#deadtired ship

[ew-selfish-art]

DpxDc AU: Tim as a child was never given a lot of information regarding the scribbling messy handwriting that appeared over night all over his arms- naturally he came to his own conclusions.

Tim Drake was home entirely alone at 9 years old and was about to go out for the night to test his brand new long exposure camera lens when he sees the writing on his arm. It’s not English, like he assumed it was at first, but it was using the alphabet to represent… Tim isn’t bad at math but this formula is complex for his little genius brain.

Looking at his camera, he decides he can spare a moment to look it up, solve it, and get back out into old town Gotham in time for Batman and Robin’s final patrol lap. He does just that, finding the problem to relate to some aerospace engineering and then quickly deduces what laws and theorems need to be applied. He finds a pen, writes down his findings in much neater handwriting onto his arm, and goes out. It’s barely a remarkable night at all. He gets a much more memorable photo of Robin roundhouse kicking a hench person.

Things just continued on that way. Tim would find some complex math, physics or chemistry prompt on his arm (surrounded by various question marks or notes or sad faces)- he’d answer it as best he could and move on with his life. Perhaps his parents were manifesting these pop quizzes? Perhaps his subconscious felt guilty about abandoning his studies for more Bat related pursuits? Tim really didn’t care to think much about it once he became Robin- there was too much on his plate and too many peoples problems for him to fix.

Notably, however, after the attack at the Tower, the pop quiz appeared and Tim wrote back that he wouldn’t be able to find an answer to this one. It was the only time Tim questioned the markings appearance and it was because the next thing that appeared was “Hope you feel better soon.”

… his parents wouldn’t include that on a pop quiz. Cursed then. Tim decided it must be a curse, whatever, he’d deal with the implications later in life.

Tim then has the worst year of his life, hes 15, no longer Robin and the questions from his curse are getting less math oriented and more… philosophical. A lot of mentions of death that, in hindsight helped him actually grieve, and a lot of theories about dark matter and souls. Tim answers back as best he can but he’s drained and his answers aren’t very good in his opinion. He gets minimal feedback.

It all comes to a point that he’s at a family dinner, Bruce is at the head of the table, Jason has promised just to stay for dessert, Damian hasn’t thrown a single insult his way and Steph was laughing at him- when a new theoretical model appears on his arm.

“You’re just as bad as Bruce, Timberly. Hiding a soulmate from all of us, how fucking typical.” Jason points out, while watching Tim scribble back some math with a question mark onto his arm.

“A what? No, this is just a curse. I get pop quizzes every now and then.” Tim bats away Steph who rapidly approaches and began to analyze his arm (the rest of the family isn’t far behind).

“Drake. Explain how you came to this conclusion.” Damian seems more curious than anything, if his lack of insults was anything to go off of.

“Since I was young I’ve had at least weekly math check ins, I never had a parent or anyone else around so I assumed my parents had me cursed to ensure I stayed on top of my studies. Sometimes it’s physics or chemistry, for a while there it was a ton of philosophy and behavioral psychology.” He shrugs his shoulders.

“Master Tim, I believe the lack of adults in your life has led you towards a false conclusion. That is most certainly a soulmate mark. The individual to whom you are responding is undoubtedly your other half.” Alfred attempts to calm the room before explaining to Tim. Tim isnt sure if he believes the butler, though Alfred only very rarely lied, so he grabs the pen once more. He writes his first question back: “Who am I to you?”

The room waits in anticipation and within moments a brand new line appears on Tim’s arm and he is vindicated: “We do math together???”

——

The reason Danny is failing English is because his built in homework helper sucks ass at metaphors and has apparently never read any classic literature. The tutor on his arm is great at puzzles and math tho.

Danny gets a reply back one night that he wasn’t expecting (Who am I to you?) and he mentions it to Jazz. Who goes insane that Danny didn’t even question it and just went with “meh, probably haunted” as his explanation for the phenomenon for all these years.

Apparently, if Jazz was right, he had a soulmate who was uh, super fucking smart. That was an overwhelming thought.

The next day Danny is in crisis mode and writes back “Wait, WHAT AM I TO YOU??? Can I help on your homework??”

Danny gets vindicated when the writing on his arm presents a shit ton of dates and information for an unsolved Gotham cold case. See, Haunted.

———

Eventually between Danny becoming the top candidate for astrophysics at Wayne Enterprises and Tim Drake being outed as having contributed tips to the GCPD that solved cold cases- they meet and realize just how dumb they’ve been.

[aziraphale-is-a-cat]

My skill level fought my hubris, and the hubris fucking won.

[disillusioneddanny]

Whumptober Day 3. "Make it Stop"

Damian let out a huff, he couldn’t believe he was having to do this. But his brother had told him that he was worried about Timothy and that meant that Damian would have to do something about it. Who cares if the entire relationship between his two brothers was strange and made Damian’s head ache something fierce any time he did the mental gymnastics required to think about how this had even happened?

Danyal Al Ghul had been the heir to the Demon’s Head and Damian’s older brother. The man was seven years Damian’s elder and had been everything that Damian had failed to be as an heir. Until his older brother had disappeared off of the face of the planet. Danyal at ten years old had been shoved into the Lazarus Pits by a traitor of Ra’s and his body had never been found. Only for Tim to find him seven years later on his quest to bring Father back from the timestream.

The main issue, though, had been that neither knew of the other’s relation to Damian and had much to Damian’s horror and disgust, fallen in love.

There had been quite a story revolving around Danyal and Timothy and their whirlwind romance to bring their father back to the present time. It also did not help that Danyal had disappeared before ever learning that Bruce Wayne was his biological father, he had never gotten the chance to beat Mother in a fight to get that information.

Damian was still unaware of how Danyal learned about Damian and Bruce. Still, Danyal had made it rather clear when Timothy had brought him back that he was far from interested in being a part of the Wayne family. He had assured Damian that they would always be brothers and had even made a point of getting to know Damian just as he did with Bruce but it was still a strange relationship altogether. It likely had something to do with the fact that he and Timothy had fallen in love with one another. It made Damian’s feelings towards Timothy even more complicated than they had already been. On one hand, he found himself resenting the older boy for stealing yet another person away from Damian, yet on the other hand, he was thankful for Timothy bringing Danyal to him in the first place. Damian had only been three when Danyal had disappeared but he still had strong memories of Danyal and the love that he had provided Damian when no one else in their lives did.

“What are you doing here, Demon Brat?” Timothy muttered, bringing Damian back to the present, back to his current task.

Danyal had asked Damian to check on Timothy for him. He was apparently trapped in another meeting in the Infinite Realms and had been unable to get a hold of Timothy in the last two days. Damian had suspected that his older brother was overreacting but now, looking down at Tim’s disgusting room, Damian supposed that Danyal had reason to worry.

“Danyal,” Damian said simply as he looked over the room once again. Timothy’s vigilante suit lay in a heap on the ground in one corner. Damian counted out fifteen different cups and coffee mugs scattered throughout the bedroom. The room itself smelled stale and slightly of body odor. It was pathetic.

“Well you can tell Danny that I’m fine,” Tim muttered, burying his face in his pillows once more.

Damian clicked his tongue and shook his head. “I cannot do that. Danyal has given me a task,” he said with a sigh.

A soft sob slipped out of Tim’s mouth and Damian found himself almost pitying the seventeen-year-old. He tilted his head to the side, his brows furrowed. “What’s wrong with you?”

Tim let out a curse and rolled onto his back, rubbing the palms of his hands into his eyes roughly. “Nothing, Damian. Nothing that you would understand,” he said with a sigh.

“I’m eleven now, I’ll have you know that I understand a lot,” Damian said in a haughty tone before sitting on the corner of the bed. His relationship with Tim the last year was an odd one, that was one way for him to put it, at least. At the beginning, he had hated Tim and thought of him as an interloper, someone who did not deserve to be a part of Damian’s family. And then not only did Tim bring back Bruce, but he also brought back Danyal and Damian had found that he owed Tim quite a bit. Which made him uncomfortable as well considering he did not like being in the debt of others. Pair that with the fact that Tim had nearly died by Damian’s hands multiple times and Damian did not know how to feel about his older brother. Tim had always been polite, had always kept Damian at an arm's length even when Danyal was over. He always viewed Damian as someone who had to stay on guard around.

And at first, Damian was fine with that. Really he relished in the fact that he made Tim so wary of him. But that started to change when Damian came over to see Danyal more, and started to learn more about Tim during those visits and it had Damian wanting more, in a strange way he didn’t understand. He started to see Tim like his brother, like a friend. Yet he could never get close enough to act on those feelings and it was his own fault that he could not do so. He hated himself for it, hated Tim for it.

Tim let out a huff and Damian took in his brother’s features. The bright red nose, the red-rimmed eyes.

“Have you been crying? Are you injured?” Damian asked, now doing a cursory once-over.

His brother let out a dark chuckle and shook his head. “No,” he said softly. “It’s been, ah, how does Danny put it? A bad brain week?” He suggested and Damian furrowed his brow.

“What do you mean?”

Tim sucked in a breath before running a hand through his greasy black locks. “You know what depression is, yeah? B has gone over mental health issues with you?”

Damian nodded once, still watching his brother with worried eyes. “Yes, it’s a mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. It affects how you feel, think, and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and sometimes you may feel as if life isn't worth living,” Damian recited dutifully and winced as the snort that came from the older man.

“What’d you do, memorize the definition from the Mayo Clinic?” He asked sardonically. Damian flushed slightly.

“Maybe,” he muttered.

Tim just chuckled and shook his head. “Well, I struggle with depression,” he admitted, staring at the wall ahead of him, eyes unseeing. “I’ve dealt with it since I was a kid since those days I was stalking Batman and Robin on the rooftops. But in the last few years, it’s gotten worse. To the point where now I wonder what I’m even still doing here. Ya know?” He said softly.

“Still doing here as in your apartment? Because I must say, the manor is much better than this place,” Damian said, crinkling his nose. Tim made a noise in the back of his throat and Damian realized that Tim was crying.

“No. I just want to make it stop,” he breathed out, his voice hitching slightly as he did. “I thought, I thought things were better now. Now that Bruce was back Danny and I have a wonderful relationship and things were going well with everyone, I thought things would be different. But it’s not, it’s not different and I still want to die.”

That had Damian pausing. “As in you no longer see life as worth living?” he asked, hoping that he was wrong.

Instead, another sob slipped out of Tim’s mouth and he nodded his head once. “Yeah,” he whispered quietly. “And fuck, you’re just a kid, you don’t need to hear about this.”

Damian reached over and clasped a hand on Tim’s shoulder. He stared up at his brother with a determined gleam in his eyes. “Your life is worth living, Tim. I don’t- I’m not good at words. But you are a good person, and you bring joy to a lot of people’s lives. Mine included,” he said softly. “But the way you make others feel does not matter. What matters is that you are worth it, your life is worth it and you have a bright future ahead of you.”

Tim sniffed. “That’s not it,” he whispered, shrugging from Damian’s grip on his shoulder. “If I died, it wouldn’t change anyone’s lives, everyone would move on and be fine.”

“That’s a lie,” Damian said roughly. “Danyal’s life wouldn’t be the same. I do not know everything yet as he hasn’t been comfortable sharing all of it with me. But I know that you are the only thing that brought him back to humanity. My life would not be the same. This last year of getting to come over and spend time with you and Danyal has been some of the best days of my life. I have gotten to reconnect with my Danyal and I have also gotten to know my big brother better,” he said, looking up at Tim. “And I am not talking about Danyal, our relationship is not there yet, I don’t think. But you are my big brother and I would miss you. I would miss coming over for movie nights and for the times we team up and roast Danyal together. I would miss the nights on patrol with you where you actually trust me and let me work with you.”

A sob escaped from Tim again and Damian found himself with an armful of his brother. He said nothing else as he hugged the man tight, clutching him to his chest. He would have to work harder to make sure that Tim knew he was appreciated, that he was a part of this family whether he liked it or not.

....

“We’re not watching Mission Impossible!” Tim exclaimed, falling onto the couch dramatically as he smashed himself between Damian and Danyal. “I can’t watch another spy movie or else I will actually start losing brain cells.”

“I thought that watching all of the spy movies of this dimension was important to my education,” Danyal said innocently, wrapping his arm around Tim’s shoulders.

“I should have never suggested that you and Damian bond that way,” he said with a huff before he tilted his head up to give Danyal a soft kiss, eliciting a noise of disgust from Damian who simply threw the popcorn at the two.

“Do you know how weird it is for me to think about my two brothers dating one another?” He asked, looking between the two, nothing but amusement sparkled in his eyes.

Danyal craned his head around Tim to give the younger boy a devious smile. “Do you really think that’s the weirdest part of your life? Not you know, growing up in an assassin cult, not being a vigilante, or oh! Not the fact that you’ve had multiple clones try to kill you? The weird thing is to have two brothers, who are not related to each other in any way, date?”

“Yes,” Damian said with a sniff.

“What about the fact that your brother is a ghost?” Tim asked.

“Or that your dad was thrown in the timestream?” Danny suggested.

“Or that you’ve nearly committed fratricide multiple times?” Tim pointed out causing Damian to glower.

“What about the fact that your best friend is an alien?” Danny asked.

“Better yet, what about the fact that your dad is fucking an alien?” Tim said and both Al Ghul’s looked at him in shock and horror. “What?” He asked innocently, looking between the two brothers in confusion. “You’re telling me that you guys didn’t know that Bruce is sleeping with Clark?”

“He can’t do that,” Damian whined, burying his face in his hands as he fell to his side on the couch.

“Why not?” Danyal asked, looking confused.

“Because I have a crush on Jon!” Damian cried out.

Tim and Danny looked at one another for a moment before bursting out into laughter.

“Ancients Tim, this family is fucked up,” Danny laughed, holding his sides as he did.

Tim just smiled and shook his head. “Yeah, but it’s mine,” he said softly

[agent-sushi-fbi]

Two weeks until we can release @rainycat2

Then it’s BACK to working on “Last Resort Button of Doom” for those of you who have checked it out before (and those who haven’t)!

[minnesota-fats]

Alright! Danny is dimension hopping and fines the dc universe or he was sent to the past to do something and ends up helping the hero’s with something.

Danny introduces himself cuz omg more hero’s!!! He explains that he isn’t from that dimension or timeline so his identity doesn’t matter.

Danny eventually goes back to his time/dimension leaving a Danny shaped whole and people miss him.

Eventually someone decided to look Danny up for shits and giggles cuz they miss him or something only to find Danny pre accident and ghost shenanigans. (Or just regular civilian Danny living his best life and not half dead)

What do they do?

What does the justice league, young justice, teen titans, etc. do when they find an alternate version of their friend (or crush depending on whatever the visualizer wants)?

Like I feel the internal conflict to be fascinating!

Like the moral dilemma of either just going to make friends and drag him away from a normal life or leave him be to live his life? Or leave him be to die a horrible painful way or intervene and risk the proper flow of time?

[illeaadante]

I wonder what internet linguists, and specifically fandom linguists, think about fandoms that don't have portmanteau ship names/follow general shipping conventions. Specifically, what do they think of the pokemon fandom and the Danny Phantom fandom.

For pokemon, it's not that the show is an anime, because shows like Black Butler, Full Metal Alchemist, and Ouran High School Host Club all fall into common shipping conventions with some outliers. Pokemon has its own hyper-specific naming conventions (ending all of the ship names with -Shipping) that are really hard to parse for anyone that is not In The Fandom. Pokemon ship names are also across media, so the uniformity of the ship names is impressive as it is necessary.

And then, there is the black hole of insanity (I say, with all of the love and respect in my heart as I, too, am DP trash) that is Danny Phantom Fandom ship names. A not insubstantial number of the ship names are full phrases. Hell, some of them don't even make sense to people who haven't seen the show in a bit or haven't been watching closely. Why is Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom "Pitch Pearl"? Your guess is as good as mine! Most of them are puns or self referential (such as "Smells like Teen Spirits" for Danny/Ember or "Shallow Sapphire" for Danny/Paulina) but I had to get those ship names from a collected list on AO3. here

Let's not even get into the actual spreadsheet for Danny Phantom x DC crossover fics.

Idk, I just think these two are interesting outliers in an otherwise pretty set convention.

[aster-draws]

I just wanted to tell you that it was pretty much single-handedly your fics and art that got me into the DP x DC (specifically Dead Tired) brainrot. Both the characterizations and the storylines are so beautifully crafted (and the art too, but that's obvious lol). Thank you for putting so much time and care into what you're doing for free. Thank you for pulling me into this wild fandom. Thank you for being you!

You're so sweet!!!! They are on my brain 24/7. I wasn't really into shipping danny with any of the bats when I first entered the crossover fandom, but i read some deadtired oneshot and i have been waist deep in this quagmire ever since. I'm so honored that now I am the one to drag other people in.

Have a cozy fall vibes wip that i never finished the background on :)

[shadowsof-thenight]

Had a Voice:  Chapter nineteen

Story summary: For two years you had let him dictate your every move. Dictate your time, your friends, your work. Everything, literally. And for the life of you, you could not understand why you’d done so.

Now, here you were. In a beautiful but still strange city that had never become your own. And you were all alone. It was time to take back your life.

Ship: BuckyXreader

Words: 1782

Warnings: None really, just some uncomfortable moments. Some sweaty palms because of it.

A/N: So, turns out that I can write when deadtired, just really slowly. However, I did not reread any of it. So please inform me of any mistakes you find. And don’t judge this chapter too harshly because of my preoccupied mind as I wrote it.

I hope you like it anyway.

“Come on, please!” Wanda pleaded with a big bright smile plastered on her face. She knew just how hard it was to say no to that face. You shook your head with a chuckle and looked back at your computer screen, intend on ignoring her pleas. She had been at it for 15 minutes already.

“Y/N! Who knows when we'll be able to do this otherwise” Wanda pressed on and you sighed. She knew just what to say to you. She knew that you probably wanted to say yes. She also knew why you weren't. You looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

“What did you have planned?” you asked and the smug look on Wanda's face told you she knew that she had won you over. She had been assigned a new mission and would leave in a few days time. It wasn't clear how long the mission would last exactly, but the estimation said two weeks.

And with the current amount of time the two of you spend together. Two weeks felt like an eternity.

Wanda wanted to go out and have fun before she left. She had mentioned before that she wanted to go to a theme park. And she had also mentioned the options in the area. In the end the she had picked Six flags and then she had spend two days asking you to take a day off from work.

It really wasn't that you were unwilling. You were just worried that it would be hard to fake your smile the entire day. Your heart was still aching over Bucky and you really didn't feel like a day out. That said, you did want to hang out with Wanda as much as you could before she left. You were already dreading the idea of missing her for two weeks. Wanda had been such a massive support the past two weeks and you weren't afraid to admit that you wanted to lean on her a little longer. She made the days a little more bearable.

You glanced back to the door leading to Tony's lab and saw it was ajar. You chuckled as you realised he must have been listening in. he was too nosy for his own good. It was because he worried bout you, you knew. And because Wanda had already asked him to convince you.

Without raising your voice, you called out his name and he stood in the doorway far too soon, blowing his cover of the hard working boss.

He smiled semi-innocently and pretended not to know what you wanted. Playing his game, went into a full blown explanation of Wanda's dilemma. That she was leaving soon and wanted to spend time with her friend. That she had been pleading with you for days, but as the loyal employee, you had turned her down time after time. You even mentioned that she was very distracting at this point.

Tony smirked, before joining in on your theatrical tale. He agreed that Wanda was a nuisance, keeping you from your work and now, by extension even him. Telling her that he should really duck her pay, which earned him a snort from the scarlet haired woman. Then he said the words that all of them had known were coming. He proposed a compromise. Where you would take the next day off and spend it with Wanda, if and only if she would let you get back to work at the present time.

Wanda laughed loudly as she did a victory dance while you chuckled as you watched Tony walk back to his lab, this time closing the door properly.

A few hours later you were finally turning off your computer and leaving the office. You stretched a little as you walked through the hallway towards the elevator. Stiff from the many hours of sitting behind your desk. You had been intend on doing as much as you possibly could, to make up for the impromptu day off.

You pressed the button for the elevator and waited for it to come. The plan was to take a quick shower before dinner and wash of the stiffness. You were bending down to touch your toes as the elevator dinged, signalling his arrival. Without looking at the other occupants you stepped inside.

Once there you quickly pressed the number to your floor and sighed loudly, before looking the other people inside. There were two people with lab coats hanging over there arms, talking amongst themselves. And behind them stood Bucky. Your smile faltered for half a second and then it was back. He smiled back and then turned back to his phone.

When the other two people got out on the next floor, your heartbeat started to rise quickly and your hands started to sweat.

“I heard you're going to six flag tomorrow” Bucky said as he put his phone in his pocket and stood next to you.  A little voice inside of you told you to run, to avoid this situation that was obviously making you anxious. Since you couldn't, you just plastered on a smile and nodded. Hoping that he could not see just how jittery you were, you wiped your hands on your jeans, before tucking them in your pockets.

Taking a deep breath, you tried to steady your pulse. You wondered how long it would be, before you could be around him again and not feel like this. Obviously two weeks weren't enough.

“Having a bit of fun, before she goes on that mission” you clarified and this time he nodded.

He then opened his mouth and closed it again a few times, without saying anything. Finally he settled on wishing you fun, before he quickly jumped out the elevator before the doors even fully opened. You snorted a little, strangely satisfied that this was as uncomfortable for him as it was for you. As soon as that sensation ended, you were kicking yourself again for screwing it all up. This was not what you had wanted at all. You wanted to kiss him. To hold him close. To tell him all your secrets. And to listen to his. Instead you were having small talk.

Stepping out of the elevator after him, you watched  as he practically sprinted towards his room. There he got in quickly and slammed the door behind him.  Shaking your head, you walked in the opposite direction. This had to get better soon.  Right?

***

The next morning you had gotten up early and joined Wanda for a quick breakfast in the kitchen. The compound was still quiet. Nobody was up yet. Or at least, nobody was on this floor. You were certain that two certain super soldiers would already be in the gym and that Natasha would soon join them.

As soon as you were done, you grabbed a thermos bottle for your tea and one for Wanda's coffee, while Wanda grabbed the keys to the car that Tony had generously loaned you for the day. Giddy with the prospect of the day, the two of you left the compound behind. Ready to have fun.

By the time the two of you had gotten back, you were happy that Wanda had talked you into going. It had not been hard at all to keep a smile on your face. The day had been a blast and the two of you spend so much time laughing, that you were expecting massive muscle aches in the morning.

And you weren't wrong. When your alarm went the next morning, the second extremely early day of the week, you groaned loudly as you moved your stiff muscles. It was far too early to be up, but here you were, getting dressed at 6 in the morning. And after the long tiring day yesterday, that was tough. Still, it was for a good cause, you tried to tell yourself. You repeated it like a mantra as you put your clothes on. And later again when you made breakfast and tea.

Today would be your second session with Dr Johnson. The appointment was at 8, which you regretted now. At the time you had figured that this would help you not miss too much of work. Today you wished for an extra hour of sleep. Then again you were probably too riled up to sleep.

You were anxious and somewhat nervous. There was no good answer to her question from last week and you had always been a bit of an overachiever. You always wanted people to like you, to please them. Especially authority figures such as teachers, bosses....and your shrink it turned out.

When you walked into her office, 8 o’clock on the dot, she greeted you with a kind smile. You shook her hand and returned it, hoping for it not to seem to forced. The nerves had gotten worse as you got closer to the office building. However, if she noticed them, she did a good job of ignoring it. Instead she asked how you were doing. She asked simple questions. Ones that would qualify as small talk. It helped you ease into the meeting and after a few minuted of de-stressing she finally asked you if you had an answer for her. Which you didn't really.

Instead you told her about your thought process. How you had trouble with forming a good coherent answer, because wasn't your presence in her office a sign that yes, you wanted the best for yourself?

She smiled and nodded, agreeing that it was definitely a good sign. And she was happy that you had taken the step, for yourself. She also explained that she worried that you were too focussed on others in your life. And while it was a good to have such a kind gentle heart, that she wanted you to put yourself first sometimes. You nodded in understanding. It was no secret that you always wanted to make others happy. That much you could admit to her and yourself.

Happy by your admission she then asks yo to tell her your life story. Explaining that she wants to know more about you, in order to help you figure this all out. And perhaps talking through the events that shaped you, would help you see your own cycles.

You smiled kindly at this but wondered if that would happen. After all, you were well aware of the things you did and all that had happened to you or because of you. It had not helped you see any patterns in your behaviour before. Besides the pleasing that it. How would repeating your life's story change that?

Tags: @slender–spirit @gracelynn318

I don’t want to sound needy, but I’ve gotten zero response from the two of you. Do you still want me to tag you or are you over this story? No harm if you are, just let me know.

[ew-selfish-art]

DP x DC AU: Bruce is the one to invite Constantine over, and no, it's not to improve his tenuous working relationship with the asshole. It's the opposite of that.

---

Danny had become a frequent visitor of Wayne Manor in the last few months, and Bruce had to admit that while the kid was certainly a bit ominous for his liking for a partner to Tim, he was a generally kind and happy soul. They'd been dating for a lot longer than the Bats knew of- Kon had been the one to let it slip to Jon who told Damian and so on- and since the relationship was no longer secret, Tim brings him to family functions.

The thing about Danny is... He's dead. More than half of the time. Which again, is not Ideal for Bruce's wishes for Tim's future husband, but it also means that he reviles in being alive. Danny is downright joyous about using his time left on earth properly. He makes Tim eat real food, enjoy real sleep and generally live a more fulfilled life than he had been. The whole family noticed the changes in Tim, and it made them like Danny even more.

So after a particularly grueling day of dealing with Trigon and therefore the JLD's lack of coordination and sensible planning- Bruce gets the idea. John couldn't fucking contain himself admonishing Bruce, and perhaps it was vindictive, but Bruce figures that John should meet Danny. Sans context of course.

...

John is really over dealing with Batman's prissy, over complicated and perfectionist attitude. Come to the Cave he'd demanded, as though John didn't have a favorite bar to get back to, deal with a ghost he ordered like John didn't have other priorities than some random shade.

When walking into the space however, the second his teleportation portal closed, John knew something was deeply, deeply fucked. The shadows were growing longer, the second hand on his watch ticked slower, the air smelled of sulfur and... Red Robin was sitting working at the computer like nothing was wrong. But what was wrong, was the kid was marked by The End. Marked by The Infinite. FUCK.

John knew Death, the Endless, and knew she could pick favorites just like her siblings (Dream's immortal drinking buddy comes to mind). But this wasn't her work, this was something other.

"Mate- the Bat said there was a ghost?" John feels like he might throw up, the eerie atmosphere complicating what should have been a simple request.

"Uh, obviously." The kid didn't even look over from his screen or pause his typing.

John slowly approached, looking over each shoulder a few times, turning in a few circles as the shadows appeared to dance and echo within the cave. He could see his breath, the air became so cold so suddenly. And then, with the gentleness of a pin drop, a new agonizing sound appeared with a Kid walking down the cave stairs. The aura of the room turned dark, every cell in John's body screaming to run, that this was basically the little girl from the ring crawling through the TV as the young man walked down the steps.

"Babe, your grampa says that dinners going to be ready in a second. Oh, uh, hey dude." The creature speaks, turning his eyes to John for only a moment to study him. It feels equivalent to a butterfly being pinned by its wings.

"Y-y-you, you're, you're one of the Endless?" John stutters, his body reacting in fear despite the nonchalant posture of the Beast. The young man rolls his eyes.

"Nah, one of the Ancients but like uh, I'm new in town. And hon seriously don't be late, A made tiramisu for dessert and you're not allowed to have any if you're late and I don't want to deal with you pouting."

"You had me at Tiramisu!" Red stands up from his computer and then turns, "John, what are you doing here again?" Red Robin finally looks over at him, completely confused.

"Just leaving." John mutters, his eyes still trained on the ANCIENT.

---

Bruce could barely hide his laugh when Tim reported the Magician meeting Danny in the cave.

That'll show the asshole to question Batman's knowledge of the occult.