The warm hoodie, wet wipes, and plushie are less about the weird picnic vibes and more about trying to offer some comfort. Danny can’t imagine waking up in a grave, so if he can offer any comfort he wants to. Though sure, the plushie is a little awkward looking; Danny sowed it in home economics class. The project probably would have gone better if Danny had chosen something more standard, like a teddy bear, but the opossum design had been too cute. Besides, Danny thinks that the flaws sort of add to the character.

Besides, someone crawling out of their own grave won’t be too picky, right?

The headstone catches Danny’s attention again and he glances over at it. Jason Todd. A beloved son. Dead at fifteen.

Would he have a grave stone like that, if he hadn’t come back from the accident? Or would his parents have gone for cremation? Would there even have been anything of him left?

Or would his parents have just studied what was left of him?

Don’t think like that.

Danny rests his head against the top of the thermos. He can’t think like that. His parents love him. He knows that his parents love him.

He just doesn’t know if they can love Phantom.

He doesn’t want to find out.

Slowly, Danny takes a deep breath and lets it out. He counts; in two three four, hold, out two three four. The earth is cold through the blanket that he’s sitting on. The air smells like the city, so different from Amity Park. It’s the difference that helps ground Danny.

He checks the time on his cellphone again. Four minutes. At least Clockwork gave a very precise time.

10:42

What an insignificant time to come back to life.

For the last four minutes, Danny fusses. He straightens the blanket, sets the snacks up in a neat row, and spreads the hoodie out.

10:39

10:40

10:41

10:42

Well, that’s an anticlimactic stillness. Isn’t something supposed to happen? A halfa rising from the grave?

Danny leans over and presses his ear to the dew damp earth.

Does he hear something?

Maybe…

Screaming.

Not stopping to think, Danny plunges his hand through the earth then his shoulder then torso…. down, down down he reaches until he’s deep enough for his fingers to brush against the enameled wood of a casket. Then he reaches through it.

A cold, trembling hand grasps his.

Danny pulls.

It feels like dragging up a million tons to pull Jason Todd up and out of his grave. It feels like the very earth and soil of Gotham is resisting letting go of its son.

Danny only pulls harder.

“He doesn’t belong here yet! Please! He’s not dead! You have to let him live again. You have to let him go!”

The resistance vanishes so suddenly that it feels like the earth basically spits them out. For a moment Danny feels like he’s flying—not Phantom, but him. It’s a whirl of motion and and earth and then Danny is doing his best to turn and take the blunt of the landing. They land hard on the blanket, knocking the thermos over and squashing at least one snack. Danny holds on for dear life.

Well, dear half-life.

The guy—Jason, his name is Jason—is large in Danny’s arms, all broad shoulders and firm chest. Danny feels slightly smothered under the other, but in a good way. Like being under Tucker’s weighted blanket. His fingers slide easily through Jason’s hair.

“Jason?”

Jason just clings tighter. His nose is pressed against Danny’s neck like he’s trying to hide from the world there against Danny. Danny breaths in and out, trying to focus.

“It’s okay, Jason. I know how much it hurts. I know how much it hurts and how everything feels different. Nothing feels right, and it’s not. But it will shift. It will be right again. I’m here and I—um, I have snacks and tea and a hoodie. Because you’re cold! Which makes sense, you’ve been underground for, like, months and that would make anyone cold. Oh! And a plushie, which is stupid maybe, but you can hold on to it,” Danny rambles. Jason manages to get an arm around Danny and holds him close. Their legs tangle together. Danny swallows thickly. “Or you can hold onto me, I guess, that works too. But really. It will be okay. With some time, it will be okay.”

“It—I… I’m… I’m…” Jason’s lips were surprisingly soft again Danny’s neck.

“Yeah, you are. You’re alive,” Danny said. “Come on, can we get sitting up? You don’t need to let go of me, but I want to get a little bit of food and drink into you. It will help you feel better.”

With some effort and coxing, Danny gets them sitting up. Jason does not let go.

He does take the opossum though.

And he sips slowly at the tea and eats a few apple slices.

It’s something at least.

“Okay, Jason,” Danny says as he gropes blindly for where his cellphone ended up. “No clue how I’m going to explain this, but let’s see about getting you back to your family. Don’t suppose you remember anyone’s phone number? I know, who even remembers phone numbers these days. Or can you at least give me some names?”

“That—I… Dad. I want Dad,” Jason chokes out.

“Dad, okay.” Danny lets out a sigh as he lays fingers on his phone. “Let’s see if modern technology can help us find ‘dad’.”

It’s a bit of one handed fumbling to type in Jason’s name. Danny doesn’t even expect to find much, not until he can get around to hunting through funeral home obituaries at least, so he’s shocked when Jason’s name pulls up article after article. ‘Son of Billionaire Bruce Wayne Murdered’, ‘The Mysterious Murder of Jason Todd’, ‘The Prince of Gotham’s Son Dead at Fifteen’—on and on.

“Well, okay, ‘dad’ has been found,” Danny said. “Because getting a hold of Bruce Wayne is going to be easy. Like I can just call up a billion—Sam! Right, duh. She might not have his personal number or anything, but she’ll know how to get a hold of someone who can get a hold of him.”

“Sam?” Jason mumbles around a half attended to slice of apple.

“Friend. Well, ex-girlfriend actually,” Danny says as he pulls up the trio’s group chat. “So just friend again! Which is good? Fine, it’s fine. We had too much history with each other, it just wasn’t working. There was too much between us, including, you know, murder.”

For a moment, Jason stills before the faint trembling that seems to have settled into Jason’s bones resumes. “M-murder?”

“Oh! No, it’s not as bad as it sounds. It was my murder, and it kinda needed to happen. But hey, you know, you don’t have a monopoly on coming back to life you know,” Danny babbles absently as he types.

Dtom: Sam Sam Sam Sam ASAP need Bruce Wayne’s # or close a you have

While Danny waits for a response, he rubs his hands idly up and down Jason’s back. He’s surprised that Jason isn’t in a suit. He thinks that’s what people are normally buried in. Instead, Jason is dressed in sweats and a well worn Wonder Woman t-shirt. Danny has to wonder if it’s the scars that Danny can feel under the thin cotton of the shirt that has something to do with the strange outfit. Maybe open casket wasn’t an option.

“Come on, let’s get this hoodie on, okay?” Danny manages to worm his was free of Jason’s tight hold enough to grab the hoodie.

It takes some fumbling, and by the time that the hoodie is on Danny’s phone has chimed a few times. At least the hoodie fits—more than fits. Danny had brought one of Jack’s. It was big.

SpAM: wtf Danny WTF!!!!! DANNY PICK UP YOUR PHONE RIGHT NOW

Dtom: The person that came back to death? Jason Todd. Wayne’s son

SpAM: G-d. FINE

Danny helps Jason drink a little more tea while they wait.

SpAM: Here. But you better send me the full story as soon as you can!!

Danny sends a thumbs up and then clicks on the ID card Sam sent. He puts the phone on speaker and holds it between them. It rings exactly three times.

“Wayne residence. Who may I ask is calling?” A prim British voice asks.

“Um, hi. I’m Danny Fenton, not that means anything to you. I’m here… I don’t really know how to say this but to just say it. I’m here at the cemetery with Jason Todd.”

“Pardon?”

“Ah… Al…fie.” Jason struggles to speak, but pushes on. “Alfie, ish me.”

Of course no reason to count your chickens until they hatched, and unless they hatched Wonder Woman, Jason was reasonably sure he could still avoid capture by most of the other super friends.

Footsteps were approaching from further ahead the bending hallway. Quickly Jason looked around and finding no other choice he squeezed into the space between two vertical pipes in an open service hallway. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief when some obscure blue and yellow costumed hero walked by without even glancing towards the open service hallway.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be here.”

Jason jumped, turned around, and grabbed the suddenly appeared person by covering his mouth then he pushed him against the wall with the other arm across his chest. Where the fuck did he come from?! As Jason waited for his heart to migrate back into his chest from his throat, he noted the guy’s blue coveralls and tool belt and at least knew what the guy was doing in the open service hallway.

Jason was an idiot he should have expected someone to be in here, why else would it be open?

Odd, Jason thought, there was a complete lack of struggle. The man just watched Jason with calm eyes from over Jason’s gloved hand. It was that more than anything, because he didn’t look like someone who would scream, that made Jason readily remove his hand when the guy reached up to pull it away.

“At least buy a guy dinner first, Red,” he smirked and leaned his head back casually, drawing attention to the line of his throat and the dib between his collar bones, visible because the coveralls were slightly unzipped.

It took a moment for Jason to comprehend the words and what direction his thoughts had been going, then he let go as if burned, taking a step away.

Smiling in satisfaction the guy straightened his coveralls and took a step away from the wall.

“So whose side are you on these days, Red? Do I need to sound the alarm?”

Jason narrowed his eyes from beneath the helmet. What was up with this guy? Somehow, inexplicably, it felt best not to lie. “My own side.”

“Hmmm,” the guy seemed to consider for a moment then finally nodded. “Very well, follow me.”

He started walking further down the service hall. After a few steps he turned his head slightly. “Are you coming?”

Jason hesitated. All sorts of alarm bells were ringing in his head, but still he found his feet moving forward into what felt like the bowels of the space station. He felt at once disconnected and grounded in every doomed step. The low orange lights that lit their twisting mechanical path in regular intervals and their shadows dancing as if alive across pipes, cables and consoles didn’t help the feeling that Jason was being led to the underworld.

There had been a number of branches in the path, places where Jason could have taken the chance to run, but hadn’t.

It was stupid following an unknown, every ounce of his training rebelled, because it was sure to be a trap. But there was something in Jason, something primal, that felt absolutely terrified of pissing of whatever the fuck that maintenance worker actually was behind the too sharp smile. A smile that was flashed at him every now and then when he checked whether Red Hood was still following.

They went down two ladders and squeezed through some pipes before finally they seemed to have reached their destination. The being knelt down and opened a previously unseen hatch in the floor letting in the artificial sunlight the main areas used like a beam in the darkness. Jason half expected the being to dissolve in the light, but he was not so lucky. Dread squeezed Jason’s heart when he stuck his head down into the room and then seemingly waved to someone below.

This was the moment the trap would spring.

Time stretched until finally the being straightened with a too wide grin lit from underneath.

“Alright coast is clear time for you to go.”

“What?” Jason asked weakly.

“In you go, this is the Zeta Bay.” He explained patiently.

“You’re letting me go?” At this point Jason wasn’t sure if he’d expected to be handed over to the Justice League or eaten. At this point it didn’t matter.

“Mmmhmm,” he hummed agreeably, “now get a move on, I’ve got work to do.”

Right, Jason thought weakly. He stuck his head down and confirmed this was indeed the Zeta Bay. He hurried down what was apparently a ceiling panel. He was just about to take a step towards one of the zeta tubes when the voice halted him.

“Though, Red-”

Jason’s breath hitched when he looked up to see two glowing green Lazarus eyes staring back at him from within the darkness.

“-don’t let me catch you uninvited here again.”

And that was Jason’s cue to skedaddle. He was never setting foot on the fucking Watchtower again.

Oo o oO
 Six months later Jason was on the fucking Watchtower again.

He stepped out of the Zeta Tube with dread curling in his stomach. He did not sign up for this.

So he was vaguely aware of how “all bats on deck” had started to include the Red Hood. He’d been there. He’d been part of the whole process: the arguments, the concessions, the tearful confessions and father-son moments which he tried his best to ignore happened, but they were… good? Things were overall semi-okay.

But the part where his brain hit a bit of a snag, was when all bats on deck meant Red Hood (still very wanted criminal) on the Watchtower deck.

So what if there was an alien invasion? Red Hood could protect Gotham from Gotham if aliens decided to try their luck. What part of micromanaging Crime Alley screamed world saving to Bruce? In fact it would have been better if he’d stayed back, because surely some assholes (Jason could think of at least three) would take advantage of the distraction of an alien invasion and move in on Crime Alley.

Yet, here Red Hood was, on the Watchtower, gaining odd looks even amongst the hurrying heroes as they passed them. In fact it was probably only Red Robin’s presence by his side that prevented him from being accosted - because he was, as previously established, a wanted criminal, one with a rather bloody and explosive reputation to boot.

You would think putting the guy known for blowing shit up onto your very expensive space station would be a bad call.

But no, Bruce trusted him. Not only that, he trusted him to watch Tim’s back and Jason hated how choked up that made him feel. So he was doing it, okay? Bruce better fucking appreciate it.

He cautiously scanned his surroundings, as he followed Tim, watchful for any heroes that might consider Red Hood more of a threat than the ongoing invasion and more importantly signs of certain maintenance workers from the abyss.

Of course Jason’s luck wasn’t to last. Just before the door into the Watchtower command central he was there, innocently perched on a ladder with a light panel open above him, seemingly changing an actual lightbulb - as if he was just some guy working there. And sure in the light he looked harmless in the light blue coveralls with the top part tied around his waist revealing a black t-shirt that hung a bit loose on his slight build. He looked deceptively human with the tousled black hair and the little smudge of oil across his nose, but the way his gaze zeroed in on Jason like a predator smelling blood was anything but.

Surreptitiously Jason moved so Tim was between him and the thing.

“So what’s that guy’s deal?”

“Who?” Red Robin glanced at Red Hood before following his line of sight. “Danny?”

Danny… what a deceptively ordinary name. He supposed that was fitting for something posing as human.

Tim looked at him with an absolutely bewildered look on his face and told him lowly. “Danny has worked in maintenance for a couple of years. He has a degree in mechanical engineering, honestly he might be a bit overqualified. Why are you asking? You can’t be surprised we employ maintenance workers.” He narrowed his eyes.

‘Danny’ met Jason’s eyes from over Tim’s head. He smiled and winked at Jason sending a chill down his spine, before turning back around to close the now functioning light panel. Jason mentally shook himself out of it.

“Just wondering with the invasion and all, why there’s a civilian on the Watchtower,” he covered smoothly, but not smoothly enough by the way Tim kept glancing at him. He swiped the door panel and they entered the control room.

“All the maintenance workers carry stun guns and know how to use them. There’s also panic rooms and escape pods available.”

The doors closed behind them and Jason breathed a quiet sigh of relief to have the metal between him and Danny.

Now maybe they could get to work stopping this invasion so Jason could get back to Gotham, and most importantly off of this stupid space station.

Oo o oO

Jason did his best to stay off the Watchtower, he really did, but events conspired against him. He couldn’t even share his concerns because everyone else was convinced Danny was a completely ordinary and nice guy - even Bruce, mr Paranoid himself. Yes, Jason had checked the personnel files, even the locked ones: Danny was listed as human, born to human parents. No meta gene. Everything perfectly ordinary in a way that set Jason’s teeth grinding by how wrong it was.

It was maddening.

Every moment he was forced onto the Watchtower was a waiting game, because every time without fail Danny would be there. Either doing innocuous maintenance or as ominous green pinpricks from the shadows. Stalking him. Hunting him. Waiting for him to slip up, to come here ‘uninvited’.

But Jason was careful, and Danny would just have to go hungry.

Oo o oO

It was bound to happen, Jason thought as he limped as fast as his leg would take him into a narrow alley. You could only go so long without killing anyone before they realized you’d stopped sending that kind of message, that the old mail service had shut down and they realized you’d gone over to e-mail or whatever newfangled thing was supposed to work in this metaphor. The blood loss was not helping Jason’s faculties at the moment.

The point was… there was a point somewhere…

“Over here! Bitch is leading us straight to him.”

Jason looked down at the ground and the splatters that glistened in the lamplight. Not good, he had to-

“Hey-“

The sound came from behind him. Jason reacted on instinct, spinning around and pushing the assailant against the wall, an arm across their chest and gun pulled and aimed at their face, which- the rest of Jason’s blood promptly drained out of his face.

“We gotta stop meeting like this, Red,” Danny said, and gently moved Jason’s gun down to his side.

“What are you doing here?” No no no. He should be on the Watchtower, not here. Whatever he was shouldn’t be allowed to move locations!

“I live here?”

“What?” He whispered not understanding one bit.

“Apartment, third floor,” Danny pointed upwards somewhere behind Jason. He still couldn’t comprehend what was going on.

Danny looked to the mouth of the alley then down at Jason’s leg.

“You’re hurt.”

Jason shook his head. It wasn’t a denial that he was hurt, he was very aware, but it was a no he didn’t want whatever that sentence lead to, but he also knew he was powerless to fight it-

He was on a couch, looking up at a crack in the plaster ceiling. He didn’t know how he’d gotten there. His leg felt strangely cold and numb, like death creeping up on him from there, encroaching bit by bit. Maybe he should be alarmed, but his head felt like it was encased in fuzz.

“You with me again Red? You passed out there for a bit.”

Jason tilted his head. Danny was standing a few feet away holding a nondescript duffel bag, behind him an open doorway lead to a bathroom. He frowned, the lights from there were too bright and his gaze slid back to Danny. He didn’t even have the energy to feel scared right now.

Huh, Danny’s eyes were blue, he could have sworn they were green. They were also much closer than they had been just a moment ago. There was something important Jason was supposed to remember. Something had happened to get him here. It was dangerous to stay put-

“Woah- no.” Hands pushed at his shoulders. “Red, you’re gonna be okay. I promise.”

Jason gave up. Lying down was clearly better.

“Were you drugged too?” The voice wondered from far away.

Was he drugged?

Jason didn’t know. He didn’t remember.

Oo o oO

Jason woke up to sunlight streaming in from a window. The first, most apparent thing was that this was not his apartment. Secondly his right leg throbbed, and he was rather groggy.

His helmet stared back at him from the low coffee table. Alarmed, he sat up. The soft blanket he’d been covered by slid down to reveal he was undressed except for his underwear. The pull on his skin when he frowned revealed that his domino was at least still in place. He cast around and his heart about stopped when his gaze landed on Danny-

But after a moment of nothing happening and his brain taking in the way the slight man slept - crossways on a plush armchair, limbs akimbo, mouth open and neck at an angle that was gonna be uncomfortable when he woke - he could breathe again. In the sunlight he looked so human it felt almost silly to have been afraid. It was irrational, but Jason would allow the relief it gave him as long as Danny was asleep.

Next to the couch was an open duffel full of first aid supplies and a trash bag filled mainly with bloodied gauze squares and packaging. His hand went to his thigh and the two bandages adhering there - entrance and exit wound in his quadriceps, no wonder his thigh throbbed. Curious he pulled a corner of the innermost bandage so see a few neat stitches holding his skin together. He patted the bandage back in place, it wasn’t quite sticking as well as before, but it’d hold alright.

It was worrying that he didn’t remember how he’d been shot. Or how Danny, the creature from the Watchtower, was involved. Though currently the evidence pointed towards him having had a helpful disposition this time.

Jason bit back a groan as he swung his legs off the couch. Helpful disposition or not, Jason was not sticking around a moment longer than he had to.

Unfortunately the moment Jason touched the wooden floors Danny startled awake falling off the chair with a thump and an ooph. He sat up, clearly disoriented, his hair was a mess that stuck up on one side and he looked cute in the way a ruffled kitten looked. It was an absolutely crazy thought when Jason was caught on the edge of bolting in fear. The opposing feelings had hysteria bubbling up and he snorted in his attempt to hold back helpless laughter.

Danny blinked owlishly at him, eyes big and blue.

Blue, the thought repeated in Jason’s brain. Not glowing. Not green.

“Oh, you’re awake. That’s good. You’ve gotta be hungry.” Danny picked himself off the floor.

Jason watched him carefully as he stood and walked over to the kitchen area. When he sent Jason a hesitant smile over his shoulder it was perfectly ordinary in width. There were no alarm bells ringing in Jason’s head, no sense of other.

Jason’s heart beat hard and fast in his chest. He felt like he was going crazy. How was this possible?

No! Jason had definitely seen what he’d seen on the Watchtower! He wasn’t crazy, but it was hard to believe his memories when Danny puttered about his kitchen, standing on tippy toes to reach something in one of the cupboards. He looked about as threatening as the kitten Jason’s brain had compared him to. His loose t-shirt and fuzzy washed out pajama pants with smiling stars only added to that.

He looked exactly the ordinary guy everyone thought him to be. Except he had seemingly brought a vigilante home for medical attention, but then again he did work on the Watchtower, so obviously not completely ordinary.

“Hope you’re not lactose intolerant.”

“What?” Jason shook himself out of his thoughts.

“Cause melted cheese sandwich is about the most exciting thing I can offer?” He raised a questioning eyebrow.

“’S fine.”

Could there be two of them? Or the creature on the Watchtower just occasionally took Danny’s shape? Or the creature was extremely adept at pretending to be human. Maybe they shared a body? Maybe Danny was unknowingly possessed? There were too many options and Jason knew too little.

He rubbed his head, trying to remember, what happened yesterday, but aside from going patrolling it was one big blank space.

“What happened yesterday?”

“Hmm? Oh I found you in the alley between my building and the next.” He vaguely waved in the direction of the windows to the right. “You were kinda out of it? Not to mention bleeding and there was a bunch of goons after you. So I brought you up.”

Jason frowned. “You shouldn’t have gotten involved. They could have followed you.”

Danny glanced back with a small bemused smile. “That was my choice.”

They drifted into silence after that as Jason pondered. He supposed it was rather silly to worry about Danny’s safety, but since right now he was questioning everything he thought he knew, he wasn’t sure what to make of him.

“Why Crime Alley? Do they not pay you a decent wage?”

Danny glanced at him, another small smile stretching his lips and winked. “Wage is fine. I just happen to like Crime Alley’s vigilante best.”

Jason felt heat in his cheeks at that and was glad Danny was turned back around to face his grilled cheese project. There was no way that was the real reason, right? He thought back to how some of the first words Danny had said to him was to buy him dinner first. Had Danny been actually flirting with him? Was he flirting now? Jason felt deeply unsettled, not because the advance was unwanted but rather because somehow it wasn’t? Despite him still being half terrified.

“Here we go.” Danny snapped him out of his thoughts, setting down a steaming grilled cheese sandwich on the coffee table and slinging himself back into the armchair with his own plate.

Jason steeled himself. He was only going to get answers if he asked, and if it got him eaten? Well, at least he’d know.

“Are you possessed?”

Danny who’d just taken a bite spluttered and coughed, dry bread clearly going down the wrong pipe- and then, when his face was turning alarmingly red and Jason was considering if he needed to go over there and perform the Heimlich, Danny reached into his chest and plucked out the offending half-chewed bread with a relieved wheeze. He grimaced at the mass in his hands before leaving on his plate. Another reflexive cough shook his frame as he looked at Jason.

“I’m sorry? Possessed?” He asked hoarsely, as if he couldn’t believe it.

Jason crossed his arms.

“Well you’re something! You just reached a hand inside yourself and you- on the Watchtower-“ And Jason couldn’t even begin to describe the events on the Watchtower.

Danny looked at him dumbfounded.

“Oh…” Another cough turned into laugh. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought for sure-“ He spoke in between laughter. “I really haven’t been nice, have I?”

Jason stared levelly at Danny in his best impression of Bruce, conveying wordlessly how that was not an explanation at all. Danny eventually sobered.

“I thought you could sense what I am, so I kinda allowed my instincts a bit more free rein than I usually do.”

“I sensed you were something.” Jason grumbled, “and that still doesn’t explain what you are?”

When Jason met Danny’s eyes they glowed green and his smile was too sharp. He stilled.

“If you don’t know what I am, do you even know what you are?”

There was swoop in his stomach and terror clutched his rapidly beating heart. Danny’s nostrils flared as he breathed in deep, scenting like a predator looking for prey, except he already had Jason in his sights.

Then, just as abruptly the pressure let up, and Danny who’d somehow left his chair floated back into it to slump boneless across the armrests, head tilted back, barring his throat.

“You can do whatever you want with me Red, you are so fucking delicious.”

Jason felt terrible heat in his face and chest and mortifyingly down south at the shift in mood. Danny, from the way he eyed Jason out the side of half lidded eyes, somehow knew, which only made it worse.

“You still have not answered my question.”

Danny sighed. “I’m a half-ghost. More specifically the ghost half is a protective spirit, so while to the human part of me the Watchtower is my workplace that pays the bills, to the ghostly part it’s my haunt.”

Jason frowned. Half Ghost? “I’m not sure that explains anything.”

“It means, that you should be very glad I already knew and liked you that time you broke into the Watchtower. It’s easier to leave humans and whatever aliens there might be to the Justice League, though I will admit to having traumatized some invaders here and there, but supernatural threats like yourself? Generally don’t make it out alive, unless they realize fast enough what mistake they made, like there was this pale child looking sorceror with a cat once? He was very quick to make his escape.”

Danny was clearly just rambling now. Maybe Jason should feel afraid now that he knew he was right, that Danny really was a terrifying creature that definitely would have killed, maybe even eaten him, but mostly he felt relieved it wasn’t all in his head and it was clear to him now that Danny didn’t actually want to kill him. He was all bark and no bite- or maybe actually probably a lot of biting, but no tearing chunks out of him.

Suddenly he realized how hungry he was and he grabbed the cooled off melted cheese sandwich and took a bite. It didn’t even matter that it was cold, cause Jason was ravenous. He swallowed a bite, as he pondered out loud, “So how come you’re tolerating me here in your home?”

Danny sent him a baffled look. “For one, I brought you here. Secondly this is your haunt.”

“My haunt?”

Danny frowned. “I don’t know exactly where you fall on the scale of ghostliness, but it may be less than I assumed if you really don’t know.” At Jason’s continued silence, Danny elaborated, “you have the whole Crime Alley area quite thoroughly claimed as yours. Anyone with even a small sense for the supernatural would know.”

“Then how come I’ve not felt the urge to evict you violently.”

“Because you protect everyone who just wants to life here in peace,” Danny smiled softly.

Jason was stumped, but he couldn’t deny the truth of the words.

Danny looked up at the ceiling. “I like my mischief and I will admit I have delighted in messing with you. But for someone like me, whose core thrums with the need to protect my haunt, whose every sense is tuned towards potential invaders when I am in my haunt, to be able to leave that behind when I clock out, to be able to go home, to a little place not my haunt, not my responsibility, where I can actually relax? Be human?”

He looked back over a Jason, blue eyes slightly glistening. “I told you, you were my favorite vigilante.”

Jason really didn’t know what to say to that, it felt like so much more than what the words themselves meant. His own throat felt tight.

Danny chuckled self-consciously and finally sat up, quickly wiping his eyes. “Well, that was more than I really expected to reveal of myself, but since you didn’t know, well, I owed you an explanation for the terrorizing.”

But what about the flirting? Jason found he really wanted to know about that, but his tongue felt tied. It didn’t feel right to bring up after that.

The somber mood followed them through the rest of their long gone cold grilled cheese sandwiches, through Jason redressing in his surprisingly clean suit and a wordless goodbye.

Oo o oO

The next time Jason was on the Watchtower, he didn’t see Danny at all. Didn’t even sense him. He didn’t know what to do with that, didn’t know why he felt so bereft. He should be happy right? To for once not to leave the Watchtower terrified for his life? But he wasn’t.

He was so fucking messed up.

He knew where Danny lived. He could always go there.

He didn’t.

He had no clue what he even wanted from Danny!

Oo o oO

This was not good.

In fact things had pretty much gone to shit.

He barely managed to combine another dodge and deflection to avoid another swipe of that cursed flaming sword. Something that big should not be allowed to move so fucking fast. Jason panted and sweat ran down his face. He’d lost his helmet some time during the fight.

He dodged again. Gritting his teeth as he using the All Blades to propel himself over the flaming sword.

“Any ETA on that solution.” He yelled over the roaring flames. It was hard to breathe and even harder to fight.

The comm in his ear crackled, obviously not appreciating the heat, it was a wonder it was even still working. “They’re working on it. Hood you have to retreat if-“

“Like Hell, I will,” Jason snarled back, this knock-off balrog was not reaching Gotham. It was not reaching the line of fire fighters holding the flames back. Not while Jason still stood.

It was however not looking good. While Jason had managed to score hits, mainly early in the fight - the thing bled fucking lava. His only real chance was to stall. If this had been the only one Jason would have gladly left it to Bruce’s super friends, but it wasn’t. The Justice League, everyone, was stretched thin as multiple rifts had opened all over the place letting these creatures into their world and it didn’t matter if they beat the creatures back in the rifts, they couldn’t exactly leave their spots until the rifts were closed.

It was little comfort that the perpetrators had met their end as the first victims of their folly.

Jason only barely got his blades up and crossed above him and the sword went down in an overhanded strike. Immediately Jason knew it was a mistake, and it would cost him. He should have tried to dodge, instead the sword hit the All-Blades with an explosion of sparks. Jason yelled in pain as the force of it brought him to his knees.

“Jason!” Bruce yelled and it was only because it was right in his ear he could hear anything over the ringing. He rolled to the side instantly, ignoring the way he couldn’t feel his arms. The flaming sword came down gouging into the ground where he was a fraction of a second ago.

The knowledge came over him with sudden clarity, clear and calm, inevitable; he wouldn’t be fast enough to dodge the next strike. He still tried, because Jason would always fight to the last, but his limbs were too slow, too sluggish, the sword was already coming towards him.

He braced himself.

A pillar of ice shot up before him, the sword cleaved down, but stopped a feet above his head where it stuck. The beast roared in anger and pulled. Dumbfounded, Jason stared at the sputtering blade that had been mean to cleave him in half.

“Cool glowing swords, mind if I borrow them?”

Suddenly Danny was folded around his kneeling form, arms reaching out and fingers circling around each of the All-Blades. The blades powered by his soul. Jason gasped at the rush of energy it gave him. It shouldn’t be possible. Danny shouldn’t be able to pluck the blades out of his hands. Much less be able to wield them.

But wield them he did. He beat the beast back with a kick that broke the pillar. The beast never really had a chance, between the blades and the ice Danny could summon that clearly pained the beast, it really was a terrible matchup.

Jason felt like he should feel violated, those blades were made from his soul. And yet all he felt was protected, safe, loved. It was quite possible he was delirious or high. At least the blistering heat from the fires was going down with all the ice Danny had thrown around.

Before Jason knew it, it was over. Danny may or may not have eaten the Balrog, Jason wasn’t entirely clear on the details, or why Danny’s hair had been white at some point, it was really all very confusing.

Gingerly, Jason got to his feet. His entire body felt like it had been through a meat grinder, and yet there was still that strange buzzing energy under his skin. He slowly made his way towards Danny.

Danny, who was studying the glowing red rift in space time, tilted his head considering. Then moving the blades carefully so both were in his right hand, he reached out with his left hand as if feeling for something, then with a sharp counter-clock motion, the rift was gone.

Huh.

Danny turned back around and smiled sheepishly. “Oh hey, Red. I’m sorry about grabbing your swords like that-“

And it didn’t really matter what Danny was going to say. Jason grabbed his head and crashed their lips together. A small wounded noise escaped Danny’s throat and then he was kissing Jason back with fervor. And when Danny dropped the blades to let them dissolve to dig his own desperate fingers into Jason’s matted hair, it didn’t matter that he lost that all encompassing feeling of love and protection, because he knew how Danny felt, and he finally knew what to do with all his own confused feelings.

They broke apart to breathe, foreheads leaning on each other, eyes meeting though it was hard to focus this close.

“Couldn’t you have shown up a bit sooner?” Jason panted.

“I was visiting some friends… they don’t exactly live around here.” From the slightly shifty glance Danny gave to the side, it was probably a good bet that 'not around here', meant another plane of existence. what the fuck was Jason’s life?

“I’m just-“ Danny’s fingers tightened in Jason’s hair momentarily, “so glad I didn’t get here a second later.”

Jason grinned toothily, and he probably looked terrible goofy, but he didn’t care, it was just he and Danny here. “So am I.”

The comm crackled, and Bruce’s voice asked almost hesitantly, “What’s your status, Hood?”

Oh right, not completely alone. But Bruce thankfully didn’t have visuals.

“Ah.” Jason straightened, and promptly grabbed one of Danny’s hands when they tried to leave him, earning a little surprised smile from Danny. Urgh, creatures from the abyss had no right to be this cute.

“We’re okay, I’m okay. Situation is dealt with here.”

There was a relieved sigh from the other end, and Jason did not envy the old man his role as a coordinator of their efforts-

“Oh!” Jason suddenly realized. “Danny can close the rifts.”

“Danny?” Bruce’s simple question was overlaid with Tim chiming in with disbelief.

He shared a glance with Danny, who gave him a grin full of mischief.

“Yeah, Danny from Maintenance.”

-

=================

Jason feels just slightly lost. Just a bit.

He's feeling slightly lost because he is 100% sure that he is seeing a real human spine on his apartment's fire escape.

It's perfectly isolated and polished, smoother than if it had been picked clean by a Gotham vulture. It may also be glowing slightly, which is a whole different issue.

If Jason knows anything, it's that he most certainly should not pick it up. That's the dumbest possible thing he could do.

But, as he looks at it, he gets this lonely sort of feeling twisting in his gut.

Okay, bad sign number two. The mysterious glowing spine is messing with his head. Even still, his mouth turns down in a frown, eyebrows furrowing.

He sits, still fully geared up in his window after a long night of patrol, and contemplates the situation for a moment. Finally, he sighs and brings it all back to the question it always boils down to.

What Would Batman Do?

Batman would call a magic user to identify the object. Batman would quarantine it and study it, take samples and test it. Batman would certainly not bring the object around his personal belongings.

Jason nods, acknowledging the inner Batman voice's opinion.

Mind made up, he scoops the bone into his arms and brings it inside. He gingerly lays it on his coffee table and promptly leaves to start up dinner.

—

Danny just needs one more piece.

The GiW did a number on him. I mean, dissection is par for the course, but dissection and then losing the parts they stole? Rookie moves.

Furthermore, Danny can’t get out of ghost form until he finds it. He’s collected most everything else, but it's taken weeks.

His ribs came from different places in the ocean, his femur from atop a news building in Metropolis, etc. He even had to venture up to that one Justice League space station to get his skull! Some idiot was using it like a paperweight in the room with all the cameras and whatnot. Danny scoffs at the memory.

He’s been flying all over the place, searching high and low for where his bones disappeared to.

This must be a ghost thing he didn’t know about. Or, more likely, a halfa thing no one knew anything about. All he knew was he didn’t want anyone he didn't trust getting their hands on his stuff, (the stuff being him), and somehow that translated to all his bones teleporting away from the GiW.

All he needed now was his spine.

All the other pieces of himself he found either somewhere secluded or somewhere he would deem safe. (Explaining to Jazz he was visiting her at college for his hand bones was awkward. Even worse, she’d already found all of them and had them organized by the time he got to her.)

This is why Danny is confused.

The last tether in his chest seems to be leading to… Gotham.

Gotham? The biggest, most dangerous city in the US? Not only home to a boatload of people, but also to a veritable menagerie of rogues and vigilantes?

Floating high over the city, Danny just sighs.

He needs his spine back. He needs it so he can be human again. The GiW is still after him. Hell, his parents are hunting him probably as he floats here. He’s safer if he’s human.

He tries to center himself, settles his core with the frigid air and thoughts of comfort and safety after this mess is over, before he begins his descent into the city of crime.

—

Jason is exhausted. Patrol was long. It's been a long few weeks, honestly.

He settles, fresh out of the shower, armor piled on the floor nearby, on the couch in his living room. The TV has a rerun of Pride and Prejudice on, and Jason sighs softly.

The spine on his coffee table glows as faintly as it had since he picked it up weeks ago.

Jason can’t explain why he finds this comforting.

It casts the room in cool blue-green at night, low and rippling like water in a fishtank.

It seems morbid to have it, but Jason, (heads in a duffle bag guy) really doesn’t mind. He finds himself spending more time in the living room, more time in the proximity of the bone.

Jason hasn’t taken the time to analyze this, but as he spends more and more time in the living room, the sickly green of the Lazarus Pits seems to fade. It sits in the corners of his vision, as always, but its presence in his mind feels… dull. Cowed, like a rambunctious dog by its exasperated owner.

He may not fully, consciously, recognize this change, but he does know the glowing spine makes him feel better. He falls asleep easy in this room now, even if the couch is far from comfortable.

Even now, his eyelids droop with exhaustion. He’s warm and safe and home.

He sighs again, tipping his head back onto the cushions and beginning to doze.

His half-sleep-half-wake state is broken pretty quickly though by the feeling of something shifting. Something in the air maybe, changing and moving.

Jason’s mind registers it as a wrong sort of feeling, but something in his chest, not his heart or anything cheesy, but something there in all but a physical sense, registers this change as good. Good and right. Good…

but anticipatory.

Something is coming. Jason sits up and leans forward.

His eyes rove the room for signs of this thing he knows is coming but can’t identify, before his gaze is inexplicably drawn back to the bone.

Oh.

—

Gotham is pretty much what he’s been told it would be. The atmosphere is gloomy, what with the near constant rain/smog combo blanketing the city. Crime is happening literally everywhere, and Danny means literally. The tall, sharp architecture paints the city as a gothic, dark place of high roofs and gargoyles. It’s dank, and it’s honestly kinda intimidating.

…Danny kinda loves it.

It’s got its own charm and beauty. Danny is enamored by the vibes it gives off, but maybe that’s his ghost half speaking.

Anyway, Danny is still following the pull in his chest down. He zips through buildings, skates along vertical walls, and still seems just as far away as he had been when he got here.

The streets get dirtier, the air gets grittier, and suddenly, Danny jerks to a stop. He knows, abruptly, like he’s been slammed into a wall, that he’s crossed a line into somewhere he shouldn’t be.

The oppressive feeling of trespassing weighs his shoulders down.

He’s entered someone’s haunt.

Danny stretches his own senses out, and feels like staggering at the sheer size of this thing. Hell, this haunt must span a whole chunk of Gotham. That means it belongs to someone powerful.

Or, at least, some nearly as powerful as Danny. (His haunt is currently the entirety of Amity. The power boost that allowed that is courtesy of being Ghost King.)

The tether Danny has guiding him to his spine pings softly again, resting deep in the heart of this haunt and just like that, the oppressive weight lifts.

It’s still there, ready and waiting, but it seems… friendlier somehow. Welcoming.

Danny shakes himself out, trying to throw off the nervous buzz in his ecto. He needs his spine, and it’s somewhere here. 

—

Danny finds his spine easily. The house it resides in lights up in his senses like a beacon.

It’s drenched in bad energy, but gaps in the miasma show through, like light breaking through the clouds. Green-blue tinged light. Yeah, this guy has his spine for sure.

And, if Danny’s passing thoughts are to be believed, they may be feeding Danny’s remains with whatever evil shit is clogging up his house. He feels stronger just getting within a block of it.

…He doesn’t know how to feel about that.

Danny floats closer, going so far as to rest his ghostly form on the fire escape outside the window. He peers through the window before reeling back.

There’s a man inside, leaning towards a table where Danny’s spine sits, calm as you please. That weird black and neon green goop seems to not just be around the house, but rather, it was centered on the man’s form. It looked…

Ancients.

That can’t be comfortable. It was smothering the man’s fledgling core.

As Danny sat and observed, the light emanating from his spine wavered and rippled, much like water, and a ball of that disgusting goo ripped away from the man and into the bones.

Danny, being as close as he is, feels a rush of power flood his spectral form.

He only realizes his eyes flare green because the man whips around to look at him. Danny flinches and blinks, while the man’s brow furrows and he tilts his head in confusion.

Danny pauses only a moment before drifting into the apartment. It’s homey, he notes, as if this isn’t the oddest situation he’s been in in a bit.

The man straightens up where he sits, clearing his throat.

“Uhm. So. I guess you can see me?” Danny says, his tone much more questioning than he means it to be.

“Am… am I not supposed to?” The man replies, leaning back on his couch and crossing his arms over his broad chest.

Danny shrugs, drifting over to the table. He curls in the air over the table like a cat, still a foot or two above his spine. Protective. “No, you totally should be able to. Just not used to it. I mean, you are-”

Danny squints and inspects the man closely, realization dawning over him slowly. “You are a halfa.” His voice contains notes of awe. Their, ah, species, is pretty rare. (Understatement.)

The man only looks confused. “Is that a word I should know the meaning of?”

Danny blinks. Then he hums thoughtfully. Like always, he comes to a pretty impulsive decision. No thinking, just word vomit. “Listen, buddy-”

“Jason.”

“Right. Listen, Jason. You’ve got a really weird mass of junk around you that really just has to go, and I've just found out that pieces of me can cleanse it, or something-”

“What.”

“So what I think is going to happen, is you get to keep my spine for a bit and-”

"Again, what??”

“AND! And I will come stay with you for a bit. Win-win!” Danny throws his hands out to either side triumphantly.

Danny gets to live somewhere that seems- (feels, like, down in his core feels) safe, somewhere he can heal up and gain his strength, Jason gets that weird crap fixed, and everyone leaves happy!

Jason looks utterly dumbfounded. “I am… wildly confused.” Even as he says this, it looks like the beginnings of a smile are tugging at his lips.

Danny gives him a feral grin back. Oh yeah, this is going to work out just fine.