Chapter Text
Red Robin stumbled after the King as he pulled them through a swirling green portal in panic. He landed on top of the King in a pile of limbs, and both of them let out an oomph sound as they landed. Phantom sprang up immediately because Red Robin went worryingly still after they landed. He scooped up the vigilante bridal style and flew as fast as he could towards the Far Frozen. He prayed to whatever beings that might pity him or have any sort of mercy on him that he could get the other to Frostbite before he died.
As the frozen wasteland came into Phantom’s view, he began frantically yelling for his friend and personal physician. Frostbite came running at the urgency in the young king’s voice. When the giant yeti noticed the king’s burden, he held out his arms for Phantom to shift the vigilante into his arms. Phantom looked panicked at the thought of losing contact with Red Robin but ultimately transferred the limp form over to his friend. As the two of them raced through the medical facility, Phantom explained what had happened in the summoning ritual. Frostbite’s face grew grim and serious.
“I do not know much about these kinds of things, Great One. I think you will need to seek either Ghost Writer or Clockwork. Perhaps, even Princess Dora can be of assistance. In the meantime, I will see to the young one’s wounds. He will live.”
Frostbite settled the teenager on a bed that was usually reserved for Phantom and quickly and efficiently dressed his wounds. Phantom and his teammates had been bringing human safe medical equipment for the last couple of years just in case Frostbite ever needed to treat Phantom in human form or if the yeti ever needed to treat a member of Team Phantom. They never expected to need it for someone outside of the Team.
Phantom reached out and gingerly took the unconscious vigilante’s hand as Frostbite finally, finally left the two of them alone. Yetis would unobtrusively bring in food or drinks for Phantom, which he would only touch when Frostbite would threaten him. Phantom wasn’t sure how long he sat there holding his now partner’s hand just waiting for…well, he wasn’t quite sure. Usually, it was HIM on that bed, but it didn’t count because he had a healing factor. And he’d always been fast enough so that none of his team had ever been badly hurt, or at least not like this. Phantom swore the waiting was going to drive him to his second grave (not that he had a first grave).
Phantom was dozing when he felt Red’s fingers twitch in his hand. The Halfa sprang up and had to force himself not to hover over the slowly waking vigilante. The other’s hands twitched more violently, and then he groaned as his eyes began to flutter. Or at least Phantom hoped his eyes were fluttering. He couldn’t tell with the domino mask over his eyes.
Red Robin snapped to awareness that Phantom himself was all too familiar with. “Easy, Red Robin. You’re safe. Or least as safe as you can be with someone you just met and probably don’t trust,” Phantom rambled with a crooked smile. Or what he hoped was a crooked smile. But that seemed to be the right thing to say as the other marginally relaxed.
“Where are we?” Red Robin croaked. Phantom quickly handed him an unopened bottle of water. The teenager took it and carefully examined it for any signs of tampering, and when he found none, he took several long swigs before he handed the bottle back to ghost.
“Before I answer your question, and I will, I need to know what you remember,” Phantom said while rubbing the back of his neck. Red Robin noted that it was an exceedingly human gesture.
“I remember Ra’s saying something about offering me up as a bride to the Ghost King because of some contract. And then I remember Nightwing trying to carry me away from you, but that I couldn’t get too far. After that, everything is kind of fuzzy,” the Gothamite explained.
“So, Batman and the others were trying to figure out what happened when the Ghost Investigation Ward showed up. Yes, that’s really their name. Yes, they really hunt ghosts. At one point, they were mostly incompetent. But something changed in the last year or so, and they got dangerous. They ALWAYS shoot first and ask questions never. They showed up in the warehouse and got real trigger happy real fast. I couldn’t stay there, but I also couldn’t leave you behind. So, I brought you back to the Infinite Realms,” Phantom tried to give the explanation as succinctly as possible.
Red Robin was…he was a lot of things. In shock. Absolutely. Mad as shit. Fucking yes. Confused as hell. Oh definitely. In pain…that one…eh, not so much, which was surprising. Ever since his stint blowing up Ra’s bases, he’d always had some form of pain somewhere. He patted himself down as if expecting to find, well he wasn’t sure. He let out a small gasp when he realized that his mask was still in place.
“You left my mask on?” he asked incredulously.
“Uh, yeah, I know how important secret identities are,” Phantom explained, again rubbing the back of his neck.
“Ok. Ok,” Red Robin repeated a few times while taking deep breaths to calm himself. “My first question. What exactly did Ra’s do?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I’m going to have to talk with either Ghost Writer or Clockwork or someone else to see if they can figure out what exactly was done to us,” came the hesitant reply, but Red Robin noted Phantom’s open and honest body language.
“Next question. Where are we?”
“That…Ok, so my parents opened up a portal to what they initially called the Ghost Zone. But the proper name of this place is the Infinite Realms. It’s exactly what it sounds like. What it actually is is the glue that holds the multiverse together. Think of it like this. Every dimension is behind a doorway. The Infinite Realms is the hallway that leads INTO the doors. But without the hallways, the doors collapse into themselves, and the dimensions and all of reality will destabilize.”
That…that was a LOT to take in. Red Robin sat in stunned silence while he processed. He was thankful that the Ghost King gave him the time to process. He drank some more water before he asked his next question.
“Am I your prisoner?” He hated how small and vulnerable his voice sounded. How shaky and unstable it made him sound.
“OH ANCIENTS! NO!” Phantom exploded, causing Red Robin to flinch back and nearly topple off the bed he was in. Phantom grabbed his arm and steadied him. Once the ghost realized that the other was stable, he let go and then ran a gloved hand through his white hair. “I promise, ON MY CORE, that I will do everything in my power to release you from this contract.
Red Robin gasped as he felt a flicker of something flow out of the ghost. It wasn’t the same sickly power that had bound him to the ghost. This was golden and pure. And Ancient. As it settled around him, it forced another gasp out of the red and gray vigilante.
“What was that?!?!” he demanded.
“I made a promise on my core that I would get you home and unbind you from whatever that fruitloop did to us,” Phantom mumbled.
Somehow, that reassured the other.
‘He has pretty eyes,’ Red Robin thought. ‘No, bad Red. I can’t be having gay panic while being kidnapped.’
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Danny, NOT Phantom, knocked on the door to his room. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he had disappeared from the warehouse, but he knew that it had been more than just a few hours. After a few days, Tim had decided to say “fuck it,” and had peeled off his domino mask and revealed his identity to the Ghost King. Phantom had stuttered and slammed his eyes shut and then had stammered that Tim couldn’t just DO THAT. Tim laughed at the green blush forming on the ghost’s cheeks when it happened.
But the show of trust had sparked Phantom to transform into his human half. Then, the two of them had spent several hours trading trauma stories. Tim had told him how he’d become Robin and then later Red Robin. Danny had told his story of becoming Phantom and later the Ghost King. There might have been tears involved.
Danny’s blue eyes were half-lidded as he appreciatively watched Tim get dressed in the clothes that Dora’s tailors had made for him. Tim’s bare chest made Danny want things. Things he wasn’t sure he could have. But oh how he WANTED. And right now…he HATED being an empath. Because Tim…Tim was projecting those feelings right back at him creating a feedback loop.
“Tim,” Danny whined. Tim smirked.
“What’s on the agenda today?” He asked instead, pulling an icy blue tunic over his head. He’d matched the tunic with soft gray pants. He braided his hair that had grown in the time that he’d been in realms and pulled it up into a French twist.
Danny huffed at him but answered. “Ghost Writer thinks he found the original contract and a possible solution. He wants us both to take a look at it,” Danny said as he shook his head to dispel the naughty thoughts.
Tim reached out and took the half-ghost’s hand as they walked through the hall of the Keep. And hadn’t that been a shock. To learn that the GHOST KING wasn’t even a full ghost. Oh sure, he was powerful as hell, and according to Danny, his powers kept growing. Tim had compiled a list of all his known powers, even the ones the halfa had forgotten about. But he was, at the end of the day, still half-human.
Tim wanted to pin Danny against a wall and capture his lips in a heated kiss. Danny whined, again, both verbally and through his core. Tim plastered his lopsided crooked smile on his face, knowing the kind of effect he had on the other. Danny shoved his shoulder and then raced off, laughing like a deranged madman. If Tim didn’t know any better, he might have thought that Danny had been exposed to Joker’s Laughing Gas, but Danny was a little shit who thrived on things like that. Tim laughed as he ran after the half-ghost.
Danny, the little fucker, was waiting for Tim, breathless and eyes sparkling, outside Ghost Writer’s absolutely massive Library. Tim vaguely thought about Jason and hoped that one he’d be able to bring his prickly older brother here. That caused Tim to frown and sober up. He couldn’t believe that he’d nearly forgotten about his family. But that…that wasn’t quite right, was it? After all, that’s why they were at Ghost Writer’s Library.
He missed his family, sure, but the more he was around Danny, the less he was unsure if he wanted to return to their emotionally constipated intrusiveness. Tim shook his head. He had responsibilities and other things that he needed to sort out before he could leave for good. But, that thought sat in the back of his brain like a fat toad on a lily pad, and Tim…well, he wasn’t too sure that he wanted to dislodge it. Just before they entered the library, Tim watched in amazement (as usual), as Danny’s transformation rings washed over him. It was always slightly jarring to watch him go from alive and living to dead.
As they entered the Library, Tim was sure that the aforementioned Ghost Writer was actually E.A. Poe, although the ghost did seem to have an amalgamation of several other historical writers in him as well.
“Greetings, High King Phantom. Consort Red Robin. I trust you received my message about the dissolution of your bond?” The ghost sneered at them as he peered over his rectangular glasses with his beady little red eyes.
Tim looked at Phantom for guidance. This was his domain, after all. “We did. Did you actually manage to find a way to undo the marriage contract? Or are you just fucking with us?”
“Don’t be crass, Highness,” the elder ghost huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Forgive me for not being exactly trusting. But the last time we interacted, you threw me into a Christmas Poem without knowing why I was being grumpy about Christmas. So, perhaps, back off,” Phantom all but snarled, his ectoplasmic green eyes flashing ice blue for a moment. Tim couldn’t help the blush that rushed to his cheeks because he found Phantom’s snarl hot. The tips of Phantom’s elfin ears blushed a dark green, indicating that he’d felt Tim’s crush.
“Apologies, My Liege, it won’t happen again,” Ghost Writer bowed obsequiously.
The ghost led the two heroes over to a long table that had been set with a number of scrolls and tomes. Red Robin and Phantom poked through the different scrolls before Ghost Writer brought them a dusky pink scroll. He placed it between the two and then stalked deeper into his library while muttering under his breath. Tim was the first one to reach for it. His hands were shaking like he’d suddenly developed Parkinson’s or some other neurological disorder that caused tremors.
Phantom reached out and took the scroll from Tim’s hands and gently led the other teenager to an overstuffed armchair. Phantom crooned out an old lullaby that Jazz used to sing to him, and let his core purr while Tim shook apart in his arms. Neither was sure how long they sat there before Tim was able to pull himself together again.
“I mean, they already call me Consort. I just didn’t think it had to be so…literal. We get married both in the Infinite Realms and in the Living Realms, and then one of us does something so heinous to the other that your core considers it a betrayal. This will allow the dissolution of both the binding and the marriage. Absolute BULLSHIT!” Tim was yelling by the time he was done.
“Tim…”
“I don’t…I mean I can’t…It’s not…”
“TIM!”
“FUCKING RA’S! FUCKING NINJAS! FUCKING MAGICAL BINDING SPELLS!” Tim was in full rant mode at this point.
“TIMOTHY!” Phantom snapped, grabbing his hands and swinging him around so that blue eyes met green.
“I can absolutely guarantee you that Ghost Writer is fucking with us. Yes, he probably has found a way for us to dissolve the bond. But. To put a ghost through something like that would likely cause the ghost in question to End themselves. Which GHOST WRITER KNOWS IS TREASON FOR EVEN SUGGESTING SUCH.”
The ghost in question materialized next to them, looking just slightly frazzled. “I meant no disrespect, King Phantom,” he said in his nasally tone. With a low bow, he procured an ancient tome, a weathered and leather-bound book. Both boys hoped it was leather. Ghost Writer flipped open to the appropriate page. Then, in a puff of white, wispy smoke, the librarian ghost was gone again.
Phantom beat Tim to it this time. “So, the spell is really simple. We just gotta go see Clockwork. Then, I can put out MY official summons for your friends in what did you call them?”
“The Justice League Dark,” Tim said, with a small smile.
“Right, them. I put out my summons into the hands of the appropriate magic users. They summon us back to the Living Realms, and then, the Soul Whore, the Champion of Magic, and the Daughter of Trigon perform The Spell of Dissolution Resonance and whatever that creepy fruitloop did to us is broken,” Phantom crowed.
But Tim…Tim looked so small and defeated.
“Phan…Danny, what about us?” He asked in a small voice. Tim hated how small his voice was. How vulnerable he sounded. How weak he appeared.
“What about us, Starshine?” Danny replied, pulling Tim into his side.
“Do you only like me because of the binding?” Tim asked, worrying his lip between his teeth, drawing blood.
Phantom picked up Tim and opened a portal directly to Tim’s room. As he did so, he caressed Tim’s cheek to make him stop biting his lips. Phantom transformed back into Danny and gently placed him on the bed. Danny knelt on the side of the bed so that he could look up into Tim’s blue eyes.
“Listen to me, my little Draco.” Danny and Tim shared a small smile at the nickname. “If I’d found you in Gotham under normal circumstances, I think I would have fallen for you. You’re my type. Strong. Smart. Competent. And a vigilante to boot. You’ve definitely awakened my gay panic,” Danny said with a snort. “What about you? Would you have liked me without the binding?”
Danny watched as Tim bluescreened. When Tim rebooted, he looked absolutely offended and wrecked that Danny would even suggest such a thing. “Danny, NO! It’s just that…that no one has ever wanted me. Not my parents. Not Bruce. Not even the other Bats. I was just the replacement. The kid who forced my way into being Robin. All I’ve ever done is get in the way. But you…you’re so bright and funny and kind. How could someone like you ever want someone like me?” Tim said, pulling his knees up to his chest and began worrying at his lip again.
“Tim, can I touch you?”
Tim nodded, and then found himself in the half-ghost’s arms. Tim let out a heart-wrenching sob as he fell into the comfort Danny so freely provided. Danny didn’t try to stop the sobs or tell Tim that he was being dramatic. Danny held Tim as Tim shook apart. Danny told the other hero how much he meant to him and how glad he was to have met him, even if it was under extenuating circumstances.
Then, before either of them could think any better of it, their lips met in a crushing kiss. It was fierce and hungry as their tongues entwined, and their teeth scraped against each other. They only broke apart when Tim needed to come up for air. He gasped when they finally let go of each other. Then, he laid his head on Danny’s shoulder. Danny, for his part, began carding hands that were rough from years spent fighting a rogue gallery, human ghost hunters, and his parents through Tim’s hair.
“Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, Third Robin, Current Red Robin, Knight of Gotham, you are mine. And I, Daniel Jason Fenton-Phantom, High King of the Infinite Realms, Peace Bringer, Balance Between, blah blah blah, am yours for as long as you would have me. NOT because of some half-baked froot loop. But because of who you are. If I believed in soulmates, I would say that you are mine.” Danny’s eyes flashed Lazarus green as he finished, but for once, seeing it didn’t make Tim flinch.
They shared another passionate kiss and then pressed their foreheads together for a moment.
“If you say that I’m yours and you’re mine, then why do we need to break the bond?” Tim asked, a whine in his voice.
“Tim, my Draco, you know as well as I, that if we don’t people will accuse me of coercing you. Or worse. They’ll say I’m mind-controlling you. Or that you’re a slave or some other bullshit,” Danny explained while pressing a soft kiss to Tim’s cheek. Tim sighed knowing Danny was right. Damn his family and their extreme paranoia.
Over the next week or so, (who knew how long it really was since time was quote in Danny’s words “wonky as shit”) Danny and Tim, with the help of Clockwork, laid out clues for the magic users of the Justice League Dark to find. Tim likened it to when Bruce was lost in the timestream. Danny briefly wondered why Clockwork didn’t send him to find the Bat, but then the old Clock had his ways and decided that it wasn’t worth the brain cells worrying about it.
Danny felt the pull of a summoning and alerted Tim. They looked at each other expectantly before Danny transformed into his King Phantom form. Tim hurriedly pulled on his Red Robin uniform and made sure that everything was in place before taking Danny’s hand. They shared one more kiss before their world lit up in violent Lazarus green light.