October 12

"Honestly, you should have seen him. Probably the funniest thing of the whole day." Danny laughed in between bites of an extremely high calorie pumpkin stew. The boys were back at Selina's, hanging out in their safe place while trying to fix the glove Danny fried. It had taken them a while to figure it out, but Danny's blood had soaked into the fabric and wrecked the delicate wiring. Even though the cut itself healed pretty fast, his ghostly blood basically worked as an acid as it ate through everything.

Dick pouted as he threw a few macadamia nuts Danny's way. They found it an effective way to be petty but also keep Danny's calories up. A win-win for both. He didn't mind that Danny had wrecked the glove, he had loads to spare. No. It was driving him insane how he couldn't figure out how to fully Danny-proof the glove without needing to start from scratch.

He tried extra padding but that made the internal system overheat too much.

He tried an insert but that restricted mobility of the wrist too much.

Right now he was on his 17th attempt at finding something that would keep the internal stuff safe while not being too restrictive. If only he could just go to Lucius and ask the man for a new glove with all his required modifications. That man was way too smart and would suss them out too fast. And if Lucius knows, it'll only be a matter of time before Bruce would know too.

He sighed, trying out how it fit on himself before deeming it solid enough to make Danny do a fitting test. "Okay, arm please." Danny looked over, cheeks puffed out from food. Holding the bowl in his right hand, he floated over and held out his left. He broke a lefthanded glove after all, which they may need to fix as the wiring for the computer are in the left glove but Danny is left handed.

Yet another pain to fix without involving Lucius.

Dick looked at Danny, shaking his head. "Won't do, brother. It's the ghost part that messes with the tech so I'll need ghosty-you." Dick frowned when Danny pulled back his arm a bit too fast for his liking. Danny let the magical girl transformation happen and tried to hand over his right hand instead.

Actually, now that he really thought about it. Danny always kept his arms covered when he was in his full ghost form and preferred his right over his left most times. Dick had seen the old bruises from the collars rubbing against his skin, he had them in human form too so that couldn't be it. If not that, than what could it be. He wore t-shirts around the apartment and at the manor before, Dick knows what his arm looks like. So why?

"Nini?" Danny had that look in his eye again, a silent warning he wanted to bolt out of the room and run off. Run like a wild animal cornered and fighting a fight or flight response.

Yet he stayed.

Selina came over too, hearing the worry in Dick's voice as Danny silently kept changing altitude at odd intervals. She took away the bowl from Danny's sweater pawed hand, helping Shiro into his lap instead. The cat therapy seemed to help calm him down enough to keep his altitude steady, but not enough for him to open up. Nanaki had wandered over as well, curling up in the corner Dick's shins created.

They sat in relative silence for a while, giving Danny the time he needed. Purrs filled the silence, becoming louder as Danny uncurled himself and petted Shiro. Ever so slowly he drifted down like a falling snowflake in the wind. With a small sigh and an adjustment from Shiro, Danny landed in Selina's lap. Without much thought, she loosely wrapped her arms around his middle, keeping a hand on Shiro too.

Danny looked up at Dick for a split second before looking down again. Nearly fully curling up in a ball again, he buried his face in Shiro's stomach before holding his hand out for Dick to see.

Only his fingertips were poking out from the hoodie sleeve but it already made Dick worried. He could see neon green lines angrily glowing against too pale skin. Gingerly he cupped his brother's hand before slowly pulling up the sleeve. Dick fought hard against tensing up or changing his breathing. Any sign of him freaking out would mean Danny could run or feel worse about, whatever this was.

The starting point looked to be the palm of his hand. In every direction, the glowing lines cracked and swirled across his skin until they faded out just before it reached his elbow. Dick slowly traced a few lines, mesmerized by how hauntingly beautiful the pattern was. How it flowed across his skin in such an intricate way without looking messy on such a relatively small area. The fern like pattern covering so much of his skin. The contrast between the bright green and the barely visible olive undertone of their skin. Dick couldn't help but wonder how they would look when Danny got healthier. When his skin got it's natural, tanner color back instead of looking like a walking corpse.

"It's from the accident that killed me."

Dick felt like he wanted to puke. How could he be so careless about it. Danny hated talking about the accident, especially the details. Of course he would hide it, who would want to look at the literal reminder of your death. He looked up, eyes wide and not sure how to handle this. Danny's face was still smushed into Shiro, what little he could see was unreadable.

Selina didn't look like she was faring much better than him. At least she could comfort Danny, softly petting his hair, but her eyes told the truth. She had the freedom to look upset and troubled without Danny seeing it. Something Dick envied at the moment.

"The old suit covered it. Didn't even know I had it until Frosty came for me. The, ah," Danny trailed off a little, taking a break to sniff slightly as he tried to nuzzle further into Shiro. "The suit used to be a part of me. It was just always there without me having to think about it. But when I had to go for ice training, it was gone." A small shudder ran down his spine, likely going through the memories of that exact moment. "Frostbite. He said a ghost's physical form is a representation of how they see themselves and what they wanted to be. He said I had lost the part of myself that connected the suit to me. So now everything just stays the same, just swapping colors like my hair does."

Dick let their hands fall down slowly, ultimately coming to rest on Nanaki as Danny kept rambling on.

"It doesn't hurt, if that's what you're wondering. Well. It does, sometimes, but what scars don't, right? Usually they go away after like a day, but not mine! I got to keep a nice reminder of how stupid I was." A wet, humorless cackle escaped Danny's lips. "It's sort of a no-go to openly show your scar in ghost culture, being such a sensitive topic and all. But mine is a bit hard to cover up as you can imagine."

Dick moved his hand overtop Danny's arm to cover it as much as he could. Refusing to look down any more at something so extremely sensitive to him. "You don't need to tell anything you aren't comfortable with, Nini. I'm sorry if I pushed you into it." He honestly wasn't sure if even touching the scarred arm was an okay thing to do. Letting go also didn't feel like the right way to go about it, however.

He nearly jumped when he felt Danny adjust his grip just so he could rub comforting circles on Dick's arm. "You didn't, Dickie. It was bound to come up eventually. I don't think running around in Gotham summer heat with a hoodie would have been a good idea anyway." Danny finally looked up from the face imprint left in Shiro's fur. Eyes red and slightly swollen, yet a soft smile painted his face. "You're my only family, I would have told you eventually. Probably not on a day like today though, it's acting up again." He cringed slightly as a small muscle spasm ran through his hand.

Dick nearly dropped it out of reflex but made sure to keep his grip soft. Now that he was really focusing on it, he could feel a very faint pulsing coming from Danny's arm. Danny's ghost half doesn't have a heartbeat, he remembered, so it couldn't be his pulse he felt. "Can I?" He asked, barely above a whisper. His voice as soft as his hold on his brother's old injury.

Danny nodded softly, not sure what Dick was planning as the boy carefully put his arm down on Nanaki. The black feline didn't care at all as his favorite human got up and went to the hidden panel in the bathroom where their vigilante grade first aid hit was. Bringing back the supplies, he rummaged through them until he found a cooling gel, gauze and bandaging.

Danny eyed him carefully, letting Dick position his arm as he needed. The instant sense of relief washed over him as the gel touched his skin. With clean gloves and extreme care, Dick spread it all over. From fingertip all the way up to his elbow. Next he covered it in some gauze before finally tightly wrapping it up. Dick inspected the makeshift pressure bandage he had set, making sure the arm wasn't too restricted or blood supply affected.

"How does that feel?"

Danny moved his arm around a little, testing it out. It did feel better than before, much better than what he usually tried to make it lessen. There was still a soft sensation coming from his arm but it was dulled enough to be ignorable now. With some hesitancy, he tried pooling some power into his palm. Slowly the energy morphed into a small ectoball before he froze it over for the cats to play with.

His surprise and amazement must have shown on his face as Dick silently beamed up at him. With a small snort Danny lightly floated up and gave his brother an awkward one armed hug. Selina, not wanting to miss out on her boys being adorable, came over and curled herself around the two, propping herself up on an elbow as they leaned into her. "Do you want to stay home tonight, darling? There's no need to go out of you're not feeling well." She reassured him, smiling as both boys and their cats nuzzled into each other in comfort.

Danny slightly shook his head, leaning into Selina's side as the other started softly putting a small braid into the side of his head. Maybe he should get a haircut if it really was getting long enough for that. "No, if anything I should go out. It helps to burn up some energy. Though I may need to use more than just the base 3 to stop it from flaring up too much until tomorrow."

Dick nestled himself against Selina's thighs. Pulling out his drawing pad again and working on a new sketch with intense focus. Glancing over to Danny he noted how well the braid looked with his wild hair, bangs still free to float all over but looking more defined now. "We could just stay in Crime Alley. B only comes here for short visits." He send a knowing look at Selina before he went back to his sketch, erasing some to add other details. "He completely refuses to patrol here. Plus he knows Mama has been going out with me so he can't really complain about skipping patrol either."

Another glance at Danny revealed the boy was slowly drifting off to sleep, Shiro and his bandaged arm clutched safely to his chest. Dick couldn't help but smile. He picked up his own glove and got it ready to record, a holographic image of himself displayed brightly. With practiced care, he threw up the glove enough to get a wide shot of all of them before catching the glove again. Turning off the recording, he made sure it didn't upload directly to the main storage of the BatComputer. Sending it through to Alfred's phone instead with a little update on needing a supply restock without explaining why. He'd add a reminder to edit it later to get a nice picture of them.

"Alfie said he complained about it but technically I'm not out here alone and Catwoman related crimes have been on a decline. Robin is out, Mama's behaving and of course nobody is around to notice the phantom vigilante following us. Pretty much no leg to stand on so he had to give in and allow it. So long as we stay here, we're basically Bat-proofed."

Danny snorted slightly at the bad pun, fighting to keep his eyes open. With a huff of laughter, Dick handed over his sketch pad to Selina before he got more comfortable as well. Selina's eyes widened in surprise but quickly softened as Danny nuzzled closer to her. They shared a look as Dick, too, let himself drift off for a little cat nap before they had to go out for patrol.