As he makes it more and more famous in the stunt industry, people inexplicably start targeting Skull’s life. Naturally, his manager hires bodyguards to keep him safe.
Seven of them, just to be safe rather than sorry.
RATING: G
AUTHOR: @hopeswriting
TAG WARNING: Mild Swearing
WORD COUNT: 3325
LINKS: Ao3 & Ff.net
[Plain text:
EVENT: KHR Rare Pair Week 2022
PROMPT: Day 2 - Bodyguards AU
PAIRING: Skull/Arcobaleno
SUMMARY:
As he makes it more and more famous in the stunt industry, people inexplicably start targeting Skull’s life. Naturally, his manager hires bodyguards to keep him safe.
Title: rain day
Author: cloudspark[AO3]
Rating: T
Pairing: Skull/Arcobaelno(+Colonnello)
Prompts: Gamer AU
Tags/Warnings: No Archive Warning, Work features multiple days and as such contains an index for potential triggers in each day
A ten year old leads a six year old through dark and ancient tunnels. A secret, the elder boy had called it, a game, the younger had understood. All games were secret, because if the purpose was less important than Mother considered the time to be they would get in trouble. Still, he memorized the paths they took. If they were caught, he could show that he could find the way back. That was a good skill.
"This way, Dami," his brother said, his voice soft, but far to loud in the silent tunnels. "We're almost free,"
"Free from what?"
"All of this." Danyal said with conviction, "I have a plan, we can be normal."
"W-what do you mean?" Stories of traitors and what happens so them stopped Damian in his tracks.
"Normal kids don't get in trouble for harmless games, Dami. It's not right. But I found a way, and we won't ever have to deal with it again."
A choice solidified. This was not a game. One did not need to be as skilled as their opponent when they had the element of suprise.
Damian was not a traitor.
He left Danyal in a growing pool of blood.
He found his way back to his mother, and he was never told that his brother's body was never found.
---
An exasperated barista called for the order with the legal maximum amount of caffeine.
Two people walked up to collect it.
The barista's eye twitched at the realization she had to make a second one of these, but read the name off the order and gave it to the boy who was not the regular.
The one with the drink gave a nod of solidarity to the one still waiting, and returned to his group.
The one without the drink did the same.
"Wow, can you believe someone else order's like Tim?" One of his brothers mused.
Damian looked over, and locked eyes with a ghost (Both literal and metaphorical). The coffee holder froze like prey uncertain if it had been noticed.
"Danyal?" Damian whispered and the rabbit had his permission to bolt.
"Wait!" But the other was already out the door, making his way into the crowd.
Damian vaulted over the table and gave chase.
His brothers sat stunned for a full two seconds before scrambling after him.
___
Idk if I plan on continuing, feel free to continue it yourself or use it as a prompt.
At first he runs like a civilian, a frantic full sprint that sends him careening into bodies and leaving an obvious path in his wake. How did they know he was here? It had been mere hours since his arrival in Gotham. Had he already signed his death certificate (again!)? No. Not again. His brain catches up a fraction and he runs the way Shadows taught him, weaving between people keeping just enough in step to not draw attention; but Damian knows this way, probably knows it better than he does at this point. The memory of cold metal between his ribs is more vivid than ever. Danny purposefully does not take his next breath, does not try to calm his drumming heart— instead he tells it to stop. Danny runs the way a ghost runs, seen only in the corner of eyes, felt only as a chill.
"Danyal!" Comes the shout, taking him more off guard than any attack could've. He’d turned towards the voice reflexively, catching a glimpse of his brother pushing through the crowd. Damian had killed any hope of stealth, why?. "Danyal! Wait!"
Danny veers off into an alley, pressing his back against the brick. It was a trap. Everything he knew about the League reinforced that it was a trap. But if there was the smallest chance it wasn’t... the smallest chance that Damian was following him because they were family. Danny let himself fall fully back into the spectrum of visible light. He stayed where he was.
Dami shouted again, this time other voices shouted after Damian, and that changed everything. Was Dami leading a team? Had they been hunting him?! Why were they all yelling?
It had to be a trap.
His feet wouldn't move.
Damian was too skilled to miss his target in an obvious alleyway. It didn't surprise Danny when his brother stopped and abruptly turned out of the foot traffic. It did surprise him that Damian stopped as soon as he was out of the way, leaving a decent distance between them. Not a safe distance by any means, but it was enough space to effectively kill a surprise attack.
"Danyal..." He did not expect the desperation in his brothers voice either. Hope and fear warred inside him, laced with old grief.
"Damian." He wished he could try again, his voice sounded far to cold.
"You are... not dead..." Dami immediately cringed, probably realizing that would've been a threat in a different tone of voice.
Danny snorted for entirely different reasons. His automatic response was 'Not living either,' but it felt inappropriate for this moment, and he didn’t really want to raise questions that he could get tortured for later. Before he could figure out his answer, the two Damian had been sitting with in the coffee shop joined them.
Danny tensed, but for a fight or to run again he wasn’t sure.
"Dami, what did my coffee buddy ever do to you!?" Said, well, his coffee buddy, who wasn't out of breath like a civilian would be.
"That is none of your concern, Drake." Comanding, dismissive, Danny would've fully believed the two adults were under Damian's command if it weren't for their utter lack of reaction. Scratch that, Drake rolled his eyes so openly and Damian... didn't react to the disrespect at all... then it clicked.
"Drake… Tim Drake?" Tucker was going to loose his mind.
Damian nodded once.
"You're with Father." Danny wasn’t sure what that meant, if it meant anything. He wasn’t clear on his biological father's ties to the league, it was half the reason he'd never reached out.
"Oh shit," someone said under their breath.
___
A barista finishes pulling the fourth expresso shot. The cup is not yet half full, but the customer is sprinting out the door. She really hopes she's not wasting this time, as she sets up for the next two shots.
___
None of the Casper High Seniors moved as their classmate sprinted out the door. It was on brand really, for Danny Fenton to bail the second Lancer had his back turned. His friends shrugged as others suppressed laughter.
It should probably be concerning, a single high school senior braving the streets of Gotham pursued by three unknown coffee shop patrons. But these were amity parkers. These were the Casper High students who had looked at possible Senior trip locations and collectively decided that Gotham City was the best place for them to celebrate their graduation. This was Danny Fenton, who lead a successful raid on a flying ghost pirate ship, stared down the most unnatural of beings, had a ghost predicting bladder, and regularly let himself get beat up by members of the football team for no apparent reason. Why was Danny Fenton running from three random gothamites, who knew?! Could he handle it himself? Probably? If he couldn’t, it was probably out of their league anyway. Was it their problem? Not until Lancer realized Fenton was gone.
_
_
_
OK but do you guys realize how much goes into a cup of coffee that is all expresso??? Like you can't just pour a cup of it. At the coffee shop I worked at, at least, you can only make 2 servings per station at a time. So, ordering a whole cup with nothing but espresso is just set up the espresso machine, wait 30 seconds. Pour into cup, dump the coffee grinds, reset the machine, wait and repeat until the cup is full, AND any order that needs espresso is on pause until you're done. It's painful. So anyway, the only reason Tim, who does this regularly, hasn't been murdered yet is because he tips generously.
Special thanks to @spectralstardustandphantomnights your questions helped me check that I’d included everything I wanted to in this part. And will probably shape some parts I haven’t written yet.
One of them, of course, is creating a paradox. If the future changes enough that the traveler never actually goes back in time, then there are several rips in reality.
That’s not the only problem that I’m presenting.
What happens when the traveler doesn’t know that it was them? When they think it’s an entirely separate entity?
What happens when Danny Fenton comes to his parents and says “I think I’m possessed by a ghost thousands of years old”?
Prompt: Tim’s “Uncle” shows up to court, ready to fight Bruce Wayne for custody of his “nephew”.
Danny Nightingale knows better than to trust adults. After all, his own parents cut him apart in the name of science DESPITE believing that he was their son!
So when a kid, looking just like he did, comes to him for help with not getting adopted (by an eccentric billionaire, no less!) he’s more than willing to lend a hand. Sure, it’s a little bit illegal, but at this point what else could go wrong?
Danny is an immortal being, forever stuck in the form of a teenager. As such, he never really “grows up.” This leads to many shenanigans, one of which involves him faking his own death at the slightest inconvenience. Most of the time, people don’t really notice.
Batman suddenly showing up at his front door, his arms full of files filled with information from his “past lives” is the first thing in a long time that Danny can’t simply die to get out of.
DP x DC AU where Danny is in the process of becoming another member of the Batpham because he's finally found a group of people who love him, a parent who fully accepts him, and a city that doesn't care about his spooky flavor, but then he finds the Batman contingencies, is fully exposed to Batman's obsession with fighting crime, the emotional constipation, and especially the blood blossoms Bruce started growing in a specially confined area.
He'd just traded a set of obsessed parents for a singular obsessed parent. It wasn't even that, that wasn't too different from some ghosts he knew, but how could Bruce keep something that essentially only exists to torture him on the premises?
Danny should walk away from Bruce just like Selina did at the end of Batman: Hush.
Look, Danny understand the need for the contingencies and the secrets. He really does, more than most, but that doesn't stop the hurt he feels. That doesn't stop cold realization flowing in his veins at the sight of the one true thing that would End him, grown behind his back by the very humans he had come to love.
Because from his perspective, despite all the declaration of love and acceptances and the warmth, his new parent fear him. And by the looks of his new siblings, they did to. He would think that they had only accepted him into their family to keep an eye on him. No one would ever love a monster for no reason after all.
So he tuck all that pain deep away like he had when he was with the Fentons. He understands. He still loves them, so very much. And if that's how loving this family means that teaching them everything on how to stop him...
DP x DC AU where Danny is in the process of becoming another member of the Batpham because he's finally found a group of people who love him, a parent who fully accepts him, and a city that doesn't care about his spooky flavor, but then he finds the Batman contingencies, is fully exposed to Batman's obsession with fighting crime, the emotional constipation, and especially the blood blossoms Bruce started growing in a specially confined area.
He'd just traded a set of obsessed parents for a singular obsessed parent. It wasn't even that, that wasn't too different from some ghosts he knew, but how could Bruce keep something that essentially only exists to torture him on the premises?
Danny should walk away from Bruce just like Selina did at the end of Batman: Hush.
Danny: But you, you've never trusted anyone in your life. Have you? You'd rather prepare yourself for a situation where you'd have to kill your friends, your children, your family! Than trust someone.
Bruce: Danny this is just a contingency- you've told us about Dan, about when you've been mind controlled.
Danny: Hah. So you grow plants that exist solely to torture me?
Danny: You're no better than they were. No. You're worse because they never hid how they felt about me, what they would do. You did. Because deep down you know you're wrong, but you're too stubborn, too paranoid, too selfish to stop.
Bruce: Danny-
Danny: No. I'm done. I won't stay with someone who won't hesitate to torture me. When do you decide I'm a threat that needs to be eliminated, Bruce? And why do you get to make that call?
Danny: I'm leaving, and soon the others will too. And you'll be alone Bruce, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next year. But you will be, and you'll have to live knowing it's your fault. That you pushed everyone away because you can't even trust the people you claim to love.
DP x DC AU where Danny is in the process of becoming another member of the Batpham because he's finally found a group of people who love him, a parent who fully accepts him, and a city that doesn't care about his spooky flavor, but then he finds the Batman contingencies, is fully exposed to Batman's obsession with fighting crime, the emotional constipation, and especially the blood blossoms Bruce started growing in a specially confined area.
He'd just traded a set of obsessed parents for a singular obsessed parent. It wasn't even that, that wasn't too different from some ghosts he knew, but how could Bruce keep something that essentially only exists to torture him on the premises?
Danny should walk away from Bruce just like Selina did at the end of Batman: Hush.
Yeah, I would too if the person I look up to and trust after having bad past and trauma with very fragile trust and a trust issues mind you, the pain is goin to be so much that I could feel the physical pain from betrayal and a broken trust again.
So yeah, Danny walk away from Bruce is understandable.
Protective ghosts are even more understandable! Since ghost have can be very territorial and obsessive but also protective of their own especially a ghost child and this is a baby ghost! A Royalty baby ghost!
How dare these mere mortal hurt their baby ghost prince?!
Would be even more fun if Danny is also another eldritch ancient being in process that is still a baby, since he died in the portal and he's kinda part of the realm itself the day he died... So yeah. This escalated quickly in my mind, please forgive me.
DP x DC AU where Danny is in the process of becoming another member of the Batpham because he's finally found a group of people who love him, a parent who fully accepts him, and a city that doesn't care about his spooky flavor, but then he finds the Batman contingencies, is fully exposed to Batman's obsession with fighting crime, the emotional constipation, and especially the blood blossoms Bruce started growing in a specially confined area.
He'd just traded a set of obsessed parents for a singular obsessed parent. It wasn't even that, that wasn't too different from some ghosts he knew, but how could Bruce keep something that essentially only exists to torture him on the premises?
Danny should walk away from Bruce just like Selina did at the end of Batman: Hush.
If Dan, for all his power set and attributes, can be crammed into a Fenton thermos, then there shouldn't be options for straight up risking murking Danny as a contingency. Even his worst plan involved non-lethal means (though forcing a psychological trauma to aquaman is a tad extreme). And IF Danny did come to the manor, it won't be hard for Batman to hack Fenton or GIW mainframe for weaponry that can weaken a ghost, and not cause them eternal torture.
The heart of the problem is that Danny knows he can turn evil, and would've been willing to assist Batman in setting up contingencies, but he wasn't trusted enough for that. And that feeling of helplessness, of loss of agency, of unintended infantilization, will be the one that will push Danny away, and eventually all batchildren.
DP x DC AU where Danny is in the process of becoming another member of the Batpham because he's finally found a group of people who love him, a parent who fully accepts him, and a city that doesn't care about his spooky flavor, but then he finds the Batman contingencies, is fully exposed to Batman's obsession with fighting crime, the emotional constipation, and especially the blood blossoms Bruce started growing in a specially confined area.
He'd just traded a set of obsessed parents for a singular obsessed parent. It wasn't even that, that wasn't too different from some ghosts he knew, but how could Bruce keep something that essentially only exists to torture him on the premises?
Danny should walk away from Bruce just like Selina did at the end of Batman: Hush.
Bruce jumps at the unfamiliar voice, but Alfred simply squeezes the trowl harder. Bruce brushes off his embarrassment, expecting to see a scratched up paparazzi trespassing on the Manor, but is faced with something new entirely.
A blue glowing figure, holding a stick with a clock at the high end. His skin is blue, a contrast to his purple chiffon. As Bruce watches, the figure ages, the stick now a support staff. White hair spilling from his chin.
"Who are you?"
"Kronos," Alfred answers, and the figure bow it's head.
Bruce turns to his butler. "The Greek God of time?"
"And Roman," Kronos offers. "Among other parathons. Which is why you should take my advice and not plant those."
Bruce cuts his gaze to the four young rose bushes waiting to be planted. He trusts what he can do with his own hands more than any all-seeing god. If Kronos had wanted blind obedience, he should have gone to Diana. She'd ask more questions, but ultimately, she heeded godly advice.
When he looks back at the god, he's gone. Bruce turns to Alfred with an expectant look.
Sighing, Alfred puts down the gardening tools and pulls something from his pocket. A gold chain, a circular pendant. Bruce thinks it's a religious item at first, until he sees not a saint but an hourglass on the gold coin. Still might be a religious item, he amends, if it's for Kronos.
"During the war, something happened that shouldn't have. Kronos needed my help fixing it, so he frozen time, filled me in, and then turned time back half a day, allowing me to prevent the loss. As an, award, I suppose he let me keep this. It allows me to step outside the time stream for a little bit."
"Do you?"
"The manor is quite large."
Bruce snorts, then sombers, looking toward where Kronos had floated. "Would you listen to him?"
Alfred thinks, fingers pulling at the top of a bag of blood meal. "I've only had one, now two, interactions with the man. If this truly is wrong, he could manipulate things so we don't plant them. I think this is merely a preference, that we don't plant them. For what reason, I could only guess."
Bruce can guess too, but the problem is there's so many possibilities. And what Kronos might want to avoid, Bruce might like.
Besides, he's done his research. Considered the pros and cons. Kronos's wish has no sway on his decision. "Let's plant these before the boys come home."
They return to planting the rose bushes. They are just starting to bud, but soon they'll bloom into the deep red color that gives them their name. From there, he can run his experiments.
In this far corner of the manor ground, there shouldn't be any impact to Danny. But he wants to know everything he can about this plant. He wants to understand its chemical make up. Neutralize it. And of course, keep some close. Danny's mentioned he's scared of his powers sometimes, and if blood blossoms are his power drain like kryptonite is Clark's, it's good to keep some on hand.
DP x DC AU where Danny is in the process of becoming another member of the Batpham because he's finally found a group of people who love him, a parent who fully accepts him, and a city that doesn't care about his spooky flavor, but then he finds the Batman contingencies, is fully exposed to Batman's obsession with fighting crime, the emotional constipation, and especially the blood blossoms Bruce started growing in a specially confined area.
He'd just traded a set of obsessed parents for a singular obsessed parent. It wasn't even that, that wasn't too different from some ghosts he knew, but how could Bruce keep something that essentially only exists to torture him on the premises?
Danny should walk away from Bruce just like Selina did at the end of Batman: Hush.
Bruce jumps at the unfamiliar voice, but Alfred simply squeezes the trowl harder. Bruce brushes off his embarrassment, expecting to see a scratched up paparazzi trespassing on the Manor, but is faced with something new entirely.
A blue glowing figure, holding a stick with a clock at the high end. His skin is blue, a contrast to his purple chiffon. As Bruce watches, the figure ages, the stick now a support staff. White hair spilling from his chin.
"Who are you?"
"Kronos," Alfred answers, and the figure bow it's head.
Bruce turns to his butler. "The Greek God of time?"
"And Roman," Kronos offers. "Among other parathons. Which is why you should take my advice and not plant those."
Bruce cuts his gaze to the four young rose bushes waiting to be planted. He trusts what he can do with his own hands more than any all-seeing god. If Kronos had wanted blind obedience, he should have gone to Diana. She'd ask more questions, but ultimately, she heeded godly advice.
When he looks back at the god, he's gone. Bruce turns to Alfred with an expectant look.
Sighing, Alfred puts down the gardening tools and pulls something from his pocket. A gold chain, a circular pendant. Bruce thinks it's a religious item at first, until he sees not a saint but an hourglass on the gold coin. Still might be a religious item, he amends, if it's for Kronos.
"During the war, something happened that shouldn't have. Kronos needed my help fixing it, so he frozen time, filled me in, and then turned time back half a day, allowing me to prevent the loss. As an, award, I suppose he let me keep this. It allows me to step outside the time stream for a little bit."
"Do you?"
"The manor is quite large."
Bruce snorts, then sombers, looking toward where Kronos had floated. "Would you listen to him?"
Alfred thinks, fingers pulling at the top of a bag of blood meal. "I've only had one, now two, interactions with the man. If this truly is wrong, he could manipulate things so we don't plant them. I think this is merely a preference, that we don't plant them. For what reason, I could only guess."
Bruce can guess too, but the problem is there's so many possibilities. And what Kronos might want to avoid, Bruce might like.
Besides, he's done his research. Considered the pros and cons. Kronos's wish has no sway on his decision. "Let's plant these before the boys come home."
They return to planting the rose bushes. They are just starting to bud, but soon they'll bloom into the deep red color that gives them their name. From there, he can run his experiments.
In this far corner of the manor ground, there shouldn't be any impact to Danny. But he wants to know everything he can about this plant. He wants to understand its chemical make up. Neutralize it. And of course, keep some close. Danny's mentioned he's scared of his powers sometimes, and if blood blossoms are his power drain like kryptonite is Clark's, it's good to keep some on hand.
Damian lifts an eyebrow. Danny resists sticking out his tongue in return.
After all, it's not like Danny's gonna let Damian push a wheelbarrow of manure with a fractured wrist. Still, did he have to be so annoying? Critiquing his stall cleaning skills? And Bat-cow pets? Danny is ready to dump this. Why did Bruce want to start a compost pile near his greenhouse and not the barn?
Thing is, Danny does have super strength. Not like Superboy, but enough where the wheelbarrow shouldn't be a problem. He blames it on the long day of chores and holds his tongue.
Danny casts a glance toward Bruce's experimental greenhouse. The sides are frosted, but it looks full of flowers. Strange. He thought it might have been a poisoner's garden, full of plants to test and treat things the Bats came across. A greenhouse full of poison and related experiments is good to avoid, even if Danny is immune to most. But, flowers?
"Dump it here."
Damian waves a hand toward a knee high pile of barn waste, soil, and plant clippings. Danny runs the wheelbarrow into the mess and dumps the manure on the top of the pile. He jiggles the handles, emptying the bowl, and blinks away a sudden bout of dizziness.
There's a plant trimming on his gym shoe. A woody stem with thorns and dark leaves. A rose bush cutting.
"Damian," Danny asks, thoughts slow, "What is Bruce growing in the greenhouse?"
"He's running experiments with some highly toxic plants he got from Poison Ivy."
Danny looks back at the opaque building. And the smudges of red color he can see spanning the entire walls.
"You never peeked inside?"
"I never had time before dinner, but you were surprisingly quick. Why? Are you curious about Father's work?"
Mutely, Danny nods. It's not like the League placed him with Batman to learn how to control his powers, other enhanced heroes would be better. But how to approach a problem, think though solutions, write reports. Bruce taught a lot of teen heroes that.
"I am in AP chem," Danny hears himself say as he trails after Damian to the door. Inside his head, he's cataloguing his body using Batman's report structure.
Unexpected fatigue. Unexpected dizziness, not related to moving fast or changes in elevation. Tension in his chest, anxiety or -
Danny freezes three feet outside the door. Beyond Damian, Danny sees half a dozen blood blossom rose bushes. Four are near full bloom, and Danny can feel the effects of so many petals. Has been feeling them since the greenhouse came into view.
There's a tingling in his extremities. A headache starts to bloom.
"Just flowers, how boring," Danny forces himself to say.
"Roses aren't poisonous. They must be some rare hybrid." Damian steps further into the greenhouse, and the door closes between them. Danny takes a huge breath.
He twists to look at the manor. He's too far to pick it out, but his bedroom is on this side. He's seen the sun catch on the glass. It's a good mile maybe from here to the manor. A leisurely twenty minute walk. A minute fly.
The door to the greenhouse opens again. Damian huffs. "I thought you were curious about Father's experiments?"
"Thought I heard someone call my name."
"No matter. Father's not conducting experiments in here. He's just growing roses. Maybe he's experimenting with fertilizers? Strange, how he doesn't want us in here."
Danny swallows. "Yeah."
Someone does start calling them, a cow bell ringing through the property. It'd been a joke Christmas gift for Alfred, but it works rather well to call them to dinner.
"Go on to the house," Danny tells Damian. "I'll fly the wheelbarrow back."
Damian frowns at him, but nods. "Very well."
Danny picks up the wheelbarrow and heads toward the barn.
Blood blossoms. Blood blossoms!
Danny was supposed to be safe here, but Bruce growing those? Doing experiments? On who? Danny is the only ghost around. Unless he has a second location for experiments where he kept blobs? No, no. That's extreme. Maybe...he hasn't done any yet. The roses weren't ready. But they are now and there's a lab in the Cave. Danny would know if they were in the house. His strength started fading .25 miles from the greenhouse. That's the kitchen to his room. The batcomputer to the medical supply cabinet.
Blood blossoms.
Remembered pain chokes Danny's chest. His core had flared and condensed, as if wanting to both flee and hide. As a ghost, it sent bolts of energy through his body and Danny had been too focused on keeping his shape and riding the pain to be aware of much else. He couldn't fly, couldn't stand. All of his attention had been on not letting his body fall apart. As a human, well.
Sam and Tucker hadn't let him get close. But there's still the loss of his powers. Dizziness and tingling suggest vascular problems, the blossoms impacting his circulatory system instead of whatever ectoplasmic one he had instead as Phantom.
Blood blossoms are not safe for him, even at a distance, and Bruce was growing them on the manor grounds.
He stares at the wheelbarrow. Those four bushes will be in full bloom in days. And he's planted multiple bushes, he'll have something blooming for weeks. Is Bruce planning on more? Always keeping a fresh supply?
Danny watches as dark spots appear on the wheelbarrow. How close could he get to the greenhouse before feeling things? What experiments is Bruce planning?
Damian said there wasn't any experiments in the greenhouse, and Danny believes him. Too soon? Or is a consequence of the small list of weaknesses on Phantom's file?
Bruce has a kryptonite stock. Danny knows this. Clark knows this. It's kept in lead lined containers. There's protections in place for Superman.
Just, not for Danny.
He brushes away his tears. Of course he can't find a mentor who won't hurt him. Of course the Justice League wants to corral potential rogues. Of course Batman puts his plans above people. Of course Bruce prioritizes knowledge.
Alfred's rang the dinner bell. Damian will probably ask Bruce about the flowers. Bruce will know Danny knows, and what's the outcome there? He's already growing them. Growing them too close. Danny's already scared of what Batman can learn.
Bat-cow lows from her stall. Danny stumbles toward her to wrap his arms around her neck. She's warm, if a bit funny smelling. Danny tilts his head so their ears touch. As far as goodbye hugs go, it's lackluster. But Danny will not be showing up for dinner.
DP x DC AU where Danny is in the process of becoming another member of the Batpham because he's finally found a group of people who love him, a parent who fully accepts him, and a city that doesn't care about his spooky flavor, but then he finds the Batman contingencies, is fully exposed to Batman's obsession with fighting crime, the emotional constipation, and especially the blood blossoms Bruce started growing in a specially confined area.
He'd just traded a set of obsessed parents for a singular obsessed parent. It wasn't even that, that wasn't too different from some ghosts he knew, but how could Bruce keep something that essentially only exists to torture him on the premises?
Danny should walk away from Bruce just like Selina did at the end of Batman: Hush.
Danny’s breath hitched. His hand fell off the door. He knew what he was seeing, but he wished he didn’t. Wished that he could go back in time to just five minutes ago and take a different turn.
The greenhouse was full of Blood Blossoms.
He could feel the effects from here- dizziness, nausea, fatigue… Sure, they were faint due to his currently human form, but if he had found this place while Phantom? He would have been tortured. Helpless. In pain, sick and dying until someone found him.
Why?
Didn’t Bruce say he loved him? Didn’t he say that he’d protect him? That he’d give Danny a safe place to live? Or is it conditional, just like with his parents? As long as he’s human, he’s welcome.
His parents, too obsessed with ghost hunting to notice how hurt their children were? Bruce, who built his entire life around vigilantism? Jack and Maddie, talking about tearing apart Phantom without knowing he was right there? Batman, who was known to have a rule against allowing metas in Gotham? The ghost hunters, who only ever saw a monster in him? The superhero, who wouldn’t even give him a chance?
Danny backed away. He could still see a faint red fog seeping out of the greenhouse, though it was slowly dissipating. He glanced over his shoulder at the manor, then back at the greenhouse.
It seemed like no matter where he went, he could never just be himself.
Danny never showed up for dinner that night. By morning, his belongings had disappeared. All that was left was a note and a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
The USA and Canada both permitted the capture, experimentation, and termination of ecto entities.
One night, after weeks of being constantly hunted down, Danny decided it was time to leave the continent.
At first, he was terrified.Â
He didn’t even need false documentation, since the GIW wasn’t looking for his human identity, and Jazz helped him get everything he needed.
He… didn’t even have to buy a flight or something, since his speed could get him anywhere.
So, a bit anxiously, he traveled down to South America.
He had a pretty good time!
People were friendly and welcoming, excited to share the beauty they had with them and Danny found himself so much more interested in other cultures.
Being surrounded by languages, Spanish, Portuguese, and even some Indigenous ones became much easier to learn.
Traveling around wasn’t a problem, he often found people happy to take him in for a shower and a meal.
It wasn’t safe all the time, but it wasn’t because he was a ghost, which was somehow nicer.
With much less anxiety, he started to travel even more.
Africa was the obvious choice since it was the closest continent.
The main cities were rich with people and modern buildings, making him feel a bit out of place like he was in a cleaner version of Hollywood.
Going away from touristy sites, everything started to become more bare, the people still welcoming, but weary of noisy strangers. Wich was understandable, so next came Asia, then Europe, Australia, and Antarctica.
By the time Danny was in his twenties, he had pretty much visited almost every country on Earth.Â
He was having fun, he really was, but in every new country he visited, he was reminded how much he wished he was waking up in his bed, spending the days with his family and friends.
Once, he met a guy in London, whose soul looked like Swiss cheese, that he helped with some ghost stuff. He was recognized as from America, so he explained what he was doing all the way in England. Apparently, the guy had connections with the Justice League and promised to help.
At several spots, he even met with Dani. Every time they saw each other, they remembered that, even if it was so diverse, the World was still very small.
He was in South Italy when his phone rang.
It wasn’t hard to keep in touch with his friends and family, sending them photos or even packages of stuff he found traveling.
He answered Jazz, as she started to cry happily about the Anti-Ecto Acts being revoked.
He… hadn’t actually believed Jonh.
His mind was blank, with her sister excitedly talking over the phone.
Danny knew that he couldn’t let himself lose control.
Ever since Vlad had gone too far, and he had lost his family, he had to remind himself that things were going to be better, to have some hope for the future.
It didn’t seem to matter when he was filled with such all-consuming rage though.
Still, he found a couple of magic rings. He hates wearing them, they hurt so much, but he needs the power boost they give him.
He will not fail again.
(Or; Danny is both so angry, yet has such hope for his future that both a Red and a Blue Lantern Ring choose him at the same time.)
