Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Step on in.”

“Thank you.”

“You’ll have one hour with them. When you want to talk, you can just pick up that phone right there. No physical contact is allowed, and if they try to break the barrier then we will end the visit right there. We’re required to be in the room with you, but we will be standing back to give you some privacy. Any questions?”

“I think I got it.”

“Okay. Whenever you’re ready.”

Danny took a deep breath. Even as the prison guard stepped back, he couldn’t bring himself to look at the window quite yet. He could practically hear Jazz’s scolding, but her scheduled time with them wasn’t until 11:30, and Danny knew they’d need some time to calm down.

He took some time to look at the room. It was small, yellowed walls and stained linoleum different to how Danny would have imagined. An older looking phone, large and black and like it belonged to a rotary phone or like the ones that sat at the poles of cashier stations, sat attached to a receiver on the wall. The desk before him was a mottled gray, condensation circles marking it up. His chair felt far too stiff underneath him, a reminder that he didn’t have to do this. That this was a pain he did not need to put himself through.

Picking up the phone, Danny looked up.

Jack and Madeline Fenton stared back, their hands chained to their sides.

They weren’t wearing their hazmat suits. Danny wasn’t sure why that surprised him. They hadn’t been wearing their hazmat suits in court, but seeing them again without the goggles and the glint in their smile and their long, black gloves… Danny swallowed the panic crawling up his throat. Jack’s beard had grown in, messy black and gray to match his hair. Bags laid under Maddie’s eyes, though that did nothing to lessen the hate spilling from her gaze.

“What are you doing here, ghost?” She spat the term like a slur, vitriol practically slobbering down her scowl. Jack straightened up, as if he were trying to protect his wife. Danny nearly rolled his eyes.

“You guys don’t regret anything, do you?” The answer seemed obvious, but still he asked. Maybe as a rhetorical, something to get over the lump curdling in his gut.

Jack leaned forward. “You may have everyone else fooled, ghost boy, but we know the truth. As soon as they find out, we’ll rip you apart, molecule by molecule.”

Strange, how the phrase used to scare him. It served as a reminder that his life with the Fentons, no matter how much he loved it, remained tenuous. Hearing it now, he found himself smiling. Laughter bubbled up his throat, a distraction from the way his core shivered in his chest.

Maddie snarled, “what are you laughing at, ghost?”

“I really thought maybe you guys would at least think about what landed you here.” Danny leaned forward to match the Fentons. “You know? I mean, we lived together for so long. I was your son for so long… I thought maybe you’d wonder about how things turned out this way.”

Baring his teeth, Jack jerked against his chair. Danny’s gaze flew down to the chain that kept Jack in his chair. The guards at the corner of Maddie and Jack’s room stepped a bit closer, but Jack soon leaned back. “You ectoplasmic scum. How could you mock us with the death of our child?”

“I knew we should have kept him from the portal,” Maddie chimed in, and oh. Maybe they regretted the portal accident after all. “We shouldn’t have let either of the kids down into the lab. Then Danny wouldn’t have—” her voice cut out, and tears welled up in her eyes. Jack leaned against her, unable to actually wrap his arm around her to comfort her.

“So you regret the fact that I died.” Danny was sure the guards were probably looking at him as if he were insane, but he just kept his gaze forward. His words dripped deadpan from his lips, and he clutched onto the power that gave him.

“Don’t you dare claim to be him!” And Maddie was back to snarling. Really, the Fentons couldn’t have been more predictable if they tried. “You may have tricked the rest of the world, but we know the truth. You killed our baby boy and took over his corpse. How dare you parade his body around like this?”

Snorting, Danny nearly wanted to cross his arms. He settled for leaning forward and setting his arm on the table in front of him. “You can’t keep living in denial like this.”

“You can lie to us all you want, ghost boy,” Jack snarled, “but soon the world will understand what kind of monster you are.”

“Sure, and then you’ll get out of prison and put me back on that table and you’ll get all of your sick kicks out because the three weeks and 5 days I was under your knife weren’t enough.” Danny rolled his eyes.

“You’re cruel.” Tears tracked down Maddie’s face. “Absolutely cruel.”

“No crueler than you were.” Danny took a deep breath. “I’m not actually here to try and convince you that I am Danny. You’re never going to believe me.”

Jack scoffed. “Then why are you here, scum? To rub the fact that you’ve fooled everyone in our face?”

“No, not really. Jazz is coming to visit you guys.”

Maddie and Jack sat up straighter, as if they had been shocked. “Jazzy-pants?” Jack breathed.

“Our baby girl…” Maddie sniffled. “What have you done with her?”

Danny snorted. “Nothing. I just wanted to give you this warning.” He leaned closer, let his eyes glow toxic green as his teeth sharpened. With a flick of his wrist, a shield, invisible and soundproof, settled over himself and the Fentons. “If you do anything to make her upset, I will not hesitate to make your remaining lives here a living fucking hell. When you eventually rot in your cell, you will become the very thing you despise, and you will never be able to escape my wrath.”

Maddie puffed her chest out. “We aren’t afraid of you, ghost.”

“You should be.” Danny let the shield drop, leaning back. “My birthday’s coming up.”

“What kind of non sequitur are you trying to trick us with?” Maddie raised an eyebrow, leaning back as if she were the one who had control of the conversation.

Danny rolled his eyes. “Just trying to make conversation I guess. Seems important since I know you guys had big plans for my sweet 16 or whatever. Something about finally letting me drive the GAV?”

Jack bared his teeth. “You’re taunting us over the fact that you already stole one of our son’s birthdays, aren’t you? He died when he was 14—”

“And yet you didn’t notice.” The words dripped from his lips, a poison he wielded with a casualness he didn’t feel.

Nonetheless, the Fentons reeled back. Something like regret fluttered over their faces, and oh, something in Danny keened at seeing the Fentons so distraught.

Shifting in the hard, plastic chair, Danny adjusted his phone. “Not that you could have, mind you. I was pretty good at hiding it after that first month. Though, it was kind of funny how often you dismissed your own inventions when they’d catch me.”

“You bastard, you pretended all those months—” Tears dripped down Maddie’s face, her lip trembling. “—you… you pretended, and we didn’t notice.”

“I almost told you guys on my 15th birthday.” The confession tumbled out. Maddie and Jack turned to look at Danny, tears at various states of flooding down her cheeks.

Jack swallowed hard, his voice sharking as he asked, “… what do you mean?”

Deep breath in. Ignore the way his core felt so present yet distant in his own chest. “It was right after Pariah Dark took Amity Park into the Ghost Zone. Remember?”

“Of course we do,” Maddie snapped, “your kind were vicious with your damn king trying to subjugate the living!”

“He’s not the king anymore, but that’s neither here nor there.” Danny leaned forward. “After that fight with Pariah, I was so scared. I wanted you guys to support me, to help me and tell me it was going to be alright.”

Snorting, Jack rolled his eyes, though his tears still seemed desperate to try and escape their confines. “Right, because you weren’t trying to just fake sympathy so you could catch us with our guards down.”

Ignoring him, Danny bowled on, “I had a whole speech prepared and everything. I walked down, ready to tell you I was Phantom and then I saw how relieved you guys looked and I just… I couldn’t.”

There was a moment of silence, Danny just staring as Maddie tried to wipe away her tears, Jack stubbornly staring Danny in the eyes while he refused to let his own fall. That was fine. Danny could sit there. Pretend he wasn’t staring at the shells of the people who had taken him in, who had loved him for years and who he had believed would never hurt him. Funny how those beliefs changed over time.

“I loved you guys, you know?”

“Ghosts can’t feel love,” Jack said, “you’re lying to us.”

Danny shrugged. “Sure, if that’s what you want to believe. I did though. I loved you guys so much. It hurt when I died, and it hurt when you cut me open, but I never stopped loving you.”

“You’re manipulating us,” Maddie hissed.

“Whatever you want to believe. I just figured you deserved to know.” Danny thought for a moment. “… Jazz really is coming to visit you. She’s got some things to say, and you guys better listen.”

Before the Fentons could respond, Danny hung up the phone. He pushed his seat back and stood up. The guard who had led him in stepped forward. “You still have another thirty minutes,” she said, looking a little hesitant.

Danny shook his head. “I don’t need them. I said everything I wanted to say.”

“If you say so, kid.” She nodded to her fellow guard and opened the door. Danny strode through it, not bothering to look back.

The halls of the prison were yellow. The same yellow as the room he’d visited the Fentons in. Though the linoleum tiles were traded out for just plain concrete. The entire trip back was quiet, just his footsteps and the guard’s footsteps echoing in the empty hallways. He felt as if he’d been split in two once more, his ghostly half watching his human body as he slipped through the halls. Maybe he was supposed to feel triumph. He got the last word in, and he had even managed to threaten the Fentons. However, his limbs buzzed as the guard finally led him to the door to the waiting room.

The guard called out for someone else, and Danny watched himself walk over to a seat. He pulled out his phone, opening his texts with Jazz.

Jazz: Sam sent me this article

Jazz: https://www.gothamgazette.com/2023/01/03/celebrity/video-bat-watch-phantom.html

Jazz: Did you fly here okay?

Yep. Better than staying in the plane. :me

Jazz: Danny

Jazz: You didn’t actually fly here, did you?

… :me

It was faster? :me

Jazz: DANNY

It’s fine! :me

I’ll meet you at the Prison :me

Jazz: … fine.

Jazz: Just, keep me updated.

New Messages

Jazz: I’m heading out now!

Jazz: Should be there in 25 minutes

Jazz: My hotel is pretty nice btw

Jazz: The uber driver is also nice

Jazz: Are you sure you want to be here?

Of course :me

I want to be there for you :me

Jazz: You already have been

Jazz: Don’t set yourself on fire to keep me warm

Jazz: I don’t need a martyr, Danny

Sure, but Danny already had the died part covered. Surely he could protect his sister, even if his fingers trembled and his core spun wildly in his chest, no longer bolstered by the adrenaline of talking to the Fentons, however short of a conversation it was. Fuck. Fuck, there were still so many things he could have said, but he supposed he’d gotten the big ones out. Something squeezed his throat tight, and Danny wondered if maybe this hadn’t been a good idea after all.

Time blurred, the way it did when Danny had been trying to count the minutes between tests and he’d never managed to get it right. People flowed in and out, and Jazz came in at some point. Smiling and nervous enough that she didn’t seem to notice Danny’s automatic responses to her questions. Instead, Danny forced himself to float through the panic tightening his chest. If he just distanced himself enough then he could get through this. He could be a good brother, and he could forget all of the pleas that laid at the back of his throat.

(Please, it’s me, it’s Danny, your son, I’m alive, I promise, I love you, I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive, I"m alive—)

Jazz’s time with the Fentons seemed to fly by, and next thing he knew, he was sending her off in an uber. Maybe she had offered to ride back with him, Danny wasn’t sure. He just knew he found himself standing on the steps leading up to the prison, his core spinning and spinning and spinning and wow. He really hadn’t thought he’d ever feel like he was dying again, but apparently his body just decided to keep on surprising him.

As his core spun and spun, something started tugging on it. Unlike the panic (because that’s what this had to be, right? A panic attack?) currently sending his core into a tizzy, the tug pulled from something outside of Danny. A foreign entity that urged him to follow its call, though he knew exactly where it would lead. Hands shaking, he leaned into the tug.

Damian’s gentle breeze coaxed Danny through the summoning, having him appear in a shimmer of green. Damian sat on the floor of his room, a plate of Alfred’s freshly baked cookies just underneath Danny. His brows were furrowed, but otherwise Damian didn’t let his concern show on his face. It nearly made Danny laugh. Maybe he was doing an okay job hiding the way his core seemed to just keep buzzing and screaming in his chest. Making sure to land away from the cookies, Danny allowed himself to crumple.

So much for hiding it then. Damian swept Danny into his arms, adjusting him so Danny could cling and shake and hide his face into Damian’s shoulder. His limbs felt like static, but he wrapped them around Damian as best as he could. His brother stroked his hair, softly murmuring like he used to do when they were small and Danny had just gotten back from a lesson with Grandfather. The ringing in his ears which sounded suspiciously like his own screams died down, his throat surprisingly not raw. He had to have been actually screaming, right?

There was no way his terror would stay silent, right? Danny had learned how to scream and cry and make his distress known, so surely he was actually screaming. The way his core spun so loud in his chest, its blizzards raging and obscuring his galaxies, he had to be making some noise. Doing something.

“Danny.” Damian’s voice floated past his ear, soft and gentle and all the things Damian reserved only for Danny. “Danny, you are safe. You are safe here, they cannot hurt you hear.”

A strangled whimper reverberated against Danny’s throat, and oh. Maybe he hadn’t been screaming after all. He shivered in Damian’s arms, his core still screaming and screaming and spinning and Damian just kept reassuring him that he was safe, that he didn’t have to worry about the Fentons anymore. How stupid Danny must have been, to think that he would be able to handle seeing them again. Their hands were chained to their sides, but he could still feel the latex and rubber and how they dug deep and deep and deep—

“Danny.” Danny focused back in on Damian’s voice, firmer though still gentle. “You don’t have to turn visible, but I need to know if you are physically okay. Tap once for yes, you are okay, and tap twice if you are injured.”

Huh. Danny hadn’t realized he’d gone invisible. He didn’t try to reach for visibility, simply tapped once with his shaking hand. Damian let out a sigh. Rocking Danny back and forth, he continued to murmur sweet nothings in Arabic as Danny felt himself spiral.

Coming out from a Panic Attack felt like the first moment you breached surface after diving deep into the ocean. Danny wanted to sputter, shake out the last bits of adrenaline as he pulled himself to shore. His core slowed down, sluggish as it settled firmly back in his chest. Danny took gulping breaths, feeling the warm tingle of visibility settle over him. Damian barely reacted, just adjusted his grip to keep Danny held tight.

“… sorry,” Danny croaked out.

Damian hummed. “Are you apologizing for going to see the Fentons despite being advised not to, or are you apologizing because you had a panic attack? Because if it is not the former then I will not accept your apology.”

Wincing, Danny just buried himself further into Damian’s grip. “I should be over it—”

“Danyal Al Ghul Wayne, you are being ridiculous. You were tortured by them not 7 months ago. That is less than a year.”

“—and they literally had no ability to actually hurt me.” Danny sniffled as he slotted himself so his head was nestled underneath Damian’s chin. “Like, you should of heard them, Damian. They were just saying the same shit over and over about me lying to them or that they wouldn’t fall for my tricks. It was honestly kind of boring at times.”

“Danyal.” Oh, they were still on full names then. Danny supposed he could keep hiding a little more. “It does not matter that you were not technically in physical danger, you still put yourself in a situation in which you would have been triggered for seemingly no reason.”

Danny huffed. “There was a reason!”

“Really?” Damian forced Danny from under his chin, which rude, and held his gaze. “Then please. Enlighten me. What grand purpose led you to going behind everyone’s backs—including Jasmine’s—and seeing the Fentons by yourself.”

Swallowing, Danny presented his feeble excuse with as much certainty and blind confidence as he could muster. “I needed to make sure they wouldn’t hurt Jazz.”

A flare of anger—not at Danny, never truly at Danny—flashed through Damian’s gaze. “You are not unintelligent Danyal, but that was the most idiotic thing you could have said to me. Do you really trust your sister so little? Do you believe her so easily wounded?”

“Of course not!” Danny pushed himself out of Damian’s hold, even if he wanted to keep curled up with his twin. “Look, I just… it’s a ghost thing, you wouldn’t get it.”

“That sounds like an excuse to avoid diving into the real reason that you wanted to see the Fentons.” Damian must have been hanging out with Jazz more often, because ouch.

Throwing his hands up, Danny pulled out the desk chair to plop himself in it. “How did you even know to summon me?”

“Jasmine texted me.” Of fucking course she did. “She noticed that you had been acting ‘off’ the entire time you two were at the prison so she requested that I summon you home.”

Great. “I wasn’t acting off!”

“Would you like to bring her here so she can testify?”

“She’s still in Illinois! Her flight back home isn’t until tomorrow!”

“Then just portal her here.” Damian sat back, looking up at Danny expectantly. “Surely you can do something so simple.”

Danny stared back at his twin. “Damian, I don’t know how to make portals.”

“I thought you were the ghost king?”

“I am!”

“You’re the ghost king, and you can’t even create one measly portal?”

“Ugh, you’re impossible!” Danny spun himself in the desk chair. “Look, I never learned how to make portals, and I’m pretty sure ripping literal holes in between time and space is near impossible.”

Damian raised an eyebrow. “Would you like me to list all of the other seemingly impossible powers you use on a daily basis?”

Scowling, Danny crossed his arms. “Look, I get it. I’ve got too many powers, but portaling isn’t one of them! I can’t just make a portal to bring Jazz here!”

“Surely one of your subjects can.” Damian crossed his own arms, stubborn to a fault. “You could simply order one of them to portal Jazz here for you.”

“Right, because I just know a ghost who can portal at will!”

“Did you not tell me about the one that speaks Esperanto? Wulf, I believe his name was?”

Damn. Damn. Danny pushed himself out of the desk chair as he grumbled to himself. Damian had no right to look as smug as he was, sitting on the ground with Alfred’s cookies. Sitting himself next to the plate, Danny grabbed one of Alfred’s snickerdoodles as he reached for his core.

Tapping into it without delving fully into the expanse that lived inside him, Danny thumbed through the mental files he had of each of his rogues and allies, letting the shimmering threads appear and disappear as he needed. How funny, that even when he was outside of the Ghost Zone, he could feel the Infinite Realms pulsing through his core.

Wulf’s thread came to him fairly easily, thicker than some of the others and sturdier. Grabbing onto it, Danny tugged, his voice ringing along the twisting thread.

“Wulf. Via reĝo postulas vian ĉeeston.”

Opening his eyes, Danny caught sight of a black claw tearing the air in front of him open. Swirling green lit Wulf’s back as he stepped through, making sure to close the portal before turning back to Danny. He swept into a bow, furry head low and unable to see the way Damian’s eyes sparkled. “Saluton, mia kara amiko kaj reĝo.”

Danny rolled his eyes at the formal address. “Saluton Wulf, ne necesas esti tiel formala!” He scolded, standing up to pull Wulf into a hug.

Despite his initial resistance, Wulf returned Danny’s hug. Damian frowned up at Danny, scowling further when Danny stuck his tongue out. Wulf let go of Danny and stepped back, saying, “Vi estas mia reĝo. Mi jam estas tro neformala kun vi. Kion vi bezonas de mi?”

Too informal, Danny’s ass. The two had gone through too many jailbreaks together for Wulf to pull that sort of bullshit. Still, Danny cleared his throat as he gave his request, “Ĉu vi povas fari portalon kaj kapti Jazz por mi, mi petas?”

Wulf didn’t even raise an eyebrow, just nodding. “Kompreneble. Mi alportos ŝin kaj poste revenos al la Senlimaj Sferoj.”

Oh, bless his little wolf-man-ghost heart, Danny could cry. Of course Wulf would understand how stressful it was for Danny to have his subjects in the living realm and offer to head back to the Infinite Realms as soon as he was done picking up Jazz. Giving him another hug, Danny said, “Dankon, Wulf. Vi estas la plej bona.”

Wulf hugged Danny back, snuffling his hair a bit before stepping back. “Vi estas bonvena, mia kara amiko kaj sinjoro. Mi revenos.” With a swipe of his claws, Wulf had opened a new portal and stepped through. The portal closed behind him, blinking out of existence.

Settling back down on the floor with his snickerdoodle, Danny raised an eyebrow at Damian.

Damian just rolled his eyes and grabbed one of the cookies. “I would like it on the record that I was right and you do have access to portals—even if you cannot make them yourself.”

Danny snorted. “You’re just trying to cover up that you’re insanely jealous that I got to hug Wulf.”

“I am not!”

“Are too!”

“I would never stoop to such childish urges!” Damian turned his nose up. “You are being ridiculous.”

Danny stuck his tongue out, about to continue to tease his twin when another portal tore through the air. Wulf helped Jazz through, making sure she was stable before ducking into another portal. Jazz’s hair had been put up into a ponytail, a rarity when Danny knew she preferred it down, and her backpack and suitcase were clutched in her hands. Despite the sudden departure, she just smiled as she set her backpack on top of the suitcase and wheeled it to the corner of the room.

Once she had her luggage out of the way, Jazz swept onto her knees, sitting in front of Danny. She smiled as she reached over and ruffled his hair. “Hello little brother, how are you feeling?”

She said it so softly, so quietly and Danny felt heat rise to his face. Something like shame curdled in his gut as he mumbled through his cookie, “I’m doing better…”

Jazz smiled and reached over to kiss Danny on the forehead. “Good. I was really worried about you.”

Fuck, Jazz was going to make Danny feel so guilty about all of this, wasn’t she? Danny forced even more of his cookie into his mouth, trying to avoid talking to Jazz. Unfortunately, his older sister knew him too well, and just patiently waited until he had no more cookie to munch on. Once Danny’s mouth was no longer full, she grabbed his hands, keeping him from grabbing another self-defense cookie.

“Now that I know you’re safe,” Jazz said, “I want you to explain to me what led you to think that seeing the Fentons before I did would be a good idea.”

Right. Fuck. Danny hadn’t expected having to explain to Jazz and Damian his stupid plan that really, he hadn’t thought through properly. If he had, he wouldn’t have gotten into this mess in the first place. Still, he found himself taking a deep breath as he tried to figure out how to explain to them what the hell he’d been thinking.

“… you’re not going to believe me if I said I did it just to protect Jazz, are you?”

“I know that was probably part of the reason,” Jazz responded immediately, squeezing Danny’s hands as she did, “maybe even the main part that you used to justify yourself, but I don’t think that’s the whole story, Danny.”

Of course it wasn’t. Danny may hide behind his altruistic intentions, but he knew deep down that he was selfish. That he could pretty up his excuses as much as he wanted in vague ideas of protecting his sister or finding closure or even just trying to extend some form of empathy towards the Fentons. But he knew that wasn’t the truth. Knew the Fentons would never find mercy from him, because Danny refused to give them his forgiveness. Could never give them his forgiveness when his scars still ached and his nightmares left him screaming, clawing and desperate for some relief.

Damian and Jazz were patient. They had to be, to deal with Danny. They sat, let Danny stare off at the wall and chew on his words, try to figure out how he could weasel his way out of his two siblings searching for what dumbass idea had lead to him confronting the Fentons. The air felt cool in Damian’s room, and Danny must have lowered the temperature when he’d been invisible. It’d always been hard to control how much cold he produced when he panicked. He glanced around, made sure he hadn’t accidentally began to frost over the room.

“You cannot avoid this conversation forever, Danny.” Damian sounded matter of fact, not judgmental necessarily, but more so sure. Knowing.

Taking a deep breath, Danny found his gaze returning to his hands. “I’m not. At least, not intentionally. I’m just… I don’t know how to get the words.”

Jazz gave them another squeeze. “That’s okay. Take your time. We’ll be right here until the words are there.”

Cool. Cool, so Danny couldn’t just wait them out. Another deep breath, and Danny flexed his fingers. The words stuck at the back of his throat, fear keeping him from letting them loose. Still, he couldn’t just swallow them down, not when Damian and Jazz were sitting. Waiting. Finally, Damian scooted over, laid a hand on Danny’s shoulder and the words tumbled out.

“I wanted to prove that I could.”

His two siblings sat quietly, clearly aware that Danny wasn’t done. Now that the first words were out, the rest followed suit, a bursting of a dam as Danny found himself struggling to keep all of his words in.

“I mean, I know that it’s okay that like I have panic attacks and nightmares and all that because like, I went through something super traumatizing, right? Like it absolutely makes sense for what happened to me. But I just, I’m so tired of letting them rule what I do with my life. I wanted to let them know that they couldn’t mess with Jazz, yeah, but I also didn’t want them to keep ruining my life like this. I wanted to take some kind of power back. Even if it was just talking to them. Like, seeing them in chains shouldn’t have freaked me out because they’re in prison for a reason. They can’t hurt me.

“But like, I still freaked out. I still panicked and got you two worried, and I hate, I hate, I hate that they have so much fucking control over me. That they can still fill me with fucking fear and panic, and I loved them. I loved them, and you loved them, and you should be able to deal with your parental shit without me panicking about it every five minutes! Like, you should be allowed to grieve, Jazz!”

“And I am.” Jazz pulled Danny into a hug. “Danny, just because you need more support does not mean that I am not getting the support I need. I have my own feelings, and sometimes you don’t see them because I don’t want you to worry about me. Neither of my little brothers should have to take on my burdens.” She sent a pointed stare to Damian, who simply enmeshed himself into the hug.

Danny hiccupped. “It’s not fair, Jazzy. It’s not fair.”

Jazz sighed as she clung onto Danny and Damian. “It’s not. It’s the exact opposite of fair.”

“You both are allowed to take your time in healing,” Damian piped up.

Danny snorted, but Damian continued before he could actually speak. “The Fentons hurt both of you, and they did so without any care for how it would affect you later on. It is more than understandable that you both are struggling. It also speaks to your bond that you both are worried for each other and do not wish to burden each other with these struggles.”

“It’s a bit of a bad habit we have,” Jazz said, her voice unbearably fond.

Damian hummed. “I can tell.” Oh ouch, Damian. “But I feel it is pertinent to remind you both that you are both are not alone, and that you do not have to hide these things from each other. I can help share this burden, and many others in each of our families would be more than willing to support you both in these trying times.”

Sniffling, Danny sagged into his siblings’ hold. “I’m tired of talking about the stupid Fentons and the stupid trauma they gave us.”

Laughter reverberating in her chest, Jazz laid her chin on Danny’s head. “Me too, little brother. Hey, why don’t we talk about what you two want for your birthday?”

Damian rolled his eyes. “There is nothing you could give us that our father would not be able to already acquire.”

“Oh come on, Damian! It’s the first birthday with both of my little brothers!” Jazz ruffled Damian’s hair, smiling as he scrunched his nose and rushed to fix it. “I want to do something special! You gotta give me something!”

Danny rubbed his tears away. “I mean, I just want you at the manor when we have the party. I don’t really care what you get me for Damian and my birthday.”

Groaning, Jazz flopped more heavily onto Danny and Damian. “You both are so mean to me! Not giving me even the slightest option for a birthday present!”

Danny squawked as he found himself squished between his two siblings. “Jazz! You’re squishing me!”

“What was that?” Jazz opened an eye, leaning further against the twins. Danny could feel the bulk Jazz had begun to build crushing him towards the ground. “I thought I heard my darling little brother, but it couldn’t have been! He refuses to tell me what he wants for his birthday!”

Damian grunted as Danny was squished further into his stomach. “Jasmine, I must insist—”

“Oh, and there’s my other darling little brother!” Jazz practically sat on top of the two, dramatic in her every movement. “But what’s this? He’s insisting that I can’t get him a present because his dad happens to be a billionaire? How unfortunate! Surely, I’ll have to squish him until he realizes how wrong he is!”

Squealing with an unexpected laughter, Danny squirmed against Jazz’s hold. She kept them like that, going on and on about how she just needed something to give them and then she could free them from their prison.

Danny wasn’t sure how to tell her that the warmth spreading through his core was more than enough.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

Somebody was watching them.

Danny and Damian had felt it. The moment they hopped out of Dick’s car, a presence honed in on them. It left both boys hackles up, though neither said a word. They just waved Dick off, turning and joking like they had routinely done since their start at Gotham Academy. Even as Danny played along with Damian’s nonchalance, he found his core hissing.

How dare this intruder attempt to stalk him in his own turf? Did they not know that this was his haunt? Clearly the intruder was bold, bold enough to so openly announce their presence and that they were keeping an eye on Danny and Damian. This couldn’t be a normal League assassin, not if they were so intent on making sure Danny and Damian knew that they were being watched. As Danny pulled his books out of his locker, he found his mind whirling through potential guesses as to who their intruder could possibly be.

His ghost sense hadn’t gone off, so there was no way it was a ghost. The League would never be able to tame one well enough to work for them anyways. The presence felt confident, more like it was toying with Danny and Damian. Giving them hints of a shadow, the banging of vents that could be attributed to the old building or the winter weather. Their intruder was smart, someone well trained and confident in their abilities. Clearly they wanted something from the twins.

During their fifth period math, Danny felt his own sense of boldness come over him. He caught Damian’s eye, glancing down at his pencil before he began tapping.

.-- .... .- - / -.. --- / -.-- --- ..- / .-- .- -. - ..--..

Their professor droned on. Pencils scratched against paper, and for a moment, Danny wondered if he had made a mistake. He kept his eyes on Damian’s pencil, how it scratched and scratched and suddenly—

.- / -- . . - .. -. --.

The taps came from the vent, the old one that the school hadn’t replaced just yet. Danny glanced at Damian, who raised his eyebrow at Danny. Fuck, he might as well go all in. He waited for a moment, chewed on his lip as he pretended to get stuck on a problem.

.-- .... -.-- ..--..

The response came almost immediately, a series of bangs that had a few heads turning in concern.

.. / -- .. ... ... . -.. / -.-- --- ..-

Something like panic turned in Danny’s gut. He caught Damian’s gaze again, his own panic mirrored in his twin’s face. Danny kept his pencil still, waiting to see what else their intruder had to say to them. The drone of class stretched on, and Danny almost gave up on hearing more. Then—

-- . . - / -- . / .- - / - .... . / ... . -.-. --- -. -.. / .-. --- --- ..-.

.- -.-. .-. --- ... ... / ..-. .-. --- -- / - .... . / ... -.-. .... --- --- .-..

.. / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / -... . / .-- .- .. - .. -. --.

With that, the feeling of eyes on them vanished. Danny’s ears rang as he stared straight through the board in front of him. Class dragged on, nothing but gibberish to Danny as he waited for that stupid bell to ring. Once it finally did, he practically bolted from his seat, gathering up all of his materials and dashing into the hall, Damian hot on his heels.

Neither stopped until they’d reached their lockers. Danny practically ripped through his combination, opening his locker with way too much force. Damian kept his slow, his gaze focused on Danny. “Do you think—”

“It’s her.” Danny grit his teeth as he answered Damian, putting his math materials away so he could grab what he needed for his next class. “It’s got to be her. Who else would have the fucking balls to show up at our school?”

“We do not have to meet with her.” Damian grabbed his own materials, closing his locker and turning to Danny. “We could let Father know—”

“No, that’s just going to make things messy.” Danny hiked his notebooks and books up into his arms, turning on his heel and marching straight towards their next classroom. “I’ll go.”

“By yourself?”

“I’m not leaving you alone with her.” Danny kept his pace steady as he swerved between clumps of students, ignoring the whispers and the shouting. “And I don’t think both of us should meet with her.”

“Danny—”

“I mean, both of us shouldn’t be present.” Danny began to take the steps up to the second floor two at a time. “One of us, you preferably, should hide out somewhere nearby while the other speaks to her directly. I don’t trust her wanting to meet with both of us, and frankly, I don’t think she deserves to see you again after all the bullshit she’s put you through.”

“Is this just another Fenton situation?” Damian scowled as he caught up to Danny. “I will not let you throw yourself into a confrontation with her without me by your side. We either do this together or not at all.”

“Damian—”

“No, Danyal.” Damian turned and stopped Danny in the middle of the hall, uncaring as students flooded around them. “I refuse to let you go face her by yourself. You will either take me with you and we will speak to her together, or not at all. I will not compromise on this.”

“But it’s going to be more obvious—”

“Good.” Damian straightened his shoulders. “Let the rest of our family notice. They would have noticed anyway if only one of us went. We do not face threats alone. Not anymore, Danny.”

Fuck, Damian was right. They stuck together, even if Danny desperately wanted Damian as far away from that woman as possible. Sighing he stepped around Damian, heading off towards their next class. “If she tries anything, I’m stabbing her.”

“Danny, you do not have any blades on you.”

“Says who?”

“Danny.”

“Dami.”

“Alfred will be upset if you brought weapons to school again,” Damian said with the same tone as someone who had gotten in trouble multiple times for bringing weapons to school.

Danny snorted. “Can’t be mad if I can’t access them in human form.”

Damian frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Oh shit, we better hurry or we’re going to be late.” Danny began to sprint down the hall.

“Danyal, what do you mean you cannot access your weapons in your human form? DANYAL!”

The rest of the school day blurred past them after that, Danny and Damian barely paying attention to their professors in favor of trying to find the presence that had been watching them. It seemed that she really had decided to leave them alone until their rooftop meeting. Maybe she did that to help them focus on classes, though more likely it was another fucked up power move.

The end of the day bell had Danny and Damian throwing their things in their lockers, uncaring as they grabbed their jackets and backpacks and began following the crowd out of the school. Neither twin knew who was picking them up today, but they’d probably have to cover their designated driver’s patrols for a week with the stunt they were about to pull.

While blending in with the crowd, Danny grabbed Damian’s hand. He turned them both invisible, sneaking away from the crowd and leading Damian down to an alleyway a building over from the one they were supposed to meet their intruder on. Danny turned them visible once more and gestured for Damian to follow his lead. Damian nodded, his pride set aside for a moment as the two moved in sync. They clung to the shadows, silent as they began to climb the fire escape. The building their intruder had picked seemed to be abandoned, one marked to be torn down and renovated into something new. Danny wasn’t sure what exactly the building was going to be turned into, but if he had to guess then it had to be something related to the school.

A part of Danny wanted to turn invisible again, to play reconnaissance as they ascended the roof. However, he knew it would do him no good. He and Damian pulled themselves up, staring over at their intruder with pounding hearts.

The intruder turned. For a moment, her stare remained cold, icy as she appraised the both of them. “Damian, Danyal,” she said.

Danny snarled, “Mother.”

Mother bared her teeth, an attempt at a smile. “My sweet habibis, it has been far too long.”

“You shouldn’t be here.” Damian scowled. “I believe Batman made it clear that you are not welcome in Gotham.”

Clucking her tongue, Mother crossed her arms. “You are both so cold to me. Is it so wrong for a mother to want to check on her children?”

“Get to the point.” Danny took a step to try and put himself between Talia and Damian. “Why are you here?”

“Danyal, my darling,” Mother crooned. “You have grown so big. Oh, my sweet boy, you look so much like your father.”

Damian pulled Danny back a step. “You are being obtuse, Mother. What do you want from us?”

“Damian, my habibi, you wound me!” Mother grabbed her chest, playing up the dramatics if only to further unnerve her children. “I simply wished to see with my own eyes that my two darling sons had reunited. How it warms my heart to see you both still so protective over each other. I see my lessons have not gone to waste.”

If Damian were not holding onto Danny’s hand, Danny was sure he would have attacked his mother by now. He felt his eyes flash green, something his mother took note of. “You told me that Danyal al Ghul was dead. Why would you care if we were reunited or not?”

Mother strode forward, an amused smirk twitching onto her lips as both Damian and Danny tried to push the other behind them. Once she was standing before them, she knelt so she could better look them in the eye. Reaching out, she cupped Danny’s cheek, rubbing her thumb along his cheekbone. “Oh, Danyal, I am so proud to see you took my words to heart. You should not trust me, habibi, even though I mean you no harm.”

Danny snorted, batting his mother’s hand away. “Okay, are you going to tell us what you want or not? Because Damian and I can leave. Better yet, we could call Batman.”

“And have your father ruin our mother-son time?” Talia stood back up. “No, I do not wish to make a big scene. I simply wanted to check in on you both.”

“That does not sound like you.” Damian frowned as he pulled Danny closer to his side. “You are not someone who just watches. What is your ulterior motive?”

“Damian, you know directly asking someone what their motives are never works.” Oh, how Danny wanted to deck his mother.

Huffing, he took a step back and took Damian with him. “Either you tell us exactly why you’re here or we call Batman.”

Mother and sons stared off, Mother clearly waiting to see if Danny would make good on his bluff. Seeing his mother made no move to speak, he pulled out his phone. At the sight of the phone, Mother sighed.

“Alright, I see neither of you have time for your mother anymore.” Mother turned away, as if unable to look at her children as she said, “I came to wish you both a joyous birthday. I know I will not be welcome at your celebration, but I wanted you to know this regardless.”

Damian frowned. “That’s it?”

Mother raised an eyebrow. “Did you think I would have some sort of evil plan? That I had come to take you both back to the League?”

“Why else would you come?” The question slipped out of Danny’s mouth before he could think twice. A residual sort of fear wound itself through his core, but Mother simply looked sad.

Another sigh, and Mother strode towards the two. Danny and Damian braced themselves as Mother wrapped them into a hug. Memories of cold nights in Nanda Parbat, of the times Mother had been able to visit them after training and sweep them into her arms, passed by Danny’s mind’s eye. Mother gripped them tight, but not unbearably so. Just enough to remind them that she was there, that she would protect them.

Danny wondered if all poisons tasted so sweet.

“I love you, Damian. Danyal. I love you both, so much.” She spoke fiercely into the cold, conviction forcing each of her words to puff past Danny and Damian’s ears. “No matter what I do, remember that I love you.”

She pulled back to give them both a kiss on the forehead. “I sent your father a present for you both to open from me on your birthday. It should be harmless enough to pass his inspections.”

“You’re not going to try and take us back to the League?” Danny asked.

Mother shook her head. “No. I did not come here as Talia al Ghul, current head of the League of Assassins. I came as your mother.”

Huh. “Then I need to say something to you.”

Mother blinked, pausing as she stared at Danny. “Oh?”

Damian squeezed his hand, and Danny swallowed down his anxiety. “You were a bad mom.”

The words sat heavy between them, but Mother didn’t respond. Just stood there as Danny gathered up everything he wanted to say. Everything he could think to say when he knew that his mind was whirling and he had to keep Damian safe.

Something squeezed his hand, and he looked over to see Damian still holding his hand tight. Damian, who knew their mother as well as Danny did, and knew that Danny needed to say this. Let Danny take the lead and stepped back as his brother gathered the courage to speak back to their mother.

Swallowing the bile that threatened to gather in his throat, Danny turned back to Mother. “You hurt us. You loved us, but you didn’t love us good enough. You kept us in the League, even when you knew that the League was bad for us. You let them separate us. Mother, you hurt us. You hurt us, and I don’t forgive you for that.”

Resignation settled into the wrinkles on their mother’s face, and she seemed so tired and old in that moment. Still, she kept silent, waiting as Danny gathered up his words.

“I… I love you, Mother.” The admission burned, like a strong alcohol being thrown back up. “I love you, but I cannot forgive you for what you did to me and Damian. You abused us, and I never want to see you again. I won’t ever meet with you again like this. That’s a promise.”

Mother raised an eyebrow, almost disbelieving. Danny clenched his jaw. “If you don’t get off this roof in the next ten seconds, I will kill you.”

“Danyal, you couldn’t complete a single mission.” Mother’s voice dripped with pity, too sweet and nauseating. “You won’t kill me.”

She was right, Danny knew she was right. Still, he looked her in the eye. Forced himself to stare into those eyes that looked so much like Damians. “I won’t. You’re right. But I don’t need to kill you to make you regret ever setting foot in Gotham.”

The shadows lengthened. Mother’s breath began to mist in front of her, a chill causing an involuntary shiver. Danny’s eyes glowed a brilliant green, daring his mother to look away. Daring her to see what her abandonment had left her. Damian stood firm next to Danny, and Danny caught a glimpse of a bat-a-rang in his grip. So much for not taking weapons to school.

Mother held Danny’s gaze. She’d always been good at that, staring Danny down until he folded under the weight of her disappointment. Still, she calculated and thought and Danny felt his core flare. Ice spread out from him and Damian, a show of power more than an actual threat. Still, surprise broke through Mother’s mask for just a moment. She smiled.

“You’ve grown powerful, Danyal.”

“Leave.”

Bowing her head, Mother said, “Ahbak, my darlings.” Turning on her heel, she walked over to the edge of the building. One moment, she was standing there and the next, she vanished.

Danny turned to Damian, his eyes switching back to worried blue. “Are you okay? You aren’t cold or anything, right?”

Huffing, Damian just pulled Danny into a hug. “You are stupid, and I love you.”

“Hey, why are you calling me stupid?” Danny leaned into the hug despite the clear bait for a fight. “I got Mother to leave us alone.”

“Mother, who is a trained assassin and could have killed you.”

“We’ve already established this, Dami, I can’t die when I’m already dead. That’s a double negative.”

“I cannot believe you.”

“I love you too!”

Before Damian could respond, Steph’s head popped over the edge of the roof. “You two are in so much fucking trouble for ditching me.”

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

“What about basbousa?” Danny shoveled cereal into his mouth in between words. “That was always my favorite from our birthdays in the league.”

Damian scoffed. “Danyal, we are talking about our birthday cake. There will be basbousa, of course, but that is a simple dessert that we could ask Pennyworth for at any time. Birthday cakes are special and should be treated with the appropriate amount of importance.”

Rolling his eyes, Danny swallowed his food. “It’s cake, Dami. It’s going to be good no matter what kind we choose.”

“Danyal, I do not think that you are taking this seriously.” Damian crossed his arms, ignoring his breakfast acai bowl.

Unlike his brother, Danny continued to speak through eating his food. Like a heathen, Sam would say, but he covered his mouth with his hand so it was fine. “Dami, I know you want our birthday to be like extra special or whatever—”

“Danyal, it is our first birthday together since I thought you died.” Damian glared.

“—and that means it’s going to be special no matter what!” Danny swallowed down his cereal so he could put a hand on Damian’s shoulders. “So you don’t have to keep stressing about it. It doesn’t have to be perfect.”

Huffing, Damian grabbed his spoon to stab back into his breakfast. “That is exactly why it has to be perfect. All of the details have to be ironed out and not a single thing can go wrong or everything will be ruined.”

“Damian—”

“Danyal—”

“Good morning, my beloved youngest brothers!” Dick exclaimed as he practically strolled into the dining room. He grabbed a bowl and poured himself some cereal. “What are you two fighting about so early in the morning?”

“We are not fighting.” Damian scowled as he turned his attention to Dick. “And you were supposed to go back to Blüdhaven a week ago.”

Dick pouted. “What? I can’t spend time with my family? Damin, you wound me so!”

“You are being dramatic, Richard.” Damian took a bite of his acai bowl, pointedly looking at Danny as he waited to swallow before speaking again. “If you must know, Danyal and I were discussing our upcoming birthday.”

“We can’t agree on a birthday cake,” Danny piped up, seeing his opportunity to sway Dick to his side, “I keep telling Dami that we don’t have to do anything too fancy but he’s insistent—”

“You were the one who almost didn’t want a party at all! What sort of disgrace would that leave us?”

“Dami, you hate big parties—”

“—as if the party we are currently planning will be big.” Damian once more abandoned his breakfast to cross his arms—a favorite position of his. “I am merely saying that we should be more intentional about it. This is our 16th birthday. For many American teenagers, this is one of the most important birthdays, and so we must treat it with that kind of importance.”

“Dami, I’m fine if we just have some balloons and a cake, there’s really nothing—”

“Of course there’s something—”

“Dami, seriously, if you’d just listen—”

“—no, if you’d just listen to me—”

“What if you two had separate birthday parties?”

Danny and Damian swung their gazes back to Dick, pulled out of their impromptu back and forth. Dick smiled at the twins, stirring his cereal as he watched the twins. Seeing that they weren’t going to go back to their squabbling, Dick straightened his back.

“It seems like you guys aren’t agreeing on what you want to do for a party, and Bruce wouldn’t mind having two separate birthday parties for you guys.” Dick took a moment to take a bite out of his cereal. “I mean, I know I’d have hated sharing my birthday with someone else when I was you guys’ age. It’s okay if you don’t want to share your birthday anymore.”

The silence grew thick, Dick smiling as Danny and Damian just… stared. Danny tried to figure out if Dick was joking, but his smile was far too ‘older brother trying to help’ to be him pulling a prank or something similar. Glancing at Damian, Danny could see a mirrored look of subtle incredulity, a wondering about their older brother’s mental state more than genuinely considering the proposal laid on the table.

Danny decided, as the more socially able of the two, he’d just have to break the news. Clearing his throat, he said, “Dick—”

“—that is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard come out of your mouth, and I witnessed you attempt Father’s Batman voice,” Damian finished, seeming to decide that Dick didn’t deserve the gentle let down that Danny was aiming for.

Wincing, Dick raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’m just trying to help out! You guys probably shared your birthdays all the time in the League, right?”

Danny shrugged. “We didn’t really get to celebrate our birthday in the League. I mean, when we were like babies I’m sure that happened, but when we got older it wasn’t a huge deal.”

Nodding, Damian turned to Dick. “Our birthday often meant a visit from Mother and Grandfather, but rarely did we have time for a grand celebration. Then Danny died and my first ‘real’ birthday party was the one you threw for me.”

“So I don’t think we’ve ever actually had a birthday party together, have we?” Danny nudged Damian who huffed.

“Not in the traditional way that Richard insisted we have my 11th birthday party, no. So you can see, Richard, how that was completely imbecilic to suggest, yes?”

Dick leaned back a bit. “Okay, okay, got it! No separate parties for the twins!”

With that settled, Damian turned back to Danny. “Really though, I do not understand why you are so hesitant on just committing to a birthday cake flavor.”

“You said chocolate was too boring, Dami!”

The argument continued, and the rest of Danny’s siblings filtered into the dining room. Danny was sure it would have lasted all of breakfast if Alfred hadn’t popped in, carrying two cups of karak chai in his hands. The old butler nodded his hellos to the various bat kids as he swept around to Damian and Danny. Setting the two mugs in front of the twins, Alfred smiled. “I am going to be gone for a few errands, so I expect you both to be good while I am gone.”

“Hey, why do we get the lecture?” Danny pouted as he sipped his ectoplasm laced drink. “Everybody else at this table is just as much—if not more—inclined to cause chaos when you’re gone!”

“Ah, but they are all eating their breakfast quietly while you and your brother have been arguing since you woke up.” Alfred smiled as he gave them both a kiss on the head—a rare and treasured form of affection from the manor’s eldest resident. “Please try and keep your arguments to harmless back and forth—I will not be patching up any stab wounds because of silly arguments.”

For a moment, Danny thought that was a ridiculous ask. Then he remembered who his family was and simply nodded up at Alfred. Damian rolled his eyes, but he still nodded his affirmation of keeping to Alfred’s rules. Giving the table one last smile, Alfred turned on his heels and left the dining room…

… and entered from the kitchen door, adjusting his collar. His tie was crooked, and there seemed to be something of a healthy blush on Alfred’s face. Danny frowned as he could practically see the equations floating around his siblings’ heads. Looking around the room, Alfred blinked. “Oh, I did not realize you all would still be eating breakfast.”

Dick put his spoon back in his cereal. “Alfred, we just saw you leave out towards the hall.”

“Yeah…” Tim’s eyes narrowed as he looked between the door and Alfred. “It’s not physically possible for you to have walked all the way back to the kitchen in the time between leaving and stepping back into the dining room.”

The flush began to leave Alfred’s cheeks as he moved to straighten his tie. “Ah, I suppose I must have miscalculated the timing of when I would return.”

Oh, oh, oh Danny really didn’t want to confirm the thoughts going through his head. Yet, his siblings were all trying to figure it out, and dammit,, Danny could not suffer with this knowledge alone.

“Did you have a good discussion with Clockwork?” Danny asked, sipping his chai in order to hide the urge to vomit or laugh or both.

Alfred raised an eyebrow before seeming to remember something. “Ah yes, my dear friend asked me to give this to you when I returned.” Alfred strode around the dining table, producing what looked like a far too familiar sticky note and handing it to Danny. “I believe he is expecting you to visit soon to discuss plans for yours and Master Damian’s birthday.”

Danny took the note, shoving it in his pocket to read for later. “And you guys were just talking, right?”

Alfred’s lips twitched into a smile. “Oh Master Danny, surely you know that it is un-gentlemanlike to kiss and tell.” He turned and once more left the dining room.

Danny stared at his siblings. His siblings stared back. He took a long sip of his karak. His siblings continued to stare. Counting down in his head, Danny finished his sip just as his family burst into noise.

“What the hell was—”

“—fuck someone—”

“Spooks, if you know—”

“—gonna be sick.”

“Danyal.” Damian turned in his seat, setting a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “You must be honest with me.”

“I’m always honest with you, Dami.”

“Danyal.”

“Right, sorry.”

Taking a deep breath, Damian let it out in a slow exhale. “Danyal. Did Pennyworth fornicate with your advisor?”

Danny took a moment to take stock of the rest of their siblings. Each one of them stared back with a look of morbid curiosity and a desperation for Danny to tell them this wasn’t real. Danny had a choice. Let his family live in ignorance of Alfred’s chosen bedmates and habits, or inform them of this cursed knowledge and bring them to suffer with Danny. Danny could be merciful. He could say that Alfred was just trolling or that it was simply a grandfather wishing to embarrass his grandson.

Looking back at Damian, Danny realized mercy was never an option.

“Clockwork told me they’ve been fuck buddies for years.” Hell broke loose once more, and Danny couldn’t help the feral grin of finally having company for his misery. Shouts of poor virgin ears and declarations of incredulity at Alfred fucking filled the dining room.

Duke, a surprising agent of chaos, piped up with, “please tell me you don’t know who tops.”

That raised another tidal wave of noise, Steph and Tim arguing profusely about whether Alfred topped or bottomed, Jason and Dick bemoaning Duke for ever bringing up something like that. Cass had curled into herself, leaning on her girlfriend for support as Steph continued the valiant argument that clearly Alfred topped. Damian looked over at Danny with this look of betrayal that Danny only found himself returning with a smile.

Sipping on his Karak, Danny leaned back to enjoy the chaos he and Alfred had sowed.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

Clearing its nonexistent throat, the council secretary shuffled its papers. “For the last topic of the day, we have the discussion of the King’s ‘birth date’.”

Mumbling rose up, which Danny figured the Observants did for dramatic effect. Rarely did they disagree with each other, and rarely did they need to mumble like that amongst themselves. Danny supposed it was to show some sort of respect to him, the only one who couldn’t tap into their freaky telepathy. Really, it just ended with him being more annoyed than these meetings usually brought for him.

Speaking of which—“why are we talking about this?” Danny crossed his legs, his kingly regalia the same vest, blouse, trousers, and capelet from the trial. “Ghosts don’t have birthdays.”

“But you are half-human, sire.” One of the Speakers (really just Observants who had been given ‘permission’ by the rest of the council to speak directly to the king) straightened up. “And you did not let us celebrate your death day. We must assume that this is because your human birth date is more important.”

Groaning, Danny refrained from just collapsing over his desk. “We’re still working on getting the different factions of the Ghost Zone to not actively attack each other—there’s literally no reason to celebrate my birthday.”

“But your highness!” Collars ruffled amongst the Observants. “It is a matter of dignity! The Infinite Realms have not had a proper ruler in millennia! We must make it known that this newest king is celebrated!”

What Danny wouldn’t give to have an excuse to get the fuck out of this meeting. He rested his cheek on his hand, leaning on his elbow in his best show of disinterest. “Your past rulers may have celebrated their death days, but I don’t want a celebration. I didn’t want to be king in the first place—”

“Yet you defeated Pariah Dark—”

“Out of necessity!” Danny ripped his face from his hand, instead slamming the gloved appendage down on the desk. “I didn’t know I’d be saddled with the role of ghost king, and I refuse to play into the fucking frivolity of celebrations for a position and title I never wanted!”

Another Observant held their hands up. “Your highness, we do not mean to offend—”

“That’s it, I’m done.” Danny pushed himself away from the desk, grabbing his crown and throwing it at the nearest Observant. The flaming crown bounced off of its head before disappearing in a burst of flames. It reappeared above Danny’s head, just as it had when Danny had first been crowned. “This meeting is over. We are not having any celebration, and I am not dealing with this bullshit.”

“Sire—”

Danny turned on his heel and stalked out of the meeting room. The double doors flew open with his approach, slamming shut as soon as he had crossed the threshold.

As soon as Danny stepped out of the meeting room, he let his kingly regalia melt off of his form. His usual hazmat suit replaced it, a form much more comfortable for him as he practically booked it towards Clockwork’s tower.

The Ancients’ Halls and Clockwork’s tower always floated near each other. No matter how the Infinite Realms twisted and swayed, Danny could be sure that Clockwork’s home and the Ancients’ Halls existed near each other. Thinking about it, Clockwork’s tower and the Ancients’ Halls were probably the two most stable places in the entirety of the realms. Rarely did Danny notice them shifting too far out of their places, the pocket of frozen time that they both lived in preferring to stick near the deepest parts of the Realms, as close to the “center” as Danny could imagine. It almost felt as if they orbited something, but Danny knew the moment he actually put weight behind that thought that the Realms would shift the two lairs far outside their usual zone.

The Realms were mischievous like that. Danny wondered if they just hated consistency.

Still, something like relief flooded his bones as he floated into Clockwork’s tower. The ghost himself floated in front of a few screens, watching potential futures, it seemed. Danny just let himself flop onto the floor. Clockwork would acknowledge him when he was good and ready.

It seemed the older ghost (and potential Ancient, but Clockwork always dodged Danny’s questions about the ancients) could tell that something was bugging Danny, because he let Danny rot on the floor for a good ten minutes. Finally turning to acknowledge him, Clockwork smiled.

“The Observants asked about your birthday, I see.”

Huffing, Danny pulled himself up so he could sit with his ghostly tail curled beneath him. “You’re sure I can’t quit being the Ghost King?”

Clockwork hummed as he pulled up two of the coziest chairs Danny had ever had the pleasure of sitting in. A clock themed side table materialized between them as Clockwork beckoned for Danny to sit. Once Danny had floated off of the floor and curled himself into the cozy chair, Clockwork said, “The Infinite Realms is tied inextricably to its ruler. As long as the Realms exist, so too will its king.”

Great. “So you’re absolutely sure I can’t retire?”

“You could have someone come defeat you in combat—”

“Pass.”

“—in which case, no, Danny.” Clockwork at least had the mind to look somewhat genuine as he delivered news that Danny had already received once and would most likely receive again. “You cannot ‘retire’ from being Ghost King until someone defeats you in one on one combat.”

Huffing, Danny crossed his arms. “That’s stupid.”

“As you’ve said before.”

“I’m going to change that law someday.”

“You cannot change what is true about the Infinite Realms, Danny.”

“That’s stupid.”

Clockwork hummed. “I suppose for you, it is. Would you like a snack?”

Danny allowed the abrupt change in topic, munching on cookies (not as good as Alfred’s) as Clockwork set to steeping some tea. Really, he didn’t need to go to all the effort since everything was made out of ectoplasm anyway, but Danny supposed Clockwork probably found the actual process soothing. Either that or he just wanted to drag out the silence he had bought from Danny.

Unfortunately for him, Danny was in a mood. “Hey next time you have to give me a sticky note, please don’t make Alfred do it after one of your trysts.” Danny spat the word like it was vinegar, his nose scrunching at the unwanted images flashing in his mind’s eye.

Clockwork didn’t stutter in his steeping, the bastard. Instead he simply pulled out the tea bag and took a sip. “You enjoyed the mental anguish it caused your siblings, did you not?”

“That’s besides the point.” Danny grabbed another cookie, taking a huge bite and speaking. “It’s bad enough that you guys used to be close like that, I don’t need to know what Alfred’s sex life is like, please and thank you.”

“That is a bold assumption to make that he was indeed engaging in intercourse with me, Danny,” Clockwork pointed out, the ever smug troll that he was, “and please don’t speak with your mouth full like that. It’s impolite.”

Danny swallowed his bite of cookie only to stick his tongue out at Clockwork. “What’s impolite is implying that my grandparents are still having sex. I don’t need to know that.”

“You think of me and Alfred as your grandparents?”

Danny paused, about to take a bite when Clockwork’s question hit him. Huh. He supposed he hadn’t really thought about it all too much. He slowly set his cookie down, looking over at the older ghost. Danny’d always had a hard time reading Clockwork’s expressions. The older ghost’s poker face gave nothing away, and with how he switched between ages, the minutia of expressions often got lost. With the accidental confession (was this a confession? Danny wasn’t sure), Clockwork seemed to have been thrown straight into his eldest persona.

Red eyes rounded out in surprise, the wrinkles on Clockwork’s forehead bunching up. It was always harder to tell where Clockwork was looking as he lacked an iris and pupil, but Danny thought he could see the smallest twitches in Clockwork’s eyes, darting around Danny’s face as he swallowed. The older ghost clutched the arms of his chair tightly. Desperately. Danny would have wondered what had gotten Clockwork to show such open emotion, but clearly he felt some kind of way about Danny lumping him and Alfred into the term of grandparent.

Grabbing a cup of the ectoplasm tea, Danny pointedly stared down at it. “I mean, yeah. You said you were like my ghost parent, right? But you’re clearly involved with Alfred, and Alfred’s like Baba’s dad even if they won’t say it and like I don’t know. You guys just feel like what grandparents should be like.”

Wise and mischievous and ready to spoil their grandchildren if only to tease their children. Danny had never thought about the idea of grandparents before—not outside of Grandfather, but Grandfather almost felt like an entity onto himself. He was never their grandparent, never a Jaadi. No, Grandfather remained an ideal that they could never reach. An oppressive force that had left him and Damian scrambling to prove their worth. The warmth that the rest of Danny’s siblings described feeling when Alfred doted on them could never have come from the ice cold man that was Grandfather.

Danny heard the clinking of a tea cup on a saucer. He refused to look up from his own cup as he felt Clockwork float closer to him. For a few moments, Clockwork floated in front of Danny. The air between them felt all too fragile. Fuck, Clockwork himself seemed like one wrong move could break him. If Danny could see his skin, he was sure he’d see the papery thin wrinkles that often came with the extremely elderly.

“Danny.”

Danny hummed so Clockwork knew he was listening, but didn’t look up.

“Danny, may I give you a hug?”

Danny blinked, looking up at the wrinkled face of Clockwork. Something sparkled in Clockwork’s eyes—tears? Danny wasn’t sure. Clockwork looked nothing like the guardian of time. His lip trembled, his shoulders hunched over not only in age. Clockwork seemed small, hesitant and hopeful. Danny set his tea cup aside and held his arms out.

A smile spread across Clockwork’s face. “Oh come here, my boy.”

Gentle, warm arms pulled him into a surprisingly solid chest, and oh. Oh, fuck, was this why people raved about getting hugs from your grandparents? Clockwork smelled like a grandfather clock—old lacquered wood and a metallic tang. There was a must to Clockwork that made Danny think of old libraries, comfort and wisdom hidden within the scent. Clockwork’s spindly arms cradled Danny, and Danny felt himself sink into safety.

Clockwork adjusted them so he was sitting in the armchair Danny had once sat in, Danny pulled onto his lap. “Danny, my boy, I have been blessed to have encountered you in this timeline. I will always regret how we met, but to have earned your trust in this way is my greatest achievement.”

Oh, Clockwork was trying to make Danny cry at this point, wasn’t he? Well, Danny wouldn’t give him the pleasure. Instead, he just curled up, his ghostly tail wrapping around itself and flicking against Clockwork’s. He felt his core begin to purr, Clockwork’s core rumbling back. Feelings of safety, guardian, safety, belonging, you’re safe here, I love you, I love you, I love you saturated each churr and chirp coming from Clockwork’s core.

Danny’s own purrs responded, I know, I know, I love you, I love you, I love you.

They sat like that, the armchair shifted to a rocking chair. Clockwork rocked Danny, as if Danny were far younger than he was. He supposed compared to Clockwork, he truly was just an infant. Though how Clockwork experienced time had to have been something wholly unique to him. Danny’s core practically whirred as it received acceptance from his Grandpa—because Clockwork had Claimed Danny, and Danny was his Child.

“Clockwork?”

“Yes, my boy?”

Danny looked up. “Can you tell the Observants I really don’t need a celebration? I would rather die again than have them do anything on my birthday.”

Chuckling, Clockwork began to run his hand through Danny’s hair. “You do not need me to tell them, Danny. They will listen to their king.”

“Okay, but I don’t want to,” Danny whined.

“Then you are lucky I am feeling particularly indulgent.” Clockwork adjusted Danny so he could snuggle closer. “I will ensure that they do not bother you. Unfortunately, however, I will not be able to visit you on your birthday.”

“That’s okay.” Danny felt his purrs begin to raise up once more. “I know you still care.”

Clockwork smiled. “That I do.”

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

“I was literally just here, why the hell am I getting examined again?” Jason groaned as he sat on the examination table.

Frostbite clucked his tongue as he rolled over to Jason. “Hood, your last examination was nearly 6 months ago. For a revenant such as yourself, biannual visits are expected to make sure that your ectoplasm isn’t becoming stale.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “But I’m eating ectoplasm every day. Ain’t that enough to keep it from getting nasty?”

“It certainly helps,” Frostbite said, “but visiting a doctor is important in ensuring that your ectoplasm is doing what it needs to do.”

Danny just poked his tongue out at Jason. “If I have to go to the Ghost Doctors then you have to go with me.”

“You’re a brat,” Jason snarked back, though he gave Frostbite his arm willingly.

Clucking his tongue, Frostbite found the vein he needed and pressed the syringe in. Bright green ectoplasm, almost purer than the sample Frostbite had taken all those months ago, filled the tube. Danny watched as Frostbite pulled the needle out, immediately putting pressure with a cotton pad. Once the ectoplasm stopped bubbling out of the needle site, Frostbite placed a bandaid over the injection site.

As the machine read Jason’s ectoplasm, Danny thought back to the conversation that had led to Jason tagging along on Danny’s doctor visit.

Danny had been in the Batcave, staring at the portal when Jason practically screeched in on his motorcycle. He threw off his helmet, purposefully marching straight over to Danny. Slumping onto the ground next to Danny, he stared at the portal with Danny.

They sat like that for a few moments, before Jason said, “there a reason you’re staring at the portal?”

Blowing out a breath, Danny turned to look up at Jason. “I need to go visit Frostbite to get my core checked out.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Do you need someone to open the portal for you?”

“No, Dami’s gonna come open the portal for me in a bit.” Danny pulled his knees up towards his chest. “Just, I don’t know. I really don’t want to go.”

“But you need to right?” Jason nodded towards Danny’s chest. “Your core is super important, and we need to make sure it’s healing right.”

Danny huffed. “Yeah, but I guess I just… I don’t know, it feels weird getting it checked out alone. Baba’s busy, and everybody else has missions or school or patrol, and Dami needs to stay out here so he can open the portal when I’m done doing all of my Ghost Zone stuff.”

Nodding along, Jason turned his gaze back to the closed portal. “… hey, I think I need to get my ectoplasm checked out. You mind if I go with you to see the yeti doc?”

And that was that. Now Jason sat, clearly regretting his decision but not so much that he left Danny alone to his fate. Honestly, Danny probably could have gotten through this check up alone, but having one of his brothers with him was… nice, he supposed. Comforting in a way he wasn’t really ready to admit.

Frostbite hummed as he read out the readings from his machine. “Your ectoplasm is reading as especially fresh—how often are you eating ectoplasm, Hood?”

Jason, despite being fully in his civvies, let Frostbite keep calling him Hood. “I have a little with every meal at this point.” Jason rolled his shoulders. “It makes a pretty good spice if you know how to work with it—gotta be careful with some of the meat based dishes though. If you don’t mix it with the other ingredients before you add in the meat then sometimes it comes back alive.”

“It’s true,” Danny piped up, “we haven’t had to fight any of Jason’s meals yet, but he’s been teaching me different ways to cook with ectoplasm.”

Smiling gently, Frostbite pushed his glasses further up his snout. “Well, keep it up. Your ectoplasm is some of the healthiest I’ve ever seen from a revenant.”

Snorting, Jason pushed himself off the examination table. “Good to know at least my death juice is working as intended.” He walked over to the extra seats and plopped down, nudging Danny towards the examination table. “Your turn, spooks.”

Right. Danny let Frostbite change the paper on the examination table before floating over. He settled on the examination table softly, kicking his feet as Frostbite disposed of Jason’s ectoplasm sample. Turning back to Danny, Frostbite’s smile was as gentle as freshly fallen snow.

“Great One,” he started, “Are you alright if Hood stays in the room? Or would you like him to leave?”

Danny glanced over at Jason. His older brother looked comfortable—well as comfortable as one could be when sitting in a chair at a doctor’s office—but otherwise he looked just neutral. Danny supposed that was the point. He took a deep breath before asking, “can you stay right outside the door?”

“Course.” No hesitation, Jason pushed himself to stand. “Just shout for me if you need me, okay, Spooks?”

Relief left Danny loose as he nodded. “Got it.”

Jason smiled and ruffled Danny’s hair on his way out. Once the door closed, Danny held his breath. He could hear shuffling, the dull thunk as Jason leaned on the door to Frostbite’s office. Danny turned back to Frostbite and nodded. “I’m ready.”

Smiling, Frostbite settled in front of Danny. “Alright, my young king, please reveal your core so I may examine it.”

Right. Danny took a deep breath as he reached his hands into his chest. It took less effort to coax his core out of the expanse it lived in. A refreshing chill filled his chest as his core slipped through his skin. His core spun lazily in front of him as he settled it a few inches from his chest. Frostbite scooted closer, though he kept his paws on his stool.

His core seemed to shine brighter than the last time he’d pulled it out. The ice appeared almost glass-like, a window to the light blue and bright white galaxies swirling inside. A small, bright blue ball of flame occasionally flashed between the few spaces between the galaxies. As Danny’s core turned, he admired the smooth crystalline surface. As his core spun, his gaze caught a divot.

The icey surface around it fogged up, but unlike all those months ago, the divot was no longer bleeding. A dark blue scab sat at the middle of the divot. Reaching out, Danny caressed the divot. His core stopped turning, letting him investigate the hole where his shard once laid. He pressed against the new shell that had begun to form, tilting his head at the dull ache that radiated from his stomach and the way the shell seemed to bend.

Frostbite cleared his throat. “Great One, may I?”

Danny looked up from his core. Frostbite’s brow furrowed, but his paws stayed glued to the stool. Taking a deep breath, Danny held his core out to Frostbite.

Slowly, Frostbite peeled his paws off of the stool. He held his hands with his fingers tensed, careful to keep his claws away from Danny’s core. His fingertips felt soft, almost leathery as they grazed over the edges of Danny’s core. He shivered as he felt the edges of his core press into the soft pads of Frostbite’s paws. Frostbite practically ghosted (ha) over the divot in Danny’s core.

“It looks like your core is healing well,” Frostbite said, his voice low as he kept his gaze on the divot, “I would be gentle as the scab still seems fresh, but it seems your core is right on track to rebuild itself.”

Nodding, Danny pulled his core back into his chest. “Thanks, Frostbite.”

“Of course!” Frostbite wheeled away to let Danny hop off of examination table. “Thank you, Great One, for allowing me to touch your core. I know it is not easy to trust others with it after the violence you have endured.”

Danny shrugged. “I mean, if anyone should be touching my core, it’d probably be my doctor, right?”

“If you had said I could not, I would not have, my young king.” Frostbite assured.

“I mean, you wouldn’t have been able to—”

“Danny.” Something stern filled Frostbite’s tone as Danny straightened. “I will not touch your core unless it is a medical emergency. You have already had too much of your autonomy taken from you. I will not contribute to that if I can help it.”

Swallowing, Danny said, “my birthday is coming up, and I wanted to know if you could come to the birthday party.”

Frostbite blinked. “Oh!”

Anxiety began to constrict Danny’s throat, so he did what he did best. “You don’t have to! I mean, I know birthdays aren’t really a ghost thing, and like I’m sure you’re busy because on top of being a doctor you’re like a leader in your village and that’s super important, and I don’t know if you’re busy with other things that day. Plus like, I don’t know if you’d want to leave alone, and I know Hailwind has been busy traveling to other parts of the Far Frozen, and I’m not even sure if you’ve ever been in the Living Realm before or if you would be okay because like, it’s way warmer in the Living Realm than it is in the Far Frozen and—”

“My young king, I would be honored to attend your birthday party.” Frostbite’s smile nearly glowed as he reached out and put a hand on Danny’s knee. “I was going to tell you that I needed more time on your and Robin’s gift, so I am happy to have both the extra time and the ability to give you both your gifts on your actual birth date.”

“You didn’t have to get us anything.” Danny’s voice practically squeaked, soft and quiet and if Jason could hear him, he was going to tease the shit out of him when they got home.

Frostbite just squeezed Danny’s knee. “But I wanted to get you and Robin a gift. I assume that I will be allowed to speak your family’s true names after this?”

Oh. “I mean, Baba trusts you, so you’ve got the Batman seal of approval, Frostbite,” Danny said.

Smile softening, Frostbite said, “I am glad. Can I assume that Hailwind is also welcome?”

“Of course!” Danny finally floated off of the exam table. “It’s been way too long since we last got to talk. He still needs to tell me about how you guys met!”

A flush burned its way through Frostbite’s fur. “I have already told you how my husband and I met.”

“You told me your version of the story,” Danny stressed, “I want to hear his version of how you met.”

Clearing his throat, Frostbite stood. “Clearly you are feeling fine if you can tease your elders like this.”

“Aw come on, Frostbite!” Danny let Frostbite begin to herd him out of the room. “I feel like I get a pass since I’m the Ghost King.”

“You may be the young king, but you are still young.” Frostbite opened the door, revealing Jason leaning against the wall. “I still hold the right to ask for the respect a young one owes an elder.”

Jason pushed himself off of the wall. “You giving the doc a hard time, Danny?”

Danny rolled his eyes, floating over to Jason and draping himself over his older brother’s back. “Frostbite’s being mean! He doesn’t want me to talk to his husband!”

“Telling lies is unbecoming of a king, Great One,” Frostbite said, though his mouth twitched into a fond smile.

“You becoming a tyrannical king, Spooks?” Jason asked, grabbing Danny’s legs when Danny decided to fully wrap himself into a piggyback position.

“Yep.” Danny let gravity affect him, smiling as Jason carried his heft with ease. “Your king is tired. Carry me.”

“I’m not dead, Spooks.”

“Neither is Frostbite, yet he calls me king.”

“What do you mean, Frostbite isn’t dead?” Jason glanced over at Frostbite. “I thought everything in the Ghost Zone was dead?”

“Ah, that is a common misconception by those from the living realm,” Frostbite explained, “many of the denizens of the Infinite Realms are dead, but many of us were also created here in the realms themselves. We call ourselves the Unborn. All of the yetis here have cores that were created here in the Far Frozen. None of us existed before the Far Frozen, and none of us will exist outside of the Far Frozen. Unlike you, who may become ghosts and exist in the Infinite Realms, we yetis will only ever start and end our existences in the Far Frozen.”

Jason blinked. “Right. Okay, I’m going to pretend that I won’t need that explained to me again and take this gremlin back home.”

Laughing, Frostbite led them out of the Far Frozen’s clinic. “I will be happy to explain the workings of the Infinite Realms to you as many times as you require. If either of you experience anything troubling, please feel free to stop by again. Or even to simply visit. The cubs miss having their favorite snow ball fighter, Great One.”

Danny smiled sheepishly. “I’ll make some time after my next kingly meeting. Thanks again, Frostbite!”

With a wave, Jason trudged them back to the Bat Speeder. Danny clung to his back the entire time, enjoying just letting Jason carry him. Of course, Jason unceremoniously shoved Danny off of his back and onto the copilot seat. Slipping into the pilot’s seat, he started the Bat Speeder and off they went.

As they flew through the expanses of green, Danny asked, “do you think Baba would be upset if Frostbite showed up at Damian and my birthday party?”

Jason glanced at Danny. “Any reason he should be upset?”

Shrugging, Danny curled up in his seat. “Not really. I mean I didn’t tell him before inviting Frostbite and like, Frostbite’s a ghost even if he’s not like actually a ghost ghost.”

“Kid, you bringing the yeti doctor to your birthday doesn’t even rank top fifty of the shit we’ve pulled on Bruce.” Jason hit the autopilot button (since when did they have an autopilot button on the Bat Speeder?) and turned to Danny. “And that’s just the shit that Dickiebird has pulled. If we add in the rest of us then you inviting Frostbite doesn’t even make the board. Bruce will be fine.”

“But—”

“But nothing.” Jason reached over and ruffled Danny’s hair. “Bruce loves you, Spooks, and if having the yeti doc and his husband over for your birthday will make you happy, Bruce’ll roll out the red carpet to make it happen.”

Danny batted Jason’s hand away. “You’re not just telling me this to make me feel better, right?”

“Course not.” Jason leaned back. “Besides, if you really wanted to piss off Bruce, then I have more than a couple ideas.”

Smiling at Jason, Danny leaned back into his own seat. “Oh? I’m intrigued.”

With his own smile back, Jason turned his seat to fully face Danny. “Okay, so we gotta break it down by category. First: galas and other socialite events…”

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

“Dude,” Tucker sighed as he spun in his office chair, “I don’t know why you think we’d have any ideas for Damian’s birthday present.”

Danny flopped on his bed, forcing his partners to stare up at his ceiling. “Isn’t it you guys’ job as my boyfriend and girlfriend to help me with things like this?”

Sam adjusted her grip on her phone. “Danny, we don’t know your brother. Not as well as you do.”

“Okay fair,” Danny conceded, “but if I ask any of my other siblings then Damain’s going to know. They’re shit at keeping secrets!”

Tucker frowned. “I thought your whole family was made up of vigilante detectives? Isn’t their whole thing secrets?”

“Detectives, Tuck, they’re detectives.” Danny rolled over, grabbing his phone so he could bless Sam and Tuck with his face once more. “They can smell if you’ve got a secret a mile away, and they’ll all stop at nothing to figure it out. Besides, my siblings are all a bunch of gossips. They can’t resist juicy things like finding out what I’m getting Damian for our birthday.”

“Then what have you gotten him for you guys’ birthday in the past?” Sam had a stuffed bat Tuck had gifted her for Hannukah tucked under her chest. “This isn’t you guys’ first time getting each other presents, right?”

Snorting, Danny began to swing his feet behind him. “As if I could get Dami a present in the League. Closest was maybe a new weapon or a treat I snuck into meal times.”

“Okay, then what does he like?” Sam asked, like the reasonable person she clearly was.

Huffing, Danny rested his phone against his pillows so he could count off on his fingers. “Well he likes animals, but Baba banned any living presents. Getting him animal related stuff would just be tacky, and all of his pets already get spoiled all the time, so it wouldn’t be fair to give him like dog toys or a new cat bed for Alfred the cat.

“Cass already called dibs on getting him the paint set he’s been drooling over, and I know Jason and Tim are getting him stuff that they can do together because apparently they do that every year. I think Jason and Damian read a new classic each year and annotate it for each other? I don’t know, I just know Jason’s is a book and Tim’s is photography related since there’s apparently some cool stuff you can do to like combine mediums or whatever. Dick found this limited edition charcoal pencil set that Damian’s wanted forever that sold out before he could grab one, so Dick wins older brother of the year with that.

“I know he collects swords, and Steph found him this really cool fucking antique scimitar that she won’t stop bragging to Cass about. Duke still hasn’t gotten him a present, and I know Baba and Alfred already have theirs, and they all hit all of Damian’s like major areas of interest so no matter what I get him, it’s not going to top any of the things the rest of the family has already gotten him!”

Sam and Tucker stared at Danny, and oh the look they would send each other if they weren’t video chatting right now. Still, Danny could see the eyebrow twitches as Sam and Tucker caught each others eyes. Tucker stopped twisting his desk chair and scooted closer to his desk. His mouth was set in a line—the serious face that Danny hated because rarely did Tucker bring out the serious emotional conversations.

“Danny,” Tucker said, all considerate and sweet and fuck, Danny was in for it now, “dude, my beloved boyfriend and favorite ghost. I don’t think figuring out a present for Damian is the problem here.”

Danny groaned. “You two are useless.”

“Hey, hey, hey, no need to be grumpy about it!” Tucker held his hands up. “I’m just saying, dude, you seem more worried about getting him the perfect gift rather than just getting him a gift.”

“I agree with Tucker.” Of course Sam did. Danny’s partners were determined to side against him always. “Danny, I think you’re overthinking this whole thing.”

“Guys, I gave him a locket with the shard of my core that the Fentons used to fake my death as just a regular gift.”

Shock and something akin to horror filled his partner’s faces. “Danny, you did what—”

“And like that was super meaningful and stuff, but now I think I should have saved it because I blew my super meaningful gift on Christmas. Fucking Christmas, you guys!” Danny almost threw himself back down onto his bed, burying his face in his comforter and thus causing his phone to bounce off of its careful pillow set up and fall flat into the comforter with him.

A pause, then Sam’s voice piped up, “Danny, can you please pick your phone back up so we can see you?”

Danny really didn’t want to move as he was still mourning wasting what was arguably the most meaningful gift he could give Damian on a Christmas gift, but he supposed he couldn’t just leave his partners hanging like that. He pulled himself from his mourning and adjusted his phone, pouting as his partners smiled back at him.

“There’s our pouty poltergeist!” Tucker cooed, looking almost disgustingly in love and oh Danny’s face practically burned with the glow of his blush.

Sam adjusted so she was sitting against the backboard of her giant gothic bed, resting her arm on what Danny assumed was her one popped knee. “I know you’re upset that you gave a really meaningful gift on a holiday you don’t like, Danny, but you don’t have to make every gift super meaningful.”

“I know that, but guys, it’s Damian’s and my first birthday together since we got separated.” Danny hated how small he sounded, curled up in his bed as he was. “Damian’s all worried about making sure the party is special, and I know I’m not helping a ton because I really don’t care what we do, but I just. I can’t give him just a regular gift. Not for this.”

The call went quiet. Danny refused to actually look at his phone, instead picking at a loose thread in his comforter. Maybe he was just setting himself up for failure like Damian was trying to find something perfect, but he could feel the howling winds in his core at not being able to at least get something for his brother. Damian deserved a good birthday. Not just Danny scrambling to make up for lost time.

“… you know anything you get him, Damian’s going to love. Right, Danny?” Tucker said, words hesitant as his voice brought Danny’s attention back to the screen.

Sam jumped in. “Really, Danny, you could give him a stick you found on the ground, and I’m sure he’d love it.” She shifted once more, holding her phone with both her hands. “Damian loves you, Danny. A lot more than any gift you could get him.”

It was true. Danny knew Damian wouldn’t care about his gift, but he needed something. Damian could have rejected Danny after that first summoning, but he didn’t He held Danny tight and comforted Danny through all of the shit that blew up on them since finding each other again. Of course, Danny would give Damian the world. He remained the Castor who would die for Pollux again and again and again. Yet Damian had taken after Pollux too well. Even if he wasn’t sharing the League with Danny, he was certainly including Danny in all of his plans for his portion of the Wayne fortune.

Danny knew Damian already had his gift figured out. Damian was prepared like that, always thinking ten steps ahead and meticulous about everything and anything. Danny floundered in his attempts at preparation. Sure, he made it easier for Damian to create a birthday party he enjoyed (even if his twin seemed determined to get some form of opinion out of Danny), but that also meant Danny found himself struggling to actually choose a gift for his twin. Not when the most meaningful and special thing he could give to Damian he had already given. What the fuck could top a literal piece of his soul?

Still, Sam and Tuck were doing their best to tell him that no matter what, Damian would love his gift, and Danny so desperately wanted to tell them that they didn’t get it. It was sweet that they wanted to comfort him like this, but they didn’t know how important this was. Didn’t understand that for Danny, this was one of the few chances he had to show his devotion to his twin. If Danny couldn’t come up with a meaningful gift, then what use was he as a brother? Fuck, what use was he as a twin? Danny should know Damian better by now.

“Danny.” Tucker’s voice floated through Danny’s spiral. “You’re overthinking again.”

Danny huffed and resisted burying his face in his comforters once more. “I blew my best gift on Christmas and I can’t even think of a better gift. I’m the worst brother in existence.”

“That feels categorically untrue, and also I’m pretty sure Damian and literally all of your siblings would argue that last point, Danny,” Sam said.

Right, Danny knew he was being dramatic, but dammit, he deserved some time to be dramatic after the last year that he’d had. “I just… I don’t know what to do, and I don’t want to get him something obvious, and Damian’s important to me guys.”

“We know, Danny, that’s kind of obvious.” Tucker teased, but his whole heart wasn’t in it, and oh. Maybe Danny’s partners realized that he was legitimately upset about this. Danny wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Still, Danny could hear Tucker typing something, his computer screen reflected in his glasses. As he began clicking, Tucker turned back to his phone. “Do you want me to read you off a list of sentimental gift ideas?”

“Did you really just google meaningful gift ideas?” Sam asked, exasperated in the fond way that she was prone to becoming.

“Hey, we’re not getting anywhere just listening to Danny complain about it!” Tucker started scrolling, clicking on some more links. “Besides, at least this gets us started on potentially getting some ideas down.”

Danny thought about it for a moment. “Alright, Tuck. Hit me.”

“Hell yeah!” Tucker smiled as he scrolled back to the top of the list. “Okay so the first thing they recommend is a hand written card or letter.”

Danny scrunched his nose. “Pass.”

“Okay, well what about personalized photo album?”

Sam scrunched her nose. “Do you guys even have an pictures of you two together?”

“I mean, there’s the meme that got made around me protecting Positive Robin from Damian,” Danny said.

Tucker paused for a moment. “Positive Robin?”

Danny smiled. “Yeah!” He once again set his phone on his pillows so he could reach over and snatch the BatBurger toy off of his night stand. He showed the smiling Robin off to his partners, pride filling his chest at the snort of laughter he got out of Tucker and the disbelieving look Sam gave. “He’s part of the collection of Batman toys you can get at BatBurger. Damian hates him, but I’m making him a family heirloom. I’ll pass him down to our kids.”

“Bold of you to assume we’ll have kids,” Tucker said, just as Sam said, “Bold of you to assume we’ll get married!”

Puffing out his cheeks, Danny pouted at his partners. “You guys never let me have fun.”

“Again, that is completely untrue and you know it, Danny.” Sam rolled her eyes at the screen before prodding Tucker along with, “the photo album doesn’t seem like a good choice then. What’s next on the list, Tuck?”

Humming, Tucker turned back to his computer. “You could get him a piece of customized artwork or make him something arty yourself.”

“Yeah, like I have any sort of artistic bone in my body,” Danny snorted.

Sam tilted her head in thought. “I don’t know, Danny. Some of the stuff you’ve made with your ice has been pretty artsy.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because the ice blasts and resulting property damage were intentional.”

“No, no, I think Sam’s on to something!” Tucker pushed himself away from his desk, disappearing off screen as he rummaged through his room. “I still have the little trophy you made me here somewhere.”

“A trophy?” Sam raised an eyebrow. “When did you make Tuck a trophy?”

Oh that was a good question. “I don’t actually remember? Why did I make you a trophy, Tuck?”

“Oh betrayal! How could you forget my greatest achievement!” Tucker popped back on screen holding what looked like a hamburger trophy made of pure crystal. Looking closer, Danny could see the green tinge that marked it as something made from his ghostly ice. He wracked his brain, trying to remember when he would have made Tucker something like that, but Tucker explained, “you made this when I ate my 500th Nasty Burger! It was a momentous occasion, and Nasty Burger did nothing to celebrate so Danny—like the kind and caring boyfriend he is—made me this trophy to celebrate.”

“You’ve been counting how many burgers you’ve eaten?” Danny would have mirrored the incredulity in Sam’s voice, but the gears in his brain were tearing away from the cobwebs to start churning.

“Of course not! I count how many Nasty Burger burgers I’ve eaten! That’s a big difference, Sam!”

“What the hell is the difference? You’re still eating some poor animal.”

“It’s the principle of the matter, Sam! I’ve been going to Nasty Burger for years. It’s the hang out spot that I would take Danny and eventually you to, and it’s where our friendship and romance blossomed!”

“Tucker, literally nothing romantic ever happened between any of us at Nasty Burger.”

“Sam, you can’t deny how important Nasty Burger was to the formulation of our relationship!”

“Literally everything would be the same if we went to Tacoween instead of Nasty Burger.”

“Gasp! Sam! Such betrayal for our favorite Fast Food Chain!”

“Tucker—”

“Sam—”

“That’s it!” Danny shot up. “Ancients, I’m such an idiot, how did I not think of this sooner?”

Sam smiled. “You finally figured out a present idea?”

Tucker threw his hands in the air. “Hell yeah! Congrats dude.”

Danny smiled at his partners. “Thanks. Now I gotta go—I only got a week and I’m burning daylight.”

“Alright, good luck with your plans, ghost boy. Love you. Love you, Tuck.“ Laughing, Sam blew a kiss to the screen.

Tucker and Danny returned the kisses and goodbyes, hanging up. Pocketing his phone, Danny hopped off of his bed. He got to work clearing a work space. A part of him wondered if this was truly a good idea, but the rest of Danny pushed that part to the side. This was going to be perfect. It had to be.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

Damian wasn’t sure what to think of Jasmine.

Oh she was a lovely older sister. Danny had nothing but praise and love for her, and after meeting her himself, Damian would absolutely have to agree. She did everything with a gentleness that would have killed her if she had grown up anywhere else than she had. She certainly did not have to include Damian in her declarations of love for her younger siblings, yet she seemed to have little to no hesitation to actually adding Damian to her fold. Not to mention that Danny had mentioned that she seemed to have been pseudo adopted herself by Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.

Jasmine was kind, but she also baffled Damian.

Maybe that was a good thing, but it disconcerted him. Damian prided himself on being able to figure things out. He didn’t enjoy having a person who seemed so… unwaveringly nice. Nobody could be that nice without hiding something, and while Danny trusted Jasmine with his life, Damian needed to figure out what sort of selfishness she hid.

So he trudged through the snowy streets of Gotham, bundled in his darkest wool coat and keeping his gaze down. It seemed blizzards had begun rolling into the area, as Damian found snowflakes sticking to his eyelashes. He cursed his father for ever deciding to live in such a horrifically cold place. At least in Nanda Parbat when it snowed, they had the mountains to protect them from the winds and the cold.

The streets of Gotham reeked bleakness in winter, brown gray slush making up most of the roads and ice accentuating the terror behind every one of the city’s gargoyles. Damian couldn’t even use snow shoes along the streets unlike back at Nanda Parbat. No, he had to make due with boots that were supposedly made to help one not slip on the ice, yet were functionally useless if you tried to take a step any larger than a penguin’s.

Damian suffered the humility of having to take small steps, grumbling through the midday storm as he went. He could only be thankful that Gotham Academy had given them the next week off due to frozen pipes bursting. It certainly made his plans to visit Jasmine easier.

Gotham University’s campus seemed to take all of the iciness of Gotham’s roads and increase them tenfold. Damian knew most of the students went home for the holidays, but the little pathways from building to building were nearly untraversable. He could feel the snow soaking into his pants and slipping into his boots. Wet socks, wet scarf, wet hat, Damian could have sworn he was in a blizzard not a rainstorm. Of course, Jasmine’s dorm just had to be situated in the middle of campus. Easy for students to get to everything they needed, but absolutely terrible for one former assassin trying to avoid the city cold.

His plan to sneak in went out the window as another student held the door open for him. He made a note to tell Jasmine that her dormmates needed to be reeducated on holding the door for people who did not live in their dorms. Still, he nodded his thanks and headed inside.

The building was surprisingly new. The entryway lead to a large open space, a tv on the wall and couches scattered around. Various end tables and even what looked like a foosball table littered the common area. Damian wondered what it would look like filled with students. Overwhelmingly busy, he was sure. Maybe he could convince Danny to commute with him once they got ready to attend university. Thomas may have been enjoying dorm life, but Damian could do without the risk of overwhelmingly loud parties and underage substance use.

Despite his judgement, Damian did his best to stomp out the snow so he wasn’t tracking so much of it in. Wet carpet rankled his nerves almost as badly as the wet socks currently driving metaphorical nails into his feet. Damian may be confused by Jasmine (and believe her hiding a secret as terrible as Richard’s murder of Joker), but he would not inconvenience her with a snow filled home.

Jasmine was kind, and so Damian would return the favor. Even if he desperately needed to find a flaw in her perfect façade.

Damian paid the student worker at the front desk no mind as he trudged towards the stairs. According to Danny, Jasmine lived on the fourth of six floors. Strange that the dorm had six floors when four was the typical, but not something Damian would question. His footsteps echoed even as he did his best to quiet his steps. How few people actually stayed in the dorms over the winter break?

Pushing open the door to the fourth floor, Damian frowned as he was greeted by a decorated board shouting “Enjoy your Christmas break! :D”. Danny would surely have words about the use of Christmas there, but he could think about that later. The carpet was a greyish color, and all the doors a light colored wood. Each door had a whiteboard attached to it, doodles and goodbye wishes put on most of them. At the end of the hall, Damian found the room of one Jasmine Isley.

He reached up, rapping against the door. He could hear a bit of shuffling before the door swung open. Jasmine blinked, her eyes widening in surprise for only a moment before immediately stepping aside to let Damian in.

“Damian!” She exclaimed, watching as Damian shuffled into her room. “I didn’t realize you were coming over! Oh, you look soaked—I have some of Danny’s old clothes if you want to change? There’s a bathroom just down the hall.”

Damian shook his head. “That is not necessary, thank you.”

Jasmine frowned. “I’m sorry, I have to insist. I would hate for you to get sick so close to your birthday. Here.” She opened the bottom drawer of her dresser, pulling out a pair of pajama pants, what looked like a shirt made for someone three times Danny’s size, and even fresh socks. She set the clothes on her desk before holding her hand out. “Here, I can take your coat and boots—I can hang them above my heater. That should help dry them out some.”

Though Damian wanted to protest, he soon found himself holding Danny’s old pajama pants and traipsing down the hall in his wet socks. The men’s bathroom and showers were closer to the stairwell, so it was a bit of a walk. Damian didn’t mind though as he slipped into the empty bathroom. He took the largest stall and changed as quickly as possible, ignoring how his shoulders immediately relaxed with the warm, dry, fuzzy socks and the pajamas.

Once changed, Damian bundled up his clothes and strode back to Jasmine’s room. He slipped back in, taking stock of Jasmine. She was wearing a sweater and what looked like sweatpants. She had her hair down, not even wearing her typical headband. She had thrown Damian’s jacket over one of the posts of her bed, the one closest to her radiator. She’d set Damian’s boots next to it, and she seemed to be debating something before noticing that Damian had returned.

Smiling, she held her hands out. “Here, I can run down to the laundry room and put your clothes through the wash.”

“You do not have to do that for me.”

“I insist.” She took his clothes, and walked towards the door. “I’ll be right back. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable.” With that, she disappeared down the hall.

Left alone, Damian took stock of the dorm room. It was fairly small, barely able to fit the lofted bed, desk, and drawers without feeling cramped. Still Damian found a futon set up beneath the bed, acting as a sitting area it seemed. While a part of him desperately wanted to snoop, he forced himself to sit on the futon. It would do him no good to get caught. Especially when he didn’t truly want to investigate Jasmine. Not really.

(It provided a good excuse to his real reason for seeking her out, but he’d never admit that out loud. No, Damian had his pride, and Jasmine was too perfect of an older sister. She had to be hiding something.)

Damian looked around at the posters—most of them mental health related—while he waited. It took Jasmine around ten minutes to come back into the dorm room, smiling apologetically as she did. “I’m so sorry, Damian, that took a little longer than expected.” She closed the door and walked over to her office chair, sitting down and turning to Damian with a smile. “So what brings you over? You could have texted me if you needed something, Damian.”

Right. Damian hadn’t really thought this over too much. He thought for a moment about attempting to interrogate Jasmine, to dig into her secrets, but she looked at him with that open, trusting gaze and suddenly his real reasons for seeking her out were tumbling out of his lips. “I do not know what to get Danny for our birthday, and I need help.”

Jasmine blinked, clearly not expecting the request. Still, she took it in stride and smiled. “I mean, I can certainly try to help! Do you have any current ideas, Damian?”

A flush of embarrassment rose up on Damian’s cheeks. He cleared his throat as he tried to ignore the soft flame of embarrassment licking up his throat. “I do not want to go the simple route of something physical. Every physical gift I could give him does not live up to the importance of our first birthday together after all these years.”

Humming Jasmine crossed her legs, leaning back in her chair. “So it sounds like you’re looking for something like an act of service or an experience to do with him.”

Damian nodded. “I have already thought of all the things Danny needs done, but either they are too trivial to be a meaningful gift, or I am unable to complete them for him.”

“So then an experience seems to be the way to go.” Jasmine noted, her eyes sharp as she observed Damian.

“Right, but I am unsure what Danny would like.” Damian pulled his legs up onto the couch, getting a bit more comfortable as he discussed with Jasmine. “I know he would adore anything to do with the stars, but he has already visited the planetarium multiple times, and Thomas took him to the special NASA exhibit at the Museum already. There is little in Gotham to appeal to his special interest in this way.”

Jasmine tilted her head. “I suppose you can’t take him stargazing here in Gotham.”

Damian frowned. “Stargazing?”

“Yeah.” Jasmine switched legs, folding one over the other as she seemed to think it over. “I know you could sometimes see the stars in Amity if it was an especially clear night, but Danny always complained that it wasn’t the same. He never told me where he would go stargazing with you, but he said that he missed it.”

Oh.

Oh.

“Jasmine, you are a genius.” Damian jumped off of the futon. “I have calls to make—I will need access to a truck and I am sure it will take Jonathan a while to get his family’s truck out to Gotham. Oh, and I need to do research. Thank you for your assistance, Jasmine, but I really must—”

“Leave when it’s still blizzarding outside? Absolutely not.” Jasmine stood up and pushed Damian back onto the futon. “Your clothes are still in the wash, and I am not going to let you try to get back to the manor alone. The storm’s supposed to end in a couple hours. I can call Alfred or one of your siblings to pick you up once it calms down.”

Damian huffed. “Jasmine, this is absolutely unnecessary—”

“You are my little brother, and I will not let you get sick or hurt.” Jasmine put her hands on her hips, firm in her stance. “You can do research here, can’t you? If you need my computer you can borrow it. However you are not going back out to walk back home in a blizzard.”

Ah. Damian watched as Jasmine stared him down, her eyes practically blazing. He supposed her gentleness was simply hiding the mother bear that laid in wait. He sighed and curled back up on her futon. “I suppose if you insist, I will have to do my research here. As soon as the storm lifts, however, I must leave. I have many things to do, Jasmine.”

That sweet smile came back, though it was tinged with self-satisfaction. Almost as if Jasmine were a cat who had snapped the neck of a particularly juicy rat. “Good. I’ll start some hot cocoa and get my computer set up for you. Your clothes should be clean and dry by the time the storm lets up.”

Damian said nothing as Jasmine bustled around the room. Instead, he took her computer gratefully, pulling up a list of nearest state parks and nature reserves. Jasmine provided nice company, offering her input on Damian’s choices with a gentle hand and slipping a mug of instant hot chocolate into his hand without another word.

Fine. She could keep her secrets for now. Damian told himself that he was just warming her up so he could eventually discover her fatal flaw. Surely that was why he sought her out. That thought stayed with him as Jasmine settled a blanket over his shoulders, creating a cozy atmosphere in the tiny room that constituted her dorm room.

The blizzard raged outside her window, winds howling and snow piling on the ledge, but Damian found it mere background noise as he and Jasmine researched together.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

Very rarely did Damian wake up before Danny.

Danny almost felt a point of pride at being able to wake up before his brother. In the League, they switched between who would be allowed to sleep in or not. It was never safe to just assume that one could sleep in over the other. However, Damian took on the duty of first to wake up far too often. It irked Danny, prickled at that sense that he was supposed to take care of Damian, not the other way around.

So being able to wake up first and see Damian peacefully asleep? Danny treasured those mornings. The quiet as he got ready and let his twin enjoy dream world for a little while longer. It felt like a proper repayment of Damian’s years of watching for Danny’s back. So imagine Danny’s surprise when he woke to Damian already up and about, laying out an outfit on Danny’s desk.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Danny squinted at his brother. “Dami?”

Twirling around, Damian smiled at Danny. “Good morning, Danny. I was just about to wake you.”

Danny frowned. “What time is it?”

“Oh, it’s 2:30 in the afternoon.”

Startling, Danny practically threw off his covers. “What?!”

Damian stopped in setting Danny’s outfit, walking over to push Danny back onto the bed. “It is fine, Danny. You were up late last night, so Father and I figured we should let you sleep. Besides, the birthday party doesn’t start until 4 pm.”

Heart still hammering in his chest, Danny tried to push Damian’s hands away. “But Sam and Tuck’s plane was supposed to land at 1. I promised I’d pick them up—”

“—and they understand that you were tired and as such not able to meet them at the airport.” Damian sat down on the bed with Danny. “They’re downstairs with Alfred now, helping in setting up. Our job is to decide how we want to spend our time before people arrive.”

Right. Right, this was their day, wasn’t it? Blinking the last of sleep out of his eyes, Danny turned to Damian. “Okay. Okay, well do you want to do some early birthday stuff then?”

Damian raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, do you want your present early?” Danny hopped off of the bed, opening one of the drawers in his desk to pull out the box he’d shoved his present in. He hadn’t had time to decorate it before passing out for the night, but Danny had figured he’d have time to wrap his present properly before the party. Though, seeing as he was pulling it out now, he supposed he just wouldn’t wrap it at all.

Damian’s mouth fell into a little ‘oh’. “Danny, you don’t have to—”

“I mean, I want to.” Danny set the present in Damian’s lap. “Happy Birthday, Dami.”

Looking at the present in his lap, Damian’s frown returned. “I cannot give you your birthday gift until later tonight.”

“That’s fine.” Danny shrugged. “I’d rather give you your present now. Before we have to entertain everyone, you know?”

Danny’s argument seemed to convince Damian. Sitting back, Danny watched as Damian carefully pulled the lid off of the box. There wasn’t a lot of unwrapping to do, but Damian gasped as he pulled aside the tissue paper that Danny had obscured his gift with.

Carefully, Damian pulled out an Icy Orb. Even in the light of day, it seemed to glow. While the surface was perfectly spherical, the inside was etched with various symbols. Bats, the Robin symbol, a katana and wakizashi, desert flowers and running wolves and each of Damian’s pets and of course Gemini. It almost felt eclectic, a patchwork of various aspects of Damian’s life etched into the ice of the orb. Damian twisted the orb and turned, marveling at each detail with the eye of one who could recognize fine art. As Damian observed his present, Danny spoke up.

“I wasn’t sure what to get you at first.” It felt easy, starting off with a confession that Danny had struggled. “But Sam and Tuck were listing off gift ideas and they suggested something handmade so I figured I’d put my ice powers to use.”

Damian hadn’t said anything, was probably still just taking in the orb that Danny had created, but Danny knew that he would just keep talking and talking and never knew how to stop. “It’s a core. I mean, not a real core, but I figured you know…” He reached into his own chest, coaxed his own core easily so it floated in front of him, an exact mirror in shape and size to Damian’s core. “We match again.”

A tear trailed down Damian’s cheek. Then another. And another. Damian carefully set the core Danny had created him back into the box and pulled Danny into a hug. Danny let his core hide away once more, hugging Damian back.

They didn’t speak. Danny wasn’t sure they needed words anymore. Just the comfort of each other’s embraces as Danny gave Damian his best attempt at imagining a core for him. He wasn’t sure how long they sat, only that Danny’s shoulder was wet by the time they finished. When Damian finally pulled away, his eyes were red rimmed but dry.

“You are a jerk for making me cry before our party,” he said, petulant even as he carefully picked up his gift to set aside.

Danny laughed, loud and hard. “We’ve still got hours. You’ll be fine, Dami.”

Huffing, Damian grabbed the clothes he’d picked out and chucked them at Danny. “Get dressed. We are helping Alfred with the decorations.”

As much as Danny had bemoaned having to help with the decorations, he easily acted as The Guy Who Could Hang Up the Tall Things. Damian and Danny’s siblings weren’t there yet, but most of them could be excused due to other responsibilities. With the five of them—Danny, Tucker, Sam, Damian, and Alfred—working together, they soon had the party area covered in starry decorations. Star banners and constellations dotted every available space, and a dark navy blue table cover had been set over the dining table. Gold and navy blue balloons decorated the rooms in bunches, though a few had popped during Danny and Tucker playing some impromptu balloon volleyball.

Still, the color scheme looked amazing, and Danny found he enjoyed the proud look Damian gave the rooms as he finally got all of the centerpieces truly centered. Danny knew that the whole theme was made to cater to him, but he knew he wouldn’t trade anything for the proud look Damian gave.

By the time Alfred and Danny had set the last of the treats on the snack table, their “guests” started arriving. Really, it was just their siblings for the most part, but Jazz had given them both extra big hugs when she got there so Danny counted that as a win.

After Danny’s family had arrived, a portal tore into existence. Danny watched, gleeful as two familiar yetis stepped out. Frostbite stood tall, wearing what looked like a ceremonial skirt and cape combo. Both pieces of fabric were embroidered with snowflakes in golden thread, shining against the rich navy fabric. Two sets of cuffs sat on Frostbite’s flesh arm, with a matching bracelet on his wrist. Rings decorated Frostbite’s hand and horns, and were those earrings? Damn, Danny hadn’t realized that Frostbite had his ears pierced.

Next to Frostbite, a shorter, more slender yeti stood. Danny recognized Hailwind, Frostbite’s husband and ice sculptor extraordinaire. Hailwind wore equally fancy navy shorts—navy with similar embroidery and a capelet to go along with it. He wore matching cuffs on his upper arms, bracelets and rings decorating his wrists and hands. His long horns were decorated in cuffs and dangling chains, connecting to his earrings.

The couple seemed to be the picture of opulence, and Frostbite smiled wide as he caught sight of Danny. “My young king, Happy birth day!”

Danny felt his smile stretch wide as he practically threw himself into Frostbite’s arms. “Frostbite! Thank you so much for coming! And Hailwind! I wasn’t sure if you would make it.”

The other yeti smiled and pulled Danny into a hug. “I wouldn’t miss your birthday for the world, Great One. Now, where is your brother? We bring gifts.”

“Here.” Damian walked up, a lot more reserved as he nodded to Frostbite and Hailwind each. “It is an honor to see you again, Frostbite. And you are?”

Hailwind smiled. “Hailwind. I am Frostbite’s husband. Happy Birthday, Damian.”

Damian nodded. “Thank you very much.”

“Now, let me show you your gifts!” Frostbite reached into a satchel, pulling out what looked like… eggs? “Here—Hailwind helped me sculpt them.”

Danny frowned, glancing back at Damian as Damian tried to figure out what Frostbite was giving them. Danny took the egg carefully, holding it close as he felt something spark. As he and Damian held the eggs, they began to crack. Danny watched as the ice seemed to crack and mold itself, two leathery wings bursting out. Large ears and wide eyes stared up at him, and Danny stared at the Ghost Bat that sat in his palms.

Damian gasped, and Danny glanced over at the bat—with its tiny eyes and sharp teeth, clearly a Himalayan Whiskered bat—sitting in Damian’s palms. The two bats seemed to shake themselves, made of ice as they crawled around the twins’ palms.

“These are little guardians,” Hailwind explained, petting each of the bats with a furry finger, “they’re there to watch over you and warn you of incoming danger.”

Somebody cleared their throat, and Danny turned to see his baba looking tired and a little resigned. “Do they have any special care requirements?” His baba asked, and oh. Danny probably should have told Frostbite about the No New Pets rule.

Hailwind shook his head. “No. They are ghosts just as The Great one is. They will be more than fine with the ambient ectoplasm. Their care should be minimal.”

“They are not pets,” Frostbite added, clearly seeing exactly why Bruce had seemed so resigned, “they are closer to a security system than a living creature that must be cared for.”

“Baba can we keep them in the cave?” Danny asked, turning pleading eyes towards his baba.

Damian followed suit. “If they are guardians, then they would be most useful in the cave. There is also the fact that both of these species of bat would find our cave a comfortable habitat to live in. If we put them in the cave then they also are closer to a source of ectoplasm, and they can add to the layers of security we have down there.”

Bruce frowned, clearly debating with himself, before sighing. “Alright, but neither of you are allowed to get a new pet for another year, understood?”

“Yes, father.”

“Yes, Baba!”

The party flowed smoothly from there. People talked, music was played, presents were opened. Danny nearly threw the purple backed gorilla plush Steph got him right back at her. They even opened the present their mother had promised them: a new katana and wakizashi set, longer to fit their growing frames. Despite Damian’s worries, everything felt cozy. The exact kind of birthday Danny used to imagine having with Damian. They kept the occasion small, and Danny found he just wanted to soak in the presence of his loved ones.

Cutting the cake last was probably doing things out of order, but Danny wanted to end the night on food, not his family watching him and Damian open their presents like a hawk. The lights dimmed as Alfred brought out a beautiful Black Forest cake. The cherries practically glowed a blood red under the candle light, and their family’s voices merged together into an off-key mess. As Danny and Damian blew out their candles, Danny wished that he could have many more birthdays like this.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

“Danny.”

Danny groaned. Something was poking him, and clearly it didn’t respect the fact that he was trying to sleep.

“Danny.”

Maybe if he ignored it, it would go away? Danny tried to roll away from the strange thing poking him, but it just followed after him.

“Danyal al Ghul Wayne, get up.”

A finger jabbed into the space in between Danny’s neck and shoulder. He yelped as he scrambled away, glaring at Damian who didn’t look the least bit remorseful. “Damian!” Danny hissed. “What the hell! I was sleeping!”

Damian just rolled his eyes. “Clearly. Come on, we need to go.”

Danny frowned. “Go? Go where? We don’t have patrol tonight.” Baba had made sure of it.

“Did you forget I still owe you a birthday present?” Damian asked, hopping off of Danny’s bed. “Get up and grab your coat. We need to go. We’re losing night light.”

Still a bit groggy, Danny clambered out of his bed. “Night light isn’t a thing, Damian,” he grumbled, but Damian didn’t both responding. He simply threw Danny’s coat at him.

The twins slipped through the manor, silent in a way they hadn’t had to be since they were small. Danny wondered what the hell Damian wanted to give him that required they leave the manor. His brain felt too foggy to come up with anything concrete, so he just followed his twin as they snuck out to the long, long driveway that connected up to Wayne Manor.

Sitting in their driveway was a truck. A truck that had a bunch of blankets laid in the trunk bed, and looked like it clearly did not belong to the Waynes. Danny frowned as Damian began climbing into the driver’s seat. “Where did you get the truck?”

“I borrowed it.”

“That’s not super helpful, Damian.”

“Look, just get in.”

Danny got in, but his questions didn’t stop. “When did you get your license? We literally turned sixteen today.”

“I drive the batmobile all the time.”

“Yeah, with Baba in shotgun.”

“You don’t need to worry about this, Danny.”

“Yeah, because a stolen car and you driving without a license are clearly things I can just brush off.”

Damian rolled his eyes and began driving down the driveway. “I borrowed the truck from Jonathan, and we do not need to worry about my hypothetical license as we will not get pulled over.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “Okay, then where are we going?”

“That is a surprise, Danny.” Damian reached over and turned on the radio. “I am sure you will be pleased when we get there.”

Too tired to question it further, Danny leaned back in his seat. They drove in quiet, the music from the radio soft as Danny stared out at the moon. It looked far too lonely over Gotham, but he supposed that was the price for having a city that never slept. Damian drove through Gotham, not stopping even as they exited the city.

Wherever Damian was taking them, it clearly wasn’t anywhere in Gotham. As they exited the city, Danny and Damian soon found themselves on what looked more like country roads. Long stretches of land and small farms began to dot the expanse of road ahead of them. If it were anyone but Damian taking Danny on this trip, he would have wondered if maybe they were trying to hide his murder.

They continued through winding roads, getting further and further into the wilderness. Danny had closed his eyes, the rocking of the truck lulling him back to sleep, when they suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes, blinking as Damian shifted the truck into park. Smiling at Danny, Damian nudged his shoulder. “Come on, meet me in the truck bed.”

Right. Still too bedraggled to question it, Danny unbuckled himself and stepped out of the car. From the looks of it, they’d ended up in some sort of natural park type area. The truck had been parked in a clearing, taken a bit off road but still in an area fairly safe for cars. Danny pulled himself into the truck bed, glad that there were multiple soft blankets cushioning the hard metal. Damian pat a space next to him, and Danny pulled himself over.

Once Danny was sitting next to Damian, Damian pointed up. “Look.”

Danny frowned, unsure what Damian was expecting. He hadn’t found a place in America that could show them the stars in such vibrancy and abundance as the deserts and Himalayas they grew up in. Still, Danny humored Damian and looked up.

Stars. Stars as far as the eye could see filled up the sky above them. Danny felt a gasp catch in his throat. He hadn’t seen the stars these clearly in years. Immediately he pointed up. “Dami, that’s the big dipper!”

Damian smiled at him. “It is.”

Danny pointed to another constellation. “And that’s ursa major! You can find ursa minor around here close by. Ancients, there’s so many stars! You wouldn’t be able to see some of these as clearly back in Nanda Parbat, but look! Look, right in the little dipper is the north star!”

Wonder filled Danny’s chest as he stared up at the stars. Damian listened patiently, and it almost felt as if they were six again and sneaking out to see the stars for the first time. Danny laid down, Damian laying next to him. Danny’s voice filled the air between them as he explained the myths behind the stars, the legends that people had created out of the shapes they connected between beams of light. As Danny pointed out constellations, Damian wound his hand into Danny’s holding tightly.

Up above them, Gemini beamed down. Danny laid next to Damian, telling the stories of the stars, and realized that finally he was home.

Art by Finn