raynewolfegirl

[raynewolfegirl]

Ghost king Danny gets summoned by Justice League Dark during finals week. It is the middle of the night, he has a physics exam in 16 hours and is bone tired and beyond done with everything and being summoned by a bunch of very powerful magic users who want to request assistance of the ghost king with some problem Danny didn't even KNOW existed 5 minutes ago is the straw that breaks the camel's back. And to his own mortification, he just starts ugly crying from all the stress.

The JLD are just as mortified when instead of the powerfull and regal king they were expecting to summon there is now a 18ish year old overworked and overburdened kid crying because they asked for his assistance. (The fact that the powerlevels coming off said kid indicate, that he is indeed the ghost king, and the ritual went just as intended, doesn't help.)

a complete 180 from “we need help” to all of their parental instincts going fucking haywire

[raynewolfegirl]

Ghost king Danny gets summoned by Justice League Dark during finals week. It is the middle of the night, he has a physics exam in 16 hours and is bone tired and beyond done with everything and being summoned by a bunch of very powerful magic users who want to request assistance of the ghost king with some problem Danny didn't even KNOW existed 5 minutes ago is the straw that breaks the camel's back. And to his own mortification, he just starts ugly crying from all the stress.

The JLD are just as mortified when instead of the powerfull and regal king they were expecting to summon there is now a 18ish year old overworked and overburdened kid crying because they asked for his assistance. (The fact that the powerlevels coming off said kid indicate, that he is indeed the ghost king, and the ritual went just as intended, doesn't help.)

a complete 180 from “we need help” to all of their parental instincts going fucking haywire

[raynewolfegirl]

Ghost king Danny gets summoned by Justice League Dark during finals week. It is the middle of the night, he has a physics exam in 16 hours and is bone tired and beyond done with everything and being summoned by a bunch of very powerful magic users who want to request assistance of the ghost king with some problem Danny didn't even KNOW existed 5 minutes ago is the straw that breaks the camel's back. And to his own mortification, he just starts ugly crying from all the stress.

The JLD are just as mortified when instead of the powerfull and regal king they were expecting to summon there is now a 18ish year old overworked and overburdened kid crying because they asked for his assistance. (The fact that the powerlevels coming off said kid indicate, that he is indeed the ghost king, and the ritual went just as intended, doesn't help.)

a complete 180 from “we need help” to all of their parental instincts going fucking haywire

[raynewolfegirl]

Ghost king Danny gets summoned by Justice League Dark during finals week. It is the middle of the night, he has a physics exam in 16 hours and is bone tired and beyond done with everything and being summoned by a bunch of very powerful magic users who want to request assistance of the ghost king with some problem Danny didn't even KNOW existed 5 minutes ago is the straw that breaks the camel's back. And to his own mortification, he just starts ugly crying from all the stress.

The JLD are just as mortified when instead of the powerfull and regal king they were expecting to summon there is now a 18ish year old overworked and overburdened kid crying because they asked for his assistance. (The fact that the powerlevels coming off said kid indicate, that he is indeed the ghost king, and the ritual went just as intended, doesn't help.)

a complete 180 from “we need help” to all of their parental instincts going fucking haywire

[raynewolfegirl]

Twin au where Danny is 100% confident that he isn’t adopted and that he ISNT Damien’s twin and he takes a dna test that Bruce requested only to be proven wrong.

[raynewolfegirl]

Danny is known in Gotham for being the one thing that scares the Joker.

Not as Phantom or anything.

Instead, as a random kid who will rush him on sight, yet never dies no matter what happens to him.

Meanwhile, nobody actually seems to notice him when he’s not attacking Joker simply because the percentage of black haired, blue eyed males in Gotham is extremely high.

(Bruce is going crazy looking for this child. They’re obviously a meta, but one with zero regard for their own well-being, and he needs to stop them before they really do die.

The rest of the family prepares a room.)

[raynewolfegirl]

Danny mistaking damian for Dani and picking him up by the scruff.

Dick thinks he’s about to witness a murder but damians ectoplasm is giving him the best vibes so he’s just hanging there, relaxed.

[raynewolfegirl]

Danny mistaking damian for Dani and picking him up by the scruff.

Dick thinks he’s about to witness a murder but damians ectoplasm is giving him the best vibes so he’s just hanging there, relaxed.

[raynewolfegirl]

DC X DP

You know those stories where Danny gets summoned and the cultists or villains want him to possess someone because it's their blood sacrifice or something? Everytime he refuses because we he doesnt want a meat puppet and why would they think he wants that?

But what if he does? THINK ABOUT IT. Danny can overshadow ppl and has done so in the past without issue or guilt. He overshadowed his own dad and teacher and even Dash to mess with him. It isn't like it's permanent and the possessed dont even remember it happened. So what if Danny is ok with overshadowing as long as it isn't for too long?

So he gets summoned. Say he's even more tired than usual and cause of that he's too grumpy to question his morals. So when they do the whole "o great mighty Ghost King" and "behold our humble sacrifice" shtick, instead of going through the routine of explaining to them he doesnt do that stuff or forcefully breaking the circle, he just decides it would be faster if he just overshadowed the very much alive human and went along with it.

So he overshadows one of the sacrifices. Overjoyed, the cultists start doing their weird take over the world speech and Danny just....punches them. This body doesnt seem as tired as his actual one and appears athletic enough to handle a fight. It even seems familiar in a Ghost sense. So he straight up just drop kicks the cultists, unpossesses the body and peace's out without sticking around for questions.

Leaving behind a very confused and concerned Batfamily and just unpossessed Red Hood.

[raynewolfegirl]

Short DP X DC Prompts #96

Red Hood is positively exhausted. Bats has been working him into the ground to find this strange new meta that has been helping clean up crime around Gotham. It’s been a week of relentless searching and they still don’t know a thing about this guy.

Taking a night off, Jason heads over to a local grocery store to stock up some food for his apartment.

Jason didn’t expect to see the ghost kid in his entire ghost regalia looking through the produce section and checking over a carton of eggs.

[raynewolfegirl]

Batty ghosts Masterlist

I’ve been responding to some prompts and posts with little bits of writing and tbh sometimes I lose track of them in the chaos so here is a sort of ‘masterlist’ I guess of the different posts I’ve responded to. (make sure to give the OPs some love!!). List below

Keep reading

[raynewolfegirl]

Batty ghosts Masterlist

I’ve been responding to some prompts and posts with little bits of writing and tbh sometimes I lose track of them in the chaos so here is a sort of ‘masterlist’ I guess of the different posts I’ve responded to. (make sure to give the OPs some love!!). List below

Keep reading

[raynewolfegirl]

i want to see the batfam just being people with random gothamites. rich people who don’t have to deal with crime (and therefore batman) call him a myth or legend meanwhile some random gothamite is like “??? i was wandering the streets in the snow one night and ran into batman and he literally bought me a hot chocolate”

most gothamites have stories about one or more of the batfam just doing random mundane / helpful stuff. nightwing will beat up some guys who tried to hurt you and then ask if you wanna get pizza. red hood hands out pepper spray and teaches people how to disarm someone with a g^n. red robin breaks into Wayne Enterprises and lets anyone who needs it stay in the lobby if they feel unsafe. spoiler teaches women self-defense, black bat teaches kids how to avoid detection/hide from bad guys. signal is the best at comforting people and always has a water bottle on hand. robin gives out knives and teaches kids/teens how to use them. oracle starts charity funds for lower income gotham residents and may or may not skim money from gotham’s elite.

[raynewolfegirl]

I heard someone on here send an ask about how the street kids would loss trust of Red Hood if they ever heard about how he beat up robin, and would never trust him again.

I keep thinking about the angst from everyone in that situation. The kids think they were tricked, and since most of them have only had bad experiences with adults outside of the alley except for Hood, they will probably have even more distrust towards all outsiders and vigilantes aside from RR. Tim feels awful for making it so the kids don’t trust Jason anymore, like he’s just caused more issues when he isn’t even part of the family. Jason feels like shit because the ones he swore to protect think he’s a monster, and is now also realizing how much effects that attack had on Tim as well.

imagine Tim trying to tell the kids he deserved it and their just like ‘damn, Hood is really bad.’ And making the situation worse-

TW: Child abuse implied

You are absolutely correct that Tim, by saying something like "I deserved it," would make the situation worse. One of the kids might even take that to heart and wonder if that means what happened to them was their fault too.

If it's closer to fanon Tim, he would feel guilty for Jason. Closer to canon Tim would either be indifferent to Jason's troubles or he'd feel glad (maybe even a little spiteful) that Jason is facing the consequences of his actions. He would, however, feel guilty for how the revelation affects the street kids.

It would be cool to see how Gotham as a whole reacts to the knowledge that Red Hood did that to Robin (especially the Robin that a few rogues are soft for). If RH is seen as close to the batfam, there may be backlash at the Bats for it.

It'd be cool if the reveal happened after Tim becomes RR and him and Jason are on the mend. Then, the angst would really be amped up (particularly for Jason because he now already feels guilt for all of it).

EDIT: I did a bit of a mischaracterization here. I clarify and fix it in this post

[raynewolfegirl]

Big Bad

Damian was not lost.  He wasn’t.  If only the streets of this filthy, putrid city did not look identically degenerate—

He wasn’t lost.  Unfortunately, his grapple gun was no longer working—shoddy workmanship, if it fell apart after being used as a makeshift club twice—and on ground level, all of Gotham looked the same.  His pursuers were catching up—Damian was fast, but no matter how fast he was, he was still eleven years old and his legs weren’t long enough to outrun adults.

There was an alley up ahead and Damian took the turn, searching for the fire escape so he could scramble back up to the rooftops and figure out where he was—but the escape was rusted through and hung three levels off the ground, and the alley was a dead end.

Damian strangled the urge to rant about proper fire code and turned to face his opponents.  There were six of them, fanning out to block his escape, and Damian drew the knife concealed in his suit.

“The little boy thinks he can fight,” one of the men sneered, raising his gun.

“I can certainly fight better than you,” Damian sneered, “Not that it’s difficult to be better than a pack of drunk, washed-up lowlifes.”

There was a hiss of fury threading through the pack.  Good.  Anger would make them sloppy.  Damian shifted in preparation, fingers tightening on his knife.

One of the men stepped forward.  The ringleader, presumably, glaring at Damian and the R on his chest.

“Do you know why they call this place Crime Alley, kid?” the lowlife asked, holding his gun like it was a toy and not a weapon.

“Do you?” a harsh, mechanized voice retorted.

Everyone looked up.

Damian took advantage of the confusion and lashed out, snapping one kneecap with a vicious kick, and disfiguring another thug’s face with a slash of his knife.  The crack of gunshots echoed around him, and when Damian turned away from his downed opponent, the alley was full of groaning bodies.

“I did not require your assistance,” Damian snapped, tilting his head back up to stare at Hood.

The older boy gave a half-shrug, still leaning over the edge of the rooftop, “Who said I was assisting?”

Damian glared and stalked out of the alley.

“Take a left, pass three blocks, and take a right,” Hood called out, “You’ll end up back in the East End.”

Damian ignored him, and took a left.  Five minutes later, he was back on more familiar streets, and he gave into the urge to look up.

There was a glint of red on the opposite rooftop and, as he watched, it turned away.

~#~

Steph had maybe possibly not thought this one through.  The warehouse she’d crawled into was empty, all locked up for the night, but she could still hear footsteps echoing around her and her vision was starting to get fuzzy around the corners.

She kept her arm pressed against the slash in her thigh and tried to breathe through the pain.  She’d been in the Bowery when she’d gotten tagged, and tried to lose her pursuers in the streets, unfortunately ending up very far from backup.

Everyone knew Batman didn’t come to Crime Alley.

Steph inhaled slowly and shifted up—Red Robin was coming from the other end of Gotham, at least ten minutes out.  Leslie’s clinic was a full six blocks away.

Footsteps.  Loud and deliberate.  Too heavy to be Tim, too brazen to be Batman.  Steph grabbed her taser and waited.

She registered the red helmet a split second before she pushed down on the button, and Steph exhaled in a rush, slumping back to the ground.

“Couldn’t announce yourself, asshole?”

~#~

“You must be ten kinds of stupid,” someone said as they moved to ring him, “To run straight into our territory.”

Dick kept his good leg straight and tried not to shift, lancing pains shooting up his broken leg.  “But this isn’t your territory,” he smiled, and tilted his head up until he could catch a glimpse of red at the corner of a rooftop, “It’s his.”

The Red Hood straightened from his position.

~#~

Turned out that body armor was not much help against armor-piercing rounds, and that someone in Crime Alley had finally grown a brain.  Jason limped through the alley, keeping to the shadows, one hand pressing against the wall as he struggled to stay upright.  His stomach was a mass of fire that tugged at him with every step, his breaths growing harsher and harsher.

He didn’t need to check the wound to know that he was losing blood alarmingly fast.

He could maybe make it to the clinic.  It was another two blocks over, and the world was growing hazier at a constant rate—he’d probably be able to knock on Leslie’s door before he passed out.

If it weren’t for the voices behind him.  Two, maybe three—or was that just the ringing in his ears?  Either way, the street was blurry enough that Jason didn’t trust his aim, and if they made it into grappling range, he wasn’t sure if he’d win.

But he could make it to the clinic.  Could stick to the shadows, ignore the splatter of blood he was leaving behind as a trail, suppress the shrieking agony and crawl to safety.

On the next step, a piercing sensation tore through his side, and Jason staggered.

Okay.  He couldn’t make it to the clinic.

[raynewolfegirl]

Au where the Waynes have to make a reality TV show because people get too close to finding out who they are. Everyone develops their public persona as follows.

Brucie Wayne:

Wears makeup all the time.

Really clumsy but has a quick reaction time regarding when his kids are about to fight. Yes, he can sense it from the other side of the house.

Mama bear, will panic if someone gets as much as a papercut.

Always wears dark colors because if he wears anything else he always manages to get them dirty somehow.

Will sing to pop songs, gets all the lyrics wrong except the chorus.

Glitter. He always wears at least one thing that is glittery at all times. He also uses a glittery bat-themed pencil pouch in his office (cass got it for him as a joke).

Kathy Kane:

A gay aunt icon.

Fashionable but in a classy way/simple enough to still fight if needed.

Will physically attack one of Bruce's kids to "prepare them for if they get kidnapped".

Damian's favorite, he will go ask her for permission first instead of Bruce. She typically allows him before looking at the camera like 'this is about to be good'.

Is one of the best at giving advice.

Will not hesitate to argue with Bruce's friends (the Justice League in their civilian personas) with the passion of a kid who wants ice cream.

Dick Grayson:

Nice older brother type/has answered to "mom" on screen multiple times before.

Knows all Disney songs by heart and will start singing them as his brothers fight.

The one who posts the most on social media and believes they're "in with the kids".

Is in college but tries his best to make time with his family.

Recites vines with passion as he burns everything in th kitchen.

Always wears "rich people clothing that compliments his best features".

Jason Todd:

Was announced alive before the show started so he's been here since season one and may or may not be the reason that they had to start the show in the first place because people were like, "oh, he could be Red Hood. . . wait".

He's normally the one who starts shit/drama on the show.

He has some of the best comebacks out of his brothers. And yes, most of them are along the lines of, "I died, bitch! I'll kill us both and drag you to hell myself! They love me there, unlike some people!"

Claims he doesn't remember what happened those years he was "dead" and says that he still have bad memory problems to get out of doing stuff because he "forgot".

Plays into the bad boy/street kid stereotypes.

Tends to yell a lot/doesn't have an inside voice for shit.

Tim Drake:

Tired heir to the Wayne family business.

Gets physically thrown around by his brothers (mainly Jason) the most.

Is intelligent but tends to mess up on the simplest things.

Always has coffee on him and when he doesn't he is either going to fight someone or pull a prank.

Is always working on "school" (cases).

Tends to wear more normal clothing because it's most comfortable but he has been know to fall asleep in full on suits before.

Stephanie Brown:

Sings the most out of everyone.

Will never hesitate to tip off one of the Waynes about another one if food is involved.

Is always trying new clothing styles and has rearrange their room the most.

Is the type to try something because they saw it on social media.

Is a ray of sun shine when compared to everyone else.

Is the best at jokes.

Cassandra Cain:

Communicates by sign language when she gets too frustrated/overwhelmed.

Dances the best out of anyone so no one ever challenges her.

Is a silent threat when it comes to pranks.

Has been caught mid-heist (when trying to sneak food from the kitchen) by the crew.

Has successfully stolen the most of Bruce's stuff.

Is the most common one to get tea first because everyone in the family likes her enough to rant about the others.

Duke Thomas:

Will not hesitate to pick cass's side in any argument.

Started a war between the Wayne Brothers without them putting together that he started it until that season was out.

The one who always make sure everyone eats.

Has pulled the most pranks on Bruce's friends (the Justice League's cilvilian personas) because they mistakenly took him out to be the most collected out of the bats.

The one who has the best insider information when shit goes down.

No one knows for sure if he's a Wayne but he has a room in the manor and is always there so people just assume Bruce took in another one.

Damian Wayne:

Took it upon himself to look the best out of all his siblings so he spend days researching on social media outfit ideas and how to do makeup because he's "better than everyone else".

Has showed an interests in fighting with weapons, the arts, and history.

Was very quickly assigned the "furry baby dad" title from fans because of the amount of pets he has.

Is still an angry baby but the family has found that he actually explains his side of stuff to the camera really well.

Experiences the most character development throughout the show as it takes place during his teenage years.

Has been caught uses "baby voice" when interacting with his pets.

[raynewolfegirl]

How to Become a Step-Dad in 5 Easy Steps: p. 2, ch.2/5(?)

Happy Late Valentine’s Day my dudes.

(This is Unedited, the cleaner version is on ao3)

First, prev, lore, ao3

~~~

It was a week later that Jason ran into his neighbors again. Or well, actually Red Hood ran into them. Then again “ran into” was a bit of a strong (read: inaccurate) description. He had more so observed from afar than ran into them per-say.

He had just landed on a rooftop when heard the sound of increasingly familiar giggles. A cold wind pushed against his helmet as turned to the source. Lo and behold there was the father-daughter heading on the direction of their apartment complex. It was about two blocks from their current location.

‘Well,’ Jason thought. ‘2 blocks off my normal route won’t hurt. I’ll just make sure I see them arrive safely and then continue on with my patrol.’

He watched as Ellie is rushed down the street waving around her toy space shuttle, eager to get home. She ran further ahead from Danny who had his hands full with groceries. He called after her to stay where he could see her and she just giggled and gleefully replied with and “Okay Daddy!”

Jason smiled at their interaction. He felt a sense of comfort and longing seeing such a close and loving pair. However, his smile faded as a pit formed in his gut. His instincts could sense was something off and from the corner of his eye he saw some movement in the alley the Ellie was approaching. As quickly and silently as possible Jason crossed the rooftops to get closer.

Just as Ellie reached the opening of the alley some two-bit thug reached out and pulled her into the alley. The young girl cried out as she dropped her shuttle. She called out to her dad in distress.

“Daddy!”

“ It’ll be okay Ellie! I’m coming! Remember what I told you?!”

Danny called back took of down the road trying to reach his daughter.

This seemed to calm her down as her fear became more manageable. She stop struggling and did her to glared at her would be kidnapper. Jason finally arrive on the roof top ready to drop into the alley and intervene when he witnessed a series of events that stunned him.

Ellie kicked the guy in the nuts with as much force as her little body could muster.

Which appeared to be quite a lot based on the sound that came outa the guy as he let go of her. Just then Danny reached the alley abandoning his groceries by an empty box at the mouth of the alley.

“Ellie!” He exclaimed reach out to gathers her in his arms. He held her tightly and stoked her hair trying to calm her. “ It’s okay baby, I’m here. Daddy’s here Ell. I’m not gonna let anyone take you,” he assured her.

The guy growled as he managed to get back up. He bagan to advance towards them once again with a switch blade in hand this time. Unfortunately for him he didn’t get very far in his plan to use it as Danny reached into his pocket and pulled out some thing labeled “Creep Repellant”. Just as the guy got close Danny pushed Ellie behind him, lifted his arm and maced the guy to distract him. The man cried out in pain and ended up dropping his blade. Then Danny pulled back and clocked the guy in the nose. He stumbled back groaning.

Danny didn’t give him another chance to regain his wits. He just turned, picked up Ellie, and booked it home.

Jason witnessed all of this almost starstruck by the way the how the dad handled himself and his kid. His major priority was making sure Ellie got out of the situation safely even if he had to abandon his groceries and Ellie’s toy to do it. Jason decided to make sure they won’t be followed by this guy. He dropped in and quickly knocked the guy out. Then he zip-tied him to a pipe and called for someone to come pick up guy up before he decided to hand him over to one of his Lieutenants instead. None of them would take to kindly to a potential child trafficker.

Jason walked back to the mouth of the alley and examined the abandoned groceries in the same galaxy-print reusable bags he’d seen Danny use at the store last time. He picked them up, along with the toy space shuttle, and took the back to the apartment complex. He left them in-front of Danny’s door with a note from Jason saying he found them in an alley and believed them to be Danny’s because he recognized the bags and one of the toys Ellie had shown him.

Was it a bit weird? Perhaps, but it could be played off as a coincidence and made more sense than the Red Hood leaving them on the Nightingales’ fire escape.

~

Later that night Jason’s brain kept replaying the image of a six-year-old kicking a grown man in the balls and her father proceeding to pepper spray and deck the dude. It brought a smile to his face to see that Ellie was well protected and evidently being taught how to protected herself too. He felt his fondness towards them grow once more. (He tried to ignore the part of his brain that kept replayed Danny’s punch and whispered ‘that’s kinda hot’)

~~~

About three days later Jason was driving home from the Wayne Foundation on his bike when his engine started stalling and losing power. He cursed his luck and decided to take a turn to head to his favorite mechanic's shop.

Ol' man Sammy had started the shop when he was still a kid and his grand-nephew Leandro, Leo for short, started working under him when he had just started out as Red Hood. They were good people who didn't mind acting as informants in exchange for Hood's protection. Nor did they mind the Jason Todd-Wayne showing up from time to time. As far as they were concerned he was another alley tyke grown up, now a paying customer and potential investor.

Last he heard from them was a month when Sammy officially passed on the reins to Leo and settled into retirement with his wife Avellana. Word had it Leo had been looking for a new hand around the shop and Jason had sent a couple of guys looking to get out of the henchman business his way knowing if Leo didn't hire 'em he might direct them to a cousin who would. He wondered vaguely if Leo ever did end up hiring someone. 'Well I suppose I'll find out soon enough' he thought pulling up into the workshop.

Jason pulled his helmet off, feeling a fresh breeze hit his face, and called out to the two men he saw working on a truck. One of them was examining something under the hood and the other working on the underside. He tucked his helmet under his arm but didn't get off the bike yet. He called out to the two guys.

"Oy Leo, compa! Is that you?"

The man inspecting the hood pulled his head out and gave Jason an impish grin.

"Oh man, Jasón is that you güey?!" The wiry, oil-slick man came over to greet him. Shaking his hand and pulling him into a half-hug.

" You here to get something fixed man?"

Jason slide off his bike and nodded back at it.

"Engine keeps stalling, I was hoping you could take a look," He then glanced back over to the man still working under the truck. " How's Ol' Sammy doing? I see you got the new hands you were looking for."

Leo grinned back, enthusiastic as ever. "Yeah man, he's new in town but good with his hands and a hard worker. Tio approved of him before he left. He and Tia are on vacation right now, went back to visit her family."

That's when a phone rang in the office. Leo sighed turning to Jason.

" Hey man I gotta take this but the new guy can totally get you set up. I'll be right back."

He turned and called out to the man under the truck "Ay chavo! We got a customer man! Come help 'im out while I get the phone!" before rushing of to the office.

The man finally pulled out from under the car and staring back at him were familiar blue eyes and a face smudged with oil. Danny grinned up at Jason as he began to walk over.

"Well hey there stranger, funny running into you here. Guess you must be friends with Leo and Sammy, huh? A real man of the people you are?"

" Uh, hey," Jason felt himself flush with embarrassment, his hand coming up to scratch his nape. " I mean yeah I guess so. I've known them almost as long as I've been able to walk so..."

" I'd like to thank you."

" Huh?" Jason met his eyes with a confused look.

" For finding and returning my groceries and Ellie's shuttle I mean. I got real lucky you happened to find them, otherwise that'd have half a paycheck down the drain. I'm grateful for what you did."

"It was no big deal," he said glancing away. He looked back to see a soft look on Danny's face.

" It meant a lot to me" he replied softly.

The two gazed into each others eyes for a moment before Danny turned his attention to the bike.

" You said the engine was stalling?"

Jason nodded in reply as Danny began to inspect the vehicle. After few minutes Leo emerged from the office just as Danny gave his verdict.

"It need a couple of new filters and an adjustment of the throttle position sensor and then it should be good as new."

" Perfecto!" Leo exclaimed walking out of the office. "You can handle that while I had out. Some guy in Chinatown needs a tow so I gotta take the tow truck and go."

He turned to address Jason. "You can trust Danny here with the bike, I wouldn't have hired him if he wasn't any good!"

He clapped Jason's shoulder before rushing out to his truck. Jason turned to Danny who shrugged and gave him a helpless grin.

" You got experience handling bikes?" Jason questioned.

" Sure do, I knew this one asshole back home who had a pretty sick ride. I ended making friends with him somehow and he taught me about 'em. I've already worked on a couple for Leo here too." Danny replied before walking over to the register.

" Here, I'll ring up an estimate for you. If you decide to leave her here with me I can have her done in an hour-hour and a half and you can pay when you come to collect her."

Jason decided he was willing to let Danny handle his bike. He figured he could just walk a block and grab some dinner at that Mexican-Caribbean fusion place nearby.

" I'll let you take care of her, like Leo said, he wouldn't have hired you if you weren't any good."

Now it was Danny's turn to flush. He fiddled around at the register before talking to Jason again.

" So can I get your number?"

" Huh-?!" Jason startled. Danny flushed even deeper and pointed at the pen and notepad on the counter.

" For the job! I’ll send you a call or text when it's done!"

Jason's face broke into a wicked grin. "Sure," he teased picking up a pen.

"Here's my work number," he said handing Danny a piece of paper. " And here-," he paused to write another number. "is my personal line. But that ones just for you neighbor. So don't go spreading it around," he winked.

He turned to walk out as he heard Danny spluttering behind him. And despite the expletives Danny called after him, he could do nothing to disguise the fondness in his voice.

~

Later that evening, Jason rode home on his newly serviced bike. He'd offered to give Danny a ride home but he still had an hour of his shift left and reassured him that he would be fine to make it home by himself. He took not of how well the bike was running. 'Purrs like a kitten' he thought. The voice in the back of his head once again returned to chime in 'Nothing like a man who's competent at his job'. Jason cursed the voice out, revving his bike and ripping down the street.

~~~

A few days couple of days later Jason receives a text:

"Hey its Danny. You run a soup kitchen with the Wayne Foundation right?"

Jason is instantly filled with concern. Did the Nightingales hit a financial pit fall? Was Danny hurt and unable to work? Did that creep stop paying his child support? He quickly wrote back to Danny

"Yeah why?"

"Ellie made friends with another girl in the building whose mom mentioned "soup night" was coming up and she came home and asked me about it.

I'm lucky that Leo pays well and Vlad's got plenty of money to cough up that we don't really have a need to go but I figured this might be a good learning opportunity to help Ellie understand both our and her friends situations.

I was hoping you had room for a few extra volunteers?"

Jason felt his worries melt away, just like his heart.

"We always have room for more volunteers

I'll text you the details"

~

That following Sunday Jason was organizing volunteers to set up the rec center he'd established last year step up for the soup kitchen. He was directing people with trays of food while his assistant/partner Irene ran through hygiene rules with some of the volunteer servers.

Behind him Jason felt the door open and a refreshing rush of wind filled the air as his newest recruits walked in. The daddy-daughter duo walk up to Jason and Danny gave him a little 2 fingered salute.

" Volunteers Danny and Ell reporting for duty!"

Jason gave them a soft smile.

" Hey guys, it’s nice to see you. This is Irene, my second-in-command. She'll run you through the serving protocols and get you ready to help. Danny you'll probably end up handling food while Ellie takes up resupplying utensils, plates, napkins and bottled drinks."

Danny smiled and ruffled his daughter's hair who giggled enthusiastically with a determined smile on her face.

" I think that'll work for us!" he said, turning to Irene who greeted them with a warm smile and led them over to her section.

~

About 15 minutes later Irene sidled up to him with a cheeky grin. Informing him he'd left Danny and Ellie with some of the other, more experienced volunteers.

" Sooooooo," Irene wiggled her eyebrows at him.

" Sooooooo- what?" he returned to her with a blank stare.

" When were you gonna tell me you had a crush on your new neighbor!"

Jason's face turned red as two more of their colleagues descent upon Jason having overheard what Irene said. Like sharks to blood in the water he swore.

First John, who was also one of Hood's men, whipped around and exclaimed. "What?! Jason you have a crush on your neighbor! What about Hood?!"

" For the 50th time Johnny, I'm not dating Hood. And its not a crush Irene!" Jason said in exasperation.

That's when Fern, the non-binary rec center manager, popped up behind him and said "What's this about Jason having a crush?"

Jason once again protested futilely that he didn't have a crush while Irene gleefully filled Fern in.

" Jason's totally got the hots for the hot, single, young dad who's volunteering with his daughter tonight! You should have seen how soft his face got when they showed up. And get this! Their actually neighbors and Jason's already been to their house for dinner!"

Fern whistled while Jason spluttered.

" How do you even know about that?!"

" Your crush let it spill while we were making small talk," she shrugged.

Jason groaned. None of them were gonna let this go.

"Come on you guys, its nearly time to start. Go get into your places," he insisted.

They relented but Irene shot him a mischievous look that told him he wouldn’t be escaping their teasing at a later date. Sigh.

Jason took his place in line manning the mashed potatoes. He felt someone nudge his shoulder and turned his head to see Danny standing next to him.

" Irene put me in charge of the green beans"

Oooh Irene we will be having words later!

"- and Ellie's been put on crowd control, which I think is just their way of saying she should take any kids done eating to the other room to play."

He smiled up at Jason, who of course smiled back.

"Lets do this" he said as the doors opened and their night of volunteering began.

~

It was a busy night so he and Danny didn't have much time to talk, but Jason learned a great deal just by observing. As his night went on he only saw more and more what amazing people the Nightingale's were. Thoughtful and kind without being condescending. Both Danny and Ellie were incredibly compassionate people.

Danny made an effort to be kind to anyone who came up to him and tried to connect with them in order to make them more comfortable. Ellie was a hit with the kids. She was strong-willed, outspoken and quickly took to speaking up for the shyer kids. She ended up amassing a little posse of her own. She made sure all her newfound friends got to try the foods they wanted and to get their turns with the toys in the game room.

As Jason continued to scoop out mashed potatoes and ignore suggestive glances and cheeky smiles from his friend he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and warmth. This was something he built through his efforts to help the Alley and he got to share it with two people he was growing to care about deeply. In turn not only had they shown an interest what he was trying to do here but actively sought to help others with him.

Jason took in the sight of Ellie leading a gang of smiling children. He made another sidelong glance at Danny, who was bonding with a young boy who said the green beans reminded him of a mythological creature. Privately he thought to himself that maybe Irene was on to something with her whole crush theory.

~~~ Thats all for this chapter. I do have some stuff planned for the rest of this section so look forward to that. Once again I welcome any comments or constructive criticism!