Chapter Text
Danny’s supremely unimpressed look had the pair of ghosts wilting. They’d got into a fight heated enough that Danny had sensed it across the Zone and felt the need to intervene.
“Seriously guys?” The fifteen-year-old asked in exasperation. “You’re fighting over a guy. I’m so disappointed.”
“But-”
“No guy is worth ruining a friendship over.”
“We both fell for him,” one of the girls admitted. “Love doesn’t come easy in the Ghost Zone.”
Danny rolled his eyes and floated more down to their level. “I say this with all the love in my heart, but you’re both idiots. Ever heard of polyamory? When you’ve got eternity, you’ve got a hell of a lot of time to try out new things. And between you and me, Alexander is perfectly okay with more than one serious partner. Besides, you two have had a crush on each other for ages too.”
Danny wondered why being the Ghost King came with giving so much relationship advice.
By the time he returned to his castle, he was wishing that he could take a break. There was a council meeting though and he couldn’t miss that without getting complaints about it later. At least it was a short meeting. There weren’t any major problems in the Zone currently and things had stabilised now that he’d been King for a bit. The Zone was happy to move or change anything he asked for but everyone seemed happy with its current state. Their biggest project currently was making the place summon-proof and Danny was still working on making the walls between the Ghost Zone and the human world thicker. A summoning would have to be seriously powerful to break through now and some of the older ghosts were coming up with protective runes to add to that.
He’d really rather not end up getting summoned again, regardless of how many positives came from the last one. He’d gotten so many lectures for wounding his core but he still maintained that there hadn’t been another option. He was fully healed up though and Clockwork had sped up their lessons so Danny was a bit more clued up on the finer details of being a ghost.
The first time he properly manifested his core, he was surprised by how bright it was. It resembled an ice crystal and threw off rainbows and colours even when no light was around to hit it. A thread of fire wreathed it which he was pretty sure was his connection to the Ghost Zone.
Danny had tucked it away after checking that there was no residual damage from the summoning incident but everything seemed fully healed now.
That meant he’d been thrown fully into being King now, but surprisingly, the Zone was good at managing itself with laws in place. Skulker had fully embraced being a peacekeeper and hunting down criminals or troublesome ghosts. Kitty had insisted on taking on an assistant sort of position and was the one ghosts had to go to to request audiences and help. She made sure that he had a schedule that allowed him enough free time to still be a teenager and he’d be forever grateful for that. Ember was more a jack of all trades and filled in whichever position or job that was needed at the time and she was probably the only reason things were running as smoothly as they were. And Johnny generally drove around the Zone and checked that things were alright on his trips. He usually came back with some news about a new section of the place that had appeared and everyone guessed that the Zone would continue to expand as long as Danny thought it was necessary. Most ghosts wouldn’t complain. It meant that they had more space for their lairs which were growing slowly and becoming much more comfortable for them.
Danny perked up when he felt a ripple across the Zone and the council noticed. They all rolled their eyes but it was more fond than annoyed. He was grateful when they ended early so that he could dart across to the now open portal.
The Bats had made good on their promise to check in on him regularly.
At first, the ghosts had been uncertain about the humans visiting so often, but the group had won their respect pretty quickly.
The Bats didn’t need any powers to kick anyone’s ass and the ghosts learned quickly that they didn’t need Danny’s protection at all. Especially Damian. A ghost had tried to attack him when it became common knowledge that Danny was dating him and Damian had beat him into the ground while Danny watched with a grin.
Everyone learned not to fuck with the Bats and the group had become a common sight in the Zone. Danny’s ghost friends were also pretty happy with them. Ember and Kitty had spoken to them many times and Johnny had a weird kind of friendship springing up between him and Jason. The pair had been in a few motorcycle races already.
Tim was most excited to be learning more about ghosts and was usually testing out new things and improving their gear for if they ran into hostile ghosts.
Nightwing and Batman were more focused on creating diplomatic relations with the Zone and Danny left Ember and Kitty to sort that out so he could run off with Damian during their visits.
Everyone had come to the unanimous agreement that seeing their King with his boyfriend was adorable and most of the Zone shipped it despite Damian being human. Even Clockwork hadn’t discouraged it and Danny was super suspicious over why.
But he pushed all that aside so that he could greet his boyfriend who’d come alone this time. Danny flew into him at full speed and knocked him over, getting an annoyed grunt from the boy. But Damian still returned the hug so Danny knew he wasn’t actually irritated.
The area around the portal had shifted to form a waiting area of sorts and a parking spot for the vehicles the Bats brought through and it was solidly connected to the road network as well.
Occasionally, the portal would open and a bewildered ghost would be shoved through, usually newbies that had appeared in the human world and were scooped up by the Justice League before the GIW got there. Their ghost tracking equipment was miles ahead of the GIW now and Danny would bet that it was irritating the life out of the agents.
Danny grinned at Damian. “Hi.”
Damian huffed but smiled back. “Hi.”
Danny visited the human world fairly often as well. He was getting proper training from Bruce and just enjoyed spending time at the mansion. He’d also started to get to know some of the members of the Justice League.
He was still pretty intimidated by the senior members, but the younger ones were a bit easier to talk to. He liked Raven who always greeted him and was still dating Nightwing. It seemed to be going really well and Danny definitely shipped it. He also liked Wally and Conner too. Despite being older than him, they never minded when he was around and Conner always made a beeline for him when he had Cujo or Boo with him. One of the animals usually liked to tag along and he was pretty sure it was because they thought he needed protection in the human world.
The first time Boo had changed into her jaguar form had been hilarious since the League hadn’t been expecting that at all.
Conner just thought it was the coolest thing and Damian kept stealing whichever one he came through with to pet and play with. His boyfriend was such an animal lover.
The League seemed to like him at least and he didn’t get suspicious looks from everyone. They kept him updated on their progress with the Acts and the GIW’s movements and he really appreciated it.
He didn’t appreciate some people trying to give him dating advice and suggesting that being with his favourite superhero without knowing his identity wasn’t healthy. That’s when his sarcasm came out and he let Danny Phantom colour his tone more. Most of the League accepted it since Batman didn’t have a problem with it, so he didn’t know why some people wouldn’t let it drop.
Okay, he did know. It was because they were ex-team members who were still salty over Dick not telling them his identity. He’d got the full stories from Raven and Danny lost some respect for certain heroes after that.
The Justice League was full of drama apparently and Danny found it both hilarious and annoying. Overall though, they were a cool group.
He still preferred the Bats though and had politely turned down some alternate training options since he enjoyed his lessons with Batman. He was a strict teacher, but fair. And the others were always up for a spar to help him practise.
Things were settling into a pretty nice new normal for Danny. He was getting the hang of this King thing and he had a way to move between the worlds safely. He had people on his side helping any ghosts in the human world and new awesome friends who were more becoming a second family to him. He could still talk to Sam and Tucker and the only dark spot lately was still being unable to see or communicate with his family. He missed his parents and Jazz fiercely but he couldn’t risk making things worse for them.
So he stayed away. And worried about Ellie, but he couldn’t do anything about that either. At least the Bats kept an eye on everything for him and had promised to step in if things got bad again.
Mostly, things were okay. So he fully expected things to go badly again since that always happened when he found some stability in his life.