Danny's eyes were glued to the ground as he paced around the bathroom. Well, technically, he was still inside Tim's body, so it was more like Tim was being forced to pace around the bathroom while Danny was anxious and bored, using him like a 'meatpuppet' as his dad would say.
They were waiting for Jason to come with a few more bandages, Danny glanced up at the mirror, lightly fogged at the edges from steam. He glanced over the scars on Tim's body and the wound that he had caused Tim from standing still for too long in a gunfight. His eyes immediately shot back to the tile again.
He was unconsciously fiddling with his -Tim's- hands, still trying to get completely used to the feeling of not being in his own body. He has overshadowed a few times before, but never for this long – it feels more and more off the longer he's away from his body.
"What's it feel like?" Tim's voice came through Danny's head, cutting through his thoughts.
Danny looked up at the mirror again, meeting Tim's eyes in the reflection. It was easier to talk that way rather than to open air. He just hoped it didn't weird Tim out too much. "What do you mean?" He tilted his head to the side.
Tim paused for a second, almost as if he was trying to figure out how to word it. He could feel not only his thoughts spiraling in his head but also Tim's. He couldn't hear them, just the presence of thoughts that were running too fast to keep up with. "How does it…" He paused "How does it feel to overshadow someone?" Tim was anxious about asking the question, like he was worried Danny wouldn't want to answer.
Danny clenched his hands and forced them down to his sides. "...When you overshadow someone it kind of just feels wrong. Like you've put on clothes that are either way too tight or way too loose. Only- Those clothes are an actual person… and you are using a body that you have never used before. It doesn't feel familiar, and it makes you want your own body back."
Tim was silent for a second, but Danny could feel him trying to file away that information in his brain, make sure he could understand as well as possible. "So…" He started. "Am I too tight or too loose?" Danny was slightly startled by the sincerity and concern that he felt from it. Tim was worried and really cared about how Danny was feeling. "Is it based on how small the body is compared to yours or is it the souls of the people? Do people with depression have more taxing bodies?"
Danny chuckled slightly, "It's a little bit of both, but mostly a size difference thing. My body is used to being a certain size, and my soul -or ghost- is the size of how I feel I'm supposed to be," he lifted Tim's hand and turned it over, studying it closely. "And when I am in the body of someone else… My soul has to fit in that body."
"So it's uncomfortable?"
"Yeah. It is, like with you. You're a bit smaller than me, so when I flex your hand, it feels like the skin is too tight, like it's been stretched over me. But it feels fine and wrong at the same time. I can tell that the skin isn't actually stretching and it's only in my head, but it's a weird double effect."
He could feel Tim's mind as his thoughts grew more muddled. "And if the person is bigger?"
"Well, then it feels like you have more weight on your shoulders, the arms are slower to move and you feel more like you're floating or trying to push through water," Danny rubbed the back of his neck, "It's easier for other ghosts who are used to it or don't mind the awkward feeling. But for me, it just feels wrong. I hate it."
He could feel Tim think something, more in the back of his mind. Similar to the feeling of 'you hate it, but you used it to escape anyway…' but he didn't voice anything loud enough that Danny was meant to hear.
"How does it feel for you? This has never happened before, to my knowledge… does it hurt in any way?" Danny can feel his obsession leaking into his voice. If he is feeling this uncomfortable in Tim's body, how does Tim feel?
He took a second to think about it. "I don't know, it's like I'm disconnected, sort of floating around. It felt really really strange at first, but I have gotten used to it. I can still touch and feel. All my senses are fine. I'm living my life without being in control of it… I can retreat into my mind and not focus on what you're doing. I can key into things you don't key into, pay attention to different things than you do. It's strange."
Danny could imagine how that felt, he remembers what it was like when he was mind controlled by Freakshow, almost being forced to kill the people he cared about most in this world. His body and mouth and words doing their own thing when he couldn't do anything about it besides scream and try his hardest to pull his body out of whatever was controlling it to no avail. "I'm sorry." Like that would do anything, mean anything, for what Danny had done to him. He hates controlling people with all of his core and yet, here he is having no choice but to. "I will try my best to fix this. I promise."
"It's okay Danny, I understand. We'll figure this out," He paused. "Now let's finish up with this sappy stuff and go out there and find Jason ourselves. It's been like fifteen minutes." Danny smiled and they pulled the shirt over their head. The bandages they had on now would be fine.
)-(
Well, what they were expecting to find was certainly not a man in the living room tied to one of the kitchen chairs they had just been eating at. Not just tied, but entirely engulfed by duct tape. He was like a cocoon at this point.
Jason spun around to face them, surprised they had managed to sneak up on him. "I can explain?" his voice lilted up at the end.
Danny felt Tim's recognition in the back of his mind. "Dick?"
He put his hands on his hips. "Is it a family thing to kidnap people, or did you all learn it on your own?"
"It's a family thing,"
"Course it is," Danny said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Frowning, he re-directed his attention back to Jason. "So, why is your brother duct taped to a chair in the living room?"
"He broke in." He stated
"Aaaaand? How did you get from him breaking into him being cocooned to a chair unconscious in the living room?" He gestured around the room and ended at Dick. "I don't see how A makes it to W."
Jason ran a hand down his face. "He heard you guys call me, so he started for the hallway, and- Well…"
"You panicked-" "You panicked," Danny and Tim finished simultaneously. Jason gave a one-shouldered shrug in response.
Danny fell back into the couch and ran a hand down his face. He was about five feet away from where Dick was tied up. "Okay, so what are we going to do now? First, you guys kidnap me and take me to your creepy evil lair cave, then I kidnap Tim, –mostly by accident, might I add– to ditch the joint. Then, Tim and I both get kidnapped by some random dudes, theeeeen you kidnap both me and Tim from the other kidnappers. And now, you've kidnapped your older brother and taped him to a chair! This whole kidnap-ception thing we have going on is giving me a headache."
"Tell me about it," Tim groaned. Danny nodded in recognition of Tim's voice.
"And he's tied up becauuuuuuse?" Danny looked up at Dick again. "Isn't he your brother?"
Jason pinched his brow. "The only reason he's tied up is because he's my brother. Anyone else who would've broken into my apartment would have gotten much worse. That, and the fact that he's not very happy with you right now."
Danny's eyes widened, "Not happy with me?"
Jason threw his hand to the side. "You kidnapped his baby bird, dumbass. You have no idea how protective he gets over his family."
Tim chimed in and Danny was not sure if it was meant for him to hear or not. "Especially after Jason died."
"And honestly, right now, I think he's in a kick-you-in-the-face-ask-questions-later kind of mood. Hence-" Jason gestures up and down Dick's body cocoon. "We have this."
Danny nodded. "How long do we have till he wakes up? Because, uh, we need a plan."
Jason shrugged his shoulders. "I hit him pretty hard… I'd say we have about fifteen more minutes."
Suddenly, Dick groaned as he started stirring, "Or fifteen seconds," Tim deadpanned. Danny gave a 'Seriously', look to Jason. Both of the boys in the room readied themselves for the blue-themed vigilante to wake up.
Dick's eyes fluttered open, slowly getting used to the light. Jason was standing directly in front of him while he woke up. "Hmm, Jason?" Dick slurred in recognition. He then slowly started trying to pull on his arms as he gathered his surroundings. "What-" He looked down at the tape that had been wrapped around him up to his neck. "What the hell, Jason!? Why am I tied up?" Dick demanded, struggling a lot harder at the bonds than before. It was evident that it wasn't going to do anything.
"Safety precaution." Jason crossed his arms.
Dick looked up at his brother for any sort of tells. "I didn't come to hurt you, Jason, I just needed your help." He sounded a little more broken. "I'm sorry for breaking in, okay? But we needed to talk."
"And we're going to, but you need to listen too. And until you listen, you are going to stay in that chair. You don't have all the facts." Jason narrowed his eyes.
"What do you mean I don't-" His eyes suddenly flicked over to Danny and Tim, who had both been silent watching the altercation, in their mind and out loud. His eyes grew wide as he looked at the teen. "Tim?" He started, but then immediately narrowed his eyes.
Danny gave an awkward wave. "Hey…" he then rubbed the back of his neck. "So… I can explain?"
Authors notes:
Thanks to my Beta's: Arvensia and Oceanaslana (ao3)
OMG, this chapter was so hard to write! I had finished it about two weeks ago but It was so dry and bad when I wrote it I didn't want to post it. I finally managed to rewrite it in a way I wanted so we have that now, even if I had to delete two entire scenes! Thank you so much everyone for your patience I love writing this fic and don't plan on stopping any time soon! Love you all have a great week :D
