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madameaug · 1 year

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Meet the Mod || JJK x OC

Pairing: Streamer Jungkook x Black Female Modder

WC: 1.4k >

NOTE: Now finished :)

"Hey, chat." Jungkook greeted the thousands of viewers tuning into his stream. His eyes glossed over the moving text as he adjusted his camera equipment. Jungkook had recently returned to his streaming schedule after taking a temporary break. The past two weeks had been pretty stressful for the young streamer. He had just moved from his small apartment to a much larger, more comfortable place.

It was crazy for him to think that he could sustain his lifestyle off his streaming income. Four years ago, he would have laughed at someone telling him he would average 70,000 viewers a livestream.

Did you eat? What did you do today? Marry me pls!!!

It was the same typical chatter that he was used to seeing.

"I ate three cups of spicy ramen. I did some training with my boxing mentor today." Jungkook rubbed his slightly pudgy stomach. He slid his beanie slightly higher, showing more of his forehead into the camera.

Mang_luver: Ur back!

Jungkook recognized the username of one of his modders. 'Mang luver' was a part of the handful of mods Jungkook had in his streams. Three of them were his close friends from high school, and the other two were viewers in the beginning with him. Mang luver fell into the latter category. She was always kind to him and helped foster the culture within the community.

Since there were so few mods, he was in a private and somewhat active group chat with his moderators. They spoke frequently with each other. Some of them even meet up in person.

"Hey Mang."

What games are you playing today?

That was the question that most of the viewers were asking Jungkook.

"Ah, I think I'm just gonna chat today. I'm not in the best mindset to focus on Overwatch or anything like that tonight."

Several topics for conversation spoke over the AI Jungkook has set up for his stream. Most of them asked for advice in school, which Jungkook wouldn't mind discussing; however, he doesn't think he's the best person to talk about school motivation.

His life path was quite untraditional. He dropped out of high school to pursue music. He was semi-successful and eventually returned to school to complete his high school diploma. Now he streams and boxes.

He sorted through the chat, looking for interesting topics. Straying away from suggestive or potentially sexual topics.

"My ideal type?" Jungkook read out the chat. It intrigued him.

Jungkook stroked his imaginary beard, thinking about his ideal romantic partner.

"I would say someone who is confident and not afraid of a challenge. I'm really attracted to a person's aura and the vibes they give out."

Jungkook was quite honest with his words. In the past, he's thought about the physical attributes that he wants in his future girlfriend. He didn't have anything that was top priority. Most of his deal breakers involved personality. Like if they were rude to customer service workers or if they were disrespectful.

It was hard for him to narrow his ideal partner to a list of physical attributes.

"I guess I can also add that the person would have to be an ARMY. Jungkook smiled. His shameless flirting ignited the chat. The chat eating it up.

Mang_luver: are you tryna rizz up the chat?

Mang_luver: L streamer

"You don't like my flirting skills Mang? Jungkook couldn't hold back his smirk. He and Mang had a teasing report with each other. Causing live entertainment for those in the chat.

"You know what, chat, I think I know my type. I like girls who don't like me back."

Jungkook waited patiently for another witty remark from Mang. The chat commented that the two were acting like a married old couple. They always bickered about small, petty things that eventually it just became part of their dynamic.

Mang_luver: YUCK

Mang_luver: *gag*

"You know you love it, Mang."

Mang face reveal?

I'm tryna see something? What they said ^^^

The thought crossed Jungkook's mind that he had never seen an image of Mang. While he knew her real name, Jennette, and her age 24. He would never reveal such information while he was live. In the back of his mind, he wondered what she looked like, but the thought never developed into more.

But now the chat was begging for the modder to reveal her face. Spam flooding the chat box, Jungkook watched, curious as he wanted to see her face.

"Mang get on Discord." Jungkook instructed pulling up a new tab, before sharing his screen for the thousands to see.

Mang_luver: ... Mang_luver: fine Mang_luver: i hate you all

Upon reading the last message, he clicked the call button above her username. The chat was probably more excited than Jungkook. Mang answered the call ten seconds later, showing nothing but a black screen.

"Hello?"

"Hey."

"Turn your camera on."

"You're so pushy." Jenette pouted on the other side of the camera. She was up trying to freshen up her looks, to make it not look like she was lying down in bed. She removed her satin head scarf and shook her mini twists that dangled by her shoulders. She washed her hair last night and did the twist til she got her braids in the next few days.

"I just wanna see what you look like Mangy Pangy."

Jennette rolled her eyes, hearing that awful nickname.

"I thought you agreed you weren't gonna call me that?"

"I thought you agreed you were gonna show your face?'

"Actually, I agreed to get on Discord. Not to show my face." Jennette smiled at her response.

"Such a smart ass."

"Don't wanna be a dumbass like you." The comebacks rolled off her tongue easily. She didn't have to think when she said them at all.

"You are lucky I like you." Jungkook grumbled, clicking around on his computer. He pulled up Instagram on the tab. Jennette knew that Jungkook didn't "like" her that way, but its effect on her was apparent. She cleared her throat, snapping out of brief feelings of attraction.

"So you can turn on your camera or tell me your Instagram. I wanna see what you look like."

Jungkook started typing in guesses for Jennette's Instagram without giving her time to think. The first few guesses were unsuccessful, pulling up random people who looked nothing like her. Looking at herself in the mirror, she looked over her appearance, unsure about the whole face reveal deal.

Her skin was slightly dewey from her skincare routine. Acne scars covered certain areas of her cheeks. More importantly, her purple cat-eye glasses. The frames enhanced her almond eye shape and made her look slightly younger in her nighttime apparel.

Without another word, she turned on her camera. Jungkook wasn't looking at the video call. He was still trying to guess her Instagram. Little did he know that her Instagram didn't contain her name at all. So at this rate he would never find her Instagram. The chat jumped with the thousands of new comments, all discussing her appearance.

Omg she's so pretty. Damnnnnnn Black Barbie fr fr She's not one of us

Gahhhlee

It took a message being read by the AI voice for Jungkook to redirect his attention to the Discord call. He had to readjust himself on the couch. He pulled one of his knees to his chest.

"Awww."

Jenette looked away from her screen, blushing at his reaction. She was nervous, waiting for him to be compelled to react in a humiliating way.

"You happy?" Jennette found it hard to look at the streamer. Gosh, he was so boyfriend-coded that she knew that her thoughts would start to evolve this simple interaction into something more. She got like this with most of her crushes. It never took long for her to fall for someone.

"You're so cute."

"Shut up."

Rizz her up Jungkook!

Yall look good together omgggg

"Yall, it's not like that, I'm not gonna rizz up, Mang. I was just curious to see what she looked like. Now, we can move on to something else." With a smile, he redirected the stream to a totally different topic. Mang took this as a segway to leave the call and rejoin the chat. Junkgook discussed the latest SZA music video 'Snooze', with Justin Bieber.

However, the chat was still discussing Mang's looks. More and more comments were becoming passive-aggressive. And Jungkook couldn't ignore the overwhelming backhanded compliments. It was time for him to step in and say something.

"Ayo, chill. That's enough on Mang. Don't forget she can ban any of yall."

I wish someone would defend me like Jungkook does Mang. ooop hell yeah- put them in their place!

He scrolled up the chat logs to see if Mang spoke. But she was radio silent. With his phone unlocked and off-camera, Jungkook privately messaged Mang. He wanted to ensure she was okay and confirm that he wasn't okay with the rude comments she was facing. Mang texted back pretty quickly, confirming that she was fine.

Mang_luver: I don't know why I just felt so nervous

Mang_luver: Face reveals always stir up anxiety for me

ABCDEFGHI__LMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ : I get it

ABCDEFGHI__LMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ: But don't listen to them. You do look good, like really good

Mang_luver: That's really sweet

ABCDEFGHI__LMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ: After stream I'll call you to ensure that things between us are still cool. I don't fuck with that bully shit.

ABCDEFGHI__LMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ: That good?

Mang_luver: Yeah I'll be up

Closing out of his phone, Jungkook reacted to a couple of other music videos released in August. Before he knew it, it was a quarter past three. Jungkook yawned before wrapping up the conversation he was having with chat.

"I'm gonna get off, guys. This was fun, per usual." Jungkook smiled and started waving at the people, saying 'good night' to him.

He's probably going to talk to Mang goodnight kookie you never answered?? will you marry me??? pls!!

He ended the stream, rubbing his face. Walking to his bedroom, he thought about what to say to Jennette. He was use to the 'mean' comments that he would get from trolls in his comments. Working in the music industry for all those years helped him grow thick skin. Plus, he knew that they wouldn't return that same energy if he ever met these people in real life.

He thought about how to properly apologize to Jennette. Eyes getting heavy, and the last thing on his mind was his really pretty modder.

#bts x black reader #jungkook x oc #jungkook x black reader #x black reader #kpop x black reader #black writers #small drabble #jungkook #jungkook imagines

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orqheuss · 1 year

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Not yet corpses (still, we rot)

(Ominis Gaunt/Sebastian Sallow/GN!Reader HURT/COMFORT)

Summary:

For a moment, everything felt still. Silence consumed the space, sucking all the air out of the room like the tide as a tsunami made its way towards shore. All Ominis could hear was the harsh ringing in his ears and the startled gasp from his counterpart behind him. Panic began to crawl its way into his throat once more. Sebastian’s heart stuttered in his chest, his words forcing themselves out around the lump that formed under his jaw. “Oh, dear God…” *** What were the boys doing while you were saving Hogwarts? *** Contains spoilers from the game Title from the song "Dirt and Roses" by Rise Against

Word count: 6k

AN: I’m moving all of my fics over from Ao3 to make them more accessible! These are my fics.

TW: - Blood - Gore - Anxiety - Detailed descriptions of injury - Near death experiences - Claustrophobia (only for a little bit, tho. I have it too and that's all I could write, lol)

“Knight to E5.” Sebastian quips, leaning back in his wicker chair, his arms crossed against his chest and a smug smile tweaking at the corners of his mouth. He watched the boy across from him regard the wizards chess board, the tip of his wand blinking that comforting red light he had grown accustomed to after years of friendship. It was probably not the most fair thing in the world to go against someone blind in a game that required sight over everything else, but that didn’t stop the brunette from trying his very best at beating his best friend in absolutely everything— he was nothing if not competitive. That being said, as much as he loved the idea of pulling one over on Ominis, the feat was nearly impossible . The blond was far too good. It didn’t matter if it was a game of gobstones, a duel in Crossed Wands, even exploding snaps, a game where sight was a necessity, all because of that blasted wand! The only thing that Ominis was truly bad at was potions, and even then he would likely still get an Acceptable on their OWLS. Sebastian felt that this round of chess was different, though. He could see the furrow of his partner’s brows in the low candlelight of the Undercroft, trace how his hand rested on his chin in puzzlement— fingers pinching at the skin there and stroking like tweaking an imaginary beard. He was currently in the lead, most of Ominis’ pieces resting broken on his side of the board. A truly violent game, that wizards chess.

A light tisk came from his companions mouth, his wand still gently coasting over the top of the board just out of reach of the pieces, before his eyebrows slowly rose back to their normal position on his temple, a mischievous smile making its way across his cheeks and a twinkle of something unrecognizable, but all the more devious, in his eyes. He leaned back in his own chair, adopting a similar cadence as his brunette counterpart, his body language oozing confidence. Sebastian shifted in his seat, eyes casting uneasy glances between the boy and the board as sweat began to bead on his brow. Surely not, he mused— there was no way Ominis figured out a new strategy.

The blond lightly chuckled, sensing the sudden nervousness of his friend. “Queen to E5.”

Bollocks.

Sebastian was helpless to watch the white marble queen piece shift its way across the board towards his onyx black knight. The matriarch stood from her throne, bringing her chair around to her front and up over her shoulder, before crashing it down over the head of his brave steed. The brunette scowled at the board before tilting his chin to the ceiling, his head cracking lightly on the back of the chair as he leaned away and groaned into the musky air of the hideaway, his arms thrown upwards in a show of surrender.

“You’re a bastard, Gaunt.”

Ominis laughed, his form slumping forward over the little end table they were next to as he waved his wand, collecting all the broken pieces and placing them back into the chess box where they would self-repair.

“No, unfortunately my heritage is legitimate.” He simpered, a light jab dancing on the tip of his tongue. “The juries still out for you, though, my dear friend. You have as much grace as a charging erumpent.”

Sebastian gasped in outrage, his hand dramatically fluttering to his chest and resting over his heart like a damsel in distress. “Oh, I’m wounded! You’ve wounded me, Ominis. How ever will I recover— doomed to live a life of desolate mediocrity at the hands of my very best friend?” He slowly slid out of his chair, letting gravity work its magic and flopping dramatically on the floor, limbs sprawled out like a flattened lizard.

The smaller Slytherin guffawed, a large grin splitting his face as he kicked his leg out towards the brunette, his shoe jabbing him harshly in the calf. “Quit it, you buffoon. You aren’t going to die because I beat you in wizards chess.”

Sebastian sighed heavily, the back of his hand slapping against his forehead in overzealous woe. “Oh but I am! I will never be the same, never! I shall cover all of my mirrors so I never have to see my failurous face ever again— cover my head with a ghastly bag to shield the world from my shameful dereliction!” Small sounds of sorrow continued to fill the air around them, long drawn out “boohoo’s” falling from the brunette’s lips at a consistent rate.

Ominis stood from his chair, stepping over the fallen idiot and plopping down onto the chaise lounge to their left, a book floating into his hand with the flick of his wand. “I think the entire student body would thank you for that.”

The blond laughed at the incredulous noises of his companion, leaning his head to the left quickly as Sebastian’s boot flew through the air right where he once was and smacked into the pillar just beyond. The taller Slytherin got up from the ground, muttering obscenities under his breath as he limped over to where his shoe landed, taking the time to lightly smack the blond on the back of the head before rounding the space and throwing himself on the other lounge chair diagonal to the opening of the Undercroft.

“You’re an arse, do you know that?”

Ominis smirked downwards towards his book, lethargically licking his finger before flipping to the next page with gusto. “Oh yes, I pride myself in it. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m only one to you— I’m quite nice to everyone else.”

Once his boot was securely back on his foot, Sebastian pulled out his pocket watch from his waistcoat; he checked the time, glancing in confusion at the gunmetal gate entrance of their secret space.

“Hey, have you seen our charge today? They’re normally down here by now.”

Ominis scoffed, a blank look crossing his face and a sardonic bite taking over his tone. “Do you ever think before you speak?”

Sebastian met his gaze with a blank look of his own. “Where’s the fun in that?”

The blond sighed deeply, raising a hand to his face and waving it in front of his unseeing eyes. “No, I haven’t ‘seen’ them today, nor have I heard from them.”

Lifting himself to a seated position, the brunette’s brows scrunched together in puzzlement, slight worry tipping the corners of his mouth into a frown. You normally met them in the Undercroft after dinner so they all could hang out until curfew. Today, though, you were missing. Sebastian couldn’t remember if he had seen you today at all, come to think of it. You were supposed to have potions with him, but in his hazy memory he remembers that your stool was empty. Where were you?

He turned his gaze back to the other Slytherin, confusion and concern lacing his tone as he spoke. “I haven’t either. Should we go search for them? They normally owl us if they’re going on a mission.”

Another sigh. “Sebastian, I’m sure they’re fine. They’ve bested practically the whole wizarding world in a duel at this point— they can handle themselves. Let’s just have a quiet night, yes?”

The Sallow boy threw himself back onto the chaise with a huff, his hands folding together and smacking against his abdomen. He knew that you were more than capable of taking care of yourself— he had seen it in action. Still, the knowledge of your fighting prowess did little to alleve his nerves. Each of the trials the Keepers were sending you on got more and more difficult— more dangerous. The thought of you getting hurt, or even worse, dying, made him feel ill. Ominis felt the same, they had talked about it before, but he was better at hiding it. Even now, though, Sebastian could see the telltale bounce of the blonds leg from nerves out of the corner of his eye. He was just as worried about you. You had told them all about the trials after they had stumbled upon you in the Undercroft a few weeks ago, bruised and bloody with at least five Wiggenweld potions scattered around you, as well as some gauze. Instantly the both of them had asked, nay insisted, that they go with you for safety, but you shut them down quickly— the trials were for you and you alone, no outside help. They reluctantly agreed to let you handle them, but they certainly weren’t happy about the arrangement, not in the slightest.

The two sat in silence for a while, their eyes drifting every so often over towards the Undercroft gate like you’d step through any moment. Worry began to claw at their throats like a rabid animal begging to be let out of a cage. Ominis’ leg had picked up speed around the five minute mark, no longer paying attention to the book in his lap and instead turning his ears minutely towards where you would hopefully be coming from soon. Sebastian was right, you would normally send them a letter if you were going to be out for the day— you knew how they worried about you. Silence seemed to spread around the room like a thick fog, its tendrils wrapping around the boy’s heads and slithering into their ears, leaving an unnerving ringing behind. They were getting antsy, anxious energy pouring from them in waves.

Just as they were about to move and suggest looking for you again, a loud, deafening boom rang through the room. Crates tumbled to the ground with a crash as the ground rumbled below their feet. It was like the earth below them, below the entire castle, was breaking apart piece by piece. Paintings fell from the walls around them, tables shook and tipped over, school work and books spilling across the floor in rivers. Sebastian sprang from his seat, sprinting across the small space and throwing himself next to a shaking Ominis, his arms wrapping around the blonds head to shield him from falling debris. The tremors continued for what felt like years before everything halted in their tracks— silence filling the room once again and only breaking around the heavy, panting panicked breaths that left the two boy’s lungs. They slowly de-tangled themselves from the other, their gazes lifting up from the ground to take in the damage around them. Dust covered every surface, clinging to their clothes and hair and dyeing everything a light grey.

Ominis spoke first, his voice whispering like he was afraid that if he broke the calming quiet everything would start all over again. “Are you alright?”

Sebastian sighed shakily, his heart hammering in his chest as he grabbed the blond's hand and squeezed. “Yes, I’m fine. Are you?”

He nodded. “What was that?”

“I have no idea. Sounded like it came from under the school— an earthquake maybe?”

Ominis shook his head, dust lightly falling from his hair and brushing against his shoulders. “In these parts? At this time of the year? Unlikely.”

Sebastian furrowed his brows once again. “Then what could it be? Should we go check—”

The brunette paused, his blood running cold in his body as his skin turned a ghostly white as sudden realization hit him like a speeding broom. Ominis seemed to have come to the same conclusion, his hands shaking at his sides as they both turned towards each other, brown eyes meeting milky blue in barely hidden fear. Only one thought passed between the both of them: you were out there somewhere.

The room began to shake again, the stone floor trembling with stronger aftershocks as more things began to slam to the ground around them. The duo quickly jumped up, their arms covering their heads from falling debris as their legs carried them as fast as they could go towards the exit and up the stairs towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts hallway. They quickly scrambled through the cabinet door, slamming it shut behind them as their feet nearly slid out from under them on the smooth tile floors of the main floor. Professors were running around, herding students left and right and ushering them towards their common rooms for safety. Sharp corralled them both, blocking their path from the rest of the school and their mad dash to find you amongst the chaos, and shoved them in the direction of the Slytherin common room, only turning away to look for more lost souls as the two boy’s got swallowed by waves of green and silver robes. Sebastian desperately fought against the stream of students, throwing elbows left and right as he swam towards the front and towards, what he hoped, was freedom from the crowd. A sharp cry came from his left and he shot his head in that direction, barely catching the sight of Ominis’ blond head as it disappeared in the hazard of students. His hand darted out, catching his friend’s shoulder before he could be trampled and pulled him to his side where he would be safe, clutching onto him like a lifeline in a storm as they were carried away, down the Grand Staircase and into the dungeons. Once safely inside, the ornate serpentine door slammed shut behind the students, bathing the room in startling silence once again.

The rumbling was muted this far under the black lake, only the sound of murky water splashing against the large bay windows of the common room filled the large, encompassing space. Students milled about, some retiring to their bedchambers while others sat on the various surfaces spread around the room. Tense whispers filled the air, questions and theories about what was happening swimming in everyone’s minds and entering through their eagerly listening ears.

“Was on the moving stairs when it started, I was. It was quite funny watching all the paintings scramble from their frames before they fell.”

“What do you think is happening? It seems to be coming from under the school.”

“I saw all the Professors run towards the Astronomy wing. What do you think they’re looking for over there?”

“Weasley had something in her hand before it all started— a bit of parchment. Looked as pale as the Bloody Baron after reading it. Wonder what it said?”

“I heard one of the Ravenclaw's say they saw some goblins over by the east wing. Do you think they have something to do with all of this?”

“Do you think they’ll cancel finals if half the castle is destroyed?”

The two fifth year boys stood apart from the crowd. Sebastian paced the length of the room, going back and forth a number of times, wringing his hands in front of his chest and worrying on his bottom lip with his teeth. Ominis sat on the bench in front of the large floor to ceiling windows, elbows bent atop his knees and long fingers wracking through his normally perfectly styled hair. Anxiety oozed from them like a poorly made potion seeping out of the bottom of its cauldron. No one had seen or heard from you before or after the chaos. They had to get back to the Undercroft— it was the best place to wait for you. The brunette caught bits and pieces of the conversations flowing around the common room, and each one set his nerves alight just a little bit more. Astronomy wing? Goblins? Oh Merlin. He knew, whatever was happening had to do with Ranrok. If it had to do with Ranrok, then you had to be there too. Sebastian spun towards his friend, quickly pacing towards him with determined steps and nearly throwing himself onto the bench to the blonds left. He leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially, just low enough so no one else would hear.

“Ominis, we have to get out of here. If we get back to the Undercroft, we can wait for them there. They know we’d be there.”

The smaller Slytherin inhaled deeply, his body shaking with tremors stronger than those rocking through the castle. “How are we going to get out? The room is packed— there’s no way we could sneak out undetected.”

The brunette hummed in thought, placing his hand on Ominis’ knee to steady his nervous jittering. It was up to him to come up with a plan, the room was much too loud for his companion to think clearly— multiple stimuli overwhelmed him easily. He racked his brain for a solution, every thought coming in small glimpses around the unending worry he felt for you. They’d have to be invisible to get out of the common room, there was no way another student wouldn’t see them leave.

A lightbulb sputtered to life in his mind.

Oh. Oh. That would work.

He squeezed the blonds knee before letting go and grabbing his wand from his robes. “I have an idea, follow my lead.”

Sebastian cast the disillusionment charm around himself quietly, watching his fingers and legs disappear into a slight trick of the light. Ominis nodded, doing the same to his right. They both stood as quiet as mice and made their way through the throngs of silver and green clad students, dodging and weaving around flying limbs before all but running up the grand spiral staircase and skidding to a halt outside of their common room door.

An eerie hush fell over the still castle dungeon. The rumbles had quieted down enough, only a soft vibration making its way through their shoes and shaking their bodies instead of the intense tremors that shook the building moments earlier. That had to be a good sign, Sebastian mused.

They both took off towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts wing, their legs pumping as fast as they could go. The setting sun cast shadows across the floor, catching on each piece of debris and drawing the brunette’s attention to just how much damage had been done. Sebastian grabbed Ominis’ hand, pulling him along and calling out obstacles in their path. They leaped over fallen pillars, dodged around scattered armor, and slid around corners, their shoes loudly squeaking on the linoleum floor and nearly sending them tumbling into walls with their haste.

Finally, they made it to the hidden cabinet leading to the school's underbelly. The blond threw himself against the door, unlocking it with a flick of his wrist and all but shoved the brunette down the stone steps. With a loud crack, the metal gate clipped shut behind them. They both heaved over, their bodies folded in half as their hands grasped onto their knees. Heavy breaths left their lungs from the exertion, sweat beaded on their brows from the heat of their bodies as well as from the intense nerves that shook through their bodies. Sebastian stumbled over to the table they sat around earlier, picking up one of the wicker chairs that had been knocked over from the ground and plopping himself down into it. Ominis collected himself, rolling his spine back into a standing position before beginning to pace. Each second of taciturnity filled his gut with more and more hysteric energy. His mind was going at the speed of light, horrible images of what fate could be befalling you slid behind his eyes like a demented moving picture show. All of his reserve flew out the window with the rest of his carefully curated apathetic coping mechanisms. His hands pulled at his hair, fingers digging into his roots and sending spikes of pain through his skull. The brunette carefully watched him from his vantage point, his eyes following each step of his companion as he made his way across the length of the rather large room. He could see the silvery tears that began to gather in the blond's eyes from his intense fear and called out to him in what he hoped was a calming voice.

“Ominis please sit down, you’re only going to work yourself into more of a panic if you keep pacing like that. They’ll be here soon— everything will be fine.” He cringed at the tremors that were present in his words, hoping the young wizard didn’t notice it.

The other boy turned towards the sound of his voice, quick as a whip, his eyebrows crinkled at his brow in dread and hands flailing around punctuating his snapped words. “What if they don’t, Sebastian? You heard the others in the common room, there were bloody goblins near the school! You know just as much as I do that that could only mean Ranrok is here. He’s probably the reason for everything that’s happening, and if he’s here that means that they’re down there, wherever in Merlin’s name there is, with him! They could be dead in some unknown tomb under the school and we would be none the wiser!”

Blinding, distressed anger struck down Sebastian’s spine as he stood from his slumped position. He snarled towards the smaller of the two, “Don’t you dare even say that. They’re not dead, they can’t be. Don’t even put that idea into the universe!” He could see the blond flinch at his harsh tone, his hands moving to wring together. The brunette sighed deeply, willing his heartbeat to slow down and his anger to disapparate. He carefully made his way towards Ominis, steps loud but gentle like approaching a startled animal, and placed his hand on the other's shoulder. He pretended it didn’t hurt him that he felt the boy stiffen under his touch. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you, but we can’t think like that. We have to stay hopeful.”

The Gaunt boy relaxed slightly, his hands falling to his sides as he lowered his chin towards his chest. He sighed, “You’re right, it’s no use getting worked up. All we can do now is wait.”

Sebastian carefully led him towards the lounge chair he was sitting on earlier, gently pushing down on his shoulders so he would relax into the plush cushions before joining him. He tilted his head back towards the ceiling, eyes closed as he silently prayed to whomever was listening that you’d return to them safely.

***

The Undercroft filled with the sound of the large brass clock that resided in the Hogwarts clock tower, two loud clangs ricocheting off the stone walls that surrounded the space and filling the anxious ears of the two Slytherin’s that rested in its belly. Hours had passed since the tremors started; they long since puttered off and made way for the chilling quiet of the night. Both boys had not moved from their spot on the chaise lounge, each glancing longingly at the gate that led towards the castle hallways as they waited impatiently for their friend to return from what they could only imagine was a deranged war. They both fought valiantly against the sleep that clung to their bodies, each ticking second sending them closer and closer to sweet unconsciousness. They couldn’t sleep as long as you were still out there in Merlin knows what condition.

Sebastian sighed for the umpteenth time, his hands running through his already unruly curls and sending them into all possible directions. His leg bounced at his side, the muscle flowing with his anxieties and only being released by the constant movement. Ominis stood once again from his side, shaking the sleep from his person and beginning to pace the space once again. He couldn’t keep still any longer, not when you’d been gone for so long. Blond tresses fell in front of his eyes from his incessant hands combing through it. He took deep breaths, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth in order to calm his rapidly pounding heart. The silence was driving him mad, every little sound that wasn’t you coming through the metal gate was like a bullet to his brain. He feared the worst for you— the idea of you leaving this world without a word made his chest feel like it was caving in on itself.

The creak of the Undercroft gate broke both of the boys from their perturbed revelry. Sebastian sprung to his feet, head whipping to the side at the sound as Ominis spun on his heel and ceased his endless pacing as you stumbled through the doorway.

The blond made a small sound in the back of his throat, relief palpable in the air around him. “Thank Merlin you’re okay, we were worried sick about you!”

Sebastian’s heart stuttered in his chest, his words forcing themselves out around the lump that formed under his jaw. “Oh, dear God…” He breathed, his feet glued where he stood in shock as he took you in.

Ominis’ heart rate picked up exponentially. Tuning his ears to what was happening around him, he could hear the heavy breaths leaving both of his best friends with a renewed clarity. Your breathing was more stuttered than Sebastian’s, like you were struggling to suck in the air around you. Something was dripping lightly on the ground by your feet, the sound of its little plinks against the stone bounced around his skull like a small pebble skipping across the black lake. Pushing himself to focus more on the sound, the scent of copper filled his nose and sent a shiver down his spine.

With a pained whimper, your legs gave out and you crashed to the hard ground with a resounding thump.

Sebastian sprang into action, your noise of distress breaking him out of his stupor as he rushed over to your fallen form, calling out to the other boy in panic.

“Ominis, get the Wiggenweld potions!”

The blond stumbled over his feet, running towards the box in the far corner of the room that they filled with first aid equipment for moments just like this. The Sallow boy slid the rest of the distance between the two of you on his knees, arms outstretched to catch the top half of your body against his chest as the rest of your body gave in to gravity. He grasped you gently by the shoulders, moving your face into his vision and scanning you for injury.

“What happened? Who did this to you!?”

Your eyes were unfocused on his, black half moons coloring your bottom lids and the tops of your cheeks. Your voice was soft, barely loud enough for Sebastian to make out anything you were saying. He caught little snippets, mumbles of words like “Ranrok,” “repository,” and “Rookwood.” Blood dripped from a cut on your forehead, cascading down your incredibly pale face and staining the collar of your white button down. Your house cardigan was sliced open at the arm, showing a deep laceration stretching from the top of your arm to your elbow— Sebastian worried that if it was any deeper it would have hit bone. Your skin was almost grey from blood loss, your veins zigzagging under the flesh of your neck, chest, and arms like small strikes of lightning. He could see your knees through the rips in your trousers, the skin shredded and bruised, little bits of gravel dotting the wound like birth marks. One of your hands clutched your side, blood blooming through your fingers like a macabre rose bouquet. He carefully pried your fingers away to assess the damage and his breath caught in his throat, a sound of agony escaping from his open mouth. Through the hole in your shirt he could see multiple large, jagged slices in your side, each oozing buckets of blood. You winced as his fingers ran along your ribs, another groan of pain vibrating in your throat. He raised his eyes back to your face, irises dancing side to side as he tried to catch your gaze. Your entire body was shaking with adrenaline. He gently cupped your cheeks in his hands, forcing you to meet his piercing stare. His voice shook with dismay, the words leaving his mouth in a frenzy.

“I need to look at your side, okay? I need to see how bad the damage is. Just nod if you’re okay with that.”

You blinked slowly at him, a hand reaching out and wrapping around one of his wrists as you minutely nodded. Sebastian carefully took your hands into his and placed them on his shoulders for stability before unbuttoning the bottom of your shirt. His eyes were greeted with an enormous bruise, purples, blues, and blacks covering the skin of your lower left ribs and splintering out towards your chest. He sucked in a breath through his clenched teeth— you definitely had a few broken ribs. Your body began to slump against his, eyes fighting harder to stay open. He lightly slapped you on the cheek, frantically trying to keep you conscious.

“Hey, hey! No you don’t, you need to stay awake. Stay with us, okay?”

You laughed, wincing as your ribs shifted painfully, and smiled, your teeth stained a light pink from swallowing blood— you were absolutely delirious. “You should see the other guy.” Sucking in a deep, stuttering breath, your vision began to blur even more as your mind filled with numbing static. “I-I did it.”

Sebastian took your face into his hands once again, watching you with bated breath. “What did you do? Please, what happened to you?”

Your gaze focused on him finally, eyes softening as your smile stretched even wider. “I controlled it— the ancient magic, it’s inside me.”

The brunette blanched, his brain needing a second to catch up with your words before he laughed incredulously, head shaking in disbelief. “We can focus on that later. Right now, we need to stop you from dying, okay?”

Ominis appeared at his side, arms laden with as many potions as he could carry as he dropped roughly to his knees to your right. The oblong shaped vials clinked together as he haphazardly set them down on the ground, quickly drawing his wand and scanning you for any other injuries. Each pulse of his wand, each image blasted into his mindseye, sucked a little bit more color from his cheeks in horror. His hands hovered in the air next to your arm, shaking with barely contained terror as his mind fought whether to touch and comfort you or not touch you in case he hurt you even more.

His whole body vibrated, nerves completely shot to hell and his voice betraying every ounce of trepidation he held inside of him. "We need to get you to the infirmary! Why in Merlin's name did you come down here? You need a proper doctor, not us!"

You shook your head weakly, your speech slurred as your head slightly lulled in his direction. "Knew you'd worry— had to make sure you both were okay..." A breath. "Wanted to be with you— to see you...one last time..." It was getting harder and harder to breathe— each breath felt like you slammed your lungs in a bear trap.

Sebastian shushed you softly, lips grazing the skin of your temple as he whispered into your hair. "Quiet now, save your strength. You're safe now, you made it to us." He cleared his throat, adopting as much determination as he could muster. "You aren't dying today, alright? We won't let you, you stubborn bastard."

He gently lowered you so you were laying on your back and your head rested against the cool ground of the Undercroft, pushing the hair sticking to your temple back so he could clearly see your eyes. In his haste to move you, he didn’t notice that they were closed. Your breathing left your parted lips at a dangerously slow rate; your body finally giving out from the intense pain pulsing through your system. White hot panic screamed at the front of his skull.

“Hey! What did I say? Stay with us, dammit!”

You didn’t budge.

“Shit. Shit!”

Uncorking one of the potions, he pressed it against your lips with one hand and tilted your chin back with the other, whispering prayers for you to wake up as the bitter liquid slid down your throat. Ominis bit his lip hard, muffling the hysterical pants that threatened to leave his lungs. The taste of his own blood filled his mouth as it steadily dripped down his throat. He pressed his fingers against the pulse point on your neck, feeling for your heartbeat. It was soft, but still there.

The blond grasped one of your hands in his while the other still held his wand, coasting the tip of it over your body like he did to the chessboard hours before to check the status of your injuries. Your fingers were so cold.

Nodding towards the brunette, unseeing eyes never leaving your body and voice shaking, he shouted, “Give them another one!”

Sebastian pressed a second potion to your lips, watching it flow down your open throat as color began to return to your cheeks. His heart continued to slam against his ribs painfully, threatening to break out from under his skin.

The skin around your arm began to lace itself back together, the large cut that resided there turning into a barely raised scar— the same happening to the slice on your temple.

Another potion.

The bruising around your naval began to disapparate, the skin around your ribs painting itself to match the rest of your complexion.

He gave you the last of the potions, watching as the final scars of your battle stitched together and solidified at your side. Your flesh was red and angry around where the wound was, raised and burning to the touch, but no longer gushing enough blood to feed a small army of vampires.

Both boys held their breath as they waited for your eyes to open once again, each one counting the seconds that you remained unconscious. The space behind their eyes began to sting with unshed tears. Dread nestled itself in their chests and spread through their entire bodies like a wildfire, both fearing the worst— that you wouldn’t wake up, that the potions didn’t help, that you were still dying.

“Please don’t leave us. Not yet.” Sebastian whispered, leaning down and pressing his forehead against yours. His voice cracked with sorrow.

After what felt like a century, your eyelids fluttered open and you took in the world around you. The taller Slytherin leaned back so he could catch your gaze, breathed a heaving sigh of relief, tears gathering in his lashes and streaking down his cheeks as he gave a weak, watery chuckle. He brushed his fingers through your blood slicked hair, a soft smile tweaking the corners of his mouth.

“Hey, stranger. You scared us there for a second.”

You smiled up at him, eyelids slitted but finally open, finally alive. “Can’t get rid of me that easily.” You croaked, your voice raspy.

A harsh sob left their blond companion, his body finally slumping around the tautness he held since you entered the room. He rolled onto his back, legs thumping against the ground below as he brought his hands to cover his face, tears of pure, unbridled joy leaking through his fingers and wetting the dusty floor as light relieved laughs and muted curses spilled from his lips.

“You both are going to send me to an early grave, I’m sure of it.”

Laughing to himself, the brunette gazed down at you, his thumb lightly tracing along your cheekbone. “Let’s get you to the hospital wing, yes? Then you can tell us all about what happened.”

You nodded against his hand, letting him pull you up to your feet and wrap his hand around your waist. Ominis stood with you both, doing the same on your other side after pressing a careful kiss to your hair, squeezing your hand in his.

Safely tucked between your two boys, the three of you made your way out of the Undercroft and into the hallways of the castle you saved— the castle you called home.

***

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nelkcats · 1 year

Text

Hood Assistant

Prompt Part 1 Part 6 Part 7 Ao3

Part 8

-----

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be

------------------

"Danny's sleeping so talk Dickhead," Jason said over the comms. Since last night he had noticed that the boy was a heavy sleeper, so it was unlikely that he would wake up during their conversation.

"Talk? We have nothing to talk about" Dick feigned innocence, although neither of them believed it.

"Of course, why did you come to my apartment then? And don't say you were worried about me" Jason stopped him, although it was possible that this was the reason, he was sure there was a bigger one.

"I was worried about you!" Dick shot back, sounding offended by the conversation.

"Sure, sure, now talk about your fight and why you didn't ask Kori to cook" Jason rolled his eyes, not caring that his brother wasn't looking at him.

"Kori is an amazing girl, and you know I'm very much in love with her" The vigilante in blue started.

"I know there's a but, keep going," Jason encouraged.

"Well, she's been using materials from her planet again," Dick finally said, sounding like he was about to cry, "I love Kori but if I have to eat slime one more time I'm going to throw up."

"And that's why you were going to ask Alfred for food but Bruce was inside the mansion?" Jason theorized. Dick and Bruce didn't have as good of a relationship as they had in the past. After all the misunderstandings and situations it was noticeable.

"You're right, I argued with him again but I still think Dami totally deserved to go to the zoo, and he's always so caught up in his own thoughts that he forgets that people don't work like the code in his head" Dick complained grumbling.

"As much as I love to complain about Bruce I'm going to stop you there, right now I need to know what you were looking for inside my apartment" Jason sighed, though he'd probably call later to find out everything the old man had gotten wrong, a bit of gossip didn't hurt anyone.

"Oh that, it's just that Pitter-" Dick started but was immediately interrupted.

"Don't call me that, my name is Peter" Jason growled under his breath but Dick seemed to ignore his complaints as he continued talking.

"Pitter seemed very possessive of the boy and that made me curious, okay? And when I went to your apartment I realized that you like him too, are you in love with him, Little Wing?" His older brother's tone turned playful and Jason could perfectly imagine his smile from the other side of the line.

"I'm not in love, and don't you dare tell them about him" Jason complained, he knew that Dick was the gossip in the whole mansion even if he didn't live inside it, but he still had a trick up his sleeve.

"My silence has a price" Dick said, faking an old man's voice and stroking his imaginary beard. He had forgotten they weren't making a video call but no one was going to judge him for it.

"Yeah, Roy and I will teach Kori how to cook, so she'll stop poisoning you" Jason said with a growl as Dick began to celebrate in the background. All his complaints had disappeared from one second to another.

He didn't mind teaching Kori how to cook, she was one of his best friends and it was always quite fun to do something with her. After all, even if he spent a lot of time organizing his own faction in Crime Alley, the Outlaws would always be his family.

They were just taking a vacation while guarding his territory and Roy was having an existential crisis with Lian entering preschool. Jason had tried very hard to ignore the messages in the group chat because he knew that 80% of them were audios of Roy crying over his baby growing.

Curiously, he had no idea what Kori was doing during that period of time. Apparently using her cooking knowledge to accidentally poison his brother. Or he was hoping it was accidental.

Kori was one of the best chefs on her home planet, the only problem was that they weren't on her home planet and she had forgotten that the earth uses very different ingredients. She probably still hadn't gotten used to it, but an evening with friends cooking sounded pretty good to correct that. He might even invite Danny.

Jason stopped his train of thought at that moment. Since when did he think of Danny as a friend? And that it was safe to be with him? He was still getting updates of Babs screaming in rage while she was trying to hack Amity every couple of days, and the boy was definitely extremely suspicious.

It was just that since he'd given him the benefit of the doubt he'd been having fun. And the cute boy who had called him on his phone one day to get the most dangerous job ever had been slowly but surely stealing his heart. Jason had never felt so relaxed in years.

He shifted his gaze to the boy who was fast asleep hugging his arm, he was pretty sure he was drooling at that moment and he could feel that Danny was seconds away from biting him. Jason wondered if he was hungry.

"Yeah, I think I am," he muttered before hanging up. Ignoring the cries of confusion that his brother was throwing at him. Not that he could help it anyway, he was well aware that Nightwing would be visiting them the next day.

He sadly knew that he couldn't escape a late-night visit from Blueheaven's vigilante but he could stay with Danny until then, and maybe dance one more time. That was fun.

───────────────

"I understand that you can't present yourself in front of Danny as Danny, however" Johnny took a deep breath, seeing Amorpho's new form.

He exhale, closed his eyes and opened them again, no, the appearance was still there. It wasn't a bad dream after all.

"What? I think the cover is perfect" Amorpho complained adjusting his skirt "Although the clothes are uncomfortable"

"Amorpho" Johnny said feigning calm "DON'T MORPH INTO MY GIRLFRIEND"

Facing Johnny was Kitty without green skin and wearing sunglasses, but definitely Kitty, Johnny wanted to bang his head against the wall.

"Why not? I look fabulous." Amorpho modeled his new look as if he were in a fashion show and blew Johnny a kiss, who squashed his kiss in frustration.

"No, I refuse to play along with you on this" the blond complained, crossing his arms. Though he was sure if he sent Kitty a picture about it she would start laughing and agree with the ghost about looking good as a human.

Not that Johnny was going to tell her, the situation was humiliating enough as it was. He stared at Shadow, daring them to say something but his friend shook their head before going back into the shadows.

"Come on honey, don't be such a killjoy, we have to find our son" Amorpho put an arm around the blond's shoulder, grinning widely.

"I'm doing it so I don't get eaten and don't say it's our son, it's extremely awkward" Johnny winced, it was definitely weird.

"Why? It's not like you guys dated or anything" the ghost sneered, but at the sudden silence his jaw dropped "DID YOU GO OUT WITH HIM? YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!"

"Dammit, don't start yelling, Kitty dated him too," Johnny grumbled with a frown. "And of course we dated, did you think we called each other exes for the joke or something?"

"Probably, teenagers are weird" Amorpho shrugged, Johnny ignored how much he physically resembled his girlfriend with an attitude so different from hers.

"Remind me to never ask you how old you are," Johnny said huffily as he walked out of the apartment. He looked at an old woman who was coming out of one of the nearby apartments. He was about to greet her but she gave him a dirty look before leaving.

"What? I didn't even do anything" Johnny was stunned at the kind old lady's reaction before remembering that Amorpho had definitely yelled earlier "Damn Amorpho, I didn't need you to make my non-existent reputation any worse than it already was."

Amorpho simply ignored the blonde as he kept looking for something on his phone. Johnny approached out of curiosity, wondering since when the ghost knew how to use phones until he saw that Amorpho was sending a message to Technus.

"Seriously? I just told you!" Johnny complained as he pointed to the techie ghost's gossip blog. It was obvious that Amorpho was telling him about his failed threesome relationship.

"Yes, but Technus didn't know and that can't be, he has to know everything" Amorpho complained. He didn't get along so well with the Ghost of technology but he was his main purveyor of gossip in and out of the Infinite Realms.

He was pretty sure that was one of the main reasons why Technus had created phones in the first place and had dedicated himself to expanding its use throughout the dimension. He just liked to know everything. At least he hadn't discovered yet that he could overstep personal boundaries.

Although Technus loved gossip he was quite respectful of personal space, of course, he didn't refuse to check news of his new followers either.

Amorpho wondered if he could merge the new applications that his theater friends had taught him with the ones Technus had created for the Realms. It would be fun to see them interact with each other but those would be plans for another time; When a hungry halfa was not lost.

"Okay then, if you were an starving and definitely not kidnapped halfa where would you hide?" Amorpho questioned as they left the apartment.

Shadow came out of the shadows to look at both of them with annoyance while they pointed insistently at the apartment. Cujo continued to lie in the living room, paying no attention to the two ghosts who had definitely forgotten that dogs existed.

"I have no idea" Johnny denied as he looked at Shadow with confusion, he didn't quite understand what the other ghost meant. Shadow hid in his shadow again while they snorted in annoyance, their partner was an idiot.

"Perhaps my theater friends can help?" Amorpho questioned aloud as they walked through the streets.

"No, you were disguised as Danny, their help is completely useless, on the other hand" Johnny looked at the road "We could explore a bit, I always see colorful people and I'm sure they will help us"

"It's not like I had a better plan so sure" Amorpho shrugged as they headed towards the first person they saw.

Potential Help #1

Strangely, the first person they managed to see was a man flying a kite in the sky. Johnny supposed he couldn't judge considering it was early in the morning and they had seen stranger things in Amity Park.

"I'm judging him" Amorpho said, definitely not sharing his thoughts "Mr. Comet?"

"My name is Kite Man!" The man on the kite happily declared. Amorpho wondered why he was so proud. Perhaps the air had reached his brain.

"Well, Kitty Man" Amorpho interrupted him, the man seemed a bit offended by the comment but the ghost kept talking "Have you seen a boy with black hair? He's my boyfriend's ex and it seems he was recently kidnapped"

Johnny tried to retort by saying that he definitely wasn't his boyfriend but Amorpho shut him up before he could say anything.

"You know, I think there are a lot of people with black hair in Gotham, and a lot of them get kidnapped daily, you could ask the Waynes" Kite Man replied with a snort, if they were trying to find someone with such a vague description they were definitely lost.

"Okay, a boy with black hair and blue eyes" Amorpho tried again. Johnny was considering whether he should bite his hand.

"He could definitely be at Wayne Manor" Kite Man shrugged, it would be no surprise with the number of children Bruce Wayne adopted. Some Rogues even had a competition over whether he would transform into an adoption villain.

This might not make sense, but Bruce Wayne despite his idiotic attitude had a PhD, a motive and most importantly, money. The three most important factors in becoming a villain within Gotham.

Although maybe stealing children from orphanages wasn't so bad, it could get them out of poor living conditions and so on. It would be worth it if it wasn't so morally questionable and Brucie didn't have such an obvious preference when it came to foster children.

"Okay, where is- OW-" Amorpho removed his hand from Johnny's mouth as he saw the obvious bite on it "Did you just bite me!?"

"I'm sorry honey, you were suffocating me" Johnny said innocently. Their fake relationship was definitely suffocating him at the moment "Where's Wayne manor anyway?"

Kite Man simply pointed at the obvious mansion located in the center of Gotham and Johnny definitely turned around as he walked away.

"No, we're not messing with millionaires" the blond grumbled as he walked away from the strange comet man "I don't want another Vlad masters breathing down our necks"

"We agree on something" Amorpho grumbled as they continued on their way. They didn't need more millionaires in their lives, nor more halfas, two and a half was enough of a headache.

As they walked away from the site neither of them noticed a boy with a Katana complaining as he fought Kite man. They didn't care very much and had left it as some kind of background noise.

Potential Help #2

"I'm hungry" Amorpho complained as they continued walking, they had forgotten to eat breakfast before leaving and that wasn't doing them any good.

"You're a ghost, you spent years in the Realms without eating anything" Johnny said, shooting him a stink-eye. Even if he was friends with Lunch Lady, which he doubted, it was impossible for him to have a constant food source in the Realms.

"Yeah, but that was there, now that I'm here I'm not going to miss any food, ecto or not" Amorpho frowned and took Johnny's hand as he led them towards an establishment.

Above them the "Batburger" sign could be seen glowing. The blonde assumed that the workers at the restaurant would be able to help with the search. After all, the red girl at Amity always answered a few questions when she was working.

Of course she was aggressive and with a weapon, but she always ended up answering in one way or another.

To both ghost disappointment the workers couldn't help as they were being held back by a man in a strange suit with guns full of condiments? Well, better than nothing

"Hey, do you work here?" Amorpho ignored all the commotion and headed towards the man with the strange weapons. Surely the ketchup and mustard guns were to prepare the burgers faster or something. The city was that weird.

"Me? No! I'm the great Condiment King and I'm here to steal-" the man was about to say his speech but was stopped by one of the ghosts.

"The secret formula for the Krabby Patty?" Johnny was quick to guess, he had been watching some TV shows since he arrived at the apartment, which miraculously had a connection thanks to Technus. Shadow seemed to strongly disagree with his deduction but didn't say anything.

Similarly, the crows outside the restaurant seemed to be disappointed. Although the blond was sure that what he said was correct.

"No, this is a Batburger, we don't sell Krabby patties here" the restaurant manager answered, forgetting about the hostage situation, he seemed pretty tired of the whole situation.

"Too bad," Johnny shrugged as Amorpho waved beside him as if to say see what I have to live with?

"Now, if you and your girlfriend don't want to end up with a mustard shot to the head, you'd better sit quietly there" Condiment King pointed to the corner of the Batburger.

"She's not my-" Johnny tried to correct the supposed villain but Amorpho beat him to it.

"Excuse me!? Are you going to stain my beautiful clothes with that thing?" He protested in offense, ignoring the fact that it wasn't even his clothes in the first place.

"Sure girl, so sit still and-" the man tried to say but was interrupted again.

Of course, this ended badly for the rogue because before he knew it he had "Kitty's" handbag in his face, which seemed to be full of bricks as he blew it off the wall. Amorpho lowered his glasses showing him his angry red eyes before making a "hmp" sound and heading to the cash register, looking offended..

The ghost dusted his skirt as he addressed the employees who looked at him doubtfully "Two #3 orders with Jokerized fries to go please"

The employees rushed to place the orders as Condiment King held his head from where he had landed on one of the restaurant's tables. The Gothamites were getting more and more savage.

"You could have gone intangible if he threw the mustard, dammit" Johnny complained about his partner's drama as he picked up the orders. The workers seemed too scared to charge. "And you forgot to ask about Danny!"

"Oh right" Amorpho went back to the establishment where the employees were trying to pick up Condiment King "Have you seen a boy with black hair and blue eyes?"

Both the dizzy Condiment King and the employees pointed towards Wayne Manor, so Amorpho only frowned as he walked back to Johnny.

"Well?" The blonde asked, raising an eyebrow as he ate the fries from one of the orders.

"Creepy mansion again" Amorpho grumbled, snatching the bag from the other's hands and eating his burger.

Possible help #3

With full stomachs and renewed energy, they both returned to the streets of Gotham. Not noticing the red vigilante looking at them weird as he was on his way to Batburger.

"Okay, what weirdo are we asking now?" Amorpho complained, looking down the street. It didn't take long for them to find a calendar salesman, or that's what they assumed he was.

Johnny pointed to the strange man who had a calendar on his shoulders and Amorpho reluctantly agreed, he didn't see any other options.

"Your time is running out! The end of Gotham is near!" The man laughed as he held a gun in his hands and pointed it at both ghosts who looked unimpressed.

Calendar Man was excited, he had barely started his plan and two idiot Gothamites had bumped into him. He would show them to fear his name, it would be the worst day of their lives!

“He reminds me of someone" the blonde whispered, ignoring the drama as he thought about the legend of a ghost with many clocks that was extremely cryptic.

"Yes, he looks familiar to me too" Amorpho circled the villain curiously. Calendar Man looked offended by the lack of fear in both of them.

"Didn't you hear me? Your end is near!" Calendar Man repeated, but the dramatic effect in his voice was gone.

"Yeah, yeah, end of the world, end of our lives, blah blah blah" Johnny repeated unimpressed. They were ghosts, they couldn't be less scared by that threat.

"You guys notice the gun in my hand right? I could kill you at any moment" Calendar Man pointed to the gun that was pointed directly at the boy and his girlfriend "You should be begging for your life!"

"There are things more terrifying than death" Amorpho smiled widely as he lowered his glasses, exposing his red eyes. He had noticed that this scared most people and made them answer his questions faster.

"Things that can't wait to meet you," Johnny teased as Shadow got up and surrounded them "Now, do you have time to answer a few questions?"

Calendar Man had a feeling they weren't normal Gothamites as his own shadow rose up to snatch the weapon from him and toss it aside. Would that be all? The end of his days terrorizing Gotham?

He closed his eyes waiting for his end but nothing happened. When he opened them again, the two Gothamites were in the same place, looking the same as at the beginning of the conversation. Although definitely more annoying than before.

"You could have just said no" Johnny complained with a frown. Amorpho stared at him as he waved the rogue away. Which Calendar Man took advantage of before running off.

Orphan watched from the ceiling as Calendar Man ran off yelling about the "Monsters that have come to Gotham".

Possible help #4

"That guy was useless and these heels are killing me" Amorpho complained as they continued walking.

"You could just take off the heels or you know, change your shoes, stop being my girlfriend" Johnny listed the options hoping the ghost would accept the last offer.

"No, as I told you at the beginning, I look fabulous this way" Amorpho pointed at himself "and beauty hurts"

"Then suffer in silence" Johnny said unimpressed as he entered what appeared to be the local Gotham park. Plants were everywhere, which definitely reminded him of something or rather someone.

"Everyone will surrender towards the green!" A woman on a picnic blanket exclaimed. A girl with clown-like makeup seemed to be cheering right next to her.

"This scene looks familiar" Amorpho muttered, to which Johnny agreed "Oh, I remember."

"It's like Sam!" Johnny yelled..

"It's like Undergrowth!" Amorpho yelled at the same time as the blond. They both looked at each other with a frown.

"It's obviously like the time Sam got possessed," Johnny grumbled as he pointed at the plants littering the park.

"But she was possessed by Undergrowth," Amorpho pointed out in an attempt to cut the argument off.

"Maybe Undergrowth is trying to have kids?" Johnny muttered as he watched Ivy, he could see the family resemblance.

"Or maybe they're illegitimate children he doesn't know about," Amorpho said happily. Shadow was wondering why they didn't stay with Cujo.

"Anyway, if anyone knows where to find Danny it's probably her right?" Johnny pointed to the picnic blanket. Amorpho nodded and they both headed off to probably break up a romantic date.

"Those heels look fa-bu-lous on you!" Harley exclaimed with happiness as she saw a young couple approaching them. Though Ivy didn't look thrilled by the interruption.

"Thank you! Your makeup is magnificent" Amorpho exclaimed happily, perhaps they had made new friends.

"Don't get distracted" Johnny growled at his partner as he complained about the blond not understanding the importance of fashion.

"Oh right, sorry for the interruption" Amorpho cleared his throat "Our friend is lost and we wanted to know if you know where to find him?"

"We're kind of busy right now," Ivy pointed at the picnic. Although she was curious as to how the couple went through all the plants without alerting her.

"It sure is a lovely evening" Johnny nodded "and I'm sorry to interrupt your date, it's something that's happened to me a lot so I understand how frustrating it can be but we really need to find our friend."

Johnny was already thinking about how to make up for the interruption to the date while he was at it. Obviously they had prepared everything: plants that gave a romantic atmosphere, homemade food, hostages, nosy bats behind the plants. It was beautiful!

"If you understand why interrupt?" Ivy raised an eyebrow.

"Our friend has a very special diet and if we don't find him soon all of Gotham could turn into a zombie movie" Amorpho tried to explain. Although obviously the zombie part was only for them.

"We're not getting into another weird drama-" Ivy said with a frown but was interrupted by Harley.

"That's terrible, we also have a friend with a strange diet so we'd love to help!" Harley nodded thinking of Waylon as Ivy heaved a defeated sigh beside her.

"Excellent, he's quite short and always wears the same jacket" Johnny described the clothes the halfa was wearing the last time he saw him "the most important thing is that he has black hair and blue eyes"

Harley & Ivy looked at each other before grimacing at the last description. They hoped that Bruce had avoided that bullet.

"Did you search at Wayne Manor?" Harley questioned after a few seconds of silence.

"No, but we're pretty sure he's not there, he hates millionaires" Amorpho hastened to assert.

"You should check, that's where all the boys with that description end up" Ivy frowned "but we'll keep our eyes open, what's your friend's name?"

"His name is Danny! Thank you very much, we promise to make up your date" Johnny brightened as Amorpho exchanged his number with Harley, they seemed to have become friends.

"I hope so," Ivy snorted as she watched the lively couple walk away, "although I still wonder how they got through the floral barrier”

"Uh, that's weird" Harley mumbled looking at her new contact. The name and photo were definitely different from what she had expected.

"What's wrong honey?" Ivy approached the girl looking at her phone. In it you could see the profile of "Amorpho" shining as an added contact.

"Looks like our new friends have more than one surprise up their sleeves." Harley smiled as she put her phone down and focused on her date. She hoped to find them again, that was for sure.

Spoiler looked at the interaction between the four of them with doubt but ignored how both civilians walked away while she focused on telling Ivy to let the other people enter the park.

Amorpho and Johnny just went intangible to get through the flowers as they headed back to Crime Alley, maybe Danny's crush lived in the same neighborhood if they were lucky.

Possible help #5

In the middle of the street was a rather strong man with a gas mask over his face, which seemed to be connected to tubes on his back. Bane looked at them and walked past them.

"Hey! Don't be rude!" Amorpho complained putting himself in front of the man "It seems that you are not having a good day but this will only take a few minutes"

"My time is precious and I won't waste it on you," Bane growled, trying to push the woman out of his way but she didn't move.

"It will only take a few minutes" Amorpho planted his heels on the cement, leaving a hole. Bane raised an eyebrow curiously.

"What do you want?" Bane crossed his arms, still annoyed by the interaction.

"Thanks, we're looking for our friend," Johnny said, finally catching up with them.

"Your friend?" Bane did not hide the doubt in his tone. Were they causing him so much trouble to ask something so pointless? Why would he know about a random guy in the first place?

"Yeah, he's got blue eyes, black hair, he's kind of goofy and probably has white hair on his head if you look closely," Johnny hastened to describe.

Bane hummed "maybe I know where he is"

"Oh really!?" Both ghosts cheered up seeing the one who was finally giving them an answer.

"Yes, but you have to beat me for that" Bane challenged them both. Considering the strange strength of the girl it was obvious that they were not normal people.

Bane didn't really know where the boy they were looking for was, but he needed some training and if all he needed was a little bribing then he would do it. It wasn't every day that two interesting metas stood in the way.

"We don't have time for a fight" Johnny grumbled but Amorpho stepped forward.

"Hold my bag honey" Amorpho handed his handbag to the blond ghost with a grunt "I've been in these heels all damn day, my feet hurt and all the information we collected was totally useless, if you think I'm going to let go the opportunity to hit someone today you are wrong"

Bane smirked as Amorpho tossed his glasses aside and charged at him in utter rage. After the fight all that was left were broken pieces of the street. Something that was carefully observed by Signal, who was stopping himself from entering Red Hood's territory.

"What do you mean the mansion!?" Amorpho yelled at Bane chuckling on the ground.

"Even though you are a strong opponent, all children with that description end up in the mansion, if he's not there then I don't know where he is" The villain sneered standing up.

"What? Is the show over?" The blond complained putting away his popcorn "I thought it would last longer"

"That was a good fight though, we should do it again sometime," Bane commented as he stretched, ignoring the blond's words. He wondered if he would have special abilities like his mate.

Bane sized up the blonde but his eyes were caught on his shadow, was it moving or was it a trick of the light? Maybe he should do more research on Gotham's new people, these new players were definitely interesting. Of course, that would happen after recovering from the fight and getting more poison. His had run out but it was worth it.

"Yeah, yeah, next time, we have to go get our friend" Amorpho growled, pulling Johnny towards the creepy mansion. He wasn't going to tolerate any more people leading them there again without checking. And if the halfa was inside that damn mansion he was going to figure out how to double kill the biker.

"That's too long, why don't we just use my motorcycle?" The blond asked curiously as he measured the distance to the creepy mansion located in the middle of the city, walking was relaxing for a few hours but he missed his motorcycle.

"WE WERE ABLE TO USE YOUR MOTORCYCLE ALL THE TIME!?" Amorpho's scream was heard throughout the street. To which Johnny shrugged. Bane's laughter was audible in the distance.

───────────────

When Jason woke up it wasn't a surprise that Danny was biting his arm. He still considered that it had something to do with the boy being starved for his whole life, but he found the little fangs a little adorable.

They were less adorable when he realized that they were taking blood from his arm, and that his blood had green drops inside it. Jason blinked a few times trying to get the sleep out of his eyes but the green spots were still there.

"Danny, Doll wake up" Jason waved him worriedly, partly because he didn't think drinking blood, even accidentally, wouldn't be poisonous. And on the other hand he was afraid that it had something to do with the Pits.

Danny just growled as he bit his arm a little harder, probably trying to shut up whatever was disturbing his sleep.

"Danny no!" Jason screeched as the boy bit him again, the new vampiric tendencies of his new love interest were becoming extremely worrisome.

Not knowing what else to do, Jason began to wave his arm in an attempt to pull the boy away, but the boy clung on again and the vigilante swore Danny had grown claws because it was impossible for him to stay in the same place without moving an inch.

"Doll, you have to get off, you're not a cat!" Jason got up from the bed but the boy had gone from just biting his arm to completely clinging to him as he kept biting.

Jason ran into the kitchen and tried to bribe the boy with some food he had left in the microwave, if he was hungry that would surely help.

His plan obviously didn't work, the boy seemed quite comfortable still biting his arm. Jason wondered if the toxic blood was going to kill him, if it was really part of the Lazarus Pits.

"Come on Doll, you can't die after I just accepted that I like you" Jason grumbled as he sat down on the couch. He stroked the halfa's hair lovingly as he sighed. The boy was extremely troublesome but he had come to love him, a special kind of love that he hadn't given to many people and that was terrifying.

"Love" Poe sang happily as he landed on Jason's head. Who was having an existential crisis.

If his blood had some of the fluid from the pits in it, why hadn't it come out until now? Was it toxic? Was he killing Danny!?

He hadn't even asked him on a date and he had already killed him! He was the worst boyfriend candidate ever.

While he continued lost in his thoughts he didn't notice how the boy slowly detached himself from his arm and the green color on his blood disappeared.

The halfa seemed to have consumed all the corrupted ectoplasm available in the boy, whether that was a good or a bad thing was hard to say. The boy would probably end up with side effects from the corrupted ectoplasm though. On the other hand, Jason's corrupted core might be healing now that he had a source of natural ectoplasm in the air, and perhaps he would find some surprises soon.

Oblivious to everything that had just changed, Danny continued fast asleep, happily clinging to Jason's arm. The vigilante began to wonder if the boy would stay after the whole gas disaster was over. He slowly started to fall asleep, so much excitement so early in the morning had definitely left him tired. Or maybe it was just the missing blood.

───────────────

"I'm telling you Kori, Jay is completely in love, he looks at him the way I look at you" Dick murmured as he lay on his girlfriend's lap, he hadn't slept all night thinking about the meaning of his younger brother's last words " I'm so proud of him"

"Okay, now say what you're really thinking" Kori replied with a smirk. She knew her boyfriend too well to believe that.

"I'm so scared" Dick said in a teary tone "my baby brother is growing up, and he's falling in love, what am I going to do if he gets his heart broken?"

I think that should be his concern" Kori raised an eyebrow "Besides, if something happens I'm sure Roy and I can take care of it"

"Oh, so you think I should spy on his future boyfriend?" Dick questioned happily as he thought about the amazing idea his girlfriend was suggesting.

"I never said that" Kori replied with a snort even though she was aware that her boyfriend wouldn't listen to her and would go bother his brother "In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the opposite of what I told you"

"No, I heard you perfectly, you said it should be my concern so I'll make it my concern" Dick nodded misunderstanding the message "Thank you honey"

"I know you won't listen to me no matter what I say so if Jason gets mad at you I had nothing to do with it, I discouraged you from doing whatever you're thinking" Kori said, sometimes your boyfriend and your best friend being brothers had its disadvantages. Like getting into family fights for example.

"Yes ma'am, I haven't heard anything from you" Dick gave her a military salute before thinking of something else to do while visiting his brother "Maybe I can even find something to tease Jay with while I'm at it."

"I don't know if you want to protect him or make his life miserable" Kori replied doubtfully "But well, have fun"

"Oh by the way" Dick mumbled remembering something at the last moment "Jason said he would teach you how to cook with things from Earth during the call"

"That's wonderful, will Roy join?" Kori asked, at Dick's nod she clapped her hands happily "We could invite his future boyfriend to join"

"How do you know he can't cook?" Dick questioned curiously. He had noticed that while he was trying hard to make the potatoes, Danny hadn't managed to get the cuts right. Jason had definitely been helping him.

"I didn't know, besides, this isn't a course for people who cook badly, is it?" Kori's eyes flashed with annoyance as Dick scrambled to come up with an excuse. In the end, he settled on the truth.

"You know it's not, but I don't know how many otherworldly ingredients my stomach can handle," Dick murmured sadly, "I love that you're trying, and I'm the one who lives on takeout so I can't say anything, but- "

"You're not adapted, I understand" The anger on Kori's face softened "Sorry, I forgot that our dietary needs are not the same"

"It's okay Kori, you were really trying" Dick said "Do you want to plan my fabulous entrance as Nightwing?"

Kori simply denied with a smile and they both ended up talking about different things throughout the night. Their main topic of discussion, though, was Jason's new boyfriend. Kori didn't say it out loud but she was also thinking about the future consequences that his boyfriend's antics would bring her.

───────────────

When Jason woke up again, it was noon. He wondered if what had happened in the morning had been imagined somehow. It was quite likely since green blood didn't exist if you weren't an alien or a meta. And as far as he knew he wasn't either of them.

He sighed as he checked the bite marks on his arm. Although they were present they were very light and were not bleeding. One more point to his theory about him having a strange nightmare. He didn't have an enhanced healing factor and the bite marks were too light to have drawn blood.

However, he felt that he should ask. Even though the wound didn't appear to have drawn blood it could still be a concern.

"Danny, do you have rabies?" Jason asked moving to the boy who was opening an eye next to him. It probably wasn't the most polite way to ask, but he woke up with his arm bitten off, sue him!

"What's with that comment?" The halfa frowned grumpily "I was hoping for a good morning"

It was definitely a unique way of waking up though. Opening your eyes to see the face of your crush with a contemplative expression and the most random question ever.

Danny sighed, why did he like eccentrics? At least Jason didn't have a secret identity with a red mask. Though he couldn't say the same for Red Hood. Damn gene Fenton with peculiar tastes!

"Well, considering you bit my arm, I wanted to know if there was anything I should worry about." Jason pointed to what the halfa was hugging. As Danny got closer he looked at the small bite marks and winced.

Frostbite's thousands of scoldings about how ghosts should protect themselves against diseases and how dangerous it could be to bite the living flashed through his mind, but Jason looked pretty good.

"Not at all" he answered with a nervous laugh "Besides, I'm not a dog"

"I'm aware, just making sure" Jason ruffled his hair affectionately "by the way, Nightwing is coming to visit today, Officer Grayson left a very upsetting message about it"

"Oh, I didn't know you were that close. Do you like him?" Danny teased raising both eyebrows, though wishing that wasn't the case.

Apparently it wasn't, because Jason's face twisted in horror at the implication and he looked at Danny with betrayal. That was a mental image that he wished to get out of his head.

"NO!" Jason yelled completely offended "he's almost my brother, please don't ever say that again"

Plus, there was something definitely painful about your love interest asking if you had a crush on someone. It's not like he could kiss him, that would be going too fast.

"Okay, okay, sorry, I was really kidding" Danny hoped Jason didn't notice how relieved he was by his reaction, "but while we're on the subject, can I ask something?"

"About Officer Grayson?" Jason asked curiously, at Danny's assent he looked at him with a bit of doubt but decided to accept "as long as it's not about our non-existent relationship, go ahead"

"So, do you think Nightwing is dating Officer Grayson?" Danny whispered curiously, looking at a poster of the vigilante in the living room. He wouldn't be surprised if Jason was a fan of his boyfriend's friends.

"I'm pretty sure one of them is dating Strarfire" Jason raised an eyebrow not knowing where such a theory came from. Wasn't he asking if he was dating one of them a minute ago?

"They must be in a polycule" Danny nodded wisely, while Jason looked at him confused.

"If you believe that, why did you ask me if I was dating him?" Jason questioned curiously.

"I wanted to see you nervous," Danny shrugged, "No offense, but the way the officer spoke of Nightwing betrayed a very obvious love"

Probably because he was talking about himself

Jason refrained from commenting, frowning. He turned to ask what the halfa meant by making him nervous when Danny kissed his nose by mistake; he was definitely aiming for his cheek, it was only his reflections that kept him from kissing him directly.

"What was that for, Doll!?" The vigilante stepped away, the action had made him nervous, and he wouldn't admit how flustered the action had left him.

"Actually, I wanted to blow your nose but it was a miscalculation" Danny shrugged sheepishly, the smile not leaving his face "It was worth it though."

───────────────

"Well, we only have one place left to go" Amorpho pointed to the creepy mansion that was visible from the other side of the street "most people told us that he could be here, we have to check"

"Danny would never be there, you know very well his contempt for people with money" Johnny immediately denied "he would have run away"

"Not if he was weak and lacking ectoplasm" Amorpho grumbled "come on, we look like idiots standing in the middle of the street and I have classes at night"

"Since when have you become a responsible student?" Johnny stared at him in disbelief, it had only been two days.

"Yeah, I can't lower my grades or I'll get kicked out of drama club" Amorpho shrugged "I'm lucky Danny has perfect attendance"

"Speaking of which, maybe we should save this creepy adventure for later," the blonde muttered, looking at his phone, "we've been on this all day and Kitty is going to call me in a few minutes."

"I thought Kitty would call you about 10 minutes before my classes started, she's pretty punctual" Amorpho muttered. He had noticed that pattern quickly.

"She does," Johnny agreed happily "and I really don't want her to see you in that outfit, or appearance"

Amorpho looked at him incredulously and checked the time on his own watch, indeed there was the alarm for the start of classes. He stopped himself from choking the blonde and ran into one of the alleys, he needed to change quickly. The skirt definitely looked fabulous on him though.

"Rude" Johnny muttered with a frown as he watched Amorpho leave. He noticed a burst of light coming from a nearby alleyway before "Danny" emerged with a backpack (which definitely wasn't there before) running towards the university.

───────────────

Because unfortunately they couldn't sleep all day, they both decided to do something productive. At first Jason had suggested that they have a relaxing day, maybe read a couple of books and try to learn something new in the kitchen.

Unfortunately the day turned into the opposite of relaxed when the kitchen became a mess of ingredients. Although it had been a very fun experience, cleaning it up wouldn't be so much.

"Okay, maybe we should find something else to do, Doll," Jason admitted as he stood on his tiptoes to clean up the mess that was left on the ceiling.

How had it gotten there? They weren't even cooking anything that required dough!

"Yeah, probably," Danny admitted with a small laugh. Despite how embarrassed he felt about the whole situation he had to admit it was fun "Dance?"

"As much as I love dancing, my muscles are killing me" Jason refused. Plus, he didn't want Nightwing to find them dancing.

It felt like something private. Something that needed to be hidden since it was theirs alone. Jason felt like that little action belonged to him.

The images of them swaying, laughing, expressing their emotions openly. They were his, and he wouldn't hand them over to any of the bats, no matter how curious they were.

“How do you feel about a movie marathon?" The halfa finally asked happily. Whenever he had some free time he would watch one or another interesting movie.

It was a bit sad but since he had arrived in Gotham he had lost the habit. He still remembered the day where Ellie forced him to watch a whole Disney marathon and although he thought it would be tedious he ended up crying with her.

"It depends, what movie are we watching?" Jason raised an eyebrow curiously. Not that he had a preference, family nights included movies of all genres due to the differences between each family member so he wasn't picky.

Danny didn't know that, he wondered what was the correct answer in this situation. Maybe Jason didn't like ghost or zombie parodies with bad death jokes the way he did. He could be an action guy, or a romance guy considering all the books he saw on his bookshelf.

He turned on the TV wondering what he should answer when a movie poster appeared in front of him and he knew. That was always the correct answer.

"Barbie!" The halfa pointed at the screen completely proud. A wide smile on his face.

"I thought you'd never say it" Jason smiled as the movie Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses played on the screen.

That was how Nightwing found them hours later. Cuddled up while singing nursery rhymes out loud.

The vigilante wondered if he should let them know he was in the room but decided to enjoy the view a little longer.

He took a photo of the two of them singing with a wide smile and sent it to Tim.

DiscoWing: Don't tell B but Jay is in love~

DiscoWing: Aren't they cute!? I trust you to keep the secret but watch them! This is the perfect blackmail!

Followed by lots of surprise stickers performed by Nightwing

DiscoWing: It was worth stealing the Helicood for this!

Dick decided to ignore the Restauran't is typing as he approached his brother. Jason was in love with his new helicopter, he had built and modified it until it was perfect and even named it "Helicood" after himself.

But Dick was sure Jason would forgive him for stealing his new helicopter. And maybe crash it slightly, after all he can fix it! He just needed to sneak a few minutes into the batcave.

"HERE I AM, BEING WHO I WANT~" Dick sang the line from the movie scaring the two people on the couch.

"WHAT THE FUCK WING!?" Jason yelled seeing the vigilante hanging from his window.

"Wait! I came with a peace offering!" Nightwing raised both arms swinging to keep from falling. In his hands could be seen a…duck candle?

"Watch out! You could fall!" Danny yelled worried, he didn't want to see a vigilante pancake. What would he say to Starfire and Officer Grayson!?

"I wish so" Jason snorted watching the vigilante do a flip and land next to them "he's an acrobat, don't worry."

"Oh, so we don't have to inform Dick and Starfire about his death?" Danny asked, relieved.

"Inform who about my what?" Nightwing asked confused while Jason shook his head, it was better for him to let the topic slide "Besides, don't worry! If I fall I can always fly!"

"Just because your name has the word Wing doesn't mean you can fly a birdbrain" Jason grumbled, maybe a squashed Nightwing wouldn't be so bad.

"I'm pretty sure I can fly" the vigilante grumbled "anyway, here"

Nightwing handed Danny a red duck candle. Danny stared at the candle before looking up at the vigilante and muttering "thank you."

"A nice civilian gave it to me to ward off evil spirits, she's pretty sure the ghosts of the dead just came to Gotham or something." Nightwing shrugged. He didn't believe the story but it was good to be grateful to those who wish to protect you.

"Evil spirits in Gotham?" Jason raised an eyebrow, they had enough rogues to consider a new one.

"Spirits in general: ghosts, shadows, shapeshifters and stuff," Nightwing explained, "Jessica was pretty sure about that so it's best to be cautious!"

Danny chuckled as he continued to stare at the candle, surely the girl wasn't referring to him and his friends?

"It's very kind of you to want to protect us" The halfa laughed nervously as he placed the candle on the nightstand.

"Yeah, she said the candle warded off evil spirits, and what's better than supporting local businesses?" Nightwing nodded, happy that they both liked his gift. "We should buy more!"

"Maybe later, weren't you here for a reason?" Jason reminded his brother.

"Oh sure the cure" Dick nodded, he had stopped by the cave but they seemed to be discussing strange sightings all over the city: red eyes, super strength, shadows and the end of the world.

Dick wondered if his other siblings had copied Tim and needed a few hours of sleep.

But at the end he managed to see Steph and the progress of the cure.

"Good and bad news on that one," Nightwing cleared his throat "we have a cure!"

"That's great!" Danny said, though it was strange to think that the days of him living with Jason were coming to an end, "Where is it?"

"I dropped it on my way here!" Dick gave them jazz hands as he watched their reaction, Jason seemed minutes away from declaring himself an orphan.

"Explain." Jason sighed, maybe he was jumping to conclusions and his brother had a good reason.

"It was my first time driving the helicopter," Dick explained sadly, "and it was modified in a way I didn't know about"

On second thought, his conclusions were completely correct and Jason hoped that Dick wasn't referring to the Helicood. Because he would have twice the reasons to remove him from the family tree.

"Sacrifice, sacrifice," Poe said, coming out of his hiding place in Jason's hair.

"Besides! Since you are the only human affected we didn't know if it would work since we only tried it on crows" Dick hastened to find an excuse "and as a responsible hero I thought we needed another test before applying it on you"

"I guess I can see the logic in that" Danny frowned thinking he wasn't even human, how could a cure intended for humans work on him?

"No, don't listen to him Doll" Jason complained "he's just an idiot who steals helicopters"

Dick was very offended by that comment.

"Anyway, since it was the only sample" Nightwing continued his explanation, ignoring Jason's gasp about the only sample!? "We have to wait another 3 days"

Dick winked at his brother. Completely ignoring the fact that he was still wearing the mask and therefore it wouldn't show.

Unfortunately Jason was well aware of what his nosy older brother was up to.

"That means the safest thing for you is to stay with Jason and Hood for another three days," Nightwing stated, looking at the boy.

"I guess we can catch up on Disney movies" Danny muttered doubtfully, then looked at Nightwing trying to climb on the table and decided to invite him to join.

Jason stared at Danny in horror, well aware of the suggestion he would make to the vigilante and denied multiple times but his pleas went unheeded. The halfa looked at Nightwing and asked anyway.

"Do you want to watch some movies with us?" Danny asked, pointing to the TV.

Nightwing launched himself onto the couch happily, agreeing with an excited “Yes!”. Maybe his brother's future boyfriend wouldn't be so bad after all.

He decided to write to Tim about the antidote which he had definitely broken accidentally and not to save Jason's love life. In addition to sending more photos of the two boys while they were distracted. They looked quite adorable.

Maybe he should set up a movie date with Kori. It looked like a pretty relaxing activity; after only a few minutes he was carried away by Barbie's voice.

Danny didn't think it was strange that the vigilante was talking so comfortably with Jason. Jason told him that bats were considered family (or friends?) when he asked so they would be something like Jay brothers-in-law, right? It was only natural to invite Hood's brother to hang out with them. Maybe he could convince Nightwing to help him get Hood and Jay back together!

───────────────

When Tim volunteered to review Wayne Enterprises scholarships to various universities he didn't expect to see the boy who was supposedly still affected by Scarecrow gas in class.

He looked more animated than a recently attacked boy should be and seemed to be in the middle of leaving his night classes. Tim raised an eyebrow as he looked over the photo Dick had sent him a few minutes ago.

Restauran't: Is that image recent?

DiscoWing: Yes, it was taken a few minutes ago, why?

Restauran't: And you're still at Jason's?

DiscoWing: Yup, you're not thinking of telling B are you? I only told you because of the antidote and the blackmail

Tim considered his options as he looked up at the boy. He was wearing dark glasses, definitely weird in the middle of the night but not alarming.

Restauran't: No, but can you send me another photo?

The photo his older brother sent him screamed sugar. Jason was practically laying on the boy. Which seemed to be talking about something very lively. It was obvious Jason wasn't happy with his older brother from the photos if the scowl had anything to say about it.

Tim picked up his phone and compared both photos. Definitely the same guy, but something weird was going on. If Dick's observations were true then the victim couldn't stay away from Jason for long without going crazy. He also doubted that he could be in two places at once.

Restauran't: Do you trust me?

Tim bit his lip, it was definitely a risky plan and if Jason found out the assassination attempts on him wouldn't fail this time but he needed to prove it somehow. If it was a duplication skill then surely something would happen.

Dick's response took a few seconds to come, probably because he was distracted by bothering his little brother.

DiscoWing: Sure, what do you need me to do?

Tim was at least relieved that his older brother knew him well enough to know that he was planning something. He at least knew he had a purpose for all the disaster he was about to unleash.

Restauran't: Separate them, I need to check something.

Question marks appeared in the chat window along with a sticker of a sad Nightwing but Dick ended up agreeing. Tim sighed, figuring if the plan worked he could ask Jason for a quick funeral. If Dick was right and he was in love he was about to walk into the lion's den.

He fixed his sight on the boy who may or may not be a clone, better to watch him like a hawk until Dick sends a confirmation message.

───────────────

After another quick Karaoke session with the boy where they both ignored the blue vigilante who had decided to crash their movie marathon Jason and Danny stared at each other, mirroring the scene in front of them where Odette was looking up at the prince.

They were grinning, obviously tired after singing the sixth song of the Barbie movie. And although Jason was sure that some video of him would end up in the family chat, he didn't really care, he felt calm, happy.

He quickly looked over at Nightwing but he seemed quite distracted by his phone so he guessed that he wasn't paying attention to them.

Come on Jason, this is no time to be a wimp.

He took a deep breath, remembering all the laughs Danny had brought him in the few days of meeting him, his clumsy attempts at cooking, his misplaced heroic streak, his bad bedtime habits and his knack for attracting strange situations.

And although his head was also thinking about the consequences that the action he was about to do would bring him, or how he was rushing to conclusions and it was not the time, he didn't listen to it. Danny had earned the right to be considered more than a suspect.

Damn, don't think about it just do it!

He did so, he took a leap of faith and leaned into the boy who had been stealing his heart. He felt the increase in his heartbeat as he closed his eyes and hoped that this was the perfect moment, maybe Danny would even kiss him back.

Of course, all his fantasies were interrupted when he felt a hand blocking his path and decided to open his eyes to confirm what was happening...

"Jay, you are a wonderful boy and these days with you have been amazing but I have to stop you here" Danny said, placing a hand over Jason's mouth, who looked very confused.

Jason tried to speak but Danny immediately silenced him again.

"Unless you're considering a polyamorous route I think you should consider your boyfriend's feelings on this" Danny said "Please think about it."

Jason just stared at him in confusion, but his mind just repeated the words "your boyfriend" like a broken record until he could finally process it.

Sorry, his what now-?

SINCE WHEN HE HAD A BOYFRIEND!?

He was about to ask the boy about it when he looked at his brother and frowned. Dick looked a bit nervous, which was a bit obvious when you considered how animated he had been all night. Being a nuisance in general.

He hadn't even commented on Danny mentioning his supposed boyfriend which made him doubly suspicious.

“Danger, danger!” The little crow warned him.

He got the answer quickly when Dick approached them and taking advantage of the confusion separated the union in their hands, pushing them away and grabbing Danny to put distance between them

He didn't know whether to feel angry or betrayed. His brother knew very well that Danny wasn't pretending and he really needed the contact, didn't he believe in him? He was about to approach them when he saw the doubtful expression on his brother's face.

"I'm sorry" Dick whispered as he held the boy in his arms. Danny was trying to break free of the vigilante's grip. The boy seemed very busy fighting Nightwing, desperately looking for Jason. Jason expected the fury of the pits but instead he felt fire in his soul, something strange considering how much the sensation was like the All-blades.

But he didn't have time to think about it. A few seconds had passed but it was obvious that the separation was hurting the halfa. When Jason looked at the boy he saw green.

───────────────

Danny was scared. He had forgotten that the gas was still in his blood and everything around him began to go dark. He needed to know that Jason was okay but he couldn't hurt the Gotham vigilante while he was at it, as easy as it was for him to become intangible or crush bones his awareness was screaming at him that this was not the time.

But in his head the memories and harmful comments began to play, playing with his memories over and over again. He had felt so secure before but all his confidence was shattered in seconds.

Inevitable

You can't escape your destiny!

Creepy boy with creepy powers

You hurt everyone around you!

You didn't protect us!

GET AWAY

What he felt the most was the need to get away, hide, and hide everyone he still had where no one could find them. Protect them from everything and everyone.

Before he knew it, his eyes were glowing and all he could feel was despair and fear.

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I think a lot happened in this chapter but it was honestly quite fun to write so I hope you enjoyed it!

In case anyone's curious, yes, Danny just healed Jason (and got sick at the same time?), so Jason might develop some changes. Tim is making bad decisions but Dick trusts him! On the other hand, no matter how easy it is for the halfa to use his powers, remember that he wants to be just Danny :)

And yes, they both accepted their feelings but whoops, it looks like Danny misunderstood something?

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