England flicked on the lighter, sighing as he put the cigarette to his lip. The cool night air prickled his skin, England’s heart hammering as his eyes slid shut. Just a few moments and he would forget the din of the meeting, forget the way the back of the seat dug into his spine, forget the way those words dug like dogs teeth.
“Smoking's bad for your lungs, England.” Came a gruff, yet gentle voice, Scotland approaching him and crossing his arms over his chest.
“Sticking a fucking claymore through my lungs is bad for them too, but that didn’t stop you-!” England snarled, as tense as a coil as he whirled around. “I-“ He saw how tired Scotland looked, and unclenched his fists. “Are you okay?”
Scotland rolled his eyes. ''You deserved it then.'' He sighed, shaking his head. ''And you say that like you weren't trying to cave in my skull then.'' Scotland pointed out, watching England scoff and turn away, back ram-rod straight. ''And no. If I'm being frank, I'm not okay.'' He growled. ''You stormed off in the middle of the meeting. Aren't you going to take things a little more seriously, England?''
''I am.'' England hissed. ''You don't know shit.''
''Only cause you never tell me anything.'' Scotland grumbled. ''Now, what is your problem?''
England cast him a fierce glare, shuffling to the side. As the streetlight flickered, bathing the shadows in a warm glow, England's expression softened slightly. ''Don't you fucking know anything? Everything and anything is my problem.'' He bit his tongue, fighting back his brother's name on his tongue. ''And I'm the one you're telling to take things more seriously! I'm the one in charge here-!''
''You're also the one who fucking landed us into this situation. Don't act like a child just because something you wanted didn't go how you planned.'' Scotland snapped, reaching out and grabbing England's cigarette and casting it into the damp street. ''And stop smoking, you fucking eejit.'' He sighed. ''Will you go back in, please? We're not finished.''
England's eyes bugged for a moment, gaping at Scotland with a quiet outrage. ''No. I'm not going back in. I'm done here, Scotland, and for your sake, you better piss off right now.'' He ground out, clenching and unclenching his knuckles. Damnit. And he was just calming down too. ''I'm finished. You lot can just carry on without me, or do you need me to hold your fucking hand?''
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Another small Clone^2 thought
Danny's hands are scarred.
Really, every part of him is. His arms, his legs, his torso. All of them littered in nicks and scratches and scabs that he's picked at over, and over, and over again. And then bigger ones, jagged scars from debris stabbing at him, and burns of ectoplasm blasts that melted through his regular clothes and hit his skin.
The one thing that never really got scarred were his hands. They were callused, of course, from all his climbing, and hitting, and hanging on for dear life to things. But never really scarred, not really. Maybe he just got lucky, maybe it was the fact that he wore gloves and they leather, and leather is harder to get through than cotton. Maybe both.
But, well, that's no longer case. But the scars on his hands take place on his palms. Two clean, thick lines going diagonally over his palms. Not from any enemy he's ever faced, but proof of his meeting with the little boy sitting between his knees, running his tiny fingers over those same scars.
Damian, his little brother. He scarred them, with that katana of his.
First when they first met, when Damian called him an imposter and proceeded to attack him. It was really only from Danny's exposure to the quick movements of ghosts that kept him from getting shish-kabob'd by Damian's sword.
And it was only because he was an idiot, and his brain was not faster than those reflexes that he kept grabbing the blade with his hands. That it kept cutting into that leather until it started cutting skin.
And then numerous times over on those rocky first months of Damian staying with him, when he didn't know any English, and Danny didn't know any Arabic. When Danny would piss him off or go looking for him when he ran off, he would have to grab his katana while Damian was swinging it at him.
His hands wouldn't heal for months because of it. The wounds kept being re-opened. Kept bleeding. Kept hurting. Until they slowly stopped hurting, and he knew that it wasn't a good thing.
Danny's parents were very upset when they saw his hands. It was hard to lie about where he got them - the lines are too clean, too consistent, to have been accidents. Danny didn't know how to lie and say it wasn't because of Damian. That it wasn't his katana that they knew nothing about that was stained with his blood.
He found a way to anyways, because he thought Damian was worth it at the time. He was a kid. He was scared. He was hurting other people and that's all he was ever taught to do.
So Danny thought a little pain was worth it.
(He still does.)
Oh, fun fact. There are three nerves in the human hand. the radial nerve, the median nerve, and the ulnar nerve. From what he could find on it, the ulnar nerve traveled up into the pinky and the ring finger, the median went through the middle of the palm and the ring, the middle, and the index, and the radial nerve went into the thumb and the index.
Fun fact, did you know consistent (or deep enough) lacerations to the palm could end up cutting a nerve? And that such lacerations can cause numbness, loss of feeling, and weakness in the hand, fingers, and thumb?
Here's a final fun fact: Danny had to go to physical therapy after his hands finally began to heal. Because Damian's katana had cut his radial nerve. There are seventeen thousands touch receptors in the hand, Danny's lost some of those.
His hands still hurt when he closes and opens them, the scarring pinches a little. He doesn't know why but his fingers hurt now when its too humid or too cold, or when its about to rain. It sucks. It's worth it.
He lied about before; here's the final fun fact:
There is a deeply, deeply, guilty look on Damian's face as he runs his little hands over Danny's scarred palms, carefully closing and opening his fingers in a slow rendition of his physical therapy workouts.
(Because even if it's ended, he still has to do them. Pain doesn't go away even if it's healed.)
"I'm sorry." Damian says in a meek, thick voice. He's said it before, when they've done this before at all hours of the day. Danny's wondering if Damian does it on purpose - hurt himself with this, that is. Not apologize. "I hurt you."
Danny sighs, deeply, and leans forward to press his face into his little brother's hair. "It's okay." He mutters, again. And he'll say it again, and again, and again, until Damian finally believes him. "I'm not mad."
"I am." Damian insists, his voice wobbles. "I hurt you, Danny."
"And I say it's okay that you did, Damian." Danny repeats, and wraps an arm around Damian's middle to sit him on his leg. Damian doesn't look at him, just curls his fingers around Danny's other hand and looks at the scar there. "Like I said, I'm not mad. I would do it again."
"Do not."
So, Danny's hands are scarred.
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@brieflyimpossiblecreation Fun! I did end up going with a more human but to the left character design to fit in better with my idea of where they were in cannon. Part two
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To say that things had gone terribly would be an understatement. The Ghost Investigation Ward had tried out their latest Weapon of Mass Destruction™️ meant to tear a hole open into the Infinite Realms so they could send in a different WoMD™️ (they clearly hadn't taken the Fenton's refusal to give them access to their portal well)
Fortunately for Team Phantom the Weapon didn't actually open a hole into the Infinite Realms.
Unfortunately for Team Phantom it did open a interdimensional portal to somewhere. And because Danny seemed to be lucks favorite punching bag he was sucked into said portal. Naturally Sam and Tucker were pulled in as well, because they were Ride or Die definitely not because they had been too close to get away in time; really.
While Danny's luck was bad Sam and Tucker had relatively decent luck which seemed to help cancel it out giving them the advantage of falling into a cornfield; a blow Sam was able to soften with usage of her power courtesy of being an exemplary host for Undergrowth.
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A man waded through piles of snapped corn stalks. He'd been on his early morning rounds when the crash had sounded in the early morning quiet.
As he came upon the crash site he noticed three small bodies, small compared to those he interacted with in the daily to be exact. Three teenagers stared back at him. All three had eyes so bright they were almost neon and slightly pointed ears. The one who's skin was tinted a blue color appeared to have fangs. The one with the neon violet eyes and hair so dark it seemed to suck the shadows into was looking at the corn that leaned towards her like sunflowers to the sun. The last, who smelled of a hot desert day and had breath thag sounded like radio static opened his mouth but the man spoke before he had the chance.
"Martha! Get the guest rooms ready. It happened again!"
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Okay so I’ve been reading a lot of reverse robin AUs recently and I have a hot take. Duke Thomas should be the Dick Grayson parallel instead of Damian.
Hear me out. So bare bones Duke was the last to join in cannon, so he should be the first to join for reverse robins. But to get deeper into it Duke lost both of his parents at the same time setting him down a path of becoming a vigilante. He becomes Bruce’s ward instead of being adopted because he already was raised with two good parents and doesn’t want them to be replaced. He also created his own mantle that was the opposite to Batman, the light to Batman’s dark, inspiring hope against Batman’s fear. He’s friendly and works well and inspires others, but also extremely sharp and smart which people often forget.
Damian would work well as a batgirl parallel more. He would join after Duke but be a few years older, got there already trained and immediately jumping into crime fighting. Covering the areas that Bruce and Duke don’t fill. While Duke takes up his own name Damian would use a name more inspired by Batman himself.
I just think this dynamic of Bruce and Duke being the first dynamic duo would fit so well (also get to spotlight Duke who so often gets overlooked).
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