Martian Manhunter has seen many things happen in the Watchtower situation room, but this might be one of the strangest.
One of Gotham’s many vigilantes- Red Hood, if he wasn’t mistaken- stormed into the room, slammed his palms on the far side of the long table, and said, “You need to check what the asteroid is made of.”
The asteroid in question was one line item of many agenda points for this meeting. The radar had picked it up as one on a collision course with Earth, but they had protocols for this. They’d dealt with similar situations multiple times before. It’s not often though, that they have uninvited attendees to justice league meetings. That alone is enough to make J’onn wonder.
“How did you get up here, son?” Superman, always the diplomat, attempts to calm some of the confusion.
“Irrelevant. The asteroid. What’s its composition?”
Batman has less patience. “The protocols are in place to deal with the threat. Red Hood—“
Green Lantern, ever not the diplomat, rolls his eyes. “Kid, we’ve dealt with similar situations dozens of times. Care to explain why this one is so special?”
Batman sighs. “I think we’ve heard enough, Hood.”
“No. Wait. I have it on good authority that the usual protocol won’t work.” He retorts, then stares directly at Batman, as if that statement wasn’t just another empty platitude.
Batman’s jaw flexes. An understanding passes between them.
“What authority?” Diana questions, stone faced.
As if in response, the door opens again. A familiar face pops in, seemingly oblivious to the meeting. It’s a member of the Watchtower tech staff. Danny.
“Ah. Whoops,” Danny stutters. “Didn’t know you all were in here. My bad.”
Red Hood transfers his glare to this newcomer, but Danny seems blissfully immune to it. Batman remains uncharacteristically speechless as Danny steps further into the room.
“But while I’m here—“ Danny hits a switch on the wall and a crisp blue light projection of their solar neighborhood beams into view above the table. “I upgraded the holo projectors.” The planets spin and their clouds swirl and their many moons dance in orbit. It’s incredibly accurate and finely detailed.
And there, just beyond the rings of Saturn, is the asteroid in question.
Danny meets Batman’s eyeline and raises his eyebrows. Another silent exchange. It has J’onn on edge. He trusts the team around this table implicitly. He does not, however, trust those who haven’t earned their seat.
He reaches out telepathically for Danny, intending just a surface level read of his intentions. But Upon making connection he’s met with infinite nebulae, an endless vortex, an impossible cold. He grips his knees under the table, suddenly fighting not to be overwhelmed, and then in a snap he’s cut off. Like a fly being swatted.
Danny’s eyes slide to him, slowly. Sorry about that. Should have warned you it’s dangerous to look too close. Danny’s voice echoes across the telepathic link.
J’onn sits up straighter. Just what kind of creature had Batman let on this station?
What do you know. J’onn demands.
Nothing you can’t figure out. Y’all aren’t that dense.
“It’s Kryptonite.” Superman’s dark tone brings his attention back to the table. Batman’s at the holo controls— he’s zoomed in on the asteroid and data and projection lines flicker all around it.
“No- it looks almost like lantern energy. Like it’s a construct.” Green Lantern has lost his snark. A reprieve certainly, but never a good omen.
“Either possibility makes redirection challenging. Destruction inadvisable.” Batman frowns.
J’onn keeps his eyes on Danny, who now seems to be on the receiving end of a whispered lecture from the still-inexplicable Red Hood. Danny looks unbothered, and indeed instead appears like he is rather enjoying himself.
Voices raise around the table as more solutions are offered and discarded. This is not how he expected this meeting to go.
Or maybe you all are that dense. Danny muses down the apparently still-active link.
J’onn is about to interrogate him further when he stops. He’s arrived at the answer to their conundrum.
“J’onn?” Batman quiets the rest of the table and everyone’s focus shifts.
“We density shift the asteroid so it passes through the Earth harmlessly. Between myself and Miss Martian it should be possible.”
Murmurs of assent fill the room. Batman’s gaze goes again to Danny, and J’onn’s follows.
The supposed mechanic is smiling at them like a pleased housecat.
Batman keeps eye contact with Danny down the length of the table. Danny stands at the opposite head, next to Red Hood. For a moment J’onn wonders if the command of the room has shifted.
Until Danny shrugs and says, “Sounds plausible enough. Don’t look at me. I’m just a mechanic.”
J’onn reaches for the telepathic link, but it’s gone. Danny turns to leave, Red Hood at his heels, but before he does he winks at J’onn on his way out the door.
J’onn blinks. The air in the room shifts and settles as soon as Danny’s gone. Batman begins outlining the logistics of the new plan, but J’onn barely hears him.
He can’t get that flash of endless void out of his head. And yet the link did end up leaving an impression of Danny’s intentions after all: Kindness. Secrecy. And a pure, desperate desire to help.
“I could have handled it,” Jason says over his shoulder as he stirs the bolognese sauce.
Danny’s sprawled out on the couch with some trashy tv on in the background. “You did great.”
“I’m just saying— you didn’t have to show up.”
“What if I just wanted to see steam come out of Batman’s ears in person?”
“You get to do that every time we go to family dinner,” he pauses to taste the sauce, adds a dash more pepper. “I thought it was supposed to be risky. Y’know- for you to get involved.”
“It is, yeah. Which is the reason for all this roundabout mumbo jumbo. Making them figure it out themselves. Means I’m less likely to get caught.”
He taps his spoon and turns to face Danny. “Why risk it then? Why not just let them deal with it on their own? They would have figured out how to deal with the asteroid eventually.”
“Probably, yeah. But how late? How many of people would have gotten hurt- or worse- in that process?”
Jason sighs. he knows trying to convince Danny to be less self sacrificing is like arguing with a carbon steel wall. The timer beeps and he drains the noodles.
“I was just gonna go handle it myself on the sly but— turned out that dumb rock had enough ectoranium in it to resist ghost powers.”
“You didn’t have to do that either.”
Danny shrugs as Jason plates the pasta and hands him a bowl. Jason takes his seat on the couch next to him.
By the time he’s settled Danny has already shoved a big bite of pasta in his mouth. “You’ve really outdone yourself.” He says between chews.
Jason smiles, but he’s not ready to let it go. “If you’re gonna keep doing this, you gotta let me help you.”
“For sure,” he replies between chews.
“Like, actually help you.”
“Danny. For real though. If you get caught— I can’t— ugh.” Jason sets his bowl on the coffee table and turns to look Danny in the eye. “All I’m saying is that if you get yoinked away to some other dimension as punishment I’m going to be pretty pissed, okay?”
Danny puts his fork down and gives him a wry look.
“But really, me helping you can’t be /that/ against the rules. And if it is, surely you’ll come save me if I get yoinked too, yeah?”
Danny releases a breathy laugh. “Of course! Of course.” He sighs, and his smile fades. “I really wasn’t going to get involved. I was just gonna get a degree, get a normal enough job, just try to live a life while I could.”
“So do that. The Justice League’s problems aren’t your personal responsibility.”
“No, but— If I have the power to help people— to save people— and I don’t, that kinda makes me a shitty person, no?”
“Not if it means risking the whole life you built.”
“I don’t have a life to risk, remember?”
“You do to me!” He’s raised his voice without meaning to, and Danny looks up at him wide-eyed. Jason’s stomach flips, but he’s still not ready to back down, because it’s true.
The life Danny brought to him over the past months is apparent everywhere around them. His shirts heaped over the chair, the kind of coffee he likes in the cabinet and the mug that’s become his, the dirty dishes from all the meals Jason would have never cooked just for himself, the shitty punk music he insisted on playing. It’s a warmth and a light that’s seeped into his home, and even deeper into the core of himself. He didn’t know he could still feel so alive.
Danny’s eyebrows stitch together and he goes pensive, which Jason rarely has seen. Jason takes a bite of pasta to fill the silence, lukewarm now.
“Oh.” Danny whispers emphatically. “Shit.”
And suddenly Jason is questioning everything. Is this thing they have not real to Danny the way it is for him? Is he just the plaything of a god?
“Jay. I didn’t think—“ he starts and takes a shaky breath. “You’re not supposed to care about me.”
“Im allowed to be human under like, so many conditions. And even then I’m not sure what the hell I even am sometimes. This could all go away at any second, and I have very little control of if and when that happens.”
“So? That means I’m going to hurt you, inevitably, whether I want to or not. And I can’t— I won’t—“
Danny’s hands shake, and Jason wordlessly reaches out and pulls him close. He brings Danny’s head to his chest and wraps his arms tight around him. Danny relaxes into him, ear resting over the gentle thud of his heart.
“I don’t care, you dumbass.” And he truly doesn’t. He likes the way Danny makes him feel. He likes the person he is with him. Even if Danny broke his heart on purpose it would still be worth it.
“You should,” the words are muffled through Jason’s shirt. “You shouldn’t want to be with me.”
“Too bad. Also, false. My boyfriend is a god-king with cosmic powers beyond comprehension. Pretty sure that makes me the lucky one.”
Danny chuckles and lifts his chin just enough to meet Jason’s eyes. “I’m going to cosmically comprehend your ass all the way to Pluto if you say something as cringe as that ever again.”
Danny swats at him. Jason just holds him tighter and Danny fights against his arms playfully. Jason knows he could break out at any moment if he really wanted to, but he doesn’t. Instead he settles again, cradled on Jason’s lap.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Jason breathes into the top of Danny’s mop of hair. “And for now neither are you. And I’ll kick whoever’s ass who has a problem with that.”
Danny lifts up and presses his lips to Jason’s in a cheeky kiss. And Jason eagerly kisses him back.
That’s all I’ve got planned for this little AU, thanks for reading :3
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