#gray ghost ship

They awaken later in a strange arena, arms handcuffed together as the rogue announces over the loudspeakers that they have been selected as “competitors” in a new deadly challenge designed to pit couples against each other.

But instead of the fear the rogue expected, instead they just get sighs of resigned annoyance from the pair as they looked at the cuffs on their wrists.

Y’all remember that one post that said DC was a daycare dimensions for powerful entities to send their kids to? Cuz I do.

-DP x DC prompt where Danny, Valerie, and Dani don’t age anymore. Danielle was secretly delighted that they wouldn’t outgrow her since she’s forever 12, but they stop aging at 22, so they did outgrow her anyways. And now they’re always busy running the Realms. Sensing her unhappiness, Danny and Valerie plan a vacation to the Daycare Dimension, otherwise known as the DCU. They could have picked the other daycare dimension, but the DCU feels more like home and has a lot more immortal important people living in cities that never outgrow them. They figure Dani would like meeting kids like herself. What they don’t realize is that the heroes and villains of DC don’t know that they’re the Daycare Dimension and that they’re functionally immortal. Beings far older than the known universe need their dimension and it’s people to stick around so they can send their little hellions there to work on their powers, blow off steam, and watch the people like a TV show. It’s why the heroes always manage to save the day, and why there’s timelines where they don’t.

Context: Danny and Valerie stop aging at 22, Danny due to being a half ghost and Valerie due to the nanobots in her body. To stop them from killing her eventually, Technus and Frostbite worked together to alter them so they’d keep her alive. But it meant that they couldn’t stay in their dimension forever. Sure they could always just stay in Amity Park, but neither Danny nor Valerie wanted to go back. They spent their teen years feeling trapped there and they don’t want to have to spend the rest of their lives knowing that it’s the only place in their dimension they can actually belong. Besides, they got to move around Earth and space a lot with Dani, when the elder two weren’t in school. It’s only after Danny’s coronation that they got too busy to really be a family. Neither Danny nor Valerie are very happy about it, it’s something they both feel guilty about for different reasons due to their upbringings. So their vacation might be a while.

The alternative to this prompt is that there’s some chaos going on in the Realms and they don’t wanna risk Dani’s safety so they drop her off with Constantine or Diana. I imagine this without obsessions. Danny’s just overprotective of Danielle because he watched her melt into a pile of goop.

And that’s their daughter.

Danny woke up first.

One arm holding Valerie close, a welcome warmth that soothed the freezing cold inside of him. What had once been a balancing act on a tightrope so high it’d put Everest to shame, was now stepping stones in a river.

Slants of sunlight passed through the pale curtains, the window shut to the late autumn breeze. It was their anniversary. Fours years dating after getting back together in their senior year of undergrad. They were twenty-four. They’d made it to 24—together.

And the world hadn’t ended.

They were still friends. Still in love. Still learning new things about each other.

They had a lot planned for today. Breakfast together. A trip to the planetarium once his classes let out for the day. The flight back to Amity, re: race. They’d updated her hoverboard and she was eager to test it out long distance.

Getting to just fly with her without worry was already a dream. It was even cooler that they could always count on each to them if they fell. And considering this will be the first long distance test…he mused, chuckling to himself. Better keep the Fenton Cycles on standby.

She shifted beside him, mumbling something into his collarbone. Her bonnet slid up, threatening to come off. With his free hand, he adjusted it, smiling to himself.

This was more than he could have asked for, for 24. Happier than he’d ever thought he’d be.

Sure, they should probably be getting up now. They both had morning classes, PhDs didn’t get themselves. But…he burrowed deeper beneath the blanket, one arm still holding her. She laughed at something in her dream, a full on snort. The clown that he was, he loved the sound of her laugh. Every version of it. Even when she’d been taunting him as the Red Huntress.

She made it to 24. She made it to 24 and she was here, laughing in her sleep and not the last defense against the end of the world. They’d grown up. They’d found peace.

He traced her face with his eyes, letting the memory burn into his mind. He laughed when she rubbed her face into his neck.

“Hm. Mornin’” she said, groggily.

“Morning,” he whispered. “Happy Anniversary.”