Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Danny floated out of his and Timmy’s bedroom tiredly and rubbed at his eyes as he went looking for his husband. He couldn’t even remember if his husband had gone to bed last night. The man had been working on a new case for weeks now and had been losing his mind because of it. 

“Timmy,” Danny whined, finding the man hunched over his laptop, blanket wrapped around him and over his head as he stared at the screen bleary-eyed. “Come on,” he begged. 

“Five more minutes, Dan. I’m so close,” Tim mumbled before taking a long drink from his coffee cup. Danny floated over and took a sniff of the coffee. 

“Does this–does this have ectodejecto in it?” He asked, crinkling his nose. “And a Red Bull?” Tim just grunted in response and went to take another drink only for his husband to pull it out of the man’s hands. “No. No more, you’re going to bed.”

“Dan, not yet. I’ve got to figure this out, another couple was murdered again last night and I missed them again! I need to figure this out,” he whined as Danny came forward and closed Tim’s laptop before he pulled the man into his arms. 

“No. You can’t do anything like this. Look, we’ll go to the realms and Clockwork can freeze time for a while so you can get some rest. I have some work I need to do there anyways,” Danny said before ripping open a portal and flying through with Tim curled up in his arms. 

He let out a gasp as he sat up quickly. “Clockwork! Do you think he’d let me go back in time to figure it out?”

“No, Timmy. You know the rules, no meddling with the past unless he thinks it’s necessary,” Danny reminded as he flew through the castle and they found themselves in their personal quarters of the castle.

Tim let out a whine and went limp in Danny’s arms. “Dan! I have to do this,” he exclaimed. 

“You can do it later after you get some sleep,” Danny told him sternly before he dropped him onto their giant bed. “I’ll have Clocky freeze time. You’re going to stay here and sleep. If you don’t go to sleep on your own, I’ll have Jason come up here and watch you,” Danny threatened before he leaned down and pressed a kiss to his husband’s pouty kiss. “Now, I’m going to go meet up with Sam and Tucker for a little bit. Be good, and rest,” he ordered. 

Tim yawned deeply and nodded, already snuggling into the blankets. “Fine, love you too,” he mumbled. “Tell Sam and Tuck I said hi.”

Danny nodded and slipped out of the room. It had been five years since he had first learned that he was actually able to see his family and friends and it had been amazing. 

- .. -- / .- -. -.. / -.. .- -. -. -.-- / ... .. - - .. -. --. / .. -. / .- / - .-. . .

There in front of him stood his entire family. Jazz, his mom, his dad, Sam, and Tucker. They were all here. How were they here? 

“How did you get here?” Danny asked, his core frozen in his chest, hand squeezing Tim’s so tight he was almost worried he would break Timmy’s hand. “You’re supposed to be in your paradises!” 

Tucker crossed his arms over his chest. We were, then we all got the announcement that the High King got married,” he said, giving his best friend a disapproving look. He still didn’t look a day over sixteen. Yet somehow, he was still terrifying. 

“My little boy! Married and I wasn’t even here to see it,” his mother said with a sob, running to hug Danny tight. He numbly hugged his mother, still unsure what to say or how to react. What did you do when the people you thought you would never see again were right there in front of you demanding answers? 

“Jack and I had to fight a god to get here, Danny. All because you didn’t bother to come tell us that you were getting married, or invite us!” Sam hissed, marching up to glare at Danny, a single pointed black nail pointed at his face. “I should kick your stupid ass right here.”

“You fought off one of my lords? Who?” Danny asked dumbly, still doing mental gymnastics to figure out what the hell was happening. He sent an alarmed look to his husband who simply shrugged, just as confused as he was. 

“It was Hades Danno! We fought Hades!” Jack shouted excitedly before he moved to hug his son, squeezing him tight as Tim still held on to his husband’s hand. 

Danny managed to push his parents back and looked at all five of the people in front of him. “You were moved on. I don’t even understand how you got here?”

Sam shrugged her shoulders. “No matter where you’re at within the Realms, you still get important news. We accepted our deaths, Danny but we all still felt it when you avenged us. It’s like a weight was lifted off of our souls. We also learned you got married when the announcement rang through the realms,” she explained, crossing her arms. They all still looked the same. They didn’t have the ghostly greenish blue tinge that Danny and other ghosts had either. They still looked like them, so human, so them. The only difference seemed to be that Danny could see through them, a soft light glowed from their bodies. They were like the opposite of shades. Where shades were shadows of a soul, these were the souls taken shape. It was breathtaking to see.  “Unfortunately, we can’t visit the ghost realms since we aren’t ghosts. The only reason we’re even here is because we forced Hades to let us. And then he told us something really interesting, Daniel. He said that you came and visited Jazz and never said anything. You’ve known how to see us this entire time and never bothered. What the fuck?”

Danny scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Oh.”

“Yeah! What’s up with that? Why didn’t you tell me you were there?” Jazz demanded before slapping Danny’s head lightly. 

“I felt guilty,” he said softly, feeling Tim’s hand let go of his and his arm instead moving to wrap around Danny’s waist, holding him tight. “It was my fault that you were all-ya know.”

Maddie smiled softly. “We died, Danny. We aren’t like ghosts, we accepted what happened to us and we moved on.”

“Yeah, man. The Guys in White totally murdered us but we’re fine. We’re happy. We just miss you,” Tucker said. “You can come visit us whenever you want, you’re the king, we were all kinda bummed that you never did.”

“How could you just accept that! You were murdered! And not only that but it was my fault,” Danny cried, tears now cascading down his face as his core lurched inside of him. If Tim hadn’t been holding him, his knees would have buckled by now. “They were there hunting me. They wanted me and they killed you guys. They killed so many innocent people because I was selfish. I should have just given myself up to them and none of this would have ever happened.”

“Danny, don’t say that,” Tim whispered in his ear softly just before a hand slapped across Danny’s face harshly. 

“Don’t you dare ever say that,” Sam said, glaring her best friend down. “We accepted our deaths because we knew it was going to be okay, Danny. We knew you would avenge us and we knew that you were going to be okay. There was no reason for us to stay behind as ghosts when we knew that you would do everything you could to take care of the people who killed us. And you did! You got rid of them and we’re happy. We’ve missed you but we’re happy. I’m glad I died if it meant that the GIW couldn’t get you. What the fuck would have even happened if they did? We would have died trying to save you, you know that, right?”

Danny nodded his head sullenly, his core still aching, nose running and tears still spilling over. “Jazz looked so happy in her paradise,” Danny whispered. “I didn’t want to ruin it. I didn’t want to show up and remind her that it was my fault. All of it was because of me.”

Jazz stepped forward and gave Tim a small smile before she took her brother’s hands. “Oh Danny, none of it was your fault. I was happy, I am happy. But I also miss seeing my little brother and hearing about how his life is going,” she said softly before she looked at Tim again and raised an eyebrow. “Now, are you going to introduce me to your husband?”

Danny let out a watery laugh and looked at Tim. Wonderful, amazing Tim who was staring at him with such a sad, worried look. He really was Danny’s rock. 

“Timmy, this is my family,” he said quietly. “My sister, Jazz. My mom, Maddie, my Dad, Jack. And then these are my best friends, Tucker and Sam. Everyone, this is my husband, Tim.”

“Notice he didn’t mention that we were both his exes at one more,” Sam said with a smirk. And oh that made his eye twitch. Suddenly he wasn’t the twenty one year old adult. He was a fifteen year old kid ready to fight his friends. 

“Excuse you, Samantha! We dated for three months in our freshmen year! And Tucker and I kissed all of one time because I was having a sexuality crisis!” Danny shouted, pushing away from his husband to bicker with his friends. 

Tim just let out a laugh and waved at the family. “Please call me Tim. It’s so nice to meet all of you, Dan has told me so much about each one of you, I feel like I’ve known you for years.”

Maddie and Jack both let out soft coos before they hugged their new son in law. “Oh! Sweetie! We saw you rescue our baby from those horrible men! You were so brave and amazing,” she cooed, smushing Tim’s cheeks together. Tim flushed at the sudden display of affection. Danny’s family was so much more touchy than his own, Danny had held back a laugh at watching the awkward look on his husband’s face. 

“That was you? I thought I was going crazy when I heard all the voices in the GIW facility!”

Jack grinned and slapped Tim on the back. “Just a little afterlife magic! We were able to be there to witness our deaths being avenged, you saving Danno was the start of it!”

“Dan?” Sam asked, looking at Danny in concern. “He calls you Dan?”

Tucker frowned. “Yeah dude, you kinda look like Dan too just shorter hair. You didn’t do anything like that, though, did you? We didn’t see it.”

Danny simply smiled and shook his head. “Nah, still just normal halfa Danny. Timmy just likes to call me Dan,” he said as he pulled his husband close to him once more and blushed when Tim pressed a kiss to the side of his head. 

“He’s nothing like that Dan. He’s not nearly as stabby,” Tim joked, wrapping arms around Danny’s shoulder and resting his head on Danny’s shoulder as they caught up with Danny’s family

-.- / .. / ... / ... / .. / -. / --.

It was probably one of the best days in Danny’s entire existence. His family still loved him, they didn’t blame him for their deaths and they even wanted him around. It was more than he could ever hope for. He made a quick stop to Clockwork’s lair to have him freeze time for a while before he made his way to Sam and Tucker He smiled to himself at the memories of seeing his family again as he flew through the realms and the Elysium before finally making his way to Sam’s paradise. Tucker and her were already sitting in the garden waiting on him. They both lit up with smiles as he landed close by and started walking over, shifting from his ghost form back to his human. 

“Hey guys,” he said, plopping down on the picnic blanket.

“Wonderful! It’s paradise, man! We’re livin’ it up!” Tucker said with a grin. “Went to a few parties, worked on some tech, the usual you know?”

Sam smiled. “Yeah, it’s been nice. Not really much going on here. What about you? How’s the living world treating you?”

Danny smiled and plucked a few pieces of grass and twirled them in his fingers. “It’s good. Tim’s been super focused on a case but otherwise it’s good. We’ve been talking about adopting,” he said with a small smile. “I’m super excited about it. I really want to raise a kid you know? I think i’d be pretty good at it. Besides, having a kid might be the perfect reason to get Timmy from benign so damn reckless on patrols. He nearly gave me a heart attack the other night.”

“What happened?” Tucker asked, tilting his head to the side in curiosity. Danny let out a dramatic sigh before he launched into the latest story of Red Robin and his horrible decision making skills. The trio found themselves talking for hours about everything going on in Danny’s life, at one point Sam had even made the joke that Danny was somehow still the most interesting person they had ever met. Danny had laughed and shook his head, just complaining that his life was a soap opera. 

He didn’t say it to either of them, but he could see it. They were getting ready to become reincarnated. Most souls were after spending a few years in peace in their paradises. There was apparently something about having Paradise for so long that it made you want to go through the struggles of being human all over again. He knew that they were close, something in his core could feel it. He had gotten five amazing years with them, though and that made it better. He would be happy for them once they realized for themselves that they were ready. Besides, once they were reincarnated, they would have a guardian watching over them. Danny would protect them with his entire being. 

He soon made his way back to his bedroom and smiled at Tim. The poor man was absolutely exhausted. Danny still couldn’t get over the fact that his liminal ass husband had really started drinking ecto-dejecto to keep himself awake. He’d have to hide that shit from the little fucker. He quietly slipped into bed next to his husband and just held him close. It was nice to know that Tim would always be a constant in Danny’s life.