#jason: oh man danny must be so sick of me i’m taking up all of his time 😔

[britcision]

Okay so… today is a little bit of a long one, so we’ll see if we’re back at Tumblr breaking length or juuuust on the right side

But! Finally, much anticipated, we have the man himself: John Constantine! Here to share secrets and save the day! (Not)

And! This chapter got us right up to the edge, next chapter is gonna push me over to one MILLION words on AO3 y’all!! I’ve been flirting with it the past couple years but finally we’re here!

So. Might push the next one out faster. Might slow the next one down, since we’re in heavy waters again. And, since we are in the heavy waters, Imma tag on some warnings:

1) we gonna be speculating a little more on Jason’s death in this one, from a couple of viewpoints. We’re also discussing Cass’s in particular, and its repercussions.

No gore or details, just some death themes, mostly from Jason’s perspective after he and Danny leave the manor (Jason’s second POV segment)

2) Bruce is gonna make some very bad decisions about stimulants and concussions, mostly off screen but it is mentioned at the end of our first Bruce POV segment

And now the links!

First and link to AO3:

Previous:

———————

Never Make A Promise You Can’t Keep

Constantine hadn’t been looking forward to discussing Amity Park with the Justice League. Not the first time he’d been sent, and not for a single second after.

But hours turned into days, days to weeks, weeks to years. He’d almost thought he’d gotten away with it and that they wouldn’t ask.

Which was probably what had gotten the big Bat’s fuckin’ attention, wasn’t it. Couldn’t possibly let the universe have something nice for Johnny Constantine.

Luckily it was damn hard to lose something in the House of Mystery unless the House wanted it lost. Today she was feeling merciful and gave him the book on the second try.

It’d have been nice if he needed to refresh his memory of the case. If the knowledge of Amity Park hadn’t been sitting like a weight on his awareness since before he’d been.

Honestly he could probably point to it from anywhere on Earth. Most magic users could, if they had the faintest alignment with death.

Amity Park was goddamn wrong, even if it looked like things had turned out alright for now. Still, there were types of wrong you didn’t poke at.

Going prodding around would only make things worse.

And now he had to go explain that to Captain Prod himself, and try and persuade the fuckin’ Batman that no news was good news.

At least the Superboys had listened when he told them to clear off until he could visit in person. They’d pinky sworn they were back in Metropolis, and he’d heard enough traffic to believe them.

They could just as easily fly straight back to Alaska, but they weren’t stupid. They knew how to listen.

(Possibly from trauma related to the times Young Justice hadn’t listened to him, but he’d take what he could get.)

Now he just had to persuade the Bat that he knew what he was talking about.

Constantine hated debriefings with Batman. The guy had no grasp of magic, which was perfectly fair for most folks.

He preferred that. It kept them out of his kind of trouble, meant he didn’t have to worry about them until it got bad enough they’d accept whatever snapped sentence he managed.

Batman though. Batman treated magicians like it was their fault that the world didn’t work the way he personally preferred. Like they had any say in the how and why of magic.

Asshole.

And now he wanted to scold John like a naughty child about something he had no way to understand. Well, fuck that.

For better or worse, the Justice League made Amity Park his problem. Years late or not, this was his show, and he wasn’t going to take shit from anyone.

Thumbing quickly through the book, he kinda hated how easily it fell open to the relevant page. Like he’d already spent way too long looking.

Even he didn’t fuck with the Infinite Realms. Not if he could help it.

Stuffing in his notes from the city itself he closed the book, left the House, and hurried to one of the closer zeta tubes. Didn’t matter which city he was spat out in, he could find one.

His number didn’t coax even a flicker of the usual dry amusement as he stepped out into the bat cave, scowling up at the massive screen.

League records. Great. He strode across the floor, hoping they could sort this crap out fast.

“What the fuck’s got you lookin’ into Amity Park?” He asked as the Bat turned to face him, book tucked under his arm.

None of his usual prevaricating or fucking around. No chance for the fucker to try his usual “control the conversation” shit.

If it had any effect whatsoever, it didn’t show. Damn white outs. Batman just stared at him for a moment, then turned back to the computer, pulling up another page.

Constantine didn’t look. He didn’t want to know.

“Why did you mark Amity Park as a prank?” The big Bat asked in his stupid, gravelly tones.

Constantine rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t mark it as a fuckin’ prank, I marked it as a no fly zone for your little lot, so again: what the fuck came out of Amity Park?”

Batman stilled for a moment, doing that annoying “human computer” bit again. John preferred each and every one of the actual cyborgs, even the ones that tried to kill him.

Then he turned back, swivelling the chair around to fully face John like a movie super villain. Asshole.

“Over two thousand legitimate cries for help came out of Amity Park, and were ignored. If they were marked for the Justice League Dark, you should have responded, not deleted them.”

And that sounded way too much like an accusation. And completely fuckin’ irrelevant.

Something deeply unpleasant was tugging at the edge of Constantine’s awareness, just below the irritation he scraped over the sense of impending doom he’d been ignoring for the last hour.

He pushed it down, scowling at Bruce as he crossed the last of the distance and slammed the book down on the table next to the keyboard, gesturing up at the screens.

Still not bothering to look. He didn’t want to fuckin’ know.

“Years ago, Batty. This could be time fuckin’ sensitive, so quit pissing me about an’ tell me what. Exactly. Got you looking into Amity Park.”

There was a moment of hesitance, and he just fucking hated that. Nothing that made Batman hesitate could possibly be… good.

The feeling at the back of his mind suddenly clicked. His eyes widened and he groaned, wishing he had something stronger than a cigarette. Maybe a bullet.

“Great. Just fuckin’ great. They’re here.”

Groping around behind him, he grabbed another swivel chair and folded down into it, elbows bracing on the desk and burying his face in his hands.

Well, this was the nightmare situation.

From the fucking death taint seeping into his fuckin’ skin, something extremely fuckin’ big had oozed its way out of the Realms, and settled itself in Gotham.

Batman’s attention had snapped to, the man suddenly alert and watchful as Constantine slumped.

One hand dove into a pocket for the carton of cigarettes, Bat Cave rules be damned. Not much fuckin’ point, but he wasn’t doing this sober, and his flask was too small.

For once the Bat didn’t comment as he flicked the lighter open, lit up, and took a long drag. Just focused that laser stare on Constantine’s face.

At least he’d grasped the gravity of the matter.

“What is here?” The Bat finally asked when it became clear Constantine wasn’t elaborating, sounding annoyed.

Constantine took another drag of his smoke. Some days nicotine just wasn’t enough.

“Start from the beginning, Bats. Tell me everything that led up to you lookin’ into Amity Park, and everything you found since,” he demanded, hoping there was still a point to asking.

“If this is time sensitive, Constantine, you need to tell me what is happening,” Batman growled, tensed like he wanted to leap out of his chair and loom like one of his fuckin’ gargoyles.

The bat sounded cranky. Fuck him.

Constantine fixed him with a level stare.

“Then you’d better get fuckin’ talking, hadn’t you? I need to know how fuckin’ bad it is before I know first steps.”

Batman hesitated a moment longer, then turned back to his computer.

“I can summon the League-”

“No time,” Constantine cut him off acerbically, shaking his head, “and might make shit worse. Just fuckin’… report. Gimme yer damn report.”

For all that the Bat loved paperwork, loved to bury them all in bureaucracy, he dithered another moment before nodding, pulling up…

Well lookie there, he already had a literal report typed up. Great.

Taking another long drag of his cigarette Constantine leaned back in the chair and scanned the document.

Hopefully this wouldn’t take long. Or the extra details he could already tell he’d need, that had prompted the dull and clinical report.

**

Jason had tensed as Danny did. First because of the sudden alertness he could feel in Danny’s aura, even reduced back down to conversational levels.

(And that had been fun. The more times he felt Danny’s aura wrapped around him, the longer he spent with his chest tight and Danny’s presence right down to his lungs…

He felt cold when it went away. Almost lonely, surrounded by people. Fucking ancients help him, he was getting used to it.)

Was that what it’d feel like if he felt that Danny was in danger? A rush of adrenaline?

It was a little weird being so in tune with someone, but not in a bad way. Danny didn’t seem upset, just suddenly on guard in a way that the whole table noticed.

On guard, and… amused. And then he spoke and Jason tensed again.

“So that’s John Constantine… huh.”

Danny could sense John Constantine. That was… Really not the strangest thing, but it didn’t mean Jason had to like it.

If Danny could sense Constantine, could Constantine sense Danny? Jason wasn’t sure if he should ask in public.

Tim had way less reservations.

“Wait, what do you mean? What just happened?” He asked, breaking away from Tucker for a moment. But at least Tucker also looked confused.

Danny shook his head, chuckling softly and finishing up his food.

“Oh, sorry. It’s Sad Trenchcoat Guy,” he added for Sam and Tucker’s benefit, both of whom relaxed like that actually meant something.

Sam was back in her original clothes now, although Jason hadn’t given her the thermos back yet. Once her parents arrived, maybe.

Jason stifled a snicker, along with most of the Gothamites. It was a pretty accurate description of Constantine.

“Still in the dark over here,” Duke put in, a slight frown on his face.

Danny shrugged again and grinned at him.

“It’s kinda a ghost thing. I can sense other ghosts, or certain kinds of magic users. Constantine came to Amity Park not that long after I died,” he explained casually.

Tim and Dick shared meaningful looks behind Tucker’s head, and Jason stifled another chuckle. They thought they were so discrete.

Dick leaned in again, arms folded on the table as he gave Danny his best innocent interest.

“Oh? That’s kinda weird, do you know why?” He asked casually. Not questioning where Danny thought John was now.

He wanted to try and lead them away from the topic, probably. Too bad for him, if he’d asked he might have gotten some idea of how far Danny’s power stretched.

He’d explained to Jason about his aura covering most of the city, although he hadn’t claimed it as his haunt. But if Dickie didn’t want to know, Jason wouldn’t tell.

Sam fielded the question, rolling her eyes and folding her arms.

“We thought he might have come to help, since that was around when the ghost attacks started. He didn’t though,” she added bitterly, and Danny kicked her under the table.

“We don’t actually know why he came,” he explained, giving Dick a half smile, “he never talked to us. He did talk to some of the other ghosts though.”

“Wait, you can just do that?” Steph asked, her brows furrowed. Whether she was playing civilian or actually wasn’t sure, Jason wouldn’t put a bet on.

The amount most of the bat clan knew about magic and ghosts used to be that Jason was a zombie.

Which, as it turned out, was wrong.

Danny gave her a blank look, then shrugged again.

“I mean, yeah? You literally can just go ask half the time, but he was doing some fancy stuff. Binding circles and demanding truth, that kinda shit,” he added, making a face.

“He wasn’t popular among the living either,” Tucker agreed with a snicker. “Lotta weird questions for people, and no answers. We figured he was one of those occult nuts.”

“That’d explain the binding circles and truth thing,” Duke agreed with a solemn nod, folding his own arms. Honestly, watching them all play civilian was kinda adorable.

Tucker hesitated a moment, then shrugged and nodded, conceding the point.

“I mean, you’ve got me there. But he never tried to get anywhere near the fights, and then one day he just vanished. We got a ton more weird tourists for a while, but he was the weirdest,” he finished with relish.

Sam snorted again, clearly still annoyed about the whole mess. Maybe she’d been the one who actually wanted help.

Danny hadn’t mentioned how he felt about it yet, and Jason hadn’t asked, but they’d all been abandoned. Fucking Jason wasn’t happy about it.

“He was the only one who actually knew what he was doing,” she huffed, scowling at the table. Then she sighed, shaking her head. “So if he’s in Gotham, I’m gonna call it a bad sign.”

Privately, Jason was tempted to agree with her. John Constantine was a danger magnet, and Jason was half tempted to go and have a word himself.

Word in the Bat Chat was that Constantine was why Danny had never gotten any backup before. Danny himself might not be looking to start a fight over it, but Jason had Opinions on teen heroes.

And the adults who should have been protecting them.

Not with Bruce around though. He’d have to wait and see if Constantine stayed in town.

It’d give him time to ask Danny about the suddenly constant undercurrent of suppressed laughter he could feel.

**

In the bat cave, Constantine squinted at the picture Batman had pulled up from the gala. Not exactly the best picture on earth, but it was clear enough to tell. Shaking his head, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, could be worse,” he decided, tossing aside his second cigarette butt. The report had been complete, he’d give old Bats that, and he’d even been allowed to smoke through it.

But a black gloved hand covered his when he reached for the pack again.

Fucker.

Constantine let it slide for now, raising both hands in surrender and then pointing at the screen.

“Looks like you’ve got the halfa. Not bad news, as it goes. He’s at least still half human, which is probably why your precious city’s still intact.”

He didn’t even want to think about what might have happened if another ghost tried to set up a haunt in Gotham. The old girl’s Curse would have something to say about it.

Batman didn’t look noticeably reassured though.

“Enough stalling, Constantine. What is this all about? What happened in Amity Park?” He demanded roughly, and Constantine was grudgingly impressed.

Seemed like that ol’ bat hyper focus was going to win out over even a threat to his own city. Or he hadn’t been fully listening.

No bet.

Constantine sighed again, gesturing to the screen.

“You got a ley line map somewhere on this thing?” He asked, mostly just to annoy the bat a little further. Not like he wasn’t gonna give him the answers.

Batman hesitated for a moment, then set to typing. Probably… yup, going into the JL Dark files. Zatanna kept a helpful reference folder for the mundanes.

Constantine didn’t think they needed any more help than they asked for, but she’d been right this time and he owed her a beer for it. A second later the map was on screen.

Constantine nodded again, pointing to the general area of Illinois.

“Pull up Amity Park on that map,” he instructed, wheeling his chair back out of reach to pull out a third cigarette.

Both got him an annoyed frown from old Batsy.

“What is this supposed to mean?” He asked in the old gravelly growl, the map already obediently zooming in.

Constantine lit his smoke and waved at the screen again.

“Y’know what ley lines are?” He asked back, watching the map scroll around.

Not one with a search function then. Batsy’d have to find it by hand. Sucks to be him.

It kept him from focusing much attention on John anyway, so that was a win.

“I know the places they meet are magical nexus points,” Batman admitted reluctantly, like he didn’t hoard information about everything on earth.

Constantine nodded, not willing to entertain his issues.

“Amity Park’s on a dozen of them,” he said bluntly, and watched the guy stiffen.

Zoom out a bit, find the flowering spot where damn near every ley line through that part of the world crossed. Zoomed back in to find Amity Park.

The bat scowled at the screen for a while, then at John, who’d put his feet up on the desk. Tough titties, they weren’t coming down.

“But what does that mean, Constantine,” he growled, and John sighed.

Cupped his hands in front of him, paused, and shook his head.

“Alright, I’m crap at metaphors so bear with me. You know about multiple dimensions?” He asked and the bat nodded impatiently.

Like he shouldn’t have asked. Like this fucker hadn’t just asked for the fuckin’ kindergartener explanation.

Whatever.

“Yes. There’s a different dimension on the other side of the ley lines?” He asked, and Constantine did his very best not to roll his eyes.

Well. Maybe not his very best.

But he didn’t do it as hard as he could have.

“No. There’s way too many other dimensions. But what the ley lines do is weaken a place in this dimension, especially where they cross. Amity Park is a fuckin’ sieve,” he said with finality, waiting for the Bat to catch up.

And sure enough, those frown lines etched themselves deep again. This guy was gonna make John Fuckin’ Constantine look like a fresh faced baby.

“So other dimensions can cross through?” He asked again, and John sighed.

Reductive fucker.

“No. Yes. Sort of. Because some stupid motherfucker in Amity Park didn’t just use the natural portals or holes; they punched a fuckin’ permanent portal to the Infinite Realms.”

Honestly using the natural portals would have been bad enough in his opinion. Reality was basically swiss cheese in Amity, and getting anything’s attention would be beyond dangerous.

He hadn’t even liked visiting.

Batman looked more stoic, which John assumed meant he wasn’t keeping up. Scrubbing his free hand through his hair, he blew out a stream of smoke and frowned.

“So you get natural portals between our dimension other dimensions. It’s how all that “evil other self” crap keeps happening. With me?” He asked dryly.

The bat nodded without speaking, which was as close to an admission of confusion as Constantine figured he’d get.

Whatever.

“You get more portals on ley lines, and more again where two cross. About a dozen cross in Amity Park, so they get lots of natural portals. Yes?”

The bat nodded again, face pinching up like he resented John’s tone. Double tough, he’d had every chance to read Zatanna’s primers.

If John was doing Ley Lines For Dummies the dummies could keep their attitudes to themselves.

“Natural portals, they open and close on their own. Rest of the world, they don’t usually stay open for long. They need power to stop the world from… mending the hole.”

Which was the worst fucking explanation of all time and not remotely what happened, but who fucking cared. Batty wanted to weigh in again.

“So natural portals also stay open longer around Amity Park,” he growled, trying to get to the next step of the explanation.

Which, actually, John hadn’t really thought about. Pursing his lips, he let his gaze drift to the smoke swirling around the ceiling.

There were actual fucking bats up there.

Of course there were.

Dramatic bastard.

Forcing his attention back to the bastard in question, he waved a hand to dispel the last stream of smoke.

“Doesn’t matter what natural portals do. Some asshole went to the spot in reality most likely to break on its own, and decided to punch a hole. A permanent hole, into the Infinite Realms.”

Batman took a deep, even breath in, like he was trying to hold onto his temper. Yeah, well, he’d walked face first into Amity Fuckin’ Park, now he had to join John in Hell.

“What are the Infinite Realms?” He asked, sounding as patient as ever. Brownie points for trying, John wasn’t going to.

“It’s where the unclaimed dead go. Souls not ready to move on, souls that were never born, and, much worse, it occasionally pops out personifications of forces or belief,” he ground out the last words, teeth gritting in spite of himself.

The bat stilled for a long moment, drawing in another slow, steady breath. Probably counting to ten.

“What.” It wasn’t even a question really, a flat statement of dissatisfaction.

It meant not talking about Amity Park for a bit longer though, so Constantine leaned in.

“God shit. Concepts like Time, Hope, Growth. Anything that someone, somewhere, truly believes in. Well, not just anyone,” he corrected, and Did Not enjoy the way Batman’s jaw clenched.

Not even a bit.

“It takes a lot of juice, makin’ a whole entity. But the Infinite Realms are the core of all the dimensions, the intersection they all go through, and that’s where the belief settles. The more people who believe, the more clearly they believe it, and eventually you get enough to form a personality.”

He gave the bat a little time to digest that one. To really let it sink in what a fuckin’ problem the Infinite Realms could be.

And then a thought occurred to him.

“Your city’s got one, y’know?” He mentioned almost as an afterthought, and Batty Did Not like that.

His head snapped up, white outs narrowing to slits as he glared.

“What?!” He demanded sharply and Constantine waved a hand.

“Gotham. Dunno if it’s all the shit you lot go through, or the stubborn arseholes that live ‘ere, but Gotham has a city spirit.”

No need to mention the curse yet. Batsy was already having a day.

That’d be for the next time he ticked Constantine off.

This time, just that revelation seemed to have been enough to stun the bat. Constantine left him to sit in this one until he was ready though.

Processing.

He wasn’t completely heartless.

He was a little grudgingly impressed by how quickly Batman put it aside and refocused on the matter in hand.

“And that’s why the Infinite Realms are dangerous? These powerful personifications?” He asked cautiously, like he expected John to say no again.

Smart man.

Constantine gave him a dry smile.

“If fuckin’ only. There’s spirits in there, Ancients, and every one of ‘em could give Darkseid a run for his money. But even the ghosts of the Realms are a fuckin’ dangerous lot. You know Deadman?”

The bat nodded to indicate that he did, brows furrowing.

“He can’t be seen or heard without magical assistance,” he agreed, that same caution present.

At least he was a quick learner. Constantine nodded in satisfaction.

“He’s a ghost made by magic. Ghosts from the Realms don’t have anything like the same limitations. They can’t be seen or touched unless they want to, and they can damn well affect the world around ‘em.”

John shuddered, remembering some of the attacks he’d seen. Nothing stronger than a baseline demon, but the damage you could do when no one else could touch you, or stop you…

And he shook his head, locking the damage back down.

“And worse, they’re fuckin’ unpredictable. Demons, they’re easy. They all want the same shit. Realms ghosts? If one of ‘em decides fuckin’ cheese is their obsession, that’s it. They’ll drown a city in cheddar.”

The bat was staring at him again, back on that stoic “I have no idea what’s happening so I’ll look big and scary til it all makes sense again” bullshit.

Constantine sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Look. I ain’t even told ya the worst of it yet. How about we jus’ take it as read that the Infinite Realms are bad fuckin’ news, okay?” He asked as patiently as he could.

There was that little twitch, that little scrunch again. Not a happy Batty.

And he wasn’t gonna get happier while he made John teach him Magic For Dummies either.

But he nodded, folding his arms reluctantly.

“Then why did you leave the people of Amity Park to face them alone?” He asked bluntly, and… well, that was the question, wasn’t it?

Constantine stared blankly at him.

“You want Superman gettin’ body hopped by a ghostie craving all the cheddar in the mid west?” He asked in turn, and there it was.

The little indrawn breath. The fuckin’ scale of the problem.

Fuckin’ FINALLY.

“Look, Amity Park has a hero. Had. The halfa.” He waved vaguely at the screen again, the picture of Bruce’s mystery kid now buried several windows deep.

Didn’t matter.

“He’s got all the powers the ghosts do, an’ can’t be possessed. Last thing the poor little fuck needed was to face an overshadowed super.”

And yeah, the Bat still didn’t look happy (more to the better, that’d be a terrifying sight all on its own), but at least he had a reason for resting bitch face now.

Constantine sighed, waving a hand vaguely and tossing the latest butt down.

“Look, I can’t stop ya from pokin’ around. Not for lack of trying, mind. The Realms are a dangerous place, an’ Amity Park’s practically on the other side already. I dunno why the kid left, I don’t care. You though, Bats? You’re gonna do me a proper fuckin’ oath.”

He levelled his best serious stare, useless as usual against the damn white outs. It’d kill the asswipe to look human.

Batman shifted again, clearly feeling the weight of the last word.

Good.

“An oath?” He asked warily, and Constantine nodded, holding out his hand.

“On yer name, on yer blood, on yer tie to this fuckin’ city. No matter what you do lookin’ at the Infinite fuckin’ Realms. You do not. Fuck. With the Ghost King.”

The bat stared down at his hand like there was something wrong with it. John assumed anyway. The pissy face could be for anything.

And then he asked the question, because of fuckin’ course he did.

“What is the Ghost King?”

John sighed heavily, leaving his hand where it was, waiting for the oath.

“The prettiest fuckin’ princess of them all, what d’you fuckin’ think. The Ghost King rules the Infinite Realms, and by all accounts the last one was a bloody tyrant. Good news is he probably never noticed Amity Park yet, cuz America isn’t a smoking crater.”

Honestly, maybe he’d add a chapter to Zatanna’s document. Stamp it all across any reference anyone tried to make to Amity Fuckin’ Park so he never had to do this again.

He caught the Bat’s gaze again, weighting his words with enough power that every sound in the cave died around them.

“It took all the damn Ancients to seal Pariah Dark once. And someone’s beaten him, and taken his throne. I don’t fuckin’ know who, I don’t ask, but if they’re tough enough to beat Pariah, they are beyond what the League can do. Your only chance is to stay the fuck outta their way. Swear it.”

Batman stared at him for a long moment, and then down at the outstretched hand. Reached out and clasped it in his own.

“I swear. I will not knowingly upset the Ghost King.”

John gripped tighter, realized almost immediately that it was pointless against the reinforced gloves, and did it anyway.

“None of that, Batty. No bullshit. You do not fuck with the Ghost King. You hear the faintest goddamn whisper of their name, you turn tail and fuckin’ run. We will not survive their attention.”

He stared the stupid white outs down, as long as it took, and didn’t let go. Batman stared at him for a while, clearly absorbing the gravity of his words.

Constantine couldn’t remember asking a member of the League to swear to anything before. Usually he was the buyer in deals, not the keeper.

Woulda been nice to remain so, but nothing stopped the fuckin’ bat from sticking his nose in, so here was John Constantine, last condom of the universe.

Last desperate scrap of protection against a fuckin’ dick.

Finally the bat nodded, grip tightening in return.

“I swear. I will not engage with the Ghost King.”

**

Harley had gotten back just before Sam had to leave, with perfect timing to see her to the door actually.

The look on Pamela Manson’s face when Harley kissed Sam on each cheek and waved her off would keep Danny warm on cold nights.

A quick check of flight times back to Massachusetts (like Danny wasn’t going to take shortcuts) confirmed that Tucker could have one more night in Gotham.

Tim immediately offered to put him up in Wayne Manor again, clearly not allowing the chance to slip by him two nights in a row. Tucker was only too happy to accept, although Steph and Cass begged off.

Probably for their hero patrols. Danny wasn’t exactly sure how many vigilantes Gotham had, there seemed to be a new one every few months, but having eight of them at the gala last night probably meant all the rest had been out.

Obviously Red Robin wouldn’t be out tonight either, but there were enough of them to cover for each other.

Danny was kinda jealous of that. It had been just him for so long, and then him and Valerie, which hadn’t been better until she stopped hunting him too. He’d have loved a night off.

Still, their numbers meant that Jason probably wouldn’t need to go back to the night life unless he actually wanted to. He was definitely still built for it, but Danny couldn’t imagine anyone wanted to ask him to.

Most of the bats had clearly had their own run ins with death, but Jason’s had stuck in ways even Danny knew he didn’t quite get.

Jason had been so tense at just the thought of Danny being a teen hero. It wasn’t like that’d get easier when it was his little siblings swinging from rooftops.

Danny’s hero career might have started with his own death, but he personally was of the opinion that that’d be a perfectly fine reason to end one too.

So Dick, Steph, and Cass headed out not too long after Sam, and Danny wasn’t exactly surprised when Jason’s background angst jumped.

He’d stayed on edge since Danny and Bruce got back, even when Harley told them Bruce was off dealing with his own shit and probably wouldn’t be out of his room all night.

Danny’d bet fifty bucks that the arrival of Constantine actually meant Bruce was in the bat cave being suspicious, but he wasn’t gonna say it.

Tim had shown them to a games room, for all that he’d apparently also moved out. He still knew where everything was, and soon had them hooked up for Mariokart on the biggest TV Danny ever saw.

They’d played a couple rounds (Harley was expectedly devastating with red shells) and while Danny and Tucker were having fun, he could feel Jason stressing.

Like, even if he stuck his fingers in his ears and ignored the aura. The guy was tensed so tight his shoulders strained at his shirt, which woulda been visually interesting if Danny didn’t know why.

Cass was one near death experience from slipping back across the boundary for good.

Cass was off punching criminals with rocket launchers in body armour and spandex.

Duke was probably actually in bed, Signal did morning patrols, and Damian was obstinately refusing to play video games with them perched on the back of the couch, but still.

Dick and Steph had both given one life to the cause too, and for all Dick was a cop and in danger on his day job too, cops pretty famously showed up after the vigilantes ended the party.

More than half Jason’s immediate family were back in the line of fire and Danny could practically taste Jason’s Obsession eating away at him.

As much as he tried to pretend he was playing along and gave a shit about winning, the controller creaked in his hands more than a couple casual races should allow.

So, yeah, if he couldn’t get Jason to crack a smile with this one, he was gonna gently bow them both the fuck outta the manor.

He kept half an eye on Tim, who had a glass of water.

“Hey, you guys heard the theory about Batman?” He asked casually, just as another round of Mariokart started.

Jason kicked him in the ankle but otherwise ignored him, which was fair. He’d been exposed to Danny’s bullshit.

Tim stiffened and then forced himself to relax, Tucker rolled his eyes and jostled Danny from his other side, but it was Harley who answered.

Innocent as the day she was born.

“Oh? What? Is it that he’s a lizardman? Cuz I got right up on that cowl and he’s definitely a mammal,” she said casually, not even looking away from the screen.

Danny was pretty sure he heard Damian almost slip off his perch.

He was a little bit in love with Harley Quinn. He should get her number for Jazz, maybe his big sister would learn to have a little fun.

Grinning broad and only half fake, he drifted a turn to pick up a double item from under Tucker’s nose.

“Shit, yeah, you might actually know! It’s his secret identity!” He exclaimed cheerfully, and felt the tension in the room ratchet up.

From Tim and Damian. Jason… still wasn’t paying attention.

Not like he was deeply immersed in the game, for all he kept up he was nowhere near the speed demon that handed Danny his ass the night before.

Hmm. Better get his attention.

Tim and Damian had already settled again, probably remembering he was already In The Know even if Tucker wasn’t, and Harley had given him a very knowing look right before she fire flowered him.

Almost ready.

He waited until Tim had taken a hasty sip of water on a calm stretch, nudged Jason in the shins, and made sure he was louder than the music.

“So d’you think it’s possible that Markiplier’s Batman?”

Tim sprayed water across the couch, Harley fucking cackled, and Jason snapped his head around to stare at Danny so hard he cricked his neck.

Danny red shelled him for good measure, just so he wasn’t missing anything on screen.

Tucker rolled his eyes, also deeply used to Danny’s bullshit and much more interested in gaming revenge.

“Fuck off Danny, Markiplier isn’t even a Gothamite,” he said disdainfully and Danny shook his head, grinning.

“That’s why it’s the perfect cover. I mean, Batman wants to keep his secret identity a secret, right? So having an identity that very publicly “isn’t in Gotham” makes perfect sense!” He argued cheerfully.

Jason half snorted a laugh beside him, picking back up and speeding his way back into the race. Across the couch Tim wiped his face, still catching his breath.

“I fucking hate that that made sense,” he moaned, and Harley cackled again.

“Nah, he’s got a point! How does anyone know where a youtuber lives? We only see one room!” She agreed cheerfully, clearly leaning in.

It was so nice to have a true showwoman in the crowd.

Damian looked angry in the confused way now, and Danny would hazard a guess he didn’t watch youtube at all, let alone a lets player. That might have made it funnier, had there been no other concerns.

Beside him Jason huffed out another dry chuckle, shaking his head with the barest hint of a smile.

“I can’t believe Batman has an OnlyFans,” he said in a solemn, almost sorrowful voice… and dropped a blue shell.

Tim groaned like his soul had gone with it, clinging desperately to his first place lead. Harley cackled and added her own green shells to the mix, dropping all three as they came to the home stretch.

“Don’t forget the calendar of tasteful nudes! All for charity, just what Batsy would like,” she crowed with evident glee, and Tucker snorted a laugh.

“It’d explain all the surgeries,” he agreed reluctantly, and Danny had a sudden, utterly wicked idea.

“Hey… now that Batman’s on OnlyFans, d’you think he’ll convince the whole Justice League to do a pinup calendar, or just the other bats?” He asked innocently, watching said bats from the corner of his eye.

Well, Robins technically, but since only Tim was of age birds didn’t seem appropriate.

Tim himself threw his controller to the ground, abandoning the game and throwing himself over the back of the couch and almost hitting Damian on the way.

Damian definitely hissed at him like a startled cat.

No way Danny imagined that this close to the finish.

Tucker hesitated for a long moment, clearly considering his odds of winning, but when Harley blasted past Tim’s spun out corpse and across the finish line he abandoned his controller too to check on Tim.

Harley was surprisingly good at the game when flopped sideways on her chosen couch, laughing too hard to breathe. Danny breezed into an easy third behind her and Jason, giving the other man an assessing look.

A little wary of reaching out with his aura, especially when Jason was on edge. He didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

Didn’t want to be too invasive, if he was honest. Danny had… kinda always been the one who was new to aura stuff before. And he’d gotten used to it, in the Ghost Zone.

He’d never spent this much time with another halfa before. Especially not without a single trace of punching or stabbing.

Except in Mariokart, where the Geneva Convention held no sway.

Jason had clearly noticed him looking though, and read the concern even without Danny pushing. He gave Danny’s shoulder a gentle bump, a nudge of fine-stop worrying alongside.

Danny nudged back, his own disbelief tinged with understanding-empathy-worried too.

But, that was kinda the other thing… the thing he didn’t really want to bring up around the other bats just yet.

And while Jason had smiled, Danny didn’t think he’d mind them dipping out.

Faking a yawn, he stretched, cracked his back, and looked over to where Tim had rejoined the couch.

“Honestly, I’m beat. I gotta try and get back into a better sleep schedule before classes start,” he said, pulling a face at the self-reminder.

Their break was coming to its end, and then he’d be back into university. His class schedule was flexible, more afternoons than early mornings, but he’d… miss this.

Free time to just spend the whole day hanging out with friends and catching up. Meeting Jason’s family, Jason meeting his.

Danny didn’t actually know what Jason did, whether he was working or going back to school, but it was gonna come up soon.

They had a trip to Frostbite to plan, some ecto shots from Danny’s fridge, and at some point he still had to introduce Jason to Frighty… and probably ask the guy if he wanted to be called that still.

It’d be a little weird to start calling him Halloween or whatever, but frankly him obeying Danny’s orders and calling him “my liege” was way fucking weirder so it’d be fine.

And about four more days before half of Danny’s time would be eaten by lectures, study halls, and projects. Fuck, maybe Jason would give him a hand with those too.

So long as he wasn’t sick of Danny by then.

Another quick glance showed that Jason’s face had reset into that tense almost-scowl again, staring past the TV.

At the other end of the couch, Tim gave a disgruntled huff.

“I’m gonna make you pay for that next time,” he grumbled, shifting to Tucker with an adorable moment of sudden concern. “Do you need me to show you to a room too, or…”

Tucker shook his head with a snicker, giving Danny a side eye.

“Nah, unlike that weakling I got used to the vigilante sleep schedule back in high school. I’m good for a couple more hours at least,” he bragged.

Danny flipped him off, hauling himself to his feet and giving Jason a nudge.

“Yeah, well, this weakling fought a croc last night and needs his sleep. Mind giving me a ride back?” He asked when Jason looked up at him.

Gently offered a touch of easy out-reassurance-trust me.

The deep furrows in Jason’s brows twitched until he caught on and his expression cleared. He nodded quickly and pulled himself to his feet.

“Yeah, we can take my bike.” Then he hesitated and looked a little uncertain. “You never told me where you live.”

It took Danny a moment to realise that… no, he really hadn’t, because that just plain didn’t feel right. But no, he’d met Jason again in that coffee shop, then come to the gala with Sam.

Hadn’t gone home last night, just stopped at one of Jason’s apparently multiple places; at least he was doing better than Danny had thought from the first apartment.

He found himself chuckling at the thought, shaking his head.

“Oh yeah, we’ve only been to your place… I’m at the south dorm at Gotham U, I can give you directions as we get closer,” he offered and Jason nodded.

He felt… weird? Like he was surprised Danny had told him where he lived, and ashamed of being surprised.

Danny decided not to dig into it, offering Jason his arm and bowing like all those Shakespeare plays he knew Jason loved.

“Shall we?”

Jason’s moment of surprise was quickly swallowed by delight and he bowed back, then tucked his hand into Danny’s elbow. Almost definitely knew etiquette better than Danny did, so Danny wasn’t gonna doubt him.

“We shall. I’ll drop you off and head home,” he agreed, then paused and glanced back at Harley.

Whose giggling had completely ended and was now watching them like her favourite sitcom. Chin in hands and all.

“Did you wanna meet up here tomorrow, or…” Jason trailed off, obviously also a little put off by her intensity.

She perked up when addressed, giving him a cheery grin and a double thumbs up.

“Here or th’ station, I don’t mind! Hey, did ya wanna come too, Danny boy?” She asked sweetly, head cocked to the side and just waaaay too innocent.

Not that Danny could work out what she was up to.

“Uh… to do what?” He asked carefully, head cocking to match hers before he noticed and straightened up.

Her grin widened, so she noticed.

“Oh, Jason an’ I are gonna go check on my buddy Waylon, see if we can’t work out what he was doin’ at the gala. If youse threw down he might like ta see ya there?”

Which honestly left Danny at a loss, until Tim explained.

“Killer Croc. His actual name’s Waylon Jones, and he was Harley’s tenant in Coney Island before coming back to Gotham,” he said casually, and Danny stilled.

There was an intensity in the room that hadn’t been there before, a sudden wave that sent a chill down his spine. Something from Harley, suddenly predator sharp in a way he hadn’t felt since Skulker had been a serious threat.

For the life of him though, he couldn’t put his finger on what though, since she didn’t move. Just grinned like she had been all along.

“People called him Killer Croc cuz of his skin condition. He gave up tryin’ ta change their minds,” she said with a light shrug, completely belied by the intensity of her stare.

Danny couldn’t look away until she released him, something satisfied in the quirk of her lip. Like she could see the sudden well of memory in his chest.

He’d never actually given in to all the things his parents had called Phantom. They’d been ashamed of all of them when the truth came out, and he’d only had to put up with them for a few years.

He tried to imagine decades of it, being called a monster for things he couldn’t control. For nothing more than a weird scaly skin condition.

He couldn’t imagine going full bomb vest over it, but Danny was man enough to admit he might just be a little touchy because of Jason’s death.

Which Waylon might not even know about.

Suddenly he actually did want to know why they’d attacked the gala.

Until now it had just been inevitable, someone was going to so why not them, but… well. He’d felt it under the whole plan, every stupid step.

Jason had trusted Waylon, not Danny, to keep things from getting out of hand. To know that a tussle was part of the fun.

Danny hadn’t planned on asking, but. Yeah.

“I’d like that,” he agreed quickly, nodding, at about the same time as Tucker found his own voice.

“Wait, that’s a skin condition? He’s just like that?” The techie asked sharply, staring around at Tim and Damian to confirm.

And got a disdainful look from Damian back.

“Tt, what else would it be? Do you know many scaled people?” He asked archly.

Danny’s mind snapped directly to Dora and her asshole brother. Knew Tucker’s had gone to the same place a second later.

“More than you’d think,” he and Tucker said in unison, and they shared a grin. If there was one benefit to their fucked up ghost hunting years, it was shutting down smart ass remarks.

Damian only looked more annoyed at being corrected, and Tucker shrugged.

“I thought he mighta been a scientist and tried to fuse himself with a lizard or something, like in Spider-Man,” he elaborated, and Danny kinda hated how much their lives resembled superhero movies.

Not that he’d say that in a room full of bats.

Damian’s brows drew down even further and he sneered, displeasure evident, but Jason cut him off before he could speak.

“Before you make a comment about mad scientists I’m gonna remind you we live in a city with Viktor Fries,” he said dryly and Damian’s mouth snapped shut.

Big brother privileges.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Ellie had given Danny those?

Tucker gave Danny a confused look, and Danny just shrugged back. He didn’t pay much attention to Gotham’s various rogues; he didn’t want to tempt his Obsession.

Tim chimed in again, without actually looking at Tucker which was kinda impressive. Guess they were just very obviously new to Gotham.

“Dr Freeze. He uses a lot of liquid nitrogen and freeze rays, he’s usually after money or diamonds to try and cure his wife,” he explained with a slight shrug.

Tucker made a confused noise.

“So… couldn’t Bruce just pay him off and keep him from bothering the city?” He asked carefully, glancing around the room.

Jason actually snorted a laugh at that, shaking his head.

“If he could, he would have. What Fries wants isn’t possible yet.”

Not possible for humans. Part of Danny perked up, wondering if Frostbite might have the answers… but no. It wasn’t his job to solve every problem in the world.

Bringing healthy humans to the Zone was iffy. An already sick woman… well, she might get hastened along her journey to the afterlife.

And this was a conversation he really wanted to keep away from, honestly. Gotham’s rogues weren’t his problem. Couldn’t be his problem.

Danny fought ghosts, unkillable entities who enjoyed missile attacks as sport. He wasn’t interested in learning how squishy human rogues were; it had been bad enough with his friends in the line of fire.

Mega pass on being the firing squad.

He almost reconsidered the trip tomorrow, but… he trusted Jason. Trusted Jason knew where he was coming from, and that neither of them wanted to trip Danny’s Obsession.

So he gave the big guy a smile and an elbow nudge, nodding for the door.

“Not that rogue chat isn’t fascinating, but you were taking me to bed?” He asked hopefully, and only realised what he’d said when Harley stuffed half her fist in her mouth to laugh.

And now, now Danny had a choice. He could feel the heat threatening to build, and blushing? Blushing would make things much worse.

Jason’s cheeks had pinked and that was adorable and Danny would ectoblast anyone who gave him shit for it, but if DANNY blushed, Tucker would never let it go.

No, the better answer had to be to play it off, and what did you do to counter red in makeup? You added green.

Not that Danny had used ectoplasm as a fucking colour corrector before, but he might as well try. So he let his grin go saucy, eyebrows waggling, and tried a teeny bit of spectral ice to cool his cheeks.

It made Jason chuckle again, so he’d take it as a win, and Jason gave him another bow, hand still tucked in Danny’s arm.

“Your chariot awaits.”

Tim and Tucker mimed puking almost simultaneously. They were perfect for each other. And had no taste, so that worked out well for them.

Danny ignored them all and gave the room a last wave, heading for the door and tugging Jason along with.

“Night all, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow Harley, and Tucker just text me when you’re up and we’ll see about getting you home,” he called brightly, definitely not about to stop no matter what anyone said.

Not even when Harley hauled herself vertical and call after them,

“Oh, Danny! If the bat calendars do come out, shall I grab you a Red Hood one?” She asked saucily and Danny felt Jason’s grip spasm in his elbow.

Which. He was gonna try putting together later, but tonight he really did wanna get out of there before long.

Who even was Red Hood?

Danny’d never seen him and he hadn’t turned up at the gala, so he didn’t have a guess ready, just like Batwoman.

A couple of people in one of Danny’s classes simped constantly over his thighs, but Danny now figured it was because they hadn’t met Jason.

It was probably easiest to agree, so he gave her a thumbs up over his shoulder.

“Autographed please!”

**

The headache that had lessened as he talked to Harley was back in full swing, along with a throbbing pulse in his temples and roiling nausea in his gut.

Constantine’s damn cigarettes weren’t helping, but Bruce just didn’t feel up to wrestling them away from him.

He’d expected… well. He hadn’t expected Constantine to come through full of fire and indignation, accusing Bruce of making the fucking mess.

His bad feeling had intensified too, not in the slightest relaxed that Constantine could feel that scrungly fucking kid all the way up in the manor.

No matter what Constantine said about the “halfa”, that could not bode well. Not with the look he’d seen on the man’s fucking face.

Steph called him an occult OSHA violation in a trench coat. Anything that scared him worried Bruce.

He could put up with some smoke and some pain to get the information he needed with a minimum of fuss.

He was beginning to wish he’d gotten some sleep though. Or could have someone get him a drink of water.

He’d shown Constantine the missed call logs from Amity Park, and the magician swore in ways that made Bruce see flashes of colour.

(That might have been the concussion talking, but Bruce could remember the almost buzzing swearwords he’d heard from Sam Manson and wasn’t sure. Nothing could be trusted.)

Not at the volume of the logs, that hadn’t surprised him. No, Constantine had gotten serious when Bruce shared the logs Tim had first shown him.

‘Earth is gone. The sky is green and Earth is gone.’

“Alright, that? That’s very fuckin’ bad,” the magician grumbled, reaching into his pocket for a flask for the first time since he’d arrived.

At least it wasn’t another goddamn cigarette. Little fucking meow meow magician.

(Bruce wasn’t quite sure what that one meant, but Steph usually said it with enough derision it had to apply.)

“So I assumed,” he gritted out, jaw clenching against another pang of pain.

Constantine levelled him with a blank stare. Bruce made a conscious effort to relax his face. The tensing wasn’t helping anyway.

“No, Batman. I mean really, really not fuckin’ good. They never called again?” He asked, and the sudden gravity in his voice sunk through layers of ache and irritation.

He sounded as serious as he’d been about the oath. That definitely wasn’t good.

Bruce shook his head, scrolling demonstratively to the end of the file.

“Not after this cluster of messages, all within the same day.”

Tim had all sorts of explanations for that. Bruce fervently hoped he was right and it was just pique on the part of Amity Park; he’d take them being angry with the League over anything else.

Especially anything that made John Constantine look that serious.

“An’ the town’s still there?” He asked, like that was a reasonable question.

Except… Bruce suddenly wasn’t sure. There were alumni from Amity Park, people who’d moved away, but the sheer lack of online information about the town itself…

They hadn’t even been able to get a clear satellite image.

He should have noticed that. He should have checked that. If he hadn’t been so twisted up in his worries about Jason…

But no, that wasn’t fair.

Bruce closed his eyes a moment, calming himself down. Breathing through the sluggish throb at his temples.

None of their Amity Parkers talked about the town like it was missing, or anything out of the ordinary. His children would have flagged it.

This wasn’t an oversight, but Constantine may know something that none of his family could have assumed.

He just had to get this finished. This briefing with Constantine, his report to the League, Jason… no. Sleep first, some pain killers, a more thorough scan.

Maybe a day of recovery, as soon as he could afford one. Wait until his head cleared.

Harley was right, Jason deserved the best Bruce could give him, and trying to talk to his son now would not go well. Bruce was only barely tolerating Constantine’s presence.

For all the man was alarmingly combative about this subject, he was a pussycat compared to Jason in a mood. Jason knew far more about what would hurt Bruce most.

Jason had always been what hurt Bruce most, ever since he’d held his lifeless body. Jason, and even the thought of one of his other children following him where Bruce couldn’t go.

No. He just had to get through this.

Refocusing on John-Bloody… no, that wasn’t helping either. On Constantine.

“From what we’ve gathered from people who have left Amity Park since, they still have access to the outside world.” He wasn’t quite sure what else he could commit to now.

It didn’t seem to satisfy. It didn’t satisfy Bruce either.

“Okay, but ya remember what I said about the fabric of reality bein’ swiss fuckin’ cheese around this city?” Constantine asked, his usual drawl starkly absent.

Bruce found himself tensing again. Wishing this was something he could fight.

“Yes. We haven’t been able to receive any satellite imagery of the town, nor any footage or communication online from within.”

He could pull up all the data, all the social media, but he knew Constantine wouldn’t care. It wasn’t what he’d asked for.

And sure enough, Constantine hauled himself back to his feet, striding towards the zeta tubes.

“Right. Well, guess we’re takin’ a field trip to th’ Watchtower, B-man, because you’re really not gonna like what I’d have to do to this lovely cave to get the intel I need. We’ll need every sensor you lot have, because that?”

Constantine half turned on his walk, finger jabbing at that last message. Barely even glancing in Bruce’s direction.

It felt like an accusation.

“That’s not fuckin’ good. That sounds like the Infinite Fucking Realms,” he declared darkly, trench coat billowing around him as he stalked across the cave.

Bruce almost flinched. Like he had no control over his expressions.

He needed sleep.

He needed answers. Needed to know what had happened, and what had to happen to fix it.

Needed to know they hadn’t let a half dead child take on an entire alternate dimension alone, because no matter how little he trusted the man Danny was, the thought of the child still ached.

Needed to know if that suspicion was actually justified by anything but his own inability to accept Jason’s clear. To have an unknown factor in Jason’s life.

Constantine’s reaction was one point in Bruce’s favour.

Whatever they found about the current state of Amity Park… would tell the rest.

He forced himself out of his seat to follow Constantine, hand straying to the pocket on his belt that held his emergency stimulants.

Alfred wouldn’t be pleased, the tiny pills carried an adrenaline boost that was wearing even at full health, but he needed to be sharp. Just for a few more hours.

He could pass what they learned off to Clark and Diana, and to his children when he returned. Just for a little while. A few hours.

Amity Park had gone unnoticed for years, as little as Bruce liked that fact. He could only hope that whatever threat it presented would lie dormant just a little longer.

**

Fuck the no killing rule, Jason was gonna murder Harley Quinn. And by that, yeah, he probably actually meant “seek vengeance in some small but annoying way”, but still.

He didn’t actually have a crush on Danny. It was a bit they were putting on to fuck with his nosey brothers, and it was probably a good sign that they’d apparently fooled Harley too.

But Harley was a hopeless romantic and prone to see romance where none existed, so maybe it wasn’t that good.

More importantly, Danny didn’t fucking know he was Red Hood yet. He’d have to text Harley tonight and drill that in, since she’d definitely picked up that Danny was in on the secret.

And since apparently they were all gonna be hanging out tomorrow.

He kinda wished he hadn’t brought it up. That Harley hadn’t asked.

He’d monopolised so much of Danny’s time already over the break, three full days and they still had to make that run back to Frostbite.

Danny must have had some other plans. Something he actually wanted to do with his time instead of just following Jason around.

The gala had been fun though. And so had today, it just… Jason couldn’t help feeling he was being too needy. Too clingy, with a guy he’d known for all of a week, if you were generous.

Being around Danny made him feel like himself for the first time in fucking years, and he knew what he’d have given up for that.

He didn’t want to be too much. Too pushy. Didn’t want Danny to get sick of hanging out with him so soon, and leave him right back where he’d been; bitter, angry, and alone.

At least Danny didn’t seem to be thinking too much about Harley’s parting shot. There was definitely something on his mind, but they hadn’t actually unlinked arms.

Jason could feel his aura.

Concern-worry-worry.

Shit, they hadn’t fucking unlinked arms. Should they? Should Jason have? For fucks sake he was literally clinging to the guy, this was fucking ridiculous, he should just.

But Danny hadn’t pulled away.

It’d be weird to pull away now.

Jason managed to keep himself distracted in that little spiral all the way to the garage he’d parked his bike in. Danny waited until they left the manor’s grounds to speak again though, arms tightening around Jason’s chest.

“Pull over a sec?” He called above the wind, and Jason very firmly did not let that pitch him further. He pulled over, still firmly in the heights and far from any living souls.

Unless theirs counted. Probably not.

He dropped the kickstand and pulled off his helmet, hoping Danny just wanted to talk. Maybe ask him to make his excuses to Harley.

Ask Jason to drop him at the university and not follow him home. That’d make sense. He didn’t need a wayward puppy.

He didn’t actually get off the bike. Didn’t want to give up Danny’s arms wrapped around him, even if it was just for expedience.

And maybe realised that wasn’t a great idea when Danny rested his cheek on Jason’s back and a warm wave of relax-safe-reassurance threatened to swallow him.

“I know what you’re thinking about,” Danny admitted softly, and Jason damn near bolted. Barely heard the next words, which…

Well.

He knew Danny tended to overlook things. But it turned out he could be pretty damn perceptive too.

“She’s gonna be okay, you know. Cass. I can feel her anywhere in the city if I try, and I’ll know if something happens to her.”

And just like that, the pit dropped out of Jason’s stomach.

He’d been trying not to think about it. Pretended he didn’t know what she’d be doing when she left, out in the city, one fucking accident from being like him.

Even worrying about Danny getting sick of him was better than that.

She might not even need the pit to bring her back this time. Gotham had a fuck ton of native ectoplasm even for a city; it couldn’t not.

Ectoplasm was made of and attracted to raw emotional energy. For all that people died every day in the city, more were born or moved in to join their ranks.

Gotham would be a metaphorical ghost town if they hadn’t, instead of the literal version slowly creeping across the city’s vigilantes.

From the rogues’ overdramatic schemes to the peoples’ undercurrent of rage and defiant joy, Gotham seethed with emotion. Most of the dead didn’t stay to use the ecto up, and every rogue attack brought a fresh wave.

Not clean ectoplasm like the realms, but tainted with their individual torments, the fierce glee, the desire to burn, it all churned into an ambient ectoplasm Danny swore he’d never seen in another city.

And that defiant spirit, the Gotham je ne sais quoi that made people put up with all the rogue attacks and dangers, was powerful too. Jason had known that even as a kid.

Now, it was literally the reason he was alive.

He might have a second core filling his system with pit water, but they’d both have dried up without the boundless “fuck off” energy Gotham was built on.

He’d felt it the second he returned. He was alive in Gotham in a way he hadn’t been in Nanda Parbat, anywhere but the fucking pit. It let him think clearly.

Well.

Apparently Danny let him think clearly. That still stung. But it shouldn’t have surprised him.

He’d never been much of anything that other people didn’t make him.

It was why he didn’t really mind Clockwork trying to make him Danny’s knight within a couple hours of learning he was half dead. It was kinda what he did.

People had been using him as a weapon since he swung a tire iron at Batman himself. Protecting the guy who gave him his fucking soul back?

He’d have done that anyway, for free. And he got a kickass gun and a supernatural sense of when said asshole needed him. Honestly, easiest job of his life.

The catch would come eventually, but this whole “feeling the intent of people you talk to” thing left him way less suspicious than he still kinda felt he should be.

He’d rather that than be left nebulously owing his whole self to Danny with no way to repay him and no idea where the catch would come from.

It had just… never occurred to him that the same way Danny could reach out and find Vlad, he’d be able to find Cass. Or Jason himself, probably.

Jason hadn’t realised how tightly he’d wound himself until the pressure eased.

He sucked in a breath that seemed to fill his chest for the first time in hours, folded his arms forward onto the handlebars, and let his head rest against them.

Danny followed him down, never losing contact but his face slipping lower and lower down Jason’s back. It almost made him chuckle, imagining how they must have looked.

Actually, he did. Just a moment, a soft and almost giddy sound that he choked back immediately. He sounded… well. Not like himself.

He’d been itching since the girls left to patrol, wishing he could join them. Be Cass’s backup in the field and be sure she wasn’t going in on anything big alone.

Cass was a step beyond competent, she was exceptional and she’d been doing this for years without a shadow. On a regular day, she wouldn’t need help.

But hearing how close she was to losing her humanity and not coming back right no matter what had him on edge. He wanted to shield her, protect her from what he’d gone through.

It wasn’t that he wanted her out of the fight. The idea of asking her not to go out hadn’t even occurred to him. She could make her own choices and he’d back her with all he had.

He just absolutely fucking hated the idea that she was out there alone, while he had fucking nothing on him that’d let him go after her if she did need backup.

If she needed help, he’d have to waste time gearing up before he could go out after her. The other bats would have her back, they all would, so long as they weren’t busy too.

It wasn’t like he was anyone’s first choice for backup even now, he just.

Yeah. He might kinda get what Danny meant about his Obsession being protection. Protecting the bats was a recent addition, but Jason had burned himself out on enough missing kids since he got back to suspect.

He’d have to ask what an actual capital-letter Obsession felt like, but that would wait for another time.

Just knowing that Cass would be safe, had another pair of eyes and more powers than a Kryptonian watching her back made him feel like he could breathe again.

Even knowing that though, he was glad to have left the manor. He could take Danny home, suit up, and… wait.

Danny had no choice but to move back as he straightened, half turning to frown down at the smaller man.

“Is that why you wanted to leave?” He asked quietly, gauging Danny’s face.

Had Danny worked it out on his own? Felt him stressing out about his baby sister back in the field?

Did Danny know that Jason wanted to join her, if not necessarily which costume he wore, and cut his night short?

Would Danny do that for him?

The answer was obvious in the other man’s face as Danny shrugged, even before he spoke.

“I didn’t wanna put you on the spot, and I figured you’d rather get out of there,” he explained casually, leaning just a little into Jason. Enough to feel what warmth Danny had.

Jason hesitated for a long moment, not sure what to say. If he should thank Danny. If Danny would ask, and if Jason should tell him he was the Red Hood now.

It’d be weirder the longer he didn’t mention it. Like he was keeping a secret.

The same secret Danny had kept as a teenager, so at least he’d probably understand, but Jason didn’t like how it felt. He wasn’t fucking ashamed of being the Red Hood.

He’d done shit no one else ever could have, and every inch of his territory was safer than it had ever been without him. He was proud of what he’d done, even if he wouldn’t brag about his methods.

It worked. It got him where he was today, where he didn’t need to kill anymore because people turned tail at the hint of his damn name.

He still didn’t know how Danny felt about killing. It wasn’t something that came up in conversation much. Maybe he’d find a way to ask first.

Tonight, he managed a stiff nod and leaned a little of his own weight back into Danny. Even if the guy thought he was just gonna go home and mope there instead, it was a win.

“Thanks,” he said softly, half wishing for his helmet’s voice modulator. He didn’t like hearing his own voice sound so… vulnerable.

Danny, fucking angel of mercy that he was, chuckled softly and gave him a gentle tap upside the head.

“Yeah, well. Also wasn’t sure how the others would react to “99% of you are permanently on my radar” anyway, and I wanted to make sure you knew for Cass,” he explained cheerfully.

And yeah, Jason still hadn’t really processed that yet, and wasn’t even sure how he’d react. Smart fucking call on Danny’s part.

Chuckling under his breath, Jason shook his head and flipped the kickstand back up.

“Anything else before I take you to bed?” He asked, half teasing Danny’s own unfortunate choice of words earlier.

They were absolutely still fucking with his family to think this was some kind of romantic relationship. Maybe a bit to punish Bruce, who clearly couldn’t handle the idea of Jason happy.

Danny laughed, a hint of something Jason almost identified behind it, then settled himself more firmly against Jason’s back, hanging on properly again.

“Not a damn thing. Oh, are you gonna come pick me up tomorrow or do I make my own way to the manor to join you and Harley?” He asked, snugged up tight.

Jason had almost forgotten that was happening. Apparently. And suddenly he was glad for at least the motorcycle helmet as his cheeks flushed pink.

Fuck he’d say he was trailing after Danny like a puppy, except Danny was the one going where Jason needed to be.

Another excuse to get Danny on his bike, arms around him.

Fuck off Jason Todd, Romance Heroine. It was a goddamn jailbreak, if a legal one. Not a fucking meet cute.

“If you actually want to come,” he agreed a little hesitantly, because the voice that insisted he was just a burden and Danny was only humouring him wasn’t all displacement activity after all.

Or pit related, apparently. Delightful.

He coulda tried to pretend it was, but that had been more convincing back when it was always a background grumble of anger, not the little calm pool of happiness now sitting in his gut.

Unforeseen side effect of getting his toxic sludge cleaned up: he was gonna have to own some of his own bullshit now. Work out what was his and what wasn’t.

Danny leaned back a little, grip loosening, and Jason could feel concern like a whisper soft touch.

“Yeah… I would, if you don’t mind? It seems like he’s important to you.”

Jason wasted a moment trying to work out what the hell Danny meant by that.

Did he want to meet Croc cuz he was important to Jason? Or did he think Jason wouldn’t want him to if he was important?

Cuz while yeah, Jason considered Waylon a friend (and thanks, Harley, for the new name crisis, love that. The guy introduced himself as Killer Croc but Jason knew all about controlling a narrative) it wasn’t like he was family. Not like Dick, Cass, or the others.

Except. Roy was family. Long before any of the bats made it back into Jason’s good books, Roy was one of the first people to be happy Jason was alive.

And Waylon had helped Roy get help when Ollie fucking kicked him out.

Waylon had been a restraining hand on Jason’s shoulder too, in the bad old days. Keeping him from pushing too hard, going too big, doing something he really couldn’t come back from.

Family didn’t have to mean annoying texts at four AM. Didn’t have to come around for dinner every Sunday; how often did any of them really see Harley?

Fuck, how often would they have seen each other if Alfred didn’t have them all firmly under his culinary thumb.

Waylon had to count as a reliable old uncle at least.

And that kinda made it a different question. Did Jason want Danny to meet his family?

It had been an easy “yes” with the bats, not least because the nosy bastards would muscle their way in regardless. Croc…

Waylon never judged Jason. From his highest highs to lowest lows, he never looked down on him. Not even when he was telling Jason to stop and think.

It kinda made Jason ache for what his life should have been. His, and Waylon’s if he’d never been called Killer Croc.

And maybe it’d give Jason a read on how Danny would react to the Red Hood thing. Or whether or not Danny already knew.

Jason was gonna blame Bruce for this chronic overthinking. Definitely not something he’d had on his own.

He’d thought about it long enough that he could feel Danny tensing, and he forced himself to snap out of it. In all honesty, it wasn’t his business what Danny thought he’d get out of it.

In the end, there was no point second guessing what someone else wanted to do with their time. It was Danny’s call. Not his.

And that kinda helped.

He half shrugged, leaning back into Danny for a moment and tugging him forwards again.

“I mean, we’re not “Thanksgiving at each others’ houses” close, but… he’s helped me out since I came back. More than I expected anyone to. I don’t mind if you wanna meet him,” Jason explained.

Danny obediently moved back into position to go, his aura a gentle hum of curiosity-concern-interest at Jason’s back.

“So do I make my own way, or…”

“I’ll come get you, probably around eleven?” Jason offered, definitely NOT thinking about Danny being back in this same position very soon.

He was gonna have to get another helmet for the bike. Immortal Ghost King or not, it just felt rude at this point.

**

After Danny and Jason left, Tim, Harley, and Tucker played a few more rounds of Mariokart together. Switched to a couple other games. Damian abandoned them almost immediately, disappearing half way through a round.

Probably to start a patrol of his own, or go try to spy on Danny and Jason.

Eventually Harley wished both the boys well and headed out with a cheery wave.

“Right, maybe I’ll see ya tomorrow or maybe not, have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she called cheerfully, then paused and pointed at Tucker. “An’ keep an eye on Tim. Make sure he sleeps.”

Tim rolled his eyes, not looking up from their new round of SpiderHeck to wave her off. Tucker did, and Tim took advantage to swing across the map and cut him down with a lightsaber.

Amateur.

“Huh? Oh, sure! Fucking hell Tim,” Tuck complained as his attention switched back to the defeat screen.

Tim snickered, leaning back in his seat and crossing his legs.

“Hey, not my fault you can’t keep your head in the game,” he teased smugly. Tucker poked him in the face.

“Not my fault I have enough manners to look at people when they talk to me. So is Harley gonna be staying in the manor too?” He added curiously, glancing around.

They easily had the rooms for it, though Tim didn’t really wanna think about it. What might Harley get up to on a 2am snack run?

Although it wasn’t that far from 2am now.

“I don’t think so, she has a place in the city at the moment,” he mused, his mind beginning to shift.

It wasn’t that he’d been waiting for witnesses to clear out, exactly. Everyone was in on the secret, so it shouldn’t be a big deal to head down to the Bat Cave even when they had the larger group.

It was just… they’d been having fun. It’d be rude to leave their guests, and Bruce was already being cranky down in the cave.

Of course, Tim’d gotten another ping on his zeta tube monitoring program an hour or so ago. Constantine and Bruce both checking out, probably to the Watchtower.

So it’d be safe now, and they’d reached an okay stopping point. Tim had no doubt that Tucker would prefer checking out the cave over any games.

Tim couldn’t let him on the bat computer yet, but he could show Tucker a couple of Tim’s better scanning programs. Maybe even ping Babs and see how the others were doing.

See if she had time to talk to Tucker in person. Maybe he could show them both how he’d encrypted that server, which Tim suspected would involve ectoplasm.

Not like he couldn’t link the PDA to an un-networked monitor so that they could all see what he was doing though. Hell, they could record it for Bruce.

He’d love having answers to the Amity Park problem. If Tucker would let Tim run the PDA for a few minutes…

Still, it was just good manners to check in.

Alfred would be thrilled that they were learning to communicate.

Pulling out his phone, he shot Bruce a quick text.

‘Hey, we’re gonna head down to the Cave. You mind if I give a tour?’

It didn’t take long to get a reply, which was usually a good sign. It meant Bruce wasn’t hyperfocused enough to ignore his phone.

Maybe things with Constantine were going well.

The length of the reply wasn’t as reassuring, but not a surprise either. Bruce wasn’t exactly wordy in person, and only less so over text.

‘Go ahead.’

No indication of when he’d be back, but that was fine. They could compare notes whenever that turned out to be.

Tim turned to Tucker, grinning in anticipation of the other man’s reaction.

“So, wanna see something cool?” He asked, and felt gratified when Tucker’s eyes widened and a matching grin spread across his face.

But who wouldn’t be excited to see the Bat Cave?

“Hell yeah!”

**

Tucker followed Tim eagerly out of the games room, mind already buzzing with all the things the young genius might want to show him.

Did they have a tech lab in Wayne Manor? They definitely had the space for it, and it had to be safer than keeping one at Tim’s downtown apartment.

Bruce might not have been much of a techie but Tim was personally responsible for enough big developments that he was considered a prodigy even in Tucker’s circles.

Of course the guy had the advantage of near limitless money and resources, especially after Drake Industries merged with Wayne Enterprises.

With that kinda money, Tucker himself could have revolutionised the world. But, Tuck had the advantage of the Ghost Zone and ecto tech, so he wasn’t too upset.

Especially not if Tim was really going to let him see where the magic happened.

He did nearly let out an audible groan as Tim led him into an office and activated a secret elevator in a clock. Maybe Danny had a point… maybe all billionaires were dramatic assholes.

Maybe Sam had a point, and they were all evil. Maybe Tim was bringing him down to an evil lab.

Caution reluctantly seeped into Tucker’s excitement, but he fought it off sharply. Tim was a good guy, they were becoming real friends, and Tuck couldn’t believe a fellow techie would betray him.

Besides, no one in Gotham knew shit about ghost tech, or liminals. It wasn’t like Tucker would actually be in any danger from a scrawny nerd like Tim.

Even if he did have very nice shoulders. Shapely arms. An almost snatched waist that almost tipped to androgyny, but he carried it so well.

Anyway.

Tim definitely wouldn’t hurt him.

It was probably just a super secure underground tech lab, to keep anyone from stealing secrets. Tucker let himself hype up again, imagining the kind of security measures Tim could install underground.

It’d remove the chances of someone sneaking through a back window for sure. And sure, rock wouldn’t stop a ghost, but it stopped pretty much anyone else if you added seismic sensors.

It made sense, really, putting all Tim’s very coolest and most secret cutting edge tech experiments somewhere that no one would expect, and almost no one could get to.

Tucker found himself rocking forward on his toes as the elevator descended, and flushed a little when he noticed Tim smiling.

He was excited, sue him. It beat worrying that he was about to get his first go at the Danny Fenton Lab Experience.

Thankfully no one ever cared enough to capture the nerds.

Tim was quiet on the way down, clearly savouring the anticipation, and that suited Tucker fine. It wasn’t a long ride, and he all but bounced out of the doors as soon as they opened.

Stopped.

Stared around at blank stone walls, stalactites on the ceiling, and… a waterfall? A robotic dinosaur? A row of display cases?

This was not a super cool high tech research lab.

This kinda might be a supervillain cave.

Tucker’s heart sank for a moment, especially as he noticed more and more Batman themed pieces on walls and cases.

Bruce Wayne (please don’t let it be Tim’s secret project any more, Tucker couldn’t bear it) was obsessed with Batman. Collecting trophies.

Probably wanted to catch the hero himself and stuff him in a case. Rich people were all like that apparently.

Except… the locker room? Off to one side? Where a freshly laundered Red Robin uniform hung, neat and pristine?

Collector freaks never let anyone clean their stuff, especially if it might have had gross hero sweat to obsess over.

And that was the Batmobile, parked next to a large garage door. An array of motorcycles, and Tucker was no expert on Gotham’s heroes but there were at least three colour schemes.

Someone had been changing the oil on one of them.

A massive computer screen, surrounded by smaller screens at various angles, and as he approached in awe he spotted a bat sticker on almost every monitor.

No way anyone ever stole THE Batcomputer. People would notice. Someone would talk, there were legends about Batman’s set up!

Half Tucker’s class would have killed for a look at the tech, no way they wouldn’t know if it ever got loose.

Which meant.

Tucker knew his jaw had dropped. Couldn’t find it in himself to close it as he turned back to Tim, eyes wide, and watched all colour drain from the other man’s face.

“Is this the fucking Bat Cave?! Is Bruce Fucking Wayne actually Batman?!” He exclaimed eagerly, not even wondering why Tim suddenly looked so shocked.

This really was the best day ever.

Wait.

“You DO know the fucking Oracle!”

**

Well.

The curse of Robin had come for Tim at last. Bruce was absolutely going to fucking kill him.

But, okay, in his defence, it totally wasn’t Tim’s fault! He’d assumed Tucker already knew because Danny one thousand percent definitely did, he called Dick out in costume!

And Tucker was still trustworthy! Still an asset! And he’d help Tim get past the firewalls, get into Amity Park, all they had to do was get enough work done before Bruce came back.

And killed Tim.

For bringing an unknowing civilian into the fucking bat cave.

Best day ever.

Tim sucked in a great rasping breath, suddenly aware that he’d completely stopped breathing somewhere in there, and shook his head.

Okay. Snap out of it Tim.

Those nights with Alfred-supervision had made him weak, no way only thirty-six hours without sleep should have done this to him.

Too bad, sleep deprivation would have been a great excuse.

He wasted a moment lamenting his lack of immediate coffee and turned his focus to the actual problem: the Amity Park firewall.

Tucker was still staring at him in awe and triumph, though worry was creeping in. Tim pulled on a charming smile, walking to the batcomputer and gesturing for Tucker to join him.

“Uh… yeah, sorry, I thought Danny already told you or I’d have said. I didn’t mean to spring it on you,” he lied, like he’d have ever let the secret slip.

Tucker pouted then, folding his arms.

“Oh, of course Danny knows. Bet that’s how he and Jason met. So does that mean you’re…” he trailed off curiously, clearly hoping Tim would fill in the blank.

Tim considered being mildly offended that Tucker didn’t think he could be Oracle, but he valued his digital security. Zero chance Babs wouldn’t be pulling this video up later for a laugh.

He nodded to his suit instead, the new one hanging waiting. Probably for tomorrow night at this point, since there was no reason to change just to hang out in the cave.

“Red Robin. I ah… saw you last night at the gala,” he added sheepishly, wondering just how much of Tim’s minor breakdown Tucker had noticed while waiting to give Tim the tablet.

And Tucker’s eyes lit up, clearly remembering, and he grinned, clapping his hands together.

“Oh! That explains why you left, huh? I guess someone had to deal with the rogues and stuff,” he mused thoughtfully.

Tim had to hope he wasn’t thinking about the exact same thing. At least the discovery was going well so far; Tim couldn’t think of many people he’d had to share this particular secret with, and most of the ones who did had been villains at one time or another, but still.

Tucker was keeping up, wasn’t freaking out, and had gotten over his surprise in record time. Tim definitely wasn’t disappointed.

Tuck had been a vigilante himself after all, it’s not like he was a civilian. And had already admitted he didn’t pay much attention to vigilantes, so he might not even know which one Red Robin was.

It’d just. Have been nice if he was more impressed.

Not that Tim cared. He wasn’t Red Robin to impress people, and usually didn’t even think about it.

And Tucker didn’t seem surprised or upset when Tim steered him to one of the tables beside the batcomputer instead of the big baby itself, and got one of the un-networked monitors out.

“Pretty much. I get a little… antsy if a takedown goes too easily, because with Riddler it usually means we’re missing something,” he explained dryly, pointing Tucker to a second wheely chair to pull over, “but yesterday it was apparently just a shitty rush job on his part.”

Tucker snickered at that, wheeling the directed chair over and sitting eagerly beside Tim, still darting looks at the bigger screens.

“Should I be mad I didn’t get their best work?” He mock-pondered, and Tim snickered.

“Probably. But Riddler and Croc aren’t really A-listers or big on the mass destruction side anyway.”

“Waylon,” Tucker corrected almost absent mindedly, pulling out his PDA.

Tim missed exactly what he did next as he remembered Harley’s little tidbit, and he pulled a face.

“Yeah… I’ve not exactly had the one-on-one time with him Jason’s had, I don’t think we’re on a first name basis,” he explained, shaking his head as the monitor sprung to life.

Tucker snorted a laugh, flicking through screens on the PDA.

“What, Mr Jones then? Want me to just start downloading the Amity Park records first, then we’ll go hunting?” He added, and Tim nodded quickly, snickering himself at the vision.

Nothing threw a shining ball of confusion into a fight like calling someone “Mr Jones”. He’d have to try it if Croc… Mr Jones was gonna be back on the scene.

It was the name that went on all of his prison paperwork, so it wasn’t like it was a secret identity the same way the bats had.

“Honestly? Better than Waylon. And yeah, we can start with the government files and news reports, just so we have a backup. Then we’ll look around and find out what else B thinks we’ll need.”

Tucker snickered beside him, flicking quickly through screens on the PDA. Despite it being purely for his benefit, Tim pretty much ignored the monitor, keeping most of his attention on the device itself.

It was chunky and very retro, but given the processing power and space for storage? There was a definite charm to it.

Maybe Tucker would let him play around on it later.

But, in the spirit of not being killed when Bruce returned… there was one thing they definitely needed to talk about.

“I…” Tim sucked in a deep breath. He’d put good money on Tuck, Danny, and Sam being what actually solved Amity Park’s last calls to the League.

It might be a traumatic memory. Probably was. But he had to ask. And better him than Bruce.

Tucker looked up when he trailed off, making a curious noise. Not exactly asking what Tim wasn’t saying, but showing he’d noticed the pause.

Sighing to himself, Tim wheeled across to the batcomputer. Bruce probably still had the files up.

“I also think we need to talk about these,” he explained, pulling up the records for the Justice League’s missed calls. Hundreds of them.

Tucker just looked nonplussed for a moment, then sobered. Probably when the dates sank in and told him what they were talking about.

“Oh… yeah. Probably,” he agreed, sounding more serious than Tim had ever heard him. Which kinda proved Tim’s point about traumatic memories.

Leaving the records on screen, Tim wheeled back over, pulling out one of his larger recorders. This conversation might take a while.

“Do you mind if I just record what you tell me? B’s gonna want a full write up. He’s off ripping a strip off of Constantine as we speak, probably, cuz whatever he did… this lot went past voice mail and straight to the trash.”

It wasn’t exactly an apology, wasn’t exactly an excuse, and Tim cut himself off before it turned into whining. The past was past, and it was too late to change that now.

Something complicated crossed Tucker’s face as he spoke, and Tim tried not to look too closely. Didn’t want his overly analytical side latching on.

The only thing they could do was work out what happened, and if there was still anything the league could do to make up for majorly dropping the ball.

Tucker sucked in a deep breath of his own, letting it out in a low whistle.

“Y’know, I thought we were coming down here for fun and tech talk,” he said almost wistfully, and Tim chuckled wryly.

“We can definitely still do that. It’ll just unknot Bruce’s panties some if we’ve got this part out of the way before he gets back. That way you’re just telling me, no “swooping menace in the shadows”,” he added half sarcastically, and Tucker laughed.

He looked… well. Haunted. But that wasn’t exactly a sensible descriptor for a guy who spent years hunting ghosts.

Not too bad though. No tremors, no tightness in the eyes or jaw that said he was hiding something. His skin was still a rich, warm brown, no paler than before.

If he was having a deeper reaction than the tiredness, he was hiding it in a way Tim couldn’t hope to spot. That… was probably the best sign Tim had seen about this particular shit show.

Chuckling to himself, Tucker checked the PDA one more time, then set it on the table and turned to face Tim directly.

“Yeah, might as well do it during the file download. Your setup is gorgeous, but that’s still gonna take a while. If you ask me, you’re not gonna need to ask Danny about it later, right?” He asked, and Tim bit his lip.

Less good sign. Seemed Danny carried more of the weight of this one too.

“B’ll probably want his side, and to check the stories match, but Jason won’t let him push Danny into anything,” he offered instead of a blanket statement.

Tucker cocked his head a little, examining Tim for a long moment in a way that made him feel almost… dissected. Like a piece of tech Tucker had taken apart, and was looking for secrets in.

Finally the older boy nodded and shrugged, leaning back.

“Yeah, fair. It’s damn hard to pin Danny down if he wants to leave anyway. There’s some Fenton tech that’d do it, but it’s not like you can get that here. So… where do you want me to start?”

Filing away that comment about the Fenton tech for later, Tim jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the big screen.

“Do we have time to start at the beginning? The first calls?” He asked, half expecting the answer to be “no”.

Tucker glanced down at his PDA, and snickered.

“Well, I can give you the Cliff’s Notes version. And then if you have questions you can ask?”

Which… yeah, Tim glanced at their little offline monitor. It was a pretty big download; Tucker had meant it when he said he was grabbing everything for them.

That had to be a sign of good faith, right?

And then after that they’d have to shift everything over to an un-networked hard drive. After whatever Tuck had to do to de-ecto it.

Shoulders settling, Tim put the recorder on the table before him.

“Sounds good. So… Tucker Foley, current top student at MIT and soon to be receiver of a Wayne Enterprises internship,” he teased, enjoying the way Tucker snickered again, also visibly relaxing.

Might as well make this as comfortable as possible. They could break after Tucker finished for some drinks or something.

“What happened in Amity Park?”

**

On the Watchtower, Bruce slid his phone back into its pouch on his utility belt and returned his attention to the pacing magician.

He’d pulled up every type of reading they could gather from Amity Park for the week of the last distress call, and from their current logs.

Thermal imaging, infrared and ultraviolets, seismography, electromagnetic waves, spectrography, and several that Bruce wasn’t sure what they were, just that the Justice League Dark were the only ones who used them.

The fact that even Bruce could see extremely obvious spikes on more than half of them was not a good sign. It made checking the dates almost superfluous.

Nor was the way that even though those spikes had lowered within that same day… they’d never gone all the way back down.

In every magical sense they could detect (and half a dozen scientific ways he was actually comfortable with), Amity Park glowed like a cartoon nuke.

The only good news was that their radiation sensors had gone straight back down to normal after the initial spikes. Which made no scientific sense given the normal decay of radioactive materials, but Bruce was not going to argue.

He appreciated Tim checking in though. The gesture towards clearer communication. He wasn’t sure exactly what Tim would want to show Harley in a tour of the bat cave, but honestly?

He wasn’t going to ask. It was nice to have something that wasn’t his problem, and he trusted Tim and Harley, together or separately.

It wasn’t like Tim would bring anyone else down to the cave.

——————

😇

I regret nothing.

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Next Chapter:

[writehardwhumpharder]

Carson Poisoned by Magic - (Part 2)

This part focuses more on Daniel’s end of things. They’ve started working on a way to reverse the poison but things look hopeless. Carson helps as much as he can but it’s up to Daniel, and he knows it. It took a surprisingly angsty turn. Next part will have more Carson whump. 

After Diana looked Carson over they were sure that his condition couldn't have been caused by anything medical. Nothing matched up. The only consistent symptom he had was the high fever that never seemed to go down no matter what they tried. His mom assured Daniel that Carson could handle fevers better than most people and the side effects were a little different when caused by magic. Usually it happened when he took in too much stray energy from many different people at once, confusing the hell out of his system. This was similar in that his body was probably trying to burn away the poison spreading up his arms at an alarming rate.

Diana sat down with Daniel to give him some tips on searching through their books on magic by causes, symptoms, and treatments. Fortunately they had a lot of information on those topics, unfortunately trying to find out what was wrong with Carson was like looking for a needle in a haystack and unlike science, magic often didn't feel the need to follow its own rules.

His phone rang, drawing him out of his thoughts, and Daniel looked down at it with a grimace. He thought he'd put it on mute. Seeing that it was his brother calling he figured he could spare a minute or so to talk to him.

"Where the fuck have you been?! You were supposed to open today!" Jason yelled into his ear.

Daniel found himself getting irrationally mad, already regretting picking up the phone, "So?"

"What do you mean so? You didn't even tell anyone you weren't coming in."

"Yeah I'm busy, so busy that I have to go," he snapped. There was an exasperated sigh on the other end.

"I can't cover your shifts man, you better have a good reason for flaking out like this," Jason said harshly.

Diana sat on the other end of the couch minding her business even though he knew she could hear them with how loud Jason was yelling.

"Carson's sick so I'll be gone for a little while. Don't call me again," he replied, getting tired of this conversion.

"But you-"

Daniel cut him off, "I can't even begin to describe how little I care right now, figure it out yourself." With that he hung up and tossed his phone aside in an effort to refocus.

"Do you need to be somewhere else?" Carson's mom asked tentatively. She could easily watch Carson if he needed to step out for a minute to take care of things.

"Nope, I have the week the off," he replied.

Just as he was getting his notes back in order Carson's door opened. For a second he thought that maybe they didn't close it all the way and a draft pushed it open but after a few long seconds Carson stepped out of his room, holding tightly onto the door the whole time.

"What are you doing up?" Danny and his mom asked in unison.

"I'm bored," and lonely, but Carson didn't say that part out loud. He was the picture of illness. Dark bags settled under his eyes, his skin had lost of its color, and a blanket was draped messily over his shoulders. The fact that he didn't put a shirt on before coming out of his room was proof enough of how bad he must be feeling. Danny could practically see the rays of heat coming off of him.

Watching him cross the room at such a slow and labored speed was borderline painful but Carson looked steady enough to make it to the couch and they knew he'd take it the wrong way if someone got up to help him.

"It's a war zone out here, almost like someone is dying," he commented dryly.

Diana shot him a sharp glance, "That is not funny."

Carson grumbled to himself, he should at least be able to joke about his own shitty situation. Feeling a general tension emanating from his mom Carson chose to sit on the other couch. He had to push a few things onto the floor so he could lay down and his eyes felt heavy as soon as he was settled in. It was a conscious effort not to fall back asleep.

"So where are we at?" Carson asked.

"Well I called your detective friend and he's looking into where you went the other night and who might have something against you. Riley said she'd be available to get anything we need," Daniel told him.

"Mmm, good," Carson replied. He got the gist of it but sort of lost focus after he referred to Morris as his "friend". The sharp pain behind his temples was the only thing keeping him grounded at this point. The constant fever, headache, and occasional coughing fit had really sapped away all his energy.

"So you've figured out that it's a magical poison, thus we need a magical solution," Carson confirmed. His mom nodded.

"But we can't do magic, so even if we find a way to reverse it there's not much we can do." Daniel sighed. He leaned back into the couch and rubbed his eyes. Meanwhile Carson could feel himself slipping. He needed to help as much as he could while he could still think.

"That's not strictly true. There's a box in my closet with your name on it, go get it." He mumbled.

Danny got up quickly to fetch it. It was unusual for Carson to give anyone permission to look through his things but these were desperate circumstances. Sitting at the bottom of the closet, Danny found a shoe box with his name scribbled across the top. It appeared to be leaking something. At first he was hesitant to touch it but once he turned on the light he saw that it was just sawdust settled around it.

It only took a few seconds to find but by the time he came back to the living room, Diana was kneeling in front of Carson, snapping her fingers in his face. He almost dropped the box.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, he just fell asleep again. What's inside?" She nodded at shoebox in his hands.

"Oh, I haven't checked yet."

They sat down opposite each other with the mystery box in the middle. Daniel opened it slowly, expecting it to perhaps catch fire, or disintegrate on contact. Instead all he was met with was more wood shavings and a crudely carved stick.

"What is that?" His mom asked, leaning forward to get a better look. Danny pinched it between his thumb and forefinger as he pulled it out.

"If I'm not mistaken, I think it's a magic wand." He said. It was hand carved with an array of symbols etched in, most of which Daniel recognized. "He must have carved it himself."

"Clearly," Diana commented. Carson was never much of an artist.

"Hey, s'not finished," a mumble came from the bundle of blankets next to Danny.

"Should we let him have that many blankets when he has a fever?" Daniel asked.

Diana frowned, "probably not."

Carson, who still looked very much knocked out, tightened his grip on the top blanket he'd brought with him from his room. Daniel tried to casually peel it off but Carson's eyes snapped open and he practically growled.

"Don't you dare."

It wouldn't have been hard to wrestle it away from him considering he had almost no body strength at the moment but Daniel backed off, looking back at the wand.

Carson's sleepy eyes followed his gaze, "oh you found it," he laughed lazily, "Happy Birthday." With that he passed out again, for real this time.

It was a shame they had to bring out the gift now, unfinished and a month early, but if it would help them do the magic they'd need to cure him, then he was glowing with happiness that Carson had gone through the trouble to make this ahead of time.

Diana smiled, "It must have taken weeks for him to carve in those symbols."

"Yeah," he agreed.

"It's not often I see him put that much time into something."

Danny nodded.

"Must be really special." Diana was anything but subtle when it came to the topic of their "friendship". She had a point though, it looked like it took a lot of effort, but he still had no idea if it would work. Carson did say it wasn't finished.

"We'll set this aside for when we need it." Danny decided, closing the box and setting it down next to the coffee table.

--

They worked quietly until the sun went down, which was at like 4pm in the afternoon this time of year, yet Daniel still felt like he'd spent days looking through these books. He didn't find anything particularly useful in his own notes which wasn't very promising. Even going through Carson's notes proved fruitless, and a little traumatizing. There was some disturbing stuff in there.

Initially, he thought it would be nice having Carson in the living room with them. But after hours of listening to him moan and whimper in his fevered sleep, Daniel couldn't take it anymore.

He glanced over at the foot sticking out of the blankets. Slowly but surely the poison found it's way there too, starting at the ankles and moving up. There wasn't enough time. He didn't know how to do this.

Before he knew what was happening, Daniel couldn't breathe. His chest felt tight and he struggled to bring in a full breath. Something cold washed over his body. A kind of darkness and fear he'd never felt before. While this was happening, the same few thoughts swirled around in his head. What if he couldn't save him? What if he ran out of time? What if he wasn't good enough and Carson died because of him? What if Carson died?

His vision grew hazy from lack of oxygen. It was like the weight of world was actively crushing him. A rapid thumping in his chest told Danny he needed to move, to do something. Break things, run away, scream, just... something. But all he could do was sit there on the couch, covering his face in his hands. If he even looked at Carson he'd start crying. Scratch that, he was already crying.

Diana was in the kitchen making some soup when she heard panicked gasping. Her heart dropped as some kind of motherly instinct took over. Setting the soup aside off the burner she dashed back into the living room. Carson was still deeply asleep but Daniel wasn't reading anymore. She found him curled up on the couch, crying through his hands and hyperventilating.

Unlike Carson, Daniel was a touchy person, he needed that kind of human contact. And while he couldn't regain control of himself and the world was still crashing down on him, it felt nice to have her hand on his back, drawing calming circles.

"W-what- if, what i-if," he could barely choke out the words. "I, I can't. I can't. I can't..." He got stuck in a loop. It was all too much, he couldn't do it. But Daniel also knew that if he gave up, Carson might not survive. He was plagued with even more guilt for thinking that way.

"I need you to breath with me, just like this," she moved his hands so he could see her and started taking in slow, exaggerated breaths. Much like she would with the kids she took care of at the hospital. It took a few minutes but eventually he was able to match her rhythm, breathing at a normal speed again. The fear didn't quite go away but his vision came back and he was vaguely aware of Diana kneeling next to him. When he met her eyes again he couldn't help but throw his arms around her tiny frame, burying his face in her shoulder. She gave him a reassuring squeeze. In the back of her mind she caught herself liking the feeling of having a son she could hug. While she always respected Carson's boundaries, she kept wishing she could do more for him. Daniel pulled away abruptly after a minute, feeling embarrassed. He looked down and wiped at his face with his sleeve. Diana took the hint and wandered back into the kitchen to finish dinner.

A sleepy feeling replaced his anxiety and he felt a little empty, like his mind had gone quiet. It was great in comparison to how he felt a moment ago but Daniel knew he was still far from okay. With no time to waste he got back to work, starting on a different book about dark magic.

Though no one realized, Carson had woken up at some point while Daniel was panicking. He kept his eyes closed but listened to his friend gasp and sob. He couldn't allow that.

The foot that had slipped out of the blankets earlier edged closer to him. He acted like he was just stretching but when his toes made contact with Daniel's knee, Carson drew away some of his pain. Just a little. He didn't give away any of his own energy but he could take on a little bit of his. It's not like he could feel worse than he already did.

Daniel's eyes widened as he felt Carson's foot graze his leg, and while it did, his pain dulled a bit. There was a warmth to it that he recognized, it felt a little bit like taking a sip whiskey to take the edge off. But Carson was in no state to be doing magic, especially magic that would only hurt him more.

"Don't do that," Daniel said, jerking away. "I'm serious, you can't be doing that right now. You need all the strength you can get."

"You stop doing that," Carson replied. He was so quiet Daniel almost couldn't understand him.

"Stop what?" He asked.

"Stop crying."

[artificialqueens]

Straightjacket Feeling - Chp.9 (Pearlet) by Scarlet

A/N - chapter is a little angsty I suppose and involves gratuitous (pearlet) smut. Enjoy lovelies!

Chapter 9

(Do I wanna know?)

If this feeling flows both ways

(Sad to see you go)

Was sorta hoping that you’d stay

(Baby we both know)

That the nights were mainly made for saying

Things that you can’t say tomorrow day

—————————————–

The next morning when Jason awoke he had a smile on his face. So what if Matt was mad at him? He decided he wasn’t going to care. He checked his phone and his good mood soon went out the window when he saw the multiple missed calls and texts from Matt. He cleared the calls and trawled his way through the messages.

I’m sorry Jason, I didn’t mean the things I said, please tell me you didn’t mean them either?

Jay please text me back. I’m sorry I’m an asshole ok? I can’t stand it when we fight.

Please Jay! I know you’re mad, but how many times do I need to say I’m sorry?

I’m not going to ask Jake to be my best man ok? You’re the only person I want to do that, please talk to me.

This isn’t fair, please don’t shut me out.

I miss you.

Jason scoffed. I miss you. He didn’t know what missing someone was like. He didn’t know what Jason had been through the last five years, missing someone that was so close he could reach out and touch him but he could never have him. He didn’t know the pain Jason had felt missing Matt after that night in Daytona, knowing what it was like to have him but knowing it would never happen again. Fuck you Matt, he thought. You don’t have the right. Another text message appeared as Jason re read the ones from last night. Not surprisingly it was Matt.

Can we please meet for a drink tonight so we can talk?

Jason wanted to say no, because he didn’t think he had anything he could say to Matt. But also, he didn’t want to lose Matt from his life. His sighed and hit reply.

Sure.

He hit send and then put his phone down just as the bedroom door opened.

‘Morning.’ Danny beamed, he was just wearing his boxers.

'Morning.’ Jason smiled sitting up in the bed. Suddenly he smelt something wafting into the room. 'What’s that smell?’ He raised an eyebrow at Danny. Danny came over to the bed and pulled Jason into a kiss.

'I made breakfast.’ He grinned proudly.

'It smells amazing.’ Jason smiled and swung his legs out of the bed. He threw his pants back on and Danny pulled him in for another kiss. 'You keep that up I won’t be interested in breakfast.’ He slapped Danny’s ass as he passed him, heading towards the smell of the food.

'I’ve got to go to work in a bit but do you want to hook up this evening?’ Danny spoke as he carried the plates out to where Jason was sat at the small dining table.

'Uhm…I kind of agreed to meet Matt for a drink. He wants to talk.'

'That sounds like fun.’ Danny rolled his eyes sarcastically.

'Yeah about as fun as pulling teeth.’ Jason said as he put a piece of bacon in his mouth. 'I don’t want to fall out with him though. How about we hook up tomorrow?'

'Sounds good to me.’ Danny smiled, using his free hand to run up Jason’s thigh. They didn’t get a lot of eating done after that because Jason’s mouth became too preoccupied with Danny. There was something about that man that Jason just couldn’t keep his hands off.

—————————————–

Matt felt strangely nervous as he waited for Jason. A part of him thought maybe he wouldn’t show, he’d been pretty mad at Matt last night but Matt hoped that at the very least Jason wouldn’t lie to him. He checked his watch again, Jason was almost a half hour late; Jason was notoriously always late, but Matt thought maybe he was doing it deliberately this time. Just then the door of the bar opened and Jason walked in. He had his hands in his pockets and a fed up expression on his face.

'Hey.’ Matt spoke shyly as he stood up. 'I was starting to think you weren’t going to come.’

'I wasn’t going to. I’ve circled the block like ten times.’ Jason shrugged and Matt had an overwhelming urge to kiss him but he refrained.

'Well I’m glad you came. Can I get you a drink?'

'Sure.’ Jason sighed slumping into the table. Matt sighed and turned to the bar. He eyed up the array of drinks, not sure what Jason would want but he worried if he asked him he would get even more frustrated. Then he had an idea. He smiled to himself as he put in his special request with the bartender who looked at him oddly but didn’t question it. He made their drinks and Matt paid for them before taking them over to Jason. Jason looked down into his glass. Brownish liquid, the distinctive smell of battery acid. He rolled his eyes.

'Violet Kiss? Wow you’re pulling out the big guns aren’t you?’ Jason sighed and took a sip. It was still as nice as he remembered even though he couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d had one.

'I’m sorry ok? I don’t know how many times I need to say it. But you said some pretty harsh things yourself.’ Matt actually thought Jason had been a lot harsher than he had last night but somehow he was the one apologising. He wasn’t sure how that worked.

'Yeah I know.’ Jason took another sip. If Matt was expecting and apology he could think again.

'Did you mean what you said?’ Matt played with his glasses, he did this when he was uncomfortable, and Jason knew that well. He hadn’t seen Matt in his glasses in a long time, he wondered why he was wearing them tonight.

'I don’t know. I guess a part of me must feel that way otherwise it wouldn’t have come out.'

'You really think I treat you like my lapdog?’ Matt asked him sadly making Jason sigh.

'I never used to but Kurtis is forever calling me it and I’ve heard Jake and the Brian’s saying it too. I guess when everyone else is thinking it it’s hard to ignore.’ Jason shrugged. 'I don’t think you mean to treat me that way, and it’s just as much on me as it is you. I think in the beginning I was so eager to please you, because you were cool and popular and I always thought if I didn’t do what you said then maybe you wouldn’t want to be friends with me anymore. And as times gone on, it’s just the way our friendship became. You started subconsciously expecting me to do whatever you said, to be there at the drop of a hat and I subconsciously went along with it. But I don’t think it’s healthy. I think that if this friendship is going to work we both need to accept that that dynamic is going to shift. When I’m with someone, you aren’t going to be my priority Matt. You can’t demand all of my time and attention, I mean so I didn’t reply to a few texts? Do you know how many texts or calls of mine you’ve not responded to over the years because you’ve been busy with Court? And I don’t say anything because I understand. But for the first time ever I do the same and you kick off! That’s not fair Matt.’ Jason ranted, he didn’t know he was going to say all of that. He took a long sip of his drink while he let his words sink in. Matt bit his lip and ran his fingers over one of the shaved sides of his head.

'I know it’s not fair, you’re right.’ Matt sighed. 'So yeah maybe I have gotten used to you always being there and it was weird for me. This is going to sound horrible and so fucking selfish but I like you always being there. I like that you depended on me, I like being the one you call whenever you have good news or when you have bad news. I like being your shoulder to cry on, I like that you call me when you’re sick. It’s selfish as fuck of me but I like it ok? I miss you not needing me.’ Matt felt like a horrible person saying as much. Jason narrowed his eyes on him.

'They are the kind of things a boyfriend does though Matt. You are not my boyfriend. You should want to do all those things for Courtney, you should want her to need you. Not me.’ Jason shook his head. Matt was such a head fuck.

'I know, I know I’m sorry. I guess I’ve just gotten so used to you always needing me that I missed it a little. I’ll get over that, I want you to be happy Jason.'

'Yeah?’ Jason bit his lip.

'Of course!’ Matt put his hand on top of Jason’s and Jason hated that every time Matt touched him he felt butterflies in his stomach. 'Come on, tell me about this guy.’ He removed his hand and Jason felt a little down trodden but he tried to ignore it.

'Uhm well…his names Danny…do you remember the guy from Spring Break?'

'The asshole from the beach?’ Matt scoffed.

'That’s Danny.’ Jason shrugged.

'You’re dating that guy? What the fuck Jason! That guy was a fucking asshole! Of all the guys? Really?’ Matt suddenly raised his voice. Jason’s face dropped again and he slammed his hands on the table.

'Fuck you Matt.’ He stood up. 'What the hell happened to what you just said? This is my life goddamnit and I can date whoever the fuck I want!’ Jason went to leave but Matt stopped him, grabbing his arm.

'Where are you going?’

'I can still meet Danny from work if I leave now.’

'No, please.’ Matt begged. 'I’m sorry, that was an asshole reaction. Please, sit back down and tell me about him.'

Jason thought about this for a second. Matt half-smiled at him, his eyes pleading. Jason rolled his eyes and sat back down.

'Fine. His names Danny and he’s twenty-five and he’s from California.’ Jason swilled his drink around in his glass as he thought. 'That’s about it.’

'That’s it? Do you guys ever talk?’ Matt chuckled a little.

'Not a lot of time for talking if you know what I mean.’ Jason smirked. 'Oh one more thing I know about him, he knows how to work a dick.'

'What the fuck?’ Matt grimaced. 'I don’t want to fucking know that.'

'Why? Because I’m gay? Don’t like the thought of two men together?’ Jason folded his arms.

'What? I didn’t say that!'

'Well it’s funny because I hear you and Jake talking about your nasty straight sex all the time and you’ve never had that kind of reaction before.’ Jason stood back up. He’d had enough of this.

'Jason come on, you know that’s not what this about! I just don’t want to think about…that.'

’Because I’m gay!’ Jason raised his voice. 'You know I never had you pegged as being homophobic Matt. Once upon a time you even seemed pretty gay yourself with your dick in my ass!’ Jason made sure to shout the last part so everyone heard. He saw Matt go bright red.

'Jason-’

'Save it.’ Jason scoffed and then he fled the bar. Matt caught up with him outside.

'Jason come on.’ Matt grabbed his shoulder.

'No I know Matt, not now right? Not fucking now.’ Jason rolled his eyes. 'I’m sorry I brought up your dirty little secret.’ He tried to leave but Matt was holding him firmly in place.

'Jason you know full well the fact you’re gay has nothing to do with it. I just don’t like the idea of thinking about anyone with you in that way, I don’t care if it’s a guy or a girl.’ Matt confessed, his eyes boring into Jason.

'Why not?’ Jason swallowed as he felt a lump forming in his throat. Matt let go of his shoulder and sighed.

'You know why.’ Matt told him, keeping the eye contact firm. Jason’s heart hammered. Was Matt getting at what Jason thought he was? Jason’s mouth was suddenly dry and he couldn’t think of any words to say to that. 'Look, I just don’t want to hear about your sex life ok? I’m happy you’ve met someone, I am but please, can we keep that part off the table? I would never tell you about me and Court.'

Jason was still reeling. He found himself dumbly nodding though.

'I should…probably go.’ He croaked out eventually.

'Please don’t.’ Matt whispered. 'Court’s away for the weekend, why don’t you come back to mine and we’ll watch Drag Race and have a few drinks? Just like college.’ He looked at Jason pleadingly. Jason knew it was a bad idea, especially after what Matt had just said that was still making Jason’s head spin but he couldn’t stop himself from nodding. He always was a sucker for Matt, forever the lapdog.

'Yeah, ok.'

Matt beamed at him and then he was hailing a cab. What could go wrong? A lot probably but Jason chose to put that to the back of his mind.

—————————————–

'Jay? Jay wake up.’ Matt whispered a little while later as Jason had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Jason blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes.

'What time is it?’ He was on Matt’s sofa, an episode of Drag Race had been paused.

'It’s like 3.30 in the morning.’ Matt chuckled sleepily.

'Oh fuck I should go.’ Jason stood up and stretched his limbs.

'Don’t be silly, it’s late and you live miles away.’

'I’ll get a cab.'

'Stay here, like I said Courtney’s away, it’s not a problem.’ Matt was smiling in that way that made Jason’s knees go weak.

'I guess I could stay in the spare room.’ He shrugged, he really was too tired to go home.

'Or, you could stay with me? If you wanted to of course.’ Matt bit his lip shyly. Jason’s heart beat sped up. He knew that wasn’t a good idea, guy friends didn’t share beds did they? But Jason was never good at saying no to Matt even if he knew this was a bad idea. He found himself nodding robotically and Matt smiled at him and led Jason upstairs. They both stripped down to their boxers with their backs to each other before Matt crawled into the bed. Jason took a few deep breaths to calm himself before he turned and darted under the covers. Matt was curled up on his side facing Jason so Jason did the same but he kept his distance.

'Is this weird?’ Matt whispered.

'A little.’ Jason whispered in reply. Matt shuffled a little closer to him, making Jason’s heart race again.

'I really am sorry you know. There’s just something about the thought of you being with someone that sets off a reaction in me. I know it’s dumb, I’m with Court and I have no right to feel that way but…’ Matt trailed off, clearly at a loss for words.

'But you like the idea that you could still have me if you wanted to.’ Jason added for him. Matt bit his lip and looked away briefly.

'Something like that.’ He confessed.

'You know that’s not fair right? You don’t get to be engaged and keep me on the hook. That’s not fair Matt.’ Jason sniffed, feeling pathetically as though he might cry. Matt shuffled even closer and put his hand cautiously on Jason’s cheek.

'I don’t know what it is about you Jay. When I look at you, it’s like everything I know about myself goes out the window. I’ve never had that before, especially not with another guy. I try and fight it and I try to ignore it but fuck, I spend most of the time on the cusp of trying to kiss you. Even now, it is taking everything in my power not to kiss you.’ Matt spoke softly and quietly and Jason had had no idea. He had no idea Matt felt that way about him. And all of Jason’s rational thinking went out the window. He forgot about Danny, he forgot about Courtney. Matt wanted to kiss him and Jason was a sucker for that man.

'Stop fighting it.’ Jason whispered. 'If you want to kiss me, I’ll be damned if I can stop you.’ He saw Matt consider this for a moment. Maybe he was thinking about Courtney, and all the other reasons he shouldn’t do this and Jason thought he might not. But then Matt shuffled even closer, his hand on Jason’s cheek snaking around and entwining in Jason’s hair. And then their lips met in a soft and gentle kiss. Jason smirked when Matt pulled away.

'Not good enough.’ He mumbled and then pulled Matt closer and kissed him again, more passionately this time and Matt didn’t argue. He was gripping Jason’s hair as Jason’s tongue glided into his mouth. Their bodies pressed together, they could feel each other growing hard and they both moaned softly. Matt’s other hand stroked down Jason’s chest and stomach and it made goosebumps rise on the younger boy’s skin. He hissed a little into Matt’s mouth as Matt’s hand toyed with the waistband of his pants. Matt pulled back and stroked Jason’s cheek again.

'Can I?’ His voice was low and lustful, Jason didn’t think he’d ever heard something so sexy.

'God, please.’ Jason insisted, there was no way he could stop Matt even if he wanted to. Matt kept his eyes fixed on Jason as he slowly inched Jason’s boxers down just enough for his erection to spring free. Matt bit his lip and Jason smiled softly at him.

'Are you ok?’ Jason whispered.

'Yeah, just nervous I guess.’ Matt half-smiled. His hand was shaking when he took hold of Jason’s shaft but Jason gasped at the feeling. He pulled Matt’s face close so he could kiss him again. Their tongues quickly found their way back to each other as Matt tentatively started stroking Jason’s dick. Jason moaned into Matt’s mouth and Matt’s other hand found its way back into Jason’s long locks. Jason let his own hand stroke down Matt’s incredible body but he didn’t hesitate like Matt had when he reached the other man’s pants. He yanked them down and as soon as Matt’s dick was free Jason wrapped his hand tightly around it and started pumping Matt in time with Matt’s pumps on him. Matt was panting and moaning as Jason kissed him. Jason needed more though. He wanted every part of Matt. He let go of Matt’s cock and rolled them so Jason was on top. Matt whimpered a little but Jason just smiled.

'It’s ok, we’re not done.’ He insisted. He kissed down Matt’s neck, trying not to get carried away and leave marks because that would be bad. He kissed every little inch of skin on Matt’s chest, taking his time sucking on each nipple. His kisses trailed lower, over Matt’s abdomen, his hip bones and the tops of his thighs. Matt was a mess just from this, he was writhing about the bed, his hands practically lost in Jason’s hair at this point. He made the most incredible moan when Jason lapped his tongue over Matt’s swollen head.

'Jesus fucking Christ.’ Matt gasped. Jason looked up at him through hooded eyes with a smirk on his face. He licked up the underside of Matt’s shaft making him moan again. Jason hadn’t reached his final destination yet. He wasn’t sure what Matt’s reaction was going to be to this but Jason couldn’t help himself. Before Matt knew what was happening he felt Jason’s wet tongue lapping over his hole. Matt gasped and tugged at Jason’s hair. Jason sat up a little.

'Too much?’ Jason asked him biting his lip. Matt looked at him for several long seconds, clearly thinking about this. He bit his own lip and started shaking his head.

'No. Just took me by surprise.’ Matt told him. Jason placed a couple of gentle kisses on the inside of Matt’s thighs.

'Just tell me if you want me to stop.’ Jason told him softly and then his tongue lapped over Matt’s hole making the older boy gasp again. Jason started off slow, working Matt’s entrance with his tongue, letting him get used to it. Once he thought Matt had wrapped his head around what was going on Jason dared to let his tongue dip passed Matt’s ring of muscles. Matt gasped even louder.

'Holy fucking shit.’ He practically screamed, making Jason sit up.

'Do you want me to stop?’

'Fuck no. Please Jay, never stop.’ Matt begged and Jason didn’t need to be told twice. Jason let his tongue glide inside Matt again and felt the older boy tense a little but he soon relaxed. He was really pulling Jason’s hair now but Jason thought it felt amazing. He was moaning and groaning and gasping every so often as Jason worked him in a way he’d never been worked before. One of Jason’s hands found Matt’s erection again and started stroking him and now Matt really was a mess.

'You have no idea how fucking good that feels.’ Matt’s sentence was punctuated with soft moans. Jason wanted to roll his eyes, bitch of course I know how good it feels to have someone lick my fucking asshole, he said in his head. He pumped Matt roughly while his tongue exploded Matt’s hole. Matt was gone, he was so far gone he didn’t even know his own name at that moment.

'Jay, fuck I’m gonna come.’ He practically screeched. Jason let his tongue glide inside Matt as far as physically possible and picked up his pace on Matt’s dick. He felt Matt clench and then he screamed Jason’s name and Jason felt his warm come spilling on to his hand. He let go of Matt’s dick and gently slid his tongue out, licking over his hole one last time making Matt tremble. He flopped down on top of Matt, not much caring about the come and kissed him hard.

'That was so…holy shit I can’t even put it into words.’ Matt panted. Jason smiled and rolled down next to him with a small yawn. He still had a fully erect cock, maybe he’d have to excuse himself to take care of that.

'Where are you going?’ Matt grabbed him as Jason rolled off him.

'Nowhere.'

'Good.’ Matt kissed him again. 'My turn now.’

'You don’t have to Matt.’ Jason insisted although fuck he would really like Matt to make him come. Matt rolled on top of Jason now and stroked back his hair.

'I want to make you feel as good as you made me feel.’ His hand was on Jason’s length and then he was bowing his head. His tongue swiped across Jason’s head and Jason gasped.

'Matt, really its ok.’ It was a lie, it wasn’t ok, and he needed Matt now more than ever.

'Shush.’ Matt placed a finger to Jason’s lips. 'I’ve never done this before so I don’t know how good it will be.’

'You know what you like though right? Chances are I’ll like the same things.’ That was a perk of being with another man. Matt nodded and briefly bit his lip before his tongue swiped Jason’s head again and then his lips were wrapping around Jason’s erection. Jason had lost count of the amount of times he’d imagined what this would feel like and it didn’t disappoint. Matt worked him like a fucking pro, Jason had a hard time believing he hadn’t done this before. Jason’s orgasm hit him in record time, he warned Matt because he didn’t think Matt would want him to come in his mouth, but Matt just smirked around his dick and continued sucking and licking until Jason’s balls ached and he came. Matt swallowed every last drop of Jason’s load and wiped his hand over his mouth as he came off. He fell down next to Jason and kissed him.

'How was that?’ Matt whispered.

'Let’s just say I’ve never come that quickly before.’ Jason chuckled sleepily.

'Not bad for a beginner.’ Matt stroked Jason’s cheek. 'You’re so goddamn beautiful Jason. I’m sorry if I’ve never told you that before.’ Matt got suddenly serious. Jason half-smiled, not really sure what to say to that. Matt hadn’t ever told him that before and he didn’t know what to do with the information.

'Thank you.’ Jason blushed.

'I wish things could be like this all the time. But…but…’

'I know.’ Jason nodded. 'I know Matt. You’re marrying Courtney and I’m seeing Danny.’

'Yeah.’ Matt sounded sad. 'I’m sorry.’

'It’s ok.’ Jason shrugged. It wasn’t ok, but he didn’t want to make Matt feel any worse than he already did. 'We’re good at keeping secrets.'

'Yeah, I guess we are.’ Matt pulled Jason into his arms and Jason rested his head on Matt’s chest. 'I’m sorry I can’t give you all of me.’ Matt whispered, placing a gentle kiss on Jason’s head. Jason sniffed, a wave of emotions washing over him.

'I’m sorry too.’ Jason felt a small tear roll from his eye but he batted it away before Matt realised. They fell into silence after that. Jason just wanted to revel in this moment for as long as possible because he knew when morning reared its ugly head Matt was going to go back to Courtney and Jason was going to go back to Danny. He just wanted to pretend, even for a second, that this was his life. He wanted to pretend that he and Matt were together and they were happy and in love. For just one night, Jason wanted to pretend that everything in the world was ok.

—————————————–

Matt barely said two words to Jason the following morning but Jason had expected that. He’d already been up busying himself around the house when Jason got up. Good job he was meeting Danny and he didn’t have to hang around.

'Uhm well I guess I’ll see you then.’ Jason told the back of Matt’s head as he cleaned away some take out containers.

'Yeah sure.’ Matt grunted without turning around. Normally Jason would be sad but to be honest he was fed up. He rolled his eyes and left the house. He called a cab and sat on the kerb while he waited.

—————————————–

'Hey sexy.’ Danny winked at him as he walked in the coffee shop. He bowed his head and kissed him.

'Hey.’ Jason voice shook. Danny sat down, ordered a coffee with the waitress and raised an eyebrow at Jason.

'Something’s up.’ He scrutinised Jason. 'What happened with Matt?’

Jason sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t want to lie to Danny, he owed him the truth.

'We hooked up.’ He blurted out. 'I’m sorry, I don’t know if I should tell you that kind of thing because I know we’re just messing around but I felt guilty. We didn’t have sex but we fooled around and I just thought you should know.'

Danny briefly closed his eyes as he processed Jason’s words. Jason had no idea what he was thinking.

'Well, I’ll be honest, that kinda hurts a bit.’ Danny confessed. 'I know this was supposed to be casual and fun but…I kind of like you Jason, quite a lot. I don’t like the idea of you hooking up with other people. Especially him.'

The waitress brought over Danny’s coffee and he thanked her.

'I don’t like the idea of you hooking up with other guys either. I like you Danny, you’re the first person that’s made me forget about Matt. When I’m with you I don’t think about him, it’s like he doesn’t even exist and I love that. Last night was just…it was a mistake. It was heat of the moment stuff and I swear it’ll never happen again.’ Jason reached across the table and took hold of Danny’s hand.

'So if we’re not seeing other people…does that like make this a relationship?’ Danny smiled a little and so did Jason.

'I would like that.’ Jason shrugged. 'I mean I’m not going to get over Matt overnight but you really help.’

'It’s ok, I still have some unresolved feelings for my ex but I think together we can work through that.’ Danny squeezed his hand.

'So this is it then? We’re going to do this for real?’ Jason smiled.

'Yeah, I think we are. As long as you swear to me you’re never going to go back to that asshole.'

'I swear to you Danny. You’re the only one I want.’ Jason leant across the table and kissed Danny. For the first time since he’d met Matt he was willing to try and have something with someone else. He was done shutting himself off from other guys, he was done patiently waiting like an idiot for the day Matt would realise he wanted him. Because it was never going to happen. Matt was getting married and Jason was going to give all his time and effort to his relationship with Danny. And who knows, maybe one day he’ll even be able to love him the way he loved Matt.

—————————————–

Crawling back to you

Ever thought of calling when you’ve had a few? (calling when you’ve had a few)

'Cause I always do ('cause I always do)

Maybe I’m too busy being yours to fall for somebody new

Now I’ve thought it through

Crawling back to you

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1152

Monday, February 20, 2017

 Happy Family Day. Some folks will have this day off but it's too bad that the warm weather has forced the Rideau Canal Skateway to close down. I walked by it yesterday on my urban hike and it was a stretch of puddles. It was a beautiful warm sunny day as I walked home along Bank Street from Waverley to just south of Heron Road lugging a bunch of books that I borrowed from my partner Chris. It was so nice that not even an oblivious driver splashing me head to toe could wipe the smile off of my face for long.

 Gamora #3 - Nicole Perlman (writer) Marco Checchetto (art) Andres Mossa (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Nicole pulls out a deus ex machina to make me want to read the next issue. So now Gamora has something in common with L'Wit, the last member of the Badoon Royal Family. Made me wonder if Gamora will let the princess live. We'll see.

 Super Sons #1 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Jorge Jimenez (art) Alejandro Sanchez (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). I would have called this new book World's Tweenest. I was happy to see this team-up of Damian Wayne/Robin and Jonathan Kent/Superboy hit the racks because I'm a fan of Peter's stint on Batman and Robin. The first two pages piqued my curiosity before showing us what trouble the two boys have gotten themselves into. I was still wondering what those first two pages were about by the time I got to the last page uh-oh moment. I hope this doesn't wind up with Batman and Superman coming to the rescue. That would disappoint me. I really like these two kids and hope they have a long run.

 Cerebus in Hell? #1 - Dave Sim (writer) Gustave Dore (pencils) Dante Alighieri (inks) Sandeep Atwal (colours) Dave Sim (letters). I moved to Vancouver in late 1979 and one of the first comic books that I bought at The Comicshop was Cerebus #1. I remember picking it off the spinner rack and looking at that red cover with Cerebus drawn like Conan by Dave Sim. I sold my copy years later to a kid from Gibsons during the counterfeit Cerebus number ones scams. My big selling point was that it was authentic and probably one of the very few copies that Dave Sim had not autographed. I faithfully read every issue of Cerebus until the book got too political for me even though I loved Dave and Gerhard's art. I never did finish the run. Here we have Cerebus back on the racks forty years after issue #1 hit and Dave uses Gustav's Dante's Inferno prints with Cerebus superimposed to tell some jokes. I kind of snickered once. There are three more issues to come out and I will read those too just to support poor old Dave.

 Mighty Thor #16 - Jason Aaron (writer) Russell Dauterman (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Part two of "The Asgard/Shi'Ar War" had Thor being challenged by the Shi'Ar gods Sharra and K'ythri and the Asgardian Bor being challenged by the Lady Sif. I love the massive scale of Jason's stories in this book. It's befitting a comic book about mythical gods. Russell's art is just beautiful to behold.

 Batwoman #1 - Marguerite Bennett  & James Tynion IV (writer) Steve Epting (art) Jeromy Cox (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). This is a fantastic first issue introducing the hero to fans old and new. If you've been reading the latest Detective Comics you'll already know what Kate Kane is up to but still the last page surprised me. This new Bat book is going on my "must read" list.

 Kill or be Killed #6 - Ed Brubaker (writer) Sean Phillips (art) Elizabeth Breitweiser (colours). Quite a clever way that Ed came up with for Dylan to deal with the surprise of being seen by the police. I like how the dominoes are being set up for them to eventually fall all over Dylan's life.

 Monsters Unleashed #3 - Cullen Bunn (writer) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan & Michael Jason Paz (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Well then, that explains everything. We find out why monsters are falling from the sky and given a hint to how the heroes are going to save the planet. The Inhumans play a big part in the plot.

 Batman #17 - Tom King (writer) David Finch (pencils) Danny Miki (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) John Workman (letters). How the heck did Damian, Dick and Jason wind up there? I hate when stuff isn't explained from one issue to the next. In part 2 of "I Am Bane" Batman finds out that he can't protect everyone he cares for when Bane gets to Gotham City. The bad guy wants the Psycho Pirate back and he will stop at nothing to achieve that goal. This is intense.

 Wild Storm #1 - Warren Ellis (writer) John Davis-Hunt (art) Ivan Plascencia (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). We haven't seen these Wildstorm characters on the racks for quite a while now so it's okay for Warren to take them and make them into something new. I used to be a big fan of Jim Lee's line of comic books so all these people seem familiar but they have been changed enough to make me interested to see how different they are. I would describe this book as corporate warfare. I want to see how the good guys and bad guys shake out so I'm going to keep reading.

 Doctor Strange #17 - Jason Aaron (writer) Frazer Irving (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This is an issue of "Where's Wong?". The inscrutable manservant is missing and the sanctum is in disarray. Poor Steve is worried sick.

 Superman #17 - Peter J. Tomas & Patrick Gleason (writers) Sebastian Fiumara (art) Dave Stewart (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). This is a great one issue story but Superman fans may be disappointed because the big guy isn't in it. Young Jonathan Kent helps his friend Kathy look for her grandpa in Deadman's Swamp. Boston Brand does not show up but something spooky this way comes. I really like Jon and I'm glad they feature him solo every now and then. I don't think that he should have his own book though, but I won't be surprised to see DC put out a Superboy comic book on the racks some day.

 Clone Conspiracy #5 - Dan Slott (writer) Jim Cheung (pencils) John Dell, Jay Leisten & Jim Cheung (inks) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). "Dead No More" ends with some of the bad guys alive no more. Sure as web shootin' Peter and Anna save the day. Now we'll see what the fallout to the Jackal's nefarious scheme will be.

 Invincible Iron Man #4 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Stefano Caselli (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This is a super fantastic all out action issue with Riri and Pepper Potts fighting Tomoe the Techno Golem and her ninjas. The bad guy is an Inhuman who can take over tech and she has control of both girls' armour. This issue goes a mile a minute but it's paced so well that you don't feel like you got ripped off with a five minute read. Stefano draws the best eyes.

 Punisher #9 - Becky Cloonan (writer) Matt Horak (art) Frank Martin (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Here's another comic book where the star is hardly in it. This issue features DEA agent Ortiz and the bad guy Face. I'm excited for the next issue because Frank goes to Canada, our home and native land.

 Spider-Man #13 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Sara Pichelli (art) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). We find out more about what happened in Spider-Gwen's dimension in "Sitting in a Tree" part 3. The suspense would normally be killing me but Miles is telling the story to Ganke and Fabio so we know that he's okay. I still want to know if he and Earth-65 Gwen have a thing. This is turning out to be a major crossover with Spider-Gwen so I will be reading the next two issues of that book to get the full story. As Brian is fond of making his characters say, "aargg!".