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bloggerspam · 3 days ago

Text

He's confused, but he's got the Spirit.

A serious chaos oneshot VERY loosely inspired by this post.

this seriously ran away from me like why is there so much world building?? and For What??? You can also find this on AO3.

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So the thing is, Ellie's not socialized.

Not properly, anyway.

And sure, she's not a dog, so it's not too late but sometimes…

Sometimes she feels like it's way too late.

Staring in confusion at an increasingly irate Robin interrogating her about her civilian life she feels like maybe…

This might be one of those times.

===

Ellie is very new to being a hero.

She's very new to a lot of things, actually.

Like school, and homework, and having a stable home and sort of a part time job (or would hero-ing be considered more of an extra curricular?)

Like gossip, and slang. And dating.

"I heard Nightwing and Flash the Second are hooking up." Wondergirl says suddenly, tossing a piece of popcorn into her mouth as she slumps onto the couch next to Ellie. It's a weird way to start a conversation, but Ellie is also getting used to not throwing a punch as a greeting so who is she really to judge?

She's only met these people briefly on the field, on various occasions. Maybe this is how they start conversations.

"Oh yeah, that's old news." Impulse jumps in before Ellie can say anything in response, hopping over the couch to bounce next to Ellie. He reaches over her to grab a handful of popcorn from Wondergirl on her other side. "Where is he by the way? Wasn't this whole thing organized by Nightwing?"

'This whole thing' being an overnight gathering of younger generation heroes in order to socialize and network amongst peers.

In other words, Danny had grinned when he invited her, a big ol' sleepover, squirt.

"He's visiting Oracle." Red Robin answers, walking into the large common room at Mount Justice the YJ is providing for the whole event. "She hasn't been sleeping well these past couple weeks, so he stopped by last night."

"Isn't Oracle his ex?" Superboy the Second asks, floating in behind Robin like an overly large golden retriever puppy. Ellie misses Cujo like a phantom limb. She hasn't seen him in hours.

"Yes." Robin says, but doesn't elaborate any further. Well, he makes a face as if to say and? but that's about it.

"….And Flash isn't bothered by that?" Wondergirl asks, leaning back to stuff more popcorn by a handful. She jostles Ellie a bit, placing the popcorn bucket into Ellie's lap as she leans back and away. Impulse leans closer to grab more popcorn by the handful. Ellie ends up smooshed, and unsure what to do about it.

"If he knows what's good for him, he would not." Robin growls under his breath, only loud enough for those with superhearing to pick up.

"Oracle is one of ours." Red Robin unknowingly follows up, sighing into his tablet. "Spoiler and Batgirl have been taking turns visiting but they went on a date last night, so Wing offered. Flash was there for dinner."

"Is anyone else weirded out by how he just knows that?" Superboy the clone (Ancients, that's gonna get old real fast, what're their alien names again? Right! Kon-El!) floats in to plop next to Wondergirl, grabbing the tablet with his TTK on the way. against. "Also this is all so very incestuous, you know that right?"

"And thinking your cousin is hot isn't?" Red Robin huffs, but allows the theif at least to almost daintily sit on the sofa arm Impulse is lounging against.

Ellie suddenly feels very cornered in. Why did she choose the couch again?

"First of all, Supergirl is hot, it runs in the family." Kon-El says, flexing his bulky arm and ignoring the eyeroll RR gives him for it. "Second of all, I can objectively appreciate her without wanting to bone her. Ya'll actually bone each other."

"Oh, but Superman isn't hot?" Wondergirl cuts in, raising an eyebrow when Kon-El makes a face like he's about to barf. "Objectively speaking, Superman is hot and I'm not even into guys."

"Besides," Beastboy chuckles when he saunters in with Raven, "The batbrood aren't actually related. I know—I've checked."

"Batman really does have a problem." Raven agrees, sitting criss cross in the air above where BB settles in a beanbag chair. "Maybe he's afraid of empty nest syndrome and this is his contingency to avoid it."

Ellie should have chosen the beanbag. Or the armchair that Robin took in the corner—even the ottoman.

Seriously, why did she choose the middle of the sofa—this is like the first day of class all over again, when she took a front row seat without knowing the downfalls.

Ellie wouldn't call herself shy in meeting new people, but going to a rich kid's school for almost an entire semester has shown her the error of her ways.

It turns out, playing charades and being happy peppy with random strangers who don't speak your language is completely non-transferable to making friends at school.

She's not exactly lonely in school, she's great at meeting people and being friendly and she has had exactly zero problems with anybody; Making friends has never been the problem.

But being friendly and amiable and easy to blend in does not make it easy to actually keep friends.

She can move from group to group, hang out with whoever she chooses and it wouldn't be weird—but at the end of the day? If groups are being made, Ellie's always the odd one out.

A social butterfly in the midst of bees in a hive.

"It funny that you think Batman has any control of his children." Red Robin smirks, dragging her attention back to the conversation at hand. Red looks over to Robin who rolls his eyes, huffing, but does not refute.

"I mean, Batman is kind of scary." Superboy the Second says. Ellie can't recall his alien name—maybe she can think of a nickname?

"Please, Junior," Oh, that's perfect actually. "You're giving us supers a bad name." Kon-El groans, leaning heavier onto Wondergirl, who smooshes against Ellie, causing Impulse to lean into Red Robin.

Red Robin tilts, but somehow manages to stay on the arm without any trouble—it's kind of impressive.

"No, I agree." Beastboy mutters. "All you bats are kind of terrifying, even though none of you have powers."

Robin bares his teeth in a poor facsimile of a smile. It's kind of nice, Ellie offhandedly appreciates that kind of ferality. And then the words register a half second later.

"Oh." Ellie breathes out, disappointed without realizing it. She slumps a little, before freezing when all eyes turn to her.

It's this second that she realizes she hasn't actually said a single word to contribute to the conversation—Mom, come pick me up I'm scared—

"Disappointed?" Robin raises an eyebrow, RR turning to look at her like shes a bug. "You don't trust humans to thoroughly beat you into the ground?"

That gets her attention yanked back to reality real quick.

"What??" Ellie croaks out, genuinely confused. "No??? My sister's completely human and she can kick everyone's butts here."

That seems to throw everyone off just as much as she's been tossed, which makes her feel better.

"Oh, you're one of those—" RR hums, rubbing his chin like Ellie's seen Batman do sometimes. "You really thought we were a family of cryptids?"

"I'm a ghost." Ellie shrugs, happy that the tension seems to immediately leave the room. "I just thought…would'a been nice to meet other supernaturals is all."

Aaaand of course, that makes everyone tense up again. Right. Death is a big Taboo thing to humans. She forgot—what did Danny say they should introduce themselves as again?? Shit.

Thankfully, Nightwing arrives shortly into the silence with a loud flourish and her brother trailing in right behind him.

Ellie isn't ashamed to say she perks right up, relieved. She's been kind of mucking this intro event right up and kind of wants to go home already.

"Who's ready for break out some of those good old introductions?" Nightwing booms out, jovial and peppy as he comes to a stop.

Danny—no, she should be calling him Phantom now—gives her a smile and a wave as Beastboy and Raven get up to join the other adults as they face the younger heroes.

"Welcome, your Majesty." Red Robin greets as he delicately steps down from the arm of the sofa to do respectful half bow with his hand open against his heart. Ellie is impressed—but then again, if anyone knew Realm's etiquette, it would be the bats.

Ellie does her own half bow, much to Phantom's amusement.

The rest of the young heroes scramble to straighten up as Beastboy and Raven do their own bows and greetings.

"Your majesty," Robin echoes, before clicking his tongue and yanking on Superboy the Second's cape to make him touch down on earth. He grabs the back of his companion's neck, forcing him to bow and doing his own half bow of greeting in perfect measure as the other heroes finally assemble themselves into their own bows.

"At ease, heroes." Phantom nods with a charmed smile, waving away the flustered younger heroes stumbling into their greetings. "I hate formalities with the passion of a thousand suns."

Immediately, all the young heroes collapse once more upon each other on the sofa. Ellie is once again, trapped. Damn, she was too slow.

"So, King Phantom." Nightwing gestures to the two groups of heroes, "This is Young Justice, and the Supersons."

"Is that really necessary?" Robin interrupts, crossing his arms as he leans back in his chair, clearly taking advantage of Phantom's dislike for formality. "We've met each other before, clearly we are able to work together just fine."

"It's important to get to actually know each other, baby bird." Nightwing chides, walking over to ruffle as Robin's hair. Robin, predictably, slaps the hand away. "Besides, you can't effectively make plans if you don't know each other's abilities and quirks."

"Plus," Phantom smiles as he beckons her over. "It's the first time you'll officially be meeting Spirit outside of a crisis."

Ellie, once more a little squished up, phases right into the ground to escape her captors. She takes that scant second in the darkness of the floor to breathe in and out, centering herself. Why is she being so awkward right now? She's traveled the world, she's never had problems talking to strangers before, even at school she's a certified yapper!

Then again, she's not scrutinized from head to toe there—her each and every action in school doesn't exactly reflect upon Danny's standing in the Justice League like it does at Mount Justice.

She scrunches her face, shaking her head to rid herself of her 16 year old sensibilities and shyness, trying to put on her well worn coat of 12 year old audacity. She pops right back up to come back into visibility right next to Phantom, who lifts an arm to drape over her shoulder.

He's shot up recently, looking like slightly leaner, delicate version of Dan—all of Dad's bulk with Mom's features, a killer combo for sure. Ellie's really glad her template is pretty and buff.

"Spirit has yet to choose a haunt of her own, mostly spending most of her time in the Realms," Phantom begins explaining—which, right. She's supposed to introduce herself as a Realm's denizen! She'll have to remember next time. "She's my one and only heir, so it's likely she will remain around Amity Park unless some other place catches her eye."

Phantom squeezes her shoulder, smiling down at her. It never fails to make her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, even though she cringes at the title. She's not exactly Princess material, but then, Danny thought he wasn't King material either.

"Your teams were chosen because of your proximity to each other's base of operations." Raven chimes in, quirking her lips. "Batman himself has given her permission to roam around Gotham, due to the high levels of ambient ectoplasm."

"Provided," Nightwing puts a hand up to stave off Robin's protests, "That she not meddle in Gotham's rogues."

"Scout's Honor." Ellie smiles to hide her nerves, trying to exude confidence with her chest puffed up and channeling Jazz with all her might.

"So…basically this is a playdate for the Princess." Red Robin surmises. "Under the guise of what, a teen hero gathering labeled diplomatic sleepover?"

"Way to make me sound lame…" Ellie grumbles, wincing. "Also, please don't call me Princess. I get enough of that in the Realms."

"Well…he's right, it is kind of a sleepover, and you are a princess." Phantom chuckles, patting her on the head once, twice before turning back to the young heroes. "Spirit won't actually be active on the hero scene. As a Realms citizen, we mostly just want you guys comfortable with each other in the event of a worse case scenario."

"That's all well and good…" Ellie says, drawing out the vowels as she thinks her words through, "But I don't actually know what we're supposed to be doing here."

Ellie tries to convey to Danny that she's never actually been to a human sleepover before, and judging by how his face goes all soft and sad, he probably knows.

"Watch a movie, chat a bit about school in vague terms, play some board games." BB beams at her in excitement, as if on her behalf. "Y'know, regular sleepover stuff, but kinda like a masquerade, with the secret identities and all."

Ellie reaches up, feeling the edge of the domino she created with her ectoplasm. Phantom has a sort of magic that's been set upon that prevents people from really looking too closely, but Ellie's never been comfortable with that so she had to learn how to manipulate her ectoplasm in ghost form to even be allowed to join as a hero—Jazz had been really mad at Danny for using "being a dead kid" as a crutch for his secret identity.

Good thing Nocturne and Ghost Writer knew a couple of spells…

"Phantom and I will be around," Nightwing continues, gesturing vaguely in a direction away. "BB and Ray are technically on call so they'll be with us for a little be too. We know you don't need supervision, but technically speaking this is a diplomacy thing so, we'll be in our rooms for the most part."

"Sorry if I'm cramping your style, Princess." Phantom grins with all his teeth, because he knows she hates it when he calls her that.

"Oh, you could never, Your Great and Woeful Majesty!" Ellie very dramatically brings her fist to her chest, stepping back and crossing her foot to bow formally, because she knows he hates it when she does that.

True to form, Phantom huffs, crossing his arms. "I knew I shouldn't have let you hang out with Fright Knight."

"Frighty is a delight and assigning him as my babysitter was the best decision you ever made." Ellie straightens up, jabbing a finger at her brother. "What you shouldn't have done was let me hang around Johnny 13 and Kitty."

"It's funny you think I let them do anything." Phantom laughs, "But that's good to know, now I know who to blame for that sass of yours."

Ellie scoffs. "As if I didn't get it from you."

Phantom puts his hands up in surrender, chuckling.

"I do seem to recall a certain Ghost King meeting Batman and calling him a crime-fighting furry to his face." Nightwing hums, bemused and rubbing his chin as if in thought.

The assembled young heroes start to burst out laughing,

"Hey now," Phantom says indignantly, "You're putting that entirely out of context."

"I don't know…" Raven smiles, "I'm pretty sure that's what happened."

"Weren't you only sixteen too?" BB makes a little thinking noise. "You were only Crown Prince when the JL tried to pick you up, right?"

"Patently unfair." Red Robin grumbles.

"Get good, scrub." Phantom shrugs, making Ellie giggle hard enough to float a little.

Beeps start to ring out, one by one, and the adults straighten up and answer their comms. Raven and Beastboy seem to sigh in unison.

"Duty calls," Raven drawls, putting away her communicator and pulling up her hood.

"Have fun, kiddos!" Beastboy grins with all his animal teeth, waving as Raven's inky black magic covers and vanishes them.

"I think that's our cue, too." Phantom nudges Nightwing in the shoulder, "We still need to go over those accords Batman drew up for me, and I'm sure the kids can't wait for us to get outta their hair."

"Right, right. Well!" Nightwing puts his hands on his hips. "Babybirds, you know the rules. Have fun!"

Phantom gives Ellie a little peck to her temple, squeezing her shoulder in comfort one last time before walking away.

Ellie watches them leave in a nervous kind of titter, trying not to fidget as she's suddenly left alone to fend for herself.

Of course, teenagers being teenagers regardless of their hero status, they don't leave her alone for too long.

"So is King Phantom like, your dad?" Impulse asks dashing away for a split second and coming back with an armful of snacks.

"Not…exactly." Ellie makes a face. She's not ashamed of her past, but she doesn't really want to get into her origin story on her first official meeting. "He's more my brother? I guess."

"But you're his heir?" Wondergirl grabs a bag of chips from Impulse's pile to open one up herself. "Doesn't Phantom have a consort?"

"Belladonna." Robin nods, already looking bored and annoyed with everything. "She has been working with Poison Ivy on the new recycling program Star City has been trying to implement."

"Yeah?" Ellie walks a little closer to the group, taking a seat on the rug instead of joining whatever cuddle puddle the YJ team is attempting.

Junior takes a seat on the floor with her, leaning back against Robin's armchair, completing the little circle they have going on. Kon-El tosses her a pillow, and she hugs it to her in comfort.

"If they have kids," Wondergirl elaborates, "Will they take over as his heir?""

"Oh!" Ellie breathes a sigh of relief. "No, that's not how it works in the Realms."

"How does it work?" Kon-El asks as steals a chip from Wondergirl, much to her chagrin.

"There's a…" Ellie hedges, kind of embarrassed. "Well, a rite of succession."

"Like that Klingon ritual?" Kon-El asks, to which Red Robin sighs the sigh of a long suffering friend.

"Ignore him." Red takes pity on her, giving her the out. "Is it confidential?"

"It's not that," Ellie hastily says, "I'm just, It's a little…I'm surprised you guys don't already know?"

"Spit it out, Spirit." Robin sneers. "Clearly, we do not."

Ellie sighs, mumbling.

"Whatwasthat?" Impulse's words cut through her.

Ellie sighs again, enunciating her words. "It's by Rite of Single Combat."

There's a long silence then. Kon-El whistling as if he's impressed.

"What does that mean?" Junior stage whispers to Robin, who clicks his tongue again.

"It means she will have to battle Phantom for the crown." Robin explains, far more patiently than she expected him too.

"Wait, but then, why is she already named heir if she has to fight for the crown? What if someone's stronger?"

Ellie flushes, curling up with her throw pillow and blocking out the looks Young Justice are giving her.

"It means," Robin grits out, "That she is strong enough that it is already likely she will overtake him in the future. Do you know nothing, Superboy?"

"But that's so…" Junior makes a face. "No offense, but you're like really young still, and isn't the Realms super big?"

Ellie groans, leaning back to starfish completely on the floor. She'd rather face the ceiling than be here right now. So far, this sleepover is the pits.

"My brother and I are kinda…special. And the Avatar of Time really really likes us."

A long silence. She decides she might as well go for broke, if anyone can understand the train wreck that is her life, it might as well be these heroes."

"I call him grampy. He's been trying to get Phantom to call him grandpa since I was twelve, but so far my brother is winning by calling him Old Fart. Grampy's kind of depressed about it."

"Grampy." Red's voice flattens, probably in shock. "You call the Avatar of Time, grampy."

"I've never felt more attracted to a man than I have now." Wondergirl breathes, "And I'm lesbian. He really—to Kronos' face???"

"Yeah, Phantom's my hero." Ellie smiles, proud of her brother and finally sitting up. "But enough about that. I know this is probably the last thing you guys wanted, being forced to socialize with a…." Ellie winces, "princess. But I promise I don't bite."

Robin side eyes her, which is fair. Last time they saw each other Ellie bit straight through a batarang. She grins at him with all her teeth, which he raises an eyebrow at but doesn't comment any further.

She thinks that's a good sign, from him. It kind of makes her want to bite something.

"Are you kidding?" Impulse bundles up his copious amount of now empty snack packages and dashes away for a second to toss them out, presumably. "It's usually just us four at Mount Justice, so it's nice to have company."

"Plus, even though Phantom's been active in the League for a couple years now, we know basically nothing about the Realms because it took so long to get the ECTO Acts overturned." Red Robin smiles at her, no doubt noticing how uncomfortable she's been. "As long as you're okay with the 20 questions treatment."

Ellie shrugs, better 20 questions than something like Spin the Bottle. Ellie's heard the horror stories from Jazz and she's not exactly sure where she stands on kissing strangers yet. Truth or Dare sounds kind of fun though.

"I heard you know Lady Pandora personally." Wondergirl chimes in, leaning forward a bit. "I kinda wanna hear more. Does she really have four arms?"

"She does! Wicked sword play too." Ellie grins, finally on some stable footing. "She's my weapons instructor."

"Did Phantom assign you instructors because you're his heir?" Red, who has somehow re-aquired his tablet, thinks aloud. "Considering the rite of succession, it must be the first time this kind of thing has been done."

"That's right," Ellie blinks in surprise, though she really shouldn't be. Jazz had said the bats were the one to be careful of the most when it came to secrets. "Most Kings take the throne by surprise, or necessity like it was in my brother's case. I'm the first one to take classes before succession."

"Must be a lotta pressure, being the first." Kon-El's voice is low, like he's thinking about something else. Which reminds her.

"It kind of is? But Phantom made it easy for me—paved the way." Ellie tries to sound nonchalant, "I'm lucky in that regard—I didn't have the be the first Realm's denizen hero, or Ghost Princess, or even," Ellie takes a deep breath, "Or even the first clone to become a hero."

The silence that follows that kind of hurts, even if she knows it's just for them to process the information she's given them. Jazz had talked her through this when Danny had dropped the news she'd be officially meeting Kon-El, with Mom and Dad reassuring her that she didn't have to tell anybody.

That no matter what, she was their surprise little girl. Pops had even went through the effort of putting together a presentation that, if the clone label truly bothered her, proved she could just as easily label herself as Danny's fraternal twin—just born 6 years late.

The science, apparently, was very sound.

"It's nice." Ellie keeps her voice steady, looking towards the archway that Danny had disappeared through for strength. "Having role models to look up to."

"Yeah." Kon-El breathes. When Ellie finally musters up the courage to look over at him, he looks like he's been weakened by Kryptonite. "Yeah, I'm—I'm glad."

"Was your progenitor Phantom?" Robin cuts in. "It would explain your complicated feelings regarding how best to describe how you are related."

"Robin!" Junior hisses, but Robin rolls his eyes. It's apparent even through the domino.

"It is a good question, Hayseed." Robin drawls, scrunching up his nose. "It is hard to tell with the spell he has to obscure his face, but you have the same," He flaps a hand, "…mannerisms."

"I am." Ellie puffs up her chest. "I couldn't have asked for a better template—he's real pretty under that spell you know."

"I couldn't care less." Robin doesn't say this insultingly, but more as a fact. Red Robin face palms at this, but Robin blithely ignores him. "It is more noteworthy that you are slated to defeat Phantom in strength—my clones were never a match for me."

"You've been cloned before?" Ellie perks up, fascinated. "All of my podmates melted. Were they brainwashed too? Phantom talked me out of my brainwashing, but my creator didn't exactly work too hard on that aspect—he just talked real nice and pretended to love me."

And now he buys her whatever she wants and gives science presentations to affirm her identity, all because he's in his dream throuple and became a changed man. Truly, her life is batshit crazy.

Robin nods solemnly. "My Grandfather was more…thorough in that aspect. I had no choice but to dispatch them when they came to kill me. Their molecular make up was always unstable anyway."

"Rough." Ellie hisses, "I heard that happens when the genetic sequencing—"

A loud coughing interrupts Ellie, Wondergirl looking very amused and also kind of heavily disturbed.

"Sorry." Ellie smiles sheepishly. "Pops is sort of a biochemist."

"They have biochemists in the Realms?" Impulse asks, somehow acquiring a muffin from somewhere. When she looks at it longingly, she gets her own muffin deposited into her hand within a blink.

"Thanks!" Ellie smiles, biting in. Blueberry, amazing. "And yeah, I guess? It's got all sorts of different people, considering it's the waypoint between all sorts of dimensions."

"What's it like there?" Junior's face scrunches up in confusion, "The more I hear about it the less I can picture it."

"It's very green." Ellie says through a stuffed mouth. Jazz would be appalled, "And it's full of floating islands."

"You know," Impulse thinks aloud, "That doesn't really…help."

Ellie shrugs. You can't really describe the Realms easily, so mostly she doesn't try. She tells them so as she chows down the rest of her muffin.

"Makes sense," Red Robin nods, still typing away. "Logic follows that a place made of ectoplasm would be very green, and floating islands aside if the Realms is a place full of different other places, then it would be hard to boil it down."

Wondergirl claps once, twice. "Alright. Enough of that—this is supposed to be a sleepover. First order of business should be getting comfortable and starting up a movie!"

"Race ya!" Impulse yells to Kon-El, and in a blink both of them are gone and back in their PJs.

"I was first!" Kon-El smirks smugly as he leans back sporting some black basketball shorts and a Wondergirl themed Muscle tanktop. The shorts have a little Red Robin symbol on the bottom right hem, and he still has his round black sunglasses on.

"Nowaynoway," Impulse vibrates, shaking Kon-El by the arm. He's sporting some Superboy pajama bottoms, thick and fluffy looking, with an oversized teeshirt that mimics Red Robin's uniform.

"Rob! Tell Impulse I won!" Kon-El yells over his shoulder, but Wondergirl and Red are already walking away and scoffing at them.

"Children." Robin sniffs, standing up to look down at Ellie. "Do you need direction to the locker room?"

"Oh!" Ellie smiles at the other hero's thoughtfulness. "No, I can just…"

She scrunches up her face, concentrating hard on the image of her favorite pajamas: Black pajama shorts with white stripes running along the side with Phantom's symbol stamped at the bottom hem, green ghost patterned fuzzy white socks, and a white sweater with a DalvCO logo embroidered on the breast pocket she stole and cut to be a crop top.

When she blinks her eyes open, her ectoplasm has morphed itself into that exact visage. With, of course, her domino still in tact. She beams up at Robin, who looks at her and nods approvingly.

"Adequate." Robin's voice is curt, but she can tell he's fascinated. Is this guy liminal? Before she can ask, Robin has already turned away to stalk towards a different hallway than the others.

"Don't mind him." Junior says, looking soft and fluffy decked out entirely in robin (the bird, not the hero) themed pajamas bottoms and an old Daily Planet teeshirt. "That's him being impressed."

"Oh, I know." Ellie grins, sticking her tongue out a bit. In her ghost form it's a little forked, so she embellishes with a little hiss. "I can kinda taste chemo-signals."

"Neat!" Junior perks up, floating a little in her face and pointing at his own nose. "My brother and me can smell those."

Ellie and Junior continue like that, comparing powers whilst Kon-El and Impulse bicker with each other, occasionally whipping around and grabbing more snacks and pillows and whatever else they deem necessary for the sleepover.

Red Robin, sporting an Impulse long sleeve with Nightwing sweatpants and a pair of weirdly tinted sunglasses, rejoins as he chatters with Wondergirl, who is rocking a Wonderwoman sports bra and biker short set. Robin silently melts from the shadows in a boring ensemble of green silk pajamas—the kind fancy rich folk like Vlad wear—and what looks like a softer version of his domino.

Soon enough, Ellie's sunk deeply into a pile of pillows surrounded by heroes in similar states, munching on a pizza roll as the heroes watch the newest Terminatra on the big screen passively, chatter flowing around her like a warm bath.

Eventually, as all teenage movies seem to make her believe, the conversation turns toward romance.

Or rather, the difficulty of dating as a civilian, and the perils of dating as a hero.

"I just don't get it—how do they do it?" Wondergirl groans, pulling blanket after blanket on top of her to melt into a fluffy pile.

"Do what?" Ellie is only half paying attention, Terminatra has just blown up a building and is executing a beat down she thinks Sam's mimicked on Skulker three weeks ago.

"Date civilians." Impulse answers absentmindedly—like this has been a topic brought up countless times before. "Flash the first is managing it, but he told his wife his identity before they got married, so we're not sure if it counts."

"Superman managed it." Kon-El tosses a piece of candy up in the air, which Junior dutifully catches with his mouth. "But then, his mom kind of knew Supe's identity before they started dating."

"I'm telling her that." Junior gleefully cuts in, "I'm telling mom you didn't call her mom!"

"Wait—don't!" Kon-El lunges as Junior pulls out a phone, both of them tussling about as they chase each other around the room.

"What about Batman?" Impulse turns to Red Robin. The rest of Young Justice ignores the commotion, even when the sofa gets scooched over 5 feet in result. "I feel like I hear about him dating, but it's always vague or, like, about rogues."

Red and Robin share a flat look. If Ellie couldn't taste chemo-signals, she wouldn't have been able to tell that they're kind of miserable and comisserating with each other.

"Batman…dates." Red carefully chooses his words. "I mean. You've seen…well—"

"Wait—are you telling me those are real?" Wondergirl eagerly jumps in, "You're telling me those aren't just a cover?"

"Father is, for lack of a better term, sincere." Robin grits out as Junior is tossed over his head. "Father also has terrible taste in paramours."

"Oh my god I can never look Batman in the eye ever again." Impulse whispers, Kon-El diving over the couch to catch Junior's phone. "Oh my god, oh my god, Batman can get it. I mean I knew but—holyshitholyshit. Everything? Even the—the swing???"

"We don't like talking about it." Red scrubs a hand down his face. "They're mostly one night stands, so calling it dating might even be overkill."

"I believe the term 'friends with benefits' is more fitting." Robin sneers. Behind him, Junior has gained his bearings and has dived back over to reclaim his phone to tattle. "He has calmed down since acquiring children."

"Gods." Wondergirl laughs. Kon-El has Junior in a headlock. "I need Batman to give me pointers. How does he do it?"

"You don't want to know." Red and Robin say in unison. They share another look, Red wincing and Robin crossing his arms and huffing.

"I kind of want to know." Ellie finally interjects, drinking the hot cocoa Impulse brought her from…somewhere. "But not enough to press for secret identities."

"Right, sorry." Wondergirl chuckles, scratching the back of her neck. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Ellie tilts her head away from the movie, feeling relaxed and honey slow as the cocoa works its magic.

"Have you dated?" Kon-El asks, somehow apprised of the situation despite not two seconds ago tussling with his brother. Both of them are sitting prim and pretty in their respective beanbag nests. "How does dating work in the Realms?"

"Courtship is…complicated." Ellie slow blinks, trying to get her thoughts together. "Realms culture is inherently more, I guess, aggressive in nature."

"Aggressive how?" Junior looks terribly confused, "Like, yelling i love you! all the time?"

"Sounds terrible." Robin visibly shows disgust at that, which makes Ellie laugh.

"No, no." Ellie grins with all her teeth, "We fight, peacock around with our special interests, bring each other gifts and stuff like that. It just depends."

"Like, fight fight?" Impulse purses his lips, "Or like, sparring?"

"The latter." Ellie reassures with a cheeky little smile. "Everything is above board in the Realms. Mostly."

"Considering the rite of succession is trail by combat, this is not surprising." Robin hums. "Does it not create power imbalances?"

"Not really." Ellie hums, placing her now empty mug on a nearby table to buy time. She searches for the right way to explain. "It's not about beating your partner, or your friends. It's about physical touch. The more powerful ghosts aren't even really ghosts—they're concepts given form, we call them neverborns. They don't really fight all that much. Ghosts like to feel something, I gues."

"Are you not a neverborn?" Robin tilts his head like a little bird as he considers her. "You are a clone, so you did not technically die."

"I'm something different." Ellie doesn't elaborate, and the other heroes seem to accept that. Halfas are still a secret to the world, and Ellie will be damned if she's the one who lets it out.

"You never answered," Kon-El swiftly moves the conversation along. "Have you dated?"

Ellie thinks on that. She might be 16 but she's only actually been alive for 4 years. Most of that time was spent traveling and getting trained in the Realms. She's met a lot of people but never actually dated—wait.

"Oh, yeah, once." Ellie ponders she went on that study date with her classmate just last week. "It was in my civvies."

"I was wondering why you needed a domino…" Junior mutters under his breath. Robin shakes his head in disappointment.

"And?" Kon-El grins, excited, "How did it go?"

"It was alright." Ellie flaps a hand. "Nothing to write home about. We studied, ate burgers. We didn't have a lot in common."

"Why did you agree to the date if you have nothing in common?" Robin raises an eyebrow, unimpressed.

Ellie shrugged expansively. "He asked me if I could spare some time to talk discuss about a topic I'm very famiiar in, so I thought we did."

"So no crash." Ellie's thoughts churn slowly, crash must be some kind of slang. On screen, Terminatra was aggressively kissing the male lead with explosives going off in the background. "Was he cute at least?"

"I guess?" Ellie slumps further, mumbling. "I like how he tasted, at least."

"Tasted?" Wondergirl is suddenly pressing both hands on her pillow haven, looking down at her upside down. "You kissed???"

"What? No!" Ellie squeaks, bringing her hands up as if trying to physically stop her accusation.

"She tastes chemo-signals!" Junior pipes in happily. He really is like a little puppy. She really misses Cujo.

"So he asked about something you like and, uh, tastes nice," Wondergirl leans back, only for Kon-El to fill up the space above her, floating. "And you had burgers—what went wrong?"

"Nothing went wrong." Ellie wipes her face, already exhausted despite this short conversation. "We just didn't click. We talked about the thing, but nothing else. Which was the point, I guess."

"Are you sure it was a date?" Red interjects, looking doubtful. "Sounds more like he just wanted information."

"He paid for everything," Ellie shrugs in a what else am I supposed to think? gesture. "Picked me up and insisted on holding open doors."

"O-kay." Kon-El draws out the a in confusion. "That does sound like a date."

"It was a boring one, in any case." Ellie closes her eyes sighing. She's not exactly disappointed, as she didn't have any expectations going in. Especially, if she's being honest, when she didn't realize it could have been a date until halfway through.

It's just that she's a teenager, and maybe she should be more excited about these kinds of things.

Sam and Danny started their relationship with high school study dates, after all. Jazz had a couple of boyfriends at her ages, didn't she? Mom and Dad started out in college though, so maybe it's fine?

The conversation starts to move on to Red Robin's love life, the only one who has been successful as this point. Apparently, his boyfriend is studying abroad for his last year in college and they are discussing opening the relationship up.

Kon-El looks far to invested for it to be considered normal. Maybe they have a thing going on?

"What was the topic?" Robin's voice suddenly cuts through the chatter.

"Hm?" Ellie hums, breathing in. Robin kind of tastes spicy. Curious, deadly. She wonders if this is him relaxed. "Oh, cryogenics."

Robin's voice goes flat. "Cryogenetics."

"Mhm. You know anything about it?" Ellie did most of the talking with her classmate, so the study date wasn't even really productive for her even if she enjoyed feeling smart and informed for once. Robin seems like a smart guy, maybe he can teach her some things?

"I do." There's something going on with Robin. Like he's trying to figure something out. "I quite like Radebaugh's paper on cryocoolers specifically."

"Oh, hey." Ellie beams up at him, happy to have found someone else interested in the subject. "Me too! That paper on utilizing cryocoolers to superconduct aircraft generators and engines is actually a huge part of how I got into this field of interest."

Robin nods, looking pensive and tasting….conflicted and maybe even angry. A taste of the air doesn't really help—chemo-signals can only get you so far when you barely know the guy and he's going through emotional gymnastics. What, has he never seen anyone be excited about superconductors?

===

Danielle Masters.

Spirit has a civilian identity, and said civilian identity happens to be the newest addition to Gotham Academy's ranks.

The same civilian identity that Damian bribed with burgers to teach him about cryogenics, and thusly assisted in thwarting Mr. Freeze's latest invention to almost terrorize Gotham at large.

The same civilian identity who, apparently, called Damian Wayne a boring date to his vigilante persona's face.

Spirit, irritatingly, seems to follow her brother's brazen footsteps very closely in this regard.

Even if it seems she doesn't know it.

"You said the date was boring?" Damian, through sheer force of will, keeps his voice level.

"Well, yeah." Spirit looks at him as if he is hard of hearing. "I did most of the talking, he didn't really contribute anything."

"Perhaps he is more of a listener?" Damian hums, focusing on the hullaballoo on the other side of the room.

Drake is, as always, oblivious to the alien clone's affections. At least Sandsmark seems to be trying her damnedest to make that happen, though if Dowd hasn't been successful in the past however many months Damian isn't sure anything ever will.

"Sure, but it felt more like I was a bug under a microscope than I was just…hanging out with a guy." Spirit hums thoughtfully.

"Maybe he was interested in watching you." Damian was most certainly not. He was, however, reconstructing what little he knew of Freeze's weapon blueprints with the help of Master's explanation of cryocooler technology.

"That's alm0st worst." Spirit deadpans. "What am I, a painting?"

"Maybe you make him nervous." Damian suddenly realizes he cannot recall what Danielle Masters actually looks like beyond a basic description saved in his head.

Black hair, pony tail customary. A bit smaller than average, petite but built. Blue eyes.

What did her face look like? He could pick her out of a crowd, surely.

"Doubt it." Spirit scoffs. "I bet he doesn't even remember what I look like."

Allen and Jon are playing some kind of tag now, which almost makes him scoff. He doesn't, but only because his head is throbbing from a headache.

"But he paid for your meal, treated you with courtesy, did he not?" That, at least, Damian is sure of. Mother and Alfred would be disappointed if he didn't.

"That is the bare minimum, my guy." Spirit gives Damian a look now, looking helplessly out of depth, "What's this really about?"

"Nothing." Damian holds back the sneer he wants to give. "I just think it unfair, is all. What if he is simply shy? Or stoic?"

"Then he can be stoic—doesn't mean he has to be boring." Spirit challenges back, a little bit of fire in her eyes burning out the confusion and leaving frustration in its wake. "My former babysitter is the epitome of stoicism, and he's not boring."

"Be more specific, what exactly was boring about him?" Damian demands.

"Why does it even matter?" Spirit squints at him, as if on the cusp of something. This will not do—it is fine if he knows her secret identity, he is trustworthy. But he still knows nothing about this Realm's denizen.

"It's a topic that I have a great deal of interest in—" Damian's mind whirls, "Batgirl is selectively mute!"

Spirit's eyebrows shoot up, before her gaze narrows upon him. "I said what I said."

Damian may or may not have let his anger and indignation get the best of him. He can practically see the gears turning in her head, connecting the dots.

This was possibly a mistake of seismic proportions.

"And I will say, that calling him boring is an affront, if not a bold-faced lie." Damian decides that if his siblings can be stupid, he can be stupid just this once.

It is practically family tradition.

Spirits gaze sharpens then, morphing into a sort of angered shock. "You—!"

"I what." Damian grits out, daring her to say more.

Spirit scrunches her nose, which Damian refuses to acknowledge it as something inane like cute.

And then there's a glint in her eye, her disgruntled expression melting into a innocent expression that fools absolutely no-one, least of all Damian.

"You sure feel strongly about this subject." Spirit begins, looking sympathetic and consoling, "Like it's something that affects you personally."

If Damian were the type of fool to sputter, he would have. But he isn't so he didnt.

"As much as I detest repeating myself, I must state again." Damian's voice is clipped, as precise as Alfred's trimming of Grandmother's Rose bushes. "My close associate is selectively mute."

"Right, right." Spirit nods, making a thoughtful expression as she rubs her chin mockingly. "And you yourself, you're a…man of few words, yeah?"

"I am." Damian straightens his already impeccable posture, tilting his chin up.

"And just as you do, I hate repeating myself but I will say it again: Being a listener does not make someone boring. Batgirl is not boring." Spirit enunciates her words, as if he is slow on the uptake. He feels a vein throb at his temple in annoyance, but at least she's getting it.

"So you are rescinding your previous statement?" Damian rubs at his temples, finally relaxing.

"Nah. my date was boring. And I've also got news for you, Robin." Spirit grins with all her inhuman teeth. Damian refuses to acknowledge how to sight makes him shiver pleasantly. "Ya boring!"

Damian blinks. "Excuse me?"

"As much as I detest repeating myself, I must state again," Spirit mocks in a surprisingly accurate approximation of his voice, "I said what I said!"

Behind him, Drake bursts out into laughter, the older teen having come up behind him without his notice.

This means war.

"I will not forget this slight, Spirit." Damian growls out, mind already conjuring ideas of revenge.

"Then don't." Spirit flaps a hand, uncaring as she flops back into her beanbag chair. "Remember and stew in your inadequacies."

Damian, without really consciously deciding to do so, pulls out a knife and stabs at her head. Spirit rolls a little, dodging inelegantly but somehow still smoothly, and looking at the sharp edge of his knife.

The laughter behind him cuts off abruptly, the tension in the room skyrocketing at the escalation.

"Robin!" Drake hisses, Damian can already see how he is reaching to admonish him. Admittedly, he should not have attacked a diplomatic guest during a—

"Now we're talking!" Spirit grins, flicking her fingers to grow some approximation of claws before she swings out, aiming for his neck.

Damian rolls backwards into a flip, pulling out a kunai in one hand and his wakizashi in the other.

The older teens try to call out of them but it is of no consequence. They quiet down easily enough when Spirit's eyes glow a menacing kind of green.

"I was wondering when the fighting would start." Spirit flicks out her other hand, both sporting claws now. "Usually we start with the fights in the Realms."

And after that, well. It would be rude to deny cultural rituals, wouldn't it?

As he tosses his kunai and dodges another swipe, Damian ruminates on how he will ambush her at school to make her eat her words.

He is certainly not a boring date, and he'll prove her wrong even if it kills him.

When she manages a solid kick to his gut, causing him to crash against the wall, all Damian can really think about is how, at the very least, it'll be interesting to try.