October 15

Cujo had come back from his trip to the Far Frozen about a day or so ago. They were sure he had made it since he came back with an ice sculpture of his puppy self. He also had a little pouch made to carry stuff around in which came in rather handy. In his new delivery pup pouch were answers to Alfred's questions, medication and instructions on how to take them.

Frostbite had given him pure ecto in handy little capsules. They are meant to feed his ghost half and redirect his system to work on healing the damage done over the time he ate way less than he should have. Something about a power imbalance that caused his body to more aggressively attack his human half than usual. While Danny didn't understand much of it, he did get that the pills will help him gain back weight and muscles at a faster pace. They made sure to keep a stash at both Selina's and the Manor for when Danny came over.

He also got a new training regiment that restricted him back to just the base 3 and minimal ecto manipulation but to avoid ice or anything else. With it he also encouraged Danny to spend more time in his ghost form and 'live as a ghost' to help with the power imbalance while his body heals itself. Dick had been very proud of himself for being right about needing to be more ghostly to get his powers back under control, but he deserved it.

There was a little extra note attached that was etched in a small ice slab. Danny had taken it out of the pouch. Before he could hand it over, the slab of ice shattered into tiny pieces. Danny barely reacted as he let the shards freeze over with his own ghostly ice and forced it to disappear before it could make a mess. Danny didn't seem to care too much about it. If it was something actually important, Frostbite would have noted it down on paper like the rest, right?

Dick wasn't quite sure what to make of that but he let it be since Bruce had asked him to be at lunch and he was going to be late.

During their meal, Bruce had asked Dick if he wanted to stay in tonight. A rare non-patrol day to just relax and maybe spend some time together before his simulation training tomorrow. Dick cursed himself for forgetting about it. Having to think quickly on his feet, Dick tried to decline. Supposedly, he's just so busy working on a case with Selina, you see. It's why he had been over there so much recently too. Bruce had immediately jumped to offer taking over the case which stressed Dick out even more. There is no case to take over after all.

Dick tried to play innocent, claiming he couldn't possibly let him do that as the man was already drowning in case work for the League, still dealing with the Injustice League fiasco and Ivy's mystery puppet master.

Bruce, however, insisted Dick take the night off. "Maybe another time, then. Alfred prepped the theater already so one of us might as well use it." He had left not long after lunch to go over to Selina's to 'investigate'. At least he was serious about the non-patrol night.

Of course, Dick had no discussion with Selina planned. A quick call later and Danny was over at the Manor. Not one to waste Alfred's effort, they had a lot of supervised fun making walnut brownies and apple crumble cookies. Well, Alfred helped a lot as Dick was technically still banned from cooking after setting the oven on fire last time. Totally not his fault of course, how was he supposed to know Toyman would attack right as his cookies were baking.

Flour and cacao had gotten pretty much everywhere after Dick decided it would be funny to try and make Danny sneeze. Apparently, making Danny sneeze when he's actively using his powers more on instinct and habit creates accidental ectoblasts.

Who knew?

One scolding and shower later and both boys were happily munching on their snacks in the obnoxiously fancy theater hall. Danny wished he could have shown all the stuff here to Tucker. The boy would probably have had a heart attack while Sam would be roasting Mr. Wayne for spending so much money on something so unnecessary.

At least, if they hadn't...Well...

He asked Dick to start playing the first movie before any more unwelcome thoughts entered his mind.

Dick didn't need to do much. Bruce had let it slip he prepared some movies Dick mentioned he wanted to watch a while ago so all they had to do was press play. The first movie was called Ne Zha, based on Chinese mythology. Danny never heard of it but it was quite interesting. They watched in relative silence, only commenting here and there as the movie went on.

"Wait a minute, you just wanted to lock me up in here!"

"No not locked up, it's a training retreat!"

"So I train and they'll still just hate me anyway. I'm better off taking a nap."

Dick had to agree, taking a nap did sound like a nice idea after all of that. Danny stayed oddly quiet.

"You are not leaving here until I say so."

Nezha scoffed. "Whatever." He took out the key he stole and started opening a portal out.

Without much thought, Danny muttered out a sympathetic "Mood". Unfortunately, it seemed he had quite horrible timing as Dick immediately started to choke on his brownie. Maybe it was better he kept his comments to himself. They watched on in relative silence after that, not risking any more choking hazards.

"Stop struggling. You were born the demon pill, why not accept your destiny?"

"'Cause it is not the boss of me. I am the master of my destiny. I'll be the one who decides and I will not be a demon!"

Dick's eyes broke away from the screen as he heard a soft sniff next to him. Danny had wrapped himself up in his fuzzy blanket, cookies long forgotten and eyes transfixed on the movie. Dick leaned forward a little, trying to see if Danny would react, but nothing.

"Why spare me?!"

"I told you. You're the only friend I have."

Dick wasn't even watching the movie anymore. He was more concerned over Danny as he slowly started to shift over again for the first time this whole day. Glowing green eyes looked on blearily while all Dick could do is worry, unsure if he should do something like pause the movie.

"I'm a monster. When I was born, my fate was sealed-"

"You're not listening! Your fate's what you want it to be. No one else gets to decide who you are! If fate comes at you swinging, then you hit back."

Danny wasn't able to hold back anymore. Silent tears turned into audible sobs as his hair also fully turned white. He was floating up softly in a ball yet still unable to look away even as tears freely streamed down his face. From what little he could tell, Dick figured Danny was gripping his left arm tightly. Maybe another compression bandage was needed. Could phantom pains even be triggered by emotional distress?

"You know, looking back on it, 3 years wasn't that long. I had fun while it lasted."

By now, with both the movie and the helplessness at Danny's distress, Dick was also crying. He tugged lightly at Danny's blanket, bringing the floating boy down enough so Dick could curl up around him. They let the end credits roll out, too preoccupied by letting out sobs and the occasional snotty sniffle.

"Why would you play that movie?" Danny finally spoke up, voice cracking every other word. He was still shaking slightly but managed to wipe away the last few tears.

Dick sniffled hard, rubbing at his own eyes as he let Danny bump their foreheads together. "It's not like I knew what would happen. All I did was press play." A silence fell over them, occasionally interrupted by a little sniffle until the eventual giggles started taking over. Unable to stay all too serious over letting a kids movie get to them as much as it did. "Seriously though, is your arm bothering you again?"

Danny looked over his arm. The actual scar wasn't visible as he was technically still in his human form but he could feel it burning underneath his skin. With a soft nod he let Dick pull him along as they made their way down to the kitchen again to look for Alfred. As Dick put on a new set of bandages with cooling gel, Alfred made the boys some hot chocolate.

"Do you boys need anything else?"

Dick looked over at Danny, letting his brother decide. Danny shrugged slightly, enjoying the smell of hot and creamy liquid gold in a cup. "Maybe another movie would help." Dick cackled as Alfred helped bring the cups back to the theater hall, not letting Danny carry his with only one arm not recently bandaged.

The next movie was Nimona, another one Danny hadn't seen but Dick swore there was a funny scene with a shark somewhere. Apparently a small clip was all it took for Dick to want to watch a whole movie so it was hard to say no to. They got comfortable in their own blanket cocoons again before letting the movie play, not holding back on comments this time because it couldn't get any worse than it already was.

"Hey, Ballistor, man listen. I just wanted to say, I know I've always been tough on you and I never thought you never belonged here..."

"And?"

"And what? Oh! You thought I was going to apologize for treating you like the trash that you are! Oh, that is hilarious!"

Dick munched on a cookie, breaking off a big piece to dip in his hot chocolate. "Wow he looks punchable." Danny hummed in agreement, stuffing a brownie piece into his mouth.

"Goldenloin! Goldenloin! Goldenloin!"

Dick cringed slightly as the onscreen crowd cheered. "Oof. Imagine having to go through life with a name like that."

Danny snorted loudly, looking over to his brother with a raised eyebrow. "Really, Dick, I couldn't imagine why anybody would willingly do that." He slowly sipped his hot chocolate, not breaking eye contact as Dick looked over incredulously.

Sputtering for a moment, the young gymnast failed to find a counterpoint before he finally gave in. "Touché."

"Arrest him! He killed the queen!"

"Some of us, don't get our happily ever after, and this isn't that kind of story."

Danny nearly threw down his cookie as he groaned dramatically. "Dick, what the fuck did you get us into now." Dick could only laugh and shrug as the movie played on.

"-and then we rise from the ashes like a fiery phoenix and overthrow the government!"

"You know, that actually does sound like fun." Danny wondered out loud, cheeks stuffed full of brownie.

Dick mirrored his brother, cheeks puffed out from the amount of cookies. Taking a big swallow, he finally retorted. "I could hack the pentagon again and see what they're up to this time?"

Danny hummed overly dramatic as he comically brought up a hand to his chin. Snapping his fingers, he pointed at Dick. "Keep that for tomorrow, today was bad enough already." Dick nodded eagerly, copying the movement before going back to stuffing his face.

"Because once people see you as a villain, that's what you are. They only see you one way, no matter how hard you try."

"Richard John Grayson, I am never letting you pick movies ever again. I fucking swear." Danny cursed half-jokingly, an accusatory brownie pointed at the aforementioned boy with half a glare.

"I only mentioned I wanted to watch them, it's not like I actively chose this!" Dick tried to defend himself exasperated. Maybe they should have checked which movies were in the playlist before starting this movie night together. Danny just grumbled to himself as he munched on the brownie in his hand.

"I was not moping! Knights don't mope. We brood. I was brooding."

The absolute chaos that followed was bad enough Alfred had to come in and pause the movie. Two cackling boys laid rolling on the floor, choking on laugher as they got identical mental images of Batman saying the same thing. Through wheezes they managed to get it replayed back to the right moment to show Alfred. The second they saw Alfred break out into a grin, they were on the floor again, failing to breathe from how hard they were laughing.

It took them well over 10 minutes to calm down enough to continue the movie again, wiping tears of joy away this time. They kept on watching, making a few more comments and just having fun in general until it got a whole lot less fun.

"I don't know what's scarier. The fact that everyone in this kingdom wants to drive a sword through my heart. Or that sometimes, I just want to let them."

They didn't need to voice it, a single teary look between them said enough. Both of them could relate to the sentiment more than they would ever say out loud. They've had to live through more than enough things from back in the circus and CPS that it wasn't all that hard to relate.

This time, the first to reach out was Danny. Sliding his hand out from the blanket cocoon on the side, he reached out under Dick's blanket to hold onto his hand. Dick gripped it back, interlacing their fingers in comfort for both.

"I'm sorry. I see you, Nimona. And you're not alone"

As what seemed to be a trend this evening, they were both back in tears. Dick opened up his blanket cocoon, letting Danny wiggle his way over and under his brother's blanket. Two boys under two blankets, wrapped up and crying. At least they knew they could find comfort in the other.

"Some of us don't get the happily ever after we were looking for. Maybe it's not that kind of kingdom. Or maybe, it's not the end of the story."

Both the sobs and ironic giggles were back, finding the humor in them crying over what would be considered a kids movie for the second time that evening. Neither of them had expected a cozy night of baking with Alfie and some movies would end up this messy. Yet, neither found it in them to regret it.

"Nini?"

Danny hummed, not trusting his voice just yet as he was still sniffling quite a bit from the snotty sobs. Dick pressed their foreheads together again, somewhat forcing Danny to look up at him. "Promise me one thing? Whatever happens, nothing separates us again. We're sticking together, no matter what. No CPS, no vacations in prison, not a single person, not even the League. Okay?"

Danny leaned back a bit, looking away from his brothers teary and swollen eyes. "Dickie, I don't think I can-"

Dick was having none of it. He leaned forward, supporting himself with one arm as he held up his left pinkie. "You're not allowed to break sacred pinkie promises, so promise." He pouted, tears threating to spill over as he stared at Danny.

Any pinkie promises were special but the left handed ones were sacred, as their mother always said. She said the left arm had a special vein that ran straight between the heart and the left ring finger. So, due to the proximity, any pinkie promise made was like swearing on your soul. Ones you can't ever take back or break, or else.

Tears had started to form again in his own eyes as Danny finally looked up again. Holding up his pinkie but not yet locking it. "Only if you promise me one thing back."

Dick inched closer so he could sit on his knees again. Using his now free arm, he wiped his face again and sniffed hard. "What?"

Tears spilled from Danny's eyes as he smiled up at his brother. He never wanted to lose this again, he would make sure of that, one way or another. He carefully hooked his finger around Dick's as he watched his brother start tearing up again. "Never pick movies again." Danny barely got half a cackle out before he got tackled to the ground in a tearful hug.