It started as a completely average Friday. A half-hearted cheer sounded through the halls of Casper High from students and faculty alike at having reached the end of yet another week. Plans were made, bags were packed, and then students were pouring out of the building.
Danny was one of those students, none of his peers giving him a second glance as he walked with Sam and Tucker on either side of him, discussing their plans for the next few days.
"So, who's coming with me to spend the weekend in the realms?" Danny inquired, not wanting to assume they'd be there but always hoping. The trio would regularly spend their free time hanging out at Phantom's Keep in the realms, and seeing as the castle would shift and adjust to accommodate whatever they required it had become the perfect place for the three of them to spend their time.
But of course, Danny's friends had other stuff going on in their lives outside the realms and it was not always guaranteed they could, or even wanted to spend a whole weekend cut off from the living world. Naturally, Tucker just had to prove him right. "No way dude, the new Doomed DLC is out later today, I am not spending the night without Wi-Fi."
Danny sighed in disappointment, but doesn't actually hold it against Tucker. He knows he would have made the same decision if the roles were reversed, a weekend locked up playing Doomed sounded like heaven compared to whatever royal duties he'd be coerced into once the Observants realized he had nothing else important going on. "Maybe if you and Technus finished your little project, that wouldn't be a problem."
Tucker was long since used to Danny and his dramatics however, so he dryly shot back, "Yeah, sorry but connecting your cross-dimensional reality-warping castle to the internet will have to wait for when I don't have a brand new DLC calling my name."
Danny pouted and put on his best pleading face, but quickly gave it up with a chuckle as Tucker aimed a quick punch at his shoulder. "Right right, sorry, please enjoy the game on both of our behalf."
Tucker nodded sagely with a sombre smile, "I'll be thinking of you the whole time."
Danny then turned to face his other friend, Sam was silently trailing along but focusing on her phone, yet to add a single word to the exchange. Curiously peeking over her shoulder Danny just barely saw a messaging app open on the screen before it fades to black, Sam finally locking her phone and looking up to join the conversation, giving him her answer before he could even ask. "Sorry, my parents are dragging me along to some fancy dinner party in Star City, I'll be gone the whole weekend."
Danny lets out yet another exaggerated sigh, which is then cut off abruptly as he is punched in his other shoulder, except much stronger this time. Sam's training has really been paying off, it's almost easy to act like the hit was at all painful.
Clutching his shoulder for the maximum amount of dramatics he writhes and whines, "I might be better off alone either way, it's like you two don't even love me."
His woes fall on deaf ears as Tucker twists to look at Sam instead, ignoring Danny's act and easily moving the conversation along. "Anyways, I've got at least two hours to kill before I've gotta get home, so...?" He trails off, waiting for Sam to fill in the blank.
She does so after glancing at the time on her phone and nodding to herself, "Yeah, I've got some time, Nasty Burger?"
And with that, Danny was completely forgotten as his friends walked ahead, leaving him to suffer in silence as he trailed behind them.
That was, until they arrived at their destination barely a minute later and he caught up with them again as they waited in line to make their orders, seamlessly re-joining the conversation as Tucker turned to him and continued talking like nothing had happened. "Dude, you know you're always welcome to join me, we're not forcing you to go to the realms alone."
"I know, I know, but the eyeballs have been pressuring me to spend more time around the realms to 'prepare myself', I'm hoping they'll fuck off for a bit if I spend the weekend over there." Danny lamented, before being distracted by a tired cashier as they reach the front of the line and take turns placing their orders.
As they turn around to pick a table for themselves Danny idly glances around the restaurant at the other customers, mostly made up of their classmates that had also headed over right after the end of school, and tries to discern if anyone was listening in.
Honestly, at this point Danny wasn't entirely sure if his identity was a secret within Amity Park or not. With how openly him and his friends talked about ghost stuff, and how laid-back Danny had become when it came to hiding his powers, you'd assume that some people would have caught on and spread the word by now. But if they had, no one had said a word, which makes him think that maybe the whole town was just completely clueless.
That, or they just didn't care one way or the other, which was also fair considering the weirdness that the people of Amity Park had grown used to. Even though ghost attacks had more or less stopped completely they still got regular visits after all, ghosts coming through the portal either to try their luck brawling with Danny or just to hang out in the living world for a bit.
The citizens of Amity were both used to ghosts and the Fenton family's typical brand of weird, maybe it wasn't too big of a stretch for them to simply not be phased by a half-ghost in their midst.
Asking someone about it would mean giving it away if they didn't know though, so they were stuck in some sort of stalemate where Danny kept looking around wondering if anyone heard the weird shit him and his friends discussed or not.
By the time they took their seats Sam and Tucker had moved the conversation from ghosts and the realms to the age-old meat vs vegetables debate that still resurfaced at least once a week without fail, and Danny hadn't noticed a single sideways glance sent their way so he sat down in their preferred booth and instead occupied himself with breaking up the argument before it turned too aggressive.
He luckily managed to break it up before they got their food, allowing the conversation to turn to more pleasant small talk as they ate.
Jason had been in the Infinite Realms for a few weeks, and he was making the absolute best of his situation. Which is to say, he'd somewhat regressed to his old ways.
Turns out it didn't matter if you moved him into the biggest most opulent manor in Bristol, nor did it matter if you sent him to some twisted backwards version of Gotham in the afterlife. Jason would always be a Crime Alley kid at heart, nothing could ever truly change that, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
He'd made an attempt to put his old ways behind him once, when Bruce had taken him in and given him a chance at a better life. Jason is not going to pretend like he didn't enjoy his time in Wayne Manor.
He liked being able to go to a proper school, despite his snobbish classmates. He enjoyed having access to a never-ending supply of books to keep him sated, and the joy of having a lovingly home-cooked meal several times a day was invaluable.
And above all else, Jason had revelled in going out at night as Robin. Being able to make a difference for people that were stuck in the exact same situation Jason had once been in, feeling like he was truly making a change, saving lives every day, it was the best feeling Jason had ever felt.
Considering that, it's no wonder Jason had felt so lost when he woke up after his death. In a world which had no lives to be saved, what was he to do?
It had taken Jason a while, a lot of time spent moping about not knowing what to do with himself, before he inevitably fell back on old habits.
When he saw a big brawl going down (a very common occurrence in the Infinite Realms, even more so in knock-off Gotham) he would join in more often than not. Something about fighting apparently just got ghosts going, it was by far the most popular bonding activity around here.
He should have known really, in an environment like this there is always crime of some sort, and with that comes organized crime. Meaning, if you fuck around long enough you're going to mess with the wrong people, and end up with a dozen angry guys chasing you down with the express purpose of beating the ever-loving shit out of you.
Not that Jason would know anything about that.
On and unrelated note, he was absolutely booking it down a vaguely familiar street, keeping a constant eye out for convenient back-roads and alleyways to disappear through when his eyes landed on a sick looking bike parked off to the side.
In his defence, he was in a rush, and the bike was just conveniently left unattended right in his path. What was he supposed to do, not take it for a ride? It's not like a bike has any monetary value in the realms anyways. But the bike certainly had value to Jason in the moment as he sped off away from his pursuers, finally creating some distance between them.
Danny was flying casually through one of the many cities within the Infinite Realms, keeping an eye on what was happening around him just in case there was anything worth taking note of, but he was only just barely paying attention.
He may have agreed to the Observants' pleas for him to spend more time in the realms, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy every second of it. He didn't even necessarily disapprove of their badgering, his coronation was less than six months away, it was always a good idea to familiarize himself with more parts of the realms.
Of course, the Infinite Realms were in fact infinite, so there was no way he would ever manage to learn about every part, not even close, but the more he was able to learn about the better.
He had ended up in a part of the realms that resembled a modern American city, gliding along the rooftops of different buildings, swerving at a leisurely pace to weave between the occasional towering skyscraper as he explored . It wasn't at all uncommon for larger lairs housing hundreds, often several thousands of ghosts to resemble the places those people had lived in when they were alive.
If the Observants asked when Danny returned, he had been actively immersing himself in the city and learning lots about his subjects.
They didn't need to know that he was so distracted by his daydreaming that he nearly missed the commotion going on below him. Seeing big fights or the like was so commonplace in the realms, it was rarely worth even turning an eye at. But at least ten people chasing after a lone guy on a bike was an odd enough sight to warrant a closer look.
Denizens of the Infinite Realms may be hard to hurt, and even harder to kill, but that did not mean Danny wouldn't step in to protect his people if he came across a situation that called for it.
Lowering his flight path down to follow the commotion closer to the ground, his eyes focused first on the group of ghosts chasing after the one guy, noting they seemed to be dead set (hah) on beating the crap out of him. Fair enough, Danny didn't know what had started this situation, nor did he know who had instigated it, but the odds looked unfair enough for him to step in.
That notion was enforced when he focused on the guy on the bike. He couldn't see his face from the angle he was at, but he was able to sense his core, and Ancients, this guy was a new ghost, not even a month old.
Just as he made up his mind, Danny spotted one more thing of note. The bike in question looked familiar. Danny had spent a good deal of time flying away with those same headlights on his tail, he'd even stolen it to drive himself once or twice.
He knew from experience that if the bike was not returned to it's rightful owner soon, a certain shadow would be wreaking havoc all over the place until it was found.
Priorities shifted to include a retrieval after the rescue, Danny speeds up and focuses on a spot some ways in front of the bike-thief as he flies ever closer to the ground.
Jason got the hang of the bike quickly and was soon speeding down the streets of the city. What a weird oversight by the owner to leave the bike completely unlocked and unguarded, Jason didn't even have to do anything to get it going.
He nearly flies with how fast he's driving down a series of side-roads and back-alleys, twisting and turning in an attempt to lose the idiots still following him.
He speeds down another unremarkable alleyway, the shouts of his pursuers finally starting to fade somewhat as he takes one more sharp turn.
And then suddenly there's someone standing at the end of the alley, completely blocking Jason's exit. He stops the bike abruptly before he gets too close to the new guy, and considers turning around, but right at that moment the gang chasing him enter the other side of the alley and Jason is effectively cornered.
Not one to give up, Jason quickly calculates his odds. He decides that one guy with unknown intentions is better than twelve people who want to beat his ass, and quickly speeds in the direction he was already going.
To his delight, the newcomer lets him pass with nothing more than a side-glance that seems to suggest they'll be seeing more of each other. Jokes on that guy, by the time he gives chase Jason will be long gone.
Danny let's the guy on the bike go, he'll be able to track him down easily enough after this, and he'd rather deal with the aggressive gang coming their way first. Danny was well aware that the realms had plenty of gangs and crews such as this one, but seeing as the realms didn't have concrete laws the same way as the living world they were not technically doing anything wrong.
Most of the time, Danny was content to leave them to their own devices, as long as they stayed out of his way and didn't cause too much trouble he'd stay out of their business in return.
Not one to back down from a fight however, Danny squared his shoulders and faced the approaching gang confidently.
They all came to a stop, hesitant now that they had a worthy opponent facing them. Danny smirked, easily leaning into the cocky attitude he adopted while brawling with his old rogues. "What's the matter guys, scared all of a sudden?"'
That got them moving again, as the entire gang was revigorated, and suddenly they were all charging full-speed at Danny with a series of growls and battle-cries.
Danny's eyes glowed a bright blue, and then the ground was coated in a layer of ice, successfully tripping the guys that were choosing to run at him. For the ones flying Danny summoned a thick wall of ice in front of himself, wincing in sympathy as one of the guys was unable to stop in time and rammed into it headfirst with a nasty clunk.
With the gang once again stopped, clearly re-thinking their decision to try and fight their way through this with some of them most likely connecting the dots of just who they had ended up picking a fight with, Danny decided to make the decision for them and end the fight there.
He melted the wall of ice, charging up a ball of ecto-energy in his hands. He then blasted it outward in a wide arch, dividing the power evenly across the whole alley, watching with a grin as the entire gang was blown backwards, the slippery ice on the ground sending them sprawling away and out of the alley.
There, that should be an overwhelming and humiliating enough defeat for them to give it up, Danny decided as he finally melted the ice on the ground and took to the air to look for the mystery bike-thief.
Had Danny been king already he would have been able to hone in on the guy's ecto-signature from anywhere in the realms and track him down that way, but seeing as he was yet to take on the full power of the crown he was forced to track him down the old fashioned way.
Lucky him, the thief clearly didn't understand how vehicles worked in the realms, as he soon found him stopped in another back-road not far away from the alleyway. He was crouched over fiddling with the engine of the bike, silently cursing to himself.
Danny lands a short distance away, and crosses his arms as he watched the guy try to no avail to get the bike to start back up.
Turns out the thief was more aware of his surroundings than he let on, as there was no surprise on his face when he turned his head and met Danny's judgemental gaze with a snarl. "The fuck are you looking at?"
Danny raised an eyebrow at him, although considering how fresh this guy's core was it should come as no surprise that he didn't know how certain things worked in the realms yet. "You won't get the bike to go any further, it doesn't run on regular fuel."
The guy scoffed, turning back around and resuming his prodding with a renewed vigour, "Whatever, I've made shit work under worse circumstances."
Silence reigned between them as Danny simply observed, it took him a minute to realize the guy was really dedicated to making this work, not about to back down. "Yeah no, the guy who's bike you've stolen, his name's Johnny by the way, if you didn't know. He charges it himself, it only responds to his ecto-signature. You won't get any further with it."
The guy finally stops, taking a step back and looking at the bike thoughtfully. Danny doesn't interfere, he continues standing off to the side, watching on in slight amusement as the guy considers his options quietly to himself. "Hm, might be able to replace the engine with enough time, but is it even worth the effort? Might be better to just scrap for parts, maybe the tires..."
At this point Danny decides to step in, not wanting to deal with the headache that would be Johnny 13 without his beloved bike. "Please, just give the bike back. I do not want to deal with Johnny's tantrum if you ruin it, his shadow's annoying as hell."
The guy gives him an incredulous look, as if Danny is the one being ridiculous. "Yeah right, if he cares about his bike so much he shouldn't have left it unattended."
Danny let out a deep sigh, this guy was not taking the hint. "Dude, give it up, I'm not letting you take it."
The thief's gaze did not show any signs of him relenting, if anything he looked increasingly dumbfounded as he replied in a mocking tone. "Uh-huh, and if I don't? What're you gonna do about it?"
This guy had zero idea who Danny was, didn't he? Of course he doesn't know, he's only a few weeks dead. Well, if he's not going to make this easy for Danny, he could play that game. Fully leaning into his role and doing his best to put off an air of irritation instead of showing how amused he was at the whole situation, Danny replied, "You are blatantly admitting to committing a crime, maybe I should just have you thrown in jail."
Mystery guy is not swayed, instantly snapping back with a scoff, voice heavy with mocking sarcasm. "Yeah right, who do you think you are, the king?"
Danny is so focused on restraining his giggles that he almost misses the guy slowly backing away in an attempt to escape. He's almost out of sight by the time Danny registers what's happening and quickly throws up a bright green barrier to stop him. He can't leave yet, the irony is too great for Danny to let this go. He barely holds back a grin as he answers, "No, but I am the crown prince, Phantom."
He has to give it to him, the guy's expression gives away absolutely nothing at Danny's title. No regret, no shock, nothing at all. Instead, he simply stares Danny down, clearly analysing the situation and trying to figure out what to do with his escape cut off, but not giving away anything else.
Deciding to end their little game, Danny shakes himself out of the role he'd put on, finally walking over to close the distance between the two of them. "Okay, look, I'm not actually gonna arrest you, I don't care that much about the bike, but-" He cuts off abruptly as the guy violently flinches back with a gasp, his whole face suddenly overtaken by shock.
Danny stops a short distance in front of the thief, trying to figure out what had him so shaken when he feels it too. Reminiscent of what he'd felt that one time weeks ago, the timeline naturally lining up with his estimation of how old the ghost in front of him was.
He lifted his wrist up and pulled back his glove to make sure he wasn't imagining it, and sure enough it was the source of the humming feeling mirroring that of his core.
Brain slowly processing what was happening, Danny looked back up to see the guy... his soulmate, wow, mirroring his actions and checking his own wrist with a baffled look on his face.
His soulmate was the first one to break the silence, voicing the reason for his confusion, "It's, uh- it's never done that before."
Danny forced his voice to start working, focusing on the simplest part of the situation to address, "I mean, that's typically how it works, right? Nothing happens until we, you know...?"
Danny thought it was fairly obvious, however the guy just shook his head in response, "No, no, I mean the humming, it used to beat before."
Well, that's at least a relatively easy thing to explain for anyone who knows the basics of ghost biology, "It's like a core, ghosts don't have hearts, so it follows our core instead."
The guy continues staring in silence, his gaze going back and forth between the hearts on both of their wrists, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Danny thinks about something to say to break the silence, but his soulmate (!!) beats him to it, finally looking up and meeting his gaze with a hint of a smirk "So, the crown prince, huh?"
Danny's cheeks flush green, and he rubs his hands against his face with a frustrated groan, deeply regretting everything he's said in the past few minutes. "Ughh, please, forget about that, I'm so stupid... No, um, my name's Danny, hi?" He tries to smile but probably ends up looking super unsure of himself, and Ancients Danny wants a re-do of this whole conversation, what had he done to deserve this?
At first all he gets in return is a laugh, his soulmate apparently enjoying watching Danny make a fool of himself before answering, "Hi Danny, I'm Jason."
He reaches out his left hand, the heart on his wrist clearly visible. After just a short moment Danny responds in kind, slowly reaching out his own arm until their hands tentatively touch, both their gazes firmly glued to the matching black hearts.
Their palms touch, and then their fingers are linking together, and it sends a tingling sensation up both their arms, hearts glowing brighter until they're both a nearly luminescent gold.
It's not a feeling that can be put into words, how they both just know that they've found their missing half, both feeling as if they've discovered something they never knew they were missing, it's an unmatched feeling of wholeness that encompasses them both and ensures neither of them ever want to let go.
And so they don't. Jason reaches out with his other hand, and Danny meets him halfway without a word, threading their fingers together once more as they both take a moment to simply stare into each others eyes, the matching bright green irises conveying so many silent emotions as they admire each other, in awe at the newly forged bond that they could feel pushing them towards the other.
They both move seamlessly, adjusting around each other as they pull closer and wrap their arms around one another, breathing out matching sighs of relief. It's a relief that stems not from the lessening of any burdens, but rather at the pure elation of having found something so precious in each other to fill out the voids that neither of them had been aware of before this.
They stay there holding each other for an unknown amount of time. There was a lot to be said, a lot to be done before they truly knew each other. But in that moment they both knew with certainty that it would all work out in the end, so everything else could wait another moment as they took this time to bask in the feeling of finding one another.
First part | Previous part | Masterpost
hooh that was dramatic, the meeting scene has been almost fully written since the day after I posted the first chapter, I am so happy to finally post it you have no idea :')
Let's all pretend this didn't take me over half a year to finish, ok? I get distracted easily, and this wasn't meant to have more than two parts when I started writing, I wasn't prepared ;-; (I also got way more attention that I expected, the pressure got to me)
First part | Previous part | Next part | Masterpost
After Danny told his parents about him being Phantom he had spent a lot of time fully explaining what a halfa was, and exactly what being one entailed.
Then came a period of tumultuous research where the Fenton parents balanced their scientific curiosity with the need to not cross a line that Danny wasn't comfortable with.
First there were questions, increasingly invasive questions until Danny exasperatedly informed them that certain topics are considered off-limits to ask about. Sure he had told them about the portal accident while telling them he was a halfa, but that didn't mean they could just ask anything they wanted about his death all willy-nilly.
After a few awkward days of Jack and Maddie keeping their distance from Danny as to not crowd him he had made his way down to the basement lab once more to allow them to continue.
Danny kept reminding himself that they meant no harm, and they were only human. They didn't inherently understand ghost customs the way he did, that's what all these questions were supposed to remedy.
After getting the go-ahead, and ensuring that Danny would inform them if their questions wandered into uncomfortable territory once again, the Fenton's continued their research.
A few weeks in, when Danny had grown comfortable with the questions and had stopped being constantly on edge any time his parents expressed curiosity about him, he had tentatively offered that they could perform some simple tests.
Only the most basic kind of course, even baseline knowledge like his vitals in human form compared to his ghost form was enough to satisfy their interest for a while
This had continued for a few months, with Danny allowing his parents to perform more and more tests and them constantly assuring him that he didn't have to let them do more than he was comfortable with, but being thankful nonetheless.
Not only were they happy with the fascinating research topic, but they were also eager to start developing halfa-friendly technology. Weapons that could be used on other ghosts (for self-defense purposes only) but wouldn't harm Danny, more reliable healthcare that took both of Danny's forms into account, the Fentons were pumping out new inventions like never before.
Slowly but surely, Danny was rebuilding his relationship with his parents. Hopefully one day, they would be back to a level of trust that they hadn't had since before the portal accident.
Armed with all their new information on halfas, it hadn't taken too long for the Fenton parents to notice the similarities between their son's case and the one of a certain family friend.
And hadn't that led to an interesting conversation.
Danny had chosen to stay out of it, merely hovering by the stairs overlooking their living room as his mom went off on Vlad. His mom had Vlad backed up against the wall, her back to Danny. It gave him a great view of Vlad's face as it cycled through the different stages of grief.
Jack was taking the opposite approach. Where Maddie was filled with a burning rage that had been built up over a long time and was finally boiling over, Jack had practically deflated, unsure of how to proceed after learning of his supposed best friend's betrayal.
The man also hovered off to the side, looking on with despair written all over his face as his wife let out her frustrations.
By the end of the whole ordeal Vlad was practically doing everything short of grovelling on the floor trying to gain Maddie's forgiveness. Though it must have been obvious enough for even Vlad to see by now that the ship had long ago sailed when it came to him having any chance at a romance with Maddie, he seemingly treasured her enough as a friend that he was willing to do anything to gain her good graces once again.
That was where Danny suddenly saw a golden opportunity that was simply too good to pass up, as Vlad was begging Maddie for a chance at redemption Danny piped up from his spot over on the stairs with a smug grin on his face,
"You know Vladdie, Jazz just started her first semester at Yale, and I'm sure it would be a big help if she didn't have to worry about student loans on top of everything else, don't you agree?"
Vlad crossed his arms and shot him an annoyed look, easily falling into the rhythm of their usual banter,
"Oh but of course, it's not as if you have any means of paying for her tuition yourself."
There was a heavy layer of sarcasm over that statement, ever since Danny finally figured out how to transfer money from the royal vaults in the Infinite Realms to his regular bank account he had more than enough to support his sister. And many, many generations to come.
Danny had been planning to pay off her debts himself actually, but when an opportunity to extort Vlad presented itself he wasn't about to let it pass him by.
Vlad had been salty about Danny inheriting the crown ever since he learned about it. He was jealous of the power, the authority, the resources. All the things that came with the crown Vlad wanted so badly, and knew that Danny was only accepting to keep out of reach of people like Vlad.
He had been taking every opportunity to send jabs at Danny, to criticize his use of his power, how he was choosing to act as prince, and anything else where he deemed his input necessary.
So of course, he immediately took the bait when Danny suggested he should pay for Jazz tuition, he was still mad that the fortune Danny had inherited was bigger than the one Vlad had stolen amassed over the years.
He made the mistake of being distracted by Danny, momentarily forgetting about the angry woman still staring him down.
Maddie didn't say anything, all it took was a slightly exaggerated clearing of her throat for him to hurriedly shift his eyes back to her, and with a quirked eyebrow that was simply daring him to argue she had him changing his attitude,
"Then again, I suppose Jasmine would be happy to know her little brother didn't have to pay for her, I'll make sure she's taken care of."
Danny watched on as a tentative smile made it's way onto his Dad's face, and sighed. Vlad would eventually weasel his way back into their good graces, but hopefully with all his secrets out there would be a chance at a genuine friendship between the three once again.
Though she thought it was a bit dramatic, Jazz could admit that Danny's extorting Vlad earlier that year had helped her out. It was a big relief to only have to focus on her studies and not worry about anything else, and knowing that the money came out of Vlad's pockets rather than her brother's made her much more comfortable accepting the help.
It also came in handy when Danny came to visit, as it had become sort of a tradition for the two of them to go out to eat whenever he came for one of his bi-monthly visits.
Jazz had a suspicion that Danny insisted on going out especially because it meant using Vlad's money, but it certainly beat being locked up in her dorm room so she wasn't complaining.
It also gave them a chance to talk more privately, ironically enough. In public the siblings easily blended into the crowds, and no one cared about two random people enough to notice if their conversations turned to more.. unusual topics. Jazz got along just fine with her roommate but it might make things awkward if she overheard any of the things Jazz and Danny discussed on a regular basis.
For instance, Danny's most recent visit.
The two of them were sitting across from each other at a table in a café only a short walk away from campus.
At first they talked about the mundane parts of their lives, just catching up. Enjoying the fact that they had time to worry about something so bland as schoolwork, it was a change of pace that they were both immensely happy with.
Eventually the conversation had turned to more personal matters, and Jazz had a big piece of news to share.
"Oh yeah, by the way. I felt my soul mark beat earlier this week."
She grinned as she lifted her cup to take a sip, watching Danny's expression turn to astonishment.
"And? What're they like? When do I get to meet them?"
Halfway through his questioning he reached for her left arm, and though she made a half-hearted attempt at swatting his hand away he soon got hold of her sleeve and pulled it back, revealing the still very red heart on her wrist.
Danny frowned at her in confusion as she set her cup back down. She fixed her sleeve with a huff,
"There were a lot of people around, it was impossible to tell who they were. Pretty sure they're a student too though, so we'll run into each other eventually."
Danny's expression turned oddly closed off, and it was only her years of experience reading her little brother like a book that told Jazz he was trying not to show his annoyance.
"What's with that look? I'm busy studying, I'm sure my soulmate is too, there's no reason to rush into it."
Danny stopped trying to hide his frustrations, and spoke with a sour look on his face,
"You never know though, you might not get a chance to meet them for a really long time, wouldn't it be worth looking for them?"
Jazz studied his face silently. She had become great at reading Danny over the years, and this looked like a classic case of projecting.
"You never cared this much about my soulmate before, what's wrong?"
The silence stretches on for a bit, Danny is visibly debating what he wants to say and not so Jazz takes another sip from her drink without a word.
Eventually he speaks in a meek voice she hasn't heard in some time,
"My, uhm... My soulmate they- died, last week."
Out of all the things that Jazz had been expecting that was not one of them. She lowered her cup and set it down with a clink as she gave her brother her full attention, reaching out to clasp his hand in hers,
"I'm so, so sorry Danny. It's no wonder you're upset, how are you holding up?"
Danny gave her a wry smile, letting her hold his hand for a moment before pulling back, crossing his arms tightly around himself with a sigh,
"It's really not that big of a deal, I'm pretty sure I sensed them become a ghost or something, so it's not like I'll never meet them. It just... It sucks, you know? For them, I mean."'
Jazz gave her brother a pointed look,
"You know you're allowed to be upset for yourself too. It's terrible that you won't get to meet them in life, and you're allowed to be upset about it."
"I didn't come here to be psycho-analysed Jazz, I'm fine. Can we stop talking about this?"
She sighed, but relented. Trying to force him to talk about it would just make him more closed off, so she shifted the subject.
Eventually the siblings finished their drinks and started the short walk back to Jazz' dorm.
"I'm so happy you learned to make portals so soon after I moved, I probably would have gone crazy by now if you didn't visit so often."
Danny shot her a grin,
"So what do you call what you are now, if it's not crazy?"
Jazz gave him a playful shove to the side in response. Had Danny been anyone else she wouldn't have for the fear of pushing him into the road next to them, but he didn't even stumble so Jazz felt justified in her revenge.
"Very funny. You know, I just have to remember that for every bit of crazy in my life you have it about ten times worse, and then it suddenly doesn't look too bad anymore."
Danny groaned loudly and threw his head back dramatically,
"Ughhhh... Please don't remind me. I'm trying not to think about it unless I absolutely have to."
She gave him a look, taking note of the unusually troubled expression on his face. They had arrived at the campus by now and it was not an ideal place to have a conversation about Danny's ghostly responsibilities, but she wasn't going to ignore his troubles either.
Even if they were overheard it wasn't nearly as big of a deal as it used to be. While Danny didn't openly tell people his secret, he also didn't really care if it got out anymore. Ever since telling their parents everything and watching the ensuing abolishment of the GIW and Anti-Ecto Acts, he had come to the realization that there wasn't really a reason for him to keep hiding anymore.
All of his remaining enemies knew who he was, and he technically fell under the Meta Protection Acts now, so he had gotten much more laid back with hiding his powers.
Talking about ghostly matters now fell into the category of "I'd prefer to keep it hidden but mostly for convenience." So, considering Jazz knew that if she abandoned the topic now she wouldn't be able to get Danny to open up about it later, she decided to push him a bit.
"Why? Anything in particular that's happening?"
Danny sighed once more, looking off to the side to avoid her gaze. Jazz didn't relent, looking at him intently to make it clear she wasn't dropping it. He soon gave up, maybe he's finally learned that ignoring Jazz didn't make her go away.
"It's really nothing serious, I just have a lot of... uncomfortable stuff I'll have to deal with soon."
"Uncomfortable? Like what?"
They were walking up to the entrance of the dorm building, and Danny took the opportunity to walk ahead of her and open the door in an attempt to end the conversation.
Jazz walked inside as Danny held the door open, then stopped and blocked the door for him, asking again,
"Danny, what did you mean?"
Danny let out a few incoherent grumbles, grabbing Jazz by the shoulders and moving her forcefully to the side, stepping inside after her to make way for a student she hadn't spotted that was trying to go outside.
Danny pushed on ahead towards the stairs and Jazz followed behind silently as he finally spoke, taking quick strides up said stairs.
"It's not that big of a deal, just some people messing with things they shouldn't be. They've been going at it for long enough now that it's become my problem, but it's not gonna be hard to take care of, just annoying."
Jazz took a moment to catch her breath after climbing the stairs to the third floor, momentarily jealous of Danny's lack of a need to breathe as he wasn't even slightly winded.
"What makes this case different from the others? Don't you do that kind of stuff all the time?"
Danny shook his head,
"Kinda, but not really. I deal with ghosts, maybe some demons, and that I can handle. But sometimes, living people poke their noses where they really don't belong and get themselves into trouble. And because I'm both in charge and the 'bridge between' I have to deal with it."
Jazz frowns, unlocking the door to her dorm and ushering Danny inside, checking that the room is empty before continuing.
"I didn't realize you had to deal with living people, I thought it was only the Realms."
Danny throws himself onto her bed casually, Jazz allows it because her covers are still on.
"It is most of the time, but some living occultist can't help but get themselves involved with matters of the dead. Then they inevitably get into trouble because they have no clue what they're doing, and I have to fix it."
Jazz starts peeling off her outdoor clothes, a long process since it's winter, and takes that time to ponder what to say before responding,
"I guess it comes with the job, but surely it will get better with time. You've had a lot to do cleaning up Pariah's mess, I'm sure it'll be easier once that dies down."
Danny shot her a tiny smirk at the unintended pun, which she rolled her eyes at, before he kept going,
"Maybe eventually, but I'm pretty sure the observants are gonna dump a fuck-ton of work on me the moment winter break starts, that's what I get for explaining to them how school works nowadays I guess."
Jazz looks at him in sympathy as she sits down near the foot of the bed, allowing Danny to rest his legs on her lap as he continues,
"I'd honestly be happy to be sent on some mission in the Realms at this point, I'm sick and tired of chasing down random mortals who were too stupid to realize that maybe selling their soul was not a good idea."
Jazz scoffs at him, which makes him spout with indignation,
"I'm serious! There was this one idiot who I swear thought he could commit tax evasion with his soul, he sold it to like a hundred different people, mostly demons of course, because why the fuck not. I've been stuck negotiating for pieces of his soul so the poor fucker doesn't get torn apart when he dies, but at this point I don't know if I even feel like giving his shitty soul back. I deserve some form of payment for all the fucking work I've done for him."
Had Danny been more alive he would have taken a deep breath after that rant, but as it was he just huffed out in frustration and crossed his arms as he stared up at Jazz's ceiling.
"And what exactly do you plan to do with some random guy's soul?"
He looked like he was seriously pondering it for a moment before inevitably coming up short.
"I don't know, I guess it would be more for satisfaction than anything else, of course I can't have an actual reward for my work."
That was not where Jazz was trying to go with that question, time to backtrack.
"I'm sorry Danny, you know I'm always here if you need any help."
Danny quirked an eyebrow at her,
"What are you gonna do, negotiate with the demons for me?"
"I'm sure I can make them listen to reason, and if not you know I can handle myself."
Danny grinned as his eyes drifted to the bright green bat leaning against Jazz's desk,
"I don't know if the Anti-Creep Stick is gonna cut it."
Jazz was not deterred, she jokingly made a shooting motion with her hands,
"I'll bring a Fenton Blaster too, the demons wont even know what hit them."
Danny chuckled and shook his head at her antics. He figured she was just doing it to cheer him up, but he couldn't deny that it was working.
"Thanks Jazz, but I'll hang in there. I need to get used to it really, since it's gonna get a whole lot worse by summer."
Jazz frowned as Danny regained his sour mood, quickly trying to reassure him.
"You have nothing to worry about, I know you'll do great."
Danny just closed his eyes and groaned out quietly,
"That's not the problem."
That made Jazz pause, she had assumed that most of Danny's worries were derived from a fear that he wouldn't be good enough of a king.
"Then what is it?"
Danny looked pained, he clearly didn't enjoy talking about this, but he knew better than to try and steer Jazz away from the subject now, so he reluctantly explained.
"I know that I'm the best option for the job, and the training's been going pretty good so it's not like I'm not qualified anymore, but I don't want to. I just wanna graduate in peace, maybe actually go to college, work for NASA, who the fuck knows. I don't know what I wanna do, I just would have liked to have a choice. Instead I'm stuck ruling a whole fucking dimension, with no way out. It's... just not what I imagined I'd be doing, I guess..."
He trailed off, arms crossed behind his head as he stared at Jazz's ceiling as if it had personally offended him. Jazz took a moment to consider his words before carefully speaking,
"I'm sorry Danny, I didn't realize that it bothered you that much."
He let out a silent murmur of "It's alright" before she continued,
"But I meant it you know, I'll always be here if you need help, with anything at all. I know Sam and Tucker will help out a bunch too, and if there's something only a ghost coult help you with you do have plenty of allies in the Zone that you could ask."
Danny breathed in deeply before sending a slight smile her way,
"Guess you're right. I mean, I used to think that being prince would be the end of the world but it's not so bad now that I'm used to it."
Jazz grinned at him and nodded,
"Right, I bet by the time school starts back up you'll be fully settled into your role, you won't even notice a difference."
Danny rolled his eyes,
"Let's maybe not go that far, I'll be happy if I still have just a tiny bit of free time after work and school."
Jazz smirked at him, suddenly remembering something,
"Speaking of which, didn't you have a report to write today?"
Danny groaned in frustration, moving his arms to hide his face behind them,
"Did you have to remind me? All I want is one afternoon without worrying about homework."
He supposed it said a lot about how much progress he'd made, that something as trivial as a book report felt like a lot of work. A year ago this would have felt like a vacation. But as it was right now... Danny was perfectly content just talking to his sister without thinking about school, but she wasn't letting it happen.
Jazz hit his legs that were still draped across her lap,
"Don't get all grumpy, you know it's better to just get it done now."
Danny grumbled, but moved his legs to allow Jazz to stand up. She walked over to her desk and grabbed her laptop from her bag, sitting down and opening it up.
"I'll help you out, which book was it again?"
Danny huffed as he sat up, then got to his feet.
"I wasn't listening enough to remember, hang on, I'll go get it."
He quickly opened a portal to his room back in Amity, grabbing his backpack from where it was thrown onto his bed before stepping back into the dorm and closing the portal behind him.
He sat back down on Jazz's bed, and grumpily started digging around the bag looking for the book.
Jason stared up at the green sky above him. It was swirling around sluggishly, a lazy movement that matched the dreary city that Jason called home. In life, Jason has always found an odd comfort in Gotham's depressing nature. He was born and raised of those dirty streets, and life there had been anything but an easy one, but he would not have traded it for anything.
He certainly preferred it over the hellhole he was stuck in now.
It was fitting that a city such as Gotham would have a strong enough presence to have a counterpart in the world of the dead, but however similar it was it was not the same city.
Jason was grateful that he had ended up in this twisted version of Gotham, it sure was a hell of a lot better than appearing on some other random floating rock, but it was not his Gotham.
None of the buildings were the same, the streets were all just a bit off, and not only was the sky visible, it was fucking green.
The one redeeming feature was the people. The place was packed full of Gothamites.
There were other kids like Jason who lived on the streets and met their end too early, unable to find a home anywhere else even in the Infinite Realms. There were elderly folk that had spent their whole life in Gotham and refused to leave it behind even in death. There were people who had gone down the wrong road and ended up with a life they were ashamed of. Only in the all-encompassing smog of Gotham could they find some comfort.
So many Gothamites that were unable to move on, yet didn't know what they wanted to do with their afterlives. So they existed in this little mocking imitation of their city.
Jason fit right in.
He didn't know why he was still around. He knew now that most people moved on when they died, and yet here he was. Jason didn't know what he was meant to do.
This version of Gotham didn't need him. In a realm where no one can die, everyone is more than capable of defending themselves, what use was there of a Robin?
When Jason first woke up here he was wearing the tattered remains of his costume. It served as a painful reminder of what had happened to him. Every time he laid eyes on his own reflection images of a clown with a crowbar flashed through his mind, and he had to take a moment to collect himself.
The other Gothamites around him knew better than to inquire about the state of his costume of course, but it didn't stop them from recognizing him as Robin.
Jason's mask had been burned off in the explosion, which meant his face was fully visible, but the people here were not the type to recognize him as Jason Todd Wayne, not in the state he was in.
Not that it would have mattered, what use did he have for his secret identity in death?
In his first few days in the Infinite Realms Jason was recognized wherever he went, and was bombarded by Gothamites wanting to thank him. Plenty of people told him that he'd helped catch their murderer, some told him that he'd helped save their loved ones from meeting the same fate, and Jason couldn't deal with the praise any longer.
Every person in this godforsaken city was another he had failed to save, what right did they have to thank him?
Jason had only been in the Infinite Realms for a week when he figured out how to change his appearance. A ghosts clothes were directly tied to their self image, and if Jason no longer saw himself as a hero the costume would go away.
It was replaced by the type of clothes you would expect a random street kid to wear, a tattered pair of jeans paired with a washed out hoodie that conveniently covered his face most of the time.
Jason was just another kid here, he lived off the unforgiving Gotham streets until he met the brutal end that he deserved. Forever damned to exist alongside all of the people he had failed, while they hailed him as a hero.
As he was lying on a random rooftop (it didn't matter which one, it didn't exist back in his Gotham) Jason was snapped out of his thoughts by some commotion on the street below him.
He looked on in mild interest at the fight that had broken out. It was not uncommon, brawling was a common way to socialize in the Realms after all, and Gothamites were a special breed.
They didn't need him, this was completely normal and no one would get seriously hurt.
As he made to lay back down and ignore the fight, that thought stuck with him.
No one would get hurt.
What else was Jason planning on doing, keep staring up at the green sky and feel sorry for himself?
Looking back down, Jason observed how one side was quickly losing ground, feeling a smirk slowly creep onto his face. He did like the look of those odds.
Decision made, Jason stood up and hopped off the roof, floating down to join the losing side.
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NOTE: I got a sudden burst of inspiration to finish this while away from home for a week, and all my notes, which includes the taglist, are on my main PC. I can't access it from my laptop, so I'm sorry if anyone didn't get tagged, I copied the taglist from the last part and added the names from the comments there, but if there's anyone else I'll add them once I get back home and have access to my notes again! <3
I've been thinking a lot about Demon Twin AUs lately.
I've read nearly all of the ones on ao3 (Please do send recs my way <3), and I adore the different interpretations of this concept. I will always love the version of this where Danny and Damian are reunited after Danny ends up in Gotham, or Damian in Amity.
I love this classic take on the AU, but I've been thinking about fun ways to spice it up. My favorite idea so far is the idea that the twins reunite after Damian temporarily dies.
Imagine Danny just minding his business in the Zone and he randomly sees his twin, who is supposed to be alive. Damian would be happy to be reunited, he's been under the assumption that Danny was dead since they were kids so he's just glad to see his twin again.
Meanwhile Danny is freaking out because he literally faked his death and ran away so Damian could live, what the fuck is this?
You could add a touch of Sam and Tucker being confused on the side. I always imagine that Danny never told them about where he came from or his brother. (What can I say? I love the drama that secrets bring.) You could either have Damian look like his civilian self as a ghost, and have Sam and Tucker be confused af about this random ghost that looks just like Danny. They might think it's a weird duplicate or something, but then why is Danny so freaked out?
You could also have Damian be in his Robin costume, I imagine Sam and Tucker would be shocked to randomly see the ghost of Robin in the Zone, but it's far from the weirdest thing they've seen in there. Again, Danny has never been a huge fan of other heroes or vigilantes, so why is he so freaked out about this one being dead?
Of course, though Danny has stayed away from Gotham for various reasons he is aware that his twin brother has become Robin after moving in with their father, so he knows that this new ghost can only be one person.
Now moving away from the idea of the twins just randomly running into each other :)
You could try turning it into a twin telepathy type thing, where Danny senses Damian dying, or at least that something happens to him and goes to investigate.
Or, something that I feel is quite in character for Damian, he might hunt down Danny himself the moment he realizes where he is.
You could turn this in different directions again depending on whether Damian is in civilian clothes or his Robin costume. Either way, I imagine him questioning some other random ghost (maybe one of Danny's rouges for fun?) and regardless of how he's dressed they'll point him towards Danny.
"Oh you're looking for your brother? Idk man, go ask Phantom or something."
OR
"Your brother? You look fucking identical to Phantom so you might wanna start there."
Either way Damian tracks down Phantom and concludes that yes, that is his brother. Dramatic reunion ensues.
Last little thought I had on this, Damian doesn't think Danny is a ghost, he assumes he moved on, or maybe he somehow knows he faked his death and thinks he's alive?
Regardless, Damian is a man on a mission the moment he arrives in the Zone, he refuses to stay in this pathetic realm and decides that whether he's dead or alive he will make his way back to Earth.
Best way to get there? Damian goes to talk to the king of course, to negotiate (or fight if necessary) about going back to Earth.
If not that, he just happens to hear about a certain half-human, half-ghost hybrid and tracks him down for help. A hybrid sounds like someone who would know how to go back and forth between the realms after all.
---
All this to say, I want more of the Demon Twins reuniting in the Ghost Zone. If anyone has recommendations or ends up writing a story of this please do send a link my way, it would be most appreciated <3
+ Bonus points will be added if there is a scene where Damian is resurrected and Danny decided to tag along. Cue confused batfam freaking out because oh god there's two of them now how did that happen.
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Jason carried a box into his room in the manor. He set it down with a huff, from frustration more than anything.
He was annoyed with Bruce. The man thought that Jason's emotions were getting the better of him, that he needed time to grieve properly. He said that Jason was being reckless.
Jason had been benched until further notice, with no regard for the fact that being Robin was Jason's way of coping. It gave him something to focus his anger and grief on other than himself.
It had been almost a month since that fateful night, that damn gala. He had been replaying the events of that night over and over in his head ever since.
He'd seen the ghost of his soulmate on the balcony. They had been right there in front of him, the beating of Jason's heart had been unmistakable. And yet, they had flown away into the night, not even acknowledging Jason.
The thing is, there's no way they didn't notice him. By the time they disappeared Jason's tattoo had been hammering at his wrist, there was just no way his soulmate didn't notice something like that, no matter how dense they might be.
Jason really wanted to believe that it was as simple as them not noticing, he really did, but it was hard to believe. Sure they were distracted the first time, saving Jason's life. He still didn't know how they had done that, or what they had even saved him from, but he just knew, they had done something.
But then there was the gala. That stupid fucking gala that had messed up every last ounce of self-worth that Jason had built over the months since his first encounter with his soulmate.
He'd been doing so well, he was so sure that his soulmate was waiting for him, that they wanted him to live his life to the fullest, even if he had to do it alone. That they would be there when the time was right.
And yet, when Jason had seen them at the gala, they were fully visible, fully corporeal. Hell, they had been talking with that girl, Sam, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. As if they hadn't crossed the line between living and dead to be there.
However impossible, they had been there, and they didn't care to even acknowledge Jason.
He did not know what he wanted to feel at this point.
One part of his mind, the one that remembered his training with Bruce, wanted to track down his soulmate. He had a good lead already, tracking down the Mansons would be a piece of cake, and he had a feeling that the couple would eagerly accept any excuse Jason could come up with for why he wanted to speak to their daughter. Sam had been with Jason's soulmate, she was his only lead.
But if he did meet them, then what? Did they even want to see him?
He didn't know, and that was the problem. The thought of finally meeting his soulmate, only to confirm his fear that they don't care to be close to him, feels worse than his current situation.
This way, he at least has hope.
Jason was confused. He was angry, both at Bruce and at his soulmate. He felt sorry at the same time, for being so angry at someone he had not even met. Why was he so angry when he had no idea why his soulmate was doing this? Were they even really avoiding him, or was there more to it that Jason was not aware of?
Jason had gone for a walk, needing to get away from the manor and clear his head. He'd ended up wandering around his old home in Crime Alley. Perhaps it was the comfort of knowing that outside of one single annual visit, Bruce never stepped foot in the Alley.
While there Jason was approached by an elderly lady, the one that had been living upstairs since before he was born. That's where he'd gotten the box from, she had managed to salvage and hold onto a few things from when his parents were alive and living downstairs.
Jason had dragged it back to the manor, not sure what he expected to find inside. Something he certainly had not been expecting was to find out his mother might be alive.
With how lonely Jason had been feeling for the past month, the idea that his mother was out there somewhere spurred him on. He was moving even before he fully knew what he wanted to do.
Jason would track down his mother. His soulmate could wait until after, they could wait for Jason to figure his shit out. He might even be able to get his mother's advice on things. Whoever she was, she couldn't be more emotionally constipated than Bruce.
With a newfound energy, Jason trudged down into the cave to start his mission. He had three women to track down, and once he found the right one he might finally stop feeling so alone.
When he returned home, it would be with his mother by his side. Then, maybe he could revisit the idea of tracking down Sam Manson. Jason had waited fifteen years, he could wait just a bit longer.
Only a few days later did Jason realize that he had chosen wrong, as he laid bleeding out on a warehouse floor. In his last moments, Jason desperately wished that they would come to save him once again. And yet, as he watched those damning numbers grow ever smaller, he didn't feel their presence at all.
The comforting cold that Jason had come to associate with his soulmate was nowhere to be found, their absence blaringly obvious in the sweltering heat.
He had a second to wonder if he was finally going to be united with his soulmate, or if they would be separated forever.
And then the timer reached zero.
A burning red pain exploded all around Jason before his vision faded to black, in a cruel mockery of the heart on his wrist.
Jason opened his eyes, to swirling green skies.
A heavy blanket of snow had settled over Amity Park. The winter season had become one of Danny's favorites over the past few years. This was his third winter since his half-death, the second since he awakened his ice core and learned to not only appreciate but truly thrive in the cold.
Sure winter brought with it his least favorite holiday, but it was hard to be angry about that while leisurely flying through the clouds, his home-town below him lit up by the festive lights that contrasted the darker nights.
But this year, winter also brought a stark reminder that time was passing much too quickly. All too soon the snow would melt and give way to spring, and then summer. Brighter times, as most people considered them.
Danny could not share that sentiment, as the next summer would put an unforgiving end to Danny's carefree days. Honestly, he's worked hard over the past year, connecting with and truly accepting his ghost half, learning more about the Infinite Realms, he had even started taking his title somewhat seriously.
A few weeks ago, Danny had even mustered up the courage to come clean to his parents about being Phantom. Clockwork had for once been benevolent, and had told Danny ahead of time that there were some things that would simply be unavoidable once he was crowned king. Certain traits, certain changes, to his ghost form. He had been assured that his human half would remain visibly unaffected as long as he wanted it to be, but the changes to his ghost half alongside all the new responsibilities he would need to shoulder, they had simply felt like too much.
It had been a long time coming, Danny had been considering telling his parents for a long time now. It would mean one less burden to carry, and having the support of his entire family would be a blessing. Especially considering Jazz had left for Yale that fall, Danny needed the support.
Perhaps the added comfort of having a home in the Infinite Realms which he could flee to in the worst case scenario had helped giving him that last push and finally telling them.
The conversation had gone about as well as you could expect, at least Danny's parents didn't immediately pull their guns on him. After a lengthy conversation explaining the concept of halfas, that he was still their son but with a few extra ghostly features, they had accepted him. Hesitantly so maybe, but they were willing to learn, to get to know this other side of him.
Fenton Works had been imbued with an awkward tension since then, as Jack and Maddie realized just how wrong their beliefs were, and the terrible way they had treated their son.
While Danny was eager to brush past all that his parents had unknowingly done to him over the past years, Jazz had informed him that that was a very unhealthy response to trauma. She would take any opportunity she could get to encourage him to have an open and honest conversation with their parents instead.
The advice, while probably very reasonable, was ignored.
It was hardly necessary, at this point the Fenton parents were bombarding Danny with apologies and support at every opportunity, and were teetering on overbearing. Not even Danny could pretend that they were anything but loving anymore.
He was so happy with their support, he didn't quite have it in him to ask them to stop. But it did get exhausting eventually, who knew that constantly being showered in praise by your parents could get old? Danny certainly would not have guessed so.
At least he could use the excuse that he had "ghost business" to take care of freely now to get away from their pestering. Ever since he embraced his role in the Realms, he had started using the excuse quite liberally. He was really enjoying not having to lie about where he was, even when he was just relaxing.
No more duplicates left in his room whenever Danny needed a late night flight to clear his head, he could just transform and leave. He only used his invisibility so Phantom wouldn't be seen coming and going from Fenton Works all the time.
His truce with his parents may have been noticed by the people of Amity, but that didn't mean he wanted to be seen seemingly visiting the Fenton's son every night.
So Danny would transform in his room, invisibly fly through the wall, then calmly soar through the night sky. If his parents noticed he was gone, they knew where he had gone. There was no reason for them to be overly worried either way, ghost attacks had become exceedingly rare, and there was little else that could pose any sort of threat to Danny. The GIW had even been forced to disband recently, it turns out they were no match for two angry Fenton parents. The lack of ghost attacks also meant that Danny actually had time to do his schoolwork, hang out with his friend, and still get a good amount of sleep on top of it.
All in all, Danny's half-life was going great. That was probably why his impending coronation felt so daunting. Danny had just gotten comfortable as crown prince, of course his peace would soon need to be broken. Being crowned king would come with a lot more power, authority, responsibilities. A whole bunch of things that Danny didn't want.
Honestly, he was already strong enough to go head to head with several of the ancients. He very much did not want to think about the implications of that, the point was he didn't need more power. He'd befriended, or at the very least formed some type begrudging alliance with nearly all of his old enemies, he didn't need the authority to order anyone around.
With his coronation fast approaching, and Danny realizing just how not human he was about to be, he came to a startling realization.
Danny had never felt so utterly alone before.
Danny loved his friends, he truly did, and he was so thankful that he'd been able to reconnect with his parents the way he had. He made frequent visits to Jazz's dorm at Yale. The siblings had both grown to depend on each others presence, if not for advice then just to have someone to vent at. But there were some things that none of his loved ones could understand, some things that just came so naturally to ghosts, yet were entirely foreign to humans.
Danny's friends and family were so happy for him, so proud, already so sure that he would be a great king. They told him he was the perfect person for the job, they said he was caring, strong, selfless, all traits of a true leader.
And yet, Danny didn't want to lead. The problem was, that as a half human Danny could see the logic. He knew, that a power as great as that of the King of the Infinite Realms was better off in the hands of someone who didn't want to use it. Great power, great responsibility, and all that.
But his ghost half rebelled against the idea.
When he first became a halfa Danny has assumed along with his friend that his special thing, the one purpose that kept him going through everything, was his need to protect. And had that been true, he might not have been so opposed to becoming king.
When the ghosts first started attacking, Danny had quickly realized how squishy and fragile living people are. He'd done everything he could to keep his friends out of harm's way, even as they chased after him to ensure he didn't forget to care for himself along the way.
But he had eventually realized that while he needed to protect his friends, it wasn't quite right. It wasn't his obsession.
Danny's constant need to protect his loved ones was simply that, the fact that he loved them and didn't want them to get hurt. It was a natural thing, something that the humans around Danny experienced too. Realizing all of a sudden how easily hurt his loved ones were had just made Danny's protective urges a bit more intense than before.
Of course Danny wanted to protect his loved ones, and he always would, but it didn't bring him any satisfaction beyond the simple relief that his loved ones were safe. A very human thing to feel.
No, what actually kept Danny going nowadays were these tranquil moments late at night. Gliding through the clouds slowly, arms crossed to support his head as he leaned back, facing the night sky.
Moments like this, where Danny got to be so close to the dream that could never be truly realized. Just him and the stars. He'd lay back and gaze up into the infinite space above him, the moon and the stars his only company. A small part of his core recognized other planets, too far away for Danny to see them, but aware that they were there nonetheless.
Danny loved Sam and Tucker dearly, but moments like this were something sacred, something that he didn't feel like anyone around him would truly understand. Sure his friends were happy to go stargazing with him, they had been doing so even before his death, but they couldn't understand just how important it had become to Danny since then.
Being so close to the stars made Danny's core hum in contentment, it was unlike anything else. It was unlike anything he had felt back when he was fully human, it was not something his human friends and family could comprehend.
And while Danny had allies in the Realms, some ghosts that he'd even go so far as to call friends, obsessions were an incredibly intimate thing to discuss. It was rarely a secret, since you could often tell what a ghosts obsession was within seconds of meeting them. Hell, Danny's ghost form had freckles that formed the shapes of actual constellations, it wasn't exactly a secret what made him tick.
But discussing your obsession intimately, getting into why that one thing meant so much to you, that was extremely personal territory. It wasn't something Danny could comfortably talk about with any of his ghost friends, they weren't nearly that close. And his human friends couldn't understand, no matter how hard they tried.
So instead, Danny took little moments like this to be my himself, just him and the infinitely expansive night sky. He'd float above the clouds lazily, mentally mapping out the stars, and feeling his core settle down.
Danny would not pretend though, that the thought of someone who could understand wasn't tempting. To have someone who he could confide in and tell everything, and simply be understood, it was incredibly enticing.
As his thoughts drifted in that direction once again Danny stopped drifting through the skies, sitting upright and raising his arms in front of him. He carefully rested his left wrist in his hand.
He pulled at the hem of his glove, the heart on his wrist illuminated by the moonlight as it comes into view.
It turned black a few days ago.
Perhaps it was testament to just how non-human Danny had become, but he did not feel nearly as sad as he thought he should be.
Danny had watched it happen, the heart had caught his eye right as the bright green faded. He'd felt it hum, not unlike the feeling in his core when he was flying under the stars.
He didn't know for sure what it meant. He had no source on this, how soul-marks worked once you were dead, but he could not help but believe that it meant his soulmate was not fully gone.
Most people simply moved on when they died. Even if their souls would eventually end up in some distant land, technically part of the Realms like everything else, they did not have cores or any other traits that the ghosts that occupied most of the Infinite Realms had. They were unreachable, even to someone like Danny.
And yet, Danny's mark had hummed just like a core. He had no way to know for sure what it meant, but some part of him just knew. His soulmate had come to the Infinite Realms.
Of course he was sad for their sake, that they would not get to live their life fully, that it had been cut unfairly short. Even when Danny had died, he was still somewhat alive afterwards. He found it hard to believe his soulmate had been given the same mercy.
No, his soulmate would become a full ghost. And while Danny's human half mourned them and the life that had been taken from them, his ghost half silently celebrated. His soulmate, his other half, they were the one person in any universe that was meant to understand Danny like no one else. And maybe they would actually be able to.
While Danny grieved his soulmate being robbed of their humanity, he swore to love them fully and truly, no matter what form they took.
Danny's soulmate had most likely assumed that he was dead all this time, all while Danny was sitting around unable to do anything to help them. Unable to talk to them, to reassure them that he was okay.
It was so incredibly unfair, and yet they had lived with it this whole time.
So he would make it up to them, in any way he could. Danny had no way of tracking down his soulmate, he did not know if his tattoo would even still beat after his death, but he would not stop looking until he found them. Even if it takes him an eternity.
Danny couldn't wait to learn all about his other half. To have someone to confide in who could truly understand, and to learn all there was to know about them in return.
He wondered if he would get to teach his recently deceased soulmate the ways of being a ghost, or if they would join his mentors in teaching him, all the things that seemed to come naturally to full ghosts.
He wanted to go flying with them, to show them the stars that he loved oh so much. He wanted to learn all about their obsession, what it was that meant so much to them that it had kept their soul from passing.
What led to them staying within Danny's reach?
For now, there was nothing he could do except wait. But Danny eagerly awaited the day that they would finally meet.
Until then, the thought of them would suffice, along with the subtle hum the heart on his wrist let out when he focused on it.
Maybe, being king would be bearable. If he had someone ruling alongside him, it might not be quite so lonely after all.
Jason was sitting quietly next to Bruce in the backseat of the car. They were just heading back from a gala, it was a night like any other.
1 Month ago
Bruce had noticed that Jason was being quiet, but that wasn't too unusual after a long night of socializing. He felt quite drained himself, and he was far more used to the empty conversations of social events like these than Jason.
The divider was up between them and the chauffeur, Bruce had insisted that Alfred did not need to drive them everywhere, he could take a night to himself while someone else could drive them to and from the gala.
While thinking back to this moment months later, Bruce would realize that Alfred not being there was likely the only reason Jason opened his mouth to begin with.
"I saw my soulmate today."
Bruce glanced over at the boy, unsure. I was meant to be a happy occasion, he would have understood if Jason had wished to stay at the gala longer. But he could not remember seeing him talk to anyone for any extended amount of time throughout the whole night.
Perhaps Bruce's confusion was visible, or maybe Jason had learned more from him than Bruce thought, because without needing to be prompted he clarified,
"I saw them, and I felt the heart beat, I'm sure of it. But we didn't meet, they left before I could talk to them."
Bruce frowned, that made some sense at least. Though uncommon, it was not unheard of for one to be distracted and miss the beating of the heart. If Jason's soulmate missed it, there were plenty of solutions. Bruce thought he knew what Jason was getting at now,
"That's alright, you know we can track them down no problem back at the cave. I can get the guestlist and we'll go from there..."
He trailed off as Jason shook his head,
"I don't think they'll be on the list."
Multiple scenarios ran through Bruce's head.
Maybe Jason's soulmate had snuck into the gala, or they could have been using a fake name.
Letting Bruce stew on that piece of information for just a moment, Jason slowly lifted his wrist and shakily pulled back his sleeve.
Bruce felt his heart stop at the sight. The tattoo was pitch black.
How long had it been like that? Jason didn't seem to be shaken by the color of it at all, which would suggest that it had been like that before tonight. How long had Bruce gone without noticing?
Come to think of it, when was the last time Bruce saw Jason wear short sleeves? His gloves conveniently covered his wrists when he was Robin, and at any other occasion Jason would only wear longer sleeves, even in the middle of summer.
Some father Bruce was, not even noticing that his own son had lost his other half before even meeting them. As Bruce's world already felt like it was collapsing around him, Jason's next words shook him to his very core.
"It's been like this for two years now."
Two years?
Bruce felt like he might be sick. Had he truly been that unobservant? He was supposed to be the world's greatest detective, yet he hadn't noticed such a tragedy befalling his own son?
Jason glanced over at him, looking weirdly closed off (when had that happened?) as he asked him for one last thing.
"Please don't tell Alfred, he'll pretend he's fine but he was crushed when he found out. I don't wanna give him false hope."
Ah, so that was it.
Jason hadn't become closed off, Bruce had been so stupidly absorbed in his work that he'd neglected his son. Jason had confided in Alfred, knowing that the old man was far better equipped to comfort him. He was only telling Bruce now because he needed to tell someone what had happened, but he didn't want to upset Alfred.
Bruce was the second choice, because from Jason's perspective there was no reason to believe Bruce would be hurt by the revelation. He wondered, what else had he failed to notice about his own son?
Unable to come up with words that could adequately express his thoughts, Bruce merely hummed in acceptance. This was a delicate situation, if he tried to come up with the right words in the spur of the moment he'll just end up putting his foot in his mouth. He would sit down and have a proper talk with Jason soon, once he has had time to think everything through.
He failed to find the right moment, as Jason's emotions spiralled and eventually started reflecting in his work as Robin. Bruce benched Jason temporarily to give him time to process everything properly.
Of course, Jason did not see it that way. He went on a mission on his own, to track down his mother. Bruce would chase after him, and he would repeat that same mistake of telling Jason to wait.
As he rushes back to that godforsaken warehouse with his heart in his throat he realizes what a fool he's been.
He curses his mistake.
He feels almost entirely numb as he watches the warehouse blow up.
He runs as if on autopilot as he rushed through the rubble.
He grips the body of his son, knowing deep down that it's already too late. He checks for a pulse anyway, and finds none. The body was already turning cold in his arms.
Bruce knew then, that he would regret his inaction and disregard for his son for the rest of his life. He knew that it would haunt him in every waking moment, it would be replayed in his mind every time he rested. He had been so foolish.
Bruce vows to never fail a son like this again.
Just a few days later he sends a message to Dick Grayson. Even through his grief, he recognizes that he deserves to know what has happened to his younger brother.
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After taking a week to fully plan out just how I wanna tell the next few chapters, and to recover my will to write, part 4 is finally coming along nicely.
I've had enough intimate experiences with burnout in my life to know how to avoid it. After publishing parts 1 and 2 I was eager to start the next parts immediately, but after part 3 I felt completely done.
I know that feeling, so I spent a few days not even thinking about writing. I've learned that taking some time off before the burnout fully hits helps tons, preventing is more efficient that simply suffering through it, who would have thought :')
I make it sound simple now, but this is something I've slowly learned to handle over many years of my motivation being an unpredictable rollercoaster.
So yup, my story will never have a set schedule, because I will be taking breaks when I need them, or else I'll never finish. But I'm back on track with part 4 for now, and I'm expecting to publish it before Friday, as I will be leaving for the weekend :)
Looking forward to sharing it with everyone, the support has been amazing :D
i love the soulmate au!!! its such a cute concept and the way youre portraying both povs is so perfect :D
Thank youuuuu! :D I'm so happy people enjoy the concept so much, I was worried since I kinda just made it up. I read through a few lists of different Soulmate AU ideas but none of them felt right, so I just made my own and I'm so relieved it turned out well :)
I love playing around with POVs, I think it's really fun to get different characters perspectives of things. It can easily turn repetitive, so it probably won't be as prominent once the boys officially meet, but for now I'm having a lot of fun writing the POVs :]
In this AU everyone is born with a tiny red heart tattooed on the inside of their wrist. If you're close to your soulmate the heart will beat, and when you meet them the heart turns to gold. If your soulmate dies, the heart will fade to black.
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One thing that Jason hated about being the adopted son of Bruce Wayne was when he had to accompany the man to galas and other public events.
Bruce was very understanding, he would let Jason stay back home for most of the events he attended, but as Bruce's son Jason could only skip out on so many events before people started asking questions.
Granted, there was no reason why Jason was skipping out other than that he simply did not want to go, but the fewer people asking questions the better.
And so, Jason begrudgingly dressed up in a disgustingly expensive suit, put on a fake smile and pretended to be someone he was not to the faces of the same people who would turn their noses up at him as soon as they thought he, and more importantly Bruce, couldn't see.
It was exhausting to be honest, but Jason understood why it was necessary. These people were like bloodhounds when it came to sniffing out drama and gossip. If they got even the slightest hint that there was something weird going on in Wayne Manor they would not rest until they found something.
Of course their secret night-time activities were better hidden than that, but it was better not to give the socialites a reason to suspect anything in the first place.
Still, after nearly an hour of just wandering around exchanging fake smiles and empty small talk Jason was getting bored.
He headed over towards the refreshments, hoping to bring his energy back up even just a little bit.
As he made his way over, Jason took note of a girl who looked to be around his age, wearing a black and purple dress. She seemed to be inspecting some of the available appetizers with an odd intensity.
Jason silently walked up next to her, sure to keep a polite amount of space between them as he picked up one of the fancy foods that looked good enough for him.
He turned to look at the girl who still appeared to be judging the table, from this angle he could see she was wearing quite dark makeup, and more eyeliner than half the women in the room put together. He thought it suited her well.
She must have sensed his eyes on her, because she stopped her judging of the food and turned to meet his gaze instead, one eyebrow quirked in a silent question.
Jason tried for a casual, friendly tone as he spoke,
"Is something wrong with the food? Or did that one sandwich just happen to offend you?"
The girl gave him a weird look, but shook her head,
"No, just hoped there would be more options, there's meat on almost everything."
Jason looked back at the table, and she was right. The vegetarian options were quite limited.
Before he could think of something to say the girl sighed and turned to face away from the table,
"Whatever, it's not like I was that hungry anyway, just wanted something to do before I die of boredom."
As Jason quickly finished his own appetizer he smirked at her,
"Now that is something I can relate to. If I have to pretend to care about the weather one more time tonight I swear my brain will melt."
The girl let out a short huff of laughter than sounded like it agreed with him, which Jason took as a victory. Look at him go, actually having a somewhat friendly conversation at one of these events. Who would have thought?
The girl seemed to have the same thoughts, as she reached out a hand towards him,
"It's nice to know someone here has some sense. I'm Sam Manson."
Jason shook her hand with a smile,
"Jason Wayne"
Sam had a mischievous smile on her face as she answered,
"Oh I know, even if I didn't recognize you I could have guessed by the looks my parents are sending me."
Jason looked to the side discreetly until his eyes landed on a middle aged couple that were sending twin icy glares their way. He recognized a few people in their circle as some of the more influential guests in attendance tonight, and was sure that had that not been the case they would be rushing over to fetch their daughter.
He turned back as Sam continued,
"They definitely think I'm bothering you, talking about boring things like environmentalism or animal cruelty. Suppose I should go bat my eyelashes at some other rich guy that can talk about important things like his own money for a full hour."
She sent him a pained grimace as she started backing away, and Jason laughed sympathetically,
"Best of luck with that, it was nice meeting you Sam."
She nodded at him with a smile,
"You too Jason."
Then she walked away, soon getting absorbed into a circle of people to join a conversation Jason was sure was absolutely riveting.
He let out a short sigh, steeling himself before he walked off in another direction, doing the same thing.
When Sam said that she was dying of boredom, she was being polite.
She was regretting agreeing to come to this stupid gala by now.
When her parents had first asked Sam to attend with them she hadn't even heard them out before she turned them down, which they knew to expect.
That was definitely why they had immediately dropped the bomb that the gala was happening in Gotham of all places.
They knew exactly how badly Sam wanted to visit the city, the Gothic architecture speaking to her soul. While her parents didn't necessarily approve of her love for the dark and gloomy, they sure knew how to use it to their advantage.
With the added promise that she'd have plenty of free time after the gala to properly experience the city, she was sold.
Sam had even compromised with her mother when it came to her dress. Her mother wanted her in a pink and poofy abomination of a dress, while Sam insisted on her usual black.
They had met somewhere in the middle for once, the dress having none of the pink, but a lot of the poof. Since she'd had to choose between sacrificing color or shape, Sam would have to live with the inconvenient skirt, it was far better than the slimmer pastel pink dress her mother had tried to get her into. And the dress even had purple accents, that was close enough to pink.
After Sam reminded her parents that darker colours would probably suit the theme better than pink, they had agreed. She had even been able to sneakily put on some makeup in her usual style.
Considering both the setting and her attire, this was overall one of the more bearable galas Sam had attended.
But after having enough bland small talk to last her a lifetime in the span of one night she was ready to gouge her own eyes out.
She'd had the one short encounter with one Jason Wayne, who was very down to earth for being the son of the richest man there. Though, she supposed given his background that was to be expected.
She wasn't complaining, even just one conversation that didn't melt her brain was an accomplishment in her book. Unfortunately, she knew by the looks her parents sent her that the longer she kept 'bothering' a Wayne the more she'd have to pay for it later.
So she had grumpily walked away, engaging in a few more basic conversations as she went. She knew that most people in attendance didn't pay her much mind. The rebellious daughter of one of the less stinking rich families there, she didn't exactly have a lot of pull.
Good, she would prefer they not acknowledge her at all to be honest.
Eventually though, Sam gave in and snuck her phone out to text her friends for a distraction. Tucker was unhelpful like expected, happy to laugh at her suffering. She sent a vaguely threatening text his way, which had the desired effect of shutting him up.
Luckily, Sam had at least one friend that could sympathise with her. Maybe it was due to Danny's new responsibilities as prince, he was suddenly much more understanding about having to put up with high society.
Danny: you want me to swoop in and save you yet? :P
Sam: at this point i'd take a rogue attacking us over staying here any longer.
Tucker: you know saying that shit in gotham is just asking for trouble
Sam: I swear I'm gonna do it, fucking watch me.
Tucker: aight lemme just hack into the cameras real quick
Danny: can we try not to provoke Fate more than necessary? that's gonna become my problem soon :(
Sam: Yes we know, it's very sad. You know what else is sad? The things I'm about to do to the next old geezer that tells me to smile :)
Danny: alright let's not resort to murder maybe. omw.
Sam: Murder would be the kind option, I'm not feeling kind.
But also not a great idea, if my parents see me leave I'm dead.
Danny: easy solution, they won't see you leave
meet me outside in 20
there is a balcony, right? or else this is awkward
After assuring her friend that there was indeed a balcony, Sam slowly made her way outside. She only got caught up in a few short conversations on her way, and before too long she was stepping out into the chilly fall air.
She leaned against the railing, looking out over the Gotham skyline. The heavy pollution of the city made truly fresh air hard to come by, but at least it was pleasantly brisk outside. It certainly helped Sam wake her mind up after too much time spent in brain-dead conversation.
She shifted her gaze down to the cityscape spread out below her, well aware that she wouldn't see Danny coming. He would probably be flying invisibly before he even crossed the state border just to be safe. The last thing he wanted was Batman's attention.
Danny had slowly been coming to terms with the fact that he would inevitably meet some members of the Justice League at some point, especially once he became king, but for now he was doing everything he could to stay off their radar.
At this point nobody in Amity wanted the JLA involved anymore, most people understood that the heroes were not properly equipped for the town at all, and considering the fact that the most likely outcome of the JLA showing up now was Phantom having to deal with a possessed Superman, the people of Amity Park were happy to keep the other heroes out of it.
The attacks had significantly died down over the past year anyway, as Danny came more to terms with his ghostly side. When the accident first happened he had been trying desperately to cling onto his humanity and deny most of his ghostliness, which had led to him not fully understanding the other ghosts.
Once Danny accepted that he wasn't fully human anymore, and that he was still the same person despite that fact, he had started learning more about his other half.
Turns out, in a dimension where all the residents are unkillable (since they're already dead) duking it out in a friendly brawl is considered normal. Once Danny learned about this, he'd started visiting the Realms more often.
He visited regularly to fight it out with his old rogues, to pay his less violent allies a visit, and in general just learn more about the culture.
It was during one such friendly visit that Danny had learned about the rules of conquest in the Infinite Realms. Upon defeating Pariah Dark he had immediately earned the title of Crown Prince, and was to be crowned King once he was of age.
Hadn't that been an unpleasant surprise? Danny rarely went more than a day without complaining about his future position.
As Sam was lost in thought, the cold bite in the air reminded her, it was already fall. The council had agreed to let Danny wait until the summer after he turned sixteen to be crowned.
His birthday had been a few weeks back, which meant there was less than a year left.
Sam was simultaneously sympathetic for her friend, since he clearly didn't want the title and the infinite power that came with it, but also incredibly proud of him.
Had it been anyone else receiving such a position she would have worried about what all that power would do to that person.
She did not have that worry when it came to Danny, that was what made him so incredible in her eyes. Only Danny could be handed the key to infinite power on a silver platter, and want to pass it on to someone else.
She realized her thoughts had started wandering like they usually did when she thought about her friend for too long, but she couldn't help it.
Two years ago Sam had been in love with Danny, and though they'd come to the joint decision that it was better far for them to stay friends, that didn't mean Sam's admiration for her friend would go away.
She had simply learned to love him as her best friend instead. Not that it had been easy, but Danny had been understanding. Had it not been for the fact that they both had their own soulmates somewhere out there waiting for them they might have tried harder at making a relationship work, but it simply wasn't meant to be.
After emotions had settled a bit they had grown all the closer for it, a new sort of understanding between them.
Finally, after Sam had been standing there reminiscing for nearly ten minutes, she felt a familiar comforting chill in the air next to her, and just a second later Danny faded into view leaning casually against the railing next to her with a shit-eating grin on his face,
"Sorry to keep you waiting, traffic was awful on the way here."
Sam pointedly rolled her eyes at Danny's usual dry humor, but let go of the railing to face him instead,
"Let's leave quickly, my parents have definitely noticed I'm missing and I'd rather not be here if they come looking."
Danny let out out a quick "Yes ma'am", wrapping one arm around her waist, fumbling for a second trying to find her legs through the stupid poofy skirt. Sam sighed is exasperation and pulled at her dress to get it out of the way,
"Unfortunately it was this or bright pink, so we'll have to live with the extra skirts."
This time, Danny easily scooped her up bridal style, the skirt bunched up in Sam's lap. Had this been two years ago there would have been a fluttering feeling in her chest, but that was then, and Sam had long since gotten over those feelings. Instead, she just sighed when he quirked an eyebrow at her,
"Live?"
Sam smacked him in the shoulder,
"You know what I meant, now get going ghost boy."
Danny, used to Sam's dismissal of his jokes by now, did as she said and lifted off the ground slowly, letting his invisibility wash over the both of them, and then he was off into the night sky.
They'd have to return to Sam's hotel room before her parents, but that wouldn't happen for at least a few more hours.
Until then, an aerial tour of Gotham didn't sound too bad.
Jason had quickly grown bored of the dull conversations again.
He carefully excused himself from the older woman who was talking his ear off, and tried to act like he had a destination in mind as he walked away.
He ended up taking refuge in a corner that was conveniently covered, he doubted anyone would notice him staying back there for a few minutes as he took a breather.
However, after only a moment of taking cover, he spotted a familiar figure across the room. The one person he'd had a bearable conversation with during the night was walking out onto the balcony.
He considered it for a minute. He didn't want to intrude if Sam was trying to get some time to herself like him, but he also thought she had seemed to appreciate a normal human to talk to just as much as him. Surely she wouldn't mind his company too much?
Mind made up, Jason decided that he could use some fresh air himself and started slowly making his way over.
He took his time walking over, stopping to suffer through one more conversation on the way as he allowed some time to pass. He didn't want to rush after Sam the moment she walked away on her own and risk coming across wrong, he just wanted some air and decent conversation, damn it.
Maybe he could ask her about the environment to break the ice, it had been the first example she gave of a topic she supposedly liked to talk about, so she must have some interest in it. Jason wasn't overly excited by the topic, but it was sure to be more interesting than anything else being talked about in the room.
Maybe he could test the waters and see if Sam was interested in books at all, that might actually wake him up. She seemed like a person who would enjoy a good book. Maybe they could exchange recommendations.
Spurred on by the lure of talking to someone who both didn't care who his dad was and had more to talk about than business, Jason once again made his way towards the balcony after a few more minutes.
As Jason walked out into the pleasantly chilly air, he stopped short as soon as he laid eyes on Sam.
She wasn't alone.
That wouldn't be a problem on it's own obviously, they'd had one short conversation, Jason really didn't care who she talked to.
No, the problem was exactly who she was with.
Jason couldn't see the stranger's face, as both of them had their backs turned his way. All Jason could make out from behind were a pair of fully black cargo pants and a black hoodie with some white highlights. They matched the shock of white hair on their head, it was so bright it may have been glowing. Actually, the stranger's whole body appeared to be giving off a faint glow.
Jason was confused, he was pretty damn sure this stranger had not been at the gala. So how the hell had they gotten to the balcony?
Jason stuck to the shadows as he snuck closer, trying to get a better look.
He was stopped short after just a few more steps.
There was no way.
Feeling a strange sense of déjà vu, Jason shakily pulled at the sleeve of his suit jacket.
The heart was beating again.
Jason's brain fumbled with the different pieces of the puzzle.
His soulmate was nearby, and the only people close enough were Sam and the newcomer. He'd had a whole conversation with Sam earlier, and his tattoo had firmly remained still. He remembers shaking her hand, and his tattoo stayed mockingly black.
But now it was beating, and there was only one other person present.
A person who had an oddly inhuman look about them.
Jason thought back to the last time he'd felt his tattoo move. He had been sure that he'd been saved by the ghost of his soulmate.
His soulmate had been dead for two years, yet they were standing in front of him. But they did not look like a.. regular person. Or a living person, rather.
Was his soulmate really a ghost? If so, how were they here?
And why were they here talking to someone other than Jason?
When his soulmate had saved him from.. something.. Jason had been sure that they came to him specifically to protect him. He'd taken comfort, in the fact that his other half had done something so impossible, had crossed the line between life and death just to save him. To give Jason something they didn't get, a life to live.
As Jason fumbles, not knowing what to do but knowing he should do something, anything, the pair in front of him move. The stranger smoothly picked Sam up bridal style after a short struggle with her skirt. Jason has barely a second to hurriedly walk towards them before gravity seems to disregard the pair, and they float upward slowly before fading from sight completely.
Jason's breath catches in his throat, and he knows they're gone because the pleasant chill that had enveloped him the moment he walked onto the balcony goes with them, and all that remains is the biting cold of the fall weather.
So, floating away and turning invisible, they sure seem like the traits of a ghost. But really, what did he expect? Jason's soulmate was dead, there was no other explanation.
No, what bothered him, was that Jason had spent one year thinking he would never get to meet his soulmate, then another thinking he'd have to wait for the afterlife to meet them. That had been some comfort, he'd live the life his soulmate wanted him to, then they'd be united when it was time.
But his soulmate had been there. Fully visible, corporeal, and they had been there to meet someone else. Did Jason not matter to them, the way they did to Jason?
Jason had felt the heart on his wrist beat before they had flown off, so surely his soulmate's heart did the same. And yet, they had simply left without sparing Jason even a glance.
Jason slowly walked over to where his soulmate had been standing mere moments ago, using the railing to steady himself as he looked out over Gotham. His soulmate was out there somewhere, in the same city, and yet Jason had no way to reach them.
Feeling more alone than he's felt in many years, Jason just stands there. He sheds no physical tears, but the cityscape grows blurry in front of him as his eyes grow misty. He doesn't let a single sound escape his lips, ignoring the cries lodged in his throat.
But inside, the cries of his heart resounds through his entire being as he grieves the loss of his soulmate once again.
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In this AU everyone is born with a tiny red heart tattooed on the inside of their wrist. If you're close to your soulmate the heart will beat, and when you meet them the heart turns to gold.
If your soulmate dies, the heart will fade to black.
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CW: Brief mention of suicidal thoughts, take care everyone!
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Danny is 15 years old when he's informed that he is the crown prince of the Infinite Realms. He would have loved it if someone had had the decency to explain that the title of Ghost King would be passed down through right of conquest sometime before he fought Pariah Dark. If not that, couldn't someone at least have said something a bit sooner?
Now Danny had been faced with the information that he was ghost royalty out of nowhere, and that's just not something he was prepared to deal with on a random Tuesday afternoon.
As Danny paces the length of his bedroom he chooses to ignore Tucker's pointed reminder of "It's a Wednesday."
Instead of responding, he shoots a tiny ecto-blast at where his friend is lounging in the beanbag, which is easily dodged. Not that it would have hit, whenever Danny was aiming at one of his human friends me made sure to channel his dad and aim almost a full foot away from them, just to be safe.
He may be annoyed with Tucker's lack of sympathy about his situation, but he would never purposefully hurt him. Still, a warning shot when Tucker got extra cheeky wouldn't hurt anyone.
The other boy let out an affronted squawk as he dodged the blast, but wisely stayed silent after that.
Danny continued his pacing for another moment, but before he could start his frustrated rambling again Sam spoke up from Danny's bed, she hadn't even looked up from her phone for the whole time Danny had been ranting.
"It's not that big of a deal Danny, the council have been dealing with things just fine up until now, I'm sure they'll handle things until you're ready."
It was true, he knew that the council would continue to run the realms, and allow Danny to ease into the role.
The thing was, he was hoping that "ready" would mean he was at least of legal age. But no, ghosts saw time and age differently of course, they were satisfied as long as he was at least sixteen. Which he would turn in a few months.
In a desperate attempt to postpone the coronation (because Danny was not ready to become king of an infinite dimension yet, holy shit) he had convinced the council that it would be in their best interest to wait until the summer after Danny turned sixteen.
Danny still had to go to school after all, and the thought of having one measly weekend to be crowned before having to return to the halls of Casper High was not one that excited him.
The council had agreed to wait until summer. Danny wasn't overly happy that he'd still only have two months to adjust, but he'd take what he could get at this point.
He was not looking forward to starting his junior year, to say the least.
As if his looming coronation wasn't enough, now that Danny was aware of his title as crown prince, he suddenly had a bunch of new responsibilities. Supposedly, it was to prepare him for being king. Danny found it tedious at best, but he hadn't found a way to get out of it so far.
Luckily, as long as no ghost caused too much trouble Danny didn't have much to worry about.
----------
A ghost was causing too much trouble, enough that Danny got called in to deal with it.
At first he'd been salty that he had to ditch Sam and Tucker last minute for some stupid job that surely someone else could do. But once he heard what the job was, he was for once glad that he was dealing with it himself.
The situation was delicate, and Danny wouldn't trust a lot of ghost to handle it carefully enough.
An annoying ghost whose name Danny hadn't bothered to fully remember (Wi.. Fin.. Vin..ca.. something or other, not important) had decided to head to the human realm to take revenge for their death.
Now, if Danny tried to stop every ghost that ever tried to avenge their own death he'd never get to rest. A ghost's death was such a personal matter too, Danny didn't feel like he had any right to step in and say what's right or wrong for them to do.
So, in nearly all cases he stayed out of it. A lot of ghosts were happy to avenge their deaths in non-violent ways. Some time spent haunting their murderer, scaring them shitless, and most ghosts were satisfied. Not enough to move on, revenge was rarely enough for that, but enough to exist peacefully in the Realms.
That was all fine in Danny's book, but this particular ghost (Danny mentally dubbed them "Vi" when he failed to remember their full name) had decided that violence was the only answer.
The thing was, they blamed the wrong people. Vi had been a citizen of Gotham when they were alive, and they got caught up in some bad business. That had eventually led to their death.
It wasn't any one person's fault, but Vi blamed the Gotham vigilantes. From what Danny knew, Vi had been running away from said vigilantes, not wanting to be arrested, and had died because they were too focused on avoiding the vigilantes to pay attention to their surroundings.
The details of their death beyond that was not something Danny knew, he had listened to the necessary details from Clockwork before he left, but he didn't like learning exactly how other ghosts died unless they tell him themselves, it felt too personal.
All he needed to know was, the actions of the Gotham vigilantes had indirectly caused Vi's death, so they were on their way to Gotham to take revenge. That was bad, on so many levels.
The absolute last thing Danny needed was The Batman getting interested in ghosts. Danny had done a great job of managing without his or anyone else's help so far, and he really didn't want them poking their noses into his business now.
That was why Danny was speeding towards Gotham City, hoping to get there before Vi managed to track down a vigilante, as he was sure they didn't have any ways to defend themselves against ghosts.
After flying at nearly top speed for half an hour, Danny finally arrived. Not that long if you think about it, but plenty of time for a vengeful ghost to track down their targets.
With no better method, Danny started flying laps around the city, hoping his ghost sense would go off eventually.
His ghost sense remained quiet, but he found something better.
Batman himself, was right there fighting off a group of thugs. It was a small group of people for a skilled fighter like Batman to take on, he didn't really need backup. Which probably meant, the bird was somewhere nearby..
And yup! Standing on a rooftop close by keeping lookout was Robin.
This was neat, two vigilantes in the same location, now Danny could just stay here and keep guard until Vi showed themselves.
Danny hovered over Batman's fight invisibly, realizing how lucky he was that the man was unaware of his existence, and had no access to ecto-powered weapons. Danny shivered just at the thought.
Now that he was thinking about it, Batman was surrounded by a lot of people. A lot of them were probably innocent people, pulled into this business by a lack of better opportunities. Just like Vi.
And if Vi was here only for revenge, surely they wouldn't risk other people suffering the same fate as them. If they attacked Batman now, any one of the thugs could get caught in the crossfire.
Would Vi just wait it out until Batman was alone? It didn't make a lot of sense. Surely they would act soon, but Batman was surrounded, and Robin was.. Robin was alone!
Danny turned around in a panic as a cold shiver ran through his body.
Shit
He shot off towards Robin at high speed. Now that he had sensed them he could tell where they were (two seconds) Vi was heading right for Robin, their claws out and ready to strike (one second), they were just about to make contact, barely an inch away from Robin, when Danny crashed into them, phasing them both harmlessly through the vigilante and flying them far, far away in the blink of an eye. His heart was drumming so hard in his chest, (he could feel it all the way through his arms, wow) he didn't realize his heart could beat that hard in ghost form, he assumed his core would take over.
Maybe it was just testament to how stressed out Danny was.
That had been too close.
He had barely a moment to rest, as Vi broke out of his hold angrily.
"Foolish boy, do not get in the way of my revenge again."
Vi tried to fly away to try again, but Danny formed an ecto-barrier around them to keep them put.
"Not gonna happen, you're targeting two innocent people."
Vi hissed at him with frustration,
"You know not what you speak of, fool. Those killers parading around as heroes caused my unfair demise, and I shall have reve-"
At that point Danny decided he'd heard enough, it was a school night and he had to get going, so he grabbed the thermos from his belt and sucked Vi into it mid-spiel. He'd heard that same speech enough times to know how it goes.
Robin still alive, Batman unaware of ghosts existing, Crisis averted, and Danny would still make it home with enough time to get a half-decent nights sleep. Things were looking up.
---------
Jason is 14 years old. It's been a year since his soulmate died.
He's gotten good at pretending it doesn't affect him anymore. After that first night where Jason let himself properly cry in Alfred's arms, neither of them had spoken about the matter again. Alfred made it a point to treat Jason exactly the same as before, knowing that if he were to act extra careful as to not upset the boy it would have the opposite effect.
Alfred was great like that, always noticing and remembering things but knowing when not to bring them up.
He pretended not to notice that Jason never wore short sleeved shirts anymore.
When he found Jason huddled away in the library he pretended not to notice how many more romance novels the boy was reading compared to before.
During the darkest nights, when Jason silently wishes he could go join his soulmate wherever they had ended up, Alfred was there without fail. He didn't speak of the things he knew Jason was thinking about, whether it was as to not make Jason uncomfortable or because Alfred himself didn't dare say it out loud, he didn't know.
But he was there, every time.
And when Jason realized it had been a full year since his soulmate died, Alfred was there as a silent support, just a moment away should Jason need him yet never intruding.
If Bruce notices that anything has happened to Jason, he hasn't bothered to ask about it yet. Jason isn't sure if he prefers it that way or not.
On one hand, he doesn't like the idea of Bruce butting into his personal business, the man had never been great with emotions.
But the realization that his father-figure didn't even know what he was going through had Jason wanting to burst into Bruce's study and tell him everything, if even just to get a reaction out of him.
It had been a year, but so far he hadn't said anything.
--------
When Jason is out on the streets of Gotham, the mask of Robin is always a nice barrier to hide behind. He'll lock his emotions up tight in the back of his mind and cover them up with the veil of an unbothered vigilante who had far better things to worry about.
This night he's standing on a rooftop, keeping a lookout as Bruce deals with a group of thugs. The group was small enough that Bruce would have no trouble at all dealing with them, and Jason's time would be better spent keeping an eye out for anyone trying to slink away unnoticed by the bat.
It had been an uneventful few minutes, watching Bruce dispose of the thugs as all of them kept rushing him, not a single one having the bright idea that whatever payout they were promised wasn't worth sticking around anymore.
Then, Jason felt a shiver run up his spine. He felt like he was being watched. It was a foreboding feeling, like something was going to jump at him any moment.
He spun around, quickly assessing his surroundings, but he found nothing out of place.
The feeling did not go away though, only growing more insistent.
And then in the blink of an eye, a gust of wind picks up around Jason as the feeling of danger flares, and Jason is sure he is about to die right there.
In the next second, the wind turns cold, and Jason could swear he saw his breath fog in front of him for a moment. Yet he doesn't feel even the slightest bit frozen.
The cold passes through him impossibly fast, and with it the feeling of danger vanishes, and so between one blink and another Jason is left standing there dumbfounded at what just happened.
He hadn't imagined it, that feeling of danger was nothing concrete but it had been clear as day in Jason's mind.
The wind was definitely real too, he'd felt it rustle his hair as it passed by.
And the biggest piece of evidence he wasn't going crazy, was the small piece of frost on the ground around Jason's feet. He took a step away from it experimentally, and it quickly faded. But it had been there.
The biggest mystery of the night though, the part of this whole thing that shook Jason to his core, was his wrist.
He raised his wrist and pulled back his glove to check, because there was no way he was actually feeling what he thought he was.
But right there, the tiny black heart that was stuck to his wrist as a permanent reminder of what he could have had, was carefully beating in an excruciatingly slow rhythm. Slow, faint, but real.
Jason lost track of time as he stood there, just watching the heart on his wrist beating slower and slower, until it stopped and refused to move again.
For the first time in a year, Jason feels a dangerous sliver of hope sneak it's way into his heart.
It can't be.
But there was no other explanation.
Jason had been in danger, but some unknown force, one that brought an overwhelming feeling of safe with it had saved him.
And his tattoo was telling him his soulmate had been there.
Jason couldn't think of a better explanation than that the one who saved him was a spirit, or ghost of some kind. It sounded ridiculous.
He looks back at his wrist, gently stroking his fingers over the tattoo as the considers it.
It seemed like a ghost saved him.
His soulmate had been there.
His soulmate who was dead.
Jason felt silly for entertaining the thought, but he couldn't help but want to believe it. That tonight he had been about to die, and the spirit of his soulmate had protected him.
He took that realization and stored it away with the rest of his emotions. He didn't know how to feel about it.
He knew, that for the past year his grief had made him consider some terrible things. But how could he possibly want to go join his soulmate now, when they'd done the impossible and appeared next to him for even just a moment, to save his life.
Jason decided then, that no matter what happened, he was going to live. The sadness may never fully go away, by he would live the life he had been given, and his soulmate would simply have to wait until Jason was ready to join them.
With a lighter conscience than he's had in a year, Jason grapples away from the roof and heads back home, a tiny hint of a smile on his face.
First of all, I wanna say that my Soulmate AU was originally only meant to be a short drabble, but I now have the next three chapters planned out, and there's still so much more to be done after those chapters. I'm excited to start writing them!
That's the only update I have, the rest of this is just gonna be me rambling a bit :)
Soo, I'm Lei.
I've always loved writing, and I've written a few fanfics before, but for the past few years I've struggled with a lack of inspiration for my typical stories. I realized I hadn't written for Danny Phantom for quite a while, even though it was the first fandom I was ever in.
I'm one of the people on here who hasn't read any DC comics, though I'm looking into starting sometime in the future. I fell in love with the DC characters by reading crossovers, and after a few months of lurking, two days ago I decided to post a few short drabbles on here, just for fun.
I love ao3, but writing the scenes I want without the pressure of having to flesh out a whole story around them has been amazing so far. Don't misunderstand, I'm fully dedicated to my Soulmate AU story now, but I'll write it at my own pace :)
Anyways, the main thing I wanted to do other than give a quick update about my AU is say that I am so surprised with the response.
I know that in the grand scale of things my numbers are inconsequential, but I was kind off expecting my silly little stories to go unnoticed in the sea of amazing content in this fandom.
I'm humbled by the kind words I've gotten, and I'm so happy for every like I get. I guess over the years of basically forcing myself to write a story I wasn't inspired by anymore I kinda forgot the joy of writing something just for the heck of it, then waking up to seeing that I was able to bring a tiny piece of joy to the lives of several hundred people.
Don't mind me getting sentimental, I'm just realizing as I type this that writing is my true passion in life and I'm rediscovering my love for it.
Anyway, thank you so much for the support on my writing, I'm so so happy that people have been enjoying it! You can expect an update tomorrow or the day after, I can't wait to share it with you! :D
Everyone has a soulmate. They can be either romantic or platonic, and the intensity of the bond varies, but everyone has a soulmate.
According to every person that has met their soulmate, the feeling of finally finding your special someone is unmistakable.
But to help you along, everyone is also born with a tiny red heart tattooed on the inside of their wrist. The heart beats if you're close to your soulmate, and when you meet them the tattoo turns golden.
It is also known, that when your soulmate dies the heart fades to black, and won't ever beat again.
Now insert Danny and Jason into this scenario.
This turned sadder than I intended it to be :')
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Next part | Masterpost
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Danny has a heart on his wrist like everyone else, and he has all but confirmed that his soulmate doesn't live in Amity, which he's secretly very happy about.
The thing is, Danny dies when he's 14 years old. Sure he comes back to life afterwards, but the damage is done. He'd looked into it to make sure, there are cases of someone very briefly passing away before being resuscitated. In each of these cases, their soulmate's tattoo would fade to black, regardless if they had met or not.
Danny knows that his soulmate believes him to be dead, and there's nothing he can do about it. He doesn't know what will happen when they meet, will the heart shift or stay black? Any reports he could find online about the subject didn't delve into what happens beyond the heart fading.
As for Danny's own tattoo, it remains mostly unaffected by his death. There is a fascinating side-effect of the heart changing from red to green when he goes ghost, most probably because he stops relying on his heart, switching to his core, which runs on ectoplasm.
But that aside, Danny doesn't notice a difference. His heart is still it's regular old red colour whenever he's human.
There's nothing he can do about any of it until he actually meets his soulmate, so until then it's a waiting game.
--------
Jason was 13 years old when his soulmate died.
It had been a regular afternoon, he was hidden away in the manor's library with a big stack of books he was planning to plough through.
It happened as he was simply turning a page. The red heart on his wrist caught his eye, and he froze in terror.
It just turned to black.
It didn't fade like what people have described, oddly enough. Instead, it flickered back and forth between red and black, as if unsure where to settle, before it stopped and stayed firmly black.
Jason just sat there, refusing to take his eyes off his tattoo.
That was where Alfred found him hours later, after the sun had set and the natural light in the library consisted solely of the dim glow from the moon.
The butler had originally sought out the boy to inquire about his absence at dinner, but could tell at a glance that something was very wrong. He approached carefully.
"Master Jason? Is everything quite alright?"
Jason numbly turned his head up to look at Alfred. He looked at the man that was always there when he needed him, even when Jason was damn sure he didn't deserve it.
He looked into the kind eyes of the man that had become like a grandfather to him, and he finally stopped holding back.
He wept silently, allowing his eyes to let out the tears he had been holding back. The tears flowed down his face, and had anyone other than his grandfather Alfred been watching he would have been embarrassed by the pitiful sniffling sound he let out as he wiped at his tear-stained cheeks with the back of his hand.
He wordlessly held out his wrist, showing the now firmly pitch-black heart stamped there.
The moment Alfred laid eyes on the tattoo his heart clenched, the older man feeling a pain that was beyond words with the realization of what his grandson was going through this early in his life. He quickly reached out and held Jason in a tight embrace.
For the first time in many, many decades he felt incapable of fulfilling his job.
After all, how do you comfort a child that has just had their one special person, their other half, cruelly ripped away from them before they even got to lay eyes on each other?
"I'm so sorry my boy."
As much as he loathed it, the words were all Alfred had to offer.
He wanted to curse the world, for doing this to the poor boy. Yet all he found himself able to do was silently pray for a miracle, that this wouldn't be the boy's fate.
An unknown entity is tormenting a city (Gotham, Metropolis, etc, doesn't matter) and at this point nearly the entire Justice League is on location. And they are loosing, badly.
The flaming green robot should have been easy enough for the entire JLA to take out, but none of their attacks have any effect, they can't even touch the robot, who is capable of devastating amounts of destruction.
At this point the heroes have shifted their focus to rescue and evacuation efforts, while the JLD members present are scrambling to figure out how the hell to fight a being from the Infinite Realms.
The idea of summoning someone from the Realms to help is brought up but ultimately dismissed as an absolute last resort, the risk of summoning something even worse being too great.
The robot is hovering in the sky, his mechanical face somehow morphed into a mocking grin as he looks down at the heroes. His arms morph into massive blasters, and the heroes hurry to get the area as clear as possible, then brace for impact.
Except, nothing happens. And then, a loud metallic clang sounds.
On the ground in front of the heroes lies the body of the robot, or what remains of it after falling 50 feet. They notice it's missing it's head.
As the heroes look up to where the robot had been hovering a moment ago, they see a person flyi- no, just standing there. A regular looking kid with black hair, wearing an oversized ghostbusters hoodie and jeans, is standing on the roof right behind where the robot had been hovering.
But what everyone can't help but focus on, is the decapitated head of the robot he's holding upside down in his hands.
Everyone there stares at the kid in... relief? trepidation? Mostly in disbelief, they watch as the kid looks at the head in his hands (there's a small flicker of something bright green sticking out of it) then down the side of the building at the body below. The kid lets out a pleased hum that is only audible to those with super-hearing, then turns around and walks out of sight.
The heroes are quickly snapped out of their trance and all hurry to get up to the roof, but in the 0.2
seconds it took them to get there the kid had disappeared, robot head gone with him.
They are later unable to find any clear footage of the kid, or any other clues on how to find him, he's simply vanished without a trace.
.....
Danny had been busy studying for an upcoming exam, when he was rudely interrupted by Skulker being annoying outside. Phasing through his wall and invisibly flying over to take a look he finds several city blocks that have been levelled to the ground, and a Skulker hovering in the sky grinning down at his handiwork as if he's done something special.
Danny is frustrated at being interrupted for this, and doesn't have time for a long, drawn out battle right now, so he lands on the roof behind Skulker and walks up to him silently.
He quickly grabs the head of Skulker's suit and yanks, effectively decapitating him and making the body of the suit fall down on the ground.
He checks to make sure that Skulker's actual blob of a body is in the head, then that the suit on the ground is fully powered down. Satisfied, he hums and walks away, turning invisible once more and flying back to his apartment, where he puts Skulker in a thermos for a time-out.
Then he sits back down and begrudgingly opens his textbook to where he left off, unaware of the heroes collectively having a breakdown.
I absolutely love the idea that Danny kills the Joker (because creepy clowns eww) and Jason happens to walk in right as he's panicking all over the place. Danny is desperately trying to explain it was an accident, while Jason's over here simultaneously feeling the best he's ever felt since his revival and falling head over heels in love at the same time.
Very cute, very fun, wholesome murder, 10/10 will read every time.
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Danny: *shoving Joker's body behind dumpster in a panic*
Jason: "Is that a dead body?"
Danny, recognizing Red Hood as someone famous in the Realms for avenging murder victims: "Oh hi Mr. Hood, ma'am, sir.. See this isn't what it looks like, it was a total accident I swear on half my life!"
Jason: "Half your wha-"
Danny, still in shock: It's just he was being all creepy, and I've had bad experiences with clowns before, I and then this one had a gun so I pushed him a bit, didn't mean to kill the dude, honestly!"
Jason: *walks over to check body*
Danny: "Soo, total accident, and I don't feel like being arrested, so I'm gonna go.."
Jason, realizing that is indeed the Joker lying dead behind a dumpster: "Hang on, at least give me-"
Jason turning around and seeing his saviour has vanished: "Damn, didn't even get his number."
...
Jason: *giddily takes selfie with corpse*
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Jason: *patrolling in relative peace when he sees some random guy and the flipping Joker in an alley, said Joker has a gun pulled on the poor guy*
Jason: *about to swing in to save the day and take out the Joker*
Danny, faced with a clown pointing a gun at his head while ranting about all the creepy things he's gonna do: "Yea no that's not gonna fly"
Danny: *Goes full on eldritch abomination and eats the Joker's soul, leaving his body as a lifeless husk*
Jason, standing at the mouth of the alley in disbelief:
Danny, turning back into his human form: "Oh eww, so not worth it, that guy tasted terrible."
Jason: *frantically straightens his jacket, tries to fix his hair and realizes his helmet's in the way, then strikes a pose and tries to look natural*
Danny: *turns around and realizes he's not alone*("omg is that Red Hood?")
Jason, using all his rizz: "Hey there handsome, don't suppose you'd let me treat you to some dessert after a meal like that? There's a place down the street ;)"
Danny: "..What?"
----------
Alternatively, Danny and Jason were already dating but got into an argument.
Danny, walking down a street brooding thinking: "Man, I've got to figure out how to make it up to Jason, chocolates, flowers, maybe get him a book, hmmm.."
Joker: *creepy giggling as he yanks a random kid that looks like he could possibly be a Wayne into alley™*
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