Chapter Text
The first thing Danny insisted on was a tour of the castle - though as he explained, "the castle responds to the thoughts and feelings of its inhabitants. All you have to do is think, and it'll take you where you wanna go." As he spoke a door appeared in the hall they were in. Danny smiled sheepishly, face flushing as he placed a hand on the knob. "As soon as I offered you a place on the council, the castle made you a bedroom," he said shyly, slowly opening the door.
It was made of the same material as the throne room and hall, sparsely decorated - dark wood furniture, a dark rug on the floor, a full bed with dark gray sheets - and a blanket that Tim would bet was weighted folded at the end in dark red. There was a desk with various tools Tim could use for the upkeep of his gear while he was here - and to tinker with any tech he could get his hands on from Danny's dimension, just to see how it differed from his own. What surprised him most though, were the bookshelves.
There were two, side by side in the corner. Tim stepped into the room to get a closer look. The one on the left was filled with books all about the Infinite Realms, from what he could tell. There were books on the history, the biology of different types of ghosts, the different cultures - both of the Infinite Realms in general and communities within it. It was everything Tim wanted to research, had been planning to research once Danny brought up the possibility of him joining the council.
The second bookshelf though, took his breath away. Some of his favorite books - The Silence of the Lambs, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, Lord of the Rings. He looked back to Danny, who was blushing even more. Danny just shrugged and said, "like I told you, the castle responds to its occupants' thoughts and feelings."
Tim blinked. He hadn't expected that to mean a room tailor made for him. "Where did…" he trailed off, unsure how to ask where it had all come from. Could the castle make things from thin air?
"The library and our work room," Danny answered, and Tim glanced back at him. "I recognize the books from the big library - which I'll show you after this, but we don't really use it much. The tools are actually extras from the room Tuck and I set up for us to work on stuff when we're here."
Tim sat on the edge of the bed, mind still racing with everything that'd happened tonight. "You stay here a lot?" he asked, voice lilting uncertainly. Even though Danny was clearly a teen like him - had confirmed it by switching to his human form and mentioning starting college next month - he was still hesitant to ask questions. Danny was the King of the Infinite Realms - and from a different dimension. Who knew the cultural differences between their earths?
Danny snorted and shook his head, "only when I wanna get away from home or end up staying here late working on paperwork and stuff." Tim nodded absentmindedly, sweeping a hand over the blankets. They were soft, just the right texture that his gauntlets didn't catch on them. When he looked back up, Danny was watching him, head tilted. "How about I get you some more comfortable clothes then we finish the tour and I can introduce you to my friends and sister?" Tim cocked his head, unsure where Danny would get clothes for him. Danny answered without him having to ask, "my clothes will probably be a bit big on you, but they should work well enough until we can get some stuff in your size."
At that, Tim's mind snapped into analytical mode, "wait, how would I pay for things? I don't have much money on me." Definitely not enough to begin a new life in a new dimension.
Danny waved a dismissive hand. "Being the King comes with perks," he answered. "My friend and the ghost I mentioned earlier found ways to legitimize moving money from the Realms to our dimension - it's how he and I are paying for college, actually." Tim hummed, already thinking of how that could work in his favor if he did decide to stay in their dimension.
"Well if I stay long term," Tim ventured, voice cautious. Danny's eyes went a little wide, but he ignored it to continue the thought, "we could also take the money I have from my own dimension."
Danny squinted. "No offense, but a couple thousand bucks or whatever won't make that much of a difference," Danny said flatly. Tim snorted, then burst out laughing at the look Danny gave him.
"In my dimension, I'm the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world," he told Danny, whose jaw dropped, causing Tim to collapse against the mattress as he laughed. "Even if I've only been CEO for a few months, I've gotten a big salary - plus the money from my parents." He sobered slightly thinking of them. It felt like so long ago now that he'd lost them, but it'd only been two years since his dad died. God, so much had happened since then.
"Right, well we can talk about that if you decide to stay," Danny said awkwardly. He was still stood in the doorway. "I'll grab those clothes, you start taking off…" he trailed off before gesturing loosely at Tim, "all of that," which made Tim snort again. His domino was starting to get itchy from being on so long, and he'd already decided to stay for at least the night. Danny ducked out the door, shutting it softly behind him as Tim pulled his mask remover solvent from his bandoliers. He applied it and let it soak in as he removed his cape, gloved fingers clumsy on the catches.
After removing the cape he gently peeled his mask off, setting it next to his cape on the dresser. He wondered - the dresser drawers were empty. Okay, so the castle couldn't manifest things from thin air. There were no clothes for him, so the dresser was empty. It made sense, especially with what Danny had said about the books and tools. The furniture was probably in a storage space or extra bedroom, and the castle just threw it all together. Tim pulled his gloves off, flexing his hands as he went. They were sweaty from being in his gloves so long, even though summer nights in Gotham weren't too hot. His fingers slipped over his bandoliers, unlocking them with ease and piling them on the dresser with the rest of his gear.
It was only as he started to disarm the traps he'd added to his suit after the Daughter of Acheron situation that there was a knock at his door. "Come in," he called as he disarmed one of the shock traps.
"Whoa," Danny said, a ball of clothes in one hand and the other still on the knob. "What's with all the…" he trailed off, clearly hesitant to ask, but Tim could see him eyeing the traps.
"Long story," he replied flatly. Danny took the non-answer for what it was, dropping the subject immediately.
"Right, well here are the clothes," he gestured with the bundle before placing it on the desk. "I'll wait in the hall." Tim nodded and Danny shut the door. It was only at that moment that he realized Danny hadn't said anything about seeing him without the mask. Interesting. He probably realized Tim couldn't keep it on the whole time and hadn't wanted to make a big deal of it.
Or maybe he hadn't noticed, Tim mused as he finally stripped off the top half of his suit. Since it was summer he didn't have any compression gear underneath, so he grabbed the shirt Danny had brought for him. It honestly wasn't much bigger than the oversized shirts he liked to wear to sleep, falling around his mid thigh. He worked the traps off the bottom half of his suit and peeled that off as well, wrinkling his nose at the feeling. Taking the suit off was always awful, but he was glad to be out of it. And since he'd only been on a stakeout, he wasn't overly sweaty.
The sweatpants took a bit of work - he had to roll them up a few times at both the waist and ankles - but it was better than when he stole clothes from Kon or Bruce. Which reminded him - "can I talk to my friends?" he asked as he pulled open the door. Danny was leaning against the wall on his phone and startled at Tim's voice. Tim snorted as Danny pulled himself up straight and was surprised by the flush on his face. Had he startled him that badly?
"Oh uh, yeah," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "If you have a phone or something, Tuck and I can get it to work across dimensions so you can talk to them." Tim nodded and ducked back into the - his - room to grab his vigilante phone from his belt, as well as his shoes. While he couldn't have his regular phone on him during patrol, he'd made a point to get the Bats set up with phones for use specifically with the Justice League and various other teams. He wasn't sure if the others carried theirs - hadn't bothered to check, since he'd been back in Gotham - but he made sure he had his at all times, in case of emergencies. It rarely saw use - the occasional message for help investigating from someone, or about a mission they needed help with, but non-hero related communications always went through regular phones.
Still, it wasn't like he could carry Tim Drake's personal cell around on patrol. At least he had this, even if it was outdated. He handed the phone over to Danny, who looked at it for a moment and then pocketed it while Tim put his boots back on. "Shouldn't be too hard to modify," he stated, then gestured for Tim to follow him. He walked down the hall, another, more ornate door appearing at the end. "This is the library," Danny said, opening the door with a flourish.
And Tim understood why. There were rows upon rows of bookcases, with a second floor visible with more shelves. "It's organized, but if you're struggling to find something it may nudge you in the right direction," Danny told him, walking through the shelves. "It can be a bit of a maze, but it's honestly not that hard to learn the organization. Down here's fiction - just about any book you can imagine. If it's not here, it's in someone's room, but the castle would probably pull it back unless it was actively being used. Second floor is non-fiction, Realms related. Ghost culture, Realms cultures, biology, biographies, that sort of thing." Biographies? Before Tim could question it, Danny continued, "There's a third floor with non-Realms non-fiction, but it's a lot smaller since it's mostly non-fiction gathered from the different dimensions I've gotten things from, or that my friends and I brought. This floor is the largest - we have fiction from a lot of different dimensions, thanks to the offerings, and our own stockpiling." As Danny spoke they reached the other side of the room, which had the same ornate door.
"Like I said, bit of a maze," Danny joked as they stepped back into the hall. There was already a door at the other end, this time more plain, like the one on his bedroom. "This is the work room," Danny told him as he opened the door. This room was filled with work benches, the tops littered with various gadgets and tech. In the corner were two mostly empty tables, aside from tools. Danny chuckled as he gestured to them, "guess you like to tinker?"
Tim nodded, brow furrowed. This wasn't the first time the castle had followed his thoughts, but it was still weird for him to know it'd set up a workspace for him here in addition to the one in his room. "Yeah, I'm a big tech guy," he explained sheepishly.
Danny nodded, "you'll have a lot to talk about with Tucker then at least. Like I mentioned, he does all the tech stuff for me, along with one of the ghosts whose whole thing is technology. I'm more of an engineering guy myself."
"Oh I do some engineering stuff, too," Tim added casually, looking over some of the projects. There was some sort of blaster, partially deconstructed, what appeared to be a net launcher, and various odds and ends that Tim couldn't make heads or tails of in their current state. "Gotta be able to keep my gear in working order."
There was a moment of silence and when Tim looked up Danny was just staring at him, the star freckles from before making another appearance. Tim felt his face heat, man was that cute. He wondered what had set it off this time, but before he could think too much on it Danny was talking again, "well then we'll have plenty to talk about too!" His voice was strained, but Danny was turning to leave the room before Tim could question it, another door at the end of the hall.
"This is the greenhouse," he called over his shoulder as he pushed the door open, Tim rushing to follow. He burst into the greenhouse, surprised by the sudden change in temperature. He hadn't even realized how chilly the castle was until they were in the muggy air of the greenhouse. "My other friend, Sam is an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian," he said, and continued before Tim could ask what exactly that meant, "and a while back had a run in with this ghost, Undergrowth, giving her plant powers, so she has some minor phytokinesis skills. Even before that she always loved gardening so the castle set up a greenhouse, since anywhere else is too cold for her plants."
"Why is it so cold?" Tim interrupted. Danny whipped around, star freckles gone once again.
"Oh I have cryokinesis," he explained easily. He lifted one hand, and a small ice sculpture appeared in his palm, which he held out for Tim. It was him in his Red Robin outfit, bo staff in hand. He took it, his face heating. "The castle itself is actually made up of my ice, for the most part. The doors and greenhouse are the only exceptions." Of course. Couldn't have a green house made of ice. Before Tim could say anything else, Danny was marching on. Tim tucked the figure in his pocket and followed. "I wouldn't touch anything in here without talking to Sam first - she can be really protective of her plants."
As he said this, Danny came to another door. He opened it back to the hall, another door already at the end. "Next is the kitchen," Danny said, pushing the door open with his hip. Unlike the other doors so far it didn't latch, simply swinging open. The kitchen was plain - cabinets, stove, sink and fridge. "We keep it stocked for when we have long meetings, spend a lot of time working here, or just wanna get away from our parents for a bit - though that won’t be a problem soon - so if you decide to stay here feel free to take anything."
At that Tim paused where he'd been about to open the fridge. "If I decide to stay here?" he questioned, turning to lean against the fridge instead.
"Ah yeah," Danny said quietly. "My friend Sam, she's rich too - or her family, I guess. But they've got a mansion, so I figured you could stay here if you wanted, or in one of her guest rooms. Her parents are whack jobs but her bubbe is nice. She actually set things up so we'll have a house to stay in together when we go to college."
Tim dropped his head back in thought. He could either stay in this castle in the Infinite Realms - possibly alone - or he could stay in the mansion of a family he didn't know. "If you stay here, I'll stay with you," Danny reassured quietly, and Tim snapped his eyes back to him. He was once again flushed, eyes averted. "I'm sure Sam and Tuck would be willing to stay here too, we could make a night of it! I haven't shown you but we've got a media room set up for movie and game nights, we can make it a whole thing."
Tim smiled and cut him off before he continued to ramble, "I'm fine staying wherever, honestly. Either way it's a new place for me, so I probably won't sleep well."
Danny nodded absentmindedly before seeming to make up his mind and pull out his phone. "Right, well then we're gonna do a sleepover at Sam's," he decided. Tim opened his mouth to argue against all of them suddenly crashing her place, but Danny looked up and cut him off, "trust me, Sam and bubbe Ida won't care, and that's who matters. She's always looking for an excuse to piss off her parents, so really an impromptu sleepover with three boys is a favor for her."
God, Tim hadn't even considered the gender dynamics of it, especially considering his own growing attraction to Danny. Sleeping over with a girl hadn't been an issue for him in ages - Bruce had never said anything about his weekends with Young Justice, and later on the Titans. Before his thoughts could spiral too much Danny placed a hand on his arm to get his attention. "If it really bugs you, we could all stay here instead. Although either way her parents are gonna be mad about it, honestly. She wouldn't lie to them about who she's spending the night with, just where."
Tim nodded slowly before deciding. "Might as well go all in then," he said with a small smile, which Danny returned even bigger.
"I knew you and I would get along," he joked, bumping his shoulder into Tim's before going back to his phone. "I have a few more rooms to show you, then we'll head out." Tim nodded, relaxing back against the fridge as Danny typed - presumably texting his friends the plans. After a moment Danny straightened, heading into the hall again. "So next is the media room," he said over his shoulder as he opened the door. The room was massive - a big couch, several armchairs, a huge TV with several consoles hooked up, and three different gaming PC setups. "We can set you up a gaming computer if you want, since we do Doomed LAN parties pretty often. Do you guys have Doomed?"
Tim cocked his head to the side. "We have DOOM, but not Doomed," he said, uncertain. He'd never heard of Doomed, at the very least, and he was pretty into video games. Danny just nodded, as though this made sense.
"Right, possibly similar games but with different names," Danny muttered. Tim shrugged. Without knowing more about Doomed he couldn't be sure. Danny shook his head and then clapped his hands, turning towards the door again, "the TV is set up with streaming services from different dimensions, by the way, so if we don't already have something from your dimension, we could find it. Next up is the council room." Tim noticed a hint of agitation at that - Danny must not like the council.
At the other end of the hall was an ornate door - not quite as large as the one from the throne room, but bigger than that of the library. It opened to a relatively normal conference room - plus the addition of some more unusual seating. There were a few armchairs, stools, wheelie chairs, and at the head, a smaller replica of the throne he'd first seen Danny on. "The Observants insisted on there being a throne, but I rarely use it," Danny explained, gesturing around the table. It was dark wood, the top plain but the sides and legs intricately carved. Surprisingly, there was a projector hanging from the ceiling, and a laptop set up in front of one of the seats.
Danny snorted when he noticed Tim's fixed look. "Yeah, some of the ghosts weren't too happy about the incorporation of human technology, but it makes the meetings much smoother," Danny told him. It was interesting to see how he'd seemingly changed the inner workings of the Infinite Realms.
"How long have you been King?" Tim asked, then snapped his mouth shut. Was that a rude question? Was it too close to asking about when he'd half-died? Cause that was sure to be a sensitive subject.
Danny leaned against the table and sighed. "I bested Pariah Dark when I was fifteen," he started, and Tim's eyes widened. That meant Danny had half died at 15 at the oldest. Fuck, that was the same age that Jason died. "They didn't tell me, but the Observants spent a few months arguing over whether our fight qualified as single combat - in the end they decided it did, and that I was the new King. So I was crowned when I was 16 and had a brief period of training," the way he emphasized it showed how little he thought it mattered, "and then boom, 16 year old King of the Infinite Realms. It was rough for a while, but we managed to work it out."
Tim raised an eyebrow and Danny flushed, rubbing his neck sheepishly. It was a cute habit. "Okay, so the Observants and I still fight like hell, but it's not my fault they're so annoying," he argued, and Tim chuckled. Danny's sheepish smile turned softer. "Anyways, this is the last room of the tour, so we can head out whenever you're ready."
Tim nodded absentmindedly, thinking. He'd already given Danny his phone, and it wasn't like he'd need his gear - they were just having a sleepover. "Well, it's not like I need to grab anything," he joked.
Danny laughed to himself and nodded, "right, of course," before gesturing. A portal opened in front of him, this one vertical instead of horizontal like the last two. "My parents are probably in the lab, so we shouldn't run into them," Danny said as he walked through. Tim cautiously followed after, but it was like walking through a curtained door - the room they stepped into was a plain living room, with stairs on one side, a door Tim assumed led to outside, and an open doorway into a kitchen. On one of the couches sat a red headed girl who appeared a little older than them - Danny's sister, he assumed.
"Hey Danny," the girl called, sparing a quick glance before doing a double take and sitting up straight. "Who's this?" she asked, voice cautious.
"Jazz, this is Tim," Danny introduced, gesturing between the two of them. "Tim, this is my older sister, Jazz."
Tim extended his hand, which Jazz carefully shook. "Nice to meet you," he said politely. Jazz just nodded, looking back to Danny for an explanation.
"So you know that thing I do when heroes end up in getting dragged to the Realms?" Danny started sheepishly and Jazz glared at him.
"I told you to stop doing that," she said flatly, and he raised his hands, shoulders hunching defensively.
"I know, you said it would come back to bite me in the ass and well," he gestured at Tim. Tim gave a small wave and Danny snorted then sighed. "So Tim dropped into the throne room with his brother - both in hero gear - and I did my whole one can return thing, except Damian - his brother - said of course Tim would be the one to stay and basically called him useless, so I got mad and sent him back after calling him a kid playing dress up, then offered Tim a place on the council and also to stay in this dimension instead."
Jazz blinked for a moment, then looked back and forth between Tim and Danny. "And you said yes?" she asked Tim.
Tim shrugged, playing with the hem of his (Danny's) shirt. "I said I needed to think about it," he mumbled, suddenly shy to share his family issues.
Jazz sighed and stood, heading to the kitchen. "This seems like a fudge conversation," she said as she went. Tim cocked his head as Danny followed after her, trailing after them. He wasn't sure what exactly a fudge conversation was, but he doubted it was good.