesn't need to just yet.

"It's not safe for you here," Jazz says. "Let's go back to my room."

She's quiet as she leads Ellie back to her dorm. They get stopped in the hallway by a few other students, but Jazz extricates herself from the conversation by introducing Ellie as her "little cousin" and saying she's going to show Ellie around.

Finally, they arrive in Jazz's dorm room. It's roughly the size of a closet, and with two beds, two dressers and two desks, there's hardly any room left to stand in. It's easy to tell which side belongs to Jazz; it's the one that's actually organized.

Oh, and the picture of Jazz and Danny taped to the wall are also a dead giveaway.

"My roommate has class til four," Jazz says. "So that gives us some time." She sits on her bed, and Ellie perches on the nearby desk.

"Danny isn't answering his phone," Ellie says.

"Danny is missing."

The fear that Ellie has been trying to ignore sets in.

"Missing, like…" she trails off. Maybe "missing" just means he's dealing with Vlad, or with something in the Ghost Zone.

"Mom and Dad are dead. Their portal was destroyed. Sam and Tucker said it was the GIW. And no one has seen Danny since." Jazz sounds close to tears. "The GIW is still looking for Phantom, so we don't think they have him, but I don't know where he is. Tucker thinks he might have made it through the portal, but we don't have a way to check."

"I can check," Ellie says. "I can use Vlad's portal."

"Are you sure?" Jazz's voice is gentle, like she thinks Ellie might break. And yeah, Ellie hates Vlad and his stupid lab and his stupid house, but anything is better than sitting around and waiting for answers.

"I'm sure."

[five-rivers]

providence 2

[Based on prompts by @ash-rabbit @lexiepiper and @kinglazrus! Big thank you to @jackdaw-sprite, Lexie, and @datawyrms for beta. Read the full fic here.]

“You should just ask him,” said Sam.  

Danny flipped over in the air to stare at her.  “No, I shouldn't!  I shouldn't have asked him what I did ask–”

“It doesn't sound like you asked him much of anything,” said Tucker. 

“--I mean, what if it's what killed him, and that's why he was hiding it?” 

“I thought your current theory was that other Danny merging with him somehow merged his scars with Clockwork's scars,” said Sam.  

“That was a theory,” corrected Danny.  A chill from his ghost sense passed through him, and he righted himself in time to gently guide a swarm of blob ghosts into the phase-proof mesh butterfly net he'd been gesturing with.  

Over the past few days, blob ghosts had started a sort of migration.  Most of them stayed in the Ghost Zone, moving in enormous clouds, but some slipped through the portal and got lost.  With ghost hunting back in full swing, Amity Park wasn't safe for even the most harmless of ghosts, so Team Phantom was trying to catch them first.  

Emphasis on trying.

Blob ghosts (this type, anyway, not whatever Skulker was) were weak and usually docile.  The problem was, there were so many of them that the thermos by itself wasn't enough.  Sure, the beam would scoop them up readily enough, but the rest of the swarm would scatter in all directions, often invisible and intangible, becoming nearly impossible to find, let alone catch.   

The nets, while they wouldn’t have worked for any other ghosts, didn’t scare the blobs, and once they were in the nets they were easy to scoop up in the thermos.  However, nets were a much closer-range tool than the thermos, and getting close was its own problem.  Sam, Tucker, and Jazz couldn’t fly.  The blob ghosts, obviously, could.

But blob ghosts were attracted to heightened emotions.  Which made sense.  All ghosts could feed on emotions.  Even Danny, although he, like other more complex ghosts, could feed on his own emotions.  Hence the purposefully emotional conversation.  

“He said it wasn’t your fault, though, didn’t he?” asked Tucker.  He and Sam were wearing an abbreviated set of ‘standard’ ghost hunting gear, goggles, gloves, belts, concealing anti-ecto medical masks, and hoodies, so that they could fake being normal ghost hunters, if they had to.

“But he also said that, uh, other Danny wasn’t me, and what he did wasn’t my fault, which sort of means that it is because of him, doesn’t it?  Which means that it is my fault.”  He collected the last of the blob ghost swarm and swooped down to Tucker, so he could suck them into the thermos.

“Him saying that it isn’t your fault means that it is?” asked Tucker.

“Okay, maybe not my fault,” clarified Danny.  “The other thing. You know.   My responsibility.”

“But if that’s where it came from, Clockwork couldn’t have died from it, right?” asked Sam, reasonably.  “He was already a ghost when other Danny possessed him.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s why it’s my other theory.  I can have more than one theory.  It doesn’t matter if they’re contradictory.  I’ve just got to figure out how to test them and get rid of the ones that are disproven.  That’s science.”  His ghost sense went off again, and Danny flew upward to survey the surrounding streets.  

He thought he saw a flash of something round and green, but it disappeared as soon as he flew closer.  He sighed.  

“Nothing,” he said, returning. 

“I think you might have a skewed idea of what science is,” said Tucker.  

“And where it can be applied,” added Sam.  

“It can totally be applied here.  And my theories are completely valid.”

“I’m not sure I completely understand the one where you think it killed him?” said Tucker.  

“Okay, well,” said Danny, “when someone is hit in the head by lightning, they die.”

“Roy Sullivan didn’t,” said Tucker.  

“Who?”

“A guy who got hit by lightning seven times.  None of them killed him.  And he fought bears.”

“That’s not real,” said Sam.  “That’s not a real thing.”

“It is,” said Tucker.  “He’s the world record holder.”

“Usually getting hit in the head by lightning kills you,” said Danny.  “It’s electricity.  Electricity kills people.”

“But then why didn’t it look like a lightning scar the whole time?” asked Tucker, reasonably.  

“Because who’d want to look at a reminder of the thing that killed them every time they looked in a mirror?” asked Danny.  “He’s a shapeshifter.  He was hiding it.  And now that he’s– He’s hurt, or his power is gone, or whatever, he can’t hide it anymore.”

“His shapeshifting is pretty specific, though, isn’t it?”  Tucker’s eyes flicked down to his PDA.  “Incoming hunters.  Parsley and Overlook.”

Danny grabbed them under the arms and lifted off, turning intangible and passing through several buildings on the way to safer streets.  “Not Mom and Dad?”

“Nope.” 

“They’ll probably follow traffic laws, then.”  Danny set them down.  

“Yeah,” said Tucker, checking his PDA again.  “It’ll probably be a while before they start to look for us over here.  But I doubt we have much more than an hour before enough hunters are out that we won’t be able to avoid them.”

Danny made a face.  “There’s no way we’re going to catch all the blobs before then.”

“We can pretend to be hunters again,” said Sam.  They’d used the tactic a few times to get ghosts away from the new crop of hunters.  Most of them didn’t want to fight other people, even for the ‘rights’ to a ghost.  “That’s why we’re wearing this stuff.”

Danny nodded.  “I guess we’d better start again, then.”  He spread his arms wide and floated back.  “Hit me with your best shot?”

“You have any more theories, Wes Weston?” asked Tucker.  

“Ow,” said Danny.  “I mean, I guess it could be something else that’s happened since I’d last seen him, but that’d be a huge coincidence, wouldn’t it?”

“As opposed to the coincidences that somehow make it both your fault and a horrible imposition to Clockwork?” asked Sam.  “For all you know, it could be, like, ghost acne.”

“Just ghost acne?  You mean, the thing that half killed Vlad and put you in quarantine?”

“Bad analogy,” admitted Sam.  They started walking again.  “But it could be something normal that he’s just embarrassed about, or an attack from another ghost or something.  That he’s also embarrassed about.  Heck, it could just be a bad attempt at glamour makeup.”

“Pretty sure Clockwork doesn’t wear makeup,” said Danny.  

“That you know of.”

“Yeah,” chimed in Tucker.  “He could’ve just come from a drag show or something.”

“I– What?”

“It was the silliest thing I could think of,” said Tucker.  

“Okay,” said Danny, before darting off to catch another small swarm in his butterfly net.  “I’d just feel a lot better about all of it if I could help him.”

“So, why don’t you?” asked Sam.  

“I asked him if I could help, and he basically ignored it.  I don’t think he wants to see me.”

“Isn’t being able to get to his tower in the first place basically a standing invitation, because of the weird time stuff?”

“Maybe.  He might not be able to hide it anymore, with his powers damaged.  I didn’t ask.”

“Okay, well,” said Sam, “believe it or not, I actually got this advice from my parents, but a lot of people who need help don’t like to ask for it, so sometimes it’s better to just show up and find something to do, or with something to help.  It doesn’t have to be a big thing.  Like, when Mom was talking about this, it was about giving casseroles to widows.”

“Does that work?” asked Danny, dubiously.  

“We’re on patrol with you, aren’t we?” asked Sam.  “You said his place was full of rubble, right?  Maybe you could sweep that up.  It won’t solve any of the real problems with time, but it’d be a job he didn’t have to do, right?  And his house would be clean.  Cleaner.”

“That… might work,” said Danny.  “If I was careful not to touch any weird time stuff.”

“There you go, then.  Which means…”  She turned an evil grin on Tucker, “it’s your turn to have a heartfelt conversation.”

Tucker groaned.  “Come on, I don’t have nearly as much drama with my parental figures as you two do.”

“Then find some other drama,” said Sam, mercilessly as Danny sputtered that Clockwork was not his parental figure, “didn’t you try to ask Tiffanie out the other day?”

Tucker groaned again, and Danny’s ghost sense went off.  

.

Danny couldn’t visit Clockwork every day, or even on a regular day every week.  The timing of his trips to the Ghost Zone was based on opportunism.  He had to pick times when he wouldn’t be missed too much by his parents, when he wasn’t in school, and when Amity Park wasn’t under attack.  Plus, he still had to pass his classes, make sure no one was being dissected, hang out with Sam and Tucker, and sleep.

It was a lot.  

When he did get into the Ghost Zone, there was always a lot to do there, too.  Jazz wanted him to visit the Far Frozen more regularly, because Frostbite was a doctor who Danny could actually go to.  Johnny, Kitty, and Youngblood would derail any plans he had if he ran into them.  So would Walker, but for different reasons.  Danny wanted to track down Wulf at some point.  Also, Danny was still trying to map out the immediate area around the portal, which wasn’t exactly easy, since it moved.  

So, it was over a week before Danny could begin to put Sam’s advice into effect.  In that time he’d talked himself in and out of doing it multiple times.  Which was silly.  He hadn’t been this indecisive about anything since cheating on the CAT.  Clockwork liked him, or at least consistently tolerated him, and what was the worst that could happen, anyway?

His brain loyally conjured up half a dozen worst case scenarios.

Stupid brain.  

He floated outside the tower, eyeing the rubble.  He’d start here.  The stuff just floating around randomly outside probably wasn’t all that important, and dealing with it first would give Clockwork the chance to tell him to knock it off if he really didn’t want Danny’s help.  

First, he’d have to find places to put stuff.  He wasn’t sure if pushing things together into floating piles would work.  Maybe the bigger chunks would work like islands and have their own gravity?  He’d have to test that.  

Then, he’d have to start sorting.  He could see stuff that looked like chunks of masonry, bits of twisted metal, whole gears, fragments of glass, and splintery lengths of wood.  He absolutely wouldn’t throw anything out.  He’d learned that lesson from cleaning out the lab.  There was no way of telling if a particular slab of innocuous rock was secretly the power source for some doomsday device somewhere.

Once he had the skies clear out here, he’d move on into the entryway and the halls.  

That sounded like a plan.  

He got to work.  

It turned out that the bigger pieces of rubble would stick together, if only loosely, so Danny pushed a few of those out of what he considered to be the main paths around and to the tower, and used them as the nuclei of his piles.  He dumped armfuls of smaller rocks and other junk on them, and they got larger bit by bit.  

(It wasn’t, quite, accretion.  It wasn’t the way the planets formed.  But it was… adjacent.  Artificial accretion?  Was that a thing?)

But as he worked he started to feel like he was being watched.  It was an itch on the back of his head and in-between his shoulderblades, but every time he scanned the tower, hoping to find Clockwork in the shadows, he saw nothing.  The feeling persisted, and Danny decided that he must be watching through a time viewer or something similar.  Any of his enemies or ‘rogues’ would have made themselves known by now.  Even Vlad wasn’t all that subtle, unless he was using his little spy bugs (which hilariously didn’t work for more than thirty minutes in the Ghost Zone).  

It still made him uneasy.  

He dropped one more armload of rocks into the planet-pile, and surveyed his work.  It… wasn’t all that impressive, actually, but he’d been working on it for an hour, so… It’d have to do.  He wanted to say hi to Clockwork and make sure he was, well, aware of what Danny was doing. 

He definitely was, given the whole ‘I know what you’re doing before you do it’ thing he had going on, but Danny just wanted to check.  He flew down to the door, and almost ran into a strange ghost exiting.  

The ghost wasn’t large, by ghost standards, only a little longer than Danny himself, and their body plan seemed to be a fairly standard humanoid upper half with a ghostly tail.  However, instead of a normal head, a single giant eye rested on their sloped shoulders.  

They looked Danny up and down, their great eye narrowing slightly, but then they flew off without another word.  Danny watched them go for a minute, but then turned back to the doorway and slipped through.  

Only to run into Clockwork.  

“Augh!  Sorry,” said Danny, backing up and rubbing his nose.  He looked up.

Clockwork was wearing an eyepatch.  It didn’t cover the branching scar that now wound down his neck and up into his hairline.  

“So,” said Danny, “um.”  He hadn’t planned this conversation out at all, and most of his brainpower was occupied by not staring.  “Who was that, just now?  A friend?”

Clockwork made a complicated face, made all the more difficult to interpret because it was covered up.  “I can say nothing against them.”

In Clockwork language, that was basically equivalent to saying they were soulmates.  Clockwork took a lot of pride in his snark and he snarked about everything.  Not always in a straightforward way, sure, but where Danny was an apprentice in the art, Clockwork was a master.  

While Danny was still processing, Clockwork put his hand on Danny’s shoulder and squeezed lightly.  “All analogies have their limits,” he said.  “If time is a parade, then who are the marchers and marshals?  If it is a river, then why does it flow apart, and not together?  If it is a wheel, then why do events not repeat with regularity?”

He seemed to want an answer.  “Because it isn’t any of those things?”

Clockwork nodded, then drew Danny closer into a loose not-quite hug.  “Nor is it a lightning bolt.”  

Danny suppressed a shudder at the mention of electricity, and leaned his head against Clockwork’s chest.  He could hear it ticking, and the pendulum within the glass case flashed in the corner of his eye.  

“These things are still used,” stressed Clockwork.  “We all make the choices we can.”

The last bit was added quietly, as an afterthought, and Danny twisted to look up at him.  Clockwork looked… tired.  He was in his middle-aged form, but he looked older than Danny had ever seen him before.  

Clockwork pulled away with a sigh and patted Danny’s head.  “You are going to be late.”

“It’s the middle of the night?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

He’d probably wind up oversleeping, then.  It was awfully unlike Clockwork to warn him about that.  

“Goodbye, Daniel,” he said.  “Be… safe.”

Well, that was ominous.

.

Danny was being watched again.  This time, midway through his flight home, he was less certain that it was Clockwork.  He kept flying, anyway, unsure if he should try to confront whoever or whatever it was, or if he should try and pull a counter-ambush– Assuming the person watching him would attack.  

He realized he was slightly off course, and banked, correcting his path.  As he did so, a ghost, sheltering in the shadow of an island, came into sight.  The same ghost Danny had seen leaving Clockwork's tower.

That was strange.  

Danny stopped several meters away, cautious.  They might have been Clockwork’s friend or acquaintance or whatever, but most of Danny’s ghost friendships had started off with getting the crap beaten out of him.  “You want to eye-dentify yourself?”

So that was what an eyeball ghost looked like when they were annoyed.  Cool.  You learned something new every day.

“I,” said the eyeball ghost.  They paused, glaring, when Danny muffled a laugh.  

Yeah, Danny knew he shouldn’t do that, but it was how he interacted with ninety percent of other ghosts.  Sue him.  

“Members of my order do not use personal names,” said the ghost, rather pompously.  “I am an Observant, a watcher of time.  You are Phantom.”

Danny nodded in confirmation, even though that felt more like a statement than a question.

“You are… attempting to aid the timekeeper.”

“Yes?” said Danny, not at all sure where this was going.  

“He is a stubborn creature, unwilling to accept aid even from us, though we have long worked together.  But he accepts aid from you.”

“Sort of,” said Danny.  He hadn’t explicitly or implicitly rejected Danny’s help, anyway.

“We have an interest in maintaining the timeline, as he does.  But we are limited in what we may do.  Would you, Phantom, help us help him?”

[junebugtwin]

okay actually i need to ramble about taylor and her dad for like a bit cus its sooo much.

like okay listen listen listen: Danny wakes up early and he cooks breakfast maybe and then he goes to work and he does his job- and he's great at his job, in any world but this one, in any other brockton bay, he'd be able to afford to take taylor out of winslow or fix their broken step- maybe get her her like a dog or something (which btw would fix her) and y'know pay the bills and shit. but he can't in this universe because in this universe kaiju attack every 2 seconds and one specifically doesn't like people existing on coasts and like he's a dockworker or whatever so! so. so he works all day tirelessly just to not get his crew jobs or better pay because no one is going to sponsor the people working on a non-existent dock like its literally a graveyard! who would pay for this when there's an actual dragon man running around the city burning buildings down and an entire neo-nazi contingent of super-cunts nobody is going to do that. But this is his life. And he's stubborn and things had been better before so maybe they can be good again and he hates change and he doesn't want to have it all been for nothing and this is what he does. So he gives it his all. He stays late and he really only hangs out with his coworkers and he does have to pay the bills so its not like anyone could blame him. So he slams his head into the brick wall hoping it will break before his skull will and he misses so fucking much of what is going on in his daughters life! but it goes by so quickly, too quickly and by the time he's begun to figure out just how deeply and irrecoverably she's changed its way too late to just swing back in like nothing happened. He can't actually! They've both closed themselves off totally, her even farther than he has. but they're both stubborn, so stubborn and they think that if they can just hold on a little longer then things will be okay because things have to be okay because this can't be the rest of their lives! And Taylor really is her fathers daughter because she sees the way he bloodies his head on that wall and says fuck it all do you one better: this brick wall is going to break or i am! and if i do then i won't be around to care about it! And she's skipping class and spending nights somewhere else, sneaking out and of course he knows about it- of course he knows! What is he going to do though? confront her? and then what? what justification could he possibly have for that? to demand answers from her when she should be the one demanding them from him? he let her go back to the same school that nearly killed her! he let her drown without him when his wife died- didn't notice when emma broke her heart, didn't notice when she stopped loving english class or trusting adults or speaking without thinking 'stupid!' at herself reflexively. or worse- he did notice and chose not to do anything out of cowardice and habit and procrastinating guilt- like his daughters mental health was homework he hasn't handed in. But they both feel better, when they don't have to talk about it- and there's nothing morally wrong with skipping school or dropping out entirely but taylor used to like school but having an actual conversation with her about what exactly is happening in her life is something he takes half a zillion words to work up to and by the time he actually does he has to lock them in a goddamn room together- not because it's a good idea- if he knew more about taylor he'd know its a surefire way to freak her out- but because that's what he needs to talk to her.

and it just...deflates. she leaves and drops out of school and doesn't really talk to him again until brockton bay is like halfway underwater. there's no catharsis with him finding out she's Skitter, its not satisfying, not even in an angsty way- 'luke i am your father' -at least that's properly dramatic! It's just sort of an. oh. okay. fuck.

i dunno. this wasn't going anywhere. i just...man. they'd both kill for each other, i am confident in that much, but both seem to struggle pretty hard with the 'living for each other' part.

[thewritingofspencerrose]

Risky Romance: A Series

Risky Romance

Max Verstappen x OC!Wolff x Daniel Ricciardo

liked by lewishamilton, susiewolff and 182,582 others

mercedesamgf1 the day we've all been waiting for is back! baby boss has returned to the paddock! (to support her father, no other reason ...)

gisellewolff well... maybe another reason

danielricciardo hi, i'm the other reason 🙋

gisellewolff but so glad to be in the paddock with my parents this weekend! rooting for you lewishamilton and georgerussel63!

georgerussel63 carmen and i were so glad to get to catch up about your studies and the prema advances!

lewishamilton always great to see you elle :)

"Papa? I'm going to go visit Redbull," I alert my father, his head rising from the screens he'd been analyzing, glasses half down his nose.

"Just be sure to not bother the team too much. I do not need Christian coming for my head because you're distracting his driver."

"Danny is still reserve," I correct, the fact not a bother to me, but something my father seems to forget often, mentally still in the years of Daniel's hayday.

"I don't believe that's the driver he was referencing," Susie's voice chimes, her lips meeting the top of my head before I stand from my seat in hospitality.

"Suz, we've been over this-" Her brows raise, a look I've seen her give the Academy girls, or Christian Horner when he's running his mouth, and her hands meet her hips. "Yeah, I'm not going to get into this now, I have a feeling I won't be winning this conversation."

Papa's hand meets my shoulder, him having joined the both of us near the doorway, "Smart girl, there is no winning when the other side is Suzie."

Suz just smiles, shakes her head, and laughs. God they're disgustingly in love.

"Lewis, would you mind walking Giselle to Redbull?" Papa's voice is returning, earning the raise of my own brows as the driver makes his way through mechanics and media staff, the ever busy atmosphere being the only thing to slow him.

"Dad that's-"

"Not a problem in the slightest," Lew interrupts, making my father smirk.

In another life, Lewis Hamilton is his son, and I'm the milkman's daughter.

"Papa, there is no reason for one of your drivers to walk me to through the paddock," The attempt to reason rolls off my tongue, glancing around. "I'm sure James here could walk me, right James?" I question, pulling the random engineer under my arm, his lips forming a smirk.

"Of -"

"No, Lewis will do it," Papa interrupts, patting Lew on the back. "Enjoy Redbull, do not cause trouble," He instructs, waving before pulling James away with Suzie on his other side, the poor boy looking scared to death.

"Why is he like this?" I ask the man left beside me, his arm coming around my shoulder and pulling me into his side, starting our trek.

"Because James made a comment about wanting to sleep with you last team meeting and wasn't as quiet as he thought," Lew answers, ruffling my hair as he always does. "George almost kicked his ass."

"George did?" I can't help but laugh, the younger Brit being the most calm and docile person I have yet to meet. "That doesn't sound like Georgie."

"Okay, so maybe it was me, but can you blame me?"

"What is my girl blaming you for?" Danny's voice interrupts our conversation, the walk to Redbull being far shorter than when I was younger.

I can't help but giggle, Daniel's arms pulling me into him as Lew raises his brows, considering if it's worth poor James' life telling Danny the joke. "I was going to sock a Mercedes engineer for wanting to sleep with your girl."

"Lewis Hamilton! Don't make me get Christian to banish you!"

"You're lucky I don't banish you, Wolff," Chrisitian's voice interrupts, eyes showing the insincerity behind his words but as he approaches with Max and GP.

"And with that, I'm going to head back to Mercedes," Lew speaks up, not entirely a fan of the team principle in front of us. "I'll let your dad know that you're in safe hands, Ricciardo, Verstappen, take care of her."

"Always do," Daniel assures, arms squeezing around my hips.

"Thank you Lew, I'll be back for family dinner."

"Family dinner?" Max is the one to question as Christian and GP wander off, the latter giving his driver a smirk. The Dutchman takes their leave as an opportunity to take the few steps between us and and kiss my cheek, fist-bumping Danny before returning to where he had been.

"Mercedes team dinner. We always have one on quali night. Danny comes with if he doesn't have plans. I'm sure you'd be welcome as well, especially if you're our date," I can't help but invite along.

"If I was your date?"

"Our date, yes. Just tag along with Danny and I, you wouldn't mind, right love?" I ask, a smile bright on my face and eyes pouty.

Danny shakes his head, a knowing smile on his handsome face as he looks between Max and I.

I remember when Daniel had first told me about his and Max's "moments of weakness" from before I came around, the nights they had spent together while in drunk stupors.

I also remember asking Danny why he was with me when he so clearly loved Max. It took us a month and a half before I would say yes to being his girlfriend purely because I didn't believe he was interested in me for the right reasons.

But as I've gotten to know Max, I can see the appeal.

Hence inviting him to be our date.

"Please Maxie?" I request, pouty eyes turned on him this time around and his exterior crumbling, a smirk coming to his lips.

Because this isn't that young, awkward man that Danny had met all I met way back when. He's a grown man, older than I am, and there's something in his eyes that suggests he knows why I'm suggesting what I am.

And he doesn't look against it.

"Anything for you, Elle."

[coffins-and-marbles]

Concept: Wilson as a functioning alcoholic.

On one hand you might think "but he wouldn't endanger a patient like that" which maybe, but also the chicken in his office and other pranks weren't exactly peak health and safety so let's allow it for a minute. This post is inspired by the scene in "Holding On" S8 when Wilson is eating dinner alone and reveals his extensive wine collection. I know people can own wine but for a single guy who lives alone and only sees House (not a wine drinker)...it can point to heavy drinking.

More importantly I like this idea so here's a few potential angsty things!

Firstly I think it started as a coping mechanism in his teenage years since he was forced into far too much responsibility at too young an age among coping with the abuse he faced (I have extensive personal headcanons about this but really it's up to you).

He used to just drink until he blacked out, he didn't have friends (autistic) and it was usually alone in his room with something stolen from his parents or that he asked his older brother to source "for a party". When Danny was safely asleep he'd just drink. Naturally he felt terrible most days and was scraping by in school. Somebody notices (suggestions on how this happens?) and he's sent to a day rehab program where he just learns more about pretending you aren't hungover or drunk and how to get stuff.

He starts to set himself limits and tells himself it's under control by choosing specific times and amounts to drink (For Example: he isn't allowed to drink if he has homework to do). This works. It works so well that he decides on a whim to stay sober throughout some end of year exams only the immediate intense withdrawal means that he gives up within days and goes on a binge that leads to him flunking almost every exam and he's scared. He realises that he can't function without alcohol in his system so he sets more limits and for finals at the end of school he passes with flying colours and convinces himself that he's better like this.

He can't quit in college, not with the stress of Danny and the day he goes missing Wilson ends up in A&E and has to have his stomach pumped. He still doesn't stop. But the rules get stricter. He's so sure that if he just has more control over it everything will be okay...since he doesn't get invited to parties Wilson spends college studying on weekdays and binging on weekends. At this point he's buying off other students (he's too scared of stealing).

He graduates but he can't remember the week that followed. There are plenty of gaps like this in his memory. Every now and then, when he slips up and ends up hungover, retching or otherwise has to suffer the side effects of long term alcohol abuse, Wilson thinks about quitting but something always comes up. First it's Sam and the stress and it goes on like that. For so many years. He doesn't spend enough time with his wives for them to notice and if he gets whiskey dick he lies and says he was with House (they don't have to know he was in that bar alone).

Living alone, he always has his cupboards stocked and says he just enjoys fine wines. He hides the rest in the back of cupboards because he's ashamed. He preaches health and opposes House's addiction at every turn (but he continues to enable him because he knows what withdrawal is like, he wants House to quit because he can't) but here he is, unable to let this go.

When he drinks with House he acts like that's all for the evening and pretends that it's all he's having that evening. Besides, when they cross light drinking and step into more intense territory House doesn't remember the evening either, Wilson can only hope his practiced ease isn't too apparent. House doesn't notice any other time because his rules and routines are meticulous and he has this down to an art form.

After Amber he almost ends up in hospital, his leave is spent drinking too much then feeling guilty in turns. She had noticed and just before they could have a proper conversation she was gone.

He's always slips up after big things like this, after the events of "A Merry Little Christmas" it's what he does after leaving. He was drunk when he cheated too. And when House went to Mayfield he called in sick for a few days because he couldn't stand upright for long enough to pretend to be presentable. Then again when he goes to prison. There are so many moments in the show where this fits in.

Imagine the stress when House moves in with him. Maybe that's when he found out? Thoughts on how that would go down? I don't think they'd work through it but House needs him alive, he'd try to fix it somehow.

[wandixx]

(Don't) Leave me here alone ch.7 (previously "You'll never find the answers")

Words in this part: 7435 Story summary: M'gann was having an amazing day. She met with her civilian friends, drank an amazing smoothie, saw a cute dog. For a few hours, she didn't have to think about problems that took more than 20 minutes to solve. For a few hours, she could just be Megan. And then there was a scream of a woman, mother, who thought too loud and faded too fast and M'gann wasn't enough to save her and it made her whole world come crashing down And then Danny found her, with a soft smile and patient voice. He kneeled beside her to pick up the pieces. And shards cut them both in the process. This part summary: J'onn found memorial. Danny found ghost. There is journey ahead Trigger warnings: Flashbacks, (justifiable, I think) Invasion of Privacy Idk what to do about this one, please let me know if I forgot to put something here

first chapter, previous chapter

J'onn J'onzz took quite a great pride in the fact that was observant. All members of the Justice League were, of course, but with his telepathy and emotion sensing he had usually seen more than most. Human thoughts told a lot of things that their mouths didn't want to share.

This was why it took him less than half a minute to find a clearly hidden martian memorial ground when he arrived at Mount Justice to visit his niece. It took him maybe five more seconds to realize that since it was hidden, he needed to be really careful when asking anyone other than M'gann about it or don't even try doing it out loud. However he needed to know more.

Inspection of the memorial itself didn't bring many clues. No personal objects of dead, no name, no remains in either brain nor body urns. Only two stones at border, which was practically unheard of but also meant that someone was there when M'gann did the ritual.

Soon, he learned that whoever his niece was grieving, the rest of the Team didn't know them or even of them, but they knew that something was wrong. Conner dutifully informed him about that.

So who was she mourning?

Answers were just behind the doors, where she allegedly was doing her homework. Judging by utter frustration and self-loathing she was projecting, it wasn't going too well. It was all muted in a way he expected after seeing the memorial, but still broke his heart upon confirmation. She was way too young to experience that.

He was a bit unsure how he should proceed from this point. Well, conversation was always a great start. Hopefully he'd find a way to bring it up at some point.

"Good afternoon M'gann," he greeted out loud, knocking at the same time. Usually she should be able to detect him without either of these actions but he couldn't expect it at her current state.

"Oh, hello uncle J'onn" she answered, opening the door and pushing her emotions down. By the time she hugged him, a bit tighter than usual, she was no more emotional than a well loved doll. She should not be able to hide that well. "It's great to see you! I didn't know you were planning on coming today"

"I happened to be close by and decided to visit"

"Oh, okay," M'gann seemed relieved at that and let some of her emotions seep. J'onn considered using it as an opening, doing a speech about the importance of letting yourself feel things and somehow tying it to memorial ground and two stones that lay there. He couldn't quite get over the fact. There was someone with her there.

"Hello M'gann!" Phantom yelled, storming inside the room before J'onn even opened his mouth "I found her! I finally found her and she agreed and I got her to come! We can- Oh, good afternoon mister J'onzz sir," boy interrupted himself, far more sheepish. He acted far too surprised for how prepared he came in. Ghost's emotions were always almost overwhelming, but at that moment they were almost undetectable. Other than a short lived flare of shock when he caught sight of J'onn. he was hiding something. And since he actually got surprised, he wasn't hiding from J'onn, he was hiding from M'gann.

J'onn was suspicious. He spent enough time as a detective to know if he showed it, it would only work against him.

“Good afternoon Phantom,” he answered before silence stretched for too long “If I may ask, who did find?”

He could in theory dive into his mind to learn it with or without boy’s consent. However, he was there when M’gann cried over her friend being scared of her when she first tried to connect him to the Mindlink. Reading mind was a last resort he wasn’t willing to use yet. Mostly because he didn’t want to traumatize a child and because his niece would get mad at him.

Kids exchanged looks, one questioning, one connected to pressed lips and slight shake of head. ‘Not yet’ she mouthed as if he couldn’t see it.

“M’gann and I have a side project we work on and I just found a person who is quite crucial to the next part,” he explained carefully, looking at M’gann for approval. She nodded, barely moving her head. Answer was vague enough to not give him anything to work on.

“What is this project?” he tried again, looking at the surface level thoughts for scrapes of information. Both of the kids kept a tight lid on that part of their minds.

“It’s M’gann’s thing to share,” Phantom answered quickly “I’m only helping with parts she can’t do herself,” he added, making his way to the girl, in a way that was supposed to be somewhat inconspicuous, and placing supportive hand on her shoulder. He was a bit unsteady through the whole thing. She leaned into the touch with a sad smile.

Whatever this so-called project was, it was the reason she was hurt right now. J’onn had to put an end to it as soon as possible.

“I’m sorry uncle J’onn, now is not the time. I’ll tell you once we finish”

He kept himself from outright pushing further, because whatever mess Phantom dragged his niece into, it had to end now. J’onn just needed to learn a bit more about it. But they wouldn’t learn anything by asking.

“Alright, keep your secrets. I’ll excuse myself then, discussing what you need”

“Thank you uncle”

“Thank you mister J’onzz sir, have a good day”

And now the boy was playing innocent. It wouldn’t go for too long.

He still left the room, the door closing right behind his back. He didn’t go far, just a few steps to make it sound like he walked out, and then flew back and using his density shifting and camouflage he returned to the room. He stayed mostly inside the wall so the imperfections of the camouflage didn’t betray him.

He was aware it was a violation of privacy, but J’onn was of the opinion, that privacy was secondary to safety, and M’gann’s safety was potentially endangered.

By the time he looked back in, kids made their way to sit on a bed, in a way that made it unclear who was supporting who.

“Did you really…?”

“Yup. Everything else is also set up”

“When do we go then?”

“As soon as you’re ready”

M’gann sighed and curled up a little, letting inferno of her emotions break loose. Phantom clearly felt it too, judging by the small gasp and visible flinch. Other than that, he shrugged it off far easier than he should. J’onn remembered how less than half a year before boy had to be taught even ounce of resilience. He couldn’t help but wonder, which time it was a lie.

“If you’re not ready to meet them, I’ll do it on my own. Your healing and comfort are first priority here”

J’onn generally agreed with the sentiment and he would applaud boy for it, if he wasn’t hiding in the walls and still suspicious. And trying to figure out who “they” were.

“Your health should be higher on a list of priorities Danny. Take a nap before we go,” she pointed out gently, not looking him in the eyes. Still, she was clearly trying to deflect “Have you slept since… you know?”

Despite his grievances, he had to admit, Phantom did look like whatever he was doing with M’gann was also taking tool on his wellbeing.

“Of course I slept! I woke me up once and we took a nap together in the main room,” he teased with a easy smile on his face. He seemed somewhat fond of these memories. J’onn was really interested in what ‘took a nap together’ meant.

“Other than those two times, that for obvious reasons should not be counted as good night’s sleep?”

“Of course,” he lied in a way so obvious they didn’t need to be psychic to know it. J’onn knew from their previous interactions, as few as they were, boy was quite pale in this form, but then he was actually scarily pallid and his ‘eye bags had eye bags’ as Clark put it whenever Bruce pushed himself too hard and then came to Watchtower.

“Have you got over five hours of sleep per night at least four times a week?”

“Bold of you to assume I managed to get it even before,” he joked, adding even finger guns. M’gann just did her best approximation to glare so boy’s smile got more nervous “Once a week is enough for me, really”

“Danny we both know it isn’t, why–”

“Meg, you’re deflecting and for once I can’t let you” as if switch flipped, Phantom got all serious again, looking M’gann in the eyes, as if he needed this to be fully assured her answer was truthful “I need you to be absolutely and fully honest me. Are you ready to face these people?”

M’gann took few steadying breaths before she responded, so soft J’onn almost didn’t hear it.

“No. But I won’t be able to do anything until I apologize to her. Or really to both of them”

All of the little bits they dropped both while speaking with him and privately, when connected to fresh memorial site by the entrance painted quite a worrying picture.

Phantom slumped visibly. He was still trying to not project anything but it was clear that he didn’t like what he heard. He wasn’t surprised, but still pensive about it.

“Okay,” he whispered back “How long will it take to get ready and get Bioship flying? I’ll excuse us from the Team in the meantime”

“Half an hour”

“Great,” he sounded like it was anything but great “I’ll go now,” he added, getting up with an unnecessary and probably unplanned swing. He walked to the door, unsteady like a newborn deer or whatever animal humans used in this expression. When he was almost out, hand on handle ready to close it, M’gann stopped with wobbly voice

“Hello Danny?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you”

Boy sighed and turned to look at her with a sad look on his face.

“I don’t deserve it yet. Thank me when you don’t need my help anymore,” he said, trying to smile. He looked uncannily mature and like he was weighted down by some unimaginable weigh. J’onn may be a bit suspicious of Phantom at the moment, but he’d need to remember to mention it to Dinah.

M’gann sighed too.

“Thank you for what you did for me already. I would be far worse if it wasn’t for you”

Phantom visibly brightened at the praise. His smile lost its sad edge and he seemed younger, finally his age.

“You’re welcome, Meg. See you in thirty,” he closed the door and left, with small bounce in his step. J’onn left with him, still undetected.

***

They indeed met thirty minutes later in the hanger, changed into their hero costumes and all. Danny had shopping bag full of something on his shoulder. M’gann eyed it curiously but said nothing. She didn’t need to.

“I packed some spare ectoplasm I had lying around the Mountain”

She nodded, barely listening, deep in far less comfortable thoughts.

“Danny, can I talk with her before we meet her son?” she whispered, hope probably as clear as if she outright projected it. She didn’t really feel ready, but it was true what she said earlier. She hadn’t been able to focus on anything, her whole mind focused solely on guilt and imagining scenarios for her apology. She had homework due next day she hadn’t really touched, an essay she’d been “writing” for hours and still had only her human name, surname and the topic at the top of the paper.

As much as she wasn’t sure of anything lately, she was sure she needed to talk to the mother alone.

Instead of answering her question, Danny locked his eyes on an empty space somewhere near the exit of the hangar. He smiled, in this specific way that others sometimes called «Phantom’s victim smile». It wasn’t often that adult were on receiving end of it though.

“What do you think, Mrs. Winchester? Of course like we agreed before, you’ll get enough ectoplasm to physically touch your son et cetera, but if you agree, you’ll get some ecto now to talk with my friend. She is the girl I mentioned before- yeah, that one. This could actually be good for you, less risk you’ll get overwhelmed,” he stopped, visibly listening to the answer M’gann couldn’t hear. It was weird. Usually when conversation unheard by those around was happening, she was not only part of it, but central figure letting everyone communicate. She suddenly understood all of the people who got annoyed at Team talking over Mindlink in their presence. She wasn’t particularly annoyed, in all honesty, but she could imagine being, if situation was a bit different.

“I swear on my core, terms of our agreement don’t change on my side,” he promised, hand placed above where his core reside, mirroring the position of the heart in his chest “However you are free to add whatever you see fit in exchange for this additional favor,” he added quickly with the same seriousness. M’gann stiffened, suddenly overtaken by new wave of guilt. She didn’t mean to cause even more trouble than she already did. Danny turned his head to her, sharp gaze meeting her eyes.

“M, don’t. None of this is your fault so don’t blame yourself. I should’ve considered it when I made this deal. She doesn’t want to change terms anyway”

“Alright”

But he wasn’t quite listening anymore.

“Okay so if it’s not about any of that, what’s the matter?” he asked, smiling gently again. After a second his smile and shoulders dropped, surprise clearly visible in every inch of his body. He even leaned back a bit. It all happened and was fixed in less than a second, but M’gann knew what she saw.

Tears in his eyes didn’t dry as soon as he squared his shoulders, afterall.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll be alright”

Saying that her heart dropped would be an overstatement but not by much. She knew Danny was far from great, far from okay even, but she assumed he was at least around fine. Sure, she couldn’t quite tell everything about his ghost part, especially now that her psychic powers where debilitated, but it didn’t seem super bad.

How much worse it had to be to get ghost worrying about his well being?

He waved off worries like always.

“No, really, I promise. I have enough spare ecto to bring you back from core failure, everything’ll be alright” he stopped, then smiled widely “So you agree! Thank you so much Mrs. Winchester! I’ll get to it right now!”

M’gann hated herself for not pressing more before Danny started this little ritual.

His hands were raised, letting out waves of ectoplasm so intense it was actually visible to very alive M’gann. They culminated around one place few feet away from Bioship. At the moment she didn’t really care about what was going on there, worriedly keeping her eyes on halfa as his breath deepened in a way it did during exercise, at the start when he was still focusing on keeping it deep and not fast and shallow. Sweat appeared on his forehead. He spoke in the language she didn’t understand but instinctively recognized as the Ghost Speak.

Floating, greenish shape appeared in the corner of her eye. When Danny finished, panting and with hands on his knees looking like the only reason he didn’t collapse, she was still half transparent.

“Alright, I’m done for now,” he announced, significantly paler than before, grinning proudly. He was slowly steadying his breath, trying to look more collected than he actually was “Right, I almost forgot. Mrs. Winchester, this is my friend Miss Martian, M meet Mrs Winchester, you wanted to talk with her”

They inched their heads in acknowledgment. It was nice that Danny remembered this little rule they made, uncle J’onn and her. They knew many names they shouldn’t, so they decided to use only ones they were outright introduced to.

“Great. Now please ignore me and talk about what you need”

M’gann was not going to listen to that, not when her friend looked like he was standing on pure spite.

“You did well Phantom, thank you,” woman said, motherly and utterly sincere.

“Sure thing, don’t mention it”

“Please make sure to take care of yourself when I talk with your friend”

“I very much will mention it, how can I help you Dan-thom” M’gann said the same time. Danny straightened fully and shook himself, trying to look like he was better off than he really was. Judging by his expression it was a mistake.

“I’ll handle it, don’t worry. Go talk to Bioship, you’ll get more privacy there”

“But–”

“I have ecto over here, I’ll be good as knew before you finish,” the idiot dared to try to smile.

“You’d fall if there was slightest breeze here.”

“Lies! Lies and slander!”

Woman laughed at him.

“You’re even more stubborn than gossip tells, boy. Bless your friends for keeping up with you”

“Yeah, bless them. Please get going now”

“Let’s go Miss Martian, I heard we have something to talk about”

“But-”

“Let the boy learn from his mistakes,” she whispered with a wink and M’gann was not a fan this idea. She’d prefer to stay, to make sure Danny wouldn’t pass out as soon as she stopped looking at him, because it was her fault he got so bad and the least she could do was to help him. But he also looked like he was on verge pf developing new power just so he could put her inside the Bioship, ghost lady would be dragging her in if she was actually tangible and M’gann knew when the battle was lost.

She’d find a way to make him rest after they were done with this.

She nodded and scanned Danny one last time. He looked… bad, but a bit less fragile than before.

“If you need any help, yell,” they told each other at the same time. They both nodded, as if they agreed to do so, but M’gann wasn’t naive enough to believe either of them wasn’t lying.

Mrs. Winchester wore unreadable expression. They went to the Bioship in silence.

“This won’t be nice conversation for either to us,” she warned when doors closed behind them.

“I know, kid, I know. Let’s get it over with,” woman said, just a bit too warm to be called deadpan. Girl knew any trace of it would disappear with her next words. She needed to say them anyway.

“It’s related to your death.”

And there it was. Mrs. Winchester stiffened and sucked in an unnecessary breath and leaned back, as if she was punched. She glowed stronger, her curly hair breaking what little law of physics it pretended to follow before.

“I don’t want you to talk about it. Not much anyway,” she added before the ghost let out her anger, “I was there. I saw it”

“Right,” ghost deflated.

“I want to apologize to you, Mrs. Winchester,” she confessed and it felt like something was ripped out of her chest with these words “I’m sorry I didn’t save you. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry I didn’t realize anything was wrong until it was… until it was too late. I’m sorry I wasn’t faster… or stronger… or smarter… or more observant or… I’m sorry I wasn’t more. I’m sorry it happened,” She couldn’t bear looking at the victim of her incompetence, so she locked her eyes on her shoes. There were tears pressing against her eyelids that couldn’t be forced away. Next time she blinked few droplets fell to the floor.

“I’m sorry you’re dead. I’m sorry it happened like this. I’m sorry that you didn’t make it to your son’s show. I swear I didn’t want to hear that, but you were just to loud and the rules say I have to listen if dying is screaming and… and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for that too. I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so- so- sorry,” she wasn’t sure if she kept speaking or just projecting utter sense of apology and grief, something she was trying to convey in foreign language that kept failing her. She didn’t think she would manage to say it even if she had riches of her mother tongue at bay.

It was getting hard to breathe and world around her narrowed.

She just kept trying to let out swirling mess of emotions because it didn’t feel right to restrain them. All of her sorrow, all of her guilt, all of her self-loathing and frustration, all sadness and self-hatred and grief. Everything she felt but couldn’t name. Everything that kept choking her for past weeks. Like the next part of the ritual.

When she calmed down enough to start comprehending world around her, she realized she was curled on a floor and Mrs. Winchester was crouching in front of her, with hand outstretched on her head. Her lips curled in a pitiful smile when their eyes met.

Did she just emotionally manipulated a dead woman, arguably victim of her negligence, into accepting her apology? She didn’t want to and wasn’t trying but did she do that anyway?

“Oh dear,” woman whispered, too quiet to read what she felt.

“I’m sorry,” this time for her outburst. She wasn’t the one who should be crying, she wasn’t the one who- who-

She bit back another sob.

“It’s alright honey. You saw something truly horrific, something no kid your age should’ve ever see. I don’t remember much of it myself, because of some «baby ghost» coping mechanisms if you believe Phantom. But you remember it all. It’s alright if you cry”

“You sound angry about it”

Mrs. Winchester paused and took deep unnecessary because of M’gann, unnecessary because she was dead breath. Then another.

“I’m not angry at you. I’m just… angry in general. I’m angry I’m dead. I’m angry you have to remember that but I have just flashes. You are a fucking child. I’m angry that you’ve been there. For God’s sake, you’re probably younger than Camilla, and she was crying last time she was watching Disney movies with Eric. I’m angry that I left my son. I’m angry that God- that God called me back to himself so soon and I’m angry I can’t scream about it,” she kept talking, with each phrase sounding less and less angry and more choked up “I’m angry I won’t be there when he graduates. I’m angry I won’t be there when he first falls in love. I’m angry I won’t be there to help him when he’ll get hurt. I’m angry I won’t be there to tell him he did great. I’m angry I won’t be there when- when he grows up. I’m angry I won’t ever be more than dead mom, forgotten in three months ex-coworker, that I won’t ever be something more. I’m angry I never got to share my family recipe with Elaine or whoever else would ask. I’m angry I won’t pretend I didn’t see Camilla or other kids exchanging sweets before dinner,” Mrs. Winchester kept listing big or little things she did but couldn’t anymore, sitting by the wall of Bioship with fat tears running down her face and disappearing before they could land on anything. M’gann sat with her, projecting as much comfort as she could through haze of her own grief, unable to do anything else. She- she couldn’t even speak, her tongue too big for her mouth, resisting all efforts to shapeshift into fitting.

“I’m angry I’m dead and I’m angry some part of me was happy, because at least I got to meet my husband again”

“I’m sorry”

“Don’t be. You didn’t do anything. I’m the idiot who was always warning her child to look when crossing the road and then fucking died because I jaywalked looking at the phone. I- I don’t blame you,” woman choked up “I would die there with or without you. But I think I remember you trying. You had maroon hair and wide eyes, trying to keep me calm.”

Almost subconsciously, M’gann shifted to the form she had that day. She wanted to gag as soon as hair started touching her chin but she didn’t. Mrs. Winchester made a sound as if she was punched.

“Yeah. That girl. You don’t remember much but I know you did your best sweetheart. There just wasn’t enough of anyone’s best to help me. But you tried and I thank you for that. And for the chance to talk to my baby. And for the memorial. It all means the world to me”

M’gann roughly dried her face. She wasn’t sure when she cried again.

“Thank you Mrs Winchester”

“Don’t throw back my gratitude Miss Martian”

“M’gann”

“Bethany. Don’t blame yourself M’gann. I never did”

“I’ll try, Ms Bethany”

***

In the meantime Danny was having a little… breakdown was a wrong word, it would mean he was in far worse shape than he really was so he was totally not having a breakdown. He just needed his brain to shut up for a bit, to not make plans and scenarios for a minute or ten. It wasn’t big, even if his shaking body seemed to disagree. He was just glad that M’gann was inside Bioship so he could freak out in peace. But he was fine. It wasn’t a breakdown.

Even when his body decided to take a little break too, betraying him when he tried to take few steps to his bag with ectoplasm. It was way weaker than he expected, which didn’t bode well for the rest of the evening. His chin hurt from hitting the floor so hard his ears were ringing for a good moment. He was back to his human form, sprawled on the stone and too tired to even crawl. Not necessarily in physical sense, but he just couldn’t muster up motivation to even try. He really was barely functioning, wasn’t he?

Thankfully ectoplasm could get him back on his feet. And give him a bit of a food poisoning by the end of the night. Ancients damn it.

It all was such a dumb idea to begin with. Obviously, he made sure that Mrs. Winchester wasn’t holding grudges against M’gann and that she would mitigate her son if he was too harsh, but it was just horrible idea anyway. Once, it could maybe, potentially help but more? He knew what happened when one sought out their victims and it was insanity waiting to happen. He was self-aware enough to know that if she asked, he would do it all again and again, and again, and again.

Living shouldn’t come in contact with dead too often. It was against the very laws of the universe, integral enough that breaking them never ended well. He was one of such violations after all, he was pretty intimate with consequences. He wouldn’t wish them on Light members or his rogues or even Vlad, though he probably had to face them anyway.

Because dead and living don’t mix.

But he was an idiot who was trying to do it anyway.

He shouldn’t even propose the idea of talking with the ghost to M’gann. He was a horrible friend and terrible person for it. Really, what made him any different from Vlad, who, after all, drove Dan insane by not addressing the issue and choosing the easiest way out?

He was suffocating. He was fine.

He should help her in some other way. Force her to talk with someone or outright tattle to Black Canary or-

“What is wrong Phantom?” concerned deep voice asked from above (it would probably be worrying if it wasn’t above- oh he was getting into “I’m not freaking out because I’m laughing” stage, great). With way more effort than it should require Danny raised his head to meet worried eyes of the Martian Manhunter, Mr. J’onn J’onzz, M’gann’s uncle and guardian on Earth.

He was in more trouble than he thought, and he thought he was in some deep shit already.

“Nothin’, just restin’,” he mumbled and wow wasn’t that a stupid lie. Could he be kicked out of the Team if he offended Justice League member enough? Hopefully not, he liked being here and he liked Mr. J’onnz. It would be dumb to antagonize one of the coolest heroes on the planet, especially since he was also taking care of his friend. Friend who was about to get hurt because he panicked.

Mr. J’onzz’s face twisted but he smoothed it out too quickly for Danny to figure out what expression he made.

“We both know this is untrue,” man started, unsettling calmness in his voice, “What assistance do you require? And where is M’gann? She wouldn’t leave you like that”

Danny made a great effort and sat up, leaning against something hard and chilly. It was probably a cabinet.

“Yeah, she is fine. She is in the Bioship, preparing something before a little trip for our project. It’s arguably most important part,” he explained before Mr. J’onzz got too worried. He ignored a question about his well-being. It was still weird to be asked about it, especially by an adult “I was standing and practically pushing her inside when she left me, so she had no reason to worry about me. I told her I can take care of myself and all that jazz,” –Alright, that should be enough– “I just need to drink some ectoplasm I put in the blue bag over there”

His heart skipped a beat. He didn’t want to say the last sentence. He didn’t plan on answering parts about himself. Martian Manhunter read his thoughts. Not in really invasive way, he didn’t took over his mind or anything, he just pushed out of his mouth what was already there, on the surface. M’gann did it sometimes too. But still. Someone else was in Danny’s mind. Someone touched his mind. Someone could easily destroy his mind.

Ghosts were very little other than their minds. And there was no after-afterlife.

Someone was danger to his mind–

“Phantom?” Mr. J’onzz asked, sounding pretty concerned, which shook Danny a bit out of his spiral. It was alright. He wasn’t in danger, the literal hero just brushed against his mind a bit. It was fine.

It was anything but fine. Hero could kill.

Was it really kill if he wasn’t alive to begin with?

Danny shuddered when Mr. J’onzz gave him his bag after cursory look through it’s contents.

It was fine. He hid just how deep his fear of mindreading and mindcontrol went for few pretty obvious reasons. It wasn’t Mr. J’onzz’s fault since he didn’t know.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, trying to sound more confident and unafraid than he actually was. He hastily took out one of the thermoses and opened it faster and more forcefully than he probably should. It didn’t matter.

He gulped ectoplasm down like man on a desert. Logically, he knew he should stop, he knew he shouldn’t get too much at once, because it’ll make him more ghost than human and he existed because of the balance, but hunger was great at silencing any rational part of his mind. For a moment, his brain turned into mush, singing in cacophony ‘drink, Drink, DRINK, more, More, MORE’

It took more self-control, than he usually suspected himself of having, to not fish out another thermos to drain. He would definitely get sick if he’d done that though, and he was hellbent on not puking until this mission was over.

He grinned in what was hopefully reassuring manner and stood up, letting transformation wash over him again.

“You see Mr. J’onzz? I’m all better already. Give it a minute or two and I’ll be like in my best days,” It was only a little bit of a lie, because he actually felt far better than he did sprawled across the floor, so hopefully it would go undetected.

“You’re still in no shape to travel, let alone act as superhero. Do not try denying it, you’re suited up and plan on using Bioship. I know you know better than to use it for frivolous matters” Mr. J’onzz was obviously correct on every matter and Danny wasn’t the one of these people who lied to themselves to cope (sometimes), especially not when he could feel bile rising to his throat, but there was no way in hell he was actually going to admit it out loud.

“It’s nothing risky, just a chat or two”

“Isn’t majority of Team’s missions planned as a recon? We both know this ends up. Let me accompany you for M’gann’s safety, if nothing else”

If it were literally anyone else, Danny would actually roll his eyes, developing headache be damned.

“It’s not my place to agree. I’m only even a part of this because I have some… expertise on the topic. But there is very little chance of anything going south. We’re going to talk with two civilians, not tail a crime lord”

“I still insist”

“It’s a surprise chat. I don’t want to overwhelm him- them and they’ll probably freak out when not one, but two heroes show up knocking on their window,” Danny explained, quite proud from how not annoyed he sounded. Mr. J’onzz still got mad for some reason.

He hated how he instinctively braced for having his mind ripped apart. He hated how he was surprised when it didn’t happen.

“M’gann’s status as my sidekick doesn’t make her any less of a hero”

Danny needed a moment to catch how it wasn’t a non sequitur.

Right. For some reason, that he never really managed to grasp, some people looked down on proteges. He hadn’t thought his words could be interpreted like that.

“M’gann is the hero I meant. There wasn’t as many sidekicks back when I was a regular human, but if let’s say… Robin, because I dressed up as him for Halloween, if he showed up at my house I would be both ecstatic and anxious, because that’s a hero in my room, but he’d still be close enough to me, that I’d talk, out of sheer giddiness and curiosity. If he showed up with Batman, I would probably scream and then run away, because in my eyes he was hero bigger than life and what is he even doing in my room, is the world ending? You’re much cooler than Batman, Mr. J’onzz. I don’t want to overwhelm kid away and we’re starting on a really thin ice already,” Danny explained carefully, secretly proud how well he managed to word it. Take that Mr. Lancer, he definitely had his way with words.

Martian gave him a weird look.

“You are a hero too, Phantom,” he said in an unexpectedly soft tone.

Danny didn’t need a moment to collect himself after that, thank you very much. He perfectly knew and comprehended that the real, actual Justice League considered him a real hero and didn’t want to scream in excitement every time someone or something reminded him about it.

Yeah, he totally grinned so widely it would split his face if any wider, and he did his best to not let it falter when he realized how big of a lie it was. He kept hiding it from everyone, friends and idols alike, but truly, at his core he wasn’t a hero. At his core all he really wanted was Praise. He was just a local menace trying to stop other bigger menaces from causing mayhem. He was at fault for everything going to shit in Amity. For Ancients’ sake, some ghosts, like Skulker, came around literally only to fight him. Vlad came out of hiding because of Danny. And it was him who turned on the portal in the first place.

“Not much outside of Amity Park and not in the eyes of local press so I doubt he’ll recognize me,” he said instead, tucking some fake lighthearted laughter into his voice. It didn’t hurt at all. He didn’t lost count of times he cried after seeing hate articles, when all he tried to do was to fix one mess or another.

“But thank you. It means a lot,” ‘–from an actual hero’ he almost added, but managed to bit his tongue. He was just called a hero too. It wasn’t a time to let his insecurities run free.

Mr. J’onzz looked like he wanted to say something more, but thought better of it and just sighed.

“Please return at some sensible time. It is a school night and M’gann still has homework to get done,” he asked, gesturing towards some papers laying on a cabinet Danny used as a backrest a few moments ago. Well, there went Danny’s plan for a nap during the flight. Maybe Mrs. Winchester would help him, at least. She had an office job, she probably knew how to write.

“Of course,” he almost threw in a promise on his grave, before remembering that this type of gallows humor was only acceptable with Sam and Tucker. Everyone else didn’t know he didn’t have a grave, so they assumed he was super serious, or were Jazz, who tried to tell him he should stop coping through deflection and jokes.

Before this train of thought took him too far, doors to the Bioship hissed and M’gann descended, eyes red and puffy, but under them was small and genuine smile, one that he hadn’t seen since before that abandoned corridor.

Mrs. Winchester also felt… better, in a way that he couldn’t quite finds a word to describe.

Danny almost swayed with how much relief this all brought him.

At least their part went over well.

“I’m ready to go Da- Oh, um, hello again, uncle J’onn”

Thank Ancients. It was getting significantly harder to keep everything under the wraps, if not enough to keep telepath from reading anything from him, but at least enough so he could know if they were looking. Since M’gann’s perception was hindered, he would be able to relax a bit when they finally took off.

Mrs. Winchester would worry, but she always did. It was alright, Danny was pretty sure she was projecting her son onto him. And it’s not like he could shield from her anyway without risking sabotaging her survival on living side of the veil.

He just wanted to get out of here. Wraps were hard to keep from unwrapping.

***

Danny was in fact, not keeping anything under the wraps from even before J’onn came to the hangar. Dinah knew it, because Martian was transmitting everything live while she made sure the rest of the Team didn’t do anything too stupid while she was gone. Yes, it was Red Tornado’s job, but he wasn’t really one to stop them unless they were about to set base on fire. Thank god, the majority of the teens weren’t present nor were planning to come, so only Wally and Conner could wreck havoc. While redhead was chaos incarnate, his chaos was fueled by others and Conner was usually not really open to being said fuel. Not that they seemed to plan anything. They actually went out of their way to find her, so they could let her know that Danny and M’gann were going somewhere and as Wally announced:

“If they were going on a date I’d say nothing, they deserve it, but they keep acting off. We’re worried”

Conner nodded with a deep frown. Well, she knew team gossip so she wasn’t surprised by the date comment. She had more important things to focus on at the moment.

She tuned back in whatever was happening on J’onn’s side and his unsuccessful attempts to either tag along or at least learn more substantial information.

All they knew at the moment was:

Kids were going to talk with two supposed civilians.

Someone died and M’gann felt guilty about it (maybe)

Danny felt guilty for whatever they were doing (most likely)

He also found whatever they were doing dangerous (potentially)

Also, he was infamous for underestimating dangers he faced (universally)

“Can I at least know where you are going?” J’onn asked again, trying to annoy them into answering. Once again they shared looks before they answered. It was equally annoying and adorable. They weren’t even in a Mindlink, just needed to look at each other before saying anything.

“Detroit,” the boy shared.

“Why don’t you use Zeta Tube then?”

“Danny hates them,” Dinah and M’gann answered at the same time. Danny’s grimace and mess of emotions only supported that claim.

She finally got to the hangar, but she stayed away for now, satisfied with looking from the sidelines.

“I still insist on going with you. While I do not want to underestimate your ability to stay safe and protect each other,” –M’gann winced and curled in on herself, which Dinah filled away to talk about later. Danny drew his friend in a loose but secure side hug– “I do fear unknown threats you may face while clearly not at your best and to ease my worry I want to be there in case of emergency.”

She had to praise him telepathically. This slight lie sounded pretty convincing and sounded way better than ‘I acknowledge that Phantom isn’t a bad person, but I feel like he dragged my niece into some dangerous mess and need to stop it’. Dinah frankly knew better, so she tagged along mostly to hold J’onn back and because she was worried about what they had gotten themselves into. Though she rejected wholeheartedly the idea of following them, she trusted them enough for that.

“We will be alright, uncle J’onn”

Danny nodded, looking at the empty space like he was asking for help and receiving an actual advice. He nodded and send thin air quick smile.

“Ghost” J’onn pointed out on their mind conference. For whatever reason there was ghost in a hangar.

“Neighborhood we’re going to visit hasn’t seen crime that police found worth investigating in the last ten years,” the boy said slowly, as if he repeated someone else’s words.

This was a concerning twist that she couldn’t close her eyes on like she wanted to before. She had to get involved.

Of course, everyone went through basic empathy training and was informed by Danny in pretty strong words that not all ghosts were evil, but she also couldn’t risk having a potentially mind-controlling entity with an unknown agenda. Especially considering both kids’ unusual behavior in the past several weeks.

It wasn’t safe to approach right then and there, so J’onn retreated to gather some anti-ghost weaponry while Dinah stayed on a lookout.

The moment they were alone, Danny leaned back on the outer wall of activated Bioship, letting out deep, relieved breath.

“Thank you Mrs. Winchester. I think that should get him to stop worrying”

Ghost of a woman in her mid to late thirties appeared (slightly translucent so she wasn’t particularly strong and barely different from human, so she couldn’t be too long dead) and just laughed. She wore a cheap but fashionable three piece suit. She moved her hand as if she was trying to ruffle the boy’s hair but no part of physical work reacted to her movement. Too weak to have a body. Yet, because Danny had spare ectoplasm.

“Oh, Phantom,” she cooed “As a mother, I can tell you, as long as you love your child, you’ll worry about them”

He tensed, pressing his lips into a thin line.

“Not if they know they taught their kids well”

“Some worry always stays, Danny. This is why seeing a child hurt is every parents biggest nightmare”

Boy didn’t acknowledge neither the whole statement nor the casual way his secret identity was breached. He informed the Team that it was pretty normal information for ghosts to know him but it was still quite unsettling to see how casually this stranger brought up the secret that Justice League, as the whole, and Young Justice, to be specific, worked for months to earn.

“Let’s get going,” he mumbled instead, already inside the Bioship “Mr. J’onzz asked us to be back early”

M’gann nodded, almost hopping inside and soon they disappeared.

******

AO3 link

Next part

[hbyrde36]

No Vacancy

Chapter 6: Guest Relations

WC: 4465 | R: Explicit | CH: 6/12 | AO3 | Now Complete!

Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch4 Ch 5

*STEVE*

“Well, I'm sorry you wasted so much of your time on me.” 

Eddie’s words reverberated in Steve’s head as he watched him turn and walk away back down to the beach. 

He wanted to follow, to fight for what he’d seen in the other man’s eyes in the seconds before they’d kissed. He was almost sure now that Eddie liked him back. 

It made the rejection that much more painful.

He spun on his heel and made his way back to the Buckingham alone, replaying the entire thing over and over again in his mind along the way. He was a little angry, a lot hurt, but also so, so fucking confused. 

It just didn’t make any sense. 

In hindsight it was obvious now that Eddie had been jealous when he’d seen him and Danny together the night before. That’s why he was so mad—so flustered— enough to flee the motel at the crack of dawn just to avoid seeing him. And when Steve kissed him, Eddie kissed back. 

Oh god how he had kissed back.

Naively, Steve had thought that was it—it was finally happening!

But no, Eddie pushed him away, literally and figuratively, and now he was left to wonder if he’d somehow misread everything. 

He couldn’t deny that Eddie was, at the very least, physically attracted to him. That much had become abundantly clear in the last few minutes. But maybe that was all it was, and all of Steve’s talk about caring, and being worried, and feelings had freaked him out.

Steve hoped to sneak past the motel's front office and make it to his room without running into anyone, and by anyone he meant Robin, but of course she spotted him through the glass front doors and came running out to greet him, hands waving like he might have somehow missed her. 

He took a deep breath and tried to school his features into something that he hoped looked a little less devastated than he currently felt, but must have failed in his attempt spectacularly because one look at him made her own face fall. 

“Are you alright?” She asked, wringing her hands.

He blew out a long breath, dropped his gaze to the ground as a wry chuckle falling from his lips. He didn’t have the energy to lie to her.  

“Not really.”

“What happened? Did you see Eddie?”

“Yeah,” he whispered softly, looking back up at her with a sad half smile. “Yeah, I saw him.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Steve knew how much Robin loved him, that she would do anything to make him feel better, but he wasn’t ready for any of that yet. He didn’t want to do this—didn’t want to explain what an idiot he'd been. He just wanted to slink off and hide under a rock somewhere for eight to twelve hours and feel sorry for himself.

Sometime soon he was sure he’d love to sit with her and overanalyze as they drank a few bottles of red wine and had a good cry about it.

But not right now. 

“Not really, if that’s okay. I think I just want to be alone for a while.”

“Of course that’s okay,” She said, stepping into him and wrapping her arms around his waist the way he knew she’d wanted to do since she’d first laid eyes on him.

He hugged her back, breathing her in as the two of them stood in the middle of the parking lot holding each other, uncaring of the world around them. Eventually Steve pulled back, dropping a kiss on her head before they stepped apart. 

“Call me if you change your mind,” She rushed out as he moved to leave. “I have ice cream in the freezer and I can be at your door in two minutes flat.” 

“I will.”

It wasn’t really a lie. He would call her if he changed his mind, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen. 

What he really needed was some sleep. He was exhausted, emotionally and physically drained—thankful that he had another day off tomorrow. The thought reminded him of the conversation they’d had at dinner the other night and he felt like an asshole for not bringing it up sooner.  

“Did you ask Chrissy about tomorrow night yet?”

“No, that’s…” Robin waved a hand dismissively. “It's dumb. I'd rather just forget it.”

“Robin!” He leveled her with an unimpressed look, a little less sharp than usual but he was doing his best. “You have to go talk to her right now—I’m serious.”

“No, I'm serious.” She said, shaking her head. “I’m not gonna ask you to watch the desk after all this.”

“Oh my god, for the last time you didn’t ask, I offered! And it doesn’t matter what’s happened, I can still watch the place. I want to do it, and if you really want to make me feel better you’ll go on the damn date tomorrow, have a great time, and come back to tell me all about it.”

She sighed, a heavy defeated sound. “That’s a cheap shot. Fine, I’ll ask her in the morning.”

“But-”

“Don’t push it, Harrington.”

Steve pulled out all the stops—raised eyebrows, hands on his hips, foot tapping the pavement impatiently.

“Don’t give me that shit,” Robin mumbled under her breath. “Look, the sooner I ask her, the more time I'll have to freak out about the actual date, so I figure, why not put it off as long as possible?”

“But you’re already freaking out.”

Her eyes narrowed, arms crossing over her chest. “Don’t stand there and attack me with logic.”

“Alright, alright. You do what you want. I’ll come down in the afternoon to see how it went and you can show me whatever I need to know to keep the motel afloat in your absence.”

“Not much you need to know to cover for me for two hours, but sure, I’ll see you then.”

Steve smiled at her, or tried to at least, and walked off towards the stairs to the second floor. 

The room was dark when he got in, the sun having set while he spoke to Robin and he hadn’t bothered to leave a light on for himself when he left.

He didn’t bother turning one on now either. 

He stripped down, leaving his clothes in a heap on the floor and threw himself into bed, face buried deep in the pillows, and screamed into them until his throat was hoarse and he eventually cried himself to sleep. 

In Steve’s dream someone was playing with his hair, carding their hand through it in the most soothing way. People were always afraid to touch his hair. They assumed he’d be mad at it getting messed up because of the time and effort he put into it every day, but it was one of his favorite comforts. 

He stirred from sleep gradually, confused when the fingers running over his scalp didn’t disappear with the rest of the dream, and blinked his eyes open, surprised to find someone sitting on the edge of his bed.

No, not—someone.

“Eddie?” 

The hand moved from his hair down to caress his cheek, with a touch so gentle it made his eyes sting. He let out a quiet gasp and nuzzled into it without thinking.

“I’m sorry. I’m an idiot, and I'm so sorry.” Eddie said softly.

Steve couldn’t believe what he was seeing, much less what he was hearing. It wasn’t real—it couldn’t be.. 

“Is this a dream?”

Eddie leaned down, resting his forehead against Steve’s as they breathed each other in. Their noses brushed, lips almost touching. 

“No, Steve. Not a dream. I… shit.” Eddie cursed, pulling back “I-I don’t know how to do this.”

The air that surrounded them, so thick with tension, caught in Steve’s throat. “Do what?”

“Talk.”

With that one little word something in Steve snapped. 

Eddie was probably right, until they talked he would have no idea what any of this meant, or what had changed the other man’s mind and brought him, not just back to their room but into Steve's bed, but for once in his goddamn life he didn’t want to talk. He barely wanted to think. 

He just wanted Eddie.

Steve swept his covers aside revealing that he was lying there dressed only in a pair of thin boxers and rested a hand on Eddie’s knee, slowly sliding it up his thigh as he sat up, bringing their faces close together once more. 

“Maybe we don’t have to talk. Not yet.” He said, gaze dipping down to Eddie’s lips as licked across his own.

Eddie groaned, a deep rumbling sound in his chest. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

It probably wasn’t—it definitely wasn’t but Steve was like a man possessed.

“Do you want me?” Steve asked, nails digging in where his fingers still played along Eddie’s thigh.

“Steve.” Eddie whispered his name, making the word sound like a cross between a warning and a prayer.

“Do. You. Want. Me?” Steve asked again, more insistent this time, and released his grip on Eddie's leg to skim up under his t-shirt, fingers brushing over the trail of hair on his lower stomach.

Eddie tensed, sucking in a harsh, shuddering breath. “Of course I fucking want you,” he practically growled, reaching out to grasp Steve by the wrist. Not stopping him or pushing him away, just holding him there. 

“I think I’ve always wanted you.”

The last was said so softly, in such contrast, as if he hadn’t really meant to say it aloud. Steve let the words wash over and through him, not ready to think about what they may or may not mean, before surging forward, at last closing the short distance between them to crash their lips together. 

All that mattered right now was this moment, the feeling of Eddie’s mouth on his, their bodies pressed together, Eddie’s nails scratching lightly down his back. 

Steve tugged roughly on the front of Eddie’s shirt and leaned back, trying to guide the other man down on top of him, but Eddie resisted, breaking the kiss. 

“I’m gonna to get sand all over your bed,” he panted.

Steve sat back up, taking Eddie's earlobe between his teeth, biting down just hard enough to make him gasp. 

“Oh?” Steve breathed, letting out a hot puff of air against the other man’s ear, and felt him shiver. “I guess you’ll just have to take your clothes off then.”

Eddie swallowed, audibly. “Jesus Christ.”

Then he was pulling back to stand, and while Steve sat perched on the edge of the bed gazing up at him, Eddie quickly tugged his shirt up and over his head, revealing an expanse of pale chest and torso decorated with intricate black and gray artwork. 

Steve was on his feet in an instant, circling. He’d seen Eddie shirtless before but had never allowed himself to really see and admire him properly 

Tonight, he would look his fill.

Some of the tattoos were familiar, the bats and puppet master pieces on his arm were always on display of course, but set up high on his chest just below his collarbone was a demon skull with dead eyes and tendrils of dark stringy hair flying around its head, and a large terrifyingly realistic black widow spider. Steve could remember catching glimpses of those back when the two men were still in school together, on the rare occasion Eddie would actually show up for gym class and be forced to change in the boys locker room with everyone else. 

The rest was less familiar—a creeping pattern of darkly inked vines and wild roses that began on his right side just under his ribs. They trailed across his back, snaking down and around to the other side of his body over the front of his left hip. The flower buds were all different sizes and in various states of bloom and decay, but it was the bloodied thorns speckled throughout, the only spots of color on Eddie’s body, that grabbed Steve's attention the most. He traced the intricate lines and swirls with his fingertips, following their path along Eddie’s skin to where it eventually disappeared into the waistband of his pants, letting his hand rest lightly on Eddie’s fly. 

Done examining, at least for now, Steve kissed a trail up the column of Eddie's throat as he quickly worked the other man’s belt buckle open, popped the button on his jeans, and dipped his hand in, wrapping his palm around Eddie’s hot, hard length for the very first time. 

Eddie moaned and wound his fingers through the hair on the nape of Steve's neck, gripping it tight and forcing his head back. Steve’s mouth dropped open in surprise, the hint of pain making his entire body flushing with heat. Then Eddie's lips were on his, his tongue forcing its way inside as if he needed to taste him again more than he needed air.

Steve began to slowly stroke Eddie’s cock as best he could inside the confines of his jeans, pulling a whine from his throat that Steve swallowed down greedily. He loved how responsive Eddie was to his touch, yearned to hear what other sounds he might be able to coax out of the man with his efforts, but Eddie didn’t let it go on for long. 

Without breaking their kiss, Eddie forced him back, until the back of Steve’s knees hit the bed, sending him tumbling down to the mattress. Eddie shoved his jeans down to his ankles, kicking out of them in a rush before climbing up onto the bed, cock swinging heavy between his legs, his body hovering over Steve’s. Eddie kissed his mouth once, an almost innocent brushing of lips compared to what they’d been doing so far, but quickly abandoned Steve's mouth to explore the rest of him. 

Eddie kissed, and licked, and bit his way down the length of Steve's body, starting with the delicate skin of his neck, and ending with a scrape of teeth along his hip bone just above the waistband of his boxers. 

Meeting Steve’s eyes as though asking permission—as if Steve would deny him anything—Eddie slipped his fingers into the elastic on either side of Steve’s waist and waited, the patient expression on his face belied only by hunger in his gaze. Steve nodded eagerly and Eddie wasted no time yanking the boxers off and tossing them aside, the last strip of clothing between them, setting Steve’s own achingly hard cock springing free. 

Eddie stared for a moment, something like reverence in his gaze, before returning to his work, sucking a bruise into the skin of his inner thigh, carefully avoiding the one area Steve was most desperate to be touched. 

Steve whined, squirming even as Eddie kept a tight grip on his hips, urging him to remain still. 

It was too much, watching Eddie with his head nestled between his legs, practically worshiping him, but he still wanted more. Steve bucked, and thrashed, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. 

He wanted Eddie to just touch him, already. He needed more, he needed him to–

“Fuck me,” Steve cried out, the words tumbling out of his mouth without his permission, desperate and whoreish even to his own ears. 

Eddie paused his movements, his eyes cast down, lips still pressed to Steve’s skin. “What did you say?”

“Please,” Steve begged, past caring about how he must sound. “Please, I-I need you—need you to fuck me.”

Eddie looked up, wide eyed and mumbling something to himself.

Steve only caught the words “I knew” and “dangerous.” He didn’t know what that meant, and he honestly didn’t care because a second later Eddie wrapped his plush lips around the head of his cock and and sank down, taking Steve’s full length all the way to the back of his throat in one go. 

In the morning he might be embarrassed, worried they'd been overheard, but in the moment Steve moaned, loud and completely unrestrained, heedless of the amount of noise they were making when it felt this good. Eddie hollowed his cheeks, bobbing his head at a slow pace as he smoothed his hands up and down Steve’s calves and thighs. The touch was tender, affectionate, and that feeling of too much and yet not enough came bubbling back up in his chest with a vengeance. 

Steve continued to beg, a chorus of “please, please, please” falling from his lips even as Eddie’s mouth brought him closer and closer to the edge of coming. When he was reduced to a wordlessly babbling, panting mess, Eddie finally pulled off, working him by hand while he grabbed a nearby pillow, sliding it under Steve’s hips. 

Eddie dove back in, but not to take Steve’s cock back into his mouth. He moved lower, and using both hands to pull Steve's ass cheeks apart, spat directly on his hole. 

The feel of it had Steve throwing his head back, mouth slack and wide open as a wanton sound was ripped from his throat that he would swear he'd never made before. His dick twitched and his whole body shuddered with it. He had no idea that being spit on was something he’d be into, but the evidence was damning. He felt hot all over, his skin on fire, and for something that should have been gross, it was anything but.

Eddie huffed a quiet laugh, pressing a kiss to Steve’s knee as he spread the rapidly cooling saliva around the puckered skin of his entrance, before pushing the tip of one finger inside. 

It wasn’t until Eddie had worked the digit in past his knuckle and the slightly cold metal grazed Steve’s rim that he realized Eddie still had his rings on–and fuck, that really did something for him too. Steve whimpered, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood—so desperate to be filled that when Eddie added a second finger, he flung his hands back flat against the headboard, using it as leverage to push himself down, trying to fuck himself on Eddie’s hand harder.

“Easy,” Eddie whispered, pressing lips to his leg again. “Don’t wanna hurt you.” 

He continued to kiss a line down Steve’s inner thigh, all the way to the place he was pumping his fingers in and out of at a torturously slow pace, and ran his tongue along the edge of Steve’s  hole, letting more split trickle down to ease the glide. 

Steve’s eyes rolled back as he felt a third finger work its way inside, shouting when at the same time Eddie took hold of his cock again, licking a wide stripe from the base to the tip before swallowing it down.

While the first two digits had entered him easily, the last had Steve feeling the burning stretch that he craved, and he reveled in it—sinking into the pleasurable pain.

He felt the world around him go quiet in the way it sometimes did when he had really great sex. The whole universe narrowed down to the warmth enveloping him and the fingers inside him, and for just a moment he thought—even if this was only a one time thing, it might just be worth having a broken heart for the rest of his life if he got to have this, here and now, tonight. 

It wasn’t long before Steve felt himself relax, could feel how Eddie was able to plunge in and out of him freely now. He was ready, he was so fucking ready, and he couldn’t stop himself from making high needy sounds to spur the other man on. 

Eddie made soothing noises in return, saying softly, “I know, I know you’ve been so patient. I’ve got you, you’re going to get everything you want, I promise.”

Steve winced a little at the empty feeling as Eddie eased his fingers free, leaning off the side of the bed to reach for their shared nightstand, quickly retrieving a condom and bottle of lube—Steve's judging by the color of the bottle. He sat back on his heels, tearing the packet open with his teeth, never looking away from Steve’s face as he rolled the condom down over himself. 

Steve waited to be told to flip over, or a nudge to his hip, a not-so-subtle indication that it was time for him to turn and assume the usual position, but it never came. Eddie smoothed his hands over Steve’s thighs again, the same loving touch he’d given him before, and then took his own cock in hand, giving it a few lazy strokes before lining himself up with Steve’s entrance. Inch by inch Eddie pushed inside, hiking Steve’s legs up and falling forward, bracketing Steve's body with his hands on either side.

Oh.

Steve fought not to let it show, what he was feeling. He hadn’t expected them to do this face to face. He’d been prepped a similar way before, but found guys usually wanted to fuck him from behind.

It was incredibly intimate like this. Staring into each other's eyes from inches away while Eddie made gentle shallow thrusts felt a lot more like making love than fucking—and that, more than anything, was going to ruin him, Steve was sure, but he couldn't stop it now. Wouldn’t give this up, no matter the cost.

As Eddie finally bottomed out he leaned down, capturing Steve's lips with his own for a moment, and pressed their foreheads together again, just like he had when Steve first woke up. He eased his hips back slowly, only to snap them forward again, hard and fast, punching a shout out of Steve's chest, a sound that Eddie swallowed down as he slotted their mouths back together again. 

They never stopped kissing, even as Eddie pounded into him, harder and faster, nailing that sweet spot inside him with every stroke, until Steve was brought right to the brink.

He was close—so fucking close and Eddie hadn’t laid so much as a finger on his dick since they’d started going at it.

Eddie was close too, Steve could feel it in the way his cock pulsed inside and the rocking of his hips became more and more erratic. 

And then Eddie did break the kiss, pulling back just enough to reach a hand between their bodies and jerk Steve off. It felt amazing, but the relief of finally getting friction on his poor neglected cock, was overshadowed by the loss of Eddie’s lips. He keened, unable to stop the sound from escaping his throat, but before he could even be embarrassed about how needy and clingy he must sound, Eddie was there, feeding at his mouth like a starving man. 

Maybe needy did it for him. 

“Are you close, baby?” Eddie murmured into his mouth, not daring to break their kiss again to ask. 

Baby.

“Yes,” Steve gasped. “So fucking close.”

Eddie kept slamming into him as they panted into each other's mouths, not so much kissing really as sharing breath and rubbing their lips together, but it was enough, and after two final powerful thrusts Steve was coming hard—his vision whiting out as he shot off in hot, thick spurts between them. Eddie followed him over the edge straight after, cock pulsing inside while Steve’s walls clenched down around him. 

Steve never felt Eddie pull out, never noticed him leave as he floated on the high of the most intense release he’d ever felt. The next thing he knew, Eddie was walking back to the bed, a damp rag in his hand to clean them up. 

As Eddie gently swiped the cloth over his chest and stomach Steve came back to himself, and tried not to panic about what happened now. He told himself he’d be fine no matter how things played out. If Eddie climbed back into bed with him to cuddle and sleep it off, then that was great, wonderful, perfect. 

And if instead he got into his own bed, turned over and went to sleep? That was going to have to be okay too. 

When they were as clean as they were going to get without the help of a shower, Eddie threw the washcloth in the direction of the bathroom and crawled back into bed at his side— leaving a deliberate space between them.  

They stared at each other over the chasm of inches and it suddenly hit Steve that Eddie was just as afraid of what came next as he was. 

He saw his own fear and anxiety reflected back at him through big brown eyes—and the tightness in Eddie's body that disappeared when they began fooling around had returned, even worse than before. 

Steve pulled his lip between his teeth, watching as Eddie followed the movement—and he didn’t know who moved first but they crossed that invisible line at the same time, wrapping each other up in a tangle of arms and legs that left him wondering where he ended and Eddie began. Not sure he cared to ever figure it out. 

They laid together, unspeaking, in the quiet dark for a long time, while Eddie stroked his hair and kissed his temple so many times that he lost count. Eventually Steve’s eyes slipped shut, and it would have been all too easy to drift off surrounded with all that comfort, but they still hadn’t addressed the elephant in the room.

Steve forced his eyes open, shifting so he could see Eddie's face clearly. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth to speak, and let out a huge yawn instead, somehow still managing to get the words in the end. “Why did you come back?” 

Eddie smiled sadly, cupping his cheek, tracing what Steve imagined were dark circles under his eyes with his thumb. “You’re tired. We can talk tomorrow.”

Steve wanted to argue but Eddie was right, they were both exhausted. 

“Will you still be here in the morning?”

“Of course. I mean, I do live here, Stevie.”

Steve smiled, pretty sure mild teasing was a good sign.

He settled back down into Eddie’s side, rubbing his cheek against the sparse hair on his chest, accepting that their talk could wait, but he still wanted to be clear.

“You know what I mean. Will you be here, in this bed, with me.”

“I will. I’m not going anywhere, Steve. I promise.”

“And we’ll talk?” Steve asked, voice gone softer than a whisper as his eyes fell closed again, sleep pulling at him in a way he could no longer fight. 

“Yeah baby,” Eddie replied just as softly, pressing lips to the top of his head. “We'll talk as much as you want.”

Chapter 7

Thanks forever to @penny00dreadful for being the best friend, cheerleader, and beta in the whole fucking world💜

Taglist: @manda-panda-monium @hellion-child @dreamwatch @brbsoulnomming @epiclazershark @estrellami-1 @lokfae @raisedbylibrarians @impala314 @meganwinchester @kacatshi @warlordess @eddie-munsons-lunchbox @garden-of-gay @meela86 @gregre369 @finntheehumaneater

[scarletsaphire]

Danny missed last gym class through no fault of his own, which is normally fine. It’s just that now they’re putting the self defense moves to work, and Danny’s been paired with Valerie. Great; guess he’ll be getting his ass kicked by her twice in one day.

--

@phicphight fic 3! This one is for @tourettesdog and @lovelyunknown! Prompts used are at the end.

"Mrs. Tetslaff. Mrs. Tetslaff please you don't have to do this," Danny begged.

"Shut it, Fenton," she said, not even sparing him a glance. "Partners are final, no swaps. Besides, being with Gray will do you some good. Maybe if she tosses you around enough, you'll put some effort forward in my class." She chuckled, before turning back to the rest of the class and bringing the whistle to her lips.

Danny made his way back to Sam and Tucker's side as she finished announcing the rest of the pairings. "As if I don't already get my ass handed to me by Val enough. Now I get to experience it in class too."

"If it makes you feel any better," Tucker replied. "I'm also going to get absolutely destroyed."

"Damn right you are," Sam nodded. The two of them had been made partners, probably because Mrs. Tetslaff knew that she wouldn't hold back. Tucker knew it too.

"That does make me feel a bit better," Danny admitted. "At least I won't be suffering alone."

"Okay everybody!" Mrs. Tetslaff's voice cut through their conversation. "Gather with your partners; I'll be coming around to monitor you all, but other than that, its a free for all. Use whatever moves you remember from our self defense class yesterday."

Danny nodded along with the rest of the class before making his way over to where Valerie was standing on the side of the gym. He held up his hand in a not quite wave as he approached, which Valerie returned.

"Hi."

"Hi."

This conversation was going just as well as he thought it would.

"Do you want to start on the offensive?" Valerie asked.

"Uh, yeah. Sure. I can do that. Unless you want to go first?" Danny asked.

"I've been taking karate since I was five. I don't need the practice. You do," Valerie replied. "Besides, even if you do manage to land a good hit, I can probably handle it a lot better than you can, and I don't want you using a bruise to try and get out of this."

Danny hesitated. He could handle this just fine; he'd tussled with plenty of bigger threats before, even without his ghost powers. Hell, he tussled with Val every night, albeit with the aforementioned ghost powers, when the red-gray of her suit blended in with the regular gray clouds and night sky. He wasn't worried about getting hurt.

What he was worried about was the fact that he didn't remember a single thing from his last gym class. Dash had locked him in the locker right before, and then Johnny and Shadow showed up, and they were always time consuming to deal with. Even if dealing with them this time looked a whole lot more like buying them a milkshake.

Either way, by the time he'd managed to make it back to the school, the class had been almost completely over, and the only thing he managed to see was Sam suplexing Tucker onto the mat, which, according to Tucker, hadn't even been a move they were supposed to be practicing. This meant that Danny was yet again stuck in the predicament he was in every single time he had to do anything in this Ancient's forsaken class: how much could he actually, realistically do?

The answer was always a resounding not much. He could normally fake it pretty well, but when he didn't know what he was supposed to know? It became a whole hell of a lot harder.

"Actually..." Danny started slowly.

"You forgot, didn't you?" 

Danny rubbed at the back of his neck.

Valerie rolled her eyes, and the faintest hint of a smile played across her face. "I guess that means I'm going first."

"I guess so."

"Okay, I'm going to do this slowly, so try and pay attention." Valerie made her way directly in front of him. "Hold your hands up like this." Danny copied Valerie's pose, one very different than he'd seen her take during the night. Probably because she didn't have any guns. "You ready?"

Danny gave one nod. He’d barely finished moving his head before Valerie was lunging towards him, fists flying towards his face. It was a conscious effort to not turn intangible, which meant that he didn’t have the brainwidth to try and clock the hit, or dodge out of the way, or do anything that didn’t result in a fist to the face. 

It was good to know Valerie hit hard , even without her suit. 

Danny stumbled backwards, blinking stars out of his vision, hand coming up to his nose that he knew was bleeding. It wasn't broken, at least.

"Oh shit," he heard Valerie say, and in an instant she was by his side. "I did not mean to hit you that hard I swear."

Danny waved her off with his free hand. "Yeah, well, I'm the one who stood there like an idiot." He removed his hand from his face, looking down at it. Yeah, he was definitely bleeding. "I'll be fine."

He looked to her when Valerie didn't give an answer, and was surprised to see her staring down at his hand in shock. "Valerie?" he asked tentatively. Still no answer. "It was an accident, you didn't mean to-"

He was cut off by Valerie grabbing his wrist and dragging him towards the doors of the gym. "Wh- Val! What the hell?" he asked.

"We need to have a talk. Now." Her voice was steely, a tone he couldn't remember her ever using with him. At least, not with human him. It was enough to shut up any future protests, and he allowed himself to be dragged along obediently.

They kept going even after they were out in the hallway, down a few doors until they got to a storage closet that Danny knew was mostly empty. Valerie pulled the door open and shoved him inside, slamming the door behind her.

Danny had absolutely no idea what was happening. 

"I think you have some explaining to do," Valerie said with her arms crossed and her foot tapping a hasty rhythm on the tiled floors.

"I'd love to, I really would, but I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," Danny asked, raising his hands in mock surrender.

"Oh? Then how are you gonna explain that?" She titled her head towards Danny's bloody hand.

"You punched me in the face!" Danny answered. "Nose bleeds happen when people get punched in the face!"

By her sharp inhale, it was clear that wasn't the answer Valerie was looking for. "It's green Danny."

"Oh." Danny brought his hand back around in front of him, squinting at the now dried blood stain. It looked more like a red-gray than a green-gray to him, but then again, there wasn't much difference between shades of gray. "I didn't know that."

"How do you not know that your blood is green?"

"Frankly, I didn't know my blood was red until I was like. Eight years old. So this isn't the first time this has happened!"

Valerie took a deep breath and brought her hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. Uh-oh. Danny's natural defense was getting on her nerves. That never ended well. "Ok, your idiocy aside, why the hell is your blood green?"

"That. Is a very good question!" 

Danny ran through every possible excuse he could think of. Some of them might've worked if it was literally anybody else who had figured this out, but Valerie wasn't just some random student who would believe "Fenton Weirdness" as a catch all excuse. She had experience with ghosts, and ectoplasm, and more importantly, was also exposed to the same technology Danny would normally blame this on.

"Would you believe me if I said I snorted ectoplasm before class?"

"Not when you say it like that."

"Well, crap."

--

TourettesDog - Danny is red-green colorblind. This never caused him much trouble before the accident, but now, well… It would have been nice to know beforehand that his blood was the wrong color. LovelyUnknown - Danny's identity is found out in the funniest way possible.

[bruisednotes]

                   *⭒🢖 FROM 𝄈 DANNY JOHNSON ( @caughtape )                            *⭒🢖 TO 𝄈  DONOMIE COLE                                       ❝ well...that's a new one. ❞               ❴  [ 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑 ] ― sender traces a scar on receiver’s body  ❵

           A SIMPLE MOVEMENT,  a stretch of his arms above his head, loosening tight and bruised muscle, easing aches stiff joints, but it flashes a very particular sliver of skin ⸺ one with a freshly healed scar that just so happens to  not  have been given to him by mutually violent friend; a scar he'd completely forgotten about until he feels dangerously curious fingers tracing the raised mark, still a bit sensitive to the touch and making him shiver  ( he is not ticklish ! )  and the memory of the particular altercation that caused it resurface in his mind. a meaningless, drunken thing days, maybe a few weeks ago; he doesn't remember. it's a hazy, wispy little thing that slips through his grasp.

          what doesn't slip past him, however, is the slight edge in danny's voice, the twinge of  annoyance  sharpening the words, giving hidden meaning to words that would otherwise seem harmless and conversational. and it has donomie's lips twitching into a smirk, a playful glint shining in his eyes that certainly meant he was about to press a button or two that he probably  shouldn't.  but donomie cole will forever and always be donomie cole.   “   aww are you  jealous  i cheated on you with some rando the other night ?   ”   he practically coos the words as he turns, cheekily batting thick, dark lashes in danny's direction in a way that would put old movie actresses to shame.    “   don't worry your pretty little head ⸺ promise you're still my favorite.   ”   

[witchysethharper]

"Don't you look all nice and dashing," Seth said, tired eyes running over Danny from head to toe as he took in the whole outfit. He hadn't seen the ghost in a couple months, not since that one rental he'd almost forgotten about. That wasn't anything unusual with Seth and his memory though as he couldn't recall then and there if he'd had breakfast this morning. Maybe another hit from his cherry-flavored vape might help... or not. Merek already yelled at him to take that shit outside because apparently smoking indoors wasn't allowed in the ballroom. Bullshit, if you asked him.

Wait he was having a conversation. "Looks like you and a lot of the slaves downstairs got lucky in the wardrobe department. Back in my day you probably would've been in some gown." Maybe the masters around here were getting too soft.

@imgoin-ghost