#cassandracain

Chapter 1:

“What!?” Danny screeches, his voice echoing off the palace walls. “I’m- I’m married!?”

Dorathea winces at his outburst, looking properly cowed. Clockwork even managed to look somewhat disparaged. It was just the three of them in Dorathea's meeting room. Dora and Clockwork were sitting at the round table but Danny was too nervous to sit, he began pacing around the room.

Dorathea clears her throat. “Yes, it was an oversight-”

He stops pacing, facing Dora. “An oversight!?” He sweeps his hands out dramatically, his voice hiking up in pitch nervously. “That’s putting it a bit lightly, don’t you think!? I’ve been spiritually bonded to some random!”

The reason he was in the meeting room was because 2 days ago, on December 20th, a magical contract was found in the archives. Glowing and bright, it read that Phantom was to be bonded with the grandson of the one who had signed it. Apparently, no one had even heard of it let alone knew anything about it. There weren't even names attached, as the contract had been signed in blood and ectoplasm. 

Although Danny hadn’t been the one to sign the contract, the title attached to the contract was Lord of the Dead. Which, unfortunately, was now Danny’s official title, amongst others, after having defeated Pariah Dark.

Tucker and Sam find it funny, Jazz is sympathetic, but he knows she also thinks it’s funny, secretly.

Dorathea ducks her head, sighing. “Phantom, I’m sorry- but we couldn’t have known about this. There was no mention of it right up until the conditions were fulfilled.”

Danny takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. He shouldn’t have yelled at Dorathea. She’s done so much for him. Honestly it’s amazing she found the contract even after it was in effect. Pariah Dark had left the Royal Archives in complete disarray. Dorathea, now named the acting Queen of the Realms, was now in charge of getting it in order, but it was slow going with everything else she had to be doing. 

“Right, sorry.” He sighs through his nose. “What- What are the conditions that were filled?”

“That the betrothed turned seventeen years of age.” 

Danny blinks, well that would put this stranger at around the same age as him, at least. A few months older, actually. “And that’s it.”

“Yes, I believe so.” Dorathea admits.

Danny scrubbed his face with his hands. Okay, can’t reverse this person’s age, so they’ll need to find some way else around this whole contract.

First things first. “Do we know exactly who the contract is signed to?”

Dora goes to speak but is cut off by Clockwork. “Robin, the vigilante.”

Danny blue screens so hard he misses the significant look Clockwork shoots Dorathea.

“Robin?” He squeaks out. “Batman’s sidekick?”

“I believe he prefers to be referred to as his partner.” Clockwork smiles.

Danny lets out a bark of laughter at that. 

Robin. He’s married to fucking Robin. Not just any Robin, the current one. The stabby, angry Robin. What the hell is his life?

“Why on earth does Robin of all people have a contract binding him to the King of the Infinite Realms?” Danny asked incredulously.

“It was written up by his maternal grandfather three hundred Earth years before he was born.”

Danny grimaces. Alright, so, Robin is probably also an unwilling participant in this whole mess. Though, confusion passes over him as processes the last half of the sentence.

“Three hundred years before he was born? That doesn't…?”

Dorathea rolls her eyes. “Robin's grandfather is infamous in Realms for successfully avoiding death for a very long time now.”

“Let's just say he is not a well liked man,” Clockwork says.

Okay, Robin had an evil grandpa. Noted.

“What about Pariah, wasn’t he still in the Sarcophagus? Then, how did he sign it?”

“Robin’s grandfather managed to get his hands on a pure form of Pariah’s ectoplasm. He used to forcibly bind him to the contract.”

Okay, people can make ghosts sign contracts if they get their ectoplasm, that’s news to Danny. It’s probably not something he’ll need to worry about, though. From what he knows, Pariah Dark’s Forever Sleep leaked a lot of ectoplasm out in the realms, a lot of it was dirty and gross- But he could imagine some stuff clean enough seeping into Earth.

Danny tapped his finger against the table. “Do you think Robin’s grandfather will agree to annul the contract?” He asked hopefully.

Dorathea grimaced.

“Figures.” Danny sighs.

“Although,” Dora continues. “If you and Robin come to an agreement, then you should be able to write up a contract to void the marriage bond.”

Danny nods, relieved. For once, a nice and simple solution. 

“So, we just need to make a contract to end the marriage, Robin can sign it, and we should be good, right?”

Clockwork tilts his head with a smile. “Yes, so long as he agrees to sign, there should be no issues.”

“Well, then.” Danny puts his hands on his hips. “Guess I’ll need to plan a trip to Gotham.”

The next day, now 3 days after Danny was married to Robin, he goes to Vlad’s house. He’s in the man’s weird library at his mansion because Vlad’s helping him write out the contract that would void out the contract. Normally, he would never in a million years ask for Vlad’s help with anything. But, Vlad’s probably the only person who can help in this case.

Clockwork or Ghostwriter could’ve made the contract probably, but contracts in the infinite realms are only ever signed by ectoplasm, or blood if they’re mortal. Just using names to sign wouldn’t be magically binding. 

Because of this, as a halfa, Danny would have to use both his ectoplasm and blood, meaning he’d have to switch between his human and ghost form to sign. Plus, he imagines Robin might be hesitant to cut himself to sign the magically binding contract the Lord of Death handed to him.

They're almost finished now, Vlad just needs to write it up, and Danny can leave and pretend like he’s never needed help from Vlad ever. Danny’s plucked a book about the Andromeda Galaxy off of Vlad’s shelf.

“If you plan on going to Gotham-”

“No, Vlad, I’m not going to go with you to Gotham.”

Vlad’s been trying to get Danny to come with him to Gotham for some new year’s event since November. Danny does not want to go.

“I’m being practical, Daniel.” Vlad sighs. “It only makes sense. If we are both going to Gotham…”

Danny rolls his eyes. “I only need to be there for maybe an hour-ish. And if I go with you, I’ll be forced to go to your weird rich people party.”

Vlad huffs and adds a period, harshly bringing the enchanted quill down to the paper. “The New Year's Gala is going to be hosted by the Wayne family this year and is predicted to be the biggest it’s been in years. It would be a fantastic place for you to gain invaluable connections-”

“I’m not really interested, Vlad.” Danny says boredly, trying to focus on the photo of Alpheratz, the brightest star in the Andromeda Constellation and a part of the Great Pegasus Square. Vlad’s face twitches in frustration at his indifference.

“Regardless of the event, how do you intend to explain your absence from the house to your parents?”

Lately, Vlad has been much more tolerable. He’s been talking with Jazz and Frostbite, and he doesn’t do any evil villain things anymore. He no longer wants to kill Danny’s dad, which is nice. Though that does make it more confusing. Because he still hangs off Danny’s mom like she hung the moon, and his mom has been more forgiving of Vlad lately too. And Vlad and his dad sometimes hang out- Okay, nevermind. Let’s not think about that too much.

“I’ll just say I’m staying the night at Sam or Tucker’s.” Danny flips to the next page, where it explains the star is actually a binary system of two stars orbiting one another so closely it appears as one.

“And how do you plan to get there?” Vlad says smoothly.

“I don’t know, Vlad.” Danny huffs. “I’ll probably just fly there.”

Vlad makes a noise of amusement. “You are a fast flyer Daniel, but from here to Gotham would be over a 2 hour flight at your top speeds”

“I can manage.” Is all Danny says, staring at the swirly pattern of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Vlad frowns. “Yes, well, you don’t have to manage, one of us here just so happens to own a private jet-”

“You’re right. Vlad!” Danny suddenly gets an idea staring at the swirls of the Andromeda, he smiles. “I don’t have to fly myself to Gotham.”

For a moment Vlad smiles back at him, as if satisfied. Normally, Vlad smiling at him would cause him to grimace, but this time around Danny keeps grinning. “I can just convince Wulf to portal me there.”

Vlad’s smile immediately falls and his face crestfallen. Danny feels that, if nothing else, it was completely worth the trip to Master Manor.

He leaves Vlad’s house with a smile on his face, and the completed contract in his back pocket. 

The next day on Christmas Eve, Danny plans to leave at around 11 pm after everyone has gone to sleep for an early Christmas morning tomorrow. He’s already in his ghost form, all the things he needs tucked safely away in his person. Wulf did agree to open a portal to Gotham for him. The portal will be open for just an hour though. Not ideal, but Wulf had told him Gotham was a harder area to open a portal. You’d think there'd be a lot of ectoplasm there, but apparently there’s a curse that fed on most of it. 

The portal itself will open up 20 miles above Gotham. So, that's about 5 minute flight from ground to portal and if he just falls from the portal when he steps through, the journey down will be less than a minute. Meaning he has about 55 minutes to find and negotiate with Robin,

Danny sighs, he’ll have to find him quick.

A portal opens up in his room, the surfaces of his room now bathed in bright blue. Wulf walks out of it with a smile.

“Saluton, juna reĝo!”  ‘Hello, young king!’ Wulf greets him.

Danny smiles back at him, slipping into the familiar tongue of Esperanto. Although he can understand most Esperanto, he has trouble speaking it himself. Tucker says it has something to do with recall vs recognition. “Saluton! Mi ne plu estas vere reĝo, ĉu vi scias ĉi tion?” ‘Hello! I’m not actually king anymore, you know this?’ 

“Ne gravas!” ‘Doesn’t matter!’  Wulf shakes his head, grinning at him. “Vi estas mia reĝo, amiko.” ‘You are my king, friend.’

Danny laughs at that and steps forward, gazing at the blue swirling portal, reminding him of the andromeda galaxy. It’s been a while since he and Wulf had a conversation, getting him to open this portal to Gotham was the longest they had talked in a while, and Danny was somewhat happy for the excuse. Though, this time he’s on a time limit.

“La portalo estos malfermita nur dum unu horo, ĉu vi memoras?” ‘The portal will only be open for an hour, remember?’

Danny nods. “Mi devus iri nun.” ‘I should go now.’

“Bonŝancon, juna reĝo!” ‘Good luck, young king!’

Before he steps through the portal he mourns his lazy Christmas morning, he won’t be waking up early tomorrow. 

Going through the portal and into a free fall was a bad idea. He should’ve flown through it to be able to mentally prepare himself before falling. But it’s too late now. He flails and shouts for a moment, spinning through the air. Soon, though, he manages to right himself, face down hurtling towards Gotham, arms pinned to his sides. He goes intangible and as he gets closer and closer he starts to fly swooping through the fall until he’s flying vertically down a street. 

He barely needs to glance around to see that he is in fact in Gotham. The buildings actually have gargoyles. Danny flies up to one and takes a photo with his phone. Sam had asked for photos. Tucker had also asked for photos, but rather than the city, he wanted photos of the server room at Wayne industries. Safe to say, he won’t be doing that.

There’s a sort of distant sound of police sirens, but the neighborhood he’s in is pretty silent. He breathes in, which he regrets immediately as he’s hit with the scent of burnt tar, gasoline, and the musk of a city. He grimaces, shaking his head. 

He flies through the streets invisible, looking for Robin. He tries to avoid more populated areas, sticking to places where he’d expect to see more crime. Even though he’s in these run-down areas, everywhere is still decked out in Christmas regalia. Ribbons, fairy lights, and wreaths line many buildings. He takes a lot of photos.

At one point he sees someone running from a large man with a mask on. Flying down he plants himself on the ground in front of the masked guy, and trips him. The guy running from him is pretty fast, so by the time the masked guy gets up, he is nowhere in sight.

The masked guy curses and stomps on the ground like a toddler, making Danny snicker. The guy whips around at the noise and Danny quickly flies up and away. The masked guy randomly flails around cursing like a sailor giving his all into punching the air. Danny’s shoulders shake in laughter, trying not to give his position away this time.

After he’s got himself under control and the masked guy leaves, Danny continues on his path to find Robin. He’s been flying around for nearly 20 minutes now and stopped one other guy attempting to rob a bike, he should’ve found a way to properly locate Robin before coming here. Tucker probably could’ve whipped up a tracker through security cameras or something. He wonders if he should’ve let Masked Guy nab Fast Dude just to see if a vigilante would pop up in help.

He groans, idly spinning upside down mid air. No, he wouldn’t do that. But, still, he has to find Robin tonight. Of course, he could just ask Wulf to open another portal at another time, but he feels bad knowing it’s hard for him to do. Not to mention he really wants to get this over with as soon as possible.

More and more ghosts have come over to Amity just to tease him about his new... Husband. Johnny drove Kitty over just so she could get mad at him for not inviting him to his wedding- which then became even more mortifying as he had to explain that there hadn’t been a wedding and no, there wasn’t going to be a wedding anytime in the near future. Please don’t expect any invites.

He’s pulled out of his thoughts when he hears gunshots in the near distance. He springs into action, flying quickly in the direction of the gunshots. He tries not to fight humans, but if someone needs help, then he’ll help.

Although, a minute later when he gets there, he finds the perpetrator already tied up against the building. The presumed victim is standing there talking to a figure clad in all black, a blue stripe across his chest. It’s Nightwing, he realizes. From what Tucker’s told him from his research on vigilantes he knows Nightwing is usually in Bludhaven, but is sometimes sighted on Gotham during holidays. Often by himself- or with Robin. 

Danny watches with interest as Nightwing calms down the woman. Getting closer, he hears her reveal through tears that the man tied up and gagged is her ex-boyfriend, almost making Danny gasp dramatically. He manages to keep quiet though. Apparently he’d been following her around but there was no evidence he was stalking her, so the police couldn’t do anything. Which led to tonight, where he attempted to murder her on the streets.

Wow, Gotham is crazy. Something like this would probably make the news in Amity. Though, something tells Danny it won’t make the news here in Gotham. 

Sirens in the distance begin to get closer, and it seems the police had already been called. As two cop cars turn into the street, Nightwing gives a sloppy salute to her and grapples off. Danny follows. Though, instead of immediately going off into the distance, Nightwing circles back to her street out of sight on the roofs. 

Confused, Danny watches as Nightwing settles himself on a building across the street from the girl he had saved. The police begin talking to her and then arrest the guy and throw him in the back. They take her statement, and she gets into the other car. When they drive away, the cars drive off in opposite directions, and Danny realizes one of the cars is probably driving her home. From where Danny goes to stand beside Nightwing he can see the man smile.

He brings up a hand to his right ear. “O, can you keep an eye on her, and send any relevant footage from the security cameras to the station?”

Even with Danny’s super hearing he can barely make out the tinny voice from the device in Nightwing’s ear. ‘Already done, N.’

The Gotham vigilantes have a tech guy (or girl, it was hard to make out the voice), that is so insanely cool. This is the stuff of Tucker’s dreams. 

Before Danny can contemplate the realization of how cool it is to be around an actual, professional hero, Nightwing turned preparing to leave.

On impulse Danny turned visible. “Hello!” Danny yelled out at the retreating form of the vigilante.

Nightwing spun around, immediately falling into a defensive stance. Danny put his hands up, eyes wide, trying to look not threatening.  “Woah! Wait, I’m not here to fight!”

Nightwing stared at him a moment before relaxing some. “Who are you?”

Danny smiled nervously, he’d practiced for this question. “Hello, I’m Phantom. I’m here to talk to Robin about a certain… uh, contract that’s come to light recently.”

Danny watches realization bloom on Nightwing's face. Then, his expression goes pensive and he stands up straighter. “I see.” 

Then he brings a hand to his ear again. “We’ve got a Code Rafflesia on our hands.”

Danny frowns at the name. He tries not to be too offended, he knows only from Sam that Rafflesias symbolize Death and Trickery. Two things the average joe would probably assign to someone known to be the Lord of the Dead. Though, he also knows Rafflesia's common name is the Rotting Corpse Lily. Known for its pungent smell resembling a rotting corpse. 

He’s not offended, but he is a little annoyed. He makes a note to make sure his friends don’t find out about his code name.

Nightwing’s comm is flooded with confirmations from multiple different voices as Nightwing flicks his chin in a direction, telling Danny to follow him. He grapples away and Danny goes invisible to follow Nightwing closely from behind. 

The vigilante leads him further into the city, passing through neighborhoods and getting closer to the sea. Danny takes out a pocket watch from his chest to check it. 11:42. Okay not as much time as he’d like. Danny’s starting to get nervous. 

Eventually, Nightwing rolls to the floor when they’re in what looks like a more industrial district of the city. Warehouses and wired fences lined up everywhere. Nightwing continues on foot and Danny keeps flying behind him. 

Nightwing stops in front of an abandoned looking warehouse. He walks up to a side door and glances around before slipping inside. Danny looks up at the building. The lights are on inside, the walls stretch less than 1000 yards in either direction. 

Danny glances around the empty warehouse yard. It’s eerily silent compared to when they were in the city. There are empty cargo boxes scattered around the place, suspicious looking litter around the floor- an old shipping container that looks like it might’ve once been a drug den. Danny sees a series of dubious looking stains on the cement nearby that might allude as to why this warehouse is now abandoned.

Danny shivered, this is the place they want to meet up? Really? He flies up to the top of the warehouse, scoping it out. As expected, there are skylights up on the roof. He looks through them to see inside. A single overhead light is on, showering the room in a dim yellow light. Nightwing is there in the center, sitting on one of the boxes left around the warehouse. He’s speaking, though Danny can only barely make out what he’s saying. 

“-No sign of the entity. But, that doesn’t mean he isn’t here, he can turn invisible from what I’ve seen.”

Danny realizes he can’t hear the other end of Nightwing’s conversation because he’s too far. He internally groans knowing his curiosity won’t be sated. But, then, he hears the sound of footsteps. Other people are approaching. 

Danny shoots up, flying over to the edge of the building to see who could be approaching. Maybe it’s Robin. He squints out into the Warehouse yard, the lamplights aren’t in use so the yard is bathed only in the lowlight from inside the warehouse. Danny’s exceptional night vision is the only reason he catches the figures rushing through the shadows. Just two of them. 

Danny watches as they grapple up the side of the warehouse, quick and silent. Now that he’s standing next to them he can see the both of them clearly. One of them looks almost ghost-like, wearing a full face mask with the mouth sewn in, every inch of her skin covered in black. A yellow outline of the bat symbol and same-colored belt. Her cape wraps around her like a cloak. The other also wears a cape, though it’s red on the inside. His shirt is also red, and he’s decked out in a lot of utility belts

From what he remembers these two seem to be Black bat and Red Robin respectively.

They make hand signals at each other for a moment. Rather than dropping through an open skylight or something, they just walk up the roof access door and walk down the stairs into the catwalk. Danny watches from the skylight as they walk in opposite directions from one another and tuck themselves in the shadows in the corners of the building. 

Soon after, Danny hears more people approaching, he looks over just in time to see Batman and Robin make their way into the warehouse. He goes intangible and slips through the roof of the warehouse, still invisible. He floats down, stopping just a few feet above the air as Batman and Robin meet with Nightwing in front of him. 

Nightwing stands up and only nods at the other two vigilantes, who return it with a nod of their own. The three of them turn and look around the warehouse. Danny takes his phone from out of his chest and takes a photo of the three of them, all on alert. He puts his phone away.

“Boo!” Danny turns visible with a grin. None of them react. They just turn to look at him, faces impassive. Tough crowd.

Robin steps forward, Batman coming to stand behind him at his right and Nightwing at his left. Silence envelops the warehouse. Danny suddenly realizes they’re waiting for him to speak.

“…Hi.” Danny nervously smiles wider, accidently showing teeth. There's a moment of silence. “Um… Merry Christmas.” Danny blurts. Danny’s pretty sure eastern time is an hour ahead, so it’s been Christmas in Gotham the whole time he’s been here. When none of the vigilante’s return the sentiment or say anything at all, Danny glances sideways awkwardly.

“Well… I’m Phantom-”

Robin interrupts him (Rudely, Danny might add). “I know who you are.” 

Danny’s smile falls a bit, his brows rising in surprise. “Right. So, you probably know about…”

“Our contract.”

He wonders how they found out about it. If Robin knew about it his whole life or if his grandfather just dropped the knowledge on him on his birthday a few days ago. 

Danny just nods, trying to ignore the unsubtle flare of anger from Nightwing and the near-silent creak of gloves from Batman squeezing his fists. And he may not see them but he imagines the other vigilantes in the shadows are having similar reactions

“Well, yes, I’m here because of that…” Danny struggles to find his words with so many eyes on him. He tries not to let his nerves show in his demeanor, trying to keep eye-contact with Robin.

“I have no intention of leaving Gotham with you,” Robin spat suddenly. 

Danny recoiled in surprise at his animosity. What the hell? 

He lets out an incredulous huff, letting his feet touch the floor of the warehouse. Now they’re standing on the same ground Danny finds pleasure in seeing that he’s just a little bit taller than Robin. He takes a deep breath and attempts to steel his expression.

“That is definitely not why I am here.” Danny says firmly. Robin scoffs, and Danny feels his face twitch in anger; instantly ruining his killer poker face. 

“Your grandfather-” Robin’s face takes on a thunderous expression. “-wrote the contract hundred of years ago without my knowledge.” Robin opens his mouth to speak, but Danny powers through with authority.

“Stop. Look, this marriage isn’t helpful for either of us, right? I'm here to talk about annulling the contract, okay? That's all.” 

A beat of silence passes. Nightwing is slack jawed in shock, Robin seems affronted, and Batman- well, Danny has no clue Batman is thinking but he’s frowning more harshly. Their reactions annoy him. 

Yeah, sure, he appears as an almighty immortal being, but is it seriously that crazy to think that he didn’t want to marry a dude who’s name he didn’t even know!? Not to mention if they know who he is, then they probably think he’s thousands of years old. Why would a thousand year old dude want to marry someone who’s seven-teen-

“Marriage?” Nightwing squeaks, interrupting his train of thought. 

…What?

Danny looks at the heroes in disbelief. They read the contract, they’ve literally been talking about the contract the whole time. What are they confused about?

“The contract is a marriage contract?” Batman growls out, and Danny isn’t intimated. He isn’t. 

Danny nods. 

“There is no mention of marriage in it.” Batman steps forward to stand next Robin, Nightwing follows suit.

Danny clears his throat and tries not to fidget. “Well, marriage is an Earthly concept more than anything…” Danny immediately gives up and begins fidgeting, wringing his hands together nervously. “But if we’re talking about a union of two people planning to spend the rest of their afterlives together with-” Danny tries not to flush. “-romantic implications…”

“I do not have romantic feelings for you,” Robin bit out. 

Yeesh, could really hurt a guy's feelings with words like that.

Danny scoffs, waving a hand dismissively. “Neither do I, boy wonder. That’s just what a bond like that in the Infinite Realms tends to mean.”

Robin scowls (Well, scowls more, scowling seems to be his default state.) at the words ‘boy wonder’ which makes Danny’s lips twitch up in a smile.

“So, then!” Danny claps his hands together. “You see why I'm here, right?”

Robin’s face takes on a more contemplative look, a long bout of silence encompasses them for a moment. “You wish to... terminate the contract,” Robin says slowly

Danny grins, not caring if his fangs show anymore. “Yes, exactly!”

He puts a hand inside his chest and grabs out the contract. Throwing it over to Robin. 

At the sudden movement, all three vigilantes move into defensive stances; Robin jumping back away from it. But, the piece of paper stops mid-air and harmlessly rolls out to reveal its contents. Danny finds their overreaction and the dubious faces they make afterwards hilarious. 

Vlad, the perfectionist, had added that little enchantment to the contract, stating that it would only make sense as it would be stored in the infinite realms. He’d probably be horrified to learn that he’d used it in this way, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. 

He watches in silent amusement as Robin slowly makes his way closer to the floating contract. As he gets close enough to read it properly, Batman and Nightwing also lean in. While their attention is focused on the contract Danny comes closer to them, grabbing a quill out of himself. He reaches around the, frankly, comically large contract presenting the quill to Robin, blocking the vigilante’s view of the contract.

As they jump in surprise Danny floats up and pops his head over the top of the document. “You just need to sign it with this quill, then we can go our separate ways and pretend this never happened.”

Robin carefully takes the quill from Danny, his face almost relaxed in thought. Danny backs away to give them space. They stare at the contract, and it takes a moment before Danny realizes they’re actually reading it. Which makes him nervous because Danny hasn’t read the contract. He just told Vlad what he should add to it. He silently hopes Vlad didn’t lose the few brain cells he’s gained in the past year and didn’t put anything weird or offensive in it.

The vigilantes begin signing to each other. How long is Robin going to take to sign the damn paper? Does the contract actually have some outrageous stipulations enforced on it? Danny reaches in his chest and pulls out a watch. It’s 11:44 pm. 

Wait, 11:46 pm? Holy crap. Danny only has 14 minutes before the portal closes. Danny's starting to realize he wasn't really keeping track of where he was going. So, including the time it'll take to backtrack to where ever the portal is, Danny barely has any time at all to wrap this up.

“Um, guys.” All the vigilante’s heads snap to him, Robin peaking around the large parchment. “Listen, I’ve got places to be, so how about we hurry up and sign away, yeah?”

Robin looks at Batman, who gives the other boy a minute nod. Robin picks up the quill, but rather than turning back to the contract to sign it he walks around it, then throws the quill at Danny’s feet.

“No.” Then Robin turns to walk back to Batman and Nightwing.

Danny blinks, processing. He laughs in disbelief. “No? What? I don’t understand?”

Robin stands in front of the floating contract. He’s leaning his back against it, which shouldn’t matter but feels like an act of disrespect. He’s smirking now rather than scowling. He takes out his katana, and idly begins looking at the blade. “Our marriage contract has certain terms attached.”

Danny, who did not read his marriage contract at all, blanches. At that Robin’s smirk turns into a wild grin. Danny feels himself panic. What terms? He has no idea what this bond could force either of them to do. 

“So, I am aware that you cannot harm me or my family while it is in effect.”

Danny’s lips part, and he scrunches his brows in confusion. He can’t believe it. Danny wouldn’t hurt them anyway. And yeah, Robin doesn’t know that, but it’s incomprehensible. He’s speaking to the King of Ghosts. If Danny did actually wish to hurt them, he wouldn’t need to physically harm them.

Danny could level this city right now without harming a hair on any of his family’s little heads. Danny wouldn’t even need to lift a finger, though. He could express his worries to his other more violent ghost friends- they would be more than willing to harm Robin and the people the vigilante cares about. Danny wouldn’t do that. He would never do that. But they don’t know that.

Not to mention, there were also ghosts and people who would hear about the marriage who weren’t Danny’s friends. 

“You’re serious? Everyone with an ounce of magic will feel the bond off of you. Any ghost would know you’re bonded to me. It’s going to cause way more trouble than it’s worth!” 

Robin just boredly turns his katana in his hands, not even looking at Danny. “I can protect myself just fine.” He wears a self satisfied smile that’s so arrogant and pompous Danny feels dizzy with frustration. 

Danny looks to Batman and Nightwing to plead to them to make Robin understand the craziness of what he’s saying. But they just stand there impassively as if supporting Robin’s every word. Danny chuckles, a little hysterically. He swipes a hand through his hair and then scrubs it along his face. He checks the pocket watch again.

“I don't have time for this,” Danny says, resigned. He shakes his head. 11:48. He needs to leave now if he’s going to make it to the portal. “But I will be back. This bond will be annulled, Robin.”

Then, just to be petty, Danny brings a hand up to beckon the contract back to him while Robin is still leaning on it. To Danny’s dismay, Robin effortlessly steps back and keeps balance as the contract rolls back up. It must show on his face because Robin’s smirk grows, pissing Danny off further.

“Goodbye.” Danny bites out as he stuffs the contract and pocket watch back in his chest, going invisible.

He spends the whole flight back to the portal stewing in anger. Robin’s stupid smirk dancing around in his head.

[So that's basically the whole first chapter! I sew in a couple of plot seeds- Vlad going to the new years gala.. batman and Nightwing being over protective over robin... Danny mentioning that ghosts may go after Damian. The main thing is Vlad going to the new years gala gala (unrelated but did you catch the maddie/vlad/jack going on- i love ot3s) So because Danny didn't get Robin to sign the divorce contract- he needs an excuse to be in gotham for longer in order to convince, which naturally will end up being him going with Vlad. Jazz will also come along with Vlad. Sam and Tucker will also be there proably... Anyways- moving forward!]

Chapter 2:

 “Is he insane!?” Danny paced around his room, fuming. Sam and Tucker both sat on his bed tracking him with their eyes. Sam looked tired of it, but Tucker watched with fascination as Danny worked himself up more and more.

“He wants to keep the contract? What the hell!?” Danny flung his arms out in frustration. “What is wrong with him?”

He turns to face Sam and Tucker. “And he was so smug about it too! You should’ve seen the look on his face…” Danny groans dramatically. “I wanted to punch it off him so badly!” 

Tucker snickers at that and Sam looks at Tucker with one brow raised dramatically. “Domestic violence isn’t funny, Tucker.” Sam shakes her head solemnly, making Tucker outright laugh now.

Danny gives his friends an incredulous look. “Seriously, guys! I’m in major trouble here!”

Sam raises a pointed brow. “Okay, how much trouble exactly?”

“I have literally been talking about it for the past hour,” Danny says flatly.

“Well, you’ve been talking about how Robin has refused to divorce you for the past hour, but that’s about it.” Tucker shrugs.

“Well, and about how much you wanted to pummel him.” Sam adds, looking at Tucker with an amused smile.

“Oh, yeah.” Tucker agrees, returning Sam’s smile. “And about how Gotham sucks.”

“And how scary Batman is.”

“He also went on a tangent about how Nightwing is super cool.”

“But, not much about how big of an issue this is.”

Danny stares at them unamusedly. “Guys. I’m married to Robin!”

“Okay,” Sam says slowly. 

“It’s an issue!” Danny stresses .

“What we don’t understand,” Tucker places a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Is how is this as serious as you’re making it seem.”

[This is where I got stuck! bruh. I don't know what it is- I'm attempting to write a relatively light scene where Tucker and Sam are mostly teasing Danny before they realize Danny really is distressed by the contract and not just annoyed by the teasing- as in they realize that Danny has genuine fears surrounding it that aren't unfounded, and promise to help him. But they still tease him for being the married man in their friend group. This is all taking place the afternoon of christmas day. The next scene will be the next day Dec 26, with Danny having a conversation with Jazz, then they both talk to Vlad. Jazz there as emotional support- because Danny had already declined Vlad, multiple times. And finally the chapter ends with them getting settled in their hotel- Vlad explaining all the idiosyncrasies of rich people galas.]

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