Jason knew it was going to be an interesting day when loud knocking woke him up way too early than when he was supposed to wake up.

He glanced at his phone, wondering if one of his more annoying siblings had decided to torment him for fun, but there were no new messages.

"I know you are there! Open up!"

Jason had half a thought to ignore Danny until he gave up. Or phased through the door—

"You know I can just phase through this thing, right? I'm being polite— this is me being polite and respecting boundaries. So open this door and let me in!"

He groaned loudly and sat up on his bed. "Whatever, man. Come in or welcome to my abode or whatever you guys need to access."

Surely enough, after a few seconds Danny walked in looking at him with an eyebrow raised. He wasn't even fazed by his naked chest and the scars on his skin.

"Did you just call me a vampire?"

He shrugged. "Jazz was a bit weird about permission to enter the first time she came over." He yawned. "And made the same face when I asked about the vampire thing."

"That's because Vlad is a creepy vampire wannabe." Danny crossed his arms and leaned on the doorway of his bedroom, watching him get up and walk to the bathroom to freshen up. "Ghosts can be weird about entering territory when it's about a haunt, but you are too weak to make a claim yet."

Jason hummed, washing his face and deciding to talk about his ghostliness later. Maybe this could be a good chance to bring up the idea of that visit to the yetis.

"In any case, Jazz has no actual reason to be weird about coming into your apartment… apart from the fact that she likes you."

Jason looked up and glanced at Danny's reflection in the mirror, watching him with a small smirk. Was the shovel talk going to happen now? He sighed. Better get that over with.

"Why are you here, Danny?"

The younger man uncrossed his arms and glanced away, thinking. Was it that bad?

Finally, he looked at him with new resolve, his blue eyes steeled with determination. "You are treating me to lunch." It wasn't a question.

"Am I?"

"Yes. We are going to this Batburger place that everyone talks about online."

Jason walked back to his room and picked up his phone. It was almost one in the afternoon. No wonder he was hungry. He shrugged and went to get some jeans and a shirt, ignoring the burning stare of his guest on his back.

Soon they were on the move to the nearest Batburger that was just around the corner. It was the only one that ventured into the Narrows and it showed — Red Hood had stopped a robbery in this place enough times that he knew the day and night shifts by name, and had gotten enough free burgers as well.

Danny was quiet the whole way, checking his phone and humming and/or groaning at the texts on the screen.

Once at the Batburger, both placed their order and Danny abandoned Jason to pay as he searched for a place to sit down. Jason didn't miss how the chosen booth had perfect vision of the exits and was away from any windows or prying eyes from the staff.

He checked his phone one more time, but he didn't magically have more messages from Jazz that could offer a light on what Danny intended to get out of interrogating him. He was pretty sure by now that a shovel talk was not the goal of the conversation, which opened the question, what the fuck was Danny's deal with the silence and seriousness.

Finally, their order was done and he brought everything to their booth, noticing that Danny left him the disadvantageous seat that made him face only Danny and give his back to the door. He didn't like it, but would survive just this once.

"Okay," he didn't beat around the bush, "whatever it is, just say it."

"How do you know I have an agenda?"

Jason didn't even grace that with an answer. Surely Danny must know his poker face was non-existent. He had seen Jazz make better faces, and she was the one who body slammed a thug in front of one of Gotham's vigilantes and then pretended to be a normal human.

"Okay, okay. World's best detectives." He made a dismissive gesture and shoved a bunch of jokerized fries in his mouth. "Hm. These are good."

They were good, despite the name. Jason loved the damn fries. Still looking Danny in the eye, he picked a fry and slowly bit into it.

"This is not a shovel talk." Danny started, carefully sipping his drink. "I don't— Jazz can date whoever she wants and unless you give me reason to think you'd hurt her in any way—"

Jason kept his face totally blank, flashes of her bruised wrist coming to the front of his mind, but Danny narrowed his eyes and stopped eating, interlacing his hands instead.

"I see."

Jason swallowed. Did he know? How much did he know?

"Jazz told me. About what happened."

"And?" He tried to act nonchalant, but he knew if Danny could read him when he kept a blank expression, he could see through his attempt.

"Relax. She barely said anything about you. Which," his eyes glowed green, "tells me more than what she could actually say in words."

"What do you mean?"

He took his time, grabbing his burger and taking a bite of it. He also chewed slowly, smirking, knowing that he was being a little shit by making him wait.

Finally, he swallowed. "You are not going to eat? The burger is pretty good."

Jason picked up his burger and bit down, eyes fixed on Danny and his little smirk, waiting what he would do next. He somehow didn't feel like it was an interrogation and more like he was being watched by a predator taking its time to delight in their prey's fear.

"I know about the gun." Jason choked. Danny didn't move or showed concern. "I know about Batman's and your interrogation. I know how you treated her."

Jason felt cold, but kept it together and took a sip of his own drink trying to recover from almost choking to death.

"I—"

"I'm the one talking." He leaned in, picking another fry and putting it in his mouth. "Again, Jazz didn't tell me much but I know her and I know how to read her." He chewed, eyes still glowing green. "I need to know what happened."

"But you said—"

"I need to hear it from you."

Jason could almost visualize the crown burning over Danny's head. He was talking to the King, not his girlfriend's younger brother.

He briefly considered trying to hide, or maybe offer a shitty excuse, or maybe a watered down version of the facts — but Danny had already let him know he had ways to know he was bullshitting him.

He sighed and bit more of his burger.

He knew Jazz valued Danny's opinion, but in the case of the young king deeming his acts enough to keep them apart, would she go against his wishes and still want him? There was a real possibility that after this conversation their already complex relationship became even more impossible.

He felt a pinch in his chest, the familiar resentment he felt the previous night coming back full force. Was all of this worth it? Was she worth it? Worth of being stared down by this unnerving creature, ruler of another dimension, who could easily smite him out of existence?

He watched his hands, almost feeling the touch of her skin. His scarred knuckles softly caressed by her fingers as they watched a movie. The familiar weight of her hair as he pushed it aside to kiss her.

Jazz was… She was… Jazz made him feel wanted. No conditions, no fine print, no agendas. After thinking about it, he was more and more convinced that Jazz was not the kind of person who hid a secret plan or exit strategy. That she was as broken as he was, forced to be a warrior since teenagehood and stumbling through life searching for purpose.

He understood they weren't so different after all, so maybe she understood that side of him too.

Jason looked up at Danny, who patiently waited for an answer. His small smile betrayed that he knew about his internal turmoil, and was just humoring him while he gathered his thoughts.

"I love her."

"That's not what I asked."

He nodded. "I don't— She and I—" He grumbled, one hand ruffling his hair. "I have been betrayed before, and when Bruce came forward with all that stuff… I thought I was being deceived again."

"You didn't ask Jazz if it was true."

"I didn't. It was just too perfect. Made too much sense." Danny narrowed his eyes. "I understand now that it was all bullshit, but I found out then that Jazz gave me that damn green stuff and I don't how much you know about me, but me and the Lazarus Pits don't have a good history."

Danny nodded and bit his burger. His eyes also stopped shining. "She saved your life, you know."

"I know."

He remembered waking up and finding her eyes watching him. He dismissed them at the moment, but they had been clearly shining green. If he wasn't so focused on the euphoria of being alive and with her, he would have stopped and accepted that there was a lot more than meets the eye with Jazz.

It didn't make sense to dwell on that now.

"I already owe her too much." He admitted after a moment. "But I will repay her with my life if needed."

Danny's eyebrows went to his hairline and he started laughing. He slapped the table, laughing so loud that the other patrons of the Batburger were looking at them now.

He sighed. Danny found that even more hilarious and continued laughing.

"Oh man, that's… You don't need to be cute with me." He wiped the few tears gathered in his eyes. "And no need for such declarations of love. Or staking your life on it, pal. When you die, your ass is mine. With how contaminated you already are, and with a previous resurrection, you are definitely one of my subjects when you die."

Jason had suspected it, but this confirmed it. He wouldn't know peace even after he died.

Okay.

Whatever. He would deal with that later.

"Jazz and I talked, after what happened. I apologized. I— I won't do that again. I don't… I know I'm not exactly—" He stopped to glare at his food. He wasn't getting anywhere. He breathed in and tried again. "I'm not boyfriend material. I'm a crime lord. I can be violent. When I came back to Gotham, I introduced myself to the criminal Underworld by arranging a meeting with all the lords and giving them their second in command's heads in a duffel bag."

Danny nodded along but didn't say anything. If he was judging him, he wasn't showing.

"Jazz says she understands my work and from what we learned yesterday maybe she does, but still —"

"Why are you dating my sister, Jason?"

He looked up, and somehow he couldn't see anything human in Danny. It wasn't just his eyes, it was… everything. Shadows coalesced around him and the bright fluorescent lights from the ceiling blinked in and out of existence. Danny himself looked older, bigger, sprawled on his seat like he was sitting on a throne and lazily watched him from above.

If it were another situation, he would have tried to find out what tricks he used, what kind of magic he possessed to do this to him and not raise alarms in the Batburger.

"What do you mean?" He cleared his throat, feeling it dry, but couldn't move a finger to reach for his drink.

"If you are such a dangerous man… If you understand you are not 'boyfriend material' — " he made the air quotes " — and cannot provide the stability or security my sister needs… Why are you still with her?"

Because he loved her? Because she understood him? Because she wasn't trying to change him, like everyone else?

He couldn't choose which one to say. And somehow he knew that "love" wasn't a good enough answer for the Ghost King.

Danny's left eye twitched. He leaned in. "What tells me that you won't wake up one day and realize she's not worth it, Jason? That one day you won't think that you actually want to go back to the severed heads and the recklessness?" Jason felt his breath leaving him with every pointed question. What was Danny doing? "How can I be sure that my sister is a priority for you?"

As the King leaned back on his seat, Jason could finally take a much needed breath. He pondered the words, how familiar to his own thoughts they were. He had decided that he would let the insanity of Jazz's life permeate in his, that it wasn't such a big deal, that they would deal with things as they came.

But was it ever so simple?

Nothing was simple with Jazz. Or with him. He knew that he could never have any resemblance of a normal relationship with a civilian, and even hero relationships had a high chance to fail — the Mission, after all, took place over everything else. Bruce had taught him that, on top of his crime fighting knowledge.

He had already given up by the time he met Jazz, but he said yes because she was supposed to be something simple, something temporary. Mundane.

Was she really those things? Simple? Temporary? Mundane?

No. That's not what she was, and that's not why he got into a relationship with her.

Danny's eyes followed him as he controlled his breathing, the green changing colors as he probably followed his inner turmoil.

"So?"

Jason licked his lips. Why was he staying? Why was he willing to try?

"She chose me."

Danny arched an eyebrow. He wasn't expecting that answer.

"She wants me. That day, when I—" he swallowed " — When I pointed a gun at her and asked her questions like she was some kind of criminal," he closed his eyes, haunted by her hurt eyes while he accused her, "she was honest when she said she wanted me. Everything else I could easily tell she was hiding something, but about her feelings… there was no deceit." He remembered her phone, the lock screen picture, his smile. "It could have been anyone else, could have been my own brother, but she chose me."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"It does. It really does. I hurt her, I questioned her, I threatened her, and yet she wanted me. She wanted to give me a chance. I won't let it go to waste." He let his shoulders drop, trying to ease the tension. "Not going to lie, I am… wary of this whole Ghost Royalty business, and I know it won't be easy, but nothing has ever been easy for me." He shrugged. "I have always had to work harder to get what comes easy for everyone else. I was born here, in the Narrows, and I grew up on the streets."

"Bruce Rich Dude adopted you." Danny nodded and looked aside, and the death grip the young man somehow had on their surroundings was eased. The lights stopped flickering.

Jason rolled his eyes at the theatrics. "Yes, but it was short lived. Just like me." He smiled at Danny's chuckle. Jazz wasn't kidding about the death jokes being a norm in her life. "I was murdered at fifteen years old. When I came back, Brucie had another kid taking my place."

"That's rough buddy."

The illusion was completely broken. They were back at the Batburger and Danny was just a guy eating his lunch again. No more eldritch horrors.

"You said this wasn't a shovel talk." Jason pointed out, reaching for his drink.

"I wasn't intending to, honest." Danny shoved the last of the fries in his mouth. "It's difficult, you know — being her brother and the King." He said as he chewed. The contrast of the Ghost King threatening him and not even five minutes later loudly chewing fries without any care wasn't lost on Jason. "I just…" He made a vague gesture.

"It's nice that you care."

Danny glanced at him, surely noticing how charged that sentence was, but didn't comment on it. "I've never seen her be so… careful." He tilted his head, just like Jazz does. "No. That's a lie. The last time she behaved like this was when she was covering for me."

"Covering?"

"Protecting me from our parents." His eyes glazed over a little bit, remembering. "She doesn't appreciate dishonesty; but she would cheat, lie and fake smile to Jack and Maddie to keep them away from me." His eyes were bright blue when he focused back on him. "Just like she tried to pull with me to protect you, bird boy."

Jason chose to ignore the blooming warmth in his chest and finished the rest of his burger. Danny chuckled, probably knowing what he was thinking. It was getting annoying not being able to hide like he was used to.

"I appreciate your honesty," the younger man said, placing his head on his hand and resting his elbow on the table. "Your story checks out with what she told me."

"So you are fine with it?"

"No. Not in a million years," his smile was definitely threatening, "but somehow you are what my sister wants and she was willing to fight me for you so… you have my interest."

"Not approval?"

He hummed. "We'll see about that." He looked down at the table and lazily pushed aside the empty box. "Keep making her laugh and I will reconsider." Maybe he noticed Jason's confused face because he added: "I haven't heard her laugh in ages."

"You are joking," he rolled his eyes, "she laughs and giggles all the time." Danny wasn't smiling. "What—"

"You don't know how she was back there." His smile turned sad. "I didn't know how much she was hiding— No, I did know, but I didn't want to think about it. My sister… She told you about David, but she didn't say what happened after that. What happened after she killed for the first time. After… everything."

Danny's eyes became watery. "I didn't ask and she didn't tell me. Every damn time she came back, gave a report and pushed through. I kind of got used to her not coming to me for all this stuff, so I never…" he looked away. "I should have done something. Especially after David. I knew shit went down but I didn't know it was… that."

"And what happened? Did she swear off romance?"

"Nothing. She did nothing. She powered through it like she does with everything else — she says she is 'fine' and focuses on everyone else, bottling up her emotions, and crying alone when she thinks nobody hears her."

"Why? Because it's a weakness?"

"Because right after she broke up with him, we had a Siege. I feel like the worst brother ever, but we couldn't afford her being out of the battle, and then we just… never talked about it?"

Jason hummed and picked up what remained of his burger, shoving it into his mouth as he considered the new piece of information.

He didn't know how much she wasn't sharing about her past; but again, there was a lot he wasn't talking about his. It wasn't unreasonable for him to be ignorant of aspects of her life at this point.

"In a way," Danny interrupted his thoughts, "I think it is a good thing she ended up with someone like you."

Jason lifted an eyebrow. "Someone like me?" A vigilante? A zombie? A criminal?

"She always waited for Robin to fly in and sweep her off her feet. I know this. I've read her diary."

Jason froze. "I'm not Robin." He growled.

Danny lifted his eyebrows. "You are Red Hood, which is way cooler." Right. Danny was a fan. "And the Gotham hero she likes the most."

"I thought you were the fanboy?"

The other chuckled and leaned in. "She had been researching you guys for a while before coming here. Boards, papers, internet forums — anything you can think of, she got her hands on it. She tried to hide it, but her rants about Red Hood were significatively longer than the others. She always said that the finesse and smarts of the execution of Red Hood's exploits in Gotham were fascinating." He sipped his drink. "She didn't mention a duffle bag with severed heads, though."

Jason didn't even try to hide the blush. What was the point?

"It's not public information. The others don't know about this." He considered it better. "Or I think they don't. Bruce is not very keen on sharing with the class if he does."

"But he has to if he wants us to work together." Danny continued, eyes fixed on something behind Jason. "Tonight we are going through all the prep for the Justice League meeting… and meet up with the Spirit."

Jason perked up. "Tonight?"

"Yep." Danny sipped his drink, but there was nothing else but ice. He looked displeased.

"Can I join?"