#ham's fics

  “Robin, you can’t be mad at me for worrying after you went quiet.” Richard huffed into the comm over the wind. “Forty-five minutes is a long time, and things could happen.”

  “I am fine, Nightwing. As I stated previously, an informant approached me about a private case that needed my attention. I did not realize he had a signal jammer on his person until he had left.” Damian snapped back as he reached the cave, pushing down most of his ire at his siblings' insistent mother-henning. He did not like being coddled when he was young, and he certainly did not like being coddled as an adult, it was demeaning to his skills.

  “You’re still getting checked for mental manipulation, Dami,” Timothy called from behind him, peeling his mask off and pushing his hair from his face. “No amount of treats will get you out of it tonight. Better safe than sorry, right?”

  And Damian wanted to argue, he really did. But then he remembered and felt that strange energy now nestled snugly in his chest next to his heart. It was cold, but not overly so. When he was not focusing on it he could almost make himself believe that that whole interaction was a hallucination, a figment of his overly stressed subconscious acting out to help him destress from something he couldn’t control. But then he would think about it again, and that cold something would move, reminding him that this was his reality.

  Something in him whispered about the absurdity of his life, another replied that this wasn’t even the strangest thing he’d experienced.

  “Fine, Drake. I’ll subject myself to your pointless tests, but only after I remove my gear.” Timothy almost looked surprised at how easily Damian agreed to the tests, he didn't know how easily he had swayed to please the being he had met now mere hours ago. How easily he wished to comply with the sense of trust that wasn’t his own. He felt it would be necessary to comply with the routine, no matter how tedious it was.

  They both made their way to the changerooms in silence after that, Timothy most likely deep in thought as to whether Damian’s new agreeableness was something to be celebrated or feared and Damian finally starting to tire after needlessly pushing himself for the first part of his patrol.

  It was reckless, now that the weight of so many uncertainties wasn’t nipping at the back of his mind like some sort of rabid animal. To exert himself in an attempt to outrun what he couldn’t control was pointless, and now he was paying the price for it in lead lined limbs. Nothing he needed to worry his siblings over, of course, that would only make him more suspicious. But he was finding the prospect of his soft, encompassing bed very inviting at this point.

  Damian had already taken his mask and cape off, and shucked one glove into his locker before he froze, thumb hooked under the lip of his remaining left glove.

  The mark.

  It would be visible to everyone once he took his glove off. Then he would need to explain Danny and the contract and the letter from his mother and then he would have to withstand Richards' whining. He could not let anyone see the mark.

  “Damian? You okay?” Timothy looked over, noticing his hesitancy and that he was still mostly in uniform. He did not like to linger in the changerooms and Timothy knew that. Even with his family and the years he’d spent in the manor he felt needlessly exposed being among others in a state of undress. Usually he would be changing as quickly and efficiently as possible to avoid being needlessly exposed for longer than needed be, but now… Damian moved his hand from the glove to his suit instead, intending to keep the glove on until the last possible moment.

  “How many times must I tell you that I am fine for you to accept it, Drake?” He snapped again without the heat, his mind elsewhere. Timothy simply huffed as he pulled on an old button down, then slipped back out into the cave to wait.

  There was no longer a reason for Damian to hesitate. Not that he was hesitating. Pointless hesitation was still a weakness Damian wouldn’t tolerate from himself even now. He slipped out of the rest of his suit and pulled his sweatpants on before focusing back on his still gloved left hand.

  Slowly, he pulled it off, revealing the black snowflake with the stylized D resting just above his third knuckle and the band circling his middle finger. He stared at it, examining the minute fractals the tattoo branched into, eyes trailing the feather light lines that connected the D to the rest of the shape, turning his hand to better inspect the black ring now imprinted onto his digit.

  Danny had said he wished to annul the contract that had forced this mark onto his hand. Although Damian had threatened violence, there was no grand battle. Their interaction was brief but not unpalatable. And Danny…

  Exhaustion made his thoughts swirl through his head, making thoughts connect for a fraction of a second before breaking apart leaving him confused. Slipping his shirt on, he frowned. After all this time, he thought he was able to understand his own emotions better than this, after all this time, after all the talks he had had with his two eldest brothers. Damian had thought he would know how to feel after he had met the Lord of Death, but their interaction just left him lost.

  He hated how little control he had over the situation.

  He walked out of the changeroom toward his brother, hoping a good sleep and the answers from tomorrow night would help his tumultuous feelings.

~~~~~

      “Father,” Damian called after the head of the house as he headed to his office after breakfast. Bruce turned, one eyebrow raised in curiosity as his youngest strode to catch up.

  “What’s up, chum?” He asked as he resumed his cant, keeping pace with his son.

  “I have… Information on the private case we discussed previously,” Damian confessed. His father raised an eyebrow at his words, confused.

  "The letter, father," he pressed, unconsciously clenching his left hand into a fist.

  His eyes widened in realization before the mask of the Bat settled on his father's face, expression hard and calculative. He nodded, then ever so slightly sped up his pace to the office.

  They walked in, and as soon as Bruce shut the door behind them he turned to Damian. “Did Talia send someone? Did you see her? Does it have anything to do with you comm going offline last night?”

  Damian took his place in one of the plush armchairs before replying with a heavy sigh. “Mother has not contacted me since she sent the letter father, I would have informed you otherwise and you know this.”

  Sitting down himself, Batman narrowed his eyes. “But this is related to why your comm went down last night?”

  Glancing to his hand, Damian nodded. Batman followed his gaze, but like Timothy the night previous, did not react to the black mark that now adorned Damian’s hand. It seemed, until proven otherwise at least, that no one but Damian and the Lord of Death could see their binding mark. Damian was both relieved that he didn’t need to explain the mark to his family, and frustrated that this was just one more thing he couldn’t validate were he to try.

  Huffing, Damian lifted his gaze back to his father. “I met my betrothed last night,” he stated flatly.

  Instantly tension gathered in his fathers frame, posed to react. From where Damian sat he could almost see the gears in Batman’s head working on plans and contingencies to keep his son safe from whatever monster that might wish to take him from them.

  He supposed that he wouldn’t be the only one getting shocked by his encounter.

  “Were you hurt?” Batman asked, his voice dropping to the tone he uses when asking for a mission report.

  “He did not hurt me,” he replied just as flatly as before. It was true, Danny had not harmed him in any lasting physical way. The jury is still out on any other way until tonight.

  Batman recognized all the things he didn’t say with his answer, narrowing his gaze as he studied his son. There were no doubt things he would be wanting to ask by what they meant, about how he may have harmed him in those forty-five minutes. Knowing they would get nowhere if they stayed on this topic, Damian pushed ahead, “He asked to meet again tonight so that he may explain more about our… arrangement.”

  “No,” Batman immediately states, much to Damian’s annoyance. “You aren’t going to meet a dangerous being we know nothing about.”

  “But father, he has answers,” Damian retorts emphatically. “Answers about this whole mess that Mother has dropped on us.”

  “Damian,” Batman glared at Damian, willing him to back down on this. Unfortunately, Damian has learned from his siblings to take that glare as a challenge. Neither backed down for what seemed like hours, Damian knew that if he were to look away it would be taken as a sign of weakness.

  Finally, Batman leaned back in his chair, tension slowly leaking out of his frame until only Bruce was left, sighing in only a way a tired father could. “You know I can’t let you do this alone, right?”

  Damian gave a sharp nod, “I know what risks could come with this. That is why I came to you, father, as no one else as of yet knows of my situation.”

  Bruce nodded, his expression shifting to something less tired and more thoughtful. His stance was firm about letting the rest of the family know about the contract, they were all gossip mongers and as soon as one of them knew the news would spread like wildfire. He would not be able to stop the comments from his siblings, and Richard’s planner must stay hidden at all costs now that he was staying in the manor for the near future. Cassandra might be an exception to that statement, she knew how to keep things hidden when they were important, but the rest he wouldn’t trust as far as he could throw them.

  His father would hopefully take their family's nature into account in his planning.

  “Well then, I suppose I’ll have Dick take over my patrol route for tonight,” Bruce decided with a nod. He moved to get up, but Damian stopped him.

  “Father, what do you mean?” He asked, “Why would you require Richard to take your route?”

  Bruce chuckled as he strode to the door, “Well, chum, I’d need to have him take over if I’m joining you.” And then he left, much to his son's bafflement.

~~~~~

      Flying in big cities was always something Danny could use to relax. Being so high up with all the glittering lights below him gave him a sense of peace he couldn’t get in his regular day to day life. He hadn’t really done it since coming here, what with his marriage manhunt, but now that Danny found the guy, he could finally appreciate the city for the beauty it had.

  Ignoring all the sounds of gunshots and the stench, the place really was a gothic marvel. All gray stone buildings and gargoyles; Sam would love it here.

  Of course, he did have a destination for his flight. Tonight he needed to pick his partner in magic matrimony up so that they could have a proper conversation back at his apartment. Robin… Danny wasn’t going to lie, he had a crush on the vigilante, but right now voiding the contract was more important than trying to get to know the guy.

  The sun had set a few hours ago by now, prime time for the criminals to skitter out of their hiding places and the vigilantes to start herding them like cats playing with their prey. Perfect hours to go and get his birdy.

  Danny followed the pull at his core as he flew invisibly through the city, trying to remember what he had looked up throughout the day. The city’s vigilantes were something of a band of cryptids, as Danny found out. Seen when needed, but mysterious enough that no one could land any solid information about them. Even the knowledge people had on them was speculative at best, and any concrete evidence was locked behind a firewall so strong it would make Technus and Tucker both drool.

  He couldn’t find much on Robin, other than the odd theory thread talking about how many different kids might have taken up the mantle before the most recent one. Saying that it would've had to have been different kids because they all had different fighting styles, there were periods of time in between sightings sometimes where people think the kids have switched, and that their heights and ages had stayed relatively the same until the latest one.

  The latest one has apparently been around the longest, but out of the supposed others he’s the least well liked. Danny figured that was probably due to the whole ‘assassin family’ thing so he wasn’t about to argue. His own amazing media coverage gave him a better understanding of how people liked to portray people who did things differently. From what he noticed last night the guy was rough, sure, but he did his job and did it well, so what if the criminals got a few extra scrapes?

  This Robin has been around for a while now, and has actually aged. He was probably around the same age as Danny… hopefully. Ancients, he really hoped he wasn’t secretly a lot older or younger than him, that would be really awkward.

  Danny had to shake himself of his thoughts as the pull on his core grew stronger, telling him he was near his… mate? Ancients no, that was gross. His fiancé? That's closer, but it's not like he and Robin wanted this. Partner in a magically binding contract? Partner might be simplest in this case.

  He was coming up to the roof his partner was standing on, talking with someone over the comm in his ear.

  Hm…

  Danny really shouldn’t try to piss the guy off more than he probably already has, but what was a ghost king if he didn’t pull a prank every now and again? Really, Robin was in the perfect position for a harmless prank, where he knew what Danny was but wasn’t desensitized to his antics.

  Mind made up, Danny descended to the rooftop below with an unseen cheshire grin.

~~~~~

      Damian was in the middle of explaining what had happened on his last patrol in length to Batman when his comm gave out in a hiss of static. He hastily yanked it from his ear, wondering irately how he hadn’t noticed the disruption the first time he had met the Lord of Death. Scanning the rooftop around him, he narrowed his gaze as he realized there was no one else here.

  Except there was.

  The cold thing in the center of his chest was reacting to something, writhing in its space and giving off more feelings that weren’t his. They were weak, giving him ample ability to resist succumbing to them, but that it was giving off anything at all meant one thing; the Lord of Death was close.

  A breath of frost across the back of his neck had him spinning, birdarang in hand. There was no one behind him. A whisper of a chuckle form his left and he was repositioning, searching the shadows for any presence. Nothing. He kept his stance for a few moments longer, seeing nothing but feeling a chill crawl up his spine.

  “Boo.”

  Damian spun, throwing the birdarang in the direction of the voice as he rolled to avoid whatever possible attack might happen in that second. The birdarang clanged against an air conditioning unit and stuck, its target missed completely.

  Or so he thought, until a laugh echoed out from a few feet in front of him.

  The Lord of Death melted into view, clutching his stomach as he curled in on himself in laughter.

  “Oh- oh my Ancients!” He wheezed through gasps. “You should’ve seen your face. Oh man,” his laughter started dying out as he uncurled, wiping a fake tear from his waterline with a finger. “I really needed that. How many people in this city can say they’ve surprised one of the Bats?”

  “That was unnecessary,” Damian sneered at the being across from him as he reluctantly dropped his stance.

  “It really wasn’t,” Danny countered, walking over to pick the discarded birdarang out of the aluminum siding of the conditioning unit. “I find it's best to have a bit of humor before you start talking about heavy topics.”

  Damian crossed his arms as Danny turned back to him. “There is nothing humorous about someone sneaking up on me only to pull such a childish prank.”

  The Lord of Death just shrugged, “Was funny for me. Anyway,” he made his way back across the roof to stand in front of Damian, his expression melting into something more muted as he started playing with the blade. “You ready to get a better picture of just how badly our ancestors screwed us over?”

  Damian canted his hips, silently asking himself if he was really going to ask this instead of just allowing his father to tail them. They had made a plan; Damian would go with the Lord while Batman followed behind, and should something happen to Damian he would whistle to alert his father who would then race to aid him.

  Only, with a better view of Danny’s disappearance and subsequent reappearance, he had to wonder how well their plan would work. Were Danny to disappear with him, there would be little chance for his father to find them, since the signal jammer that killed his comm had also killed his tracker upon review. Would he either ask an embarrassing question, or risk needless danger? The answer was easy.

  “I have a condition for going with you,” Damian asserted, to the Lord’s curiosity.

  “Oh?”

  “I wish to bring someone along with us, so I am not being led into a trap alone.” The offer was simple, yet Damian still prepared himself in case the being before him did not like what was given.

  The Lord of Death nodded thoughtfully, to Damian’s utter confusion. “Yeah, that’s totally valid reasoning.” Danny conceded, “I don’t mind if you bring someone. It's the person on the other roof, right?”

  What?

  Danny turned to face the adjacent building on which Batman had chosen to keep watch of their interaction, though he was out of sight. How was he able to tell where Father had hidden himself?

  Damian resisted a sigh as he watched the other wave where he approximated his father was, hidden in the shadow of the taller office building on the other side. There were no differences in the shadows from where he stood, and Danny wasn’t in any better position to see. It must be another ability of his, he supposed, as Danny turned back to him.

  “You wanna call them over then?” Danny asked him innocently, as though he hadn’t just given Damian permission for backup to face a potentially extremely dangerous situation. This man was truly either brave or foolish.

  Still, with a curt nod Damian whistled thrice, once long and two short; their signal for regrouping. Even with Father not expecting the change in plans it took no time for him to appear out of the shadows and join them on the roof. Damian watched as Danny tracked his father's path, never failing or backtracking to re-catch sight of the Dark Knight amongst the pitch black.

  “Robin,” Batman intoned as he came upon them, keeping his gaze on target as he asked his not-question. Damian just cocked his head to the side in a silent ‘well?’ to their mysterious informant, breaking him out of the near awed stare he dawned upon seeing his father in the light.

  Danny cleared his throat before giving a smile. “Well, since your wish has been fulfilled you think we could get going now?” He crooked his thumb over his shoulder, “We’re burning moonlight afterall…”

  Damian rolled his eyes behind his mask but nodded, preparing himself for the journey by shifting his feet, getting ready to run. Only, as soon as he got confrontation the Lord of Death’s smile grew impossibly wide and lunged, grabbing onto both vigilantes with deceptively strong hands and pulling them with him into a swirling green tear. Neither could free themselves in time, and so they fell in after the Lord of Death.

  The lack of anything happening only made Damian more tense. To the point he was starting to fall back into his ways of nearly attacking his siblings, much to their chagrin. Drake was starting to keep his distance while working on their shared WE company work at home. Todd started hiding more knives on his person while interacting with the main family. Cassandra had started silently pointing out to him when he was on the tipping point of doing something he shouldn’t.

  This needed to end.

  He needed a break.

  Damian was starting to formulate a plan to find this Lord of Death himself just so he could end this mocking game. If only he could get his hands on that contract, he’d be able to… to… He’d be able to put his worries to rest and maybe get a full night's rest for the first time in a month.

  Not that he actually slept a full night, but semantics.

  His father had tried to encourage him to take some nights off from patrol, if only to be able to properly deal with what must be a storm of emotions brought upon him by that damned letter. Damian had refused, saying that nothing would be done sitting around and waiting for something that could get to him regardless of where he was. Father was not happy with his refusal, but by now knew better than to insist. He knew what happens when he benches one of his children without proper reason.

  And now, here Damian was. Running from roof to roof in an attempt to outrun his nerves. Making larger leaps than necessary as he willed himself further, making sure that by the time he returned to the cave that he'd be reaching for the sweet embrace of his bed.

  A few grunts and sounds of scuffling had him pause at the lip between buildings, and looking down he stood witness to what could only be a shoddy attempt at a mugging. The 'victim' was up against the opposite wall with an easy grin and relaxed form, despite his hands being raised in surrender at the knife to his throat. The mugger hadn't even tried to cover his face, simply dressing in black as he gripped the knife poorly against the other's neck.

  Damian looked up to the mouth of the alley, then down to the other end. This fool, he didn't even use others as backup, thinking he could get away with this himself. Scoffing, Damian prepared to leap down, marking the trajectory of his descent for efficiency and silence. He did not notice the glance up the victim made, only that his grin grew sharper towards his assailant.

  Just as he was about to leap down the victim started to talk, keeping his smile fixed on his face.

  "Y'know, dude, you kinda suck at this whole 'mugging me' thing," the man commented, making air quotes with his still raised hands.

  The attempted mugger merely grunted as he pushed the butterfly knife into the man's neck. Unfortunately for him his angle was off, so it did not cut through the skin as intended. Though Damian somehow guessed that even if it had, this man would simply not care.

  "See, that!" The man pointed at his assailant's face. "That right there is why I'm not so much as shivering, no flair! You're just pointing a knife at my neck! Badly, I might add.” He started chuckling, most likely at the scowl the would-be mugger had grown. Did this man know no fear?

  "Would you shut up‽ Just give me everything else you got and I'll let you leave this alley with your head still attached!" The man growled in response, though the light lilt to his tone proved to Damian that he was inexperienced in making threats and having to back them up.

  The man laughed at his attacker- laughed! Damian had thought he was from out of town based on his accent and overly relaxed posture, but his blatant lack of self preservation was making him second guess his assessment.

  "Now why would I do that‽" The man quipped, glancing up to Damian with an almost unnoticed twitch of his eyebrow. He looked back down to give his attacker a condescending smile, "I got nothin' on me worth stealing ‘cept what you took, and the longer I keep you here the more likely someone will come n' deck you."

  Damian takes this as a signal to jump down to the street below, silently landing right behind the mugger. He pulled a dagger out from one of their sheaths and angled it towards the mugger's neck just as the other man spoke again.

  "Your knife skills could use some work, by the way. Maybe you could ask him for some tips?" Jutting his chin over the attached shoulder just as Damian started to press the edge of his dagger into the man, making him startle.

  The mugger dropped the knife once he realised what's occurred, pulling himself back when Damian pressed the knife into his throat and thus pulling himself away from the man he was attempting to rob.

  The other man pushed off from the wall, rubbing his neck absently as he watched Damian maneuver the mugger into a petter position to zip tie their hands and wait for the police. Just before Damian could push the mugger onto his knees the other man walked over, delivering a strong and swift punch to the man's sternum, knocking the mugger's breath from his lungs and making him crumple to the ground face first, out cold. He backed off slightly, shaking his hand out as he sighed and crouched over the mugger.

  “Was that necessary?” Damian had to ask, to which the man nodded.

  “Oh he totally deserved at least that much, I was just minding my own business when he dragged me into this stupid alley. Didn’t even try to be original with his mugging, just pointed a knife at my throat and demanded my wallet,” he grumbled as he started rifling through the wheezing man’s pockets, eventually pulling out a suspiciously stained and torn wallet. The man looked up, likely to comment on something else, but froze as he looked to Damian's face, expression going slack in an odd manner.

  “Is something wrong?” Damian asked sharply, he didn’t care for open staring from anyone, let alone some stranger in an alleyway.

  “N-no I, Fuck. Y-you, you’re, uh-” he stuttered, clearing his throat in an attempt to better clear his head. “-you’re one of the local vigilantes, right? Sparrow or something?” Damian bristled at the comment. To not even know of the Bats and birds while staying in Gotham was absurd, even non-natives knew of them.

  “Is that an insult? Perhaps I should have left you to your own devices then, you clearly didn’t need my help,” he scoffed.

  “No, no! I swear it wasn’t an insult!” The man panics, waving his hands in front of him as he stands up. “I’m just really new around here! Your name is… Uh…” The face the man was making would almost be comical if it weren’t so strange. Everyone knew of Gotham’s protectors, to say that one didn’t was saying you didn’t know the Justice League, and something was very wrong if you didn’t know the Justice League.

  “...You aren’t native to Gotham, are you? Why are you visiting?” Damian diverted, causing the other man to blink rapidly as his brain struggled to switch topics. He suddenly grew sheepish, turning his head to try and hide his blush while rubbing his neck.

  “Ah, well, that's kinda…” He started, before letting the sentence die with an awkward chuckle. “I’m looking for someone?”

  Damian tilted his head, intrigued.

  “Do you have a name? I might be able to help you find them.”

  He made another hesitant chuckle as he glanced at Damian's face.

  “Well, it’s kinda stupid, but I’m looking for a date.”

  What. Damian had to take a second to process that statement. They were looking -in Gotham, one of the most dangerous cities on the continent- for a date?

  “I know how it sounds, I do!” The man was quick to retort. “But it was this thing arranged by mine and their… parents? Sure, let's go with that. Our parents set us up, but mine didn’t tell me where to meet them, they just dumped me in this city and said ‘good luck’ so I’ve just been trying to find them on my own.” He gave a shrug, finally dropping his hands to his sides.

  Damian frowned, the explanation, while strange, made more sense than just a tourist looking for a date. Though, Damian thought, the more he learns about the man in front of him the more oddities pile up. Something was strange about this man, but Damian couldn’t yet place it.

  “That is… irresponsible of them,” he said finally. The man snorted, turning his head to look at Damian properly again.

  “No kidding, can’t really do anything about it though,” he sighs, tacking on in a grumble, “coulda at least given me a name to work with.”

  He was looking for a singular person without so much as a name? How could he know who he was looking for if he didn’t know their name?

  “Do you know what they look like, at least?” He questioned.

  “Nope!” The man exclaimed, popping the ‘p’ with a chuckle.

  “Then how will you know you’ve found them?” Damian said as he scrunched up his face. This was only becoming stranger and stranger as this moved on.

  “No clue! The guy that dropped me off here said I’ll just know, and they’re usually pretty knowledgeable about these types of things.”

  Knowledgeable about what? This was already an unusual situation, how could someone be knowledgeable about something so specific? Was it about intuition? Or did they just believe in chance? There were too many things that could mean, and it would only give Damian a headache to think about more. Seeing that this strange man was no longer in danger, Damian turned to the fire escape he used to descend into the alley.

  “Oh, hey!” The man called just as he brought his grapple out. Damian turned to see the man had moved much closer. When did he do that? Damian hadn’t heard so much as a shuffle or crunch of gravel under his shoes. The man had his hand out as though wanting to shake, smile back on his face and looking at him.

  “Since I still don’t remember your name, maybe you could tell me? I’m Danny,” he- Danny, introduced himself, extending his hand further out. Damian glanced to the fire escape beside him, tempted to just propel himself back up to the roof without answering this stranger, but Pennyworth had taught him manners. Damian extended his own hand.

  “Robin,” he said simply, intending to shake once then be gone.

  That didn’t happen.

  As soon as Damian’s glove touched the man’s skin he felt something burning, cold, and electric race through his fingers into his hand. It wasn’t just kinetic static, that would’ve been cancelled out as it touched his gloves, and it wouldn’t feel as though something had travelled with it to rest with his heart.

  Something was wrong.

  Damian snatched his hand out of the others grip, backing away as he clutched it to his chest as though burned.

  “What did you do?” Damian snarled as the other man backed up himself, looking panicked.

  “I- I don’t know!” He shouted, voice climbing with his panic. “None of my powers should have activated, and I haven’t lost control in years!” Powers? This man was a meta? In Gotham? 

  “Unless…” The man frowned as he focused on Damian, before a look of realization passed over the man. He raised his hands in surrender again, slowly backing further into the alley. Damian drew a birdarang and stalked closer, if this man knew something he wouldn’t be getting away.

  “Talk,” Damian demanded, still keeping his left hand close as he raised his other, birdarang glinting in the low light. The man looked from his face to the birdarang and back, swallowing heavily.

  “Oh-kayy, this was not how I was expecting to meet the assassin heir, but I was told you had left the family, so maybe don’t try to send me home? I swear I can explain if you put the pointy R down!” His voice strains in the effort to keep calm as his gaze flits back and forth between the blade and Damian’s scowl. Now Damian had two choices. Actually, no, he didn’t, he wanted to know just how this man knew about his past, what he did to his hand, and what he meant by ‘sending him home’. Reluctantly he lowered his birdarang, keeping it out and visible but not raised. Danny’s posture relaxed with the movement, dropping his hands to his sides with a sigh.

  Damian cocked his head expectantly as Danny collected himself, looking up with a look in his eyes Damian couldn’t place.

  “So, has anyone told you you’re engaged yet?”

~~~~~~~

      Danny was nearing his wits end. When Clocky had told him he had a fiance he kinda freaked, just a little bit. The idea of being bound by marriage contract to a former assassin didn’t sound all that fun, and with how long ago the contract had been made he would need time and power to revoke it. He didn’t even know what his fiancé  looked like! He didn’t even know if his partner was gay! The Emerald Queen had specifically stated male heir in the contract, and while Danny didn’t personally mind getting to know this guy while they worked on getting the contract broken he didn’t think the assassin heir would feel the same.

  Clockwork had to calm him down, talk him out of his spiraling thoughts with a small smile and a “you may think differently when you meet them,” as he opened a portal. When he asked about the portal after he finally got ahold of himself he was told his fiancé lived in a different dimension.

  Great.

  Amazing.

  Fan-freaking-tastic!

  HIs new magically bound fiancé lived in a whole other dimension!

  With another round of breathing exercises run through Danny had asked how he would find this guy once he went through the portal.

  “Your core will let you know when you’re close,” Clockwork answered with a small smile.

  Just great.

  With the desire to strangle the Lord of Time Danny begrudgingly stepped into the portal, coming out on the other end in the living room of an apartment. It was well furnished, but obviously unlived in. A note on the counter explained that Clockwork had set up the apartment for Danny to live in while he did his search, which was nice. Still wanted to strangle a time ghost though.

  There was also a newspaper on the counter, explaining that he was still in America, in a city called Gotham, with a date about the same as the one from his dimension. With more snooping of his new home he found money, IDs, and a computer.

  He spent that first day just looking things up on the PC, things like FentonWorks (didn’t exist) and the GiW (never established), then to the things he had found in the newspaper.

  This dimension had heroes.

  Actual heroes! And aliens!

  Gotham had their own team/family of crime fighters, The Batman and his expansive list of partners/sidekicks. Some forums he went through theorized that some of them had started out as sidekicks but went on to do their own thing. Danny was amazed, having no one to formally train him until he claimed his crown, he imagined his first few years would’ve gone a lot differently if he had someone to teach him, someone not Vlad.

  Danny went to bed dreaming of spaceships and his childhood comic book heroes that night.

  The next month was filled with a little less wonder, with Danny quickly realizing just why Gotham needed such a large superhero family. The place oozed criminals, they were everywhere!

  From the mad scientist with the freeze ray to the mad scientist with a gas that made you hallucinate your worst fear, this place was crawling with all kinds of crazies and crooks (and worryingly, mad scientists). And as much as Danny wanted to help, he had heard that the Big Bat didn’t like people with powers in his city, so he couldn’t just help out wherever he wanted. He also still needed to find that assassin guy.

  Clockwork’s “your core will let you know when you’re close,” was both very helpful and frustratingly vague. Danny could feel his core’s connection to someone in the city, but it was too weak to pinpoint accurately without getting close to them, and he was rarely ever close enough. He’d resorted to just walking around the city at all hours of the day, trying to follow that connection his core was pulling him towards.

  Which is how he had found himself getting mugged in an alleyway just off his newest walking route.

  And how he found himself being saved by one of the local flying furries. Who, when Danny had gotten a good look at him, was actually kinda really fucking hot?

  Like, okay. Danny knew it was bad to objectify people, Sam had drilled into his brain that people could be very different from how they looked. But with a lean, muscular frame, sharp cheekbones and jawline, and murderous stare that could be felt from behind that domino?

  He had a type, and this guy was hitting every box.

  It was nice that… Sparrow? Finch? Robin! Robin wanted to help him search for his fiancé, even after the embarrassing way he had explained it. Couldn’t really say his kingly advisor opened up a portal to another dimension so he could find his contractually bound betrothed so they could figure out how to break the contract safely.

  Oh.

  Oh.

  Guess that's exactly what he has to do.

  No wonder the pull from his core had gotten stronger when he had noticed Robin's presence on the roof.

~~~~~~~

      By now, the pain Damian had felt surge through his hand had subsided, leaving a slight tingly sensation at his fingers and the back of his hand. Damian ignored this, instead crossing his arms in wait for a proper explanation.

  “What do you know of that?” Damian questioned, not entirely liking the possible outcomes of his question.

  “Not a whole lot,” Danny replied, shrugging a shoulder but keeping his eyes trained on the blade in Damians hand.

  Smart.

  “But I’m gonna take a guess and say I know a little more about it than you.” Damian bristled, he may not know the specifics, but this man couldn’t claim to know more than those in the League. Narrowing his eyes, he looked over the man once more with a new perspective. This ‘Danny’ didn’t carry himself like someone from the League of Assassins, certainly not the ones Mother trained.

  There was a quiet confidence in his posture, indicating a possible hidden strength, but he didn’t angle himself as those did when carrying hidden weapons. He was also radiating nervousness, either from telling the truth or lying to him, Damian couldn’t tell exactly.

  Yet.

  “My mother didn’t send you in an attempt to force me back, did she?” He asked warily, only to be met with frantic head shaking.

  “Nope, nu-uh, Not going to meet your freaky assassin family now or in the future. Hopefully never, if it's all the same to you, not a personal fan of those who make their careers killing.”

  “Then how do you know of my family's contract?”

  “Ah, well…” Danny lifts his arm to scratch the back of his neck. Silence grew as Damian watched the man in front of him squirm. He kept shifting his stance as he looked anywhere but Damian, the picture of uncomfortableness. Too long he was kept waiting.

  "Speak, or that mugger won’t be the only one facing one of my blades." Damian snapped as he raised his birdarang again, his other hand moving up to the hilt of his katana.

  "Fuck, okay! Just swear that you won't… I don't know, disembowel me okay‽" Danny replied, voice still an octave higher than before. "This isn't exactly how I wanted this to go!"

  Scowling Damian lowered his hands again, but at the ready should this man need more incentive. He knew he was being more like his younger self than would be appreciated, but this man had answers. Answers he needed.

  A huff came from in front of him as Danny let his shoulders drop, time to peel the Band-Aid off.

  "Maybe I should reintroduce myself, that'll make things a little clearer," when he met no resistance to the idea he dropped his hands and straightened his posture. He put on his best smile as he began.

  "Hi, my name is Daniel Janus Fenton-Phantom, king of the Infinite Realms, lord of those long forgot, protector of lost souls and guardian of the balance of life and death. Also, your new fiancé." Danny let his eyes flare green as his grin grew slightly sharp.

  Damian narrowed his gaze. This couldn't be it, could it? This is the all powerful being that made a pact with his long dead ancestor millennium ago? Even with the trick the man did with his eyes Damian was more than sceptical.

  "And how do I know you are who you claim to be? The contract was signed 'the Lord of Death', a title that does not match any you've given me." For all Damian knew this could have just been an irregular meta with minor telepathy, using their abilities to read through what he had at the forefront of his thoughts.

  The man's face went through a range of expressions, landing on dissatisfied but unsurprised. He shook his head in disappointment.

  "Well, okay then. If you don't believe me, why not take a look at your hand? I know I'm not the only one that felt something happen."

  The odd feeling that had settled next to his heart stirred, and a feeling of trust that was not his own grew. Empathic manipulation alongside minor telepathy? Unlikely, as those two abilities contrasted enough to interfere with each other when used. Still… it wasn't as though this man was asking him to remove his mask, simply his glove…

  Damian slipped off his left glove, absently noting that he no longer felt  the slightly cold tingle he did previously. His palm was the same, but as he slipped the stiff fabric past his fingers a stark black band came into view. It wrapped around the base of his middle finger, and as Damian twisted his hand to follow it he found a black snowflake with a stylized D resting just above his knuckle. Gingerly he touched the mark, watching it move with his skin when pressed.

  An emblem.

  A brand.

  Fury rose as Damian stared at the mark claiming he belonged to this man, no, this being. He had been claimed, and there was nothing he could begin to do about it. His bare hand clenched as his gaze returned to the Lord of Death, his face no longer light.

  "Believe me now?" He asked simply, eyes trained on the band on Damian's finger.

  Strange, this king finally has his contract fulfilled, and yet there was no joy in those eyes. Damian studied the king's face, pushing down his anger to try and assess him once more. He seemed… tired, and resigned. He expected for Damian to lash out, with no tells that he would retaliate.

  "Our parents set us up, but mine didn’t tell me where to meet them, they just dumped me in this city and said ‘good luck’." The Lord- Danny's words rung through Damian's head. Danny had been searching the city for him, with no idea of who he was or what he looked like. He was dropped in Gotham with only well wishes and expected to find one person in over twelve million. 

  Forcing himself to relax, Damian assessed what he knew about the… entity in front of him. Danny hadn't shown any signs of hostile behavior towards him, even explaining things to him when he had every right to smite him or leave. There was no reason to attack without hearing the rest of his explanation.

  "Well?" Danny's eyes snapped from Damian's hand to meet his gaze, surprised and confused. "While you've proven you are the 'Lord of Death', you still have yet to explain the rest."

  A flash of surprise crossed Danny’s face, before it relaxed back into that easy grin from before. The smile did nothing to hide his nervousness, simply masked it.

  “Right, right, so. Now that I found you, we can talk about how to get rid of the contract safely!”

  Silence followed the Lord of Death’s exclamation, with the only sound between them being the cars going by on the main street.

  “You… wish for a divorce?” Damian asked confusedly after the eighth car passed.

  “I mean, yeah?” Danny cocked his head, now equally as confused. “Neither of us wanted this contract, ‘cause it was made with our predecessors and all that, so if we don’t like or even really know each other why would we keep the contract up?”

  “I was unaware that the Lord of Death had a right of succession.”

  Danny groaned, rolling his eyes so strongly it moved the rest of his head with it.

  “Yeah, we do. Don’t get me started on the last guy, Ancients he was a real jerk.” He shook his head with an annoyed look before glancing around the alley. Damian was about to wonder as to why before Danny spoke again.

  “The rest of the explination is kinda a process to talk about, and I don’t really want to go over it all while huffing the sweet smells of curdled milk and vomit. Do you think we could pick this up tomorrow night?” He asked, and Damian had to agree. While he did need more answers, now  he had someone willing -even if they had an ulterior motive- he would get them.

  Even if he had to chase him down to get them.

  “Very well, where would you like to meet?” Damian concedes after a moment.

  “How about my apartment?”

  Damian meets Danny’s almost hopeful eyes with a flat stare. Not that Danny could see his face from behind his mask, but the effect was still evident.

  “I do not know where you live, Danny,” he pointed out.

  “I know, but I can meet you during your patrol or something, you can say that you have an interesting lead that you have to talk to, then we can go back to my place! Sounds easy, right?”

  A tired sigh made its way past Damian’s lips. “I suppose that is acceptable-”

  “Great!” Danny cut Damian off before he could say more, “See you tomorrow night!”

  And with that, the Lord of Death vanished in front of his eyes.

  Not a second after the being disappeared his comm flared to life in a burst of static. Damian had to suppress a flinch as the noise died out, replaced with the frantic voice of Oracle.

  “-obin? Robin, can you hear me‽ Damian, come in!”

  Tapping his comm, Damian cut Oracle’s frantic exclamations off before she could start anew.

  “Oracle, I’m here, what do you need?”

  “What do you mean, ‘what do I need?’ Damian, your comm was off line for over half an hour!” She shouted into the line, causing Damian to pull his comm out of his ear to avoid further auditory trauma. As she continued her assault on the line Damian pulled out his grapple again, propelling himself back onto the roof and resuming his patrol at a much steadier pace.

 One more cultist down, over two dozen left to go.

 Did Danny ever mention that he hated cultists?

 He went for another dive attack, swooping in with his fist and connecting somewhere on the guy’s upper body before launching himself back out of range of their close range spells. Dodging more blasts and providing arial support when needed, Danny groused to himself about how he had gotten into this. He wasn’t expecting cults when he was called in for this mission. He didn’t know what he was expecting exactly, but they had more magically inclined people as backup for the Team than him, so why was he here? Where was Zatanna when you needed her? Why couldn’t this just be a ghost he could take care of easily? Why him?

 A blast glanced the back of his shoulder as he came out of a barrel roll, searing his suit and knocking him off course. He clutched at his shoulder in pain as he looked back to see which sorry sonuva bitch was about to get decked, only to see Robin was already taking care of them.

 Good, let Robin handle that idiot.

 Kid Flash and Superboy were playing keep-away with the books and artifacts the cult needed to perform whatever asinine ritual they were about to start before they dropped in while he, Robin, Artemis, and Aqualad were on round up. Miss Martian was making sure no one left or entered the area, just in case there were other cult members in other parts of the old hotel they found themselves in.

 Seriously, why do cultists find only the creepiest, most abandoned places to do their summoning rituals? Why couldn’t they- Another blast of magic nearly blew through his tail, cutting his thoughts off. Danny growled and shot the guy that had tried shooting him. Not the time to get in your own head, Fenton, focus.

 Artemis sent a volley of trick arrows from her perch on one of the rafters, downing more than a few of the remaining cultists.

 Only a few more to go.

 With one last push the last of the cultists were down. A quick check in with M’gann told them that she was all clear at her position, so they started to drag the unconscious bodies to zip tie them together for later pick up. They could finally relax.

 Danny let out a breath as he floated down to the concrete floor, watching as Aqualad and Robin started dragging a few goons into a loose circle close to their nearly completed summoning sigil before picking a few of his own up to join them. KF came out of his red streak as he slowed down, not even out of breath, and Kon began hauling two of the cult members he had body checked away towards the growing circle of bodies.

 “Well that was fun,” Danny commented out loud, trying to keep the communication to where he could hear it. While he did link up via telepathy for stealth, he didn’t really like others going through his head. It also made it easier for M’gann to focus when they were in a fight, something about his biology being harder to filter through. Thank the Ancients for that.

 “Y’know, I don’t think Gar will be too sad he missed out on this mission,” KF commented as he flipped through the contents of the tome he was tasked to guard. “All we did was beat up some guys, there wasn't even a time crunch. We got here just before they started any of the fun stuff.”

 Robin scoffed good naturedly, “So you’re saying you would rather come face to face with a terrifying being from beyond our understanding?”

 “I mean, it would make things more interesting. It's been boring with no missions to go on, and I didn't even get warmed up from this."

 "Careful KF," Danny smirked. "Or you're gonna start pouting from all this whining"

 Kid Flash shot him a scandalized look, which only made his pout more prominent and sent everyone looking into a fit of laughter.

 A soft hum took Danny out of his laughing fit earlier than the others, and he turned to see Connor inspecting the statue he was asked to guard. As he floated closer he could see the statuette in more detail; over six pairs of wings centered around the body of a bird, warped and elongated to fit its limbs, with a long neck ending in a goose head. It looked like something out of Greek mythology, but for all Pandora’s lessons on their culture, Danny couldn't place what it was.

 “Whatcha looking at SB?” He asked as he floated over his shoulder to get a look at what Connor was looking at. The teen of steel startled, for once not hearing someone approach with his super hearing. He shot a glare at the ghost boy before going back to inspecting the base of the statuette.

 “There are words on the bottom of this thing,” he explained, pointing to the etchings on the underside of the base. “They're faint, but I think I can make them out.”

 Danny peered at where he pointed, indeed finding the faint markings. Curiously though, they weren’t in english. “Y’know these are in greek, right?”

 Connor blushed faintly, keeping his eyes on the statuette in his hands. “I’ve been reading up in between your lessons,” he muttered.

 Danny smiled, it had been a while since they had started their language lessons. In the beginning he had almost thought it was a ploy from the rest of the team to keep him around more often, but Connor had asked him to keep the lessons a secret from everyone else, saying he wanted to try something new on his own, without their help. He did surprisingly well with languages, as they came to learn, and were currently going through both ancient and modern Greek pretty quickly. It also helped Danny, as he found he was able to learn better when he taught.

 Danny brushed his thoughts aside for the moment, looking back at the small statue in the clone’s hands. There was a name, along with a few other words that had long faded into the stone.

 “An… Acan…” Danny figured out the name a second before Connor, but wasn’t fast enough to stop him from saying it. “Acanthus?”

 A blinding light erupted from the statuette, flinging Danny back from Connor and blinding everyone else in the room. Danny could hear the surprised cries from the others from where he had impacted against the wall, but couldn’t move until the light died.

 Ancients, please let nothing bad happen to Connor. He was just getting the courage up to ask him out.

 As the light died and the spots cleared from Danny’s eyes, he could start to make out the silhouettes of the team, most of them had crouched or crumpled to the ground due to the sudden bright light, but Connor was still standing. There was something off about him though, and Danny had to squint and blink away the after images.

 Danny quickly lunged forward as Connor flailed, the newfound weight on his back throwing off his center of gravity and tipping him backwards. He caught him just before the clone could hit the ground, grabbing him by the shoulders and putting him gently back on his feet.

 “Woah,” Connor mumbled at the sudden elevation shifts and totally not at how easily Danny could sweep him off his feet. No, that was just Danny imagining things about him. He should really stop doing that.

 The other members of the team had gotten back on their feet by now, cautiously approaching the clone and the ghost boy as Danny checked out the reason for Superboy’s new balancing issues.

 ‘Damn, these might be bigger than mine,’ he thought as he looked over the two large wings now sprouting from Connors back, just below his shoulder blades. They were large, ash grey on the outside and white mottled with more grey on the inside. Danny had to reposition how they were sitting on his back or the primary feathers would drag on the floor.

 “Superboy, what the hell did you do‽” Robin shouted at the now feathered clone, who scowled at the approaching Boy Wonder.

 “Nothing,” he replied sharply, crossing his arms defensively even as the blush of being practically held up by Danny was still present.

 “Well clearly that's a lie,” Wally retorted. “Last time I checked SB, you didn’t have massive bird wings coming out of your back.”

 Connor shot Wally a heated glare that quickly let into a surprised squawk as Danny lifted one wing to see how far it extended. He turned his head to look at the ghost boy stretching the new appendage, unable to turn fully with the wing still in the other's grip.

 They watched as the ghost boy moved and tested the wing, pulling lightly at the primary feathers, moving to test the full range of the wing, then collapsing it as close to Connor’s body as it could go. When he looked done with his examination Robin spoke up. “Uhhhh, Phantom, what are you doing?”

 Danny snapped to attention, before meeting the others curious gazes. “Ope, uh… Sorry,” He reached up to scratch the back of his neck, not realizing he had let go until he was almost hit by a flailing Connor and swiftly put his hands back. “I was just curious about them. You don’t see wings like this in the Realms often, so I wanted to see how they compared.”

 “Curious?”

 “Compare?”

 “You've seen something similar to this, Phantom?” Kaldur asked the ghost boy.

 “Uhh, yeah?” Danny went to scratch his neck again, this time making sure he kept one hand on Connor to help him balance. “Some ghosts in the Realms have them as like, physical manifestations of what they used to like?” He still hasn't told the team about Obsessions, so while he wasn’t lying it wasn’t the whole truth.

 “So you know of some way to reverse this, then?” He pressed, to which Danny shook his head fervently.

 “Nope, nu-uh. This isn’t ghost stuff, this is magic stuff. I wouldn’t be able to tell you the first thing about getting rid of these, just how to take care of them.”

 The rest of the team looked between themselves, unsure of how to proceed. Even Connor was starting to look uncomfortable with the situation. Danny was sure there was some telepathic conversation he wasn’t in on happening, but right now he was just trying to keep the teen in his arms upright.

 Finally, Robin sighed. “Do you have any idea on how this happened in the first place, at least?”

 He nodded, motioning to the statuette on the floor as he spoke, “Nearest I can figure is that when Superboy spoke the name of the god on the statue it reacted like a word of power to the surrounding magic. It ended up invoking a portion of the gods' power and this happened.”

 Robin nodded, crouching to pick the statuette up and store it in a side pouch. He then turned for the nearest exit. “C’mon, M’gann already has the bioship ready and waiting. We’ll figure out how to get superboy back to normal when we get back to the cave.”

~~~~~

   “So how do you know how to take care of them?” Wally broke the silence of the bioship on their way back.

 “Huh?” Danny turned in his seat, before looking back out the window. “Oh, right. It was a pain when I couldn’t hide mine when I first got them, so I had Frostbite introduce someone to help me take care of mine.”

 A beat of silence, then the bioship erupted in questions.

~~~~~

   By the time the team had gotten back to the cave, each of them had asked at least a dozen questions each, and Danny very much regretted answering Wally. He’d been able to stall for time in bringing out his wings by saying that there wasn't enough room in the bioship for two winged people, even though Robin pointed out how he could’ve just phased what couldn’t fit outside.

 Danny didn’t want to freak the bioship out like that again, and he said as much.

 As soon as the drop hatch lowered Wally ran into the common room, saying something about needing the others to see what was about to happen. Floating down, Danny almost wanted to disappear, were it not for Connor still needing help in balancing. Danny had told him the best way to manage the weight, but without visuals he was forgetting and accidentally tipping back as he walked, leaving Danny to catch him and reposition him as needed.

 Seems even super strength couldn’t help with this kind of weight.

 They made it to the common room where Danny managed to position Connor on the couch before Wally came rushing back, now changed out of his costume and with Garfield right behind him. Zatanna would be out for at least another day, leaving their main magic specialist indisposed.

Great.

 “C’mon, Phantom! Show us those flappers already!” Wally cajoled, making Phantom flinch from where he was about to float off.

 Danny dropped to the ground, sighing in his failed attempt at escape. Moving over to the more open section of room, Danny turned to face the couches, arms spread as he dropped the invisibility on his wings. A round of gasps came from the group as pitch black wings speckled with white spread out from behind the ghost, the white specks glowing even brighter than his usual glow making them look almost like stars in the night sky.

 “Holy-”

 “Beautiful!”

 “How does that even work‽”

 “Impressive.”

 “Alright, you’ve seen them. Can I go now?” Danny asks the crowd, folding his wings in so the bend of the wings sat next to his shoulders, keeping his wingtips off the ground and crossing.

 “You seem very used to them,” Robin pointed out from behind Danny, startling him to turn and glare at the Boy Wonder as he inspected his wings from behind. Did Danny detect a smidge of awe in those microexpressions?

 Must be his imagination again.

 “I mean, yeah,” Danny conceded with a half shrug, keeping the mini-bat in his field of view. “They formed a while ago, before I came on as auxiliary for the Team, so I’ve had time to get used to them.”

 “And you never told us or showed them to us before, why?”

 “Because they’re useless in combat and I don’t need them to fly? Even if I can use them, they’re really only a help for flight in the Zone, and since I’m an earthbound ghost…” He made a ‘there you go’ gesture, figuring the others could complete the statement themselves.

 Robin sighed exasperatedly behind him, moving so Danny had to switch which shoulder he was looking at him over.

 “Is there nothing you can't do?” The Boy Wonder asked as he crouched down.

 Danny snorted, “Can’t pass a math exam to save my life,” he joked.

 Gar piped up from his place on the couch, “But you’re dead?”

 “Exactly,” Danny smirked, finger gunning at the shapeshifter. He was pleased to be met with one snicker and a resounding round of groans. They had finally got used to his dead jokes. Good.

 Something light brushed against one of his feathers from where Robin had crouched and he hastily moved his wing out of reach, startled.

 “The hell are you doing?” He asked shrilly, finally turning to face the detective.

 The Boy Wonder stood, masked scrunched as he examined the clean slice on the tip of his glove. “Your wings, they’re sharp?”

 “Very,” he backed up a step, making his wings intangible again just in case the bird brain went in again for another touch.

 Which he did.

 “What kind of bird has sharp wings?” Garfield piped up from behind him, tone ever curious.

 “A ghost bird,” Danny rolled his eyes, quickly becoming gone with this conversation and being stared at like some sort of sideshow attraction. Unfortunately his little quip only got Gar more interested.

 “There are ghost birds‽” The shapeshifter nearly shrieked with excitement, and Danny realized that any chance of him going home tonight just went out the window. Ancients, what did he do to deserve this?

 With a droop of his shoulders he faced the young shapeshifter. “Yes? Sort of? It's hard to explain. Can I at least put my wings back?”

 “No,” Connor stated from his place on the couch. “If I have to suffer, so do you. ‘Least yours look nice, mine look like I got covered in mud.” He let that last bit out with a grumble, almost incomprehensible if not for Danny's hearing. The insinuation that Connor liked his wings made his face frost over slightly with blush.

 Hastily Danny cleared his throat and moved his legs to sit crossed-legged in the air, looking back to Gar and his expectant stare.

 “So, y’know those old myths about things like unicorns and the Minotaur and all that?” A quick round of nods from the group on the couches. “Well they’re all actually real. Not really sure about the history of them, haven’t gotten that far in my history lessons, but the gist is that either monsters were mortal realm creatures that were all eventually hunted to extinction from the myths, or they were born ghosts that went to the mortal realm because the veil between worlds was much thinner back then.”

 “And how does that tie into you having sharp wings?” Wally asks in between mouthfuls of chips. When did he get chips?

 “We- that is, me and my friend-slash-doctor Frostbite- found that my wings have similar qualities to the myth of the Stymphalian birds, a greek legend about birds with wings, talons and beaks made of bronze that like to terrorize the villages around the swamp they were named after. It's pretty much the only relation, ‘cause the wing shapes are different, but myths have never been a hundred per-cent accurate to begin with.”

 Robin rounded into Danny’s view, a ‘I must know more about this’ look on his face. ‘This is going to take a while,’ the ghost boy thought to himself as he got comfy where he was floating, taking questions about the ghost zone from the curious group of teens he’d found himself a part of. Eyes every so often trailing back to Connor, who was looking at him like he did during one of their private lessons.

 That same look that always gave him blobs in his stomach and frosted his cheeks. He hoped Connor didn't notice his core metaphorically melting over it.

~~~~~

   When ‘late’ finally became ‘too late’ and Danny had answered everyone's questions (To the best of his ability, some got a little too close to things he wasn’t ready to talk about yet) the team finally meandered off to their rooms for sleep, leaving just Danny and Connor in the living room. Danny because he didn’t really need to sleep (as far as they knew) and Connor because he couldn’t get off the couch by himself. Not that he seemed all that adamant about getting up, and Danny enjoyed the newfound silence.

 Floating around on his stomach in the now dim light Danny found himself lazily using his wings to steer and row himself around, flipping to kick himself off walls when needed and half listening to what Connor had put on the TV to relax.

 “Hey, Danny,” Connor called up to him just as he flip kicked off another wall. Angling for his descent he gave an acknowledging hum in response.

 “Why are you still here?” The clone asked when they were back within regular talking distance.

 “Why aren’t you going back to your room yet?” He responded, question for question.

 Connor looked to his lap, stern expression softening ever so slightly and Danny could almost see him worrying his lip (though he could have been imagining it, probably. The light the Tv was casting was doing fun things to the shadows of those strong cheekbones). Seeing the gears turn in the other teens head, he decided to settle himself down on the loveseat and finally think a little.

 First thought was about what kind of bird those wings could belong to. They were strong looking, but shorter than his own, so probably meant for shorter flying, but the range of flexibility was impressive. Some sort of raptor maybe? It would make sense for a bird of prey to need good reflexes to change the direction of flight while hunting.

 Connor was definitely deadly enough to be a bird of prey- nope. No, bad Danny! We don’t think about things like that! We don’t even know if he likes you like that!

 … But Ancients, the hugs he could give-

 “I was wondering…” Danny snapped out of his daze, eyes shooting up from where they had rested so he could admire the other teens arms. Was it just the light, or was Connor blushing?

 “Could you teach me to use these?” He finished the sentence slowly, like he was afraid Danny would ever say no to him. A smile crept onto his face as an idea popped into his head, something he couldn’t mess up if he tried and would (hopefully) keep him in the mood too much to try and back out.

 “‘Course I can, Connor! You wanna start now?” The clone turned to meet his gaze with an incredulous look.

 “Now?”

 “Mmhm!”

 They stared at each other, and for a second Danny was worried Con would say no. To his slight relief he got a shrug as the other teen turned the TV off. Danny was pretty sure his glow got twice as bright as he zipped over to grab the clone's hands and drag him off the couch.

 Maybe he got a little too excited as he flew through the cave and through the nearest outer wall, feathered clone still in hand and no doubt restraining some sort of embarrassing noise.

~~~~~

   “Phantom, this really isn’t what I meant by this!” Connor shouted over the wind as they soared over Happy Harbor’s coast. Danny looked down to see the mildly startled face of the clone in his hands with a grin that hinted he was about to do something stupid and/or dangerous.

 “Extend your wings Connor!” Danny called back, untwisting his arms so he was now flying backwards and pulling the clone along with him, extending his own wings intangibly as demonstration.

 Shakily, Connor did as demonstrated, and Danny felt the moment his wings caught the air with a sharp pull of their joined hands. Rather than keep hold like Connor probably hoped he would do, Danny instead phased out of the other steel grip, leaving Connor to flounder his arms about for purchase as his wings froze. Panic set in on his face as he thought he would fall, and screwed his eyes shut to wait for the impact to hit.

 “Connor,” Danny coaxed gently, prompting the taller boy to open his eyes as they did not, in fact, start plummeting toward the beach below. The clone didn’t budge, keeping his eyes shut and his wings stiffly outstretched. With a sigh, Danny positioned himself underneath and facing his crush in the air, admiring the view of the Harbor below them and the way the wind tousled Connors wings as they flew and the strong shoulders those wings sprang from and the blue eyes looking back at him-

 A chill bloomed across his face to the tips of his ears, unrelated to the cool air keeping the clone aloft above him as they held each other's gaze. This close Danny was sure the red that bloomed over Connors face wasn’t just a trich of the light, and his core gave a trill at the thought of all those other imagined times possibly not being just his imagination.

 “I’m flying,” Connor commented, breaking both out of their trance. The frost on Danny's face flared as he finally looked away.

 “Ah, uh-huh! Yup! Totally flying all on your own!” He stuttered, voice a smidge higher than he personally thought acceptable. Danny tried to clear his throat exaggeratedly, but his voice still betrayed him and came out slightly squeaky, “Though you might wanna relax yourself, you don’t want to get wing cramps.”

 The teen above him kept his eyes on Danny, but did as told and relaxed his posture, unintentionally angling his feathers and banking softly back inland. Wind rushing past the two was the only sound beside the buzzing in his core that Danny could hear for what felt like ages, and as the silence stretched he could feel a cold sweat start at the back of his neck.

 Ancients, this is awkward. How do normal people confess again? He doesn’t even remember if he was the one to ask Valerie out freshman year.

 “It's beautiful up here,” Connor’s comment interrupted the panicked spiral his brain was about to go into, and he hummed in response. Twisting, Danny let himself face the ground again, letting go of his intangibility and let the wind catch, using his wings for flight instead of his ghost powers.

 “It is.” With the lights of the city below them casting off the waves of the beach, and the cars traversing the streets so small they looked like toys, it really was pretty here. A perfect night for a first flight.

 “Hey Connor,” Danny starts, the scenery below helping to calm his nerves and find his tongue. A soft hum from above him encourages him to continue. “About your lessons-”

 “Are they too much for you?” Connor interjects suddenly, a hint of insecurity creeping into his voice.

 “No, no, I love helping you learn!” And he really does, the moment Connor gets something right in their lessons and smiles lives in Danny's core, powering him like a battery. He has to cut that train of thought off ASAP, right now, so Connor isn’t getting the wrong idea. “I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out outside of our lessons, y’know, maybe come to Amity once in a while.”

 A pregnant pause elongated itself with the sound of a car horn from the streets below, and Danny had to resist turning his heat to peek at the face of the clone behind him.

 “Like a date?” Connor finally asked, tone hesitant and… hopeful?

 This time Danny didn’t stop himself from looking back at the teen flying above him, meeting his eyes with a smile. “Yeah, Con, like a date.”

 A small “oh” escaped his lips as the almost faded blush came back with a vengeance. It made Danny giggle, and Connor smiled at the sight.

“Well, do you?” Danny pressed, feeling much more hopeful about the answer than a few minutes ago.

 With a small nod and a smile only slightly bigger, Connor replied, “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

 Danny couldn’t stop the almost inhuman grin that spread across his face any more than he could stop the whooping holler he gave as he brought in his wings and dove, leaving Conner as he picked up speed towards the ground. As his glow started to be matched by the glow of the streetlights he snapped his wings out, using the gained speed along with a few powerful wingbeats to soar back up and over his new boyfriend, spinning and rolling around him in excitement as he laughed.

 “Okay, okay, you’re happy. I get it!” Connor laughed, smile smoothing over his usually stoic features. “Now can you teach me how to land? I’m pretty sure I’m getting cramps from keeping my wings out like this for so long.”