Chapter Text
You know, when Danny had (unintentionally) become the Ghost King, he hadn’t thought it would come with this much work.
After all, how much do the Infinite Realms need a King, when the last one was put in time-out for thousands of years and life (or, well, death) continued as normal?
Turns out, problems were just being noted, shoved into a corner, and ignored until further notice. Said notice being the arrival of a new King, apparently! Because what are Observants for, if not to observe?
In Danny’s humble opinion, Democracy is awesome, and the Infinite Realms had had a beautiful, wonderful, just outstanding opportunity to make use of the concept. But no, why would the dead and undead want to be able to rule themselves when they could just have a teenager do it?
So, here Danny was. In his Kingly, Ghostly, Ghostly Kingly and Kingly Ghostly office. Surrounded floor to ceiling by mountains of paperwork, all sporting a brightly colored ‘URGENT’ plastered on them.
Urgent his ass. If they were actually urgent someone would have dealt with the issue already. One of the Ancients, and Observant, a random shade taking a stroll... Who knows? Who cares? But someone would have done it.
Thankfully, at the ripe age of 24, and after almost eight years of reign, Danny had learnt the invaluable skill of delegating. The day, two full years after his coronation, when he realized he could organize and supervise the work instead of doing it all himself was the best day of his life, and afterlife! Truly, it was. He cried. Like a baby. Sobbed all the way to Jazz’s house. Jazz, who had thought he was already doing so, scolded him for being an idiot and right after congratulated him on figuring out common sense.
Nevertheless, not even his sister’s harsh, rude remarks could have brought him down, and since then, his life got a whole lot easier.
Until now, that is.
Danny, in not-so-full kingly regalia, pinched the bridge of his nose. “You are telling me.” He said, looking straight at the Observant lovingly nicknamed Jeff. “That there are whole tanks, pools! Of corrupted ecto, just- chilling! In the Living Realm!” He took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. “And some madman leading a cult of assassins has been using them to kill and/or bring people back to life, including himself. And NOBODY THOUGHT TO TELL ME UNTIL NOW?!” Okay, yeah, screw being calm, this was worth yelling a bit.
Jeff... Didn’t blink, but Danny felt that if blinking was an emotion, Jeff was blinking. “We deeply apologize, your Majesty, we hadn’t been made aware until now.”
To Danny, it sounded like fresh bullshit, but he had no proof of the shit existing, just the faint smell of it, so he let it slide for the moment. He took another, very deep, very calming breath. (Jazz, this does not work). “Okay... okay, I’ll take care of this myself.”
Jeff, the Observant sacrificed to this incredibly difficult task, flinched as if burnt. “Yourself?! But, your Majesty you can’t! There are many important matters in need of your immediate decree!”
Danny narrowed his eyes, standing up and moving away from his desk. “You and your peers didn’t say that the whole two years I slaved from issue A to issue Z213.”
Truth is, Danny is a very efficient King. His solutions are pragmatic, his orders just, and his mind empathic. Once he was fully instated in his role, thousands of years of piled-up almost-disasters had dwindled into a single room, instead of the hundreds it used to be.
Which, turns out, creates a Council of Observants with separation anxiety. Somewhere along the way, Danny had endeared himself to the Council, and like a very feral stray cat who discovers that they actually like human touch, the eye-headed dracula cosplayers now could not bear to have Danny out of their sight.
Danny knew it, Jeff knew it, the rest of the Council knew it, the Ancients double knew it.
And Danny was starting to get really tired of their clinginess.
“Look, Jeff.” Said Danny, crossing his arms and taking on a casual posture he was certain the Observants hated him doing. “There is nothing world-endingly urgent right now, I’ve checked.” Jeff twitched, looking as if he were going to protest, but Danny raised a finger. “Nuh-uh, don’t you dare lie to me right now, we both know I’m right.” Jeff deflated and Danny brightened, clasping his hands together. “So! I’m gonna go check out what in all the Ancients’ names is happening with this pile of sewage water. Probably destroy it, check on the people that were dumped in there, see if there’s any after-effects, and peace out back to the Infinite Realms. Got it?”
Jeff did not nod. Jeff looked like he was going to cry. Danny could not care less.
“Awesome, I’ll send a note to the Council chambers, that way you don’t get perma-dead for breaking the news.” With a flourish entirely for show, Danny did so. “Wonderful, I am now leaving, goodbye, Jeff. See you, eventually.”
Danny opened a portal to the Living Realm, to where he could feel the biggest ectoplasm supply and promptly stepped through.
What he was greeted with was... not pretty, in the least. It was... foul-smelling would be generous, to be honest.
The best Danny could describe it as would be a jacuzzi. One in which the water had cycled for 300 years on the side of too long, had several dead bodies decompose inside, and finally, as the cherry on top, in which someone had taken the fattest, smelliest, most disgusting shit known in the history of the Universe.
So, terrible.
Thankfully, it’s an easily solved problem! And solved easily it is. Danny waves a hand, makes a bigger portal under the corrupted ecto, and just like that poof! Done! Like it never existed on this plane.
Seeing as it is the ghostly equivalent of nuclear waste, Danny takes care in sending it to a part of the Infinite Realms he knows where no one resides, or visits. There, it will be filtered by the pure ectoplasm around... eventually.
Job done; Danny turns around to make another portal to the next place with enough ectoplasm to make it into his radar. And it’s another jacuzzi. So, rinse and repeat who knows how many times, until finally, he appears in front of a person, a horribly smelling person, but a... human? Nonetheless! Small victories.
Said person was wearing a green version of an Observant’s cape, and thus immediately on Danny’s ew list. The fact that he was pointing a very sharp sword at him wasn’t helping, either.
“Who are you?”
Danny ignored him in favour of looking at his surroundings. They were standing in a weird kind of throne room, surrounded on all sides by uniformed ninjas, who had tried to attack him no less than 35 times in the whole 17 seconds he had been there. Danny was starting to get with the program.
He smiled, making sure it was a little too wide, a little too teethy. “I think the question is, who are you?”
The man, who for all his power, years, and delusions was still just that, a man, paled. “I am Ra’s Al Ghul, the Demon’s Head.”
Danny’s grin widened, letting himself expand into his more eldritch form. “That’s all I needed to know.” As his eyes turned from their toxic green into a nebula, his torso and extremities lost their definition, and his crown appeared on his head, the assassins ran. Their master would have, too, if it weren’t for the ice encasing his legs. “For your crimes against the delicate balance between Life and Death, you are hereby arrested to await trial in the Infinite Realms. You are not granted a goodbye, or any final words.”
And Ra’s was indeed, not granted them, for he fell straight through to one of Walker’s cells, the portal closing immediately after.
Danny sighed, reining himself back into his more constricting body. When he managed it, he looked towards the only other soul still in the room. “Talia Al Ghul, I’m guessing.” He was not guessing, and they both knew it.
The woman nodded, words seemingly stuck in her throat.
Danny exhaled through his nose; he hated doing these kinds of things. “I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, your father’s brand of immortality has been confiscated.” She demonstrated incredible control by not giving an outward reaction. Danny would have been impressed, if it weren’t so sad. “Make better choices than him and we won’t have to see each other again.”
Talia, again, nodded, this time in a more determined way. Danny wasn’t sure where this would go, but he was willing to give her a chance to fly out from under her father’s shadow.
He gave her a small smile, opened a portal, and once again went to the next source of ecto-contamination.
Technically, his job was done. The source was gone, the culprit awaiting trial, and said culprit’s affairs more or less in order. The problem was, Danny was a bleeding soul, and he didn’t know what the side-effects of being in contact with corrupted ecto were. He couldn’t in good conscience leave without checking that everyone was okay.
Maybe he should have.
Because he now was in a cave, in front of Robin, who wasn’t wearing a mask, with Batman to the side of him, who also wasn’t wearing his cowl.
Suddenly the ceiling was super interesting to Danny. No wait, actually, yes it is, are those actual bats?!
He felt someone go through him in a flying tackle that would have absolutely bodied him if he had been tangible at the moment. He tried to ignore the inhuman growl that came out of, he assumed, Batman.
“Okay, so, I can explain.” He heard the shing of metal, feeling the air distort through his throat in a move that would have fully killed him had he, again, been tangible.
“Robin!” Came the admonishment from Batman.
“Tt. The entity already demonstrated we can’t touch it, I doubt a sword would have changed that.”
Okay, fuck that.
Danny lowers his gaze back to the literal kid, who was now sporting a domino mask. “Do not call me an ‘it’, Robin. Me being different from you does not make me any less deserving of common decency.” He tried not to glare at the child, instead turning his glare at Batman, after all, these kinds of behaviors were learnt, when one was so young. And it's not like the Justice League helped Amity Park when they were called.
“Who are you?” Batman’s voice was commanding in a way that rubbed Danny in all the wrong ways, nevertheless, deep breaths.
“My name is Danny, I am investigating sources of corrupted ectoplasm in the Living Realm, apparently, Robin is my next stop.” In the blink of an eye, Batman shoved Robin behind him, snarling in a way only a parent protecting their child could. Danny’s eyes widened. “Oh, oh Ancients no, no no.” He raised his hands in the universal sign of ‘I mean no harm’ “I’m just checking on the victims of Ra’s illegal use of resurrection... let’s just call it magic.”
Robin, who had startled at the sound of Ra’s’ name, moved from behind Batman. “Are you referring to the Lazarus Pit?”
Danny scrunched his nose. “I have no idea what you people call them. They were these green glowing jacuzzies that smelt like death.”
Robin nodded, stepping fully out from behind his father. “Those are the Lazarus Pits.”
Batman placed a hand on Robin’s shoulder, maybe signaling him to step back for a moment. “Were?”
Danny blinked, backtracking on the conversation. “Oh, yeah! I got rid of them, and Ra’s. Not your problem anymore, you’re welcome.”
Danny watched as Batman’s face contorted in an interesting mix of incredibly complicated emotions, while Robin’s froze in the same way Talia’s had, not even ten minutes before. Danny suddenly felt a lot worse. “Ah, sorry kid, didn’t know he was a relative of yours, I would have phrased that a bit more delicately. But he’s not dead! Technically.”
Robin’s shoulders lost a smidge of their tension, but Batman looked as if he were having a conniption. A very internal conniption. Finally, Batman lost a fight with himself. “Who are you?” He gritted out.
“I’m Danny! Nothing else needs to be said on the matter, not like we are going to see each other ever again.” Danny looked back at Robin. “In fact, Robin looks perfectly fine, it looks like the ecto-contamination is naturally ebbing from him little by little, there shouldn’t be any permanent side-effects.” Danny patted Robin’s head, turning tangible. Batman looked about ready to jump at him again, so Danny quickly opened another portal. “Okay! I’m off to check on the rest of the survivors, have a good rest of your life!” And he was once again off, and straight into a brick wall. Really, the one time he turned tangible to mess with a very angry furry, he goes and immediately runs into a wall.
“What the fuck?!”
Okay, maybe not a wall, then.
Danny looked up, and up some more, because he had, sadly, not inherited Jack Fenton’s height-related genes. And into the eyes of the hottest man he had ever laid eyes on.
The man’s face was something out of a dark romance novel, a strong jaw and eyes that were glaring so hard Danny briefly wondered if they were stuck like that. Danny’s gaze strayed upwards, noting the man’s tuft of snow-white hair on his widow’s peak.
He was also built like a brick wall, but hey, who was looking? (Danny was, in fact, he was staring pretty hard).
Any thought that may have formed took a permanent vacation from Danny’s brain, leaving behind an unfortunate mix of radio static and, somehow, yodelling.
Danny’s sense of smell was the first to wake up from his stupor. “Ugh dude! How do you smell worse than Ra’s?”
Wrong thing to say to the poor man who had been frozen in place, staring dumbstruck at Danny. It was, in fact, such a wrong thing to say that in the next second Danny found himself face to face with the barrel of a gun.
“How do you know that name? And what was that Lazarus Pit-colored portal?!”
Danny promptly went intangible. A bullet normally wouldn’t do much damage, but point-blank to the face? No, thank you.
Danny, once again, raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, let’s chill a bit, yeah? I come in peace, and all that.”
The incredibly attractive man did not chill, in fact, his ecto levels rose precariously high, a green haze covering his eyes for the single moment it took for Danny to notice and scare the corrupted ecto into submission.
The man almost fell to the ground, with the speed with which he backed up. “W-What did you do?” He exclaimed, perplexed in a way that made his previously scowling face much more open.
Danny decided not to approach, lest he freak the poor man even more. “That was me telling the corrupted ecto in your body to calm the fuck down.”
The man gaped, somehow looking even more confused. “The what in my body?”
Danny pressed a palm against his forehead. “Right right, you know the... um...” Danny looked towards the ceiling, muttering to himself. “What did the stabby child call them?” Danny snapped his fingers in a Eureka moment. “Ah yes, Lazarus Pits!” The man’s mouth closed, once again pointing his gun at Danny. Danny waved his hands in an attempt to not get shot (not like it would do anything, but the man clearly takes comfort in having a mean of defense). “No, no, please let me explain, then you can decide if you want to shoot me or not, yeah?” The man, after a moment of deliberation, nodded, but kept his gun poised to shoot. “Okay, awesome, so, hi! I’m Danny! I was... sent to investigate what you call the Lazarus Pits and the man using them.”
The man interrupted. “Sent by who?”
Now that the man was a bit calmer, his voice had dropped back to what seemed a semi-normal tone for him, and let’s just say, if he doesn’t shut up, Danny is going to keep getting very distracted. “Uhh, do you know what the Infinite Realms are?” The man shook his head jerkily. “The Ghost Zone?” The man once again shook his head, a bit more fluidly this time. “Okay, um, you know ecto-entities?” Another shake and now the man was looking at Danny like he was crazy. Danny resisted the urge to put his head in his hands. “Ghosts?” Danny’s tone was now border-line pleading. Thankfully, the man nodded this time. “Oh, thank the Ancients. Okay, so ghosts are ecto-entities, which means beings powered, or containing ectoplasm. Ectoplasm I have no idea how to explain, just think of it as ghost blood. You with me?” The man nodded once more. “Okay, good. So, ectoplasm is normally good, but the stuff the Lazarus Pits were made of was an incredibly corrupted version of it.”
The man interrupted once more. “Were?”
Danny was getting serious deja-vu to about ten minutes ago. “Yes, I took care of them, not your issue anymore. But that isn’t important right now. What matters is that you took a dip in them, and the stuff is clinging to you like gum. An emotion-based, very corrupted gum. Thus, you probably feel like shit all the time and your emotions, particularly negative ones, are all over the place. Am I right?”
The man didn’t respond to the question, btu somewhat lowered his gun. “Why are you here?”
Danny blinked. “I already told you, I was sent-”
The man cut him off. “No, I meant, here. As in, in my house.”
“Ah, so, I’m doing a bit of a tour. Checking on the survivors, seeing if there were any negative side-effects. You are my second stop, actually.”
The man finally lowered the gun all the way, losing a smidge of the tension in his shoulders and rubbed his face somewhat violently. “Your job is done, then, you can go.”
Danny made an indignant noise. Raising a finger and wagging it in a no-no motion. “Nuh-uh I didn’t come all the way here to see someone suffering and not do anything about it, dude.”
“I don’t need your help.” The man snarled.
Danny raised an eyebrow. “Uh, yes you do, bro, you look a bad second away from killing someone. Seeing as you’re a revenant, a bit of avenging is always healthy, but it’s usually only towards the ones who wronged you in life, not the average Joe that bumps into you on the street.”
The man looked a step away from a mental breakdown. “What in the actual fucking hell is a revenant?! Can you actually explain the things you say?!”
Danny rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish. “Sure, man. I’m sorry, I’m very bad at explaining myself.” The man simply grunted, looking as if he wanted nothing more than to pass out and forget this interaction ever happened. “Okay, so, a revenant is someone who died and brought themselves back to life through the sheer force of their will to live, and/or be avenged. They are usually victims of extremely violent acts.” The man’s face contorted horribly. “I’m not going to ask you how it happened, don’t worry, it’s a massive faux de pas in ghostly culture.”
The man sighed and sat in a sofa Danny was noticing for the first time. “Okay, so I’m a revenant, makes sense, nice to know how I ended up crawling out of my own grave.”
Danny hissed in sympathy. “That’s rough, buddy.”
The man sent him one of the most withering glares Danny had ever seen, and he hunched into himself. Remaining like that until the man sighed and relaxed his posture. “Sit down, will you? At least you made the Pit quiet for a while, this is the calmest I’ve felt in years.”
Danny sat down on the other end of the sofa, almost getting whiplash from how fast he moved his head once the man’s last words registered. “Excuse me, what? Years? How long ago did you die?”
The man looked a bit put-out but nonetheless answered. “I was 15, so 7 years ago, I guess.”
Danny put his head in his hands and counted to five. “Okay, this is going to look and sound incredibly weird, but I need to check if the ectoplasm is sentient.”
The man paled. “Sentient?”
Danny grimaced. “Yeah, ectoplasm is emotions, right? Emotions given liquid form. What happens when these emotions stay in close contact with a being capable of thought?” The man remained silent, clearly lost. “Osmosis, basically, you get, in this case, nasty emotions, the ecto gets capacity of individual thought.”
The man gestured for Danny to continue, still lost. “Which means... ?”
Danny once again grimaced. “Which means that 7 years of this close of a contact is definitely enough for the ecto in your body to develop a consciousness.”
The man’s eyes widened. “Are you saying I may be the ghost version of pregnant right now?”
Danny tried to look at anything except the man. “I’m saying it’s a definite possibility.” The man buried his hands in his head, pulling at his head and breathing a bit too fast, a bit too deeply. Danny slid closer, not touching the man but trying to transmit as much calmness as possible. “Hey, hey, it’s gonna be okay uh...”
“Jason.” The man said in between gasps.
“Jason.” Danny finally decided to place a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Look, you’re not alone in this, okay? The good news is, whether it’s sentient or not, it’s extremely easy to remove. If it’s sentient I can bring it with me to the Infinite Realms, if you want no involvement.”
If looks could kill, Danny would be extra-dead. “Fuck no! They’re mine!” Jason snarled before taking a deep breath, finally calming enough to continue the conversation. “I want to make this clear, if it’s a child I’m keeping it, I don’t care what they are or who or what you are, I will fight you.”
Danny held back tears. “I... am incredibly happy to hear that.” He sniffed, mind going back to his parents, and their rejection.
Jason looked perplexed, straightening up. “Are you crying?”
Danny turned away. “No.” He said, like a liar. “Well, a little.” Jason shifted, to do what? We’ll never know, because the next second Danny had recovered his composure and was sporting a happy grin. “Anyway! As I was saying, I’ll check if they are sentient. If they aren’t, I’ll proceed with extraction, easy as pie. If they are, I’ll have to bring you to my doctor, because I have no idea how to deliver a neverborn.” Jason once again glared at Danny, but didn’t have enough time to complain. “Yeah yeah, I know, I’ll explain. My doctor lives in the Infinite Realms, in a place called the Far Frozen. He’s also a yeti. A neverborn is a being ‘born’ in the Infinite Realms, or the Living Realm, but as an ecto-entity. They are beings that have never been flesh and bone, so to speak.”
Jason looked towards the ceiling. “How is it, that every time you open your mouth, you answer no questions and generate a hundred more?”
Danny placed a hand over his chest, offended. “Excuse you, I am doing my very best to answer your questions, it’s not my fault that you have cero background in supernatural beings and culture.”
“That’s... semi-fair. What would going to the Infinite Realms imply?”
Danny thought for a moment. “How about I check first, and if it turns out we need to go, I’ll continue explaining?” Jason, who had absolutely been stalling, did not look as if he wanted to say yes, but seemed to suck it up and nodded, turning his body towards Danny, who tried his best not to ogle at the eyeful of pecks he was getting. “This is going to look and probably feel... bizarre. I am going to introduce my hand into your torso. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt.” Before Jason could say anything in protest. Danny did just that.
Danny was immediately assaulted with a rage so destructive he had to fight for control of his own emotions. It was honestly a wonder that Jason was able to function semi-normally with this ball of rage inside of him. But the rage was merely superficial, and under it there was a deeply rooted fear... of him. He tried to move closer to the source of the fear, but it skittered away to the deepest corner they, no, he could find in Jason’s soul. Danny produced a calming rumble through his core, hoping to stop the poor thing’s panicked tries to escape. The baby trilling in question, somewhat calmer, and seemed to approach Danny’s hand. Danny smiled, chirping in encouragement, trying to keep the heart-wrenching sadness out of his aura. With a final chirp, the entity touched his hand. It was a mere brush at first, a shy and soft exchange of consciousness. Until it wasn’t.
The little neverborn latched onto Danny’s hand, starting to siphon and cycle Danny’s own ectoplasm through his form.
Danny gasped, breaking whatever spell the three of them had fallen under.
Jason, who had been sitting still as a rock, jerked back, throwing a now stuck Danny on him. “What? What? What happened?”
Danny gulped. “Okay, so, good news and bad news, which one do you want first?”
Jason threw his arms up in exasperation. “Who the fuck cares? Just talk!”
Danny nodded, trying to concentrate on words while filtering the corrupted ectoplasm as fast as he could. He was so thankful he was as powerful as he was. “Okay so, good news is I am now actively filtering the corrupted ectoplasm. Also, the good news is he is 100% sentient, so uh, congrats! It’s a boy!” He threw a singular jazz hand, seeing as the other one was inside of Jason in a very not sexy way.
Jason gulped, getting misty eyed for a moment. “And the bad news?”
Danny cleared his throat. “Well, there are somewhat bad news and medium rare news. The second one is a bit depending on your reaction, the first one is definitely bad news.”
Jason shoved at Danny as much as he could without exacerbating their position. “Can you GET ON WITH IT?!” He yelled.
Danny takes a deep breath he technically doesn’t need in this form. Trying to keep the awed tears out of his voice, seeing as in this position, Jason couldn’t see his face. “Medium rare is that I am now the other father.” He powers on, not giving Jason the time to process and consequently losing his battle against a wavering voice. “Which while I am extremely happy about it, I did not know could happen, I swear.”
Danny feels Jason’s sigh through his whole body. “We’ll go back to that after you tell me the bad news, snow white.”
Danny gave a wet snort at the unexpected nickname. “Bad news is, I’m pretty sure that the moment I take out my hand, little blobbie is coming out with it.”
Jason turned unnaturally still from underneath Danny. “... Fuck.”
Danny winced. “Yeah, um, here’s what we are going to do. I am going to gently try to extract my hand, if he doesn’t come out with it, good, we go to the Far Frozen. If he does, well, I rush you both to the Far Frozen for an emergency health check-up.” Danny finally manages to make eye contact with Jason, who looks incredibly overwhelmed. “It’ll be okay, in theory there is no danger to either of you. In fact, you both should be much healthier after we get you separated and filled with clean ectoplasm. Little guy is about halfway there. You should drink this.” He reached inside his chest, ignoring Jason’s strangled panicked noise, and taking out a thermos filled with his emergency ecto supply. “The moment I take (if I do) the baby out.”
“I have decided I hate you.”
That was fair, to be honest. “That’s a bummer, it’s gonna make co-parenting difficult.” Joked Danny, hoping to bring some lightness to the situation.
Thankfully the joke landed, and Jason laughed. “Can we please just get it over with? I'm freaking out over here.”
Danny would sweat, if he could in his Phantom form. “Uh-huh, yeah, absolutely, doing so now, let’s uh deliver a baby?”
Jason glares at him, hissing. “Do not make this weirder than it is, Danny!”
Danny whines, in the human way, so not to freak out the baby. “I’m sorry! I’ve never done this before and I’m freaking out!”
“And you think I have?!” Jason chokes out. Right before Danny finally tries to separate himself from Jason.
And the baby was coming right with, yep.
“Okay, so he’s thoroughly latched on, so, we are doing this now.” Jason unashamedly whimpers in despair while Danny uncaps and hands him the thermos. “The moment he’s out, you chug it, you hear me?” Jason nods, taking the thermos in a bruising grip. “Okay, I’ll tell you when he’s completely out, so there’s no confusion.”
Danny continues extricating himself and the literal child he has now acquired with a complete stranger from said stranger’s body. Encouraging the child the whole way out to keep calm and just follow him to the outside world. Thankfully, said child, who was now about 75% of the way clean, was more than happy to follow one of his progenitors wherever. The sight of the child’s green, glowing ecto being pulled out of Jason’s body was a bit disturbing, but hey, what birth isn’t? Before long, the cutest little blue eyes appeared, and behind them the rest of the blob ghost’s body.
“Now, Jason!”
Jason didn’t need to be told twice, chugging in a couple of gulps the whole of the thermos' contents. Danny, meanwhile, observed their now pretty confused son. “Look Jason! He’s got your eyes!” He held the little blobie towards Jason, who stared, wide eyed.
“This is straight out of a monster fucking novel.”
Danny gasped, cuddling their little baby to his chest and watching as he burrowed himself to further drain Danny of his ecto. “Little ears, Jason! You can’t say that around our baby!”
Jason seemed to take himself out of his stupor, shaking his head to clear it and attempting to move closer to their child, only to realize Danny had him pinned down to the couch in a pretty compromising position. He coughed, trying to dispel the sudden heat from his cheeks. “Do you mind... ?”
Danny blinked, turning his gaze back towards Jason, from where it had strayed to their perfect little baby. Once he understood the issue, he turned a bright neon green. “Oh, OH I’m so sorry, yeah of course.” He said, thankfully not scrambling, seeing as he can, you know, fly and all.
Jason righted himself the moment he could, moving towards Danny with an unexpected speed.
The moment he made eye contact with the eyebally-slime, his heart was gone. “Oh.” He said, trying and failing to choke back overwhelmed tears. “He sure does have my eyes.”
Jason was, for the first time in about 7 years, feeling a strong emotion other than anger. In fact, he was feeling a lot of big emotions. All at once. Which was incredibly annoying and panic attack inducing.
Danny, sensing his distress in the way only ecto-entities could around each other, placed a hand on his, giving him a squeeze. “It’s okay, it’s a lot to take in. I imagine that the clean ecto feels very different from what you’re used to.”
Jason just gave up, straight up sobbed. “He’s so cute. But he’s also been making my life hell for the past seven years, but it’s also not his fault, and I don’t know what to feel about all of this!”
Danny reached over to give Jason an awkward, one-armed hug, seeing as he was cradling their son, who had somehow been lulled to sleep in the commotion. “Hey, I get it the whole situation sucks. It’s okay to feel whatever you are feeling, just make sure you keep in mind the little blobie was as sick as you were.” Jason nodded against Danny’s chest, looking at their slumbering baby.
They remained like that until Jason’s sobs had turned into embarrassed sniffles. Danny procured some tissues, from, somewhere, and gave Jason one last squeeze, getting up and offering his hand to Jason. “So, I hate to cut this short, but we do have to get you both checked out. Like, an hour ago.”
Jason nodded, taking Danny’s hand and standing up from the couch, drying his face as he did so. “The Far Frozen, was it? How are we getting there?”
Danny smiled, squeezing Jason’s hand before letting it go and opening a portal directly to the Frostbite’s clinic. “The same way I came here.”
Jason took a step forward, raising his arms hesitantly. “Can I... ?”
Danny immediately and carefully passed their son over. “You don’t need to ask, Jason, he’s literally your son.”
Jason took their son in his arms, noting how he had the consistency of a water balloon. “Hn.” He heard the baby trill, happy in Jason’s arms in a way no one had ever been. His son’s weight was comforting and familiar, grounding in its warmth.
It was interesting watching his son sleep, for all intents and purposes he looked like a very big slime ball.
Danny, even though he hated to have to interrupt the moment, placed a hand in Jason’s lower back, giving him an encouraging nudge and then stepping in front of him and through the portal.
“Sup Frostie, you around here?”
Frostbite, in all his yetiness, stepped into the clinic. “Great One!” He said, arms open and a welcoming aura around him. He stopped short when he noticed Jason peeking his head through the portal, not yet committing to leaving his apartment. “I see we have a guest with us today, welcome!” Frostbite continued; a bit gentler.
Danny was thankful for Frostbite’s great skill in reading a room. “I actually bring you two patients I need you to do a full health check-up on.”
Jason finally decides to walk through the portal, looking warily around. Frostbite’s eyes immediately land on the blob ghost happily snoozing in Jason’s arms. “Oh, Great One, what a joyous day.” He said, getting misty eyed. “It’s an absolute honor to be trusted with your Fraid’s wellbeing. I also believe congratulations are in order, to the both of you.” Frostbite gave Danny’s shoulder a squeeze, before gesturing Jason towards a bed. “But let’s not dawdle, shall we? Please sit over there, my Lord Consort.”
Jason froze, looking at Danny in absolute bewilderment. “Is he talking to me?”
And Danny cussed, internally, because he had forgotten a big detail in his explanation to his... baby daddy? “Uh, yeah, I’ll explain... after the appointment?”
Jason sent him what seemed to be an aborted glare, walked to the bed Frostbite had pointed out while clutching his son tighter to his chest, not liking the unfamiliar location. Danny followed right on his heels, watching Jason sit on the very edge of the bed.
Frostbite started doing his magic, making sure to telegraph his movements and explain what he was doing before he did it. Taking into account Jason felt very homicidal every time the yeti got close to his son, he was grateful for it.
After about 20 minutes, Frostbite straightened up, clasping his hands together. “I am happy to announce you are both firmly on the path to full health.”
Danny’s eyes sharpened, moving for the first time in the entire appointment. “On the path?”
Frostbite cleared his throat, momentarily uncomfortable. “Seeing as the Lord Consort has been living so long with corrupted ectoplasm around his core, it is extremely underdeveloped. By consuming a healthy dose of ectoplasm every day and just being around you, he should reach full development in the next 2 to 3 weeks.”
Jason had many questions about a lot of that, but they had time... Later. “How about the baby?”
Frostbite brightened. “The young Prince is perfectly healthy, now that the Great One has helped his highness filter his ectoplasm. He should be turning into a more individual form soon.”
Jason and Danny blinked. Danny’s neck turned in a bit of an unnatural way. “What do you mean by that?” He said blankly.
Frostbite shifted, and Jason would have found the sight funny if it weren’t because apparently Danny was ghost royalty. “Think of it as a butterfly’s live cycle. It emerges from an egg as a worm, they feed, they spin a chrysalid, and eventually emerge as a butterfly, no? This is the same thing.”
Jason blinked. “You mean our son is currently an egg?”
Danny coughed to disguise a laugh. “I think it’s more accurate to say you were the egg, Jason. Our son is currently a chrysalid.”
Jason stared at Danny, perplexed. “You did not just look me in the eye and call me an egg.”
Danny snorted, and Jason would have probably tackled him if it weren’t for the fact that he was not letting go of his son for anything in the world.
And because Frostbite stepped in.
“Moving away from the metaphor, the young Prince should, let’s say, evolve into his actual form once he wakes up. Which should be in the next few hours.”
Jason (and Danny) made a gargantuan effort to not make any Pokémon jokes. They succeeded, but just barely.
Danny gave a great sigh. “Wonderful, that gives us some time to put together a few things, and for me to announce an indefinite leave of absence.”
Frostbite grinned. “The Council is going to abhor it.”
Danny laughed, nodding. “They can suck it, to be honest. I’ve done in 8 years the work of 3 thousand, even if I take a 100-year rest, they can’t say nun.”
Frostbite chuckled. “I’m happy for you, Great One.”
Now Jason felt like he was intruding in a very tender moment. “Um, not to interrupt, but we do have to discuss living arrangements and such.”
Both Frostbite and Danny startled, the latter looking sheepishly at Jason, who did not find it endearing. “You’re right. How ‘bout we go back to your apartment and make plans?”
Jason nodded, just wanting to be done with the unfamiliar environment. They said goodbye to Frostbite, promising to go back for a follow-up once their son was a butterfly.
Jason’s shoulders slumped the moment they were back in his apartment, while Danny grew uncertain. Noticing this, Jason passed his son over to Danny’s arms, hoping to calm him some.
It worked.
Danny took a deep breath, cooing at their son for a moment before composing himself and looking at Jason. “How would you like to do this? You could both come live with me in the Infinite Realms, we could stay in the Living Realm, or we could... live separately I guess, but I'd have to visit daily, young neverborns need their main familial relations around constantly.”
Jason pondered for a moment. “You said something about a vacation, right?” At Danny’s enthusiastic nod, he continued. “This apartment has three bedrooms, I don’t see a reason to live separately, and I do have too many attachments to leave the city, much less the world.”
Danny smiled wide enough to hurt, except that in his Phantom form, it just looked a bit too wide to be natural. “Thank you, Jason.”
Jason side-eyed him. “For what?”
Danny rubbed his neck with the hand that wasn’t holding their son. “I guess for taking all this so well. I mean, an hour or two ago you were a somewhat functional 22-year-old living their life. Suddenly I come swooping in and you now have a son you have to co-parent with a stranger.”
Jason smiled. “A royal stranger.”
Danny grimaced. “A royal stranger.”
“Who is incredibly bad at explanations.”
Danny conceded. “Yeah.”
“And who, even though they are in a pretty similar position themselves, has done nothing but try to help where they can.”
Danny’s face heated slightly, and he tried to avoid eye contact by looking at their son. “I’ve done nothing out of basic human decency.”
Jason scoffed. “I wished 10% of the world was as ‘decent’ as you are, we’d have a lot less problems.”
Danny looked away completely, embarrassed at having his actions acknowledged as anything other than a nuisance by someone from the Living Realm. “Anyway. Three bedrooms, you say? We should get started on a nursery, or something.”
Jason let it go. Sliding into a more professional stance. “I can’t go out to buy anything, nor can I order anything either, without my family finding out and breaking down the door.”
Danny blinked in Jason’s direction. “Oh wow, they sure sound overwhelming. But not to worry, one of the very few perks of being High King of the Infinite Realms is the manpower.” Danny moved to deposit their child back in Jason’s arms. Jason, who was reeling from the casual title drop. “Here, how about I go make some calls, and you think about names?” And just like that Danny was gone.
In Jason’s opinion, he definitely got the harder task. How do you choose a word which your child will forever answer to? Jason thought it needed to be something sentimental but would also fit his son. The issue was, as of right now, he knew nothing of the shape their son would take, much less his personality. The only things Jason had to go off of were Lazarus Pits, Pit Rage and blob ghost. Maybe the Pits, the Pit inside, Pit? No no, his son doesn’t give Mr Worldwide vibes. P.T.? No, sounds alien.
Suddenly the idea struck Jason like lightning.
Pete.
As in, Peter. As in, Jason Peter Todd-Wayne and Peter middle and last names to be decided with other parent. Eventually.
Mind made and with no idea how much time had passed staring at Peter, Jason rose from the couch, turning towards the hallway he had seen Danny disappear off to. What greeted him was a special grade of organized but absolute chaos.
There were ghosts everywhere, taking furniture, moving furniture, bringing furniture. Painting walls, repainting walls and placing decorations, toys and plushies around. In the middle: Danny. His presence was commanding in a way Jason hadn’t had the pleasure to see yet, his orders were carried without second thought, without reproach and with an obvious glee.
Jason hung back, leaning on the door frame and watching the whirlwind of movement from the safety of being outside the actual room. That is, until a ghost noticed him.
The ghost’s stillness generated a chain reaction of stares, until Danny himself was looking back at Jason and Peter.
Danny grinned, moving towards Jason and their still slumbering baby. “You’ve got a name?” He turned back towards the ghosts. “Carry on, I’ve given you all the instructions needed. Thank you again for your help.” With that said he gestured Jason to step back, getting out of the room and closing the door behind him. “Well?” He said, grinning a bit wider at a starstruck Jason. Who absolutely had a competence kink.
Jason shook himself, centering his thoughts around Peter once more. “This is Peter.” He said, holding their baby out.
Right in that moment, Peter’s eyes opened, and a bright light engulfed the room. Once Jason was able to blink the biggest of the spots out of his eyes, he realized he was no longer holding slime. He was now holding a literal human baby, a very naked human baby.
“Oh my god.” Exclaimed Jason, moving Peter back towards his body and holding him in a much safer way.
Danny meanwhile took two unsteady steps towards Peter, looking down at him with an awe that completely changed his face to one of boyish wonder. “Well, I’d say he approves of the name.”
Jason stared at Peter, who now looked like a two-month-old fully human baby. A black tuft of hair on the top of his head, and the same blue eyes he had as a blob, but the same chubby arms, legs and torso that indicated a healthy human baby. Peter stared back. “Danny.”
Danny hummed in question.
“This is a baby.”
Danny nodded. “I’m aware.”
Jason did not look away from Peter. “This is a human baby.”
Danny also didn’t look away from their very human looking baby. “What did you think he was going to be? An aardvark?”
Jason did not push Danny, if only because that could have disturbed Peter. “No, I just imagined him a little more... ghostly. You know, maybe with your white hair, or something.”
Danny raised his head a bit, tearing his eyes from Peter as if it hurt him to do so. “That’s cause I’m only half ghost. Close your eyes.”
Jason did not close his eyes, which, turns out, would have been a good idea, because he was now blinking spots from his vision. Again. Once he did, he swiveled his head towards where Danny had been. Or was.
Gone was the white hair and the green eyes, changed for ebony black hair and crystal blue eyes that had no business being as pretty as they were. His once snow white complexion gained a healthy mid-summer tan, and, to Jason’s amazement, freckles had appeared on Danny’s face.
“Ta-dah!” Exclaimed Danny, jazz hands included.
Anything Jason could have or would have said was promptly shut down when Peter made himself known once more.
By tearing his lungs out in the highest pitched cry Jason or Danny had ever heard.
This was going to be a trip.