#anyway this Vlad? can fuck right off

[jasminesilk]

An unwanted visitor stops by late in the night. Thankfully the door is locked, but he definitely gave poor Charmmy a fright!

[fangirl-writes]

Exes and Ohs

JJ Maybank x Fem!Reader; Ex-Rafe Cameron x Reader; John B. x Sister!Reader

Warnings(s): female reader, swearing, violence, implied physical abuse (JJ’s dad), harassment

Request: Hiii<3 can I request a fanfic about yn being john bs sister dating jj and having rafe as her ex???ok so i was thinking maybe at a party rafe could be flirting with yn (because he’s obsessed with her ) and jj notices and they fight but it ends with rafe telling jj to keep you safe. Thanks<3

Notes: I put this taking place during the Midsummer’s episode of season 1. I don’t think this is exactly what you were looking for but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Your brother had roped you into a lot of stupid things in your lifetime, but this was starting to feel like the stupidest.

“John B, what the fuck are we doing?” You asked as he and JJ pulled the HMS Pogue onto shore.

“I told you, Y/N, I’ve got a plan,” he replied.

“Care to share with the class what it is?”

“You just gotta trust me on this,”

“The last time I trusted you, I ended up on the receiving end of a gun,” You said.

If he heard you, he gave you no indication, just marched through the grass with you and JJ in tow, bags slung over both their shoulders.

“I need you to get this to Sarah,” John B. said, passing JJ a note.

“Ooh, can I read it?”

“No, you can’t read it.”

“Who’s Vlad?”

“God, do you ever listen?”

“Hold up, are you macking Sarah Cameron?” JJ asked.

“I’m sorry, what?” You asked, leaning over JJ’s shoulder to read the note.

“Would you shut up?” John B. replied, blushing in the darkness.

“You’re making Sarah Cameron!” JJ exclaimed, incredulous.

“All right, man. Look, I’m doing it for everybody, all right?”

“You’re macking Sarah Cameron for everybody?” You said.

“No that’s not what I- look, it’s just...it’s like a business transaction, okay?”

“Classy,” you said and then silence, the judgement thick in the air.

“What?” John B. asked.

“Nothing,” JJ replied first, stopping and dropping his bag on the sand. “Thanks for being a team player, bro.”

“JJ-”

“Hey, I didn’t say I wanted to mack Sarah Cameron, that’s all him,” he replied to you, throwing his white button up over his shoulders.

The conversation trickled out as John B. swung the tie around JJ’s neck and did it for him.

You made a mental note to bring this up with your brother again later and pulled off your tank top. You were wearing your swimsuit beneath it and tossed a (f/c) sundress over the top of it, discarding your shorts after it settled.

“So, I just give this to Sarah?” JJ asked, clarifying.

“Yes, just give it to Sarah,” John B. confirmed.

“Vlad? Really?” JJ mused, adjusting the bowtie.

“Shut up. Y/N, I’m gonna need you to distract Rafe.”

“Woah, what? Hold up. No,” JJ protested, frowning deeply.  “No way I’m letting Rafe anywhere near her.”

You rolled your eyes. Rafe was your ex-boyfriend who’d been less than a stellar partner while you were going out. He was obsessive, cruel, and manipulative. Not to mention a classist and a drug addict. 

It was only after you broke up with him that you realized how awful he’d been treating you.

Pro-tip: when your close friends and family tell you how shitty your boyfriend is, chances are pretty good that they’re right.

You stuffed your clothes in JJ’s bag.

He, of course, was your knight-in-shining armor. JJ was your shoulder to cry on and you were his. You two haven’t been dating long, but it feels a hundred percent better than any of the time you were with Rafe.

JJ treats you like a person. Rafe treated you like a trophy.

“Look, JJ, it’s just until you can get the note to Sarah and get out then Y/N can walk away.”

“You really think he’s just gonna let her walk away? Fat chance.”

“JJ, really?” You said, pulling the gun out of his bag.

“Yes, really,” JJ replied. “Especially now.”

“If you get caught with that thing in a pinch you’re going to jail,” John B. said, snatching the pistol out of your hands.

“Fine,” JJ said, pulling off his cap and tossing it to you. “But if Rafe gets handsy I’m coming back for it.”

“You won’t have to worry about that if you just give the note to Sarah and do nothing else to draw attention to yourself,” you said, shoving JJ’s hat into his bag and standing up.

“Ah, come on Y/N, you know me,” he said. “Completely inconspicuous.”

“Not exactly the word I would use,” You replied, about to take his hand.

But John B. caught your arm first. “Hey, I know this is going to suck for you, but this is for us...for dad.”

Your face was stoic and you didn’t meet his eyes. The gold was the thing your father had been searching for before he disappeared, the thing he thought he’d found. If there was even the slightest chance you two could get it...

“I’ll be fine,” you replied, making eye contact with him and smiling. “I can handle him.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about,” your brother replied, letting go of your arm.

You turned to JJ who smiled and held out his arm, “My lady.”

You smiled again, real this time, and took his arm. You could always rely on JJ to make you feel better.

“Hey,” John B. said, causing the two of you to look back at him. “No funny business in there all right? I expect you in and out. Got it?”

“Don’t worry I won’t bang your sister in a kook bathroom or anything.”

“JJ!”

“Even though that’s a bucket list item for me.”

You couldn’t help but laugh as JJ tugged you forward, quickening his pace before John B. could either tackle him or throw something.

Up ahead, the midsummers party was in full swing. It was twilight, the outer banks cloaked in a hazy blue, and the building glowed with yellow light that sparkled against the kooks’ fancy jewelry.

Both Pope and Kiara were in there somewhere, no doubt hating their lives and if nothing else, you thought, at least this would probably get them out of it.

“Ready?” JJ asked you as you approached the building.

“As I’ll ever be.” You replied, breaking off from him.

“Hey,” JJ stopped you before you could go. “Seriously, if Rafe tries anything I’ll be right there, okay?”

You smiled, pulling him in for a kiss before saying, “I’ve got this. Rafe’s not stupid enough to try anything here.”

JJ didn’t look convinced but let you go anyway.

You disappeared around another side of the building, just close enough to hear JJ before he entered the party.

“I keep finding glasses halfway down the beach. Do me a favor, try to keep ‘em corralled, will ya? I thought you were security.”

You bit back a laugh and snuck through a side door, headed for a bathroom to touch up your hair and hopefully find some perfume to cover up the smell of marsh.

You slid into the bathroom, which was probably the nicest one you’d ever been in. It had vanity lights over each sink, a lounge area with full length mirrors, and soap that smelled like roses.

You dropped your clutch on the counter, pulling out your travel brush and raking it through your hair. You did your best impression of a kook’s basic makeup routine with some added glitter and called it a day, only having so much time.

You slid everything half-hazardly back into your bag and headed for the door only to be knocked in the face with it.

“Oh my god I’m so sorr- Y/N?”

“Kie!” You said, sighing with relief. “Have you got any perfume with you?”

“What? Why? What’re you doing here?”

“John B.’s got a plan. We’re back in the gold game.”

Kiara looked like you’d just told her pigs were flying. “You’re as crazy as John B. I’m not dealing with this right now-”

“Kie, wait, wait, wait!” You pleaded, moving in front of her before she could escape. “I don’t know what the plan is, but I have faith in John B. He has to do this...we have to do this. For our dad.”

Kiara looked like she was about to tell you off, but instead she sighed. “Fine. What do you need to do?”

“Well, JJ’s delivering a note to Sarah so I’m supposed to distract Rafe while he does so. Which, knowing JJ, he’s probably already in position so I need to get out there.”

“Wait, you’re distracting Rafe?” 

“Hopefully not for long, if everything goes right.” You replied, trying to leave again.

“Wait, here,” she pulled out a little vial of perfume and spritzed it on you. "You did kind of smell like marsh water.”

“Thanks. How do I look?”

“Like a kook,” Kiara confirmed. “Let’s hit it.”

JJ spotted you and Kie as you approached the crowd. He motioned with his head and you followed it to where Rafe was standing with Kelce and some other kook guys.

You nodded back at him.

He gave you one last worried look before turning his back and heading towards Sarah.

“Wish me luck,” you said to Kiara before heading that direction.

“Rafe!” You said, sweetly, causing the boys to turn.

Rafe was like a deer in headlights, mouth dropping open at the sight of you. “Y/N? What’re you doing here?”

You chuckled. “Kiara invited me as her plus one. I wanted to see some of my old kook friends again.”

“Did you now?” Rafe replied, falling back into his asshole role as he stuck one hand in his suit pocket and gestured with the other. “Cause I’m pretty sure the last time we spoke you told me you never wanted to see me or any of my upper class bitches again.”

You clenched your jaw under your smile. “I was in a bad mood. Usually happens when you catch your boyfriend snorting coke through wads of cash. Got any of the white stuff in your system tonight?”

“As a matter of fact, I don’t.”

“Good. Your dad would probably castrate you, not that there’s much to take.”

Rafe’s smirk dropped momentarily as a chorus of ‘ooh’s went around the group of boys.

“Funny. I don’t remember you complaining when I took your virginity.”

You blushed. More oohs.

“Funny. I don’t remember it at all.”

“Oh, yeah? How about I remind you?”

You pulled a face, façade dropping. “Fuck you, Cameron.”

“Well, if you insist,” he replied, taking a step forward and a flash of fear jolted through you before-

“Oh! Sorry about that guys.”

You let out a breath of relief as JJ stepped between you, effectively dumping a cocktail down the front of Rafe’s suit.

“I was just trying to deliver that mai tai you ordered. But, really, I’d say this is an improvement. I mean the wetness really shows off that nonexistent dick you’ve got.”

“Nice of you to join us, JJ,” Rafe said, recovering and grabbing him by the shirt. 

“Well, no time to talk now, I’m on the clock,” JJ said, always a better liar than you. “Maybe we can catch up later, huh? Until then, how about you guys help yourself to some hors d’oeuvres?”

“Funny, you’d show up right now. Just when your girlfriend was about to dump your ass and get back together with me.”

“Was she now?” JJ asked, looking at you.

You grimaced and shook your head.

“Ah, well, the lady refutes your story. Always believe the victim.”

“Victim? Oh no, she’s anything but that. She came waltzing over here in that little dress ready to stir up trouble,” Rafe said. “She wanted to cheat on you, pogue. What’ve you got to offer?”

"Well, you know that’s the funny thing-”

BAM. JJ’s fist connected with Rafe’s nose and he broke free of the hold, grabbing your hand and racing through the crowd of kooks.

“Thank god for you, JJ Maybank,” you said.

“Never should’ve let you near those dicks anyway. Should’ve just taken my chances on my own. I could take them.”

“Well, you might get your chance because they’re following us.”

“Fucking swell.”

You and JJ zipped through the lobby, stirring all of the fancy kooks to stand and watch the commotion. 

“Sorry! Sorry! Lovely dress!” You shouted as you passed people.

“Hey, JJ, come on!” Rafe yelled from behind you. “We just wanna talk, alright?”

JJ ducked into the nearest bathroom, taking you along with him.

“JJ, I can’t be in here!” You protested as he drug you through the men’s restroom. 

Where there were men.

“Ah, excuse me, guys,” JJ said, rattling the door handles on the stalls.

Shit, it probably did look like JJ was trying to bang you in a kook bathroom.

“Just really gotta go,” he said, cursing to himself when they were all occupied.

He squeezed your hand and tried to duck through the locker room, only to be cut off by Rafe. 

“Hey, man, what’re you doing in the locker room, huh?”

He immediately turned around and tried to head the way he came, but you were surrounded.

“JJ!” You shouted as a kook knocked him backwards, his hand slipping from yours as you stumbled into two boys behind you.

“Wow, that’s a cute outfit,” JJ said, stumbling into Rafe.

“Shut up,” Rafe replied.

The two kooks gripped your arms, causing you to cry out.

“Hey!” JJ said, trying to come to your aid, only to be grabbed and put into a headlock by Kelce.

“I know your not classy, JJ, but trying to fuck your girlfriend in a men’s bathroom?” Rafe clicked his tongue. “Now that’s just uncivilized. Y/N should be treated better.”

He caressed your cheek with one hand and touched parts you couldn’t defend with the other. You tried to bite him. “Fuck you!”

“God, you hear this guys? She really wants to get in my pants. Just obsessed with me,” Rafe adjusted his jacket and smirked as he turned back to JJ, who was still struggling against Kelce and fuming. “Now, as for you.”

JJ flailed and fought, but Kelce was stronger.

“Hold him still. What do you think? A four iron, right?” Rafe said, adjusting his hands like he was holding a golf club. “Keep his head still, I’m gonna line this up.”

“Very Rafe of you, Rafe,” JJ spat, struggling to breath. “Five on one?”

“JJ, stop talking,” you pleaded.

“Listen to the lady, JJ,” Rafe replied, smirking. “It’s very disrespectful when I’m trying to hit a ball. Learn your etiquette my friend.”

You struggled against the kook boys, but you were terrified. This was your worst nightmare, being helpless like this. And if they somehow hurt JJ and got you by yourself...

“Rafe, please, leave him alone!” You begged.

“Oh, the time for pleading is over, sweetheart,” He replied, not even looking at you. “You made your choice.

Fuck. John B. was going to get an earful from you for this. All because he had a hard on for Sarah Cameron. 

Rafe leaned down to get a better look at JJ. “And what a choice it was. Your face looks really bad. Starting to look like your dad a lot more.”

JJ spit in his face.

Rafe laughed, wiping it away with ease, looking almost impressed. “Oh, shit! You see how dirty this pogue, is, Y/N?”

The lights started flickering and you let out a sigh of relief as security entered the room.

“Gentlemen,” he said.

Kelce dropped JJ and pushed him away. You ran to him immediately, checking him over, but he assured you he was fine and focused on the security guard.

“Is there a problem here, guys?”

“Oh! Pardon me, officer. No there’s not an issue, I just-” JJ said before starting over. “Actually, yes. No, there is an issue.”

JJ Maybank. Always quick on his feet.

“Uh, we got a criminal trespass in progress here. Beep! Call it in, right? Blatant disrespect for private property,” JJ said.

The kooks looked like they wanted to react, but they wouldn’t so they wouldn’t get in trouble with their daddies.

“And! And I tried to screw this fine young lady-” JJ grabbed your arms gently, pulling you forward. You smiled awkwardly. “In this here bathroom. As you can see, I’m in violation of all kinds of shit, sir. But these young gentleman...”

JJ straightened Kelce’s collar, who immediately pushed him off.

“...uh, caught me, sir, and they’re about to take me away. And that’s what you should do, escort me outta here. All right.”

The officer, not caring enough to refute JJ’s bullshit (but brilliant) of a story, did as requested and led JJ out of the room. You quickly followed.

“Fix that tie, son,” JJ said, one last quip. “You’re lookin’ spiffy, too. You Powerpuff Girls have fun.”

“Better keep that girl of yours safe, JJ,” Rafe yelled back. “Or I’ll remind her how a real man feels.”

“JJ, don’t!” You said but he’d already ripped himself away and went back to fight.

Thankfully, the security guard was there to separate them all again.

JJ was spiraling, fast. You could see it in the way he stumbled as the security guy led him back outside. He was practically slurring as he assured the guard he could walk on his own.

“Let me just walk out by myself. Oh, Mr. Dunleavy, I see that you got your drink. Good, that’s really nice of you. I’m actually gonna down that,”

He did as he said he would and downed the drink (whiskey, presumably).

“Y/N, you want one? Here’s Mrs. Dunleavy’s. Little wine for you,” he handed you the glass and, desperately needing a drink, you swallowed it as fast as you could.

“Sorry, sir,” the guard said, ushering JJ away. 

“I really appreciate the discretion, Daryl,” JJ said. “It’s okay everybody! Do not panic!”

You couldn’t help but smile as you watched JJ (in his own way) ruin the party.

“Leave it to the men and women in uniform. Let’s hear it for them!” He started clapping and you started laughing. “Rose! You look like Lady Liberty. It’s good to see you again.”

“Let go of him.” Kiara demanded.

You cringed. Damn it. Kiara’s scene would be much more righteous and way less funny.

“You can’t just boot him! I invited him,” Kiara said. “I’m a member of this club.”

“And what about her?” Daryl (the security) asked.

“Oh, she can plus one with me, if she’s good,” Rafe said, smiling wickedly.

You wanted to vomit.

JJ, having enough, shoved Daryl back into a table.

“Sorry about that! And Y/N,” He said before dipping you into a kiss, which you happily returned.

When he put you back upright you were a little dazed and surprised by the action, but not upset.

Rafe looked upset.

That made you smile.

“Hey, mandatory power hour at Rixon’s, Kie,” JJ said. “Pope, you as well, all right?”

“Rixon’s cove. Let’s roll,” You said, sliding your hand into JJ’s.

You and JJ were high on trauma. And you didn’t give a fuck. 

You backed out of there like you owned the place.

John B., who had somehow slipped in unnoticed here at the end, greeted the two of you with a celebratory whoo-hoo.

“Colonel,” JJ said, saluting.

“Captain,” John B. replied. “M’lady.”

You mock curtsied.

“Mission accomplished, sir,” JJ said.

“Good, let’s get the hell out of here,” John B. replied.

You jumped on JJ’s back as Pope and Kiara joined you, all of your spirits rising as you disappeared into the darkness of OBX. 

“Later losers!”

And that was that.

You went to Rixon’s Cove, John B. finally spilled the beans about the gold and Sarah Cameron (well, not all the beans with that one, you were sure of that).

Now you were waiting in the van with Kie, Pope, and JJ while your brother hiked up to the Kildare Hawk’s Nest to get a map from Sarah. Which was even stupider than the plan beforehand.

Mostly because Kie was pissed, JJ was smoking weed to cope, Pope was stressed about getting caught, and it was about to start thunderstorming any second.

“Kiara, holding onto your grudge is like drinking poison and thinking Sarah will die,” Pope said.

“Exactly.” JJ agreed. “Unless its Rafe Cameron who threatened to rape your girlfriend. Then the grudge is justified.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Kiara said, momentarily forgetting about John B. and Sarah to be concerned about you.

You shrugged. “It’s not that big of deal. He’s an asshole. And he didn’t explicitly mention rape-”

“I can’t believe John B. made you face him yourself,” she said, a look of disgust crossing her face.

Ope, she’s circling back.

“I said I would, okay?”

“That doesn’t excuse it, it was his idea-”

“Kie, can we not right now, okay? You’re just pissed at him anyway,” you said.

She frowned but dropped it.

You laid your head on your boyfriend’s shoudler. “JJ saved me, as usual.”

“Ah, it was nothing, just a little alcohol to break up the party,” JJ replied.

“Wait, what exactly happened?” Pope asked.

“Well,” JJ said, ready to spin into a story of the night’s events. “Good ol’ Rafe was going to make a move on Y/N, but luckily I was right there to swoop in with a glass of...what was it a mai tai? I don’t know, but I dumped it all down the front of Rafe’s suit and started apologizing and shit, you know the good lies. Then he said some more shit about Y/N so I popped him in the nose - pop - and took Y/N’s hand and ran off. Rafe and Kelce followed us-”

“Wait, do you guys hear that?” Kie interrupted, sitting up and looking out into the darkness.

Thunder crashing was all you heard before-

“Please, somebody help!”

“Oh, wait no, I hear that,” JJ said.

“Shit.”

The four of you bailed out of the van immediately and started heading toward the voice.

When you got to the hawk’s nest, John B. was on the ground and Sarah was crouched over him.

“Oh my god!” You cried out, running over there with the others in tow.

“Sarah, what happened?” Pope asked.

You slid on your knees next to your brother.

“I don’t know what to do. He needs help, Topper shoved him,” she said.

A fire ignited in JJ. “Where the hell is he?”

You leaned down and put your ear to his chest, his heart beat and you let out a sigh of relief.

“Someone call somebody!” You shouted, looking at your three friends. “911 or something, go!”

Pope took off first and JJ knelt next to you. “He’s gonna be okay, okay?”

Tears welled up in your eyes. “Come on, John B. You’re all I’ve got left. I can’t lose my brother to.”

“Pope come on!” 

JJ wrapped an arm around your shoulders as you cried. Not him. Not John B. Not after everything.

“JJ,” you whispered later when John B. was in a hospital bed with a concussion and broken wrist. “Don’t leave me...”

“Never,” He whispered back. “I’ll never leave you.”

This was up there for probably the worst night of your life. Maybe worse than the night your dad disappeared and Rafe was snorting coke on a coffee table while you were crying your eyes out.

But JJ was here now, just like he was then. Holding you like his life depended on it.

And Pope and Kiara were there, too, for a while, until Ward Cameron made the adult decision to call their parents.

He didn’t have JJ’s dad’s number, not that he’d have answered if he did. 

So JJ stayed with you all night.

He was there when Sheriff Peterkin made you tell her the truth. The whole truth.

And you did.

Well, most of the truth.

The gold was still your little secret.

“I’d like to offer you something, Y/N,” Ward said that morning. “I’ll tell your brother, too, when he wakes up.”

You eyed the man warily and exchanged a look with JJ, who squeezed your hand.

“Okay...”

“I’d like to be your legal guardian, if you’ll have me.”

Your eyes widened slightly.

“I heard what you told the sheriff, and Sarah filled me in a bit, but I know how hard you kids have had it. I’d like to give you a roof over your head and meals on the table,” He continued. “And this way, you and John B. wouldn’t have to be seperated.”

The tears were starting to come back to your eyes. “I-I don’t know what John B.’ll say, but if he’s in, I’m in.”

Ward smiled. “Sounds good, kid. We’ll let you know when he’s awake.”

He stood up and went to go talk to the doctors about something or other (probably the bill you couldn’t afford without him) and you sat a little stunned.

“Your gonna go live with the Camerons?” JJ asked, quietly.

“Yeah, I...I guess I am.”

JJ squeezed your hand again. “But what about Rafe?”

You felt like a bucket of water had been dumped over you. Fuck. Rafe.

“He...he won’t be dumb enough to try anything while John B.’s there. And- And his dad is the one taking us in. He worships his dad...we’ll be fine.”

JJ’s jaw tightened and he kissed your temple. “Sneak me in your window?”

You nodded. “Every night. And you can bang me in a kook bathroom now.”

He laughed quietly, but you felt his chest rumble. It made you smile.

JJ would keep you safe. He promises it with every touch.

[radiance1]

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and basically Danny is Beelzebub from Hellva boss with his own casino performs and the entrance defies reality and all his ghost rouges come in and go as they please and some humans and or mortals stumble in and think it’s just some place where metas party their fucking asses off which wouldn’t be that bad if this wasn’t FUCKING GOTHAM. Danny doesn’t know how they got in Gotham but they just want to party but unfortunately for him the bats hear a rumor some meta trafficking ring has been planning a big raid on a certain casino that’s new ish and they have to stop it so they go in disguise and they get to witness Danny and his rouges beat the every loving snot out of some traffickers

maybe Danny is a clone, maybes he’s reincarnated, maybe he lost a bet, maybe he moved to Gotham for fun, maybe he got tossed across the universe into Gotham

who knows certainly not Danny

Hmm.

I have zero clue if I want Danny to look somewhat like Beelzebub or not, but we won't be dwelling on that right now.

How Danny got to Gotham? I got zero blood clue, but he's there and is about to party.

Maybe this could even be set after TUE bad ending, where the explosion wasn't reversed, and he parties to forget the pain and just focus on the good vibes. Maybe stops using his human form, using his ghost form more and it subtly changing without him noticing into a different form or something due to his habits.

Maybe that some of his ghost form's new features leak over to his human form.

Anyways.

Maybe the casino isn't even in Gotham, like physically. Instead, it's the doors leading into the casino that're in Gotham City, and stepping through him just yoinks them into Danny's Dimension and into his casino.

So, Danny's casino is located smack dab in his own dimension, but somehow the doors pop up in Gotham for whatever reason and a few residents stumble through and see Danny and his rogues (who didn't want to kick a pup while he's down and indulges him) partying up to the high heavens and the lowest hells.

You could even say that, like Beelzebub, Danny is eating up all of the good vibes that comes from other people while partying. How and why does Danny own a casino?

Vlad.

Vlad is indulging him because they both lost something that day, and then Danny was placed into his care, and they were both two disturbed to really continue their entire good vs evil thing and they kinda just, chilled out with each other. Danny asks for a casino one day on a whim, Vlad indulges him, then Danny starts partying up to get away from his own grief while Vlad buries himself in work to avoid his.

So, when the meta trafficking ring tries to capture everyone at the casino and the bats are there to stop them. Every rogue there silently agree to beat them up because one, they have dignity as ghosts and can't just let themselves be captured by humans.

Two, this is the playground of Danny and one of the few things people unanimously agree to never fight in (one of the others is the Christmas truce).

Three, this place is also owned by Vlad Masters. If the man is anything like how he was before the whole kicked pup thing (everyone thinks this applies to both Danny and Vlad) then they don't really want to tick him off and they're basically doing these humans a favor anyways.

Anything they could do to them physically; Vlad could do worse to them in the human world.

The batfamily sees this, and decides that nobody here actually needs their help and can take care of themselves. But also, given the track record of metas becoming rogues in this city, they can't just leave it alone either.

They would make a file about them at the most for the case they decide to run rampant through the city. But they'll leave them alone for the most part.

(Danny doesn't know who or what Batman is, as he doesn't exist in their dimension, yes even the comics don't exist. Neither does the batfamily know Danny Phantom, because he doesn't exist in their universe either.)

[petite-phthora]

Do you think it was a date?

[DP x DC fic]

[Love at first... murder? - part 5]

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Part 1

Ao3

---

In-chat nicknames:

Daniel = Danny

Sharpshooter = Jazz

TooFine= Tucker

Chaos = Sam

TheCoolerDaniel = Danielle/Dani/Ellie

---

Private chat nicknames:

Bill = Danny

Pants = Jazz

---

As soon as Danny enters his apartment, face bright red, he takes his head into his hands and lets out a silent scream.

He could have said anything, and he panicked and went with Toodealoo Kangaroo???

At this rate, he’ll never get a partner.

As Danny stands there in misery, his phone starts buzzing with messages. Curious, he checks his phone to see what going on.

Uh oh.

---

Team Phantom 👻😎

Chaos: Guys check this out

Chaos: *link*

Chaos: The Joker escaped from Arkham again, but no one’s heard anything of him since, nor have they been able to find him

TooFine: @Daniel 👀

TooFine: ok the @ had been a joke but the fact that he has read it and not replied is concerning

Sharpshooter: @Daniel, what did you do?

Sharpshooter: @Daniel

Sharpshooter: I can see that you’re reading this, don’t ignore me.

TooFine: ohhhh someones in troubleee 👀

Sharpshooter: Tucker.

TooFine: 🤐

---

Danny takes a deep breath.

Well, it’s now or never. Let’s hope Jazz is feeling merciful.

---

Private chat

Bill: ok so you know how you said you would still love me if I was a worm?

Pants: I have no clue how this ties into the previous conversation, but yes. Why?

Bill: hypothetically

Bill: would you also still love me if I

Bill: hypothetically

Bill: accidentally

Bill: vibe checked someone that tried to uh

Bill: hypothetically

Bill: kidnap and or kill me??

Bill: 🥺🥺🙏

Pants: Danny, did you accidentally kill the Joker?

Bill: yes or no Jazz??!? 😩🥺

Pants: Yes, Danny. I would still love you if you, hypothetically, accidentally killed the Joker.

Bill: this is why you’re my favorite sister 🥹🥰😘

Bill: don’t tell Ellie 😳🫣

Pants: Danny, what happened?

---

Danny lets out a sigh of relief before proceeding to tell Jazz what happened.

---

Pants: Oh Danny.

Bill: are you mad at me?

Pants: I’m not mad at you, I just want you to stay safe.

Pants: While I don’t condone murder, I understand that it was self-defense and an accident. I‘m just glad that you’re alright.

Bill: 🥰💞😘

---

With a small smile on his face, Danny goes back to the groupchat.

---

Team Phantom 👻😎

Daniel: you know

Daniel: if I had a nickel for every time I’ve had to fight off an insane clown that attacked me 🤡

Daniel: I’d have two nickels

Daniel: which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice, right? 🤔

Chaos: Damnit Danny, we leave you alone in a new city for a week and you already manage to get into a fight with one of Gotham City’s most infamous rogues

TooFine: actually its been 6 days 10 hours and 17 minutes

TooFine: so not even a full week yet

Chaos: Did you at least get a good few punches in?

Chaos: Danny?

TooFine: @Daniel ???

TooFine: if i had a nickel for every time danny said something concerning and then didnt provide context id be richer than vlad

Daniel: anyway, for completely unrelated reasons, @TooFine I need you to wipe some cams for me 😃

TooFine: danny im not wiping the cams again so no one will have proof of you tripping backward and falling ass-first into a trashcan

Chaos: Speaking of, Tucker do you still have that footage and can you send it to me?

TooFine: already done

Daniel: noo it’s nothing like that this time 😫

Daniel: pleaseeee 🥺🙏🙏

Daniel: I’ll get you an autograph from Tim Drake-Wayne?

TooFine: deal.

Daniel: 🥳🎉

Daniel: ok so the footage from somewhere around 3 am last night

Daniel: around some place named park row??

Daniel: I think it’s called?? 🤔

Daniel: though I’m pretty sure I’ve also heard some people refer to it as crime alley

Daniel: not sure why tho 🤷

TooTine: aye aye captain o7

Chaos: Danny, in an alley getting attacked by the fucking Joker: I wonder why this place is called crime alley

Daniel: stop bullying me 😠

Chaos: No

TooFine: hey danny r u sure thats right? i checked the cams n stuff but theres no available footage from the area n time u described

TooFine: its like someones already wiped it all

Daniel: oh!

Daniel: that’s so sweet of him  😊

Chaos: Wait who is this ‘him’?

TooFine: the joker????

Daniel: oh no not the Joker

Daniel: just some cute guy I met last night  

Daniel: he witnessed me killing the Joker 🫣

Daniel: and didn’t call the cops on me afterward 🥰💞

TooFine: def green flag

Chaos: Oh hell yeah, he’s a keeper

Chaos: Wait you killed the Joker?! I thought you just fought him off!

Daniel: it was an accident!! 😭😭

Daniel: he crept up on me and tried to grab me 😓

Daniel: so I got startled and because all I saw was a clown

Daniel: I just kinda punched his face in with my ghost strength… 😰

TooFine: f

Chaos: f

Sharpshooter: Have you gotten rid of the body yet? Did you leave behind DNA at the crime scene? Will I need to start saving up bail money or getting ready to enact the Fenton Break Out plan?

Chaos: Jazz asking the important questions here

Daniel: well, considering the footage was wiped

Daniel: and also the fact that no one’s found him yet

Daniel: I think it’s safe to assume it’s all taken care of

Daniel: that’s honestly really sweet of him though 🥰😊

TooFine: oohhhhh ur mystery boo??

Daniel: yeah, this random guy saw me vibe-checking the Joker

Daniel: and let me go home without any trouble

Daniel: pretty sure he’s the one who wiped the cams 🤔

Daniel: and then today he showed up at my apartment with flowers 🥺

Daniel: they were sweat peas!!!! 🥰🤩

Chaos: Was that to thank you for the murder orrrr?

Sharpshooter: Oh those are your favorite, was that on purpose?

Daniel: well I didn’t tell him

Daniel: so I’m not sure if he knew or if it was a coincidence 🤷

Daniel: but yeah then he took me out to this restaurant called Pete’s for dinner

Daniel: they had some amazing cannoli

Daniel: you should try it sometime if you get the chance

Daniel: and then after dinner he took me to the observatory!!!!!!! 🤩🥰

Sharpshooter: Gotham observatory?

Sharpshooter: Isn’t that the one with the special telescope, I think you mentioned it before

Daniel: yeah, the crystal-powered telescope!! 😍💞✨🤩❤️

Daniel: and at the end, he brought me home

Daniel: and he asked for my number!!!

TooFine: nice dude!

Chaos: The guy really went all-out and planned your dream date hu? So, what’s this mystery hunk’s name?

Daniel: oh I’m not sure, I didn’t ask 🙃🤭

Sharpshooter: Danny…

Daniel: yes?

Sharpshooter: Did you go on a date with a complete stranger who witnessed you commit a murder?

Chaos: How do you not even know his name?

Daniel: two words Jazz: Johnny 13

Daniel: and he’s not a stranger!! 😠

Sharpshooter: But you don’t know his name?

Chaos: We just can’t leave him alone, can we? Less than a week on his own and he already murdered one of Gotham’s most infamous rogues and then completely forgets the concept of Stranger Danger

Daniel: I mean he probably just found it when he tried to do some research on me or something

Daniel: probably got it from the school’s system now that I think of it 🤔

TooFine: dude who the hell is this guy??

Chaos: Who the fuck did you go on a date with?

Daniel: do you really think it was a date? 🥺😳

Daniel: I wasn’t sure

Daniel: cause he mainly took me out for dinner to thank me for the night before

Daniel: but then again

Daniel: he did get me flowers and ask for my number after he brought me back to my apartment 🤔

Daniel: like I wasn’t sure if I was reading the signals right…..

Daniel: but do you think that was a date? 🫣

Sharpshooter: Danny, for the love of the Ancients.

Sharpshooter: Who was it?

Daniel: oh, it was Red Hood 🥰

TooFine: damn dannys got that vigilante rizz

Sharpshooter: Red Hood? The crime lord?!

TooFine: former, actually

Daniel: what he said ^^

Chaos: Danny, you really have a type huh? Vigilantes with a Red theme. Who’s next? Red Robin?

Daniel: stop bullying me

TooFine: never

Chaos: Never

Daniel: on a different note, who changed my name in the chat again?

Sharpshooter: Ellie did.

Chaos: Ellie

TooFine: @TheCoolerDaniel

TheCoolerDaniel: 😎

TheCoolerDaniel: wait i just read back, danny’s dating a crime lord?? :0 👀

---

Taglist (for now, I’ll probably stop if I cant keep up):

@i-always-say-yea  @uraniumwizard

[suzukiblu]

Ko-fi thank-you sentences for ceceridercat; they gave me dealer's choice and are therefore getting more of the Jazz/Jason soulmates WIP because I had a sudden craving, hah.

"I don't know," Robin croaks. "I don't know what that means."

. . . Jazz is now very, very concerned.

"I want to see your core, Robin," she says very, very carefully. "Do you know what a core is?"

The question is ridiculous; even more unfathomably unlikely than him not recognizing her for what she is. No ghost just "doesn't know" what a core is.

But she asks it, because she's having a very, very bad feeling right now.

"No," Robin says, tensing up even worse and visibly aborting the impulse to take a step back from her. "I don't know what you're talking about. What are you doing to me, what do you want?"

Jazz's bad feeling wasn't bad enough, apparently.

"I'm not doing anything on purpose. It's a passive effect," she says. She doesn't especially like being Regent, it's mostly annoying and time-consuming and inconvenient, but she's never actually hated it before.

Right now she definitely hates it.

"Then turn it the fuck off!" Robin shouts at her, baring his teeth aggressively. It's a fear response; Jazz isn't tuning into his emotions on purpose, but he is very, very afraid right now.

She hates that, too. Would hate it even if he weren't her soulmate.

"I can't," she says. There's not meant to be a way to turn it off, and even if there were, she doesn't know it and probably doesn't have the ability to do it anyway. She's only liminal, after all. Not a full ghost or even a halfa. Everything that she can do is limited and shaped by that fact. Maybe Danny could figure it out, but Danny isn't here.

She doesn't know what to do, which is a perfectly normal thing, she knows, but not usually such a problem. But there's no backup here, no Danny or Sam or Tucker or Valerie or Dani, and honestly at this point she'd take Vlad, if only because he might know something about what's going on here. If only because her soulmate is afraid of her and doesn't even know what a core is.

How can any ghost not know that?

. . . actually, that's a good question, isn't it.

How can't he know? What would've had to happen, for a ghost not to know that?

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Immediate Aftermath

Summary: No One Knows AU Part 26, Danny starts to deal with all of the things he's learned and everything that's just happened.

...

It’s while they’re flying home that everything crashes on Danny’s shoulders at once, and he knows Jazz can tell.

“Okay,” she says.  “Blame me.  Say you found me having lost track of time at the library.  Let’s go sit down.”

Danny doesn’t even have it in him to fight her, so he flies up to the roof of a nearby building and sets them both down.

Jazz reaches out and pulls him into a hug.

“You don’t have to forgive them, you know,” she says.

Danny pulls back to look at her.  “I do forgive them.”

Jazz laughs a little bit.  “I figured.”

“I just… fuck,” Danny says, dropping his head into his hands.  “I didn’t think they’d do that.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t think Vlad would do that.”

“I know.”

“Should I have seen this coming?”

“I don’t know.”

“Fuck,” Danny groans, leaning back on his hands.

Jazz leans back next to him and pulls him back in for another hug, and this time Danny stays there and rests his head in her shoulder.

“Jazz,” he says, hoping they can both ignore the slight shake in his voice.  “Why did they do that?”

“I don’t know,” Jazz whispers.  “You’re gonna have to ask them for that part.”

“I know a little bit,” Danny says, pulling back and looking up at the sky, where the sun is starting to set.  “Vlad made it look like I wanted to hurt them by telling them that Plasmius worked for me.  That’s what Sam said.  But she was also having an entire breakdown when she told me, I don’t…” he trails off.

“You already said you want to talk to them again, and I’m sure they won’t object,” Jazz says.  “And if they do, I’ll object to them.”

Danny snorts.  “No, you’re staying away from them until I know you won’t kill them,” he says.

“That’s gonna be a while.”

Danny laughs a little again, but his smile fades after a second.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asks, turning to face Jazz.  “You are the one who got kidnapped out of nowhere.  And you didn’t know what was happening like I did when I went there.”

Jazz takes a shaky breath, and runs her hands along her legs.  “I’ll be okay,” she says.  “Just a little shaken.”

“You sure?” Danny asks.

Jazz nods.

“Will you find me if you need to talk?” he says, catching Jazz’s eye to make sure she knows he’s serious.

She smiles at him, and nods.  Danny opens his arms for a hug, and they both lean forward and hold each other tightly for a moment.

They both pull back, but he can tell neither of them wants to leave yet.  And they’ll have more to talk about, but neither of them seem to want to do that for a while either.  So instead, they both sit there in silence for longer than they probably should.

But they are going to have to deal with their parents eventually, so after a while, Danny stands up.  “Let’s go home.”

“Danny,” Jazz says, standing with him.  “I really am so sorry this happened to you.”

Danny gives Jazz the best smile he can manage, which isn’t a very good one right now.  “Thanks, Jazz,” he says anyway.

…

It’s clear when they get home that their parents notice something happened.  Of course they do, they’ve been gone too long and neither of them exactly look their best.

Danny’s not sure how he expects them to react to it, but he knows they’ll do something.  They’ve been getting better about actually paying attention to what’s going on in his and Jazz’s lives.  Really nice most of the time.  Super unhelpful right now.

They both sit down at the table for the spaghetti that’s long gone cold, and don’t make a move towards eating it.

“So,” Mom says, crossing her arms.  “You want to tell me where you two have been, and what you were doing?  Where are your crutches, Danny?”

Danny opens his mouth to give some version of Jazz’s library excuse, but it gets stuck on the way out, as he finds himself not wanting to lie to them.  At least, not all the way.  So, he reaches out and takes Jazz’s hand, then takes a deep breath.

“I don’t need the crutches,” he says.  “My leg is healed.”

His parents eyebrows shoot up in disbelief, so Danny rushes on before they can question that one much.

“And Tucker and Sam got caught up in a ghost attack,” he says.  “With this Wisconsin ghost.  And it’s… we’ve been having a fight lately.  I wanted to show them I was still going to be there to help.  That’s what Sam was here for.”

The fact that none of that was technically a lie felt weird.  He had left out some crucial context, though, which feels a little more normal.

“Sam and Tucker got caught up in a ghost fight?” Mom asks.  “Are they okay?”

Danny exchanges a look with Jazz, not sure what to say.  “They were manipulated by this half ghost who’s also your old college buddy” doesn’t sound like the best idea.  “They’ve been hunting me” will also come with a lot of follow up questions.  Heck, “no,” will come with at least some follow up questions.

“They’re…” Danny starts, and trails off.  “I don’t know.”  That’s the best he’s got.

His parents both exchange a glance, then turn back to him.

“Sweetie, how long have you three been fighting?” Mom asks.  “Why haven’t you said anything?”

Well, Danny doesn’t know what to say to that, either.  He’s finding himself way too tired of lying to them to do it.  But he’s still not ready to tell them the truth.

Jazz reaches out and squeezes his hand under the table.

“Can I…” Danny says hesitantly.  “Can I tell you later?”

Mom blinks, looking confused.  “What?”

“I… there’s something I haven’t told you guys,” Danny says, looking down at the table.  “And I’m still not ready to tell you.”

“Danno, what do you mean?” Dad asks, sitting forward.

“Exactly that,” Danny says, looking down at his hands.  “I just… I need a little time.  Okay?”

He can feel his parents looking at him, but he doesn’t raise his gaze.

“Danny,” Mom says.  “Are you safe?”

“I am now,” Danny says.  Mostly.

That doesn’t seem to help, as he looks up to see panic in his parents eyes.

“Really!” he says, holding up his hands.  “I’m okay!  I promise.  I’ve been going through a lot, but I’m okay now.  I’m just not really ready to talk about it with you guys.”

“Will you tell us if you need our help?” Mom asks, giving him a concerned look.

Danny thinks it over, and nods.

Mom takes a deep breath, clearly still not happy.  But after a second, she looks at Dad, and then the two of them turn to face Danny.

“Okay,” Dad says.  “But we really don’t like this, son.”

“I know,” Danny says, but he doesn’t say anything else.

There’s a long stretch of silence, and then Mom sighs.  “I’ll reheat the spaghetti,” she says, and picks up both Danny and Jazz’s plates.

“I’ll get some drinks,” Dad says.

Danny turns to Jazz as they both start doing that.  Jazz gives him a smile and wraps her arm around his shoulders, giving him a quick side hug.

“Good job,” she says.

Danny smiles back at her.  “Thanks.”

The dinner is tense and uncomfortable, but they know he’s keeping something from them, and they’re not making him tell them, and those are the important parts.  And for the first time since the accident, Danny goes to bed knowing that someday, they’ll be okay.

…

Danny makes the executive decision that he’s skipping school the next day, because he’s earned it, goddammit.

Jazz doesn’t argue with him, and tells their parents that he’s sick, who according to her didn’t look like they really believed her but let it slide anyway.

So Danny gets up after Mom and Dad head down to the lab, makes himself some frozen waffles, and then heads back upstairs, planning to spend the day plopped in a bean bag in front of his video game console playing Doomed.

Before he can boot it up, however, he hears a knock on his window, and he glances over to find Valerie hovering there in her suit.

He climbs up and heads over, pulling the window open.

“Hey,” he says.  “Are you sure your suit is safe?”

“Oh yeah,” Valerie says.  “I had Tucker go over it and find all the spy cameras last night,” Valerie says.  “He still has the diagrams he grabbed, he says it wasn’t hard.  No one can see me anymore.”

Danny nods.  “Okay,” he says.  “Good.”

“Can I come in?” Valerie asks.  “I know we’re taking a break right now.  I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

Danny nods again, and steps back to let Valerie come inside.  She lands gently on his floor and retracts her suit.

“I think I’m alright,” Danny says as she turns around.  “Or I’m gonna be, at least.  I’ll just, you know, need a bit.”

Valerie nods.  “Okay,” she says.

“A lot more makes sense now,” Danny says.

“Yeah, I’d imagine,” Valerie says.  A second passes, and she suddenly holds up her hands, a look of alarm on her face.  “I swear I didn’t know, if you were wondering.”

“Oh.”  Danny shakes his head.  “I wasn’t.”

“I did wonder why Vlad suddenly liked them so much more than me,” Valerie says.  “But I didn’t know who they were.  And I don’t know why he went after them, either.”

“I believe you,” Danny says quietly.

Valerie looks back at him, obviously concerned.  “You’re really okay?”

Danny smiles a little.  “Yeah,” he says.  “It’s easier now that I know what actually happened.  And… I’m doing a lot better than I was, I think.  I’ll be okay.”

Valerie nods, though Danny can’t tell if it’s at what he said or if it’s more to herself.  “You know you can talk to me if you need to?” she asks.  “I mean, you don’t have to, obviously, just, if you want to.”

“I will,” Danny says with a smile.  “Thanks.”

“Good,” Valerie says.  They’re both quiet for a minute, and then Valerie speaks again.

“I have an offer for you.”

“An offer?”

“Yeah.  I can handle the ghosts for a week.”

Danny blinks.  “You can handle them?”

“Yeah.  I’ve wanted to pay you back for a while anyway, for picking up the slack when I took a break.  Take the week, work things out with everyone.  I’ve got it for a little bit.”

Danny hesitates.  “I don’t know.”

“If I need your help I’ll come get you,” Valerie says, with a tone that means she absolutely doesn’t think she’ll need his help.

Danny laughs a little.  “Okay,” he says.  “Thanks Val.”

Valerie smiles back at him, and for a moment they just look at each other, until Valerie shakes herself.

“Well, that’s all,” she says, pulling her suit back on.  “Just wanted to check on you.”  She starts to head over for the window.

“Hey,” Danny says before she flies out of it.

Valerie turns to face him again.  “Yeah?”

“Take your mask off.”

Valerie does, looking a little confused until Danny walks over and gives her a short, chaste kiss.

“I’ll be seeing you,” he says, pulling back.  “And I’m really looking forward to fighting ghosts with you.”

Valerie gives him a warm smile, and another quick kiss back.  “You better hope you can keep up, Fenton,” she says.  Then she gives a wave and flies out the window and off.

Danny smiles after her as she goes.

And then, as soon as she’s out of sight, he transforms and flies out after her, but in the opposite direction.

He didn’t want to mention it while she was there.  But Valerie made him realize something.  If she doesn’t have the slightest idea why Vlad went after Sam and Tucker specifically, that means he didn’t bother to bullshit an excuse.  And while he seems to have done that with Sam and Tucker, since Sam’s whole panicked speech included something about Vlad saying Phantom was trying to kill them, she didn’t seem to know the real reason either.

And Danny wants to know the real reason.

And he can only think of one person who can tell him that.

[jayswritings13]

Multi-fandom: Hello Nurse

Summary: After they get injured, you help clean them up.

Included: Robby Keene (Cobra Kai), Danny Fenton (Danny Phantom), Santana Lopez (Glee), and Moana (Disney), April O'Neil (TMNT), Moxxie and Millie (Helluva Boss)

💗Masterlist | WIP Page

Robby Keene (Cobra Kai)

"This is gonna sting."

"Do it." You nodded, quickly placing the alcohol soaked rag on Robby's cheek, hesitating when he winced in pain.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" Robby tried to grin, but even that couldn't hide the pain in his eyes. "You didn't do this."

"I know, but still," You shrugged, "I don't like seeing you like this."

Silence.

"While we're on that subject, who di-"

"It was no one important." He said. "I was training with Mr. LaRusso and Sam."

"Okay," you said, "must've been one tough training for the great Robby to get injured."

"I don't know about 'great'."

"I do." You said, placing a bandaid over the cut on his cheek, "so keep the rough shit for the mat and not training."

Santana Lopez (Glee)

"I told you," Santana rolled her eyes, "I'm fine."

"I'll believe that when you stop bleeding, San." You spat back, pressing the damp towel to her forehead.

"Oh, please," Santana scoffed, "You should see the other guy."

"Stay still. You're dripping all over the floor."

"Good, then maybe that little gremlin will face some consequences."

"What happened?"

"Just a little rumor that needed to be squashed and a huge ego that got brought to size." She shrugged, though you caught the small smirk edging the corner of her lips. "Just the regular stuff."

"And that led to you bleeding."

"I was getting there," Santana said, "Anyway, she didn't take it well and went at me." She paused, grinning, "But, you know me...."

"I do." You laughed, slipping your hand into hers, "I know you pretty well."

Danny Fenton (Danny Phantom)

"Just because you're half ghost, doesn't make you invincible, Danny!"

"Ow!" He grimaced as you tightened your grip on his arm. "Some nurse you are." He grumbled.

"I mean, what the fuck?!" You continued, ignoring his comment and wrapping more gauze around his arm. "Were you trying to get yourself killed? I know that Vlad is your uncle and all-"

"That doesn't mean anything. Things just went too far."

"You got too cocky," You paused, dropping your grip on his arm, "is what I think you meant to say."

"I'm okay, FYI."

"This time, Danny!" You sighed, "This time you are." You dropped his arm, sitting down next to him. "What about next time? Or the time after that?"

"I've gotten myself out of things like these before and I continously will," Danny said, "Or, well, as long as I have you by my side, I will."

"That was so cheesy."

"But, it worked, didn't it?"

"Shut up," you laughed, "and just be more careful."

Moana (Disney)

"Please don't tell my dad," Moana muttered against your shoulder as you helped her over to the sand, helping her sit down.

"Please, right now that's the least of my worries," You said, kneeling in front of her red and swollen ankle. "How do you think that he's not gonna notice this?"

"It's not that noticeable."

"Really?" You scoffed, "You can barely walk on it, Moana. I'm sure that if he doesn't notice, you're mom will."

"Just..." Moana sighed, "Please don't tell him. Please." She gripped your hand, taking your attention off of her ankle. "I don't need another lecture from him."

"You hurt your ankle walking through the village with me this morning."

"What?"

"You're gonna need a cover." You said, "He means well, but I know what you mean."

"Thank you." Moana winced, as you wrapped her ankle.

"Just be careful out there. For me please."

"Of course." Moana smiled, "Now, help me up."

April O'Neil (TMNT)

"It's just a scratch."

"Just a scratch. You're bleeding on my couch, April." You said, handing April a tissue, while you pulled the first aid kit closer to you.

"I'm fine." April said, holding the tissue to her cheek. "It barely gazed me."

"It- Grazed?" You shuttered, shocked. "Were you in the alley fighting with Jones?"

"It's called training."

"I call bullshit." Grabbing gaze and some tape out of the kit, "You know better than to do that shit with Casey. How the hell do you think he got that fucking gap?!"

"Whatever, I totally kicked his ass this time."

"What'd you do? Widen that gap, April?" You laughed.

"Maybe," April winced as you placed an alcohol soaked cloth on her cheek. "Ow! You don't have to press so hard?"

"You don't have to get hurt this hard." You countered, smirking. "Maybe, I should go teach Casey a god damn lesson."

"Too late." April grinned, wincing in pain.

Moxxie & Millie (Helluva Boss)

"Wow, I thought that you said that the hit was 'no big deal'...?"

"It wasn't."

"Bullshit. Why are you both bandaged up?!"

"Well, we- I mean, I sort of-"

"It's not a big deal," Millie shrugged, "We're fine, (Y/N)."

"What if you weren't?!" You exclaimed, "What if you two were seriously fucking hurt and didn't come back?"

"(Y/N)...."

"No, I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna tell me to have more faith and that you too are a team, handling it together." You sighed, "But, that doesn't mean that I can't worry about you two. I mean, you guys literally kill people for a living and seem to have a target on your back from others."

"Not entirely our fault." Millie said, as Moxxie nodded.

"Yeah. Who knew that Blitz had so many people who hated him?" Moxxie said. "And I mean like a shit ton of peo-"

"What I think Moxxie is trying to say is," Millie interrupted, "We'll try to be careful for you."

"Thanks," You smiled, "Now, get over here. Whoever wrapped your wounds did a fucking terrible job." You laughed.

"Hey! It's hard to do it one arm!"

[feroshgirlsims]

Chapter 3.4 - What Not to Wear

VLAD

Up on the second floor, Vlad runs into his cousin, Mandy. She eyes him suspiciously in the hall and then makes a rude gesture before stomping downstairs. 

He slips into his grandparents’ bedroom and begins stripping off his clothes. Below him, he can hear Mandy begging for cereal and his grandmother telling her to eat the eggs she cooked or “fuck off.” He already knows Mandy will veto the eggs and head to his mother’s house to see what she has to offer.

Jokes on her, it’s eggs. 

He savors the feel of the suit on his skin as he stares at himself in the mirror. 

“You probably don’t need to let the hem out. I used to be your height back when I wore it,” Bubba explains. It’s the only warning Vlad has that he’s in the room. Even at his advanced age, the man moves like a cat. “Custom pockets on the inside for throwing knives,” he holds Vlad’s gaze in the mirror. “Not that this is that kind of occasion.”

“It isn’t,” Vlad replies softly, dashing away a tear. He’s never been able to control his crying. It’s just something that washes out of the static haze inside him. Strong feelings are so rare he’s learned not to fight them, even if he can’t always decipher them or understand why they’ve appeared. “I can’t wear this, Bubba. She’ll think I’m a complete psychopath.”

His grandfather snorts. “You are.”

“Rude,” Vlad chastizes. “Last I checked, you’re not a licensed therapist.”

Bubba shrugs, “Like calls to like. Now, do you want to keep this in case the right occasion ever pops up?”

Vlad thanks him and dashes across the yard to his house and carefully hangs the suit in his closet before grabbing his wallet and heading back out. 

He spots his father loading the truck and feels a wave of fury wash over him. The Strauds have one vehicle, and accommodating eight adults is difficult, which is why they have a system. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Vlad shouts, “You know I have class. I need to get to the train station.”

“I’m not kidding,” his father says, “Now do you want to be a little shit, or do you want a ride? I got things to do.”

Idiotic things. Things to piss Vlad off. Things that require ignoring the whiteboard in the kitchen and taking the damn truck anyway. Vlad works his jaw but doesn’t make a move for the door.

His father leans against the truck and folds his arms. “Fine. You want to tell me what’s wrong, or is this the ghost of your teenage years sent to haunt me as punishment?”

Vlad glares. 

Josef looks up at the sky as if praying for patience. “Wear your dark blue button-down and your purple jeans. My brown boots are by my bed; I already shined them. Blue matches your skin tone, and the purple jeans are your most worn-in, so you’ll be comfortable.”

Vlad realizes that all the tension he’s holding disappears. He takes a deep breath and nods. “Thank you. I’ll be right back.”

“You’re welcome; I love you,” his father says, “But watcher help me, Vladislaus; if you’re not out here in fifteen minutes, I’m leaving, and you can walk your ass to the train station.”

PREV | NEXT

(Part 4 of 4)

[softshrimpy]

How To Woo A Hot Principal

Step 16: Vulnerability

Summary: Working at the Weathervane was exactly what you needed. The routine, the people, your co-workers. It certainly helped that a certain tall, blonde, fucking gorgeous woman happened to frequent the cafe. Now some may call hopelessly flirting with your customers inappropriate behavior.

But truly, when it came to Larissa Weems, who could blame you?

It's been a rough two weeks and I craved Larissa comfort. So enjoy! 🦐✨

Tags: @variant-2402 @the-bagel24 @autumn-leaves-chasing-breeze @kimiinou @muffintopxs @h-doodles @bbykens @lilfartbox1 @bigolgay @winterfireblond @gela123 @i-like-reading @hopelessly-sapphic @alder-saan @im-a-carnivorous-plant @weemssapphic @barbarasstar

(pls let me know if you want to be tagged/ I missed you!)

Chapter 15

Cross Posted on AO3 Here

HWTAHP Masterlist

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Larissa was busy. Which was fine! And understandable considering all the antics Wednesday has been up to recently. Her dedication to finding the monster that had attacked you was sweet, a little insane, but sweet. However, the way in which she was trying to find it was…unorthodox to say the least.

She had asked you almost a hundred different questions about the night you were attacked, not that you remembered much of use anyway. All you could remember was that you were in the woods (how far from the school you didn’t know), you had been crying so hard you hadn’t heard anything and that Marilyn had showed up very shortly after you were attacked…

Which was bothering you for two reasons. One was that if she had been close enough to be there right after you were attacked, why didn’t the monster attack her? Wednesday had hypothesized(her term not yours) that the monster had probably gotten spooked by a second person. It still didn’t sit right with you though.

And the second reason was that you had barely seen Marilyn since you were brought back to Nevermore. She had popped in briefly when you were unpacking to say hi and say she was glad you were doing better and then all but disappeared off the face of the planet. You know the two of you weren’t all that close but you honestly thought you’d at least see her around a bit.

You knew her and Larissa were close, she had told you about the long chats over many glasses of wine and their morning coffees together. And the two of them hadn’t stopped hanging out, not until Larissa went into full crisis(Wednesday) management mode. And it’s not like you spent all your time holes up in your room (anymore, not that Vlad allowed it in the first place). And with all the fucking walking around the Nevermore campus you were doing you really did not understand why you hadn’t seen her at least once.

So you decided you would try and find her today. Partially because, yes, you were lonely. But also because you wanted to thank her properly for saving your life. So you set out to find the funky lil redhead, vowing to yourself that you would find her before the end of the day.

Surprisingly she was in the first place you checked; the greenhouse. This did make you wonder if you were imagining her avoiding you. She was on the phone when you entered. She seemed to be in the middle of a heated argument with someone, hand gesturing wildly as she whisper-yelled at whoever it was she was speaking with. You stood awkwardly at the door, trying to figure out if you should stay or go.

Before you can make a decision the phone call is over and she's angrily sighing and shaking her head. You knock on the closed door behind you, hoping to announce your presence properly before stepping further into the greenhouse. At the sound she turns, rather swiftly. The look on her face goes from proper anger to shock, then to something you can’t name before swinging back around to anger again. You don’t even have a moment to open your mouth before she storms over to you, poking your chest with her finger.

“You! You just- you had to- and now I- UGH!” She groans, tears gathering in her eyes.

“Marilyn…?” You mumble, staring at her, confused as fuck.

“I-I’m sorry I don’t know why I-“ she tries, stopping when her voice cracks.

She looks moments away from bursting into full-blown sobs. Her eyes are wet with unshed tears and her lower lip is trembling. She opens her mouth to speak again but you wrap your arms around her, enveloping the small woman in a hug. She does burst into tears then, hugging you back while burying her face in your neck. You pat her back, doing your best to soothe her.

She calms eventually, her cries dissolving into the occasional hiccup. She takes a step back from you, wiping at her eyes and letting out a shaky breath.

“Sorry..” she smiles, “I don’t-you shouldn’t have had to deal with that I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay. Are you okay though?” You ask.

She nods and sniffs, shooting you what you assume is meant to be a reassuring smile. You smile back at her, squeezing her shoulders.

“I’m fine, I mean I will be fine. Sorry. Is there- can I do anything for you?” She offers.

“I actually just uh wanted to chat to you. And thank you properly for you know saving my life and all.”

“Really you shouldn’t thank me. It was the least I could do…” her face falls for a second before she smiles, “Is there anything else? Sorry, I’ve got uhm-I have to head into town to pick up a plant delivery.”

“Oh…oh no. It’s- no it’s cool! I’ll just- I’ll leave you to it then,” you murmur.

You say your goodbyes, feeling a bit better when Marilyn suggests you get coffee sometime. When you leave the greenhouse you stand dumbly for a bit, trying to figure out what to do now. You figure it would be best to go back to your room. Your mood can’t get that much worse just by vibing in your room.

———

Apparently, it could get worse. Much worse.

As it turns out dissociating in your room actually made you feel so much worse. You had ended up staring blankly at the really nice window you had while thinking back on all the ways life had gotten so fucked in the last few weeks. And then you ended up thinking about how your life had been fucked up the whole time. Which was a super fun little exercise to be doing before a physio session with Vlad.

And really Vlad was so sweet, really. So kind. However you felt like utter shit and he was making you do all these stupid, painful stretches that were making your scars and body ache. Which when combined with your already shit mental state leads to a rather terrible outburst.

“Come on kiddo just a few more of these,” he encourages you.

“I can’t.” You huff, wincing at the pain in your stomach.

“Sure you can kiddo. It’s just three more you got this-“

“No I fucking don’t! So can you just fucking let me breathe?!” You yell.

“Alright, let’s take a breath then-“

“No that’s not going to fucking help! Nothing is going to fucking help because things are just fucking fucked!” You end up kicking the nearest thing which just so happens to be a wall.

Which is how you end up sitting in the infirmary with a fucked foot and a dent in the wall you had taken your frustration out on. Turns out the vampire strength did not save your bones from being obliterated by concrete. The nurse had been very sweet, wrapping your foot and sending you on your way. Vlad had helped you back to your room, not asking any questions and leaving you with a simple ‘call if you need anything.’

And so you lay on your bed, frustrated and angry and hurt. You feel tears welling up in your eyes and get even more frustrated if that’s even possible. Part of you knows you’re just having a bad day, that these feelings will pass and you’ll be okay. But another, louder part of you says this is how things will always be.

That’s how Larissa finds you, laying on your back on your bed, foot wrapped in a lovely bandage, crying your eyes out. She silently takes off her heels, padding over to your bed and sitting herself next to you. She brushes some hair out of your face, smiling down at you.

“I hear you’re going around destroying property.” She hums.

“I’m sorry, I can- I can get it fixed and pay for the damage I-“

“Darling, I’m certain your toe suffered more damage than the wall. And even if you destroyed a wall you would never have to pay for it.” She reassured you, brushing the tears from your cheeks gently. “How’s your foot?”

“It’s fine, I was being ridiculous.” You grumble.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” she frowns, “do you want to talk about it?”

You sigh, squeezing your eyes shut in an attempt to keep the tears from falling. You shrug, biting your lip as you sniffle.

“It’s fine I’m-I’ll be fine,” you croak.

“Talk to me darling,” she murmurs.

“I…” you try, not really sure where to start, “I don’t know I’m just…I just feel like- I just- everything is so overwhelming at the moment. I just- I feel like I’m drowning.”

Larissa taps your arm, gesturing for you to sit up. You do, a bit confused. You feel your heart melt when she shuffles behind you, pulling you to lie back against her. She wraps her arms around your stomach, squeezing you gently and pressing a kiss to the back of your head.

“Go on sweetheart,” she murmurs.

“I just-my whole life has been like flipped upside down. I mean I-I almost fucking died and-and then oh no wait I didn’t because it turns out I’m a vampire! Which is- I mean it’s really cool! And I’m not- I’m not upset or anything but…but my parents hid it from me my- my whole life and I-how am I supposed to feel about that? And my father is all high and mighty about it, pulling the ‘I was doing what was best for the family’ crap. And I can’t even fucking ask my mom about it because she’s-“

Your crying restarts in earnest then. You hide your face in your hands. Larissa holds you tighter, whispering soothing gentle words into your hair. She doesn’t ask any questions, simply holds you as you cry and reassures you that everything will be alright. It’s nice that you can just be with her, that she doesn’t expect anything from you. When you’ve calmed enough to speak again you continue.

“I can’t ask her about it because she’s dead. And she’s been dead for years and it still. I mean I went to therapy for it at the time. And I-it helped. But I-I keep wondering if- if she knew? If she- I mean she probably helped keep it a secret from me but…did she feel the way my dad does? Did she hate who I am too? Would she think I’m a monster?”

You sink further into Larissa’s embrace, grasping her hands with with of yours as you breathe shakily. She shuffles a bit, squeezing you again before she speaks.

“Your father is an idiot and a bastard for the way he treated you,” she whispers, “and I never knew your mother, so I won’t claim to know how she would feel. However, I do know you. And you are one of the kindest, most accepting, most lovely people I’ve ever met in my life. You’re always looking out for others, you’re always trying to help people. There’s nothing even remotely monstrous about you, my love.”

“You thought I was a monster though…” you mumble, bracing yourself for anger.

“I did,” she sighs shakily, resting her chin on your head, “and I-I can’t apologize enough for that. I need you to know that what I said, had nothing to do with who you are. I was-I took out my anger and fear on you. You’re not-there is absolutely nothing monstrous about you darling. And I will spend every moment of every day for the rest of my life trying to show you that.”

Your breath hitches at the sincerity in her voice. You awkwardly manoeuvre yourself to sit sideways between her legs, your foot preventing you from turning around completely. You stare up at her from where your head is resting against her arm, pouting and probably looking like a mess. But Larissa just smiles down at you, her face filled with so much love and adoration you feel the weight on your chest ease a little.

“I’m sorry-“ you start only to be interrupted when Larissa presses a finger to your lips.

“None of that now,” she chides, “you don’t need to apologize for feeling things. I’m so- I cannot express how much it means to me that you shared that with me. I know that one conversation isn’t going to solve your problems, but I promise I’ll be here for you whenever you need me. You know you can call me whenever you need alright?”

“But what if you’re busy I don’t want to bother you…”

“Nothing is more important than you darling.”

She says it with so much authority and sincerity that you genuinely forget how to breathe for a moment. She brushes a few more tears from your cheeks before kissing your forehead. It’s a bit awkward with the way you’re positioned. She chuckles at the noise of protest you let out when she adjusts the way she’s sitting.

“How about we go back to my quarters, get changed into more comfortable clothes and order some takeout? How does that sound darling?” She suggests.

“I-you don’t have to go through so much trouble for me Rissa.”

“I know I don’t. How about you let me anyway?” She grins.

Honestly, you don’t know what to say to that, and her cute grin makes your brain malfunction. So you nod up at her, your face flushing as she escorts you to her room.

And as you sit cuddled up to her later that evening, with her tracing abstract shapes on your arms, you truly feel like everything will be okay.

[courtingchaos]

Fight

Dangerous I Tease

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Female!Reader

Summary: Another house party, another meeting. Eddie gets to watch you do your job.

A/N: I wrote this before Tease so it might read a little weird (?) but I tried to smooth out the wrinkles. No smut in this one! I'm incapable of writing little smutty oneshots apparently and this is actually turning into a series 🙃🙃🙃 Go figure. Anyways, have fun!

Warnings: Alcohol consumption, fighting, blood, NSFW 18+ Minors gtfo you know the drill kids.

Steve’s house is big like his parents house was big, but nicer. Newer. More importantly it’s set deep in the back of the neighborhood, a lone house on a culdesac with a big backyard up against the woods, pool and two car garage and finished basement and it’s all dull. He’s said so himself but it was part of his trust fund shit. Robin gets to stay with him for free, not like he’d ever charge her anyways, and she gets to play hostess when he throws a party, so everyone is winning. 

“Oh my god I haven’t seen you in forever!” Robin yells over the music, wrapping you up in a hug as soon as you step into the house. She smells like lemonade and vodka when she presses a wet kiss into your cheek. You can see Steve over her shoulder, arm draped over his new blonde. He waves lazily at you, beckoning you in. You have to walk Robin backwards with her still hanging off your neck, yelling drunkenly into your ear about the night so far. 

She’s lucky she’s cute. 

“Robin, babe can I get drink?” You pry her arms from around your neck. 

“I’m so sorry! I’m a terrible host! You want something tasty?” She gives you a sultry look over her shoulder before walking away into the kitchen. 

“You gotta keep an eye on her tonight.” You say to Steve, pointing after Robin. 

“Is she being clingy?”

“Yeah, might just slip her into my Uber with me.” You wink at him and his yelled ‘No!’ follows you into the big kitchen. 

Twenty minutes later you’re two cups into whatever this lemonade shit is that Robin’s made when you see those long curls go past the kitchen doorway. 

“Eddie!” Robin squeals and jumps off the counter where she’s been sitting.

When you come around the corner from the kitchen, his back is to you. He’s laughing at something Steve said, his arm around someone. At first you think it’s Robin but you see her hanging over Steve’s shoulders. There’s a nasally giggle and of course it’s Dani. You get up next to him, sneaking again, and whisper. 

“Hey Vlad.” 

He jumps and whips his head sideways to look at you. Robin is laughing at him and you flash him your most winning smile. He gives you a once over when you lean back, arm crossed over you to prop your other elbow on. 

“Hey.” So few words for you when he has a thousand for everyone else. He walks around these parties joking and chatting but you? He shoves a joint in your mouth and tells you to shut up. 

“Hey Red.” Dani leans around Eddie’s shoulder, eyes sharp. She’s clutching that fucking purse like it’s made of gold. 

“Hey Dani. Great purse.” You lazily point at it with your drink. 

“It’s Gucci.” She preens. You’re not blind, could see the gold clasp from the kitchen. 

“Oh I know, that’s the Aphrodite right? I would have gone with the Deco but, you know…” you trail off with a shrug, dragging your eyes back to Eddie. He’s still staring. 

“You know purses?” Robin pipes up, unaware that a standoff is happening. Steve knows though, turns around and starts gently pushing his friend into the living room. “Ask later Rob.”

“You here by yourself?” Eddie asks, turning to face you and leaving Dani standing by herself. 

“Well it was supposed to be me and Lisa, but I’m solo tonight. Why, you looking to share a ride later?” Your eyes trail down and he shifts under your gaze, crossing his arms tightly. It’s still hot, unusual for an April night, and humid again. It suits him, makes his skin glow. His shirt is worn thin enough you can see the little specks of sweat dotting through the dark green; the shine of his chain through the collar. He’s got those torn jeans on again that offer you a glimpse of his thigh, crisscrossed with ink. You decide your gonna see the rest of that canvas tonight. 

Dani clears her throat and links her arm through Eddie’s like she’s read your mind. 

“Ed, do you wanna grab a drink?” 

You think she looks like a foal wobbling around in her black pleaser platforms. Her red tube dress sits just under her ass and she’s hanging onto the purse like a lifeline. Even with the added six inches she’s not eye level. It’s almost comical the glare she’s trying to level at you. Eddie holds your look for second longer before nodding down at Dani, ushering her into the kitchen. 

“See you in the shadows Vlad.” You say to his back. 

Eddie brought Dani because she wanted to see Steve, and Eddie only came to this party because Robin texted him specifically. He could never say no to her and this was supposed to be a normal party. None of Rick’s stupid shit, just some of Steve’s crowd was what Robin had said. A thousand heart emojis later and here he was and there you were. 

If he was smarter he would have known to come alone. Should have known you’d be here, you knew Robin from your real job so of course she’d invite you. 

He had texted you a few days after the bar incident, against his better judgement, that danger danger danger flashing in his brain like a chyron over his thoughts. 

He’s busy watching you across the room, repeating his mistake from before. Watches you move between people, holding your drink over your head. Watches Robin find you again, her own blonde now hanging off of her. He can tell you’ve noticed him staring but he doesn’t care. Dani isn’t even talking to him anymore, too busy on her phone. 

Eddie’s been watching the way your crop top sits right under your tits. It moves with you and he catches a glimpse of black lace. Your skirt is high waisted and tight, showing an inch of skin above. He wants to slide his hand there, pull you up against him in a bedroom upstairs. He likes whatever perfume it is you wear, wants to bury his face in your chest where it’s probably sweetest. 

He shakes his head to clear it. Decides to scroll through his phone to distract himself. You’re a snake like most of the girls in here. Slick and beautiful and mean, you can unhook your jaw and ruin anyone’s life. Eddie makes it a point to keep himself quiet and subdued at these house parties, at Rick’s. It’s a side of himself he keeps partially hidden from the rest of his friends, from the good part of his life. This has never been how he wants to be, but it’s how he’s ended up. A phone full of girls he can cycle through, not one of them long term or meaningful. Roll of cash and a safe hidden in his room. It’s just gotten easier after a decade. 

“Do you know where the bathroom is?” Dani cuts into his thoughts. He points down the hallway. “At the end, last door on the right.” 

“I’ll be right back.” She drops a kiss on his cheek and he doesn’t react, just keeps scrolling through Twitter. 

Out of the top of his vision he catches a glint of gold and looks up to see you slowly climbing the steps to the top floor. Fingers dancing over the railing, head tilted to watch him while you head up. When your grin disappears, he stands up to follow. There’s enough people in the house that he blends in when he moves through the crowd, music so loud he can’t hear himself walking up the steps.

On the landing he sees one doorway with light spilling out of it, pushes it open to find you sitting at the edge of an unused bed. 

“Oh so you did see me.”

“Kind of hard to miss the hair.” He steps in so he can push the door shut behind him. You flip your hair over your shoulder and it shines in the light of the bedside lamp. It’s big and wavy tonight and Eddie thinks he can get his hands in it again without you slapping him.  

“Well then it’s done it’s job.” 

He stands in front of you emptying his pockets, phone and wallet dropped next to your clutch on the corner of the bed. He nods his head behind you before you can sit up off your hands. 

“Slide back.”

“But my shoes.” You pout and lift a foot up to rest on his thigh. Eddie stares down at your leg, hands paused mid air before looking back up at you wordlessly. You wiggle your toes and lightly push your shoe up to his hip. “Untie them?” A tilt of your head, the false innocence making him chuckle. His fingers pull at the knot behind your knee and he unwinds the thin cord, fingertips light and calloused over your skin, sliding off the strappy heel. He drops that foot and pulls your other leg up from behind the knee, making you lean back further. As soon as he pulls the heel off you slide back against the pillows and Eddie follows after toeing off his boots. 

His arms cage your head and you get a whiff of his cologne. He smells like cedar and tobacco and weirdly like metal. You lean up on your elbows to get in his face. 

“You smell expensive.”

“I think that’s you.” He kisses you hard. It catches you off guard. Teeth nipping at your bottom lip and you know this is gonna be payback for the hickey. He suck’s your lip between his teeth and you slide a hand up his arm to wiggle your fingers under the sleeve of his t-shirt. He lets you go abruptly when a shout bounces off the house. 

“Fuck you asshole!” It’s sharp and makes you both look over at the window. Eddie gets off the bed and you want to scream. He pulls the blinds up and squints out at the backyard. 

“Oh my god, fuck ‘em-“

“It’s Matt.” He sounds worried and that gets you up. 

“You sure?” You push him out of the way to look and it sure is. Matt is Dani’s boyfriend who has somehow found her here. A place you know she most definitely told him she wouldn’t go. 

“God damnit, you gotta take that fucking phone away from her when your out.” You say to Eddie who’s already shoving his boots back on. You almost drop the blinds before you see Matt reach out and snatch Dani by the back of the head. 

“Motherfuck-“ you slam the lock open and wrench the window up to yell out the screen. “Motherfucker! Let her go Matt!”

He can’t see who’s yelling at him and he’s dumbly scanning the side of the house. You can hear Eddie behind you telling you to shut the fuck up but Matt shakes Dani and she yelps.

“Let her go!” He sees you finally and grins. He’s gotta be drunk because he just pulls her closer, rag dolls her around like she weighs nothing. 

“Fuckin’ make me then bitch!”

A blind rage hits and you run past Eddie to pound down the stairs, pushing everyone out of your way when you beeline for the french doors that lead to the backyard. Steve is already outside trying to calm everyone down but you brush past him, running barefoot over the laid brick around the pool. Matt watches you get closer and let’s go of Dani’s hair to ready a punch for you. 

This isn’t the first time you’ve had to handle this asshole, his penchant for grabbing the girls being mainly what your here to prevent. All you see is red when Dani topples over and scrapes her legs on the pavers. 

Matt isn’t much bigger than you but his fist does make you pause just long enough for him to prematurely swing and miss. The only thing you can think to do is stomp your foot down on the top of his and push him, heel holding him in place while he topples back. 

There’s a wet pop and then a scream and you know he’s down for good. No one moves at first until Steve rushes over, phone in hand, and pushes you out of the way. 

“What the fuck?!”

“You weren’t doing anything!” You yell at Steve. He’s trying to get Matt to shut up for a second but he’s howling about his broken ankle. Looking up to find Dani and she’s already standing, shaking and crying with Eddie trying to get her over to one of the loungers by the pool. You step over Matt’s body and he snatches your ankle, calling you seven kinds of cunt and you kick your foot until he lets go. 

“I told you last time I’d break something.” You spit at the ground and he grabs you again. This time you ball your fist up and swing down, stupidly. You aren’t throwing a real punch, just hitting him with the pinky side of your first and the pain shoots up your arm when his nose explodes blood. 

It’s over pretty quick when Robin pulls you back and into the house. You aren’t fighting her but you are raising holy hell about anyone letting Matt’s stupid ass in. 

“It’s not like we have a bouncer.”

“Well you should! He fuckin’ knows better too so he got what he fuckin’ deserved.” Keyed up and a little tipsy is how she leaves you, sitting on the front step to get some fresh air. She comes back with a water and an aspirin, your clutch dropped next to your hip. Wordlessly you accept it and watch Steve and some other guys carry Matt to the backseat of his car, moans echoing in the dark. You haven’t seen Eddie or Dani, don’t think you will until there’s a limping sound behind you. The scuffed up platform comes into view first and then her rashed leg. 

“Eddie get you cleaned up?” You don’t look over at her when she sits beside you. Instead you fish around your clutch and pull out a cigarette. 

“Uhm, yeah he-he made sure I’m okay.” Her voice is shaky and the deep breath she takes sounds wet. 

“Are you? Okay?” You see her nod lightly, adjusting her hair over her shoulder. You get through most of your cigarette before she speaks up again. 

“I didn’t tell him where I was.”

“Does he have your location on?” 

“I don’t-“ Dani fumbles with her phone for a moment. You glance at her screen and see her open up settings and it’s there. “He must have turned it on I didn’t give him-“ You lay your free hand over her phone and finally look at her. Eddie got her makeup cleaned up too but the tear tracks are all down her cheeks, cut through her foundation. 

“Turn it off now, don’t leave your phone around, and turn off Face ID. He probably did it while you were sleeping.” Silence again and you can feel the pain in your feet. Running around barefoot like a crazy bitch will do that. The pain in your hand went away quick but you know it’ll creep back later after you sleep. 

Dani takes a deep breath after she finishes with her phone and turns to look at the side of your face. 

“Thank-”

“God, don’t. Just don’t.”

“I mean it.”

“I know.” You snap at her. She tucks back over to her side of the step to run her finger over the scuff on her shoe.  

“You smell really nice.” 

You want to laugh at the way she’s trying to make this feel normal. “It’s lost cherry. Tom Ford.” The step is cold under your ass, your bare feet too where they’re curled on the step below. Your voice sounds flat. You are too old for this shit. 

Gotta find my shoes. 

“I’ve never heard of that.”

“What do you normally wear?”

“I don’t…it’s an Ariana Grande one. Like a blue bottle?”

“Oh my god.” You dig through your clutch for the thin glass. “Look, I’m sure it smells great but you gotta find something better.” Your fingers close around it and you reach over to grab Dani’s wrist and pull it close. “This won’t smell the same on you but,” you spray twice on her upturned wrist, let it dry a little before bringing it up to sniff, “it’s better than Cloud.” Dani is still under your touch. Watching you with wide eyes, her hand curls into a fist in your own. She pulls her arm back and cradles it for a moment before gently sniffing her wrist. 

“Oh, that does smell different.”

“Yeah, you get more on the cherries. I get the rose notes better.” You shrug and stub out your cigarette, stand up to get some feeling back in your legs. “Listen, I need to find my shoes. Care to help?” You’re already halfway into the house, throwing the invitation over your shoulder. Dani doesn’t move from the step, still holding her arm against her chest. “No? Just holler at me if you find ‘em.”

The shoes are still in the bedroom, but Eddie is gone. 

Shame.

A sigh rolls off you when you bend to pick up the heels. You won’t be putting them back on, not after running barefoot like you did. Pounding down the stairs and across the concrete outside really rocked your ankles, you won’t lie. You look out the window and see the red dash of blood across the pavement, even all the way up here, proof of you making good on a promise. You tuck your shoes up under you arm and dig your phone out of your clutch, ready to take a picture to send to Lisa when you feel someone standing behind you. 

“Did you miss me Vlad- oh.”

“You found your shoes.” Dani stands awkwardly in the doorway. Clutching her Gucci purse against her stomach and wobbling one ankle around in those scuffed platforms. 

“I did, no thanks to you.” You’re teasing, but the bitchiness is an undercurrent. This whole night went south because of her.

“Eddie left.” 

“Without you? I wonder why.”

“Steve and him took Matt to the ER.”

“Ah, shame. Should have rolled him into the pool to drown.” You turn back to the window and snap a picture quick. “You need a ride? I’m grabbing an Uber.” The light of your phone glares in the dark bedroom while you swipe through to find the right app. From over your phone you can see Dani tentatively walking toward you. 

“Thank you.”

“It’s what I’m here for plus, Matthew knows better. Shouldn’t have swung on me.”

“I just, I know that you all think I’m stupid for staying with him. I know you guys don’t like me because of that, or whatever.”

“Dani.” You finish ordering the car, sixty bucks down the drain, and look up her. “They don’t like you because you walk around here like you’re better than all of us.” You aren’t going to touch the first part of her statement, that’s a whole other fight. 

Her hands tighten on her purse but she doesn’t say anything, just stands there too young and naive to stand up for herself. 

“We all suck the same dicks, some of us just get better perks.” Your hand slaps against your thigh after you gesture at her bag. “Cars gonna be here in like 10 minutes, c’mon.” You grab her arm gently when you walk past her to drag her with you. She’s not leaving your sight again until she gets home. 

In the driveway of Steve’s house you and her wait for the car, your feet sticking to the concrete in the humidity. 

“I didn’t suck his dick for this.” The short gold chain clinks when Dani shakes the small crescent bag at you. “You just, you keep saying that but I didn’t.” She’s earnest. 

“I don’t actually care, babe. It’s just a joke.”

“Everyone thinks it though.”

“Well, it’s how a lot of us end up with pretty things!” Your phone vibrates with a notification that your car is here. The headlights turn down the street, slowing down at the driveway. The window rolls down and thank whatever deity is watching tonight, it’s a woman that waves out to you. Dani climbs in the back first and you slide in behind her, throwing your heels on the floorboard. 

“You guys okay?” The driver asks, looking back through the rear view. It takes all your willpower to not snap and roll your eyes at her too. 

“Oh totally, just a long night. Boys, y’know?” And that’s all the nice you have in you. She nods and takes off, the soft murmur of pop flowing through the car speakers. Your phone vibrates a few times but you just can’t find it in you to fucking care, not moving your head from its place leaned on the window until you all pull up to Dani’s apartment. She’s been quietly undoing her platforms before hopping out barefoot, leans back in to thank the driver. 

“It was a birthday present.” She says, reaching in for her heels. 

“What?” You’ve been almost dozing against the cool glass. 

“A birthday present. Everyone else forgot, but Eddie sent it to my work. Let me open it in front of everyone. It made me feel special.” 

That’s just…so much you don’t feel like wading through right now. “Goodnight Dani.” 

You ask the driver to wait until you see the light come on in her apartment. 

Your apartment is an outside walk up, the stairs going up the middle with doors on either side and at the very top, outside of your stupid little place, is a crown of curls haloed by the yellow recessed lighting in the breezeway. You debate even getting out of the Uber, maybe this nice lady will leave you at a Denny’s or something but the fact that he doesn’t move yet your phone buzzes makes you angry enough to get out. You thank your driver and promise her the biggest tip of her night and just stand in the parking lot in the damp air. Heels hanging from the same hand holding your clutch, you start for the stairs and take them slow. You catch glimpses of him between the wooden slats, the cherry of his cigarette bobbing around while he watches you back. 

A solid minute you moseyed up the stairs and he’s leaned forward staring at you, arms propped on his knees, cigarette dangling between his fingers. You expect that uninterested stare he gives everyone at parties but he looks upset. You just reach forward and steal his cigarette. 

“So do you know how to answer a text?” Eddie isn’t being quiet in this stairwell where he should be. You wave a hand down in front of you, shushing him. 

“Did you text Dani?” 

“Yeah, that’s why I’m here. She told me you took her home.” 

“Aww, we’re you worried about me?” You do this thing when people are being nice to you. A lot of fake pouting and cunty remarks until they leave you alone. Eddie doesn’t fall for it though. He just sighs heavy and stands up fast, motioning at your front door. You laugh. 

“I am absolutely not inviting you in. The night is over bud.” You’re done, ready to go in and lick your wounds behind three closed doors and the knowledge that Matt was in an ER somewhere getting his ankle reconstructed. 

“I’m not trying to fuck you.”

“You were earlier.” You purr at him, edging past when you take the last few steps up. “I didn’t forget about our little bedroom tryst.” 

“I’m serious. Let me look at your hand.” He gestures at the one holding all your stuff, the one you’d swung down at a dumb angle. You give him a confused look and huff a laugh at him. There’s no way he came all the way to your apartment to look at your hand. 

“This isn’t my first fight Eddie. I’m a big girl.” The key turns in the lock and he just opens the door for you, stepping in like he’s been here before, like he belongs. You scoff but he’s already in the kitchen wetting the towel you left on the countertop. 

“Excuse me.” He doesn’t respond. “Hey seriously, I would like you to fuck off. I’m fine.”

Eddie just walks back to you silently. Takes the cigarette from you and tosses it in the stairwell. Pulls you in to your apartment so he can shut the door and holds your hand up to his face. You can see the red on your rings, can see where two knuckles have split. He wipes your rings off first and then dabs at your fingers, his touch gentle where there’s signs of bruising. 

“I don’t think it’s broken.” He’s says quietly, still working dried blood from between your jewelry. 

You feel your chest tighten, nerves suddenly flared. You don’t feel like fleeing though, very suddenly you have a different trajectory in mind. Your bedroom is just a few feet behind him. Queen sized bed with new sheets and maybe he’d be nice to you in there too. Not a basement or the back of car but somewhere soft and warm and delicate. Maybe he’d hold your head the way he’s holding your hand, all gentle, attentive touch. You can feel the want enveloping around your head, making you soft and stupid. It creeps up behind your ears and whispers into them ‘how sweet’ ‘how caring’ ‘how thoughtful’ ‘how kind’. 

“Eddie you need to leave.” Your tone is final. If you stare at his chest you can see him pause, kitchen towel stained pink clutched in his hand tightly. 

“Will you just let me fuckin’ help you?”

“No.” You do look at him then. Eyes hard, staring holes through him. “I don’t need your help.” You pull your hand back firmly to let it hang by your side. “Thank you for checking on me, but it’s time for you to go.” When you swallow your throat sticks. He looks confused for a moment before he lets out short laugh. 

“Fine. Fuck…just fucking be like that then.” He waves you off before tossing the towel back on the countertop. Stomps over to your front door and rips it open and you want him to look back in so you have an excuse to be soft and stupid but he doesn’t. He doesn’t even leave with a scoff or a mean little quip he just…leaves. 

So sweet. So kind. Yeah, right.

(sacrifice for the readmore)

[britcision]

REPOST, ignore this if you read chapter 4!

(because this just fucking in besties, copying FROM tumblr online and pasting TO tumblr mobile doubles up the fucking paragraph breaks again, and I’m just deadass not fixing that 3 times)

ENJOY chapter 4, part 1!

Today’s chapter is dedicated to @lehana37

One day, beloveds, one day we WILL get to Sam and Dick… but not today, I was having way too much fun bullying Vlad and Bruce

Tag List: @welcometosasakiworld @kyrianclawraith @someonebored0100 @stealingyourbones @starkcravingmad @frostedthroughghost @akikoyuii @rainbowbunny0159 @littlefeather345 @violet-catsarelife @serasvictoria02 @wolfjackle @blacksea21090 @secretdestinywerewolf @anime-hipster-the-amazing @undead-essence @skitscratched @blackroserelina @snoodly-boop @trickerdi @mayoota-blog @xysidhe @idkmrpianoman @little-apricot-the-writer @chaoticmistake @the-legal-shipper @bun-fish @aroranorth-west @demon-cat-goes-woof @eonic @onyxlightdragon @larks-and-katydids

Previous chapter:

First chapter:

———————

Pay Attention To Me Dammit

“Okay,” Danny sucked in a deep breath, surfacing from Jason’s suit to two deeply concerned pairs of blue eyes, “let’s get somewhere private real fast.”

Tucker snickered, helpfully extracting both him and Sam from Jason’s arms.

“I can’t fucking believe you forgot Vlad was coming,” he sighed, voice still shaking as he gave Jason a once over.

Sam, sucking in huge gasps of air, pinched his arm as she straightened.

“Oh shut up, not like you brought him up either,” she wheezed, still grinning.

“Vladdie’s gonna be fucking heartbroken,” Tucker sighed happily, shoving Danny towards a corner.

People were definitely looking. And not just the other four bats; regular guests were watching behind fans, hands, or just deadass staring.

Tim took over, catching Danny’s wrist and pulling the other boy after him. They weren’t that far off the same height.

“So, should I take it that “Vlad” being here is a good thing or a bad thing?” He asked, pulling on his best socialite smile, heading for one of the hall exits instead.

“Back room?” Jason wondered, guiding Sam and Tucker quickly after him. Tim nodded without looking back.

“They shouldn’t be busy yet. We can talk without being overheard,” he added to the other three, who obligingly sped up.

“As for your question, Vlad being here is… probably gonna end up being nothing?” Danny offered, doing his best smiles for the rich assholes they passed.

Sam kicked him in the ankle.

“Wait til we’re alone,” she said quietly, hustling Tucker along.

Unsurprisingly to Jason and Tim, the first back room already had four other people sitting in it, on two extremely plush couches, angled at right angles and facing a fireplace. Before Danny could turn to find another, Steph caught his hand and pulled him in.

“Hi, Stephanie Brown, friend of the Waynes, we’re gonna talk all about Jason’s adorable little crush on you but first, what did you need privacy for?” She asked, eyes bright with innuendo.

Danny grinned right back, already liking this one, and relaxed when Tim and Jason guided the others in and shut the door.

“Well, I guess you all being here means no one has to be found later… and the more eyes the better in this case,” he mused, looking over the other teens and young adult.

Dick waved at Tucker, grinning sarcastically.

“Danny. And Danny,” he added, nodding to Danny himself.

Sam hid a snicker behind her hand.

“That’s what you went with?” She asked Tucker, and he grinned entirely unrepentantly back.

“What, Jason said he told them who I was,” he said in his very best innocent voice.

Before they could get going, Jason raised a hand.

“I’m gonna guess there was a reason you snuck Danny in other than getting back at Sam’s parents? Vlad Masters,” he prodded, dropping to sit on one of the plush royal blue couches next to Cass.

All three Amity Parkers sobered immediately.

“Right… yeah, we should sit for this,” Tucker agreed, glancing around the room. Seating for nine was going to be tight, but… well, he may no longer be a teenager, but he was still seating-flexible.

Introductions were made as people juggled themselves around, finally ending with Cass, Jason, and Danny on one sofa, Sam, Steph, and Damian on the other, and Dick and Tim perching on windowsill or sofa arm respectively. Tucker took the floor.

Once movement stilled, Danny exchanged glances with Sam and Tucker. Maybe hoping that for once, he wouldn’t be doing the explaining?

He shoulda known better.

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair and didn’t lean intentionally into Jason’s side. It was good to have another halfa around, that was all.

“Sooooo… cliff’s notes? Vlad Masters is a shady billionaire who uses some seriously unethical shit to make predatory deals with other rich folks to steal their fortune. We think he’s here to cement that flashy “b”, byyyy stealing your dad’s fortune,” he explained quickly, glancing around at the Waynes and adjacents he could see.

They did not look convinced.

Tim frowned, leaning forward on his knee and steepling his fingers.

“If you have proof of that, shouldn’t someone already be looking into him?” He asked contemplatively, eyes fixed on Danny’s face.

It was. Weirdly intense.

Fighting down discomfort, Danny shrugged.

“So remember when I said deeply unethical? Think like, mind control. He’s hard to investigate.”

“You make him sound like a supervillain,” Dick noted from the windowsill.

Sam raised a pointed eyebrow at him.

“Duh, we said “billionaire”.”

“Hey,” Tim protested, leaning around Steph to frown at her, “I’m a billionaire.”

She stared him dead in the eye while Steph snickered.

“I said what I said.”

“And you’re a millionaire,” he shot back sharply, eyes narrowing.

Sam didn’t blink.

“I work at a plant nursery my parents don’t approve of and pay my own tuition. My family are millionaires; I’m not,” she said plainly.

Tim puffed up his cheeks, but let them deflate silently. Jason definitely wasn’t smirking.

Cass leaned forwards suddenly, eyes darting around the room searchingly before settling on Sam.

“Masters. Your connection?” She asked softly, the others stilling to hear her.

Both of Sam’s brows rose, but she didn’t comment at hearing the other girl’s voice for the first time. She looked to Danny instead, raising an eyebrow.

Danny blew out a huff of air, ruffling his bangs.

“So… we… well…”

“He wants to fuck Danny’s mom and adopt Danny,” Tucker said bluntly, tipping his head back to hit Danny’s knees and grinning up at him.

Danny poked him in the forehead, but didn’t refute it.

“Yeah. So he’s kinda been my problem for a while. And he’s the mayor of Amity Park now? Is he still?” He asked, looking from one to the other.

Sam shrugged.

“Think so. I haven’t heard about anyone new.”

The Waynes and co were all kind of just… staring at them. Danny gave them jazz hands.

“And now he’s heeeeeere. He probably won’t make any moves if he knows I’m around, but we should keep an eye on him around Mr Wayne anyway.”

“And we can add him to the fuckery list, along with Sam’s parents,” Tucker added with a very satisfied smile.

It drew all eyes his way, ranging from intrigued to sceptical.

“How?” Steph asked, eyes bright.

Tucker waved a hand over the room.

“Black hair. Blue eyes. For one thing, Mr Drake-Wayne is even the same height, so if he sees you from behind, he could be confused. Dick’s not far off either. And best of all,” he added while the others did quick visual comparisons, decidedly smug, “we hint that Bruce is thinking of accepting Danny as an intern. Step one of Wayne Adoption.”

Sam’s eyes lit up with evil glee.

“Oh he’d do his fucking nut if you cozied up to someone richer than him, Danny,” she gasped, hands bouncing on her lap.

Danny hesitated for a moment, glancing over at Jason. Who was looking back, gears clearly turning. Seeing that he had Danny’s eye, he leaned in quickly.

“Vlad Masters would be Vlad Plasmius, yes?” He asked in a low voice. He’d scanned the database more than read in detail, but he knew the basics.

One very important basic.

Vlad was the other halfa.

And Vlad could sense other halfas. For a hot second Danny very nearly took off out of the room, ready to go find and kick Vlad’s ass and keep him far, far away from Jason.

He didn’t realise he’d clenched his fists until one of them was held in a large, hot hand. Slowly, shakily he uncurled them, checking for blood in the deep half moon crevices now dug in his palms.

Nothing. He was fine.

“Danny?” Jason asked softly, and Danny looked up to his face. There was something in his eyes, something familiar in the way they flashed a deep, sudden green when their eyes met.

Yeah, Jason’s Obsession was fucking definitely Protection, at least in part. Danny clasped his hand quickly, half worried Jason was gonna do just what he’d had to try so hard not to.

Would it have been that bad if Jason was just his friend, not his knight?

There was no way to know anymore.

Covering Jason’s hands in both of his, he gave Jason the best smile he could.

“I’m fine. But yeah, that’s him. And we… should probably also have a private word.” Because there was this sudden, very nasty little temptation curling through him.

“Would this private word have anything to do with Jason almost going full feral?” Dick asked with a studied innocence that had at least a master’s degree.

Which was when Danny noticed that the rest were all staring at them. At their clasped hands. At Jason’s still a little too green eyes.

**

Jason grimaced, fully aware of what they must have seen. He tamped the green down firmly, pushing against the wave of protect-protect-PROTECT the pit was damn near screaming inside him.

Wasn’t entirely sure it was only the pit.

Watching Danny tense up like that, clearly in the throes of fight or flight, pulled at something primal inside him.

Jason didn’t know who Vlad Masters was, what he looked like, what he was doing, but he was fully willing to throw him out of the building by the neck if Danny would relax even a little.

He threatens my king, something growled in the back of his mind and Jason’s hands jerked.

That was fucking new. And not fucking welcome.

He looked to Dick instead, giving him a strained smile. It was the best he could do right now.

“Yeah,” he admitted, not fully comfortable with how strained his voice sounded. How tight his throat felt.

Had the pit tried to use his mouth? Make him speak?

Just the thought made him want to puke, but he pushed that down too. He had shit to do today, and the pit wasn’t gonna ruin it.

“I told you he was helping me with the pit,” he added when Dick still looked calculatedly calm. Definitely not about to tackle him to the ground if he moved too suddenly.

Fuck Jason hoped Dick never tried. When they fought for fun, for training, sure Dick could hand him his ass six ways from Sunday. But when the green took over…

He didn’t want to hurt his brother. None of his brothers, ever again.

Except maybe a little bit psychologically.

“Fenton’s eyes changed too,” Damian said sharply, and oooh absolutely nothing in Jason liked that accusatory tone.

Not about Danny. Not about his king.

His head snapped around to glare at the youngest and knew his eyes had gone green again from the way the others recoiled. All but Sam and Danny. And Damian, suicidal little gremlin.

All but Cass, who slipped herself carefully but immovably back into his lap, hooking her feet into the backs of his knees and hands on his cheeks. Pinning him in place.

Making him look at her, not Damian.

She studied his expression intensely, her eyes saying more than even Dick could manage.

And there was a hand in his again, gently soothing across his fingers until his knuckles opened, and Cass let him look away to Danny. Doing just what Jason had done less than a minute ago.

Danny didn’t have to tell his secrets to anyone he didn’t want to. Not now, not the first time they met, not before he trusted them.

Anger-protect-not their business

And Danny smiled back, all gentle and soft, and Jason settled back, relaxing muscles he hadn’t noticed tensing.

Reassurance-calm-safe safe safe-trust

If Jason trusted them, Danny would too. And if that didn’t sting something right in his chest.

Danny cleared his throat, turning back to the rest of the room and giving them a slightly tighter smile.

“Yeah. I. Uh… I was exposed to the Lazarus pits? About a year before Jason was. So I know what it’s like when it gets too strong.”

Half truths at best, but close enough to be believed. To make sense.

Close enough that no one except Damian, tactless boy wonder, would ever ask.

“Only the dying can survive exposure to the pits,” the boy snapped, eyes sharp as he studied Danny in a new light.

Jason’s hands nearly clenched again, but this time Danny’s was in the way. Protecting Danny meant not crushing Danny’s hand.

Good loophole.

“The dying and the dead,” Danny agreed placidly, calm just barely tinted by amusement.

Jason closed his eyes, let himself focus on breathing in Danny’s aura.

Was that a hint of trouble-fun-plans plans mayhem?

Damian squinted at Danny for another long moment, then nodded sharply and sat back. Steph punched him.

“Damian, you can’t just go asking people if they’ve died,” she hissed in a comically loud whisper.

“It was relevant to the conversation!” Damian insisted, immediately sitting back up to defend his honour. Steph tweaked his nose and he properly growled, gearing up to tackle her.

“It was rude, Dami,” Dick coaxed gently, coming from the windowsill to the couch to scoop Damian into his arms.

The only one of them who could have done it and survived. Damian glowered up at him too, then folded his arms and scowled at the floor.

Dire retributions would surely be incoming.

“Hey, it’s cool,” Danny caused, grinning along with the others now that the tension had broken. “He just wanted to know I’m not gonna hurt Jason, right?”

All eyes turned back to Damian, who squinted suspiciously at Danny again. Jason was ready for the flare of protectiveness this time.

Danny was fine. He could handle the demon brat, even if Dick didn’t have him in hand already.

Jason didn’t want to hurt his brother.

Which caused a different, confusing flare of protectiveness because what he needed to protect Damian from was himself, and the self same flares.

He stifled a chuckle that would probably only make things worse.

Finally Damian huffed, turning away into Dick’s arms.

“Tt. Ridiculous. I only wished to be sure you spoke the truth,” he snapped, and the room resettled.

Danny raised both hands, grinning, and Cass shuffled to rest her ear over Jason’s heart.

“Okay?” She asked softly, moving her feet from his pressure points. Jason brought his other arm up and around her, squeezing gently.

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks,” he replied just as quietly, resting his cheek in her hair.

“Well, this does also kinda simplify things,” Danny added with a chuckle, leaning back against the couch. “I can just tell all of you; Vlad’s also been ecto…. Pit contaminated. And we can sense each other, so he’s going to know Jason is too.”

That geared the bats back up, all turning back to stare at Danny. Who grinned utterly wickedly.

“So Vladdie gets to be on the rare and extremely valued double fuckery list.”

“Is he gonna try and do anything to Jason?” Steph asked sharply, posture tensing towards the door like it might open at any second.

Tucker shrugged, moving back to lean against the couch next to Danny’s legs. He’d wisely made himself scarce when there was a chance either halfa would make a break for it.

“Like Danny said, Vlad probably won’t try anything if he knows we’re around? He can’t do his mind control on Danny so he’s gotta keep it in his pants, even if he’d rather not.”

Sam brightened, catching on to where the boys were going.

“But because Vlad is like… Obsessed with Danny for being like him, there’s a chance he’ll wanna try and adopt Jason too,” she said slowly, her smile becoming full and wicked.

“And since we’re already planning to have me and Jason caught in some indelicate way to upset the Mansons,” Danny added, utterly self satisfied, “we can fry his brain thinking he can only adopt one of us.”

“And that’s after we make him play Find The Real Danny,” Tucker jumped in, grinning broadly, “because it’s not specific enough to track a single person in a busy room. Do you guys do accents?”

Tim and Dick exchanged glances and shrugged.

“Yours wouldn’t be hard,” Tim pointed out, a smirk pulling across his own face as he nodded to Danny.

“I’d like to know why we’re also fucking with the Mansons though?” Dick asked, raising an eyebrow at Sam. Who shrugged.

“They refused to let me bring my girlfriend as a plus one. So we’re gonna ruin me for men and make them think twice next time.”

“Wait, so you’re not dating Danny?” Steph asked, proving she had been hovering during their little meet and greet.

None of the Amity Parkers seemed surprised. Not by her listening in, anyway.

Danny flushed cherry red, Tucker burst out laughing, and Sam smirked.

“Not since high school,” she said casually. Danny groped around for a throwable pillow but came up short.

For some reason, Jason felt absolutely no need to protect his king from some righteous bullying. Another fun loophole.

Must be the lack of potential stabbing.

Dick grinned suddenly, now leaning on the other arm of the couch from Tim.

“Okay, but we definitely don’t tell this part to Bruce,” he said eagerly, beckoning all the others closer. “If Jason’s job is to flirt with Sam and defile Danny, we were also here to meet Danny as Jason’s boyfriend.”

“Let Bruce think Danny’s leading you both on!” Steph finished, clapping her hands and cackling. “Oh it’s perfect!”

Sam cackled along with her, turning a much warmer smile on the other girl.

“Oh, my parents would love to trash talk Danny to him too, they’ve probably already hurried off to let him know I’m “eligible”,” she agreed with the most sarcastic air quotes Jason had ever seen.

Steph lurched immediately to her feet.

“We’re gonna miss it! Okay, so our first task is to make sure Vlad knows Danny is here, right? So he knows not to try anything on Bruce,” she added to confirm, looking between the Amity Parkers.

Danny frowned thoughtfully, touching his lower lip. Jason tried not to focus on it.

“He should know as soon as we get within proximity of each other… so probably once we’re both in the big room?”

Steph nodded sharply, turning to point to Tim.

“We need to know what he looks like. Can you get us a picture?”

Tim nodded, already tapping at his phone and rising along with Steph, the fire of planning in his eyes.

“On it. Sam and Jason need to be seen to be flirting, but Danny doesn’t have to be with them. Dick and I can wander through the crowd, keeping an eye out for Masters but keeping our faces turned away. Cass, can you help with that?”

Cass gave a thumbs up, sitting straighter and resting her head on Jason’s shoulder instead.

“Yes. Can be Dick’s eyes, signal you both.”

Tim typed a moment longer, then lowered his phone and wheeled, turning to point to Damian.

“And you should all have the photo… now. Damian, if you can get as close to Masters as you can, you can signal us too if he gets too close to Bruce or us.”

Damian nodded and glanced down at his phone, all ruffled feathers smoothing as he tucked it away and straightened his suit.

“I shall watch him for any suspicious moves. I can also run interference if he approaches Father.”

Steph nodded happily and clapped her hands, pointing both at Tucker.

“And you can join me in spying on the Mansons and recording them if they talk to Bruce, for the rest of us to enjoy later!” She declared triumphantly.

Tucker shot to his feet, grinning broadly.

“Yeah! And if they catch us we can tell them Jason and Sam are doing something, or ask if they’ve seen Danny,” he agreed, bouncing on his toes. He stuck a hand out in front of him. “Ready?”

Steph slapped her palm down on the back of his hand.

“Ready!”

The room now filled with purpose, everyone came to join Tucker, sticking their hands in in a circle, even as Damian complained about “ridiculous social rituals”.

No one else seemed to mind, tossing their hands into the air as they all whispered “BREAK!”, not wanting to be heard from the hallway.

As the room emptied, Danny hung back, catching Jason’s eye.

“So I know you’re probably not ready to talk about this,” he said softly as Sam lingered in the doorway, her back conspicuously to them, “but I just need to ask you if there was electricity involved when you died.”

Jason felt his whole body tense, less than pleasant memories rushing to the fore. Broken bones. A blade in his leg. Explosion.

No electricity.

He could see the strain on Danny’s face as his mind cleared, and shook his head.

“No. Why?” He asked warily, suddenly very concerned.

Danny made a face that did precisely nothing to lessen it, looking away.

“Because there was when I died, and Vlad knows it. And he… he can control electricity. But you’ll be fine, well, other than the usual “oh no a bad guy is shooting me with electricity”, right?”

Danny was babbling now, clearly trying to distract himself, but all Jason could see was pure, pulsing green. Before he knew he’d moved he had an arm wrapped firmly around slender shoulders, crushing Danny to his chest.

He didn’t need to be told that reminders of a ghost’s death wounds could be debilitating. He’d have known without the database. Without the catch in Danny’s voice.

“If he ever lays a fucking finger on you again I’ll fucking kill him,” he growled, his voice coming out almost as low as his helmet modulator.

Danny stiffened for just a moment in his grasp, then relaxed against him.

“I mean, I can handle myself,” he protested weakly, voice somewhat muffled in Jason’s jacket, “but I’m not gonna fight you on that one, Jay.”

It soothed something inside him, something hot in the center of his chest that burned at just the thought of anyone hurting the man in his arms.

Attacking him. Using the pain and trauma of his death against him. Attacking his king.

A gentle hand soothed up and down his spine.

Safe-protected-I’m okay-safe

It took a minute before Jason could bring himself to let go, smiling sheepishly down at Danny.

“Sorry. Guess I’m… uh, not used to dealing with anything other than rage from the pit,” he explained weakly.

It felt stupid, comparing something as soft as the urge to protect to those bloodthirsty rampages. That didn’t make it any less true.

Danny shrugged, rolling out his shoulders and grinning up at him.

“Hey, like I said. Shoulda seen me when I first changed. Anyway, shall we go make Vlad’s night a living hell?” He asked wickedly, a cheeky smile on his face.

Jason nodded and made for the door, giving Sam a small smile of appreciation. She looked between the two of them and snickered.

“Yeah, rumpling you both up in a closet’s gonna be easy breezy,” she said lazily, pushing the door open again. “You should trade ties.”

Danny’s hand flew to his throat and he chuckled softly, then shook both of his hands out.

“Okay… time to go make sure Vladdie knows I’m around,” he sighed, cracking his neck. Like he was limbering up for a fight?

Jason cocked a brow, taking Sam’s arm.

“What are you gonna do?” He asked as they moved out into the hall, back towards the ballroom.

Danny shot him a quick grin.

“Expand my aura to cover the whole room. He’ll know I’m flexing, and he won’t be able to miss it. Should help confuse him about Tim and Dick too, since the whole place is gonna feel like me,” he added, and Jason grinned.

Alright, that was gonna be a useful trick. Time to see that famous Ghost King aura put to the test.

He wasn’t really expecting to feel a change really. He was close enough that Danny’s aura was still brushing gently over his, soothing the pit that he was right there.

Ready and close if Jason needed to protect him.

And then Danny’s brows furrowed for a moment, he flexed his shoulders back, and Jason was surrounded in pulsing waves of DANNY-DANNY-DANNY.

He didn’t know he’d stumbled until Sam caught him, her hand small on his chest right over the thudding pulse of his heart.

He barely felt her touch. All he could see, all he could hear, all he could feel was the raw power surging out of the man beside him.

Feeling Frostbite in the Far Frozen had been overwhelming. This… this rewrote the beat of his heart, crawled with his breath into his lungs, curled around every deep and intimate part of himself.

It made him feel tiny and delicate, swept up and held off his feet by Danny’s sheer presence. Crowded and pushed up against the wall, held in place, and Danny wasn’t even fucking trying.

Everything was right in the world. His King was here. The pit fucking sang in his veins.

Aaaand Jason hadn’t been this hard in dress pants since he’d been an excitable teenager who couldn’t help it. Eyes closing, he swayed back against the hallway wall.

He could just barely feel Sam’s hand still on his chest, a grounding point as he sucked in deep breaths. Heard her snicker as the ringing in his ears began to die down.

“You’re getting better at that, Danny,” she noted, and Jason hissed.

This could have been worse? More? How?

And then Danny’s hand was at his shoulder too and he didn’t need to open his eyes to know it. Knew the touch, the feel, the way the pit surged warmth to the spot.

Heard Danny’s soft voice as though it were being broadcast straight into his head.

“Hey, you okay?” He asked quietly, and Jason honestly wasn’t sure.

Think about Bruce’s old underwear commercials. Jane Austen novels. Alfred’s expression if Jason ruined his good pants this fucking early into a party.

Later, maybe, it’d give a flare of authenticity but Danny almost certainly wouldn’t be down.

Danny. There was someone here who wanted to hurt Danny.

Jason’s eyes snapped open and he sucked in another deep breath. It was still redolent of Danny’s aura, still cupping him on every side, but he had a purpose now. A job to do.

He managed a slightly strained smile.

“‘M fine. It’s just a shock.” He cleared his throat, reaching down to tug at the front of his trousers as subtly as he could. “Is, uh… is it always like that?”

Danny looked confused for a moment, still concerned, but it was easier to miss the pulsing beat of his emotions now. Easier to focus.

He’d protect Danny’s feelings too, but he couldn’t do that if he was overwhelmed.

Who knew he’d be this into feeling like he was drowning in someone?

Finally Danny shrugged, glancing out towards the ballroom.

“I wouldn’t know… it doesn’t feel all that different to me. Just like everyone in the room is now inside my personal space,” he added, pulling a face.

Jason stared at him for a long moment, wondering how the hell he was going to ask. If he even wanted to mention the effects it had had - was still having, cleaning guns, Alfred in lace, Vlad was still here.

Nope.

Just. Nope. Not opening that can of worms today.

If Danny didn’t know that just feeling him all around him like that was gonna send Jason to horny jail, Jason was just never gonna tell him. And if Vlad had an even similar reaction, Jason would double kick his ass.

Hauling himself away from the wall, Jason cleared his throat again and fixed his jacket.

“Alright… I’m good. Shall we?” He asked Sam, offering her his arm this time. She gave him a quick up and down, raised a brow, but didn’t comment.

“Sure you are,” she chuckled softly, taking his arm with a reluctant half smile, turning back to Danny. “Are you gonna stick close, or do you wanna recon Vlad?”

Danny considered it for a moment, moving with them as they returned to the hall. Then he shrugged.

“I might go take a peek, but if I see your parents I’ll third wheel back on over. You guys should go mosey,” he added, waving a hand quickly.

Jason nodded, tucking Sam closer, turned back to the room, and… froze. Sam, utterly unaffected, made it a couple steps forward before she noticed and turned back, frowning.

“Hey, what’s up?” She asked in a low whisper, eyes flicking around them.

Good fucking question.

Jason closed his eyes, sucking in a slow breath and trying to work out what had shot down his spine like cold water. Brows furrowed, he tried to will his feet to move.

Took a step backwards and opened his eyes again, frowning back at Sam.

“Alright, I didn’t mean to do that,” he hissed, head turning automatically… to where Danny had taken a couple of steps away.

Green surged below his skin, asking what the fuck he thought he was doing. Abandoning his post. Leaving his king.

There was someone here who’d hurt him, who’d used his fucking death against him, and Jason was gonna what? Not be close enough to break his fingers for thinking it?

Eyes closed for a moment, Jason weighed the odds he could just push this down and keep going. Felt Sam tuck closer. They did have a whole ass plan…

Felt a sudden wash of concern-what’s wrong-protect from the surrounding warmth of Danny.

And sighed, shaking his head, pulling Sam with him after Danny. With each step the green sung, a deep satisfaction not his own rising inside.

He gave Danny a sheepish smile and a shrug.

“I don’t think I can leave you alone. Not if he’s here,” he added a little more quietly, well aware they were being watched once again.

Confusion flashed across Danny’s face for a moment, then he groaned and slapped himself in the forehead.

“Fucking Clockwork… alright, we stick together. Tim and Dick will have plenty of fun with Vlad anyway,” he said, grin slowly spreading again as he tucked himself in to Sam’s other side.

“And we can have more fun with my parents,” Sam pointed out innocently, scanning the crowd around them. Shot them both a sidelong glance each, half smirking. “And I get two lots of cute arm candy.”

Danny and Jason turned automatically to look each other over, Jason’s grin broadening as Danny’s cheeks flushed.

Dick had said he looked a treat in this suit. Must have been right about something.

Suddenly Danny’s aura was all very studious and concentrated nothing to see here.

Jason bit the inside of his lip to keep from laughing, letting his eyes trail a little slower over his king’s frame.

Wherever Danny had gotten his suit from, they knew a thing or two about tailoring. It fit him well, emphasising the lean lines of his legs and torso. Didn’t quite square off his shoulders.

Jason still hadn’t had much practice with projecting his own emotions back, but he had the feeling his… appreciation got through when Danny’s blush darkened.

Grinning down at Sam, Jason patted her hand.

“Only if my code name’s Gummy Bear.”

A startled laugh from Danny was the reaction he’d been going for. Sam’s sudden, utterly wicked smile was a lot more concerning.

“Alright. Danny’s is gonna be Jawbreaker,” she decided, her gaze darting briefly down to Jason’s lips as she smirked.

Jason looked away quickly, his own cheeks uncomfortably warm as Danny choked.

***

Vlad Masters smiled to himself as he moved through the crowd, a shark among minnows. Their vacuous chatter was a soothing background noise; practically already the emptying of their pocket books.

Oh, he didn’t like to come to Gotham, not with that Bat that flapped around. The Bat didn’t like metas, or people who could do just a little more than curl up and die.

But, well, this had been an opportunity just too sweet to pass up.

He could dip his toes in Daniel’s new haunt, remind the boy that he’d never be too far away if he needed him. He could get a look at this son of Bruce Wayne’s, that had died and come back.

And just maybe he’d get a claw into Wayne Enterprises, and get a look at some of their latest technology for his own… uses.

Yes, Vlad was feeling productive just being here, even if he did have to keep his ghostly abilities on lock.

He drifted through the crowd, joining conversations, sniffing out weaknesses, moving on. Oh, some of these wealthy types thought they were hunters too, he could see it in their eyes.

He’d made his fortune by taking from those types of men and letting them see what true power looked like. It was much more satisfying to break a man who thought he was unbreakable.

Bruce Wayne wasn’t one of that type, but he had something that Vlad wanted. Still, the man seemed vacuous enough, all laughing and drink and flirting.

He’d handed control of his company to his teenaged son (and oh Vlad was a little jealous of him for thinking of that move… if only Daniel was more… pliable).

But Vlad could see himself letting Brucie keep at least some of his assets. The man was entertaining, and it’d show Daniel he’d listened.

He could change. In ways that weren’t too… inconvenient for him.

And then he’d have a shield in Gotham, and Wayne could deal with that meddlesome Bat, and he could pay Daniel a visit.

He’d just caught sight of his true quarry, standing in a small circle of fawning admirers when the felt the Presence flood the room.

It sent a shiver up his spine and he locked his knees, refusing to let any weakness show as the air filled with the heavy static of Daniel.

So the boy was here? Interesting. He’d have a chance to see his Little Badger even before he left the party.

He had seen the Mansons on the guest list and he had to wonder if the lad had finally gotten closer to his little goth friend. Close enough to be a plus one?

The elder Mansons would surely hate that, and make that hatred known. Unless Vlad were to… step in. Save the boy from their judgemental stares.

Remind them that Daniel may not be from a wealthy family, but he was still connected to the Masters name.

Yes, this was wonderfully good news and Vlad felt almost chipper, a spring in his step as he advanced on Wayne. Oh, the boy was flaring off, showing Vlad he had some power too, but Vlad wasn’t here to fight.

All he needed was to set up one simple meeting between himself and Wayne, and then all of tonight could be for his Little Badger. Imagine, Vlad Masters having the chance to play the hero.

He was most definitely looking forward to it. And ah yes, here they were, the Mansons already at Bruce Wayne’s elbow, chattering away.

Everything really was coming up Vlad.

**

Bruce had met the Mansons before of course, at other charity events across the country. They were… well, pretty much exactly the type of nouveau riche he kept his children away from at all costs.

Never impolitely, of course. Never letting on how their false smiles and honeyed lies made his gut squirm in distaste. He was always cordial, and could safely rely on the effect his smile had on both of the couple.

But they weren’t what you’d call close, even in gala circles, so it was something of a surprise when they sought him out.

“Ah, Brucie! There you are, good to see you,” the husband, Jeremy, called jovially as they approached, clapping him on the back.

Bruce gave them one of his better Brucie smiles, returning the gesture with a calculated firmness.

“Jeremy! Wonderful to see you,” he greeted them both exuberantly, eyes discretely scanning both to try and work out what they wanted. They always wanted something.

The wife, Pamela his mental rolodex said, simpered up at him, clutching at her husband’s arm.

“Of course we were simply delighted to hear that your son was found, we couldn’t possibly miss the party!” She gushed, letting her hand flutter over his. “You know, our Samantha is about the same age.”

Ah.

Well, that was a first. For Jason, anyway; Tim and Damian both had plenty of parents hopefully thrusting their children his way. Even Dick was subject to occasional propositions.

Jason had barely been his long enough to be considered eligible when he’d… well.

Bruce would mention it to Dick later, so his eldest could tease Jason about this latest milestone. Best not broach the subject himself.

He cranked the wattage on his smile down a little, looking carefully behind the couple.

“Yes, I believe I’ve met Samantha before,” he said genially, mind scanning through his gala notes.

Samantha Manson. Usually seen in elaborate pink and frilly gowns, always seen utterly despising them. Quiet, rebellious eyes.

At least Jason might find someone tolerable to talk to.

“Is she here tonight?” He finished, like he hadn’t personally memorised the guest list.

Pamela and Jeremy Manson. Samantha Manson. And plus one.

Plus one? Clearly someone the parents found less agreeable than Jason, and Bruce couldn’t help feeling sorry for the poor kid.

Jeremy was already nodding cheerfully, a sparkle in those eyes that put Bruce on edge.

“Oh yes, she’s off talking to your boy right now in fact,” he said with a very self satisfied chuckle, shooting Bruce a knowing look. “I think they quite hit it off.”

“Poor Jason was just telling us how few friends he has his own age, and of course Samantha would much prefer his company than being stuck with her parents,” Pamela trilled, giving Bruce a knowing look of her own, about three shades smuttier than her husband’s.

He could very, very easily believe that, even with as little time as he’d spent with the elder Mansons. Still, best not let them get their hopes up.

“How lovely! I’m sure Jason will keep her well entertained, he has his own plus one for the evening and he does thrive with an audience.”

He’d been expecting them to dim a little at the mention of a plus one, and if not maybe to delicately hint that the current partner was male.

Bruce might not personally know how serious Jason was in this new relationship, but he’d have his son’s back against any of the gala harpies.

He was not expecting them both to beam even brighter.

“Why, that’s the best thing!” Pamela beamed, clapping her hands. “His plus one, Tucker Foley, is Samantha’s very best friend! They’ve been close since high school, very close,” she added proudly, like she’d curated the friendship herself.

Bruce was beginning to think he’d have to mention he knew Samantha also had a plus one when Jeremy nodded happily.

“And of course Samantha brought along her other friend, Daniel from home too, so we were quite concerned the boys might run off together and leave our little girl on her lonesome, but your Jason really took a shine to her!”

Something sharpened in Bruce’s spine, catching at his attention.

“Daniel?” He asked, innocently as he could, and spotted Steph and a young Black man heading their way. Certainly she’d hang back to get more information. “Would I know him?”

Pamela’s face scrunched for a moment before smoothing back into a perfect, empty smile.

“Oh, I very much doubt it. The boy is from a rather disreputable family I’m afraid, very bad influences, but our Samantha has never shied from offering her hand in friendship.”

Bruce took a moment to compare this sentence to the young woman he remembered, barely covering seething resentment under a very similar empty smile.

Friendship. Yes, he could see her offering that to literally anyone her parents disapproved of.

But if this was the same “Danny” Jason was getting involved with, it was his fatherly duty to learn what he could.

He schooled his face to his best politely interested morbid fascination.

“Oh? Please tell me more.”

**

Steph and Tucker sped up as they caught sight of Bruce, Steph leaning in to whisper,

“Are those the Mansons talking to him?”

Tucker nodded, slipping around to the other side of her for partial cover.

“Yeah, that’s them… wonder what they’re saying, he looks so concerned,” he whispered back, and Steph snickered.

“That’s his “your problems are so fascinating tell me everything” face,” she explained quietly, turning to plant her back to the nearest small table.

This one held a small crystal sculpture that was probably supposed to symbolize something, but she wasn’t gonna look twice. Instead she slipped her phone out of a discrete pocket and hit record.

Tucker took a moment to admire the new tech, leaning around her with an intrigued smile.

“Oh, is that the new WayneTech phone? Can I see?” He asked, brightening up.

Steph grinned and shook her head, carefully angling it to point at Bruce and the Mansons without making it look intentional.

“Not the newest release, but the one before. Tim lost a bet so he had to give me some free upgrades,” she added when Tucker looked confused.

“But aren’t you one of the Waynes? Why would you be a release behind?” He sounded honestly dumbfounded and Steph hid a snicker.

He sounded like Tim every time she turned down one of Bruce’s toys.

“I’m really just a family friend, and I don’t wanna have to get a whole new phone every time Tim or his nerd team has a new idea. You can look later, I wanna catch what they’re saying,” she hissed and he reluctantly quieted, still looking at her like she was crazy.

Yeah.

Tim 2.0. She was gonna have to text Connor later.

Tuck pulled his PDA out and she half expected him to start recording too, but instead he pulled up a handy decoy screen so he could pretend to be showing her something.

And…

Tapped into the video currently being recorded on her phone. She raised a brow and he grinned back, tapping a few buttons and boosting the volume.

“There are some advantages to upgrading your tech,” he said smugly and pulled out a pair of earbuds, offering her one.

They pulled them out about five minutes later.

Steph clapped her hand over her mouth, fighting down giggles as she dropped the earbud into Tucker’s hand.

“Holy fucking shit to people still actually talk like that?” She hissed between her teeth. Tucker, also fighting laughter, stuffed the headphones back into a pocket.

“Yeah, honestly? My mom loves Saturday morning soaps and even she’d call that overplayed,” he snickered, shaking her head.

“You’d think Danny ate their fucking cat, what the hell happened there?” Steph asked, lips pressing tightly shut on another laugh as she made awkward eye contact with some passing guests.

“Honestly? Nothing, they just don’t like his parents, and that makes Danny a “hoodlum”,” Tucker rolled his eyes and grinned, flipping his PDA to a different channel, and then suddenly flipping back. “Aaaaand shit, that’s Vlad. This is gonna be good.”

Steph pulled the PDA quickly from his hands as he lunged back into a pocket.

“Quick, get them back, there is no way I’m missing this!”

**

Vlad couldn’t say he was honestly surprised to walk in on the Mansons telling some outlandish story that was almost all sly innuendo. It was why Pamela came to these parties after all.

What was surprising was the way Wayne’s face grew more and more serious as she spoke, painting a picture of Daniel as some kind of delinquent thug.

Which, to be fair, wasn’t an entirely inaccurate picture of the boy on his worse days, but hardly represented his best.

And if he reached into just a hint of ghostly stealth to come up behind her, well, watching Pamela Manson startle as he cut in with a well placed greeting was more than worth it.

“My, that does sound like a fascinating story Pamela! And you say this was young Daniel?” He asked, watching with satisfaction as both Mansons spun to stare.

“Brucie” gave him a sharp, almost assessing look too, much more thoughtful than he usually bothered with. Interesting.

Pamela brightened when she recognized him, beckoning him in.

“Oh, yes! Vlad, do join us, I was just telling Brucie here about some of those silly ghost adventures Daniel would pull Samantha into in high school!” She clearly expected him to join in.

Ah, but today Vlad’s role was to be Daniel’s hero, not Phantom’s nemesis. And maybe to see just what had managed to rub two brain cells together in Wayne’s famously amicable head.

He gave her a fond smile, nodding in greeting to the men and taking his place in their circle.

“Why, Pamela, I do hope you’re not disparaging my godson before Mr Wayne even has a chance to say hello?” It was a calculated guess, but honestly.

However Daniel got into this party (and he would put money on his dear goth friend Sam herself), he wouldn’t be introduced to the man holding the purse strings.

From the corner of his eye he also caught a very familiar red beret, and his brow quirked slightly.

Daniel, Sam, and Tucker Foley, all in one place. They must have heard he’d be coming.

How… adorable.

His smile spread as Pamela’s faded, even as Brucie turned to offer him a hand and a warm smile.

“Mr Masters, yes? I believe we’ve met at a few of these before,” the man said, all charm and sunshine.

Vlad shook the offered hand firmly, resisting the urge to just poke directly into his mind.

Tucker was listening. Best give him something interesting to report.

“Yes, I wasn’t aware you knew the Mansons too? One of our finest families in Amity Park,” he purred, giving them both an almost predatory smile.

Jeremy puffed up under it like it was actual praise, but Pamela was still watching him curiously.

“Oh yes, we’re going to be quite close,” she said airily, giving Brucie a secretive smile.

The man didn’t quite return it, the same friendly, open smile not changing in the slightest.

More interesting still.

“And perhaps you and I will be getting closer too, Vlad. Can I call you Vlad?” He asked, and Vlad’s smile widened.

“Of course. Is there something I should know?” He asked, half teasing.

Brucie’s expression flickered almost too fast to see. Something like actual thought under that big soft smile.

“It seems that my son Jason has been spending time with young Samantha and Daniel,” he explained, still sounding just the same cheery fool.

Vlad’s smile widened further, and he took a moment to reign himself in. It wouldn’t do for him to stretch too far. It could make people nervous.

“Oh, how wonderful!” He exclaimed happily, rubbing his hands together. “I was hoping to congratulate him personally on his return, it is quite a rare feat!”

And if Daniel was sniffing around him, that added credence to the rumours that the boy really had died. And possibly changed.

Now, if he could just speak to the young Jason alone, see how easily he could be swayed… if the boys were already friends, perhaps he could even plead Vlad’s case to Daniel directly.

Brucie gave him a dazzling smile, gesturing to Pamela jovially.

“Well, I certainly hope so! From Mrs Manson’s stories I was beginning to worry that Jason might be falling into some rough company.”

Vlad gave the woman a smile that would have chilled if he’d had Daniel’s ice core, but instead crackled with his own electricity.

“Oh, young Daniel may be a bit rough around the edges, but there’s no more loyal boy anywhere in the country,” he assured Wayne smoothly, and noted Tucker and the blonde girl he was with breaking away.

Off to report to Daniel, then. Good.

“Really, you can judge best when you meet him yourself,” Vlad all but purred, watching them go, “after all, you yourself know all about taking young men from rough circumstances and polishing them to a shine.”

Brucie’s smile was all proud paternal joy as he looked out across the room, and for a moment Vlad wondered how many of his interminable brood had actually come.

A young man was very suddenly at Brucie’s side and even the man himself seemed to startle, but his smile only grew as he clapped the boy on the shoulder.

“And here’s one of them now! Mr and Mrs Manson, Vlad, this is my youngest son Damian.”

The boy certainly had Bruce’s jawline, and the same wide eyes the press so loved, even if the eyes themselves were green. Any other similarities would be hard to spot as the boy fixed Vlad with a glare that could have been Daniel’s.

“Good evening,” he said curtly, and Vlad pressed his lips together to keep from chuckling.

“Why, such a stern young man!” Pamela cooed beside him, bending down to give her sweetest smile to the boy. Wilting just a little when he turned the glare on her.

Brucie’s hand tightened momentarily on the boy’s shoulder and his expression immediately smoothed out.

“I’m sure he’d much rather be off with his friends, but he was good enough to come tonight and support his brother,” Brucie explained cheerfully, giving Damian a proud smile.

“Wonderful to see young people who understand the importance of family,” Vlad nodded, keeping half an eye on the boy as he spoke. His eyes had narrowed just a little, probably looking for a patronizing tone.

At these kinds of parties, it’d likely be all he heard.

Still, Vlad settled in to make some idle small talk, whiling away the time until dinner. No serious business would be discussed until after the meal after all.

Perhaps he could persuade Brucie to introduce him to Jason.

**

It was Steph who zeroed in on Jason’s flash of white hair first, but Tucker who crashed almost directly into Danny and hissed the news.

“Vlad’s here and he’s complimenting you!”

Danny stumbled back to catch them both, staring in bewilderment.

“He’s fucking what?” He asked incredulously. Tucker nodded quickly, grabbing his elbows.

“Seriously, he basically told the Mansons to fuck off for badmouthing you,” he hissed, and now Sam was intrigued too.

“Vlad? Our Vlad? “Phantom is the greatest threat our city has ever known” Vlad?” She asked.

Danny elbowed her sharply and she rolled her eyes, but Steph definitely noted it down to ask later. Tucker nodded again, faster than before.

“Right? He’s definitely up to something.”

“Could be his new plan to win you over,” Steph added, closing the rest of the distance to tuck herself into the group.

Danny paused for a moment then grimaced and shook his head.

“Nah, it’s never that simple with Vlad. He knows I’m not gonna just hear some kind words and fall into his arms.”

Sam rolled her eyes, turning and firmly piloting their new cluster to one of the windows, out of the way of the less nosy eyes.

“Danny, it’s Vlad. He’s still convinced your mom just needs to be alone with him for five minutes to fall head over heels, no matter how many times she karate chops him.”

Which, yes, Steph was adding that to the questions list too, a smile tugging at her lips. She cut them off anyway, making pointed eye contact with Jason.

“Not that this doesn’t already sound fun, but I’m also pretty sure I just saw Selina Kyle,” she told him sweetly, and had the joy of watching him actually blue screen.

Just. Stared into space for fifteen seconds.

Then sighed and scrubbed both hands down his face.

“Of fucking course she is. Why not? Does anyone wanna call the Joker, see if he wants to join too?” He asked sarcastically, tossing both hands into the air.

Steph snickered and rose on her tiptoes to ruffle his hair, ignoring the confusion of their new friends.

“Hey, look at it this way. She’ll keep Bruce off your ass,” she offered cheerfully and Jason groaned louder, giving the window a speculative look like he was considering jumping out of it.

Tempting.

Sam leaned in, giving them both a sharp look.

“Who’s Selina Kyle?” She asked bluntly, and Steph paused for just a moment, wondering how best to put it.

How to describe the fucking disaster that was Batman and Catwoman to someone who couldn’t know either of their identities. Ah, yes, she knew.

“Bruce’s kleptomaniac ex-and-sometimes-current girlfriend. Every single conversation they have is riddled with innuendo and pussy jokes that she makes, and she’s been around since Jason was knee high.”

“So she’s got stories?” Tucker asked, eyes brightening as she twigged.

Jason turned and pointed his most menacing finger at him.

“She does not have fucking stories and you do not want to talk to her, she’ll steal the filings from your teeth,” he warned sharply.

Danny’s lips moved soundlessly for a moment and then suddenly the most wicked glee Steph had ever seen from anyone not a sibling lit his face.

“Jason… she has pixie boot stories, doesn’t she?” He asked in a low hiss, and Steph’s brows shot straight to her hairline.

Jason had only ever willingly worn pixie boots for one reason. Guess things with Danny were serious serious.

So how much had Jason told him?

From the way he was now glaring warningly at Danny, and Sam was rounding on Jason with intrigue, glee, and a complete lack of understanding, it was just Danny for now.

“We’re not talking to or about Selina,” he hissed, crowding up into Danny’s space and ooooh Steph wasn’t too worried about their mutual secret to miss that cute little blush on Danny’s cheeks.

Which also didn’t stop the man himself from grinning up at Jason, even if he did have to crane his neck back to do it.

“Does she have pictures?” He asked with a genuinely wicked glee that Steph just adored.

“Pictures of you in pixie boots?” Sam cut in, crowding up to Jason’s other side.

And now Jason’s cheeks were flushing red.

“They were in fashion at the time!” He defended weakly, and Steph had to laugh at that.

“Yeah, them and mullets,” she cackled and Jason shot her a scowl too.

“Weren’t you guys supposed to be keeping an eye on someone?” He asked sharply, changing the subject like that had ever worked.

Didn’t work on Tucker either apparently, and Steph liked that in a man as the Black guy gave Jason that pure and innocent smile.

“Yeah, Bruce and the Mansons, but that part of the show’s over. Damian’ll let us know if anything happens,” he dismissed easily, and Jason scowled.

Steph braced herself for the flare of green, especially when it had already been so close tonight, and was almost shocked when it didn’t come. When was the last time Jason had glared so much without it?

Maybe Danny did know what he was doing.

The rest of their families’ secrets notwithstanding, she decided that for the moment she had to approve.

It’d be subject to change, a bat never planned against new intel, but for now? She liked Danny. He was honest, easy going, and made her brother blush in ways she’d never seen before.

There were clearly secrets, but he’d dropped a big one on them already with his own Lazarus exposure. Secrets never lasted long in this family anyway, but Steph could wait on digging for these.

She had much more important things to do, like tease Jason mercilessly.

For now, she popped up on his other side to press a kiss to his cheek and ruffle his hair again.

“Well, I’m gonna go find Dick and let him know Selina’s around. Tucker, do you wanna find Tim? If he has you beside him Vlad’s way more likely to be confused,” she added innocently.

Like Tucker’s eyes hadn’t always lit up at the chance to hang out with Tim. She’d be offended if she hadn’t also seen the appeal.

The smirk Sam shot her meant the other girl definitely knew what she was doing, and Steph took a moment to grin back.

Yeah. Getting Sam Manson’s number before the night ended, preferably willingly. Girls gotta stick together, and mercilessly bully their mlm besties.

Tucker hesitated a moment longer, clearly also dying for pixie boot stories, but in the end his nerdery won. Surprising no one.

“Yeah, we’ll go spread the word,” he agreed dramatically, like it was all down to him. Then he pointed back at Jason, utterly unintimidated by a full mountain of muscle. “But I want pictures too!”

“No one’s getting pictures,” Jason said firmly, and Steph danced carefully out of earshot.

“I know where Alfred keeps the scrapbooks,” she called in a sing song voice, and was a little surprised not to even feel anticipation when Jason lunged at her.

Teasing him was usually a careful game, something she had to put her mind into. Watching the pit, calculating his limits, ready to fully run if he broke.

But he was so fun to tease, and it felt… yeah. Nice to wind him up like Dickie or Tim, or Bruce himself. Nice not to be prepared for a sudden attack.

It wasn’t like she’d have ever stopped if he had lashed out anyway.

Danny was good for him, for whatever reason. She shot them both finger guns, heading back for the middle of the room.

“Try not to get into anything scandalous,” she called, loud enough to turn a couple heads. Which would only help their primary, Manson related plans.

Jason flipped her off while Tucker hurried after her, chuckling to himself.

“So, scrapbooks?” He asked hopefully, and Steph shot him finger guns too.

“Not tonight, but it’s happening. We need a group chat.”

“We so fucking do.”

**

Bruce was not having a fun evening.

He’d been happy Jason had found a guest to bring. Over the moon, really. He needed a life outside of his crimes.

Less happy that Jason had held out on the name of his guest, only sending it when Bruce would be too busy to properly investigate, but he couldn’t exactly blame him.

Bruce knew he could be paranoid and overbearing, his kids made sure to remind him constantly. And Jason deserved privacy.

But it had quickly become clear that “Tucker Foley” and “Pit Helping Danny” were not the same person. Whoever Jason wanted to introduce them to, it wasn’t just his mystery date.

Fortunately one had led neatly to the other, the Mansons revealing the trick quite by accident. And they’d known a lot more about Real Danny too.

None of it predisposed Bruce well to the boy.

Apparently he was reckless, lazy, trouble prone, unmotivated, and a very bad influence.

It felt fucking stupid when he knew full well that Jason was a crime lord and official serial killer, but Bruce just didn’t want him to get into any more trouble.

And if this Daniel Fenton was still half the boy the Mansons knew, there was a whole other world of shady exploits he could be dragging Jason into.

Ghost hunters. Really.

Everyone knew about Amity Park’s “ghost problem”; a cheap way to drum up tourist dollars, just like Bigfoot sightings.

They’d tried calling the Justice League out more than once, but Constantine had marked it as a no fly zone. Which meant there was nothing supernatural there worth bothering with.

The regular Justice League had no time for claims of magical mayhem.

Vladimir Masters had been interesting too, both on the Amity Park perspective and in news about Danny.

As the boy’s godfather of course his opinion could be biased, but according to him Danny was a loyal, kind hearted young man. Still rough and tumble but hardly dangerous.

And he’d been right; Bruce had plenty of experience with that type of young person. He’d soon be able to tell just what this Fenton was.

But Masters could be a useful source there, both for information and potentially sympathy. He’d seemed to understand Bruce’s concerns quite well.

Perhaps after dinner he could catch up with the man again. Make some plans, a meeting somewhere a little more private, where his children wouldn’t all be listening in.

He didn’t want to give them the impression that he didn’t trust Jason to handle himself.

He was just.

Concerned.

Jason hadn’t been himself since before they’d buried him, tangled in that mess of his birth mother. He’d done terrible things, but he’d been lost.

Bruce would do all he could to help his boy find himself again, even if that meant taking a more subtle approach. He wouldn’t let Jason be taken advantage of.

Meeting with Masters would have to wait, however, because as they’d been chatting he’d caught sight of an unfortunately familiar slinky black dress.

He’d excused himself from the adults and slipped past Damian with a meaningful look, and followed her trail through the crowds.

She slipped through easily, winding between people and Bruce could easily guess just how many would be finding their pockets all the lighter for it.

He had to go a little slower, his broad shoulders making him more noticeable and kept him from her tighter squeezes, but she couldn’t avoid him forever.

For one thing, she clearly didn’t want to. He finally caught up at the foot of the stairs to the entrance, turned away from him to admire the lion statue at the base of the banister.

“Bruce,” she greeted without turning, leaning back and just knowing where he’d be. He hated being predictable, and yet… he couldn’t disappoint her.

“Selina. I didn’t realize you were coming.” He’d checked the guest list twice today, but there were always so many plus ones. He hadn’t invited her, but that’d never stopped her before.

She tipped her chin up to smile at him, hearing every unsaid word.

“And miss young Jason’s return? Why Bruce, I’ve known the boy almost as long as you have, I’m happy to see him alive and well.” It was a gentle reprimand, and for a moment he wondered if she’d expected an invitation.

If he should have asked Jason if he’d like her there. But then, which of his children had ever liked it when Selina came around?

Not least because she always broke the rules, and he always found himself letting her. Never the most important, never the one Jason broke, but…

Selina wasn’t his weakness, he didn’t have one. But she was a distraction.

He smiled back, calculated, charming. The one she liked to see in public.

“Of course. Have you seen him?” She might have valuable insights into Jason’s condition, though she’d refused to get involved since his… original return.

Not getting caught in family squabbles. He’d always liked that about her.

She hummed softly, leaning more of her weight into his chest, hand reaching up over her head to caress his chin.

“Not yet, but I’ll say hi eventually. Rumour has it he’s growing quite the harem,” she purred, and Bruce damn near choked.

Harem? Jason?!

“Oh?” Was all he managed, and even then he knew she heard the strain when he felt a low chuckle rumble through her back.

“Word has it the young Samantha Manson and her own date are both all over him. Poor boy, and his own plus one is being borrowed by half the Waynes. What have you been teaching those boys?” She teased, fingertips running just shy of his lower lip.

Definitely feeling where it puckered slightly into one of his minimal frowns. Nothing he’d heard about this “Danny” was setting him at ease.

Still, best not to let anything too real show.

“He’s always been good at making friends,” he allowed, gaze now scanning the rest of the room for his son.

Selina chuckled again, finally stepping away and turning to face him, giving him an appreciative once over.

“Now that’s a lot tamer than what I heard. I’ve heard that they’ve already bustled off to the back rooms, and reemerged en déshabillé,” she purred, and Bruce tensed.

Jason wouldn’t. Not with a stranger. Not at a gala.

True, it wasn’t on the (long, extensive) list of forbidden gala behaviours, but that was because it didn’t have to be.

Jason didn’t like following any of his other rules.

Jason was an adult. Bruce wasn’t… a fool. He was aware that quite a few of his children had grown up. And may, possibly, in an abstract way, have a sex life.

He didn’t like to fucking think about it at the best of times, but Jason? Who couldn’t control himself, who had those unpredictable rages?

No, he did not like that thought at all. His face must have set into stern lines because Selina’s hand was on his cheek again, brushing like she could smooth them out.

“Now now, Bruce. He’s twenty-two. Remember what you were like at that age?” She cooed, and that really didn’t help.

“That’s different,” he growled, keeping to the Brucie ranges with the iron control he’d prided himself on. The control Jason lacked.

Selina examined his expression for a moment longer then shook her had, patting his face just barely shy of being a slap. He caught her hand, gaze whipping round to focus on her again.

Just what she’d wanted, of course.

“Darling, you can’t stop him. You two are on rocky enough ground as it is, hmm?” She reminded him gently, voice low.

His grip tightened on her wrist, gaze flashing across her person.

“And if I searched your pockets right now, how many stolen rocks would I find on your person?” He asked equally quietly. Not changing the subject.

Just a good question.

Her eyes narrowed for a moment, then her lips curled into a smile and she stepped closer.

“Well if Jason’s left the back rooms free, you can search me as closely as you’d like,” she purred, pressing herself to him from shoulder to thigh.

And definitely felt him twitch in annoyance, grip tightening again. He forced himself to let go, step away, before his reactions could betray him further.

“Enough, Selina. Why are you really here?” He asked sharply, carefully balancing the line between Brucie casual and the answers he wanted.

She looked him over for a moment more then shook her head, half smiling.

“Touchy touchy. I’m here to give my best wishes to Jason, darling. Nothing more. And if some of these jumped up little pheasants find their tails a little lighter for it, I don’t think you really care, do you?” She asked rhetorically, turning away to slink back into the crowd.

Bruce considered following her. Pushing for more, working out what she really wanted.

It could wait until he’d checked the back rooms. Or found Jason. Whichever came first.

—————

Part 2!

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

while i'm still on what is now apparently my semi-monthly danny phantom kick and the blorbo is still rotisserie spinning in my head: i usually headcanon vlad as ace, so the only character i ever really considered shipping him with (other than being in a throuple with danny's parents, obviously) was spectra. i just love the idea of a HORRIBLY toxic relationship in which she initially set out to feed off of this lonely bitter dude just like she would anyone else, but then she gets attached and can't really tell whether she actually loves him or she just loves feeding off of him, but what's the difference when you're a ghost who exists solely for this purpose anyway, right? meanwhile vlad is like.... pretty sure he knows what she's actually doing, but it does feel amazing when she pulls all the misery out of him (at least until she does everything in her power to make him more miserable so she can feed off of him again) so he really just doesn't care enough to address it and risk ending it. he's using her for temporary relief and she's using him for pretty much the same exact thing. also they're fucking. cause why not

[notoverjoyed]

Final Chapter! All that's left is a brief epilogue. Here's where I warn for depictions of blood and gore and implied cannibalism. Also, check out the great art that @chaseacer-ghostedition and @auroboroch made for this story. (this is from chapter 4, go look at it!)

As before, Chapter 5 is below the cut.

Chapter 5: Satisfaction

Teenage voices echo through dark halls as the four walk through the eerily empty manor.

“Ancients, I almost hope the fruitloop is up to something. Whatever is wrong with the place is making me feel sick,” Danny says.

“Are we sure he’s isn’t up to something? He could be faking sick.”

“He looked… really bad when I saw him before though,” Dani says. Her brow was furrowed with worry.

Valerie wrinkles her nose. “He sure looked sick when I saw him last,” she says. “Staring at me all sweaty and gross, then screaming at me to leave.”

“Did he have gross green looking pimples all over?” Tucker asks.

“What, ew, gross, no!” Valerie gags.“Why the fuck would have that?!”

“Ecto-acne.” Sam says, “He had it in college, thought maybe he had a relapse.”

“Okay one, no gross pimples, just sweaty and weird. Two, how the hell do you know that.”

He did have a relapse like, a few months ago, then gave it to me and Sam to force Danny to help find a cure.” Tucker answers.

“Of fucking course he did,” Dani mutters.

“And he trusted Mr. lucky-to-get-a-D-minus-in-Chemistry over here to do that?” Valerie adds.

“Hey! I figured it out in the end!”

And he was super sick then! Even when he’s sick he’s still a slimy bastard. Why should we trust him now?” Sam adds.

“We don’t, but..” Valerie starts to say, but trails off. She really can’t say much to that.

“Anyway… wait.” Danny stops, having noticed a door hanging nearly off its hinges farther up the hallway. The rug in front of it was bunched up like someone had slipped on it running through the hall.

The group comes to a halt by the door. Sam and Tucker weren’t really expecting to find anything that unusual, but the suddenly sober expressions of the other three make them grow quiet. The five of them stand in front of the broken door

Valerie is the first one to break. “Did Vlad do this?”

“Dunno, probably,” Danny says.

“Clumsy as hell though, he must really be sick,” Tucker says.

“Where was he trying to go, d’you think?” Sam asks.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Danny replies, and starts toward the door. The others follow behind him.

“Sure, follow the ominous path of destruction. If we find Vlad having some sort of seizure one of you guys is gonna call the ambulance,” Tucker jokes weakly as the rest of the group files past him, but he steps after them. No one laughs as they each step through the broken door and continue into this new, darker passage.

The path of destruction is clear even in the dim light, and they follow it down and down until they reach the door to Vlad’s lab. This door, at least, is intact, but it’s not closed. Instead, it’s opened just a crack to let an eerie emerald light peek through. Nobody speaks as Danny pushes it fully open. It creaks sharply as it reveals a horrifying scene.

Vlad’s lab is bathed in the green light of the portal with its doors wide open. No. not just open, but broken. The left hand door is crooked in its frame, while the right rests wholly on the metal floor. Had something clawed the portal open?

Damage extends beyond the portal. The walls and floor, normally pristine, look… dirty. In the green glow of the portal, it’s hard to tell with sight alone just what the mess is made. Sam is the first to react, her face contorting in revulsion at the pungent iron and citrus and something else scent. Danny, however, is the first to recognize the odor that can only be ectoplasm tainted blood. The disgust on each of their faces turns to horror as they share his recognition.

Tucker recoils, stumbling back against the doorway, but the others don’t notice him.

“Is that…” Valerie starts, then chokes out, “Is that Masters?”

“It’s gotta be,” Sam replies shakily.

“No,” Dani whispers.

“Oh god,” Tucker says, now leaning weakly against the wall and looking up, away from the mess.

“No,” Danny says, looking nauseous, “It’s not.”

Dani’s head whips toward him and asks with a shriek, “How do you know?”

“I know what my own blood smells like!” Danny shouts. His face, already drawn in horror, contorts with the terrible realization.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Valerie yells, verging on hysterical.

“Oh no,” Dani says. “Oh no oh no.” She shakes her had and look closes her eyes against the sight.

“What-” Sam begins to ask, but stops to catch Dani as she slowly crumples.

The cloning tubes are wide open, and empty of all but smears of greenish blood. Danny’s right; none of it belongs to Vlad.

[hanakihan]

thanks to Vlad and his videos about pretending to be a girl at Omegle (plz check it out it’s pure comedy material) me and homies created cracked AU

so like Jinchul coming from orphanage is really proficient in girly things because he was really close to girls during his orphanage years. Girls found him pretty enough to drag into their circle to try make up on him or just style his hair plus with younger girls he usually ended up the one to style their hair at mornings. He also had friends among boys but boys mostly avoided him because he looked different and was mostly by himself.

So anyway after leaving orphanage Jinchul still kept in touch with others from orphanage from time to time. And one day they gathered for drinks and jinchul lost probably the most dumb bet in his life and he absolutely forgot that betting against group of girls IS a death or life gambling.

So yea he lost and they decided to remember old times so they dress him as a girl and for amusement and funny reactions make him go on Omegle or shit and so jinchul plays really convincing lady until he lets out his real voice and that fun continues for serval hours while his friends die on background from laughter. Jinchul isn’t uncomfortable but it makes him feel awkward because many actually complemented how pretty she looks.

And then randomly they end up connecting with jinwoo and his company and jinchul just starts to sweat nervously because what the actual fuck hunter sung is doing here with his sister and his friend—

jinchul is always this close to failure because his voice just keeps cracking and stuttering and he’s panicking and feels his face continuing become redder and redder because it’s jinah, jinho and songyi doing all the talk and jinwoo just stares at him with ✨suspicion✨ until jinwoo just opens his mouth and asks for phone number and jinchul finally freaks out by making a weird squeaking voice and turning connection off.

Days pass jinchul is kinda panicking around jinwoo because he just keeps staring at him from time to time as if trying to connect the dots (he hopes he won’t).

Jinwoo: Chief, I would be really grateful if you’ll help me find one lady, I would really like to meet her.

Jinchul, sweating nervously: how about N O

Funny thing jinwoo did eventually stumble upon group of girls he saw hanging with that lady and approached them asking if they know how he can contact their friend. They are this close to laugh their asses off but agree to organize a ‘date’ and later jinchul just wants to murder them but he can’t because he cared for them during orphanage years goddamnit.

So yea they actually meet, jinchul dies inside almost entire time (god I hope he won’t notice my mana signature god—), jinchul jokes about being a rather tall lady (and dying inside) and honestly when he’s home he just falls backwards right on door like ‘holy fucking hell’

And then next time he and jinwoo meet at KHA jinwoo like a true little shit admits that he figured out its jinchul because of same mannerisms and stuff plus it’s a national trend now that a local man dresses like a lady perfectly only to give people heart attacks with his real voice. Jinchul dying inside and asking why the meeting then and jinwoo just admits that he wanted to see top tier levels of disguise that Chief Woo is able to pull out (and also to witness him panicking entire time because it’s hilarious)

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Why Do Scientists Wear Sensible Shoes?

For the Phic Phight prompt: Four years in the hospital, abandoned and in agony as his body slowly transformed, taught Vlad that ghostly purring only meant pain and suffering of the worst kind and an unhappy life did little to debase him of that notion. So when his newly emerged clone starts happy purring at him, Vlad promptly freaks the fuck out trying to figure out what's wrong with them— inadvertently teaching the clone that more purring means more attention from daddy. (from @reading-wanderer)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for dubious science, unstable clones, and major character death]

The last of Vlad's family, his mother, had died when he was seventeen, leaving him completely on his own when he went off to college. After the proto-portal accident, even his friends, Jack and Maddie, abandoned him. They left him to die, slowly, in agony, and unbearably alone, of horrible ecto-acne that slowly transformed his body, infected his blood, corrupted his soul, over the course of four years.

It was during those four years that he discovered ghostly purring, discovered that it meant only pain, the worst kind of suffering imaginable. It was supposed to self-soothe, to encourage healing, he determined. It wasn't a sound ghosts made when they were happy. And the unhappy life that followed his transformation did little to debase that notion.

He tried not to think about it much, but he did wonder, as he attempted to create a clone of another half-ghost like him, if he was bringing them into the world only to force them through the same suffering he experienced. Vlad shook his head and squared his shoulders. The anguish had come, not in simply being a half-ghost, but in dying slowly to become one.

A long beep sounded, and he hit the release button on the cloning chamber, now that the process was complete. This was his eleventh attempt. Attempts one through eight had dissolved into ectoplasm immediately upon release from their cloning chambers. Attempt nine had survived, but only the skeleton. Everything else had melted right off, and Vlad had immediately thrown a sheet over the thing to avoid having to look at it's grotesque, black bones. The sheet remained, and the only surviving clone thus far was in the observation room for study.

Attempt ten had survived longer than the first eight, but had been malformed and dissolved into ectoplasm after stubbing its toe. Hopefully, attempt eleven would fare better.

Vlad sighed with disappointment when the mist from the chamber dispersed and the eleventh clone was visible. Another for the observation room, he supposed. He'd tried adding some stable human DNA to the mix, taken from Maddie, as well as experimenting with the force-growth process. It looked stable enough, but this one was too human and not human enough, with Maddie's auburn hair and glowing green eyes, and looked about seven years old when it should have looked fourteen.

"Can you switch between forms?" Vlad asked the clone.

"I dunno," the child clone said. It squeezed its eyes shut, clenched its small fists, and tried to shift forms. Nothing happened. "Guess not. Who're you? Who'm I? What is this place?"

"I am Vlad Masters," Vlad introduced. "This is my lab, and you are a clone I created."

"A clone?" Its wide, round eyes blinked owlishly at him. "Is that my name?"

"You don't have a name."

"Why?"

"Because I can't be bothered to name every clone that steps out of that chamber."

"Why?"

"Because there's a fairly high chance you'll destabilize anyway, and you're an imperfect copy, and I don't want to get attached."

"Why?"

"Because I've experienced far too much disappointment already."

"Why?"

"Well to start with, the woman I love married a man I despise and the only other person in the world who's like me hates my guts."

"Why?"

"I may have tried to kidnap him once or twice, and kill his father... perhaps his hatred isn't so unwarranted, but it still hurts."

"Why?"

"Because—oh, wait, I see what you're doing!" Vlad exclaimed. He growled and scooped the clone up by the back of its jumpsuit and cradled it in his arms as he carried it off. "I'm taking you to the observation room." The clone giggled, and then Vlad stilled in horror as he heard a sound he hoped never to hear again. It was purring, a low rumbling in its core.

Panicked, Vlad changed direction, laying the clone on the examination table and grabbing a stethoscope.

"Whatcha doin'?" asked the clone.

"Quiet now," Vlad demanded, placing the stethoscope against the clone's chest. The purring had quieted, which was good. There was no heartbeat, unexpected, but not out of the realm of possibility. The child was part ghost after all, even if it was a little more human than it was supposed to be. Its core thrummed, strong and steady, so it should be able to fulfill the missing heart's functions just as well. "Breathe deeply." The clone complied. Its lungs seemed to be in excellent condition, so it wasn't that. "Are you in pain?"

"No."

Vlad sighed in relief, and without even thinking, he hugged the clone gently, stroking its auburn hair. He'd been so afraid that he'd inflicted the worst pain of his life on a creature that hadn't asked to be created in the first place. Thank the Ancients he hadn't. Or so he thought. Then he heard it again. That deep rumbling that filled Vlad with dread. Whatever the clone said, there was clearly something wrong.

Vlad pulled back and continued his examination. "Let me take your blood pressure. Look into this light. Turn your head and cough. Does it hurt when I do this?" The clone giggled. That horrible purring grew louder.

"Tickles!" 

So far, Vlad had found nothing wrong. The bones were all properly aligned, the organs the child had functioned properly. He was breathing, eating, drinking, and sleeping just fine. Every time Vlad started to consider giving up, the purring grew stronger, and he redoubled his efforts. He had to find what was causing this child's suffering and fix it.

"Can I be named Vlad two?"

"No," Vlad refused. He was taking a blood sample to run some more tests. His working theory was that the lack of heart was causing the boy distress, even though his core, small though it was, should have been able to effectively take its place. "It would be confusing if we were both named Vlad."

"No, you're Vlad, and I'm Vlad two!" The boy corrected. "Like the number two. It's a totally different name."

"When a child is named after their parent, they are a junior, not a two," Vlad told him, focused on the task at hand.

"Can I be named Junior, then?" asked the boy.

"Fine, whatever!" Vlad snapped, taking the vials of ectoplasm-tainted blood to the next room to perform tests on. It was only as he placed a vial in the centrifuge that he realized what he'd done. "Oh kettle corn!" he shouted. "Now I've gone and done it! How could I let that brat have a name?" He threw an empty beaker at the wall in frustration and it shattered, but calmed down quickly after that.

It was too late now. He'd gone and gotten attached. He was already doing everything he could to spare Junior from the agony he himself had gone through. The only difference was that it felt more personal now. He had to take care of the boy. He couldn't let Junior dissolve like the others had, and definitely not while he was in pain. The others hadn't felt a thing, but Junior... he was purring.

Vlad got back to work.

Still, he found nothing. But Junior's hands got sticky like clay that hadn't fully dried. He left traces of green ooze, like a snail trail on the examination table. His hair started to float around his head, getting misty around the edges. He continued to purr. Not constantly, but as soon as he saw Vlad the purring started up again.

Clones twelve and thirteen had both dissolved within hours of their creation. Vlad didn't care about them. The cloning programs continued in the background. He'd make changes to the programs, initiate the process, wait until the clone was done. When it failed, he would rinse and repeat. He was more concerned with figuring out what was wrong with Junior.

He seemed like a perfectly cheerful kid. He laughed, smiled, played the 'why' game, and made up jokes. He even got up and danced around when he needed a break from sitting on the examination table.

"Hey, Daddy, what do you call a vampire without teeth?" Junior asked while Vlad was reviewing his notes.

"What?" Vlad asked absently.

Junior curled his lips over his teeth and said, "A wampiwa!" Vlad snorted, and shook his head and the boy cheered victoriously.

His body had been becoming slowly more spectral. Blood tests showed the ectoplasm concentration in his blood was steadily increasing. When Vlad stroked his hair now, his hand went right through the ends. His pale skin had become mildly bioluminescent, though it was only visible when the lights went out.

It seemed a core with no heartbeat meant that his ghostly qualities were consuming his humanity. If Vlad couldn't stop the process, or at least slow it down to a rate that would allow Junior to safely transition into becoming a full ghost, he would surely destabilize and dissolve, just like the others. Vlad's heart ached thinking about how much pain the boy must be in.

"What do you call a goose with no teeth?" Junior asked, and Vlad smiled a bittersweet smile at him. Despite the jokes, he could hear the boy's loud purring several feet away.

"What do you call a goose with no teeth?"

"A goose!" Junior said, grinning brightly. "Gooses don't have teeth!"

"The plural is geese, and they do have teeth, actually," Vlad corrected. "In fact, geese have teeth on their tongues."

"Really?" Vlad nodded. "Cool!"

"Are you in pain, Junior?" Vlad asked the same question every day, often several times.

"Nope!" Junior always denied that he was. He was brave, but Vlad knew better.

Clone fourteen dissolved within minutes, an issue with the force growth process, corrected. Clone fifteen survived, but was malformed and overgrown. It was taken to the observation room. The cloning parameters were adjusted again. Clone sixteen was malformed in a similar but less exaggerated manner, but lasted only twelve hours before dissolving in the observation room. Junior's skin had taken on a deathly pallor. He purred loudly when Vlad entered the examination room.

"Are you in pain, Junior?"

"No, Daddy," the boy said, but his smile wasn't as bright as usual. "Do you wanna play a game?"

"Sure, Junior," Vlad agreed. "We can play while I run today's test. What game?"

"I'm gonna pick something in the room, and you can ask ten questions to figure out what it is!"

"Isn't this game supposed to be twenty questions?" Vlad asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The game is twenty questions. One person picks an object or creature, and the others get twenty questions to figure out what it is. My friends and I played it in college."

"How could you played it in college when I just made it up?" Junior asked, cocking his head. 

"Oh, I see." Of course Junior didn't know anything he hadn't learned inside this lab. Similar as the game may have been to twenty questions, he had come up with it on his own. "You invented it independently, but another game already exists which is very similar."

"Well, we're gonna play my version!" Junior insisted. "So you only get ten questions."

"Very well. Is it bigger than a bread box?"

"What's a bread box?"

"It's a box for holding bread." Vlad held out his hands toward Junior, indicating the general size of a bread box. "About this big."

"Oh. Then no, it's not bigger."

"Is it animal, mineral, or vegetable?"

"Uh... mineral I think," Junior said, frowning in thought. "What are beakers made of?"

"Glass."

"Is that a mineral?"

"Yes."

"Then it's a mineral."

"Is it a beaker?" Vlad asked, Junior gasped, his eyes widening in amazement.

"Yeah, it is!" he said. "Wow, you guessed that so quickly! You're really good at this game!"

"It's a gift," Vlad said lightly. He flicked the light off to see the progression of Junior's glow. It had grown increasingly brighter, just since the previous day. It seemed Vlad's, or rather Junior's, deadline was closer than he'd thought.

"It's your turn now! You pick something in the room, and I have to guess it in ten questions!"

"Alright," Vlad flicked the lights back on and looked around, but his eyes landed back on Junior, and he couldn't think of anything else. "Go ahead."

"Is it bigger than this?" Junior held out his arms as wide as they could go.

"Yes." Vlad grabbed his stethoscope and put it against Junior's back to listen to his lungs. "Quiet now, breathe deep." Under the purring and the pulsing of his core, Vlad could hear Junior's breathing hitch in a way it hadn't before. That wasn't good. His stethoscope came away with a green residue on it. "Alright, what's your next question?"

"Is it more soft or more hard?"

"More soft," Vlad answered.

"Is it the cushion on the exam table?"

"No."

"Is it... your lab coat?"

"No."

"What color is it?"

"Lots of different colors."

"Is it the quilt in the cupboard?"

"No."

"Is it your chemistry lab coat? The one with all the funky stains on it?" Vlad laughed once.

"No."

"Hmm..." Junior looked stumped. "Is it... alive?"

"Sort of," Vlad looked at the results from the tests he'd run the day before and frowned. "For now."

"Is it you?"

"No, and that makes nine," Vlad said. "Think carefully, Junior. You only have one question left." 

"Is it me?"

"Yes, it is," Vlad confirmed. "Now, tell me the truth, Junior. Are you in pain?" This time, Junior didn't answer aloud, just shook his head.

"It's my turn to pick!" he said next, and looked around the room. "Okay, I got it! You can ask your questions now."

The seventeenth clone was discolored, and dissolved after twenty-four hours. A glitch in the force growth process resulted in eighteen being approximately six inches tall, but it survived, mostly. Observation indicated that none of the other surviving clones had anything approaching Junior's mental capacity, likely the lack of stable DNA.

Vlad altered the cloning parameters, this time combining Daniel's DNA sample with some of his own. The 'Y' chromosome was damaged, so the clone turned out female, but she was more stable and more cognizant than the others, and quickly dubbed herself Danielle, after her primary DNA donor. Closer. Much closer. But still a failure.

Junior was growing less and less stable with each passing hour.

Vlad had tried everything he could, but it hadn't been enough. Nothing had worked. Junior started to lose his motor functions. His sense of smell went next.

"I'm scared," he admitted to Vlad when his vision started to fade and he was groping around in the dark for his father. Vlad walked over to him, hugged him very, very gently. Even the slightest pressure caused Junior to liquefy, but he couldn't let the boy be alone.

"Are you in pain?" Vlad asked.

"Yes," said the boy. Tears welled up in his brightly glowing eyes and streamed down his cheeks. I wasn't before, but I am now. It hurts, and I'm scared."

"It's alright. I'm with you," Vlad said, though his own eyes were starting to sting and a lump formed in his throat. He stroked Junior's hair with a feather-light touch. "I'm sorry this is happening to you."

"I can't stop purring anymore," the boy choked out. "I did it on purpose before, but I can't stop anymore."

"Why would you do it on purpose?" Vlad asked, trying to keep his voice steady. Junior couldn't see his tears, couldn't see on his face how terrified he was. Junior could only hear and feel, and Vlad would be damned to the furthest corners of the Ghost Zone before he let his child know how terrified Vlad was in his final moments. He deserved comfort, not fear.

"Not the first time," Junior explained, his voice hitching as he cried into Vlad's chest, ectoplasmic tears no doubt staining Vlad's best lab coat. "I was just happy. It felt nice when you held me, and it just happened."

"You were happy?" Vlad asked, confused. "Ghosts purr when they're in pain. They purr to try to heal themselves, to self-soothe. Why would you purr when you were happy?"

"It just happened," Junior repeated. "And your reaction was so funny. Then, the more I purred, the more attention you gave me, so I kept purring. Then I started to feel weird, and I hurt, and the purring wouldn't stop anymore. I just wanted to spend time with you, Daddy." Vlad couldn't catch the tears before they dripped onto Junior's head and fizzled on his scalp as beads of ectoplasm welled up where they landed. Vlad winced at the sight and dried his eyes with his sleeve"Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Vlad asked. He forced himself to take a deep breath. "I'm fine, Junior. You're the one destabilizing."

"It's okay, Daddy. Don't cry," Junior comforted him, and wasn't that backwards. Vlad shouldn't be the one being comforted by his dying son. "I got to spend my whole life with you. And we... we had fun, didn't we?"

"Yes, Junior," Vlad agreed. His boy didn't need to know that Vlad had spent the duration of his life worrying about him, not now of all times. "We had great fun."

"Hey, Daddy?" Junior asked, and Vlad hummed in response. "Why do scientists wear practical shoes?"

"Ha," Vlad laughed once, weakly. "Why?"

"So they don't get Bunsens," Junior said, and giggled, just as weakly. "Get it? 'Cause it sounds like bunions?" Vlad allowed the boy a chuckle.

"Yes, I get it," he said, even as the boy's body continued to dissolve, he was still making jokes. "It's very funny."

"Daddy?" Junior called out, but whatever he was about to say, he never got the chance. He destabilized completely in Vlad's arms, and the man was kneeling of a puddle of ectoplasm that had once been his beloved son.

He cried out in anguish.

He wailed and wept. 

A rumbling purr rose in his chest.

[izloveshorses]

Why not all of them?

But just for starters, what about the one where they sneak around and fuck all summer? I think that's my favorite one of yours to read.

lol ayyeeeeeee i can work with that!!!

for clarification to those who missed, anon is asking for a director's cut commentary of this fic!

let's split this up section by section, bc it's a long fic 💀

section one:

we start us off with the classic post canon divergent "they missed each other on the bridge, so now anya is fully committed to being anastasia until one day dmitry strolls back into town" au. full disclosure i started this fic fully committed to not thinking too hard about very much ahdlksjf so dmitry literally strolls back into her life without any further explanation. in the fic before in this series, they obviously expressed some feelings ashldjkf but they didn't exactly Talk about any of it, so there's a lot left to be said here. but at the same time, once it's all out in the open-- that they simply miss each other-- they're on the same page and are able to start right where they left off, if that makes any sense.

idk how detailed you want me to be about the smut lol but in general i think anya is like always down to Jump him and dmitry has to catch up. and i think, based on descriptions of how the murder was executed (gunshots and bayonets to the chest) anya would have some pretty graphic scars that might cause some insecurity.

and when they're done, even tho they said they love each other, i think dmitry would still assume he wasn't welcome to stay the night/ that she didn't actually want him long term. which is dumb i know lol but he's an overthinker and has low self esteem, so can u blame him? so that moment towards the end of this section where anya asks him to stay was supposed to have a some emotional weight to it. and the line from the next morning, “I just really, really don’t want my second introduction with your grandmother to start with me buck naked in your bed," makes me laugh every time 🙈

section two:

this is how we go from just a silly night together to a ~pattern~. a habit. i like the bit with the tiara, this whole scene sort of spawned from that thought. i really really love writing pillow talk, which is this entire fic ahlskjdf so this scene they're just cuddling and chatting and i had a lot of fun <3 anya is sort of his common sense filter? she gives him very logical ideas of where to find a job and he's like oh i hadn't thought of that 🧐 it's just that they are both sort of lost at this point and they help each other find ways to ground themselves, reconcile the hardships they lived through with the lives they are living now, and get through the day, one step at a time.

section three:

montage moment! this scene was originally split into two or three and in different spots, but in order to fit everything we had to condense a bit. i knew we needed a moment with vlad, both to see how he's doing emotionally without his friend and bc it's funny to think about anya being a little flustered when the subject of dmitry comes up lol. the bit with the birthday gift was originally closer to the scene with the party/dancing/etc that dmitry gets invited to! but anya's birthday is in june so for the timeline to work out her birthday had to be earlier in the fic anyway. and i wanted the party to be later so their public reunion™ wouldn't raise too many questions yet, so the scene was split. it took me a long time to decide What the king of random gifts gives her, but i think a camera was perfect bc anastasia did carry one around a lot <3 nicholas was a big fan of photography and had all sorts of cameras laying around and was a fiend about documenting his family. so anya would have that muscle memory in her :)

this scene was also important to plant the seeds of how they aren't quite on the same page about the future. they're super into each other, obviously, but they haven't really talked about anything long term yet beyond tomorrow. anya wants something permanent but doesn't want to pop the happy bubble yet.

section four:

this might be my favorite part of the whole fic. i'm a simple girl, i love dmitry cooking and i love soft domesticity and (again) i love cuddling and pillow talk <33 this was meant to give them a taste (no pun intended) of what life could be like if she wasn't anastasia™, and it gives them a reason to be a little discontent with what's going on now. dmitry's work hours are Icky and anya doesn't really like her life as anastasia at all aslhkjdf but also they only have each other in a very limited way.

and again, they aren't on the same page in regards to the future, though they don't know it yet. again anya sort of tests the idea of marriage but dmitry still hasn't quite wrapped his head around the belief that he's actually enough for her. unlike his former conman lifestyle™ of reaching for things out of his reach, he thinks he needs to try to be content with what he has while he has it, because he's not used to people wanting him for more than a little fling. obviously anya is the love of his life and he's hers, but he doesn't really know how to believe that yet.

section five:

another montage moment! i wrote some of this very early on in the process <3 i really liked the part where they talk about their parents and how dmitry is a royalist now lol but i wasn't really sure where to put it in the fic 💀 but this is where it landed. and i also like anya telling him about the callers lined up for tomorrow, bc she finds it absolutely hilarious that anyone would even try to court her when her beautiful secret bf dmitry exists! and of course dmitry would just be sulky and jealous and sad at first. the man is too insecure. but she's like no mister this is supposed to be funny 😤 anyway yeah they are very cute to me 🙈

section six:

once again anya is always down to jump him 🌚 i knew there needed to be a moment where the dowager and anastasia would go out of town to visit relatives at some point, and who doesn't love good ol reunion sex lol. and i knew vlad would invite dmitry to a Function, and i knew there needed to be a bedroom eyes in a crowded room/ 'nobody knows we've been fucking this entire time tehe 👀'/ formal dress moment™ at Some point! they had to have a public 'reunion' late in the fic bc i didn't want other characters to start to get suspicious yet. originally this was supposed to be her birthday party but i already said why that wouldn't work. and as an echo of the previous section, dmitry would of course get a little too in his head about the whole thing and go scowl in a corner somewhere, unaware anya is ready to have him all to herself rn alhsjdkf. he's obviously jealous, but not in a possessive way, he's just discontent with the arrangement. they both are. and i needed them to dance for... reasons <33

idk about y'all, but i can never get enough of anya arguing about semantics (the bit where dmitry is like 'put me on the list') and dmitry finding it irritating and adorable at the same time <3

section seven:

originally anya's maid was supposed to be the one who catches them, she was gonna have a whole arc where she parallels the working class girl anya used to be and anya was gonna confide in her/ found her to be better company than the aristocrats she hangs out with, but i didn't feel like writing all that lhasdkf. and it makes more sense to use a character we already have than to come up with a whole new rando. and lily would be able to figure it out, too, since her love affair with vlad was meant to foil dimya.

section eight:

this fight was so hard to write 💀 i didn't want to over explain, but the whole reason why it escalated to a fight was really complicated; like yeah obviously they love each other and definitely want a future together, they just weren't on the same page as to what that would look like and they needed to hash it out. they certainly know how to make each other mad 💀

section nine:

i really wanted to write dimya in this dramatic jane austen period romance™ longing for one another in a parlor over tea™ needing to break apart when someone else enters the room™ situation... so that's the real reason why they had to fight asklhjdf so we could get them to do This and Feel Big Feelings across a room 😌 and in this fic the moment with anya and the dowager before the finale didn't happen yet, so it's happening here. 'dmitry refused the reward?' is now 'dmitry is coming to tea??' and i really love it when the dowager and dmitry get to interact in any fic. it's like candy to me. so deliciously tense and awkward. i also think their sense of humor is very Situational and Strange, especially in the eyes of a proper lady like marie, so having them commit to a bit as long as they can in front of someone else is funny to me lol. and i feel like while some nasty things were said in their fight, they reconcile pretty quickly bc they just want to figure it out and that's what matters <3 the musical has a lot to say about female agency, so i wanted to echo that theme here too.

section ten:

obligatory post-elopement epilogue <3 i cut this down a lot, mostly bc a lot of it was redundant and not really going anywhere productive and somewhat bc this document, combined with the fic before, was reaching 30k and i was ready for it to be over lol. but yeah. anya gave the grand duchess lifestyle a good try, but i think this was the best compromise for her. and now that they're married anya gets to call dmitry 'grand duke' which is a personal favorite of mine that hardly ever gets used alhskjdf. and i really liked the bit where she's like lets go! and he's like rome isn't going anywhere 😪 and she's like but our train will if u don't hurry up 😤 🙈