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Dick Grayson was the luckiest man in the world. That is what he decided as he made his way home from work at the police station. He had managed to get the night off of patrols and had made plans to finally reveal his secret to his boyfriend.
He had decided that it would be the best route to tell Danny about his status as Nightwing before he asked him to marry him. That way they would be entering the next step in their relationship with a newfound trust in one another. Dick was also hoping that maybe if he told Danny about him being Nightwing, Danny would open up about being a meta.
The detective had figured it out pretty quickly once the two had first started seeing one another. It was the only thing that made sense considering Danny’s temperature was low enough for him to be dead and whenever he got excited frost would accumulate around him. Dick didn’t think that his boyfriend even noticed he did it half the time considering he still hadn’t even told Dick he was a meta.
It didn’t matter much to Dick if Danny was a meta or not, though. What mattered to him was whether or not his boyfriend felt safe and comfortable. They had the meta protection acts but that didn’t always mean anything. Some metas still felt unsafe and it was understandable. He knew that Duke was constantly worried about his own abilities getting out for people to learn about.
Soon Dick pulled into the apartment parking lot and parked his car before rushing upstairs to find his boyfriend hunched over a stack of papers, scribbling furiously.
“Grading papers?” Dick asked, bending down to press a kiss to the top of his boyfriend’s head. Danny just let out a noncommittal hum in response. His boyfriend was the chemistry and physics teacher at Gotham Academy. It was actually how they had met three years ago after Tim had complained to Dick about his teacher becoming a future rogue.
While Dick knew that his little brother was highly paranoid at times, it was still enough to cause Dick to be curious. So, he had gone to meet with the great Dr. Nightingale who had chosen being a teacher rather than using his doctorates for literally anything else. Danny had been eccentric alright, insanely so.
But he was also charming and funny. Dick had never met someone who could match him for turn of phrase before. Danny had even managed to out pun him at times. It had pretty much love at first sight and Dick had quickly become obsessed with the mad scientist.
“What was their paper about?” Dick asked, falling onto the couch beside the man. Danny flipped the page and let out a sigh.
“What they think the chemical makeup of fear toxin is,” he said and looked up at Dick with a small smile on his face. “Unsurprisingly, your brother is the only one who was close to the right answer.”
Dick laughed and wrapped his arm around Danny’s shoulder. “I’m not surprised. Damian is a little genius,” he murmured. Danny smiled and pressed a quick kiss to Dick’s lips.
“That’s true, how was your day Moon Beam?”
The vigilante smiled and tangled his fingers in Danny’s hair and shrugged. “It was good, pretty slow day. Which when working in a police department, I think that’s a good thing.”
Danny shrugged, the corners of his eyes crinkled. “I don’t know, I think busy days at the station are more fun,” he said with a laugh. Dick snorted and leaned against his boyfriend and let out a sigh.
“That’s true, new cases are fun. But, they mean I don’t get to be home with you as often,” he said. Danny snickered and pressed another kiss to the top of Dick’s head.
“Whatever. Did I tell you I’m gonna teach the students how to make fear toxin and the antidote?” Danny said, sounding absolutely beyond excited. Dick just let out a groan and closed his eyes.
“This is why everyone is convinced that you’re going to turn into a villain,” Dick told him. Danny just let out an offended scoff.
“Excuse you, I’m teaching these kids how to protect themselves in case they get caught in a Scarecrow attack, I think that’s completely okay,” Danny complained, pinching Dick’s side as he set his papers to the side. “You going out with your brother again tonight?”
Dick hummed in response. “Nope, I thought we could stay home, maybe cook dinner and then watch a movie? You still haven’t shown me all of the Studio Ghibli films yet,” Dick said.
Danny smiled and stretched out underneath his boyfriend. “That’s completely fine with me.”
The two cuddled up together and Dick let out a sigh. Just say it, Grayson, just fucking tell Danny who you are and what you do so he knows ahead of time. It would be fine, Danny was the craziest person he knew, if anyone would be cool with it, it would be the mad scientist who had no regard for his own safety when it came to his science experiments.
“Your phone’s buzzing,” Danny told him after a few minutes of the two just laying together in a comfortable silence. Dick let out a groan of annoyance and fumbled to find his phone in his pocket.
“Hello?” He muttered, burying his face in Danny’s stomach.
“We need you in Gotham tonight. Spoiler is out with a dislocated shoulder and Black Bat is in Japan for a few weeks. We’ve got a big case and need help,” Bruce told him. Dick let out another loud groan in Danny’s stomach.
“I’m busy.”
“With what.”
“I’m just busy!” Dick shouted into the mic.
“Dick, we need you,” Bruce told him with a sigh. “Just this one night and only for a few hours. Then you can go back to whatever you’re doing.”
“Fine,” Dick grumbled before he hung up and threw his phone to the floor. Danny ran his fingers through his boyfriend’s hair and pulled his head up lightly.
“What’s up?” Danny questioned, giving his boyfriend a concerned look.
“Getting called in for a case,” the vigilante said, just barely fudging the truth. He frowned when he saw Danny’s face fall ever so slightly. He hated that Dick wasn’t home for most of the night. Danny treasured the nights that he actually got to fall asleep with Dick in his arms. Dick felt bad, he really did and he knew that maybe if he just told Danny about his extracurriculars he’d be more understanding about it.
“Alright,” Danny said quietly, disappointment clear on his face. He sat up and carefully fixed Dick’s hair, cupping the man’s face in his cool hand. “Be safe, okay? I’ll leave the light on for you when you get home. Dinner’ll be in the fridge.”
“Thanks Sweetheart,” Dick said and gave his boyfriend a soft kiss. “I love you.”
The teacher mustered up a small smile. “I love you too,” he said quietly. “Now get going, Boy Wonder.”
The vigilante smiled and stood up. Boy Wonder indeed.
…
Since Danny’s boyfriend had been called in to deal with a case for work, Danny had decided that this was prime time to just go out for a flight, maybe see if he can check in on his favorite vigilantes. Since moving to Gotham he had somehow become somewhat of an informant for the bats and the birds. While Batman didn’t entirely, trust him, he did trust his abilities enough to allow the ghost to help every so often, especially when it came to recon missions where they needed someone to be their eyes and ears in places they couldn’t get to.
He flew throughout Bludhaven and scowled when he didn’t see his favorite birdie before he took off to Gotham City, hoping that maybe Nightwing would be there.
He had first run into the furry brigade his first night in Gotham City when he had just been sixteen years old. Nightwing hadn’t even been Nightwing yet, he had still be this gangly little Robin who had followed his mentor’s lead everywhere. Danny had just managed to run away from home after a reveal to his parents gone wrong and needed somewhere to lay low.
Next thing he knew, he had created an entire life for himself in Gotham. In the nighttime, he worked with the vigilantes, and during the day he studied for his GED before somehow landing a full ride scholarship to Gotham U for Physics and Chemistry. From there, things started to look up. The halfa had gotten a job at a library during his time in undergrad and had quickly grown to become friends with Barbara Gordon, the head librarian who kept Danny from completely drowning in school and had been the one to urge Danny to continue his schooling. Next thing he knew, he was getting his masters degree and then his doctorate before he landed a job at Gotham Academy, teaching the young minds everything he could about how to survive Gotham in the best ways he knew possible. And that was how he had met Dick.
Dick had come in for meet the teacher night, acting as Tim Drake’s guardian for the night as Bruce Wayne was unfortunately out of town for the event. The two had hit it off almost immediately and three years later, they were still happy and in love.
Danny still wasn’t sure how to come about telling his boyfriend that he was half dead and had freaky ghost powers but he would figure it out eventually. He had done a good job at hiding it for the last three years at least.
Soon, Danny made it to Gotham but from the chatter he heard through eavesdropping on the comms of the bats and birds, it sounded like it was a pretty chill night. Which was fine with Danny, he was just going to be here floating above the smog and staring at the stars until something happened. He had gotten his routine down pat these last few years. Typically he would go out the nights that Dick worked late or when he went to hang out with his brothers. Dick seemed to always been pretty busy at night but that was fine with Danny. They had their own lives and it was sweet that Dick liked spending so much time with his brothers. Danny was almost jealous. He and Jazz never saw each other anymore between their chaotic work schedules and living in two different states.
“Nightwing here, found a lead on the drug case we’ve been looking into. Going to follow and see where their headquarters are,” he heard Nightwing say from down below. Danny frowned but continued to just listen, lazily floating through the skies, following behind Nightwing.
“Wait for one of us before you engage, Nightwing,” Batman instructed over the comms.
“I’m not going to lose them. Just meet up with me on the way there,” Nightwing stated. Danny frowned and swooped back down low to the ground easily keeping up with Nightwing.
“Hey there, Tweety Bird, what’re you up to?” He asked, flying alongside the vigilante. Nightwing looked over at him, surprise on his face.
“Phantom? What’re you doing here?” He asked, jumping to the next building over.
He let out a hum and moved to rest his head on his hand still following the vigilante as he jumped from roof to roof.
“I heard you saying you were going to follow some shady drug dealers on your own, so I decided it was up to me to help,” Danny said cheerfully.
“So you thought that meant you needed to tag along?” Nightwing asked, glancing over at the ghost for a split second before he jumped to the next roof and watched the van drive into the parking lot of an old warehouse.
“Why is it always warehouses? Don’t they know it’s obvious?” Danny questioned, tilting his head as he watched two men start carrying in pallets packed down with what looked like large bags of something. Danny took a sniff. “Smells like blue poppies.”
“Used to make the fear toxin, right?” Nightwing asked.
“Correcto-mundo, how’d you know that?” Danny asked, giving the guy a curious look. Sure, Nightwing was smart but he wasn’t big on chemicals and how to make certain toxins and poisons.
Nightwing smiled and scratched the back of his neck. “My boyfriend is a chemistry teacher. Most of his students think he’s gonna turn into a rogue because he keeps teaching them how to make all these toxins. I’ve picked up a few things from him,” he said awkwardly.
Danny let out a laugh. That sounded just like him! He’d need to meet Nightwing’s boyfriend one of these days, they would absolutely get along if Danny had anything to do about it.
“That’s cool, I’m pretty into chemistry myself,” Danny stated.
Nightwing just gave him a small smile and jumped to the ground below them, landing quietly. Danny floated along after him and followed the vigilante into the warehouse, keeping his eyes and ears open for anything and everything.
“Nightwing, you were supposed to wait for us,” Batman said over the comms device. Danny leaned in close to Nightwing’s ear.
“Don’t worry B-man, Tweety Bird’s not alone,” he whispered before he pulled away and took to the air, curiously taking in all of the pallets of ingredients that were stacked around the warehouse on the second floor. Formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, canisters of nitrous oxide. Danny frowned, these were all ingredients for some of the most potent toxins and poisons that the Gotham rogues used on a daily basis. Was this their supplier?
“Shit,” he heard Nightwing whisper from the ground floor after a loud clang sounded through the warehouse.
“Who’s there!?” Someone shouted before armed men started flooding out of an office, their guns raised and pointed at the vigilante.
“Shit indeed,” Danny murmured, turned invisible and swooped low to the ground, letting his ice spread across the floor. He appeared by one of the bigger guys and smiled a fearsome grin before he gave the guy a light shove, causing him to slip and run into the guy beside him who then fell into the next guy, causing a domino effect.
“Who else is in this fucking building right now?” One of the guys shouted before shooting blindly in Danny’s area. The ghost let out a snicker as he managed to evade each gun shot, making sure to keep the guys away from Nightwing as the vigilante attempted to get away.
The ghost froze, though, when he heard a loud gunshot ring through the air and land into soft tissue. Nightwing let out a groan of pain as he fell against the door of the warehouse. “Fuck,” Danny murmured before effectively taking out the rest of the rogues with a wave of his hand, freezing them all in place. Batman could figure out what to do with them. Danny had a friend to check on.
“Shit, are you alright?” He asked, carefully pulling Nightwing away from the wall. He turned the two intangible and invisible before he flew up to the roof of the building.
“No, I’m not alright! My boyfriend’s going to lose his mind if he sees me come home with a gunshot wound,” Nightwing groaned as Danny set him down on the roof and kneeled over him to check the wound to Nightwing’s shoulder. It was a clean shot, went all the way through, it seemed.
“I mean, if he knows what you do for a living surely he’s gonna understand,” Danny said, pressing a freezing cold hand to the man’s shoulder and letting his ice coat the wound before he did the same on the other side.
“Danny doesn’t know,” Nightwing mumbled, shivering at the ice now frozen to both sides of his suit.
“Danny?” Danny asked, now freezing in place.
“My boyfriend is a chemistry teacher,” Nightwing’s words echoed in his head. No, there was absolutely no way that Dick sweet, lovable, law abiding police officer Dick Grayson was the fucking vigilante Nightwing.
“Yeah, my boyfriend. I told you, he’s a civilian, never told him what I do. I didn’t know how and I didn’t want him to worry,” Dick murmured as Danny helped him sit up.
“You’re an idiot, Dick,” Danny said blandly, staring at his boyfriend. Ancients, they were both idiots. He had known Nightwing since he was sixteen years old. How the hell did he not realize his boyfriend was a vigilante.
“Hey! I’ve never told you my civvie name before! How’d you know? And why am I an idiot? It’s for his safety, I was gonna tell him tonight because I wanted him to know my secret before I proposed to him!” Dick whined, pressing a hand to his shoulder.
“You’re planning on proposing?”
“Yeah, we’ve been together for three years now and he’s the one for me. I want to keep him around as long as possible. I mean as long as he doesn’t hate me after he learns I’ve been lying to him for three years,” Nightwing mumbled, his cheeks turning bright red.
“Don’t worry, he won’t hate you,” Danny said softly, giving his boyfriend a nervous smile.
“Why do you say that? S’not like you know him,” Dick mumbled.
A bright flash suddenly blinded Dick for a moment as Danny changed forms.
“Because I’ve been keeping a secret from you for three years too you idiot,” Danny said with a watery laugh and took Dick’s hands in his. “You want to propose? To me? Moon Beam, I’m a total mess. Are you sure?”
“I don’t know what’s going on right now but I’m totally overwhelmed,” Dick said, staring up at his boyfriend. Danny let out a chuckle and helped his boyfriend up.
“Come on, let’s get you home and we can talk about everything, okay? It seems we have a lot to catch up on. And maybe you can show me the ring?” Danny suggested, turning the two of them invisible once more. “I’ll patch you up before you do.”
“You’re Phantom?” Dick said, staring up at Danny as the ghost took off in the skies.
“Yup. And apparently you’re my Dick Grayson,” Danny murmured, looking down at the vigilante. “We’re both idiots.”
“I’ve known you since we were sixteen,” Dick wondered out loud. “I’m a lousy detective, what the hell?”
Danny shrugged. “Well, you’ve assumed I was dead the entire time too. So I don’t blame you for not connecting the dots. I should have known you weren’t just visiting your brothers that often. No one ever likes their siblings that much,” he joked.
“We’re so stupid,” Dick said, still staring off into the distance as though his entire world view had changed in that very moment. Danny just laughed and held his boyfriend and future fiance close. They were definitely dumbasses, that was for sure.