#and here i need to remember to add ppl to the taglist :p

[petite-phthora]

I'm sorry

[DP x DC fic]

[Love at first… murder? - part 20]

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Part 1

Ao3

---

The moment their lips touch, the feeling of the Pit washes over Jason, drowning out everything around him. They jerk away from each other. Two pairs of toxic green glowing eyes meet.

Jason feels as if he's disassociating as he speaks.

“You’ve died?”

It’s too much.

Everything is too much.

After a week of not feeling much from the Pit except for calmness and contentment, the sudden spike is jarring. All he can think about is how it’s back. He let his guard down, and now the Pit is acting out at full capacity again. Overwhelming his senses. Overwhelming him.

Though it's not rage.

It’s something else…

Joy? Exhilaration? Recognition? Reverence?

He can’t tell. And it doesn’t matter.

It’s back. It’s in control. He can’t help it. He can’t stop it.

But he also can’t let it hurt someone. Not again. He can’t let himself hurt someone. He can’t let himself hurt Danny.

Jason has a gun in his hand.

He hadn’t been aware he had pulled it out. But now he is acutely aware of the gun he has pointed at himself.

His hands are trembling.

 “—How'd it even happen? I didn’t think—“

Danny is rambling on about something. Jason doesn’t listen. He can’t listen. He’s dazed from the Pit madness— Though it’s not really madness at this point, is it?

Insanity? Lunacy? Craziness? Hysteria?

Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. He can’t see anything but green.

“—so glad we’re the same, this is great news! It makes everything so much easier!—“   

Danny keeps speaking to him.

As he thinks about Danny again, the Pit hones in on him.

Danny.

It all started with him.

The change in the Pit… The change in his feelings…  

The change in him…

Somehow, someway Danny is the focus point. He’s at the center of it all. He knows something. He’s the one that started this— this—

Madness.

Jason wrenches back control over his arm and redirects what he’s aiming at.

He points the gun at Danny.

“—she saw I was her new patient clearly. But hey, th—”

His hands are still shaking.

His vision as green at the Pit.

"What is happening to me?"

---

Well fuck.

Danny thinks to himself

Danny is completely still as he gazes in Jason’s direction. He eyes the gun for a second before dismissing it and locking eyes. It’s not like it can seriously hurt him, and it seems to be a comfort for whatever is going on with Jason.

Speaking of…

“Jason—”

Danny gets cut off by a bullet to the leg. He instinctively turns intangible, the bullet getting embedded in the ground underneath him.

It’s silent as they both stare at the spot in the ground the bullet hit.

Danny opens his mouth to speak again but gets cut off but another bullet shot, quite literally, through his leg.

“Jason—“

Jason isn’t listening. Instead, he has pulled out a second gun and shoots that one at Danny as well, getting the same result. He lets out a frustrated sound before dumping both guns on the ground as he grabs another weapon.

“Ja—”

A Batarang through the head shuts Danny back up again. Danny lets out a small breath before just deciding to wait it out.

Jason seems to be considering his weapons before his eyes land on his watch.

“Don’t worry though! While it may look a little dangerous, it’s actually quite harmless to living humans!”

He glances between the watch and Danny a few times. Danny notices this and comes to the same realization. He tenses, and that’s all the confirmation Jason needs.

He aims the watch at Danny.

Danny does not move.

It’s silent for a few tense moments.

“Well? Start talking.” Jason’s voice cuts through the silence.

Danny says nothing for a few seconds, considering where he should start.

“Well, ever since I was born, my parents—” He cuts himself off with a yelp as he quickly moves his legs. The toxic green laser shot from the watch just barely missing his leg and instead singeing the ground between his legs.

“Dude—”

“Get to the point.”

“I’ll have you know this is all very important background information!" Danny pouts for a second before quickly getting back on track when Jason shoots him a look.

“So, my parents are self-proclaimed ecto-biologists. Have been my entire life—”

“The hell is an ecto-biologist?”

“I’m getting to that! You know, interrupting me constantly won’t—”

Another laser shot, this one doesn’t miss and hits Danny’s shin. He lets out a small his of pain. It’s not too bad, but it still burns.

“Alright, alright! So uhh, ecto-biologists. Yeah, so my parents are basically scientists specializing in the field of the supernatural, and in particular, ghosts, also known as ectoplasmic beings.

“An ectoplasmic being is called as such because they are made, either entirely or partially, of ectoplasm.

“Wait, do you even know about ectoplasm? You should probably know about ectoplasm. You know, toxic, green, glowing—“

At the description Jason tenses, but does not fire.

“Right, okay so you do know—”

“What do you know about the Lazarus pits?”

Danny, who has never heard of the Lazarus Pits before, gets unnecessarily defensive.

“What do you know about the Lazarus pits?” he asks in an accusatory tone with narrowed eyes. He crosses his arms and points a finger at Jason for good measure, forgetting about the watch ray still pointed at him.

Naturally, he gets shot.

“Ouch! Ah fuck, okay, okay. I’ll talk. Damn. That thing hurts, you know!”

“That’s the whole point.”

“Anyway, I have never heard of these Lazarus Pits before. I’m referring to ectoplasm. It’s the stuff we— ghosts are made of. My parents have always been fascinated by ghosts. They wanted to study them.

“The problem being that they had never even actually seen a ghost before, and so they have been trying to build a portal into the Ghost Zone—”

“The fucking ‘Ghost Zone’?” Jason cuts in incredulously.

“Ghost Zone, Infinite Realms, the In-Between, Purgatory, whatever you want to call it. It’s the in-between of every single universe and dimension, the glue between realities, yada yada yada.

“It just so happens to be the place where ecto-beings, ghosts, reside. And my parents wanted in. Their portal was their life work, and when they finally finished it and plugged it in it… didn’t work…”

“Right…” Jason’s tone is dry, his expression full of suspicion and doubt about the story Danny is telling.

Danny resolutely pushes on.

“So, being dumb teens, me and my friends went to check it out…” Danny takes a breath to steady himself, hugging his knees and gaze turning to the ground.

“I— my friend dared me to go inside. It would be a cool picture, you know? And it didn’t work. My parents’ inventions never worked— So yeah, I uh, I stepped inside…

“The inside was awfully roomy and awfully dark… So I went in further and I— I happened to trip on a cable.”

Danny doesn’t notice himself trembling slightly. Doesn’t notice his breath quickening. Doesn’t notice Jason’s frown.

“Naturally, I tried to catch myself. I tried to steady myself using the wall but…” He lets out a small laugh. “Should’ve known there was an on button on the inside…”

“D—” Jason tries to speak up but Danny doesn’t hear him, staring at nothing as he continues.

“And then my vision filled with green.”

---

The green in Jason’s vision has dimmed.

Jason frowns as he watches Danny stare into the distance, his eyes glowing green. He’s trembling, and Jason wants nothing more than to go over there and hug him, to comfort him, but…

He takes a deep breath and keeps the watch ray steadily pointed at Danny.

He can’t.

Not right now.

First, he needs to hear him out.

---

“Danny” Jason calls out to him.

Danny blinks. He looks around for a moment before taking a steadying breath.

“Right, right. You wanted the story. Right, so… While my parents had plugged the portal in, they had built the on button on the inside of the portal and then promptly forgotten it was there…

“So the portal turned on with me inside. Thousands of volts of electricity ran through my body. Green as far as I could see, as far as I could feel, as far as I could touch…

“I don’t know how long I was in there for. Screaming, as an interdimensional portal opened right on top of me... As my DNA was stripped from my body and rewritten into something other… As I died and got revived over and over and over again…”

Danny takes another few deep breaths, pausing in his speech. He runs a hand through his hair. He feels tired… heavy… mourning…

Two strong arms wrap around his body in a hug.

Danny leans his head against Jason’s shoulder.

He doesn’t cry. But neither speaks as they sit there, while the trembling in Danny’s form diminishes. Once it’s gone, Danny speaks up again.

“And then it stopped.”

“Danny—”

Danny shakes his head in response.

“No, no. It’s better to just… get it all out in the open now…”

Jason, while clearly disagreeing, keeps his mouth shut. Letting Danny choose whether or not to continue.

“So yeah. When it stopped, I fell out of the portal, different. I was a ghost, but also… not. I had died, but not quite all the way.

“I was a ghost, and human. Both dead and alive. Shrödinger’s boy, if you will. A halfa is what they me—call us— Half-alive… Half-dead…”

“And then… then they came through… Other ghosts…

“Now that the portal was open, they could reliably enter our world. Driven by Obsession, they would do anything they could to get what they wanted, often harming the living in the process. And that’s where I came back into the picture…

“No one could do anything to stop the ghosts. Yes, my parents were ghost hunters, but they weren’t all that… good at it… So I had to do something. I couldn’t let people get hurt when I was able to help, to do something.”

Danny pauses in his speech. After a while of sitting there in the embrace. Jason speaks up, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

“When I was 15, I died.”

 Danny listens, turning to look at Jason’s face. “I was trying to find my biological mom, and followed a lead to Ethiopia, but…

“It was a trap.”

Green tinges the corners of his vision but Jason pushes on.

“She was being blackmailed by the Joker and lured me there to— She— She handed me over to him…”

A deep, calming, breath.

“He beat me… over and over and over again, with a crowbar. And that wasn’t the icing on the cake, no!” Jason lets out a laugh “He blew the place up once he was done with me…”

Danny puts his hand on one of the tensed arms still holding him. Jason pauses, forcing himself to relax some before proceeding.

“Six months later, I crawled out of my own grave… I think I  wandered around aimlessly for a while, I don’t know. My mind wasn’t quite… there…

“Then, someone found me and put me in a Lazarus Pit… They’re these glowing green bubbling pits in the ground. They heal the sick and dying but kill the healthy.

“I don’t remember much from what happened back then.” He admits. “Everything was a green haze. The Pit, it— it took over my mind, my emotions, my control…

“Eventually, I made my way back here, to Gotham. I became the Red Hood, stealing one of the Joker’s old aliases as a big ol’ ‘Fuck you’ to him.

“I tried to get revenge… I failed… Became a crime lord, grudgingly reconnected with my family, etc., etc., all while trying to deal with the Pit.

“While I was in there, in the Lazarus Pits, it didn’t just bring back my mind, it— it changed me…

“Now, I can easily get irrationally angry over the smallest things. It’s like the Pit… latches onto my feelings, and increases the anger tenfold, I—

“I remember it all…” He takes a deep breath. “Whenever the Pit madness is in effect, whatever it makes me do while it has me under its control. When I’m lost in a raging green haze…”

“I remember…”

Danny moves up a bit in Jason’s hold. Putting his arms around Jason’s head and gently pulling him against his shoulder.

They hold each other.

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

---

Taglist:

@i-always-say-yea @uraniumwizard @why-must-i-be-like-this @griffinthing @i23432i @imsotiredfanficlovertm @jaguarthecat @arkita-shadow @noideawhatshappeninghelp @jaitwin5 @apple-juice16 @mossy-bonez

[ironmandeficiency]

pedro boys + spending habits

word count: fuck if i know, wrote it thru the app

characters: din, marcus m, dave, pero, marcus p, oberyn, max, frankie, whiskey, maxwell, javier, ezra

a/n: idk what caused this to happen but it works i guess. hope they make sense

✨support my ko-fi✨

trust him with your money, your drink, your social security number, everything:

din. this man is barely scraping by on his own when you first meet him. when he adds the kid to the mix, he gets even more frugal than he already is with an old as sin ship that many people are surprised to see fly. he will have a policy of “you earn it, you choose what to do with it” and since he goes after most of (if not all) the bounties to keep you all alive, he has the final say in how most of the credits are spent. he does want you to have nice things though, so he makes sure to configure the budget to where you don’t have to pour your credits into the group’s survival money very often. it’s the least he can do. he’s very big on taking care of his people and will show that in small ways.

marcus m. he’s a single dad for a significant amount of time, he has no choice but to be responsible with his money. he has to take care of missy, keep them both fed and housed and healthy, and that’s not even touching on how expensive all of high school graduation and college will be once she gets there. he teaches missy very early in life how important money is bc he doesn’t want her to ever know how it feels to not have enough. he makes a considerable amount of money w the heroics tho so he can afford to responsibly splurge on you both, but not constantly. is very cautious abt the splurging becoming a habit

dave. yeah he may be a murderer, but he’s scary great at managing his money (to continue being able to murder). he’s got his ex wife’s alimony (that still pisses him off but that’s another story) and two girls he takes care of, there’s no other choice for him either. there’s never a worry about dave having a midlife crisis and spending money on some stupid dad thing (like a motorcycle or assless chaps or a country club membership) because he murders to keep his mind off that sort of stuff. files his taxes diligently every year the day tax season starts and will pass this wisdom to the girls.

pero. he’s very good at judging if you need something or not. if it can’t feed you, keep you healthy, kill someone, or protect you, you don’t need to buy it. definitely not a man who indulges in trinkets and frivolous things that do nothing but weigh down his horse and his person. will encourage this way of thinking with whoever travels with him to whatever extent he can, but won’t be a dick about it if you have something sentimental on your person. if it’s a necessity, he will splurge on a bed and bath at an inn but not much else for a while. cheap because he has to be

marcus p. i don’t think i have to explain this one so i won’t. no i’m not being lazy who said that?

maybe you’ll be fine if he’s in charge. maybe:

oberyn. being a prince (and himself), there are different ways this could go. he spends his money frivolously at brothels & on his daughters + other loved ones (as well as other luxuries) and doesn’t really seem to be the type to keep tabs on it all as he goes. but... he’s a prince in a prosperous kingdom and so there isn’t really a worry for money. he’s known as the red viper for many reasons, including his clever nature and the ease with which he can get what he wants thru whatever means necessary. if you want for something that he can’t buy, you know he will find a way to get it for you (which can be a problem sometimes).

max. he’s good with money in the sense of perpetuating capitalism — that’s the red flag here. hell, he’s gonna be investing into bitcoin and who knows what stock market bs & bc it’s max, of course you trust him. max can’t control the stock market tho, so sometimes things are a little iffy. it always evens itself out though, and you make sure in the future that he invests his money instead of your joint money. he’s still gonna share anyways, it just helps you have a little more peace of mind.

frankie. he just wants to take care of you, okay? you can’t fault him for that 🥺 he maneuvers his budget around to make sure he can do all these nice things for you while leaving his own needs unchecked, which isn’t okay. he just wants to provide for the ppl he loves the best he can, but the problem begins when he starts to think he isn’t doing enough. his insecurity & lack of self-worth (fueled by his guilt for “not being everything you deserve”) is what makes him agree to the Trip™️ in the first place. once he comes back & sees you frantic, only wanting him home and not giving a flying fuck about the money, does he realize that you’re devoted to him and not what he can do for you.

whiskey. working for statesman made him forget what things really cost bc he suddenly never had to worry again about not having enough money. being with someone that isn’t practically made of money will snap him back into reality. he looks at his bank statements and his balance occasionally, but our big spender cowboy hasn’t really counted money as something he worries about for a while. when he constantly showers you in expensive gifts (only the best for his baby, that’s his motto) and you tell him that he has to not do that bc he’ll go broke, he plays it off because he doesn’t remember having to worry. separate bank accounts are only because you want to make sure your money is being spent smartly (even though jack has offered constantly to pay for literally anything you need).

don’t give him anything you want to see again:

maxwell. as much as i love this dork, he’s absolute shit with money. when his business is falling apart (bc he made the stupid ass decision to buy the oil rigs no one wanted bc they weren’t producing oil), he throws it all into saving face and trying to make investors buy into something that isn’t there. what a smart business man would’ve done was liquidate his assets and possibly try to get into a business that will yield at least some profit. he does learn his lesson tho and eventually can be trusted with money, but even he is hesitant to do anything with the household finances. he’s a dreamer, and dreams and money are the same as oil and water.

javier. i know you’re possibly surprised but hear me out. he’ll go all in to get info, whether he’s spending american taxpayer money or his own money or anyone else’s, if it’s valuable info that can be bought, it’s gonna be bought even if he goes without groceries for the next two weeks. before being with you, it was booze and prostitutes and cigarettes that ate away at his checks outside of buying information. the only thing that really changed once you got together was the prostitutes and slightly less cigarettes and booze. however, when he goes back to laredo permanently, he’s perfectly capable of keeping his shit in line. he’ll balance every checkbook in sight and run a tight af ship.

ezra. this man is a scavenger by necessity, a con man by choice. he has a silver tongue and a roguish charm and pretty questionable morals; he’s not gonna have any issue with getting his hands dirty. he’s probably gonna use your joint money to try and pull a fast one on some unsuspecting stranger (“it’ll double our money,” he says, “it’ll be fine,” he says), but then said stranger will end up turning the tables and leave you both absolutely broke. yeah he will feel guilty, no doubt. the only problem is that he won’t take it as a “hey don’t do it again” lesson, it’ll be a “this is how i can improve for next time.” eventually you have to put your foot down and take control of the money and when he realizes that you’re improving your lives much better than he is, he will thank you for it.

all pedro character taglists: @likeshootingstarsinthenightsky @obirain @leias-left-hair-bun @themarcusmoreno @catsnkooks @captainrexstan @mackstrut @torradoza @simping-for-fives @stardustsunrisekisses @darthadeline @artemis61003 @majorshiraharu @getdookuedon @capricornrabies @max--phillips @darklingveracruz @book-of-anarchy @andysficrecs @purelypascal @whovianwar @lv7867 @hornystarwarsbisexual @kaermorons @princess76179 @pedropasscals @greeneyedblondie44 @seasonschange-butpeopledont @qhbr2013 if you don’t want to be tagged, lemme know!! the link to join is in my bio