Beyond the symbolic gifting of a yellow communicator, getting a vigilante classified as a Titan involved too much paperwork only the protege of Batman cared to handle.

Setting up Titans East had been problematic enough. ("Bumblebee was our spy, Mr. Mayor, please pardon her for what she had to do in the HIVE." "Aqualad refused to help you improve business relations with Atlantis and that's final." "Speedy's not going to drag Star City's mess into your city. Right, Speedy?") Then there was the mad recruitment of heroes during the fight against the Brotherhood of Evil, although that was alleviated by the fact that the new Titans were simply Honorary.

It had been months since the war. Life settled back into the status quo, and the Teen Titans returned to their weekly skirmishes with Jump City's villains. One day, however, Raven pointed out the presence of entities haunting a city in Illinois.

Retrieving a copy of yesterday's report from the Amity News Chronicle, she expanded the details on the big screen in the Titans Tower.

"Ghosts exist," she said solemnly. No way, the rest of the team said.

But Robin took her word for it. They read up on papers from the small field of ectology and flipped through reports of ghost attacks. One name kept popping up - Danny Phantom, an anomaly among specters who defeated and sent the attackers back to their dimension. The local government was ambivalent towards him, but the public loved him.

He didn't have all the details, but he and Raven agreed there was merit in bringing him into the Titans' network, if not as a powerful ally and potential friend, then as a wealth of insider information regarding what was going on in Amity Park.

They made quick work of convincing the rest of the team. More accurately, Robin pulled the leader card and dragged them, and their complaints, along on a merry journey to the Midwest.

He understood their reluctance. He really did. Believing in ghosts opened up a can of worms. Nobody wanted to face their own mortality - not even superheroes, who faced mortality with every villain they fought. But most of them had accepted that when they died, regardless of the circumstances, they'd usually stay dead. To come back as something not understood, terrorizing the citizens they had vowed to protect when they had been alive? The thought did not sit well.

But maybe the more immediate reason was that the Titans did not want to relive the road trips around the Earth, sometimes across dimensions, of searching for the heroes. They wanted to relive even less the months of correspondence with slow, inefficient governments following the Brotherhood's defeat, of ensuring the Honorary Titans were secure in their recognition as protectors of their cities and villages.

Bureaucracy was a superhero's nightmare, but they lived through it and came out victorious with a slew of new Titans as their allies. Nothing could top that, Robin figured.

He was wrong.

First, it was the ghost himself. The kid was elusive, dodging reporters and fellow heroes like he dodged the ectoblasts his enemies rained on him. They caught him after a two-week stake-out in Amity Park, but even then that was only after countless interviews with citizens and tracking the news coverage to uncover Phantom's hideouts.

It took a few more days to convince the ghost that no, joining the Teen Titans does not mean you have to tell us your identity. No, we're not going to hand you over to the government. No, it just means you can call us for back-up and- please, just take the communicator.

Next, it was the Justice League, who, after the Brotherhood of Evil fiasco and given Phantom's spotty history, demanded a meeting with the Titans to discuss the privileges extended to the ghost and the League's plans for Amity Park.

Finally, after a day-long grueling meeting (read: posturing) in the Watchtower, Robin stepped out of the room, and let the big doors close on the rest of the Leaguers who were still milling about. He was more tired than he was prepared to let show, but a satisfaction settled within him. The Titans were going to have a new Honorary member.

Then, he received news that America's Anti-Ecto Act had been signed by the President mere five minutes before their meeting adjourned.

Robin was going to pull his perfectly gelled hair out.

Crossposted to AO3 under Kiestan on 2021-05-23.