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[nelkcats]

Double Trouble

During a convention in Gotham, the Fentons brought the rebuilt Fenton Ghost Catcher, they were extremely proud of their invention and were going to catch as many ghosts as possible at their paranormal convention.

But as is normal in Gotham, a rogue attacked. Croc personally wasn't too interested in what was going on there but he was paid by some others to cause a distraction while some villains robbed the place and extra money was always great.

From the looks of it, the news that the Fentons were coming to Gotham were public. The Fentons were known as very reclusive weapon makers with peculiar interests. Their inventions sold very well, and were extremely dangerous so Peguin assumed that even if they were destined for "ghosts" they would work perfectly fine with bats.

Jason already knew that the two weapon inventors were in the city, the Bat was too paranoid not to know, but the Fentons never showed that they wanted to cause harm so when Croc attacked Red Hood was guarding the place.

The problem was that during the battle he was pushed into the Ghost Catcher and separated into two halves. One looked like the normal him but more ghostly? while the other was more lively and energetic. The second one looked like a bigger version of what Robin would have been without his death. Of course, the invention blew up right after that, and the Fentons looked sad.

Danny scrambled to hide both Jason before his parents noticed, motioning for him to be quiet as he watched the villains make off with the anti-ghost weapons. He knew the convention would turned into a mess since the beginning.

[nelkcats]

King and Joker

The bats were confused when Joker announced he gained a companion. His partner (or sidekick) is strong and has too many powers but looks sad. They tried to ask him if something was wrong but he remained silent. Joker liked to call him "The King", but he insisted that he was only "Phantom". The clown didn't care and continue with the nickname.

"King Phantom" tends to ignore when civilians are evacuated, feign ignorance when someone tries to escape, and has offered the bats bandages and medicine a couple of times. But when The Joker is present he becomes completely desperate and aggressive, as if he is fighting for something.

On the other hand, Joker got a completely new weapon, it was a green sphere that produced lightning but Phantom winced every time he saw him use it. On one occasion Tim swore he heard him whisper "Ellie".

Danny was scared, Ellie was unstable and anything he did could be fatal. When he arrived in Gotham looking for her missing core he didn't expect to find it in the hands of a clown. The clown realized that he had something to bribe him (although he didn't know how important it was) and began to order him around.

Danny hated it, he held back most of the time because he was fighting humans, not revealing many of his powers. And he would have killed the clown a thousand times if it weren't dangerous for Ellie. Joker would never break away from the core by saying it was "good luck", and would lock it in a ghost-proof cell, which is probably where he found it originally. The halfa just wanted his the girl back.

[nelkcats]

Past Errors

While traveling through Amity Park, Jason was arguing with Bruce and said the forbidden word in the city "Since you didn't save me, I wish I could travel back in time to save myself!", this was unfortunately overheard by Desiree, who fulfilled his wish and made him travel in time.

The only problem was that instead of waking up in his child body as expected, he woke up as a Lasiurus bat, and how was he going to save himself like that?!? The little Jay was staring at him and he had no idea how to help him, Jason felt helpless and powerless.

On the other hand, in the original timeline Jason's audio had gone silence. Bruce was worried, Jason usually hung up the calls not just disappeared. And no matter how angry he was, he would not stop communicating with his siblings because of him.

When Bruce went to investigate the last place his son was, all that was left was Jason's motorcycle crashed in the middle of the road and without trace of the boy, it seemed the vehicle had exploded, Jason helmet and clothes were completely burned in the place where he should be.

Fearing the worst Bruce began to investigate, but he would have noticed if Jason had been kidnapped (or his body was). Had he lost Jason over an stupid argument again? His fears multiplied as he remembered the way he had lost him the first time, and the start was not much different.

Unknowingly, Jason was stuck in the past, with his family thinking that he had died a second time in the future.

[nelkcats]

Amity Candy Store

It turns out that having a portal to the Infinite Realms gives you resources to materials you've never seen before. Due to the recent peace treaty between Amity Parkers and ghosts they had begun to exchange products.

Some ghosts felt very nostalgic and wanted to try the food of the living again, or have access to objects not available on the dimension. Others simply wanted to show their shiny items to the liminals, after all there were so many portals on the dimension and they had a lot to trade!

One of those items was Kryptonite, ghosts were sure it was candy of some kind and told the liminals that and since ghosts and liminals could eat it without any consequences (Frostbite approved) the liminals assumed it was some kind of special candy. Like shiny rock candy.

So it is not surprising that when they opened a candy store they began to sell Kryptonite there. When the Justice League began to investigate the town's sudden silence from the outside world Clark didn't expect to feel extremely weak walking past the local candy store. Or that being around the local children would make him sick.

[nelkcats]

Glimpse of a Lifetime

After years of working for the Waynes, age is finally catching up with the butler. Alfred begins to forget important things. Including those he love with all his heart.

It started with small things: from forgetting to feed the animals to waking up in the middle of the night and forgetting it after a few minutes. Alfred was aware that something was up, but he brushed it off.

However, the situation begins to escalate when he starts to forget the names of the children in the mansion one by one, and although he tries to cover it up, they all start to notice.

At the beginning, he and the other inhabitants of the manor look for excuses: a villain attack, mind control, a weapon that erases memory, etc. But when each one of Bruce's kid goes through a different experience they begin to accept reality: There is no doubt, Alfred is sick.

Unlike the others, Bruce refuses to accept that there is no cure for the disease and seeks every possible option. When he is about to give up he stumbles with an ancient legend: The Yeti.

A legend that talks about the old days, where there was a friendly Yeti who was able to cure any disease. And it may be his last hope. X

[nelkcats]

Just for reference, this is Respawn (Remind you of someone?), thanks to Dandelion for help in the creation of this and follow me on this Phantom-Respawn hole <3

Respawn is Phantom

When Danny was electrocuted in the portal, he died, it's true, but it wasn't just his soul that came out. You could call it a case of bad luck, but a ghost was looking to return to the world of the living and saw an opportunity.

So the reason Phantom has that appearance is because the ghost that got mixed into Danny's DNA is Respawn. Slade and Talia's clone who had recently passed away.

Danny is unaware of this at first, but after confronting Dan he began to wonder: why separating his ghost from his human side would make him aggressive? Why does he sometimes feel things that he swears don't make sense? And if Phantom was just a manifestation of his ghost powers, how could he be separated into his own being?

He'd been split up before but it created two versions of Danny, not Danny and Phantom. How could his powers of him grow a personality of their own without him?

Each of those questions has its own explanation: His ghost side is actually Respawn, which is slowly being absorbed by Danny. Respawn knows exactly who he is (or was) but as long as he's attached to Danny he is Danny, to an extent. Or at least, Phantom, who's a part of Danny more than he is Respawn.

He can remember everything but he can't make Danny remember any of it, because it's not his memories. And Danny both as Fenton and Phantom takes priority in their mind. The reason Dan was like this was because of the influence of Plasmius and Respawn. After all, the serum in Slade's blood often drives teenagers crazy.

Respawn lived all his life questioning his status as a person due to the fact that he was a clone. Living with Slade and seeing their differences made the process easier, but now? Now he can only influence the person who has him trapped, even if it is accidentally. Not knowing if one day he will disappear into Danny's consciousness.

Respawn can't make Danny remember his life, not out of any moral or emotional reason, he is locked behind a mental block, an entire person deep in Danny's subconscious that he doesn't know about and doesn't get to come out pretty much ever.

There are decisions in which Respawn positively influenced Danny. As the way of taking Dani's existence, because he knew exactly how she felt at that time, and Dani reminded him too much of her sister Rose. His influence has also extended to Phantom's way of acting: More fearless and risk-taking than when he's just Danny, he's also more easily swayed by anger (something that was very present in Respawn when he was alive).

Basically, he can affect small things like the aforementioned confidence and anger, emotions and stray thoughts mostly, especially intrusive ones, but he's not in control of anything.

The moment Slade shows up at Amity Park and sees Phantom is when things start to get complicated for Danny and Respawn.

[nelkcats]

Respawn is Phantom

When Danny was electrocuted in the portal, he died, it's true, but it wasn't just his soul that came out. You could call it a case of bad luck, but a ghost was looking to return to the world of the living and saw an opportunity.

So the reason Phantom has that appearance is because the ghost that got mixed into Danny's DNA is Respawn. Slade and Talia's clone who had recently passed away.

Danny is unaware of this at first, but after confronting Dan he began to wonder: why separating his ghost from his human side would make him aggressive? Why does he sometimes feel things that he swears don't make sense? And if Phantom was just a manifestation of his ghost powers, how could he be separated into his own being?

He'd been split up before but it created two versions of Danny, not Danny and Phantom. How could his powers grow a personality of their own without him?

Each of those questions has its own explanation: His ghost side is actually Respawn, which is slowly being absorbed by Danny. Respawn knows exactly who he is (or was) but as long as he's attached to Danny he is Danny, to an extent. Or at least, Phantom, who's a part of Danny more than he is Respawn.

He can remember everything but he can't make Danny remember any of it, because it's not his memories. And Danny both as Fenton and Phantom takes priority in their mind. The reason Dan was like this was because of the influence of Plasmius and Respawn. After all, the serum in Slade's blood often drives teenagers crazy.

Respawn lived all his life questioning his status as a person due to the fact that he was a clone. Living with Slade and seeing their differences made the process easier, but now? Now he can only influence the person who has him trapped, even if it is accidentally. Not knowing if one day he will disappear into Danny's consciousness.

Respawn can't make Danny remember his life, not out of any moral or emotional reason, he is locked behind a mental block, an entire person deep in Danny's subconscious that he doesn't know about and doesn't get to come out pretty much ever.

There are decisions in which Respawn positively influenced Danny. As the way of taking Dani's existence, because he knew exactly how she felt at that time, and Dani reminded him too much of his sister Rose. His influence has also extended to Phantom's way of acting: More fearless and risk-taking than when he's just Danny, he's also more easily swayed by anger (something that was very present in Respawn when he was alive).

Basically, he can affect small things like the aforementioned confidence and anger, emotions and stray thoughts mostly, especially intrusive ones, but he's not in control of anything.

The moment Slade shows up at Amity Park and sees Phantom is when things start to get complicated for Danny and Respawn.

[nelkcats]

Bounty hunters and misunderstandings

After Vlad's failure with the million dollar hunt, the GIW and many interested in the "weird ghost boy" decided to give the idea a try and put various bounties on Phantom's capture. Since Amity was a ghost-infested town, most of them didn't go there and sent their own bounty hunters, some were interested on study the creature further, others wanted to prove his existence.

Danny realized that he could capture "Phantom" and escape multiple times to collect the money for all the rewards with his friends help, after all, the prizes seemed to be offered in cash. He had a good idea of ​​where he could spend the money and was so excited about it, he used a box to put the various envelopes and hide it on his room.

Jazz got mad at Danny for getting caught by bounty hunters to repeatedly collect the prize money. She didn't think it was safe and her annoying little brother kept talking about a new video game.

She saw him excited about the new game that had come out but she didn't see the point, he could play online! There was no reason to risk that much. That's why when Danny was very tired, out of ectoplasm and someone finally hold him with no chance of escape, Jazz refused to rescue him from his own mistakes.

But while visiting Danny's room, she noticed that the money was not for a video game but for her college tuition and future life. The box she found was decorated with small drawings of ghosts and a "For my older sister" written with a green marker.

Now Jazz has 24 hours to save Danny from Deathstroke's prison before he hand him over to his contractors. On his side, Deathstroke had successfully captured the strange creature; the inventions of the weird scientists who dragged him to their house had worked, and since he pushed up his deadline he would just wait for his contractor until the next day to collect his payment.

[nelkcats]

Not a Dog!

A competition was set up to award the best dog between Gotham and Amity Park, probably because the judges were quite aware that the two cities were a little crazy and decided to unite their competitions.

Damian bragged that he shouldn't be participating since obviously Titus would beat everyone. Jason snorted and commented that Dog was much better than Titus and would win the competition easily, the rest of the siblings walked away from the discussion, but Dick felt left out and called his friend.

Beast Boy, better known as "Gar" wasn't too happy about Dick using his favor to make him pretend to be a dog in a pet contest, but he agreed. Dick signed him up as his own pet while Jason and Damian complained about how silly the idea was.

When Gotham competitors list was released on Amity, Danny noticed that one contestant had a green dog and smiled. He could compete with Cujo! His father told him something about wanting to compete too but the halfa denied and said that he needed a dog for that.

On the day of the competition the judges tried not to flinch at the two obviously green dogs and a contestant who had decided to enter with a peculiar type of dog, they decided to judge them as best as possible. A rivalry ensued between all the contestants while Danny tried to avoid looking at his father's eyes, why was he participating with a fridge?

To everyone's surprise, none of the dogs won. The winner was Jack Fenton, with his very alive and aggressive sausages. The judges couldn't disqualify him because "hot dog" was technically a type of "dog" even if they didn't know how it was possible, and Jack taught the hot dogs a few tricks.

[nelkcats]

Changing the ending

Recently, Clockwork started treating dimensional events like a TV show. He could be time itself but he wasn't going to take care of all the dimensions; considering the number of times they destroyed themselves it really didn't make sense.

Danny accompanied him, it was quite funny, and there was a dimension that he liked to observe, Clockwork called him "How to die a thousand times" but the halfa only called it "Detective Comics" or "DC" for short. Everything about it reminded him of a comic if he was being honest.

It was a messy dimension, it had been reset so many times it was worrying and had several alternate line screens that ended very badly. Danny winced at the DC Zombies screen combining with another, that dimension worked in weird ways.

Both he and Clocky prepared for the season finale, a reveal about a hero named "Batman", when he saw Clockwork throw his popcorn at Alfred's death. His mentor was devastated, he used to avoid using his future vision to not "spoil" the ending, but it was obvious that Alfred was his favorite character.

When all of it ended horribly for the original dimension, Danny and Clockwork looked at each other. That ending was very unsatisfying, so they decided to...change it. They had some time to waste after all.

They disguised themselves as a couple of normal civilians, went back to the start of the problems, and started changing all the bad endings they could find (without interfering with some things, even if Danny wanted to save Jason, Red Hood had to happen).

Spoiler alert: Those heroes die a lot, and apparently they're determined to die!

[nelkcats]

Box Bat

Fear him!

Batman is Box Ghost, the only reason he's obsessed with boxes is because he died in a warehouse explosion, and it's the last thing he remembers next to glimpses of his children.

He was undercover as a box deliverer to investigate the arms shipments that were arriving in Gotham, when he woke up in those clothes (the same ones he died in), and with no memories, he assumed that had been his job and committed to the bit.

Danny as a blue-eyed black-haired kid brings forth some feelings but he uses his perfect repression skills to ignore those feelings and commit harder on "Box"

The "fear me" is a mockery that he unconsciously makes to the Joker, even if he doesn't remember him.

[nelkcats]

Death Casino

If you thought that dying saved you from gambling, you are very wrong; Even ghosts get bored, and Danny decided to create his own casino when he noticed that most of his rogues preferred looking at shiny things or making bets with each other instead of attacking him.

The problem was that Death Casino became popular, not only for the ghosts but also for all the entities that were willing to visit it. Including John Constantine and the endless demons who were chasing him.

At first that wasn't entirely the problem, until they started fighting over the hellblazer soul again. Danny got fed up and snatched the contract from them, putting it on the card table while he shuffled. Constantine looked offended but the halfa couldn't care less.

Even after one of the demons gained the soul, they came back with more contracts from ¿the same guy? Well, Danny wasn't going to judge. However, maybe he should stop allowing demons to gamble with literal souls, though on second thought Constantine didn't seem to care much for his soul.

Even the strange low god gave him a cursed book! which was much more useful than the soul of a guy without self-preservation, Danny preferred gambling with random entities to the strange case of John.

That was how Death Casino became Constantine's biggest owner somehow, and the owner of the most random objects in the multiverse (demons lost a lot, and they were sore losers but Danny was stronger than them), unfortunately for the halfa, the League decided to investigate, Constantine was ashamed.

[nelkcats]

LOOOK, LOOK AT THE AMAZING FANART OF CHAPTER 7

Fanart for the fic below: 

Hood Assistant written by Nelkhael | @nelkcats

Let’s just say she posted an excerpt on discord that made me want to draw it, even tho I know I can’t draw well  😂 😂 

Technically this is spoiler since this is for Ch 7 of Hood Assistant, I believe?

[nelkcats]

Hood Assistant

Prompt Part 1 Part 5 Part 6 Ao3

Part 7

-----

To be fond of dancing is a certain step towards falling in love.

------------------

"I see, thanks for confirming Jay" Danny forced a smile as he continued to look around the room.

The apartment yelled Red Hood in a unique way, but it also yelled Jay and that had him extremely confused, although it made sense if he took into account that the two of them were dating each other.

Since at least three of Bill's bizarre theories made sense, then most of them must be true, and Danny couldn't deny that anymore.

Jason was dating Red Hood

A reality that made his head spin and his heart ache, what was he supposed to do now with his silly crush? It was not easy to stop an illusioned heart

Though if he read all the signs correctly then Jay was enjoying his company,and maybe just for a couple of days he could fool himself into thinking he had a chance. Even if the current situation was just to help him face his own fears.

"So when will your roommate come back?" Danny asked worriedly, if the vigilante would return soon, there was no point in getting his hopes up.

"He's on a trip with his team, so definitely not anytime soon" Jason apologized, if the cute boy in front of him had already swallowed the lie that he was living with Red Hood then nothing could be worse. There would be no consequences for him, not at all.

Jason steadfastly refused to acknowledge the endless number of books that were precisely about avoiding lying to others because lies could collapse like a house of cards in the face of a strong wind.

It's for his own good, and this will not bring me any consequences at all.

Maybe if he repeated it to himself enough times it would come true, no matter how much his conscience was screaming at him. Damn charming boy who decided to make him feel things in his own home!

"Well, we're officially glued to each other for at least a couple of days" Danny stated a little brighter, it wouldn't hurt to follow Johnny's advice and allow himself to be happy for a couple of days. A bit risky, but it had enough advantages to consider it.

"It seems so, but we already had breakfast" Jason perked up when he saw that Danny had put the subject of his roommate aside.

He realized that the boy was right, if it was a new formula and Danny was the only human being affected then the bats would take a little longer to create a cure, although staying stuck with him for a few days didn't sound bad. His company was fun, he made him laugh and his stupid heart pounded every time he was around him.

His treacherous heart had not understood that he couldn't fall in love, not now or ever, no matter how much his head recited the entire book of Pride and Prejudice from head to toe, he was not in love, he couldn't be.

Even if the boy was cute, and talked about Disney rats as if they were a fact, or looked at him in admiration when he did something as simple as cook and enjoyed his food as if it had fallen from heaven.

"There's a lot to do besides eat breakfast Jay" Danny smiled as he pulled his hand to follow him, to which Jason didn't put up much resistance.

He definitely noticed the little fang sticking out of Danny's lip, and how the boy was biting his lower lip as if it were bothering him, but he decided not to comment on it yet.

Danny was avoiding with all his might not to bite Jason at that moment, his hunger for ectoplasm was more active than ever, but Jason had no ectoplasm on his body, he tried to remind his head.

He was obviously failing at it, because his new vampiric tendencies wanted to sink his fangs in and sip his crush like juice. But that was wrong, very wrong. And he wasn't a vampire! he winced internally for comparing himself to Vlad for a minute.

“Do you know what I like to do when I'm bored?” Danny asked, swinging his feet from side to side, trying to drive the taste of the ectoplasm out of his mind and diverte the energy meant for biting into the continuous movement of his feet.

"Mutilate fruits and vegetables beyond recognition?" Jason teased, if he had noticed his sudden nervousness he didn't show it.

"Besides that smart ass" Danny rolled his eyes at the comment.

"I have no idea, but it doesn't look like you can stay still for long" Jason pointed out curiously.

"You're right, I don't like sitting still" Danny agreed with him "that made my older sister really desperate, so she taught me something"

Jason had no idea he had a sister, so he decided not to mention it. He would definitely bring up the subject at another time.

"Did she taught you how to swing on expensive chandeliers and a little gymnastics?" Jason asked, if that was the case then it would be a complete coincidence because that was precisely what Dick had taught him when he was a child.

Unfortunately they didn't have the same amount of energy and Jason didn't find funny being dropped off buildings to "learn how to fly", he'd broken his arm once!

"I don't think she knows how to do that," Danny muttered to himself "but no, she taught me how to dance"

"You? Dancing?" Jason raised an eyebrow.

It's not that he believed it impossible, it's just that dancing required a lot of patience even if it was mostly about movement; Danny was definitely not the definition of patience.

"Yes, I like to dance, it's quite relaxing and it helps drain energy" Danny smiled, he had figured out how to divert his new energy "but let me ask you a few questions first"

"I don't see how that's relevant, but as you wish Doll" Jason agreed easily. He had no reason not to trust him with dance questions

"Have you ever danced with Death?" Danny offered his hand in invitation. It was a last minute decision, and the question probably sounded strange but he couldn't help it.

"One time, it wasn't a pleasant experience." Jason took the offered hand. Thinking about death wasn't very satisfying but he was curious where the boy was going with those questions. 

"Would you like to try again?"  Danny pulled him to the center of the room with a smile "I promise I'll do better"

"I didn't picture you as a grim reaper," Jason teased as he followed him into the center of the room, trying to ignore all the implications.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not" Danny said cryptically, although it was obvious he was joking "Anyway, I promise to treat you better than she did"

"Okay, but we're going to need some music" Jason commented, reaching over to take his phone.

"I have it solved, pretty boy" Danny hit the play button on his phone as a song began to play. Did he have his phone the whole time? Jason wondered.

I used to hear a simple song, that was until you came along

The song didn't sound familiar to Jason, but the melody relaxed him, and he began to follow in Danny's footsteps. Which seemed to be looking at him with a smile on his face as he gently swayed across the living room.

Now in its place is something new

Jason recalled the happy moments after getting out of Ra's contaminated pit. When he thought that he would be listed as a villain but instead the inhabitants of Crime Alley began to follow him, considering him their protector. When he was greeted with a hug instead of a frown, so similar but different from when he was a child.

I hear it when I look at you

Danny continued to take careful steps as he moved around the room. He liked being with Jason, it made him feel free in a way his family never could.

Jazz had been his only salvation, the only escape he could allow himself, and yet when she left Amity he didn't feel bad; just empty, a little sad. Maybe it was because he knew he was stopping his sister, one way or another.

Danny was aware that Jazz had never been able to afford a normal childhood because of him, that their parents meant well but their intentions were not good to take care of something more than themselves

With simple songs I wanted more, perfection is so quick to bore

Jason remembered his family nights, when they were all together. Or at least pretending to be; The times when they got together to watch Cass's dance recitals. The moment the whole family hosted a small dinner to celebrate Tim's promotion to CEO.

When everyone was a normal family instead of reluctant allies, when his family showed love to each other without words, which never worked for them anyway. And he remembered hating having to come out of the perfect picture.

He remembered how much he'd missed Dick's little pranks, having to force Tim to get some sleep, cooking for Cass, even having an afternoon explaining Damian about art history.

But he didn't belong in that painting. The moment he died he was banned from Bruce Wayne's beautiful family, the boy who was welcome in that loving home was left underground.

He returned to life worse than ever and without the right to return home, the small moments in which they seemed to accept him were only fantasies and he felt like crying or shouting at the world for that injustice.

I'm Jason Todd, and as much as you screw me up, I'm still standing.

He just didn't know where he was standing.

You are more beautiful by far

Danny watched a series of complicated expressions pass over Jason's face and decided to help, he turned him around as they talked "Don't think about it, even if it causes you pain, you must remember that you are still standing"

Danny knew a lot about having complicated emotions on different situations, and maybe he wasn't the best at giving advice but it didn't hurt to try "sometimes, it's better to accept that acting is the best solution"

Jason knew they weren't on the same line of conversation but answered anyway "No, leaving means dying."

Leaving meant going back to his family, meant waiting for acceptance where he had no right. Exposing them to danger out of a selfish desire to have someone to depend on again.

Leaving meant going back to being the scared little boy inside an explosion that led to his death. It meant talking about how he felt even if no one was willing to listen to his words. Jason was tired of being the one to get scared, the one to protect others, but what choice did he have? There was no choice but to face the world head on, get angry, and do something about it where no one else was.

Danny looked at him a little confused but remembered what Jazz had told him "On the contrary, leaving means living before you die"

He would know, he had died because of his parents desire for knowledge, he forced himself to be there for others even when there was no one for him. He refused to accept that there was someone other than him to solve the world's problems, no matter how heavy they were. The city blamed all its problems on the recently dead boy, and he did nothing to contradict them.

Sam and Tucker knew it, they had tried so many times to get the city to leave him alone, but they were just kids. None of them could see an alternative, a different way to act, a way to save themselves as well as the others. Danny gave up because no one had saved him, and maybe no one would ever come to save him.

He gave up to such an extent that he forgot that it was possible to save himself. That he could learn how to swim in the sea that was drowning him. That respirators existed for those who could not breathe.

He chained himself to a duty that was not his and lost everything he cared about, until his home felt like a death trap, his parents like enemies, and his city like a prison. But over the years he got it, he didn't have to be there, he had to act fast, move, leave.

The reason he came to Gotham was because he needed to live again, he needed to remember that he was as alive as he was dead.

"Jason, it's okay to wish others well, to wish them to be perfectly happy, but just like everyone else, you must also allow yourself to be happy in the same way" The halfa decided to say as he continued the dance.

Maybe it was a pointless comment, and it had nothing to do with what Jay was thinking, but he needed to let him know, for his own sake as well as his.

Our flaws are who we really are

Jason allowed himself to think on his words for a moment. Danny had no idea of his identity as Red Hood, would he still say the same after finding out? It was unlikely, but he liked to believe so.

"What makes you so sure it's the best solution?" He asked quietly, when Danny talked about acting he thought maybe he should act in response to his own fears.Take action and leave them behind.

"You don't know, I think that's the thrill of living" Danny smiled as he increased the speed of his steps "sometimes you have to take risks hoping for the best"

One thing he learned after he died was that fear of taking risks was unnecessary. If something was going to happen it would, even if you tried to avoid it in every possible way. It was just the way fate worked. What people used to forget is that they were in control of their own fate.

"Taking risks could get you killed," Jason stated with a frown, following his movements a little more robotically than he intended.

"I'll teach you something that someone important to me taught me" Danny stated, remembering one of Clockwork's lessons.

I used to hear a simple song

"What will you tell me? That there is no point in fearing death because there is so much to live for? Someone gave me that talk a long time ago" and he had died for having listened to it, for throwing himself without precautions like his father had taught him.

"No Jay, nobody wants to die," Danny assured, recalling his own experience "even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there"

"So?" Jason frowned, not quite understanding.

"However, we all end up dying right?" Danny smiled sadly "some sooner than others, but no one escapes it"

"This isn't making me feel any better, Doll" Jason said.

"I didn't mean to make you feel better, just to tell you that there's no point in being afraid to act because death will always be there, it will still do it if you decide not to act, you know?" Danny said as he pulled him closer to himself, even if he was a little short he could lead the dance.

Jason sighed accepting the point as he tried to relax. Maybe Danny was right and he should stop being so cautious around what he loved.

But he had spent so much time being afraid of hurting them that he didn't know how to stop. Maybe things will get better now. Even if most of his siblings backed away from him out of caution, it was the best he'd been in a long time.

That was until you came along

Jason noticed at that moment that the pits weren't acting, he wasn't angry. He was sad, desperate, maybe a little heartbroken but definitely not angry. For some reason Danny helped with that, something in that carefree boy with cooking problems made him feel better.

Neither of the two boys noticed how Danny was slowly feeding on the corrupted ectoplasm the longer they maintained contact. How  his fangs were getting smaller and his urge to bite lessened. The halfa assumed it was just a positive effect of dancing.

Jason just felt better overall as he continued with the dance. He attributed it to his growing feelings for the cute boy. Something about that goofy boy, who had a problem with taking care of himself and a lot of mysteries wrapped around just appealed to him. Maybe it was time to start accepting it, at least until the effects of the gas wore off and they both had to go back to the real world far from the apartment.

You took my broken melody

Jason closed his eyes, letting himself be carried away by the song. He felt broken, the pits made him feel like a damaged product but it would be hypocritical of him to say that because he told Danny that people couldn't be defective right? It was time to start believing his own words.

Humans weren't born defective, and radioactive pits weren't going to change that. He just had to keep repeating that long enough for him to gain the courage to act on his words. Until the moment he allowed himself to return to the side of the family and recognize that he deserved love too, the love that many of them were willing to give him.

Danny also closed his eyes, letting himself go, a little guilty for having to teach Jay such a bittersweet lesson, Clockwork wasn't the best with feelings, nor how to express them. Clockwork was time, time was honest in every way and did not embellish the truth.

Clockwork was his mentor and yet they had met because he was destined to die. Apparently when time doesn't like the fate you're taking he decides it is better to let you know. Danny wondered if Clocky would yell at him if falling for Jason was a bad idea.

And now I hear a symphony

When they both opened their eyes, they were smiling. By some miracle neither of them had tripped over something in the room, or maybe it was just fate acting but they felt a little better.

They finished the song tired, with their hair completely tousled but feeling lighter than they had ever felt before. Who would have thought that a dance could free so much of what you have trapped? And make you think about the situation a little more.

Maybe ignoring the world for a couple of days while staying inside the apartment wasn't such a bad idea after all. Perhaps it was the best idea either of them had ever come up with.

Danny pointed at his phone again and Jason nodded. It was morning and they had a lot of time to waste, so dancing a little more was not a bad idea.

"Love" sang the little crow watching them from the couch, for some reason he had stopped speaking during the entire exchange, maybe he understood the scene, or he was just tired.

───────────────

"No, no, no, no, I refuse" Johnny said as he pushed Amorpho out of the apartment.

The moment Danny had walked through that door with red eyes, he knew that was definitely not his usual roomie but an impostor.

"No refunds, until Danny gets back from the alleged kidnapping this is a roomie swap" Amorpho sneered as he pushed Johnny into the apartment again "Move over, a new star has come to town"

"But that could take DAYS" Johnny grumbled. He was glad that Danny was with his crush, maybe making some headway. What he didn't like was an intruder in his temporary haunt.

"It's good than I'm replacing him at school then" Amorpho scoffed, stealing Johnny's spot on the couch, Johnny dramatically inhaled and pointed at him in offense.

"MY COUCH" The motorcyclist complained. It had been his couch since the day he'd arrived, which might not sound like much, but by now Johnny had already claimed the couch as his own. His place.

"Our couch" Amorpho corrected him.

He was well aware that the ghost didn't like his company, but he needed a place to stay since he had been dragged to Gotham anyway.

Besides, now that he had new friends and had joined the drama club to star in Beauty and the Beast then he had to stay until the production was over.

If he was completely honest, even if Danny was bounding back out that door in a matter of minutes he'd deny him from going back to college for a long time. He had already put enough effort into attending that supposed advanced physics class for all his efforts to be despised.

Shadow simply sighed as they peeked out of Johnny's shadow to see the new temporary resident and went back into hiding, they weren't going to deal with that.

On the other hand, Cujo woke up and began to bark at the two ghosts until they paid attention to him.

"What's wrong Cujo?" Johnny asked, preferring to pay more attention to the pup than to the couch usurping ghost.

Cujo grunted as he held up a very particular can of soup, to which Johnny cocked his head in confusion.

"That's Danny's ectoplasm" the motorcyclist stated before realizing the problem "DANNY LEFT WITHOUT HIS ECTOPLASM"

"Is that a bad thing?" Amorpho asked curiously looking at the can, honestly it only brought back bad memories "Gotham has enough ectoplasm for him"

"Sure, but Danny's been feeding on pure ectoplasm instead of human food for a while, do you know what that means?" Johnny put his hands on Amorpho's shoulders and started to shake him "he'll have a reaction!"

"How bad can it be?" Amorpho snorted.

"He'll start biting the floor" Johnny said seriously, remembering Lunch's story of the first time she had to deliver emergency ectoplasm to Danny's new haunt because the halfa had run out of reserves "his body will look for the nearest ectoplasm and I'm sorry if I I don't want to become a teether toy for halfas"

"Danny is far from here" Amorpho brushed off the concern.

"But we're the purest ectoplasm in the area," Johnny stated, shaking the can.

"Okay, let's go find him and give him his silly ectoplasm," Amorpho grumbled, "where is he though?"

Cujo groaned as he lay down on the floor, his new caretakers were useless and he wished Danny would come back soon.

Oblivious to the ghosts, Gotham had a perfectly accessible source of ectoplasm below the city, and a slightly impure source right next to the halfa.

───────────────

After a morning in which they both danced their hearts out, Danny and Jason had decided to take a nap, they never let go of each other's hand. Of course, when Jason woke up he didn't expect to see a suspicious shadow moving through his kitchen. The crow was happily sleeping next to the window.

"What are you doing in my house?" Jason questioned absently before noticing that indeed, there was someone there "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?"

"I want waffle fries" Dick came out of the darkness with an empty plate, looking at his brother with a pleading face.

"I'm not going to cook for you right now" Jason said offended "What am I, your personal chef?"

"Since you're the only one who can cook, yes" Dick nodded, offering his empty plate again.

"That's a complete lie, you could have asked Alfie and you know it" Jason pointed at him accusingly.

Before the two began arguing among themselves, the halfa decided it was better if they noticed him, he assumed Jay had forgotten he was in the room.

"Um, Jay?" Danny tugged at Jason's nightshirt, hiding himself from the sight of the guy who randomly walked into the house "Who is he?"

Danny was lucky to decide not to attack the sudden threat, because the two of them seemed pretty close to each other, however, who walks into someone else's house randomly to order fries?

"Oh, you had a guest" Dick said stupidly.

"Yes, I have a guest," Jason growled in annoyance "Would you mind explaining to him what you're doing here, officer fries?"

Jason and Dick had a staring contest, challenging the other to speak first. However, Dick lost first because Jason nodded towards his empty plate and he took the cue.

If I talk I'm not going to cook anything for you

"I'm sorry, I'm officer Richard Grayson, I usually contact this young man to give him the details of the cases in which he is involved" Dick said clearing his throat, it seemed that being a police officer had served him well.

"Do you get into a lot of trouble?" Danny looked at Jason, concerned, dating Hood must really put him in danger.

"Yes, as Hood's assistant" he said emphasizing the title while looking at the officer "I'm usually the one who talks to the police and stuff, so we're very familiar with each other"

Officer Grayson nodded but Danny looked at the empty plate with a raised eyebrow, he didn't quite believe them.

"Still totally a Dick move, mate" Danny pointed at the officer, who tried to cover his laughter at the comment with a cough "you don't go into other people's houses and demand food"

"And yet I'm going to cook his dumb fries." Jason rolled his eyes as he snatched the empty plate from Dick's hands "come on Danny."

"I was informed that you were involved in Scarecrow's attack" Dick said curiously "is that why you guys are so close?"

Inwardly, Dick wondered if the union was really due to Scarecrow's attack and not his brother's new crush. Maybe it could be both, considering Jason “Pitter” Todd looked so possessive of the civilian when he took him away. 

"You're a very nosy police officer" Jason shot him a stink-eye "we found the effects wear off for him with physical contact"

"You should probably inform the bats," Dick said offhandedly, though the message was obvious. I'll tell the bats.

"Bats are very nosy, they don't need more information about it" Jason refused. Don't you dare.

"However, it might be useful for them to have more information to combat the gas" Dick replied. They need to know.

"It's irrelevant information, they don't need to know" Jason said. They don't need to know about Danny.

Danny just watched the discussion not knowing if he should interrupt. He felt he was missing something but he was never good at reading between the lines.

"Excuse me, why would it help to tell the bats?" Danny asked the officer, frowning "I know they're fascinating animals, but I don't see how they can be of any help,"

"You don't know who the bats are?" Dick questioned in shock, if the guy worked for Hood he should know.

"He's not from Gotham," Jason hastened to clarify "The Bats are a group of vigilantes who dress up as bats to fight crime"

"So, furries?" Danny cocked his head considering the new information.

"If you say it like that it sounds horrible" Dick grimaced, although if you looked at it from another angle they really did

"There's nothing wrong with that, my friend Tucker is one, it's a matter of taste I think" Danny shrugged.

"Wait, didn't you say you've been living in Gotham for a few months?" Jason raised an eyebrow. "How come you've never heard of the Bats or even Crane?"

"Well, I think I did but…" Danny thought about his first days in Gotham.

───────────────

Danny was tired, after running away from Amity he needed a place to stay but why did it have to be in New Jersey? Something bad always happens in New Jersey! According to Sam.

He looked at the city sign that said "Welcome to Gotham City, the worst place to live" and even though the latter was written in graffiti he smiled, well at least it felt like home..

However, the smile faded from his face as soon as he saw a clown laughing at a guy in a bat costume while he enrolled in his new university; he wasn't going to judge their clothing choices, but why a clown?

He found out later that the madman was called "Joker", (some self-assigned nickname, perhaps?) and caused a lot of destruction, to the point where the city had something called "Joker insurance", apparently the furry also had "Batman insurance" for property damage.

The halfa decided to classify them as rogues of the city. Amity had a lot of them before the portal closed, and perhaps they were in competition with each other to see who had the most control in Gotham.

So when his classmate Amy mentioned that Batman had destroyed her house to catch  Dr. Freeze he frowned.

Batman must be very possessive of Gotham's control.

As he explored the city in search of an apartment he met some very colorful people: a bat man, a crocodile man, a woman dressed as plants, more clowns and even two cats!

Maybe Gotham just dressed so extravagantly out of habit, and it wasn't really a weird thing, they were just all weird by default, or a lot of cosplayers.

Then when he visualized a boy with bat ears he shrugged. He must be part of a theme band, or maybe he's a fan of that Bat-man guy.

When he "borrowed" his apartment in Crime Alley he decided to relax and ignore all the rumors. Soon after, his university was destroyed by this "Joker" guy and he had to take online classes for a while.

The Goons sometimes talked about people he didn't understand "Poison Ivy" "Catwoman" "Harley Quinn" he guessed they were code-speaking by nicknames; he decided to ignore it and ask someone later, he didn't want to be nosy and he doubted it would affect him in the near future.

By the time face-to-face classes returned, he noticed that many of his classmates were whispering about a Scarecrow man, which he considered rude so he shut down the rumors. You shouldn't talk behind others' backs after all.

───────────────

"I heard of Batman, but I thought he was a very possessive rogue, I had no idea he was a vigilante" Danny shrugged "or had an entourage."

"It's not an entourage!" Dick exclaimed "it's camaraderie and mutual respect"

"Yes, an entourage of bats" the halfa nodded as he followed Jason into the kitchen.

"No wait, you thought Batman was a villain?" Jason smiled broadly, he needed to share that with his other siblings.

"Fights with others, causes property damage, he's possessive of the city" Danny began to count on his fingers "Yeah, it seemed like villainous behavior"

"But he also donates to the city, fights the real villains and keeps the streets safe" Dick replied.

"No, from what I heard Bruce Wayne donates to the city, even though fighting bad guys is a good reason I thought he was doing it out of possessiveness" Danny clarified.

"You have no idea about villains or vigilantes but you know exactly who Bruce Wayne is?" Jason raised an eyebrow, taking out the materials to cook the potatoes.

"Well, I had to know who to run from, obviously" Danny said, rolling his eyes.

"Why would you run from Bruce Wayne?" Dick asked feeling doubtful "he's just a playboy with a lot of kids"

"I don't like millionaires" Danny narrowed his eyes "and I remember reading that he had a son named Richard, just like you"

"Okay, you got me, he's my dad" Dick sighed, there was no point in denying it if the boy was paranoid with millionaires.

Although neither of the other two knew about it, Danny was very paranoid about people with money and big houses. He investigated Bruce Wayne to get out of his way, just like Lex Luthor and Oliver Queen, Vlad had left him a bad experience that he didn't plan to repeat.

"I'm sorry for your loss" Danny patted Dick's shoulder solemnly.

"I'm not dead" Dick said, offended.

"If you're not offended, why don't you go back to the mansion and have Alfred cook your fries, eh?" Jason smirked as he pointed at Dick with a knife.

"You're scary when you have a knife in your hand," Dick pointed out, though he didn't seem threatened at all "But I didn't want to upset Alfie, I moved a long time ago" 

"Or you didn't want to see Bruce, you probably got into a fight with him again," Jason pointed out as he went back to his task of cutting potatoes with one hand.

The halfa tried to help him by cutting another part of the potatoes, but most of his potato pieces were jagged. So he frowned and tried to do a little better.

"Again, sorry for your loss" Danny repeated "millionaires can't be trusted, I get it officer"

Every millionaire has a secret basement and something to hide. The halfa refrained from saying out loud, it would be impolite to speak ill of the father of the non-guest.

Dick rolled his eyes, even if Jason wasn't wrong and he had fought with Bruce, he wouldn't let him know. It was quite obvious that the family had some problems with each other.

"Oh, who's Alfie?"  Danny asked remembering the name "The only thing I understood is that he could cook"

"He's a cat," Jason said nonchalantly, taking the jagged potato wedges Danny made along with his own and starting to cook them.

"No, he's my butler" Dick corrected his younger brother before Danny had any ideas. He already had weird theories with millionaires, surely he didn't need fuel to theorize about butlers too.

"But it's also a cat" Jason said again. It was quite easy to tease his older brother at the moment, and since his roles were usually opposite, he was having fun.

"He's a butler cat who can cook?" Danny asked, more and more confused. The mental image of a small white cat with a frying pan flashed into his mind and he chuckled. He reminded him of one of the videos he had seen online.

"Alfred is a Wayne family butler" the policeman said with a sigh "but yes, we also have a cat named Alfred"

Dick congratulated himself for not saying ours throughout the conversation, he was doing a good job of keeping Jason's cover. Even if the two people in front of him were getting a bit infuriating.

Maybe he shouldn't have randomly interrupted Jason after he faced a Scarecrow attack, but he had a huge craving for waffle fries, and both Alfred and Jason were the only ones who knew how to make them correctly.

"Doesn't that get confusing quickly?" Danny said, feeling a bit queasy from all the going back and forth, the rich really did have weird traditions.

"Probably, my little brother loved Alfred the butler and decided to name the cat after him" Dick shrugged, there was nothing that could be done when Damian decided to name his new pets after something, and as long as Alfred didn't get offended by it, it was fine.

"Rich people really do have weird hobbies" Danny whispered to Jason as he handed over more of the potato wedges.

"Yeah, I don't know how they handle all the luxury" Jason whispered back with a grin.

He was well aware that his older brother was listening to him perfectly, but he didn't care. He really didn't know how they managed to bear all the luxury and details that the mansion had, there were times when it was too much.

Deciding not to mention their conversation, Dick began to evaluate them. They seemed quite comfortable with each other, even if Danny really needed the physical contact he thought Jason would be more reluctant to accept.

Could it be that his brother was in love?

"Here are your waffle fries Dick" Jason put the perfectly done fries in front of the police officer, who looked at them with stars in his eyes.

"You're a kitchen angel!" Dick exclaimed as he began to eat them, they tasted as good as he remembered.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Jason huffed as he put another two batches of fries in front of him and Danny, they were more irregular in shape and indistinct, but Jason didn't seem bothered about it.

Danny's heart raced as he realized Jason was specifically eating the potatoes he'd cut up, even if they didn't look like they should. He couldn't help but smile as he stole a few.

"Hey Doll, don't be a thief" Jason slapped the hand who was stealing from him as he pushed the fries away from the halfa's reach.

"I'm not the one insulting a police officer" Danny grumbled under his breath as he decided to stick with his perfectly cooked slice of waffle fries that Jason had handed him. They were very well made but he wanted the effort of both of them.

Jason ignored the pleading face Danny was sending him as he ate the misshapen fries, he didn't know why he felt possessive towards them but he did.

"But he wasn't insulting me" said Dick, confused by the comment, although it was a bit unintelligible due to the amount of fries he had in his mouth at that moment.

"He called you Dick and multiple variants of it a couple of times" Danny pointed out in confusion, that was obviously an insult.

"Besides, don't be an animal and swallow before you speak" Jason scolded.

"You read that my name was Richard but you don't know that my nickname is Dick?" The policeman said in disbelief, maybe the boy was bad at investigation.

"Did any of your friends hate you? Or did your parents?" Danny asked with concern, surely no one would choose that nickname voluntarily.

"I have no idea what you're implying, I had a very good family, and my friends loved me very much" Dick replied, narrowing his eyes.

"Did you choose that nickname willingly?" The halfa told him worried "Did you know what you were getting yourself into?"

"I'm not from this country, I came in a circus" Dick rolled his eyes "and my nickname is beautiful, thank you very much"

"Beautiful for a big Di-" Danny tried to say but was stopped by Jason putting a hand over his mouth and shaking his head. Well, he supposed he'd let the circus boy go for once.

"Anyway, I'm here to report that Nightwing will visit later to update you on the cure" Dick informed.

"Nightwing must be a nosy vigilante" Jason scoffed as he finished his fries.

"And how do you know about him? Is it some Bruce Wayne secret?" Danny asked suspiciously, communication with those bats (glorified furries) was weird.

"No, it's because I work in Blüdhaven with him" The police officer quickly denied, the less this paranoid boy knew the better.

"Uh, but if you work there, why do you come here to ask Jason about Hood? He shouldn't be part of your jurisdiction." Danny narrowed his eyes, catching a hint of a lie.

"Oh, it's just that I found out they had a close relationship" Dick tried to fix the problem "and since I'm familiar with Gotham because I lived here, the cops send me every time they have a problem"

Jason knew that everything his older brother was saying at that moment was nonsense. He simply hoped that Danny would buy it without commenting too much.

"I understand what you mean" Danny nodded understanding the situation, he assumed that the police had found out about Jason's relationship with Hood, so they sent an outside officer to confirm if the rumors were true.

"Yes, totally" although he was surprised that Danny believed his words, Dick accepted it, even if he had a feeling he was feeding another bizarre theory.

Everyone already knew about their relationship or is Gotham very gossipy? Danny wondered

"Thank you very much for the fries, Chef Jay" Dick nodded, waving his empty plate "it was delicious as always."

"Sadly I can't get rid of you if I don't feed you," Jason grumbled as he leaned back on Danny's head.

"Although I'm glad your coexistence is going well, I still have to inform the bats so" The policeman pointed to the door "wait for a visit very soon, bye!"

With that said, the officer ran out of the apartment, though Danny swore he was holding back the urge to jump buildings. But that made no sense, not everyone in Gotham had to be weird.

"You have very strange friends" the halfa commented to Jason once the policeman was out of sight.

"Friends who don't even know how to lock the door" Jason complained looking at how he had turned out his apartment "Don't stay too comfortable, one of the bats is going to come here later"

"One of the furries? I think I can handle it" Danny sneered, he had lived with Tucker all his life, another furry shouldn't be a problem.

"I don't think you understand, they're very nosy Doll" Jason frowned worriedly, stroking his hand "they'll want to know everything"

"Well, all we're going to tell them is that you're making me fat like the witch from Hansel and Gretel" Danny replied with a smirk.

"I'm much prettier than the witch in a story" Jason sneered with a smile on his face.

"Of course, you're much sexier, and comfortable," Danny said, though he regretted speaking "I mean, compared to the witch who's probably totally wrinkled and toothless"

"Don't try to improve it, the beginning was fine" Jason smiled shaking his head, amused "but my food is so much better than some cheap candy"

"Sure, your fabulous five star food that none of us poor mortals are worthy of" Danny said dramatically, pretending to faint.

"You really enjoy my food, don't you?" Jason said happily. Something inside of him felt irrefutably glad that both Dick and Danny were enjoying everything he made, even if it was simple things "lunch could be better though, you need more than potatoes."

"I don't think so, I usually eat very little, I think that if you keep feeding me I won't be able to stand it" the halfa said sadly.

Since his food was usually combined with a lot of ectoplasm, he didn't need to eat that often. But since he wouldn't be taking his daily dose with Johnny it was unlikely his stomach would get used to so much food all at once.

Even if he loved Jason's cooking he couldn't handle more than small meals, the pancakes and potatoes were fine, even if they were heavy they were in small quantities, but he couldn't handle anything more than that. Perhaps dinner.

"What do you mean? Your friend makes sure you eat, right?" Jason asked worriedly, he knew very well how to adjust to an eating rhythm when you weren't used to it, but he thought it wasn't Danny's case.

"My friend has only been here a short time," Danny hastened to explain, a little embarrassed, "just like my…neighbor, she's the one who sends me food."

The halfa didn't know how to correctly explain her relationship with ghosts; they were technically friends, but they were enemies at one point, and some still feuded with him on a regular basis.

Even if they had explained to him that fighting was a way for the ghosts to unite, he was still a bit annoyed that no one had explained it to him in the first place, so yes, his relationship with them was quite complicated. Since they were from a nearby dimension, he guessed that neighbors was the correct term. Lunch could also be called a friend, but it felt a bit weird.

"What? I thought he cooked your meals, or you did" Jason said, growing increasingly worried by the endless number of new revelations.

"Neither of us knows how to cook" Danny denied "our mutual neighbor brings us some food from our hometown to get us through the week, my friend just makes sure I really eat it"

"Isn't that dangerous? What if she starts avoiding Gotham? This place isn't bees and flowers, it's normal for tourists to refuse to visit" Jason asked, stroking the halfa's hand to comfort himself.

"I don't think that's the case," Danny said after thinking about it for a moment. He doubted any of the ghosts were scared of Gotham. They were almost impossible to kill and the blood flowers had long since been extinct.

Unless Gotham has an excellent groundskeeper, they have nothing to fear here.

That just added to Jason's worries, Danny was confident that someone else would enter Gotham on a monthly basis to bring him some food.

"I'm going to teach you how to cook, there is no other alternative" the vigilante declared suddenly "but moving on to the next topic, how much do you eat a day?"

Jason needed to adjust his rations according to the response he gave him. He'd been cooking carelessly, having fun, that he'd forgotten that Danny might have some dietary need, or some special need.

"It's okay Jay" Danny assured him, tightening his grip on his hands "most of my allergies are covered, and I only eat small amounts but it's pretty normal, you shouldn't worry."

"I was speaking out loud, wasn't I?" Jason wailed when he noticed his mistake.

"Sure, but you were just worried" Danny comforted him "it's normal Jay, if it makes you feel better I'll tell you what I usually eat"

Jason wasn't thrilled to find out Danny just forgot to eat, but he drank his "green tea" daily, which apparently wasn't a tea he could get his hands on since it was originally from his hometown, which he deeply refused to talk about.

Given the amount of trouble Babs had been having getting into his city network, he could understand the caution a bit. Even if it was extremely rare.

Jason wondered if he should use the gas excuse to kidnap him for a couple of days. After all, the universities within Gotham had plenty of policies to make up fouls for Rogue attacks

Danny wouldn't mind staying at his house for a couple of days, would he?

--------------------------------------

Annd tag time, this update is a bit longer than normal but I love the number and needed to go for it, supposedly this is 7777 from Chapter 7 so welcome to the Jackptot! I hope you liked it!

I'll dig into the fangs later, but yeah, a part of Danny is very hungry and Jason is unconsciously feeding it, although it's kind of mutual since he's healing him so it's okay.

Johnny and Amorpho are going to get into a lot of trouble in the next chapter, and here comes the big brother! Danny is too distracted when he wants to lol

@skulld3mort-1fan@sorryiwonnoob@idfk-man10@avelnfear@criticaloverthinker@confusedandghostly @lunadoll36 @spidey29phangirl @suppengott @yjfk@apointlessbox@mimilikey@thegatorsgoose@jaggedheart11@dyinggirldied@pyramaniac@akikkobara@thedragonqueen1998@lostlightandfoundcrazy@xye-chan@saltyladynightmare @ashleysmshly @thewondersoflebanon@illusionwolfwriter24r8@littlefeather345@asphyxia778@amercurio@leftmiraclechaos @dixiwoods @satoshy12@lyra689@meira-3919@quietlyscared@plotwholls @kyrianclawraith @blacksea21090@basilf1res @flowers-n-fauna @8-29pm@phantom-dc@luer-mirin@taniaundertaleau@cloriform@readerkayden@oddlydrawnpuppets@basementloser@little-green-asparagus@echoednonny@yummy-yummy-mmmbones@confusionchaos@ectoplasm024@autumnwulf@666deaddash999@redhoneysugarorange@blue-avis@sailor-goddess@satanicrutialspecialist

[nelkcats]

Do you have any more thoughts about Bady Banshee Danny?

Yep! Even if Danny looks like a teen, his mind is still learning, because you know, baby steps and all, and since his "banshee tendencies" are starting this late, his physical appearance will change as well.

I would say a more Eldritch appearance, since Banshees are considered an Omen of death, and messengers from other world.

Probably Danny's mind and new instincts will fight each other, because now Danny gained the ability of know when a person is going to die, and is not a fun ability for him.

At first Danny would think he is the one killing those people, cause he wailed and soon after they died. He will be sad, blaming himself until the Ancients explained he is not the one causing it, he is just a warning and is not his fault they didn't hear him.

Still, he will try to stop the wails, it cause a lot of unnecessary destruction and it remember him to much to Dan. But it wouldn't work for long due to his new need to warn and the idea that he might be saving someone with this new power.

Basically, it would take a while for him too see the positive but when he finally does, he'll let himself experience it and enjoy be the one being taken care of for once.

Original Prompt

[nelkcats]

Honorary Yeti

Frostbite is Leslie Thompkins teacher and inspiration, how this happened? When she was a kid, she fall through a natural portal and ended in Far Frozen, the Yetis were scary until they offered a warm blanket and hot chocolate.

Because she was just a little girl she marveled at everything she was looking at, it seemed so new and shiny. But what attracted her the most was seeing one of the Yetis explaining how to correctly apply a bandage, saving the life of a bright blue being.

Everything was like a dream, with the Yetis starting to teach her everything they did, her learning how to deal with "ghosts" and "liminals", although the latter seemed to be very rare, but no one explained to her correctly what she was learning.

Frostbite was the one who explained everything about medical knowledge to her, and she wanted to be a doctor. However, after waking up in her bed, everything seemed like a dream, and even if she doubted it was, who would believe that her greatest inspiration was a Yeti?

More precisely, this inspired her to learn all possible medical fields, and to become accessible to everyone who needed it.

When the rumored "Great One" she saw in her dreams visited Gotham City with an injury, she was prepared.

[nelkcats]

Romance is (Not) Dead

Little excerpt of chapter 3

Remember the complete story is in Ao3

"So how are you doing?" Jason questioned trying to hide the laugh behind his hand, that obviously wasn't working very well for him, or maybe he didn't care that Danny knew he was laughing, in which case, rude.

"I'm a fucking swan" Danny raised his wings in frustration, annoyed by his companion's amusement "And I'm not even the right color!"

The halfa had never seen a black swan before, although Dani had shown him pictures of some swans she'd encountered on her travels, apparently they could be very docile or extremely aggressive as the situation required. In this case, he felt very aggressive

"If it makes you feel any better, I think you're a very pretty swan" Jason said, holding back the urge to stroke his wings "and you're the right color, for a black swan"

Although Jason had doubts as to why Danny was that color. If he was right and they were in the story he thought, then originally the swan was white, and there was a completely different swan that was the main nemesis of black color. But that was impossible, the ghost wouldn't put them into a non-existent fable, would he?

On second thought, he would totally drag them into a never-before-told story just to see the end result.

He decided not to think about it for the moment, preferring to assume that Danny was stuck as the protagonist of the story and not the antagonist. The black swan did not have a happy ending, and it was never explained if there was a way to break her own curse.

She was quite an odd character, only appearing for a few minutes to ruin the Swan Princess happy ending, but Jason had always thought that maybe she didn't mean to ruin anything, and was just jealous of not having someone to dance with.

Loneliness is harmful enough, he wouldn't be surprised if the black swan only wanted love like the white one, but seeing that the only way to get it was to take it away from her counterpart, she did what he thought was best for her.

Or maybe he was just overanalyzing a dance. In his defense he couldn't help it, it was Cass's favorite dance, she performed it once a year and always requested the presence of her entire family.

The story was so popular that it became a book, and then a movie, but technically it started out as a dance. Jason wondered which of the three had taken Ghostwriter as his inspiration for the current situation.

"That doesn't make me feel better! Black swans even exist!?" Danny looked at him in disbelief, at least it seemed like he was listening to him that time "whatever, we have to figure out how to break this curse"

"I'm pretty sure you just need a kiss" Jason said, avoiding spouting all the information Damian had told him about black swans

"Actually, just leave me like this and release me when you see the Ghostwriter, there's a game I wanna play with him" Danny said after he thought of an excellent solution to his current problem.

"Which is…?" Jason questioned narrowing his eyes. He was suspicious that Danny would resign so quickly and he didn't believe one bit that the emotion showed in that sentence was positive.

"Untitled Ghost Swan Game" Danny said with a bit of sadism, feeling proud of his idea.