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spatulella-art · 11 months ago

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Harrowing Holidays

After a few months of dating, Danny invites Jason to Amity Park for Fenton Thanksgiving—both Danny & Jason have convinced themselves, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the other is their normal civilian boyfriend, and don't want to mess things up by revealing their secrets.

Written for the Ghouls and Gangs @dpxdcbigbang with art by @spatulella-art which you should check out on her blog!

Sequel to Bothersome Bonds but can stand on its own.

You can also read Harrowing Holidays on AO3

It was late Saturday morning. Jason was working on his laptop in the living room of his safe house, familiarizing himself with intel his guys had just sent him on a gun-running operation Black Mask was planning so that the Red Hood and his crew could intercept it.

The plan was already forming in his head. Black Mask liked to over-complicate things, to confuse his enemies. But if you knew what he was doing, it was easy to unravel. All Jason had to do was take out one part of the equation and Mask's whole operation crumbled.

"Can you lift your feet for a sec?"

Jason looked up to see his boyfriend, Danny, holding a damp towel, and obligingly removed his feet from the coffee table. Danny wiped down the surface, lifting coasters and books out of the way.

He didn't look to see what Jason was working on.

Even after eight months of being in a relationship, Danny still didn't know about Jason's career as a crime lord. Jason didn't want him to know, and neither did Danny. He said that he wanted plausible deniability if the cops ever came to his door, so he at least had a sense that Jason's work wasn't 100% legal. He had, after all, immediately assumed that Jason was a criminal when he'd said he worked in Crime Alley, and apparently Jason had done nothing to change his mind about that.

Still, Jason liked it that way.

He liked having Danny as his normal, willfully oblivious civilian boyfriend. It was... grounding, in a way. His little slice of ordinary in his otherwise wild and chaotic life.

And if Danny's eyes glowed sometimes, and the air around him was a little bit colder, and he was abnormally light and abnormally strong for someone his size, well... Jason could be willfully oblivious, too, when the need arose.

"What are you cleaning for?" Jason asked. "Expecting company?"

His safe-house may not have been perfectly spotless, but he kept it pretty clean most of the time. There wasn't really any reason for his boyfriend to be wiping down his coffee table. Not that he was going to complain, but he was kind of curious.

Danny shrugged mutely.

In the eight months since they'd both been kidnapped and escaped from that mysterious facility together back in February, Jason had gotten pretty good at reading Danny. Not that it was especially hard to tell when Danny was restless. He would find anything—literally anything—to do with his hands, whether it was cleaning, baking, building a pillow fort, folding origami ghosts—those were pretty cute, actually, and Jason kept a couple in the drawer of his nightstand.

"Danny, I can tell when something's up with you," Jason said, closing his laptop and setting it aside. "If you want to clean my apartment, I'm not gonna stop you, but if something's going on, you can also just talk to me."

He finished wiping the coffee table, then stood up straight and stiff for a few seconds before collapsing onto the couch next to Jason, wringing the towel in his hands.

"Okay, so my parents, right?" Danny started, then he took a deep breath and held it.

Jason had heard a lot about Danny's parents and, at the same time, knew nothing of substance about them at all. He knew that when he was in high school he had not gotten along with them. That, when he was a junior, he'd had a falling out with them about something he refused to tell Jason anything about, and did his best to avoid them, despite still living under their roof, until he turned eighteen and immediately moved out. Jason also knew that in the past year or so, his parents had been trying to mend their relationship with him and vice-versa.

What he didn't know was what they'd fallen out over, or why it had taken them years to try to fix their relationship.

He could make some educated guesses, of course. He knew that, like himself, Danny had died once, and been brought back. For Danny, it had been almost instantaneous, or so he claimed. Jason still wasn't clear on why Danny had an autopsy scar like his own if that was the case. Regardless, Jason knew how that sort of thing could make things complicated with one's family.

"What about them?" Jason prompted when Danny had been silent for several long seconds without continuing.

Danny finally exhaled.

"They asked me to come to Thanksgiving this year," he explained. "They did last year, too, but we'd only been on speaking terms for a couple of weeks at the time, and I told them I wasn't ready to spend any holidays back home yet. This year... this year I thought I was ready, and I told them I would come, and that was two days ago, and now I am second-guessing that decision big time."

Jason nodded thoughtfully. He knew the feeling.

When he'd first met Danny, Jason had been severely on the outs with his family. If he saw any one of them, his vision went green and he could hardly think straight through his rage. That had changed since the two of them first met and started dating.

There was something about Danny that kept the madness from the Lazarus pit under control—even when he wasn't actively with Jason, to a certain extent. It was a small part of why Jason was so drawn to him, and probably a very big part of why their relationship had been able to last as long as it had without Jason royally fucking it up.

A side-effect of that calm that came from spending time with Danny was that Jason had been able to start to reconnect with his family... just a tiny bit... mostly with Alfred. However, he was still angry with them, and he didn't think that was going to go away any time soon—after all, he had plenty of perfectly valid reasons to be angry and have mixed emotions regarding them. Plus, he was still a crime lord and a killer, which they didn't exactly approve of, no matter how much they wanted him to be 'part of the family' again.

But he could talk to them without the pit madness taking over his reason now, though he still didn't exactly want to get close to them. And they had switched from trying to outright stop him, like he was some common crook, to trying to save him, like the beloved but misguided family member they perceived him to be. He didn't actually want to be saved, but of course, they didn't care about that.

Recently, Dick had run into him on patrol and extended an invitation from Alfred to join them for Thanksgiving as well, putting Jason in a very similar conundrum to the one Danny was currently complaining about.

He'd told Dick he would think about it, but all he was really thinking about was how he could get out of it without disappointing Alfred, the only family member whose opinion of Jason still mattered to him. Being able to have short conversations with them without trying to kill them was one thing, but Jason just knew that if he spent a whole day with them, it would inevitably end in a violent screaming match, and that would disappoint Alfred even more than if Jason just ditched.

"You can always call your parents and tell them you changed your mind," Jason pointed out. "They might be a little disappointed, but if they accepted that you weren't ready last year, they'd probably accept it again."

Danny shook his head. "No," he said. "I mean, I'm anxious about it, and it's kind of a big step, but... I think I am ready for it, and... I do miss them. I haven't seen them for a long time."

"Then go," Jason encouraged. Then, seeing an opportunity, he added, "I can go with you, if you want. For moral support or whatever. You clearly want to see them again, you're just nervous about it. Maybe not having to go alone will help."

Plus, it was the perfect excuse for Jason to turn down his own family's Thanksgiving invitation. If he told them things were getting serious enough with his boyfriend that he'd been invited to spend Thanksgiving with him and his family, they'd probably be more happy for him than upset for themselves.

"You would come with me?" Danny asked, sounding rather skeptical. "Are you sure? My family can be... a lot."

"I doubt they're any worse than mine."

"You might be surprised," Danny insisted. "It would be nice to have you with me but... I wouldn't want to risk them scaring you away."

Jason raised an eyebrow, recalling the way they had met, kidnapped and trapped together in some vaguely military facility, and thought that if he was going to be scared away from dating Danny, it would have happened a long time ago.

"I swear on my life, that no matter how bad your family is, I will not allow it to affect my opinion of you," Jason promised. "My birth parents were an abusive prick who worked as a henchman and a bitch who sold me out to the Joker and ultimately got me killed. I have absolutely no grounds to judge you based on your blood relatives."

Danny actually laughed at that, a soft, nervous laugh. "Alright," he agreed. "I'll let my parents know I'll be bringing a guest."

"Can't wait."

Jason had just over a week to inform his own family of why he wouldn't be coming to the Wayne Thanksgiving dinner, but since he refused to let any of them have the number of his burner phone, it wouldn't be so simple as sending them a text.

Luckily, he didn't have to wait long for his chance.

"Hey Hood, fancy seeing you here, in Crime Alley, where you live."

Jason glanced up to see Tim, AKA Robin, sitting on a fire escape looking down at him.

"I could say the same of you, nosing in on my territory heedless of the consequences," he replied. "What brings you here?"

"Intelligence gathering," Tim answered with a shrug.

"Is that your way of saying Agent A wants my answer about Thanksgiving?"

Jason leaned back against the grimy wall of the alleyway to get a better angle to watch the pretender fiddle with his bo staff in boredom.

"That, and some Black Mask op I'm not supposed to tell you about, even though I'm sure you're already on top of it. He wants to use the good china, so he needs to know how many place settings to dig out."

"Black Mask does?"

"Obviously I meant Agent A. You're being deliberately obtuse."

"Tell him I won't be able to make it," Jason said.

"Why not?" Tim asked immediately. "You know if I just tell him that without an actual reason he'll get all mopey, and his shoulders will be marginally stiffer than usual and his mustache and coattails will droop and it'll bring down everybody's mood. I can't live like that, Hood."

Jason crossed his arms and smirked under his helmet.

"Don't worry, I have an excuse. I think he'll even like it."

"Oh?" Tim raised an eyebrow above his mask and jumped down off the fire escape in his curiosity, a daring foray into melee range.

"I agreed to do Thanksgiving with my partner's family."

"This would be the mysterious partner you won't tell us anything about but that makes you not want to kill all of us on sight?" Tim gathered. "Must be getting serious if you're doing Thanksgiving together. Is it with their family, or just the two of you?"

"Family," Jason said. "This will be the first time I'm meeting anyone from their family since none of them live in Gotham."

Tim pursed his lips and slowly nodded, evidently deeming it a satisfactory excuse that wouldn't make Alfred's mustache droop.

"Alright, I'll pass it along," he said. "Good luck with your partner's family. Try not to shoot any of them, alright?"

"I'll do my best, squirt," Jason replied. "Now don't you have some spying to do for old Batsy?"

"Yeah, yeah." Tim vaulted back up onto the fire escape and in moments, he was gone from sight.

Grudgingly, Jason had to admit the kid was pretty good.

Early Thanksgiving morning, Jason and Danny tossed their carry-ons in the backseat of Jason's car, and then Danny drove them both to the airport. Early in their relationship, basically on day one of dating, Danny had unilaterally decided not to let Jason drive him anywhere anymore. Ever. He claimed that Jason drove like his dad, and emphasized in no uncertain terms that that was not a good thing.

Back then, their relationship was new, and Jason worried that it would be brittle, so he had elected not to bring up the numerous high speed chases and getaways he'd managed just fine with his driving skills. Although, in fairness to Danny, a lot of them had involved other cars colliding, though never his own. He'd also never bothered to get an actual driver's license, but that was just a formality, anyway.

Danny parked in long-term parking, and they headed into the airport. Since they were only planning on staying one night and coming back in the morning, they'd decided to just pack carry-ons rather than having to check any luggage. It would be faster and easier that way.

Airport security was, as always, a pain in the ass.

As they approached the metal detector, Jason felt a spike of anxiety and checked himself over to make sure he wasn't packing. At this point, he was so used to carrying a gun on him that he genuinely could have had one and not realized, which would obviously be a problem in this situation.

Of course, he knew that he'd anticipated this, and made absolutely sure that neither his person nor his luggage were carrying any firearms—not that it stopped the spike of anxiety. Still... it didn't hurt to check again.

He was not carrying any firearms.

He was carrying a pair of switchblades in the thigh pockets of his pants, which he'd forgotten about.

They'd probably already been in his pockets before he even got dressed that morning. Stainless steel didn't set off the metal detector, though, so he didn't get stopped. It wasn't until they found seats in their terminal that he even realized he had them and thanked his lucky stars he hadn't been caught.

They were some of the first people there, so they could pick whichever seats they wanted while they waited for their flight to arrive in a few hours. They sat by the huge window where they could watch the planes coming and going on the taxiway.

"That's a Wayne Aerospace SWF-198097," Danny pointed out a jet taxiing out toward the runway, painted a sleek black with gold detailing and a WE logo on the tail fin. "I tested that one last December, and they were approved for commercial use two months ago. There aren't many in use commercially yet, since they're so new."

"I thought you were a test pilot for experimental air-crafts, not commercial planes," Jason said.

"All air-crafts are experimental until you know for sure they work," came the reply. "Although I don't do all that many crafts designed for commercial passenger flight. It's been known to happen, though."

Jason nodded thoughtfully, his eyes fixed on his boyfriend watching the planes out the window.

"You're pretty nervous about this whole thing, huh?" he observed.

"What makes you say that?" Danny asked, but Jason didn't miss the way his shoulders tensed and his lips pursed.

"When you're nervous, you fall back on safe topics like work or video games so you don't have to talk about what's actually bothering you."

"You know what's bothering me."

"I know," Jason agreed, nodding. It would be the first time Danny saw his parents in person since he was eighteen, and Jason knew he hadn't left them on the best of terms—even if he hadn't seen fit to brief Jason on the details of what had happened between them. That kind of thing would be stressful for anyone. "You can still talk about it if you want. Or not."

"Let's go with not," Danny said. "Thinking about it more isn't gonna help me calm down, it'll just get me even more worked up about it. I know once I'm there it won't be nearly as bad as I'm worried about it being, but until then...."

"Until then, we can talk about planes."

Danny smiled gratefully and launched into an explanation of all the SWF-198097's features, and what made it unique and advanced compared to its contemporaries.

Jason had never known as much about air and space travel as he'd learned in the last eight months of dating Danny. The subject had never particularly interested him. But he loved to watch Danny's animated expressions and gestures as he gave detailed lectures. Plus, seemingly unimportant knowledge had a way of coming in useful when you least expected it, especially in Jason's line of work.

The longer they sat there, the more the terminal filled up with a crowd of people on their way to spend Thanksgiving with their families until the terminal was standing room only. Finally, the flight attendants started letting passengers board the plane and find their seats. Jason sat in the aisle seat, and Danny in the middle with a stranger in the window seat.

As soon as they took off, Danny said, "This captain has never flown a plane that wasn't empty. That was one of the most poorly balanced take-offs I have ever experienced."

Jason snorted a laugh, but he saw the stranger in the window seat's grip tighten on the purse in her lap. She turned on an in-flight movie and put some headphones on about ten minutes after that as Danny kept griping about the pilot's ineptitude.

The flight was just over two hours, and Danny spent almost the entire time complaining, judging the pilot's skills when it came to handling turbulence and wind resistance, and speculating that it must've been their first real passenger flight because they sucked at it, or so Danny claimed.

To be honest, Jason didn't really notice much of a difference compared to other flights he'd been on. Maybe it was a little bit jumpier, but nothing too disturbing. Danny's flying, he knew, was always extremely confident and when Danny brought it up, even Jason could sense the hesitance in their captain's choices—although maybe he was just imagining it.

Sure, it was mediocre flying, Jason couldn't really deny that, but it wasn't as bad as Danny was making it out to be; he was still just trying to distract himself.

When the plane landed, there was a buzz on the intercom and the pilot made an announcement.

"Hello, this is your captain speaking," he said. "We have completed our descent and are currently taxiing to the terminal to allow you all to disembark. Thank you all for joining me on my very first commercial flight; it was a big day for me. And for those who celebrate, have a happy Thanksgiving."

Danny looked over at Jason with an incredibly smug and pointed look.

"No one likes a know-it-all," Jason teased.

Danny shook his head with an amused smile.

When they disembarked from the plane and headed out to the front of the airport, no sooner had they reached the passenger loading area than a booming voice called out Danny's name. It wasn't hard to spot the source of the shout—or the way Danny's body tensed with anxiety upon hearing it.

Jack Fenton looked exactly as Danny had described him, but even so, Jason was still unprepared for the man, who was nearly seven feet tall and massive. He looked like one of those comically large plush toys, wearing an orange jumpsuit and a striped tie.

He thundered over to them and scooped Danny into a hug, lifting him right off the ground, even though, at six-foot-three, Danny was hardly a small man himself. Danny stumbled a bit as he was dropped back onto the ground.

"And you must be Jason!" Mr. Fenton greeted with a frankly jarring amount of enthusiasm, and before Jason could protest, the man scooped him up into a hug just like he had his son.

It had been a very long time since Jason had been lifted with such ease, and he froze in shock, uncomprehending of the experience which was halfway suffocating and halfway comfortable. Jack Fenton felt like a plushie as much as he looked like one. On the rare occasions that Jason had gotten them as a child, Bruce's hugs had never been this soft.

Finally, Jason was dropped back to the sidewalk and Danny's dad gave him a fittingly huge smile.

"It's good to meet you, Jason, I'm Danny's Dad," he said. "You can call me Jack. I've been looking forward to finally meeting Danny's boyfriend, he has a lot of good things to say about you." Jack nudged Danny slightly and winked. "You sure found yourself a looker, huh?"

Danny blushed and Jason couldn't help the stifled laugh that escaped him.

"Anyway, I'm technically parked in a loading zone, so let's get going before I get towed," Jack declared. Illegal parking practices weren't typically the kind of thing people bellowed at the top of their lungs, but Jack didn't seem to have gotten the memo. He didn't seem to know how to lower his voice, or so it seemed to Jason.

The crowd parted to allow Jack to stride easily through it, with Danny and Jason following close behind, watching the looks of alarm and annoyance on people's faces as they leaped out of his way.

He led them to a souped up armored RV covered in small dents and dings obviously procured over a long and rough lifespan. It looked more like some kind of tactical assault vehicle than anything else, and had a huge green logo of the letter F on the side.

It was about an hour drive from the airport to the Fenton house, and Jason got to know first hand why driving like Danny's dad was a bad thing.

He spent the whole time wide-eyed, gritting his teeth, and holding onto the arms of his chair with a vice-like, white-knuckled grip. If Danny thought Jason's driving was comparable to Jack's, then maybe he really should be more careful behind the wheel from now on.

Mentally, he moved 'get an actual driver's license' higher up his to-do list.

When they finally stopped, Jason had to pry his hands up before he unbuckled.

Much to his surprise, Danny seemed to have calmed down considerably. He'd been sitting in the passenger seat next to his dad while Jason was in the back, fighting for his life, and the two of them had kept up an easy chatter the whole way. Occasionally they shouted back to ask Jason's opinion on something, which he always tried to give in as few words as possible to avoid tossing his cookies. He'd never really gotten motion sick before, but he felt very queasy as he finally stepped out of the RV, already dreading the drive back to the airport tomorrow.

The Fenton home was... unique.

It had a huge sign on the front pointing to it that said 'Fenton Works', and what appeared to be a flying saucer on the roof. It looked like they'd repurposed an old broadcast building into a townhouse, which had then been re-repurposed into some kind of... Jason didn't really know... night club? Store of some kind? What was Fenton Works?

Walking in the door, Jason was met with a perfectly ordinary living room, a set of stairs near the back wall led up to a second floor, a door to one side led to the kitchen—at least if the smell of onions grilling in butter was any indication. It was almost noon by the time they got there, and it seemed like the Thanksgiving dinner was just starting to be underway.

"Maddie! We're back!" Jack called out.

Seconds later, the door to the kitchen swung open, and a woman with short auburn hair, wearing a white apron over a teal jumpsuit walked in.

"Welcome back!" she greeted cheerily. "Oh Danny, it's so good to see you again! You're even taller than when I last saw you. Oh, and you must be Jason, what a handsome young man, I hope you're treating my Danny right."

"He is," Danny assured her.

She nodded approvingly. "Good. Well, in that case, you're welcome to call me Maddie, if you like," she told Jason. Then said more generally, "I've just started on dinner. It should be served around five, but there's a tray of sandwich fixings on the table to tide you over until then. Help yourselves."

"Don't mind if I do," Jack said, carefully pushing past them all into the kitchen.

"Would you like some help with Dinner?" Jason offered. "I know that's a big job, I'd be happy to help."

"Absolutely not," she refused. "You're a guest, I couldn't ask you to work on Thanksgiving."

"Are you sure?" Jason asked, remembering when he was younger, how frazzled Alfred had always looked trying to cook up ten dishes at once and refusing any assistance until Jason forced his way in.

"Jason's an excellent cook," Danny added. "You should let him help. Jazz isn't here yet, and you won't let me or dad help because I always drop everything and he always eats everything."

Maddie hesitated at that. "Well... I suppose I could use a kitchen assistant...." She seemed reluctant, but ultimately sighed and agreed to accept Jason's help, at least until Jazz got there. "But have a sandwich to eat first, I don't need a taste-tester."

"Whatever you say," Jason agreed, following her into the kitchen where Jack was already chowing down on a sandwich that looked like four or five layers of various cold-cuts and cheeses.

Once Jason had eaten a light sandwich—he wanted to make sure he'd have room to try everything when it came to dinner, not wanting to upset Maddie by not eating her food—Maddie handed Jason a light blue apron with a ruffled hem and put him to work chopping up vegetables for the stuffing.

They worked in silence for a while. The knife hitting the cutting board, the tick of an egg timer, and quiet breathing the only sounds to be heard. Until Maddie spoke.

"Thank you," she said.

"Hm?"

"Ever since he met you... Danny's been happier," she continued. "He loves his job, and I know he was avoiding us—he had every reason to. But I think he was a bit lonely in Gotham." Her lips pursed. Discomfort? Not dishonesty.

Jason guessed she was worried about overstepping her motherly jurisdiction, which would be limited after... whatever it was that had made Danny avoid her for years—'every reason' as she'd put it.

"Jack and I made him miserable for so long... not on purpose, of course, but that hardly matters," she said, only making Jason more curious. "So thank you... for making him happy."

"You're welcome, I guess," Jason said.

"You should know, though," she said, almost stepping on Jason's own words as she spoke with a hard voice. "I'm a ninth degree black belt, and a nationally ranked marksman. Danny has been through a lot. I strongly advise against breaking his heart."

Jason blinked in shock. He had not been expecting that from his boyfriend's Midwestern mother. Honestly, though, he felt more impressed than threatened. Danny was the best thing to happen to Jason in a long time, so screwing everything up wasn't on his itinerary.

"Noted," he said. "Sounds like you're some kind of badass; I'm surprised Danny never mentioned that. I'd love to see you in action sometime."

"Oh, well." She stood up straighter, and Jason could see her suppressing a smile when he glanced down the counter at her, basting the turkey. "I'm not all that, but it's sweet of you to say," she said.

Jason could tell it was just Midwest polite modesty. On the inside, she was obviously preening from the flattery. Just like that, he'd won her over, and the two of them continued to talk casually while they cooked. Jason was glad she'd gotten the threats out of the way early, freeing them up to talk about guns while they stuffed the turkey and prepped the side dishes.

It was late afternoon when the doorbell rang, presumably indicating the arrival of Danny's sister.

Jason could hear voices through the door as Danny and his dad greeted her. So far, there hadn't been any yelling or arguing from that room, so Jason figured the two of them had been getting along pretty well on their own, which was a good sign. Danny had said he would be fine once he was there, and that he was just anxious beforehand.

After a few minutes, the kitchen door swung open, and Jason turned to see a young woman who could only be Danny's sister. Just as Danny had said, she was taller than he was, close to six and a half feet tall.

Spending time with Danny and his family had been the only time Jason had felt short since his dip in the Lazarus Pit cured his malnutrition and he'd shot up like a weed. Compared to everyone in this family, besides Maddie, Jason was a pip-squeak at six-foot-even.

"Sorry I'm so late," Jazz apologized as she entered the kitchen, tying her hair up into a messy bun. "My flight got delayed like four times. I hope I'm not too late to help out with dinner."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Jazz, dear," Maddie said, waving a hand dismissively. "Jason helped me cook. The food's just about ready."

"Jason?" Jazz looked him up and down with a scrutinizing frown. "Danny's boyfriend. I'm his sister, Jazz."

"Nice to meet you," Jason said. "I'd shake your hand but..." he lifted his soapy hands out of the sink where he'd been washing dishes.

"No worries," she replied. "It's nice to meet you, too."

Maddie opened the oven and stuck a meat thermometer into the turkey to see if it was ready.

"You can just sit in the living room and relax with your father and Danny," she told Jazz. "I think they're watching the game."

"More like playing checkers with the game on in the background," Jazz corrected with an amused smile. "You remember Dash, Danny's high school bully slash frenemy? He's playing for the Detroit Lions against the Green Bay Packers."

The sound of Danny cheering loudly cut through the air.

"I don't know anything about football," Jazz said laughingly, "but judging by that, sounds like the Packers must be getting their asses handed to them."

"I didn't know Danny was into football," Jason commented.

They'd been together for eight months, and it had never come up. Danny wasn't much into sports in general, as far as Jason had been aware, although he did tolerate basketball when Jason wanted to watch the Gotham Knights' games.

"He's not," Maddie assured him. "He just hates the Green Bay Packers for some reason." She put the meat thermometer on the counter and grabbed some oven mitts to take out the turkey.

"It's 'cause Vlad is obsessed with them," Jazz pointed out.

Jason had no idea who Vlad was, but Maddie obviously did.

"Oh, that's right. I forgot about that," Maddie said, sliding the turkey onto the kitchen tabletop. "I had just about managed to wipe Vlad from my memory entirely."

Jazz snickered. "God, I wish that were me," she said.

Through the doorway they heard Danny cheering again.

"I guess I'm gonna go hang out in the living room. Let me know if you need help setting the table, or bringing food out, or anything."

With that, Jazz left the kitchen, the door falling quietly shut behind her as she went to join her dad and brother on the couch.

Jason and Maddie worked in silence for a while, transferring food to serving plates, carving the turkey, washing dishes. But Jason's curiosity got the better of him after a minute, and he had to ask.

"Who's Vlad?"

Maddie groaned. "Some guy Jack and I were friends with in college," she answered. "After we grew apart, he ended up being wildly successful, and then we got reconnected at our college reunion, and...." She sighed. "It took way too long for us to realize he was a massive creep, obsessed with me and Danny, not to mention a supervillain."

"A supervillain?" Jason repeated, shocked.

In the back of his mind, he knew he shouldn't be that surprised. He didn't plan to say anything, but ever since they'd first met, he'd suspected that Danny might be some kind of meta-human, and that often led to involvement with supervillains, whether they wanted it to or not.

Maddie waved a hand dismissively and went back to carving the turkey.

"He's nothing to worry about anymore," she said. "He was locked up years ago, don't remember where, or by whom, but we haven't seen hide nor hair of him since, and that's all that matters to me." She moved the turkey to the counter and started moving the cuts to a serving dish. "Could you get five plates out of that cupboard there and put them on the table, then go let Jazz know she can start doing place settings?"

"Sure."

Once everything was ready, even Jack and Danny got up to help place the food on the table before they all found their seats, Jason between Danny and his sister, and Danny's parents on the other side. The Fentons didn't say grace, even on Thanksgiving. They just started serving up food and digging in.

"These candied sweet potatoes are even better than usual," Jack commented. "And the turkey is cooked to perfection."

"Mom's turkey is always good, as long as it doesn't come back to life and swear revenge," Jazz joked.

Maddie lightly smacked Jazz's shoulder for the barb. "The sweet potatoes were Jason's doing, actually. I think he tweaked the recipe a little, but he's definitely good in the kitchen, just like Danny said he was," she said, then turned to Jason in particular. "You were such a help with everything, sweetie, thank you."

"It's no problem, I was happy to help."

Danny leaned over and said under his breath, "She called you sweetie; that means she likes you."

"I actually picked up on that myself, but thanks," Jason whispered back.

"He tweaked the stuffing recipe, too, something about the herbs," Maddie added. "I like it much better than I usually cook it. I'll have to get him to write down the recipe for me before he leaves."

"I told you he was a good cook," Danny said, beaming. "He cooks me homemade meals for date night sometimes, and they're always amazing."

The amount of praise they were showering him with was actually starting to make Jason a bit bashful. He was proud of his cooking skills, but he didn't get to share them too often, so he wasn't used to this kind of enthusiasm—not from anyone besides Danny, at least. And it only continued as they all tried the various different dishes he and Maddie had cooked up.

So far, so good—embarrassed though he may have been.

Then the interrogation began.

"So, Jason, what exactly do you do for a living?" Jazz asked. "As much as Danny talks about you, he's always been pretty vague about the details."

It was an easy enough question. He and Danny had discussed their cover-story for all the basic questions his family might ask, like what Jason did and how they'd met. Since Danny still didn't know what Jason actually did, he wasn't about to tell Danny's parents that he was a Gotham crime lord.

He recited his prepared lie, "I work in private security. People hire the company I work for to protect... events, assets, property, that kind of thing. We get pretty good business, being Gotham based. There's always somebody who needs bouncers to keep the villain of the week away from their block party or museum showcase, or whatever."

It was a good story, interesting, respectable, and plausible. He may have been small compared to most of the Fentons, but even they could no doubt tell Jason had a solid stature himself.

"Sounds exciting," Jack commented. "Is that a dangerous job?"

"Sometimes, but not as much as you'd think." Jason shrugged. "Usually if anyone really dangerous comes out of the woodwork, the Bats do, too, so we don't actually have to do much."

"So how did you and Danny meet, then?" Maddie asked.

Again, Jason had a lie all prepped for this. "Wayne tech hired us for some additional security while they were moving some sensitive equipment or something to the airfield where Danny works—my guess is some new experimental jet fuel or radar technology they haven't released yet, although we weren't allowed to know what it actually was. Anyway, I met Danny there, and we hit it off right away, so I asked if he wanted to go out after work, and the rest is history."

They had not hit it off right away.

In fact, they had both been extremely frustrated with each other when they'd actually first met—although Jason was inclined to blame that on the stress of having just been kidnapped and locked in a room with no apparent escape. He couldn't tell Danny's mom that, of course; she would freak.

"Ha! Danny must have some good game to win you over that fast," Jack declared. He winked and nudged Danny with his elbow conspiratorially. "Well done, son."

Danny just laughed.

The conversation eased off of Danny and Jason's relationship for a little while after that.

Danny told a funny work story. Jack spilled cranberry sauce, prompting Maddie to recall a story about a past thanksgiving mishap, which in turn reminded Jazz of a funny story from her and Danny's childhood, which Jason followed up with a story from his own childhood, a story about a time Dick had come to visit, back when he was still living at the manor with Bruce, before he'd died.

He tried not to think about that time, not because he'd been unhappy back then, but because now, all those memories were colored by his death. It was hard to laugh about the few occasions he'd been able to hang out with Dick, without remembering that his older brother had been in space when he'd been brutally killed.

It was hard for Jason to think about who he'd been before, once he'd become the person he was after.

But the memory had come to him anyway, and he'd shared it, because that was what one did at Thanksgiving dinner with their partner's family. Danny made it easier, but once Jason finished telling it, the pangs of anger and disappointment and loss came to him still.

Easier wasn't the same as easy.

"Oh, that's sweet," Maddie told him. "Are you and your family still close like that?"

Jason hesitated. He and Danny had prepared for this, too, but that didn't make it easier to talk about in practice.

"No, not really," he answered after a moment. "For a while things were very tense between me and them... but... things have been getting a little better lately—slowly but surely. It's still tense, but things were way worse before. I could barely even stand to talk to them without it turning into a screaming match."

Across the table, Jack and Maddie exchanged guilty looks, and changed the subject almost immediately. It seemed Danny was right on the money when he said that response would get them to talk about something else fast.

"That's... too bad," Maddie said. "But... uh...." She shot an urgent look at her husband.

"So how do you feel about ghosts?" Jack asked loudly.

In the corner of his eye, Jason saw his boyfriend tense.

The question was admittedly strange, but they seemed to be reaching for any topic that would steer the conversation away from Jason's family issues. Which Jason was relieved for, though admittedly, he didn't really know or care much about ghosts in particular.

"Ghosts, huh?" he said, "I guess I'm open to the idea of them. With all the crazy stuff I've seen in my life, I'd have to be stupid to write off the possibility completely. But I've never seen a ghost before, so I guess I'll believe it when I see it."

All the Fentons glanced at Danny.

They looked like they were trying to be subtle about it, but they were not doing a very good job. For some reason the subject of ghosts suddenly felt even more loaded than the subject of Jason's family, and now he was the one reaching for a subject change.

Feeling awkward, Jason cleared his throat and asked, "So, Jazz, Danny tells me you're a brain surgeon. That must be a pretty intense job, huh?"

"I'm just a resident right now, actually. I don't have the experience to perform surgery myself yet, but I do get to be a surgical assistant a lot," she said, a hint of relief behind her smile that told Jason he'd made the right choice. "It's really fascinating. A little gross, but I've long since gotten used to the gore of it all."

"Not at the dinner table, dear," Maddie chided gently, a soft laugh in her tone.

And just like that, the loaded atmosphere was gone, and the other Fentons were talking more about themselves, rather than interrogating Jason.

He learned that Jazz had wanted to be a brain surgeon since middle school—except for a brief stint during med school where she'd seriously considered switching to psychology before ultimately deciding to stay on the track she'd started with.

He learned that Jack and Maddie were both paranormal scientists. That they'd been written off as crackpots years ago, but as aliens, meta-humans, magicians, and other supernatural entities gradually became more commonplace over the years, the two of them had also gradually become highly respected experts in their field. Jack even invited Jason to go ghost hunting with them, which Jason apologetically declined, reminding the enthusiastic man that he and Danny would be returning to Gotham in the morning.

The more time passed, the more the conversation shifted.

There was a little more talk about cooking and trading recipes. It caught Jazz's attention when Danny mentioned how much Jason liked books, although the topic quickly petered out when he revealed his preference for fiction and especially classics, whereas Jazz was more inclined toward non-fiction, particularly scientific and medical journals.

After dinner wound down and they got up to put away the food and dishes, Jack and Maddie remarked what a wonderful time they'd had, and invited Danny and Jason back for Christmas.

Jason opened his mouth to accept, jumping at the excuse to turn down Alfred's inevitable invitation to spend the holiday with his own family, but Danny spoke before he could say anything.

"Sorry, but we can't," he said. "I'd love to, but unfortunately, I'm gonna have to work this Christmas, and I can't get out of it."

Jason furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. Thankfully, after Danny's statement, no one was looking at Jason, or they would have no doubt seen the skepticism on his face.

"Oh no, are you sure?" Maddie asked, pouting.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Danny insisted apologetically.

"But it's Christmas!" Jack moaned. "They can't make you work on Christmas! I thought Bruce Wayne was supposed to be a good guy!"

"I know, but I really really have to. Sorry, but maybe next year."

His parents pouted and complained, but didn't challenge him further. Jason didn't either, even though he happened to know for a fact that Wayne Enterprises gave Christmas off for everyone but a skeleton crew of essential employees who volunteered to spend the holiday at work for a massive bonus—and test pilots were not essential employees. In fact, the entire aeronautics and space department got a week off for the holiday, whether they celebrated or not.

However, if Danny was lying to his parents, Jason figured he had to have a good reason. Lord knew Jason lied to his family all the time, so it wasn't like he had any room to judge anyway. So he kept quiet and let Danny have his lie.

After an hour to digest, Maddie broke out the desserts, and they all partook in ice-cream, brownies, and the best key-lime pie Jason had ever had in his life.

Then came a few hours of board games: Clue, Monopoly, Life. Jason won Clue, but Jazz claimed victory at Life, and Maddie absolutely smoked them all at Monopoly—he should have known that would be the case when she pulled out a custom green ghost monopoly piece, which Jack had apparently given her for her birthday a few years ago.

It was getting very late when they all decided to turn in. Jazz headed up to her room first, but the rest of them quickly followed after deciding against a round of cards.

Danny led Jason up to his childhood bedroom. The walls were pale blue, with posters for NASA, and some band Jason had never heard of called Dumpty Humpty. There were glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, and video game figurines on a shelf above his desk.

Everything was slightly dusty after years of disuse. His parents had clearly tidied up before he came to visit, but not that thoroughly.

The two of them changed into nightclothes and climbed into bed—he had a full-size bed, rather than a twin, so it wasn't as cramped as it might've been. Danny turned the lights off before climbing in after Jason, and they turned to face each other in bed, both tired, but neither ready to fall asleep just yet.

Jason looked into Danny's eyes, which always seemed to glow a faint Lazarus green in the darkness, and wondered, not for the first time, if his own eyes did the same. He never asked, though, afraid he wouldn't like the answer.

For a long moment, they just watched each other in silence.

"Why did you lie about working on Christmas?" Jason asked softly.

The question had been nagging at him all evening. He just couldn't figure out why Danny would make up excuses to skip out on another holiday when Thanksgiving had gone so well. Unless Danny didn't think it had.

Danny's lips pinched into a sour expression for a moment, but then he sighed.

"Christmas with my family isn't like Thanksgiving with my family," he explained. "Even before I fell out with them, Christmas was like torture, and I've always hated it. I haven't celebrated Christmas since I moved out at eighteen, and I don't ever want to again, especially not with them."

Even though his voice was level, Jason could tell how strongly Danny felt about this. It actually surprised him to hear his boyfriend so intensely serious about such a typically light-hearted holiday.

He swallowed and then cautiously spoke again.

"Do you want to spend it with me, then?" he offered. Then quickly added, "We don't have to celebrate or anything. We can just have a regular date; I'll make dinner, and we can just hang out together.... Only if you want to, I mean."

"You don't want to celebrate yourself?" Danny asked, quirking his eyebrows.

Jason scoffed quietly. "More like I want to be able to tell my family I have plans so I don't have to celebrate with them."

"Ah, gotcha. Understandable," Danny said. "That sounds nice... but actually...." He seemed hesitant to say anything more, but Jason waited patiently and eventually Danny continued. "There is a winter holiday that I do celebrate around Christmastime, not always on the same day, but usually pretty close."

"What's that?"

"It's called Truce... it's... it's... a holiday." Danny replied, sounding nervous.

After a beat of contemplative silence Jason said "... uh... okay? I've never heard of it before. Tell me about it? Is this some religious thing? Because I thought you were an atheist."

Danny shook his head and quickly jumped to explain. "No it's not... I guess you could say it's a spiritual holiday, but it's nothing to do with religion," he said. One hand poked up over the top of the blanket to gesticulate awkwardly between the two of them. "Basically, on Truce, violence of any kind is strictly off limits. It's a day of peace, where you put aside all your grudges and hatred, and spend the day celebrating with the people around you, friends and enemies, good and evil, right and wrong—for just one day, none of it matters. No crime and no justice"

Jason nodded slowly. "That sounds... nice," he said cautiously. In truth it sounded vaguely culty and Jason was starting to get a little bit concerned about the kind of stuff his boyfriend was apparently into without his knowing.

"Learning about it was basically the only thing that saved me from writing off the entire month of December as unsalvageable." Danny admitted.

"It also kinda sounds like a cult thing." Jason decided to voice his concerns, just in case Danny really wasn't aware of that fact.

"It's not a cult thing! It's a cultural thing... or... subculture?" His conviction wavered even as he spoke, which didn't really ease Jason's suspicions. "I don't know." He shook his head. "You don't have to celebrate with me if you don't want to, but I'm gonna have a couple of friends over for it and—" Danny cut himself off with a huffy sigh.

"No, I want to!" Jason said quickly. "I mean it sounds very culty, but if it's important to you, I want to be a part of it. And if it is a cult thing, I want to know so I can determine how much danger you're in."

"It's not a cult!" Danny insisted, and he yanked the pillow out from under his head to whack Jason with it.

Jason laughed and pretended to spit feathers out of his mouth, even though it wasn't a feather pillow, and Danny laughed with him before putting his pillow back where it belonged.

Jason wasn't entirely joking about the cult thing, but he knew it would do no good to press the issue when all he had was suspicions and no evidence.

"We should get some sleep," Jason suggested instead, faking a yawn for good measure which almost immediately turned into a real yawn. It had been quite the day. "We can talk about it more tomorrow."

"Alright," Danny agreed through a yawn of his own. "Good night, Jason."

"Night, Danny," Jason said.

He rolled over once so Danny couldn't see the concern on his face, but he quickly fell asleep.

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