#Danny is a friend of Clark and Bruce

[bet-on-me-13]

Danny is Bruce and Clark's Civilian friend

So! Danny met Bruce and Clark at a Charity Gala promoting his Clean Energy and Technology Company.

It was just something He, Tucker, and Sam had started up after High School to try and do some good in the world, but grew faster than they realized, until they were a rising star in the Green Energy and Technology Business. Really they should have expected it, with Sam's drive for environmental protection and Tucker's love of technology, it was a given that they would push the company farther than anticipated. Danny was mostly just the front-man (aside from helping out Tucker in the Lab sometimes).

The Gala was set up by Sam to raise money for environmental preservation efforts, and Danny was there as a formality since he was the Face of the Business and technically the CEO.

Danny had struck up a conversation with Bruce, having been introduced by Sam, and they were eventually approached by Clark for an interview. He wanted to get their thoughts on the recently proposed Meta Protection Acts, and after the interview Danny decided to give Clark his contact to see if he wanted to do a follow-up. Bruce did the same, and they agreed to talk in the future.

Danny hadn't expected that to be the start of a new friendship.

Bruce and Clark seemed to click instantly with him, and while it took longer they also seemed to warm up to eachother as well. It got to the point where they were talking outside of Galas or Interviews and just called to check up on eachother. It was nice, having friends outside of Tucker and Sam for once.

Oh and also they were totally Dating.

Yeah, it was kind of obvious in hindsight that his two friends had a thing for eachother. Bruce and Clark would always share these looks with eachother before leaving the room, or Clark would check his phone for a message from whenever Bruce texted someone. They seemed to be hanging out without him as well, since they sometimes slipped up and referenced events they experienced together that he wasn't there for.

Of course Clark was publicly dating Lois Lane from his workplace, but listening his coworkers gossip long enough told him what was really going on. Lois and Clark were fake-dating so that Lois could secretly date Superman without being targeted by his enemies as much, and Clark could date a secret partner that none of his coworkers could figure out.

So when he was talking to Clark one day and the man got a text message and suddenly had a bad stomach ache, Danny decided that he should probably let him know that he knew.

"Oh don't worry Clark, I know what's going on. No need to keep up appearance with me around." He said.

"O-oh? Uh, what are you talking about Danny?" Clark asked surprised.

Danny shrugged, "It was pretty obvious in hindsight. The sneaking off, the text messages that got you to leave in a hurry, the secret glances between you and Bruce. After a while it was hard to ignore."

Clark cringed a little, "I just have a nervous stomach, and I have to rush off for work pretty often. That's all Danny."

Danny leveled a glance at him, "So does Bruce also have an upset stomach that just so happens to match up to yours? And why is Bruce following you to your Job? What, is he trying to get a job at the Daily Planet that he owns?"

"O-oh, well- I mean- That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm-" Clark stuttered.

"Calm down man, I'm not going to say anything." Danny reassured him. "It's your business, and nobody has any right to know your personal business unless you tell them. I just figured it out on my own, but I'm not gonna go shouting from the rooftops that Clark Kent is-"

"That's enough Danny, no need to demonstrate, but...thank you." Clark cut him off, "So far only Lois and Jimmy have figured me out on their own, and it's nice to finally have somebody else to talk to about this."

Danny shrugged and patted him on the shoulder, "No problem Clark, if you ever need to talk to me about it I'm all ears."

[somnoir]

Damian's future husband

Got inspired by this specific line in a Tumblr thread and my brain went to work

Phantom was a strange hero—a vigilante that often worked with Justice League Dark. Constantine was always so antsy around the man, while Phantom himself often muttered about taxes and blasted fragments whenever said trech coat man was in the vicinity.

The Bats were, of course, initially apprehensive of the death defying being that could rip a man skeleton out of their body, manipulate space itself to rip open portals to different dimensions, and vanish better than they did. They were wary, mildly hostile after realising that Phantom had now issue killing.

But then time passed and Phantom was proven to not be a serial killer but only used killing as a last resort. Though Batman wasn't too pleased, he was—begrudgingly—tolerant of that. Because, yes, Phantom was a nice guy, a very likeable person in general. He made sure that the environmental damage during battles were kept to a minimum, he chose civilians over the enemy whenever it came to hostage situations, he was tactile and kind, and he cared so much for the innocent that he was willing to lose his innocence to keep theirs.

Of course Batman was fond of the young man, especially when he found out that Jason of all people had some sort of crush on him. A very big and almost pathetic one that he and Alfred would watch while sipping tea.

Seriously, Jason was his son! Has he not learned anything from his Brucie persona? The poor thing was like a Victorian maiden and would be scandalised at the mere thought of showing an ankle.

It was embarrassing how he'd practically start blue screening the moment Phantom was in the vicinity. As a father, Bruce was gracious enough not to bully his poor son whenever it came to Phantom. His siblings, on the other hand, held no such qualms and mercilessly dug into Jason.

In all honesty, he pitied Jason after hearing that Phantom assumed that Jason just didn't like him.

He really had to talk to him.

"You fucking hypocrite."

And that was a failure because Bruce forgot that he was just as constipated as his son.

"I'm not taking advice from the man who couldn't even try to be softer in his secret crush!"

With that, Jason slammed the door and left.

Okay... Plan B?

But what the hell was plan B?

Right.

Dick Grayson.

Bruce: About your brother...

Bird child #1: OH MY GOD

Bird child #1: THANK FUCK YOU FINALLY MENTIONED IT

Bruce: it's become an issue

Bruce: Alfred has commented that it's pathetic now.

Bird child #1: Wait wait

Bird child #1: I'll add you to the group chat!

And this Bruce Wayne found himself in a GC named 'Phantom of the Watchtower'. Along with all the complaints expressed by both family and friends when it came to Jason's bullshit.

Ah well... At least he wasn't alone in the suffering.

(Jason did not need to know that there was a video of him grappling through Gotham, Phantom passing by and waving at him, and Jason proceeding to hit a wall mid flight.)

Dick knows that his little wing has had trouble in relationships for a long time. His resurrection changed him, changed how he perceived his relationships. Dick didn't have the heart to be mad about it.

Phantom's arrival was a breath of fresh air for them.

But he suspects that Jason's attraction began with the fact that Phantom had died young as well. Fourteen from what was said. He had died much younger than Jason and had came back a hero, willing to protect the innocent and do what was best for those around him. Sometimes Dick suspects that Jason not only wanted to be with Phantom, but also to be similar to him.

Now he's watching Jason fumble with his words again, immediately going quiet once he realized that nothing coherent was coming out of his mouth. The helmet most likely hid how red his face was.

"Are you alright?" Phantom asked, frowning up at Jason. "You don't feel too good. Is the corrupted ecto acting up again? Oh, I knew I should have sped up the process of removing it but then it'd be very painful if I did it at once. And Frostbite recommended that we went slowly so we could monitor the side effect... And, and—"

"I'm okay." Red Hood immediately assured, his hand practically flying to Phantom's cheek then he shoved it down before he could even touch Phantom. "It's been a long day."

"Is the Joker out again?" Phantom's frown deepened.

Another thing Dick has learned about the dead and the undead! The fact that their murderer was still active unsettled then greatly and affected their entire mentality and behaviour.

"No. No. He hasn't tried escaping."

Phantom hummed, "I see. So what's bothering you."

"It's nothing." Jason grunted, sounding a little too much like Bruce for Dick's liking.

Okay, nope, he wasn't going to let this continue if his baby brother was going to continue making Phantom assumed he didn't like him. Nightwing to the rescue!

"Phantom! Hi!" Nightwing quite literally dropped into the alley, running his fingers through his hair and smoothly directing Jason away from whatever catastrophic misunderstanding he was walking into.

"Hello Nightwing! It's nice to see you again? How's Kori? Oooh! I wanted to invite her to a space date again—" He rambled on and on, eyes practically starry. Wait, nevermind. His eyes really were starry.

(Meanwhile, Jason was cursing his older brother for taking the attention from but also very thankful that Phantom didn't have to witness his stupidity again.)

Tim had noticed that the Joker hasn't attempted to break out in a long... Long time.

It's not a bad thing, no. It was great, in all honesty. But of course, Tim was paranoid, almost batshir crazy (pun intended, in the words of his damn boyfriends). The surveillance feed on Arkham was updated a long time ago, watching it very closely until static overtook the screen.

"Replacement," Tim startled, blinking before he saw Jason peering at him with a questioning look. Practically interrogating him on the spot. "The hell is that?"

"I don't know." Tim clicked his tongue, "This hasn't happened after Babs and I updated those damn cameras. Fuck, give me a second..."

"Did the Joker get out?" Jason practically growled.

"No, no. I'm sure he didn't. He would have been causing trouble by now." Tim reassured, clicking his tongue again before the feed went back to normal. Joker's cell seemed perfectly fine, with the Joker fast asleep on his little cot. "See, just some static. Maybe Phantom passed by."

The mere mention of Phantom has Jason blue screening, instincts kicking in as his older brother shoved his helmet over his head again. Then the idiot gets on his bike and speeds out of the cave.

Coward.

Tim whipped his head around, quickly surveying the area.

The static wasn't random. Phantom always had to be in front of the camera to directly affect the feed. So thank fuck when he made friends with Phantom's teammate—Pharaoh—and figured out how to fix any distorted imagery.

He sees Phantom standing over the Joker's unconscious body, plunging his hand into the maniac's chest and pulled out a glowing green orb. A core, from what he remembered. Holy shit, was the Joker a ghost too?

But he saw how Phantom seemed to put restraints around it, literal chains before shoving it back inside.

Slowly, Phantom turned to the camera, his entire figure still distorted, but he could see that fanged grin that his brother seemed to swoon over.

(The Joker was still alive, very much, but no one could understand how he was stuck in an almost permanent coma. Tim wasn't going to give Jason even more reason to start giggling over Phantom, unless he wanted to ruin the entire Dead on Main operation.)

Damian did not quite understand the insanity that was multiple individuals (including those that were not of their brood) attempting to matchmake Todd with Phantom. He didn't understand what was so great about Phantom, in all honesty.

He was heroic, powerful, and quite intelligent. Many people held similar traits. Perhaps it was the fact that he was a deathly being that attracted Todd in the first place.

"Hello, Robin!" Phantom greeted one day, eyes shimmering like the stars in his cape. "Superboy said you had something to tell me?"

Damian shifted slightly, "Yes. Are you aware of the Lazarus Pits?"

"Ah... Yes, of course. My court and I have been trying to destroy all of them. The Lazarus is corrupted ectoplasm that has been mixed with filth of all kinds." Phantom hummed.

"Filth of all kinds... Disgusting." Damian frowned, nose scrunching up at the memory that he's bathed in those pits before. "But I digress. I would like to assist in the destruction of the pits. Father and the rest of the family has fretted over my grandfather's pits for many years and we have barely grazed the surface on what the Lazarus truly was."

"I see! I was planning on asking Batman to help out on that. But since you've already asked, would you like to come to the Realms? I'm sure you can interrogate some of the ghosts your grandfather has wronged." Phantom grinned, already offering Damian a hand. He was floating, while Damian stood in the roof and stared at the hand.

It reminded him of the kryptonians. But Phantom's hand was cold and he didn't yank Damian the same way Jon often did.

No, Phantom took Damian's hand and then proceeded to hook an arm around Damian's waist, pulling him of the roof and into the air. And then they were flying into a glowing green portal that reminded Damian of the pits.

The moment they were in the infinite realms, Damian felt the overwhelming pressure of the dead. He swallowed the bile that rose from his throat as Phantom set him down on solid ground. The entire place felt eerie and strange, of course it was. This was the afterlife.

"Right, I forgot." Phantom cursed, "You're not as liminal as my family. Give me a second, baby bat." He murmured, his hand glowing green before it's gently pushed into Damian's chest. A sudden wave of warmth overtook his entire body and Damian stared at the ghost.

"I'm giving you a bit of Ecto to reduce any discomfort here in the realms. It'll flush itself out in 24 hours so don't worry about becoming overly liminal." Phantom smiled softly, before he offered his hand to Damian again. "Let's go? I have to stop by my keep to check the records of Al Ghuls victims."

"Of course."

And instead of being carried like a cat, Phantom picked him up bridal style and flew past what seemed to be floating islands and towards a large red and purple castle.

Is this was Todd feels? Damian asked himself, oddly enjoying this experience.

The moment they landed—

"Your majesty!" A floating eyeball yelled, rushing towards them. "You've brought an outsider—"

"Away with you." Phantom snapped, a crown and cape of stars suddenly appearing on him. "This is Robin. Ra's Al Ghul's grandchild."

"The Demon's head..."

"Yes, now shoo." Phantom snapped, before leading Damian away from the eyeball. "I'm sorry for my Observants. They're a conservative bunch."

"You are a king?"

"Mhm... Though I don't like to advertise it. The last king was a tyrant and I defeated him a little while after my death. I never intended to be king, in all honesty. But here I am." He gestured to the crown of fire and ice and the cape of stars. His grin was strained and quite troubled but he didn't mind leading Damian towards a large room filled with bigger files.

"Now, would you like to search yourself or do you want me to have someone else do it?"

Damian grimaced at the sight. "I'd prefer for someone else to suffer."

And that's how Damian found himself touring the realms, with Phantom happily bringing Damian to the arena where a ghost named Skulker awaited them. The man was a hunter, respectful towards Phantom yet troublesome as he challenged him. Phantom looked utterly annoyed, before he turned to Damian with sparkling eyes.

"What about you, Robin?"

And then Damian was fighting everyone and everything in the realms at the behest and amusement of Phantom. The ghost king provided him with different weapons each time an enemy switched.

It's only when they returned to the land of the living that he's informed that any weapon he's used is now his.

And he has a cat with him! The ghost of a small yet ferocious kitten that had his under Phantom's cape whilst Damian and other ghosts fought to glorious battle. Phantom kindly offered her to him, naming her Astra with the star shaped pupils in her eyes.

Damian is quite sure he has fallen in love.

Damian returns to the manor, utterly awestruck and infatuated. Thankfully (unfortunately), Todd is in attendance when Phantom carries him out of the portal, still held in a bridal carry with Damian actively clinging to Phantom like he had hung the stars (maybe he did).

"Sorry if we worried you! Robin wanted to help with our Lazarus problems since it's also your problem too." Phantom quickly explains once he saw Batman's troubled expression. "Don't worry about your gifts. I'll figure out a way to make you a dimensional bag."

Damian stared, "May I visit the realms again? If you would be amendable to it."

"Of course! You're my favorite, so why wouldn't I?"

Hah! Hear that? Take that, Todd!

Phantom vanishes into his portal seconds later, leaving Damian with the most beautiful and intricated sword in his hands. Blinking quietly, he whirled around and pointed the sword at Jason, who instinctively went into a battle stance.

"You may be my brother, Todd, but if you have not married Phantom once I am of age, I shall fight for his hand in marriage himself."

(Jason knows very well that Damian isn't joking and proceeds to practically plan the most novel-esque confession to date. Jane Austen might just be proud.)

Masterpost

[phantomskeep]

DC x DP prompt but it's just Danny acting like an ectoplasmic Venom with [insert DC character here]

Danny, after spotting a powerful hero having trouble: Oh no! I should help!

Jason "I've-Had-Too-Much-Of-This-Shit-Already" Todd: what the fuck why am I glowing

Danny, covering this helmeted fruit loop who was trying to fight tEN PEOPLE AT ONCE ARE YOU INSANE-: hi :D We're friends now :D

Jason: internal screaming

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 163

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath, counting to ten and then letting it out. Why was this always his luck? Alright. Okay. Time to move again thanks to Dan pushing his body too far again, and ending up in his core. This was not how he was expecting to spend his days when he ghost-adopted his clone and sort-of son now actual son. Welp, he’ll throw a dart at the map to figure out where he’ll go next. 

Hm. Well, pack up Ellie! They’re moving to a place called Smallville, you always wanted a horse, right?

[metalotaku-da]

the part i'm currently in the mind to write. and here's a nice teaser of Bruce trying to spend a weekend in metropolis with his 3 youngest and the kents

[nightingale-prompts]

Danny lives in a horror movie-DC x DP prompt

Based on my favorite book series "tales from the gas station"

It's not every day that a mission requires the league to travel to middle America in a bid to obtain a highly cursed artifact but it certainly is today.

Locating the Seal of Silent Ashes was a task usually given to Justice League Dark but Constantine was currently busy. So that meant it was left to the poster boys to get this done. They dressed in civilian attire to investigate the last location of the seal starting with the first building on the edge of town. A small dusty gas station near the woods.

The inside had an awful smell, like death and cleaning fluid. The lights gave off a greenish-blue tint. Rats could be seen out of the corner of your eyes. Most of the chips were offbrand and crappy.

Behind the counter was the teenage boy chewing gum. He looked up at the group before going back to reading his book. He had clearly seen better days but didn't show signs of caring about the state of his hair or bags under his eyes. He drank his coffee.

The air felt off.

"Hey kiddo, do you mind giving us directions?" Clark started.

The kid narrowed his eyes as he popped his gum.

"You're not from here. That or you're from that cult in the woods. Listen I'm not joining. Seriously, cosmic nihilism and fatalism sounds doomed. Hey wait-" the teen checked his notes " No, the cult killed themselves in that mass suicide 2 weeks ago. I forgot, sorry."

The teen didn't say anything else as he went back to his book.

The horrified look of the adults shared was almost hilarious. At least to the teen if he looked up.

"Oh, and stay out of the woods. I don't want the police to come back and ask about who saw you last. Seriously if whatever is in there tears you apart I won't feel bad. I put those signs out forever ago and if I get one more girl covered in blood running in here screaming about her dead friends I'll get a headache." The teen shrugged turning the page.

"What do you mean?! Why would-?! Who's killing people?!" Barry asked frantically as Bruce serched for more reports of missing people in the area.

"I don't know. Why would I know? If you want to go in the cursed forest go ahead. I mean that's how they all die. It isn't my job to stop you. My job is to sit here and watch this store." The teen huffed in annoyance.

Before anymore questions were asked the signal of the radio was disrupted and a demonic howl screeched through the radio.

"God damnit. That cunt is back. Stay here." The teen growled as he grabbed his bat from under the counter and walked out the back door. "String bean! Get off the fucking roof you bastard! You know that radio is all I have here!"

A chattering laugh like a death rattle was heard and the sound of 2 sets of feet was heard on the roof then they lept down.

"Come here so I can beat you to death!" The teen ran around the building towards the front of the gas station chasing-what the fuck is that!

It was like a human that was twisted to crabwalk on all fours backwards. Its face was contorted into a black stretched-out smile with no teeth. It had no eyes just black sockets. All its limbs were stretched out to an extra meter in length. It was a skinwalker of some kind with chalk-white skin. It was skittering away from the teen who was swinging his bat at its head.

"Stop running! I told you before what would happen if I found you fucking with me again!" The boy meant it as he finally landed a hit and began wacking it over and over it.

The skin walker screeched and tried to run for its life but couldn't.

After reducing the monster into a black puddle the black-stained teen came back inside to sit back down not paying anymore to the monster blood he was covered in.

"Sorry about that. Most of the freaks around here have learned to stay away from this place. That one is new and he doesn't listen. You'd think they'd learn but Sting Bean thinks he can torment me. Petty bastard." The teen sighed "anyways are going to buy anything or are you going to waste what oxygen we get in here with this shitty ventilation.

Diana couldn't help but admire the boldness of the boy. He had no hesitation or fear against the beasts of this area even if was crude.

"Does Constantine have a cousin or something? Just a more angry one" Barry whispered to Hal.

[dcxdpdabbles]

DCxDP Fanfic idea: Rent-a-Scandal

Bruce's identity as Batman is outed on live TV. It was after Joker unmasked him, but thankfully, Clark was fast enough to throw on a spare Batsuit.

They managed to convince most of the public that Bruce had been working as a decoy to distract Joker so that "Batman" could find the rest of the hostages. Most.

There were those pecky few that saw right through their ruse. He needed to do another stunt that would install doubt that Ditzy Party Boy Bruce Wayne could never be Batman.

The thing was his usual antics weren't working. No amount of parties. No alcoholic induced stupidity. And not even multiple women hanging off his arm was making them move away from their observations. They were even catching on that all of those incidents were done on purpose.

He needed to do something fresh, something new, something that would completely overshadow the skeptics who were casting doubt on his facade.

But what?

"How about hiring someone to write up a scandal?" Jason recommended it over dinner. In front of him, he had a manuscript. For the first time, he was going to audition for the lead role in his school plan. Bruce just knows his Jaylad will blow the rest of the computation away. "You can have a writer who thinks you're trying to make some weird mystery party or something."

"It would never work. They would notice I used things I asked them to write as personal scandals. But thank you for the idea, Jaylad." Bruce beams at his son.

"Well...what if you hired someone trustworthy? Like Clark?" Jason counters, but Bruce is already shaking his head.

"Clark specializes in journalism, not public relationships. Besides, his full-time job doesn't give him time to type me up some scandal-"

"I have a guy," Alfred offers as he places an extra plate in front of Jason. At their bafflement, he gives them a secretive smile, much like the kind that would curve on a snake if it had the ability to do so. "He is trustworthy. I have his soul tied in a contact. He wouldn't be able to blab once I command it."

Jason slowly put down his fork. "I-

But Alfred was already moving away, waving a hand over his shoulder. "I'll ring the gent right now. He's your age, Master Bruce, which will mean you can make a new friend."

"Does he really have a soul?" Jason gasps as Alfred vanishes into the manor. Alfred's tiny face is white, which would have been hilarious if it was a white lie. The trouble is, Bruce isn't entirely sure Alfred is lying.

Not that he could tell Jay that. The poor thing was barely getting comfortable in the manor lately. If the boy thought the butler could steal souls, it was back to square one of earning his trust.

"No, no, no, Alfred was joking. He's likely calling someone he trusts-"

A boom bursts across the dining hall as a glowing green portal rips open and out steps a man close to Alfred's age in a purple coat. He's carrying a suitcase and has a typewriter tucked under his arm. A scarf is wrapped around his neck, where Bruce's eyes finally notice the odd grey tint to the man's skin.

He's obviously not human.

"Hello," the stranger sighs after running his green eyes around the room. My name is Ghostwriter, and Alfred Pennyworth commanded me to be your scandal writer. I brought along an assistant who will be playing the second part of all of the situations. This is Danny Phantom; he'll play your secret gay lover."

"Hi!" says a man around Bruce's age to the Ghostwriter's side, a little too cheerfully. He's not human either, as he's glowing like a lightbulb was placed under his skin. His hair was pure white, which also seemed to be glowing in a different shade, and his eyes were a color that was not humanly possible.

He also flouted while the writer stood in place. "Alfred owns my soul as well, but unlike Ghostwriter here, I didn't lose it to him in stripper poker."

"That man counts cards!" Ghostwriter snaps

Jason stood up from his seat, hands held up. "This a lot. I have a play to practice for. Figure it out, B."

His son grabs his manuscript, bows his head a little toward the guests, and scurries right out of the dining hall, leaving Bruce to his fate. Alfred pats Jason's head lovingly as he smiles and passes him through the door. "Oh good, you meet your ghostly pr and secret gay lover. We have a real show stopper with these two, Master Bruce."

You know, Bruce had a good run with the whole Batman thing. Maybe it was time to retire.

"Let's get down to business. What have you written so far, Ghostwriter.?" Inquires Alfred. He makes that satisfied snake smile when the writer glares at him with utter loathing before the man rolls his eyes and snaps his fingers.

In front of Bruce, a pile of papers appears covered in writing. He grabs them out of the air only because it floating dangerously close to his nose.

"I think the best course of action is to play up the fact that Bruce has a secret, then leak some photos of Danny in suggestive poses. You drop on in Wayne Tower's lobby after we allow the rumors to fester with paparazzi." The writer explains, waving his hand to his assistant, who seems too amused by what is being suggested.

"As Phantom or Fenton?" Danny asks to Bruce's confusion.

"Fenton. We want a scandal, not a diplomatic emergency." Ghostwriter scoffs.

Bruce's face screwed up. "What do you mean diplomatic emergency? How so?"

"Oh, I'm the Ghost King," Danny reveals casually as if those words meant anything to Bruce. "If word got back to the ghosts that I was fooling around with a human without the intent to make him my consort, well, things would get dicey."

Alfred's smile turned a tad bit darker. "We wouldn't want that."

Danny's face froze for a few seconds. He stared at Alfred with what could be considered terror and...attraction? He then smiled as softly as a flower. "No, we would not."

Ghostwriter flings himself into the chair next to Bruce. He grabs the meatloaf off of his plate with his bare hands, taking a bite with a sigh. "Don't worry, I've seen this story a thousand times. He may think Alfred is a silver fox, but by the end of it, Danny will be yours."

"What?"

[fandomfuntimem]

Dp x Dc

Clark got an invite to visit is cousin Maddie in Amity park! He always enjoys visiting them. Its a wild time, Maddie's kids are nice, and he gets to be the coolest cousin in the world. Impressing his little cousins with tricks that could only be explained by magic (he has litteraly crushed a rock to dust to make is "disapear").

But when he arrives this time, maybe bringing a few friends with him (i imagine the main group is Bruce, Clark, Lous, and maybe Damian, Tim, Conner, and Jon), the Town is chaos. Rouge government agents running around, magic undead creatures wreaking Havoc, and a young superhero barely holding it together. Even worse, Maddie and her husband seem so wrapped up in their work that they don't even notice their kids half the time! AND WHY DOES DANNY FORGET TO BREATH????!?!?!?!?!?

[bloggerspam]

Jon's not stupid.

He knows, with the kind of certainty you have that Batman knows everything and Superman is always there to help, that he's not stupid.

He knows this because Damian has never once called him stupid since the start of their friendship.

Damian has called him careless to the point of stupidity, thoughtless and brash, but he has not once called Jon stupid.

And Damian never lies.

So when Aunt Maddie tattles to Cousin Jazz about Dad being Superman, Jon does the only reasonable and responsible thing he can think of:

He texts Damian.

"You can't just out people like this, Mom!" Cousin Jazz is hissing, making a helpless face at Aunt Maddie.

"Oh don't worry honey," Aunt Maddie waves off her daughter's concern, gesturing to the empty backyard. "Most everyone is in your Aunt Caroline's living room, watching your cousin's little play from last Spring."

"I hardly think that's going to give Uncle Clark any comfort," Cousin Jazz grits out, fists clenching. "Considering his nieces and nephew now know his secret identity."

"I'm teaching him a lesson, Jazz." Aunt Maddie says in a reasonable tone. It's the kind of tone that Mom uses when Dad is in trouble. "He's always been so bad at hiding his meta-status, being careless about his superhero identity is the the icing on the cake."

Damian has already messaged back, which makes Jon feel so much better. He's demanding more information, which suits Jon just fine. Questions, he can answer.

"This'll teach him to be more careful." Aunt Maddie continues, walking over and yanking on Dad's white collared shirt. The bright blue, red, and yellow of his Superman suit peeks through real bright from where the buttons have popped open. "I mean, really Clark, under your very white shirt? At a family reunion??"

Dad sputters, jerking back and hastily buttoning up his shirt. Jon can see Mom with her face in both her hands, Ma patting her consolingly behind Dad a couple feet away.

"Doesn't Superman have super speed?" Ellie tilts forward, looking over at Jon from where she stands on the other side of Kon. "Why's he gotta wear it under his clothes?"

"Exactly, darling." Aunt Maddie coos at Ellie, beckoning her over and crouching down to meet her height. "This is just Mommy helping! Uncle Clark is the fool thinkin' glasses and sloppy suits are a good enough disguise."

Cousin Jazz turns to Cousin Danny, gesturing expansively at Aunt Maddie in a see! See!!! motion.

Cousin Danny bites his lip, puts his hands up in surrender. "Okay, yes, I see what you mean now."

"You are your mother's son." Cousin Jazz groans, clawing her own face in exasperation.

"Hey," Cousin Danny protests, "She's your mom too, remember?"

"How could I not?" Cousin Jazz rolls her eyes, stomping over to Aunt Maddie and lightly shooing Ellie back to where Jon is.

"Who are you texting?" Ellie asks when she arrives. Cousin Danny and Kon are bickering now, about who is worse at keeping secrets and making bets on when Mom will join the fray. Ma seems to be consoling her, so Jon lets it be and plops onto the grass.

"My best friend." Jon answers as Ellie flops down next to him. She doesn't peek over, which is nice, but instead lays her head in his lap.

"Oh." Ellie curls up, unthinkingly and almost dreamily, "I've never had a best friend before."

Jon freezes, looking down at his cousin. He thought maybe she was his age, but maybe she's younger? Ellie's real nice, and she didn't seem to have a problem playing with the other baby cousins, maybe her school is bad like Jon's was before he got transferred to Gotham Academy?

Cousin Jazz had said Ellie got her powers through very private circumstances. Maybe they were bad circumstances. Jon texts this information to Damian too.

Damian has been slowly getting the whole picture of the situation from Jon through a series of questions. It's fun for Jon, like he's talking to Akinator, the mind reading genie. Only Damian is way better at it because Jon doesn't know what the answer is, but Damian still always gets it right.

Jon tries to imagine what Damian would look like in Genie clothes. He thinks he'd look good in them. Damian looks good in almost everything. He's seen Damian in those fancy LOA clothes before, and Nanda Parbat is kind of where djinn stories are from right? He'll have to ask Damian, he doesn't want to accidentally be culturally insensitive.

"I can be your friend." Jon finally says, shaking off images of Damian in a Princess Jasmine outfit. He'd be really mad at Jon for thinking that, so he tries really hard not to. Not that he'd ever tell him, but sometimes Jon thinks Damian has mind-reading powers. "Give me your phone number."

"Can cousins be friends?" Ellie asks, though she does give him her number. He sends a cat meme he saw last night as his first message. "I've been homeschooled, but Jazz says I should at least give school a try."

"School's okay." Jon shrugs, watching at Cousin Danny and Kon kind of devolve into wrestling in the grass. Cousin Jazz is still scolding Aunt Maddie about the right to privacy, and Mom has taken Dad by the ear to whisper shout. "Maybe you can ask if you can go to Gotham Academy with me, I can fly you out, pick you up every morning."

"Maybe." Ellie looks skeptical though, and most of all sleepy and unbothered by the chaos around her. Jon takes off his jacket to cover her, rests a hand on the nape of her neck the way he would with Krypto. It seems to settle her. "I dunno. I'm not good at being human."

"I think you're doing alright." Jon consoles as he reads the newest text from Damian. "Damian says hello, by the way."

"You're half alien, so I only half believe you." Ellie jokes, yawning and cuddling up under his jacket, "Tell Damian I said hi back."

Jon does so obligingly.

He listens with half an ear on everyone, relaying info and answering questions to Damian via increasingly curt texts. His best friend is getting irate, and judging by the buzzing happening in Kon's jacket (left abandoned about three feet away, having been tossed off in the tussle he and Cousin Danny are engaged in) Tim's probably annoyed too.

Kon still isn't really used to using phones, he's never really needed to until he joined Young Justice. Even then, he's more used to comms than he is of an actual phone. The Kents have taken to just calling Kon verbally, and having one-sided conversations with him that way until the teen inevitably gets frustrated and flies over to talk face-to-face.

The Wayne kids tend to keep info from Uncle Bruce as best they can, so Jon anticipates Dad will be getting a phone call (or, more probably an irate grunt from the Cave in Gotham) from Uncle Bruce in about half an hour.

Damian's really annoyed that Uncle Bruce is so nosey, but Jon's always found it relieving.

Damian is really smart so they usually can handle whatever mission they set themselves upon, and Jon's practically invulnerable so he can totally protect Damian if his super ninja assassin training somehow fails. They've had some close calls but so far it's been relatively okay.

So Jon understands why Damian is so mad about it, since clearly they can take care of themselves even if they get in over their heads sometimes. It's just nice, is all. Jon likes having a back up plan, likes that if something happened, Dad or Uncle Bruce would rescue them.

He knows that's a luxury, and he knows it's not a foolproof plan. He's not that naive.

But he likes it, is all. He's still young—they're still young. He can let himself rely on his Dad a little longer.

Another text comes in just as Cousin Danny and Kon tumble to a stop on the grass. They're breathing heavily, spread like starfishes, and seem to be finally conversating like normal people.

Damian has asked him to do something, so Jon puts his phone down to stare at the warm conundrum covering his legs.

It feels illegal to move, with Ellie's head in his lap and lightly napping. Like when a cat or dog sits on you—it feels contractually binding. But Damian said Jon has to clean up the adult's messes, Cousin Jazz looks one moment away from tearing her hair out and Cousin Danny and Kon are deep in conversation about something now, so it's up to Jon.

Maybe Ellie can help? He texts Damian, who replies almost immediately with a complying fine, make sure to ask your Aunt for Ellie's jacket.

This is what he likes most about Damian, even though he complains a lot he cares a whole lot more.

"Ellie." Jon whispers, shaking her shoulder a little. She grumbles a bit, blinking up at him. He points at where Aunt Maddie and Dad are still arguing, this time about some incident that happened in elementary school. "I need to go fix that."

Ellie sighs, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Can I come?"

"Yeah." Jon grabs his jacket from where it's slipped onto the grass and puts it over her shoulders. "Damian said you can help but you gotta keep this on and hold my hand for full effect."

"Okay." Ellie floats up, extending a hand to him and waits patiently for Jon to float up to a stand as well. "Do you need me to cry too?"

"No, you can do that?" Jon pockets his phone, whispering as they make their way over. "Damian said to look as innocent as possible."

"Yeah, I'm real good at manipulating my body to do stuff." Ellie whispers back, this time with a more alert and mischievous smile.

"Cool." Jon smiles back, before they both put on unassuming kid faces as they come to a stop just beside their parents. He coughs. "Aunt Maddie?"

Aunt Maddie stops mid-sentence, blinking at them before smiling and crouching down. "Yes sweetie?"

"My best friend, Damian? He, uhm…" Jon scuffs his shoe, Ellie doing her job and looking up at her mom curiously beside him. "He wants to know why you're taking so long to get rid of the GIW."

Cousin Jazz gasps, hands coming up to cover her mouth as she shoots a look to Cousin Danny. Jon feigns looking away like he's shy, catching a glimpse of Cousin Danny sat upright and staring straight at Jon with blazing eyes. It kind of brings a shiver down his spine, which is strange because Cousin Danny likes to argue but he's always been more of a protector than a fighter. He's the type of person that'd rather get beat up than kick someone's butt even though he's basically a black belt like Aunt Maddie, he's that nice.

"He said, uh," Jon tears his gaze away, thankful for his hardy constitution. Ellie's hand flinches in his, but she doesn't let go. "He said his brother Tim could help, and wants to know if it's okay for me to give him your number."

Jon squeezes Ellie's hand, suddenly realizing that maybe this plan is a little harsh. Clearly Ellie and Cousin Danny are hiding stuff, and just because Damian figured it out doesn't mean it's okay to butt in.

But Damian said they need help, and Jon wants to. They're family.

Thankfully, Ellie squeezes back. He looks up at Aunt Maddie with his best puppy dog eyes ever. "Can I?"

"What kinda trouble are you into now?" Dad butts in, muscling his way over to tower over Aunt Maddie, who straightens up. "What's this about a GIW?"

"It's nothing." Aunt Maddie sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose before smiling down at Jon. "Baby Jon, can you please tell your friend that your Auntie and Uncle are already handling it? It's okay if it's slow."

"But Damian said they're trying to dissect Cousin Danny and Ellie!" Jon pushes Ellie behind him, protective and a little bit scared. "Isn't it better for them to be gone right away instead of later?"

"WHAT?!" Dad, Mom, and Ma scream, suddenly frantic. Cousin Danny pops up right next to Jon, hand placed gently on his shoulder.

The adults start to yell at each other, Cousin Jazz stepping in to tiredly explain what Damian's already figured out.

Jon is ushered a little away, back towards where Kon is sitting, dumbfounded and angry, in the grass. Cousin Danny picks Ellie up and plops her into Kon's lap, who looks confused and conflicted.

Ellie takes this in stride, making herself comfortable and adjusting Kon's limbs until it's too her satisfaction.

Jon is then picked up under his armpits, and Cousin Danny sits down carefully so that Jon is settled in his lap comfortably as well.

Despite seeing it earlier, when Ellie was in Danny's lap, it feels slightly awkward at first. Jon is 13, after all, and a little big for his age. But Cousin Danny's powerset probably includes super strength, so Jon tries not to worry to much about it. He hasn't been picked up like this for a couple years now, since he got too big for his Mom's lap. Sometimes Dad will pick him up from time to time, but considering they're both supers it's never really been necessary or even really thought of.

His family, nuclear or otherwise, is very touchy feely in the first place so he's not sure why this little thing is making him feel so…uneasy.

"Are you mad?" Jon fidgets, but ultimately decides to turn a little bit so it's easier to see his cousin's face.

Cousin Danny tilts his head, leaning back on his hands and looking at Jon with an unreadable expression. "Why would I be mad?"

"Well…'cause I went and found out your secret." Jon looks down, at his hands, picking at a his nails. He's invulnerable, so he doesn't get hangnails, but sometimes Jon wishes he would just so he would have something to do with his hands. Not that that's healthy, mind you, but his best friend is Damian Wayne.

Everything is sort of relative when your best friend was raised to be a ninja assassin prince.

Cousin Danny shakes the thoughts out of his head by ruffling his hair. "I'm not mad, Baby Jon. It was bound to happen eventually."

"We thought that maybe Dad would accidentally spill the beans," Ellie pipes in. She's commandeered Kon's arms to wrap around her for warmth. "Or maybe that Mom would blurt it out if she got into a fight with Uncle Clark."

"Jazz thinks we don't know," Cousin Danny adds in, grinning sardonically, "But we knew that she was also thinking that maybe Ellie or I would slip up."

"So what's the real story then?" Kon finally cuts in, squeezing Ellie tight, much to her delight, "Why're the G.I. Joe's trying to cut you and Ellie open?"

"GIW." Cousin Danny and Ellie correct his brother in unison.

"You can hear Jazz, can't you?" Cousin Danny scrunches his brows. "If Uncle Clark is Superman, that makes the both of you Superboy the first and second."

"Which, stupid idea by the way." Ellie purses her lips at Jon. "Why didn't you get your own name?"

"Pot," Cousin Danny rolls his eyes, leaning over to tap Ellie on the forehead. "Kettle."

Ellie huffs, pouting and scrunching down with her arms crossed further into Kon's lap. Confusing statements aside, his cousin's comment lets Jon off the hook. Damian has asked him this question too, and Jon is ashamed to say he didn't really think about it.

Jon kind of regrets it, but it's much too late to back out now.

"I wanna hear it from you." Kon shrugs, adjusting Jon's jacket over Ellie a little more firmly. "Plus they're talking about JL involvement, and your mom's gotten into a tirade about how unhelpful Clark's been."

Danny huffs a laugh, leaning back on his hands and staring up at the sky. For a long moment, Jon thinks that maybe his cousin won't answer or joke around about it, but then he heaves a big long sigh.

"It's a short story, really. Me and Ellie, because of a couple of…incidents aren't human anymore." Cousin Danny rolls his head towards Kon. "Or at least, not fully."

"We're halfas," Ellie adds in, "Our, uhm, genetic make-up has bonded, or I guess fused with this stuff called ectoplasm."

"Like the ghost goo?" Jon asks, glancing between the siblings. "From like, Ghostbusters?"

Both Ellie and Cousin Danny laugh at that, and for the first time Jon notices that they have fangs. "Yeah, bud, like the ghost goo."

"Was it a lab safety issue?" Kon cuts in, face stern and serious. Jon hasn't been told the specifics of his brother's origins but he knows enough that his brother is sensitive about that kind of thing—for good reason. "I didn't think about it until now, but jumpsuit she's wearing—it's a specialized hazmat suit, isn't it?"

"Sort of." Cousin Danny shrugs. "Mom and Dad were…negligent sure, but ultimately I was being a stupid kid doing stupid shit. I wasn't lying when I said I got my powers because of a dare."

"Mom and Dad didn't know about it." Ellie cuts in, sounding defensive. "Danny didn't tell anybody, and when Jazz found out she took him to the hospital."

"It wasn't that serious." Cousin Danny rolls his eyes, but Ellie shoots him an annoyed look.

"You got diagnosed with Cardiac Arrythmia and have to take special medications." Ellie hisses, pupils going slitted for a second. "You were dead for 5 minutes and didn't tell anybody."

Jon shivers, flashes of Cousin Danny laying on a cold lab floor assaulting his brain.

He tries to focus on his senses like Dad taught him when he first got his powers. He counts the heartbeats of Mom, closes his eyes to focus on Ma and Dad's heartbeats next to hers, hones in on Kon's in front of him and Pa's off across the way.

He reaches out, tries to focus on Damian's heartbeat in Gotham. It's steady, as it always is, and quiet as if it too, learned to be an assassin. He listens to the irregular scritches of Damian's charcoal pencil, the new one he bought last month and is still getting the hang of.

Cousin Danny's hand squeezes his, yanking Jon back to the sounds of the grass beneath them, Cousin Danny's irregular heartbeat, to the slightly cold temperature of him around Jon. He hadn't realized he had grabbed his cousin's hand in the first place.

"Breathe, Baby Jon." Cousin Danny soothes. "I don't remember much of it, and the medication is just for low level aches in my human form."

"He's got advanced healing. It's just—his powers are connected to his heart, so it's the only thing that won't heal. At least, that's what Mom and Dad think is happening." Ellie looks apologetic now, embarrassed for losing her temper. "Sorry, I guess I'm just…not over it yet. I didn't mean to scare you."

"S'okay." Jon mutters, to which his older cousin pats him on the back in comfort.

"Hey, at least I got a sick scar out of it." Cousin Danny grins, trying to lighten the mood and offering his left hand for inspection.

"I'm guessing your parents didn't know about the lab safety issue until after Ellie?" Kon's voice is suspicious, as if he's holding off on reacting too much until he gets his answers. He keeps darting looks at Aunt Maddie like he's not sure what to do about her. "You said you were both halfas, but Ellie doesn't have scars on her like you do."

"I'm a little different." Ellie bites her lip, tilts her head at Cousin Danny in silent question.

Cousin Danny pauses, tilting his head as he keeps eye contact. It takes Jon a moment to realize that his cousin is listening for something. "Mom's talking about Vlad now, so you might as well get it all out."

"I'm Danny's clone." Ellie smiles, toothy, like she's daring anybody to say anything about it. Her eyes go squinty when Kon freezes, but since his reaction isn't exactly hostile she seems to decide to continue anyway. "Mom has this Fruit Loop Billionaire who's delusionally in love with her."

"He wanted me to be his wingman, of a sorts." Cousin Danny scoffs. "When that failed, he tried to clone me. Don't ask me how or why, I still don't know."

This is sounding awfully familiar., and Jon does not like it. In the infamous words of Chris Evan's nephew, he does not wike it at all.

"He's kind of reformed now," Ellie continues, slowly moving out of Kon's lap and crawling over to Cousin Danny. "I sort of got destabilized, and then Mom and Dad fixed me up with the help of a friend."

Jon decides that maybe it is a good idea to switch and follows suit. He hesitates a moment, considering the brothers don't really…cuddle that much. But then decides that he might as well—Kon looks like he needs it. He plops into Kon's lap and hugs his neck. Kon breathes in deep, nuzzling into the space between Jon's neck and shoulder, squeezing around him.

"Mom kicked Vlad's ass," Cousin Danny hugs Ellie close, eyeing Kon's reaction concernedly. "And decided to keep her. I'm too young to be a dad, so she's legally my sister."

There's a long pause then, as the Fenton siblings look at the brothers in confusion. Jon realizes that maybe Kon's initial reaction could be construed as, he doesn't know, Kon being a clone hater or something. But the longer Kon squeezes Jon tight as if to comfort himself, the more the Fenton's are probably realizing that's not the case at all.

Jon's not sure how to explain it to them, he's not even sure if Kon would want him to, so he hugs Kon back just as tight and silently begs them to wait.

Family must count for something, because they do.

They wait until Kon starts to shake, and shake and shake.

Jon jolts, alarmed and trying to push back to see his brothers face only to realize—Kon's laughing.

"Holy shit," Kon's voice is trembling from the laughter, growing louder and louder in his guffaws. "Holy shit, fuck, you really cannot make this shit up, can you?"

Jon starts to smile, because yeah. The more he thinks about it, bad memories aside, it is actively hilarious how similar the situations are.

"Uh, no." Cousin Danny watches them warily, still confused. "You can't. Because that's what happened?"

"No, no, I know that. I just mean—" Kon's grin is disbelieving and confused at the same time. "It's just, dude. I'm a clone. Clark, no, Superman, has a Bald Billionaire who's homophobic-ly in love with him too!"

There's a long pause as the Fenton siblings digest this information, before all four of them explode into laughter.

"Ancients," Cousin Danny can barely breathe from his laughter, "I can't believe this runs in the family."

That sparks up another round of honking laughs, practically shrieking as they fall over each other in their amusement. This is how Uncle Jack finds them, breathless and rolling around in the grass like loonies.

Cousins, Clones and Conning the Family

Family Reunion AU, where cousins Maddie and Clark try to smuggle their clone children into the family reunion that happens every 5 years and pretend they've been there the whole time.

Spoiler alert, one of them does significantly better than the other. Mainly Kid POV, and also on AO3! Multichapter. ===

The problem with big family reunions, Danny thinks, is how utterly fucking lost Danny is all the gosh dang time.

"Well now, you're Maddie's son now ain'tcha? How old is you now?" The woman standing before him guffaws, ruffling his hair. He lets it, trying desperately to remember the speadsheet Jazz created for the family and (obviously) failing to recall this woman's name.

Agatha? Selene? Riri? No, Aunt Riri is over there—

"Yes ma'am," Danny smiles up at the unnamed aunt, accent going a little twangy like it always does at these functions, "I'll be hittin' 17 in a coupl'a months or so."

"My, my, you youngin's sure grow like weeds!" The aunt coos, gesturing to a height by her hip, "You used to be this tall last time I saw ya, betcha don't r'member me now do ya?"

It's a trap. If he says he doesn't remember, which is expected at reunions such as these that happen every 5 years or longer, she'll start going on and on about the stories she has of the family. Danny would have to stand here and demure and laugh at these cousins he doesn't really remember too well, but know enough to know that she's gotten them all mixed up.

"Pshaw," Danny doesn't react when a whisper breathes the answer into his ear, "I'd never forget a pretty lady like you, Aunt Helena!"

It works like a charm.

The second he's out of her clutches, he feels around for a cold spot. There, trailing just behind him, is Ellie. She's not invisible anymore, so he tucks her under his arm and bee-lines it towards the metaphorical kid's table.

"Thanks, Ellie. Weren't you supposed to stay with Dad?" Danny leads them around, trying to avoid any other mishaps. "Did Jazz send you?"

"She made me flashcards!" Ellie smirks up at him, ignoring his other question and pulling a corner of an index card out from the palm of her hand. She's always been better than him at manipulating the ecto in her body, for obvious reasons. Danny's not bitter about it at all.

"Damn, all I got was a presentation." Danny grumbles. Jazz and Dad somehow know every single one of their family members, which is ludicrous when even Mom doesn't know despite it being her side of the family.

He still can't really believe how big his family actually is, but he supposes that's natural. He only sees them once every couple of years, the only relative they see even on a remotely regular basis is Aunt Alicia, who has no kids and refuses (rightfully so) to remarry.

Danny's fine with that, he gets the best of both worlds after all. Cozy holiday stays with Aunt Alicia and he has places to stay all over the country if he really needs it, no questions asked.

Plus, crazy as they can be, these reunions have always felt like a big country festival for Danny.

"She likes me better." Ellie snickers, tugging him back to avoid Uncle Charlie's drunken stumbling.

"Everyone likes you better," Danny rolls his eyes, pushing Ellie's head down and ducking to avoid a stray kid's toy flying overhead, "I like you better."

As if somehow knowing Danny's being self deprecating again, Jazz shows up to smack him on the head. "I like both of you equally in special ways."

Danny makes a disgruntled noise, grumbling as he rubs his head, "Mooooom, Jazz is therapizing me again!"

Even though he was only half joking, Mom does show up specifically to laugh at him. "Honey, your father and I love all our children equally!"

"It's a secret," Dad says from behind Jazz, kids climbing all over him, "But Ellie's the favorite!"

"Jack!" Mom yells at the same time Jazz screams, "Dad!"

Ellie dissolves into giggles, making everyone but Dad helplessly laugh. It's good to see Ellie laugh, she does it a lot but it still doesn't feel like it's enough. Danny picks her up, giggling mess and all, and tosses her at Dad.

She lands, as expected, straight into the pile of children who scream and accept her easily.

"Nice." Jazz chuckles, this time patting him gently on his head in approval. Danny shrugs, dusting his hands off and heading back towards salvation: the food.

He and Jazz mingle a bit, exchanging greetings and school updates with the Aunts and Uncles they occasionally bump into, making their way slowly through and keeping an eye out for the other cousins.

Eventually, Jazz gets nabbed by Cousin Dermot just as Danny reaches the table, tossing a pig-in-a-blanket into his mouth and chewing with glee. The locals of the family usually something potluck style—and though Dad's genes are strong and the Fentons can't cook, the bulk of the Walker family definitely can.

In fact—Great Aunt Martha said she was going to bring some mini pies right?

Danny spies a pile of them in the middle of the large table and reaches for one, only to bump into the spikes of black fingerless gloves.

The gloves are, of course, attached to someone else.

It's a boy, around Danny's age, in a spiked leather jacket (matching the gloves) and white tee shirt with ripped jeans. He's got the tiniest John Lennon sunglasses and piercings everywhere—it makes Danny squint at him, with how much the sun keeps catching on everything—the spikes, the piercings, the metal arms of the sunglasses, is this dude also wearing lipgloss?

Danny's not judging, a guy can appreciate proper hydration to avoid chapped lips or even just for the aesthetic, but it doesn't help with the glare.

"Sorry, my bad." Right, okay, city slicker then. Not that Danny's much of a country boy or anything. "Did my spikes get you?"

Maybe Cousin Jenny brought a plus one? Danny eyes the guys jeans—they look tight. Was Cousin Mark into guys? Is this dude a guy or possibly a masculine girl? Ack. Stupid sun frying his brain.

"It's okay," Danny says, blinking away and tossing mini pie to the other person. "Aunt Martha's pies are worth the minor injury. You comin' in with one of the cousins?"

"Uh, yeah." Citypunk looks at Danny nervously, "I mean, I am one of the cousins." The guy bites his lips, shrugging, "Uh, one of the Kents, actually. Ma's real proud of the pies."

Danny blinks.

"…You're not Jon." Danny says, very carefully and slowly.

"…No…" Stranger Danger draws his vowels out, "I'm Conner. His, uh, older brother? Can't blame ya for being confused though!"

"…You can't." Danny agrees, because out of the two them, Danny definitely isn't to blame for the confusion.

"Yeah, lots of cousins, and all," Curiouser and Curiouser beams at Danny, shrugging and rubbing the back of his neck, "Plus, I know Jon's more sociable at these things."

"Right, he really is rambunctious, that guy." Danny nods, as if that's the problem, and not the fact that Danny knows every single cousin his age. Big as his family might be, Danny's generation came out the smallest. Cousin Jenny and Cousin Mark are the only two his age.

With Ellie and Jazz each being four years younger and older than Danny, and the other cousins being well beyond those ages in gaps, there is no way this guy is a cousin.

"Don't worry," Punk'd laughs self deprecatingly, "I know he's the favorite. even if Mom won't admit it."

Danny feels a vein throb in his right temple.

He's unsure if he should slowly back away or get up in the guy's face. It's just—now that Danny thinks about it, if wedding crashing is a thing, does that mean family reunion crashing is a thing too?

What's the protocol here? Should he fight this guy for having the audacity to use Great Aunt Martha's name in vein?

Wait, no, that's Jesus.

Is Great Aunt Martha Catholic? ...Is that the one with Jesus, or was that Christianity?

Wait, Danny, you knuckle head, Uncle Clark was adopted. Conner could be adopted too! Even though he looks exactly like that Uncle Clark when he was younger…

"Is this your first time at a reunion?" Danny ventures, "We only have 'em—"

"Every 5 years, yeah." Conner huffs, "Nah, I just used to hide with Ma in the kitchens."

Okay, clearly Great Aunt Martha isn't in on this, because Danny used to hide with Great Aunt Martha in the kitchens. Danny's about to lose his shit on this guy—or maybe sic Ellie on him. Whichever is worse.

"Oh yeah? That's must have been cozy." Danny grits out, taking a deep breath so his eyes don't flash.

"Yeah, it was!" Conner beams shyly. though all Danny sees is a smug smirk. "She's real nice-like, I'm sure you know. Real lucky to have her for a Grandma."

"Real lucky." Danny agrees, because Great Aunt Martha really was one of the better Great Aunts. Though most of the Walker Kin were hardy and tough, in that badass kind of way. Mom really liked Great Aunt Martha's lessons on bull wranglin' back when they were younger. "Speakin' of, she ain't here?"

"Nah," Conner makes a sad little pout. "She hadta stop by Auntie Agatha's for an emergency. She left two days ago, so she's runnin' a little behind. Cl—Dad went to go pick her up."

Danny squints at the possible imposter. That sounded like he was going to call Uncle Clark by his name, which makes things confusing for Danny. Guy will call Aunt Lois Mom but he won't call Uncle Clark Dad easily?  Maybe he's a kid Aunt Lois had before marrying Uncle Clark? But Aunt Lois would never hide a kid, and Great Aunt Martha would never let her treat a kid like that. That's not even taking into account that this kid looks way too much like Uncle Clark for it to be a fucking coincidence. Plus, Danny knew about Aunt Aggie's emergency and how she might not be making it to this year's reunion—this gives Conner's story credibility.

But Danny knows that the best way to lie is with truths, even if the truths are confusing.

So what the hell is going on? Is Clockwork fucking with him? Did an alternate timeline get switched with his?

It wouldn't be the first time, but Clockwork at least had the decency to let him know at least.

"What the—" Danny blinks, as Conner picks up a very familiar, eye-searingly green colored post it note that was stuck to the plate under a mini pie. "Is this yours?"

"Yeah," Danny huffs. taking the note and rolling his eyes as lies roll off his tongue, "Sorry, y'know how it goes with Jazz."

"Oh, yeah." And Danny has to give it Conner, he at least rolls with the punches real quick, "I heard about it but didn't ever uh, see it in action."

"Really?" Danny feigns surprise, head pulsing in irritation at the words all is as it should be written in purple pen. There's no mocking smiley face, but Danny feels it in the ink anyway. "Thought she got all the cousins at the last reunion."

Conner chuckles nervously, "Oh, yeah—Guess I'm just, easy to miss you know?"

"Uh huh…" Danny eyes the guy and his piercings and very distinct style, from the tip of his clearly styled hair and needlessly ostentatious big black studded boots. "…Right."

Conner laughs, wincing. "These're new. High school debut."

"…You're a freshman?" Danny tilts his head, squinting.

"Junior." Conner automatically corrects, before stiffening. "…I just wanted to reinvent myself for Junior Prom."

"Right." Danny repeats, drawing out the vowels and finally giving up. He can tell Conner already knows what Danny is going to ask, and is trying to exit this conversation post-haste.

Fortunately for Conner and unfortunately for Danny, Jazz comes barreling in, almost knocking the former out in the process as she grips the latter's biceps tightly with her eyes wide and nervous.

Unfortunately for Conner and fortunately for Danny, though the look in Jazz's eyes thoroughly distracts the latter and gives the former a window to escape, Jazz's hissed out words end up keeping Conner rooted to the floor.

"Baby Jon has powers!" Jazz hisses as she moves Danny away from the possible imposter a couple feet. Even though she says it low enough for only Danny to hear, Conner's wide eyes as he whips his gaze towards them suggests that Jon's not the only one with powers.

And then words actually register along with that thought.

Danny hisses out the first thing he thinks of. "Since when?? I thought he took after Aunt Lois!"

"Since now," Jazz gruffs, switching her grip to drag Danny away, "and I need you to do something about it!"

"What?" Danny doesn't struggle, going along even as he eyes Conner who seems to be following them at a distance. "Why?"

Jazz pushes him towards the kid's area, rushing out a frantic "He's in the bounce house with Ellie!"

Danny freezes, or tries to even as Jazz keeps tugging him along, before shaking off her hand and booking it towards the bounce house.

Once the bounce house (a castle) comes into view, Danny clocks several things in succession:

One: Ellie and Jon are thankfully the only ones in the bounce house right now.

Two: Ellie and Jon are laughing, and through the mesh Danny can see Ellie watching Jon jump way too high to be considered normal.

And three: The bounce house is about to fucking tip over.

There's a gaggle of Aunts herding the younger cousins towards the food that's dense enough for cover, but sparse enough for Danny to dash through.

Between one blink and the next, he disappears.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 84

Amity Park absolutely adores her little ghostling, her little Gatekeeper who was of her own ectoplasm, reborn from her own blood in the center of her new heart. She absolutely adores her baby, practically a newborn, being only a year dead! 

So of course she had to gush and boast about her little phantom to the other city spirits! They all got together to gossip sometimes after all. And both Smallville and Fawcett started to gush about their own little ones back! 

Gosh they should set up a playdate at some point, her little phantom could use some friends in the mortal realm. Well some more friends, three is obviously not enough. Oh, Gotham and Bludhaven have come over as well! It’s a playdate then! 

Now if only each of their world’s timelines were synced up, but at least everyone is around the same age! 

[novelistwriter]

The Bat's Desperation

DP x DC Prompt

The Justice League had defended the earth from an unknown foe that decided to attack the planet. But their retaliation came at a cost. Most of the members had died.

All of the Flashes went first, like the being knew of their ability to time travel, Dick had become like he was when he became Robin. He was full of anger upon seeing Wally's body. Then all of the Kryptonians went next, Damian and Tim had become enraged when they saw the bodies of Jon and Kon, and Bruce himself felt something like Rage when he saw Clark's body as well. And then, one by one, the Justice League, Justice League Dark, Teen Titans, Young Justice, and Outlaws fell against this being.

It took a while, but they finally defeated the being, but the only surviving members were Bruce, missing an arm and an eye. Constantine, who is close to the end of his life with how much he sacrificed to try and save the others. Beast Boy, the only surviving member of the Titans, he hasn't shifted into an animal after the being was beaten and had just shut down and moves on auto pilot. M'gann is also the sole surviving Young Justice member and Martian after J'onn sacrificed himself for her.

What hurts Bruce the most other than losing his eye and arm is the loss of his family. It's only just him and Alfred left of the Bat family. He can't even revive them with the Lazarus Pits because nothing of them remains.

He's heard John mention the Infinite Realms and the Ghost King during the battle with the being, but he didn't have enough time to summon that being. John had entrusted the means to summon the Ghost King to anyone that was left in the final fight they had with the being. Bruce is going to use those means to summon the Ghost King to bring back all those lives lost, at the cost of his own.

And now Bruce has made the proper summoning circle for the Ghost King. He was expecting something beyond human comprehension, not a man in purple robes, a clock in the beings chest, a staff in one hand, and a baby in the other.

"Greetings, Bruce Wayne, I know why you want to bargain with the Ghost King. But I am afraid that my King is reduced to this state by those that he thought were his family. He has no one else to turn to, as his friends and family that stuck with him had perished alongside him. I could only recover my king's core and turn him into this baby. I will give you the means to defeat the foe you faced with your friends and family when they had first arrived, but you must raise my King in life, and serve him in death."

That is what Bruce was told, and he had agreed to those terms. And before he knew it, he was back in the Manor, with the baby King in both of his arms and an Amulet hanging off of his neck that glows a green color that's shades lighter than the Lazarus Pits.

Those who deal with magic will know what Bruce has done when they see the Amulet around his neck. Danny will grow up again, not knowing of his previous life, and being a Halfa from the start of his life, rather than becoming one at 14.

[rottingghosty]

The Realms PR | DC X DP Part 2

this isn’t as good in my thoughts because writing as bruce??? really hard. how am i supposed to write a paranoid man if i am the most chillest person i can be… anyway heres your part 2 food of this au, not sure if i’ll continue writing more parts? depends on how i feel.

errors are made and sorry the the lackluster performance this might be

if you want to use my prompt please give me credits thank you

☁️☁️☁️☁️

Danny very much prefers to have nobody intervene on his business as the vigilante of Amity Park. He’s essentially called dibs on it if you consider the fact that the entire town is basically his metaphorical grave since it’s his haunt and he did die to make the portal to the Ghost Zone open. He very much ignores that specific can of worms because that’s a heavy topic that he won’t ever talk about because Spectra really ruined his own outlook on professionals. Jazz will most likely want to open that can but that’s for future Danny.

Where was he? Oh yeah.

Danny very much likes being a solo hero with his friends and sister aiding when they can. He very much dislikes the fact that people have been trying to enter his haunt without permission. Does he know why people who tried to pass through Amity Park suddenly find themselves back at where the welcome sign is? No. Is he going to ask? Also no because it allows the residents and himself privacy even when he’s got the GIW on his tail or even his own parents.

He’s not going to rebuke this gift especially with his influx of fame. Which reminds Danny that he needs to post a new tweet, maybe a video of Cujo playing with the kids in the park from a few days ago? He figures people would be more interested if they knew a ghost dog existed. Maybe he can include one of Ember’s concerts or something.

Man he has so many videos to post and such little time to do so, but he thinks Sam and Tucker are having fun being his PR team with the way Sam had a manic gleam in her eyes when Lois Lane and Clark Kent sent her a message of twitter asking for an interview. All while Tucker basically going giddy at Red Robin and Oracle trying to get through the firewall that’s blocking Amity Park from eyes being too close for all their comforts.

Bruce Wayne stared intently at the video before him, it was only thirty seconds but it was thirty seconds enough to cause him to tighten his grip on the arm rests of his chair in the Batcave. His blue eyes staring down at the figure in the video as it replayed on loop. His shoulders tense and bunched up as he inhaled sharply at the frame that happened ten seconds in.

Because right there, staring up at the camera looked too much like Jason. It looked too much like his boy, his son that he had lost when Jason was only fifteen. Normally he would’ve brushed it off but it was the way that it then shifted into Dick, Steph, Tim and then Damian—

Ancient of Hope is what Phantom had called them, the embodiment of hope and how its form switched to what people believed in. Apparently it looked so much like the Robins of Gotham because Gotham was— is the biggest source of hope there is. Yet, this was an unknown.

Bruce couldn’t trust a word that Phantom said, ghosts are an unknown. Trying to get Constantine to talk about it was a struggle itself, the equivalent of trying to pull teeth out because the man was equally as stubborn as Bruce and it was even worse when the man had cursed up a storm when they had a meeting about Phantom’s first videos.

Ghosts are a variable in an equation that Bruce is trying to solve but he simply can’t force his way into solving it, not when this whole thing has turned into a diplomatic nightmare with the fact that Oa has started pressuring the US government about the mistreatment of the Infinite Realms beings.

The Justice League Dark even adding in the pressure— Deadman being one of the more outspoken members as he explained as much as he knew about the Infinite Realms despite not quite qualifying as one of their residents but still considered as one in an odd way. Constantine grumbling about as he came and went, saying how the Ghost Investigation Ward could’ve started a war or destroyed everyone.

Clark and Lane were writing up articles, having conversations with the PR Team of Phantom— two teenagers who were involved heavily and considered ambassadors to the Realms because of their connection to Phantom.

Phantom who is the High King. Phantom who doesn’t want his subjects hunted anymore and took a peaceful route instead of simply declaring war.

Bruce takes a heavier breath, jaw clenched as he watched the video loop one more time before the closed the tab to look more into the GIW and their backers, eyes narrowing in two names.

Vladimir Masters and Lex Luthor.

[zylev-blog]

Ellie has gotten in trouble every day this week at school. She keeps fist fighting this rich kid, Damian Wayne. Danny is not thrilled with this, and genuinely has no idea why Damian makes Ellie’s blood boil the way it does. (Nobody knows that it’s the Lazarus out corruption reacting to Ellie’s ghost half.) all Danny knows is that Ellie keeps throwing hands, and he’s worried that Bruce Wayne might try to sue him if he doesn’t get his daughter under control. He wouldn’t ever financially recover from that, and he actually likes this dimension.

Bruce can’t get a clear answer to why Damian hates this girl. At first he thought it might be his son’s first teenage crush, but he genuinely didn’t know anymore.

The two dads sit down in a meeting with the school board. Both kids will be suspended, and if they continue to fight, both kids will be expelled. So Bruce and Danny take this matter into their own hands. Twice a week Damian will come to Danny’s two bedroom apartment to spend time with Ellie outside of class. Twice a week, Ellie will go over to Wayne Manor. The alternate three days of the week, the teens are free to do whatever they want.

The first month goes terribly. Danny’s apartment nearly gets burned down, and he is 100% sure that he will not get his security deposit back. On the other hand, the kids have plenty of room to run around Wayne manor, but that doesn’t stop the fire department from being called, and for Bruce to have to lay off his gardener when Damian and Ellie cut up the backyard with Damian’s “fake” swords.

By month two, things are faring better. Bruce and Danny decided to watch the kids together one day of the week, and they had gotten to talking. Turns out that Danny could see straight through Brucie’s persona, so Bruce didn’t have to pretend to be an airhead. The two dads become fast friends once Bruce is sure that Danny isn’t after his money.

By month three, things are improving. The two teens are still not friends, but they’ve moved on from trying to kill each other…most of the time. As the weather got warmer, they tended to play by the pool. After multiple drowning attempts, they had to ban the kids from the pool. Damian had also had his swords confiscated after he tried to maim Ellie with them.

Bruce suggests a camping trip on month four with another family called the Kents. Danny and Ellie agree, and the group hike deep into the mountains. To nobody’s suprise, Ellie and Damian encounter a bear. But before Damian could warn Clark or Bruce, Ellie had climbed on top of the bear and wrestled it to the ground, all while cackling madly.

By month five, Damian and Ellie had gotten closer and had finally become friends. They didn’t seek each others presence, but stopped their attempts to kill each other by that point. Jon had been hanging around the duo after the camping trip. Jon and Ellie were fast friends. Clark was delighted to have another dad friend who totally understood how destructive kids could be.

At month six, the trio were close friends. Damian and Ellie hadn’t fought in a few weeks, so all of the adults counted the situation as a success.

[lexi-rp95]

Lexi was visiting Metropolis to see how Kon has been holding up after leaving Cadmus. She over heard from Tim about Luthor harassing him after finding out about some breach in that stupid lab of his. She looked off to the side as she heard a slight chirpy sound mixed with a a few rumbles. She slowly moved into the alley trying to signal back that she was friendly. She frowned as she looked ahead spotting two figures. One looked about 13-15 years old, and the other seemed to be about 3 or so. "Hey, are you two okay? I over heard the chirps and rumbles." She said before making her own chirp noises to signal she was friendly thanking her friend Danny for sharing that talent back at Reaper High.

The little three year old smiles as he recognized the chirps signaling to their older sibling that she was a friend. Lexi smiles seeing the older sibling relax. The little three year old walked up to Lexi holding what she assumed was his brother's hand. "Am I glad to see you. Lexi, it's me Danny! This is my somewhat older brother Match." Danny gestured to the older boy before telling her about being reincarnated and finding out he was a clone knowing she would understand.

"Clockwork wanted you to have a shot at a semi normal life away from ghost duties for a while, but placed you in a super clone. I can help you guys out. I have a place just a little between Gotham and Metropolis so we won't be involved in too many hero things. Last thing we need is Bruce or his boys being paranoid. Besides, I have plenty of room for both of you. Is that alright with you Match? I know the last few people you've met weren't the nicest, and I will try to help any way I can."

Match looked between Danny and Lexi before nodding yes happy to finally start to feel safe.

Danny has been reincarnated.

Which was an odd thing to realize, it wasn't even a slow one he just... snapped into it one day. One moment he was staring at a wall out of boredom the next, well, he was staring for an entirely different reason.

It was a task for his now young -he thinks around three years old?- mind to work its way through the memories, but it wasn't like he had much else to do honestly. So, what does he know?

His name is Danny, like, his actual name and not just a moniker. He was once a halfa and he already knows he's going to be missing invisibility and intangibility. He, well, died. For like, a second time which actually makes sense because reincarnation-

Anyways.

He was a clone of two people from this thing called the Justice League which, weird name but probably some government or activist group. Wonder Woman and Superman. Which were pretty weird names to name your kids but eh.

He doesn't really remember much besides that from this life, or the one from before but he's an adult! He'll figure things out once he gets out of this containment tube thing.

Did he mention he was in a test tube? He's a tube baby now. He thinks? Or maybe it's more like he's being contained.

Whatever.

So he breaks out. Thank you apparent superstrength that he has no idea why he has but he's not going to complain! He then wandered around all of the other test tubes, able to remember just enough of English to see that yea, they're dead.

He probably was too, before he had memories zapped into him. Or a vegetable.

He then finds this really big container, checks it out, then opens it because the clone inside isn't dead!

'Project Match' it said. He'll just call him Match.

Was he thanked for helping him? Nope. You would think that he would be thanked or at least somewhat respected for saving this guy but nope!

He was, quite literally, held up by his leg and dangled in the air. Who dangles a three-year-old?! Well, he was technically and adult but still! The next few things were a blur but after pulling off the old Fenton charm he found him and Match outside as he tried to stop him from attacking random people.

Luckily the charms and privilege of the youngest (he's assuming he's the youngest, because he's physically three) was more than enough to get through to him. Sure, the guy couldn't form words, really aggressive for literally no reason, really weird but also absolutely cool looking eyes. But he worked around the first issue by developing their own personal language from like grunts and stuff, the second he once again used his youngest privilege to boss him around and the third a pair of sunglasses easily fixed.

He just had to steer Match clear of those random S crest mark thingies. Which was a weird thing to hate but hey, he's not there to judge.

[impyssadobsessions]

DPXDC Prompt: Supersons + 1

What if Jack became friends with Clark and Bruce. And Danny accidentally becomes apart of the Supersons.

Jack takes Danny with him on a trip to visit his friends- just for it to turn into a playdate. But it isn't long for the cat to come out the bag especially since Danny's rogues can sniff him out.

So now all three are trapped in the ghost zone and this is way more than Danny wanted to reveal with day one "friends" . (maybe its walker)

And their dads having to come find them. Jack leading the charge because he has no idea Clark and Bruce are superheroes LOL But he knows ghosts when he sees them >:U

Could also be a good moment to have good dad Jack- one that once he knows Danny's phantom is immediately wait.. that's my son… MY SON? IM COMING DANNO!

Imagine just very heartfelt. Jack learns to reconnect with his son- Danny has more connections and now protection. Jon is happy to have a flying friend. And Damian still appalled Danny's bad at his identity. "It works because most people wouldn't think I'm dead." "Except for other ghosts?" "I told you that's not something I can avoid >:T." And be even funnier if Clark and Bruce had to go along with Jack WITHOUT being super. Even Jack doesn't find out about them. Which Danny is fine with keeping secret. So they have to work off of limited unsettling tech and still pretend they're a good shot because of other reasons.. or hits. Imagine Jack is like sensitive to Bruce's parents death like OH WAIT- sorry Clark you take these. Brucie, I got the boo-merang and the anti-ghost staff somewhere. That's my wife's favorite. uwu Jack also the reason they couldn't slip away into hereos because he dragged them along shouting FLITHY SPOOK! GIVE ME BACK OUR SONS!... in the Fenton RV... so imagine they had... Quite a ride.

[dcxdpdabbles]

Always the bridesmaid never the bride

I'm not going to lie. I forgot if this was a prompt or a response to something I posted since I got it back before Thanksgiving. But if it's the former then:

Danny says this to Bruce at Clark and Lois' wedding. He is convinced Bruce is in love- or in lust, at the least- with Clark because the wealthy man constantly popped up at their office for important "business" and "private exclusive" interviews.

Now, Danny won't lie and say he's a better journalist than Clark or Lois- those two are the top two of the Daily Planet. There is a reason almost all Superman stories are covered by them- but he's darn good himself. After retiring from protecting his town from Ghosts, he's only ever used his powers scarcely, but they have helped him with a few articles here or there.

His career as a reporting journalist was mainly made by his ability to stumble across trouble alone! Danny had won awards for his articles. He has been included in a city time capsule project.

Danny got the scoop on Jason Todd being alive story way before everyone else. After realizing the boy was in witness protection, he hadn't even exposed it without speaking to Mr.Wayne first. The man was nothing like the tabloids had one believe. Danny found him a severely intelligent man with a deep love for his family and city. He just distracted people with his razzle and dazzle, hiding his beautiful soul in plain sight.

It had been an eye-opening conversation. The duo made a deal to wait until Jason was safe to be announced; Danny waited three whole months before he was greenlighted to release his story. Jason Todd had officially "returned" from the dead with an exclusive interview with Danny Fenton.

Danny honored and protected his dignity by writing a story that made the public love the returned young man. He hated reporters who only dragged people's names through the mud because that wasn't real investigation; that was just accepting the latest gossip on the streets.

Bruce was so grateful that Danny hadn't put his son in danger that he even gave Danny a business card that went to his home office!

And yeah, okay, Clark had Bruce's personal cellphone, but Danny just couldn't understand why the billionaire was so hung up on Clark Kent. It wasn't like the guy was Superman!

And maybe he was overly happy to find out Clark and Lois were an item. Sure that someone as good as Bruce, for all his facade of being a party boy who never grew up, would never chase a taken man. Danny had been right, too, because Bruce Wayne appeared less and less around the Daily Plant office.

It was.....sad not to see him, but Danny was a very busy journalist. He was grateful that the distraction had finally taken the hint and scurried off somewhere. What irked him in the following year and a half of Clark and Lois dating was how often Perry signed the two to cover Gotham News.

Mostly at one of Bruce Wayne's extravagant parties! Yeah, it was sort of cool that most of Bruce's parties were charity events. He had checked the numbers himself, finding that Bruce's efforts were honest and working to better his city. How many billionaires actually kept their word when wanting to be a philanthropist?

Of course, Danny had to write a piece on it. The people needed to see the positive change Bruce was making. Sometimes, it felt like people forgot how much he gave to the city. The article went viral, and people on the other side of the world were praising the good man Bruce.

Perry had given Danny a raise for it.

Clark had ruined that significant mark on his record by placing a wrap present on his desk with a wide grin. Apparently, the two had gone on a yacht trip together without Lois or Bruce's significant other. Whoever that was. "Bruce wanted me to give you this as a thanks."

Ugh, the smug asshole was just rubbing it in Danny's face that he was still friends with his ex. The present had been a shitty ship in a bottle that Danny had placed beside his writing awards in his living room. You know it would be a waste to just throw it out.

Or let it get dusty. Or not stare at and wonder if Bruce knew he liked pirate movies, so the fact he had a model replica of Captain Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl made for Danny was really no big deal.

Then Bruce came by the office after buying out the Daily Planet, giving Clark a month's vacation paid due to some "family emergency."

Danny had been worried about Ma Kent and Pa Kent- the pair had visited the Daily Planet and were the nicest people to ever walk the planet- so like the well-mannered man his mother raised, he had gone to the farm with some of his Dad's famous fudge. Only to find the Kents unaware there was an emergency in the family until Danny reminded them.

He had been a journalist long enough to call bull on their meaningful glances. Danny knew that neither Bruce nor Clark would dare cheat on Lois. They were both too good for something as sleazy as that- and honestly, Lois would kill them- but that didn't stop Bruce from obviously still carrying around a torch for Clark.

Which meant he gave him unfairly favorable treatment in the workplace. Ugh! Perry didn't even seem to care, stating that Bruce had signed their paychecks, and as long as he wasn't forcing Clark into anything harassment-worthy, Danny just had to deal with his coworkers having friends in high places.

That meant they got away with different things. He just had to suck it up and accept it.

But now, Clark and Lois tied the knot. Bruce had to back off. He would never overstep a friend's relationship like this. Danny might have seen him sneak a few glances at the dancing couple- not that he was staring at Bruce Wayne! But the man was one of the hottest topics to write about, and he never knew when a good story would pop up.

It was rather sad, really. How Bruce forced himself to come to a celebration of the man he loved marrying and choosing someone else. Danny had dedicated a drink to his heartbreak- from clear across the room.

He wasn't on a personal cellphone number basis with Bruce Wayne, let's allow a "Drink your broken heart sorrow away with me" basis. And maybe Danny had a few too many. Perhaps he lost count after realizing it was an open bar because, surprise surprise, Bruce was footing the drink bill for all guests.

Danny doesn't remember what made him think he could cross the room to Bruce or why he found the courage to point a finger in his face before slurring, "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, eh Brucie?"

He does remember those piecing blue eyes locking him in place, brow folding in concern as Bruce replied. "Mr. Fenton, are you alright?"

"Me? Oh yeah! Just enjoying the party." He throws his arm up, spilling some of the alcohol out of the cup. He doesn't mind since the DJ starts to play one of his favorite songs, and he just has to sway to the beat. "This is a fun party. Are you having fun? I'm having fun!"

"I think you've had a little too much," Bruce says, helping Danny to his feet. When did he fall? Oh, right, when he was dancing. He laughs again, curling up on Bruce's chest. He feels it shift with the vibrations of the other man's voice. It's rather nice. "Did you come alone? Is there someone I can call for you?"

"Can I tell you a secret, Brucie?" Danny mutters, leaning forward to whisper into the man's ear before he can respond. "I live alone. I have no one to take care of me. I can't even drive."

"I see. I can have my driver take you home then. Can I see your wallet? I want to read the address-"

Danny has a second to think Oh no before his stomach lurches, and vomit falls out of his mouth all over Bruce Wayne's fancy suit that probably costs more than his house. Danny's eyes water. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't usually drink, and I feel terrible, and I-"

"It's alright. " Bruce says, smile still perfectly kind, understanding, and slightly dizzy. Danny knows he's lying, though- his reporter eyes can see right through that facade. He's pissed that Danny threw up on him. Understandably.

He starts sobbing, apologizing even more, and pointing out how he knows Bruce is actually upset.

Bruce looks mildly surprised before throwing one of his arms over his shoulder and helping him out of the hotel ballroom. The reception had started hours ago, and despite it not being anywhere near over, no one would bat an eye at them leaving early.

They were walking down the hallway. Danny found himself leaning on a counter, laughing into his hands about a potted plant, while Bruce chatted up the lady at a computer. He told the pair that Bruce should rebound with a man instead of a woman if he wanted to get over Clark but was ignored by them.

Rude.

Then suddenly, Danny was being pressed into a soft mattress on his back while someone was taking off his shoes and losing his tie. When did he get home? How had he moved that quickly?

This didn't feel like his pillow. Danny has a special one. He can't sleep with it. He packs his pillow when he travels, even if it's just one night he plans to stay. Danny has used the same pillow for years now.

"I'm sorry, I can't get your special pillow, but I can give you lots of water." A man says, making Danny blink and open his eyes. His eyelids feel so heavy that it takes him a moment to stay open.

Above him, Bruce is carefully unbuttoning his suit jacket. The billionaire had removed his own coat, but the vomit-covered white shirt remains. Danny feels ashamed at the sight even as Bruce pulls his arms out of the jacket sleeves.

"Sorry," He whimpers. "About the vomit."

"It's alright. You needed to throw up. Do you feel better?"

Danny nods, closing his eyes and feeling a warm towel run along his face. He sighed as the sticky, gross feeling around his mouth was gone, and he sank further into the Not Right But Comfty pillow.

"Sleep well, Mr. Fenton," Bruce says, tucking the blankets around Danny once he finishes cleaning him up. Danny hums, already half gone, when he whispers.

"You're a good man. No matter what you present to the world. No matter if you believe you're not, I know you're good."

There is a moment of silence before Bruce replies. "I paid for the hotel room. It comes with a free breakfast, so when you're feeling up to it, come down for food tomorrow. Have a good night, Mr. Fenton."

"Stay?"

"I'm sorry. I never intended to stay; I just wanted to get you somewhere safe. Going home in your state would have been a bad idea."

Danny's words are nearly too slurried to be understood as he slowly slips away: "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, Fenton. Bruce would never want you."

He wakes up with a killer hangover, confused about where the hell he is, and almost has a heart attack when he realizes he crumpled up the suit pants he rented. All that is so hard to process in thirty seconds that he nearly missed the written note on the nightstand.

Call me xxx-xxx-xxxx

XOXO

Bruce Wayne

What in the world happened at Clark's and Lois's wedding!?