Chapter Text
Danny was fairly young when his soul bond first activated. It began with an odd sensation in his chest, a feeling of connection binding him to another. Pain suddenly shot throughout his body, as if someone had just spent hours treating him like a punching bag. Crying in pain, he stumbles his way over to his older sister's room. Jazz sees him and immediately pulls him into a hug.
As he was gasping in pain, it takes a few moment for her to piece together what was wrong.
"It sounds like your soul bond has made itself known. All soulmates have a bond, most are simply things like a mark representing what the other likes or cares about. Others are the first words they will say to each other or their favourite saying. Rarer are ones that let them feel each other's emotions or thoughts. Yours seems like it's even rarer." She explains as she rubs her little brother's back.
"Shared Pain. You both experience the other's pain, but can also send comfort to the other." She finishes.
Danny uses his shirt to rub at his eyes before asking, "What does that mean exactly?"
Jazz hugs him tighter, letting him feel how much she cares for him.
"Just like how you are feeling their pain right now, they should be feeling the feeling of being hugged with love." His sister states.
The young boy leans into his sister and focuses on how nice it is to be in her arms. She rocks him to try and help calm the phantom pains he is feeling.
"I am a little jealous, my bond is a simple soul art. Currently there is a set of books on my arm showing that mine loves to read." She says casually.
Danny places his hand over where the sense of connection seems to be centered. He focuses on trying send the feeling of safety and comfort to his soulmate, wherever they are.
Cass freezes when she feels arms wrapping around her. David had just left after the latest training session and a careful look around shows that nobody was in the room with her. Meaning the feeling isn't tied any physical person. Unsure about what is happening, she locks down her expression and body language so if David checks on her he won't be able to tell something is going on.
Soon after the phantoms arms began hugging her, a feeling of safety, comfort, and love flow into her. Cass gets the sense that two separate people are sending the feelings to her, with the love seeming to come from the arms.
While still not wanting to risk David learning about whatever is going on with her, she relaxes into the arms and maintains her blank expression. The aches in her body ease just a little at doing so and Cass enjoys the secret comfort.
Danny quickly gets used to being in pain, something that he knows means nothing good for his soulmate. Jazz frequently cuddles him, especially after they get particularly badly beaten. She is fairly certain that they are being abused, but without any means of finding them the only way that she and her brother can help his soulmate is to send comfort to them.
Tucker, his best friend as well as Sam, the new girl that they have befriended, both have joined in holding him whenever Jazz isn't around. Sam's parents when they learned about his bond they were willing to put several thousand dollars into finding a way to locate an unknown soulmate.
Most of what they find are clearly false claims of using magic. There was even some random British con-man in a brown duster coat who showed up, but as he explained that he was a magician they simply closed their door on him. As such all that they could do was encourage their daughter to help comfort her new friend.
Danny got good at hiding the pain when he was in public because while some adults were willing to accept that it is from his soul bond rather than him being abused, there were some who weren't.
Jazz sat him down after noticing some of the looks people were giving them and explains to him, "So while our parents aren't directly abusive they are technically negligent and could get in trouble for that."
He thinks for a moment and states, "I don't want us to be taken away."
With that he learned to mask so that nobody would try to report his parents.
Then one weekend he feels a rush of something through the bond. He reaches out and pulls Tucker and Sam against him so that they can help him send support and comfort to his soulmate. A determination for freedom comes through and he responds with focusing on letting them feel his hope for them.
Cass was standing over the dead body of her first kill. Feeling truly horrible at what she has done, she realizes that she doesn't want to be a living weapon. Arms wrap around her, the smaller two pairs that often appear, as she makes the decision to find a way to get her freedom. A burst of hope pours out from inside her chest in response to her determination.
While the arms are smaller, they also differ from the larger set in that they offer friendship rather than love. Part of her training was learning about soulmate bonds and had worked to keep the epiphany about what she keeps feeling is her soul bond away from David. While he would manage to track the other person down, they would become part of her training.
Her eyes drift back down to the corpse she just created and shake her head before even thinking of what David would've had her do. Focusing on her escape plan to keep those thoughts away and leaves the area.
The phantom pain from his soulmate greatly lessened a little while after their determination. It's been a couple of years and Danny believes that they are homeless as sometimes they'll be extra cold or hungry.
The first time he told Jazz about that, she explains, "Just be careful about sending warmth or eating extra food. It'll feel good to them, but won't help them fight off hypothermia or hunger."
He still does that knowing that his soulmate does get some comfort from it. His sister is always a bit worried when she notices him doing it.
Then suddenly, while he is at school, his lower abdomen begins to hurt. Briefly he thinks that someone had punched his soulmate in the stomach, but the pain feels both lower and emanating from inside rather than outside. He manages to mask it through the rest of the school day and when he gets home he goes up to his sister.
After explaining what he is feeling, Jazz falls over laughing. Danny is not very amused as she is normally very patient about his soulmate's pain.
"Well, we now know your soulmate is a girl. Congratulations on feeling her period cramps." She says once she gets control of her mirth.
Putting his hand over his lower stomach, he asks, "Is this how you feel when you get yours?"
His sister gives a half shrug and explains, "It's different from person to person, and even from period to period. Some are easier to deal with, others... Well you remember that time I threw dad down the stairs."
Danny chuckles a little at the memory and accepts the bag of chocolates and blanket from her. She then goes to get the heating pad as well, and he sets himself up similar to how she often does for herself with the pad over where the cramps are while nicely cocooned and letting the chocolates melt in his mouth. He was doing the last so that his soulmate can really enjoy the taste.
Jazz chuckles a little and remarks, "She's quite lucky. Can enjoy the chocolate without having to worry about the calories."
A little later he assembles some small kits. They contain a little chocolate, as well as a small variety of tampons and pads. Whenever he notices a woman who he thinks is on their period he offers one. Most just smile and accept it, though a couple are a bit rude about it.
When some of the women ask him, he mentions, "I can feel when my soulmate gets hers and it's not pleasant."
As he keeps several on him, when Sam starts getting hers she will often raid his supply of the kits. Tucker laughs the first time she does it, only for her to jump him and he for once learns quickly to not say anything.
Over time he notes that his soulmate gets into the occasional fight and whenever he does he tries to cheer her on through their bond.
Danny was showing Sam and Tucker the new machine his parents had built. They fed power to it but it didn't activate and had gone upstairs to rest for a while.
Sam, with a bit of a joking tone, suggests, "You should let go inside and let me take a picture."
He is a little unsure, but at least his parents wouldn't have left it powered if it posed some risk. Just to be safe he puts on the hazmat suit Jack and Maddie made for their children that they barely ever wear.
Stepping into the device, he poses for a quick photo before tripping on a loose wire. His hand slams against the ON button, and there is a brief instant where he wonders why his parents would put that there rather than outside the machine.
The massive surge of energy crashing through him following that thought distracted him from it.
Cass was glad that nobody was with her when she was suddenly electrocuted. It took a lot of effort force herself to look around just to make sure of that through the pain. Horror fills her as she realizes that it has a similar feeling to when the phantom arms hug her. Her soulmate was experience extreme pain and she doesn't have someone to hold her to send comfort back through their bond.
Alongside the electricity she feels something pulsing through her almost like something was binding itself and rewriting her body while also ripping it apart. It takes a while before the pain and and the arms she believes to be her soulmate's friend grab them and pull them to safety.
One set held onto them while the other likely went to get help. Cass puts her hand over her chest, and tries to send comfort through the bond.
Danny woke up from his accident. Jazz was sitting beside the bed and gives him a happy smile as she hugs him. He notes that she looks fairly tired and looks down at himself.
The main thing he notices is that he has to tilt his head to clearly see the squiggly lines running up his arm. They start on his palm and work their way up and onto his shoulder. He traces some with his fingers and frowns.
Blinking, he turns to look at Jazz, turning his head slightly so that his right eye is the one seeing her. Closing it everything goes blurry.
"The doctors explained that you were lucky to survive. There is likely nerve damage from how bad of a shock you took. If you are wondering the lines are called Lichtenberg scars." She tells him.
A little while after he wakes up his mother arrives and gives him a hug. She quickly arranges to take him home. When they get there Jack picks his son up in his usual bear hug. It twigs some pain in his arm, but Danny just grits his teeth through it.
When he is set down he states, "I'm going to go up to my room to rest."
Cass notices that sometimes her left eye gets a little blurry and wonders if it is from whatever her soulmate when through or if her actual eye is having an issue. She feels the usual loving arms hug him followed by an unusual set. Then a little later a very massive set nearly crushes her soulmate but she can feel the relief from worry coming through them.
Over the next couple of months she notices that her soulmate was getting into fights. Most of the time when he is fighting there is a cold sensation washing over her. That has her very curious as to what is going on with them. There are also times when they'll also just take a blow or two without seeming to fight back.
Then Batman finds her, and brings her to Gotham to raise her as his daughter.